Performance of environmentally sound cassava farming as an effort to increase income after covid 19 in the Bengawan Solo Wonogiri Watershed

The limited sources of income in the Wonogiri Regency will impact the tendency of repressive community actions towards empowering surrounding resources, including cassava farmers. After Covid 19, the cassava economy was used as leverage for changes in the rural economy. The objectives of this study are (1) to determine the influence of environmental management on the inputs and outputs of cassava farming, (2) to diagnose fluctuations in the vulnerability of cassava farming, and (3) to analyze cassava problems in production and farming sub-systems. The research locations were in 2 subwatershed of Bengawan Solo areas, namely the Keduang Sub-Watershed (Ngadirojo District and Jatiroto District) and the Wiroko Sub-Watershed (Tirtomoyo District), with 120 respondents. The analysis used is the input-output analysis of farming, descriptive analysis, and t-test analysis. The results showed a difference between an environmentally sound cassava farming business and one that does not, with an error rate of 1% and a coefficient of 1,802% in terms of income (output) and cost (input). The vulnerability occurs when cassava cultivation is processed on a sharp slope of the soil, making it highly costly. The performance of environmentally sound cassava farming positively impacts production and income, but there are limited funds and technology.

Environmental Sustainability and Territorial Competitiveness: A Comparison between Italian Provinces

The emergence of globalisation and the removal of obstacles between markets have heightened rivalry between territorial areas. To have a competitive advantage, the regions have to be unique. As one of the tactics used to boost their reputation on a territorial level, territories are progressively adopting environmental policies for sustainable and shared prosperity. Indeed, effective management of urban growth depends heavily on sustainable development. In this regard, the literature occasionally refers to the "green branding” of cities, a strategy that makes use of environmental aspects to boost the allure of metropolitan environments. There is currently little consensus in the literature on the measuring of environmental performance, and no statistical study has been done to confirm the efficacy of these measures in terms of territorial competitiveness. Therefore, it is important to determine whether there is a relationship between a territory's level of sustainability and competitiveness in Italy. According to the statistical analysis of the Italian provinces, the Northeast, Northwest, Centre, and Islands are the four geographical regions with the highest average scores. This unquestionably indicates a basic comprehension and supports the notion that there is a relationship between the two variables. However, it also serves as a warning about how geographical disparities in Italy represent a major issue affecting the most diverse sectors. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic problem has drastically altered consumer demands and goals, leading consumers to seek out more sustainable travel and cities that are designed with citizens' requirements in mind. It will therefore become more and more important to research how public and private administrators, as well as policy makers, react to these changes.

A review of the applicability of Environmental Management Systems in waste management in the medical sector of Zimbabwe.

Environmental Management Systems (EMS) are currently the cornerstone of achieving sustainability globally. Nevertheless, the question is applicability of EMS in the medical sector. Hence, the review focused on applicability of EMS in medical waste management Zimbabwe. EMS involves overall processes that facilitate reduction of dire impacts of company's activities while increasing performance. EMS framework consists of environmental policy, planning, implementation, checking, review and improvement stages. To examine applicability of EMS in management of medical sector waste, published secondary sources with information related to the topic were utilised. Analysis of strengths and opportunities of EMS was used as a base to examine its applicability in medical waste management. Zimbabwean medical sector consist of hospitals and primary healthcare facilities. Medical waste includes pathological, pharmaceutical, cytotoxic, radioactive, chemical, sharp, infectious and general waste. However, twenty-first century witnessed expansion of medical institutions to accommodate COVID-19 patients, resulting in generation of construction and demotion waste. Medical institutions in Zimbabwe are accountable for solid waste management at generation source although municipalities are responsible for conveying solid waste to landfills. Solid waste from medical sector is disposed through traditional strategies namely landfilling, incineration, open pits and open burning, resulting in water, air, and soil contamination. However, EMS can reduce quantity of solid waste disposed through waste reuse, recycle and recovery. Moreover, achievement of integrated approach, effective legislation, policies and inclusive participation in medical waste management is adopted through use of EMS. Therefore, EMS were utilised to develop an integrated sustainable medical waste management model to achieve sustainability.

