315 resultados para Saudi Sustainable Housing


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Problem structuring methods or PSMs are widely applied across a range of variable but generally small-scale organizational contexts. However, it has been argued that they are seen and experienced less often in areas of wide ranging and highly complex human activity-specifically those relating to sustainability, environment, democracy and conflict (or SEDC). In an attempt to plan, track and influence human activity in SEDC contexts, the authors in this paper make the theoretical case for a PSM, derived from various existing approaches. They show how it could make a contribution in a specific practical context-within sustainable coastal development projects around the Mediterranean which have utilized systemic and prospective sustainability analysis or, as it is now known, Imagine. The latter is itself a PSM but one which is 'bounded' within the limits of the project to help deliver the required 'deliverables' set out in the project blueprint. The authors argue that sustainable development projects would benefit from a deconstruction of process by those engaged in the project and suggest one approach that could be taken-a breakout from a project-bounded PSM to an analysis that embraces the project itself. The paper begins with an introduction to the sustainable development context and literature and then goes on to illustrate the issues by grounding the debate within a set of projects facilitated by Blue Plan for Mediterranean coastal zones. The paper goes on to show how the analytical framework could be applied and what insights might be generated.

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An initial study of the ichnofabrics of the Upper Jurassic (Kimmeridgian) Jubaila Formation of Saudi Arabia shows that the ichnofabrics are closely matched to the relatively well-described ichnofabrics of the contemporary Fulmar Formation of the UK Continental Shelf (North Sea), in respect of the lower shoreface/offshore transition facies to offshore facies. The ichnology and ichnofabrics of the Lower Jubaila Formation show that deposition took place on an open-marine platform on the Arabian craton subject to periodic storm activity, but under a persisting equilibrium between sediment accumulation and subsidence. This is consistent with the moderately deep-marine foraminiferal assemblages and the presence of calcareous nannofossils. Cyclicity is absent, though storm beds may be grouped, in contrast with the genetic sequences present in the rift and halokinetic scenario of the North Sea. In contrast with the siliciclastic setting hardgrotinds (with Gastrochaenolites), more common firmground omission surfaces, and micritic mudstones with Chondrites and Zoophycos are notable features of the carbonate facies. In siliciclastic successions (parasequences) the latter ichnotaxa are generally regarded as having been deposited in rather deeper water, but in the carbonate Jubaila Formation are interpreted as being associated with local areas of lower turbulence. Likewise, the hardgrounds and firmgrounds, which have not been traced laterally, are tentatively regarded to be of local significance.

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This paper explores the provision of homes for less wealthy households in rural England. By allowing 'exceptions' to UK planning law to provide low-income housing for local residents, the national government seeks to secure dwellings for the less wealthy and so sustain socially mixed rural villages. This paper explores how the production of homes through the exception policy is not conducive to the construction of many new houses. The particular emphasis in the paper is on how responsible agents are discouraged from being more active in erecting new village homes for low-income households. Empirically, the paper draws on documents, interviews and a social survey in the counties of Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Norfolk to investigate the process of delivering rural exception homes. It is concluded that, despite Government assertions that a socially mixed countryside is desirable, the decision-making criteria that dominate the worldviews of agents in social housing provision work against this outcome. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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This review evaluates evidence of the impact of uncomposted plant residues, composts, manures, and liquid preparations made from composts (compost extracts and teas) on pest and disease incidence and severity in agricultural and horticultural crop production. Most reports on pest control using such organic amendments relate to tropical or and climates. The majority of recent work on the use of organic amendments for prevention and control of diseases relates to container-produced plants, particularly ornamentals. However, there is growing interest in the potential for using composts to prevent and control diseases in temperate agricultural and horticultural field crops and information concerning their use and effectiveness is slowly increasing. The impact of uncomposted plant residues, composts, manures, and compost extracts/teas on pests and diseases is discussed in relation to sustainable temperate field and protected cropping systems. The factors affecting efficacy or such organic amendments in preventing and controlling pests and disease are examined and the mechanisms through which control is achieved are described.

