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•Different environmental assessment methods exist providing different viewpoints on the impacts of policies on the agroecosystem.•However, a general framework providing an holistic ...view is still missing.•Despite of their differences, existing assessment approaches can be combined to provide a more complete assessment.•We developed a conceptual framework describing the socio-ecosystem and the links between agriculture and the rest of the word.•We evaluated a set of environmental issues using the combination of the four existing assessment approaches demonstrating the interest of hybridizing the four existing approaches.
Agriculture’s primary function is the production of food, feed, fibre and fuel for the fast-growing world population. However, it also affects human health and ecosystem integrity. Policymakers make policies in order to avoid harmful impacts. How to assess such policies is a challenge. In this paper, we propose a conceptual framework to help evaluate the impacts of agricultural policies on the environment. Our framework represents the global system as four subsystems and their interactions. These four components are the cells of a 2 by 2 matrix Agriculture, Rest of the word; Socio-eco system, Ecological system. We then developed a set of indicators for environmental issues and positioned these issues in the framework. To assess these issues, we used four well-known existing approaches: Life Cycle Assessment, Ecosystem Services Analysis, Yield Gap Analysis and Agro-Environmental Indicators. Using these four approaches together provided a more holistic view of the impacts of a given policy on the system. We then applied our framework on existing cover crop policies using an extensive literature survey and analysing the different environmental issues mobilised by the four assessment approaches. This demonstration case shows that our framework may be of help for a full systemic assessment. Despite their differences (aims, scales, standardization, data requirements, etc.), it is possible and profitable to use the four approaches together. This is a significant step forward, though more work is needed to produce a genuinely operational tool.
In this paper, a novel vehicular high temperature proton exchange membrane fuel cell (HT-PEMFC) power system integrated with methanol steam reforming (MSR) and Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) is ...proposed. The system uses waste heat from the HT-PEMFC to provide the MSR subsystem for hydrogen production, and the ORC subsystem recovers the remaining heat to generate electrical power. The thermodynamic model of the system and multi-criteria evaluation are established. Numerical results show that increasing the current density and decreasing the cathode pressure and stoichiometry is favorable for improving the net output power of the system, but also increasing the levelized cost of energy and carbon mass specific emission of the system. Higher operating temperatures and anode pressures are beneficial to overall performance. Moreover, the system is optimized using the NSGA-II algorithm to obtain the three-dimensional (3D) Pareto solution and the optimal set of operating parameters. The optimized system net output power, levelized cost of energy and carbon mass specific emission at the Final Optimal Point are 36.98 kW, 0.2138 $/kWh and 0.5583 kg/kWh, respectively. Compared to the un-optimized system, the system working at optimal parameters has better thermodynamic, economic and environmental performance.
•A novel HT-PEMFC power system integrated with MSR and ORC is proposed for vehicle applications.•The system thermodynamic model and multi-criteria evaluation are established.•The influence of key HT-PEMFC operating parameters on system performance is investigated.•The optimal set of operating parameters for the system is obtained using NSGA-II.
With the growing concerns over climate change and energy security, the Government of India aims to enhance the share of solar and wind based Renewable Energy (RE) in energy mix. However, current ...official estimates of RE potential undervalue the actual scale of potential and they also fall way short of meeting the future low-carbon demand. These estimates are generally available at coarse spatial resolution of regions/states and do not provide information of RE temporal variability. Considering low resolution values in system planning may result in over/underestimation of other required resources like grid infrastructure and flexibility options. This calls for re-assessing India’s RE potential by a thorough examination of land suitability, and quantification of its spatial and temporal variability to support grid integration and system planning activities.
In this context, this article performs a Geographical Information System (GIS) based multi-criteria-assessment of ground-mounted solar Photovoltaic (PV) and on-shore wind energy potential in India. Geo-spatial and multi-year hourly meteorological data sets are utilized to estimate geographical and techno-economic RE potential. Calculated supply curve outlines the availability of estimated whole solar energy within the Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) range of 51.6 $/MWh to 89 $/MWh. 3102 GW of wind capacity is available below 115 $/MWh LCOE. Variability assessment shows that the western region of the country has highest RE potential with low spatial variability. A complementary relationship between solar and wind energy in various states shows the feasibility of hybrid solar-wind plants to ensure reliable green energy supply. By performing these assessments for 1° by 1° geographical grid cells, this study generates a granular data set paving the path for policymakers to setup feasible policies.
