A good life environment for all through conceptual, technological and social innovations

2006 ◽  
Vol 54 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Lettinga

In conventional environmental protection the parallel development of advanced technical solutions alongside ever more stringent environmental standards increasingly conflicts with the moral and practical imperatives to ensure sustainability and drastically improve the life conditions of the world's poor. Such priorities are far better tackled by technological and social innovations based on relatively simple and highly sustainable concepts: e.g., applying Natural Biological Mineralization Routes (NBMR) for wastewater and waste treatment, implementing Decentralized Sanitation and Resource Recovery and Reuse (DESAR3) where transport of waste(water)s is kept to an optimum level and pollutants valorized, etc. With developing countries now taking a lead in applying these concepts in public sanitation, the more prosperous countries will gradually abandon the expensive, vulnerable and non-sustainable conventional approaches to wastes treatment and environmental protection.

2015 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 105-129 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Bernauer ◽  
Quynh Nguyen

Many political leaders of the Global South oppose linkages between trade liberalization and environmental protection. We field-tested a combination of surveys and conjoint experiments in Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Vietnam to examine whether citizens in developing countries share this position. The results show that citizens do not view economic integration and environmental protection as a trade-off. To the contrary, individuals with greener preferences are more supportive of trade liberalization. Furthermore, and in contrast to prevailing government rhetoric, the majority of citizens support environmental clauses in trade agreements. These findings suggest that there might be room for more ambitious efforts to include environmental standards in international trade agreements.


1995 ◽  
Vol 31 (10) ◽  
pp. 103-121
Author(s):  
J.-O. Frier ◽  
J. From ◽  
T. Larsen ◽  
G. Rasmussen

The aim of waste modelling in aquaculture is to provide tools for simulating input, transformation, output and subsidiary degradation in recipients of organic compounds, nitrogen, and phosphorus. The direct purpose of this modelling is to make it possible for caretakers and water authorities to calculate waste discharge from existing and planned aquaculture activities. A special purpose is simulating outcome of waste water treatment and altered feeding programmes. Different submodels must be applied for P, N, and organics, as well as for the different phases of food and waste treatment. Altogether this calls for an array of co-operating submodels for a sufficient coverage of the options. In all the required fields there is some scientific background for numerical model approaches, and some submodels have been proposed. Because of its multidisciplinary character a synthesized approach is still lacking. Within trout farming this work attempts to establish the different submodels and outlines future possibilities for synthesizing the knowledge to a numerical model.


2012 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-83
Author(s):  
Maciej Jabłoński

Currently, not to be underestimated is the role of local governments in the field of environmental protection. It is on their different levels that local authorities determine the efficiency of setting environmental standards for local communities. The efficient implementation of regional operational programs determines the possibility of implementing the principles of sustainable development.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nnedinma Umeokafor ◽  
Chioma Okoro ◽  
Ikechukwu Diugwu ◽  
Tariq Umar

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the critical opportunities for design for safety (DFS), the potential statutory (and non-statutory) health and safety (H&S) responsibilities of designers including DFS and its workability in developing countries.Design/methodology/approachInterviews were conducted among 28 multi-designers including Architects, Civil Engineers and Builders and the data was analysed thematically.FindingsThe study revealed that the likelihood of designers, clients, etc. inclining to change because of the infancy stage of H&S in developing countries, making it “fallow” for H&S was a barrier. The opportunities for DFS include the willingness of designers to develop DFS skills and knowledge, which results in a welcoming attitude towards DFS. Further, the success recorded by professional bodies on other regulatory matters and designers' greater inclination to comply with DFS when professional bodies are involved in the regulatory process of DFS remain key opportunities for DFS.Practical implicationsFor statutory-backed DFS to achieve the objective at the optimum level, the role of professional bodies in the regulatory and sensitisation processes, geographic differences in DFS legislation enforcement, nuanced and strategic design and enforcement of any legislation that will support DFS should be taken into consideration.Social implicationsA grassroots collaborative approach to developing and implementing DFS in the country and the exploitation of the zeal of designers to have DFS-related knowledge, is recommended.Originality/valueTo the knowledge of the authors, this is the first study that examines the opportunities for DFS in developing countries when it is (or not) supported by statute and the need to advance the understanding of DFS in developing countries through qualitative enquiry.


