Evaluating the Impact of Nature-Based Solutions: Appendix of Methods

The Handbook aims to provide decision-makers with a comprehensive NBS impact assessment framework, and a robust set of indicators and methodologies to assess impacts of nature-based solutions across 12 societal challenge areas: Climate Resilience; Water Management; Natural and Climate Hazards; Green Space Management; Biodiversity; Air Quality; Place Regeneration; Knowledge and Social Capacity Building for Sustainable Urban Transformation; Participatory Planning and Governance; Social Justice and Social Cohesion; Health and Well-being; New Economic Opportunities and Green Jobs. Indicators have been developed collaboratively by representatives of 17 individual EU-funded NBS projects and collaborating institutions such as the EEA and JRC, as part of the European Taskforce for NBS Impact Assessment, with the four-fold objective of: serving as a reference for relevant EU policies and activities; orient urban practitioners in developing robust impact evaluation frameworks for nature-based solutions at different scales; expand upon the pioneering work of the EKLIPSE framework by providing a comprehensive set of indicators and methodologies; and build the European evidence base regarding NBS impacts. They reflect the state of the art in current scientific research on impacts of nature-based solutions and valid and standardized methods of assessment, as well as the state of play in urban implementation of evaluation frameworks

The State of Open Data

It’s been ten years since open data first broke onto the global stage. Over the past decade, thousands of programmes and projects around the world have worked to open data and use it to address a myriad of social and economic challenges. Meanwhile, issues related to data rights and privacy have moved to the centre of public and political discourse. As the open data movement enters a new phase in its evolution, shifting to target real-world problems and embed open data thinking into other existing or emerging communities of practice, big questions still remain. How will open data initiatives respond to new concerns about privacy, inclusion, and artificial intelligence? And what can we learn from the last decade in order to deliver impact where it is most needed? The State of Open Data brings together over 60 authors from around the world to address these questions and to take stock of the real progress made to date across sectors and around the world, uncovering the issues that will shape the future of open data in the years to come

Agroforestry-Based Ecosystem Services

As a dynamic interface between agriculture and forestry, agroforestry has only recently been formally recognized as a relevant part of land use with ‘trees outside forest’ in important parts of the world—but not everywhere yet. The Sustainable Development Goals have called attention to the need for the multifunctionality of landscapes that simultaneously contribute to multiple goals. In the UN decade of landscape restoration, as well as in response to the climate change urgency and biodiversity extinction crisis, an increase in global tree cover is widely seen as desirable, but its management by farmers or forest managers remains contested. Agroforestry research relates tree–soil–crop–livestock interactions at the plot level with landscape-level analysis of social-ecological systems and efforts to transcend the historical dichotomy between forest and agriculture as separate policy domains. An ‘ecosystem services’ perspective quantifies land productivity, flows of water, net greenhouse gas emissions, and biodiversity conservation, and combines an ‘actor’ perspective (farmer, landscape manager) with that of ‘downstream’ stakeholders (in the same watershed, ecologically conscious consumers elsewhere, global citizens) and higher-level regulators designing land-use policies and spatial zoning

Dordt College 2017-18 Catalog

Academic Catalog for 2017-18https://digitalcollections.dordt.edu/academic_catalogs/1063/thumbnail.jp

Histories and horizons

The research presented in this publication was carried out with the aid of the Open Data for Development (OD4D) Network and a grant from the International Development Research Centre, Ottawa, Canada. The views expressed herein do not necessarily represent those of IDRC or its Board of Governors.Includes abstract in FrenchIt’s been ten years since open data first broke onto the global stage. Over the past decade, thousands of programs and projects around the world have worked to open data and use it to address a myriad of social and economic challenges. Meanwhile, issues related to data rights and privacy have moved to the centre of public and political discourse. As the open data movement enters a new phase in its evolution, shifting to target real-world problems and embed open data thinking into other existing or emerging communities of practice, big questions still remain. How will open data initiatives respond to new concerns about privacy, inclusion, and artificial intelligence? And what can we learn from the last decade in order to deliver impact where it is most needed? The State of Open Data brings together over 60 authors from around the world to address these questions and to take stock of the real progress made to date across sectors and around the world, uncovering the issues that will shape the future of open data in the years to come.Il y a dix ans, les données ouvertes faisaient une première percée sur la scène mondiale. Au cours de la dernière décennie, des milliers de programmes et de projets dans le monde entier ont été axés sur les données ouvertes, et ces dernières ont été utilisées pour relever une myriade de défis sociaux et économiques. Entre-temps, les problèmes liés aux droits sur les données et à la protection des données ont occupé la première place dans le discours public et politique. Comme le mouvement des données ouvertes entre dans une nouvelle phase de son évolution, la transition vers les problèmes concrets et l’intégration des données ouvertes insufflent une réflexion sur les autres communautés de pratique actuelles et émergentes, et il reste encore de grandes questions à régler. De quelle façon les initiatives en matière de données ouvertes répondront-elles aux nouvelles préoccupations sur la protection de la vie privée, l’inclusion et l’intelligence artificielle ? Que pouvons-nous apprendre de la dernière décennie pour avoir une incidence sur les besoins les plus pressants ? The State of Open Data rassemble plus de 60 auteurs du monde entier pour traiter de ces questions et faire le point sur les progrès réels réalisés à ce jour dans tous les secteurs et à l’échelle mondiale, en cernant les enjeux qui façonneront l’avenir des données ouvertes au cours des prochaines années

Proceedings of the 19th European Roundtable for Sustainable Consumption and Production Circular Europe for Sustainability: Design, Production and Consumption

Postprint (published version

Beyond the Pale

On 17 August 1945, two days after the Japanese surrender that also brought an end to the Second World War in Asia, Indonesia declared its independence. The declaration was not recognized by the Netherlands, which resorted to force in its attempt to take control of the inevitable process of decolonization. This led to four years of difficult negotiations and bitter warfare. In 2005, the Dutch government declared that the Netherlands should never have waged the war. The government’s 1969 position on the violence used by the Dutch armed forces during the war remained unchanged, however: although there had been ‘excesses’, on the whole the armed forces had behaved ‘correctly’. As the indications of Dutch extreme violence mounted, this official position proved increasingly difficult to maintain. In 2016, the Dutch government therefore decided to fund a broad study on the dynamics of the violence. The most important conclusions of that research programme are summarized in this book. The authors show that the Dutch armed forces used extreme violence on a structural basis, and that this was concealed both at the time and for many years after the war by the Dutch government and by society more broadly. All of this – like the entire colonial history – is at odds with the rose-tinted self-image of the Netherlands

Innovation practices as a path to business growth performance : a study of small and medium sized firms in the emerging UAE market

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) make a significant contribution to innovation and economic growth, yet most of the research into innovation management has focused on developed markets and economies and large enterprises. This study identifies factors which enable SMEs to engage in innovation practices and examines their impact on business growth performance in the emerging United Arab Emirates market, namely Dubai. This study gathered survey data from a sample of 600 SMEs and analysed it using the Partial Least Squares technique. It found that SMEs’ internally driven determinants enable them to drive innovation practices and innovation practices impact on their business growth performance, but SMEs do not appear to utilise their externally driven determinants. The contribution of the study centres on the new understanding it provides of the way SME innovation practices can be promoted in an emerging market