Measuring Urban Sustainability: the potential and pitfalls of city rankings     

Phil McManus 《The Australian geographer》2012,43(4):411-424

Measuring the sustainability of a city, and ranking the city against other cities, is increasingly seen as a way to achieve urban sustainability. A number of studies have highlighted how Sydney is unsustainable, with two recent ranking exercises appearing to confirm these findings by placing Sydney below many other Australian cities for urban sustainability. These two exercises are situated within international moves towards ranking cities. The article explores the assumptions and criteria used by Mercer in its Eco-City Index and the Australian Conservation Foundation in its Sustainable Cities Index. The conclusion discusses how Sydney could become more sustainable, and identifies why normative urban sustainability rankings should be recognised for their potential while simultaneously being treated with caution.  相似文献   

Water-poverty relationships in the coastal town of Mbour (Senegal): Relevance of GIS for decision support   总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1  

Néné Makoya Toure  Alioune KaneJean François Noel  Vincent TurmineValentin Nedeff  Gabriel Lazar 《International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation》2012,14(1):33-39

Coastal area is always a zone with complex problems. Due to the attraction they exert, are facing many social problems. Therefore, a coastal city is usually a city with problems. Its extension, caused by the influx of people from different backgrounds, creates an increased demand for services. One of the problems frequently encountered, especially in Senegal, is access to water. The problem of access to water is poorly treated, without being correlated with the urban evolution, i.e. with increasing population and demand growth. The water resource is facing numerous complications such as the lack of integrated management, integration issues at the governance level, where the local factor is often forgotten.The town of Mbour, object of our study, does not come out of that lot, being an attractive coastal city, from an African country. This indicates the need for an integrated management oriented from local to a global basis and not vice versa. The study presented in this paper indicates that a large proportion of the population has not access to a verified drinking water system and uses water from wells or standpipes. Half of the surveyed population (50%) has no access to a water supply system. The water poverty map of the town overlaps with that of the general poverty excepting few neighborhoods. This means that even areas that are not affected by poverty have a very low or poor access to water, which so far remains the perverse effect of the reform of the Senegalese water sector in 1995.  相似文献   

Impacts of global environmental change and aquaculture expansion on marine ecosystems     

Gorka Merino  Manuel Barange  Christian Mullon  Lynda Rodwell 《Global Environmental Change》2010,20(4):586-596

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Flexible management of fishing rights and a sustainable fisheries industry in Europe   总被引：3，自引：0，他引：3  

Steffen Hentrich  Markus Salomon   《Marine Policy》2006,30(6):712-720

Although overexploitation of commercial fish stocks in European waters has been in the public debate now for more than 20 years, the European Union has so far failed to implement sustainable fisheries management. Millions in subsidies paid to the fishing industry have led to significant excess capacity in the fishing fleet. Various feeble attempts to stop overexploitation of marine resources have failed. The cause is that fishing policy is highly dominated by short-term socioeconomic interests. There is an urgent need for a new fisheries management system in Europe that supports reductions in the fishing fleet, increases responsibility among fishers and guarantees long-term conservation of natural marine resources.Transferable rights to fish have proved a reliable and effective means of creating incentives to conserve marine resources. By strengthening individual fishing rights under flexible quota management systems, the EU Member States could, within the Common Fisheries Policy, make a significant contribution to conserving fish stocks, to reducing excess capacity and to raising the profitability of the fisheries industry. A closer look at existing reservations against a flexible management system shows most of the objections to be overstated or capable of resolution.  相似文献   

Large debris flows in Chosica,Lima, Peru: the application of hydraulic infrastructure for erosion control and disaster prevention     

