95 research outputs found

    The Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare (ISEW) for a Local Authority: A Case Study in Italy

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    The Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare (ISEW) has been calculated for many countries, but rarely at the local level. This paper shows how the index has been calculated for the Province of Siena, Central Italy. The whole procedure is illustrated step by step, including the search for the most suitable and precise methods to obtain reliable values for each item composing the index. Application of ISEW at a very local level was found to be feasible. The most general difficulty encountered was the lack of an adequate institutionalised source of statistical information to support the construction of indicators other than purely economic or demographic ones. The availability of data depends on the interest in implementing projects of sustainable management of natural resources and land on the part of local authorities and their consequent willingness to invest money and human resources on such projects. The ISEW is a good tool for local environmental policy, because it gives a more realistic representation of the well-being of the population than GDP, since it includes environmental and social items not considered in conventional national accounting. Furthermore, in Italy, the principle of administrative decentralization has been implemented in recent years to such an extent that the central government devolved part of its power to Regions, Provinces and Municipalities. Arguably, local authorities should therefore allocate more resources to pursue their policies towards sustainability, an issue which modern electoral campaigns are often based on. The results for the Province of Siena show that there is a large gap between local GDP and ISEW (about 37% of GDP).Local level, economic welfare, sustainability, ISEW, economic policy

    The pandemic effect on GHG emission variation at the sub-national level and translation into policy opportunities

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    Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions inventories are commonly compiled at country level to monitor national progress towards nationally or internationally agreed targets. While they can support national climate change mitigation strategies, accounting for the intra-national heterogeneity of a country can draw different conclusions directly linked to the socio-economic and environmental sub-national context. This means that more refined and accurate policies and mitigation strategies can be designed when supported by GHG inventories at sub-national scale. The differences between sub-national territorial emissive behavior can be revealed by subjecting different territories to the same stress factors. A complete GHG emissions inventory, based on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Guidelines, is compiled for three diverse administrative territories, in terms of scale, socio-economic contexts, and environmental conditions. By selecting three diverse sub-national contexts belonging to the same national territory - Italy - the analysis provides highly detailed information on the emissive status and behavior and delivers insights that national inventories fail to provide. The COVID-19 pandemic is considered as a stress factor; therefore, the reference years are 2019 and 2020 during which GHG emissions are detected. The study will test the capacity of sub-national GHG emission inventories, compiled by scaling the IPCC methodology to the sub-national level, to detect such differences through the lens of the pandemic. This allows obtaining detailed information and linking the pandemic effect to the GHG emissions of particular activities, which can inspire effective sub-national context-specific mitigation actions. Furthermore, we show that environmental and economic metrics are not as strictly coupled as they would appear at national level

    The biocapacity adjusted economic growth. Developing a new indicator

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    Abstract The environment may constrain economic growth potential. In other words, economic growth cannot be pursued in spite of ecological limits any longer. Here we present an economic growth indicator adjusted by taking into account the current tendency of national economies to overcome the availability of natural resources and ecological dynamics. We combine two indicators: 1) the Output Gap, a measure of production capacity of the economy based on the difference between actual and potential GDP, as a per cent of potential GDP; 2) the difference between the Ecological Footprint and the Biocapacity of a country, systemic indicators representing the extent to which a country operates within or beyond ecological limits. That combination gives rise to the Biocapacity Adjusted Economic Growth indicator which enables a categorization of countries based on assessment of growth patterns in line or not with sustainability principles