Air quality changes in Shijiazhuang during COVID-19 outbreak

[Background] The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was first detected in December 2019. To combat the disease, a series of strict measures were adopted across the country, which led of improved air quality. This provides an opportunity to discuss the impact of human activities on air quality. [Objective] This study investigates the air quality changes in Shijiazhuang, and analyzes the impacts of epidemic prevention and control measures on air quality, so as to provide reference and ideas for further improving air quality and prevention and control measures. [Methods] The air quality data were collected online from https://www.zq12369.com/ and https://aqicn.org/city/shijiazhuang/cn/. Comparisons in air quality index (AQI) and the concentrations of air pollutants (PM2.5, PM10, SO2, CO, NO2, and O3) were made between the period from December 2019 to June 2020 (reference) and the same period from 2016 to 2019 by t-test and chi-square test. [Results] The daily average AQI dropped by 25.38% in Shijiazhuang during the COVID-19 prevention and control compared with the some period from 2016 to 2019 (t=6.28, P < 0.05). The proportions of pollution days during the COVID-19 outbreak in Shijiazhuang were PM2.5 (44.56%), O3 (31.09%), PM10 (23.83%), and NO2 (2.59%) successively, the pollution days of PM10 decreased significantly (chi2=3.86, P < 0.05) compared with 2016-2019, but during traffic lockdown the numbers of pollution days of PM2.5 and in the mid stage of prevention the number of pollution days of O3 increased (P < 0.05). Compared with the control period, the concentrations of the six air pollutants decreased to varying degrees (P < 0.05), especially SO2 dropped by 55.36%. [Conclusion] The measures taken for COVID-19 control and prevention have reduced the pollution sources and emissions, which resulted in better general air quality of Shijiazhuang City, but have aggravated the pollution of O3 and other pollutants. It is necessary to further explore the causes for the aggravation of O3 pollution in order to formulate reasonable air quality control strategies.Copyright © 2021, Shanghai Municipal Center for Disease Control and Prevention. All rights reserved.

How Does the Degree of Competition in an Industry Affect a Company's Environmental Management and Performance?

Environmental management, which was recognized as a functional part of corporate management, has recently been recognized as a strategic element of all business activities. It can be defined as a series of management activities to improve environmental performance throughout the business process and simultaneously achieve profitability and sustainability. Accordingly, businesses are now abandoning the existing management philosophy that economic and environmental feasibility are inevitably in conflict and establishing strategies and methods to achieve both. Meanwhile, industry affects the business performance of individual companies. Since the performance of a company tends to be influenced by the intensity of competition in an industry, it is necessary to analyze the structural factors that determine the intensity of competition in an industry in order to predict the future performance of a company. Therefore, we studied how environmental management affects corporate performance given the level of industry competition. The results are as follows. First, environmental management positively impacts corporate performance. Second, a high level of competition within an industry moderates the relationship between environmental management and corporate performance. By verifying the influence of the industry to which a company belongs, that is, the level of competition within the industry, we confirm that a company's environmental management can be used strategically to gain a competitive advantage. With the finding that the impact of a company's environmental practices differs by industry in line with the degree of competition, we expect this study to be helpful for future research into strategic ESG activities.

An Efficient IoT e-Environment System to Monitor and Control Pollution and Maintain Hygienics in Educational Institutions

The Covid-19 Pandemic (C19P) situation of the entire world now affects all fields in terms of Excellencies and let to suffer drastically from normal functioning. The whole world is now concentrating on the protection from the C19 virus in the form of vaccination (C19V) and social distancing (SD). There is a kind enough need arises to maintain the hygiene environment during and after the post C19P situations, and this IoT e-Environment Pollution Monitoring and Controlling System (IEE-PMCS) with 3 parameters (air, water, sound) resolves and addresses the issues in the hygiene maintenance of various environments as common. In the IEE-PMCS proposed work, the 3 measuring parameters and their real-time and current values are percept with the appropriate sensors of IoT elements, and the data are collected and stored on a cloud and are verified with the predefined threshold values of pollution measures with included tolerance values of permissible values to indicate if there is any cause of the pollution on the real-time perceptions. The verification and decision-making of the system is reliable on the new algorithms proposed in this work. This work is based on system modeling and providing an efficient architecture to the maximum extent of the intended purpose, with a detailed description of the flow of operations and with the algorithmic level. © 2022 IEEE.