Author(s):  
Daniela CIUPEANU CĂLUGĂRU

For turning to a high degree of favorability of sludge from wastewater treatment plants, currently the reintroduction in the natural circuit of this waste is an urgent priority. Knowing precisely the composition of chemical and biological sludge from waste water in accordance with the law and the rules of their application, along with modern wastewater treatment appropriate technologies play a key role on environmental protection. Involvement by precise rules, the content of heavy metals in relation to the maximum permitted by law, translate in to particularly advantageous results in terms of environmental quality.


2013 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 153-158 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Cheng ◽  
Z. Li ◽  
H.-P. Mang ◽  
X. Liu ◽  
F. Yin

Population densities in cities of developing countries are much higher than in other parts of the world, and the predominance of poverty in urban slums is ubiquitous throughout the region. In many urban areas, the lack of wastewater and waste management continues to be a huge challenge for environment and health protection. Decentralized approaches are proposed to provide practical, alternative options for sustainable urban wastewater and waste management in urban conditions. Conventionally, on-site constructed brick/concrete biogas reactors are the most used models. However, long construction periods, quality issues and leakage of biogas are often the disadvantages of construction design. In contrast to these systems, prefabricated biogas reactors can be produced off-site from different kinds of material. In this paper, prefabricated biogas reactor and treatment systems will be discussed, which could be applied in different developing countries. Meanwhile, some existing cases in China, Indonesia and South Africa are presented to show clear scenarios.


2011 ◽  
Vol 63 (9) ◽  
pp. 1899-1905 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meiqiu Chen ◽  
Xiaohua Wei ◽  
Hongsheng Huang ◽  
Tiangui Lü

Protection of water environment while developing socio-economy is a challenging task for lake regions of many developing countries. Poyang Lake is the largest fresh water lake in China, with its total drainage area of 160,000 km2. In spite of rapid development of socio-economy in Poyang Lake region in the past several decades, water in Poyang Lake is of good quality and is known as the “last pot of clear water” of the Yangtze River Basin in China. In this paper, the reasons of “last pot of clear water” of Poyang Lake were analysed to demonstrate how economic development and environmental protection can be coordinated. There are three main reasons for contributing to this coordinated development: 1) the unique geomorphologic features of Poyang Lake and the short water residence time; 2) the matching of the basin physical boundary with the administrative boundary; and 3) the implementation of “Mountain-River-Lake Program” (MRL), with the ecosystem concept of “mountain as source, river as connection flow, and lake as storage”. In addition, a series of actions have been taken to coordinate development, utilisation, management and protection in the Poyang Lake basin. Our key experiences are: considering all basin components when focusing on lake environment protection is a guiding principle; raising the living standard of people through implementation of various eco-economic projects or models in the basin is the most important strategy; preventing soil and water erosion is critical for protecting water sources; and establishing an effective governance mechanism for basin management is essential. This successful, large-scale basin management model can be extended to any basin or lake regions of developing countries where both environmental protection and economic development are needed and coordinated.


Author(s):  
Yvonne O'Connor ◽  
Ciara Heavin

There has been a surge of electronic health (e-health) technologies encompassing a range of services available to various stakeholders within the healthcare system in both developed and developing countries. As technology has evolved, the features and functionalities offered by e-health technologies have grown dramatically, leading to a proliferation of advanced technical solutions. As a result of this increased focus, various definitions for what constitutes the term e-health have emerged in the literature. This lack of consensus is further inhibited by a dearth of research documenting the characteristics (i.e., features and functionalities) of such e-health technologies. The authors propose to define and characterize the landscape of e-health technologies from an information systems (IS) perspective in this chapter. By examining existing literature and reviewing the market place, this study reveals that there is a need to integrate the various features and functions of e-health technologies, thereby arguing that integration and interoperability is important for the growth of e-health.


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