Related Sustainable Development Goals Research Articles

Gaps in gender reporting in National Reports of Convention on Wetlands of International Importance (2021–2022)

Context The Ramsar Convention is the world’s premier environmental treaty for wetlands. This perspective evaluates gender reporting in Ramsar Convention National Reports and compliance with Gender and Wetlands Resolution XIII.18. A total of 71.8% (n = 42) of the sampled nation reports (n = 133) did not submit National Reports. Zero nations provided statistics on equitable pay or pay gaps by gender. In the sampled reports, only 10 nations submitted sex-disaggregated data. Further, only 7.5% (n = 123) of the sampled National Reports (n = 133) provided sex-disaggregated gender data relevant to the Ramsar Convention. Fifteen National Reports deleted the question on gender (Section H) on from their report entirely, including Denmark and Germany. With evidence drawn from the submitted National Reports, this perspective provides concrete empirical suggestions for improving gender reporting in the future. Gender initiatives, including Resolution XIII.18 and the related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have improved transparent gender reporting in the Ramsar Convention National Reports to a degree. However, on the basis of this review, there is room for improvement in national reporting. Methods National Reports from 2021 to 2022 were reviewed for all instances of ‘gender’ and then evaluated for national replies to Section H, focused on gender. Key results Five years after Resolution XIII.18, there is still a need for system-wide improvements in gender reporting, including sex-disaggregated data, and equity for women (cis and trans) for the Ramsar Convention to become compliant with Resolution XIII.18. Complying with Resolution XIII.18 is one concrete, global and measurable way for wetland science and policy to mainstream gender. Conclusions No nation has prepared a comprehensive answer to Section H on gender and wetland policy and science, as defined below; instead, nations have submitted discrete elements. The analysis of each nation’s answers showed essential elements for a comprehensive answer. In the next 5 years of gender reporting, nations have the option to learn from the past and strive to comply with Resolution XIII.18 and provide transparent sex-disaggregated data on National Heads, community stakeholders, site interpreters, site managers and equitable salary data.

Children`s dietary patterns and their maternal determinants during the first 5 years of life: Information from the Growing Up in New Zealand cohort

Monitoring indicators of children`s diet quality at the national level is imperative to examine if a country is on track to achieving children`s global nutrition targets and fulfilling the related Sustainable Development Goals. Despite the importance of diet quality in early life and its impact in health and wellbeing throughout the life course, Aotearoa New Zealand has limited information that is nationally representative or generalizable on children`s diet quality, especially among children under 5 years old. The only national child nutrition survey conducted to date took place two decades ago and involved children 5 years of age and older. We have previously used data collected by the Growing in Up in New Zealand cohort study, which is nationally generalizable, to partially fill historic gaps in knowledge of children`s diet and feeding practices in the first five years of life. Information on breastfeeding initiation, duration and exclusivity, timing of food introduction and whole-of-diet adherence to National Food and Nutrition Guidelines have been previously published 1–3. This work intends to complement information on NZ children`s diet quality by examining the cohort`s dietary patterns (DPs) at 9- (n = 6,259), 24- (n = 6,292), and 54-months (n = 6,131) and their maternal sociodemographic and health behaviour determinants. At all time-points, children`s DPs were identified using principal components analyses. Multivariate linear regressions were performed to examine the associations between each DP and the maternal variables. At 9-, 24- and 54-months two distinct DPs were identified, explaining, 36.4%, 35.3% and 33.6% of children`s intake variability, respectively. The Refined high in sugar and salt DP, at all time-points, was characterised by high positive loadings in white/refined breads and cereals and items with high content of sugar, sodium, and fat. At 24-months, the Refined high in sugar and salt DP also had high positive loading in the protein group. The Fruit/Vegetables DP, at all time-points, had high positive loadings for fruits and vegetables (with type varying across time-points). The Fruit/Vegetables DP had high loading in whole grain options of breads and cereals at 24-months and positive loading in the protein group at 9- and 54-months. High scores on the Refined high in sugar and salt DP at the three time-points were associated with maternal smoking habits, maternal education level, ethnicity, and maternal scores in the “Junk” and “Traditional/White bread” DPs (obtained at the antenatal maternal interview). High children’s scores on the Fruit/Vegetables DP, at all time-points, were associated with the maternal antenatal score in the “Health Conscious” DP. Findings support that policies and interventions aiming to improve early life diets in NZ should be culturally safe and support mothers’ access to formal education, healthy diets, and smoking cessation.

