Sustainability Indicators For Assessment Research Articles

Assessing sustainability indicators using inverse integer-valued data envelopment analysis with undesirable outputs

Assessing sustainability indicators using inverse integer-valued data envelopment analysis with undesirable outputs

Toward sustainable crop residue management: A deep ensemble learning approach

For the existence of biorefineries, a consistent supply of sustainable crop residues is critical. Crop residue removal may adversely affect the overall sustainability, i.e., soil productivity and economics of crop residue removal. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a tool or method to estimate the sustainable removal of crop residues which is critical to various stakeholders including farmers, biorefinery, and policymakers. We proposed a robust deep ensemble machine learning(ML) model to estimate soil sustainability indicators [i.e., soil-erosion-factor(SEF), soil-conditioning-index(SCI), and organic-matter-factor(OMF) as well the sustainable crop residues removal rates (RRR) using topography, soil properties, climate, and crop management practices. The results showed that proposed ML models are having very high predictability [SEF,R2 = 0.999; SCI,R2 = 0.996; OMF,R2 = 0.996, and RRR,R2 > 0.98) with low error for sustainability indicators and RRR. The proposed ML model can be used as a tool for estimating sustainable RRR and serve as a guide to assess sustainability indicators in real-time.

Moving towards green university: a method of analysis based on multi-criteria decision-making approach to assess sustainability indicators

Moving towards green university: a method of analysis based on multi-criteria decision-making approach to assess sustainability indicators

Analysis of the Maturity of Sustainable Project Management in Russian Enterprises in the Transition to the Digital Economy

The subject of the study is the method of assessing and analyzing the level of maturity of sustainable project management of Russian enterprises. Having reviewed the scientific literature, the authors proved the tendency of integration between project management and the concept of sustainable development. The analysis of approaches to assessing sustainability indicators showed a lack of consistency, as well as the shift in emphasis to individual indicators and insufficient attention to institutional sustainability indicators. The problem is in the lack of a methodology for quantifying the level of maturity of sustainable project management which could become the basis for monitoring this management. The availability of monitoring is a prerequisite for a successful transition to the digital economy; while data-based management as the result of monitoring can become a platform for optimizing sustainable project management by tracking sustainability indicators. Due to the used methods of analysis of literature and international professional standards, as well as in-depth interviews with top managers of enterprises, the authors substantiated the method of assessing the level of maturity of sustainable project management, the innovation of which is the inclusion of the module of institutional indicators of sustainability and integrated quantitative assessment of economic, social and environmental indicators of sustainable project management. The technique was approbated through survey at 19 Omsk enterprises and the analysis of survey results is given in the article. A group of enterprises with high and above average maturity levels of sustainable project management was identified. The indicators of the institutional evaluation module demonstrating good potential for further development of sustainable project management are fixed. The influence of the transition to the digital economy on the increasing demand for monitoring the sustainability of project management is examined. The results can be used to optimize the processes of sustainable project management and to further improvement of the methodology of evaluation of this management in the context of the transition to digitalization of the economy and management

The role of elements of the Economics of Quality in mathematical modelling of socio-economic processes

Nowadays, when making managerial decisions, specialists are faced with the need to process ever-increasing volumes of information in an increasingly shorter time. The need for the development of a methodology for social forecasting on the basis of detailed development models is growing. Since the basis of the activity of the socio-economic system of any level is an anthropogenic factor, this increases the degree of probability of the implementation of various scenarios. To develop more accurate forecasts, it is necessary to use the tools of the economics of quality standardization, metrology, quality management. Standardization determines the ability to normalize and assess sustainability indicators of development, as well as management methods. Metrology provides uniform methods for measuring these indicators. Based on the received information, quality management systems allow making reliable managerial decisions. The use of tools of the economics of quality is possible at almost all stages of socio-economic modelling. The role of elements of the economics of quality, in particular standardization, is especially growing in the development of the digital economy and “smart cities”, where a complete unification of the formats for accumulating and transmitting information to all users is required.

Environmental Sustainability Assessment of Horticultural Systems: A Multi-Criteria Evaluation Approach Applied in a Case Study in Mediterranean Conditions

An increasing interest and sensitivity of consumers and public opinion toward high-quality food products obtained with environmentally-friendly production methods has recently been detected. To this end, one of the key roles could be played by an environmental evaluation of the crop production. This research was performed to test a new multi-attribute decision model (DEXi-met) that is able to estimate the environmental sustainability of different agronomic practices in horticultural rotations. The model was used at the cropping system level on the basis of data from a long-term experiment in organic horticulture. It was tested on different cropping managements under climate change conditions. The DEXi-met mixed model (qualitative and qualitative basic attributes) generated four aggregated attributes to assess sustainability indicators (production capacity, soil, water and resources preservation, and biodiversity conservation) and the overall environmental sustainability. The model validation indicated that the introduction of agro-ecological services crops can increase the environmental sustainability of an organic cropping systems by promoting the whole soil–plant system equilibrium. The application of this tool could help maximize the efficient use of agronomical practices and quantify their environmental sustainability. DEXi-met could help agricultural advisors and policymakers schedule their decisions to find the right compromise between crop yield increase and the impact of agricultural activities.