Building Back Better in Latin America: Examining the Sustainability of Covid-19 Recovery and Development Programs

NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY The significant outlays by countries in the Global South to recover from the Covid-19 crisis could have been an opportunity to build back better, advancing both a green recovery and addressing pressing social problems, thus advancing sustainability. To examine if this was the case, in this paper we analyze the expected impacts of recovery initiatives in five Latin American countries. Our results show that these programs do not support the possibility of building back better, weakly impacting twelve dimensions related to sustainability. We also propose a methodology to improve how sustainability concerns can be included in future choice of projects. TECHNICAL SUMMARY It has been argued that the significant outlays by governments across the world required to recover from the Covid-19 crisis can be an opportunity to build back better, i.e. advance towards greener societies. In the Global South, which suffered acute social, economic and environmental problems prior to this health crisis, recovery initiatives would be best suited to focus on sustainable economic recovery which — along with the environmental concerns of a green recovery — could address pressing local problems. To this end, we analyzed the expected impacts of recovery initiatives in five Latin American countries on each of 71 sustainability criteria. These criteria are based on the UN sustainable development goals and other relevant literature related to sustainable development. This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work. Using principal component analysis, criteria are grouped into twelve dimensions. Our results show that recovery programs examined do not take advantage of the possibility of building back better, and many relevant dimensions related to a sustainable recovery are only weakly considered. Our methodology provides a step forward towards supporting governments in their efforts to identify better policies and investment projects and consequently put together packages of initiatives that advance on sustainability, green recovery, or other long-term goals they may have. SOCIAL MEDIA SUMMARY Methodology to analyze covid-19 recovery packages shows small impact on sustainability in 5 Latin American countries. © 2023 Cambridge University Press. All rights reserved.

WORKER WELL-BEING: Transforming From a Traditional to a More Holistic OSH Program

[...]in 1996, with campus president support, an umbrella safety council was created that includes representation of both OSH and non-OSH activities. Over time, the non-OSH representation has expanded, incorporating representatives from areas such as human resources, building facilities management, employee assistance and wellness, mental health, environmental waste management, campus security and disaster preparedness. With the safety councils support, the wellness and employee assistance programs conducted focus group discussions and determined a major cause of the observed stress was rooted in personal financial management challenges. With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the safety council members became concerned about the overall well-being of the university community and, as such, assisted in the conduct of two waves of a campus-wide survey measuring aspects such as mental health, well-being concerns about COVID-19, personal finance worries and accessing reliable sources of information.

Preface

International Conference on Geospatial Science for Digital Earth Observation (GSDEO 2021)The international conference on "Geospatial Science for Digital Earth Observation” (GSDEO) 2021 was successfully held on a virtual platform of Zoom on March 26th and 27th, 2021. The conference was jointly organized by the Indian Society of Remote Sensing (ISRS), Kolkata chapter, and the Department of Geography, School of Basic and Applied Sciences, Adamas University. Due to the non-predictable behaviour of the COVID-19 second wave, which imposed restrictions on organizing offline events, the GSDEO (2021) organizing committee decided to organize the conference online, instead of postponing the event.Remotely sensed data and geographic information systems have been increasingly used together for a vast range of applications, which include land use/land cover mapping, water resource management, weather forecasting, environmental monitoring, agriculture, disaster management, etc. Currently, intensive research is being carried out using remotely sensed data on the geoinformatics platform. New developments have led to dynamic advances in recent years. The objective of the international conference on Geospatial Science for Digital Earth Observation (GSDEO 2021) was to bring the scientists, academicians, and researchers, in the field of geo-environmental sciences on a common platform to exchange ideas and their recent findings related to the latest advances and applications of geospatial science. The call for papers received an enthusiastic response from the academic community, and over 100+ participants from 50+ colleges, universities, and institutions participated in the conference. In total 50+ research papers had been presented through the virtual Zoom conference platform in GSDEO 2021.The conference witnessed the presentation of research papers from diverse applied fields of geospatial sciences, which include the application of geoinformatics in geomorphology, hydrology, urban science, land use planning, climate, and environmental studies. There were four sessions namely, TS 1: Geomorphology and Hydrology, TS 2: Urban Science, TS 3: Social Sustainability and Land Use Planning, and TS 4: Climate and Environment. Each session was further subdivided, into two parts, namely Technical Session 1-A and 1-B. Each sub-session had been designed with one keynote speech and 5 oral presentations. Oral sessions were organized in two parts and offered through live and pre-recorded components based on the preference of the presenters. The presentation session was followed by a live Q&A session. The session chairs moderated the discussions. Similarly, poster sessions were organized in three parts and offered e-poster, live, and pre-recorded components. The best presenter of each sub-session received the best paper award.Dr. Prithvish Nag, Ex-Director of NATMO & Ex Surveyor General of India delivered the inaugural speech, and Dr. P. Chakrabarti, Former Chief Scientist of the DST&B, Govt. of West Bengal delivered a special lecture after the inaugural session. Eight eminent keynote speakers, Prof. S.P. Agarwal from the Indian Institute of Remote Sensing, Prof. Ashis Kumar Paul from Vidyasagar University, Prof. Soumya Kanti Ghosh from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, Prof. L. N. Satpati from the University of Calcutta, Prof. R.B. Singh from the University of Delhi, Dr. A.K. Raha, IFS (Retd), Prof. Gerald Mills from the University College Dublin and Prof. Sugata Hazra from Jadavpur University enriched the knowledge of participants in the field of geoinformatics by their informative lectures. The presentations and discussions widely covered the various spectrums of geoinformatics and its application in monitoring natural resources like vegetation mapping, agricultural resource monitoring, forest health assessment, water, and ocean resource management, disaster management, land resource management, water and climate studies, drought vulnerability assessment, groundwater quality monitoring, accretion mapping and the use of geospatial sci nce in studying morphological, hydrological, and other biophysical characteristics of a region etc. Application of geoinformatics in predicting urban expansion, urban climate, disaster management, healthcare accessibility, anthropogenic resource monitoring, spatial-interaction mapping, and, sustainable regional planning were well-discussed topics of the conference.List of Committees, photos are available in the pdf.

