Regional sustainability: How useful are current tools of sustainability assessment at the regional scale?

Graymore, Michelle; Sipe, Neil; Rickson, Roy E.

doi:10.1016/j.ecolecon.2008.06.002

Cited by 180 publications

(126 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…Therefore, it seems useful to employ the sustainability paradigm, because it offers a more balanced, holistic way to examine the future. It incorporates complexity by encompassing environmental, economic, and social dimensions; most prior analyses have been concerned with one dimension or another (but see [8] and [9] for more comprehensive analyses), or sectors such as energy or agriculture. Sustainability, which can be thought of as an intermediate state between catastrophe and singularity, offers a baseline against which we can contrast alternatives (Figure 1).…”

Section: Probing the Futurementioning

confidence: 99%

Sustainability—What Are the Odds? Envisioning the Future of Our Environment, Economy and Society

Jordan¹

2013

Humanities

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This article examines the concept of sustainability from a global perspective, describing how alternative futures might develop in the environmental, economic, and social dimensions. The alternatives to sustainability appear to be (a) a catastrophic failure of life support, economies, and societies, or (b) a radical technological revolution (singularity). The case is made that solutions may be found by developing a global vision of the future, estimating the probabilities of possible outcomes from multiple indicators, and looking holistically for the most likely paths to sustainability. Finally, an intuitive vision of these paths is offered as a starting point for discussion.

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Section: Probing the Futurementioning

confidence: 99%

Sustainability—What Are the Odds? Envisioning the Future of Our Environment, Economy and Society

Jordan¹

2013

Humanities

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“…The strength of UCC is that it can be recognized as a "sustainable threshold" to measure the state and condition of urban sustainability [10,32]. If population and human activities exceed the threshold limit of carrying capacity, adverse impacts would occur and deteriorate, undermining the integrity, function, and resilience of a specified urban region [25,27].…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using Urban-Carrying Capacity as a Benchmark for Sustainable Urban Development: An Empirical Study of Beijing

et al. 2015

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Sustainable urban development has been receiving growing concerns from both city managers and urban residents across the world. As a yardstick of sustainability, urban carrying capacity (UCC) is an important conceptual underpinning that guides local governments in promoting sustainable urban development. However, existing studies still lack consensus not only on the theoretical aspects, but also on the methodological issues for UCC monitoring and evaluation. A knowledge gap exists, which this paper fills. This study aims to develop a practical UCC assessment framework to guide urban development towards achieving sustainability. The quantitative-based assessment framework provides a set of measurable indicators and benchmarks for city managers to conduct routine monitoring on progress toward urban sustainability, and helps identify deficient areas, which urgently need resource allocation to improve UCC. Focusing on a case study of Beijing, this study demonstrates that the framework is useful in promoting urban sustainability. This framework provides rich implications for other city prototypes in China as the nation marches into the next phase of development.

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“…With the call for more independence from fossil fuels, regional energy systems are the focus of interest in a number of energy related studies [4][5][6][7]. As Walker [8] has already pointed out, energy and land use are tied together by a mutual relationship.…”

Section: Spatial Planning and Regional Energy Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards a Sustainable Spatial Organization of the Energy System: Backcasting Experiences from Austria

et al. 2012

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Abstract:The transition to a sustainable energy system faces more challenges than a simple replacement of fossil energy sources by renewable ones. Since current structures do not favor sustainable energy generation and use, it is indispensable to change the existing infrastructure. A fundamental change of the energy system also requires re-organizing spatial structures and their respective institutions and governance structures. Especially in Austria, urban sprawl and unsustainable settlement structures are regarded as one of the main developments leading to increased energy demand. One of the aims within the project E-Trans 2050 was to identify socio-economic constellations that are central to the further transformation of the energy system and to focus on actors and their socio-technical framework conditions. Based on a sustainable future vision for the year 2050 a backcasting workshop was conducted to identify necessary steps for the envisaged transition to a more sustainable energy system. The results shed light on the necessary changes for a transformation towards sustainability in the specific Austrian situation. Critical issues are region-specific production of energy and its use, settlement and regional structures and values and role models, which all have a determining influence on energy demand. Combining the knowledge of extensive energy use with available energy resources in spatial planning decisions is a main challenge towards a long term sustainable energy system. OPEN ACCESSSustainability 2012, 4 194

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Regional sustainability: How useful are current tools of sustainability assessment at the regional scale?

Cited by 180 publications

References 10 publications

Sustainability—What Are the Odds? Envisioning the Future of Our Environment, Economy and Society

Sustainability—What Are the Odds? Envisioning the Future of Our Environment, Economy and Society

Using Urban-Carrying Capacity as a Benchmark for Sustainable Urban Development: An Empirical Study of Beijing

Towards a Sustainable Spatial Organization of the Energy System: Backcasting Experiences from Austria

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