114 research outputs found
Recommended from our members
Greenways of Saudi Arabia: Activating their transportation potential
Since the early 1970s, auto-centric planning in Saudi Arabia (SA) has created car-dependent lifestyles, resulting in health and environmental problems. In the past decade, ambitious policies (e.g., The Saudi Vision 2030), regulations, awareness campaigns, city plans, and projects have sought to address this problem by transitioning to sustainable urban mobility. One form of this is active transportation (AT) via networks of greenways, which is currently being promoted in Saudi cities. However, the contemporary use of greenways for AT - for example, commuting by bike or walking - is extremely low in SA. Additionally, there is limited research on greenways in Middle Eastern countries. Thus, this paper aims to examine the factors hindering the use and development of greenways as AT corridors in SA, thereby informing efforts to unlock their AT potential.
After outlining how the forms and functions of greenways in SA evolved compared to their international counterparts, we present Jeddah city as a case study, a city with low rates of AT. Drawing on recent empirical mixed-methods research, an overview and synthesis of factors explaining the low utilisation rate of Jeddahâs greenways as AT corridors is presented. Barriers to AT are categorised as site-specific (e.g., greenway design, safety, maintenance), contextual (e.g., neighbourhood walkability/accessibility, weather), behavioural and perceptual (e.g., conflicts between greenway users and perceptions). In addition to user-based evidence, we identify broader development-related challenges of building a greenway network for AT in Jeddah city, including spatial connectivity, lack of integration with the concerned authorities, limited budgets, and securing and regulating land.
Results show that multidimensional impediments to active commuting via greenways in SA are similar to those globally, for example, greenwayâs proximity to home addresses (Krizek and Johnson 2007; Wolch et al. 2010). However, other factors are specific to the Saudi context. These include, but are not limited to, the perception of privacy, unsuitability of formal Saudi attire for riding bicycles, and fear of public judgement. We conclude with a comprehensive model that summarises all the factors influencing greenway use for active transport in SA, which can inform future research and practice in this domain
Religion and social values for sustainability
Discourse on social values as they relate to environmental and sustainability issues has almost exclusively been conducted in a secular intellectual context. However, with a renewed emphasis on culture as defining and shaping links between people and nature, there has been an increasing level of scholarly attention to the role of religion and spirituality in defining and understanding social values. In this article we explore the intersection of religion and social values for sustainability. First, we consider this nexus as it has been explored in existing scholarship. We acknowledge a body of research that has suggested that many religions are broadly associated with self-transcendent values. However, the degree to which they are translated into pro-environmental attitudes and behaviour varies according to context. Second, we argue that while there is much potential support for human values for sustainability within religious traditions, it is essential that religion is seen as a complex, multi-scalar and multi-dimensional institutional phenomena. Consequently, analysis of the relationship between religion and social values must account for the context of narratives, histories and practices. Third, using this lens, we show how religious perspectives can contribute to operationalising theories of systemic change for sustainability. Finally, we outline key principles for further sustainability research seeking to advance knowledge on the relationship between religion and social values
âIn the garden, I make up for what I canât in the parkâ: Reconnecting retired adults with nature through cultural ecosystem services from urban gardens
While cultural ecosystem services (CES) provided by collective urban gardens have been researched for more than a decade, how knowledge of CES can inform the governance of gardens and enhance gardenersâ wellbeing remains a challenge. Retired adults are a group whose lives can be especially improved by collective gardening. We interviewed users of community and allotment gardens in Zagreb to explore their motivations for gardening and the influence of different forms of garden management on the generation of CES. Their responses were supplemented and contextualised by interviews with urban planners, academics and gardening activists. We used Fish et al. (2016) framework to identify CES in interviews. As expected, CES drove gardenersâ engagement. We grouped their motivations into six categories: escape, usefulness and tradition, home-grown produce, socialising, wellness, and private oasis. Interestingly, food production was only of secondary importance as a motivator of urban gardening. Findings are used to outline recommendations for urban planners and decision-makers regarding planning, design and management of collective gardens that would amplify the generation of CES for retired gardeners
Inside-out sustainability: the neglect of inner worlds
