Current Research in Environmental Sustainability最新文献

{"title":"Blockchain is not a silver bullet for agro-food supply chain sustainability: Insights from a coffee case study","authors":"Simon L. Bager ,&nbsp;Christina Singh ,&nbsp;U. Martin Persson","doi":"10.1016/j.crsust.2022.100163","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.crsust.2022.100163","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Information sharing lies at the core of most governance interventions within agro-food commodity supply-chains, such as certification standards or direct trade relationships. However, actors have little information available to guide sustainable consumption decisions beyond simple labels. Blockchain technology can potentially alleviate the numerous sustainability problems related to agro-food commodity supply-chains by fostering traceability and transparency. Despite significant research on blockchain, there is limited understanding of the concrete barriers and benefits and potential applications of blockchain in real-world settings. Here, we present a case study of blockchain implementation in a coffee supply-chain. Our aim is to assess the potential of blockchain technology to promote sustainability in coffee supply chains through increased traceability and transparency and to identify barriers and opportunities for this. While our pilot implementation clearly illustrates certain benefits of blockchain, it also suggests that blockchain is no silver bullet for delivering agro-food supply chain sustainability. Knowledge on provenance and transparency of information on quality and sustainability can help trigger transformation of consumer behaviour, but the actual value lies in digitising the supply chain to increase efficiency and reduce costs, disputes, and fraud, while providing more insight end-to-end through product provenance and chain-of-custody information. We identify a need to understand and minimize supply chain barriers before we can reap the full benefits of digitalization and decentralization provided by blockchain technology.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":34472,"journal":{"name":"Current Research in Environmental Sustainability","volume":"4 ","pages":"Article 100163"},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S266604902200041X/pdfft?md5=521038006a4a3f3e85f1ffa9fad1fb04&pid=1-s2.0-S266604902200041X-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"54098367","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Using place-based public engagement to improve social and environmental sustainability: Lessons from partnership working in Cornwall, UK","authors":"Claire Collins ,&nbsp;Rosalind F. Shaw ,&nbsp;Jane Wills","doi":"10.1016/j.crsust.2022.100181","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.crsust.2022.100181","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Public engagement with research and innovation is often inversely related to socio-economic status, with significant implications for realising positive solutions to pressing concerns, such as the biodiversity and climate crises. This paper reports on the use of place-based public workshops focusing on co-design of urban green spaces to understand: the extent to which public workshops can engage local people in relatively poor locations; the degree to which working with self-organised groups or newly-engaged publics impacts levels of engagement and outcomes; and how universities can play a role in developing locally relevant practical solutions to transdisciplinary issues such as the climate and biodiversity crises. We report on an action research project that involved facilitated co-design workshops in three towns in Cornwall, UK. The research methods included a survey of participants and follow up interviews with key stakeholders. We found that the workshops were successful in engaging local people, including those with less interest in the environment. Independent follow-on activities from aligned self-organised groups were greater than for newly engaged publics but this was partly dependent on the knowledge and skills of those involved. The role of the university as a neutral partner, in providing expertise and seed funding, was seen to be positive, with short-term timescales, communication and the ability to retain longer term involvement reported as hindrances to successful collaboration.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":34472,"journal":{"name":"Current Research in Environmental Sustainability","volume":"4 ","pages":"Article 100181"},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666049022000597/pdfft?md5=ede971069785f20df556cc80a6b45f4a&pid=1-s2.0-S2666049022000597-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"54098617","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Spatial patterns of urban blue-green landscapes on land surface temperature: A case of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia","authors":"Neway Kifle Bekele,&nbsp;Binyam Tesfaw Hailu,&nbsp;Karuturi Venkata Suryabhagavan","doi":"10.1016/j.crsust.2022.100146","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.crsust.2022.100146","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Drastic changes in the urban landscape can lead to irreversible changes in the spatiotemporal pattern of the land surface temperature (LST). The present study was aimed to map the effects of blue-green urban landscapes on LST using geospatial techniques in