Modelling sustainability performance to achieve absolute reductions in socio-ecological systems

As the world’s natural resources dwindle and critical levels of environmental pollution are approached, sustainability becomes a key issue for governments, organisations and individuals. With the consequences of such an issue in mind, this paper introduces a unifying approach to measure the sustainability performance of socio-economic systems based on the interplay between two key variables: essentiality of consumption and environmental impact. This measure attributes to every system a ‘fitness’ value i.e. a quantity that reflects its ability to remain resilient/healthy by avoiding ecological, social and economic collapse as it consumes the available resources. This new measure is tested on a system where there is a limited supply of resources and four basic consumption types. The analysis has theoretical implications as well as practical importance as it can help countries, organisations or even individuals, in finding better ways to measure sustainability performance.

Ecological studies on river pollution control

This collection of papers records a series of studies, carried out over a period of some 50 years, on two aspects of river pollution control - the prevention of pollution by sewage biological filtration and the monitoring of river pollution by biological surveillance. The earlier studies were carried out to develop methods of controlling flies which bred in the filters and caused serious nuisance and possible public health hazard, when they dispersed to surrounding villages. Although the application of insecticides proved effective as an alleviate measure, because it resulted in only a temporary disturbance of the ecological balance, it was considered ecologically unsound as a long-term solution. Subsequent investigations showed that the fly populations in filters were largely determined by the amount of food available to the grazing larval stage in the form of filter film. It was also established that the winter deterioration in filter performance was due to the excessive accumulation of film. Subsequent investigations were therefore carried out to determine the factors responsible for the accumulation of film in different types of filter. Methods of filtration which were considered to control film accumulation by increasing the flushing action of the sewage, were found to control fungal film by creating nutrient limiting conditions. In some filters increasing the hydraulic flushing reduced the grazing fauna population in the surface layers and resulted in an increase in film. The results of these investigations were successfully applied in modifying filters and in the design of a Double Filtration process. These studies on biological filters lead to the conclusion that they should be designed and operated as ecological systems and not merely as hydraulic ones. Studies on the effects of sewage effluents on Birmingham streams confirmed the findings of earlier workers justifying their claim for using biological methods for detecting and assessing river pollution. Further ecological studies showed the sensitivity of benthic riffle communities to organic pollution. Using experimental channels and laboratory studies the different environmental conditions associated with organic pollution were investigated. The degree and duration of the oxygen depletion during the dark hours were found to be a critical factor. The relative tolerance of different taxa to other pollutants, such as ammonia, differed. Although colonisation samplers proved of value in sampling difficult sites, the invertebrate data generated were not suitable for processing as any of the commonly used biotic indexes. Several of the papers, which were written by request for presentation at conferences etc., presented the biological viewpoint on river pollution and water quality issues at the time and advocated the use of biological methods. The information and experiences gained in these investigations was used as the "domain expert" in the development of artificial intelligence systems for use in the biological surveillance of river water quality.

Obstacles and solutions to maximising urban biodiversity throughout the lifecycles of major developments in England

Thus far, achieving net biodiversity gains through major urban developments has been neither common nor straightforward - despite the presence of incentives, regulatory contexts, and ubiquitous practical guidance tools. A diverse set of obstructions, occurring within different spatial, temporal and actor hierarchies, are experienced by practitioners and render the realisation of maximised biodiversity, a rarity. This research aims to illuminate why this is so, and what needs to be changed to rectify the situation. To determine meaningful findings and conclusions, capable of assisting applied contexts and accommodating a diverse range of influences, a ‘systems approach’ was adopted. This approach led to the use of a multi-strategy research methodology, to identify the key obstructions and solutions to protecting and enhancing biodiversity - incorporating the following methods: action research, a questionnaire to local government ecologists, interviews and personal communications with leading players, and literature reviews. Nevertheless, ‘case studies’ are the predominant research method, the focus being a ‘nested’ case study looking at strategic issues of the largest regeneration area in Europe ‘the Thames Gateway’, and the largest individual mixeduse mega-development in the UK (at the time of planning consent) ‘Eastern Quarry 2’ - set within the Gateway. A further key case study, focussing on the Central Riverside development in Sheffield, identifies the merits of competition and partnership. The nested cases, theories and findings show that the strategic scale - generally relating to governance and prioritisation - impacts heavily upon individual development sites. It also enables the identification of various processes, mechanisms and issues at play on the individual development sites, which primarily relate to project management, planning processes, skills and transdisciplinary working, innovative urban biodiversity design capabilities, incentives, organisational cultures, and socio-ecological resilience. From these findings a way forward is mapped, spanning aspects from strategic governance to detailed project management.

