Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Research Output And Sustainable Development: Webometric Analysis Of Scopus Indexed Publications 2008 -2014, Mercy A. Iroaganachi, Julie E. Ilogho, Victoria O. Itsekor, Ifeakachuku Osinulu

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

The study evaluated research output indexed by Scopus between 2008 and 2014 in the month of April 2015. It assessed the quantity of research publication within the period, top ten published universities, fields, journals and their impact factors, cited authors, and top ten published countries. This was with a view to determining author relevance, institutional priority, the extent of sustainable development in the fields and host countries. Findings revealed that Li, Wei, of Harbin Institute of Technology China, Wang, Wei of Beijing University of Chemical Technology (BUCT) China, Zhang, Wei of Tsinghua University China, and Li, Hui Technische University Berlin, …

Environment, Equity And Economic Development Goals: Understanding Differences In Local Economic Development Strategies, Xue Zhang, George C. Homsy

George Homsy

What role do local governments play in promoting sustainable economic development? This article uses a 2014 national survey to analyze the relationship between local environment and social equity motivations and the kinds of economic development strategies local governments pursue (business incentives or community economic development policies). Municipalities that pay more attention to environmental sustainability and social equity use higher levels of community economic development tools and lower levels of business incentives. These places are also more likely to have written economic development plans, and involve more participants in the economic development process. By contrast, communities that employ higher levels of …

Mountains Of Our Future Earth: Defining Priorities For Mountain Research, Erin H. Gleeson, Susanne Wymann Von Dach, Courtney G. Flint, Gregory B. Greenwood, Martin F. Price, Jörg Balsiger, Anne Nolin, Veerle Vanacker

Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology Faculty Publications

The Perth conferences, held every 5 years in Perth, Scotland, bring together people who identify as mountain researchers and who are interested in issues related to global change in mountain social-ecological systems. These conferences provide an opportunity to evaluate the evolution of research directions within the mountain research community, as well as to identify research priorities. The Future Earth Strategic Research Agenda provides a useful framework for evaluating the mountain research community's progress toward addressing global change and sustainability challenges. Using a process originally set up to analyze contributions to the 2010 conference, the abstracts accepted for the 2015 conference …

Critical Review Of The Millennium Project In Nepal, Ashma Vaidya, Audrey L. Mayer

College of Forest Resources and Environmental Science Publications

“Our Common Future” harmonized development policies around a new sustainable development (SD) paradigm, and experts also emphasize the importance of a democratic and equitable approach to define and achieve sustainable development. However, SD targets and indicators are often defined by a suite of experts or a few stakeholder groups, far removed from on-the-ground conditions. The most common expert-led development framework, the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), promoted one set of targets and indicators for all developing countries. While progress towards these targets was routinely reported at the national scale, these targets may not reflect context-specific sustainable development. We evaluated …

Environment, Equity And Economic Development Goals: Understanding Differences In Local Economic Development Strategies, Xue Zhang, George C. Homsy

Public Administration Faculty Scholarship

What role do local governments play in promoting sustainable economic development? This article uses a 2014 national survey to analyze the relationship between local environment and social equity motivations and the kinds of economic development strategies local governments pursue (business incentives or community economic development policies). Municipalities that pay more attention to environmental sustainability and social equity use higher levels of community economic development tools and lower levels of business incentives. These places are also more likely to have written economic development plans, and involve more participants in the economic development process. By contrast, communities that employ higher levels of …

Achieving Economic And Environmental Sustainabilities In Urban Consolidation Center With Bicriteria Auction, Stephanus Daniel Handoko, Hoong Chuin Lau, Shih-Fen Cheng

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Consolidation lies at the heart of the last-mile logistics problem. Urban consolidation centers (UCCs) have been set up to facilitate such consolidation all over the world. To the best of our knowledge, most-if not all-of the UCCs operate on volume-based fixed-rate charges. To achieve environmental sustainability while ensuring economic sustainability in urban logistics, we propose, in this paper, a bicriteria auction mechanism for the automated assignment of last-mile delivery orders to transport resources. We formulate and solve the winner determination problem of the auction as a biobjective programming model. We then present a systematic way to generate the Pareto frontier …

Developing High-Resolution Descriptions Of Urban Heat Islands: A Public Health Imperative, Jackson Voelkel, Vivek Shandas, Brendon Haggerty

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

Extreme heat events affect the most vulnerable human populations and are a lethal health hazard to urban dwellers globally; in the United States, extreme heat causes more deaths annually than all other weather events and natural hazards combined (1). Previous studies described urban heat islands as isolated, static, monolithic areas of cities. We challenged this contention by hypothesizing that diurnal temperature cycles and diverse landscape features create variation in places that amplify heat (2). A temporal description of urban heat islands would identify populations that are susceptible to heat stress, particularly at night, when most people are asleep and unable …

