The main objective of this paper is to analyze the relationships between the productive process and the commercial trade with water resources used by them. For that the goal is to find out, by means of the estimation ...The main objective of this paper is to analyze the relationships between the productive process and the commercial trade with water resources used by them. For that the goal is to find out, by means of the estimation of water embodied in the exported crops which have the highest export competitiveness and lower water consumption. The finding contradicts not only the comparative advantages theory but also the resources sustainability logic. This conclusion is derived from the great exports of water via tomatoes and low profitable vegetables from producers＇ perspective but not economical from social perspectives as shown in domestic resource coefficient. The diversion between financial and economic profitability is due to heavily irrigation water subsidy. The results confirm that Jordan utilizes large amounts of water in its exports, and in turn, it does not export goods with low water requirements. The potential saving would be very significant and agricultural sector need to modify the use of water to a great extent in order to reach significant water savings and an environmental sustainability. Jordan has to implement policies that reduced, or even abandoned, the export and the production of water-intensive crops. Therefore, they have to be replaced with either imports or crops that optimize the water resources.展开更多
Current methods of evaluating long term Sustainable Development seldom take into account the time period over which an evaluation is made except through simplistic economic models which heavily discount the future. If...Current methods of evaluating long term Sustainable Development seldom take into account the time period over which an evaluation is made except through simplistic economic models which heavily discount the future. If sustainable development is to be a serious issue then the impact on the future of decisions made today must be properly assessed and evaluated. This requires a new understanding of time as a key feature of the Sustainability debate and new models of how this new understanding can be brought into the evaluation process. This was at the heart of the Torino declaration signed by the University organisations of the G8, G20 and developing nations in April 2009. Time is a critical part of the sustainability debate and is seldom addressed directly. This paper will provide a possible solution based on a strong theoretical and philosophical framework of how this difficult subject can be approached and applied to sustainable urban planning. The work presented is based on a philosophical model of the cosmos which has both internal and external credibility. It forms the basis ofa PhD study and has been applied to small case studies in Italy and elsewhere. These will be presented to encourage further study into this important area within the evaluation and assessment of sustainable development.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
Over the last few years, anaerobic digestion has been widespread in many European countries, including Italy. This technology is used not only for the purpose of recovering renewable energy （biogas） but also to cont...Over the last few years, anaerobic digestion has been widespread in many European countries, including Italy. This technology is used not only for the purpose of recovering renewable energy （biogas） but also to control smelly emissions and to stabilize biomasses before their agronomic use. Therefore, it is necessary to stxengfthen and rationalize systems that exploit anaerobic digestion processes of vanious types ofbiomass （biomass ofzootechnical and agro-industrial biomass, energy crops, crop residues, etc.）, a case in point is the “Tempio” farm. The agricultural world increasingly is interested in the opportunities deriving from the attention to environmental issues linked, for example, to the enhancement of organic waste, the growing energy demand, the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. In particular, the zootechinical sector can be the driving force for the large-scale development of anaerobic digestion, as is already happening in other European realities. The benefits that they can derive are many and are linked to an improvement in the environmental sustainability of farms, the integration of green energy income, the reduction of enviromnental problems related to emissions into the atmosphere and smells and better utilization of agronomic fertilizer elements present in the slurry.展开更多
文摘The main objective of this paper is to analyze the relationships between the productive process and the commercial trade with water resources used by them. For that the goal is to find out, by means of the estimation of water embodied in the exported crops which have the highest export competitiveness and lower water consumption. The finding contradicts not only the comparative advantages theory but also the resources sustainability logic. This conclusion is derived from the great exports of water via tomatoes and low profitable vegetables from producers＇ perspective but not economical from social perspectives as shown in domestic resource coefficient. The diversion between financial and economic profitability is due to heavily irrigation water subsidy. The results confirm that Jordan utilizes large amounts of water in its exports, and in turn, it does not export goods with low water requirements. The potential saving would be very significant and agricultural sector need to modify the use of water to a great extent in order to reach significant water savings and an environmental sustainability. Jordan has to implement policies that reduced, or even abandoned, the export and the production of water-intensive crops. Therefore, they have to be replaced with either imports or crops that optimize the water resources.
文摘Current methods of evaluating long term Sustainable Development seldom take into account the time period over which an evaluation is made except through simplistic economic models which heavily discount the future. If sustainable development is to be a serious issue then the impact on the future of decisions made today must be properly assessed and evaluated. This requires a new understanding of time as a key feature of the Sustainability debate and new models of how this new understanding can be brought into the evaluation process. This was at the heart of the Torino declaration signed by the University organisations of the G8, G20 and developing nations in April 2009. Time is a critical part of the sustainability debate and is seldom addressed directly. This paper will provide a possible solution based on a strong theoretical and philosophical framework of how this difficult subject can be approached and applied to sustainable urban planning. The work presented is based on a philosophical model of the cosmos which has both internal and external credibility. It forms the basis ofa PhD study and has been applied to small case studies in Italy and elsewhere. These will be presented to encourage further study into this important area within the evaluation and assessment of sustainable development.
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.
文摘Over the last few years, anaerobic digestion has been widespread in many European countries, including Italy. This technology is used not only for the purpose of recovering renewable energy （biogas） but also to control smelly emissions and to stabilize biomasses before their agronomic use. Therefore, it is necessary to stxengfthen and rationalize systems that exploit anaerobic digestion processes of vanious types ofbiomass （biomass ofzootechnical and agro-industrial biomass, energy crops, crop residues, etc.）, a case in point is the “Tempio” farm. The agricultural world increasingly is interested in the opportunities deriving from the attention to environmental issues linked, for example, to the enhancement of organic waste, the growing energy demand, the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. In particular, the zootechinical sector can be the driving force for the large-scale development of anaerobic digestion, as is already happening in other European realities. The benefits that they can derive are many and are linked to an improvement in the environmental sustainability of farms, the integration of green energy income, the reduction of enviromnental problems related to emissions into the atmosphere and smells and better utilization of agronomic fertilizer elements present in the slurry.
