Local Environmental Sustainability Research Articles

MEJORA DE LA PERCEPCIÓN DEL TURISTA: COMPARACIÓN DE PLATAFORMAS DE INFORMACIÓN Y GESTIÓN PARA EL DESARROLLO DE MARCAS TURÍSTICAS EN BALI Y YOGYAKARTA

Objective: This research aims to compare tourism management strategies and destination branding in Bali and Yogyakarta, with a view to identifying different approaches and their impact on tourism development. Theoretical Framework: This research is based on theories of destination branding and tourism management, including the Destination Marketing Organization (DMO) framework and sustainable tourism principles. These frameworks provide a basis for understanding the strategic differences between the two destinations. Method: This comparative research utilized a mixed methods approach, combining secondary data analysis, an online survey, and an extensive literature review. Data was collected from various sources to gain diverse perspectives on tourism strategies in Bali and Yogyakarta. Results and Discussion: The findings show that Bali strategically utilizes technology for global digital marketing through social media and online platforms, thus increasing its international appeal. In contrast, Yogyakarta focuses on using technology to drive personalized tourist interactions, emphasizing local environmental sustainability and community welfare. Both destinations also highlight cultural diversity, with Bali capitalizing on its cultural appeal and Yogyakarta prioritizing environmental sustainability. Influencers play an important role in disseminating tourism information, especially through social media, underscoring their power in shaping traveler perceptions. Research Implications: The practical implications of this research suggest that stakeholders should tailor their tourism management and branding strategies to each destination's unique attributes to ensure sustainable growth and development. Insights from this research can inform the formulation of effective approaches that resonate with tourists and support long-term sustainability. Originality/Value: This study contributes to the literature by offering a comparative analysis of two leading destinations in Indonesia, highlighting the role of technology and social media in tourism management. Its value lies in providing actionable insights for stakeholders to improve destination branding and achieve sustainable tourism development.

Green Retrofitting of Building using BIM-based Sustainability Optimization

The construction industry consumes around 55 percent of Pakistan’s annual energy and is the country’s most energy-intensive sector. It is, therefore, significant to devise a novel and effective model of green retrofitting of current buildings based on Building Information Modelling (BIM) which aims to reduce building energy consumption to effectively meet diversified climatic concerns and to promote sustainable structures. This research aims to reform the existing building by modifying the design parameters for an inefficient building envelope based on BIM simulation and data optimization results to optimize the overall energy consumption. BIM tools, such as Autodesk Revit and DesignBuilder have been used for the evaluation of the optimized energy-efficient design by comparing different design alternatives. After a detailed analysis, this research has concluded that the existing building is consuming a high amount of annual energy. With the help of BIM tools, which possess advanced algorithms for an effective optimization process, a list of ‘green’ solutions i.e., optimal designs has been generated, out of which the optimal and cost-effective design saved 46% of energy in total. In this study, the design variables selection has been fulfilled according to the local environmental sustainability.

The Work that Work does: How intrinsic and instrumental values are transformed into relational values through active work participation in Swiss community supported agriculture

Abstract Community supported agriculture (CSA) is an alternative food network that aims to enable sustainable and just food production by bringing consumers and producers together. One version of CSA (Solidarische Landwirtschaft in German or Solidarity Agriculture) requires active labour participation of members as part of the subscription price. This paper uses a relational values approach to explore what motivates members to join and participate in solidarity agriculture cooperatives and how the experience of participation changes their values and behaviour. Qualitative interviews were conducted with 21 members of three co‐operatives and analysed using a grounded theory approach. Specifically, we applied the Syntax of Environmental Values Framework, developed by Deplazes‐Zemp and Chapman. Results show that members typically hold strong intrinsic values regarding fair compensation for farmer's work and local environmental sustainability and instrumental values regarding food quality and healthy eating. We found that participation and work practices at the cooperative added to and changed values and behaviour through new relational connections to food, farmers and to nature via the agricultural landscape. These findings provide new insight into the ways that relational values can be adopted and more broadly on the relationship between values and behaviour. This paper concludes that values, especially relational values, can form and change through lived experiences. Our results can help guide programs aiming to foster pro‐environmental values in a local population by highlighting one possible mechanism to do so. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

Scale, evidence, and community participation matter: lessons in effective and legitimate adaptive governance from decision making for Menindee Lakes in Australia’s Murray-Darling Basin