Addis Ababa during 2006–2021. Object-based image analysis (OBIA) was used to produce land-use/land-cover (LULC) maps using high-resolution imagery from SPOT 5 and Sentinel 2A. Land surface temperature was retrieved from thermal imageries of Landsat 7 ETM⁺ (band 6) and Landsat 8 TIRS (band 10) using the Mono-Window Algorithm (MWA). Built-up area was the most dominant LULC in the city with expanding trend with an annual growth of 4.4% at the expense of farmland, vegetation, and bare land. In contrast, 53.7% of farmland, 48.1% of vegetation, and 59.4% of bare land were transformed into built-up class during 2006–2021. Mean LST showed an increasing trend from 25.8 °C in 2006 to 27.2 °C and 28.2 °C during 2016 and 2021, respectively. Highest mean LST was observed at bare land having average values of 26.9 °C, 28.7 °C, and 30.1 °C in 2006, 2016 and 2021, respectively. Regression analysis has revealed a strong negative correlation between NDVI and LST, a strong positive correlation between NDBI and LST, and a weak negative correlation between MNDWI and LST. Built-up areas and vegetation cover play a decisive role in the variation of LST compared to surface water. These findings are helpful for understanding urban green as well as land-use planning to minimize the potential impacts of urbanization.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":34472,"journal":{"name":"Current Research in Environmental Sustainability","volume":"4 ","pages":"Article 100146"},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S266604902200024X/pdfft?md5=512382cf8d9d73950898b6736fd9ca48&pid=1-s2.0-S266604902200024X-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"54098211","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Monitoring and accounting the sustainability of tomato greenhouse production systems of Mirjaveh district, Iran based on emergetic indicators","authors":"Maryam Nakhaei ,&nbsp;Mohammad Ali Behdani ,&nbsp;Mohammad Reza Asgharipour ,&nbsp;Mahdi Hedayatizadeh","doi":"10.1016/j.crsust.2022.100149","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.crsust.2022.100149","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>The application of the emergy approach to analyzing the sustainability of greenhouse systems has resulted in the deployment of adequate management in order to boost the production sustainability of these systems. The goal of this study was to apply the emergy approach to assess the sustainability of greenhouse tomato production systems. The data for this study was collected from greenhouse owners through face-to-face referrals and the completion of a questionnaire. Sixty three tomato greenhouses were chosen for this purpose in Mirjaveh district, Zahedan, Iran. In tomato greenhouse systems, the average total emergy supporting output was 1.06E+16 sej/1000 m² of greenhouse area. The unit emergy value of economic product (unit emergy value) was calculated to be 9.94E+03 sej/J, indicating that greenhouse systems outperform open field systems of various crops by at least 100 times. The significant proportion of purchased non-renewable resources affected the tomato production system's sustainability in this study. As a result, using productive renewable local environmental inputs, more efficient labor, and technologies to reduce greenhouse building inputs and acquire non-renewable inputs will make the greenhouse tomato production system more sustainable.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":34472,"journal":{"name":"Current Research in Environmental Sustainability","volume":"4 ","pages":"Article 100149"},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666049022000275/pdfft?md5=242371de55487f1a6dc1db1e590f481a&pid=1-s2.0-S2666049022000275-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"54098234","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The effect of farm size on the sustainability of wheat production using emergy approach","authors":"Samin Fallahinejad ,&nbsp;Mohamad Armin ,&nbsp;Mohamad Reza Asgharipour","doi":"10.1016/j.crsust.2022.100161","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.crsust.2022.100161","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>The effect of three farm areas, including small, medium, and large, on the sustainability of wheat production was studied using the emergy technique in 2018–19 in Jovein, Iran. By increasing the size of the farm, the share of renewable natural resources decreased and the share of purchased resources increased. The total emergy supporting small, medium, and large farms, was 1.39 × 10¹⁶, 1.95 × 10¹⁶, and 2.16 × 10¹⁶ sej ha⁻¹ yr⁻¹, respectively. In small farms, the share of renewable natural inputs, non-renewable natural inputs, and purchased inputs of total input emergy were 55.6 × 10¹³, 63.01 × 10¹⁴, and 70.30 × 10¹⁴ sej ha⁻¹ yr⁻¹, respectively. However, the share of renewable natural inputs, non-renewable natural inputs, and purchased inputs on large farms were 50.9 × 10¹³, 11.38 × 10¹⁶, and 98.03 × 10¹⁵ sej ha⁻¹ yr⁻¹, respectively. As the farm size increased from small to large, the emergy yield ratio and emergy investment ratio increased by 11.11% and 101%, respectively, while the unit emergy value, renewable emergy ratio, emergy investment ratio, and environmental sustainability index decreased by 27.31, 50.61, 45.45, and 18.65%, respectively. According to the results, although cultivation in large farms uses less renewable environmental resources and more purchased resources, a higher yield is produced per unit area.