Indicators Of Ecological Sustainability Research Articles

MEASURING SUSTAINABILITY IN SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT IN CONSTRUCTION COMPANIES

This paper provides an analysis of the most important sustainability indicators for SSCM in construction and gives a detailed overview of what has been scientifically accomplished in the field to date, and identifies areas for further research. The most important sustainability indicators were also grouped and presented in the literature review into the main seven assessment groups of the SSCM construction industry and ranked by experts from Northern Italy and Lithuania in several different ways. Based on the data from the Table 3, it can be inferred that a harmonious work environment among ecological sustainability indicators appeared as the most crucial indicator for respondents. Environmental education was among the most important social indicators. In the legal group, work efficiency emerged as the most significant indicator, while in the physical group, sustainable resource use was crucial. In the political realm, economic and political stability was the most important, and among technological indicators, innovation stood out. Among economic indicators, profit was the most significant sustainability indicator for respondents. A general indicator importance method combined results obtained from expert surveys using various methods. The ranking of sustainability indicators in each group was not included in the calculation of the overall indicator importance, but the results were similar in both cases. The determined importance of indicator values could be adapted for further analysis, specifically for multicriteria evaluation, as per the conceptual model shown in Figure 1. This article provides members of the construction industry with detailed calculations and results of the evaluation of key sustainability indicators related to supply chain groups. This study explores several possible ways to measure the importance of sustainability indicators, which could provide further theoretical insights into SSCM in the construction industry and help develop an accurate sustainability index model.

Sustainability of frankincense production in Tigray, Ethiopia: an emergy synthesis

The frankincense from Boswellia papyrifera plays important roles in rural livelihoods and the national economy. On the other hand, Boswellia papyrifera is under threat of extinction. Nevertheless, little is known about the sustainability and fair-trade relationship of the current production system of the frankincense commodity. The current paper primarily analyzed sustainability of the production, processing, and exporting systems of frankincense production using the total emergy flows to the product. Data were primarily collected through key informant interviews and from secondary sources in the Tigray region, northern Ethiopia. An emergy synthesis method was used to assess the direct and indirect environmental energy requirements for the production, processing, and exporting of frankincense. The Emergy Sustainability Index (ESI), and Ratios were used as indicators of ecological sustainability. Whereas the Emergy Exchange Ratio (EER) was used to evaluate the level of fair trade of frankincense with importing countries. The average total emergy of the system was 50.14E+20sej/year, of which 3.92E+20sej are from local renewable, 45.20E+20sej from local nonrenewable and 1.02E+20sej from imported nonrenewable sources. The Percent Renewable (% Ren), Environmental Loading Ratio (ELR), Emergy Yield Ratio (EYR) and ESI were 7.82, 11.79, 49.50 and 4.19, respectively. The EER showed that the region exported 11.8 times more emergy in frankincense products than it received in the money paid for it in 2008/09, showing unfair trade between the exporting and importing countries. According to our results, it can be concluded that the current production, processing, and exporting of frankincense is not sustainable.

Agro-ecological state of land resources of Kamianets-Podilskyi distrist of Khmelnytskyi region

