| 1. |
- Cossio Grageda, Claudia, 1974, et al.
(författare)
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Indicators for sustainability assessment of small-scale wastewater treatment plants in low and lower-middle income countries
- 2020
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Ingår i: Environmental and Sustainability Indicators. - : Elsevier BV. - 2665-9727. ; 6
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Wastewater treatment in low and lower-middle income countries is often limited by lack of local technical expertise, institutional capacity, and financial resources, making it challenging to reach SDG6-target 6.3, i.e. halving the proportion of untreated wastewater. Several studies suggest sets of sustainability indicators for assessing the planning and/or operation of WWTPs. However, existing standard indicators are typically focused on the context of high and upper-middle income countries, whereas low and lower-middle income countries face other types of issues. The development of a contextualized set of relevant and effective sustainability indicators to support the planning and/or operation of small-scale WWTPs in low and lower-middle income countries is crucial. This study develops a contextualized set of sustainability indicators for small-scale wastewater treatment plants in Bolivia, which is classified as a lower-middle income country. Indicators were identified using a literature review combined with empirical studies using focus groups with managers and operators, as well as, workshops with experts. The aim of the focus groups and workshops was to acquire an understanding of the local context and identify relevant sustainability indicators. The practical investigation took place at five sites in Cochabamba, Bolivia. The results suggest that sustainability assessment of WWTPs in low and lower-middle income countries should emphasize the institutional dimension (e.g. Institutional capacity, Interactions, and Information) and the technical dimension (e.g. Sewage network functionality and Expertise) alongside indicators in the social, economic and environmental dimensions.
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| 2. |
- Ek, Kristina, et al.
(författare)
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Economic evaluation of the removal of hydropower dams
- 2024
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Ingår i: Environmental and Sustainability Indicators. - : Elsevier. - 2665-9727. ; 22
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Stricter environmental regulations (e.g. the EU’s Water Framework Directive) will entail many environmental improvement measures in waters that have been affected by hydropower, and dam removals are becoming a more common measure. This paper reviews economic evaluations of dam removals, primarily drawing on studies in the USA, and identifies key, frequently recurring, issues that future evaluations will likely need to consider. The paper also reports on an ex-ante evaluation of the recent removal of the Marieberg Hydropower Plant in the Mörrum River in Sweden. An environmental valuation survey carried out as a key part of this evaluation was conducted as a replication of a previous study, where the policy context was different but the expected ecological outcome similar. The replication study produced comparable results to those of the previous study.
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| 3. |
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| 4. |
- Hansson, Helena, et al.
(författare)
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An indicator framework to guide food system sustainability transition – The case of Sweden
- 2024
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Ingår i: Environmental and Sustainability Indicators. - : Elsevier B.V.. - 2665-9727. ; 22
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Well-aligned food policies are needed at both national and international level to guide food system transformation towards sustainability. Rigorous indicator frameworks are essential in order to facilitate discussion of priorities, enable comparisons, assessment and progress monitoring, and ensure accountability. In this study, we develop a national framework for a sustainable food system, using Sweden as a case. Our framework, the Food System Sustainability House, advances the literature on sustainable food system frameworks in three distinct ways. Firstly, it is tailored to a specific national context (Sweden in our case); secondly, it distinguishes between impacts of domestic production arising within territorial boundaries and impacts related to Swedish consumption independent of country of origin; and thirdly, to facilitate policy priorities, it suggests how different dimensions of sustainability are interlinked at a conceptual level. From a scientific perspective, the Food System Sustainability House postulates the interlinkages between the societal objectives of the food system, the environmental foundations on which production takes place, and the economic system and governance which in the framework are suggested to function as enablers for an overall sustainable system. From a policy perspective, the framework provides a much-needed basis for assessing food system sustainability by suggesting indicators within a comprehensive set of sustainability themes at national level for monitoring distinct perspectives. It also provides the necessary basis for a discussion on how sustainability dimensions are interlinked.
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| 5. |
- Hansson, Helena, et al.
(författare)
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An indicator framework to guide food system sustainability transition - The case of Sweden
- 2024
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Ingår i: ENVIRONMENTAL AND SUSTAINABILITY INDICATORS. - : Elsevier B.V.. - 2665-9727. ; 22
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Well-aligned food policies are needed at both national and international level to guide food system transformation towards sustainability. Rigorous indicator frameworks are essential in order to facilitate discussion of priorities, enable comparisons, assessment and progress monitoring, and ensure accountability. In this study, we develop a national framework for a sustainable food system, using Sweden as a case. Our framework, the Food System Sustainability House, advances the literature on sustainable food system frameworks in three distinct ways. Firstly, it is tailored to a specific national context (Sweden in our case); secondly, it distinguishes between impacts of domestic production arising within territorial boundaries and impacts related to Swedish consumption independent of country of origin; and thirdly, to facilitate policy priorities, it suggests how different dimensions of sustainability are interlinked at a conceptual level. From a scientific perspective, the Food System Sustainability House postulates the interlinkages between the societal objectives of the food system, the environmental foundations on which production takes place, and the economic system and governance which in the framework are suggested to function as enablers for an overall sustainable system. From a policy perspective, the framework provides a much-needed basis for assessing food system sustainability by suggesting indicators within a comprehensive set of sustainability themes at national level for monitoring distinct perspectives. It also provides the necessary basis for a discussion on how sustainability dimensions are interlinked.
