The link between ecosystem services and human wellbeing in the implementation of the European Water Framework Directive: assessing four river basins in Europe.

This paper explores the relationship between the environment and human wellbeing whilst considering water resource pressures in the context of ecosystem services, before assessing the management actions to facilitate human wellbeing under the European Union’s Water Framework Directive (WFD). By focusing on four river basins in four European countries currently working to implement the WFD, we explore the effects of multiple pressures faced within each one on human wellbeing. Under an Ecosystem Services framework, we identify those effects and consolidate them into Human Wellbeing Factors to assess the management actions. Then, by conducting a qualitative content analysis, we assess the effectiveness of each Program of Measures at river basin level and relate them to Human Wellbeing Factors. Findings indicate that factors such as population growth trends intensify the effects of these pressures on human wellbeing. Finally, the paper pinpoints that human wellbeing must remain an ever-present consideration to be weighed against any other competing policy objectives

Assessing the effectiveness of the WFD as a tool to address different levels of water scarcity based on two case studies of the Mediterranean region.

Despite being a natural phenomenon, water scarcity is, to a great extent, human-induced, particularly affected by climate change and by the increased water resources vulnerability. The Water Framework Directive (WFD), an ‘umbrella’ directive that aims to provide holistic approaches to the management of water resources and is supported by a number of Communication documents on water scarcity, requires for prompt responses to ensure ‘healthy’ water bodies of good ecological status. The current paper presents a multidisciplinary approach, developed and engaged within the Globaqua Project, to provide an assessment of the main challenges towards addressing water scarcity with emphasis on the climate change projections, in two Mediterranean regions. The current paper attempts to critically assess the effectiveness of the WFD as a tool to address water scarcity and increase sustainability in resource use. Criticism lies on the fact that the WFD does not directly refer to it, still, water scarcity is recognized as a factor that increases stress on water resources and deteriorates their status. In addition, the Program of Measures (PoMs) within the WFD clearly contribute to reducing vulnerability of water resources and to ensure current and future water use, also under the impact of the projected climate change

Sustainable WEF Nexus Management : A Conceptual Framework to Integrate Models of Social, Economic, Policy, and Institutional Developments

Funding Information: This work was supported by the Decision Analytic Framework to explore the water-energy-food nexus in complex transboundary water resource systems of fast developing countries (DAFNE) project, which has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant Agreement No. 690268.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Approaches to regeneration and sustainable development : a study of impact assessment and evaluation in the Northwest of England.

This study explored the issues of regeneration and sustainable development, and identified evaluation and impact assessment as an important part of successful project delivery. It identified sustainable development as a process which considers its environmental, economic and social aspects as elements in equilibrium within a system, and urban regeneration as the process which seeks to reverse urban decline in an area. It defined three main groups of stakeholders within urban regeneration with varying degrees of involvement with an intervention, as well as a variety of interests. The research went on to examine evaluation and impact assessment within regeneration delivery, and undertook a critical analysis of criteria and techniques used in assessing regeneration and sustainable development as well as delivery in the North West of England. Based on a pragmatist philosophical stance, the study utilised a unique blend of methodologies in order to investigate current practice as well as identify good practice from other sectors. Working with four case study organisations, it developed improvements to existing methods of evaluating regeneration delivery. The study identified key challenges within the evaluation of regeneration delivery, and developed improvements to practice based on five critical success factors which are: • Organisational Culture and Commitment • Clear Strategy • Methodological Pluralism • Communication and Stakeholder Involvement • Action on Findings Finally the research outlined the Objectives based EvaluAction framework to inform the evaluation within urban regeneration

Delivering sustainable urban regeneration in emerging nations: introducing neighborhood hotspots.

Challenges faced by urban centres today often result from multiple social, economic and environmental issues, which act on multiple points of impact. As a result, successful urban interventions are increasingly geared towards tackling these multiple issues simultaneously. Using a neighbourhood management approach, this research presents an integrated solution in the form of the 'neighbourhood hotspot'. With a primary function as a small-scale energy generating biogas plant, the community infrastructure serves as a local hub which bridges the gap between challenge and opportunity. The research forms part of a wider project aimed at developing a community based sustainable urban regeneration plan. This is a text only version of this article, to view all Figures listed please go to the publisher link

Multi-Actor Working Groups as Fora for WEF Nexus Innovation and Resilience

This paper presents a stakeholder engagement framework, which is built on the systems innovation approach (SIA). The framework is developed to facilitate a decision-analytic platform, structured on a multi-level integrated WEF (water-energy-food) model in order to better understand the multi-sectoral WEF trade-offs, capitalize on potential synergies, and explore the interdependencies as well as feedback across a hierarchy of three spatial scales: (i) micro level, the demonstration site, (ii) meso level, the Nile River basin, (iii) macro level, the Mediterranean region. Operating in the space of multi-actor working groups (MAWGs), stakeholders are guided to identify and examine the WEF Nexus drivers of change, while considering the local ecosystem services and validating project findings

Social innovation for developing sustainable solutions in a fisheries sector

In this paper, we explore how social innovation can provide a range of ecosystem services to local people while supporting public policies and private sector initiatives in delivering successful and innovative food distribution channels. In the Mediterranean basin, the status of commercial fish stocks is critical. In this sense, small-scale, low-impact fishing is a way to sustainably utilise socially innovative practices in the use of natural assets and to provide support to rural livelihoods while having minimal impacts on the marine environment. We use an innovative evaluation method, based on the integration of qualitative information with quantitative indicators, to assess social innovation initiatives and their impacts. The use of the methodology is demonstrated on the example of the project A Box of Sea, Greece. The results obtained show that this social initiative provides a novel food consumption and distribution model aiming at making low impact fishing more economically viable, and therefore achieving a triple sustainability for the sector (environmental, social, and economic). We identify third sector social innovation schemes as key tools to develop novel distribution systems supporting local communities (providing employment, fostering new networks and collaborations across fishers), while improving governance practices of the current fishing sector by creating a fairer market that protects the marine environment. Our findings provide a foundation upon which future evaluations of similar projects can build and compare. Such comparisons are crucial in determining patterns related to the innovation transfer processes