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•Geographical and techno-economic quantification of India’s solar and wind potential.•Annual capacity factor based classification of solar & wind resources into classes.•Statistics of hourly ramping to identify areas of low/high temporal variability.•Abundant solar & wind capacities available for LCOE of 52–89 $/MWh and 40–115 $/MWh.•Correlation of solar-wind energy to locate feasible sites for hybrid plants.
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•An integrated scheme is developed to capture CO2 and convert it into methanol.•Split ammonia-based carbon capture has advantages in reducing regeneration energy.•Wet hydrogen is used ...as raw material for methanol synthesis.•The improvement is achieved by the multi-criteria assessment and exergy analysis.
CO2 capture and utilization are an effective solution to the problem of CO2 emissions, and a combination of ammonia-based CO2 capture and its use for methanol production is a highly feasible strategy. However, the uses of conventional technologies have resulted in a high demand for energy, with limited use of hydrogen. To address these problems, an innovative strategy is proposed and demonstrated in this study that enhances the conventional design, i.e., to use ammonia-based CO2 capture with double tower absorption and solvent split, along with wet hydrogen for methanol production at industrial scale. The process is further improved through a multi-criteria assessment that considered the CO2 capture rate, NH3 loss rate, CO2 conversion rate, and energy saving factors, in which the latter is based on two components, namely the reboiler duty and the condenser duty. Moreover, an exergy analysis method is used to optimize the improved process, and a highly efficient integrated process is finally established. It has been found that the use of a double-tower absorption process ensures high rates of CO2 capture and low rates of NH3 loss. Additionally, adjusting the molar ratio of H2 to CO2 leads to an impressive 8% increase in the CO2 conversion rate, reaching 25%. In terms of energy savings, the average reboiler duty was reduced from 13.39 to 11.85 MJ/kgCO2, i.e., by 11.50%; while the condenser duty was reduced by 11.36%; both contributed to the overall energy savings. In the I-ACCMP process, the total exergy loss is 437.24 kW, of which the exergy loss of the heat exchangers accounts for 16%, and the desorption tower (DES) accounts for 48%. After optimization, the exergy loss of the heat exchangers decreases from 70.02 kW to 40.45 kW, the exergy loss of the DES decreases from 209.29 kW to 180.91 kW, and the reboiler duty is reduced from 10.60 MJ/kgCO2 to 7.71 MJ/kgCO2. The total exergy loss decreases from 437.24 kW to 372.68 kW, which is a reduction by 14.8%.
•A novel approach is introduced for building performance robustness assessment.•Robustness assessment and decision making are integrated to select robust designs.•A case study is conducted to ...demonstrate the value of the approach.•Impacts of occupancy and weather scenario on building performance are analyzed.•Robustness of competitive designs with the same performance level are compared.•The results are compared to the Hurwicz criterion as a decision making method.
Considering the diverse uncertainties in building operations and external factors (i.e., occupancy and weather scenarios that can impact a building’s energy and comfort), performance robustness has become as important as the building performance itself. Selecting a robust and high performance building design is challenging, particularly when multiple performance criteria should be fulfilled. It requires performance evaluation, robustness assessment, and multi-criteria decision making in three sequential steps. The current study introduces a new robustness-based decision making approach that integrates the robustness assessment and decision making steps and is more transparent than previously used approaches. The proposed approach normalizes each objective function based on its defined target and combines them into one comprehensive indicator. Moreover, it penalizes solutions that do not meet the targeted margins. The new approach is tested on a case study of a single-family house, where eight competitive designs and 16 occupant and climate scenarios are investigated. Exhaustive searches and sophisticated engineering analysis are applied to validate the logic behind the approach’s results. In addition, a test framework is used to validate the reliability of the approach under different combinations of scenarios. The results show that the proposed approach can select a high performance and robust building design simultaneously with less analysis effort (no need for weighting the objectives nor for conducting a robustness analysis for each objective separately) and with much trustworthy rate (selecting solution in comparison to the defined targets and with less dependency on the scenario conditions) compared to one frequently used approach (i.e., the Hurwicz criterion).