The peculiarities of the agro ecological state of land resources of Kamianets Podilskyi district have been analyzed in the article. The structure of the agricultural lands of the district, the ecological condition and ecological sustainability of land resources has been studied. The territorial differences in the land use structure in Kamiantes-Podilskyi TC have been defined. Based on the conducted research we have found out the main type the land use within all the TC of the district is the agricultural, which is evidenced by the high level of agricultural development (76,3 %). The highest rate of agricultural development is in Chemerivtsi TC (84 %). In the structure of agricultural lands the largest part in all TCs is taken up by arable land. The agricultural lands dominate in the structure of the land fund and take up 358,20 thousand ha. Arable land takes up 223,4 thousand ha, perennial plantations – 19,5 thousand ha, pastures and hayfields – 89,9 thousands ha, fallow lands – 0,37 thousand ha, agricultural buildings – 7,59 thousand ha. Based on such indicators as the structure of agricultural land, the area of arable land, and the area of agricultural land we have analyzed the intensity and the level of agricultural development and plowed territory of the district. A significant area within the district is occupied by agricultural land – 333,2 thousand ha. The largest share in the structure of agricultural land is occupied by arable land – 67,2 %. The share of hayfields and pastures is 26,8 %, and perennial plantations – 5,8 %. The high share of arable land (67,2 %) in the structure of agricultural land and the agricultural development (76,3 %) of the territory of the district affects the structure of the land fund of both the individual TCs and the district overall and determines the efficiency of the use of land resources. In the structure of agricultural land, hayfields and pastures occupy smaller areas than arable land (34.402,8 ha and 55.576,5 ha, respectively). The share of these lands in the structure of agricultural lands is 26,8 %. Within the district, there is a certain territorial differentiation in terms of indicators of the ecological state, ecological sustainability and anthropogenic transformation. The average index of ecological sustainability of land resources for the Kamianets-Podilskyi district is 0,81. Thus, the land resources of the district can be attributed to the group of conditionally sustainable. Anthropogenic transformation within Kamianets-Podilsky district varies from the maximum of 7,5 in Kamianets-Podilskyi TC to the minimum in Orynyn TC – 5,9. When analyzing the territorial features of the location of the TC according to this indicator, it has been found out that the southern and eastern parts of the district have an average level of anthropogenic transformation. The average indicator of anthropogenic transformation within the district is 6,27. The following pattern is observed between the indicators of ecological sustainability and anthropogenic transformation: in TCs where anthropogenic transformation is very strong, the ecological sustainability of land is low (non-sustainable land). Conservation and reproduction of land resources is especially relevant for the Podilia region, including the Kamianets-Podilskyi district, as land resources are the main type of resources here. The basis of the balanced use of land resources is the combination of their functions: ecological, economic and social. Keywords: land resources, structure of agricultural lands, ecological sustainability, anthropogenic impact, ecological state.

Associations of Adherence to a Dietary Index Based on the EAT–Lancet Reference Diet with Nutritional, Anthropometric, and Ecological Sustainability Parameters: Results from the German DONALD Cohort Study

ABSTRACTBackgroundValidation of the EAT–Lancet reference diet (ELR-diet), recently proposed by the EAT–Lancet Commission, within the context of real-life studies is necessary to elucidate its feasibility, nutritional value, sustainability, and health effects.ObjectivesWe aimed to develop a dietary index (DI) score to measure adherence to the ELR-diet. We further aimed to study the association between the DI score and 1) nutritional characteristics, 2) indicators of ecological sustainability, and 3) anthropometric markers and biomarkers for cardiometabolic health.MethodsA DI score was constructed by comparing the categories defined by the ELR-diet with the dietary data of 2–5 sets of 3-d weighed dietary records from DONALD (Dortmund Nutritional and Anthropometric Longitudinal Designed) study participants (n = 298; ≥15 y of age). Prospective associations between the DI score and risk markers (anthropometric and cardiometabolic) in young adulthood (≥18 y old) were investigated using multivariate linear regression.ResultsAdherence to the DI score components was considerable (majority > 50%), but varied within the population (2%–100%). The highest tertile of the DI score was inversely associated with the intake of protein (tertile 3 compared with tertile 1: 13.5 compared with 14.5 energy %), added sugars (10.5 compared with 12.4 energy %), and cholesterol (100 compared with 116 mg/1000 kcal), but positively associated with fiber intake (10.0 compared with 8.82 g/1000 kcal) (all P < 0.05). The DI score was inversely associated with greenhouse-gas emissions (tertile 1 compared with tertile 3: 6.48 compared with 5.85 kg of carbon dioxide equivalents/2500 kcal; P < 0.001) and land use (8.24 compared with 7.16 m2 × y/2500 kcal; P < 0.001). Inverse associations between the DI score and anthropometric markers during young adulthood were observed (e.g., BMI: tertile 1 compared with tertile 3: 22.9 compared with 21.9 kg/m2; P = 0.03) (all P < 0.05). No associations between the DI score and cardiometabolic risk markers were found (all P ≥ 0.05).ConclusionsAdherence to the ELR-diet was associated with favorable nutritional characteristics and reduced environmental impact. Adherence to the DI score in adolescence was also beneficial with respect to anthropometric markers in early adulthood, although not for further cardiometabolic risk markers.

