The most useful indicators should be established, designed and customized based on local issues of a target area. In order to establish groundwater sustainability indicators for the Vietnam capital, Hanoi, in this stu...The most useful indicators should be established, designed and customized based on local issues of a target area. In order to establish groundwater sustainability indicators for the Vietnam capital, Hanoi, in this study, the sustainability assessment framework of groundwater resources from an economic perspective is proposed for the first time with the focus of Hanoi current groundwater problems. An AHP （Analytical Hierarchy Process） approach is employed to generate the main components （aspects and indicators） of this framework, because development of composite indicators is considered to be a best approach for sustainability evaluation. To do this, the current problems of Hanoi groundwater resources were carefully reviewed and explored to propose three main aspects （quantity, quality and management） and appropriately construct their 9 MESIs （Macroeconomic Sustainability Indicators）. As for the results, the sustainability indices of the quantity, quality and management aspects were appropriately assessed as good, excellent and good sustainability levels, respectively. As a result, the sustainability of Hanoi groundwater resources development is economically good, indicating that there has been a big effort to improve the groundwater sustainability from both sides, the local government and communities.展开更多
The article discusses plot size standards applied in the government sites-and-services projects in Khartoum and probes into the possible alternative ways of re-establishing solid grounds for those standards. The parti...The article discusses plot size standards applied in the government sites-and-services projects in Khartoum and probes into the possible alternative ways of re-establishing solid grounds for those standards. The particular issue of plot size is a crucial factor in the whole housing policy as it directly affects the urban land use and consumption and extends its influence far into sustainability and affordability issues and the whole housing policy and supply process. The article, analysing the applied standards, argues that plot subdivision can substantially contribute to providing more access of housing to the low-income groups. Large plot sizes can be subdivided driven by the need to realize security of tenure, doubling the owner-occupier housing stock which is the base issue of self-help housing, increases housing finance, provides variety of housing choices and behind all it conforms to the legacy principles and some cultural attributes of the local community. The article underlined existence of a cumbersome regulatory system, subdivision procedures and development controls which need to be reformed.展开更多
The paper proposes a matrix-based approach that a designer can use to evaluate the sustainability of one or more design solutions in the conceptual phase of a product development process. The methodology is structured...The paper proposes a matrix-based approach that a designer can use to evaluate the sustainability of one or more design solutions in the conceptual phase of a product development process. The methodology is structured in two main phases. In the first one, a data structure, called Augmented-DSM （Design Structure Matrix）, has to be drawn in order to collect design information such as functional links among product components, indicators that provide information about the life cycle of each element, connections with the environment and toward other systems. The matrix is based on a DSM format, where new records were introduced to store and organize different types of data and an editing protocol was formalized. In the second stage, a set of procedures have to be applied in order to evaluate sustainability of a design solution and compare it with the others. The presented procedures, in fact, allow designers to assess a product in its proper characteristics, evaluate a device during its use stage and verify the coherence of links present in the functional model. This new approach is conceived to manage different performance indicators and, as a support tool, it is an attempt to aid designers in a quantitative evaluation.展开更多
文摘The most useful indicators should be established, designed and customized based on local issues of a target area. In order to establish groundwater sustainability indicators for the Vietnam capital, Hanoi, in this study, the sustainability assessment framework of groundwater resources from an economic perspective is proposed for the first time with the focus of Hanoi current groundwater problems. An AHP （Analytical Hierarchy Process） approach is employed to generate the main components （aspects and indicators） of this framework, because development of composite indicators is considered to be a best approach for sustainability evaluation. To do this, the current problems of Hanoi groundwater resources were carefully reviewed and explored to propose three main aspects （quantity, quality and management） and appropriately construct their 9 MESIs （Macroeconomic Sustainability Indicators）. As for the results, the sustainability indices of the quantity, quality and management aspects were appropriately assessed as good, excellent and good sustainability levels, respectively. As a result, the sustainability of Hanoi groundwater resources development is economically good, indicating that there has been a big effort to improve the groundwater sustainability from both sides, the local government and communities.
文摘The article discusses plot size standards applied in the government sites-and-services projects in Khartoum and probes into the possible alternative ways of re-establishing solid grounds for those standards. The particular issue of plot size is a crucial factor in the whole housing policy as it directly affects the urban land use and consumption and extends its influence far into sustainability and affordability issues and the whole housing policy and supply process. The article, analysing the applied standards, argues that plot subdivision can substantially contribute to providing more access of housing to the low-income groups. Large plot sizes can be subdivided driven by the need to realize security of tenure, doubling the owner-occupier housing stock which is the base issue of self-help housing, increases housing finance, provides variety of housing choices and behind all it conforms to the legacy principles and some cultural attributes of the local community. The article underlined existence of a cumbersome regulatory system, subdivision procedures and development controls which need to be reformed.
文摘The paper proposes a matrix-based approach that a designer can use to evaluate the sustainability of one or more design solutions in the conceptual phase of a product development process. The methodology is structured in two main phases. In the first one, a data structure, called Augmented-DSM （Design Structure Matrix）, has to be drawn in order to collect design information such as functional links among product components, indicators that provide information about the life cycle of each element, connections with the environment and toward other systems. The matrix is based on a DSM format, where new records were introduced to store and organize different types of data and an editing protocol was formalized. In the second stage, a set of procedures have to be applied in order to evaluate sustainability of a design solution and compare it with the others. The presented procedures, in fact, allow designers to assess a product in its proper characteristics, evaluate a device during its use stage and verify the coherence of links present in the functional model. This new approach is conceived to manage different performance indicators and, as a support tool, it is an attempt to aid designers in a quantitative evaluation.