A multi-criteria comparison of algal-based and activated sludge-based wastewater infrastructure systems based on 30 process parameters derived from the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is ...presented to assess their environmental, economic, social, and overall sustainability. The classical high-rate algal ponds (HRAP) and an emerging mixotrophic algal system (A-WWT) were selected as algal-based systems; and the conventional activated sludge (CAS) system and the membrane bioreactor (MBR) system, as activated sludge-based systems. Visual PROMETHEE outranking software was adopted to determine the preference scores and ranking of the four systems under twelve distinct scenarios/priorities. The mixotrophic A-WWT emerged as the preferred technology in environmental, economic, and overall sustainability aspects resulting in net positive preference scores (0.40, 0.53, and 0.36, respectively). The MBR system outperformed all the other technologies from the social sustainability perspective due to its lower footprint and better-quality effluent including significant pathogen removal. Even though HRAP was preferred over the CAS system in the context of environmental sustainability (preference scores of −0.22 in HRAP vs −0.27 in CAS), preference scores for them were similar in the context of economic sustainability (−0.33 for HRAP and CAS), and lower from social (−0.14 in CAS vs −0.67 in HRAP) and overall sustainability (−0.22 in CAS vs −0.34 in HRAP) perspectives. Scenario-based assessments indicated that preference ranking is strongly dependent on the decision maker’s priorities. Good agreement between the findings from this study with literature reports adds credence to the validity of the proposed process parameters. Parameters and the method proposed herein could be useful in evaluating wastewater treatment technologies from a sustainability perspective.
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•Identified 7 attributes related to sustainable wastewater infrastructures.•Derived 30 parameters to assess sustainability of wastewater infrastructures.•Evaluated 4 wastewater infrastructures for sustainable wastewater treatment.•Used multi-criteria decision making approach to rank 4 wastewater infrastructures.
Creation of sustainable society and transition to low-carbon energy system are the main priorities of the EU policy. Energy poverty (EP) is one of the most important social problems linked to ...low-carbon transition as creation of carbon neutral societies requires to address other important sustainability issues linked with carbon-free future. Although assessment of EP is a prerequisite for designing policy initiatives to alleviate the problem. The article provides a methodological framework for the EP assessment taking into account goals of low-carbon energy transition and creation of sustainable carbon-neutral society. The proposed evaluation tool can be applied in different settings and used to track the relative progress of the countries in pursuing low-carbon transition and sustainable societies development. The Bellagio Sustainability Assessment and Measurement Principles (STAMP) were followed throughout the process of indicators selection and assessment. In order to determine countries’ achievements over time, the assessment was performed in 2010 and 2018 by applying two multi-criteria techniques. The results show that the Nordic countries stand out from other EU member states in terms of just low-carbon energy transition progress because of their low poverty indicators in households, high standard of living, and high share of renewable energy.
•An innovative approach based on the Bellagio STAMP and multi-criteria techniques was developed.•Multi-criteria analysis and expert survey were applied for energy poverty measurement in the EU.•Sweden and Finland and other Nordic countries have received the highest ranking.•The lowest in the ranking was Bulgaria, following by Cyprus and Greece.
One approach to assessing progress towards sustainability makes use of multiple indicators spanning the environmental, social, and economic dimensions of the system being studied. Diverse indicators ...have different units of measurement, and normalization is the procedure employed to transform differing indicator measures onto similar scales or to unit-free measures. Given the inherent complexity entailed in interpreting information related to multiple indicators, normalization and aggregation of sustainability indicators are common steps after indicator measures are quantified. However, it is often difficult for stakeholders to make clear connections between specific indicator measurements and resulting aggregate scores of sustainability. Motivated by challenges and examples in sustainability assessment, this paper explores various normalization schemes including ratio normalization, target normalization, Z-score normalization, and unit equivalence normalization. Methods for analyzing the impacts of normalization choice on aggregate scores are presented. Techniques are derived for general application in studying composite indicators, and advantages and drawbacks associated with different normalization schemes are discussed within the context of sustainability assessment. Theoretical results are clarified through a case study using data from indicators of progress towards bioenergy sustainability.