Indonesia's sustainable development goals in relation to curbing and monitoring the illegal wildlife trade

AbstractIndonesia has committed to implement the sustainable development goals (SDG) by 2030 including the ending trafficking of protected species and addressing the illegal wildlife demand and supply. As such, there is a need for long‐term data on wild animal trade and its contribution to the wider economy. We initiated a long‐term monitoring programme of live civet trade in wildlife markets (120 surveys, 2010–2023). Civets are traded to be kept as exotic pets and to produce civet coffee and are a proxy for other high‐profile wildlife. We recorded 2289 civets of six species, including ones with strict regulations in place. Despite the trade being illegal, and contra to Indonesia's commitments as part of the SDG to curb this trade, it remained remarkably stable over time (numbers, species, prices). As such, Indonesia is not meeting its SDG targets that are related to curbing illegal wildlife trade and illicit financial flows.

Regionalizing the Sustainable Development Goals for Island Societies: Lessons From Iceland and Newfoundland

The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provide a framework that makes the concept of “sustainable development” more actionable. The nature of island societies — where political jurisdictions overlap in complex ways with land and oceanic ecologies — makes the question of who is responsible for SDG implementation and governance particularly important. We compare SDG interpretations and perceptions of SDG governance in Iceland and Newfoundland using survey and focus group data with stakeholders from government, business, labour, civil society, academia, and youth. Our research questions are as follows: How do research participants view the SDGs in relation to ensuring sustainable futures for their respective island societies? How do research participants view the roles of government and other institutions in implementing sustainability? Answering these questions gives insight into a third theoretically valuable question: Is it the state versus subnational jurisdiction distinction, or is it the common small polity/island dynamics of these cases that is important for understanding the interpretations of the SDGs and their implementation? The interpretations of regionalizing and localizing the SDGs are similar across our two cases, which lends support to a small polity/islandness view of how the SDGs are translated for island societies.

Distribution of Mangrove Species Kandelia obovata in China Using Time-series Sentinel-2 Imagery for Sustainable Mangrove Management

Mangrove management in China is converting from emphasis on occupied area to intrinsical quality. Mangrove species have varied ecological values, e.g., those having well-developed prop roots are more beneficial for coastal stabilization. The detailed distribution of mangrove species on a national scale remains a challenge, impeding species-specific applications in the ecology and management of mangroves, as well as evaluations of related Sustainable Development Goals. Although local-scale studies have explored various data sources, the variability of plant phenology is the key factor preventing their generalization from local areas to large latitudinal spans (e.g., the coast of China). The separability time period, defined by a separability metric for each scene of the image time series, provides a potential way to tackle the aforementioned problem. We conducted a case study on mapping Kandelia obovata in China based on Sentinel-2 time-series imagery, as it is a representative native mangrove species with the largest latitudinal span and tolerance to low temperatures. The proposed approach considered the separability between K. obovata and its typical co-occurring mangrove species, as well as that between K. obovata and salt marshes. The overall accuracy of the generated K. obovata map in China for 2020 reached 88.5% based on independently collected samples. The proposed approach is transferable to diverse mangrove species that inhabit a vast latitudinal span. The implications for sustainable mangrove management were discussed to reveal the benefits to precise management of mangroves, accurate biomass and carbon estimations accounting for species differences, and effective evaluation of mangrove ecosystem services.

Remote sensing-based assessment of mangrove ecosystems in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries: a systematic review

