Forecasting environmental equity: Air quality responses to road user charging in Leeds, UK

Sustainable development requires that the goals of economic development, environmental protection and social justice are considered collectively when formulating development strategies. In the context of planning sustainable transport systems, trade-offs between the economy and the environment, and between the economy and social justice have received considerable attention. In contrast, much less attention has been paid to environmental equity, the trade-off between environmental and social justice goals, a significant omission given the growing attention to environmental justice by policy makers in the EU and elsewhere. In many countries, considerable effort has been made to develop clean transport systems by using, for example, technical, economic and planning instruments. However, little effort has been made to understand the distributive and environmental justice implications of these measures. This paper investigates the relationship between urban air quality (as NO2) and social deprivation for the city of Leeds, UK. Through application of a series of linked dynamic models of traffic simulation and assignment, vehicle emission, and pollutant dispersion, the environmental equity implications of a series of urban transport strategies, including road user cordon and distance based charging, road network development, and emission control, are assessed. Results indicate a significant degree of environmental inequity exists in Leeds. Analysis of the transport strategies indicates that this inequity will be reduced through natural fleet renewal, and, perhaps contrary to expectations, road user charging is also capable of promoting environmental equity. The environmental equity response is however, sensitive to road pricing scheme design

Патон Борис Євгенович

Патон Борис Євгенович — видатний вітчизняний учений, всесвітньо відомий спеціаліст в галузі зварювання, металознавства, металургії, спорудження відповідальних інженерних конструкцій, автор багатьох фундаментальних ре зультатів і створених на їх основі нових технологій і відповідного обладнання. У 1951 р. його обрано членом-кореспондентом, в 1958 р. — дійсним членом (академіком) Академії наук УРСР, з 1962 р. він — її президент

Earth observation for sustainable urban planning in developing countries: needs, trends, and future directions

Abstract: Cities are constantly changing and authorities face immense challenges in obtaining accurate and timely data to effectively manage urban areas. This is particularly problematic in the developing world where municipal records are often unavailable or not updated. Spaceborne earth observation (EO) has great potential for providing up-to-date spatial information about urban areas. This article reviews the application of EO for supporting urban planning. In particular, the article overviews case studies where EO was used to derive products and indicators required by urban planners. The review concludes that EO has sufficiently matured in recent years but that a shift from the current focus on purely science-driven EO applications to the provision of useful information for day-to-day decision-making and urban sustainability monitoring is clearly needed

Enriching the Italian Genuine Saving with water and soil depletion: National trends and regional differences

National and international governments aim to promote the responsible management of the natural capital but measuring its contribution to economic growth is still a challenging exercise. The natural capital supports a plurality of environmental functions whereas the economic growth is frequently measured by aggregated indicators. In this paper, we propose an extended version of the Genuine Saving macro indicator to account for water and soil depletion. Further, as natural capital is spatially heterogeneous we estimate Genuine Saving for Italy for the period 2000–2015 at the regional level. Whilst the case study produces specific results for Italy the methodological framework is broadly applicable to other states. The Italian comparison shows that soil and water provide an absolute change of roughly 1% of the GS but average relative regional variations are between 5 and 33% of GDP, showing that the geographical scale of sustainability analysis is a crucial element for responsible management of national assets. The methodological contribution suggests that the Genuine Saving can support policy makers in developing targeted policies for sustainable growth

Il Turismo Culturale in Italia fra tradizione e innovazione

International audienceTo reach the UN sustainable development goal, there is a need for comprehensive and robust tools to help decision-making identify the solutions that best support sustainable development. The decisions must have a system perspective, consider the life cycle, and all relevant impacts caused by the solution. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a tool that has these characteristics and the ambition with this book is to offer a comprehensive and up-to-date introduction to the tool and its underlying methodological considerations and potential applications. The book consists of five parts. The first part introduces LCA. The second part is a text book aiming at university students from undergraduate to PhD level, and professionals from industry and within policy making. It follows ISO 14040/14044 structure, draws upon a variety of LCA methods published over the years, especially the ILCD, and offers prescriptions and recommendations for all the most important methodological choices that you meet when performing an LCA. The third part introduces applications of LCA and life cycle thinking by policy- and decision-makers in government and industry. The fourth part is a Cookbook guiding you through the concrete actions to undertake when performing an LCA. The fifth part contains some appendices. The book can be used as a text book, the chapter can be read as stand alone, and you can use the Cookbook as a manual on how to perform an LCA