Sustainable Development Criteria Research Articles

Social criteria of sustainable development in relation to green building assessment tools

The social criteria of sustainable development, with a focus on green building assessment tool, have remained underexplored. Moreover, a large number of green building assessment tools and social sustainability documentations have been developed and have had a direct impact on social criteria issues, but there seems to be a substantial gap in the study of social criteria in green building assessment tools. The present study aimed at introducing the subject area supported by categories to monitor social criteria in building assessment tool. In light of this argument, this paper, through analysis of frequency data and results of studies, aims to identify some potential factors that will impact building practitioners toward making the right decision for selecting and implementing social criteria in green building assessment tools. In order to organize this paper, it adopts an analytic approach where social criteria would be interpreted in a new position. The aim is to identify social criteria of sustainable development to assist building practitioners in order to assess the building project and embed them toward building assessment tool to achieve sustainable development goal.

Tensions in collaborative innovation projects and higher-level learning

PurposeEnsuring collaboration between partners involved in a collaborative innovation project is a challenge for project managers. This paper aims to highlight how taking a high-level learning approach can represent a managerial lever. In addition, it analyzes the impact of learning tensions in a partnership context.Design/methodology/approachThe paper focuses on an explorative, longitudinal and in-depth analysis of the Innovative Solutions in Urban Systems project via a qualitative single-case study. The research is inductive and based on data from the field rather than a deductive application of theory.FindingsCollaborative innovation projects represent a high-level learning case. Activity theory is suited to studying the dynamics of learning in collaborative innovation projects. Tensions can fertilize the front-end of collaborative innovation projects.Research limitations/implicationsBecause of the chosen research approach, the research results may be difficult to generalize. Therefore, researchers are encouraged to test the conceptual framework further.Practical implicationsThis article provides a framework for managing tensions in collaborative innovation projects. The results provide also a process to implement all criteria of sustainable development in these projects.Social implicationsThis article highlights to what extent collaborative relations can be developed between participants through a questionnaire with social responsibility attributes. The questionnaire allows to foster participants’ trust.Originality/valueThis approach is original because the authors consider that situations exist that, by definition, belong to “higher-order learning”. Through a case study, they propose a framework to manage this situation.

Analysis of Design Indicators of Sustainable Buildings with an Emphasis on Efficiency of Energy Consumption (Energy Efficiency)

Nowadays paying attention to sustainable development issues has been a priority for different countries, due to technological advances and increasing number of problems caused by neglecting the environment. Sustainable development is a new field that considers all the aspects of human life. One of important issues in this area is, considering the energy and efficient energy consumption and reducing the environmental consequences of its consumption. Sustainable design of buildings is also an example of sustainable development. The purpose of this study that has been conducted based on documents and library studies and analysis of samples that are built with the sustainable approach is to study and compare the fundamentals of investigated samples with the criteria of sustainable development. The result is that fundamentals of these buildings as architectural responses can help architectures challenges in different environmental conditions.

Sustainable dimension adaptation measure in green township assessment criteria

Urbanized areas are typically the most significant sources of environmental degradation, thus, an urban assessment criteria tools aiming at equally adapted sustainability dimensions need to be firmly embedded in benchmarking planning and design framework and upon occupancy. The need for integral systematic rating is recognized in order to evaluate the performance of sustainable neighborhood and to promote sustainable urban development. In this study, Green Building Index Township Assessment Criteria (GBI-TAC) will be measure on holistic sustainable dimension pillar (SDP) adaptation in order to assess and redefine the current sustainability assessment criteria for future sustainable neighborhood development (SND). The objective of the research is to find-out whether the current GBI-TAC and its variables fulfilled the holistic SDP adaptations towards sustainable neighborhood development in Malaysia. The stakeholder-inclusion approached is used in this research in order to gather professional’s stakeholders’ opinions regarding the SDP adaptations for sustainable neighborhood development. The data were analysed using IBM SPSS AMOS22 Structural Equation Modelling. The findings suggested an adaptation gap of SDP in current GBI-TAC even though all core-criteria supported SDP adaptation, hence lead to further review and refinement for future Neighborhood Assessment Criteria in Malaysia.

Sustainability aspects of biofuel production

Nowadays, world development depends on the energy supply. The use of fossil fuels leads to two threats: depletion of resources within a single century and climate changes caused by the emission of CO2 from fossil fuels combustion. Widespread application of renewable energy sources, in which biofuels play a major role, is proposed as a counter-measure. The paper made an attempt to evaluate to what extent biofuels meet the criteria of sustainable development. It was shown that excessive development of biofuels may threaten the sustainable development paradigms both in the aspect of: intergenerational equity, leading to an increase of food prices, as well as intergenerational equity, resulting in degradation of the environment. The paper presents the possibility of sustainable biofuels production increase.