The implementation of green supply chain management (GSCM) and environmental management system (EMS) practices and its impact on market competitiveness during COVID-19.

Despite great academic interest in global green supply chain management (GSCM) practices, its effectiveness for environmental management systems (EMS) and market competitiveness during COVID-19 remains untapped. Existing literature suggests that a fundamental link between GSCM, EMS, and market competitiveness is missing, as supply management is critical to maintain market competitiveness. To fill this gap in the literature, this study examines whether environmental management systems influence the link between GSCM practice and market competitiveness in China. We also propose the articulating role of big data analytics and artificial intelligence (BDA-AI) and environmental visibility toward these associations in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. We evaluated the proposed model using regression-based structural equation modeling (SEM) with primary data (n = 330). This result provides empirical evidence of the impact of GSCM on EMS and market competitiveness. Moreover, the results show that the BDA-AI and the environmental visibility enhanced the positive relationship between GSCM-EMS and EMS and market competitiveness in China. Recent research shows that supply chain professionals, policymakers, managers, and researchers are turning to formal EMS, BDA-AI, and environmental visibility to help their organizations achieve the competitiveness that the market indicates they need.

Stakeholder Participation in Planning of a Sustainable and Competitive Tourism Destination: The Genoa Integrated Action Plan

The outbreak of COVID-19 confronted the international community with critical health, social, and economic challenges. Travel and tourism were among the hardest affected sectors. In 2020 and 2021 new travel trends emerged, emphasizing local destinations, short distances, and consequently, lower-carbon transportation (proximity tourism). Post-pandemic recovery represents an opportunity to bounce back better by rethinking the sector's economic model for the sake of sustainability and innovation. This paper disseminates the research that led to the structuring of guidelines for a breakthrough and inclusive municipal-level action plan for the promotion of sustainable tourism, as part of the Tourism Friendly Cities project. An operational methodology is discussed here, whereby key stakeholder participation, conceptualized through a sextuple helix model, is the foundation of the planning process. A small-scale action and a qualitative assessment tool of the participatory process are also illustrated. The proposed methodology corroborates the vast positive effects deriving from stakeholder participation in terms of trust, ownership, planning quality, innovativeness and sustainability of interventions. In applying the methodology, although the digital framework was evaluated positively in terms of the number of participants that could be involved, data collection, and confidentiality of activities, the evaluation shows that hybrid modes of participation are more desirable.