Mangrove forests in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries are facing multiple threats from natural and anthropogenic-driven land use change stressors, contributing to altered ecosystem conditions. Remote sensing tools can be used to monitor mangroves, measure mangrove forest-and-tree-level attributes and vegetation indices at different spatial and temporal scales that allow a detailed and comprehensive understanding of these important ecosystems. Using a systematic literature approach, we reviewed 58 remote sensing-based mangrove assessment articles published from 2010 through 2022. The main objectives of the study were to examine the extent of mangrove distribution and cover, and the remotely sensed data sources used to assess mangrove forest/tree attributes. The key importance of and threats to mangroves that were specific to the region were also examined. Mangrove distribution and cover were mainly estimated from satellite images (75.2%), using NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) derived from Landsat (73.3%), IKONOS (15%), Sentinel (11.7%), WorldView (10%), QuickBird (8.3%), SPOT-5 (6.7%), MODIS (5%) and others (5%) such as PlanetScope. Remotely sensed data from aerial photographs/images (6.7%), LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) (5%) and UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles)/Drones (3.3%) were the least used. Mangrove cover decreased in Saudi Arabia, Oman, Bahrain, and Kuwait between 1996 and 2020. However, mangrove cover increased appreciably in Qatar and remained relatively stable for the United Arab Emirates (UAE) over the same period, which was attributed to government conservation initiatives toward expanding mangrove afforestation and restoration through direct seeding and seedling planting. The reported country-level mangrove distribution and cover change results varied between studies due to the lack of a standardized methodology, differences in satellite imagery resolution and classification approaches used. There is a need for UAV-LiDAR ground truthing to validate country-and-local-level satellite data. Urban development-driven coastal land reclamation and pollution, climate change-driven temperature and sea level rise, drought and hypersalinity from extreme evaporation are serious threats to mangrove ecosystems. Thus, we encourage the prioritization of mangrove conservation and restoration schemes to support the achievement of related UN Sustainable Development Goals (13 climate action, 14 life below water, and 15 life on land) in the GCC countries.

Health examination surveys for policy formulation

Abstract Health examination surveys (HES) are one of the key data sources for health policy formulation and evaluation as well as monitoring of several health related Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and other internationally agreed indicators for NCDs. The presentation will 1) highlight importance of health examination surveys in reporting accurately SDG and other internationally agreed NCD indicators; 2) Identify internationally agreed NCD indicators for which HES is used as data source; 3) give an overview of current levels of implementation of HES in the WHO European Region; and 4) Briefly describe available WHO tools related to HES.

The Role of Time in the Localisation of Global Urban Policy. A Comparative Analysis of Ecuador and Bolivia

Since the 2016 Habitat III conference, the global urban policy framework based on the New Urban Agenda and the related Sustainable Development Goals (SDG11) has been adopted in an increasing number of countries worldwide. Through a comparative methodological approach, the paper analyses the making process of the Ecuadorian National Urban Agenda and the Bolivian National Urban Policy from the perspective of the involved international agents, to reflect upon the role of the time dimension in the localisation of global urban policy and its relationship with the policy transfer space. In doing so, the analysis sheds light on the role played by sequence and timing in influencing the outcomes of the localisation process.

Clustering Analysis on Sustainable Development Goal Indicators for Forty-Five Asian Countries

This paper draws upon the United Nations 2022 data report on the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) across the following four dimensions: economic, social, environmental and institutional. Ward’s method was applied to obtain clustering results for forty-five Asian countries to understand their level of progress and overall trends in achieving SDGs. We identified varying degrees of correlation between the four dimensions. The results show that East Asian countries performed poorly in the economic dimension, while some countries in Southeast Asia and Central and West Asia performed relatively well. Regarding social and institutional dimensions, the results indicate that East and Central Asian countries performed relatively better than others. Finally, in the environmental dimension, West and South Asian countries showed better performance than other Asian countries. The insights gathered from this study can inform policymakers of these countries about their own country’s position in achieving SDGs in relation to other Asian countries, as they work towards establishing strategies for improving their sustainable development targets.

Predictive Machine Learning Algorithms for Metro Ridership Based on Urban Land Use Policies in Support of Transit-Oriented Development

The endeavors toward sustainable transportation systems are a key concern for planners and decision-makers where increasing public transport attractiveness is essential. In this paper, a machine-learning-based predictive modeling approach is proposed for metro ridership prediction, considering the built environment around the stations; it is in the best interest of sustainable transport planning to ultimately contribute to the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (UN-SDGs). A total of twelve parameters are considered as input features including time of day, day of the week, station, and nine types of land use density. Hence, a time-series database is used for model development and testing. Several machine learning (ML) models were evaluated for their predictive performance: ridge regression, lasso regression, elastic net, k-nearest neighbor, support vector regression, decision tree, random forest, extremely randomized trees, adaptive boosting, gradient boosting, extreme gradient boosting, and stacking ensemble learner. Bayesian optimization and grid search are combined with 10-fold cross-validation to tune the hyperparameters of each model. The performance of the developed models was validated based on the test dataset using five quantitative performance measures. The results demonstrated that, among the base learners, the decision tree showed the highest performance with an R2 of 87.4% on the test dataset. KNN and SVR were the second and third-best models among the base learners. Furthermore, the feature importance investigation explains the relative contribution of each type of land use density to the prediction of the metro ridership. The results showed that governmental land use density, educational facilities land use density, and mixed-use density are the three factors that play the most critical role in determining total ridership. The outcomes of this research could be of great help to the decision-making process for the best achievement of sustainable development goals in relation to sustainable transport and land use.

