A System Dynamics Approach for Hospital Waste Management in a City in a Developing Country: The Case of Nablus, Palestine

Hospitals and health centers provide a variety of healthcare services and normally generate hazardous waste as well as general waste. General waste has a similar nature to that of municipal solid waste and therefore could be disposed of in municipal landfills. However, hazardous waste poses risks to public health, unless it is properly managed. The hospital waste management system encompasses many factors, i.e., number of beds, number of employees, level of service, population, birth rate, fertility rate, and not in my back yard (NIMBY) syndrome. Therefore, this management system requires a comprehensive analysis to determine the role of each factor and its influence on the whole system. In this research, a hospital waste management simulation model is presented based on the system dynamics technique to determine the interaction among these factors in the system using a software package, ithink. This model is used to estimate waste segregation as this is important in the hospital waste management system to minimize risk to public health. Real data has been obtained from a case study of the city of Nablus, Palestine to validate the model. The model exhibits wastes generated from three types of hospitals (private, charitable, and government) by considering the number of both inpatients and outpatients depending on the population of the city under study. The model also offers the facility to compare the total waste generated among these different types of hospitals and anticipate and predict the future generated waste both infectious and non-infectious and the treatment cost incurred

From urban sustainability transformations to green gentrification: urban renewal in Gaziosmanpaşa, Istanbul

Processes aiming to achieve urban transformation that includes sustainability can result in green gentrification and thus promote exclusivist, private green spaces. At the same time, they compromise the ability of cities to promote more systemic sustainable development. Istanbul has long been a site of planned gentrification and displacement through urban renewal and regeneration projects, which have recently touted a sustainability angle. While sustainable urban renewal can have positive impacts on human health and well-being and is critical for addressing climate change and other environmental challenges, the benefits are rarely evenly distributed. Through an examination of sustainability-oriented urban renewal projects in Istanbul’s Gaziosmanpaşa district, this study shows that vulnerable residents have been displaced by the planned gentrification and that such consequences are likely to be amplified by visions of green sustainability. It also illustrates that plans to harness the city’s drive for economic growth and urban development risk making large parts of the “green” districts affordable only for relatively well-off citizens. Based on semi-structured interviews, non-participatory observation, and analysis of project and municipality-level documents, we find that even though seismic vulnerability and energy efficiency are cited as reasons for these transformations towards sustainability, policymakers are not paying sufficient attention to the political ecology of social exclusion and an increase in inequality that can result from sustainability-oriented urban renewal

From urban sustainability transformations to green gentrification: urban renewal in Gaziosmanpaşa, Istanbul

Processes aiming to achieve urban transformation that includes sustainability can result in green gentrification and thus promote exclusivist, private green spaces. At the same time, they compromise the ability of cities to promote more systemic sustainable development. Istanbul has long been a site of planned gentrification and displacement through urban renewal and regeneration projects, which have recently touted a sustainability angle. While sustainable urban renewal can have positive impacts on human health and well-being and is critical for addressing climate change and other environmental challenges, the benefits are rarely evenly distributed. Through an examination of sustainability-oriented urban renewal projects in Istanbul’s Gaziosmanpaşa district, this study shows that vulnerable residents have been displaced by the planned gentrification and that such consequences are likely to be amplified by visions of green sustainability. It also illustrates that plans to harness the city’s drive for economic growth and urban development risk making large parts of the “green” districts affordable only for relatively well-off citizens. Based on semi-structured interviews, non-participatory observation, and analysis of project and municipality-level documents, we find that even though seismic vulnerability and energy efficiency are cited as reasons for these transformations towards sustainability, policymakers are not paying sufficient attention to the political ecology of social exclusion and an increase in inequality that can result from sustainability-oriented urban renewal