Search results for "natural resource"
showing 10 items of 482 documents
Critical range of soil organic carbon in southern Europe lands under desertification risk.
2021
Soil quality is fundamental for ecosystem long term functionality, productivity and resilience to current climatic changes. Despite its importance, soil is lost and degraded at dramatic rates worldwide. In Europe, the Mediterranean areas are a hotspot for soil erosion and land degradation due to a combination of climatic conditions, soils, geomorphology and anthropic pressure. Soil organic carbon (SOC) is considered a key indicator of soil quality as it relates to other fundamental soil functions supporting crucial ecosystem services. In the present study, the functional relationships among SOC and other important soil properties were investigated in the topsoil of 38 sites under different …
Incorporating Sustainability and Green Design Concepts into Engineering and Technology Curricula
2016
Human society is facing an uncertain future due to the present day unsustainable use of natural resources and the growing imbalance with our natural environment. Sustainability is an endeavour with uncertain outcomes requiring collaboration, teamwork, and abilities to work with respect and learn from other disciplines and professions, as well as with governments, local communities, political and civic organizations. The creation of a sustainable society is a complex and multi-stage endeavour that will dominate twenty first century. Sustainability has four basic aspects: environment, technology, economy, and societal organization. Schools with undergraduate engineering or engineering techno…
Graphic model for evaluating the competitiveness and eco-efficiency of eco-innovative projects
2019
Eco-innovation describes the creation of novel and competitively priced goods, processes, systems, services, policies, and procedures that satisfy human needs and improve the quality of life while ensuring sustainable development with minimal use of natural resources and minimal release of toxic substances. This article delves into one of the most pressing problems in improving the assessment of eco-innovative projects meant to effect sustainable development. The article also proposes new criteria for evaluating eco-innovation projects. The purpose is to develop and propose a graphic model by which to assess the innovativeness, competitiveness, and eco-efficiency of eco-innovation projects.…
The Air-Ténéré National Natural Reserve (RNNAT) Observatory: Territorial Intelligence for Sustainable Development
2007
International audience; The Aïr-Ténéré National Natural Reserve is a protected area in which conservation and development principles tempt to be combined (co-management). To follow-up environmental changes which determine people's life, and to support decisions to manage the Reserve, the first steps of a territorial observatory are introduced. Beyond the technical build up of the Geographical Information System (GIS), the prototype proposed here is a concrete expression of a part of a territorial intelligent tool. It embraces all territorial dimensions from spatial to actors ones, and try in the context of the reserve, to revisit the definition of local governance. This work is based on a m…
Inverse Malthusianism and Recycling Economics: The Case of the Textile Industry
2020
The current use of natural resources in the textile industry leads us to introduce a new economic concept called inverse Malthusianism describing a context in which population grows linearly and resource consumption grows exponentially. Inverse Malthusianism implies an exponential increase in environmental impact that recycling may contribute to reduce. Our main goal is to extend the analysis of materials selection under the principle of equimarginality proposed by Jevons. As a first result, we show the particular circumstances under which policies excluding recycled supplies are never optimal. We also aim to overcome the difficulties of reducing environmental aspects to monetary units. To …
The Uncertainty of Oil
2017
This paper argues that uncertainty is intricately entwined with temporalities and aff ects. Taking the uncertain future of oil in Gabon as my ethnographic example, I trace fi ve versions with which people contemplate depletion: a scenario, a vision / plan, a calculation, a dream, and a desire. I show how these versions not only diff er in their prognosis, but also conjure up diverse histories, temporalities and aff ects that, ultimately, entail fairly distinct forms of uncertainty.
A Textual and Visual Analysis of the Intrinsic Value Dimensions of Romania: Towards a Sustainable Destination Brand
2020
This work examines the projected image of Romania as an emerging tourism destination. Computed content-analysis was applied to the photos, text and video materials promoted online in Romania&rsquo
Food predictability determines space use of endangered vultures: implications for management of supplementary feeding.
2013
Understanding space use of free-living endangered animals is key to inform management decisions for conservation planning. Like most scavengers, vultures have evolved under a context of unpredictability of food resources (i.e. exploiting scattered carcasses that are intermittently available). However, the role of predictable sources of food in shaping spatial ecology of vultures has seldom been studied in detail. Here, we quantify the home range of the Egyptian vulture (Neophron percnopterus), a long-lived raptor which has experienced severe population decline throughout its range and is qualified as endangered worldwide. To this end six adults were tracked by satellite telemetry in Spain d…
Illegal Chinese gold mining in Amansie West, Ghana - an assessement of its impact and implications
2014
Master thesis in development management - University of Agder 2014 The thesis’ objective is to assess the impact of Chinese illegal miners in the Amansie West District in Ghana. The illegal mining sector is seen as having several negative effects, environmentally as well as socially and economically. The influx of some 20-50 000 Chinese miners into Ghana is found to increase these impacts. The Chinese illegal miners operate largely on farmland, which is bought from locals for the sum equivalent of approximately 6.5 years of farming income. This leads to a loss of long-term income for the farmer as well as the degradation of large land areas, which in the case of Amansie West is here estimat…
Climatic change and thermal comfort. Effects on the tourism industry in the region of Valencia
2020
El cambio climático comienza a manifestar efectos en las actividades económicas de la Comunidad Valenciana. El turismo es una parte fundamental de su economía, puesto que representa el 15% de su PIB regional. La modalidad de “sol y playa” es la principal actividad turística en el territorio valenciano, de ahí la importancia del análisis de las alteraciones que están experimentando los elementos climáticos debido a su efecto en el recurso turístico y en las preferencias de la demanda. La pérdida del “confort climático”, el aumento de las noches “tropicales” (Tª > 20ºC), el incremento de la temperatura del agua de mar Mediterráneo y la adaptación a los extremos atmosféricos (olas de calor, ll…