Implementation of water related Sustainable Development Goals in Romania: overview of current and future challenges

The collection of information on the achievement of the water related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as well as their analysis through research, is defined as being difficult especially in the absence of data and tools that can model these performances. An analysis of SDG indicators at the level of 2015, for 41 countries where the population has high and medium incomes shows that a special level of complexity in monitoring is given by the fact that each country measures certain indicators specifically, and these cannot be compared. It is recommended to formulate methods of measurement and monitoring that can be compared. All these consistent methods between countries must be subject to data protection rules, both in terms of access to them and in terms of their management. Present paper shows the main challenges in monitoring water related SDGs (mainly 6, 11 and 13) in Romania, what is the status so far and what are the challenges for the future.

Opportunities and challenges of food policy councils in pursuit of food system sustainability and food democracy–a comparative case study from the Upper-Rhine region

Conventional food systems continue to jeopardize the health and well-being of people and the environment, with a number of related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) still far from being reached. Food Policy Councils (FPCs)—since several decades in North America, and more recently in Europe—have begun to facilitate sustainable food system governance activities among various stakeholders as an explicit alternative to the shaping of food systems by multinational food corporations and their governmental allies. In contrast to the former, FPCs pursue the goals of food system sustainability through broad democratic processes. Yet, at least in Europe, the agenda of FPCs is more an open promise than a firm reality (yet); and thus, it is widely unknown to what extent FPCs actually contribute to food system sustainability and do so with democratic processes. At this early stage, we offer a comparative case study across four FPCs from the Upper-Rhine Region (Freiburg, Basel, Mulhouse, Strasbourg)—all formed and founded within the past 5 years—to explore how successful different types of FPCs are in terms of contributing to food system sustainability and adhering to democratic and good governance principles. Our findings indicate mixed results, with the FPCs mostly preparing the ground for more significant efforts at later stages and struggling with a number of challenges in adhering to principles of democracy and good governance. Our study contributes to the theory of sustainable food systems and food democracy with the focus on the role of FPCs, and offers procedural insights on how to evaluate them regarding sustainable outcomes and democratic processes. The study also offers practical insights relevant to these four and other FPCs in Europe, supporting their efforts to achieve food system sustainability with democratic processes.

Strong trade-offs characterise water-energy-food related sustainable development goals in the Ganges–Brahmaputra–Meghna River basin

The United Nations’ sustainable development goals (SDGs) set ambitious policy targets for 2030 to overcome poverty while preserving the planet. These goals are not perfectly aligned; trade-offs emerge during implementation at regional and local levels, such as in a river basin. Here, we quantify important trade-offs between water, energy, and food-related SDGs in the Ganges–Brahmaputra–Meghna River basin, a climate vulnerability hotspot, using multi-objective optimisation based on detailed water resources and crop production modelling and accounting for uncertainties in the costs of water, labour, and land. The trade-off between food production and agricultural profit is strong; the amount of people fed would be reduced by more than two-thirds, were profitability maximized. However, we do see the potential to achieve higher profitability in agriculture against limited loss of food and hydropower production and limited impact on downstream environmental flows, although continued reliance on groundwater and energy, currently unsustainable, needs to be mitigated.

An integrated multi‐criteria analysis framework of built reservoir with dam‐heightening‐based decision: China's largest water transfer programs for sustainable development

AbstractAn integrated multi‐criteria analysis framework was proposed for the sustainable water management of built reservoir with dam‐heightening‐based decision, which enhances the conventional decision‐making methods by more reasonably quantifying the decision‐making process. The method utilizes a group of techniques involving game theory, analytic hierarchy process (AHP) identifying and considering different stakeholder groups, entropy weight, and fuzzy comprehensive evaluation (GAEF), and is applied to the largest water transfer programs in China. The study results showed that the improved multi‐criteria decision framework can well deal with the decision‐making problem of built reservoir construction scheme in facing the newly increased task of water transfer. The study identifies five stakeholders that affect the subjective weight of the heightening schemes of built reservoir for inter‐basin water transfer. It was revealed that the game theory can better couple the collective wisdom of large complex groups and the objectivity of indicators than traditional methods such as geometric average. This study is of high reference value for the feasibility demonstration of built reservoir with dam‐heightening‐based decision around the world to achieve the water related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially for those reservoirs with water transferring tasks.

