Evaluating governance for sustainable development - Insights from experiences in the Dutch fen landscape

Social science for conservation in working landscapes and seascapes

Biodiversity is in precipitous decline globally across both terrestrial and marine environments. Therefore, conservation actions are needed everywhere on Earth, including in the biodiversity rich landscapes and seascapes where people live and work that cover much of the planet. Integrative landscape and seascape approaches to conservation fill this niche. Making evidence-informed conservation decisions within these populated and working landscapes and seascapes requires an in-depth and nuanced understanding of the human dimensions through application of the conservation social sciences. Yet, there has been no comprehensive exploration of potential conservation social science contributions to working landscape and seascape initiatives. We use the Smithsonian Working Land and Seascapes initiative – an established program with a network of 14 sites around the world – as a case study to examine what human dimensions topics are key to improving our understanding and how this knowledge can inform conservation in working landscapes and seascapes. This exploratory study identifies 38 topics and linked questions related to how insights from place-based and problem-focused social science might inform the planning, doing, and learning phases of conservation decision-making and adaptive management. Results also show how conservation social science might yield synthetic and theoretical insights that are more broadly applicable. We contend that incorporating insights regarding the human dimensions into integrated conservation initiatives across working landscapes and seascapes will produce more effective, equitable, appropriate and robust conservation actions. Thus, we encourage governments and organizations working on conservation initiatives in working landscapes and seascapes to increase engagement with and funding of conservation social science.

Development of Governance Evaluation Model for Accessible and Inclusive Urban Development in the United Arab Emirates Using Analytical Network Process.. [DOI: 10.21203/rs.3.rs-1958811/v1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0]

Accessibility and Inclusion are challenging issues for decision-makers due to its impact on equity and quality of life. This research presents a novel governance evaluation model (GEM) for Accessible and Inclusive Urban Development (AIUD) to develop quantitative approach by applying Analytical Network Process (ANP). Experts feedback was sought to first: rank priorities of governance principles (GP’s), second: determine interdependencies of GI’s with respect to GP’s, third: determine interdependencies of indicators with respect to each other and finally scores for public governance. Therefore, the model was used to evaluate public governance in Sharjah Emirate by four agencies representing public sector. AIUD GEM results showed that the most important governance principle at AIUD in the UAE is (Transparency and Accountability). While the highest rated governance indicator is (representation of persons with disabilities and their families). The model implementation in Sharjah, demonstrated organizations agreement on rating (political commitment and legitimacy) as the highest in Sharjah public governance. The final outcome established reliable tool to support decision making in resource allocation, prioritizing intervention actions in addition to determining areas of improvement needed among various stakeholders and sectors. It is this gap or niche in the field of AIUD that this research endeavoured to fill by formulating a bespoke GEM for AIUD in the UAE, with the potential for adaptation in other contexts around the world. The model formulated in this research is a holistic monitoring and evaluation tool that engages stakeholders from various sectors, uses indicators for which data collection is less time- and effort-consuming, and allows for continuous and easy monitoring by decision-makers. This research is a timely response to a trans-disciplinary subject which is a global concern to decision- makers due to its significant impact on sustainable development. Due to the impact of AIUD on social inclusion, human welfare and economic development, the development of GI’s facilitates decision-making through stakeholder’s involvement in order to allow benchmarking and comparison of performance. The model would enable the UAE to remain a role model in the field of AIUD and continue to influence knowledge and practice in this field globally. This research is the first published research that utilized MCDM tools to develop public GEM considering holistic approach in the context of AIUD. Therefore, it is forming solid base for academics and decision-makers to utilize this model to promote public governance performance not only in the UAE but also internationally.

Implementation Constraints on Israel–Palestine Water Cooperation: An Analysis Using the Water Governance Assessment Framework

This study uses a diagnostic and multidisciplinary water governance assessment framework to examine the main factors influencing water cooperation on the shared Mountain Aquifer between Israel and Palestine. It finds that effective cooperation between Israel and Palestine is unlikely in the foreseeable future if both parties persist with the business-as-usual approach. What constrains the two parties from achieving consensual agreement are political tensions, the constraints of current technology, the different perceptions of the value of the shared water, the mistrust between the two parties, the lack of external enforcement mechanisms, and the impacts of the domestic political environment.