S. P. Villacorta  K. G. Evans  K. Nakatani  I. Villanueva 《Australian Journal of Earth Sciences》2020,67(3):425-436

Abstract

Large debris flows in steep-sloped ravines debouching to the Rimac River, in metropolitan Lima (Peruvian capital), have resulted in considerable loss of life and property adversely impacting communities in the region. Temporal, spatial and volumetric features of debris flows are difficult to predict, and it is of utmost importance that achievable management solutions are found to reduce the impact of these catastrophic events. The emotional and economic toll of these debris flows on this increasingly densely populated capital city in South America is devastating where communities must live in such inadequate and dangerous conditions. To address this problem, the application of advanced Japanese technology, Sustainable Actions Basin Orientation (SABO), has been investigated using a geomorphological modelling to develop an implementation plan. Rayos de Sol stream basin in Chosica, was selected as a pilot to develop the proposal, as it is considered high risk due to the presence of ancient debris flows and recent flows in 2012, 2015 and 2017. The recurrence of debris flows in this location has resulted in numerous deaths and catastrophic property losses. This study combines geologic and geomorphic mapping and hydraulic and landform evolution numerical modelling. The implementation of a SABO Master Plan based on the multidisciplinary assessment hazard scenarios, will allow the implementation of feasible mitigation actions. The SABO technology has been applied successfully in Japan and other countries in areas with steep short slopes, similar to the conditions surrounding the Peruvian capital. Results from this study will be presented to the Peruvian Government as part of an action plan to manage debris-flow impact.

1. KEY POINTS

2. High-risk mass slope failure is linked to poor urban planning in urban developing regions of Lima the capital of Peru.

3. A multidisciplinary study including geotechnical and hydrological analysis, engineering design, and socio-economic research is required to implement a SABO Master Plan, and this basin is pilot study basin.

4. At the present time, a maintenance programme for existing hydraulic structures should be implemented, and a flood risk management plan developed may propose the relocation of some communities and infrastructure.

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Exploring future changes in smallholder farming systems by linking socio-economic scenarios with regional and household models     

《Global Environmental Change》2014

We explore how smallholder agricultural systems in the Kenyan highlands might intensify and/or diversify in the future under a range of socio-economic scenarios. Data from approximately 3000 households were analyzed and farming systems characterized. Plausible socio-economic scenarios of how Kenya might evolve, and their potential impacts on the agricultural sector, were developed with a range of stakeholders. We study how different types of farming systems might increase or diminish in importance under different scenarios using a land-use model sensitive to prices, opportunity cost of land and labour, and other variables. We then use a household model to determine the types of enterprises in which different types of households might engage under different socio-economic conditions. Trajectories of intensification, diversification, and stagnation for different farming systems are identified. Diversification with cash crops is found to be a key intensification strategy as farm size decreases and labour costs increase. Dairy expansion, while important for some trajectories, is mostly viable when land available is not a constraint, mainly due to the need for planting fodders at the expense of cropland areas. We discuss the results in relation to induced innovation theories of intensification. We outline how the methodology employed could be used for integrating global and regional change assessments with local-level studies on farming options, adaptation to global change, and upscaling of social, environmental and economic impacts of agricultural development investments and interventions.  相似文献   

城市和城市群可持续发展指数研究进展   总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1  

陈睿山  赵志强  徐迪  陈轶 《地理科学进展》2021,40(1):61-72

21世纪是城市的世纪,城市的高质量发展对区域和全球可持续发展至关重要。中国城市化发展迅速,城市化率从1978年的17.9%增加到2019年的60.6%,2030年将达到70%,大部分人口居住在城市。城市是中国经济发展的引擎,以全国近7%的土地面积生产了70%的国内生产总值(GDP),而城市群更是集聚了全国大部分城镇人口和GDP。因此,城市和城市群的健康与可持续性将决定中国未来发展的质量与进程。识别城市和城市群发展的程度、存在的问题以及国内外差距,亟需进行城市可持续发展的评价。本研究系统综述了城市可持续发展评价的思想与指标体系的发展历程,重点基于联合国可持续发展目标(SDG)框架考察了开展城市可持续发展评价的方法,提出了构建城市和城市群可持续发展指数的途径,并从平台构建、大数据基础、跟踪发布等方面提出了推进城市可持续发展指数评价建立城市发展“仪表盘”的思路。基于联合国SDG框架的城市和城市群可持续发展指数可为目标城市对标其他城市、开展不同区域城市的对比、找准发展目标与识别存在问题等方面提供重要支撑。  相似文献   

