Zugl.: Diss. Univ. Freiburg, 2005.

Thesis (docteur ès sciences économiques et sociales)--Université de Genève, 1983. / Bibliography: p. 258-264.

Orientadores: Sônia Regina da Cal Seixas, Cristiana Simão Seixas / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-25T20:58:04Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Seidel_JulianaMatos_D.pdf: 3976313 bytes, checksum: d47bd3befb077052a9941096b327c288 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014 / Resumo: O consumo na sociedade pós-moderna exerce forte pressão sobre os recursos naturais. A fim de reduzir esses impactos, é necessário ultrapassar a visão linear de produção e consumo e estabelecer atividades que permitam um ciclo de consumo, em que recursos extraídos da natureza e em uso pela sociedade possam voltar à produção-consumo. Os resíduos sólidos domiciliares estão intimamente relacionados ao consumo, não somente porque estes são produto dessas atividades, mas também porque ações tomadas em relação a eles definirão se esse consumo ocorre de forma cíclica ou linear. Esse trabalho tem como objetivo estudar o ciclo de consumo em sua visão ampliada com a inclusão dos resíduos sólidos, buscando identificar características desse ciclo, práticas associadas à gestão de resíduos sólidos e desafios ao estabelecimento do conceito no Litoral Norte Paulista. A região, formado pelos municípios de São Sebastião, Ilhabela, Caraguatatuba e Ubatuba, apresenta grande peculiaridade no tema, pois é uma região com importantes áreas de conservação ambiental e população de cerca de 300.000 habitantes. Sua vocação turística aumenta a população flutuante, em especial nos meses de janeiro a março e julho. Os recursos naturais da região, como gás e petróleo, aumentam o interesse exploratório, o que deve contribuir para o aumento da população permanente. O estudo foi feito a partir de revisão bibliográfica sobre o tema em um contexto socioambiental baseado nos princípios do construtivismo socioambiental e da modernização ecológica. A pesquisa realizada foi essencialmente qualitativa fundamentada em dados secundários, observação direta e entrevistas semi-estruturadas com representantes das entidades atuantes no gerenciamento de resíduos sólidos domiciliares na região. As informações levantadas contribuíram para a construção de mapas e fluxos de escoamento dos resíduos sólidos, que puderam nortear a discussão dentro da perspectiva do ciclo de consumo em sua visão ampliada na região. Os desafios da cadeia de resíduos sólidos não estão relacionados apenas a encontrar alternativas para disposição final, seja em aterros sanitários ou estudos para instalação de incineradores. Os desafios estão também em estabelecer uma série de ações encadeadas que contribuirão para o retorno dos resíduos sólidos ao ciclo produção-consumo, quando possível. Ações essas que passam tanto pela implantação e fortalecimento de programas de coleta seletiva em cada um dos municípios - com atividades de educação e conscientização ambiental para inclusão dos consumidores nesses programas, estratégias eficientes de triagem e retorno dos materiais ao ciclo produção ¿ consumo - quanto por ações consorciadas para a disposição final. Com isso, discute-se a necessidade de um olhar mais amplo para a questão dos resíduos sólidos: não como um problema, mas sim como uma oportunidade para aplicação de novas estratégias encadeadas em uma sociedade com maior conhecimento e conscientização sobre o impacto de suas atividades de consumo / Abstract: Consumption in postmodern society has great impact on natural resources. Aiming at reducing overexploitation, it is therefore suggested an analysis beyond the linear view of production and consumption, as well as activities related to the consumption cycle. In other words, it is necessary to incorporate activities that allow the return of resources already extracted from nature and in using by society to a production-consumption cycle. Municipal solid waste is closely related to consumption, not only because they are a product of its activities, but also because the disposal strategy defines rather the use of natural resources is cyclic or linear. This research aims at studying the consumption cycle in a broader perspective, including solid waste, to identify characteristics of such consumption cycle, associated practices to solid waste management in this context and the challenges to establish this concept in the North Coast of São Paulo. The region, which comprises the municipalities of São Sebastião, Ilhabela, Ubatuba and Caraguatatuba, presents great peculiarity in the subject with important environment conservation areas and over 300,000 inhabitants. Its tourist potential increases the floating population, especially during Summer (January to March) and July. The exploratory interest increased by local natural resources, such as oil and gas, may also bring an increment to the permanent population. The study relies on literature review in the social environmental context based on social environmental constructivism and ecological modernization. The qualitative research was supported by secondary data, direct observation and semi-structured interviews with local representatives on solid waste management in the region. Maps and flowing streams were built to identify the situation in each municipality, being used thus to discuss the subject in the consumption cycle perspective of the region. The challenges related to municipal solid waste in the region must not be limited in finding alternatives to final disposal, either in sanitary landfills or incineration. On the other hand, the challenges also include establishing actions and policies that contribute to the return of solid waste into the production-consumption cycle, whenever possible. Actions shall vary from implementing selective collection programs in each municipality ¿ with environmental education and awareness activities for consumers to efficient strategies for sorting and return of materials into the production process ¿ to regional solutions for sorting and/or final disposal. The subject of solid waste management requires a broader perspective and cannot be seen as a problem itself, but rather as a whole set of opportunities to establish new strategies for a society that is aware about its impacts on the environment / Doutorado / Aspectos Sociais de Sustentabilidade e Conservação / Doutora em Ambiente e Sociedade

