scholarly journals Spatiotemporal Evolution of Ecosystem Health of China’s Provinces Based on SDGs

Author(s):  
Run Zhao ◽  
Chaofeng Shao ◽  
Rong He

In the context of increasing ecological scarcity, maintaining the balance between natural and artificial capital has become a popular research topic in the field of ecosystem health. From the perspective of coordinating natural and artificial capital and maintaining the balance between human systems and the Earth’s ecosystem, the Ecosystem Health Index (EHI) was developed on the basis of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The EHI consists of the Social Progress Index (SPI), Economic Development Index (EDI), Natural Environment Index (NEI), and a pressure adjustment coefficient. Comprehensive indicator assessment models were used to analyze the spatial and temporal evolution of the EHIs in 30 of China’s provinces from 2013 to 2019. A three-dimensional judgment matrix was used to classify the 30 provinces into four basic types. The results show the following: (1) From 2013 to 2019, the EHIs of all provinces improved to different degrees, with 19 provinces achieving a healthy state. (2) Spatially, the EHI showed some regional aggregation in 2013. Provinces with high EHIs were concentrated in the west, followed by those in the east, and those in the central provinces had the lowest EHIs. However, the differences between regions had narrowed by 2019. (3) The spatial distribution patterns of the NEI and the EDI varied widely, and most provinces did not reach a high level of coordination between natural and artificial capital. (4) The environmental pressure in all provinces, except Liaoning, decreased over time. In some cases, excessive pressure decreased the pressure-adjusted EHI, regardless of the EHI value. (5) According to the results of the ecosystem health classification in each province, the factors that hinder ecosystem health vary from place to place.

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adib Rifqi Setiawan

“The real treasure is in the minds of our children, and all we have to do is extract it.” Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah writes in website Queen Rania Foundation For Education And Development www.qrf.org/en. Rania Al Yassin was born on August 31, 1970. She obtained her Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from the American University of Cairo in 1991. She applied this, first, to a banking career in Jordan and, later, to the information technology sector. After marrying Prince Abdullah bin Al Hussein on June 10, 1993, they went on to have four children: Prince Hussein, Princess Iman, Princess Salma, and Prince Hashem. In addition to being a wife and mother, Queen Rania works hard to lift the lives of Jordanians by supporting their endeavours and helping to create new opportunities for them. Locally, she is committed to breathe new life into the public education system; empower communities and women especially through microfinance initiatives; protect children and families; and drive innovation, technology and entrepreneurship, especially amongst young people. Internationally, Queen Rania is an advocate for tolerance, compassion and bridge building between people of all cultures and backgrounds. Her efforts to simultaneously challenge stereotypes of Arabs and Muslims, and promote greater understanding and acceptance between people of all faiths and cultures, have won her global recognition. Her Majesty’s passion is education. She believes that every Jordanian girl and boy, and all children, should have access not only to stimulating classrooms and modern curricula, but inspiring teachers and technology that can connect Jordan’s children to the world and the world to Jordan’s children. Her efforts in the education sector complement the work of the Ministry of Education through initiatives such as the Jordan Education Initiative, the Queen Rania Teachers Academy, Madrasati, Edraak and others. To realize these and so much more, Queen Rania has encouraged private sector partners to drive improvements and strengthen the foundations of Jordan’s education system. Queen Rania is also a global voice for access to quality education for children around the world. In 2009, Her Majesty championed the 1 Goal campaign for education; she is Honorary Chair of the UN Girl’s Education Initiatives and has advocated access to education in forums and gatherings around the world. Her work and her efforts to improve the learning opportunities for children have been recognized at the highest levels, nationally, regionally and internationally. Additionally, through her position on their boards, Her Majesty contributes to the work of the United Nations Fund and the World Economic Forum. She is the Eminent Advocate for UNICEF; and she was part of the UN appointed High Level Panel who advised on the shape and content of the Sustainable Development Goals which aim to improve the lives of millions of people before 2030. In recognition of her work, Her Majesty has humbly accepted many awards, locally, regionally and globally. These include the Walther Rathenau Award from the Walther RathenauInstitut in Germany for her efforts to greater peace and understanding; the James C. Morgan Global Humanitarian Award from Tech Awards, USA; the Arab Knight of Giving Award from Arab Giving Forum, UAE; the North South Prize by the North South Prize, Portugal; as well as the YouTube Visionary Award. Her Majesty authored several books primarily for children including the Sandwich Swap, which was inspired by her own childhood experiences.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (7) ◽  
pp. 3736
Author(s):  
Nan Lu ◽  
Jiwei Zhu ◽  
Hui Chi ◽  
Bing Wang ◽  
Lu Chen

To achieve the sustainable development goals established by the United Nations in 2015, China has adopted a series of measures to promote the modernization of water conservancy. However, its construction in China is imbalanced across regions as the endowment of water resources and economic development are distinct. Consequently, it is important to assess the progress of and analyze the spatial heterogeneity of water conservancy modernization construction in China from the perspective of sustainable development goals (SDGs). In this study, 31 regions in China were selected, and data on water conservancy construction in these sampled regions (excluding Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan) were collected in 2018. The results show that there exists an imbalanced development in terms of the overall level and the index level. About 60% of the regions scored below the overall average score for China’s current modernization of water conservancy. The eastern areas presented a high level of modernization, while the central, northeast, and western areas showed comparable modernization of water conservancy, all of which lag behind eastern areas of China. Furthermore, China’s water conservancy modernization also presented a strong spatial autocorrelation, and there was at least one deficiency in 55% of the regions, with the rate of deficiencies emerging in the West being much higher than in other regions. In a nutshell, this study provides a novel framework that can be extended to evaluate the SDGs and the effectiveness of water governance in other countries.


