sustainability planning
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2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
David A. Wood

Medium-term air quality assessment, benchmarking it to recent past data can usefully complement short-term air quality index data for monitoring purposes. By using daily and monthly averaged data, medium-term air quality benchmarking provides a distinctive perspective with which to monitor air quality for sustainability planning and ecosystem perspectives. By normalizing the data for individual air pollutants to a standard scale they can be more easily integrated to generate a daily combined local area benchmark (CLAB). The objectives of the study are to demonstrate that medium-term air quality benchmarking can be tailored to reflect local conditions by selecting the most relevant pollutants to incorporate in the CLAB indicator. Such a benchmark can provide an overall air quality assessment for areas of interest. A case study is presented for Dallas County (U.S.A.) applying the proposed method by benchmarking 2020 data for air pollutants to their trends established for 2015 to 2019. Six air pollutants considered are: ozone, carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, benzene and particulate matter less than 2.5 micrometres. These pollutants are assessed individually and in terms of CLAB, and their 2020 variations for Dallas County compared to daily trends established for years 2015 to 2019. Reductions in benzene and carbon monoxide during much of 2020 are clearly discernible compared to preceding years. The CLAB indicator shows clear seasonal trends for air quality for 2015 to 2019 with high pollution in winter and spring compared to other seasons that is strongly influenced by climatic variations with some anthropogenic inputs. Conducting CLAB analysis on an ongoing basis, using a relevant nearpast time interval for benchmarking that covers several years, can reveal useful monthly, seasonal and annual trends in overall air quality. This type of medium-term, benchmarked air quality data analysis is well suited for ecosystem monitoring.


Land ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 1122
Author(s):  
Robert P. Stoker ◽  
Michael J. Rich

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development promotes sustainable global prosperity by encouraging the coordination of social, economic, and environmental policies and good governance reforms. Cities are expected to play an essential role in implementing the 2030 Agenda. Local programs are to be implemented by multi-actor governance systems (including government agencies, businesses, nonprofits, and philanthropic organizations) that operate across multiple policy domains and provide extensive opportunities for stakeholder participation. Local program finance may require a combination of public, private, and philanthropic resources. We analyze the prospects for local implementation of the 2030 Agenda in large U.S. cities by examining local capacity to plan and carry out cross-sectoral collaborative initiatives. We review sustainability planning in the cities that participated in the Sustainable Development Solutions Network planning demonstration. We analyze an inventory of urban revitalization initiatives to assess local capacity to carry out collaborations. We show that local capacity is associated with having an active local environmental agenda and making progress toward achieving sustainable development goals. However, local capacity appears to be concentrated in larger cities. Although the demands on local governance are daunting, our examination of local capacity to plan and execute cross-sectoral collaborative initiatives in large U.S. cities creates guarded optimism.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (19) ◽  
pp. 11018
Author(s):  
Cyndi V. Castro ◽  
Hanadi S. Rifai

Comprehensive datasets for nature-based solutions (NBS), and their diverse relationships have not yet been accumulated into a deployable format. This research describes the development of a novel National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) system for NBS co-benefits throughout the contiguous United States. Here, we gather and integrate robust geospatial datasets from the social, ecological, environmental, and hydrologic domains using seamless, cloud-based data services to facilitate the trans-disciplinary assessment of NBSs as a function of society and Earth. This research enhances practical decision making and research by assimilating web-based datasets and describing the missing links between national policy and robust adoption of NBSs as a sustainability solution. This NSDI serves to foster participatory planning capabilities and integrate local sustainability goals into decision–support frameworks. Such a platform strengthens the knowledge base necessary for addressing multiple, co-evolving issues of societal relevance, an essential component of fully espousing NBSs within the realm of socio-technological systems and improving policies and implementation regarding sustainable solutions. The efficacy of the proposed platform to serve as a holistic data information system is assessed by exploring important characteristics associated with geospatial NSDI tools, namely, openness, spatial functionality, scalability, and standardization. By placing GIS strengths and weaknesses in the context of transdisciplinary NBSs, we reveal strategic directions toward further co-production of such NSDIs. We conclude with recommendations for facilitating a shared vision of transdisciplinary technologies to strengthen the amalgamation of broad co-benefits and multi-disciplinary influences in sustainability planning.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Iordanis Katemliadis ◽  
Georgios Markatos

PurposeTourism planning and development has revolved around sustainability concepts and issues, and this paper aims to provide an analysis of stakeholder involvement in sustainability planning and implementation in Cyprus.Design/methodology/approachThe article provides a comprehensive perspective on stakeholder involvement in sustainability planning and implementation based on a systematic literature review.FindingsStudy findings indicate that the active involvement of stakeholders is a prerequisite in order to address the complex issues of sustainable tourism development.Originality/valueThe authors examined the role of stakeholders at individual, local and international levels, and how they can make a difference in transitioning to a more sustainable future for tourism in Cyprus.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Kathryn Kidd