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•An advanced GIS-based soft computing approach was proposed.•The approach achieved specialization of combination and multi-scenarios analysis.•Suitable land decreases with increasing ...preference coefficient α.•Three typical policy orientation have emerged from scenario analysis.•There is a satisfactory fit between the suitability map and Land-Use Plan.
Land-use suitability assessment is an important step in land use planning for urban development. We propose a GIS-based soft computing approach (GSC), which is a combination of two multi-criteria analysis methods, i.e., the ordered weighted averaging (OWA) method and the logic scoring of preference (LSP) method, to evaluate and map land-use suitability for urban development in Ili Valley, China. The evaluation uses 13 factors as suitability criteria for urban development. These factors are related to the topography and geology, socio-economic feasibility, ecological restrictions, and prohibitive constraints. Based on the final suitability results, Ili Valley was classified using five suitability levels: highly suitable, suitable, moderately suitable, marginally suitable, and not suitable. By comparing seven preference decision coefficient (α) scenarios, we determined that the area of the land that is highly suitable for urban development decreases, and the area of the marginally suitable land increases with increasing α. All of the scenarios show that approximately 32.6% of the land area is not suitable. Among the seven scenarios, the policy orientation of three of the scenarios was an urban expansion policy orientation (α = 0.5), a balanced policy orientation (α = 1), and an ecological protection policy orientation (α = 2). The result of the policy orientation analysis of urban development can be used as an urban development boundary for different development preferences and stages. The local land-use planning was evaluated by overlaying its planned urban development zones with the areas of the resultant suitability map. Specific recommendations are presented for the scale and timing of urban development in Ili Valley.
In 2019, FAO and partners launched the Tool for Agroecology Performance Evaluation (TAPE), an innovative and comprehensive framework to produce global and harmonized evidence on the multidimensional ...performance of agroecology and on its potential to contribute to sustainable food systems and the achievement of the SDGs.
In 2020, TAPE was used in Mali to assess the status of agroecological transition of local farms and to identify its correlation with farms' quantitative performance across the economic, social, and environmental dimensions of sustainability.
The aim of this study is to present the evidence on the multidimensional performance of agroecology produced through the implementation of TAPE in 233 farms in the region of Kayes, in Mali.
Through a standardized survey filled during farm visits, TAPE provides a characterization of the level of agroecological transition of local farms and an assessment of their performance across the economic, environmental, and social dimensions of sustainability.
The use of TAPE in this study shows that agricultural systems in the region of Kayes are at very different levels of agroecological transition and that more advanced agroecological types of farms have better performances across the different dimensions of sustainability:-produce more and create more wealth from agropastoral activities using less external and industrial inputs;-use less pesticides, have better soil health, have more agricultural biodiversity, and higher presence of natural vegetation and pollinators on farm;-have more empowered youth more prone to continue as farmers and less prone to emigrate, and more family members directly employed in agropastoral production;-enjoy an improved dietary diversity and a higher level of food self-sufficiency.
There is a growing global interest in agroecology and a growing demand for evidence on its performance across the different dimensions of sustainability and on its potential to contribute to the achievement of the SDGs. TAPE has been created with the goal to fill this knowledge gap through the creation of global and harmonized evidence on the multidimensional performance of agroecological systems. The presentation of TAPE's results from Mali is meant to inform all interested stakeholders on the performance of agroecology in the context of Sub-Saharan Africa, to support the transition of different types of agricultural systems towards more sustainable production, and to encourage the formulation of adequate programs and policies enabling different processes of transition that take into consideration agroecological practices and principles. Such evidence is particularly needed in Sub-Saharan Africa where agroecology as a science, a practice and a social movement has been less promoted than in other regions.
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•TAPE is confirmed to be an innovative framework to generate evidence on the multidimensional performance of agroecology.•More agroecological types of farms in Kayes produce more and generate more income with less use of external resources.•Strict correlation between agroecological transition and the existence of local and territorial markets in Kayes.•Agroecological farms use less pesticides, have better soil health, are more biodiverse, including more pollinators.•Agroecological farms have more empowered youth less prone to emigrate and more family members directly employed on farm.
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