A digital earth platform for sustainability   总被引：1，自引：1，他引：0  

Mario Hernandez 《International Journal of Digital Earth》2017,10(4):342-355

ABSTRACT

Based on the experience of the International Society for Digital Earth (ISDE), this paper describes some challenges foreseen in order to develop a Digital Earth platform that can support the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals. The use of ready-to-use derived geospatial information is essential. Future Earth’s methodology of ‘co-design’ aims to bring together natural, social scientists and decision makers to plan and carry out research for sustainability. Sustainability implies transdisciplinary research, but in order for scientists of different disciplines to work together, they will need to be able to share, access and use common data. This is by far not simple! While the good will to share data might exist, the associated technological, ethical and privacy issues are difficult to solve. An adequate e-infrastructure will be required. ISDE could consider to use the SDGs is the basis to develop the desired Digital Earth platform. This paper, by no means, covers everything for a Digital Earth platform, it aims to trigger research discussions and to have a good view about a starting point.  相似文献   

Downstream effects of dams on livelihoods of river-dependent communities: the case of Ghana’s Kpong Dam     

Kwadwo Owusu  Maame Asiwah Nkansah 《Geografisk tidskrift / udgivet af Bestyrelsen for Det Kongelige danske geografiske selskab》2017,117(1):1-10

Construction of dams affects the livelihoods of the population living along the dammed river. There is a need for more studies to guide dam development policies and management to safeguard the livelihoods of local river users. This paper examines the effects of dams on the socio-economic livelihoods of downstream communities by drawing on the Kpong Dam in Ghana constructed from 1979 to 1982 with the goal of supplying energy and for irrigation purposes. Primary data were collected in resettled and non-resettled downstream communities using a mixed-research approach. This case study highlights how the Kpong Dam has affected the downstream river-dependent population whose livelihoods, particularly farming and fishing revolved around the seasonal flow regimes of the Volta River. Our study challenges the general perception that dams increase agricultural production by illustrating that developing ancillary facilities such as irrigation schemes as part of dam projects can enhance all-year-round agricultural production to improve food and income security of downstream households only when constraints such as lack of farm inputs are addressed. To safeguard livelihoods and limit the social impacts of dams, compensation schemes and alternative livelihood activities should be designed to include resettled and non-resettled communities along the downstream areas affected by dam projects.  相似文献   

Redevelopment and the urban forest: A study of tree removal and retention during demolition activities     

《Applied geography (Sevenoaks, England)》2017

Though relationships between urbanization and tree cover are generally well studied, the effect of redevelopment on urban trees, at the scale of the individual property, is not well understood. Developing knowledge in this area is important in order to limit tree loss during redevelopment and thus, ensure sustained ecosystem services. Here, we explore the removal or retention of trees adjacent to building demolition in Christchurch, New Zealand. We mapped the presence or absence of individual trees on 123 properties prior to, and following, building demolition. Using a classification tree (CT) analysis, the presence or absence of 1209 trees was modelled as a function of: tree-related variables, property-related variables, and economic variables. The CT model estimated tree presence/absence with overall accuracy of 80.4%. Results show that 21.6% of all trees were removed as a consequence of building demolition, resulting in a tree canopy cover reduction of 19.7% across all 123 properties. The CT showed that tree crown area was the most important variable for predicting the presence/absence of trees, whereby trees with small crown areas (<7.9 m²) were most frequently removed, especially if they were within 0.7 m of a demolished building. Land value was also an important determinant of tree presence/absence, such that tree removal was more prevalent on properties with higher land value ($/m²). The results provide important new insights into some of the reasons for tree removal or retention during redevelopment at the scale of the individual property where most tree-related decisions are made.  相似文献