Biological Transformation in process simulation for enhancing ecological sustainability indicators

Achieving a sustainable value creation with innovative technological means based on principles of living nature is the goal of Biological Transformation (BT). The three essential principles of BT: Bio-Inspiration, Bio-Integration and Bio-Interaction, enable the implementation of biologically transformed materials, structures and processes. BT is an emerging concept in the field of Industrie 4.0, taking a particular emphasis on product creation, but its specific influence and the potential for process planning in manufacturing are still underrepresented in research.Regarding the BT of the manufacturing industry, the goal in process planning is to support the user towards the most sustainable processes. Due to the current lack of profound systematical approaches process planning strongly depends on the user’s level of knowledge of conventional manufacturing processes, which can be inefficient in terms of environmental sustainability.Therefore, this paper methodically investigates the potential for process planning using a taxonomy of principles for the BT of the manufacturing industry. These categorized modes of action for a BT are linked to key performance indicators within the economic and environmental sphere. As a result, expedient approaches for a biologically transformed process planning are uncovered, which address the principles of adaptation, self-adaption and bio-intelligent process engineering to affect the energy consumption, machining time and process stability. Furthermore, first concept ideas for an integrated solution are presented and a basic validation is provided.

Prospects for implementation of corporate environmental responsibility concept: the eu experience for Ukraine

A comparative analysis of the main indicators of ecological sustainability in Ukraine and European countries has been done and the economic indicators of nature use in Ukraine have been studied. The purpose of this article is to study the experience and development peculiarities of corporate environmental responsibility, as well as the implementation of better European environmental practice in Ukrainian business. The research methodology concerns to the study of the Environmental Sustainability Index of Ukraine and European countries, as well as the Eco-innovations Index. The key criteria for corporate environmental responsibility has been identified based on the analysis results and a list of factors affecting the environmental responsibility of the enterprise has been formed. The conceptual framework of corporate environmental responsibility in Ukraine with application European principles and approaches for creating a favourable business environment has been developed.

Ecological Sustainability Indicators of the Mining Industry Areas in Russia

The author gives methodological ground for the assessment of ecological sustainability of the mining industry areas based on the mechanism of interaction between the natural and technical subsystems. The list and values of the required ecological stability indicators are presented for the environmental risk classification of industrial facilities.

Использование жужелиц (Coleoptera, Carabidae) как индикаторов экологической устойчивости антропогенно-трансформированных территорий

Использование жужелиц (Coleoptera, Carabidae) как индикаторов экологической устойчивости антропогенно-трансформированных территорий

Resource use efficiencies as indicators of ecological sustainability in potato production: A South African case study

Potato, the most important vegetable crop in South Africa, is produced in many distinct geographical regions differing in climate, soils, production seasons and management practices and access to markets. These differences affect the amount of input resources required to produce potatoes as well as yields and crop value, and therefore the use efficiencies of land, water, nutrients, seed and energy. Resource use efficiencies affect the ecological and financial sustainability of potato production in this region, which has in general less favourable potato growing conditions than north-western Europe and the U.S.A., where high resource use efficiencies are usually recorded. This study aimed to assess and benchmark South African potato production regions, representing a wide range of growing conditions, regarding their use of input resources and to identify resource-intensive practices, which may suggest inefficient use of inputs. Surveys were conducted in 2013 and 2014 by interviewing growers in all production regions, to provide data on resource use efficiencies. Quantitative modelling approaches were applied to calculate carbon footprints as a proxy of energy use efficiency, potential crop yields and irrigation needs for each region. Variability in the gap between potential and actual yield was used to identify yield limiting factors. Actual yields achieved were on average 60% of the potential yield, suggesting fairly efficient use of available production factors. Water, seed and nutrient use efficiencies differed widely between and within regions and were not directly proportional to water requirements and yields achieved. Fertilizers (34%) and irrigation (30%) were the greatest contributors to energy use in potato crop production. Energy required to pump water was strongly related to the amount of irrigation applied, pumping depth and distance. Long distance travel of produce to retail points contributed substantially to energy use. Significant improvements in efficiencies are possible by improving management practices. Analysis of the variability in resource use efficiencies between farms and regions provided production sustainability indicators that can assist growers in identifying inefficient practices and yield limiting factors. These can be addressed through the use of decision support systems, such as irrigation scheduling tools, to improve resource use efficiencies and the sustainability of production, not only for the production efficiency of the specific study area, but also for the economic efficiency of potato production anywhere else.