Rivers and their interdependent human communities form social-ecologically complex systems that reflect basin scale functionally but are often governed by spatially mismatched governance systems. Accounting for this complexity requires flexible adaptive governance systems supported by legitimacy in decision-making processes. Meaningful community dialogue, information exchange, transparency, and scientific rigor are essential to this process. We examined failings in the adaptive governance of the Menindee Lakes system, a major Australian wetland system on the Barka/Darling River of the Murray-Darling Basin. Ecological sustainability of the Menindee Lakes was a casualty of a top-down governance, driven by the New South Wales Government in pursuit of “water savings” for the Murray-Darling Basin, a large scale, federally influenced region. We used quantitative and qualitative methods to analyze long-term social-ecological impacts and stakeholder perceptions of adaptive governance. State and federal government agencies failed basic processes of adaptive governance, ignoring local environmental sustainability in pursuit of basin scale objectives at great cost to governments, communities, humans, and non-humans. This resulted in the development of an ineffective, technocratic solution that lacked community input, leading to a complete loss of support by local communities, including traditional owners. We emphasize the importance of elements of scale in adaptive governance projects, if such projects are going to be effective and legitimate with consequences of coarse commitments to large spatial scale political and environmental objectives.

Primate Conservation Efforts and Sustainable Development Goals in Ecuador, Combining Research, Education and Capacity Building.

Simple SummaryWe present the experiences and lessons learned from two primate conservation projects in eastern and western Ecuador and analyze their contribution to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Both projects combine research, education, and capacity building to empower and engage local communities in initiatives to protect primate habitats. The projects’ outcomes contribute to SDGs 15 (Life on land), 4 (Quality education), 2 (Zero hunger), 3 (Good health and well-being), 5 (Gender equality), 10 (Reduced inequalities), 12 (Responsible consumption and production), and 13 (Climate actions). We highlight the importance of sharing information between projects with similar scopes and the need to develop local indicators for a more objective assessment of the contribution of small-scale conservation projects to the delivery of the SDGs.Ecuadorian primates are a diverse and ecologically important group that is facing severe conservation problems. We present the experiences and lessons learned from two primate conservation projects in eastern and western Ecuador to foster an in-depth reflection of what could be improved to enhance their contribution to the delivery of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). By combining research, education, and capacity building, both projects aim to empower and engage local communities in initiatives to protect primate habitats. These efforts to enhance local environmental sustainability contribute to SDGs 15 (Life on land), 4 (Quality of education), 2 (Zero hunger), 3 (Good health and well-being), 5 (Gender equality), 10 (Reduced inequalities), 12 (Responsible consumption and production), and 13 (Climate actions). One of our findings is that community involvement in conservation activities is not always directly related to an improvement of the conservation status of primate populations. Therefore, continuous monitoring of primate populations and of other relevant indicators is key to assessing the effectiveness of the interventions. We highlight the importance of sharing information between projects with similar scopes and the need to develop local indicators for a more objective assessment of the contribution of small-scale conservation projects to the delivery of the SDGs.

Cropland redistribution to marginal lands undermines environmental sustainability.

ABSTRACTCropland redistribution to marginal land has been reported worldwide; however, the resulting impacts on environmental sustainability have not been investigated sufficiently. Here we investigated the environmental impacts of cropland redistribution in China. As a result of urbanization-induced loss of high-quality croplands in south China (∼8.5 t ha–1), croplands expanded to marginal lands in northeast (∼4.5 t ha–1) and northwest China (∼2.9 t ha–1) during 1990–2015 to pursue food security. However, the reclamation in these low-yield and ecologically vulnerable zones considerably undermined local environmental sustainability, for example increasing wind erosion (+3.47%), irrigation water consumption (+34.42%), fertilizer use (+20.02%) and decreasing natural habitats (−3.11%). Forecasts show that further reclamation in marginal lands per current policies would exacerbate environmental costs by 2050. The future cropland security risk will be remarkably intensified because of the conflict between food production and environmental sustainability. Our research suggests that globally emerging reclamation of marginal lands should be restricted and crop yield boost should be encouraged for both food security and environmental benefits.

