Search results for: environmental policies

Authors: Ghazal Raheb

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Population growth in big cities of Iran has led to limitation of land resources, more consumption of non-renewable sources of energy and many environmental problems. Emerging of overbuilt urban areas and decreasing amount of green spaces cause the appearance of an undesirable landscape in the cities. Green roof technology is a solution to improve environmental concerns in urban areas which combines green spaces with buildings as the private or semi-private spaces. Successful implementation in different areas definitely depends on accommodation of green roof type with the environment and urban and building typology in Iran. This paper is aiming to provide some recommendation for selecting appropriate type of green roof and executive solutions considering to climatic zoning and urban situation in Iran. Two main aspects which have been considered are environmental and urban typology factors.

Keywords: green roof, urban typology, climate zone, landscape

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Authors: Mitra Bahri, Jean Leopold Kabambi, Jacqueline Yakobi-Hancock, William Render, Stephanie So

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Reducing formaldehyde concentration in residential buildings is an important challenge, especially during the summer. In this study, a ceiling tile was used as a sorptive passive panel for formaldehyde removal. The performance of this passive panel was evaluated under different environmental conditions. The results demonstrated that the removal efficiency is comprised between 40% and 71%. Change in the level of relative humidity (30%, 50%, and 75%) had a slight positive effect on the sorption capacity. However, increase in temperature from 21 °C to 26 °C led to approximately 7% decrease in the average formaldehyde removal performance. GC/MS and HPLC analysis revealed the formation of different by-products at low concentrations under extreme environmental conditions. These findings suggest that the passive panel selected for this study holds the potential to be used for formaldehyde removal under various conditions.

Keywords: formaldehyde, indoor air quality, passive panel, removal efficiency, sorption

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Authors: Waepa Wanhussen

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The Ministry of Public Health has established policies accelerating health promotion to prevent public health problems in five border provinces of Thailand. One of these policies employs the religion to guide the community development and solve health issues consistent with the lifestyle and culture of those people. This policy is an important strategy to solve the problems due to the unrest and conflicts in the southern border provinces. This participatory action research aimed to develop mosques as healthy religion places in Narathiwat Province. In the development, the participatory action, consisting of 5 stages, was conducted from October 2012 - May 2013. Stage I: Conducting a survey for problems and needs for developing healthy religion places by employing community participation. Stage II: Analyzing problems and situations at a workshop containing informal interviews and group conversations with 200 participants (health providers at district level, Imams (the Muslim leaders), and community leaders). Stage III: Planning for developing healthy religion places by health providers, Imams, community leaders. Stage IV: Implementing the plan according to the conditions of problems and needs of the community in order to develop healthy religion places. Stage V: Evaluating the implementation by using the instrument, a criteria of being healthy religion place, for collecting data. Data were analyzed by using percentage. It was found that out of 630 mosques 575 (90.12%) passed the criteria of being a healthy religion place. Among these mosques, 190 mosques (30.15%) were in good and very good level, in which, after the implementation, the number of being good and very good healthy mosques increased by 22.58%. The researcher suggested that the developing sustainably healthy religion places require the participation of residences in the community and agencies such as local government, the Islamic Council of Narathiwat Province, and Council of Culture of Narathiwat Province. The healthy religion places can be used to strengthen and sustain health promotion and disease prevention in the community as health learning centers.

Keywords: healthy religion places, development of community participation, nursing informatics, health

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Authors: Abdulrazaq Adepoju

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Climate change and its negative environmental challenges to humanity has for decades, taken the centre stage globally receiving attention on ways to take care of the menace and keep the damaging effects to manageable and tolerable level. However, noise pollution, another major environmental hazard militating against human habitation particularly in the developing countries of the world, is not receiving enough attention by the concerned authorities at all tiers of governance. A good knowledge of the major sources of environmental noise pollution will go a long way in assisting relevant stakeholders in planning, designing, and management of problems associated with noise pollution. This paper seeks to identify the major sources of noise in the built environment on selected areas of Osogbo, Nigeria. The paper adopted a survey research method of collecting data from surveys carried out on buildings around old Garage-Okefia axis, Old garage-Oja Oba axis, and Okefia-Olaiya junction axis, all within Osogbo metropolis using sound surveying metre. It was discovered that noise from vehicular and pedestrian traffic, commercial activities such as advertising vendors and religious buildings (churches and mosques) constitute major causes of noise in the study area. The paper recommends some measures to the affected stakeholders particularly government agencies on means of reducing noise pollution to a tolerable level in the study areas and places of the same industrial layout.

Keywords: built environment, climate change, environmental pollution, noise

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Authors: Hamzah Kamil Adeyemi, Oyesikun Abayomi Nathaniel

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The plural nature of Nigeria state has created a leadership gap in the 21st century. The leadership problem encapsulated socio-economic system has called for a reorientation in youth to channel a programme that will redeem the image (OT) the country among the committee of nations and chart a way forward in bailing the country out of bad governance unemployment corruption and other anti-development policies. The touth need to raise up to the challenges of nation building. This study engaged theoretical analysis, both written records was used to add value to its quality and recommendation was made with conclusion.

