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This master’s thesis intends to contribute to the renewal of the assessment framework of the agriculture in order to face the sustainability issue. The rationale of the chosen assessment framework consists in identifying the critical natural capital through the exploration of the links that exist between agriculture and human well-being using the ecosystem services concept and the fundamental human needs concept in a participative manner.
Practically, this work is based on the implementation of this assessment framework to the study of a farm sustainability that is located in the Condroz (Wallonia, Belgium). Fourteen semi-structured interviews have been driven with local people and with two individuals symbolizing the need for intragenerational and intergenerational equity. The three main objectives were to list the ecosystem services provided by the farm, to determine their contribution to human well-being and to identify the ecosystem services that constitute the critical natural capital of the farm.
The results illustrate the potential of the studied farm to provide numerous ecosystem services as well as the potential of those ecosystem services to be mobilized in order to contribute to human well-being in mutliple manners. The relevance of the conceptual framework to appreciate the multidimensionality of the agriculture and of the human well-being is confirmed. However, the mobilization of the critical natural capital concept did not enable us to identify the critical ecosystem services in a conclusive manner.
The method having proven its interest as a discursive tool, it is suggested to develop forward the operationalization of the critical natural capital concept by modifiying its application scale and by developing its appropriability. Then, in order to be truly participative, it is necessary to implement the method at a collective level. Finally, the results show the necessity to envision both satisfaction and dissatsifaction of fundamental human needs. Additional tools taken from the capability approach and from the fundamental human needs approach seems promising. Ce travail se propose de participer au renouvellement du cadre d’évaluation de l’agriculture afin de tenir compte de l’exigence de soutenabilité. La logique du cadre d’évaluation adopté consiste à identifier le capital naturel critique en investiguant les liens entre agriculture et bien-être humain à travers la mobilisation des concepts de services écosystémiques et de besoins humains fondamentaux dans une optique participative.
Concrètement, ce travail repose sur l’application de ce cadre d’évaluation à l’étude de la soutenabilité d’une ferme condrusienne (Wallonie, Belgique). Quatorze entretiens semi-directifs ont été menés à une échelle locale et avec deux personnes symbolisant le nécessité d’être attentif à l’équité intragénérationnelle et intergénérationnelle. Les trois principaux objectifs de ces entretiens étaient de lister les services écosystémiques générés par cette ferme, de déterminer leur contribution au bien-être humain et d’identifier les services écosystémiques constitutifs du capital naturel critique de la ferme.
Les résultats illustrent le potentiel de la ferme étudiée à générer de nombreux services écosystémiques en même temps que la capacité de chacun de ces services à contribuer de manière multiple au bien-être humain. L’intérêt du cadre conceptuel mobilisé pour appréhender la multidimensionnalité de l’agriculture et du bien-être humain est confirmé. Par contre, le mobilisation du concept de capital natural critique n’a pas permis d’identifier les services écosystémiques critiques de manière concluante.
La méthode a témoigné de son intérêt en tant qu’outil discursif. En conséquence, il est suggéré de développer plus en avant l’opérationnalisation du concept de capital naturel critique en modifiant son échelle d’application et en développant son appropriabilité. Ensuite, afin d’être réellement participative, la méthode devrait être adaptée à l’échelle collective. Enfin, les résultats témoignent de la nécessité pour la méthode élaborée d’envisager autant la satisfaction que l’insatisfaction des besoins humains fondamentaux. De nouveaux outils empruntés à l’approche par les capabilités et à l’approche des besoins humains fondamentaux semblent prometteurs.

Agriculture --- Sustainability assessment --- Critical natural capital --- Ecosystem services --- Fundamental human needs --- Évaluation de la soutenabilité --- Capital naturel critique --- Services écosystémiques --- Besoins humains fondamentaux --- Sciences du vivant > Agriculture & agronomie --- Sciences économiques & de gestion > Multidisciplinaire, généralités & autres

