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(Source: Sustainability Science)
Source: Sustainability Science - September 29, 2023 Category: Science Source Type: research
Stakeholders ’ involvement and reflections on preserving sacred swamps in the Western Ghats, India, as revealed by participatory visioning
AbstractLack of a shared vision has been identified as a major obstacle in transdisciplinary research involving both scientists and other stakeholders. Without a shared vision, the implementation of scientific findings is difficult. The diverse partners of collaborative research, however, imply a plurality in the valuation of nature and a need for deliberative mechanisms. If visioning processes are to do justi ce to local contexts, research must apply deliberative mechanisms to cover the plurality in the valuation of nature. This paper proposes a visioning approach for local communities, based on prior transdisciplin...
Source: Sustainability Science - September 22, 2023 Category: Science Source Type: research
Identifying nature-positive futures in new cities: an application of the Urban Nature Futures Framework
This study, therefore, aims to understand how nature is incorporated into existing plans for new cities and iden tify pro-nature perspectives envisioned within these plans. We use the Urban Nature Futures Framework (UNFF) to conduct a content analysis on the masterplans of new city and town developments within the Jakarta Metropolitan Area (JMA). The UNFF promotes the creation of multiple positive visions of n ature in cities by considering three broad nature perspectives: Nature for Nature, Nature for Society, and Nature as Culture, as well as emphasizing equity in these visions. Our findings show that the Nature for Soci...
Source: Sustainability Science - September 21, 2023 Category: Science Source Type: research
Memory in energy transitions: individual agency through historical narratives in the energy transition to gas and electricity in the Dutch household
AbstractAuthors adopting socio-technical frameworks to study energy transitions argue that individual behavioural change and the uptake of social and technological innovations on higher-level scales are both imperative for sustainability transitions to come about. However, the way individuals are embedded in the larger system has remained largely unclear. To better understand individual embedment in energy transitions, this paper enriches sustainability transition research with the insights of memory studies. During energy transitions, social actors that enact these transitions change their identity. A core premise of memo...
Source: Sustainability Science - September 21, 2023 Category: Science Source Type: research
The contributions of citizen science to SDG monitoring and reporting on marine plastics
AbstractThe accumulation of plastic litter in marine environments is a major environmental challenge along with the difficulties in their measurement because of the massive size of the oceans and vast circulation of plastic litter, which is being addressed as part of the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Citizen science, public participation in scientific research and knowledge production, represents a potential source of data for SDG monitoring and reporting of marine plastic litter, yet there has been no evidence of its use to date. Here, we sho w how Ghana has become the first country to integr...
Source: Sustainability Science - September 19, 2023 Category: Science Source Type: research
A challenge for sustainability science: can we halt climate change?
AbstractThis paper reviews the results of climate change science activities that have been promoted as part of crisis management for climate change to date and draws lessons from them to further strengthen responses to climate stabilization and suggests issues that the scientific community should address going forward. The global climate is a complex physical phenomenon, and it takes time to elucidate its mechanisms. In addition, due to its nature as a global public good with no alternatives, it cannot be controlled without the concerted consensus and action of all nations. Already, the climate management system on a globa...
Source: Sustainability Science - September 7, 2023 Category: Science Source Type: research
Futures for invasive alien species management: using bottom-up innovations to envision positive systemic change
We present an application of a participatory process that builds on such innovations to create alternative visions of the future, with actionable pathways to guide change. Through a series of work shops with practitioners and academics, we used this process to explore alternative positive futures for IAS management in South Africa. We then identified a set of domains of change, that could enable these visions to be actioned by appropriate stakeholders. The domains of change highlight the soci al–ecological nature of the IAS sector, with interconnected actions needed in financial, cultural, social, technological and gover...
Source: Sustainability Science - September 5, 2023 Category: Science Source Type: research
A critical review of green growth indicators in G7 economies from 1990 to 2019
AbstractGreen growth policies aim to address both climate change and economic growth and are now prevalent throughout many economies. While green growth is sufficiently assessed in qualitative, case-study-based literature, quantitative and cross-country analyses are still limited. In response to this research deficit, our aim is twofold: (1) to develop a classification framework to quantitatively analyse green growth and (2) to identify key policyinputs and techno-economic or environmentaloutputs for green growth through a novel taxonomy. We focus on the G7 countries, since they have, historically, tended to align their ec...