A qualidade de vida da população que vive em meio urbano, não só da Portuguesa como da Europeia e mesmo mundial, tem vindo a evidenciar uma degradação crescente. Existem múltiplas dimensões englobadas no que se designa como "qualidade de vida", ou seja, "a percepção do indivíduo da sua posição na vida, no contexto cultural e no sistema de valores em que se insere e em relação aos seus objectivos, expectativas, padrões e preocupações", segundo a definição da Organização Mundial da Saúde (OMS), "influenciada de forma complexa pela saúde física, estado psicológico, nível de independência, relações sociais, crenças pessoais e suas relações com aspectos do meio envolvente em que o indivíduo está inserido"(WHOQOL Group 1995).Diversos estudos têm demonstrado que o aumento da proporção da população que vive em cidades associado ao crescimento continuado da construção de novas infra-estruturas de transporte que, por sua vez, são atravessadas por um maior número de veículos, maioritariamente, correspondentes ao transporte rodoviário tem, largamente, contribuído para essa deterioração.O tema da presente dissertação versa sobre os assuntos acima mencionados e procura fazer a interligação entre as características do ruído ambiente exterior, neste caso do ruído rodoviário, as opções de planeamento urbano tomadas pelas diferentes edilidades e as repercussões dessas mesmas decisões (ou da falta de tomada de decisões) na qualidade de vida da população em geral e nos potenciais efeitos de limitação dos direitos de construção "adquiridos" dos proprietários de terrenos urbanos.Para a prossecução dos objectivos de quantificação da interferência nefasta do ruído rodoviário, foi necessária a análise dos diversos temas correlacionados com a acústica ambiental. Consideraram-se de particular importância, além das matérias relacionadas com acústica ambiental, assuntos relativos à economia dos transportes e ao ordenamento do território. Da combinação destas três temáticas foi possível quantificar o custo do ruído rodoviário em Portugal.Os conceitos incorporados nesta tese e associados à economia dos transportes possibilitaram a quantificação das externalidades do ruído, ou seja, a valoração económica dos efeitos perniciosos do ruído na população, nomeadamente, quanto aos problemas de saúde e à incomodidade sentida pelas pessoas expostas. Concluiu-se que as externalidades do ruído representam cerca de 0,25% do PIB2007, ou seja, aproximadamente 400 milhões de euros anuais (estimativa correspondente aos "valores centrais").Ainda no âmbito da economia dos transportes, procurou-se quantificar as despesas efectuadas com medidas de minimização de ruído, na fonte (soluções de pavimentação com desempenho acústico melhorado) e no percurso de propagação (Barreiras acústicas) para as vias rodoviárias englobadas na rede rodoviária principal.Da análise dos investimentos efectuados, sobre os quais se conseguiu reunir a informação necessária, resultou uma despesa já efectuada de cerca de 18 milhões de euros em barreiras acústicas e próximo de 12 milhões de euros de sobrecusto de pavimentação aos quais irão acrescer, para um horizonte de 20 anos, cerca de 100 milhões de euros em repavimentações.Assim, foi necessário o recurso a conceitos de ordenamento do território para a quantificação e valorização das potenciais perdas de rendimentos fiscais decorrentes da existência de níveis sonoros de ruído ambiente superiores aos indicados no Regulamento Geral do Ruído (RGR), consoante a classificação sonora atribuída pelos municípios. Concluiu-se que a perda potencial de receita fiscal, em sede de IMI e para a globalidade dos concelhos Portugueses, rondaria os 120 milhões de euros anuais, o que representa cerca de 17% da receita total anual de IMI.Palavras-chave:Ambiente; ruído ambiente; ordenamento do território; economia dos transportes; externalidades do ruído; Impostos sobre o Património (IMI) / The quality of life of the population living in urban areas, not only the Portuguese, as the European and even the world, has been demonstrating a growing degradation. There are multiple dimensions embodied in the definition of "quality of life", which means, "individuals' perceptions of their position in life in the context of the culture and value systems in which they live and in relation to their goals, expectations, standards and concerns", according to the definition issued by the World Health Organization (WHO), "a broad ranging concept affected in a complex way by the persons' physical health, psychological state, level of independence, social relationships and their relationship to salient features of their environment" (WHOQOL Group 1995).A variety of studies show an increasing proportion of the population living in cities, fact that associated with a continuing expansion of new transport infrastructure with the passage of a larger number of vehicles, mostly relating to road transport, has largely contributed to this deterioration.The theme of this thesis deals with the relationship between the characteristics of environmental noise, in particular of road noise, urban planning options to which different municipalities have committed to and the impact of those decisions (or lack of decision) in the quality of life of the population in general and the potential consequences of restraining the "acquired" construction rights of urban land owners.To accomplish the objectives of quantifying the negative interference of road traffic noise, were studied several themes correlated with environmental acoustics. Considered of particular importance and in addition to matters concerning environmental acoustics, were issues related to transport economy and territorial planning. The combination of these three thematic made possible the quantification of the road traffic noise cost in Portugal.In this thesis were applied concepts associated with transport economy, which have allowed the quantification of noise externalities, that is to say, economic valuation of noise damaging effects in the population in particular with regard to health problems and exposed person's annoyance. It was possible to conclude that noise externalities represent approximately 0.25 per cent of PIB2007, about 400 million Euros per annum ("central values" estimate).Also in the transport economy sphere of influence, there was an attempt to quantify the noise mitigation measures used to minimize noise at the source (pavement solutions with enhanced acoustic performance) and in the wave path (noise barriers) on the roads which are part of the principal road network. The analysis of investments, for which was possible to gather the required information, resulted in the computation of an expense close to 18 million Euros in noise barriers and almost to 12 million Euros of additional cost for enhanced pavements to which will be added, in a twenty years period, approximately 100 million Euros in pavement replacements.Regarding territorial planning, were used related theories for the quantification and valuation of potential real estate tax revenue losses arising from environmental noise levels higher than the limits listed in the third Portuguese Noise Code (RGR), for noise zoning assigned by municipalities. It was concluded that the potential loss of real estate tax revenue (IMI), for the overall Portuguese municipalities, might achieve 120 million Euros per year, approximately 17% of total yearly revenue of IMI.Keywords :Environment; environmental noise; territorial planning; transports economics; noise externalities; real estate taxation (IMI)