    Implications of land-grabbing on the ecological balance of Brazil

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    In the global free-market, natural resource scarcity and opportunities for preserving the local environment are fostering international purchasing of large extensions of land, mainly for agricultural use. These land transactions often involve land cover change (i.e., through deforestation) or a shift from extensive or traditional to intensive agricultural practices. In Brazil, the land appropriation by foreign investors (i.e., the so-called "land-grabbing") is affecting natural capital availability for local communities to a different extent in the very different territorial entities. At the same time, Brazilian investors are purchasing land in other countries. Ecological footprint accounting is one appropriate lens that can be employed to visualize the aggregated effect of natural capital appropriation and use. The aim of this paper is to provide a first estimate on the effect of land-grabbing on the ecological balance of Brazil through calculating the biocapacity embodied in purchased lands in the different states of Brazil. The results show that Brazil is losing between 9 to 9.3 million global hectares (on a gross basis, or a net total of 7.7 to 8.6 million of global hectares) of its biocapacity due to land-grabbing, when considering respectively a "cropland to cropland" (i.e., no land-cover change) and a "total deforestation" scenario. This represents a minimum estimate, highlighting the need for further land-grabbing data collection at the subnational scale. This analysis can be replicated for other countries of the world, adjusting their ecological balance by considering the biocapacity embodied in international transactions of land

    Disaggregating the SWOT Analysis of Marine Renewable Energies

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    Energy transitions require strategic plans that minimize inefficiencies and maximize energy production in a sustainable way. This aspect is fundamental in the case of innovative technologies based on marine renewable energies. Marine renewable energies involve problems and advantages which imply a reconceptualization of marine space and its management. Through an holistic SWOT analysis the main strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats are highlighted in this paper, considering social, economic, legal, technological, and environmental dimensions. We disaggregate the SWOT analysis for marine renewable energy technologies in order to create an overview of pros and cons for every dimension and better identify specific hotspots and possible solutions in different fields

    Relating pain intensity of newborns to onset of nonlinear phenomena in cry recordings

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    The cries of several full term newborns, recorded during blood sampling, were analyzed. Spectrograms showed the appearance of irregular patterns related to the pain assessed using the method of the DAN scale. In particular, the appearance of Noise concentration Patterns (NP) in spectrograms was related to the increase of the pain suffered by the newborns. In this scenario, pain constitutes a bifurcation parameter for the vocal folds dynamic, inducing a Ruelle-Takens-Newhouse chaotic transition.Comment: 15 pages, 4 figures, 1 table. Accepted for publication in Phys. Lett.

    Teaching sustainability within the context of everyday life: steps toward achieving the sustainable development goals through the EUSTEPs module

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    In a world characterized by Ecological Overshoot, education can nurture sustainability-minded citizens and future leaders to help accelerate the transition towards a one-planet compatible society. Despite the essential role of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in contributing to a sustainable society, a holistic understanding of how to incorporate sustainability initiatives into HEIs is still lacking. Given the importance of HEIs in societies and considering the number of students, educators, and staff they host every day, ensuring that sustainability is both taught and practiced within campuses becomes fundamental. To this end, a strategic partnership was created in 2019 to set up the ERASMUS+ project EUSTEPs - Enhancing Universities’ Sustainability Teaching and Practices through Ecological Footprint. Among the main outputs of the project is a teaching module for introducing the sustainability concept to students. This module takes a 360-degree approach to teach sustainability, allowing students to endogenously realize the full complexity of sustainability, in an engaging and captivating manner. This paper thus aims to: 1) present the EUSTEPs Module, its pedagogical approach and structure, and the learning outcomes and competencies students are expected to gain; 2) review the outcomes of its first pilot teaching in four European HEIs, and 3) shed light on how this Module contributes to the development of competences and pedagogical approaches for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Our findings show that 90% of the students were ‘satisfied’ or ‘very satisfied’ with the Module, rating the Ecological Footprint as the most useful teaching tool among those included in the Module, and appreciated the interactive nature of the proposed teaching. Feedback obtained from students during the pilot teaching contributed to shaping the Module’s final structure and content. The Module – an important interactive sustainability pedagogical tool – is now ready for use with students from different disciplines, thus contributing to progress towards the UN 2030 Agenda, particularly SDG 4, SDG 11, SDG 12, and SDG 13.Project “EUSTEPs: Enhancing Universities’ Sustainability Teaching and Practices through Ecological Footprint,” KA 203, Strategic Partnership in Higher Education 2019–2022, Agreement No. 2019-1-EL01-KA203-062941.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