10 Questions to Ask About Planning, Financing and Implementing Transit Oriented Development Strategies

Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) strategies can improve connectivity between housing and employment centers, green spaces, and community facilities by supporting both local environmental sustainability objectives, through more efficient use of land, and “complete” streets, by creating safer infrastructure for pedestrians and bicyclists, leading to potential modal shifts. Enabling conditions for TOD may include changes in land-use regulation and other statutory provisions to create an integrated regulatory framework. TOD requires robust stakeholder engagement and institutional coordination during planning and implementation. Financing mechanisms cities have used to fund TOD include Land Value Capture, a strategy based on expected increases in land values due to infrastructure investments. These mechanisms have been used to generate revenues such as Tax Increment Financing (TIF) and a wide range of taxes and fees. Cities should be aware of the potential negative impacts of TOD, such as displacement and gentrification. Effective and inclusive TOD strategies should be accompanied by land management strategies that mitigate these impacts, including having policies in place to ensure the preservation and expansion of affordable housing. There is typically a lag of at least 5 to 10 years before the economic and financial impacts of TOD investments are fully realized, thus requiring the need for patient capital, well-structured deals and financial instruments, and proper governance.

Nonlinear effect of compound extreme weather events on ozone formation over the United States

Compound events (e.g., co-occurrence of two extreme weather events simultaneously) have the potential to aggravate the impacts of heat wave and stagnation on ozone through nonlinear effects. Using the Weather Research and Forecasting model coupled with Chemistry (WRF/Chem), this study investigated the impact of compound extreme weather events on ozone enhancement in the contiguous U.S. The analyses are based on simulations for the historical (2001–2006) and future (2046–2055) periods previously performed, with emissions in the future following the A1B/B2 emission scenarios produced by the Technology Driver Model (TDM). While A1B reflects rapid economic growth, B2 emphasizes more on local environmental sustainability, hence lower anthropogenic emissions. With overall warming in the future, the frequency and intensity of compound extreme events increase more than that of heat waves. Thus compound events promote higher ozone concentration compared to the single extreme events of heat wave and stagnation in larger areas of the U.S. in the future relative to the present. However, averaged over the U.S., the amplification effect of compound events on ozone enhancement is diminished in the future. Sensitivity experiments to isolate the effect of climate change versus emission change showed that climate change under the future emission scenarios dominates the weakening amplification effect of compound events. Further analyses to examine the nonlinear effect of compound events (NLRE), defined as the difference between the enhanced effect on ozone during compound events and the additive effect of heat waves and stagnation relative to non-extreme, showed that regions prone to positive NLRE tend to have compound events marked by higher temperature and stronger stagnation than the single extreme events. Simulations showed reduced mean positive NLRE in the U.S. in the future, suggesting that future emission reduction may provide a previously unrecognized benefit in ozone pollution control by reducing the impacts of compound events on ozone.

An integrated approach to project environmental sustainability under future climate variability: An application to U.S. Rio Grande Basin

Extreme weather events have been affecting local environmental sustainability. Previous literature in this field evaluates environmental sustainability based mainly on past and current resource consumption and availability, however, knowledge about the status and potential changes of environmental sustainability under future climate extremes is missing. This paper proposes an integrated approach (combining the Ecological Footprint Analysis with econometric regressions) to predict future environmental sustainability under different climate scenarios. Based on the case study of the U.S. Rio Grande Basin, the results show that this region has been sustainable in 1982–2012, although sustainability levels have been declining over time. In addition, projections for the future show that the entire region will most likely move away from sustainability by the end of this century under the high emission scenario (e.g., RCP8.5). These findings are relevant for sustainable resource management and allocation of local environmental resources as well as for decision-making support regarding climate risk adaptation and mitigation strategies.

Proposed Framework of Hybrid Photovoltaic Thermal Systems to Ecotourism in Malaysia

Ecotourism is widely recognized for its positive impacts to the environment. Ecotourism is defined as nature-based tourist experiences, which visitors travel to regions for the purpose of appreciating their natural beauty, relaxation and being harmonious with Mother Nature. Ecotourism probably had its foundations in the ethics of conservation, which can help maintain what’s left of nature and fosters environmental education. Employing the sustainable energy, paying more attention to the natural resources and developing existing natural resources will have a direct impact to healthier sustainable environment for the inhabitant. If not all, most of the ecotourism sites are located in the remote area in which to utilize electrical energy from the normal grid is difficult or very costly. On the irony, utilizing the conventional non-renewable energy have negative effect and ruins the ecotourism sites. Therefore, utilizing Hybrid Photovoltaic Thermal (PVT) systems is a fit alternative energy source to serve the limited energy demands of ecotourists sites. The amount of the energy production depends on the visitors’ capacity of the site. Since the rural area enjoys the cheap and large field, it is easier to plan and assemble the PVT systems to suffice the needed energy. In this research the sustainability of local environment along with the sustainable usage of energy were considered. This paper presents the sustainable energy usage of tourism in Malaysia and aims to address the impact of sustainable and non-sustainable on the rural area of ecotourism. This paper also addresses some of the emission, carbon reduction and climate change issues that the world is expected to meet soon.

