Search results for "Economic indicator"
showing 10 items of 30 documents
Environmental and economic profile of six typologies of wastewater treatment plants
2011
The objective of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) is to prevent pollution. However, it is necessary to assess their sustainability in order to ensure that pollution is being removed, not displaced. In this research, the performance of 24 WWTPs has been evaluated using a streamlined Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) with Eutrophication Potential (EP) and Global Warming Potential (GWP) as environmental indicators, and operational costs as economic indicators. WWTPs were further classified in six typologies by their quality requirements according to their final discharge point or water reuse. Moreover, two different functional units (FU), one based on volume (m(3)) and the other on eutrophication…
Misure di agglomerazione spaziale nei Sistemi Locali del Lavoro siciliani
2009
Spatial agglomeration indicators in the Sicilian Local Labour Systems Objectives - This paper examines the links among productive specialization, variety of the economic environment and knowledge spillovers on the basis of the territorial analyses present in the current literature. With the aim of identifying localization benefits in a particular area, some aspects of business settling are compared with trends in the development of economic activities and, particularly, with agglomeration process of the firms. Methods and Results The empirical analysis will be carried out pointing to the dynamics of employment consequent to the effects of the externalities above mentioned. Employment data a…
A Theoretical Learning Model Combining Stochastic Cellular Automata and Economic Indicators to Simulate Land Use Change
2015
The study of change in land use has been included in territorial planning to inform spatial planners and policy makers of the possible developments they face in order to optimize future management decisions. In this paper the authors present the core of an original learning model coupling stochastic Cellular Automata and economic indicators to simulate the land use change. This model is an important step in building an “environmental virtual laboratory” to explore, explain and forecast land use change.
Environmental aspects of the implementation of bioeconomy in the Baltic Sea Region: An input-output approach
2019
Abstract Bioeconomy is one of the main aspects of the Baltic Sea Region (BRS) Programme. However, at the national level, bioeconomy strategies are still under development in several countries. As environmental aspects are particularly important to ensure the sustainability of bioeconomy, the aim of this paper is to analyse changes in consumption- and production-based bio-resource, land and water footprints for the period of 2011–2015 and couple them with economic indicators, to assess the efficiency of bioeconomy in the BSR countries. The results show significant differences in consumption- and production-based bio-resource, land and water footprints among the BSR countries; these differenc…
An ex post criticism, based on stakeholders’ preferences, of a residential sector’s energy master plan: the case study of the Sicilian region
2016
Energy master plans are important tools for an effective and sustainable land governance. On the other hand, the stakeholder role in setting priorities for planning energy interventions is dramatically increasing, also in the light of recently issued European directives. The priorities of energy-saving measures of the Sicilian energy and environmental master plan were originally established with the application of typical economic indicators (the cost of saved energy and the cost of avoided pollutant emissions). During the prioritization process, there was a minor contribution from stakeholders who were not directly involved in the priority-setting process but were only asked to express the…
An innovative model for a sustainability report in no-profit organizations
2016
After a review of the literature, the research aims to build a sustainability report for NPOs through a set of economic, environmental and social indicators based on best international practice. Then the report will be applied to a voluntary service centre (CSV) which, in terms of function and organisation, over a wide range, contains all the social and economic environmental variables to be monitored in any NPOs. The findings appear to suggest an innovative model of sustainability report for NPOs with a significant set of indicators that offer a new disclosure of the activity carried on by the organisation. The work is tested only on a limited number of NPOs which can be extended in the fu…
Renewable energy evaluation in Italy and Brazil
2017
The aim of this study is a comparison among Italian and Brazilian electrical energy system with a particular focus on renewable energy sources. The energy sector has a key role in the sustainable development of a country, so it influences economic and political choices. The work would underline differences, common point among two country, specially, in this particular socio-economic period and it should emphasize that green economy could be a possible answer to the financial crisis. The work will be divided into four sections: Section I will introduce all details of the question; Section II will explain the renewable assessments for the countries, Section III will talks how renewable energy…
Perspectives and challenges of small scale plant microalgae cultivation. Evidences from Southern Italy
2020
Abstract In recent years, the cultivation of algae has achieved attention of scientists and practicioniers due to the great variety of products that can be obtained, among which biofuels. The aim of this work is twofold. The first is to perform a profitability analysis of food and biofuel production from microalgae, in a small-scale setting. The second is to assess the economic impact of algae production systems on the dairy farms potentially interested in Southern Italy. The analysis was performed using financial and economic indicators and considering two system management scenarios, namely single and collective. Our results confirm that current microalgae production technology favors bio…
Ecological and economic indicators for the evaluation of almond (Prunus dulcis l.) orchard renewal in sicily
2020
Globally, almond production is experiencing a growing trend thanks to a strong interest in the health, gastronomic, and industrial properties that are linked to the fruits and their derivatives. After a constant and marked decline in the second half of the last century, the Mediterranean Basin is thoroughly reassessing this crop, which provides significant results with a modern orchard management. The opportunity determined by the transition from traditional to modern systems have increased the interest in evaluating the different environmental impacts of the two cultivation models that still coexist today. In this work, through the application of the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and an econ…
Economic policy uncertainty effects for forecasting future real economic activity
2018
Recently introduced measures for Economic Policy Uncertainty (EPU) included in the data from 1997 - 2016 have a role in forecasting out-of-sample values for the future real economic activity for both the euro area and the UK economies. The inclusion of EPU measures, either for the US, the UK or for overall European economies, improves the forecasting ability of models based on standard financial market information, especially for the period before the 2008 global crisis. However, during and after the crisis period, the slope of the yield curve and excess stock market returns improves the out-of-sample forecast performance the most compared to an AR-benchmark model. Hence, the EPU informatio…