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The aim of this paper is to evaluate how peer support can contribute to the completion of secondary school for girls who have interrupted their education, so that they can achieve higher levels of schooling through a supportive community network in villages of the Yucatan peninsula in southeast Mexico. For this purpose, qualitative social science research methodology was used with a participatory approach. The findings demonstrated that beyond existing school reintegration programs, it is the strength of purpose in the girls’ minds and the influence of the people that surround them that determines the degree of success or failure. The originality of this research is to be found in the collection of primary information from groups of adolescents regarding aspects that encourage them to reach, or stop them from reaching, higher levels of education, while compiling the intervention of key actors in the communities in favor of girls’ education in the state of Yucatan.

This paper aims to describe the perceptions of undergraduate female students from public and private institutions about distance education during confinement due to COVID-19 in three cities in the state of Yucatan. The methodology used was mixed research methods, based on semi- structured interviews and data analysis from national and international sources. Among the findings the challenges of both groups of students in the implementation of online education during the first months of the pandemic in 2020 were recorded. This paper's distinctiveness is that it contributes to research on the advancement of girls’ education, through the collection of primary information, in order to make suggestions that allow them to continue in the national educational system.

Background Worldwide efforts have increased to understand what works in policy implementation, for whom and under what circumstances (context) are health policies useful and effective. All countries are striving towards Universal Health Coverage (UHC). Reforms are being implemented to ensure no-one is left behind. Methods We draw on our experiences of tracking implementation of policies aimed at achieving UHC in a national health insurance (NHI) pilot district (universal coverage in Tanzania and South Africa). Policies aimed at achieving UHC were tracked from 2011-2015 to understand why there are varying UHC policy implementation states and outcomes among facilities in the same district? Results Lessons learned in the process include: i) to adopt or adapt policy is a process – actors at the front-line seem to engage with policy, carry out a policy-context audit, try to engage with superiors if there are discrepancies between policy and context and eventually take a decision to adopt or adapt policy; ii) local facility contexts matter and vary – decision to implement policy is influenced by the conditions on the ground, hence implementation states can vary from one facility to the other despite being in the same district; iii) implementation states range from full policy adoption and implementation, policy adaptation and partial implementation, delayed implementation to non-implementation; iv) a resource audit before policy is implemented could go a long way in reducing policy-practice gaps; and v) Policy implementation states are dynamic subject to change – for example, when equipment breaks down and is not replaced immediately. Conclusion There seems to be inherent respect among implementing actors, for the department of health and people above them. They are however concerned with the fact that they are removed from the ground, could have lost touch with realities on the ground, hence the policy directives sent from the top, are often not congruent with ground conditions. Actors revealed how they engage with the policy, assess what they are being asked to do and compare that with the existing resources. To adopt or adapt policy in a UHC context: there seems to be a series of steps actors take.

This chapter explores women’s empowerment through their entrepreneurship in the informal food sector, an area where individual value is created that extends far beyond financial gains. Specifically, this chapter will capture an important value produced and reproduced in street food enterprises: that of women’s empowerment. The findings of this study show that in addition to providing a major source of income, significant additional value is created from women’s entrepreneurship as their enterprises produce important empowerment benefits. These include increased capacity to make decisions, the freedom to spend income and determine one’s own future, and the satisfaction and benefits that the enterprises brought to the many women who had significant reproductive responsibilities. Unlike traditional approaches to enterprise development which favour growth in firm size, profits and market penetration; this research shows that an alternative approach to development based on individual value creation linked to women’s empowerment is worth pursuing.

ispartof: pages:341-362 ispartof: Memorias en extenso pages:341-362 ispartof: 1er Foro Internacional. Políticas Públicas para el Desarrollo Sustentable: Horizontes en el Siglo XXI, BUAP location:Puebla status: published

In the last decade, instigated by the Paris agreement and United Nations Climate Change Conferences (COP22 and COP23), the efforts to limit temperature increase to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels are expanding. The required reductions in greenhouse gas emissions imply a massive decarbonization worldwide with much involvement of regions, cities, businesses, and individuals in addition to the commitments at the national levels. Improving end-use efficiency is emphasized in previous IPCC reports (IPCC 2014). Serving as the primary ‘agents of change’ in the transformative process towards green economies, households have a key role in global emission reduction. Individual actions, especially when amplified through social dynamics, shape green energy demand and affect investments in new energy technologies that collectively can curb regional and national emissions. However, most energy-economics models—usually based on equilibrium and optimization assumptions—have a very limited representation of household heterogeneity and treat households as purely rational economic actors. This paper illustrates how computational social science models can complement traditional models by addressing this limitation. We demonstrate the usefulness of behaviorally rich agent-based computational models by simulating various behavioral and climate scenarios for residential electricity demand and compare them with the business as usual (SSP2) scenario. Our results show that residential energy demand is strongly linked to personal and social norms. Empirical evidence from surveys reveals that social norms have an essential role in shaping personal norms. When assessing the cumulative impacts of these behavioral processes, we quantify individual and combined effects of social dynamics and of carbon pricing on individual energy efficiency and on the aggregated regional energy demand and emissions. The intensity of social interactions and learning plays an equally important role for the uptake of green technologies as economic considerations, and therefore in addition to carbon-price policies (top-down approach), implementing policies on education, social and cultural practices can significantly reduce residential carbon emissions.