2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (313) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alicja Małgorzata Graczyk

The city of Heidelberg has won twice the price of European Sustainable City Award. The paper presents the latest author’s investigation (July 2014) about the sustainable development in the Heidelberg. The aim of the article is an analyses and assessment of the implementation of sustainable development in the city. The policy and economical instruments implemented at the local level at the very early stage (early 90s) help the city to build ecological education and shape ecological style of life.. The city citizens have a very high level of ecological awareness and very often participate in policy decisions, shaping sustainable development goals of the Heidelberg. The main local priorities for sustainable development are: climate and environment protection, rising energy efficiency by using renewable energy sources, local heat district, ecological transport and building in passive standard.


Author(s):  
Ana Reyes-Menendez ◽  
José Saura ◽  
Cesar Alvarez-Alonso

The main objective of this exploratory study is to identify the social, economic, environmental and cultural factors related to the sustainable care of both environment and public health that most concern Twitter users. With 336 million active users as of 2018, Twitter is a social network that is increasingly used in research to get information and to understand public opinion as exemplified by Twitter users. In order to identify the factors related to the sustainable care of environment and public health, we have downloaded n = 5873 tweets that used the hashtag #WorldEnvironmentDay on the respective day. As the next step, sentiment analysis with an algorithm developed in Python and trained with data mining was applied to the sample of tweets to group them according to the expressed feelings. Thereafter, a textual analysis was used to group the tweets according to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), identifying the key factors about environment and public health that most concern Twitter users. To this end, we used the qualitative analysis software NVivo Pro 12. The results of the analysis enabled us to establish the key factors that most concern users about the environment and public health such as climate change, global warming, extreme weather, water pollution, deforestation, climate risks, acid rain or massive industrialization. The conclusions of the present study can be useful to companies and institutions that have initiatives related to the environment and they also facilitate decision-making regarding the environment in non-profit organizations. Our findings will also serve the United Nations that will thoroughly review the 17 SDGs at the High-level Political Forum in 2019.


2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (47) ◽  
pp. eabd0952
Author(s):  
Yonglong Lu ◽  
Yifu Yang ◽  
Bin Sun ◽  
Jingjing Yuan ◽  
Minzhao Yu ◽  
...  

Biodiversity is essential for the maintenance of ecosystem health and delivery of the Sustainable Development Goals. However, the drivers of biodiversity loss and the spatial variation in their impacts are poorly understood. Here, we explore the spatial-temporal distributions of threatened and declining (“biodiversity-loss”) species and find that these species are affected by multiple stressors, with climate and human activities being the fundamental shaping forces. There has been large spatial variation in the distribution of threatened species over China’s provinces, with the biodiversity of Gansu, Guangdong, Hainan, and Shaanxi provinces severely reduced. With increasing urbanization and industrialization, the expansion of construction and worsening pollution has led to habitat retreat or degradation, and high proportions of amphibians, mammals, and reptiles are threatened. Because distributions of species and stressors vary widely across different climate zones and geographical areas, specific policies and measures are needed for preventing biodiversity loss in different regions.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dave Hole ◽  
Pamela Collins ◽  
Anteneh Tesfaw ◽  
Lina Barrera ◽  
Michael B. Mascia ◽  
...  

Central to the premise of the Sustainable Development Goals is the concept that the environment underpins the economic and social dimensions of development, yet the language and structure of the SDG framework are largely blind to these environment-development relationships beyond the "nature" Goals (14 and 15). As a result, ecosystem health continues to decline, development milestones lag, and investments are suboptimally allocated. Here, we highlight and conceptually map nature's role across the entire framework and make suggestions for leveraging synergies and limiting undesired impacts.