Keywords: youth, education, unempolyment, rebranding, Nigeria

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Authors: Thea Freese

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Environmental legislation to protect North and Baltic Sea areas from harmful vessel-source emissions has received increased political attention in recent years. Legislative measures are expected to show positive effects on the health of the marine environment and society. At the same time, compliance might increase the costs to industry and have effects on freight rates and volumes shipped with potential negative repercussions on the environment. Building on an exploratory sequential mixed methods approach, this research project will study the economic effects of maritime environmental legislation in two phases. In Phase I, exploratory in-depth interviews were conducted with 12 experts from various stakeholder groups aiming at identifying variables influencing the relationship between environmental legislation, freight rates and volumes shipped. Influencing factors like compliance, enforcement and modal shift were identified and studied. Phase II will comprise of a quantitative study conducted with the aim of verifying the theory build in Phase I and quantifying economic effects of rules on shipping pollution. Research in this field might inform policy-makers about determinants of behaviour of ship operators in the face of the law and might further the development of a comprehensive legal system for marine environmental protection. At the present stage of research, first tentative results from the qualitative phase may be examined and open research questions to be addressed in the quantitative phase as well as possible research designs for phase II may be discussed. Input from other researchers will be highly valuable at this point.

Keywords: clean shipping operations, compliance, maritime environmental legislation, maritime law and economics, mixed methods research, North and Baltic Sea area

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Authors: Majid Aldalbahi

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In 2009, over 3.4 billion people in the world resided in urban areas as a result of rapid urban growth. This figure is estimated to increase to 6.5 billion by 2050. This urban growth phenomenon has raised challenges for many countries in both the developing and developed worlds. Urban growth is a complicated process involving the spatiotemporal changes of all socio-economic and physical components at different scales. The socio-economic components of urban growth are related to urban population growth and economic growth, while physical components of urban growth and economic growth are related to spatial expansion, land cover change and land use change which are the focus of this research. The interactions between these components are complex and no-linear. Several factors and forces cause these complex interactions including transportation and communication, internal and international migrations, public policies, high natural growth rates of urban populations and public policies. Urban growth has positive and negative consequences. The positive effects relates to planned and orderly urban growth, while negative effects relate to unplanned and scattered growth, which is called sprawl. Although urban growth is considered as necessary for sustainable urbanization, uncontrolled and rapid growth cause various problems including consumption of precious rural land resources at urban fringe, landscape alteration, traffic congestion, infrastructure pressure, and neighborhood conflicts. Traditional urban planning approaches in fast growing cities cannot accommodate the negative consequences of rapid urban growth. Microsimulation programme, and modelling techniques are effective means to provide new urban development, management and planning methods and approaches. This paper aims to use these techniques to understand and analyse the complex interactions for the case study of Riyadh city, a fast growing city in Saudi Arabia.

Keywords: policy implications, urban planning, traffic congestion, urban growth, Suadi Arabia, Riyadh

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Authors: Gizem Kodak, Alper Unal, Birsen Koldemir, Tayfun Acarer

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Turkish Straits System which consists of Istanbul Strait (Bosphorus), Canakkale Strait (Dardanelles) and the Marmara Sea has a strategical location on international maritime as it is a unique waterway between the Mediterranean Sea, Black Sea and the Aegean Sea. Thus, this area has great importance since it is the only waterway between Black Sea countries and the rest of the World. Turkish Straits System has dangerous environmental factors hosts more vessel every day through developing World trade and this situation results in expanding accident risks day by day. Today, a lot of precautions have been taken to ensure safe navigation and to prevent maritime accidents, and international standards are followed to avoid maritime accidents. Despite this, the environmental factors that affect this area, trigger the maritime accidents and threaten the vessels with new accidents risks in different months with different hazards. This descriptive study consists of temporal and spatial analyses of environmental factors causing maritime accidents. This study also aims at contributing to safety navigation including monthly and regionally characteristics of variables. In this context, two different data sets are created consisting of environmental factors and accidents. This descriptive study on the accidents between 2001 and 2017 the mentioned region also studies the months and places of the accidents with environmental factor variables. Environmental factor variables are categorized as dynamic and static factors. Dynamic factors are appointed as meteorological and oceanographical while static factors are appointed as geological factors that threaten safety navigation with geometrical restricts. The variables that form dynamic factors are approached meteorological as wind direction, wind speed, wave altitude and visibility. The circulations and properties of the water mass on the system are studied as oceanographical properties. At the end of the study, the efficient meteorological and oceanographical parameters on the region are presented monthly and regionally. By this way, we acquired the monthly, seasonal and regional distributions of the accidents. Upon the analyses that are done; The Turkish Straits System that connects the Black Sea countries with the other countries and which is one of the most important parts of the world trade; is analyzed on temporal and spatial dimensions on the reasons of the accidents and have been presented as environmental factor dynamics causing maritime accidents.