The Application of Geographic Information Systems to climate change & land evaluation : a study of the effects of climate change upon crop productivity in a sub-tropical environment

This research investigates the contribution that Geographic Information Systems (GIS) can make to the land suitability process used to determine the effects of a climate change scenario. The research is intended to redress the severe under representation of Developing countries within the literature examining the impacts of climatic change upon crop productivity. The methodology adopts some of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimates for regional climate variations, based upon General Circulation Model predictions (GCMs) and applies them to a baseline climate for Bangladesh. Utilising the United Nations Food & Agricultural Organisation's Agro-ecological Zones land suitability methodology and crop yield model, the effects of the scenario upon agricultural productivity on 14 crops are determined. A Geographic Information System (IDRISI) is adopted in order to facilitate the methodology, in conjunction with a specially designed spreadsheet, used to determine the yield and suitability rating for each crop. A simple optimisation routine using the GIS is incorporated to provide an indication of the 'maximum theoretical' yield available to the country, should the most calorifically significant crops be cultivated on each land unit both before and after the climate change scenario. This routine will provide an estimate of the theoretical population supporting capacity of the country, both now and in the future, to assist with planning strategies and research. The research evaluates the utility of this alternative GIS based methodology for the land evaluation process and determines the relative changes in crop yields that may result from changes in temperature, photosynthesis and flooding hazard frequency. In summary, the combination of a GIS and a spreadsheet was successful, the yield prediction model indicates that the application of the climate change scenario will have a deleterious effect upon the yields of the study crops. Any yield reductions will have severe implications for agricultural practices. The optimisation routine suggests that the 'theoretical maximum' population supporting capacity is well in excess of current and future population figures. If this agricultural potential could be realised however, it may provide some amelioration from the effects of climate change.

Integrated manufacturing systems design in a multi-product company

Using a hydraulic equipment manufacturing plant as the case study, this work explores the problems of systems integration in manufacturing systems design, stressing the behavioural aspects of motivation and participation, and the constraints involved in the proper consideration of the human sub-system. The need for a simple manageable modular organisation structure is illustrated, where it is shown, by reference to systems theory, how a business can be split into semi-autonomous operating units. The theme is the development of a manufacturing system based on an analysis of the business, its market, product, technology and constraints, coupled with a critical survey of modern management literature to develop an integrated systems design to suit a specific company in the current social environment. Society currently moves through a socio-technical revolution with man seeking higher levels of motivation. The transitory environment from an autocratic/paternalistic to a participative operating mode demands systems parameters only found to a limited extent in manufacturing systems today. It is claimed, that modern manufacturing systems design needs to be based on group working, job enrichment, delegation of decision making and reduced job monotony. The analysis shows how negative aspects of cellular manufacture such as lack of flexibility and poor fixed asset utilisation are relatively irrelevant and misleading in the broader context of the need to come to terms with the social stresses imposed on a company operating in the industrial environment of the present and the immediate future.