published_or_final_version / Urban Design / Master / Master of Urban Design

Infrastructure network systems support society and the economy by facilitating the distribution of essential services across broad spatial extents, at a range of scales. The complex and interdependent nature of these systems provides the conditions for which localised failures can dramatically cascade, resulting in disruptions that are widespread and very often unforeseen. This systemic vulnerability has been highlighted multiple times over the previous decades in infrastructures systems from around the world. In the future, the hazards to which infrastructure systems are exposed are set to grow with increasing extreme event risks caused by climate change. The aim of this thesis is to develop methodology and analysis for understanding and reducing the risk of failure of national interdependent infrastructure network systems. This study introduces multi-scale, system-of-systems based methodology and applied analysis that provides important new insights into interdependent infrastructure network risk and adaptation. Adopting a complex network based approach; real-world asset data is integrated from the energy, transport, water, waste and digital communications sectors to represent the physical interconnectivity that exists within and between interdependent infrastructure systems. Given the often limited scope of real-world datasets, an algorithm is presented that is used to synthesise missing network data, providing continuous network representations that preserve the most salient spatial and topological properties of real multi-level infrastructure systems. Using the resultant network representations, the criticality of individual assets is calculated by summing the direct and indirect customer disruptions that can occur in the event of failure. This is achieved by disrupting sets of functional service flow pathways that transcend sectorial and operational boundaries, providing long-range connectivity between service originating source nodes and customer allocated sink nodes. Kernel density estimation is used to integrate discrete asset criticality values into a continuous surface from which statistically significant infrastructure geographical criticality hotspots are identified. Finally, a business case is presented for investment in infrastructure adaptation, where adaptation costs are compared to the reduction in expected damages that arise from interdependency related failures over an assets lifetime. By representing physical and geographic interdependence at a range of scales, this analysis provides new evidence to inform the targeting of investments to reduce risks and enhance system resilience. It is concluded that the research presented within this thesis provides new theoretical insights and practical techniques for a range of academic, industrial and governmental infrastructure stakeholders, from the UK and beyond.

