Unsustainable Growth Research Articles

Income distribution and economic cycles in an open-economy supermultiplier model

We build a structuralist supermultiplier model for a small open economy with two sources of autonomous demand, government expenditures and exports. We find that, in the long run, there is a limit for government spending: its growth rate cannot exceed that of exports without generating an external crisis. However, there is a strong role for public policy, since there is nothing that automatically leads the economy to its maximum growth rate compatible with the external constraint to growth.In the short run, we find an additional restriction, related to income distribution. Since higher wages increase consumption and economic activity, they also require more imports, potentially leading to unsustainable debt growth. Therefore, there is a maximum real wage compatible with external equilibrium. If real wages targeted by unions exceed those compatible with balance-of-payments equilibrium, the economy can display economic cycles between capacity utilisation, income distribution and indebtedness, marked by permanent inflation.

Crop Diversification, Agricultural Transition and Farm Income Growth: Evidence from Eastern India

This paper examines the role of crop diversification in agricultural transition towards high-value crops as well as farm income growth in Odisha, Eastern India. The empirical analysis reveals some crucial facts: first, a stagnant and relatively low level of crop diversification in Odisha agriculture. Second, there is an insignificant agricultural transition due to the negative area substitution effect for most of the crops, along with a weak expansion effect over the last two decades from 1995-2018. Third, a declining contribution of productivity growth coupled with an insignificant contribution of crop diversification to the farm income growth over the years. Hence, we conclude no or an insignificant agricultural transition from traditional to high-value modern agriculture in Eastern India, causing unsustainable farm income growth. This calls for an urgent need to promote a mixed cropping pattern and colossal investment to encourage the farmers to transition towards high-value crops, stimulating farm income growth. Furthermore, massive efforts are required to make farmers aware of the advantages of diversification.

Perspectives: Advertising and climate change – Part of the problem or part of the solution?

The advertising industry has a direct carbon footprint but also contributes to climate change by stimulating unsustainable economic growth, promoting climate-harmful consumerism, and greenwashing polluting products and companies. However, advertising can also play a pivotal role in fighting climate change. The advertising industry can reduce its carbon footprint, fight greenwashing, and cut ties with polluting clients and industries. Green advertising can shift consumers away from climate-harmful consumption patterns toward a low-carbon culture by providing accurate information and leveraging psychological processes such as moral satisfaction, nature experiences, and fear responses, among others. For advertising research to play a significant role in this paradigm shift, it should focus more specifically on climate-relevant behaviours instead of on general green consumer behaviour, and adopt a more holistic approach to analyze the role of advertising not only in influencing individual consumers’ decisions but also in sustaining a cultural narrative that promotes climate protection.

Modelling built-up land expansion probability using the integrated fuzzy logic and coupling coordination degree model

The expansion of built-up area is the most noticeable form of urbanization-induced land use/land cover (LULC) change. In the global cities of south, the urban sprawl is increasing rapidly with even higher probabilities of future built-up expansion. These cities are witnessing unsustainable urban growth with no consideration of eco-friendly environmental condition and quality of life due to rapid expansion in built-up area. Indian cities too have been witnessing rapid urban growth and built-up expansion especially in the large metropolitan cities like Delhi. Therefore, the main objective of this study is to model the built-up expansion probabilities in Delhi National Capital Region (Delhi NCR) using remote sensing datasets and an integrated fuzzy logic and coupling coordination degree model (CCDM). For this, initially, the LULC classification was done using random forest (RF) classifier to extract the built-up area. Further, analytical hierarchy process (AHP) integrated fuzzy sets were applied using the extracted built-up area along with a set of economic, demographic, proximity parameters, topographic, and utility services. Five zones of built-up expansion probabilities were made namely very high, high, medium, low and very low. The result shows that the probability of built-up expansion in Delhi NCR is maximum under very high and high probability zones, whereas minimum expansion probabilities come in the very low probability zone for both base year i.e., 2018 and future years. Moreover, between base year and future years, the probability of built-up expansion has increased maximum (5.72%) under the very high zone while it declined by 14.06% in low probability zone. The validation of built-up probability using CCDM shows that the AHP integrated fuzzy logic-based probability model is robust while predicting built-up probability. The results of this study may provide useful insights for the urban planning department and policy makers to mitigate the adverse impacts of built-up expansion. Similar approach may be utilized in the analyzing the built-up urban expansion of other major cities of the world similar geographical conditions.