Keywords: descriptive study, environmental factors, maritime accidents, statistics

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Authors: Tomas O. Ortega, Cecilia T. Reyes, Cecile O. Legaspi, Cylde G. Abayon, Anna Mae C. Relingo, Mary Eden M. Teruel

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A study was conducted to evaluate the performance in the delivery of environmental management programs of the local government of Malay, Aklan, Philippines. The samples were determined by adopting the Multi-Stage Random Probability Sampling technique. The 150 respondents were drawn from barangays with larger shares of the population based on the Philippine Statistical Authority’s Data on Census Population and Housing for the year 2015. The qualified sample respondents were selected using the Kish Grid. Female respondents were targeted for even numbered questionnaires while male respondents were targeted for odd numbers. The four major core concepts namely awareness, availment, satisfaction and need for action were used in measuring the rating of the respondents and presented in frequency and percentage distributions. The reasons for their response were likewise gathered. The study inferred that a large portion of the respondents was profoundly aware of the environmental management programs implemented by their local government unit especially the solid waste management and the clean-up programs/projects. Programs to control air pollution and waste water management obtained the least awareness ratings from the respondents. A high percentage of respondents had availed of environmental management programs, particularly solid waste management. Overall, majority of the respondents were satisfied with the environmental management programs rendered by the local government unit and therefore needs less action. It is recommended that the local government unit must strengthen air pollution control program. Appropriate action must be taken to support the people’s interest in this program most particularly to the individuals who burn their garbage. Seminars and training-workshops about appropriate waste disposal will most likely help settle this issue.

Keywords: availment, awareness, environmental management, need for action, satisfaction

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Authors: Haruna Maama

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Environmental, social and governance (ESG) reporting is gaining considerable attention despite being voluntary. Meanwhile, it consumes resources to provide ESG reporting, raising a question of its value relevance. The study examined the impact of ESG reporting on the market value of listed firms in SSA. The annual and integrated reports of 276 listed sub-Sahara Africa (SSA) firms. The integrated reporting scores of the firm were analysed using a content analysis method. A multiple regression estimation technique using a GMM approach was employed for the analysis. The results revealed that ESG has a positive relationship with firms’ market value, suggesting that investors are interested in the ESG information disclosure of firms in SSA. This suggests that extensive ESG disclosures are attempts by firms to obtain the approval of powerful social, political and environmental stakeholders, especially institutional investors. Furthermore, the market value analysis evidence is consistent with signalling theory, which postulates that firms provide integrated reports as a signal to influence the behaviour of stakeholders. This finding reflects the value placed on investors' social, environmental and governance disclosures, which affirms the views that conventional investors would care about the social, environmental and governance issues of their potential or existing investee firms. Overall, the evidence is consistent with the prediction of signalling theory. In the context of this theory, integrated reporting is seen as part of firms' overall competitive strategy to influence investors' behaviour. The findings of this study make unique contributions to knowledge and practice in corporate reporting.

Keywords: environmental accounting, ESG accounting, signalling theory, sustainability reporting, sub-saharan Africa

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Authors: Mingyue Sheng, Basil Sharp

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Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from national transport account for the largest share of emissions from energy use in New Zealand. Whether the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) relationship exists between environmental degradation indicators from the transport sector and economic growth in New Zealand remains unclear. This paper aims at exploring the causality relationship between CO₂ emissions from the transport sector, fossil fuel consumption, and the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita in New Zealand, using annual data for the period 1977 to 2013. First, conventional unit root tests (Augmented Dickey–Fuller and Phillips–Perron tests), and a unit root test with the breakpoint (Zivot-Andrews test) are employed to examine the stationarity of the variables. Second, the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bounds test for co-integration, followed by Granger causality investigated causality among the variables. Empirical results of the study reveal that, in the short run, there is a unidirectional causality between economic growth and transport CO₂ emissions with direction from economic growth to transport CO₂ emissions, as well as a bidirectional causality from transport CO₂ emissions to road energy consumption.

Keywords: economic growth, transport carbon dioxide emissions, environmental Kuznets curve, causality

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Authors: Domenico M. Mongelli, Michele De Carli, Laura Carnieletto, Filippo Busato

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Europe's dependence on imported fossil fuels has been particularly highlighted by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Limiting this dependency with a massive replacement of fossil fuel boilers with heat pumps for building heating is the goal of this work. Therefore, with the aim of diversifying energy sources and evaluating the potential use of heat pump technologies for residential buildings with a view to decarbonization, the quantitative reduction in the consumption of fossil fuels was investigated in all regions of Europe through the use of heat pumps. First, a general overview of energy consumption in buildings in Europe has been assessed. The consumption of buildings has been addressed to the different uses (heating, cooling, DHW, etc.) as well as the different sources (natural gas, oil, biomass, etc.). The analysis has been done in order to provide a baseline at the European level on the current consumptions and future consumptions, with a particular interest in the future increase of cooling. A database was therefore created on the distribution of residential energy consumption linked to air conditioning among the various energy carriers (electricity, waste heat, gas, solid fossil fuels, liquid fossil fuels, and renewable sources) for each region in Europe. Subsequently, the energy profiles of various European cities representative of the different climates are analyzed in order to evaluate, in each European climatic region, which energy coverage can be provided by heat pumps in replacement of natural gas and solid and liquid fossil fuels for air conditioning of the buildings, also carrying out the environmental and economic assessments for this energy transition operation. This work aims to make an innovative contribution to the evaluation of the potential for introducing heat pump technology for decarbonization in the air conditioning of buildings in all climates of the different European regions.

