A Regional Socio-Economic Life Cycle Assessment of a Bioeconomy Value Chain

A bioeconomy tackles sustainable development at both the global and regional levels, as it relies on the optimized use of renewable bio-based resources for the provisioning of food, materials, and energy to meet societal demands. The effects of the bioeconomy can be best observed at a regional level, as it supports regional development and affects the social dimension of sustainability. In order to assess the social impacts of wood-based production chains with regional differentiation, the social life cycle assessment framework “RESPONSA” was established in 2018. We present an initial study, in which this method is applied to an exemplary production chain in a case study of laminated veneer lumber produced in central Germany. The results show a relatively better social performance compared to the reference economic sector, reflecting a relatively low rate of female employees as a major social hotspot. Several social opportunities are identified, in terms of health and safety, equal opportunities, and adequate remuneration, for the organization taking part in the value chain. Finally, considering the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a global normative framework, a number of additional indicators for RESPONSA, as well as further developments and recommendations regarding its application in other regions and the upcoming social life cycle assessment (S-LCA) guidelines, are identified

Assessing Disaster Risk of Building Stock

This work describes a methodology to assess ¿risk to disaster¿ due to natural hazards, particularly in data poor communities. It is to be used by (1) international organizations and donors to size development programs aiming to reduce risk to disasters and (2) by local authorities as a disaster management tool for implementing risk reduction, mitigation and preparedness programs. The methodology provides the guidelines to assemble a disaster risk information system that incorporates knowledge on natural hazards, construction science and disaster dynamics and is aimed for use by decision makers with the support of technical staff. The methodology is based on Geographical Information System (GIS) technology for the development of a database of disaster related information including built-up infrastructure, population, vulnerability and the occurrence of natural hazards. It integrates Earth Observation (EO) and information collected in situ for generating essential information such as building stock and indirectly population distribution in hazard affected areas. The database can also be used for generating damage assessment in the immediate aftermath of a disaster based on information on the hazard location and its intensity. Damage information can in turn improve the information content of the database to support more accurate risk assessments in the future. The information layers could then become important information that supports the development and urban planning projects.JRC.G.2-Global security and crisis managemen

Innovative Food Price Collection in Developing Countries: Focus on Crowdsourcing in Africa

Recent food crises have revealed the importance of timely and reliable food price information for food security monitoring and to support informed policy decision making. The increasing number of mobile phone users in Africa, combined with improved networks and broadband coverage, makes it increasingly possible to use mobile-based crowdsourcing to obtain accurate and up-to-date food price information. The use of mobile technologies also affords the possibility of reaching a large number of volunteers (crowd workers) in specific geographic locations, thus enhancing the available sets of information. This study provides a literature review of the concept of crowdsourcing and an overview and analysis of previous and on-going innovative food price collection initiatives in developing countries, particularly in Africa. Based on the research and interviews with relevant stakeholders, potential benefits and challenges have been identified and a set of recommendations has been drafted. The research shows that there is not a single crowdsourcing solution. The main challenges are encouraging crowd participation, and ensuring that data collected are trustworthy and of high quality, which in turn depends on offering the right incentives. Although the financial rewards offered to the crowd are often low, completely unpaid voluntary work is not common, which to some extent limits the potential cost advantage of crowdsourcing methods of data collection. New technologies empower people, and crowdsourcing might in future have potential to provide additional earnings and skills in poor communities, where skill development and ensuring access to technology are both potentials and challenges.JRC.D.4-Economics of Agricultur

Tsunami Vulnerability and Risk Analysis Applied to the City of Alexandria, Egypt

This report describes the work carried out by two actions of the JRC, ISFEREA and MAHB, to achieve the TRANSFER project objectives, which was to produce tsunami risk-related products for the town of Alexandria. The deliverable D8.8 of the TRANSFER project specifies the production of flooding maps, vulnerability maps with selected indicators and scenario risk maps. The ISFEREA action performed the physical vulnerability assessment with a help of high resolution satellite remote sensing data and a field survey. The vulnerability was calculated based on four indicators such as the elevation, building type, number of floors and shoreline distance. The results of vulnerability assessment have been used for the purposes of risk analysis, which was done by the MAHB action. The tsunami risk was calculated in a qualitative way using a risk matrix relates the hazard and vulnerability. The study was carried out in two districts, a central and peri-urban of the city of Alexandria. Two scenarios of a 5 m and a 9 m inundation were selected for the analysis based on historical records of past tsunamis. The information obtained in this study can help responsible authorities to reduce potential tsunami consequences based on the resultant tsunami building vulnerability and risk maps.JRC.G.7 - Traceability and vulnerability assessmen

Attenuated palmitoylation of serotonin receptor 5-HT1A affects receptor function and contributes to depression-like behaviors

