Climate Change and Profit Loss

The chapter aims to evaluate the profit loss of rice farmers due to salinity intrusion by collecting the information of rice production in three regions with the same natural environment conditions, social characteristics (e.g., the same social and farming culture, ethnicity, type of soil), and only differed with respect to the level of salinity in Soc Trang province, one of the most salinity-affected areas in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta. The study estimated the profit loss in rice production due to saltwater intrusion by the difference in rice profit between the non-salinity and salinity regions and showed this loss was about VND 9.3-15.1 million per ha-1 a year.

Public Risk Perception Towards Power Generation by Municipal Waste Incineration

Power generation by municipal waste incineration provides a template not only for waste reduction but also for energy recovery. However, incineration plants face considerably strong protests from local communities. In such context, this study investigates the public's risk perception towards an operating incineration plant by using a word-frequency-based decision making approach to provide insight into risk mitigation while enhancing public acceptance. An operating municipal waste plant located at Chengdu, Sichuan Province was used as a case study to examine the risk perception posed by the host communities. Face-to-face interviews through a structured questionnaire were applied to data collection. A word frequency analysis was used to identify the key factors that influence public's risk perception and construct a multi-attributive decision matrix for the risk assessment. Entropy-based fuzzy decision making was implemented to discriminate the risk semi-quantitatively. To alleviate possible conflicts, policy implications were given.

Urban Governance, Democratic Decentralization, and Natural Resources

This study aims to analyze the implications of democratic or political and administrative or fiscal decentralization in the downward accountability, participatory and deliberative democracy to shape the urban governance of natural resources, facilities, infrastructure, etc. The methodological and theoretical approach of the analysis is framed by the institutional theory and analyses the power relationships and interactions between national and local governments, authorities, agencies, politicians, and other actors within the urban democratic governance system, downward accountability, participative and deliberative democracy, etc. Finally, in the conclusion it is argued that some institutionalized democratic mechanisms and management practices can be implemented in the political or democratic and administrative or fiscal decentralization to improve democratic urban governance of natural resources and environmental and urban green areas.

A Value for the Non-Valued

The ecosystem has its intrinsic value while offering an extrinsic satisfaction to humans. Ecosystem resources are devalued in the economic valuing process when a monetary value is difficult in assigning to the ‘non-use' effects of the separated functions of the ecosystem. There is a tendency to forego the value of the ecosystem, the bequest or existence values, although it offers some utility of satisfaction. This trade-off decision leads to detrimental effects on the survival of organisms. The chapter allows the decision-maker to identify the non-use ecosystem resources with an ‘off-trade' value for the production process through Reflective Analysis, systems theory and feed-in indicators. The off-trade decision would enable the sustainability of organisms in the ecological system with their interwoven functions intact and not exposed to bargaining as separated parts. As a result, it would help the regeneration of the valued resources for economic valuing process.

Consumer Behavior

The objective of this study is to develop a model of the behavior of the ecological consumer in order to know the motivations that influence the decision to purchase organic products in citizens from 25 to 45 years of the municipality of Guadalajara. The methodology used in the research is qualitative. It was carried out through the non-experimental design, with respect to the data collection tool, in-depth interviews were carried out. The results obtained with respect to the factors that influence the purchase decision of the products are accepted the general hypothesis. One of the limitations that the study faced was a limited literature regarding studies related to it in the case of the city of Guadalajara.

Achieving Sustainable Development Through a Green Economy Approach

Sustainable development aims to create a balance between economic, social, and environmental elements for continuity between humanity and the natural environment. Current economic systems and production or consumption models prevent achieving sustainable development in the long term, and the green economy approach seems to be the best option for sustainable development. This chapter investigates the relationship between green economy and sustainable development. Accordingly, the study presents a brief view of the green economy approach and sustainable development goals. As a result, the study discusses the contribution of green economy for achieving sustainable development goals.

Bio-Economy at the Crossroads of Sustainable Development

This study aims to review, analyze, and systematize the knowledge created on bio-economy to develop a conceptual and theoretical framework based on the transdisciplinary study of biology and socioeconomy to be used in further research. It begins from the questioning of the benefits that bio-economy has compared to the neoclassical economy. The methods employed are critical analytic, descriptive, deductive-inductive, and it suggests holistic and transdisciplinary approaches. As a result, the core of the study presents the principles under which this new scientific paradigm in sustainable development can continue creating more scientific knowledge to be used in the formulation and implementation of strategic choices for the bio-production, bio-distribution, and bio-consumption processes.

From Linear to Circular Tourism

There are several relevant studies concerning tourism and environment, some of them studying ecotourism, recreation ecology, adventure tourism, and parks and wilderness management. Many publications on sustainable and responsible tourism described the relationship between environmental and economic growth and considered it important to have to consider them in an integrated approach. Usually, the research highlighted the negative impact of tourism on the environment. However, tourism and environment can be complementary to each other, and sustainable management of tourism may produce positive externalities on the environment. This chapter focuses on the environmental challenges of tourism throughout the passage from linear to circular tourism.

Integral Ecology and Educational Policies

Education plays a major role in enabling us to become more active in the building of a better society, attacking the structural causes of inequality that creates an inhuman culture of waste and—from an ecological point of view—generates a unacceptable negligence with the care of our common home, causing environmental degradation and other disastrous consequences. This chapter explores integral ecology and education policies through axiological convergences with SDG4.