In the context of continuing ecosystem degradation and deepening socio-economic inequality, sustainability scientists must question the adequacy of current scholarship and practice. We argue that pre-occupation with external phenomena and collective social structures has led to the neglect of peopleâs âinner worldsââtheir emotions, thoughts, identities and beliefs. These lie at the heart of actions for sustainability, and have powerful transformative capacity for system change. The condition of peopleâs inner worlds ought to also be considered a dimension of sustainability itself. Compassion, empathy and generosity, for example, are personal characteristics that mark individual expressions of sustainability. Sustainability science must take inner life more seriously by considering how language shapes and is shaped by paradigms about the world, prioritising enquiry into how spirituality, contemplation and sustainability transformation relate, and encouraging scholars and practitioners to intentionally cultivate their inner worlds to strengthen inner resources necessary for addressing sustainability challenges
Urban planning in socialist Croatia
Gotovo pola stoljeÄa urbano planiranje u Hrvatskoj razvijalo se u okviru socijalistiÄkoga reĆŸima. Ono je tijekom toga razdoblja uglavnom imalo ulogu rjeĆĄavanja hitnih problema razvoja socijalistiÄkoga reĆŸima vezanih za prostor i omoguÄavanja gospodarskoga rasta. Ovaj Älanak analizira urbano planiranje u Hrvatskoj izmeÄu 1944. i 1991. godine kroz osam aspekata: opÄu zadaÄu planiranja u promatranoj etapi, zakonsku regulativu, odnos prema druĆĄtvenom planiranju, politiÄkoinstitucionalnu odgovornost, utjecaj urbanih planera na planersku praksu, provedbu planova, sudjelovanje javnosti i odnos prema okoliĆĄu. Analizirani su arhivski podatci i literatura o zakonodavstvu i praksi urbanoga, prostornoga i druĆĄtvenoga planiranja u SR Hrvatskoj, ukljuÄujuÄi planerske Äasopise Arhitekturu i Äovjek i prostor, kao i plansku legislativu iz socijalistiÄkoga razdoblja. Definirano je pet razvojnih etapa kroz koje je urbano planiranje doĆŸivjelo decentralizaciju od federalne do razine opÄine (komune) te napredak glede sudjelovanja javnosti i razmatranja utjecaja na okoliĆĄ. TakoÄer je analiziran razvoj planskih alata nastalih tijekom socijalistiÄkoga razdoblja, a koji su ostali u upotrebi do danas.For almost half of a century, urban planning in Croatia took place under the socialist regime. During that time, it mostly played a role in addressing the pressing space-related issues of the development of socialist society, and in facilitating economic growth. In this paper, we examine urban planning in Croatia between 1944 and 1991 from eight aspects: the general roles of planning; legislation; relationship to societal planning; political-institutional responsibility; urban planners and policy; plan execution; public participation; and environmental concerns. We analysed archival data and literature on urban, spatial and societal planning legislation and practices in the Socialist Republic of Croatia, including the planning journals Arhitektura and Äovjek i prostor, and planning legislation from the socialist period. We outlined the five evolutionary phases over which urban planning experienced decentralisation from the federal to the communal level, advancements in public participation, and the involvement of environmental considerations in the decision-making process. We also studied the evolution of planning tools, which originated in the socialist period but remains in use today
Can we plan for urban cultural ecosystem services?
Despite being intangible, subjective and difficult to measure, cultural ecosystem services (CES) are more comprehensible and meaningful to people than many other services. They contribute greatly to the quality of urban life and achieving sustainability. Yet, little attention has been paid to how CES might practically be incorporated into urban planning. This paper addresses this gap by examining the challenges planners might face when handling CES, establishing strategies for addressing the challenges and highlighting key factors planners should consider when planning for CES. CES differ greatly from other ecosystem servicesâthey are definitionally vague, difficult to measure, often bundled with other services and depend on usersâ perceptions and situational factors. Therefore, rather than adopting a deterministic approach to generating CES, we suggest that urban planners should seek to create opportunities for CES to âhatchâ and âgrowâ as people encounter nature in cities. This paper draws from diverse theoretical considerations of the CES concept as well as greenspace planning scholarship and practice. We identify five factors that need to be considered when planning for CES: place, people, past, practices and purpose. We see the proposed â5Pâ framework as a useful heuristic for planners when implementing CES in urban planning
From city in the park to âgreenery in plant potsâ: The influence of socialist and post-socialist planning on opportunities for cultural ecosystem services
The paper examines the links between the cultural ecosystem services concept, political ideologies and urban planning. In particular, it investigates the extent to which cultural ecosystem services were considered in urban planning in socialist and post-socialist Zagreb. We conducted a content analysis of three socialist and two post-socialist plans of Zagreb and interview transcripts with urban planners and academics. To take account of the relational character of cultural ecosystem services, we assessed the extent to which urban planning facilitated opportunities for humanâecosystem interactions rather than individual cultural ecosystem services themselves. This revealed planning factors that helped promote and discourage conditions for CES to arise. The findings indicated that socialist planning facilitated interaction opportunities to a wider extent than post-socialist planning, mainly by providing abundant, fair-sized, well-distributed green spaces with clearly outlined functions. The proposed assessment approach could be implemented in the planning process to evaluate how conditions for CES generation are provided by the current planning cycle and inform the process in the following cycle
