Ecosystem service (ES) supply and human needs are often spatially conflicting. Although the synergy between them is crucial for global sustainability, little is known about the real human needs for ...ES (RHN) and their integration with actual ES supply. This study established a novel hierarchy of human needs for ES. Taking China and the United States as case studies, multiple types of actual ES supplies and multi-dimensional human needs were integrated to calculate the value of effective ecosystem service supply (EFS). The results suggested that the overall EFS in the United States is higher than that in China. There was a significant gap between the United States and China in areas with the first grade of EFS (F-EFS); the United States accounted for 68% of the total in such areas in the two countries combined. Whereas China accounted for 32%, mainly concentrated in the Yangtze River Delta urban group. China exhibited a gradually decreasing trend from the east coast to the northwest. Moreover, the F-EFS in China displayed more spatial concentration than in the United States. It was also discovered that the reason for the gap was a sharp spatial mismatch between actual ES supply and RHN in China. Nevertheless, China was specifically found to have the potential to enhance its EFS. This paper proposes some solutions to mitigate the gap and also offers guidance on the realization of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
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•A novel hierarchy of human needs for ecosystem services was proposed.•A large-scale analysis integrated actual ES supply and real human needs.•Actual ES supply embodying goods-based and non-goods-based ES flows were assessed.•The overall effective ecosystem service supply in the US was higher than in China.•A sharp spatial mismatch between ES supply and human needs was discovered in China.
The environmental crisis, increased inequality and an aging population are likely to increase the demand for welfare services in the OECD countries. Economic growth has long been seen as a solution ...to these problems. However, this is no longer the case. Very few countries have managed to decouple economic performance from ecological footprints and greenhouse gas emissions. Even where this has been achieved, the rates of emission-decline are too slow to match the Paris climate targets. Consequently, interdisciplinary research is key to probe how welfare systems may cope with these challenges, and how welfare provision and economic growth may be decoupled. By drawing on the basic human needs approach and a unique set of data, we explore the social and ecological performances of OECD countries relative to their economic performances. While high-income countries display diminishing welfare returns as economic performance is not improving the satisfaction of health-related needs, the lower-income countries might yield significant surplus if moving to the level of moderate-income countries. However, the satisfaction of autonomy-related needs is so far strongly coupled to economic performance and thus much harder to achieve in an ecologically sustainable way.
Marjorie Boyle is the first theologian to write about Petrarch the
poet as theologian. With her extraordinarily broad and deep
knowledge of the theological, historical, and literary contexts of
her ...subject, she presents an entirely original and revisionary
account of Petrarch's literary career. Petrarch, she argues, has
been misunderstood by the division of his literary enterprise into
two sides-Petrarch the poet, Petrarch the humanist reformer-studied
by literary critics and historians respectively. Boyle demonstrates
that the division is artificial, that the two sides are part of the
same prophetic mission. Petrarch's Genius is an important
book that deserves to be read by all Petrarch scholars-theologians
as well as literary critics and historians.
The social and ecological challenges of our time require a better understanding of the complex interactions between the multiple dimensions of human well-being and environmental impacts. This article ...introduces the Needs and Limits (N&L) framework, a theoretical and computational foundation for agent-based simulations of heterogeneous individuals who try to increase their quality of life through the satisfaction of human needs. Based on psychological research, human needs are described as satiable, adaptive, and interdependent with the social and bio-physical environment. The N&L framework represents a generic foundation that can be applied to a broad range of socio-economic and ecological scenarios. A comparison is provided with classical utility approaches. The framework is illustrated for the topics of income inequality and climate policy.
It cannot be denied that the global COVID-19 pandemic was the driving force for the rapid changes that are reflected in various aspects of life, especially daily human life, because of the imposition ...of the stay-home policy. This study is a review of the latest published studies in peer-reviewed scientific journals on the period of mandatory stay-at-home associated with COVID-19. It is expected that this change will have several effects. Therefore, the main objective of the review is to reveal the dual-effect relationship between housing design and the COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, the study monitored the potential impacts of housing design on the spread of COVID-19 and on meeting the diverse needs of its residents to extract lessons learned from the stay experience. It also included a set of practical visions for designing a post-COVID home that can withstand any sudden or expected change.