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":34472,"journal":{"name":"Current Research in Environmental Sustainability","volume":"4 ","pages":"Article 100161"},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666049022000391/pdfft?md5=bfc2c5e8979e03c23c4c9ad774f5e201&pid=1-s2.0-S2666049022000391-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"54098330","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Role of economic growth, renewable energy, and technological innovation to achieve environmental sustainability in Kazakhstan","authors":"Asif Raihan ,&nbsp;Almagul Tuspekova","doi":"10.1016/j.crsust.2022.100165","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.crsust.2022.100165","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Global climate change caused by Greenhouse gases (GHGs), particularly carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions, poses incomparable threats to the environment, development, and sustainability. This research investigates the potential of economic growth, renewable energy use, and technological innovation to achieve environmental sustainability by reducing CO₂ emissions in Kazakhstan. Time series data from 1996 to 2018 were utilized by applying the Dynamic Ordinary Least Squares (DOLS) method. The DOLS estimate findings show that the coefficient of economic growth is positive and significant with CO₂ emissions, indicating a 1% increase in economic growth is related to a 0.34% rise in CO₂ emissions. Moreover, the estimated long-run coefficient of fossil fuel consumption is positive and significant which reveals that an increasing 1% of fossil fuel energy use is linked with a rising of 6.99% CO₂ emissions. Furthermore, the coefficient of renewable energy use is negative and significant, which indicates that increasing renewable energy use by 1% is associated with CO₂ emissions reduction by 0.38% in the long run. In addition, increasing technological innovation significantly lowers CO₂ emissions, implying that a 1% increase in the number of patent applications is linked to a 0.15% reduction in CO₂ emissions. The empirical findings reveal that economic growth and fossil fuel consumption increase CO₂ emissions in Kazakhstan while increased renewable energy use and technological innovation help to achieve environmental sustainability by reducing CO₂ emissions. This article provides policy recommendations aimed at a low-carbon economy, promoting renewable energy use, financing technological advancement, and environmental sustainability in Kazakhstan.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":34472,"journal":{"name":"Current Research in Environmental Sustainability","volume":"4 ","pages":"Article 100165"},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666049022000433/pdfft?md5=41ef35d4abcb5eab5e7ec672fa9cb993&pid=1-s2.0-S2666049022000433-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"54098406","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A systematic review of participatory integrated assessment at the catchment scale: Lessons learned from practice","authors":"Grace B. Villamor ,&nbsp;Lisa Sharma-Wallace ,&nbsp;Meine van Noordwijk ,&nbsp;Tim Barnard ,&nbsp;Dean F. Meason","doi":"10.1016/j.crsust.2022.100167","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.crsust.2022.100167","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Participatory integrated assessment (PIA) emerged as a response to conventional integrated assessment methods in the mid-to-late 1990s. PIA is based on the tenet that more inclusive stakeholder involvement may lead to increased accountability and legitimacy in decision-making, greater levels of trust and social learning between participants, and improved quality and relevancy of knowledge outputs. In this paper, we conduct a systematic literature review to update and deepen our understanding of the approaches, methods, opportunities, and challenges associated with PIA as applied at the catchment scale. Of the total 278 studies identified in our literature search, only 37 catchment-level cases presented a clear PIA application. From our review, lessons learnt were drawn in relation to the integration of less-easily quantified areas of social science, entry and exit planning in PIA, boundary work on issue cycles and accounting for the human dimension. We conclude that PIA is a potentially useful approach for navigating the dual social-ecological dimensions of current environmental and resource management issues, especially when projects include tailored objectives and methods, user-friendly outputs, and early and consistent stakeholder involvement. However, we also highlight gaps in the field concerning the integrative reach of PIA, PIA's real-world impact, and the relationship between PIA processes and outcomes along stages of environmental issue cycles. We conclude that further work is therefore still needed to help advance the field of PIA in both research and boundary work practice.