A systematic bibliometric review of the United Nation’s SDGS: which are the most related to higher education institutions?

PurposeThis study aims to provide the current and future state of United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the higher education institutions (HEIs). Since the SDGs’ proliferation, HEIs have played a crucial part in meeting the goals. Despite the central role of HEIs in accomplishing the SDGs, there has been little attention in providing a comprehensive overview of the SDGs in relation to HEIs.Design/methodology/approachA total of 280 publications in the Web of Science database were analyzed through a bibliometric approach consisting of citation analysis, co-citation analysis and co-occurrence of keywords analysis. This review explores the current state of SDGs, its central themes of research streams and predicts future direction in the context of HEIs.FindingsThe findings would assist stakeholders to strategize the SDGs on HEIs, including the government and policymakers, university top management, benefactors and academics. Three main research streams were observed sustainable curriculum; challenges and barriers of SDGs; and COVID-19 and health management.Research limitations/implicationsImplications suggest that to achieve the stipulated goals in the SDGs, proper planning and strategy should be aligned proportionate to the national agenda.Originality/valueThis paper presents a novel knowledge structure by mapping the most relevant SDGs in the context of HEIs based on bibliometric analysis.

Access to health services and health inequalities in remote and rural areas

ABSTRACT
 Access to health care includes the availability, accessibility, awareness, accommodation or adequacy, affordability, and acceptability of health services. Scarce health facilities, long distances to health facilities, shortages of medicine, level of poverty, shortages of doctors, dentists, and other health professionals, level of education and knowledge among populace on orthodox treatment practices are factors that affects access to health care. Level of awareness among the populace of preventive and curative services offered by health facilities, absence of health insurance, and inability to afford the cost of health services are obstacles limiting rural people from recognizing and achieving the health and social related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), that requires that access to good quality healthcare is improved significantly in rural areas and under-served population.
 Health inequalities exist both between and within developed and developing countries, both between and within urban, semi-urban and rural areas. Health inequalities are determined by various socioeconomic factors: such as age, sex, race, ethnicity, education, income, social status, unemployment and place of residence of the population. The factors that give rise to, and worsen, inequalities in health are multidimensional. Interventions in addressing health inequalities would involve economic policies, strategic health planning, health education on avoidable risk factors for poor health, use of telemedicine/tele dentistry, and reduction of unmet healthcare needs among various population groups. Other interventions are poverty eradication interventions especially in remote and rural areas, healthcare financing through budgetary allocation, and improving access to health service through universal health coverage, with an organized and efficient health system.

Spatial Variations of Village-Level Environmental Variables from Satellite Big Data and Implications for Public Health–Related Sustainable Development Goals

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) include 17 interlinked goals designed to be a blueprint for the world’s nations to achieve a better and more sustainable future, and the specific SDG 3 is a public health–related goal to ensure healthy living and promote well-being for all population groups. To facilitate SDG planning, implementation, and progress monitoring, many SDG indicators have been developed. Based on the United Nations General Assembly resolutions, SDG indicators need to be disaggregated by geographic locations and thematic environmental and socioeconomic characteristics for achieving the most accurate planning and progress assessment. High-resolution data such as those captured at the village level can provide comparatively more precise insights into the different socioeconomic and environmental factors relevant to SDGs, therefore enabling more effective sustainable development decision-making. Using India as our study area and the child malnutrition indicators stunting, underweight, and wasting as examples of public health–related SDG indicators, we have demonstrated a process to effectively derive environmental variables at the village level from satellite big datasets on a cloud platform for SDG research and applications. Spatial analysis of environmental variables regarding vegetation, climate, and terrain have shown spatial grouping patterns across the entire study area, with each village group having different statistics. Correlation analysis between these environmental variables and stunting, underweight, and wasting indicators show a meaningful relationship between these indicators and vegetation index, land surface temperature, rainfall, elevation, and slope. Identifying the spatial variation patterns of environmental variables at the village level and their correlations with child malnutrition indicators can be an invaluable tool to facilitate a clearer understanding of the causes of child malnutrition and to improve area-specific SDG 3 implementation planning. This analysis can also provide meaningful support in assessing and monitoring SDG implementation progress at the village level by spatially predicting SDG indicators using available socioeconomic and environmental independent variables. The methodology used in this study has the potential to be applied to other similar regions, especially low-to-middle income countries where a high number of children are severely affected by malnutrition, as well as to other environmentally related SDGs, such as Goal 1 (No Poverty) and Goal 2 (Zero Hunger).