Keywords: heat pumps, heating, decarbonization, energy policies

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Authors: Taknaz Banihashemi, Jiangang Fei, Peggy Shu-Ling Chen

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Reverse logistics (RL) is a part of the logistics of companies and its aim is to reclaim value from the returned products in an environmentally friendly manner. In recent years, RL has attracted significant attention among both practitioners and academics due to environmental directives and governmental legislation, consumer concerns and social responsibilities for environment, awareness of the limits of natural resources and economic potential. Sustainability development is considered as a critical goal for organisations due to its impact on competitive advantage. With growing environmental concerns and legal regulations related to green and sustainability issues, product disposition through RL can be considered as an environmental, economic and social sound way to achieve sustainable development. When employed properly, RL can help firms to improve their sustainability performance. The aim of this paper is to investigate the sustainability issues in the context of RL in the perspective of the triple-bottom-line approach. Content analysis was used to collect the information. The findings show that there is a research gap to investigate the relationship between RL and sustainability performance. Most of the studies have focused on performance evaluation of RL by considering the factors related to economic and environmental performance. RL can have significant effects on social issues along with economic and environmental issues. The inclusion of the social aspect in the sustainability performance will provide a complete and holistic picture of how RL may impact on the sustainability performance of firms. Generally, there is a lack of research on investigating the relationship between RL and sustainability by integrating the three pillars of triple-bottom-line sustainability performance. This paper provides academics and researchers a broad view of the correlations between RL and sustainability performance.

Keywords: verse Logistics, review, sustainability, sustainability performance

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Authors: Andrew Kipp

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Student absenteeism is harmful to both the school and the absentee student. One approach to improving student absenteeism is targeting contextual factors within the students’ learning environment. However, contemporary literature has not taken an ecological agency approach to understanding student absenteeism. Ecological agency is a theoretical framework that magnifies the interplay between the environment and the actions of people within the environment. To elaborate, the person’s personal history and aspirations and the environmental conditions provide potential outlets or restrictions to their intended action. The framework provides the unique perspective of understanding absentee students’ decision-making through the affordances and constraints found in their learning environment. To that effect, the study was guided by the question, “Why do absentee students decide to engage in absenteeism in a suburban Kansas school?” A case study methodology was used to answer the research question. Four suburban, Kansas high school absentee students in the 2020-2021 school year were selected for the study. The fall 2020 semester was in a remote learning setting, and the spring 2021 semester was in an in-person learning setting. The study captured their decision-making with respect to school attendance throughsemi-structured interviews, prolonged observations, drawings, and concept maps. The data was analyzed through thematic analysis. The findings revealed that peer socialization opportunities, methods of instruction, shifts in cultural beliefs due to COVID-19, manifestations of anxiety and lack of space to escape their anxiety, social media bullying, and the inability to receive academic tutoring motivated the participants’ daily decision to either attend or miss school. The findings provided a basis to improve several institutional and classroom practices. These practices included more student-led instruction and less teacher-led instruction in both in-person and remote learning environments, promoting socialization through classroom collaboration and clubs based on emerging student interests, reducing instances of bullying through prosocial education, safe spaces for students to escape the classroom to manage their anxiety, and more opportunities for one-on-one tutoring to improve grades. The study provides an example of using the ecological agency approach to better understand the personal and environmental factors that lead to absenteeism. The study also informs educational policies and classroom practices to better promote student attendance. Further research should investigate other school contexts using the ecological agency theoretical framework to better understand the influence of the school environment on student absenteeism.

Keywords: student absenteeism, ecological agency, classroom practices, educational policy, student decision-making

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Authors: Golshid Gilani, Albert De La Fuente, Ana Blanco

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Sustainability assessment of new and existing buildings has generated a growing interest due to the evident environmental, social and economic impacts during their construction and service life. Façades, as one of the most important exterior elements of a building, may contribute to the building sustainability by reducing the amount of energy consumption and providing thermal comfort for the inhabitants, thus minimizing the environmental impact on both the building and on the environment. Various methods have been used for the sustainability assessment of buildings due to the importance of this issue. However, most of the existing methods mainly concentrate on environmental and economic aspects, disregarding the third pillar of sustainability, which is the social aspect. Besides, there is a little focus on comprehensive sustainability assessment of facades, as an important element of a building. This confirms the need of developing methods for assessing the sustainable performance of building façades as an important step in achieving building sustainability. In this respect, this paper aims at presenting a model for assessing the global sustainability of façade systems. for that purpose, the Integrated Value Model for Sustainable Assessment (MIVES), a Multi-Criteria Decision Making model that integrates the main sustainability requirements (economic, environmental and social) and includes the concept of value functions, used as an assessment tool.

Keywords: façade, MCDM, MIVES, sustainability

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Authors: Rute Martins, Margarida Mascarenhas, Elsa Pereira

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The importance between sport and the natural environment was researched through a systematic literature in order to analyse the available scientific articles on the association of sport -angling also the physical activity, active leisure and recreation- and environmental behaviour. The collected data were gathered within the last five years (from 2013 to April 2018) in the Scopus, Web of Science, ScienceDirect, Sage, Green Leaf Online Library, GreenFile (EBSCO) and Wiley online Library databases. The content analysis based on the qualitative methods employed in this study was made with Nvivo software. Regarding only the inclusion of scientific articles, more than half of the collected papers highlighted tourism as the main area where sports is being researched with regard to the environmental theme. Thus, it is possible to extract a perspective of the orientations of the ecological concerns in the sports tourism industry. As such, in the winter sports, the climate change is already an identified issue, wondering about the impact of the environment on the sports practice. In this context, there is a focus on the possible adaptative strategies, researching the characteristics of the sports tourist and the winter sports industry. Regarding the natural parks and protected areas (such as reefs), most of the research is on the environmental impact of the sports tourism, choosing the conservation and the protection of nature as the core topics. The research of the sports tourist profile is addressed by many articles, where the motives for practice and the environmental values are being scanned, and relations to the recreation specialization, environmental responsibility, environmental education, and place-attachment concepts are being made. Regarding the sustainable management, the sports tourism study area is approaching the research in a more holistic way; exploring the stakeholder’s interconnection, focusing on landscape planning and environmentally sustainable practices of sport tourism organizations. The natural parks, protected areas, coral reefs, and snow areas serve as the preferred case-studies for investigating the environmental impact and the ecotourism, in particular, studied through hiking and diving in the great majority. The results of the study are a valuable resource to understand the importance of the sports tourism in the environmental and sustainable action along with the need of embracing all stakeholders within the relationship between the sport and the natural environment.