Values influence public perceptions of flood management schemes
Natural Flood Management (NFM) is now well established as a paradigm for reducing flood risk. It is characterised by adopting a catchment-wide hydrological perspective and implementing solutions that work with natural processes such as wetlands, riparian vegetation and river channel rehabilitation. However, despite substantial attention in the river science literature and growing appreciation for NFM among environmental managers, little research has been conducted on how the public perceives NFM. This study explored preferences for a variety of flood risk management schemes through an online survey of the UK public, and assessed how different characteristics of these schemes contribute to preferences via Q-method utilising an array of photographs. Relationships between survey respondents' underlying transcendental values and their preferences for NFM schemes were also studied. Results revealed that while NFM approaches were appreciated for their appearance and wildlife benefits, traditional grey engineering â particularly dams â was seen as more effective in ameliorating flood risk. Q-sorts of photographs revealed three factors that characterised participants' preferences: (i) âEngineered - Naturalâ, (ii) âMessy - Neatâ and (iii) âGrey - Greenâ. Finally, transcendental values were significantly related to flood scheme preferences, with âSelf-Transcendenceâ values positively correlated with preferences for tree planting and wetlands and negatively with dams and weirs. âConservativeâ values were positively correlated with preferences for dredging and weirs and negatively with wetlands. These findings emphasise the plurality of public perceptions related to NFM and the diverse value orientations within which they are grounded. River and catchment managers seeking to promote NFM solutions should focus on addressing public concerns about the efficacy of NFM for mitigating flood risk, and consider how to communicate solutions in ways that resonate with a diverse set of public values
Equity trade-offs in conservation decision making
Conservation decisions increasingly involve multiple environmental and social objectives, which result in complex decision contexts with high potential for trade-offs. Improving social equity is one such objective that is often considered an enabler of successful outcomes and a virtuous ideal in itself. Despite its idealized importance in conservation policy, social equity is often highly simplified or ill-defined and is applied uncritically. What constitutes equitable outcomes and processes is highly normative and subject to ethical deliberation. Different ethical frameworks may lead to different conceptions of equity through alternative perspectives of what is good or right. This can lead to different and potentially conflicting equity objectives in practice. We promote a more transparent, nuanced, and pluralistic conceptualization of equity in conservation decision making that particularly recognizes where multidimensional equity objectives may conflict. To help identify and mitigate ethical conflicts and avoid cases of good intentions producing bad outcomes, we encourage a more analytical incorporation of equity into conservation decision making particularly during mechanistic integration of equity objectives. We recommend that in conservation planning motivations and objectives for equity be made explicit within the problem context, methods used to incorporate equity objectives be applied with respect to stated objectives, and, should objectives dictate, evaluation of equity outcomes and adaptation of strategies be employed during policy implementation
Remote sensing of fish-processing in the Sundarbans Reserve Forest, Bangladesh: an insight into the modern slavery-environment nexus in the coastal fringe
© 2020, The Author(s). Land-based fish-processing activities in coastal fringe areas and their social-ecological impacts have often been overlooked by marine scientists and antislavery groups. Using remote sensing methods, the location and impacts of fish-processing activities were assessed within a case study of Bangladeshâs Sundarbans mangrove forests. Ten fish-processing camps were identified, with some occurring in locations where human activity is banned. Environmental degradation included the removal of mangroves, erosion, and the destruction of protected areas. Previous studies have identified cases of labour exploitation and modern slavery occurring within the Sundarbans, and remote sensing was used to triangulate these claims by providing spatial and temporal analysis to increase the understanding of the operational trends at these locations. These findings were linked to the cyclical relationship between modern slavery and environmental degradation, whereby environmental damage is both a driver and result of workers subjected to modern slavery. Remote sensing can be used as an additional methodological tool to support the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and provide evidence to support the promotion of the âfreedom dividendâ which would have far-reaching economic, social, cultural, and environmental benefits. Satellite remote sensing is likely to play an important role going forward for understanding these issues but should be augmented with ground-based data collection methods
- âŠ