A systemic environmental impact assessment on tourism in island and coastal ecosystems

Intense tourism is a common occurrence in environments with very attractive natural traits and that host important ecosystem services, such as islands and coastal environments. However, these activities can cause impacts and loss of ecosystem services, thus requiring assessments about tourism activities and how to manage their complexity. Thus, the objective of the present study was to carry out an environmental impact assessment based on ecosystems in two islands with strong tourist pressure in the state of Santa Catarina, Brazil. The islands analyzed were Anhato-mirim and Campeche, and the methodology used was the ecosystem-based Survey of Environ-mental Aspects and Impacts (SEAI), carried out by means of structured technical visits following a bibliographic analysis of the study area. Results indicated that the analysis model constructed can contribute to decision-making in environmental management, as it enabled a clear and objective identification of the main aspects, environmental impacts, and ecosystem services that are somehow connected. Among the negative impacts observed, the most relevant were water pollution, impaired health of wild animals, loss of biodiversity, and the spread of Covid-19. In turn, the most prominent positive impact was the generation of employment and income. The demand for environmental education projects in the tourist system that involves the two islands is also highlighted. Thus, this investigation was shown to be useful for the identification of the main anthropic elements derived from tourism that affect these ecosystems.

Preface

Climate change has led to the increase of heat exposure or natural hazard due to extreme weather. This anthropological climate change phenomenon has negatively altered the most fundamental natural resources for living organism: air, water, and soil. Air has been polluted and warming due to human activities. The quantity of freshwater keeps on depleting, while the ground water recharge intervened with chemical and biological contamination. The sustainability of soil as the natural planting media is under threat due to land use conversion and soil quality degradation. Water acidification and temperature increase have been proved to change the salinity of seawater. Those are the impact of the increasing greenhouse gas emission in the earth's atmosphere.The 8th International Conference on Climate Change (ICCC) aims to accommodate and to discuss the regional findings related the adaptation and mitigation strategies on climate change worldwide. The meaning to hold ICCC is getting more and more important. This conference can alert the creeping disaster. The contribution of all the participants, distinguished guests to this conference would make our world better and progress our scientific knowledge. Sharing the insight into the recent research and the cutting-edge technologies should enhance our ability and it might give us the breakthrough ideas on our sustainability under climate change. ICCC would be fruitful for every participant and be a great chance to approach the scientific solution for our common goals.Faculty of Agriculture of Sebelas Maret University, Surakarta, Indonesia is very proud to organize the 8th International Conference on Climate Change (ICCC). International Conference on Climate Change has been playing a significant contribution to formulate the strategies to cope with the emerged problems due to the climate change, as well as to support the sustainable development goal achievement. Sebelas Maret University has been seriously taking part to minimize the climate change impact, by promoting environment-friend programs, such as the green campus program and prohibiting the motor-vehicle to enter the campus every month. Sebelas Maret University also realizes that the responsibility of maintaining this earth should be by everyone. Each of us plays a significant contribution to minimize the global warming of this earth. That is why Faculty of Agriculture of Sebelas Maret University organize such events to discuss the findings related the earth-protection.We hope this conference will resulting into valuable recommendations in focusing and improving the natural resources management as well as improving the human's living efficiency to bring the greenhouse gas emission down. We need to produce alternative technologies as the climatic resilience strategies to overcome the key climate-change sensitive pathways, as well as to support the achievements some global goals in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). Accordingly, the topic of the 8th ICCC is "Environmental Management towards Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) under the Changing Climate”.The 8th ICCC was organized by Faculty of Agriculture, Sebelas Maret University, Indonesia, in collaboration with Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand and The United Graduate School of Agricultural Sciences, Gifu University, Japan. The 8th ICCC was held at The Asian Institute of Technology Conference Center, Thailand from 17-18 November 2022. The 8th ICCC was conducted in the Hybrid method because travel restrictions are still enforced by some countries to prevent the spread of Covid-19. Besides, providing options for attending the 8th ICCC virtually is more comfortable for participants and presenters with limitedness of budgets.The 8th ICCC 2022 delivers great appreciation to Prof. Dr. Samanhudi, Dean of Faculty of Agriculture, Sebelas Maret University, Indonesia;Professor Dr. Shobhakar Dhakal, Vice President for Academic Affairs, Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand;and Prof. Dr. Ken Hiramatsu, Dean of United Graduate School of Agricultural Science, ifu University, Japan;for formal support to the conference.Gratitude presented to the invited speakers: Prof. Dr. Avishek Datta from Head of Department of Food, Agriculture, and Bioresources, Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand;Prof. Dr. Eric van Hullenbusch from Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, France;Dr. Taku M. Saitoh from Gifu University, Japan;Dr. Jauhari Syamsiyah from Sebelas Maret University, Indonesia;and Dr. James MacGregor from Eco-Plannet, Canada.List of Committee of the 8th ICCC 202 is available in this Pdf.