eHabitat, a multi-purpose Web Processing Service for ecological modeling

The number of interoperable research infrastructures has increased significantly with the growing awareness of the efforts made by the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS). One of the Societal Benefit Areas (SBA) that is benefiting most from GEOSS is biodiversity, given the costs of monitoring the environment and managing complex information, from space observations to species records including their genetic characteristics. But GEOSS goes beyond simple data sharing to encourage the publishing and combination of models, an approach which can ease the handling of complex multi-disciplinary questions. It is the purpose of this paper to illustrate these concepts by presenting eHabitat, a basic Web Processing Service (WPS) for computing the likelihood of finding ecosystems with equal properties to those specified by a user. When chained with other services providing data on climate change, eHabitat can be used for ecological forecasting and becomes a useful tool for decision-makers assessing different strategies when selecting new areas to protect. eHabitat can use virtually any kind of thematic data that can be considered as useful when defining ecosystems and their future persistence under different climatic or development scenarios. The paper will present the architecture and illustrate the concepts through case studies which forecast the impact of climate change on protected areas or on the ecological niche of an African bird.

Strategic HRM:transforming its responsibilities toward ecological sustainability - the greatest global challenge facing organizations

If we are to move to a more sustainable world, all actorsÑincluding governments, organizations, communities, and individualsÑneed to play their part in committing to a shift in the way we live our lives. This conceptual article explores the challenges that face the human resource management (HRM) profession in moving to a strategic position that supports the requirements of the biophysical environment. We argue that this is becoming an imperative for the future survival and success of organizations large and small, and thus is likely to be a key "modus operandi" for HRM professionals in the future who are looking to embed ecological sustainability into their organizations. This article offers new insights into developing business strategies for ecological sustainability, highlighting the implications for strategic HRM activity through organizational effectiveness, leadership, values, and, ultimately, HRM processes and systems.

Combining ERP systems with enterprise 2.0

The paper discusses both the complementary factors and contradictions of adoption ERP based systems with enterprise 2.0. ERP is well known as its' efficient business process management. Also the high failure rate the system implementation is famous as well. According to [1], ERP systems could achieve efficient business performance by enabling a standardized business process design, but at a cost of flexibility in operations. However, enterprise 2.0 supports flexible business process management, informal and less structured interactions [3],[4],[21]. Traditional researcher claimed efficiency and flexibility may seem incompatible in that they are different business objectives and may exist in different organizational environments. However, the paper will break traditional norms that combine ERP and enterprise 2.0 in a single enterprise to improve both efficient and flexible operations simultaneously. Based on the multiple cases studies, four cases presented different attitudes on usage ERP systems and enterprise social systems. Based on socio-technical theory, the paper presents in-depth analysis benefits of combination ERP with enterprise 2.0 for these firms.

Performance management systems:a global perspective

Performance management is the process by which organizations set goals, determine standards, assign and evaluate work, and distribute rewards. But when you operate across different countries and continents, performance management strategies cannot be one dimensional. HR managers need systems that can be applied to a range of cultural values. This important and timely text offers a truly global perspective on performance management practices. Split into two parts, it illustrates the key themes of rater motivation, rater-ratee relationships and merit pay, and outlines a model for a global appraisal process. This model is then screened through a range of countries, including Germany, Japan, USA, Turkey, China, India and Mexico. Using case studies and discussion questions, and written by local experts, this text outlines the tools needed to understand and ‘measure’ performance in a range of socio-economic and cultural contexts. It is essential reading for students and practitioners alike working in human resources, international business and international management.

A socio-technical perspective on ERP implementation

This paper provides an analysis of ERP implementation in the context of social-technical information systems management theory. The paper provides a discussion of how ERP systems can contribute to the development of a new generation of business management that combines both formal and informal mechanisms. This could be achieved through the use of informal communities of an enterprise that could both collaborate efficiently with a common ERP platform with a certain level of standardization but also have the flexibility in order to provide an agile reaction to internal and external events. © 2012 IADIS.

Searching for resilience in sustainable development:learning journeys in conservation

Resilience is a term that is gaining currency in conservation and sustainable development, though its meaning and value in this context is yet to be defined. Searching for Resilience in Sustainable Development examines ways in which resilience may be created within the web of ecological, socio-economic and cultural systems that make up the world in. The authors embark upon a learning journey exploring both robust and fragile systems and asking questions of groups and individuals actively involved in building or maintaining resilience.