Slides: Food For Thought: Water Requirements For Social-Ecological Systems, Michael Douglas, Sue Jackson

Coping with Water Scarcity in River Basins Worldwide: Lessons Learned from Shared Experiences (Martz Summer Conference, June 9-10)

Presenters:

Michael Douglas, University of Western Australia, Charles Darwin University

Sue Jackson, Griffith University

35 slides

Increasing Access To Potable Water: A Question Of Economics And Governance In Bo District, Sierra Leone, Alissa M. Heiring

Lawrence University Honors Projects

This paper analyzes existing supply gaps that are impeding rural water access in Bo District, Sierra Leone. On a national and district level, Sierra Leone has failed to meet the target of 70% access to potable water inspired by the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals. This paper focuses on Bo District due to its near total inclusion in the Sewa River basin and split urban and rural population. Given the existing political and economic constraints, this paper identifies the most feasible way to sustainably increase access to potable water in Bo. To develop the recommendations, current supply gaps in rural …

Daytime Variation Of Urban Heat Islands: The Case Study Of Doha, Qatar, Yasuyo Makido, Vivek Shandas, Salim Ferwati, David J. Sailor

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

Recent evidence suggests that urban forms and materials can help to mediate temporal variation of microclimates and that landscape modifications can potentially reduce temperatures and increase accessibility to outdoor environments. To understand the relationship between urban form and temperature moderation, we examined the spatial and temporal variation of air temperature throughout one desert city—Doha, Qatar—by conducting vehicle traverses using highly resolved temperature and GPS data logs to determine spatial differences in summertime air temperatures. To help explain near-surface air temperatures using land cover variables, we employed three statistical approaches: Ordinary Least Squares (OLS), Regression Tree Analysis (RTA), and Random Forest …

Let There Be Light: Social Enterprise, Solar Power, And Sustainable Development, Tonia Warnecke

Faculty Publications

Energy poverty is a major problem in the developing world, with nearly 1.3 billion people lacking household electricity. Strikingly, the electrification rate is not only low, but is falling in many countries as population growth outpaces efforts to give more people access to electricity. Seizing the opportunities presented by rapid changes in technology and the availability of renewable energy at continually falling costs, social enterprises have begun to light the darkness and fill in the gap between the public and private provision of electricity. We review the extent of energy poverty and explain why neither the public, nor the private …

Sustainable Drainage Systems: Helping People Live With Water, Glyn Everett, Jessica Lamond, Anita T. Morzillo, Faith Ka Shun Chan, Annie Marissa Matsler

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

Sustainable drainage systems or ‘Suds’ are increasingly accepted as an effective means of ‘making space for water’, adapting to possible climate change and helping communities become more flood and drought resilient. This study explores potential shifts in perception and attitude through Suds installation, development and habituation. Attitudes and awareness in communities in the USA and UK, where Suds have been in place for some time, were compared and contrasted, examining any evolution of beliefs and practices and wider community resilience. The principal finding was that there existed a lack of understanding about the existence and function of Suds. The paper …

The Permanence Of The Sustainable Development Complex, Christopher Ginou

2016 Undergraduate Awards

Conventional wisdom tells us that sustainable development is the most effective solution to ecological protection, so what has this wisdom led to? Supporters of environmental sustainability have created a permanent sustainable development complex that is embedded within our business culture and the economy. This paper will reveal reasons why this permanence of sustainability has continued and why liberal environmentalism is used indefinitely. Some of these reasons being that sustainable development provides economic growth along with more efficient practices that can be utilized longer than before, and that sustainable development has been argued to produce substantial results that liberal environmentalist theorists …

Slum Or Sustainable Development? A Case Study Of Sodom And Gomorrah In Accra, Ghana, Benjamin Effah Oppong

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

The Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) has been successful in demolishing a few slums in the City of Accra. However, Sodom and Gomorrah, also known to be a squatter and an illegal settlement in the City of Accra continues to prosper. This study examines the benefits and shortcomings of slums with specific reference to Sodom and Gomorrah and why it has avoided all demolition attempts by AMA. It also examines whether slums can be improved to promote sustainable urban development in Ghana. The researcher explored these issues with surveys which elicited the opinions and experiences of slum dwellers in Sodom and …

The Utility Of The Participatory Approach For Sustainable Development Assessments, Ashma Vaidya

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

‘Sustainability’ may be a generalizable concept; its definition however, heavily depends upon context. Understanding the context (sociocultural, environmental, socioeconomic, political etc.) is crucial for defining and assessing the sustainability of any given socio-ecological system. This point underlies our research design and objectives. The primary objectives of this research were to understand the sustainability context in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and to use it to develop a sustainability assessment framework for a potential forest-based bioenergy industry in the region. We first reviewed top-down and bottom-up sustainability assessment frameworks. Then we used the best-suited approach i.e. bottom-up participatory approach, to pursue …