Comparative Analysis between Community and Occupants’ Rating Systems for Sustainable Urban Communities (SUC)

Overpopulation globally is an addressed issue impacting human lives, marine lives, and the surrounding ecosystem;it is adding pressure on the available resources that should be optimized to suit the needs. Yet with improper management of resources and monitoring of daily activities, the environment will be further negatively impacted. With overpopulation higher urbanization rates are noticed with the demand of seeking better health facilities, better education, better jobs and better well-being;this progression is driving more demand into the infrastructure sector to be able to accommodate the growth rates. Hence, the need to having sustainable communities aiming at optimizing the resources used, working towards more feasible, environmentally friendly and cost-effective communities with a better occupant’s experience is in action. Sustainable development goals (SDG) are vital goals developed by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in 2015 to address and guide through 17 interconnected global goals serving the previously mentioned trend. Out of the 17 goals, Sustainable Cities and Communities (goal #11) and Good Health and Well-Being (goal #3) are the focus of this paper directed towards holding a comparative analysis between the community scale commonly known and mostly used rating system Leadership of Energy and Environmental Design (LEED-Cities and Communities) (USA) versus similar rating systems like Tarsheed-Communities (Egypt) and Estidama-Pearl (UAE) rating systems meeting sustainable development goal #11. Conjointly, another complimenting comparative review of the occupant’s health and wellbeing rating systems, such as Fitwel (USA) and Well (USA) are studied under sustainable development goal #3;however, they are focused on a building scale assessment. Living Community Challenge (LCC, USA) rating system linking community rating system with health & wellbeing credits was first issued in 2006, yet is it not cost effective neither easy to apply acting as a primary step while being affordable, accessible, and easy to implement. The objective of this paper is to highlight the pros and gaps under both categories of studies of community rating system and occupants’ health & wellbeing rating systems based on scientific content and commercial acceptance and do-ability. This comparison is done via comparing credits and sections within each rating system type;this will support in addressing the focal points needed for an integrated rating system between both categories that will serve in meeting SDG Sustainable Cities and Communities (goal #11) and Good Health and Well-Being (goal #3).

A Cradle-to-Cradle Novel Approach for Wastewater Management in Sustainable Urban Communities

Water, a valuable resource to human lives, is being abused and driven to scarcity. This scarcity is leading some countries and areas to face difficulty in accessing drinking water. As the UN recently stated “by 2050 water shortages and harder access will be reached by around 2/3rd of the world total population” [1], thus, there is a high need to treat and reuse wastewater for domestic purposes, which will lead to less reliance on fresh water as an initial water source. Greywater—defined as the water produced in domestic houses including sinks and bathroom showers, and excluding any blackwater mix which is collected from toilets—is a type of wastewater. Greywater accounts for up to 75% of the daily water produced [2] while it has fewer contaminants when compared to blackwater. This makes greywater a focal point for treatment, and reusing to conserve fresh water and approach net zero water concept. Even though the definition of greywater is the same globally, its criteria can differ from one country to another, from one building to another, or even from the same person’s usage along the day. Accordingly, several treatment methods evolved over years aiming at treating the produced greywater for reuse mainly in irrigation and toilet flushing. The objective of this paper is to demonstrate a novel net zero wastewater approach applying cradle-to-cradle concept for urban communities;while also proposing a sustainable greywater treatment technique that is environmentally friendly, cost-effective and socially acceptable.

Factors Impacting Benefits of Participatory Forest Management in Upper Imenti Forest, Meru County, Kenya

This study focused on identifying factors affecting the benefits of Participatory Forestry Management (PFM) income generating activities in Upper Imenti Forest and whether they are dependent on status of participation in forest management through membership of Community Forest Association (CFA) or not. Cross-sectional survey research design was applied for collecting quantitative data using a semi-structured questionnaire administered to 384 households stratified on the basis of PFM participation status. Qualitative data was collected through focused group discussions using a checklist and key informant interviews using an interview schedule. Using Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 25, Binomial regression with Wald Chi-square was analyzed to identify factors perceived to be significantly influencing benefits for PFM participants and Pearson Chi-square to compare factors perceived to be affecting PFM and non-PFM participants. CFA members participation in PFM was significantly and positively affected by benefits of PFM income generating activities and forest products accessed in the forest. Benefits linked to Plantation Establishment for Livelihood Improvement System (PELIS) for CFA members were significantly reduced by enforcement of moratorium policy since February 2018, diseases and pests, poor PELIS guideline adherence and animal damage. Benefits related to state forest access for firewood by the CFA members were negatively influenced by the moratorium policy. Diseases and pests affected benefits associated with bee keeping significantly. Comparing factors under different PFM participation status, crop production was significantly affected by policy changes, pest and diseases, animal damage and PELIS guideline adherence for CFA members than for Non-CFA members. Policy changes also affected the CFA members significantly in firewood collection and access to fodder in the state forest than the Non-CFA members. Hence, sustainable community participation in Upper Imenti Forest management requires: increasing PFM benefits, addressing factors reducing benefits and enhancing active participation of CFA members in PFM related decision-making processes.

Sustainable Development of Ecotourism in Mexico

Dimensions of sustainable development were analyzed based on the commonality, services, and ecotourism activities of 35 indigenous communities in Mexico. Based on indicators of local development in indigenous communities with ecotourism activities available and environmental indicators given by the Ministry of Tourism of Mexico SECTUR and of communitarian sustainability developed in Mexico. Data from a 118 items questionnaire from inhabitants participating in ecotourism projects of indigenous groups within 13 states of the Mexican Republic were tested. The results showed the definition of five categories of local development, two environmental categories, and four categories of communitarian sustainability in the Mexican states with the largest indigenous populations. A positive relationship between the community perspective and the indigenous ecotourism and the three dimensions of sustainable development was observed. This study provides an alternative methodology for the analysis of the sustainable development dimensions in projects of indigenous communities.

Construction and application of an assessment index system for evalu ating the eco-community’s sustainability

An assessment index system including environment, socio-culture, economy and technology was established for evaluating environmental construction level of community （objective construction）, and questionnaire was designed according to paper review for evaluating residential satisfaction （subjective satisfaction）. The index system was divided into four layers： system （A）, subsystems （B）, categories （C）, and indicators （D）, and in total of 38 indicators was established. The Xihe community, affiliated to Nanfen district, Benxi City, Liaoning Province, China was selected as a case study. Results indicated that the community sustainability index related to objective environmental construction was 0.4355 and was classified as class Ⅲ （moderate）; the community sustainability index related to the residential satisfaction was 0.4255, belonging to class Ⅲ. In conclusion, the sustainability of Xihe community was moderate and needed to be improved. Residential satisfaction was lower than objective environmental construction. The assessment index system established in this study is able to reflect the comprehensive sustainability of community and can be used to evaluate other similar communities＇ sustainability.