Prescribing a Business Research Agenda to Address Human Health Grand Challenges

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed massive flaws in human health systems worldwide. Communities with higher health deficiencies suffered even more drastic effects when COVID-19 interacted with pre-existing diseases—making COVID a more lethal virus. Considering that business can only thrive if their stakeholders enjoy good health and well-being, the critical role of business in improving health spans from occupational health and public health policy and regulations to the health of external stakeholders such as consumers and the surrounding communities. Despite the intrinsic connection between business and human health, business scholars have mainly paid attention to internal stakeholders, such as employees, and public health policy and regulations as they directly affect business, while overlooking the impact of business on external stakeholder health. This symposium intends to open a place for discussion of the role of business in tackling human health challenges and the impact of business on the health of external stakeholders such as consumers and communities. This symposium will also be a springboard to propose a research agenda for business and management scholars interested in health and the advancement in the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for not only SDG 3 on Good Health and Well-being but also related SDGs such as SDG 2 on Zero Hunger and SDG 13 on Climate Action. Coproducing Social Impact Through a Community-Empowered Human Resource Model Presenter: Andrea Maria Prado; INCAE Business School Presenter: Andy Pearson; INCAE Business School Presenter: Silvia Dorado; U. of Massachusetts, Boston Presenter: Ying Chen; U. of Rhode Island Health-Washing in Business Presenter: Remy Balarezo; U. de Piura Presenter: Ivan Montiel; City U. of New York, Baruch College Evaluating the Impacts of Corporate Health Initiatives Presenter: Bryan W. Husted; Tecnologico de Monterrey Presenter: Irene Henriques; York U. Presenter: Lilia Raquel Rojas-Cruz; EGADE Business School, Tecnológico de Monterrey

The Impact of Covid-19 on Household Food Security and Income Generation in Mufulira District, Copperbelt Province

Household food security poses as a great challenge in most households especially in Africa. The ability to have sufficient food available at all times is deemed as a luxury. With the emergence of the Corona Virus disease commonly known as Covid-19, many countries have suffered economic recessions due to border closures, lockdowns, loss of human resource, diversion of funds hence leading to people losing their jobs, businesses going down and loss of family heads due to the virus. Therefore, this led to household food insecurity in most households and low-income generation. The purpose of the study was to investigate the impact of Covid-19 on household food security and income generation in Francis Mukuka, Mufulira District, Copperbelt Province. The specific objectives were to find out how Covid-19 has affected household food security, to examine the impact of Covid-19 on household income and to investigate measures put in place in order to cope with Covid-19. A case study research method that included a structured interview guide was used to collect data online from a sample of 26 respondents. The respondents were made up of those in employment and business owners, the married as well as those who are single. The study findings show that most households had challenges in feeding the family all the three meals required per day and they experienced inability to have all the desired food. They also revealed that people generated low income hence most of the respondents had to diversify into farming, doing part time business and looking for extra jobs. It was also found that, during the Covid-19 restriction measures, prices for goods had gone up, people were failing to purchase most things for their basic needs and those who could afford were buying in bulk because of restriction of movements. After the lifting up of Covid-19 measures, prices for goods have dropped. In view of the findings, the following recommendations were made. Increase the number of people on the Farmer Input Support Program (FISP) to increase agriculture production so as to achieve related sustainable development goals.

Evaluation of Rainwater Harvesting Systems in Three Major cities of New South Wales

Rainwater harvesting (RWH) systems are becoming more popular to reduce pressure on mains water as well as to serve as a sole freshwater supply system in rural areas. Australia is a large continent with highly variable rainfall and hence performance of a RWH system varies from location to location. This paper presents reliability and water-saving potential of a RWH system in three major cities namely Sydney, Newcastle and Wollongong of New South Wales (NSW) State of Australia. A python-based daily water balance model is built to analyse the performance of a RWH system, which uses rainfall, loss, water demand and roof catchment data. To enable selection of ideal rainwater tank size for the selected locations, three different water uses (toilet and laundry, irrigation, and combined use) and five tank sizes (1, 5, 10, 20 and 30 kL) are considered. It is found that the rainwater tank size is influenced by roof area, number of users, water demand and rainfall characteristics. This study will help in decision-making regarding implementation of a RWH system in these Australian cities. This research also contributes towards achieving water related sustainable development goals (SDG).