A sustainable urban regeneration project to protect biodiversity

Urban Ecosystems - The sustainable urban redevelopment project to protect biodiversity was developed to regenerate the external spaces of an ancient rural farmhouse, Villa Framarino, in the...     

Evaluating the engagement of universities in capacity building for sustainable development in local communities

Universities have the potential to play a leading role in enabling communities to develop more sustainable ways of living and working however, sustainable communities may only emerge with facilitation, community learning and continual efforts to build their capacities. Elements of programme planning and evaluation on the one hand, and capacity building on the other, are needed. The latter entails approaches and processes that may contribute to community empowerment; universities may either lead such approaches, or be key partners in an endeavour to empower communities to address the challenges posed by the need for sustainable development. Although capacity building and the promotion of sustainable development locally, are on the agenda for universities who take seriously regional engagement, very little is published that illustrates or describes the various forms of activities that take place. Further, there is a paucity of studies that have evaluated the work performed by universities in building capacity for sustainable development at the local level. This paper is an attempt to address this need, and entails an empirical study based on a sample of universities in the United Kingdom, Germany, Portugal and Brazil. The paper examines the extent to which capacity building for sustainable development is being undertaken, suggests the forms that this might take and evaluates some of the benefits for local communities. The paper concludes by reinforcing that universities have a critical role to play in community development; that role has to prioritise the sustainability agenda.     

Using a systems orientation and foundational theory to enhance theory-driven human service program evaluations

This paper offers a framework for using a systems orientation and “foundational theory” to enhance theory-driven evaluations and logic models. The framework guides the process of identifying and explaining operative relationships and perspectives within human service program systems. Self-Determination Theory exemplifies how a foundational theory can be used to support the framework in a wide range of program evaluations. Two examples illustrate how applications of the framework have improved the evaluators’ abilities to observe and explain program effect. In both exemplars improvements involved addressing and organizing into a single logic model heretofore seemingly disparate evaluation issues regarding valuing (by whose values); the role of organizational and program context; and evaluation anxiety and utilization.     

Ultraviolet radiation in urban ecosystems with consideration of effects on human health

Excess exposure to ultraviolet radiation (UV) from the sun, particularly the ultraviolet B (UVB), is cited as a cause or contributing factor for deleterious effects on human health, including skin cancers and cataracts. Rates of skin cancer have increased greatly in recent years, and increased UVB caused by reductions in stratospheric ozone may be responsible for some of the increase in rates, though quantified estimates of the effect of the UVB changes on health have low certainty. UVB exposure also affects the function of the immune system, and the potential resulting effects on infectious diseases and immunizations are a concern. Epidemiological considerations suggest that peoples' routine exposure to UV in urban areas can be significant in adverse health effects, particularly for young children. Projected trends of ozone indicate that agreements to limit ozone-depleting substances are slowing the UVB increase, but high levels will continue and apparently impact health to the middle of the current century. Urban trees greatly reduce ultraviolet irradiance in their shade when they obscure both the sun and sky. Where trees or other structures obscure only the sun, leaving much of the sky in view, UVB irradiance will be greater than suggested by the visible shade. Since air pollutants influence the UVB above the canopy, and the overlying atmosphere is usually more polluted in urban than rural areas, additional above-canopy monitoring of UV in urban areas is needed for comparison to existing rural monitoring sites. Such monitoring would facilitate the development of computer models of urban effects on UV, which are needed for epidemiological investigations, public education, and urban planning.     

A consideration of simple measures and organizational structure.

Organizational structure provides the context in which all other measures (either simple or complex) are generated, developed, set in place, related to each other, interpreted, and acted upon. The focus of this article is on the contextual nature of structure and its influence on organizational assessment and learning. Assessment mechanisms are part of the organization's learning system, whereby it reflects on its actions and alters its notions of how the internal and external world work. An organization's philosophy of rationality is an important part of its structure. Notions of cause and effect and standards of desirable performance are given particular attention. The situations of community mental health centers is examined in terms of structure and environment. Hypotheses are offered regarding what constitutes a healthy organizational structure and management system.     