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The past 15 years have witnessed the rise of post-development theory as a means of understanding the development discourse since the 1940s. Post-development argues that intentional development (as distinct from immanent development - what people are doing anyway) is a construct of Western hegemony. Sustainable development, they argue, is no different and indeed is perhaps worse, given that most of the global environmental degradation has been driven by consumerism and industrialization in the West. Critics of post-development counter by stating that it only provides destruction by tearing apart what is currently practiced in 'development' without providing an alternative. When post-developmentalists do offer an alternative it typically amouints to little more than a call for more grassroots involvement in development and disengagement from a Western agenda. Post-sustainable development analysis and counter-analysis has received remarkably little attention within the sustainable development literature, yet this paper argues that it can make a positive contributrion by calling for an analysis of discourse rather than a hiding of power differentials and an assumption that consensus must exist within a community. A case is made for a post-sustainable development that acknowledges that diversity will exist and consensus may not be achievable, but at the same time participation can help with learning. The role of the expert within sustainable development is also discussed. Copyright (C) 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

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This paper critically reviews the application of a post-development analysis to sustainable development by employing a defined target for post-development analysis – the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC). Data from the 2005 Environmental Sustainability Index (ESI) for 146 countries are used to generate statistically significant EKC models, and the approach is deconstructed by employing post-development theory. While an ESI derived EKC is an easy target for post-development critique, there are foundations upon which both rest, and are not easily dismissed. Neither is the typical post-development 'alternative' of encouraging 'endogenous discourse' and grassroots movements at odds with sustainable development. As a result, this paper argues that sustainable development theory already incorporates much of the critique and alternatives raised by post-developmentalists. Indeed, what is more disconcerting is that sustainable development readily encompasses such apparently divergent ideas represented by the ESI, EKC and post-developmental critique and solutions.

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Genetically modified (GM) crops and sustainable development remain the foci of much media attention, especially given current concerns about a global food crisis. However, whilst the latter is embraced with enthusiasm by almost all groups, GM crops generate very mixed views. Some countries have welcomed GM, but others, notably those in Europe, adopt a cautious stance. This article aims to review the contribution that GM crops can make to agricultural sustainability in the developing world. Following brief reviews of both issues and their linkages, notably the pros and cons of GM cotton as a contributory factor in sustainability, a number of case studies from resourcepoor cotton farmers in Makhathini Flats, South Africa, is presented for a six-year period. Data on expenditure, productivity and income indicate that Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) cotton is advantageous because it reduces costs, for example, of pesticides, and increases income, and the indications are that those benefits continued over at least the six years covered by the studies. There are repercussions of the additional income in the households; debts are reduced and money is invested in children's education and in the farms. However, in the general GM debate, the results show that GM crops are not miracle products which alleviate poverty at a stroke, but nor is there evidence that they will cause the scale of environmental damage associated with indiscriminate pesticide use. Indeed, for some GM antagonists, perhaps even the majority, such debates are irrelevant – the transfer of genes between species is unnatural and unethical. For them, GM crops will never be acceptable despite the evidence and pressure to increase world food production.

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Partnership is increasingly espoused as the best relationship between members of the sustainable development aid chain, and implies a respect for the position of all and a desire to avoid a situation where one group dominates another. It also implies a form of relationship that is not just 'better' for the sake of it but that is more able to help achieve sustainable development. However, given the inevitable inequalities in power between donors that have the resources and field partners that do not it can be hard to put this ideal into practice. This paper explores the function of partnership within a group of closely related institutions that comprise the Catholic Church development chain. The research focussed on three Catholic Church based donors (one from the USA and two from Europe) and their partners in Abuja Ecclesiastical Province, Nigeria. Relationships between and within various strata of the Church in Nigeria were also examined. Relationships were 'patchy' at all levels. One of the donors had a significant operational presence in Nigeria and this was regarded by some respondents as a parallel structure that seriously undermined local bodies. However, while problems existed, there was a sense of inter-dependence arising from a shared sense of values and Catholic Social Teaching, which allowed partners to work through their stresses and conflicts. It is the innate sustainability of the aid chain itself founded upon a set of shared values that provided the space and time for problems to be addressed. Copyright (C) 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

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Soil forms the outer skin of the earth's land surface. Often less than a metre in depth, it is essential to sustain natural terrestrial ecosystems and human life. Soils result from the interactions over time between climate, parent material, topography, vegetation, and biota. They vary from place to place. Mineral soils are composed of mineral matter, organic matter, and gas- or liquid-filled pores in varying proportions. Soils perform a wide range of functions and provide many ecosystem or environmental services; with the climate problem, the soil is increasingly being recognised as a potential sink for carbon from the atmosphere. In part because of humankind's (over)use of soils and in part because of natural and human-induced environmental change, there is a widespread decline in soil quality and an increasing number of threats to soil, which jeopardise both the soil's natural functions and its use by humans. As a limited resource, soils must be used sustainably. Soil protection strategies have been indirectly embodied in a number of United Nations conventions, and there are now national and supranational developments towards specific regulations and legislation to protect soils and their functions.