Analysis of environmental performance and interactivity of ports and regions

The port is the basic support for regional economic development and the global allocation of resources. With the rapid development of China's economy and growing ecological awareness, the assessment of port and regional efficiency has received unprecedented attention. In the current context of the COVID-19 pandemic, how the port and its region will be coordinated under the common goal of development has become a hot topic. In this study, the port subsystem (P-subsystem) and the regional subsystem (R-subsystem) are unified into the port–region system (PR system), and a new meta-frontier two-stage data envelopment analysis model is constructed to evaluate the P-subsystem efficiency and the environmental efficiency of the PR system. This research also measures the port–regional coordination level using the coordination index and explores the inefficiency of the PR system with the help of management improvement and technology improvement indices. Main results show that the overall efficiency of the Chinese PR system is increasing. The technological level of the PR system in coastal areas is close to the optimal level. The inefficiency of the Chinese PR system is mainly affected by management inefficiency. The coordination of regional and port development in China is also poor. Finally, on the basis of the research findings, this study provides targeted countermeasure suggestions to promote the efficiency enhancement and coordinated development of the PR system. © 2023 Elsevier Ltd

Reuse of Sludge as Organic Soil Amendment: Insights into the Current Situation and Potential Challenges

Sludge generation as an organic by-product of wastewater treatment has seen a consistent increase worldwide due to population growth and industrial activities. This poses a chronic challenge regarding management options and environmental concerns. The agricultural valorization of unconventional organic materials has become inevitable, especially in semi-arid and arid countries that suffer from depleted soils and shortages in farm manure supply. High-income countries have also been interested in this recycling practice to mitigate landfilling or incineration issues. Sewage and some industrial sludges contain a complex mixture of beneficial and harmful substances, which varies with the origin of effluents. Therefore, sludge land application should be well managed in order to achieve sustainable agro-environmental goals. This review paper focuses on different aspects related to sludge reuse in agriculture, starting by investigating the diversity of sludge types and composition. In addition to the preponderant urban sewage sludge, the less-studied industrial sludges, such as those generated from pulp and paper mills or gas-to-liquid industries, are hereby addressed as well. Then, post-land application effects are discussed in relation to sludge quality, dose, and reuse conditions. The present paper also examines the disparities between guidelines that determine sludge conformity for land application in various countries or regions. Accordingly, special attention is given to increasing risks related to emerging pollutants in sludge such as pharmaceuticals, which have been overused since the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic. This exhaustive investigation will assist the establishment of sustainable strategies for the safe agricultural reuse of biosolids.

Managing Building Water Disruptions in a Post-COVID World: Water Quality and Safety Risk Assessment Tool for Academic Institutions and School Settings

Fluctuating building occupancy during the COVID-19 pandemic contributed to poor water quality and safety conditions in building water distribution systems (BWDSs). Natural disasters, man-made events, or academic institutional calendars (i.e., semesters or holiday breaks) can disrupt building occupant water usage, which typically increases water age within a BWDS. High water age, in turn, is known to propagate poor water quality and safety conditions, which potentially exposes building occupants to waterborne pathogens (e.g., Legionella) associated with respiratory disease or hazardous chemicals (e.g., lead). Other influencing factors are green building design and municipal water supply changes. Regardless of the cause, an increasing number of water management policies require building owners to improve building water management practices. The present study developed a Water Quality and Safety Risk Assessment (WQSRA) tool to address gaps in building water management for academic institutions and school settings. The tool is intended to assist with future implementation of water management programs as the result of pending policies for the built environment. The WQSRA was modeled after water management practices created for controlling water contaminants in healthcare facilities. Yet, a novel WQSRA tool was adapted specifically for educational settings to allow building owners to evaluate risk from water hazards to determine an appropriate level of risk mitigation measures for implementation. An exemplar WQSRA tool is presented for safety, facility, industrial hygiene, and allied professionals to address current gaps in building water management programs. Academic institutions and school settings should examine the WQSRA tool and formulate an organization-specific policy to determine implementation before, during, and after building water-disruptive events associated with natural or man-made disasters.

