Multidimensional Sustainability Assessment Research Articles

A spatial decision support system for multi-dimensional sustainability assessment of river basin districts: the case study of Sarno river, Italy

Effective management of the complex Socio-ecological systems (SES) of the river basin, influenced by a range of social, economic, and environmental variables, requires multi-purpose Spatial Decision Support Systems (SDSSs) to identify and select balanced and sustainable regeneration scenarios. In many cases, the lack of cooperation between administrative institutions and the low level of participation of the stakeholders involved are the main obstacles to effective planning and regeneration practices and call for new forms of governance. However, to address these critical issues, few studies use quantitative approaches to assess the multidimensional resources of river basins in an integrated perspective in terms of their capacity to activate cooperation networks between river-crossed cities. This study aims to suggest a methodological approach combining Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis and Geographic Information Systems to achieve integration in pursuing sustainable regeneration pathways for a river basin district, analysing the case study of the Sarno River, composed of 20 administrative units, in Southern Italy. The specific purpose is to provide decision-makers with an SDSS to evaluate sustainability scenarios based on the multi-dimensional performances of River Basin District Units (RBDU). The results delivered four partial rankings of RBDU related to social, cultural, ecological, and economic scenarios and one overall ranking for an integrated sustainability scenario. Each ranking includes a clustering of municipalities according to three classes: Leader, Link and Follower. The outcome is twofold: to provide decision-makers with recommendations for supporting governance models based on sustainability pathways and to suggest valuable methods and tools for dealing with the spatial misfits, considered as the mismatch between the physical boundaries of a natural system and the management area of an organization.

Multidimensional sustainability assessment of pig production systems at herd level – The case of Denmark

Pig production systems vary in their ability to meet key sustainability goals such as lowered environmental impact, lowered climate impact, reduced land use, economic viability, and improved animal welfare. These goals are not fully aligned and may require trade-offs to be made. The aim of the paper is to quantify these potential trade-offs.Using Denmark as the study case, we assess the standard pig production system and four existing alternative systems, and in addition the impact of a range of manure handling technologies. Drawing on farm data from an almost industry-wide certification scheme, environmental and climate impact are estimated per kg live weight using the life-cycle approach. Antibiotic use is assessed by calculating weighted average doses consumed within the herd, and animal welfare is assessed with a recently developed benchmarking tool. Finally, productions costs are estimated using herd-level production data combined with farm-level cost estimates.We find that the five pig production systems perform differently in the sustainability dimensions at herd level. We also find that there is a trade-off between the sustainability dimensions, as no one production system dominates the others in all dimensions.Across the systems analysed, reduced climate impact goes to some extent hand-in-hand with cost effectiveness. However, there are negative correlations between animal welfare and production costs and, especially, animal welfare and the environment.These dilemmas affect both regulatory and market-driven schemes, and where the production and marketing of niche products is concerned difficult decisions will need to be made. Improvements in environmental impact will reduce performance in animal welfare or vice versa – and it will do so regardless of cost.

Incorporating user preferences in rooftop food-energy-water production through integrated sustainability assessment * *Discover how to benefit from urban rooftops implementing food, energy and water systems for self-sufficient cities.

With the overall aim to design successful implementation strategies of food-energy-water production systems on urban roofs, we propose an integrated process that includes participatory processes and a multi-dimensional sustainability assessment of environmental, social and economic indicators. The proposed framework was applied to a typical housing estate in the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona made up of 201 buildings and 13,466 inhabitants and characterized by a high share of low-income families. We assess several future scenarios of joint electricity production (photovoltaic panels), vegetable production (through open-air farming and greenhouses), green roof implementation and rainwater harvesting and rank them according to non-participatory and participatory approaches. In general, there was a tendency for residents to choose strategies providing energy and water rather than the food production potential of rooftops. However, the environmental assessment indicated that the least impacting alternatives from a life cycle approach were those promoting vegetable production, meeting 42 to 56% of the residents’ fresh produce demand and reducing environmental impacts by 24 to 37 kg CO2eq m−2 of rooftop/year. Hence, we found that residents were mainly concerned with energy expenses and not so much with food insecurity, social cohesion or the impacts of long-distance supply chains. Our assessment supports urban sustainability and helps identify and breach the gap between scientific and user preferences in urban environmental proposals by informing and educating residents through a participatory integrated assessment.