Background: World-wide, there is growing universal health coverage (UHC) enthusiasm. The South African government began piloting policies aimed at achieving UHC in 2012. These UHC policies have been and are being rolled out in the ten selected pilot districts. Our study explored policy implementation experiences of 71 actors involved in UHC policy implementation, in one South African pilot district using the Contextual Interaction Theory (CIT) lens.Method: Our study applied a two-actor deductive theory of implementation, Contextual Interaction Theory (CIT) to analyse 71 key informant interviews from one National Health Insurance (NHI) pilot district in South Africa. The theory uses motivation, information, power, resources and the interaction of these to explain implementation experiences and outcomes. The research question centred on the utility of CIT tenets in explaining the observed implementation experiences of actors and outcomes particularly policy- practice gaps.Results: All CIT central tenets (information, motivation, power, resources and interactions) were alluded to by actors in their policy implementation experiences, a lack or presence of these tenets were explained as either a facilitator or barrier to policy implementation. This theory was found as very useful in explaining policy implementation experiences of both policy makers and facilitators. Conclusion: A central tenet that was present in this context but not fully captured by CIT was leadership. Leadership interactions were revealed as critical for policy implementation, hence we propose the inclusion of leadership interactions to the current CIT central tenets, to become motivation, information, power, resources, leadership and interactions of all these.

The push and pull between innovation and conservatism is a normal situation in Dutch coastal governance. In some cases this leads to conflicts over which policy solution to choose. This paper argues that coastal governance processes are shaped by policy frames. They influence what actors consider the policy problem, the appropriate solution, and the way to achieve this solutions. The paper features a Dutch coastal governance project called “Hondsbossche Duinen”, in which the mismatching of heterogeneous policy framing foci almost led to breakdown of the process. After a phase leading to controversy and shifts in project management, the project eventually became realised successfully. This near-breakdown and eventual success is studied from the perspective of framing foci: policy substance, policy process, and actors' identities and relationships. In-depth interviews with policy actors allow for a nuanced analysis of those framing foci. We show that dynamics of emphasising and ignoring similarities and dissimilarities between actors’ framing foci explain the developments in the case. Emphasising dissimilarities and ignoring similarities produced controversy in the first phase of the case. In the end, emphasising similarities and the emergence of a consensus framing focus led to policy consensus.

This paper explores the governance of sectoral innovation and niche formation of green buildings and other low energy buildings (like NZEBs). Two analytical frameworks are used and synthesized: the Sectoral Systems Innovation Assessment framework (SSIAf) and the Governance Assessment Tool (GAT). The key components of the former are: shaping of expectations, actor network formation, institutions, learning process, and stimulating market demand. The SSIAf components are then assessed against the four quality criterions of the GAT framework, i.e. extent, coherence, flexibility, and intensity. The research design presented in this paper applies the analytical framework developed to case studies of two cities: Singapore and Delhi. Data collection involved participant observation and expert interviews. The results of the study reveal that the overall governance conditions in Singapore are fairly strong and highly supported by the government, unlike Delhi where governance quality was found to lack coherence and intensity, and can be considered only moderately supportive to green building innovations. The results also reveal the role of government actors in steering the energy transformation process in building sector. The analytical framework developed in this paper can be further elaborated, also as a potential policy tool to support cities in managing energy system innovations like energy infrastructures, smart grids or community energy storage in diverse and complex urban settings.

Collection is a key activity in sustainable solid waste management and resource recycling. In many developing countries, collection is undertaken mainly by the informal sector. This is accompanied by various environmental, social, health and efficiency problems. Some top-down experiments to integrate informal collection into the waste resource recycling chain have proved unsuccessful. Meanwhile, Internet and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in waste management are formulating a new collection model: intelligent collection. In China, there are dozens of emerging companies who are engaging in intelligent collection of recyclables. What are the intelligent collection cases in China? Do they have potential to integrate the informal collection into the waste recycling chain? To answer these questions, we selected and interviewed 15 Chinese intelligent collection companies to identify their organisational model and comparative advantages over informal collection. We found that intelligent collection companies in China operated in two forms: human-human interaction collection and human–machine interaction collection. Comparative advantages were found in organisation, trade, data accumulation, and profit making sources. These render them with a high potential to integrate informal collection. Intelligent collection in China is still at an early stage. Its potential for a sustainable business model needs to be further explored. Its application as a supplement to the Municipal Solid Waste collection system and as an exclusive collection for high value waste items under the Extended Producer Responsibility framework seems promising.