Keywords: ecotourism, environmental behaviour, outdoor recreation, sport tourism

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Authors: Jevonte Abioye, Dylan Savary

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The aim of this research is to present a disaggregated geostatistical analysis of the subnational provincial trends of child mortality variation in Zimbabwe from a child health policy perspective. Soon after gaining independence in 1980, the government embarked on efforts towards promoting equitable health care, namely through the provision of primary health care. Government intervention programmes brought hope and promise, but achieving equity in primary health care coverage was hindered by previous existing disparities in maternal health care disproportionately concentrated in urban settings to the detriment of rural communities. The article highlights policies and programs adopted by the government during the millennium development goals period between 1990-2015 as a response to the inequities that characterised the country’s maternal health care. A longitudinal comparative method for a spatial variation on child mortality rates across provinces is developed based on geostatistical analysis. Cross-sectional and time-series data was extracted from the World Health Organisation (WHO) global health observatory data repository, demographic health survey reports, and previous academic and technical publications. Results suggest that although health care policy was uniform across provinces, not all provinces received the same antenatal and perinatal services. Accordingly, provincial rates of child mortality growth between 1994 and 2015 varied significantly. Evidence on the trends of child mortality rates and maternal health policies in Zimbabwe can be valuable for public child health policy planning and public service delivery design both in Zimbabwe and across developing countries pursuing the sustainable development agenda.

Keywords: antenatal care, perinatal care, infant mortality rate, neonatal mortality rate, under-five mortality rate, millennium development goals, sustainable development agenda

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Authors: Gabriela Tutuanu

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The economic, social and environmental undesirable impact of the existing development pattern pushes to the adoption and use of a new development paradigm that of sustainable development. This paper intends to substantiate how the marketing can help the sustainable development. It begins with the subjects of sustainable development and sustainable marketing as they are discussed in literature. The sustainable development is a three dimensional concept which embeds the economic dimension, the social dimension and the environmental dimension that ask to have in view the simultaneous pursuit of economic prosperity, social equity and environmental quality. A major challenge to achieve these goals at business level and to integrate all three dimensions of sustainability is the sustainable marketing. The sustainable marketing is a relationship marketing that aims at building lasting relationships with the social and natural environment on a long-term thinking and futurity and this philosophy allows helping all three dimensions of sustainability. As marketing solutions that could contribute to the sustainable development. We advance the stimulation of sustainable demand, the constant innovation and improvement of sustainable products, the design and use of customized communication, a multichannel distribution network and the sale of sustainable products and services at fair prices. Their implementation will increase the economic, social and environmental sustainability at a large extent in the future if they are supported by political, governmental and legal authorities.

Keywords: sustainable development, sustainable marketing, sustainable demand, sustainable product, credible communication, multi-channel distribution network, fair price

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Authors: Azadeh Rezafar, Sevkiye Sence Turk

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Rapid population growth in urban areas and extinction danger of natural resources in order to meet the food needs of these population, has revealed the need for sustainability. It did not last long that city planners realized the importance of an equal access to natural resources with protecting and managing them in cities, in accordance with the concept of sustainable development. Like in other countries The Turkish Government is aware of the importance of the sustainable development in their cities. The government issued new laws for protection of environmental assets and so that the preservation of natural ecology. The main objective of this article is to emphasis the importance of the sustainable development in the context of the developing world by giving special information about the method of the Turkish Government for protecting nature with approval of difference laws in this area.

Keywords: population growth, sustainable development, Turkey, Turkish Urban Environmental Laws

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Authors: Johannes Gantner, Michael Held, Rafael Horn, Matthias Fischer

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At the United Nations Climate Change Conference 2015 a global agreement on the reduction of climate change was achieved stating CO₂ reduction targets for all countries. For instance, the EU targets a reduction of 40 percent in emissions by 2030 compared to 1990. In order to achieve this ambitious goal, the environmental performance of the different European electricity grid mixes is crucial. First, the electricity directly needed for everyone’s daily life (e.g. heating, plug load, mobility) and therefore a reduction of the environmental impacts of the electricity grid mix reduces the overall environmental impacts of a country. Secondly, the manufacturing of every product depends on electricity. Thereby a reduction of the environmental impacts of the electricity mix results in a further decrease of environmental impacts of every product. As a result, the implementation of the two-degree goal highly depends on the decarbonization of the European electricity mixes. Currently the production of electricity in the EU27 is based on fossil fuels and therefore bears a high GWP impact per kWh. Due to the importance of the environmental impacts of the electricity mix, not only today but also in future, within the European research projects, CommONEnergy and Senskin, time-dynamic Life Cycle Assessment models for all EU27 countries were set up. As a methodology, a combination of scenario modeling and life cycle assessment according to ISO14040 and ISO14044 was conducted. Based on EU27 trends regarding energy, transport, and buildings, the different national electricity mixes were investigated taking into account future changes such as amount of electricity generated in the country, change in electricity carriers, COP of the power plants and distribution losses, imports and exports. As results, time-dynamic environmental profiles for the electricity mixes of each country and for Europe overall were set up. Thereby for each European country, the decarbonization strategies of the electricity mix are critically investigated in order to identify decisions, that can lead to negative environmental effects, for instance on the reduction of the global warming of the electricity mix. For example, the withdrawal of the nuclear energy program in Germany and at the same time compensation of the missing energy by non-renewable energy carriers like lignite and natural gas is resulting in an increase in global warming potential of electricity grid mix. Just after two years this increase countervailed by the higher share of renewable energy carriers such as wind power and photovoltaic. Finally, as an outlook a first qualitative picture is provided, illustrating from environmental perspective, which country has the highest potential for low-carbon electricity production and therefore how investments in a connected European electricity grid could decrease the environmental impacts of the electricity mix in Europe.

