Predicting the present and future of aquaponics

Nowadays the increasing volumes of ‘big data’ reflecting various aspects of our present activities and represent a crucial new opportunity for scientists and experts to study the fundamental questions about the complex world we inhabit (Preis et al., 2013; Axtell, R. L. Zipf, 2001; King 2011; Vespignani, 2009; Perc, 2012; Petersen et al., 2012; Christakis et al., 2009). On the other hand, research on innovative topics, whose technology is still in constant progress, development and improvement of efficiency on the use of inputs and the production of outputs like is the case of aquaponics in Europe, sometimes results in difficulties in obtaining data. These difficulties arise, or because there is no data available from private companies, or because either there are data from other continents, or countries whose production systems do not allow comparability, or because the soil-climatic conditions, or technical-institutional-economic conditions (Goddek, et al. (2015; Dos Santos. 2016). Because they use different production techniques due to the difference in quality and quantity of inputs available in loco.N/

Sustainable and smart cities: A review

This paper addresses the main challenges to be overcome so that cities in the future can be sustainable and also smart cities in the African Continent. The main goal of the paper is to analyses the main constraints to urban development in the African Continent in order for these cities to became smart cities in the future. The methodology was based on a literature revision of all the papers referred in Social Science Citation Index and SCOPUS Elsevier from Q2 to Q1. The results confirm the existence of huge challenges, problems and restrictions on social, economics, environmental and political issues in Africa and also confirm that smart cities will only be possible in Africa when the current problems of sustainable development (economic, social, environmental and political) are overcome. However, the paper allows us to understand why, this is the first paper in the literature to address the topic of smart cities in Africa. It should be noted that in this continent there are at least two of the world's largest cities in terms of inhabitants and the growth of population rate of the African continent is about 2.5%. This is a global problem to handle. The concern about the problems of sustainable development in this region and how to promote it towards sustainable cities concerns everyone and the next steps will affect all of the world’s sustainable development.N/

Commercial aquaponics approaching the European market: a consumers’ perception on aquaponics products in Europe

The paper aim was to estimate consumers’ knowledge about aquaponics and their acceptance of aquaponics products in different European regions. An on-line questionnaire was administered to the general public through the aquaponics network of Food and Agriculture COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) Action FA1305 “The EU Aquaponics Hub—RealisingSustainable Integrated Fish and Vegetable Production for the EU” in 16 European countries. The methodology includes univariate and multivariate statistical techniques. The results show that, on average, attitudes towards aquaponics were positive, showing no significant differences between those who already knew about aquaponics and those who only heard about it through the survey. More than 50% of respondents had never heard of aquaponics, whilst more than 70% had already heard of hydroponics. No more than 17% of respondents were willing to pay more for aquaponicallyproduced products and no more than 40% more when compared to the price of products from conventional farming. The results confirm three different clusters of potential consumers of aquaponics products.N/

Free trade and implications for hunger

Free Trade are the numerous forms of elimination of trade barriers among regions on the world. Usually they the intent to eliminate the trade barriers by the construction of trade agreements that usually allow various types of international economic integration agreements, namely, free trade agreements, customs unions, common markets, and economic unions, etc. This paper refers to the elimination of barriers among countries and regions on trade mainly in countries in development promote the economic development by bringing new countries with competitive advantages to the international commerce. Also, new innovative techniques of production foods are referred, as aquaponics production in order to contribute to zero hunger. As a consequence, the international supply of food generally increases at the beginning the prices decrease and allow to increase the demand of food, that means a construction, in ceteris paribus of a new market equilibrium higher than the initial that will contribute for food security and for the reduction of hunger around the world. This is also one of the Sustainable Goals from United Nations to achieve.N/

Toward sustainable and smart cities in Africa: a review and challenges

This paper aims to present the main challenges to overcome in order to have sustainable and smart cities in Africa in the future, by analyzing social, economic, environmental, and political problems in African regions/cities. This study is particularly relevant as the problems of sustainable development in this region and the task of finding the solutions to minimize them became world problems, since they will affect the world sustainable development. It is also important to note that although there are many studies in the scientific field of smart cities, few of them had analyzed the topic of smart cities and sustainability and none of them so far analyzed the complex situation in African cities nor brought to the scientific debate and forecast new insights about these topics. The holistic approach was used to analyze sustainable and smart cities in Africa is believed to be the first of its kind and hence has not been, to the best of our knowledge, produced elsewhere. This paper gives insights to stakeholders and public decision-makers about the way forward in the promotion and development of cities in Africa in a sustainable way, in order to foster research in these innovative areas. It also broadens new research opportunities to explore and bring more knowledge in smart sustainable cities in general and in Africa in particular.N/