Source: Sustainability Science - September 4, 2023 Category: Science Source Type: research
Operationalising a large research programme tackling complex urban and planetary health problems: a case study approach to critical reflection
We present a framework of 10 areas for critical reflection: systems, unknowns and imperfection, ID/TD understanding, values, societal impact, context and stakeholder knowledge, project understanding and direction, team cohesion, decision-making, communications and method development. We reflect on our experience of operationalising the research programme in these areas. Based on this critical examination of our experiences and the processes we adopted, we make recommendations for teams seeking to tackle important and highly complex global challenges, and for those who fund or support such research groups. Our reflections p...
Source: Sustainability Science - September 1, 2023 Category: Science Source Type: research
Advancing sustainable development goals: embedding resilience assessment
This study, in an analytical scheme, examines the extent to w hich the SDGs incorporate measurement of resilience. Here, the SDGs indicators have been compared with the most recent comprehensive baseline resilience framework (BRF) through three stages: (a) thematic coding of the SDGs and BRF indicators; (b) developing matrices of coding for each resilience dim ension; and (c) evaluating resilience measurement in terms of coverage by the SDGs. Results showed that although the SDGs indicators have a high level of coverage for resilience measurement through all 17 goals, some aspects are nonetheless overlooked. In this study,...
Source: Sustainability Science - September 1, 2023 Category: Science Source Type: research
Navigating ecological security research over the last 30 years: a scoping review
AbstractIntensification of human activities is pushing our use of ecosystems beyond thresholds of resiliency. Given the accelerating global crisis of ecological sustainability, there has been enormous growth in research related to ecological security. However, differences in opinions on ecological security have hindered understanding and effective applications of this concept. To understand the development of research on ecological security, we reviewed its achievements and limitations over the past 30 years from three dimensions: definition, evaluation method, and approach to identify measures to improve the ecological ...
Source: Sustainability Science - September 1, 2023 Category: Science Source Type: research
Climate justice beyond intergenerational conflict: youth climate activism in South Korea
In conclusion, this study defines contemporary youth climate activism as a movement that demonstrates the ramifications of civic inequality and endeavors to include diverse groups in the combat against climate change. (Source: Sustainability Science)
Source: Sustainability Science - September 1, 2023 Category: Science Source Type: research
Senses of injustices-in-place: nature ’s voice through Melbourne’s environmental stewards
AbstractEcological injustices are systemic acts and processes of misrepresentation, misrecognition, maldistribution of impacts, and destruction of fundamental capabilities, to both human and nonhuman living beings. Unpacking these context-specific injustices requires in-depth explorations of people and their experiences, perceptions, types of knowledge, actions, and relations to, for, and with nonhuman beings and their capacities. To explore these injustices-in-place, we used embedded case studies within Metropolitan Melbourne, Australia, and examined the data with the self –others–environment sense of place framework ...
Source: Sustainability Science - September 1, 2023 Category: Science Source Type: research
Perceived impacts of the Fridays for Future climate movement on environmental concern and behaviour in Switzerland
This article is based on a survey investigating the perception of Swiss residents (N = 1206) of how the FFF movement and Greta Thunberg’s climate activism changed their environmental awareness and behaviour. We found that the Swiss public by and large perceives Greta Thunberg and the FFF movement positively, and a considerable share of participants report that Greta Thunberg (30%) and the FFF activism (23%), respectively, positively influenced their environmental concern and behaviour. Structural equation modelling revealed that the strength of the behaviour change motivation depended mainly on how a participant eva...
Source: Sustainability Science - September 1, 2023 Category: Science Source Type: research
The role of emotions in human –nature connectedness within Mediterranean landscapes in Spain
This study explores the role of emotions that Mediterranean landscapes foster in people and to what extent these emotions are associated with human–nature connectedness (HNC). We conducted 176 face-to-face surveys to explore HNC and the diversity of emotions associated with a suite of landscapes in Southeast Spain. Results revealed that Marine and Coastal Protected Areas received the highest number of positive emotions, whereas Greenhouses and Non-Protected Littoral were linked to negative emotions. We propose a framework for classifying em otional landscapes according to four groups: emotionally positive, negative, pola...
Source: Sustainability Science - September 1, 2023 Category: Science Source Type: research