This paper undertakes a comparative analysis of the governance systems of nature areas in relation to resilience measures in the field of water and nature management. The main question is to identify the key characteristics of governance that influence the resilience of the selected areas. The purpose of this comparative study is to understand and explain how aspects within the governance context influence the success of policy initiatives or measures towards resilience goals. For comparison, the hierarchic method is used. The results of the five case studies are compared: four cases from the Netherlands and one from UK. For the assessment of the governance of selected areas the governance assessment tool is used to systematically assess the relevant elements and qualities of the governance contexts and to understand the circumstances for the implementation of adaptive measures. The results of the comparison reveal different combinations of the governance qualities creating, to some extent, the setting for the resilience of the areas in which external factors and continuous interaction between layers of the governance system influence the adaptive capacity of the governance to manage resilience.

Although enterprises in the informal food sector require energy to transform, cook and process food, energy-use patterns in this sector are not well understood by policymakers and the local-level authorities who regulate their trading activities. This paper reviews relevant literature and presents empirical data collected in Rwanda, Senegal and South Africa on the use of traditional and modern energy sources by informal food sector operators. Our sample includes male- and female-operated enterprises in the urban centres of three African countries where the informal food sector is important, not only for providing the convenience of affordable and readily prepared meals, but also as a source of income for women and men in developing countries. Multiple fuel-use and energy-stacking strategies are common among informal food enterprises and policy needs to acknowledge this if it is to intervene in ways that will benefit both enterprises and regulators.

There is abundant solar potential in the Middle East North Africa region. Yet access to sustainable energy is still a fundamental challenge in many countries of this region. In this paper we seek to understand the success and failure of the development and the diffusion of solar energy technologies by analysing using a Strategic Niche Management framework to compare the niche development of solar thermal energy and solar photovoltaics in Lebanon. This paper has two main questions: (1) How have the solar thermal niche and the solar photovoltaic niche developed in Lebanon, and how do they compare? (2) In which ways does the Strategic Niche Management framework help us to understand the development of solar energy niches in a developing country context? To answer these questions, a cross case analysis of solar thermal and solar photovoltaic systems was conducted. Due to the absence of research using Strategic Niche Management in Middle Eastern developing countries, this study uses an illustrative case from a country in this region to contribute new insights. Moreover, unlike the Strategic Niche Management research that only focuses on single case studies, this paper presents the results of a comparative study of two niches. The main Strategic Niche Management propositions were grouped and compared per item (i.e. on voicing and shaping expectations, social networks, and learning). The results show that the solar thermal niche affected the solar photovoltaic niche to a large extent. This was especially in relation to the learning and coordination processes. This has gradually contributed to establishing a clear vision. However, both niches lacked a niche manager who was able to coordinate, manage and maintain the dynamics of the niche processes. It also lacked horizontal collaboration between key actors involved (i.e. ministries). International donors were found to play a crucial role in initiating and shaping the market with certain constraints of prioritization in the region. The paper ends with conclusions and ideas for future research on solar energy niche development in the context of developing countries.

Purpose In Mexico, only 19.3 per cent of industrial water is treated (Green-Peace, 2014, pp. 3-4), whereas municipal treatment levels are approximately 50 per cent (CONAGUA, 2014a). This paper aims to focus on how the wastewater treatment plant policy, from a circular economy perspective, is affected by the governance context at the Presa Guadalupe sub-basin. Circular economy can contribute to water innovations that help in improving water quality. However, such benefits are not easily achieved. This case provides an example of the complexity and challenges that the implementation of a circular economy model can face. Design/methodology/approach Data are collected via semi-structured in-depth interviews with the stakeholders that are members of the Presa Guadalupe Commission. The contextual interaction theory (CIT) is the theoretical basis for this analysis (Boer de and Bressers, 2011; Bressers, 2009). Findings The findings show that the wastewater treatment plant policy plays an important role in a circular economy model. Some incentives towards a circular economy model are already in place; however, the hurdles of a top-down implementation perspective, low availability of resources, prioritisation of short-term results, lack of enforcement of the “polluter pays” principle and a linear model of water systems need to be overcome. If Mexico wants to move towards a circular economy model and if the government wants to enforce sustainable development principles, wastewater treatment is a challenge that must be addressed. Originality/value There are few studies in the circular economy literature that have analysed its implementation under a governance arrangement perspective.