Megaprojects, the Environment and Sustainability in New York, London, Paris and Tokyo

This paper proposes a set of conditions for the governance of megaprojects in order to ensure their sustainability. We focus on several sustainable strategies: environmental, socio-economic, institutional, as well as those associated with the design, planning and management aspects of megaprojects. Our assessment of environmental challenges and sustainability in megaprojects of four key global cities (New York, London, Paris, Tokyo) focuses on controversies triggered by the planning and construction of megaprojects in these cities. From the viewpoint of sustainability, what specific controversies do megaprojects trigger at various socio-political scales? What are the challenges, and what are the most suitable governance arrangements that can be key for supporting sustainable cities and regions? An exploration into the conditions for sustainability in megaprojects will help to critically evaluate the urban megaproject phenomenon and it will contribute to an understanding of the mutual relationships between globalization, infrastructure development and sustainability. To be sure, suggesting that megaprojects could foster sustainability in cities and regions is a counter-intuitive idea, but the growing importance of megaprojects in the sustainable development agenda warrants a careful analysis in order to critically assess to what extent urban leaders foster sustainable urban practices, even as they face pressures from investors and promoters to keep building, and how those practices could be improved. Our aim is to be able to provide governance criteria for sustainable megaprojects development in policy discourses and practices.

Construction Projects Assessment Based on the Sustainable Development Criteria by an Integrated Fuzzy AHP and Improved GRA Model

Due to the increasing population and earth pollution, managing construction and infrastructure projects with less damage to the environment and less pollution is very important. Sustainable development aims at reducing damage to the environment, making projects economical, and increasing comfort and social justice. This study proposes fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and improved grey relational analysis (GRA) to assess construction projects based on the sustainable development criteria. For doing so, sustainable development criteria are first identified in economic, social, and environmental dimensions using literature review, and are then customized for urban construction projects using experts’ opinions. After designing questionnaires and collecting data, fuzzy AHP is used for determining the importance of sustainable development criteria and their subcriteria. Then, improved GRA is employed for assessing six recreational, commercial, and official centers in Isfahan regarding the weights of criteria and subcriteria. The proposed fuzzy AHP-improved GRA help us to prioritize construction projects based on the sustainable development criteria. The results of applying fuzzy AHP show that the weights of economic, social, and environmental criteria are equal to 0.330, 0.321, and 0.349, respectively, which are close to each other. This means that the importance of all three aspects of sustainability is almost equal to each other. Furthermore, “Having profits for the society”, “Increasing social justice”, and “Adherence to environmental policies” are identified as the most important indicators of sustainable development in terms of economic, social, and environmental aspects, respectively. Finally, the results of employing improved GRA determine Negin Chaharbagh recreational and commercial complex as the best project.

Analysis of the Factors influencing Sustainable Development in the Insurance Industry

AbstractThis study aims to explore and establish the dimensions of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and guidelines for the sustainable development of business in the insurance industry in Taiwan. An, investigation and analysis is conducted using the fuzzy Delphi method (FDM) and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to obtain the dimensions of CSR and the importance ranking of sustainable development of business in the insurance industry in Taiwan. The results of this study show that the dimension of ‘managerial practices’ is the most significant, followed by ‘social practices’ and ‘environmental practices’. In terms of the importance of criteria for sustainable development, the top five are ‘information disclosure’, ‘corporate strategies and commitments’, ‘climate change‘, ‘legal compliance’, and ‘environment management’. This study expects to offer reference indicators to the insurance industry in Taiwan to promote sustainable development, and facilitate insurance companies to achieve the goal of sustainable development by promoting their CSR. Copyright © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment

Selecting Sustainable Development Criteria for Effective Watershed Governance: Study Area of Kashafrud Watershed

In recent years, inappropriate governance within the watersheds has caused to qualitative and quantitative degradation of water resources and unbalanced allocation of resources amongst the beneficiaries. Therefore, one of the most important challenges for stakeholders is the selection of final sustainable development criteria, which affects the planning and management for water supply scenarios and leads to effective watershed governance. Selection of final criteria depends on the stakeholders’ preferences and the decision-making risk attitudes. The risk attitudes related to the importance of viewpoints associated with stakeholders’ number within the watershed. This paper has developed a comprehensive approach based on the risk analysis to calculate the group weights and the group consensus measurements of criteria, which leads to selecting final decision-making criteria. Accordingly, in the first step, the initial criteria are determined by the group of DMs. In the second step, the group criteria weights have been calculated and in the third step, the group consensus measurements of criteria have been measured in several risk attitudes using the Hybrid Weighted Averaging (HWA) operator and the distance-based group consensus method. Finally, the most important criteria have been selected from the initial criteria based on the group consensus measurements, compared with an acceptable threshold level. This approach has been developed for the Kashafrud watershed, to select the final sustainable criteria in 2040. The results showed that the number of the final criteria depends on the risk attitudes of decision-making. Development of this method is recommended for watershed governance in the world.