Multi-dimensional Sustainability Evaluation of Indigo Rope Dyeing with a life cycle approach and hesitant fuzzy analytic hierarchy process

The dyeing process of denim fabric production has the highest potential for significant environmental and human health impacts of denim production, consuming vast amounts of water, chemicals, and dyes. This study aims to assess the sustainability of indigo rope dyeing (IRD) obtained by designing a new recipe with the chemical alternative assessment method. Not only environmental impacts, but also social, economic, and product quality dimensions were included in the multidimensional sustainability assessment. The hesitant fuzzy analytical hierarchy process (HF-AHP) method was used to determine the criteria weights of the determined dimensions. The environmental and social impacts of the existing and newly designed IRD process were evaluated using the gate-to-gate life cycle assessment (LCA) and social life cycle assessment (S-LCA) approach. According to the LCA results, the green IRD process exhibited better performance in terms of all environmental impacts evaluated and the abiotic depletion potential of the conventional indigo IRD process can be reduced by 62.55% by applying the green IRD process. According to the HF-AHP results, the most important criteria were environmental impact with 33%, followed by social impacts with 27%, quality results with 23%, and economic results with 17% in assessing the IRD process's sustainability denim production. These results showed that the sustainability of the IRD process could be improved by substituting the chemicals and dyestuff with green alternatives.

Integrated Multidimensional Sustainability Assessment of Energy System Transformation Pathways

Sustainable development embraces a broad spectrum of social, economic and ecological aspects. Thus, a sustainable transformation process of energy systems is inevitably multidimensional and needs to go beyond climate impact and cost considerations. An approach for an integrated and interdisciplinary sustainability assessment of energy system transformation pathways is presented here. It first integrates energy system modeling with a multidimensional impact assessment that focuses on life cycle-based environmental and macroeconomic impacts. Then, stakeholders’ preferences with respect to defined sustainability indicators are inquired, which are finally integrated into a comparative scenario evaluation through a multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA), all in one consistent assessment framework. As an illustrative example, this holistic approach is applied to the sustainability assessment of ten different transformation strategies for Germany. Applying multi-criteria decision analysis reveals that both ambitious (80%) and highly ambitious (95%) carbon reduction scenarios can achieve top sustainability ranks, depending on the underlying energy transformation pathways and respective scores in other sustainability dimensions. Furthermore, this research highlights an increasingly dominant contribution of energy systems’ upstream chains on total environmental impacts, reveals rather small differences in macroeconomic effects between different scenarios and identifies the transition among societal segments and climate impact minimization as the most important stakeholder preferences.

Structured Approach for Comparison of Treatment Options for Nutrient-Recovery From Fecal Sludge

The aim of this study is to present a structured approach for comparing possible nutrient-recovery fecal sludge (FS) treatment systems in order to support transparent decision-making. The approach uses a multi-dimensional sustainability assessment of treatment technologies for nutrient recovery from FS, using a typical case of Kampala City, Uganda. A synthesized list of 22 treatment technologies was prepared from literature. This list included wastewater treatment technologies, which could be adapted to treat fecal sludge, and established fecal sludge treatment technologies that are available or potentially applicable in Kampala. Based on the local situation, the list was reduced to eight possible options, which were carried forward into a multi-dimensional sustainability assessment that incorporated input of stakeholders. The technologies included in the final assessment were optimization of the existing system, lactic acid fermentation (LAF), composting, vermicomposting, Black-Soldier Fly (BSF) composting, ammonia treatment, alkaline stabilization and solar drying. Optimization of the existing system performed well against the set criteria and is a recommended short-term solution. This will require e.g., adding narrower screens to remove more trash from the incoming sludge and respecting storage times prior to selling the sludge. To maximize the agricultural value of the recovered product, while respecting the need for safe reuse, a combination of technologies becomes relevant; the use of a combination of BSF, and subsequent ammonia or alkaline treatment of the remaining organic fraction would allow for maximized safe nutrient recovery and can be the aim for long-term sanitation planning in Kampala. The results of this process provide supporting information for a discussion of trade-offs between stakeholder groups as part of a decision-making process within a larger planning context.