Large scale development of Net Zero Energy Buildings (NZEBs) is seen as a potential solution to deal with future energy challenges in the building sector. This article aims to assess the current status of NZEB development in India by using an integrated framework named Sectoral System Innovation Assessment framework (SSIAf). The article addresses the research question: "“What does the SSIA framework tell about NZEB niche formation in India?" The SSIAf is developed using insights from the theoretical frameworks of Strategic Niche Management (SNM) and Sectoral Innovation Systems (SIS) with five key components: shaping of expectations, social network formation, institutions, learning process and market demand. A case study research design was used to analyze seven NZEB demonstration projects in India. The results show that the NZEB innovation niche has yet to develop into a mature niche, and is growing only slowly.

Coastal management in Europe is shifting toward soft coastal protection strategies to deal with flood risk and erosion. In the UK, a sand replenishment in North Norfolk is planned to take place in the coming years, inspired by the Dutch ‘Sand engine’: a large-scale sand replenishment executed in 2011. Besides being faced with technical challenges, the initiative requires fine-tuning to the local conditions. In this article we present a theory guided assessment of the governance context for Sandscaping in England. We focus upon North Norfolk, where Sandscaping was included as an option to protect the Bacton Gas Terminal from cliff erosion. Our aim is to contribute to further elaboration of Sandscaping potential along other locations in England. The lessons we draw about implementing Sandscaping initiatives have emerged from real project experience and could therefore be relevant in other coastal contexts.

Lack of wastewater treatment is among the main water problems worldwide. The implementation of wastewater treatment policies faces varying challenges given the many different contexts. Therefore, context-sensitive approaches are required from a governance perspective. This paper aims to improve the understanding of the role of contextual factors in water and wastewater governance drawing on empirical evidence from Latin America, with a focus on the Guadalupe River Basin in Mexico. The findings indicate that the governance context restricts the implementation of wastewater treatment policy. Thus, future reforms should consider the top-down nature of the policy implementation process.

The intimate coupling between the biophysical environment and human societies makes sustainable watershed management a true challenge. Given the multi-actor context characterizing water resource use, careful analysis of social relationships in community-based networks paves the way for pinpointing the main challenges impeding co-management. The present study was accordingly an attempt to identify structural relationships between local stakeholders involved in watershed management in the Taleghan, applying the social network analysis (SNA) method. Results show that network cohesion, sustainability, and social capital are all low. Low levels of co-management and high tension and conflict between stakeholders allude to the probability of water network breakdown. This study provides a noble framework to identify key actors in water resource management and practical recommendations are given for improving the sustainable management of water resources.

Background South Africa, like many other countries is currently piloting National Health Insurance (NHI) reforms aimed at achieving Universal Health Coverage (UHC). Existing health policy implementation experience has demonstrated that new policies have sometimes generated unexpected and negative outcomes without necessarily explaining how these came about. Policies are not always implemented as envisioned, hence the importance of understanding the nature of policy implementation. # Methods Qualitative data were collected during three phases: 2011-2012 (contextual mapping), 2013-2014 (phase 1) and 2015 (phase 2). In-depth face-to-face interviews were held with key informants (n=71) using a theory of change interview guide, adapted for each phase. Key informants ranged from provincial actors (policy makers) district, subdistrict and primary health care (PHC) facility actors (policy implementers). All interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed. An iterative, inductive and deductive data analysis approach was utilized. Transcripts were coded with the aid of MAXQDA2018 (VERBI software GmbH, Germany). # Results Five groups of factors bringing about policy-practice gaps were identified. (i) Primary factors stemming from a direct lack of a critical component for policy implementation, tangible or intangible (resources, information, motivation, power); (ii) secondary factors stemming from a lack of efficient processes or systems (budget processes, limited financial delegations, top down directives, communication channels, supply chain processes, ineffective supervision and performance management systems); (iii) tertiary factors stemming from human factors (perception and cognition) and calculated human responses to a lack of primary, secondary and or extraneous factors, as coping mechanisms (ideal reporting and audit driven compliance with core standards); (iv) extraneous factors stemming from beyond the health system (national vocational training leading to national shortage of plumbers); and (v) an overall lack of systems thinking. # Conclusions South Africa needs to be applauded for adopting UHC. Noteworthy among factors fueling policy-practice gaps are human factors, perception and responses of actors in the system to a lack of resources, processes and systems, through among others, ideal reporting and audit driven compliance with core standards, bringing about an additional layer of unintended consequences, further widening that gap. Utilizing a systems approach to address challenges identified, could go a long way in making UHC a reality.

