Evaluation of Ecosystem Services in Mining Basins: An Application in the Piedmont Region (Italy)

Mining activities impact on the territorial system in various ways, affecting its environmental and socio-economic components. Specific evaluation tools can support decision-making processes in the context of the sustainable planning and management of mining activities. Within the evaluation procedures of mining activities, a growing interest in the analysis of Ecosystem Services (ES) is emerging. ES refer to the benefits that the natural system delivers to society, linking the health of ecosystems and human well-being. Starting from a real-world case related to the adoption of the Regional Plan of Mining Activities (PRAE) of the Piedmont region (Northern Italy), the paper aims to explore the ES valuation by considering three different mining quarries. The state of the art of the basins is compared with alternative planning scenarios from the point of view of the ES produced. The valuation is developed through GIS and the Simulsoil software, detecting the biophysical benefits produced and estimating their economic performance. The simulation results can be used to support the formulation of planning strategies, estimating the trade-offs in terms of competitive land-use values. The study also demonstrates that the integration of ES into Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) can produce a comprehensive impact assessment of a mining project, guaranteeing the protection and valorisation of the environmental system.

Mapping Green Infrastructure Based on Multifunctional Ecosystem Services: A Sustainable Planning Framework for Utah’s Wasatch Front

Most sustainable planning frameworks assess natural and social–economic landscape systems as separate entities, and our understanding of the interrelationships between them is incomplete. Landscape classification in urbanizing environments requires an integrated spatial planning approach to better address the United Nation’s sustainable development challenges. The objective of this research is to apply a multicriteria evaluation which ranked diverse ecosystem–service producing landscapes and synthesize the findings within a unique green infrastructure spatial planning framework. Local government stakeholder derived weighting and GIS classification were operated to map both the urban and natural landscapes of the Salt Lake City region of Utah, one of the most rapidly urbanizing areas in North America. Results were assimilated through five regional landscape typologies—Ecological, Hydrological, Recreational, Working Lands, and Community—and indicated those highest ranked landscape areas which provided multiple ecosystem services. These findings support collaborative decision making among diverse stakeholders with overlapping objectives and illustrates pathways to the development of ecosystem service criteria. This paper contributes to a better understanding of how to integrate data and visualize the strategic approaches required for sustainable planning and management, particularly in urban and urbanizing regions where complex socioecological landscapes predominate.

Green Zone Planning for City Sustainability

: The importance of research has emerged by focusing on sustainable green zone planning to solve the problem of degradation through sustainable strategies, to make green areas determine buildings, not the other way around using GIS, by working on a hypothesis (green areas planning according to an appropriate strategy can sustain cities). The principle of urban planning, urban sustainability, sustainable planning and sustainable cities, as well as urban sustainability and many strategies that support green zone planning and rely on a number of factors for sustainable cities, have been addressed. The research was based on how to plan green areas sustainably, what constraints the planners face in the Dora area south of Baghdad, and the reasons for their deterioration in the urban environment, and after analysing and comparing the changes that occurred over three periods of time (2004 and 2009 and 2019) for 10 residential stores to assess the state of the green areas during that period and how they changed, what problems led to the reduction of areas, increased areas built at their expense, compared to the standards of urban and rural housing in Iraq and the basic plan of the company Paul Servis in 1971, Sustainable planning thus creates a balance in the environment, economy and social values so that these new places meet the work and life needs of the local population and their interests, as one of the indicators of sustainable cities environmental, social and economic, measured by the availability of green and preserved areas relative to population density and coverage, which are one of the most important components of the blocs of urban areas to continue the quality of urban life and environmental and social sustainability, and the ratio of green areas to areas built in a sample of the shop Housing in the study area is very few in most stores and is not in line with international standards, so the current standards need to be adjusted and increased from what they are now, as well as laws in general need to be updated because they are in their current state to achieve the sustainability of green areas in the study area. The most important proposals and solutions that address the problems of green areas (developing a specific strategy, developing some laws on the protection of green areas and setting environmental performance standards for green areas). The research recommended the need to review the planning standard for the individual’s share of green spaces as it does not correspond to the increase in population density, and to guide the pursuit of sustainable strategies within the plans prepared by the long-term municipal departments supporting green areas and work to support environmental performance within municipal circles by presenting the award for outstanding environmental performance on conservation capacity and increasing green spaces, urging a focus on the sustainability of Iraqi cities as they suffer from increased desertification and dredging of green areas and current climate change.

A Procedure Model for Low Emission Transportation Chain Planning

Low-emission planning in freight transportation is one of the main levers to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. For a sustainable planning approach, a strategic solution for this planning problem is needed. Based on several literature reviews, a procedure model is developed, which is meant to be used for the development and adjustment of a low-emission transportation chain reference model. The procedure model consists of the decision steps needed to develop a low-emission transportation chain (LETC) reference model and it is structured into main decision processes and sub-decision processes. A first draft of the LETC-Model is presented in form of an ARIS-Express model.