HEADS UP! A nested intervention with freshmen male college students and the broader campus community to promote responsible drinking

The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism developed several guidelines for effective interventions in dealing with problematic college student drinking, including targeted individual interventions paired with broader campus community involvement. The project Heads UP! combines these suggestions in an effort to intervene with high-risk first-year male college students. The objective of the program is to reduce campus alcohol-related negative events and prevent these high-risk students from developing dangerous drinking patterns throughout college. The project provides an environment that supports students in actively following the goals outlined by the intervention, and it actively impacts the overall campus by helping students make responsible drinking decisions. Promising results are forthcoming, and the authors encourage other universities to design and adopt similar campus-supported programs nested within the broader campus community that target high-risk populations on campus.     

从快速路桥梁建设谈桥梁设计理念的提升

一、概述 东南半环高架桥全长4.8公里,共计144跨,单体桥梁面积17.5万平方米.它南起富民路,北接卫国道,其间跨越护仓河、津塘公路、滨海轻轨、月牙河、京山铁路、张贵庄路、程林庄路等,工程规模浩大.     

Evaluation capacity building (ECB) interventions and the development of sustainable evaluation practice: An exploratory study

Evaluation capacity building (ECB) is a practice that can help organizations conduct and use evaluations; however, there is little research on the sustainable impact of ECB interventions. This study provides an empirical inquiry into how ECB develops sustained evaluation practice. Interviews were conducted with 15 organizational leaders from non-profits, higher education institutions, and foundations that “bought in” to ECB and were at least six months removed from an ECB contract. The result of this work highlights how sustained evaluation practice developed over time and what these practices looked like in real-world settings. A developmental, iterative cycle for how ECB led organizations to sustain evaluation practice emerged around key components to sustainability. First, leadership supported ECB work and resources were dedicated to evaluation. Staff began to conduct and use evaluation, which led to understanding the benefits of evaluation, and promoted value and buy-in to evaluation among staff. Common barriers and emerging sustainability supports not previously identified by ECB literature—the “personal” factor and ongoing ECB practitioner contact—are described. Practical tips for ECB practitioners to promote sustainability are also detailed.     

对建设生态城市的认识

21世纪是城市的世纪,"只有当城市成功的时候,整个国家才能成功".联合国环境规划署署长伊丽莎白曾在1999年指出:"必须明确,城市的命运不仅仅决定一个国家的命运,而且还决定我们所居住的整个地球的命运.千万不要忽视城市的可持续发展,否则将把人类带到一个危险的境地."     

Expanding the repertoire of evaluation tools so that evaluation recommendations can assist nonprofits to enhance strategic planning and design of program operations

Data are the lifeblood of decision-making and provide a critical component into the complex mosaic from which decisions emerge. Evaluators and decision-makers should, therefore, continuously seek to explore the use of tools that can produce more meaningful, insightful, and useful data so that decision-making can be enhanced and improved. Traditional economic appraisal methods offer much and are very useful and relevant. Standard financial accounting reporting for tax purposes also provide insightful information on the organization’s financial health and that of its individual programs. However, neither offer insight into cost behavior—an important consideration for making program operations more efficient and for long-term strategic planning, forecasting, and design of program operations. Before COVID-19, programs were already challenged with competition for donor dollars and the pursuit for financial sustainability. The COVID-19 environment has considerably exacerbated these challenges. In this current environment, it is more important than ever for nonprofits to optimize limited financial resources to do more societal good. This paper will illustrate how selected concepts from cost and management accounting can be used by both independent program evaluators to improve their recommendations, as well as program administrators in-charge of nonprofits to enhance decision-making.     