Economic development and prosperity patterns around the world: Structural challenges for a global steady-state economy

Abstract Taking a global perspective this paper sets out to theoretically and empirically identify prosperity patterns for four groups of countries at different levels of economic development. It conceptualizes ‘prosperity’ in terms of ecological sustainability, social inclusion, and the quality of life and contextualizes this definition in global perspective. Subsequently, it operationalizes and measures these dimensions on the basis of data from sources such as the World Bank, the Global Footprint Network and the OECD for 138 countries and by applying dual multiple factor analysis. Building on earlier research that suggested that higher development levels in terms of GDP per capita are capable of providing social and individual prosperity but at the expense of environmental sustainability, we ask whether other interrelations between prosperity indicators exist on other levels of economic development. Empirically distinguishing between ‘rich’, ‘emerging’, ‘developing’ and ‘poor countries’ the paper finds that social and individual prosperity indicators largely increase with economic development while ecological sustainability indicators worsen. Our analyses further reveal that ‘social cohesion’ can be established under different economic and institutional conditions, that subjective wellbeing increases with income rises at all levels of economic development and that a decoupling of carbon emissions from the provision of prosperity is, in principle, achievable, while a reduction of the global matter and energy throughput poses a much greater challenge. The paper concludes by highlighting the repercussions of these findings for the trajectories that countries at different levels of economic development would need to undertake.

Analyzing Integrated Wastelands Development Programme in West Bengal: An ecological sustainability perspective

Ecological sustainability is long term maintenance of the capability of the environment to support human life. It is one of the most important dimensions of the sustainability triad i.e Ecological, economic and social sustainability. Achieving ecological sustainability would be instrumental in reversing the trend of fast degrading natural resources of the country. Integrated Wastelands Development Programme (IWDP) which is implemented in four district of West Bengal from 2004 particularly for development of degraded or potentially degradable land has been analysed for ecological sustainability in terms of parameter like increased vegetation, technological intervention with providing due importance to indigenous technologies etc. and the constraints faced by beneficiaries in different stages of project management. This study was conducted in Taldangra block of Bankura district. Result indicated that consideration of indigenous technologies (weight 0.467) and environmental effects (weight 0.328) were perceived as the most important indicators of ecological sustainability. Use of erosion checking measure and water harvesting measure was the most urgent measure to check natural resource degradation. Overall activities under the project had a medium level of ecological sustainability (overall ecological sustainability index 55.75).

Towards integrated social–ecological sustainability indicators: Exploring the contribution and gaps in existing global data

Sustainable development goals (SDGs), which recognise the interconnections between social, economic and ecological systems, have ignited new interest in indicators able to integrate trends in – and interactions between – nature and socio-economic development. We explore whether existing global data can be used to measure nature's contribution to development targets and explore limitations in these data. Using Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 1– eradicate extreme hunger and poverty. We develop two indicators to assess the contribution of nature to progress in this goal. The indicators (based on income and employment data from nature-based sectors (NBS) represented by agriculture, forestry and fisheries) show large but declining contributions of nature to MDG 1: NBS contributed to lifting 18% of people out of poverty and provided 37% of global employment between 1991 and 2010. For low income countries, the contributions were 20% and 55% respectively. In exploring data gaps the study highlighted low reporting rates especially in low income countries, as well as lack of other measures of poverty alleviation beyond income and employment. If we are to move beyond target setting to implementation of sustainable development goals at national scales, these shortcomings require as much attention as the elaboration and agreement on the post-2015 development goals.

SAFE 2013: Sustainability of countries updated

Sustainability Assessment by Fuzzy Evaluation (SAFE) is a model that measures the overall sustainability of countries by combining indicators of ecological sustainability and human sustainability. The model provides country rankings and performs sensitivity analysis which reveals key indicators that each country should improve. This note presents the most recent country rankings and policy recommendations based on the most recent data. A comparison with past rankings shows the relative progress of each country over the last decade.