Environmental degradation is a global challenge that affects all. One of the most prominent impacts of environmental degradation is the climate change phenomenon. The adverse impacts of climate change have given rise to responses aimed at retarding, halting and learning to live with the already present effects of climate change. These responses to climate change fall into two broad categories: mitigation and adaptation. Mitigation addresses the climate change challenge through seeking a reduction or elimination of anthropogenic generated greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere. Adaptation on the other hand addresses climate change through reducing the adverse impacts of climate change as well as exploiting economic and social opportunities presented by climate change. Green procurement has been identified as one of the climate change intervention measures. This is because research shows that procurement policies and practices of both the public and private sectors have the potential to influence environmentally friendly modes of production and the provision of ‘greener’ goods and services that include infrastructure. In many developing countries the big spending power of the public sector, particularly municipalities, makes them influential players in the nature of goods and services production and provision. Against this background, this study investigates the role of South African metropolitan municipalities in addressing environmental decay through green procurement. Specifically, the study aims to assess the levels of green procurement practices of goods and services within South Africa metropolitan municipalities. This is achieved through; (i) determining the level of understanding of sustainable development, and (ii) determining the extent to which green procurement is practiced in South African metropolitan municipalities, and identifying policy and legislative requirements (if any) that support green procurement practices. Given the complexity of means, policy and practices around the green procurement drive; the study employed a mixed method approach. The mixed method approach employed three methods namely: document analysis, interviews and the use of a questionnaire. Analysis of data included content analysis, inductive thematic analysis and basic numerical analysis of the questionnaire, using MS Excel. The study made two broad findings; (i) there is generally a good understanding of the sustainable development discourse among South Africa’s metropolitan officials; and (ii) policy response to green procurement shows that the older metropolitans that include the City of Cape Town, City of Johannesburg, City of Tshwane, Ekurhuleni, eThekwini and Nelson Mandela Bay have made greater progress making explicit reference to green procurement in different policies compared to the younger metropolitans such as Buffalo City and Mangaung. Despite the general understanding of the sustainable development discourse and evidence of explicit reference to green procurement in some metropolitan policy documents there is a general lack of comprehensive implementation of green procurement practices across all the metropolitan municipalities. The current implementation is sporadic and largely through a number of projects that are not always linked to give rise to effective synergies. The study concludes that there is limited implementation of green procurement policies and strategies in all metropolitans. This may be attributed to limited policy understanding and lack of education and training around green economy transition and green procurement issues. The study recommends the mainstreaming of the green procurement concept into already existing policies and to establish new policies where there are none. There is a need to translate the policies into legislation and regulations that carry incentive to reward and encourage the desired green procurement practices. There is further need to put in place sanctions to discourage and halt undesired procurement practices. / Environmental Sciences / D. Litt. et Phil. (Environmental Management)

Environmental degradation is a global challenge that affects all. One of the most prominent impacts of environmental degradation is the climate change phenomenon. The adverse impacts of climate change have given rise to responses aimed at retarding, halting and learning to live with the already present effects of climate change. These responses to climate change fall into two broad categories: mitigation and adaptation. Mitigation addresses the climate change challenge through seeking a reduction or elimination of anthropogenic generated greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere. Adaptation on the other hand addresses climate change through reducing the adverse impacts of climate change as well as exploiting economic and social opportunities presented by climate change. Green procurement has been identified as one of the climate change intervention measures. This is because research shows that procurement policies and practices of both the public and private sectors have the potential to influence environmentally friendly modes of production and the provision of ‘greener’ goods and services that include infrastructure. In many developing countries the big spending power of the public sector, particularly municipalities, makes them influential players in the nature of goods and services production and provision. Against this background, this study investigates the role of South African metropolitan municipalities in addressing environmental decay through green procurement. Specifically, the study aims to assess the levels of green procurement practices of goods and services within South Africa metropolitan municipalities. This is achieved through; (i) determining the level of understanding of sustainable development, and (ii) determining the extent to which green procurement is practiced in South African metropolitan municipalities, and identifying policy and legislative requirements (if any) that support green procurement practices. Given the complexity of means, policy and practices around the green procurement drive; the study employed a mixed method approach. The mixed method approach employed three methods namely: document analysis, interviews and the use of a questionnaire. Analysis of data included content analysis, inductive thematic analysis and basic numerical analysis of the questionnaire, using MS Excel. The study made two broad findings; (i) there is generally a good understanding of the sustainable development discourse among South Africa’s metropolitan officials; and (ii) policy response to green procurement shows that the older metropolitans that include the City of Cape Town, City of Johannesburg, City of Tshwane, Ekurhuleni, eThekwini and Nelson Mandela Bay have made greater progress making explicit reference to green procurement in different policies compared to the younger metropolitans such as Buffalo City and Mangaung. Despite the general understanding of the sustainable development discourse and evidence of explicit reference to green procurement in some metropolitan policy documents there is a general lack of comprehensive implementation of green procurement practices across all the metropolitan municipalities. The current implementation is sporadic and largely through a number of projects that are not always linked to give rise to effective synergies. The study concludes that there is limited implementation of green procurement policies and strategies in all metropolitans. This may be attributed to limited policy understanding and lack of education and training around green economy transition and green procurement issues. The study recommends the mainstreaming of the green procurement concept into already existing policies and to establish new policies where there are none. There is a need to translate the policies into legislation and regulations that carry incentive to reward and encourage the desired green procurement practices. There is further need to put in place sanctions to discourage and halt undesired procurement practices. / Environmental Sciences / D. Litt. et Phil. (Environmental Management)