Evidence from academic studies that analyze social and institutional factors that influence success with community energy projects is scarce. To address this, we pose the question: What are the social, organizational, and governance factors that explain success with ‘local low-carbon energy initiatives’ (LLCEIs)? To answer this question, claims were first established pertaining to three groups of social factors: i.e. (i) those related to the LLCEI itself; (ii) factors related to the interaction between an LLCEI and the local community; and (iii) the presence of supportive governance settings and linkages with local government and intermediaries. These were analyzed using a variable-oriented cross-case design involving fourteen LLCEIs in the Dutch Province of Fryslân. Results show that there is a difference in the sets of factors that positively correlate with various measures of LLCEI success. Factors related to the LLCEI (i.e. internal organizational factors) correlate with collective energy projects and to a lesser extent with individual projects realized. Items related to interactions of the LLCEI with the local community primarily correlate with the customer base and to a lesser extent with individual projects realized. Finally, items related to the governance setting correlate most strongly with individual projects realized.

This chapter proposes an analysis of the water and drought governance contexts in case studies of two countries of North West Europe (NWE) that have been jointly impacted during the past severe droughts, France and the United Kingdom (UK) with respectively two case studies: the Vilaine catchment in French Brittany, and the Somerset Levels and Moors in south west UK. It presents a comparative analysis of the outputs of the implementation of the Governance Assessment Tool developed by H. Bressers et al. with the Contextual Interaction Theory, the theory at the origins of the GAT. After a brief description of the two case studies, the chapter describes the methodology used to study drought governance, both the GAT as refined in the European DROP‐project for drought‐governance analysis and the Contextual Interaction Theory. It also presents the main results and discussion. The chapter further presents general conclusions for drought‐governance resilience in NWE.

The street food sector in Sub-Saharan Africa is a source of affordable and nutritious meals for the urban poor, while also being an important source of income for the women who dominate this sector. Despite the importance of this sector, many micro- and informal enterprises are labelled as 'survivalist', beyond the reach of common development policies, which give priority to so-called growth-oriented enterprises. When given the chance to speak for themselves, do enterprises express any aspirations to grow? Contrary to the literature, our findings show that necessity-driven enterprises do aspire to grow and that this is true for both those owned by men and women. Using contextual interaction theory, this paper explains why it is possible for previous authors to come to such a different conclusion.

This paper addresses the challenge of appropriate governance of complexity and diversity in the Dutch national park of Alde Feanen. The issue is how to enhance ecosystem resilience. Our focus relates to a navigable waterway within the park that affects the natural values of the area. The governance assessment tool is used to assess the governance context of the waterway and ecosystem resilience in the area. The study shows that a lack of a long-term integrated vision makes the governance context less supportive. Such a vision could maximize the focus on the resilience of the park's nature and motivate actors to work towards a common future for a concerned area. However, institutional complexity, combined with institutional inertia, is revealed as a hindrance to the quality of governance and shapes a weak ability to adapt the current situation to move towards resilience.

The growing absolute and relative water scarcity requires drastic change in the water cycle in order to target an efficient and robust water supply. The water cycle consists of the production of water, water use, collection of wastewater and its treatment. This article addresses whether the market is capable of adopting such radical changes as needed, which hindrances have to be navigated and whether and how policy could help. This is done by assessing the roles of three prominent new technologies in the water cycle in the Netherlands. First the three technological innovations are introduced and described: the first resulted in new technology for wastewater treatment plants (Nereda ), the second deals with a particular water pollution issue (Pharma filter ) and the third is about decentral sanitation (DeSaR). This is followed by an analysis of the process of development and market adoption of each of them, including the emerged hindrances. Arguments for a more prominent water cycle policy are thereafter derived from literature on welfare theory, socio-technological systems and empirical observations. With regard to relevant policy domains we distinguish between research policy, innovation policy and sector policy. A balanced combination of research policy, innovation policy and sector policy is needed to address the challenges with regard to future water supply.

Irrigated agriculture has a significant potential for food security and poverty reduction, while it is also associated with broader agri-environmental changes. These changes include agrarian change in terms of the intensification, globalization and neoliberalization of agriculture, and environmental change due to the pollution, degradation and exploitation of water and soil resources. Farmers are key actors in irrigated agriculture, since they are both the users of water and soil resources and the target groups of policies. This paper aims to improve the understanding of the relationship between farmers' decisions on irrigated agriculture and the agri-environmental changes that result from irrigated agriculture, and to explain how farmers differ in terms of their alignment with these changes. We develop a conceptual model by building on natural resources governance and farmer decision-making, and apply the model through a case study in Harran Plain, an agricultural area in Turkey. Our findings indicate that farmers are differentiated in terms of their degree of alignment. This differentiation results mainly from the attributes that relate to what the farmers have, such as land, financial capacity, power attribution and network range, and it affects the farmers' decisions about resource use and crop production

Urban mining offers an efficient supply of resources because of rich mines and low environmental impacts. Location selection and optimization for urban mining facilities is more complicated than for natural mines, given that it may vary according to the urban population, consumption habits, and economic development. China initiated the National Urban Mining Pilot Bases program in 2010 that targeted 50 national urban mining pilot bases, but unfortunately neglected the location planning issue. Twenty-eight bases have already been selected, which are concentrated in the central and eastern areas of China. This article combines the use of analytic hierarchy process, maximal covering location model, and geographical information systems (GIS) software to optimize locations for China's urban mining pilot bases. Primary findings show that, theoretically, 40 urban mining pilot bases can sufficiently provide maximum gross domestic product (GDP) and population coverage service for China. Taking the current 28 bases as a precondition and 50 bases as the remaining policy target, our second optimization results in a list of 22 cities for the location selection of future urban mining pilot bases. In total, the optimized 22 cities, together with the selected 28 bases, can provide a maximum 97.5% of GDP and 95.1% of population coverage in China. This study illustrates the optimization process for urban mining recycling facilities in general and provides policy advice for China in a specific case.

Collaboration is increasingly seen as an important aspect of successful water management, and yet it remains insufficiently understood. This paper examines how collaboration is influenced by the governance system that guides and organizes the related actions and interactions. Building upon an existing governance assessment tool, this paper provides the basis for predicting how supportive (or restrictive) a governance system will be towards collaboration, according to eight different governance system classes. The validity of this framework is reflected upon in case studies from five countries: Mexico, the Netherlands, Canada, Romania and Turkey. The collaborative processes in Mexico, Romania and Turkey are embedded in restrictive governance systems and show low levels of collaboration. The governance system in the Canadian case is assessed as neutral and shows a medium level of collaboration, whereas the governance system in the Netherlands shows high levels of collaboration and is assessed as supportive. The results are encouraging, as the case studies demonstrate the predicted influences of a governance system on collaboration. Yet, the case studies also highlight the potential importance of characteristics of the collaborative process and collaborating actors. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment

© 2019, © 2019 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. River basin management and decentralisation reforms are promoted worldwide for solving water pollution problems. In Mexico, governmental efforts have been made to operate wastewater treatment plants countrywide, but federal administrations have not achieved their intended outcomes. Acknowledging the role of governance in the implementation of wastewater treatment policy, this paper analyses three cases in central Mexico and addresses the question: How does the governance context affect the implementation of the wastewater treatment policy in central Mexico? A governance assessment tool is applied to answer the question. The assessment allows an understanding of the governance context and is paired with a comparative case study design. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews and documents reviews. The results indicate that the governance context mainly restricts the implementation of the wastewater treatment policy. In all subnational three cases, the river basin management and decentralisation reforms have not reached their objectives. By comparing the three cases, we found that the state level can play a relevant role to decrease fragmentation and to increase the coherence of the wastewater treatment policy. Therefore, strengthening the involvement of the state government and the improvement of mechanisms that limit political machinations can increase the supportiveness of the governance context. ispartof: Journal Of Environmental Policy & Planning vol:21 issue:2 pages:134-152 status: published

© 2019 The Authors Households are responsible for 70% of CO2 emissions (directly and indirectly). While households as agents of change increasingly become a crucial element in energy transitions, bottom-up mechanisms facilitating behavioral change are not fully understood. A scientific understanding of individual energy use, requires eliciting factors that trigger or inhibit changes in energy behavior. This paper explores individual energy consumption practices and behavioral aspects that affect them. We quantitatively study the determinants of three energy actions: (1) investments in house insulation, solar panels and/or energy-efficient appliances, (2) conservation of energy by changing energy-use habits like switching off unused devices or adjusting house temperature, and (3) switching to green(er) electricity sources. To address this goal, we conduct a comprehensive survey among households (N = 1790) in two EU regions: Overijssel, the Netherlands and Navarre, Spain. We use probit regression to estimate how behavioral factors, households’ socioeconomic characteristics and structural attributes of dwellings influence energy related actions. Our analysis demonstrates that awareness and personal and social norms are as important as monetary factors. Moreover, education and structural dwelling factors significantly affect households’ actions. These results have implications for governmental policies aimed at reducing residential CO2 footprints and facilitating demand-side solutions in a transition to low-carbon economy.

Cities are experiencing the impacts of climate change through water-related disasters, while the sustainable management of water resources remains crucial for urban climate resilience. Accordingly, frameworks that integrate urban water management with climate change adaptation become increasingly relevant. The Water Sensitive Cities (WSC) framework is built on three pillars that address cities’ role as communities and networks, water catchments, and providers of ecosystem services. A major element of the framework is the WSC index, which can be applied to assess cities by using multiple indicators under each pillar. With the objectives of adjusting and testing the WSC index in the context of the North Sea Region through a transdisciplinary knowledge co-production process, this paper presents the results from a self-assessment conducted by seven midsize cities. Insights gained from the comparison of self-assessment results are twofold. Firstly, the cities need to value the benefits of ecosystem services for climate change adaptation, and integrate climate change into other sectors. Secondly, the cities differ regarding the priority of climate change, and even the cities that aspire to be frontrunners have weaknesses. The application of the self-assessment process also creates an exchange and mutual learning platform for cities, and increases their awareness on climate resilience.

Waste recycling helps to establish a circular loop of resource flow between production and consumption, achieving a certain symbiosis between the industrial and urban sector. Since more and more resources are accumulated in the urban sector, urban mining as form of waste recycling in a massive way becomes an outstanding way to achieve industrial and urban symbiosis. In 2010 China initiated a national urban mining pilot base (UMPB) programme with the objective of developing the recycling industry and relieving environmental and resource constrains. This study aims to provide policy review of the programme. We find that the UMPB programme was developed from past circular economy policies and attains legacy assurance from current laws and national plans. But this did not formulate a perfect governance context for its implementation. A multi-ministerial cross-management network led to policy conflicts, and recycling-oriented legislation remained absent. These became the main barriers for the good implementation of those urban mining pilots. Comparing with the eco-town programme in Japan, it shows that both programmes share some similarities of partial policy objectives but also show variety in the scope of urban symbiosis due to the different problems they focus on and the slightly different policy objectives under the different economic and social development phases.

Recent scholarly attention shows that grassroots civil society low-carbon energy initiatives increasingly become part of the subnational climate change governance landscape. Despite their potency in view of consumer-owned distributed generation and enhanced citizen influence in the organization of the energy infrastructure, local low-carbon energy initiatives (LLCEIs) struggle to become viable alternatives to the centralized, private oriented energy system. To further LLCEI development, support needs to build their capacities, alleviate institutional hurdles and barriers stemming from the fossil fuel-based energy regime, and open up the system for the uptake, acceptance or breakthrough of LLCEIs. Evidence suggests that so-called &ldquo, intermediaries&rdquo, form a part of the solution in addressing these issues. Despite previous attempts at analyzing intermediary roles and activities vis-&agrave, vis the development of community energy, the reality of the various roles and strategies intermediaries can employ and the support LLCEIs require to further develop have not yet been synthesized in a comprehensive analytical framework. This article aims to fill this gap by developing such a framework. We reflect on the analytical framework by evaluating the intermediary support structure in a specific case: the Province of Frysl&acirc, n. From the analysis, we conclude that the Frisian case provided modest support to the claim that intermediary support is effective in addressing the needs of LLCEIs as the strategies and roles observed represent a complete and coherent support structure.

© 2018 The Authors Changing residential energy demand can play an essential role in transitioning to a green economy. Environmental psychology suggests that behavioral changes regarding energy use are affected by knowledge, awareness, motivation and social learning. Data on various behavioral drivers of change can explain energy use at the individual level, but it provides little information about implications for macro energy demand on regional or national levels. We address this challenge by presenting a theoretically-based and empirically-driven agent-based model to track aggregated impacts of behavioral changes among heterogeneous households. We focus on the representation of the multi-step changes in individual energy use behavior and on a quantitative assessment of their aggregated impacts on the regional level. We understand the behavioral complexity of household energy use as a dynamic process unfolding in stages, and explore the barriers for utilizing the full potential of a region for emissions reduction. We suggest a policy mix that facilitates mutual learning among consumers.

After many years at the forefront of renewable energy (RE) implementation both in Europe and worldwide, Spain experienced a sudden transformation in 2012 to its RE development model in which national government backing and financial incentives for renewables were removed, throwing the RE sector into a paralysis which continues to the present day. This is in marked contrast to the case of the other major European RE leader, Germany, where it has been argued that RE implementation has produced a “regime shift” that has transformed the energy generation model to a new resilient pathway. In this paper, key differences between Spanish regions are identified in the way the RE implementation process has been carried out. The research brings these different characteristics into focus and analyses the strengths and weaknesses of the RE implementation process in each region. If stakeholders at all levels are empowered and motivated towards the implementation process goal, it is less likely that a few, very powerful actors (e.g. multinational energy companies or governments) can dominate the process, and thus systemic instability can be reduced. In this way, lock-down situations like the current one can be avoided in future and a more resilient system can be designed.