Design of Feeder Route Network Using Combined Genetic Algorithm and Specialized Repair Heuristic

In metropolitan cities an efficient integrated public transportation system is unavoidable to restrict unsustainable growth of private and intermediate transport modes. Well-designed feeder routes and coordinated schedules to minimize transfer time from the main transit to feeder buses play an important role. Past literature reveals that a heuristic approach had been popular for design of routes and had been applied successfully in a variety of network design problems. Nontraditional optimization techniques, especially genetic algorithms, are also found to be very effective in the generation of optimized feeder routes and schedules. In this research the genetic algorithm first develops feeder routes and then a specialized heuristic algorithm works as a repair algorithm to satisfy the demand of all the nodes. Thus, the advantages of both genetic algorithms and specialized heuristic algorithms are obtained in this method. The developed feeder route structure is found to be better in terms of load factors in buses, satisfaction of demand, and waiting time for feeder buses as compared to existing scenarios and earlier approaches adopted for the same study area.

Shifting Microeconomic Indicators into Solving Macroeconomic Issues

Defining relations can be built between the state and the corporation on its capitalist structure with observable results in increasing economic performance. The idea of ​​sustainability results from Schumpeter's analysis of "healthy" economic growth of about 2% per year (according to the analysis between 1890 and 1940, including the unsustainable pre-crisis growth of 3.8% / year between 1890 and 1929). Basically, the relationship between government action and corporate governance can be likened to the relationship between urban management and business management (the ultimate goal is to attract investors / stakeholders to the city / corporation by offering advantages over other areas with similar characteristics but keeping the sense of economic logic). to maintain a competitive environment over the local government apparatus and an effective relationship with the inhabitants of that city, respectively, to maintain an organizational culture that resonates with the employees and with the initial purpose of the business), thus this research work having a character of rationalization of the economic environment of an emerging state through an integrated corporate governance approach to the issue.

Shannon Entropy-based urban spatial fragmentation to ensure sustainable development of the urban coastal city: A case study of Semarang, Indonesia

This study examines the extent to which the Shannon Entropy Index (H) can be used to ensure urban growth sustainability by measuring the spatial dispersion pattern of a built-up area. The Shannon Entropy Index was calculated based on the proximities to the city center (HCC) and the main road (HMR), which divide the study area into 17 zones. Data from Landsat 5- TM Imagery 2011 and Landsat 8- OLI Imagery 2016 and 2021 were used to extract urban built-up areas through image classification using the Support Vector Machine (SVM) Algorithm and measure their growth over time. The results show the normalized Shannon Entropy Index for the proximities to the city center (HCC′) and the main road (HMR′). HCC′ was found to be 0.93 in 2021 and increased by 0.44 during 2011–2021, while HMR′ was recorded to be 0.68 in 2021 and increased by 0.27 during 2011–2021, indicating that urban development in Semarang City has become increasingly fragmented. Among the 17 existing zones, the peri-urban areas of southeast part zones in Semarang (III-BP and IV-AP) were found to have the largest relative Shannon Entropy Index (H') of 0.98 and 0.96, respectively, indicating that this area is developing irregularly and spreading out compared to the city center, which is unsustainable built-up area growth. We call for an integrated space utilization control strategy between the city center and the peri-urban area. Our study demonstrates the capacity of using the Shannon Entropy Index to detect potential areas of unsustainable development in a coastal city with diverse development dynamics, which can also be applied in other coastal cities to prevent unsustainable development.