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":34472,"journal":{"name":"Current Research in Environmental Sustainability","volume":"4 ","pages":"Article 100167"},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666049022000457/pdfft?md5=d96fc37c627f201de95bf9c21d8661ce&pid=1-s2.0-S2666049022000457-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"54098431","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Assessing sustainability cognizance in higher education institutions","authors":"Hammna Jillani ,&nbsp;Muhammad Nawaz Chaudhry ,&nbsp;Hesan Zahid","doi":"10.1016/j.crsust.2022.100190","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.crsust.2022.100190","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>The world is subjected to a paradigm shift in the form of sustainable development. It is essential for developed and particularly developing counties, to incorporate sustainability and help in the establishment of sustainable societies through awareness among the young population. This paper investigates the sustainability awareness among university students in the developing economy of Pakistan through a structured questionnaire, the analysis was carried out using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) and SPSS. The study highlights the role of both public and private education sectors in promoting sustainability. The findings reveal that the private education sector is leading in making the students cognizant of sustainability and sustainable development whereas, the public sector is lagging behind. In order to fulfill and implement the sustainability goals in the country both sectors need to play their part by integrating sustainability into the curriculum and modifying the policy framework.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":34472,"journal":{"name":"Current Research in Environmental Sustainability","volume":"4 ","pages":"Article 100190"},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666049022000688/pdfft?md5=1eb77cd3868a5366a21ecbd62b964a76&pid=1-s2.0-S2666049022000688-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"54098822","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Biomass carbon and soil nutrient status in urban green sites at foothills of eastern Himalayas: Implication for carbon management","authors":"Ricky Pradhan ,&nbsp;Biplov Ch. Sarkar ,&nbsp;K. Abha Manohar ,&nbsp;Gopal Shukla ,&nbsp;Mendup Tamang ,&nbsp;Vineeta ,&nbsp;Jahangeer A. Bhat ,&nbsp;Munesh Kumar ,&nbsp;Sumit Chakravarty","doi":"10.1016/j.crsust.2022.100168","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.crsust.2022.100168","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Urban green spaces are effective extension of carbon sinks in human dominant landscapes to supplement climate change mitigation. There have been several studies on the environmental effects of urbanization, but few studies on the services offered by urban green areas. The current research took place at four urban green sites in Cooch Behar, West Bengal, India, which is situated in the Eastern Himalayas. The biomass, primary nutrients, and carbon stock, as well as carbon fractions, were recorded in the study. The research used stratified random quadrate sampling with the line transact process. The physico-chemical characteristics of collected composite soils samples at various depths were analyzed. For biomass estimation, the indirect approach was used. Based on overall estimated plant biomass (869.46 Mg ha⁻¹), biomass carbon (434.78 Mg ha⁻¹), soil carbon (50.82 Mg ha⁻¹) and total ecosystem carbon (485.55 Mg ha⁻¹), it can be concluded that the town's parks and institutional green areas improved the town's biophysical components while, also helping avoiding emission by permanently stocking carbon in its tree biomass.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":34472,"journal":{"name":"Current Research in Environmental Sustainability","volume":"4 ","pages":"Article 100168"},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666049022000469/pdfft?md5=8e046c59b5bbd742750d823b194f1e17&pid=1-s2.0-S2666049022000469-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"137411606","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Chronic deficiency of diversity and pluralism in research on nature's mental health effects: A planetary health problem","authors":"Carlos Andres Gallegos-Riofrío ,&nbsp;Hassan Arab ,&nbsp;Amaya Carrasco-Torrontegui ,&nbsp;Rachelle K. Gould","doi":"10.1016/j.crsust.2022.100148","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.crsust.2022.100148","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>We explore two as-yet-unconnected trends: evidence of nature's effects on mental health/wellbeing, and acknowledgment that behavioral research is overwhelmingly informed by globally non-representative societies. We assess geographies, ethnicities, and conceptualizations in 174 peer-reviewed studies of nature's mental-health/wellbeing connection. Findings reveal a Western-World bias: over-representation of White participants; ethnicity overlooked (62% of studies do not report participants' ethnicity); narrow views of mental health/wellbeing; and nature operationalized largely as greenspace and forests. Because planetary health is largely contingent on the Ethnosphere (the planet's rich cultural web), we encourage future studies to test nature's mental health/wellbeing effects pluralistically and beyond unrepresentative subsets of humankind.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":34472,"journal":{"name":"Current Research in Environmental Sustainability","volume":"4 ","pages":"Article 100148"},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666049022000263/pdfft?md5=b4a19ef42fe4c71556fd0f54ecd7d390&pid=1-s2.0-S2666049022000263-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46713533","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}