Towards a driver framework for regional bioenergy pathways

Abstract Bioenergy is currently under diversified pressure to re-assess its compliance with sustainable development strategies and criteria and thereby ensure that the sector delivers a long-term contribution to renewable energy transition. With a view to promoting sustainable regional development this inquiry investigates whether a reframing of bioenergy supply chain design can allow sustainable regional development targets to feature as integral supply chain components and both help upgrade existing bioenergy processes and initiate new bioenergy value chains. Following a critical survey of classic supply chain management we use a Total Quality Management approach to operationalize the concept of regional energy and pilot the development of sustainable bioenergy pathways within North European regional settings. We argue that a methodical enhancement of supply chain design can help overcome the challenges facing bioenergy and at the same time provide a blueprint for pioneering feasible regional energy initiatives as alternatives to conventional energy processes. From an initially sectoral perspective the study seeks to support the integration of regional development goals into energy transition policy.

Cultural heritage in sustainable development

PurposePreservation of historic structures meets ecological criteria of sustainable development. In Mount Lebanon, the traditional house is a cultural asset built of native stone one-meter thick double-wythe walls. Today, lack of public policies is causing those environmental assets to approach extinction. The paper aims to discuss this issue.Design/methodology/approachThe methodology uses multivariate regression on 128 data points. A mathematical model is developed and empirically tested on public attitudes toward restoration. Independent variables represent the need for protectionist policies, X1; contribution of restoration to environmental sustainability, X2; contribution to culture, X3; and financial benefits, X4.FindingsIt is found that stone houses transfer heat significantly slower than modern construction. There is a statistically significant and positive correlation with X1, X2, and X3, but negative with X4, most likely due to favoring return on investment of multistory buildings over the attractiveness of stone houses.Research limitations/implicationsAs future research implications, the undergirding of urban planning policies need to be revisited. Current policies neither protect heritage, nor offer legal means to restore heritage houses.Practical implicationsPractical implications include revisions to building laws in Mount Lebanon, as they marginalize old stone structures. Environmental valuation techniques, use value and existence value, are recommended.Social implicationsSocial awareness needs to be built about valuation techniques to account for complex assets that cannot be approximated through short-term real estate market price. Social rather than financial cost-benefit analysis must be performed to quantify environmental assets.Originality/valueThis research illustrates a pilot restoration project with critical issues faced by heritage stone houses. These assets are underrepresented in building laws which warrants social and environmental activism.

Major projects in urban sites: Challenge of the Builders

Faced with the complexity of urban construction projects and difficulties in the field, engineers must, on the one hand, dimension with rigor and common sense the foundations with all the requirements of today of quality, conformity and respect of deadlines and budget and take into account, on the other hand, safety and environmental requirements and societal and sustainable development criteria, the purpose of this communication is to present concrete projects of foundations and excavation deep in geologically heterogeneous and highly urbanized sites, with monitoring and displacement measurements in order to compare predictions with reality and to promote the "observational method".

Spatio-temporal analysis of groundwater level in an arid area

Sustainable management of precious groundwater resources is vital to growth, especially in arid areas which they heavily depend on. In this study, monthly groundwater level time series of 322 observation wells in Sistan and Balouchestan province of Iran in the period 2002 to 2012 were used as a measure of sustainable development. Results show that 95.6% of areas of the province aquifers are non-stationary. In addition, 5.5%, 13.7% and 80.8% of studied wells show no increasing and decreasing trend at 5% significance level. Spatial analysis reveals that the groundwater levels of 7.3%, 11.3% and 81.6% area of groundwater resources have increased, sustained or decreased, respectively. According to calculated slope of trends, the province has experienced –69.72 (MCM) decline in groundwater resources per year in past ten years. It means that sustainable development criteria were totally neglected. Increasing in water use efficiency in the agriculture sector by 6% and of water reuse by 78% will solve the issue.

A hybrid multi-criteria assessment framework to prioritise power generation technologies in Iran

This paper develops a hybrid multi-criteria assessment framework to determine Iran's energy status and prioritise different alternatives of power generation technologies based on both renewable and non-renewable resources with emphasis on sustainable development criteria. This issue is investigated by a hybrid model named as FANP-BOCR that integrates various concepts including analytic network process (ANP), benefits, opportunities, costs and risks analysis (BOCR) and fuzzy sets theory. Comprehensive analysis of strategic criteria and various sub-criteria under benefits, opportunities, costs and risks sub-network is done to evaluate the most suitable power generation technologies in Iran. The calculation has been done by Super decision software. The results show that, in the benefits, opportunities and costs networks, the most preferred three alternatives are hydroelectric, wind and natural gas combined cycle (NGCC). But in the risk network; NGCC, natural gas combustion turbine (NGCT) and natural gas steam turbine (NGST) have the highest priority.