Design of a Spatial Data Model for the Sustainability of Population Sheltering Processes in the Czech Republic

This article is focused on the creation of a data model of an information system to support the processes of population sheltering (PoS). PoS processes have undergone significant changes in the Czech Republic. The PoS system was transformed for the use of improvised shelters. For sustainable PoS, it is necessary to standardize the approach of crisis management staff. Key research hypotheses: the data model must respect the methodological framework of planning and implementation of the PoS, especially when used for the design and implementation of the improvised shelters; the standardization of residential buildings can be used to facilitate and streamline the sustainable process of planning of the PoS; the unified data model of the PoS can be considered suitable for standardization and development in the field of sustainable planning and implementation of the PoS. Softwares such as SW QGIS desktop 2.6.0, OpenStreetMap (OSM) spatial database, ESRI shapefile format, and S-JTSK/Krovak East North 5514 coordinate system were used for the verification of the spatial data model, and ASP.NET MVC 4.7.2 Microsoft SQL Server Express 2019, jQuery 3.3.1, Bootstrap 3.4.1, Kendo UI 2019.1.220, and virtual Windows Server 2016 were used for the implementation of the physical data model. The physical data model substantiates the benefits.

Maintaining Environmental Sustainability through Existing Environment’s Vegetations

Demands for building in urban areas have been increasing lately, especially educational buildings as support for the human development index. Unfortunately, only a few educational buildings can support green buildings as pilots and educational materials for their users. One of the initiators in becoming educational materials and examples of green buildings is the i-cell multipurpose educational building at the Universitas Indonesia. This study aims to find evidence of how reliable and sustainable planning of an educational building in Depok, Indonesia, can accommodate the needs of its users while being environmentally friendly for its surroundings. It observes the influences of vegetation in the surrounding building, one of which is by maximizing the function of vegetation around the building. The research methods include collecting data from the weather archive, vegetation literature, observing the subject, and analyzing the vegetation’s effect. This study shows that vegetation has an important role in generating a sound environment for humans and buildings, including healing and providing calmness. This study concludes that vegetation plays a role in generating a good environment by decreasing temperature, sound pollution, sun glare and providing shading areas for people. Those conditions lead to the sustainability of the environment surrounding the building.

Mixed Land Use in Delhi: Impact on Infrastructure and Environment and Suggestions for Sustainable Planning

Mixed-use has been a part of our cities since historic times where retail, workshop, etc. all co-existed with the residence. Industrialization and associated adverse impacts led to overtaking of mixed-use concept by zoning. However, the ills of segregation started showing in the cities, and urban planners, sociologists and anthropologists started advocating in favor of re-introducing mixed-use. Now it is being planned worldwide to attain vibrant and cohesive urban development. Despite the well-established benefits of mixed-use, the Master Plan of Delhi’s approach of increasing the ambit of ‘permitting’ mixed-use as against the strategy of ‘planned mixed-use development’ adopted in other global cities makes us question the likely impacts of this liberal shift. Thus the study aims at investigating the environmental implications of such mixed-use development in the city of Delhi. From the assessment of two case study areas, it can be inferred that the nature and magnitude of impact on a mixed-use area is determined by the type of mix and its intensity, for example, in Lajpat Nagar numerous retail establishment led to vehicle-related issues while in Naraina the issues were infrastructure-related due to type of activities. It was recommended that the policies guiding the mixed-use development are in dire need of a mechanism to assess the impacts, identify demand-supply gaps and future needs, and thereafter augment accordingly to mitigate the implications in a case-specific manner.

Coproduction of place and knowledge for ecology with the city

Ecology with the city is a transdisciplinary pursuit, combining the work of researchers, policy makers, managers, and residents to advance equity and sustainability. This undertaking may be facilitated by understanding the parallels in two kinds of coproduction. First, is how urban systems themselves are places that are jointly constituted or coproduced by biophysical and social processes. Second, is how sustainable planning and policies also join human concerns with biophysical structures and processes. Seeking connections between coproduction of place and the coproduction of knowledge may help improve how urban ecology engages with diverse communities and urban interests in service of sustainability.

Long-Term Changes in Cork Oak and Holm Oak Patches Connectivity. The Algarve, Portugal, a Mediterranean Landscape Case Study

Structural connectivity can be inferred by several landscape metrics that appear to be relevant for characterizing how landscapes constrain or favor the presence and movement of animal species at the level of the regional landscape. Trends of change can be estimated trough spatial time-series analysis. The use of historical maps increases the time span of analysis of the landscape dynamic, relative to the use of remote sensing-related information. Supported by GIS, in this study, a framework for the analyses of the long-term trends of change in the connectivity of the Algarve regional landscape was used to seize the possibility of expanding the span of the spatial time series by integrating an unpublished agricultural and forest map from the turn of the 19th to the 20th century with another historical map and two recent maps. The total area covered by cork and holm oak-related community patches and their connectivity increased over the 20th century and stabilized in the 21st century. A reflection on Portuguese contemporary land-cover policies is urged, to face the sustainable planning and management challenges concerning biodiversity.