On the frontier of biodiversity-rich tropical forests, how land is used has an important role in buffering the primary ecosystem. Unsustainable small-scale cattle farming endangers soil quality and degrades the landscape. Silvopasture is a type of agroforestry that provides both ecological and livelihood benefits. A number of projects have been implemented across the tropics to encourage silvopasture adoption, with varying success. This dissertation questions the reasons for variable outcomes among participants within these projects: what motivates smallholders to adopt innovative land-use practices, and what form of incentives may help to overcome obstacles and catalyse adoption. This dissertation contributes to the ongoing debate on payments for ecosystem services, specifically about their suitability and effectiveness. To understand what influences decisions to adopt sustainable land-use practices, I review systematically and quantitatively the literature on adoption predictors, and I empirically analyse participation and short-term adoption in a pilot project for planting fodder trees in the border of a protected forest in Chiapas, Mexico, using primary and secondary data. I focus on subjective perspectives and livelihood strategies of actual and potential participants as explanatory variables, which have received unduly scarce attention in past studies. This lack of attention is partially caused by the difficulties of operationalising internal variables. I address this challenge by developing an analytical approach that increases the precision of the resulting perspectives in Q methodology. I cluster livelihood strategies and model adoption. This in-depth case-study suggests the type of incentives that are adequate to encourage adoption of sustainable land-use practices. Results indicate that payments may not be the best incentive for pioneer adopters, and that the adoption process is composed of separate individual steps, which are influenced distinctly by identifiable predictors, such as livelihood diversity. Uncovering this heterogeneity of motivations towards adoption provides useful knowledge for designing more effective external policy interventions.

An ontology describing the constructs and their inter-relationships for business models has recently been built and evaluated: the Business Model Ontology (BMO). This ontology has been used to conceptually power a popular practitioner visual design tool: the Business Model Canvas (BMC). However, implicitly these works assume that designers of business models all have a singular normative goal: the creation of businesses that are financially profitable. These works perpetuate beliefs and businesses that do not create outcomes aligned with current natural and social science knowledge about long term individual human, societal and ecological flourishing, i.e. outcomes are not strongly sustainable. This limits the applicability and utility of these works. This exploratory research starts to overcome these limitations: creating knowledge of what is required of businesses for strongly sustainable outcomes to emerge and helping business model designers efficiently create high quality (reliable, consistent, effective) strongly sustainable business models. Based on criticism and review, this research project extends the BMO artefact to enable the description all the constructs and their inter-relationships related to a strongly sustainable business model. This results in the Strongly Sustainable Business Model Ontology (SSBMO). To help evaluate the SSBMO a practitioner visual design tool is also developed: the Strongly Sustainable Business Model Canvas (SSBMC). Ontological engineering (from Artificial Intelligence), Design Science and Systems Thinking methodological approaches were combined in a novel manner to create the Systemic Design Science approach used to build and evaluate the SSBMO. Comparative analysis, interviews and case study techniques were used to evaluate the utility of the designed artefacts. Formal 3rd party evaluation with 7 experts and 2 case study companies resulted in validation of the overall approaches used and the utility of the SSBMO. A number of opportunities for improvement, as well as areas for future work, are identified. This thesis includes a number of supplementary graphics included in separate (electronic) files. See “List of Supplementary Materials” for details.