Ranking of Sustainability Indicators for Assessment of the New Housing Development Projects: Case of the Baltic States

Sustainable development is inconceivable without healthy real estate market. A housing project can be regarded as sustainable only when all the dimensions of sustainability (environmental, economic, and social) are dealt with. There has been an increased interest in using sustainability indicators for evaluating the impacts of the new development projects. Although international literature is rich in sustainability assessments, there are no tools developed for assessment of new residential projects in the specific context of the Baltic States. Therefore, the aim of this article is to fill this gap and to propose an integrated, hierarchically structured system of sustainability indicators to be used for assessment of the new housing development projects. This aim is achieved through accomplishing three objectives. First, based on a review of literature related to assessing building project performance and sustainable development in construction, the paper proposes an original hierarchically structured system of sustainability indicators suitable for the Baltic context. Second, based on a survey of experts, significances of criteria are estimated by the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method. Finally, paper proposes recommendations to government authorities and real estate developers as to how to enhance the performance of new residential projects according to the principles of sustainability.

Economic indicators of hydrologic drought insurance under water demand and climate change scenarios in a Brazilian context

Developing countries face large losses to extreme natural hazards. Regarding droughts, planning instruments are important for managing water resources and diminishing the losses. Under increasing demand scenario, varied criteria should be incorporated indicating society's capacity to bear the consequences. Here we present a Brazilian-contextualized insurance model and suggest its outputs as complementary criteria to assist water resources management and to inform the stakeholders. From the streamflow simulated using hydrologic models driven by a climate scenario, we applied the Hydrologic Risk Transfer Model (MTRH-SHS), an insurance fund simulator under a multi-year policy, to assess sustainability indicators and the premiums a community would pay to cover the expenses of water deficits. Multiple scenarios generated with MTRH-SHS link water yield and seasonality related to both premium and loss ratios. A 20% increase in water demand elevates the premium up to 0.1% of a local GDP. Even under current demand, premiums may surpass 0.5% of GDP because of changes in the hydrologic regime. Proportionally, more seasonal or varied regimes result in more heterogeneous loss events, which in turn is linked to higher insurance premiums. MTRH-SHS might raise awareness for decision-makers to cope with drought under changing water demand and climate in the Brazilian context.

Measuring an Organization's Performance: The Road to Defining Sustainability Indicators

This article proposes an integrated procedure to assess sustainability indicators that organizations can use to satisfy international requirements for sustainability. The indicators are related to key aspects of organizations, and their development includes comparing them to the results and policies of various other organizations that are seeking to achieve sustainability. The methodology we used is based on a bibliographic review, and it is intended to: Diagnose the state of the art of organizational sustainability, Provide organizations with tools to perform benchmarking based on the results, and Provide processes to identify best sustainability practices. After benchmarking, organization managers will be able to adjust the methodology to quantify the sustainability indicators that are most suited to their organization's profile in regard to the activities, products, and services that it offers. Critical factors for organizational sustainability are identified and integrated into the systematic approach proposed in this article to assess indicators, communicate results, and make recommendations for corrective action and continual improvement considering the organization's baseline condition (the starting condition of the organization).

Use of Budgetary Coefficients for Assessing the Sustainability of the Local Budget of Kazakhstan

At the present time, development of budget analysis as a direction of fiscal science is relevant and promising in terms of scientific and practical aspects. For the local budget of Kazakhstan, it is important to derive the state of the budget system of regions and determine the level of sustainability from the analysis of objective information. The purpose of this study is to analyze and assess sustainability indicators of the local budget of the Republic of Kazakhstan (RK) for the period between 2002 and 2013. Concept of fiscal sustainability is explained, features of its assessment and its influencing factors are identified and basic approaches to the analysis of financial stability in the regions of Kazakhstan are reviewed in the article. Based on study methods, stability of the local budget of the Republic of Kazakhstan is analyzed. Analysis of fiscal indicators is supplemented by proposed set of analytic coefficients.

Introducing a goal-oriented sustainability assessment method to support decision making in contaminated site management

► We developed a method to assess sustainability indicators of options to remediate contaminated sites. ► The method is based on the principles of a cost–effectiveness analysis. ► The method has been developed by involving Austria's relevant stakeholder groups. ► The method has been implemented into practice and is mandatory to apply since 2012. ► First experiences indicate acceptance by practitioners. An assessment method has been developed in order to support decision making in contaminated site management and to implement the principles of sustainability into the selection of remediation options in Austria. The method is based on the principles of a cost–effectiveness analysis and allows for an assessment of environmental, socio-economic and technology-related effects of remediation options. It relies on the recent international discussion on sustainability indicators and has been tailored to specific requirements by involving Austria's relevant stakeholder groups in contaminated site management. Since 2012 the application of the method is mandatory when requesting resources from the Austrian National Remediation Fund.