Keywords: electricity grid mixes, EU27 countries, environmental impacts, future trends, life cycle assessment, scenario analysis

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Authors: B. Niez, B. Moulia, J. Dlouha, E. Badel

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Trees adjust their development to the environmental conditions they experience. Storms events of last decades showed that acclimation of trees to mechanical stresses due to wind is a very important process that allows the trees to sustain for long years. In the future, trees will experience new wind patterns, namely, more often strong winds and fewer daily moderate winds. Moreover, these patterns will go along with drought periods that may interact with the capacity of trees to adjust their growth to mechanical stresses due to wind. It is necessary to understand the mechanisms of wood functional acclimations to environmental conditions in order to predict their behaviour and in order to give foresters and breeders the relevant tools to adapt their forest management. This work aims to study how trees adjust the mechanical and hydraulic functions of their wood to environmental stresses and how this acclimation may be beneficial for the tree to resist to future stresses. In this work, young poplars were grown under controlled climatic conditions that include permanent environmental stress (daily mechanical stress of the stem by bending and/or hydric stress). Then, the properties of wood formed under these stressed conditions were characterized. First, hydraulic conductivity and sensibility to cavitation were measured at the tissue level in order to evaluate the changes in water transport capacity. Secondly, bending tests and Charpy impact tests were carried out at the millimetric scale to locally measure mechanical parameters such as elastic modulus, elastic limit or rupture energy. These experimental data allow evaluating the impacts of mechanical and water stress on the wood material. At the stem level, they will be merged in an integrative model in order to evaluate the beneficial aspect of wood acclimation for trees.

Keywords: acclimation, environmental stresses, hydraulics, mechanics, wood

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Authors: Yahaya Abdullahi Adadu, Canice Erunke Esidene

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The problems of socio-economic development have been a major challenge bedeviling the Nigerian post-colonial state since her political independence from Britain in October I,1960. Critics have argued that the dilemma of Nigeria’s economic survival started since the early 1970s when the agricultural sector which supposedly was the economic mainstay has been literally substituted with the gains of the oil petro-dollars coming from the foreign exchange earnings. Agriculture therefore, which used to be a major player in terms of human and national upliftment in Nigeria have been given a back seat while oil and gas has taken over the front burner in virtually every aspect of Nigeria’s national life. This study is therefore an exposition of the efforts of the Nasarawa state government in reversing the dangerous trend in which the over reliance on oil wealth has caused to persons, individuals and groups in terms of the prevailing levels of poverty and other attendant vices therein. The study focuses on the management policies of the various regimes in the state since its inception in 1996, with particular reference to the regime types-military and civilian alike in propelling the needed policy change, which could transform the economy in line with international best practices. Particular emphasis will be paid to the BADA-KOSHI agricultural scheme whose interest was to recover the lost glory of rural agriculture through series of roots and tuber expansion, and particularly such crops as yam minissetts, cassava, sweet potatoes and coco-yam, respectively. The paper covers the period between 1996 -2011, a period considered to be critical in the agricultural revolution of the state. The study adopts a theoretical approach via secondary methods of analysis for the efficient explanations of the burning issues under consideration. The paper sums up with policy recommendations and conclusion.

Keywords: poverty, agriculture, Badakoshi, rural policy management

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Authors: Scarlet Alejandra Romano, Joni Kareco

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The three pillars of sustainability (social, economic and environmental) are relevant concepts to the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) industry because of the increase of international agreements and guidelines related to this topic during the last years. Considering these three pillars, the AEC industry faces important challenges, for instance, to decrease the carbon emissions (environmental challenge), design sustainable spaces for people (social challenge), and improve the technology of this field to reduce costs and environmental problems (economic and environmental challenge). One alternative to overcome these challenges is Building Information Modelling program (BIM) because according to several authors, this technology improves the performance of the sustainable buildings in all their lifecycle phases. The main objective of this paper is to explore and analyse the current advantages and disadvantages of the BIM implementation in the life-cycle of sustainable buildings considering the three pillars of sustainability as analysis parameters. The methodology established to achieve this objective is exploratory-descriptive with the literature review technique. The partial results illustrate that despite the BIM disadvantages and the lack of information about its social sustainability advantages, this software represents a significant opportunity to improve the three sustainable pillars of the sustainable buildings.