关于城市规划方面的几点思考与建议

一、城市建设的规定性 每一座城市建设初期都以人居和生存为目的,因受当时客观条件的制约,人们对于城市建设的“规定性”的认识是盲目的,社会是不断前进的,人的认识也在不断深化,由初期“规定性”的盲点发展为今天的特点。现在我们回顾总结城市建设不断发展的历史经验,对于有目的的建设是非常有益的。人们结合城市的历史渊源与现状综合论证并做出定性,才能使城市今后的发展方向有所遵循,城市功能才能不断完善与拓展。因此,每一个城市的发展都必     

关于进一步推进浙江城市化进程的理性思考

从1998年12月中共浙江省第十届代表大会提出加快推进城市化的重大战略决策以来,城市化开始成为浙江经济社会新一轮发展的突破口,连续7年,浙江城市化水平平均以每年2个百分点的速度提高,2005年浙江城市化水平达到了54%,在这7年中浙江城市化进程所取得的成功和经验教训值得我们总结和思考.在推进城市化的过程中,如何选择一条适合浙江发展城市化的特色道路,如何在推进城市化进程中使各区域协调发展,是摆在我们面前的一个重要问题,在此,笔者提出几点意见和思路供大家参考.     

Structuring institutional analysis for urban ecosystems: A key to sustainable urban forest management

A decline in urban forest structure and function in the United States jeopardizes the current focus on developing sustainable cities. A number of social dilemmas—for example, free-rider problems—restrict the sustainable production of ecosystem services and the stock of urban trees from which they flow. However, institutions, or the rules, norms, and strategies that affect human decision-making, resolve many such social dilemmas, and thus, institutional analysis is imperative for understanding urban forest management outcomes. Unfortunately, we find that the definition of institutions varies greatly across and within disciplines, and conceptual frameworks in urban forest management and urban ecosystems research often embed institutions as minor variables. Given the significance of institutional analysis to understanding sustainable rural resource management, this paper attempts to bring clarity to defining, conceptually framing, and operationally analyzing institutions in urban settings with a specific focus on sustainable urban forest management. We conclude that urban ecologists and urban forest management researchers could benefit from applying a working definition of institutions that uniquely defines rules, norms, and strategies, by recognizing the nested nature of operational, collective choice, and constitutional institutions, and by applying the Institutional Analysis and Development framework for analysis of urban social-ecological systems (SESs). Such work promises to spur the desired policy-based research agenda of urban forestry and urban ecology and provide cross-disciplinary fertilization of institutional analysis between rural SESs and urban ecosystems.     

Early variability in the conceptualisation of "sustainable development and human factors"

The sub-discipline of "sustainable development and human factors" is relatively new, first being used in 2006 with a Technical Committee of the IEA being established only in 2009 and a similar special interest group on "green ergonomics" at the Institute of Ergonomics and Human Factors being established in 2010. In general though, the definitions and practice of "sustainable development" is highly contentious and ambiguous across a range of disciplines. This paper examines the diversity of definitions and approaches to sustainable development and human factors in the early papers in this sub-discipline. An examination of 45 chapters and papers (from 2008 to 2011) reveals a surprising consistency in the definitions used for sustainable development but also a large proportion of the papers where no definitions are given at all. The majority of papers were, however, biased towards an economic capital and social capital emphasis, which is to be expected of work traditionally in the ergonomics paradigm. Further, most papers were theoretical in nature demonstrating a great opportunity for empirical work. The variability in definitions is discussed in relation to the future challenges facing the growth of this emergent sub-discipline and opportunities for further theoretical and empirical work.     

Determinants of a throwaway society - A sustainable consumption issue

The purpose of this paper is to present a clearer understanding of how several key socio-economic variables impact municipal solid waste (MSW). Although the variables of interest arise from deeply entrenched micro-economic behaviors at the household level, the analysis can be extrapolated to the international level. Two of the variables, which are a time factor and a consumption discount rate, are empirically tested with an international dataset and have been found to be significant predictors of MSW per capita.