Assessing Sustainability Indicators of a Commercial Building: A LEED Approach

Assessing Sustainability Indicators of a Commercial Building: A LEED Approach

Deriving sustainability measures using statistical data: A case study from the Eisenwurzen, Austria

Within the past two decades sustainability has become a key term in emphasizing and understanding relationships between economic progress and the protection of the environment. One key difficulty is in the definition of sustainability indicators based on information at different spatial and temporal scales. In this paper we formalize statistical models for the assessment of sustainability impact indicators using a public data source provided by the Austrian government. Our application example is the Eisenwurzen region in Austria, an old and famous mining area within the Alps. The total area covers 5.743 km 2 and includes 99 municipalities. In our study we define 15 impact indicators covering economic, social and environmental impacts. For each of the impact indicators we develop response functions using the available public data sources. The results suggest that the available data are an important source for deriving sustainable impact indicators within specific regions. The presented approach may serve as diagnostic tool to provide insights into the regional drivers for assessing sustainability indicators.

Assessing Sustainability Indicators of a Commercial Building: A LEED Approach

Construction industry has been proven to cause environmental problems ranging from excessive consumption of natural resources in construction, to the pollution of the environment. Studies on green building to minimize environmental impact are already underway. Tools of assessment of environmental performance of buildings are plenty. However, Middle East countries together with Gulf region are still away from practicing the concept of mitigating the impacts of buildings on the environment. Reasons could be relying on the insufficient awareness of building stakeholders, or the privilege of much fortune. The main objectives of this paper are to arouse the people's attention to the importance of assessment of environmental performance of buildings in KSA, and to introduce a sustainability model for project appraisal based on a multi-dimensional approach, that will be used for the assessment of a case study in KSA. The approach is using the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) rating system as a guide for the assessment. The plan of work includes reviewing the literature on the assessment of sustainability performance of buildings, displaying the LEED system, and assessment of a commercial building in Dammam. The paper uses the descriptive approach to study the problem and collect the data, and the comparative approach to compare the obtained data with the required standards of LEED. The case study, which is a commercial complex in Dammam, is one of these types of buildings widely spread in the development schemes of current real estate investment in KSA. While the building achieved some credits and prerequisites of LEED system, the building lacks many other points. The overall credits achieved are 22%, and the overall prerequisites achieved are 43%. The main problem of the building is related to energy and atmosphere aspects.

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.

Sustainability Assessment and Development Direction of Super High-rise Residential Complexes from the Viewpoints of Residents

The study intends to assess the sustainability of super high–rise residential complexes from the viewpoint of residents. For the purpose of this study, the research first reviewed the KGBCC (Korean Green Building Certification Criteria) and related research materials. Secondly, it established sustainability indicators for assessment through synthesis of the KGBCC and UN Habitat Agenda. Finally, the assessment was completed by a survey of the residents of two similar super high–rise residential complexes. The analysis shows that sustainability of super high–rise residential complexes in Korea is low, and the area of ecological environment, energy use and indoor environment must be improved to enhance sustainability. Moreover, the following ten items have to be improved; expansion of interior and exterior green spaces, the establishment of natural habitats, natural ventilation, energy saving, barrier–free planning, the use of environmentally friendly building materials, greening of artificial ground, wind disaster prevention, and expansion of built–in storage spaces.

Integrating industrial ecology principles into a set of environmental sustainability indicators for technology assessment

This paper focuses on the environmental component of sustainability of technology, taking into account the role of industrial ecology. Assessment of environmental sustainability of technology traditionally focuses on immediate impact of technology on the environment through quantifying resource extraction and generated emissions. However, technology does not only exchange materials with the environment but also with the industrial society as a whole, the so-called industrial metabolism. A higher compatibility of a specific technology with the industrial system, as studied in industrial ecology, can result in lower resource extraction and reduced waste emission, indirectly contributing to a better environmental sustainability. Starting from the considerations above and based on the second law of thermodynamics, the paper presents a set of five environmental sustainability indicators for the assessment of products and production pathways, integrating industrial ecology principles. The indicators, all scaled between 0 and 1, take into account: (1) renewability of resources; (2) toxicity of emissions; (3) input of used materials; (4) recoverability of products at the end of their use; (5) process efficiency. The applicability of the elaborated set of indicators is illustrated for different production pathways of alcohols (petrochemical and oleochemical based), polyethylene end-of-life options and electricity production from non-renewable (natural gas and fossil oil) and renewable resources (hydropower, photovoltaic conversion of solar irradiation).