• 11. Sustainability close

The paper presents a possible approach for creating business decisions based on multi-criteria analysis. Seven options for a possible revitalization of the thermal power plant Kolubara-A Unit No. 2 with energy indicators of sustainable development (EISD) are presented in this paper. The chosen EISD numerically express the essential features of the analyzed options, while the sustainability criteria indicate the option quality within the limits of these indicators. In this paper, the criteria for assessing the sustainability options are defined based on several aspects: economic, social, environmental and technological. In the process of assessing the sustainability of the considered options the Analysis and Synthesis of Parameters under Information Deficiency (ASPID) method was used. In this paper, the EISD show that production and energy consumption are closely linked to economic, environmental and other indicators, such as economic and technological development of local communities with employment being one of the most important social parameter. Multi-criteria analysis for the case study of the TPP Kolubara-A clearly indicated recommendations to decision makers on the choice of the best available options in dependence on the energy policy. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The aim of this study was to determine the content of some elements (Pb, Cd, Hg, Fe, Cu, Zn, As) in muscle tissue of Prussian carp (Carassius auratus gibelio) from seven different lakes in the Belgrade region, Serbia. Concentrations of Pb, Hg and As in fish muscle tissues from all examined lakes were under the maximum residual levels prescribed by the European Union (EU) and the maximum allowed concentrations (MAC) for Serbia. In all investigated fish, levels of Cd exceeded maximum allowed concentrations (0.05 mg kg-1). Data on the finding of elements in fish speak concurrently about the safety of fish as food and are good indicators of environmental pollution.

Cultural heritage is recognized as a driver and enabler for sustainable development, and its role within the circular economy and circular cities is gaining attention. Its adaptive reuse plays a significant role in this while prolonging the heritage lifespan, preserving the values associated with heritage assets, and creating shared values. The adoption and implementation of the adaptive reuse of cultural heritage practices present challenges at multiple levels. This research aims to identify these challenges and propose solutions to overcome them, considering the post-industrial port city of Rijeka, Croatia, as a case study. The adaptive reuse of cultural heritage practices was assessed through a stakeholder engagement workshop performing a multi-scale analysis using the Historic Urban Landscape approach as an assessment framework. Forty-nine themes were identified by content analysis of the challenges and solutions identified by stakeholders involved in adaptive reuse practices and decision-making in the city. The five most mentioned themes refer to aspects relating to participation, capacity, regulatory systems, economics-finance, and knowledge. These findings provide evidence of challenges for policy- and decision-makers to be addressed in policy-making. Solutions are also suggested to facilitate the adaptive reuse of cultural heritage in the city of Rijeka and similar contexts, such as introducing policies to support participatory decision-making whose absence is a barrier.

Abstract Air quality varies greatly in space and time across urban locales. However, criteria pollutants are typically monitored routinely at a relatively small number of surface sites within each metropolitan area, and routine vertical profiles of pollution are typically unavailable. We illustrate that a news helicopter provides an effective sensor platform to provide spatiotemporal analyses and vertical profiles of pollutant concentrations. We are unaware of any other air quality study that has utilized routine helicopter flights, despite the ubiquity of helicopters in urban environments across the world. Particulate and ozone concentration profiles have been collected since 2015 from sensors installed on a news helicopter that travels primarily over the metropolitan areas of northern Utah. The air quality data are retrieved in real time, archived, combined with surface-based observations, and disseminated in terms of time series and maps on a website for research, forecasting, and public awareness. Large vertical variations in particulate pollution concentrations were observed during the 2015–2016 winter associated with meteorological cold-air pool episodes. During the 2015 and 2016 summer seasons, ozone concentrations frequently exhibited complex spatial and temporal variations arising from many interrelated factors, including local terrain-forced circulations, lake breezes, and distant wildfires.

Tax benefits to owner-occupied housing provide incentives for housing consumption, offsetting weaker disincentives of the property tax. These benefits also help counter the penalty federal taxes impose on households who work in productive high-wage areas, but reinforce incentives to consume local amenities. We simulate the effects of these benefits in a parameterized model, and determine the consequences of various tax reforms. Reductions in housing tax benefits generally reduce inefficiency in consumption, but increase inefficiency in location decisions, unless they are accompanied by tax-rate reductions. The most efficient policy would eliminate most tax benefits to housing and index taxes to local wage levels.

AbstractThe international community, comprised of national governments, multilateral agencies and civil society organisations, has recently negotiated a set of 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) and 169 targets to replace the Millennium Development Goals, which expired in 2015. For progress in implementing the SDGs, ensuring policy coherence for sustainable development will be essential. We conducted a health impact assessment to identify potential incoherences between contemporary regional trade agreements (RTAs) and nutrition and health-related SDGs. Our findings suggest that obligations in RTAs may conflict with several of the SDGs. Areas of policy incoherence include the spread of unhealthy commodities, threats to equitable access to essential health services, medicines and vaccines, and reduced government regulatory flexibility. Scenarios for future incoherence are identified, with recommendations for how these can be avoided or mitigated. While recognising that governments have multiple policy ...