Complex Risks from Old Urban Waste Landfills: Sustainability Perspective from Iasi, Romania

Landfills continue to represent the most frequent managerial practice for municipal solid wastes and an increasing and complex problem globally. In certain countries, a transition to an open society and free market is superimposed on the transition to sustainability, resulting in even higher complexity of management. This paper proposes an approach for problem-structuring of landfills in complex transitions: sustainability or unsustainability of a management approach is determined by a set of sustainability filters that are defined by sets of indicators and prioritized according the systemic concept of sustainability, which says that economy is embedded in society, which is embedded in nature. The writers exercise this approach with an old landfill in Iasi, Romania, and conclude for unsustainability, because the ecological sustainability filter is not successfully passed. Social and economic sustainability filters are also discussed in relation with the ecological sustainability indicators. The described approach allows a coherent, transdisciplinary synthesis of knowledge scattered across various disciplines, a pervasive problem in landfill management. The case study helps distinguish between generally true and context- dependent aspects. DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)HZ.2153-5515.0000090. © 2012 American Society of Civil Engineers.

How Will the Changing Industrial Forest Landscape Affect Forest Sustainability?

Abstract Large-scale divestiture of commercial forestlands is occurring in the United States. Furthermore, increasing demand for cellulose for bioenergy may modify forest management practices widely enough to impact the spatial characteristics of forested landscapes. We used the HARVEST timber harvest simulator to investigate the potential consequences of divestiture and increased harvest from existing stands for bioenergy on landscape indicators of sustainability in a working landscape in upper Michigan. Divestiture tended to reduce the amount of older forests, increased fragmentation, reduced public access, and decreased the volume of wood extracted from the landscape. Increasing bioenergy production also reduced older forests, increased fragmentation of age classes, and reduced fragmentation of forest types, while increasing wood volume extracted. Our results suggest that divestiture and increased harvest for bioenergy will have negative effects on most indicators of ecological sustainability studied, although it is less clear whether these effects are ecologically significant because the slopes of the negative relationships are relatively small at the divestiture rates studied.

Assessing sustainability indicators for tropical forests: Spatio-temporal heterogeneity, logging intensity, and dung beetle communities

Sustainable management of tropical forests has been identified as one of the main objectives for conservation of global biodiversity and management of carbon stocks. To achieve this goal, managers need tools to assess the sustainability of current management practices. Several international initiatives have undertaken the development of sets of criteria and indicators to help managers move towards sustainability. Among the indicators considered, the structure and composition of dung beetle communities have been identified as excellent indicators of ecological sustainability. However, as occurs with most indicators of the ecological sustainability of forest management, dung beetle surveys require intensive field work making their application over large areas expensive, time consuming, and logistically challenging. A need for prioritization is evident. This work presents a novel approach to the assessment of the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) ecological sustainability indicator I.2.1.2: “The change in diversity of habitats as a result of human interventions is maintained within critical limits as defined by natural variation and/or regional conservation objectives”. Using variography of vegetation index data derived from remotely sensed imagery, we show (1) how the differences in forest structural heterogeneity observed between forest management units and natural areas can be used to identify priority areas for field survey of ecological sustainability indicators (hereafter “priority-for-survey”) and (2) how these priorities correspond to dung beetle community structure and composition. Links between temporal change in forest structural heterogeneity, logging intensity, and dung beetle community structure and composition were established by means of correlation analysis and matrix regression modeling. We found that areas ranked as low priority-for-survey based on image analysis showed no significant difference in dung beetle species richness or diversity from natural reference areas. Further, we found significantly higher dung beetle species richness and diversity estimates in areas ranked as moderate or moderate-low priority-for-survey over the low and reference areas. Finally, the dung beetle community composition in the high priority-for-survey category was significantly less rich and less diverse than any other category. We identified a logging intensity threshold of four trees per hectare as a transition to significant differences in forest structural heterogeneity and the richness and diversity of associated dung beetle communities.

A Stock-Take of Green National Accounting Initiatives

Green national accounting has existed in a variety of forms for just over thirty years. Having essentially begun as environmental cost adjustments to Gross Domestic Product, green national accounting now includes such indicators as the Genuine Progress Indicator, Genuine Savings, and the Ecological Footprint. This paper serves as an overview or stock-take of green national accounting initiatives and as a means of assessing the major developments since the early 1970s. It is concluded that a suite of indicators is required to convey a complete picture of a nation’s sustainable development performance. In addition, economic indicators need to be supplemented by biophysical indicators, although the latter should never be incorporated directly into national income accounts since they serve as indicators of ecological sustainability, not of economic performance. Finally, the fact that a number of recently established indicators are still in the embryonic stage of development means that considerable refinement is necessary before they are likely to be broadly accepted by the policy-making community.