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Sustainability is an urgent developmental task for our society and is attracting increasing attention. Therefore, higher education institutions (HEIs) are also called upon to deal theoretically, conceptually, methodically, critically, and reflectively with the associated challenges and the processes and conditions of transformation in order to contribute to sustainable development. How can complex organisations such as HEIs succeed in initiating and maintaining the process of sustainable development within their own institutions and make it a permanent responsibility? How can as many protagonists as possible be persuaded to get involved in sustainable development? This book deals with the promotion of sustainable university development and provides an overview of how universities can be organised sustainably and how sustainable development can be implemented in their various functional areas. In the sense of a “whole-institution approach”, which encompasses entire HEIs, the focus is not only on the core areas of teaching (higher education for sustainable development) and research (sustainability in research) but, also, on the operational management of HEIs. In addition, this book focuses on sustainability governance and transfer for sustainable development at HEIs as cross-disciplinary issues.

higher education institutions --- implementation --- organisational factors --- sustainable development --- interpretative structural modelling (ISM) --- higher education institutions (HEIs) --- cross-sector collaboration --- multi-professional collaboration --- transdisciplinary research --- narrative analysis --- sensemaking --- whole institution approach --- organizational networks --- constant comparative analysis --- athletic departments --- higher education --- sustainability --- loose coupling --- shared governance --- United States --- intellectual capital --- performance --- quality of life --- sustainability assessment --- environmental management performance --- German-speaking countries --- survey --- whole-institution approach --- competencies --- knowledge --- values --- case study --- discourse analysis --- environment --- Global South --- Sustainable Development Goals --- universities’ transformation --- sustainability assessment tool --- sustainability governance --- systems theory --- governance equalizer --- politics --- profession --- organization --- public --- organizational culture --- Germany --- sustainability in science --- transformative science --- grammar of responsibility --- ethics of knowledge --- universities as echo chambers of society --- catalytic science --- universities --- organizational change --- higher education for sustainable development (HESD) --- sustainability transitions --- SD --- alliances --- university --- transfer --- practitioner–university partnership --- societal impact --- education for sustainable development --- higher education development --- sustainable university development --- systemic development --- inter-organizational networks --- worldviews --- societal transformation --- systemic transformation

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With the Internet of Things and various information and communication technologies, a city can manage its assets in a smarter way, constituting the urban development vision of a smart city. This facilitates a more efficient use of physical infrastructure and encourages citizen participation. Smart energy and smart mobility are among the key aspects of the smart city, in which the electric vehicle (EV) is believed to take a key role. EVs are powered by various energy sources or the electricity grid. With proper scheduling, a large fleet of EVs can be charged from charging stations and parking infrastructures. Although the battery capacity of a single EV is small, an aggregation of EVs can perform as a significant power source or load, constituting a vehicle-to-grid (V2G) system. Besides acquiring energy from the grid, in V2G, EVs can also support the grid by providing various demand response and auxiliary services. Thanks to this, we can reduce our reliance on fossil fuels and utilize the renewable energy more effectively. This Special Issue “Smart Energy and Intelligent Transportation Systems” addresses existing knowledge gaps and advances smart energy and mobility. It consists of five peer-reviewed papers that cover a range of subjects and applications related to smart energy and transportation.

Technology: general issues --- History of engineering & technology --- electric vehicles --- PROSA --- PROMETHEE for Sustainability Assessment --- MCDA --- Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis --- stochastic analysis --- Monte Carlo --- uncertainty --- cargo bicycles --- loading hub --- facility location problem --- computer simulations --- Python programing --- electric vehicle charging --- vehicle-to-grid --- genetic algorithms --- particle swarm optimization --- demand-side management --- discrete choice theory --- revenue management --- road–railway accidents --- classification trees --- road safety --- transport means --- accidents victims --- condition monitoring --- vibroacoustic diagnostics --- gearbox --- power transmission systems --- neural networks --- deep learning --- n/a --- road-railway accidents

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With the Internet of Things and various information and communication technologies, a city can manage its assets in a smarter way, constituting the urban development vision of a smart city. This facilitates a more efficient use of physical infrastructure and encourages citizen participation. Smart energy and smart mobility are among the key aspects of the smart city, in which the electric vehicle (EV) is believed to take a key role. EVs are powered by various energy sources or the electricity grid. With proper scheduling, a large fleet of EVs can be charged from charging stations and parking infrastructures. Although the battery capacity of a single EV is small, an aggregation of EVs can perform as a significant power source or load, constituting a vehicle-to-grid (V2G) system. Besides acquiring energy from the grid, in V2G, EVs can also support the grid by providing various demand response and auxiliary services. Thanks to this, we can reduce our reliance on fossil fuels and utilize the renewable energy more effectively. This Special Issue “Smart Energy and Intelligent Transportation Systems” addresses existing knowledge gaps and advances smart energy and mobility. It consists of five peer-reviewed papers that cover a range of subjects and applications related to smart energy and transportation.