The review findings indicate that despite the benefits of staying home in reducing COVID-19 at the general level, it is at the architectural level, it turned out that most of the existing home design parameters are not at all prepared for facing epidemics, resulting in their inability to meet many of the main and emerging needs of their residents. It also showed that the epidemic promoted architects to reconsider the design requirements of a home that turned out to have to meet more needs than it had. In this context, a set of practical visions and recommendations for post-COVID home design were envisioned, targeting the change in space design, space preparations, and design complements. These visions are integrated to contain the various requirements of residents imposed by epidemics or other circumstances, while giving high priority to impeding the transmission of infection and supporting the physical and mental health of the residents. The visualizations adopt and entrench the necessary principles and basis for a post-COVID home, represented in a healthy, smart, green, larger house to face sudden crises.
Recently, parks have been recognized as one of the main contributors in the strategic objectives of urban projects, since they provide job opportunities, place attractiveness, increase the real ...estate market and property values, tourist development, increase the since of social belonging between the residents, improving the public health and the quality of the residents’ life. The presented research is aiming to investigate the effect of Landscape features on the quality of life (QOL) inside Egyptian parks. This study has been inspired by early theorists like “Maslow” and other theorists who have followed Maslow’s footsteps. They analysed and measured the concept of quality of life (QOL)into two well-known terms “human needs” and “well-being”. The study explores the impact of landscape features towards “human needs and well-being”. Lately, Egypt is suffering from inflation and economic crisis which affect the Egyptians life style. Most of the Egyptian society is living a stressful life; this study will examine whether the Egyptian parks help Egyptians as an escape way where all the negative vibes are going to meet with nature resulting in a positive outcome. This research used qualitative investigation method to measure the impact of implementing landscape features in Egyptian parks on enhancing the quality of the Egyptian life by measuring the (QOL) with regards to “human needs and well-being”. The presented research investigated the impact of landscape elements implemented in Al-Azhar Park and Family Park on “human needs and well-being”. That shall pave the way to investors, policymakers, architecture and civil practitioners to realize the potentials of designing and constructing parks in Egyptian urban environment, as an efficient tool to improve the quality of Egyptian life.
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Smart cities have been criticized for being too technologically driven and reinforcing entrepreneurial thinking rather than focusing on citizens and social sustainability. ... This paper aims to “define the implementing principles for Smart Cities in Tehran as a social construct”. In this regard, this study tries to develop smart city indicators and suggest a set of implementing principles for smart cities, citizens, and civic organizations in Tehran. Furthermore, this paper illustrates how in-progress smart city projects are meeting the citizens' needs in 22 districts of Tehran Municipality.METHODS: The present study has used a qualitative and quantitative methodology based on theoretical frameworks. In this paper, Maslow's hierarchy of needs acts as a meta-method for defining the principles of social sustainability to implement smart city projects. First, smart sustainable cities and associated indicators were evaluated based on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Second, a case study approach was utilized to assess Tehran’s smart city projects. Finally, the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats and Quantitative Strategic Planning Matrix techniques were used to define strategies based on internal and external environmental factors and relation to social sustainability.FINDINGS: The results indicated that promoting innovation centers and living labs to create a vibrant, active, and healthy public realm was the most effective strategy for smart city development in Tehran (Weaknesses-Opportunities8=.1.323). Two important additional strategies were “involve stakeholders and focus on people and consider urban residents not only as recipients or users of smart cities but also as designers of smart cities” (Strengths-Opportunities3=1.075) and “promote community involvement in council decision-making by developing interactive platforms” (Strengths-Opportunities8=0.884).CONCLUSION: This paper contributes knowledge on how cities such as Tehran can achieve and implement social sustainability using a smart city approach. Plans and projects for a smart city in Tehran were deemed neither realistic nor sufficiently strategic, and they are assumed to satisfy neither policymakers nor citizens. Social sustainability-based principles and strategies are necessary to incorporate citizen perspectives into Tehran’s smart city plan and policies. The present study adds several significant insights to the existing frameworks for implementing smart city frameworks in Tehran.