De toepassing van Europese natuurbeschermingsregels wordt bij veel infrastructurele projecten als juridische belemmering ervaren. In deze bijdrage geven de auteurs een positieve blik op de ervaringen in of nabij Natura 2000-gebieden in Noordwest-Europese estuaria en kustgebieden en stellen dat Natura 2000 niet per se een struikelblok hoeft te vormen, en dat het toepassen van innovatieve ontwerpmethoden als Bouwen met de Natuur het verschil kan maken voor de implementatie van Natura 2000 op projectniveau. Empirisch bewijs hiervoor is in veertien cases gezocht, waarbij drie verschillende onderzoeksontwerpen zijn gebruikt. Afgesloten wordt met een vooruitblik naar wat dit betekent voor de private partijen en overheden, voor de evaluatie van Natura 2000 in 2015 en voor Bouwen met de Natuur als innovatieve ontwerpmethode

The realignment of the international river Scheldt into a flood control area in Kruibeke, Bazel and Rupelmonde in Flanders (Belgium) took over 35 years. It evolved from a technocratic engi- neering concept towards a sophisticated example of an integrated flood risk measure to enhance the adaptive capacity of the international river Scheldt. Connecting the functional domains of flood control, nature restoration (as compensation for the environmental impact of the expan- sion of the Port of Antwerp) and agriculture in this flood control area and finding an appropriate frame proved to be a difficult task. In this article, we focus our analysis on two important aspects of creating space for the river Scheldt near the towns of Kruibeke, Bazel and Rupelmonde. To begin with, we present how the problem definition and the proposed space for the river solution evolved over time in interaction between the main involved actors. In addition to that, we look at the frames of proponents and opponents of the creation of a space for controlled flood storage. Finally, in light of and partially explained by aforementioned governance aspects we look at the evolution of the fit of the proposed solution within stakeholder boundary judgments.

Climate change and environmental problems are of major concern to governments, organisations, and consumers. This stresses the need for a transition towards clean renewable energy systems. To enable the diffusion of cleaner energy technology it is not enough to just have supportive policies in place. The challenge is to ensure that consumers adopt them. This article integrates insights from different research traditions into a research model to analyse consumers’ adoption decision-making behaviour. The innovation-diffusion model by Rogers was used and hypotheses from environmental psychological models were later added. A survey was conducted among householders to assess the adoption of solar heating systems in the Metn neighbourhood in Lebanon (N = 200). The results revealed that adopters and non-adopters differ significantly according to socio-demographic factors, such as income and household size.The study confirmed the significance of typical variables of the diffusion of innovation model, such as relative advantage, observability, independent judgment-making, and novelty-seeking; even when testing integrative analytical models. Furthermore, the results indicate that, by integrating hypotheses from environmental psychology models to the diffusion of innovation model, a reasonable fit was achieved which is higher than the value of each model tested separately. The results can be of use to policy makers. The article ends with suggestions for future research.

In light of climate change and global commitments, a great amount of programs and policies have been implemented by governments targeting the diffusion of renewable energy technologies. Successful diffusion relies on the understanding, persuasion and acceptance by consumers and other stakeholders. This article investigates the views, roles and influence of stakeholders on the adoption of solar energy technology in Lebanon. The main research questions are: What are the stakeholders' views, roles and influence on the diffusion process of solar energy technologies? And are specific socio-cultural factors therein that influenced adoption? The influence of different stakeholders (end users, public representatives, banking sector, suppliers, consultants and NGOs) was assessed via qualitative data analysis, in particular semi-structured interviews. Our research perspective combines grounded and critical theoretical approaches with a case study research design allowing for a semi-inductive process to elaborate and complement new insights to the current body of literature on adoption of clean technology innovation, with a particular focus on the socio-cultural dimension. The results show that contextual factors, specifically related to the social, cultural, geographic and market dimensions, played a crucial role in shaping market development, especially in relation to the uptake of solar energy technology by different consumer groups. Based on the results of this study we argue that more scholarly attention should be awarded to the influence of the socio-cultural dimension and stakeholders' perspectives on adoption of renewable energy technology.

The paper explores the connection between governance and the resilience of the Drents- Friese Wold National Park in the Netherlands. We assess the governance context that affects the implementation of measures to increase drought resilience in the Park. The Oude Willem area restoration project within the Park is studied more explicitly as one of the measures applied towards managing an area eroded due to long agricultural land use. The focus is on the governance context and process under which measures are taken rather than on the results of the implementation of the measures. The case shows that context is changing over time as the priorities of stakeholders change from economic to nature development and vice versa, making it a complex process to implement measures. The Governance Assessment Tool is used to analyze the governance context in the restoration project. The observations signify the qualities of the governance dimensions in the process of enhancing the resilience of the area. Though the assessment reveals some weaknesses, the overall picture shows the governance context to be relatively supportive with high involvement of multilevel actors dealing with adaptive measures. The transition to a more decentralized governance system and the recognition of multi-level/scale approach, as a response to changes, has created a new context for the protected area management