A MODLE OF VALUING NATURAL ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY BENEFITS BY ADJUSTING CONSUMPTION SURPRESSION

The new coronavirus (COVID-19) reduces consumers' consumption such as accesses to natural environmental qualities, leading to decrease benefit values of being used for bases of natural environmental managements. The purpose of this study is to develop a simple benefit valuation model that adjusts the consumption suppression by summing up the amounts of observed and reduced consumptions. The empirical estimation by the repeated discrete choice model is shown by using data on the number of visits and canceling visits on tourism activities during 2021, and the sites' attractions as alternative variables on environmental qualities. The results show that the benefit values by canceling are about 84% of benefit values by observed tourism demand.Alternate abstract:抄録　新型コロナウィルス(COVID-19)下で生じた消費の抑制は，自然環境質への訪問回数を低下させ，自然環境管理の根拠となる便益値をもたらした．本研究の目的は，観察された訪問回数に中止回数を加えることで，観光回数に基づく便益を主便益，消費の抑制分を副次的便益として同時に計測する簡便な評価モデルの構築である．理論モデルとともに，繰り返し離散選択モデルを用いた推計例を示した．データは，2021年中の観光の訪問および中止回数，および観光地の質に関するデータである．実証分析の結果，副次的便益の値は，観察された需要量からの便益値の約84%となることが示唆された．

"Inhabiting the bush”: urban development, socio-environmental issues and territorial defence in the Mountain ranges of Córdoba, Argentina (2001-2022)

Since the last twenty years, and more especially after the COVID 19 health crisis, the mountain ranges of Cordoba (Argentina) has been experiencing an accelerated process of demographic growth and urban expansion. The change from rural to urban land use is identified as the basis of a process of territorial transformation that exacerbates pre-existing local problems. This paper aims to analyse the socio-environmental impact of urban development in the Para-vachasca Valley in order to identify the challenges for the environmental management of the territory of small towns of landscape and environmental value that involve a sustainability per-spective. In order to do so, we analysed the processes of territorial defence related with the so-cio-environmental issues that affect these spaces. Results are presented in relation to narratives that place care for the environment and more sustainable ways of living at the centre. © 2023, Universidad de Granada. All rights reserved.

The future of sustainable polar ship-based tourism

Over the last couple of decades, polar tourism has significantly grown in the number of visitors and diversified in terms of the tourism activities offered. The COVID-19 pandemic brought polar tourism to a halt and has prompted researchers, operators and policy-makers alike to reflect on how Arctic and Antarctic tourism have developed, how they are being managed and governed and, importantly, how tourism operators influence polar socio-ecological systems. Given the dominance of ship-based tourism over other types of tourism in the Polar Regions, we discuss the cornerstones of how polar ship-based tourism has developed over the last 50 years and explore the relevant international and regional governance regimes in this article. We identify which positive and negative biophysical, socio-cultural and economic impacts arising from polar tourism have been identified by researchers. It is difficult, if not impossible, to disentangle impacts caused by tourism alone from those that result from the interactions of multiple pressures at all levels (local, regional and global), and more research is needed to develop reliable and effective indicators to monitor tourism impacts. In addition, a better understanding is needed about the role tourist experiences might play in potentially encouraging long-term positive behavioural changes among visitors to the Polar Regions. The COVID-19 pandemic has provided an important opportunity to review polar tourism development and management, and to ask whether an emphasis should be placed on ‘degrowth' of the sector in the future.

Evaluation on the use of COVID-19 single-use face masks to improve the properties of hot mix asphalt

With the outbreak of the coronavirus (COVID-19) and the spread of this virus, the use of medical equipment, like 3-layerface masks, has increased dramatically. The proliferation of polymer-based face masks has become an environmental problem as ittakes years to completely decompose. The lack of proper management and collection causes environmental pollution. Therefore,considering the polymer base of the face masks and with the aim of improving the asphalt mixtures, in this article, the face mask andits different layers are added to the asphalt mixtures in 4 different weight percentages and in two different sizes, and Marshall test,Resilient modulus, Indirect tensile, Moisture damage, Rutting and Fatigue test were performed on the samples. The experimentalresults show that the addition of these materials to the asphalt mixtures improves the performance of asphalt and 12mm long fibersyielded better results than the results of 8mm long fibers.