The sustainability of European agricultural firms

There has been an undeniable and remarkable performance of the global food system over the last fifty years. During this period, total food supply has increased almost threefold, whereas population has only increase in a twofold ratio, along with very significant shifts in diet related to the economic development. European agricultural activity plays an important role in European and world food security through the agricultural production, supply and international trade. The main aim of this paper was analyses the agricultural sustainability of the twenty-eight Member States of the European Union in terms of economics, environmental, social and political activity. Information and data comes from FADN database from the European Commission related to the year 2013, because is the last information available. The methodology includes the min-max approach based on the four components of sustainability, namely, economic, social, environmental and politics. We include the new component of politics in the sustainability because European agricultural are high subsidised and these subsidies have impacts on European agricultural sustainability. All the referred components of sustainability were based on various indicators in each component based on the literature. The minmax approach was employed to normalise the selected indicators expressed in variety dimensions for their need to be put on a common basis. Multivariate methods, namely Component Principal Analysis was used to estimate weights for the selected indicators to construct sub-indices and then the subindices were aggregated into the farm relative sustainability index. After, cluster analysis was used to form homogeneous groups of European countries according the agricultural sustainability indices. The results confirm three groups of European countries, namely, the North and Central countries; the New Member States and the Mediterranean counties. The results confirm that European agriculture firms and respective countries had a medium sustainability. The results also confirm that Northern European countries and the New Member States (of Eastern Europe) presents the highest levels of economic and political sub-indices of sustainability, confirming the high level of support for EU agricultural policies. However, are the Mediterranean countries (Southern Europe) that presents the highest environmental sustainability sub-indices. The main conclusion highlines confirms the importance of the sustainability as a tool to better adjust agricultural policies among the European Member States and around the word in other sectorial firms, for better adjust sectorial policies.N/

Semi-subsistence farms in Portugal: key concepts

Drawing principally on the literature and in primary data we analyze the farm structure in Portugal and explain the duality agrarian system between Southern and Northern of the country, introduce a new concept semi-subsistence farms in Portugal. After we analyze the main reasons for agricultural households in Portugal which possess a large subsistence and semi-subsistence farming sector. The study indicates that the contribution of subsistence farming to household incomes, social and rural development is significant and have potential to development due the macroeconomic situation in Portugal. But concerning that, stronger quantitative analysis and studies are needed. Due the prevalence and importance of small farms in Portugal, the main EU Common Agricultural Policy instruments must suited to respond to the specific needs of these subsistence farmers.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Competitiveness of portuguese exports in the last decade

Artigo baseado na comunicação proferida 8th EuroMed conference of the EuroMed academy of business: Innovation, entrepreneurship and sustainable value chain in a dynamic environment, realizado em Verona (Italy), 16-18 setembro de 2015The economic and financial crisis that has been affecting the world economy since 2008 affected the European countries in different ways. Portugal, a small peripheral country with a widely open economy suffered the consequences derived from the crisis that were amplified by a strong imbalance of the public accounts, large public and private debts, and insufficient levels of competitiveness of its industries and services. In order to aim at re-establishing the capability to grow, a restrictive budget procedure and changes in labour laws were put in place. Therefore, the economy may only significantly grow through an important increase in exports, sine internal consumption, both public and private, will continue to decrease. This paper aims at evaluating the competitiveness of the major Portuguese exports at world level during the decade 2005-2014, analyzing the main groups of products. The methodology use was based on the Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA). Results show that Portugal overtook the situation of a non-competitive to a competitive country in exports. However, the effect of the crisis can be seen from the fact that the value of exports decreased more than the rest of the world, as a consequence of the imbalance of public finances and of the restrictive political and fiscal measures taken to overcome the situation. From these results one may conclude that there is a need to increase the level of performance of the Portuguese economy, namely through measures aimed at growth in competitiveness, in internationalization, and thus including education, training and research.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Analysing the Trump and Brexit voters

This paper refers to two recent political phenomena: the Brexit, separation of the United Kingdom from the European Union, and the election of Donald Trump as President of the United States. It is important to note that the results on both occasions did not meet the expectations based on opinion polls, on one hand, and, on the other, seemed to be influenced by the adoption of populist attitudes by some of the people and parties involved. It is therefore necessary to deepen the knowledge about the two situations, their fundamentals and their outcomes. That is the objective of this paper. To gather published information and try to use it for the understanding of the results based on existing theory.es and thoughts.N/

Predicting the present and future of aquaponics with google trends

Aquaponics is an innovative scientific and professional area in Europe and across the world with increasing importance. However, despite the importance of aquaponics in Europe and in the world to promote safely and fresh foods, there is a gap because stakeholders, researchers and other professionals don’t really know the actual development and http://repositorio.ipl.pt/increasing of importance this activity in Europe despite the enormous contribution of the Aquaponics Hub from COST FA 1305. To overcome this problem and to know about the status, trends and importance of aquaponics searching in Europe we conduct this work. The main goal is to analyses the aquaponics and aquaponics related terms search through Google trends tool across the European countries where the Aquaponics Hub from COST FA 1305 where present from 2014 to the present, in order to analyses the path of aquaponics and the contribute done by the Action COST FA 1305 and related research. The methodology includes univariate and econometric models based on google trends from 2014 to the present. The results high line confirms the increasing trends of aquaponics and aquaponics related terms across the Europe and European countries belongs to COST FA 1305, but there are significant differences among countries. In general, the results per country show a real increasing after the countries becoming member of the present action of the COST action or an increasing during the Action, but there are differences among countries country. As well the increasing of scientific papers indexed in SCOPUS or Web of Science was increasing.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio