8,747 research outputs found

    SUSMETRO : Impact Assessment Tools for Food Planning in Metropolitan Regions : IA tools and serious gaming in support of sustainability targets for food planning, nature conservation and recreation

    Get PDF
    By offering a series of decision support tools for stakeholders of metropolitan regions, SUSMETRO facilitates and enables evidence-based decision making by means of ‘serious gaming’. Making use of the Phase 1 thematic maps such as on agricultural competitiveness, nature conservation and recreational values, stakeholders can compare impacts of traditional versus innovative forms of agricultural production. The SUSMETRO Impact Assessment tool provides information on the expected effects of spatial planning with regard to the self-supportive capacities of the region (ecological footprint) and the share of recreational and nature conservation facilities (land use functions), offering cost-benefit calculations regarding the expected economic revenues. The whole process is embedded in a Landscape Character Assessment process and guided by Knowledge Brokerage procedures to strengthen the science-policy interface. In sum, the SUSMETRO approach allows a wide range of stakeholders to co-develop images for sustainable Metropolitan Agriculture

    Strategic analysis and knowledge support systems for rural development strategies in Sub-Saharan Africa

    Get PDF
    "While greater growth in agriculture and the broader rural sector is crucial for ameliorating Africa's high levels of poverty and malnutrition, developing strategies to achieve these objectives is hindered by a number of factors, including the broad array of interventions needed, the lack of accurate data, and dearth of trained local policy analysts. As such, this paper proposes a Strategic Analysis Knowledge Support System (SAKSS) in which data, tools, and knowledge are compiled, analyzed, and disseminated for the purposes of identifying a set of priority investment and policy options to promote agricultural growth and rural development. These analyses can in turn help inform the broader process of designing, implementing, and monitoring and evaluating a country's rural development strategy. In order to be an influential and sustainable part of this process and become a genuine "knowledge system," SAKSS will need to be established with an awareness of each country s development priorities and unique political, social, and economic context. By institutionalizing SAKSS through a network structure that includes government ministries, research institutions, universities, regional organizations, non-governmental organizations, and donors, SAKSS can become not only more relevant and legitimate for its intended end-users but also help strengthen local analytical capacity to inform the policy debate on future development strategies and outcomes." Authors' AbstractAgricultural growth ,Strategic analysis ,Development policies Africa, Sub-Saharan ,

    Agroecological aspects of evaluating agricultural research and development:

    Get PDF
    In this paper we describe how biophysical data can be used, in conjunction with agroecological concepts and multimarket economic models, to systematically evaluate the effects of agricultural R&D in ways that inform research priority setting and resource allocation decisions. Agroecological zones can be devised to help estimate the varying, site-specific responses to new agricultural technologies and to evaluate the potential for research to spill over from one agroecological zone to another. The application of agroecological zonation procedures in an international agricultural research context is given special attention.Agricultural research., Technological innovations., Agricultural economics and policies.,

    Smart Sustainable E-Solutions for Implementation and Enforcement of Smart Cities in India

    Get PDF
    In the present knowledge and information age Indian towns and cities are expanding rapidly in spatial and demographic terms. Moreover, spatial information are not correlated with the complex urban integrated problems, as data generated at various level for urban planning and management remains uncoordinated and redundant to support decision-making and leading to poor urban governance and timely implementation of the master plan. Hence, there is an urgent need to create common platform so as to address problems and issues in the right perspective to assist cities in coping with economic realities and, thereby, produce high quality responsive environment and demonstrate successful urban solutions. Thus, in order to address these issues in a holistic manner, the Ministry of Urban Development has launched the Smart City Mission for 100 cities on 25th June, 2015. However, due to the absent of any basic “Smart E-Solutions Model” for implementation and enforcement of sustainable development plan in India, the present paper is an attempt to evolve the concept of “Smart E-Solutions Model”. At first the present paper discusses about the smart sustainable solutions at design level. Thereafter, the paper evolves a “Smart E-Solutions Model” to establish intelligent online system for implementation and enforcement of sustainable development plan design. Hence, to define the success of Smart City Scheme in India, the present paper pursing a vision of sustainable smart cities by exploring the possibilities of different innovative solutions through designing of Smart Comprehensive Development Plan (SCDP) through virtual world. GIS based SCDP will facilitate the cities to compete in the global competitive world. In India designing SCDP will act as E-solution tool to ease out new challenges and opportunities for urban planners and managers to design the various dreams, ideas and hopes of urban community and translate the same into the spatial terms. In all this paper will thread common ground to address problems and issues in the right perspective to assist urban planner, manager in coping with economic realities and, thereby, produce high quality responsive environment and demonstrate successful sustainable urban solutions for implementation of Smart Comprehensive Developemnt Plan through “Smart E-Solutions Model“

    The challenge of the e-Agora metrics: the social construction of meaningful measurements

    Get PDF
    'How are we progressing towards achieving sustainable development in the EU's desired knowledge society?' Current lists of indicators, indices and assessment tools, which have been developed for measuring and displaying performance at different spatial levels, show that progress has been made. However, there are still a very large number of indicators, perhaps the majority, most specifically those which relate to social and political issues, that are difficult to capture. Issues such as intergenerational equity, aesthetics and governance come into this category. 'How is it possible to measure these and capture their full meaning and represent this back meaningfully to disparate groups of stakeholders in a society?' This paper will discuss these issues, highlighting the need for new methods and an alternative view of how to go about the capture and representation of the types of data with which we need to wor

    Developing geospatial thinking learning lines in secondary education : the GI Learner project

    No full text
    Geo-ICT is part of the digital economy identified by the European Commission as being vital for innovation, growth, jobs and European competitiveness. It is a rapidly growing business sector, but it is in many countries a shortage occupation sector. More attention to Geo-ICT in education, which relates to geospatial thinking, would help. The GI Learner project developed therefore a geospatial thinking learning line for secondary schools, so that integration of geospatial thinking can take place. The learning line concept used hereby different levels of complexity, referring to the taxonomy of Bloom, taking into account age and capabilities of students. For each of the competencies lesson materials related to the curriculum was produced, thus facilitating the implementation in education on short term. To measure the impact of the learning lines on spatial thinking a self-test was therefore developed, taking into account the level of complexity of each competence (A, B or C) for each age group. The GI Learner project website (http://www.gilearner.eu) provides access to as well the research publications as well as the developed teaching resources

    The Impact of Information and Communication Technology on the Tourism Sector

    Get PDF
    Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has changed the global businesses environment by a wide range of tools, methodologies and functions, facilitating the strategic management and supporting firms to achieve a long term competitive advantage. The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of the new applications of Information Communication Technology in tourism industry, the contribution of ICT to the promotion of the tourist product, as well as the potential to the tourism management and the process of decision-making. One important tool, which helps in making decisions in the field of tourism economy, is the Geographic Information System (GIS), which provides a comprehensible representation of the statistical figures of the tourism economy by facilitating decision-making on tourism policy. In this paper is presented some tourist financial figures and their visualization through graphs by Geographic Information System

    Web mapping for promoting interaction and collaboration in community land planning

    Get PDF
    There is an inherent advantage of geographic information Systems (GIS) and mapping in facilitating dialogue between experts and non-experts during land use plan development. Combining visual mapping information and effective user interaction can result in considerable benefits for developing countries like Botswana. Although the adoption of information and communication technologies has lagged behind that for developed countries, initiatives by the Botswana government in providing suitable information infrastructures, including internet and web based communications, are enabling multiple users to interact and collaborate in community land planning. A web mapping application was developed for the Maun Development Plan (MDP) in the Okavango Delta region in Botswana. It was designed according to requirements of land planners and managers and implemented using ArcGIS Viewer for Flex. Land planners and managers from two organisations in Maun involved in the development of the MDP were asked to evaluate the web mapping tools. This paper describes the results of implementation and some preliminary results of the web mapping evaluation
    • 

    corecore