Financialized Growth and the Structural Power of Finance: Turkey's Debt-Led Growth Regime and Policy Response after the Crisis

This article analyzes the Turkish central bank's “managed uncertainty” policy after the global financial crisis. During 2010–14, the central bank intentionally generated uncertainty around short-term interest rates, using the level of predictability faced by financiers as a tool to buffer the domestic economy from volatile capital flows. How did the central bank implement this unconventional policy? Building on interview data and public texts, the article argues that the surge in capital inflows after the crisis sourced a debt-led, financialized economic growth model and deepened Turkey's reliance on external financing. The central bank could diverge from the financial sector's policy preferences despite Turkey's increased foreign capital dependence because the availability of low-cost, ample, private funding opportunities temporarily expanded policymakers’ room to maneuver. However, operating vis-à-vis an unsustainable growth regime, the central bank had to revert to orthodoxy in 2014 due to declining investor confidence and capital flight. This article contributes to the literature on the structural power of finance by demonstrating how finance derives its structural power from funding financialized growth, not productive investments. It also shows that financial structural power varies based on the source and cost of external financing beyond the degree of foreign capital dependence.

Inkjet-Printed Dual-Mode Electrochromic and Electroluminescent Displays Incorporating Ecofriendly Materials.

Displays and indicators are an integral component of everyday electronics. However, the short lifecycle of most applications is currently contributing to the unsustainable growth of electronic waste. In this work, we utilize ecofriendly materials in combination with sustainable processing techniques to fabricate inkjet-printed, ecofriendly dual-mode displays (DMDs). These displays can be used in a reflective mode or an emissive mode by changing between DC and AC operation due to the combination of an electrochromic (EC) and electrochemiluminescent (ECL) layer in a single device. The EC polymer poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrene sulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) serves as the reflective layer, while an ECL gel made of dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO), poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA), 1-butyl-3-methylimidazoliumbis(oxalato)borate (BMIMBOB), and tris(bipyridine)ruthenium(II) chloride (Ru2+(bpy)3Cl2) enables the emissive mode. The final dual-mode devices exhibited their maximum optical power output of 52 mcd/m2 at 4 V and 40 Hz and achieved an EC contrast of 45% and a coloration efficiency of 244 cm2/C at a wavelength of 690 nm. The fabricated devices showed clear readability in dark and light conditions when operated in reflective or emissive modes. This work demonstrates the applicability of ecofriendly and potentially biodegradable materials to reduce the amount of hazardous components in versatile display technologies.

Evaluation of global techno-socio-economic policies for the FEW nexus with an optimal control based approach

Inordinate consumption of natural resources by humans over the past century and unsustainable growth practices have necessitated a need for enforcing global policies to sustain the ecosystem and prevent irreversible changes. This study utilizes the Generalized Global Sustainability model (GGSM), which focuses on sustainability for the Food-Energy-Water (FEW) Nexus. GGSM is a 15-compartment model with components for the food-web, microeconomic framework, energy, industry and water sectors, and humans. GGSM shows that an increased per capita consumption scenario is unsustainable. In this study, an optimal-control theory based approach is devised to address the unsustainable scenario through policy interventions to evaluate sustainability by employing multiple global indicators and controlling them. Six policy options are employed as control variables to provide global policy recommendations to develop the multi-variate optimal control approach. Seven objectives are proposed to limit the human burden on the environment to ascertain sustainability from a lens of ecological, economic, and social wellbeing. This study observes the performance of the policy options toward seven sustainability indicators: Fisher Information, Green Net Product, Ecological Buffer, Carbon dioxide emissions, Nitrous oxide emissions, and Global Water Stress. The optimal control model assesses these multiple objectives by minimizing the variance in the Fisher Information. One significant result from this study is that optimizing for the Fisher Information based objective is adequate to attain sustainability and manage the other objectives under consideration. Thus, forgoing a multi-objective problem framework. The results show that cross-dimensional policy interventions such as increased vegetarianism and increased penalty on industrial discharge are shown to have a positive impact on scale.

