Are larger cities more sustainable? Lessons from integrated sustainability monitoring in 403 Dutch municipalities

Zoeteman, Kees; Mommaas, Hans; Dagevos, John

doi:10.1016/j.envdev.2015.08.003

Cited by 21 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…Many authors abandon traditional comparisons between cities and rural areas in order to consider a broader social context, which takes lifestyle and social norms into account. Dutch studies concerning the conditions of sustained regional development quote a classification of several dozen indicators of ecological, socio-cultural, and economic capital [19]. It should also be noted that health indicators, including risk behaviours, also constitute a part of local socio-cultural capital.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Relationship between Multiple Substance Use, Perceived Academic Achievements, and Selected Socio-Demographic Factors in a Polish Adolescent Sample

Mazur¹,

Tabak²,

Dzielska³

et al. 2016

IJERPH

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Predictors of high-risk patterns of substance use are often analysed in relation to demographic and school-related factors. The interaction between these factors and the additional impact of family wealth are still new areas of research. The aim of this study was to find determinants of the most common patterns of psychoactive substance use in mid-adolescence, compared to non-users. A sample of 1202 Polish students (46.1% boys, mean age of 15.6 years) was surveyed in 2013/2014. Four patterns of psychoactive substance use were defined using cluster analysis: non-users—71.9%, mainly tobacco and alcohol users—13.7%, high alcohol and cannabis users—7.2%, poly-users—7.2%. The final model contained the main effects of gender and age, and one three-way (perceived academic achievement × gender × family affluence) interaction. Girls with poor perception of school performance (as compared to girls with better achievements) were at significantly higher risk of being poly-users, in both less and more affluent families (adjusted odds ratio (OR) = 5.55 and OR = 3.60, respectively). The impact of family affluence was revealed only in interaction with other factors. Patterns of substance use in mid-adolescence are strongly related to perceived academic achievements, and these interact with selected socio-demographic factors.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Relationship between Multiple Substance Use, Perceived Academic Achievements, and Selected Socio-Demographic Factors in a Polish Adolescent Sample

Mazur¹,

Tabak²,

Dzielska³

et al. 2016

IJERPH

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“…In 2013, the National Energy Agreement for Sustainable Growth opened up a window of opportunity as this influential platform (agreed between the national and local governments and various societal stakeholders) pledged a continuation of the LSM. However, some parties advocate a merger with two other monitoring tools, namely the Climate Monitor and Sustainability Balance (Zoeteman et al , ), that rely on outcome indicators. In this context, some LSM protagonists fear that the future instrument – tentatively labelled ‘governance monitor’ for the LSM component – will become predominantly outcome oriented, losing attention to process issues and participatory data collection.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

On the Benefits of Using Process Indicators in Local Sustainability Monitoring: Lessons from a Dutch municipal ranking (1999–2014)

2016

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The sustainability performance of cities is subject to an ever‐growing number of monitoring tools. While most initiatives work with outcome indicators that are generally associated with limited direct policy relevance, a minority of tools focuses on sustainability‐related processes and particularly local government policies. In this article, we explore the benefits, limitations and conditions under which this approach can function. While several process‐oriented tools offered to European local governments have lacked participation and foundered, the Local Sustainability Meter (LSM) has been widely used in the Netherlands, with close to 90% of all Dutch municipalities participating since 1999 in some of its multi‐year editions. An evaluative case study presented in this article shows that the LSM stimulated competition for policy performance, conceptual learning and the strengthening of local governance and inter‐municipal networks. The LSM's design choices of combining voluntary, transparent self‐assessments at periodic intervals with public rankings and awards proved to be an effective – and economic – way of disseminating sustainability policies. Its limitations include an inherent focus on generic, standardized policy prescriptions and little knowledge on actual sustainability outcomes. These findings are relevant for policy‐makers and developers of (local) sustainability monitoring tools. This study contributes to the growing literature on (i) sustainability policies and (ii) municipal monitoring and ranking tools. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment

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“…For example, natural capital may include stocks like ecosystems, soil, ground and surface water, air and climate, minerals, and landscape [42]. In this systems-based approach, the CCF envisions SD as a process that requires short-term trade-offs but builds on the interconnectedness between capitals and stocks to prioritize holistic development in the long-term [10,44]. This threecapital model of the CCF is portrayed in Figure 1, including a sample set of stocks.…”

Section: Need For a Holistic Sd Visionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As mentioned above, these stocks and the specific sustainability goals linked to them must reflect key sustainability challenges in the local system while considering stakeholder perspectives [41]. The CCF has been used in numerous contexts, from evaluating the sustainability of Dutch cities [44] to forest community resilience in rural Mexico [47], and numerous other locales [30,[48][49][50][51].…”

Section: Need For a Holistic Sd Visionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Distinct uses of SIs have been delineated, namely instrumental use as direct policy inputs versus conceptual use in informing multi-stakeholder dialogue, which may in turn influence behaviors or policy and planning decisions over time [16]. The former has been observed in cases like Portuguese municipalities that have embedded SIs into sustainability planning guided by European Union frameworks [13], and Dutch jurisdictions that have used a community capital-based process called the Sustainability Balance to monitor regional sustainability [42,44]. However, this direct policy use is rare in practice [18], and even when this occurs it is difficult to measure the ultimate impacts on SD outcomes.…”

Section: Using Local Indicators In Collaborative Governance For Sdmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Goal-Driven or Data-Driven? Inventory of Sustainability Indicator Initiatives in Rural Canada

2020

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This article seeks to address knowledge gaps on sustainability indicators (SIs) in rural and natural resource-dependent communities, considering how they are used to contextualize sustainable development priorities and support local governance. We build on recent scholarship on the potentials of SIs for stimulating societal transformation, extending this inquiry into rural and resource-based communities which have been under-represented in SI research. The governance challenges facing rural Canada, as well as its geographic and socio-economic diversity, provide a unique context for examining these issues. We provide relatively uncommon synthetic findings by compiling an inventory of SI initiatives across 39 rural communities and regions of Canada. Using the Community Capital Framework, we examine grey literature and academic publications related to each initiative spanning from 1999–2019 to determine the breadth of sustainable development priorities considered. Informed by collaborative and multi-level governance frameworks, we explore how these initiatives are used to support multi-stakeholder collective action. This article finds that rural Canadian SI initiatives prioritize socio-cultural capital, with relatively fewer economic and ecological indicators, while identifying a typology of SI use and inter-related governance dynamics informing how these priorities and indicators are determined. Although some initiatives display highly collaborative and bottom-up processes, many rural Canadian SI initiatives are characterized by a data-driven approach that, when met with local capacity gaps, fails to contextualize standardized datasets to reflect rural realities. We encourage more in-depth investigation of these findings and comparison of Canadian experiences to other jurisdictions.

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Are larger cities more sustainable? Lessons from integrated sustainability monitoring in 403 Dutch municipalities

Cited by 21 publications

References 7 publications

The Relationship between Multiple Substance Use, Perceived Academic Achievements, and Selected Socio-Demographic Factors in a Polish Adolescent Sample

The Relationship between Multiple Substance Use, Perceived Academic Achievements, and Selected Socio-Demographic Factors in a Polish Adolescent Sample

On the Benefits of Using Process Indicators in Local Sustainability Monitoring: Lessons from a Dutch municipal ranking (1999–2014)

Goal-Driven or Data-Driven? Inventory of Sustainability Indicator Initiatives in Rural Canada

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