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| 6. |
- Hellstrom, S., et al.
(författare)
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Beyond generalists: The Brassicaceae pollen specialist Osmia brevicornis as a prospective model organism when exploring pesticide risk to bees
- 2023
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Ingår i: Environmental and Sustainability Indicators. - : Elsevier BV. - 2665-9727. ; 18
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Bees are under threat from agricultural intensification, and species which are pollen specialists (oligolectic) are thought to have declined disproportionately compared to pollen generalists (polylectic). When assessing the risks of dietary pesticide (plant protection products) exposure to non-target beneficial insects such as wild bees, effects on pollen specialist species have seldom been considered. Research and risk assessment on pesticide risk to bees mainly use a small selection of model species, only representing pollen generalist species. Moreover, the foraging preferences of the existing model species are not always adequately matched to the crops investigated, which may lead to incorrect conclusions regarding the risks posed by pesticides in pollen and nectar. Here, we propose Osmia brevicornis, an oligolectic European wild bee species specialized on Brassicaceae pollen, as a new model organism suitable for assessment of how pesticides can impact specialist pollinators, especially in oilseed rape, a mass flowering Brassicaceae crop. We demonstrate that O. brevicornis can be successfully reared in the field next to oilseed rape and that its nesting success and offspring numbers can be increased by setting out a starting population. In our field assay, nesting tube diameter affected occupation rate and the sex ratio of O. brevicornis offspring. We describe a method for housing and controlled oral administration of sucrose solution in the lab-oratory, facilitating future studies on pesticide exposure. We conclude that O. brevicornis is a feasible model for assessing the risk of pesticides in the laboratory and in the field, especially for those compounds used in oilseed rape cultivation, as well as for investigating the general ecology of pollen specialists. By suggesting O. brevicornis as a potential model species, we aim to encourage diversification of the species used in agricultural ecology, especially to consider pollen specialists, and encourage attention to the foraging preferences and dietary needs of selected model species when considering pesticide exposure risk and effects.
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| 7. |
- Hiron, Matthew, et al.
(författare)
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Hybrid bioacoustic and ecoacoustic analyses provide new links between bird assemblages and habitat quality in a winter boreal forest
- 2021
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Ingår i: Environmental and Sustainability Indicators. - : Elsevier BV. - 2665-9727. ; 11
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Resident birds in boreal forests can serve as indicators of habitat quality and are often species of conservation interest, particularly in multifunctional forests also used for timber production. To make informed forest management decisions, we must first understand which structural features provide habitats useful for resident birds. This is particularly true in winter, an understudied and critical season for their survival. The objective of this study was to establish reliable methods for monitoring bird presence and activity during winter, and to use these methods to evaluate the relative importance of stand structural features to make inferences about which features support and increase winter survival potential. Using a hybrid bioacoustic and ecoacoustic approach, we tested the ability of acoustic recordings to identify links between bird diversity and components of structural complexity, and compared these results to those from the traditional point count method. We conducted a vegetation survey, point count surveys and collected acoustic recordings from December 2019–February 2020 in 19 sites in a Swedish boreal forest. First, we compared species richness values derived from point counts and bioacoustic monitoring methods. Bioacoustic species richness was significantly higher than point count richness, although only when the time spent identifying species from recordings exceeded the time spent conducting point counts in the field. Next, we demonstrated that bioacoustic species identification yields additional metrics of bird activity that point counts cannot. We tested the response of these metrics, and point count metrics, to variables of structural heterogeneity and complexity of our sites. Almost all bioacoustic metrics increased significantly with increasing structural complexity, while point count richness and abundance did not, indicating that automated recording is more effective in identifying forest patches of high quality in winter. Lastly, using an ecoacoustic approach, we calculated six of the most common acoustic indices and tested if any could effectively reflect the bird-structure relationships described above. Two indices showed significant positive relationships to bioacoustic metrics, demonstrating their potential as biodiversity assessment proxies that respond to differences in habitat quality. This is the first winter acoustic study to monitor bird assemblages in detail; it employed both bioacoustic and multi-index ecoacoustic approaches, which provided evidence that automated acoustic recording can be an effective and superior method for monitoring resident forest birds.