Contraceptive Prevalence, Pattern and Socio-demographic Determinants among In- Union Women of Reproductive Age (15-49 years) in Semi-urban Communities of Orlu town, Imo state, Nigeria

Introduction: The use of contraceptives is very important in controlling high and unsustainable population growth thereby reducing its attendant problems of poor national economy and health outcomes of women and children.
 Methodology: The study was a community based cross-sectional study carried out among 600 in-union women of reproductive age living in suburban communities in Orlu, Imo State, Nigeria. They were selected using multistage sampling technique. Data was collected using a pre-tested, semi-structured and interviewer administered questionnaire and was analyzed using EPI-INFO version 3.2.1. Descriptive statistics, Chi-square test and regression analysis were performed where necessary. A p-value of ≤ 0.05 was considered significant.
 Result: Contraceptive ever used and current use was 66.7% and 36.7% respectively. The commonest modern contraceptive type ever used and currently used was the oral Contraceptive pill (65% vs. 22.8%). Socio-demographic and economic factors found to influence contraceptive use among the women were; age of women (p=0.002), status of union(p˂0.0001), age at union (p = 0.043), duration of union (p = 0.002), level of education of women (p ˂ 0.0001), religion of women (p ˂ 0.0001), family size (p ˂ 0.0001), number of male children (p ˂ 0.0001), monthly income (p ˂ 0.0001) and previous use of contraceptives (p ˂ 0.0001).
 Conclusion: The use of contraceptive was low and the commonest reason for non-use was due to religious beliefs. Most of the factors influencing use can be modified by appropriate intervention programs. Thus there is need to institute intervention programs by relevant authorities of the state that can help increase contraceptive use among these women.
 Keywords: Contraceptive use, prevalence, pattern, socio-demographic, determinants, Orlu, Imo State.

The influence of transportation and digital technologies on backcountry tourism and recreation in British Columbia, Canada

Sensitive backcountry environments are more accessible than ever due to technological innovation and a growing tourism sector in Western Canada. Current regulations and management practices must adapt as technology continues to change the way people access, travel on and experience backcountry trail networks. While existing literature discusses the ecological impacts of trail-based tourism, there are few resources available that foster comprehensive land management strategies of backcountry trails in British Columbia (BC). There are also a limited number of studies that are specific to the effects of transportation and digital technologies on backcountry tourism and recreation. A community-based participatory research methodology provided the foundation for this study. Twenty-one semi-structured interviews were completed with key industry stakeholders who currently manage trails in backcountry environments throughout the province. We examine the challenges and opportunities that new forms of transportation and digital technologies offer to the management of backcountry trails, with a specific focus on the sport of mountain biking. Participants asserted that the multiple overlapping interests that compete for control of public land in Western Canada add layers of complexity to any discussion of backcountry tourism, recreation and conflict management. There was also an emphasis that unsustainable growth of trail-based tourism in numerous regions of BC increases the potential for conflict to occur between trail users. These findings inform the development of strategies to manage people, the lands, and the relationships with other stakeholders to mitigate conflict in these tourism economies. The results provide insight into the contemporary challenges trail managers face related to transportation and digital technological innovations and they identify opportunities for further trail user education to encourage more collaborative land management strategies. The example of how these technologies impact backcountry trails in BC has applicability for diverse rural tourism economies throughout Canada and internationally.

‘Dematerialization’ in times of economic crisis: A regional analysis of the Spanish economy in material and monetary terms

• An unprecedented drop in material consumption accompanied the 2007 crisis in Spain. • Construction activities were key in both the expansive and the contractive period. • Unsustainable material growth coincided with decreasing subnational inequality. • ‘Dematerialization’ was associated with increased inequality. • A just socio-ecological transformation requires dematerialization by design.