The serotonergic system and in particular serotonin 1A receptor (5-HT1AR) are implicated in major depressive disorder (MDD). Here we demonstrated that 5-HT1AR is palmitoylated in human and rodent brains, and identified ZDHHC21 as a major palmitoyl acyltransferase, whose depletion reduced palmitoylation and consequently signaling functions of 5-HT1AR. Two rodent models for depression-like behavior show reduced brain ZDHHC21 expression and attenuated 5-HT1AR palmitoylation. Moreover, selective knock-down of ZDHHC21 in the murine forebrain induced depression-like behavior. We also identified the microRNA miR-30e as a negative regulator of Zdhhc21 expression. Through analysis of the post-mortem brain samples in individuals with MDD that died by suicide we find that miR-30e expression is increased, while ZDHHC21 expression, as well as palmitoylation of 5-HT1AR, are reduced within the prefrontal cortex. Our study suggests that downregulation of 5-HT1AR palmitoylation is a mechanism involved in depression, making the restoration of 5-HT1AR palmitoylation a promising clinical strategy for the treatment of MDD

How Does Restored Habitat For Chinook Salmon ( Oncorhynchus Tshawytscha ) In The Merced River In California Compare With Other Chinook Streams?

The amount of time and money spent on restoring rivers for declining populations of salmon has grown substantially in recent decades. But despite the infusion of resources, many studies suggest that salmon populations are continuing to decline, leading some to question the effectiveness of restoration efforts. Here we examine whether a particular form of salmon restoration—channel reconfiguration with gravel augmentation—generates physical and biological habitat that is comparable with other streams that support salmon. We compared a suite of habitat features known to influence the various life stages of Chinook salmon in a restoration project in California's Merced River with 19 other streams that also support Chinook that we surveyed in the same geographic region. Our survey showed that riffle habitats in the restored site of the Merced River have flow discharge and depth, substrate and food web characteristics that cannot be distinguished from other streams that support Chinook, suggesting that these factors are unlikely to be bottlenecks to salmon recovery in the Merced. However, compared with other streams in the region, the Merced has minimal riparian cover, fewer undercut banks, less woody debris and higher water temperatures, suggesting that these factors might limit salmon recovery. After identifying aspects in the Merced that differ from other streams, we used principal components analysis to correlate salmon densities to independent axes of environmental variation measured during our survey. These analyses suggested that salmon densities tend to be greatest in streams that have more undercut banks and woody debris and lower water temperatures. These are the same environmental factors that appear to be missing from the Merced River restoration effort. Collectively, our results narrow the set of candidate factors that may limit salmon recovery in channel reconfiguration restoration efforts. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/97512/1/rra1604.pd

Supporting Earth-Observation Calibration and Validation: A new generation of tools for crowdsourcing and citizen science

Citizens are providing vast amounts of georeferenced data in the form of in situ data collections as well as interpretations and digitization of Earth-observation (EO) data sets. These new data streams have considerable potential for supporting the calibration and validation of current and future products derived from EO. We provide a general introduction to this growing area of interest and review existing crowdsourcing and citizen science (CS) initiatives of relevance to EO. We then draw upon our own experiences to provide case studies that highlight different types of data collection and citizen engagement and discuss the various barriers to adoption. Finally, we highlight opportunities for how citizens can become part of an integrated EO monitoring system in the framework of the European Union (EU) space program, including Copernicus and other monitoring initiatives

An Oral History of Three Generations of Kapa Practitioners.

Ed.D. Thesis. University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa 2017

Towards a Holistic and Integrated Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment of the Bioeconomy - Background on Concepts, Visions and Measurements

Current economic and social systems transgress several ecological planetary boundaries by far but without sufficiently fulfilling human needs and this in a globally unequal way, posing enormous challenges to political strategies and economic structures. To tackle these challenges, under a bioeconomy, a variety of industrial metabolisms, strategies and visions on substituting fossil resources by renewables and hereto associated societal transformations is formulated. Social, ecological and economic (holistic) sustainability, however, is not an intrinsic character of bioeconomy but rather a possible potential which has to be assessed. Life Cycle Assessments and Life Cycle Sustainability Assessments provide promising frameworks and methods for such holistic sustainability assessments, but face major challenges in regard to underlying sustainability concepts and implementation. First, we discuss and analyze the status quo of Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment especially in regard to underlying sustainability and economic concept and identify their strengths, weaknesses and research gaps. Secondly, we characterize the current bioeconomy discourse and propose a transdisciplinary, holistic and integrated framework for Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment. Based on this discussion and the proposed framework, holistic and integrated Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment can provide a transdisciplinary understanding and specific information on the absolute and relative holistic sustainability of provisioning systems to allow efficient and effective governance