Author(s):  

Статья посвящена рассмотрению особенностей управления общественными финансами в парадигме устойчивого развития и влияния на социальные, экономические и экологические процессы в государстве. Концепция устойчивого развития была впервые рассмотрена в 1987 г., но в большинстве стран мира формирование социально-экономической политики на принципах устойчивости связано с принятием глобального документа «Цели в области устойчивого развития» (англ. Sustainable Development Goals). Швейцария является одной из стран, которая на законодательном уровне закрепила достижение устойчивого развития как национальную цель, реализуемую в рамках деятельности всех субъектов хозяйствования, в том числе в сфере управления общественными финансами. Посредством принятия Стратегии устойчивого развития осуществляется интеграция международных приоритетов развития в систему стратегического управления Швейцарии, которая затрагивает все уровни бюджетной системы. При формировании и изменении данного документа применяются трёхмерная модель устойчивого развития и модель основного капитала, суть которых раскрыта в статье. В ходе исследования было выявлено, что за период 2000–2020 гг. Швейцарии удалось повысить уровень устойчивости общественных финансов, а также социальную ориентированность: существенно снизились доля уровня государственного долга и объема дефицита федерального бюджета по отношению к ВВП, наблюдался рост доли расходов на социальное обеспечение, науку и образование. Применяемые меры контрциклической политики позволяют балансировать сальдо бюджетов бюджетной системы Швейцарии посредством установления бюджетных ограничений на размер расходной части, на которые оказывают влияние совокупность внешних и внутренних факторов. Текущий кризис, вызванный новой волной коронавирусной инфекции, отразился на финансовом результате федерального бюджета по итогам 2020 г. и изменил плановые показатели до 2024 г. В заключительной части проведен сравнительный анализ систем стратегического управления Швейцарии и России, выявлены проблемы отечественной системы. Обоснована возможность применения в российской практике швейцарских моделей с учётом особенностей нашей страны. Ключевые слова: устойчивое развитие, общественные финансы, стратегия развития, цели устойчивого развития, национальные цели, стратегические документы, показатели федерального бюджета, Швейцария, трёхмерная модель, модель основного капитала, социальная политика, государственный долг, инвестиционная активность, расходные обязательства, дефицит бюджета, контрциклическая политика, структурный дефицит, циклический дефицит, государственный внебюджетный фонд, государственные программы. Abstract. The article discusses features of public finance management in the paradigm of sustainable development and impact on social, economic and environmental processes in the state. The Sustainable development concept was first considered in 1987, but the formation of social and economic policies based on the principles of sustainability is associated with the adoption of the global document "Sustainable Development Goals" in most countries of the world. Switzerland is one of the countries that has enshrined the achievement of sustainable development as a national goal at the legislative level. This goal is implemented in all incorporated and unincorporated businesses activities, including in the field of public finance management. Through the adoption of the Sustainable Development Strategy, international development priorities are being integrated into Switzerland's strategic management system, which affects all the budgetary system levels. During forming and changing this document, a three-dimensional model of sustainable development and a model of fixed capital are used, the essence of which is disclosed in the article. The article analyses that Switzerland had to increase the level of public fi-nances stability, as well as social orientation in 2000–2020: the share of the level of public debt and the volume of the federal budget deficit in relation to GDP has decreased significantly, and the share of spending on social security, science and education has grown. The applied countercyclical policy measures allow balancing the budget balance of the Swiss budgetary system by setting budgetary restrictions on the expenditure, which is influenced by a combination of external and internal factors. The current crisis caused by the new coronavirus infection is affecting the federal budget financial results of the current year and changing the planned targets until 2024. As a result of the study, the authors make comparative analysis of the Swiss and Russian strategic management systems, and identify problems of the domestic system. The possibility of implementing Swiss models in Russian practice are demonstrated taking into account the special aspects of our country. Keywords: sustainable development, public finance, development strategy, sustainable development goals, national goals, strategic documents, budget target, Switzerland, three-dimensional model, fixed capital model, social policy, public debt, investment activity, expenditure commitments, budget deficit, anti-cyclical policy, structural deficit, cyclical deficit, state non-budgetary fund, government programs.


Author(s):  
Arnoldo Jose de Hoyos Guevara ◽  
Valeria Regina Bertoncelo

Building Country Resilience is a long-term process particularly in the hyper connected world we are living today; and depends on good governance and appropriate equilibrium of respect for people, planet and profits as well as avoiding depleting natural resources that end up affecting the biosphere. Hence represent a most needed Learning ability that may be seeing to be related to the process of Sustainable Development. So, this paper seeks to find best practices and a Ranking of Countries that may help as guides to foster Country Resilience. For this purpose, it was developed a World Resilience Index - WRI based on a Statistical Analysis with updated data from 108 Countries divided into 3 Groups: American Countries – AMER (20 Countries), Advanced Economies - AVECO (22 Countries) mostly from Europe and OTHER (66 Countries); and using a set of Synthetic Variables like the Social Progress Index – SPI, the Environmental Performance Index – EPI, and the Sustainable Development Goals Index – SDGI, besides some related to Governance and the World Risk Index – WRI.


This chapter draws together the various chapters of the book, summarising the high-level points from each. It highlights how Blockchain and other frontier technologies will be an important tool for social impact globally. A renewed focus and promise on emerging economies is highlighted as they now have a way to access knowledge, talent, capital, and to share their talent and ideas and to seek global investment in ways that were not possible before. Some of the policy and governance challenges which will emerge from Blockchain economies are raised as well as the need for more research and discovery. It reinforces the links to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the ways that Blockchain and frontier technologies can exponentiate impact towards the SDGs and should be a focus of governments, international institutions, and indeed, the entire ecosystem.


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