Evaluation of Welding Processes Based on Multi-dimensional Sustainability Assessment Model

Welding is a widely used manufacturing process that has a significant impact on the sustainability dimensions represented by environmental, economic and social aspects. In this work, a general and comprehensive framework for sustainability assessment of manufacturing processes is applied to select the most sustainable welding process among several alternatives for a certain application. The considered alternatives are friction stir welding (FSW), gas tungsten arc welding (GTAW), gas metal arc welding (GMAW), and shielded metal arc welding (SMAW). The four processes are used to weld two aluminum plates. Relevant sustainability indicators are selected from all sustainability dimensions. A dimension for physical performance of the welded parts is also considered. Entropy weight method is used for assigning weights to the indicators to avoid uncertainties of subjective weighting. Three multi-criteria decision making methods (MCDM) are used for normalization and aggregation of data. The reliability of the results is investigated by conducting sensitivity analysis. The results of the study show that FSW is the most sustainable welding process for this study.

Multi-dimensional life cycle assessment of decentralised energy storage systems

The intermittent nature of renewable energy sources like solar and wind energy stimulates the use of centralised and decentralised energy storage systems. The sustainability of lead acid, lithium-ion and concentration gradient flow batteries, compressed air and pumped hydro energy storage (PHES) systems is investigated by conducting a multi-dimensional life cycle assessment. The environmental, economic and exergetic sustainability are assessed by calculating ReCiPe 2016 indicators, the present worth ratio and the Total Cumulative Exergy Loss, respectively. The multi-dimensional sustainability assessment did not lead to one preferred system. The PHES causes the lowest damage to human health, ecosystem diversity and resource availability and results in the lowest global warming potential. The concentration gradient flow battery system named BBS is preferred from an economic viewpoint, while the PHES is second-best. The lithium-ion battery system causes the lowest exergy losses, followed by the PHES. It is recommended to pay attention to the exergetic sustainability of technological systems as exergy losses are independent of environmental models, weighting factors, market prices, subsidies etc. More research into the specifications of the energy storage systems is needed to be able to draw firm conclusions with regard to which system is preferred.

Closing nutrient loops through decentralized anaerobic digestion of organic residues in agricultural regions: A multi-dimensional sustainability assessment

Decentralized anaerobic digestion (AD) of manure and organic residues is a possible strategy to improve carbon and nutrient cycling within agricultural regions, meanwhile generating renewable energy. To date, there has been limited adoption of decentralized AD technology in industrialized countries owing to low profitability for plant operators. There remains a need to demonstrate the wider sustainability of small-scale, decentralized AD in order to justify policy support for such a strategy. This study applies a multi-dimensional assessment of the environmental, economic and social sustainability of two scenarios of decentralized, farm-scale AD of pig slurry and organic residues in Southern Sweden. The environmental dimension was assessed by means of an expanded boundary life cycle assessment, in which trade-offs between fertilizer replacement, soil organic carbon accumulation, digestate/manure storage and application, transport and soil emissions were evaluated. The economic dimension was assessed through modelling of the net present value and internal rate of return. Finally, the social dimension was assessed by means of a stakeholder perception inquiry among key stakeholders in the field. It was concluded that the overall environmental balance of decentralized AD was favorable, while also the net present value could be positive. Fertilizer replacement, soil organic carbon and digestate storage effects were identified as important factors that should be accounted for in future life cycle assessments. A key issue for interviewed stakeholders was product quality assurance. Wider application of multi-dimensional sustainability assessment, capturing important nutrient cycling effects, could provide an evidence base for policy to support sustainable deployment of decentralized AD.