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| 8. |
- Lindfors, Axel, 1993-
(författare)
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Assessing sustainability with multi-criteria methods : A methodologically focused literature review
- 2021
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Ingår i: Environmental and Sustainability Indicators. - : Elsevier. - 2665-9727. ; 12
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In this literature review, the use of multi-criteria assessment methods to perform sustainability assessments was studied. It focused on key methodological choices and the theoretical underpinnings of these choices. The review was divided into seven themes: (1) reasons for applying multi-criteria assessments, (2) how assessment alternatives were selected, (3) how criteria and indicators were selected and defined, (4) what interpretation methods were applied, (5) how weights were generated, (6) how studies applied uncertainty management, and (7) how studies dealt with incommensurability, compensability and incomparability of criteria. The review shows a need for increased methodological transparency, such as giving insight into how alternatives, criteria, and indicators have been selected and why certain methods are chosen over others. In addition, stakeholder participation should be viewed as an end in itself and not simply be used instrumentally. Furthermore, it is recommended that multi-criteria assessments apply interpretation methods that imply incommensurability or weak commensurability of criteria when performing sustainability assessment to respect the value-plurality of sustainability and follow the notion of strong sustainability. Finally, future research is needed about how multi-criteria assessments are used in decision-making processes to foster sustainable development and how they may be used as pedagogical tools for social learning.
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| 9. |
- Näslund, Joacim
(författare)
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No support for using brown trout as an indicator species for ecological impacts of low flow in Swedish rivers
- 2024
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Ingår i: Environmental and Sustainability Indicators. - 2665-9727. ; 23
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The impact of low flows on riverine ecology in Sweden is not fully understood. Recent summer droughts, along with their regionally projected increase, together demonstrate the need for a more solid foundation guiding ecologically responsible planning. Impact assessments can be made via indicator species sensitive to low flow, if their response to the flow conditions can be clearly understood, using for example historical data on species abundance and flow. In Swedish rivers, there are extensive electrofishing data with a special focus on salmonids, predominantly brown trout Salmo trutta, which are previously reported to be sensitive to low flow. There are also available national data on river flows, largely based on simulations. We processed and used these data sets, along with information on additional environmental factors. We tested if sites had less than their median trout abundance during the year of the minimum winter or summer low-flow. Adverse impacts of low flow could be shown only for young-of-the-year trout. The impact was small with at most 57 % of remaining sites having lower than median trout abundance (compared to 44 % overall) during the year of the lowest winter flow. The insubstantial effect means that using trout as a low-flow indicator species in Sweden cannot be supported by the currently available data. We believe the main causes of the small effects are limitations in the time resolution of trout data and spatial resolution of the flow data, followed by the ability of trout to escape low flows by seeking deeper habitats.
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| 10. |
- Robling, Helena, et al.
(författare)
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Measuring sustainability at farm level : A critical view on data and indicators
- 2023
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Ingår i: Environmental and Sustainability Indicators. - 2665-9727. ; 18
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Measuring sustainability at farm level is a priority for both research and policy and requires sustainability indicators to track progress. Indicators make the sustainability concept more concrete and guide farm level decisions, playing a decisive role in determining food system impacts on societies and the environment. Data availability is often a limiting factor when choosing indicators, but not enough attention is paid to the role of data in indicator construction and assessment results. This paper assessed the critical role of data in indicator construction and the potential limitations that current data availability imposes on farm-level sustainability assessments, using the example of dairy farms in Sweden. To do so we used a five-step approach consisting of a literature review, an inventory of data sources, an expert consultation, a matching and gap analysis, and a critical assessment. We found that 20 indicators categorized under 12 out of 20 sustainability themes had measurement issues due to missing scope, temporary data, or additional data requirements. At least some indicators were measurable within all themes in the social and economic dimensions while all indicators for pesticides, non-renewable energy, and soil quality in the environmental dimension had measurement issues. In the critical assessment, we argue that for some indicators, there are trade-offs between data availability and issues of comprehensibility and analytical validity. Furthermore, we found that no single data source could be used to measure all themes; which means that merging of different data sets is needed for a broader on-farm sustainability assessment. Our findings are relevant for the discussion on sustainability indicators and will inform future programs aimed at collecting sustainability data at farm level, which should consider the broad data needs identified and the potential to merge data to enable holistic sustainability assessments.
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| 11. |
- Tamburino, Lucia, et al.
(författare)
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Ecological efficiency : The ability to achieve human well-being while limiting environmental impact
- 2024
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Ingår i: Environmental and Sustainability Indicators. - : Elsevier. - 2665-9727. ; 21
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- To reach the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, humanity should improve its capacity to achieve well-being and development while reducing its environmental impact. This calls for increased efficiency in the process of transforming natural resources into well-being. We present here a novel indicator called Ecological Efficiency and developed to capture this important aspect of the human-environment relation. We found large differences in efficiency among world countries. We then analyzed the relation between our indicator and several country-level variables encompassing different human dimensions, such as economic, political, and demographic. Results highlighted that demography affects Ecological Efficiency more than other factors.
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