Sustainable management of Canada’s boreal forests: Progress and prospects

:The last decade of innovation in forest management in Canada is reviewed. Institutions such as the Sustainable Forest Management Network and Canada’s Model Forest Program have attempted to develop a better understanding of ecological disturbance patterns and processes. Additional research has explored socio-economic dimensions of sustainable forestry, such as ways to incorporate the aspirations of indigenous peoples, build community capacity, and facilitate forest certification. The most promising innovations tend to have both environmental benefits (sustaining non-timber values) and economic benefits (reducing costs and sustaining future timber values), making their implementation more likely. Some on-theground examples of “win-win” solutions at stand and landscape levels in Canada’s boreal forests include: patch retention in conjunction with the creation of large cutblocks; protection of advance regeneration during timber harvesting; promotion and prediction of natural regeneration; various approaches to mixedwood (broadleaf and conifer) management; avoidance of unnecessary brush control; extended rotations and selection management for some tree species and stand types; promoting the flow of fibre to its highest value uses; and zoning in support of intensive silviculture, thereby potentially reducing harvesting pressures from lands with high conservation value. More closely emulating natural patterns of forest disturbance and forest recovery can help sustain biodiversity and ecosystem services, but may not generate all values desired from managed forests. Further research is needed to calibrate indicators of ecological sustainability. Institutional and policy innovation must also be evaluated in the context of adaptive management to improve the effectiveness of forestry practices and nurture the social license for the utilization and management of public forests.

A neural network approach to selecting indicators for a sustainable ecosystem

The determination of indicators for monitoring the natural environment to ensure the ecological sustainability of areas under stress is problematic and prone to bias. Further, because of limitations in the resources available for data collection, such indicators should be selected carefully and their number confined to the minimum required to effectively monitor the system under study. Statistical techniques have traditionally been used to help select indicators, but often data lack the requirements of valid statistical analyses: minimal noise, variables linearly separable, variables able to be assigned numerical values, and high dimensionality. In this study, an alternate robust technique, artificial neural networks, is used to examine ecosystem data in multidimensional space and to select the minimum number of measured indicators that have the greatest weight in maintaining a sustainable ecosystem. The case study involves selecting indicators for ensuring the completion of ecologically sustainable army training conducted in a mixed grass prairie ecosystem. A neural network model was created that reduced the number of required measured indicators from 62 to 12, while minimizing researcher bias. Key words: ecological sustainability indicators, neural networks, military training.

Evaluating the ecological sustainability of Austrian agricultural landscapes—the SINUS approach

Sustainability has become a central term in environmental planning and policy since the late 1980s. However, an understanding of landscapes in terms of sustainability is still poorly developed. The project Spatial Indices for Land Use Sustainability was conducted to elaborate spatially explicit indicators for mapping ecological sustainability. Ecological sustainability was defined in terms of naturalness and biodiversity. The concept of hemeroby, a measure for the naturalness or conversely the human influence on ecosystems, was used for the assessment of ecological sustainability. Because direct information on the hemerobiotic state of landscapes was missing, shortcuts were analysed. An interdisciplinary multi-scale approach was developed that combined remote sensing data and a landscape ecological field survey, using a landscape typology as spatial reference frame. Variables describing the configuration and shape of the land mosaic were derived form a land cover classification based on landform and landscape fragmentation data. Two different assessment approaches were compared, (a) an expert-knowledge based fuzzy-rule system, and (b) an assessment based on the deviation of a certain landscape type from the mean hemerobiotic state. The hemeroby model was formulated and applied using ordinal regression techniques. The project results support the ‘pattern and process paradigm’. Variables describing landscape patterns turned out to be crucial for the model and were a good predictor for land-use intensity estimated by the hemerobiotic state. Based on each of the two approaches a ‘sustainability map’ of Austria's cultural landscapes was derived. Despite the methodological differences of the two approaches similarities in the results could be demonstrated. Landscape-structure indicators were shown to be good indicators of ecological sustainability because they are related to ecological characteristics of landscapes such as naturalness and biodiversity.