Technology: general issues --- History of engineering & technology --- electric vehicles --- PROSA --- PROMETHEE for Sustainability Assessment --- MCDA --- Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis --- stochastic analysis --- Monte Carlo --- uncertainty --- cargo bicycles --- loading hub --- facility location problem --- computer simulations --- Python programing --- electric vehicle charging --- vehicle-to-grid --- genetic algorithms --- particle swarm optimization --- demand-side management --- discrete choice theory --- revenue management --- road-railway accidents --- classification trees --- road safety --- transport means --- accidents victims --- condition monitoring --- vibroacoustic diagnostics --- gearbox --- power transmission systems --- neural networks --- deep learning

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Modern engineering approaches focus on the design and operation of systems and products in a way that allows for the sustainable use of resources. Sustainable engineering aims to provide frameworks that ensure development without compromising the quality of the natural environment and the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. In this context, decision making processes must be enriched by approaches and tools that allow decision makers to consider a wide range of sustainable options. Recently, great progress has been taking place in the fields of operation research and management science, where intelligent quantitative analysis, statistics, and prediction analytics are employed in a variety of interdisciplinary research areas, aiming to assist policy makers and managers with the consideration of a variety of sustainable options. This Special Issue consists of a 17-paper collection with published approaches and models that are designed to give answers for environmental impact and sustainability assessment, risk and knowledge management assessment, lifecycle assessment and energy management. Five papers are dedicated to advances in different literature review topics. The remaining papers deal with a variety of engineering approaches to address decision making which involves: mulricriteria decision analysis, ecological footprint and biocapacity estimations, fuzzy prediction models, advanced statistical analysis, simulation, systems dynamics model, task ontology and integration definition function modeling.

History of engineering & technology --- higher education institutions --- sustainability assessment --- benchmarking --- energy flow --- carbon flow --- sustainable development --- problem-solving --- incident command system --- task ontology --- knowledge management --- sustainable healthcare supply chain --- performance measurement --- performance of perspectives and indicators --- sustainability aspects --- intangible characteristics --- lifecycle assessment --- recurrent embodied carbon --- system dynamics --- buildings --- CO2 emissions --- construction phase --- stochastic analysis --- Monte Carlo simulation --- implications --- fuzzy estimators --- lake eutrophication --- prediction model --- corporate sustainability --- business strategy --- decision-making --- decision support systems --- road network --- sustainability --- analytic hierarchical process --- crude-oil --- sour gas --- hydrogen sulfide --- crude stabilization --- hazard identification --- HAZOP study --- risk analysis --- operability study --- process safety --- risk-matrix --- DMRA --- multi-criteria decision-making --- Analytical-Hierarchy-Process --- Typical-AHP --- Fuzzy-AHP --- index --- sustainable mining --- threshold values --- sustainability indicators --- environmental sustainability --- environmental assessment --- anthropogenic spatial entities --- knowledge creation --- healthcare organizations --- hospital --- organizational learning --- sustainable knowledge management --- strategy --- validation --- questionnaire --- quality of care --- renewable energy sources --- energy policy --- SWOT analysis --- multi-criteria analysis --- AHP --- fuzzy TOPSIS --- Morocco --- Egypt --- strategic environmental assessment --- strategic environmental impact assessment --- methods --- techniques --- Greece --- MCDM --- fuzzy AHP --- PRAT --- FTA --- time-series --- risk assessment --- OSH --- telecom technical projects --- constructions --- carrying capacity --- regional sustainability assessment --- ecological footprint --- national park --- risk management --- performance assessment --- performance management --- performance evaluation --- earned value analysis --- construction projects --- fuzzy numbers