A hybrid multi-criteria assessment framework to prioritise power generation technologies in Iran

This paper develops a hybrid multi-criteria assessment framework to determine Iran's energy status and prioritise different alternatives of power generation technologies based on both renewable and non-renewable resources with emphasis on sustainable development criteria. This issue is investigated by a hybrid model named as FANP-BOCR that integrates various concepts including analytic network process (ANP), benefits, opportunities, costs and risks analysis (BOCR) and fuzzy sets theory. Comprehensive analysis of strategic criteria and various sub-criteria under benefits, opportunities, costs and risks sub-network is done to evaluate the most suitable power generation technologies in Iran. The calculation has been done by Super decision software. The results show that, in the benefits, opportunities and costs networks, the most preferred three alternatives are hydroelectric, wind and natural gas combined cycle (NGCC). But in the risk network; NGCC, natural gas combustion turbine (NGCT) and natural gas steam turbine (NGST) have the highest priority.

A hybrid lexicographic and VIKOR approach for prioritizing construction projects by considering sustainable development criteria

A hybrid lexicographic and VIKOR approach for prioritizing construction projects by considering sustainable development criteria

Analysis of the influence of environmental factors on the economic development of the region (on the example of the Republic of Mordovia)

For a long time, the gross domestic product was the only indicator that allowed one or another state to be classified as “developed» or «developing» without taking into account the created externalities. It is now recognized that not only the amount of added value, but also the environmental factor, appears as an important element of a regional socio-economic system that makes it possible to understand how resource-saving the economy is and to form the basis for sustainable development of the territory. The importance of reflecting the environmental factor in generalizing indicators of the economic development of the territory does not raise doubts at the highest state level, as evidenced by a number of policy documents adopted by the Government of the Russian Federation. In this article, the author has attempted an alternative assessment of sustainable development in the region, taking into account the environmental factor. The subject of the study is the problems of measuring the balance of the ecological and economic development of the territory. As methods in this article, we used analysis, synthesis, deduction, and forecasting in the exponential smoothing model in the Statistica program. On the basis of a compilation of available official statistics, it was decided to use the forecast of the adjusted GRP of the Republic of Mordovia, taking into account the output of the extractive sector and investment in the region in the region. The results of the calculations carried out by the author have demonstrated that GRP, taking into account the criteria of sustainable development, will be greater than the actually predicted value of gross output in the region. In addition, the integration of the integrated environmental index in the calculation of the adjusted GRP will make it possible to reflect more in the indicator the contribution of current environmental pollution. The proposed recommendations can be used to improve the constructed forecast models and conduct inter-regional comparisons.

Application of Geographic Information System for forward planning of the Russian Federation subject rural areas

The present article deals with the issues of elaboration and analysis of methods of rural areas planning within the framework of agro-industrial complex development in Rostov Region. In order to ensure a possibility of forward planning for the rural areas, a method of development planning for agro-industrial complex in the Russian Federation subject has been elaborated. This method consists of 5 stages and comprises analysis of agriculture development on both regional and federal levels, and foresees a transition onto the local level for each AIC object. Algorithm of land suitability for agricultural purposes underlies this method. This article describes all stages of algorithm implementation. One of the implementation stages is the identification of criteria for sustainable development of rural areas. Based on the mentioned criteria, and with the use of ArcGIS ESRI software, electronic maps demonstrating the natural resources potential, anthropogenic impact on the areas, and the existing situation regarding the development of agricultural industry branches in the region. Generation and analysis of electronic maps allowed to carry out a comprehensive evaluation of the Rostov Region territory. This article also covers a calculation of functional ranking, based on which the territories of the utmost priority for agricultural industry development have been identified in the region.

Разработка подхода к оценке ядерных энергетических систем по критерию устойчивого развития

Разработка подхода к оценке ядерных энергетических систем по критерию устойчивого развития

PERSPECTIVES OF SOCIAL ASPECTS OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN THE LATVIA’S REGION LATGALE

For the conception of sustainable development the elaboration of indicators allowing to determine its tendencies is of major importance. The practice shows that the lists of sustainable development criteria suggested at present do not take into consideration the pecularities of particular regions. Modern theories of sustainable development consider this phenomenon in three aspects: economic, ecological and social. The article considers the tendencies of sustainable development in the social sphere in Latgale in comparison to other regions of Latvia. The indicator here is the condition and possibilities of development of human capital (decent life for generations). The method of the research is the analysis of the statistical data. The conclusion is made on the basis of the research that the situation in the social sphere of Latgale does not correspond to the requirements of sustainable development. Research has two aims: to check the criteria of sustainbility development often mentioned in scientific literature in relation to Latvia; research of social aspect of sustainable development of east region of Latvia.