Improving the Serbian housing stock built before the beginning of World War II has the potential to achieve multiple benefits in terms of both saving energy and enhancing the quality of life in them. Considering the importance of preserving these buildings as testimonies of our architectural past, investing in their rehabilitation will also contribute to the preservation of a significant element of our national identity. Recent data from the 2011 Census show that 322,244 dwellings in Serbia were built prior to 1945, accounting for 10% of total dwellings. Nearly half of these (45%) are located in Vojvodina, and a fifth (20%) belongs to Belgrade area. The methodology for rehabilitation was based on the typology of buildings from this period, as the starting point for calculating the potential energy savings and was developed for the purpose of the National Typology of Residential Buildings in Serbia. The Serbian housing stock built before World War II is characterized by high diversity as to the territorial distribution of construction types, while the remarkable differences between the old urban and rural architecture further add to the complexity of the typology. Typological classification was made to: family and multi-family housing. While family houses were classified into freestanding and row houses, multi-family housing included multi-family houses and apartment blocks. Within this distribution, typical representatives of building types were recognized. Each of them was the subject of thermal calculations in three possible cases: a) the present state, b) the standard improvement and c) the advanced improvement of the building. Standard improvement measures implied application of common measures for energy refurbishment that are typical of the domestic market and that resulted with the improvement of building energy performance for at least one energy efficiency class. The advanced level of energy improvement included specific measures that contributed to the maximum possible improvement of the energy performance that was in accordance with the characteristics of the rehabilitated building. The present paper defines possible improvements to the selected building types as model representatives of real structures. The calculations of the energy performance and building type distributions were used to determine the potential energy savings in the process of rehabilitation.

We present a case study of Social Mapping and Participatory Cartography over a shaded territory in Buenos Aires City, Argentina. The project "Caminos de la Villa" was possible thanks to the collaboration of multiple NGOs that worked together to provide visibility on development issues in poor neighborhoods, commonly called "Villas" and "Asentamientos". We take a critical perspective on how developing such tools are embedded of expectation, negotiations and interactions between actors. Doing ethnographic research and documentation analysis, we found that the value for residents is not in the tool itself but in the appropriation process and empowering, led by acquiring new knowledge at working collectively.

Mediterranean areas of both southern Europe and North Africa are subject to dramatic changes that will affect the sustainability, quantity, quality, and management of water resources. Most climate models forecast an increase in temperature and a decrease in precipitation at the end of the 21st century. This will enhance stress on natural forests and shrubs, and will result in more water consumption, evapotranspiration, and probably interception, which will affect the surface water balance and the partitioning of precipitation between evapotranspiration, runoff, and groundwater flow. As a consequence, soil water content will decline, saturation conditions will be increasingly rare and restricted to periods in winter and spring, and snow accumulation and melting will change, especially in the mid-mountain areas. Future land management will be characterized by forest and shrub expansion in most Mediterranean mountain areas, as a consequence of farmland and grazing abandonment, with increasing human pressure localized only in some places (ski resort and urbanized of valley floors). In the lowlands, particularly in the coastal fringe, increasing water demand will occur as a consequence of expansion of irrigated lands, as well as the growth of urban and industrial areas, and tourist resorts. Future scenarios for water resources in the Mediterranean region suggest (1) a progressive decline in the average streamflow (already observed in many rivers since the 1980s), including a decline in the frequency and magnitude of the most frequent floods due to the expansion of forests; (2) changes in important river regime characteristics, including an earlier decline in high flows from snowmelt in spring, an intensification of low flows in summer, and more irregular discharges in winter; (3) changes in reservoir inputs and management, including lower available discharges from dams to meet the water demand from irrigated and urban areas. Most reservoirs in mountain areas will be subject to increasing water resource uncertainty, because of the reduced influence of snow accumulation and snowmelt processes. Besides, reservoir capacity is naturally reduced due to increasing sedimentation and, in some cases, is also decreased to improve the safety control of floods, leading to a reduction in efficiency for agriculture. And (4) hydrological and population changes in coastal areas, particularly in the delta zones, affected by water depletion, groundwater reduction and saline water intrusion. These scenarios enhance the necessity of improving water management, water prizing and water recycling policies, in order to ensure water supply and to reduce tensions among regions and countries. This work was supported by research projects CGL2006-11619/HID, CGL2008-01189/BTE, and CGL2008-1083/CLI, financed by the Spanish Commission of Science and Technology, and FEDER, EUROGEOSS (FP7-ENV-2008-1-226487) and ACQWA (FP7-ENV-2007-1-212250, financed by the European Commission, the VII Framework Programme financed by the European Commission, the project “Las sequías climáticas en la cuenca del Ebro y su respuesta hidrológica” and “La nieve en el Pirineo aragonés: Distribución espacial y su respuesta a las condiciones climáticas”, financed by “Obra Social La Caixa” and the Aragón Government, and “Programa de grupos de investigación de excelencia”, financed by the Aragón Government. 66 Pag., 5 Fig. The definitive version is available at: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00128252 Peer reviewed