The article examines the problems related to the legal protection of life and health of future generations based on the methodological apparatus and international and constitutional law. Particular ...attention is paid to legislative approaches to the definition of the term "future generation", the difference between "needs" and "life and health", and the correlating relationship between the present and future generations. The authors of the article use legal tools to address the deep properties of the concept of future generation through the prism of fundamental principles and values of law. The discussion of the topic was conducted from the position of general scientific methods of cognition (systemic and theoretical), as well as special scientific methods: comparative jurisprudence, logical, technical, and legal analysis, concretization, and interpretation. The purpose of the study is to identify theoretical and practical problems in ensuring the protection of life and health of future generations, investigate the constitutional and legal cross-section of the definition of the future generation, and identify threats to future generations. Some principles on protection of future generations were analyzed; the differences between interests, health, and needs of future generations and the procedural prerequisites for the protection of life and health of the future generation were shown.
El artículo examina los problemas relacionados con la protección jurídica de la vida y la salud de las generaciones futuras a partir del aparato metodológico y el derecho internacional y constitucional. Se presta especial atención a los enfoques legislativos de la definición del término "generación futura", la diferencia entre "necesidades" y "vida y salud", y la relación de correlación entre las generaciones presentes y futuras. Los autores del artículo utilizan herramientas jurídicas para abordar las propiedades profundas del concepto de generación futura a través del prisma de los principios y valores fundamentales del derecho. La discusión del tema se llevó a cabo desde la posición de los métodos científicos generales de cognición (sistémicos y teóricos), así como de los métodos científicos especiales: jurisprudencia comparada, análisis lógico, técnico y jurídico, concreción e interpretación. El propósito del estudio es identificar problemas teóricos y prácticos para garantizar la protección de la vida y la salud de las generaciones futuras, investigar la sección transversal constitucional y legal de la definición de la generación futura e identificar amenazas para las generaciones futuras. Se analizaron algunos principios de la protección de las generaciones futuras; se mostraron las diferencias entre los intereses, la salud y las necesidades de la generación futura y los requisitos procesales para la protección de la vida y la salud de la generación futura.
Since its inception, the concept of the bioregion has sought to overcome the dichotomy between society and nature. It is now proposed as a territorial support and planning space for eco-social ...transitions through the relocation of social metabolisms, increased autonomy in the satisfaction of human needs and the preservation and restoration of ecosystems. Biodiversity is fundamental to the bioregional perspective, which understands the territory as a space of interaction between natural, anthropised and urban systems; and which advocates the transformation of economies, lifestyles and cultures to move towards cultural practices in balance with the ecosystems that sustain them.
Desde su origen, el concepto de biorregión pretende superar la dicotomía sociedad-naturaleza. En la actualidad se propone como soporte territorial y espacio de planificación para las transiciones ecosociales, mediante la relocalización de los metabolismos sociales, el aumento de la autonomía en la satisfacción de las necesidades humanas, y la preservación y restauración de ecosistemas. La biodiversidad es fundamental en la perspectiva biorregional, que entiende el territorio como espacio de interrelación de sistemas naturales, antropizados y urbanos; y que propugna la transformación de la economía, los modos de habitar y la cultura para avanzar a prácticas culturales en equilibrio con los ecosistemas que les dan cobijo.
In geopolitics, the term ‘shatter belt’ refers to a region that is highly vulnerable to conflicts and is often an arena for great power competition through proxy wars. For more than a decade, Syria ...has been engaged in a similar unprecedented state of conflict involving domestic and foreign actors – a conflict that has exacerbated the dilapidated political, economic, and social security. As per the Fragile States Index 2021, Syria is one of the world's top three most fragile states, indicating its vulnerability and unsustainability. Using qualitative data through secondary sources, this paper highlights how Syria serves as a shatter belt for major powers, explicating interests of the US, Russia, Iran and Saudi Arabia. In order to understand the dynamics of conflict, the paper applies Amos Tversky’s Prospect theory which highlights stakeholders' loss aversion and risk-acceptant behaviour. In addition, the paper highlights that conflict resolution strategies applied to resolve the conflict have failed so far. In this regard, John Burton’s Human Needs theory is applied to the case study to emphasize what can be done to resolve this protracted conflict.
Bibliography Entry
Ashraf, Nageen. 2022. "Syria as a Shatter Belt and the Great Power Competition." Margalla Papers 26 (2): 28-38.
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