Keywords: building information modelling, building lifecycle analysis, sustainability, sustainable buildings

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Authors: Dejana Bouillet, Vlatka Domović

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Both policymakers and researchers recognize that participating in early childhood education and care (ECEC) is useful for all children, especially for those who are exposed to the high risk of social exclusion. Social exclusion of children is understood as a multidimensional construct including economic, social, cultural, health, and other aspects of disadvantage and deprivation, which individually or combined can have an unfavorable effect on the current life and development of a child, as well as on the child’s development and on disadvantaged life chances in adult life. ECEC institutions should be able to promote educational approaches that portray developmental, cultural, language, and other diversity amongst children. However, little is known about the ways in which Croatian ECEC institutions recognize and respect the diversity of children and their families and how they respond to their educational needs. That is why this paper is dedicated to the analysis of the capacities of ECEC professionals to respond to the demands of educational needs of this very diverse group of children and their families. The results obtained in the frame of the project “Models of response to educational needs of children at risk of social exclusion in ECEC institutions,” funded by the Croatian Science Foundation, will be presented. The research methodology arises from explanations of educational processes and risks of social exclusion as a complex and heterogeneous phenomenon. The preliminary results of the qualitative data analysis of educational practices regarding capacities to identify and appropriately respond to the requirements of children at risk of social exclusion will be presented. The data have been collected by interviewing educational staff in 10 Croatian ECEC institutions (n = 10). The questions in the interviews were related to various aspects of inclusive institutional policy, culture, and practices. According to the analysis, it is possible to conclude that Croatian ECEC professionals are still faced with great challenges in the process of implementation of inclusive policies, culture, and practices. There are several baselines of this conclusion. The interviewed educational professionals are not familiar enough with the whole complexity and diversity of needs of children at risk of social exclusion, and the ECEC institutions do not have enough resources to provide all interventions that these children and their families need.

Keywords: children at risk of social exclusion, ECEC professionals, inclusive policies, culture and practices, quallitative analysis

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Authors: Amrutha Kishor

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Today, with the rising global warming and depletion of resources every industry is moving toward sustainability and energy efficiency. As part of this movement, it is nowadays obligatory for architects to play their part by creating energy predictions for their designs. But in a lot of cases, these predictions do not reflect the real quantities of energy in newly built buildings when operating. These can be described as ‘Energy Performance Gaps’. This study aims to determine the underlying reasons for these gaps. Seven houses designed by Allan Joyce Architects, UK from 1998 until 2019 were considered for this study. The data from the residents’ energy bills were cross-referenced with the predictions made with the software SefairaPro and from energy reports. Results indicated that the predictions did not match the actual energy usage. An account of how energy was used in these seven houses was made by means of personal interviews. The main factors considered in the study were occupancy patterns, heating systems and usage, lighting profile and usage, and appliances’ profile and usage. The study found that the main reasons for the creation of energy gaps were the discrepancies in occupant usage and patterns of energy consumption that are predicted as opposed to the actual ones. This study is particularly useful for energy-conscious architectural firms to fine-tune the approach to designing houses and analysing their energy performance. As the findings reveal that energy usage in homes varies based on the way residents use the space, it helps deduce the most efficient technological combinations. This information can be used to set guidelines for future policies and regulations related to energy consumption in homes. This study can also be used by the developers of simulation software to understand how architects use their product and drive improvements in its future versions.

Keywords: architectural simulation, energy efficient design, energy performance gaps, environmental design

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Authors: Jailan Mohamed El Demerdash

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Millennials are a distinctive and dominant consumer group whose behavior, preferences and purchase decisions are broadly explored but not fully understood yet. Making up the largest market segment in the world, and in Egypt, they have the power to reinvent the hospitality industry and contribute to forming prospective demand for green hotels by showing willingness to adopting their environmental-friendly practices. The current study aims to enhance better understanding of Millennials' perception about sustainable initiatives and to increase the prediction power of their intentions regarding green hotel practices in Egypt. In doing so, the study is exploring the relation among different factors; Millennials' environmental awareness, their acceptance of green practices and their willingness to pay more for them. Millennials' profile, their preferences and environmental decision-making process are brought under light to stimulate actions of hospitality decision-makers and hoteliers. Bearing in mind that responsible consumerism is depending on understanding the different influences on consumption. The study questionnaire was composed of four sections and it was distributed to random Egyptian travelers' blogs and Facebook groups, with approximately 8000 members. Analysis of variance test (ANOVA) was used to examine the study variables. The findings indicated that Millennials' environmental awareness will not be a significant factor in their acceptance of hotel green practices, as well as, their willingness to pay more for them. However, Millennials' acceptance of the level of hotel green practices will have an impact on their willingness to pay more. Millennials were found to have a noticeable level of environmental awareness but lack commitment to tolerating hotel green practices and their associated high prices.

Keywords: millennials, environment, awareness, paying more

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Authors: Harith Mohammed Benbouali

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The concept of sustainable development is becoming increasingly important in our society. The efforts of specialized agencies, cleverly portrayed in the media, allow a widespread environmental awareness. Far from the old environmental movement in the backward-looking nostalgia, the environment is combined with today's progress. Many areas now include these concerns in their efforts, this in order to try to reduce the negative impact of human activities on the environment. The quantitative dimension of development has given way to the quality aspect. However, this feature is not common, and the initial target was abandoned in favor of economic considerations. Specialists in the field of building and construction have constantly sought to further integrate the environmental dimension, creating a seal of high environmental quality buildings. The pursuit of well-being of neighborhood residents and the quality of buildings are also a hot topic in planning. Quality of life is considered so on, since financial concerns dominate to the detriment of the environment and the welfare of the occupants. This work concerns the development of an analytical method based on multiple indicators of objectives across the district. The quantification of indicators related to objectives allows the construction professional, the developer or the community, to quantify and compare different alternatives for development of a neighborhood. This quantification is based on the use of simulation tools and a multi-criteria aggregation.