    EUSTEPs administrative staff teaching module

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    Enhancing Universities’ Sustainability TEaching and Practices – EUSTEPs – is a project financed by ERASMUS+ program that features the collaboration among four European Universities and one Non-Governmental Organization. The team is coordinated by Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTh), and is comprised of members from University of Siena (UNISI), Italy, University of Aveiro (UAv) and Universidade Aberta (UAb), both in Portugal, and Global Footprint Network (GFN), California, USA. The project aims to introduce a broader and holistic approach to sustainability within universities, having developed already one module dedicated to students and another for educators. In addition to this purpose, the project also envisions the development of a Footprint Calculator for Universities’ campus, allowing Institutions to acknowledge the environmental dimension of sustainability and connect it to their everyday functioning. All the actors whitin HEIs (students, academic staff, administrative staff and management bodies) are called to embrace a more sustainable campus, developing a set of multidisciplinary skills and a necessary shift in attitudes. This module is dedicated to the Administrative Staff of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and embraces a hands-on, experiential approach to sustainability understanding and Ecological Footprint concept. By presenting sustainability within the context of everyday life rather than through mere abstract theories and concepts around sustainability and, bridging with the 2030 UN Agenda Sustainable Development Goals, the administrative staff will be able to grasp how sustainability relates to not only the whole spectrum of daily life but also with their workplace and the administration of HEIs. The core aspect of the EUSTEPs Module to HEIs Administrative Staff is: 1. To make the administrative staff aware of sustainability and Ecological Footprint concepts. 2. To empower them to affect the sustainability of their workspace, as well as their community, bringing sustainability knowledge and its associated skills (usually limited to academics, researchers and students). Throughout this module, the administrative staff will not only be able to learn about sustainability and the human-environment relationship but also track their own individual Footprints; through discussing their results and behavior decisions with peers to shape a “learning by group discussion” process.ERASMUS+, KA203 2019-2022, Agreement No. 2019-1-ELO1-KA203-062941info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

    “EUSTEPs Educators teaching module: sustainability around us: from theory to practice...and back”

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    This module, developed by the ERASMUS+ project EUSTEPs (Enhancing Universities’ Sustainability TEaching and Practices), uses a “learning-by-doing” approach to equip EU university students with science-based knowledge, multidisciplinary skills, and the transdisciplinary mindset needed to play a critical role in our societal effort towards sustainability, thus allowing students to be best prepared for the future labour market. The module is made highly effective by the adoption of the concept of Ecological Footprint (EF), a well-known and widespread quantitative approach to study, assess and understand sustainability concept. The EF is an ecology-based environmental accounting method, but we propose it not as a technical tool but as a medium to transfer important aspects of sustainability from a wide range of teachers to a wide range of students. This is possible by virtue of the verified ability of the EF method and related accessories to communicate, inform, visualize, and represent sustainability in its variegated forms. The module embraces a hands-on, experiential approach to sustainability teaching: by presenting sustainability within the context of everyday life rather than through a mere abstract teaching of intangible theories and concepts, the goal of the module is to allow students to understand, realize, and learn the full complexity of the economy-society-environment relationships, and help them grasp how sustainability relates to the whole spectrum of daily life. A series of universal, community and environmental education pedagogical approaches (PA) are employed in this module for the development of sustainability competencies. More specifically, seven out of the ten literature suggested education for sustainable development (ESD) pedagogical approaches are commissioned in this EUSTEPs teaching module, including the universal PAs of Case studies, Interdisciplinary team teaching/planning, Lecturing, Concept maps, Project or problem based learning, along with the community PA of Participatory Action Research, and the environmental education PA of Place-based environmental education.“EUSTEPs: Enhancing Universities’ Sustainability Teaching and Practices through Ecological Footprint”, KA 203, Strategic Partnership in Higher Education 2019-2022, Agreement No. 2019-1-EL01-KA203-062941.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
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