Application of tourist function indicators in tourism development

Tourism development planning requires consideration of indicators regarding the intensity of tourist activity within destination and measure that should not be exceeded in further improvement of this activity, in order to prevent disturbing the needs of local community and sustainability of local environment. The village Zlakusa is located within the territory of the City of Užice and it represents an important tourism destination of South-western Serbia. Rural tourism of Zlakusa is characterized by its authenticity and recognition, regarding the pottery and ethno-park called “Terzica avlija”. Accordingly, tourist function indicators were used in this research: tourist accommodation density, Defert Baretje’s index, Charvat’s index and Schneider’s index, with the aim of emphasizing the importance of rural potentials of Zlakusa for tourism development within this village, but also within the whole territory of the City of Užice. Research results showed that tourism is important industry within Zlakusa, with necessity of its further affirmation on tourist market and its adaptation to contemporary needs of modern tourists. Also, research results showed that Zlakusa participates in total tourist arrivals with 18%, as well as in total tourist overnights with 13% and it comprises 1.9% of accommodation capacities of the overall tourism development within the City of Užice for observed period (2008–2016). Therefore, results of this study actually show that Zlakusa is highly oriented towards tourism industry, which is the main reason of necessity for further improvement of conditions for its development, especially in the case of rural tourism, without threatening the local community and local environment.

Emergy Analysis and Assessment for a High-end Industrial Park

As the basic unit for eco-city development, industrial park significantly contributes to the national environment protection and eco-civilization. This paper established an emergy-based evaluation framework, simulating the emergy storage and flows, to identify the input-output of the high-end industrial park. The emergy-based indicator system of the industrial park is also set up, including structural indices and functional indices, so as to assess the environmental impacts of the industrial park on the surrounding ecosystems. The results show that the sustainability of local environment is not optimistic due to the large amount of emergy input from outside imposed on surrounding environment of the industrial park. Full of central, technical and service industries, the high-end industrial park has lower materials demand compared to the traditional parks. The major emergy inputs cover materials, energy, labor, of which labor and service emergy contribute almost 90%, fitting well with the characteristics of highly-concentrated sci-tech talents and headquarter role of the park. The high-end industrial park has a higher level of emergy density and per capita emergy, indicating a high level of regional development and emergy hierarchy. Although there are concentrated emergy flows, the emergy yield ratio is lower than 100%, implying the park has the potential to develop rapidly due to the emergy surplus.

Does the Gown Help the Town? Examining Town–Gown Relationship Influence on Local Environmental Sustainability in the United States

A US municipality environmental sustainability index, the OSSPI (Opp-Saunders Sustainability Practices Index), found an overwhelming percentage of top-ranked sustainable cities were home to higher education institutions. While this may be a coincidence, this research seeks to determine if and how local communities partner or collaborate with higher education institutions for environmental sustainability purposes. The results of two case studies, San Antonio, Texas and Dubuque, Iowa, suggest there is considerable variability in the town-gown relationships. However, it is found that larger, public universities are more likely to have stronger relationships and effects on local sustainability efforts.

The Project Activities of the Renewable Energy Resources Use in the Republic of Serbia

With the ratification of the Energy Community of Southeast Europe countries (14th July 2006) the Republic of Serbia, among other things, accepted the obligation to adopt and implement a plan of applying the Directive 2001/77/EC about promoting the production of electrical energy from renewable energy sources. The projects of the renewable energy resources use have a positive impact on the environment, in particular about the mitigation of global climate change and local environmental sustainability.