Keywords: sustainable development, environment, district, indicators, multi-criteria analysis, evaluation

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Authors: Dace Aleksandraviča

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The paper presents a theoretical exploration of the emerging field of 21st-century ecolinguistics, which examines the multi-faceted relationship between language, ecology, and identity in our rapidly changing global landscape. In an era characterized by unprecedented linguistic and cultural hybridity, understanding the interplay between language and environment is paramount. This paper delves into the concept of hybrid identities, examining how individuals negotiate their linguistic and cultural affiliations within diverse ecological contexts based on relevant prior contributions in the field. Drawing upon interdisciplinary perspectives from linguistics, environmental studies, and cultural studies, the research investigates the ways in which language shapes and is shaped by environmental realities. The abstract underscores the importance of ecolinguistic approaches in fostering environmental stewardship and promoting sustainable practices. By acknowledging the intrinsic link between language, culture, and ecology, it becomes possible to cultivate a deeper appreciation for linguistic diversity and empower individuals to navigate their hybrid identities in a rapidly changing world. In line with that, the paper hopes to contribute to the growing body of literature on ecolinguistics and offer insights into how language can serve as a tool for both environmental conservation and cultural revitalization.

Keywords: ecolinguistics, hybrid identities, language, globalization

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Authors: Namrata Khatri

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The rapid growth of cities is transforming the urban environment and posing significant challenges for environmental quality. This study examines the urban environment of Belagavi in Karnataka, India, using geostatistical methods to assess the spatial pattern and land use distribution of the city and to evaluate the quality of the urban environment. The study is driven by the necessity to assess the environmental impact of urbanisation. Satellite data was utilised to derive information on land use and land cover. The investigation revealed that land use had changed significantly over time, with a drop in plant cover and an increase in built-up areas. High-resolution satellite data was also utilised to map the city's open areas and gardens. GIS-based research was used to assess public green space accessibility and to identify regions with inadequate waste management practises. The findings revealed that garbage collection and disposal techniques in specific areas of the city needed to be improved. Moreover, the study evaluated the city's thermal environment using Landsat 8 land surface temperature (LST) data. The investigation found that built-up regions had higher LST values than green areas, pointing to the city's urban heat island (UHI) impact. The study's conclusions have far-reaching ramifications for urban planners and politicians in Belgaum and other similar cities. The findings may be utilised to create sustainable urban planning strategies that address the environmental effect of urbanisation while also improving the quality of life for city dwellers. Satellite data and high-resolution satellite pictures were gathered for the study, and remote sensing and GIS tools were utilised to process and analyse the data. Ground truthing surveys were also carried out to confirm the accuracy of the remote sensing and GIS-based data. Overall, this study provides a complete assessment of Belgaum's environmental quality and emphasizes the potential of remote sensing and geographic information systems (GIS) approaches in environmental assessment and management.

Keywords: environmental quality, UEQ, remote sensing, GIS

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Authors: Foluke Abimbola

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The United Nations Convention on the rights of the child has been signed and ratified by several countries due to the concern about various abuses and crimes committed against children both locally and internationally. It is a shame that in view of the peculiar hardships being experienced by children today, the natural right to childhood has to be protected by a vast array of laws and international conventions. 194 countries have so far acceded to and ratified the convention on the Rights of a Child while some countries such as Nigeria have enacted the convention as a domestic law, yet child abuse is still rampant not only in Nigeria but all over the world. In Nigeria, the Child Rights Act was passed into law in 2003, with its provisions similar to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of a Child. Despite the age of marriage provided in the Nigerian Child’s Rights Act 2003, many communities still practice child marriages to the detriment of the girl-child. Cases where these children have to withdraw from school as a result of these unripe marriages abound. Unfortunately, the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 appears to indirectly support early marriages for girls in section 29 (4) where it states that a woman who is married is deemed to be of full age whereas ‘full age’ as a general term in the Constitution is from 18 years old and above. Section 29 (4) may thus be interpreted to mean that a girl of 12 years old, if married, is deemed to be of ‘full-age.’ In view of these discrepancies which continue to justify this unwholesome practice, this paper shall proffer solutions to this unlawful act and make recommendations to existing institutions, using a rights-based approach, on how to prevent and/or substantially reduce this practice. A comparative analysis with other African countries will be adopted in order to conduct a research for effective policies that may be implemented for the protection of these girls. Thus, this paper will further examine the issue of child marriage which is still quite rampant in African countries particularly in Nigeria which also affects the girl-child’s right to an education. Such children are in need of special protection and this paper will recommend ways in which state institutions, particularly in Nigeria, may be able to introduce policies to curb incidences of child marriage and child sexual abuse while proffering strategies for the prevention of these crimes.

Keywords: child abuse, child marriages, child rights, constitutions, child rights, the girl-child

Procedia PDF Downloads 133