Tourism development at the Al-Hijr Archaeological Site, Saudi Arabia: SME sentiments and emerging concerns

ABSTRACT This study was designed to investigate the impacts of tourism development at the Al-Hijr Archaeological Site, Saudi Arabia. Al-Hijr was inscribed as the country’s first UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2008 but received little attention as a tourist destination until the launch of the Saudi Vision 2030 strategy in 2016, which positioned heritage tourism sites as important catalysts in the long-term transition to a post-oil economy. Via the implementation of semi-structured interviews with local tourism SME owners and senior managers between January and February 2020, several exploratory observations were made. According to study participants, who typically framed the impacts of tourism development from the perspective of their local communities as well as those of businesses, the genesis of tourism had presented several paradoxes. Whilst the UNESCO listing helped foster community support for tourism due to new economic opportunities, the opening of Al-Hijr to international tourists and the proposed scale of development proposals raised numerous concerns, including fears of ‘cultural erosion’ and unsustainable growth. This paper therefore positions itself as an important and novel step in identifying local SME stakeholder perspectives on embryonic tourism development at Al-Hijr and offers recommendations to mitigate emerging concerns.

Modeling the nexus between carbon emissions, urbanization, population growth, energy consumption, and economic development in Asia: Evidence from grey relational analysis

Environmental degradation has been identified as a major worldwide concern in recent decades, with CO2 emissions considered as one of the primary drivers of this catastrophe. This study creatively analyzes the underlying impact of urbanization, population growth, Gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, energy use on CO2 emissions to mitigate the environmental degradation from the five most populated regions of Asia i.e., China, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. To investigate the integrated impact of CO2 emission and associated factors, a grey relational analysis (GRA) based weights and ranking were estimated for the year 2001 to 2014. Then, utilizing the Conservative minimax approach, we sought to determine which country contributes the most to CO2 emissions based on weights acquired by Second Synthetic Grey Relational Analysis (SSGRA). The Grey technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution (G-TOPSIS) technique was employed for further optimization by prioritizing the explanatory factors that have the greatest influence on CO2 emissions. The outcomes through GRA techniques discovered that India is a major contributor of carbon emission caused by population growth and economic development. Whereas the use of energy and urbanization are grounded factors of emission for China and Pakistan respectively. The outcomes of the Conservative minimax criterion indicate that India is a leading contributor to carbon emissions in Asia. Also, the unsustainable growth of population and CO2 emissions indicates a direct causative relationship for environmental damage based on the G-TOPSIS. The findings of the study potentially aid governments and policymakers in making better decisions and investments to mitigate CO2 emissions while fostering a more environmentally friendly atmosphere.

Marine macroalgae as a feasible and complete resource to address and promote Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Because the world's population is increasing, science-based policies are needed to promote sustainable global development. It is important to maintain and restore the environment and help human society overcome the risks from industrialization and unsustainable exponential growth. In recent years, many studies have highlighted that macroalgae represent a key marine resource for ecological and sustainable living, thus helping to address today's global problems, such as water pollution, ocean acidification, and global warming. Macroalgae show the potential to provide innovative, ecofriendly, and nutritious food sources and natural compounds for various industries, such as biomedical, food, agricultural, and pharmaceutical industries. This review discusses how macroalgae can help us today and how they can promote a more sustainable way of life in the future. It also discusses the potential danger for ecosystems and the global population if these organisms are not part of the solution but part of the problem. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2022;18:1148-1161. © 2022 SETAC.

Assessment of water policies contributions for sustainable water resources management under climate change scenarios

Economic development alongside unsustained population growth are among the leading factors of hydrological depletion. Facing climate change impacts, long-term policy planning via scenario analysis is an essential tool to ensure water security. This investigation utilized an approach based on numerical model experiments and sustainability indexes to assess the impact of public policies for water resources management over a long-term horizon. Streamflow projections (2011–2099) from the hydrological model MHD-INPE (Distributed Hydrological Model – National Institute for Space Research) were evaluated as means to investigate water supply scenarios. Monthly flows were accounted into 30-year moving average intervals. Sustainability Indexes were then calculated to evaluate the performance of a water system as IPCC’s Specific Warming Levels were reached. In this study, the contribution of public policies for water resources sustainability under climate change scenarios in the Paraíba do Sul river basin, which supports the water supply of the two major Brazilian metropolitan areas, were analyzed. Results indicated that the system will operate with more stress facing climate change impacts. Finally, the assessment of water availability scenarios is concluded to benefit decision-makers in incorporating adaptation measures, identifying uncertainties, and foreseeing potential effects of climate change.