Emission Source Characterization during an Ethylene Plant Shutdown

AbstractTo conduct a well‐planned plant shutdown, so as to reduce flare emissions for the sake of plant profitability and local environmental sustainability, one of the primary tasks is to perform comprehensive and precise accountings for flare emissions. Since the literature is still lacking systematic and quantitative studies, plant‐wide dynamic simulations are employed to simulate an ethylene plant shutdown and characterize its flare emission sources through which dynamic emission profiles of various emission species changing with respect to time are obtained. Plant shutdown emission inventories are enriched with details for point emission sources, and possible technical supports are provided to both industry and environmental agencies on evaluating and developing cost‐effective flare minimization strategies in the future.

Local Co‐Governance and Environmental Sustainability in New South Wales Local Government: The Lake Macquarie City Council Sustainable Neighbourhoods Program

New South Wales (NSW) local government is in the throes of a vigorous debate over the best methods of improving its operations through a comprehensive reform programme. An Independent Local Government Review Panel, set up by the NSW Government, has proposed addressing the “key challenge” of local environmental sustainability by forcibly amalgamating local councils, especially in the metropolitan regions of the state. Using the community participation model, local co‐governance structures established by Lake Macquarie City Council (LakeMac) in its Sustainable Neighbourhoods Program (SNAP) as a case study, this study argues that co‐governance programmes of this kind represent by far the most promising avenue for tackling the environmental challenges facing NSW local government. We seek to demonstrate that the ground‐breaking efforts being undertaken by LakeMac show that NSW local government already enjoys the necessary legislative foundations to initiate successful local co‐government initiatives through local community participation. Rather than divisive and expensive compulsory council mergers, we contend that the Panel should instead have recommended that the NSW Government focus on encouraging NSW local government to emulate LakeMac's example in discharging its environmental responsibilities.

Local strategic partnerships: a panacea for voluntary interest groups to promote local environmental sustainability? The UK context

AbstractThis paper examines the experiences of local interest groups in promoting environmental sustainability within Local Strategic Partnerships. LSPs are expected to be a local pluralist governance platform in which non‐state groups can engage more widely in the promotion of economic, social and environmental well‐being within a local authority area. Using semi‐structured qualitative interviews with state and non‐state representatives in two contrasting LSP areas in the Yorkshire and Humber region of the UK, this paper finds that environmental interest groups have been marginalized by local state members of LSPs. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

The Nigerian press and environmental information for sustainable development

The prominence accorded the environment and the importance of public engagement in sustainable development issues during the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development underscores the role of environmental information in achieving local environmental sustainability goals. The paper examines the role of the Nigerian press, one of the most vibrant in sub-Saharan Africa, in reporting environmental issues at the turn of the twenty-first century. Two national newspapers, The Daily Times and The Guardian were content analysed for coverage of environmental issues, including climate change, for the 5-year period 1999–2003. The degree of prominence and nature of environmental reports are assessed. The results show that energy issues dominate reports on the environment in both newspapers while climate change, a critical global environmental issue is accorded very little attention. Both newspapers assessed are yet to actively feature environmental articles tailored to issues of everyday life as majority of environmental publications are news reports.

Metrics of Local Environmental Sustainability: A Case Study in Auckland, New Zealand

Environmental impacts, in addition to economic, social and cultural drivers, have significant implications in the evolution of more sustainable urban forms. This paper presents the results of calculating potential local environmental sustainability using ecological footprint techniques in terms of five main aspects—domestic energy; transportation; vegetation cover; food; waste—for five residential urban form case studies in Auckland, New Zealand. This quantitative study formulates a comprehensive methodology for measuring comparative sustainability performances and identifies important residential urban form descriptors. As measured in this research, low-density urban forms may have more potential to be sustainable compared with other compact urban forms which may require a change of behavioural patterns for the residents.

Community-Based Sustainability: Conservation in the Ballarat Region

AbstractThe discourse of sustainability is promoted internationally, with the United Nations declaring 2005-2014 as a Decade for Education for Sustainable Development. There is discussion concerning the nature, status and significance of Education for Sustainability and its relationship with the somewhat established discourse of environmental education. This debate requires continuing theorising and one approach is to reflect critically on specific examples of sustainability within specific communities. This article seeks to promote further discussion about sustainability, and to contribute to ongoing theorisation about Education for Sustainability, by considering a particular instance – that of environmental sustainability in the Ballarat region of Victoria. The case study suggests that implementation of this local environmental sustainability strategy was dominated by technocratic and individualistic ideologies.