Handling Diversity of Visions and Priorities in Food Chain Sustainability Assessment

Food chain sustainability assessment is challenging on several grounds. Handling knowledge and information on sustainability performance and coping with the diversity of visions around “what counts as sustainable food” are two key issues addressed by this study. By developing a comparative case study on local, regional and global wheat-to-bread chains, and confronting the multidimensionality of sustainability, this work focuses on the differing visions and perspectives of stakeholders. We integrate qualitative and quantitative data, stakeholder consultation and multi-criteria analysis to align the visions and the multiple meanings of sustainability. Because of the complexity and the dynamicity of the food system, the multidimensionality of the sustainability concept and its pliability to stakeholders priorities, sustainability is an object of competition for firms in the agro-food sector and has major implications in the governance of food chains. Results identify key propositions in relation to: (i) the value of combining science-led evidence with socio-cultural values; (ii) multidimensional sustainability assessment as a self diagnosis tool; and (iii) the need to identify shared assessment criteria by communities of reference.

Linking the transformation of production structures to a multidimensional sustainability assessment grid of smallholders’ oil palm plantations

Oil palm cultivation has become emblematic of the trade-off between development and conservation that growers have to face in the context of global changes. This challenge between economic growth and environmental issues and the growing public debate regarding palm oil development and use require improving data availability to avoid ideological positions. The paper is a contribution towards the establishment of a multidimensional analysis grid to assess the sustainability of palm oil production based on an empirical survey with two levels: (i) holding and (ii) plot. We first aimed to present our approach based on World Agricultural Watch methodological framework. The empirical data were collected in Kampar District, Riau province, at holding level including one to two oil palm plots showing contrasted levels of management (semi-managed and independent). Our first objective was to capture the global rationale of the holdings, to define a typology that would go beyond the usual size-based classification. After assessing the place and role of palm oil production within the household economy, we then tested a set of three-dimensional indicators (i.e. social, economic and environmental) to assess globally the impacts of oil palm development through smallholder development. In a region where oil palm cultivation tends to standardise the landscape, overwhelm the local economy and polarise the households’ activity systems, we could identify a significant heterogeneity at holding and household levels. However, the strengthening of our methodology would require a larger sample.

Are Organic Standards Sufficient to Ensure Sustainable Agriculture? Lessons From New Zealand’s ARGOS and Sustainability Dashboard Projects

<p>Our review concludes that organic standards need to account for a broader set of criteria in order to retain claims to ‘sustainability’. Measurements of the ecological, economic and social outcomes from over 96 kiwifruit, sheep/beef and dairy farms in New Zealand between 2004 and 2012 by The <em>Agricultural Research Group on Sustainability</em> (ARGOS) project showed some enhanced ecosystem services from organic agriculture that will assist a “land-sharing” approach for sustainable land management. However, the efficiency of provisioning services is reduced in organic systems and this potentially undermines a “land-sparing” strategy to secure food security and ecosystem services. Other aspects of the farm operation that are not considered in the organic standards sometimes had just as much or even a greater effect on ecosystem services than restriction of chemical inputs and synthetic fertilisers. An organic farming version of the <em>New Zealand Sustainability Dashboard</em> will integrate organic standards and wider agricultural best practice into a broad and multidimensional sustainability assessment framework and package of learning tools. There is huge variation in performance of farms within a given farming system. Therefore improving ecosystem services depends as much on locally tuned learning and adjustments of farm practice on individual farms as on uptake of organic or Integrated Management farming system protocols.</p>