Energy-Efficient and QoS Guaranteed BBU Aggregation in CRAN Based on Heuristic- Assisted Deep Reinforcement Learning

The surging mobile traffic poses serious challenges for mobile operators, one of which is the unsustainable growth caused by the high energy consumption of the massively deployed base stations (BSs). Cloud radio access network (CRAN), as a new architecture, is proposed to confront this challenge. By isolating baseband unit (BBU) from its remote radio head (RRH) in BS, the BBUs are consolidated into a common place (i.e., BBU pool). Since the “any-to-any” connection between BBUs and RRHs is realized in CRAN, low utilized BBUs can be switched to sleep mode to save energy during traffic valley, which can effectively reduce the energy consumption of CRAN. However, when a BBU enters into the sleep mode, RRHs connected with this BBU must be switched to another BBU, which would degrade the quality of service (QoS) for the RRHs. In this paper, to simultaneously guarantee low BBU energy consumption and low RRH traffic migration, both of which are interrelated and mutual restraint, we propose a deep reinforcement learning (DRL) based BBU aggregation scheme. Furthermore, to train the DRL fast and well, we introduce several heuristic algorithms to assist the DRL training. Extensive numerical evaluations show that our proposed heuristic-assisted DRL (HA-DRL) can guarantee both the low power consumption and the less traffic migration. When compared with the baselines, HA-DRL can achieve up to 18.3% cost reduction and 32.8% migrated traffic reduction with at most 8.4% higher energy consumption and attains the lowest cost for all cases considered.

ВЛИЯНИЕ ЭПИДЕМИИ COVID-19 НА ЭКСПОРТ РЫБНОЙ ПРОДУКЦИИ ГОРОДА ДАНАНГ (ВЬЕТНАМ)

Fisheries play an important role in the global food security and are considered the major source of foreign exchange for the foreign trade economies of many countries. The Covid-19 outbreak has caused disruptions in international trade, which has led to consequences related to the production, export of seafood in Vietnam in general and Da Nang in particular. The paper analyzes the seafood export situation of Da Nang City, one of the five cities directly managed by the Vietnamese central government, examining the opportunities and challenges of exporting the city’s fish products before and during the Covid-19 pandemic. The study results show that Da Nang’s seafood export activity in 2020 was significantly affected by the development of the Covid-19 epidemic, with the total seafood export turnover decreasing by 7.6 % compared to the same period of the previous year. While there are positive signs of recovery in the city’s seafood business in 2021, there are still risks of unsustainable growth. Based on the results of the analysis, proposals and policy decisions are substantiated to maintain growth rates and develop the city’s import and export activities in the post-Covid-19 period.

Cooperativismo como una herramienta para el turismo de base comunitaria. La respuesta desde la literatura

This article deals with local development as seen in the specialist bibliography and its links with tourism as an adherent benefit. Lack of a clear clear development process, it has been found brings unsustainable growth. In addition to this, the development of the rural sector has converged with the emancipation of communities seeking new ways to improve their quality of life, one of which is community tourism. Therefore, the objective was to chart the state of the art of community tourism, local development and cooperativism over time to see how these three concepts have evolved, using a holistic analysis of 137 scientific articles in Spanish. The main results of the study were that cooperative organisations in tourism can lead to achieving sustainable development. Therefore, community tourism should consider cooperativism as a key factor for local development, since it promotes community integration, governance and empowerment of the territory