Focal points for sustainable development strategies-Text mining-based comparative analysis of voluntary national reviews

Countries have to work out and follow tailored strategies for the achievement of their Sustainable Development Goals. At the end of 2018, more than 100 voluntary national reviews were published. The reviews are transformed by text mining algorithms into networks of keywords to identify country-specific thematic areas of the strategies and cluster countries that face similar problems and follow similar development strategies. The analysis of the 75 VNRs has shown that SDG5 (gender equality) is the most discussed goal worldwide, as it is discussed in 77% of the analysed Voluntary National Reviews. The SDG8 (decent work and economic growth) is the second most studied goal, With 76 %, while the SDG1 (no poverty) is the least focused goal, it is mentioned only in 48 % of documents and the SDG10 (reduced inequalities) in 49 %. The results demonstrate that the proposed benchmark tool is capable of highlighting what kind of activities can make significant contributions to achieve sustainable developments.

Network model-based analysis of the goals, targets and indicators of sustainable development for strategic environmental assessment

Strategic environmental assessment is a decision support technique that evaluates policies, plans and programs in addition to identifying the most appropriate interventions in different scenarios. This work develops a network-based model to study interlinked ecological, economic, environmental and social problems to highlight the synergies between policies, plans, and programs in environmental strategic planning. Our primary goal is to propose a methodology for the data-driven verification and extension of expert knowledge concerning the interconnectedness of the sustainable development goals and their related targets. A multilayer network model based on the time-series indicators of the World Bank open data over the last 55 years was assembled. The results illustrate that by providing an objective and data-driven view of the correlated variables of the World Bank, the proposed layered multipartite network model highlights the previously not discussed interconnections, node centrality measures evaluate the importance of the targets, and network community detection algorithms reveal their strongly connected groups. The results confirm that the proposed methodology can serve as a data-driven decision support tool for the preparation and monitoring of long-term environmental policies. The developed new data-driven network model enables multi-level analysis of the sustainability (goals, targets, indicators) and will make it possible to plan long-term environmental strategic planning. Through relationships among indicators, relationships among targets and goals can be modelled. The results show that sustainable development goals are strongly interconnected, while the 5th goal (gender equality) is linked mostly to 17th (partnerships for the goals) goal. The analysis has also highlighted the importance of the 4th (quality education).

Sustainable Urban Landscape Management: An Insight Into Urban Green Space Management Practices in Three Different Countries

To achieve high-quality urban landscape management, it is important to have a proper management system. Some developing countries like Afghanistan are facing a decline of green spaces due to lack of proper management. This is a qualitative study with content analysis which provides a brief review of the management system in three selected countries, namely England, Malaysia and Singapore, by examining their urban landscape management systems. It also highlights the importance of establishing more appropriate programs to achieve the goal of sustainability. The findings show that good and proper planning, as well as programs and activities in the local government system, can enhance and increase urban green space in urban landscape. The contribution of this paper is to increase the local authority’s knowledge of managing the urban landscape and decreasing the deterioration and decline of urban green spaces in urban landscape.

Intergovernmental relations for environmental governance: Cases of solid waste management and climate change in two Malaysian States

Institutions for environmental governance evolve differently across sectors. They also vary in the same sector when governments at two levels (national and subnational) have different political alignments. As the policy environment becomes more complex, with global problems like climate change, and politics more dividing, better coordination among various levels of government is a tough governance challenge. Scholars and practitioners need to realize how best to build institutions to bridge the various levels of government in different political environments and environmental sectors. This research analyzes the influence of intergovernmental relations in two environmental sectors in two localities with contrasting political alignments between two levels of government. It draws lessons from solid waste management and climate policy in two Malaysian states (Johor and Penang). In an evolving State and new policy arenas, when formal institutions for intergovernmental relations may not be effectively in place, politics play an even larger role through the discretionary power of federal and subnational authorities. An open political process can help with the engagement of different political groups and civil society to bring legitimacy, resources and efficiency to environmental management, if it is done with robust intergovernmental institutions; otherwise, intergovernmental relations can also become a tool for zero-sum games, cronyism and patrimonialism, which can undermine policies, and result in inefficiencies and ineffectiveness in environmental management.