Understanding how stakeholders conceptualize the dynamic environmental systems they live within and act upon is essential for long-term sustainability planning. For shared resource systems where decision making is increasingly democratized, agencies engage stakeholders to document local understandings of physical processes useful for resource management. For a variety of fiscal, logistical, and policy reasons, most studies are snapshots in time with few agencies able to devote resources for longitudinal studies. Yet for large river systems that regularly change with floods, drought, and floodplain development cycles, one-off social studies are unable to respond to such human- environment dynamism. To explore longitudinal human-water dynamics in the Yellowstone River reach in Montana (US), this study uses interviews with 15 individuals interviewed in 2006, 2012, and 2018 field seasons. The Yellowstone River is the largest undammed river in the US. It is located in the arid Western United States, and experiences annual flooding from mountain snowmelt, regular drought cycles, increased water use from floodplain development, irrigation, and recreation. Interviewees had a history of involvement with the Yellowstone River decision making and/or were riverfront landowners each with the capacity to shape the physical features of this system. This study takes a scholarly approach to expressed participant concerns as empirical evidence that reflects the socio-hydrological phenomenon occurring in the Yellowstone River Valley. Analysis of stakeholder accounts of physical processes pay special attention to expressions of how they understand the physical processes (flood, drought, and erosion) and how they express it should be managed. The benefit of engaging the same stakeholders with the same questions in 2006, 2012, and 2018 affords attention to any patterns of change over time concerning stakeholders' descriptions of riverine processes. Ultimately, this study brings clarity to the place-based phenomenon taking place in t Yellowstone River through a longitudinal comparative analysis.


Author(s):  
Caroline K. Marete ◽  
Mary E. Johnson

Airports have economic, environmental, and social impacts on communities. Many of these impacts are influenced by airport management decisions. Airport sustainability may be thought of as having four primary areas: environmental, economic, operational, and social. The objective of this study is to understand better the adoption of social sustainability practices in small hub airport planning in the United States. The small hub airports in this study participated in the Federal Aviation Administration Airport Improvement Program for sustainability planning and have published their sustainability plans as either standalone sustainability management plans or integrated sustainable master plans. Plans from the six airports were gathered and examined as part of an exploratory case study analysis. The findings show that small hub airports do not use the same framework or select the same practices for social sustainability. Social sustainability practices for these six small hub airports focus on four stakeholder categories: passengers and travelers, employees, communities and local businesses, and concessionaires and tenants.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (10) ◽  
pp. 5433
Author(s):  
Rui Alexandre Castanho ◽  
José Manuel Naranjo Gómez ◽  
Gualter Couto ◽  
Pedro Pimentel ◽  
Áurea Sousa ◽  
...  

The remarkable richness and singularity of the Azorean Region (located 38° North) and its landscapes require a sharp, well-defined, and comprehensive planning policy. Bearing in mind the significance of this issue in the enlightenment of sustainability, planning strategies should be based and supported by different studies and thematic domains to understand the problem thoroughly. Using GIS (Geographic Information Systems), the present article enables us to identify the dynamics and patterns of the evolution of the Land-Use Changes in the Azores Region from 1990 to 2018. In aggregate, the Azores islands showed growth in artificial surfaces and forest and seminatural land-uses by essentially decreasing agricultural areas—most resulting from the economic and social development strategy pursued by several Azorean governments. Moreover, this study permits us to reinforce that the Azores Archipelago’s land-uses has undergone multiple changes—marked by increasing and decreasing periods. In fact, some of these reducing dynamics are disturbing. They require closer monitorization by regional government actors to give protection, preservation, and conservation to these incomparable ultra-peripheral landscapes, environments, ecosystems, and the region as a whole.


2021 ◽  
Vol 25 (05) ◽  
pp. 945-954
Author(s):  
Thobayet Safar Alshahrani

Acacia woodlands are ecologically important and it is necessary to understand its structures and dynamics to develop sustainable conservation strategies. This study aimed to provide baseline information on the composition and growth of Acacia woodlands in the Hawtat Bani Tamim and Al Duwadmi regions of central Saudi Arabia. Height, diameter at breast height, crown diameter, seedling density, and soil seed bank content of Acacia tree species were characterized for 27 remote, circular, 0.1-ha plots in both study areas. At Hawtat Bani Tamim, Acacia raddiana, A. tortilis, and A. ehrenbergiana accounted for 45.53, 37.5 and 16.96% of all species present there. Most DBH were in the 6–10 cm class. A. raddiana was the main species in most diameter classes. Most trees were 4.1–5.0 m tall and A. raddiana predominated in this height class. Acacia ehrenbergiana had 92.63% damaged seeds. At Al Duwadmi, A. raddiana represented 78.99% of all Acacia trees there. A. gerrardii and A. tortilis accounted for 11.93 and 9.07% of the species there, respectively. Most of the DBH values were in the 6–10 cm and 11–15 cm classes, and A. tortilis and A. raddiana were abundant in both classes. Most trees were in the 4.1–5 m height class, which was dominated by A. raddiana. A. ehrenbergiana had 88.26% damaged seeds. In both areas, there was a gradual decline in the number of trees in DBH classes > 35 cm. The Acacia species in the two areas showed a fair regeneration status. There were more seedlings than saplings and fewer saplings than trees. This baseline study could contribute towards future sustainability planning initiatives after other assessment studies have been conducted to identify changes in the Acacia woodlands of this region. © 2021 Friends Science Publishers


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