Water is a basis for life and ecosystem health. And water, especially in regions affected by water scarcity, is a highly contested and politicised natural resource. The state-of-the-art in sustainable water resources management requires collaborative approaches that foster the integration of conflicting interests of multiple stakeholders. Achieving integration in complex and contested real life situations however remains a major challenge. Boundary work can facilitate this ambitious goal. This study evolves boundary work science to improve collaboration in the water sector. It develops a framework for boundary work that enables understanding, structuring and approaching barriers for collaborative water resources management. A case study from the Garden Route region, South Africa gives a grounded basis for the conceptual developments and further provides in-depth insights into reasons and obstacles for collaborative water resources management in a contested local case. The case study serves both: An intrinsic analysis of a conflictive case, and conceptual developments to the boundary work framework - tested against local realities.
Unternehmen sind heutzutage mit einer Vielzahl von Herausforderungen und Veränderungen konfrontiert, die zugleich Chance und Risiko für ihre wirtschaftliche Weiterentwicklung darstellen. Dazu gehören nicht nur grundlegende Trends wie Klimawandel, Ressourcenknappheit oder Urbanisierung, sondern auch der Wandel von Technologien, Geschäftsmodellen, gesetzlichen Rahmenbedingungen oder der gesellschaftlichen Akzeptanz. All dies hat globale und nationale Veränderungen in Märkten zur Folge und stellt die darin operierenden Unternehmen vor konkrete Herausforderungen. Die Auseinandersetzung mit der Zukunft gewinnt somit immer mehr an Bedeutung und stellt einen wichtigen Faktor für den langfristigen und nachhaltigen Erfolg eines Unternehmens dar.
Die Strategische Frühaufklärung unterstützt Unternehmen dabei, Herausforderungen und Veränderungen rechtzeitig zu identifizieren und darauf zu reagieren. Stefan Reicherz erstellt eine flexible Blaupause hierfür: Individuell an ein Unternehmen angepasst, liefert sie diesem die notwendigen Informationen und Hilfsmittel, um erfolgreiche Strategische Frühaufklärung durchzuführen - und damit aus Risiken Chancen werden zu lassen.
How can renewable energy sources be efficiently integrated into the North African electricity systems? By using techno-economic modeling methods, this book explores optimized electricity system expansion pathways until the year 2030 for the five North African countries - Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt. The results indicate that renewable energy integration is actually a viable business case for the entire region, if wind and solar capacities are properly planned in conjunction with the conventional generation system and under consideration of the country-specific electricity supply-/demand patterns. Further aspects featured in this publication are the impact of renewable power on the transnational electricity transmission system and the question how decision making processes about renewable energy strategies can be improved in the North African context. The book is a contribution to the scientific literature about energy issues in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), but also seeks to address political and industrial practitioners concerned with the development of the region's renewable energy future.
Alexandra Seibt untersucht Wirtschaftsverbände im Längsschnitt anhand eines Mehrmethodendesigns, bestehend aus Dokumentenanalysen, Inhaltsanalysen und teilstandardisierten Leitfadeninterviews. Die Autorin kann bei den Verbänden einen zunehmenden kombinierten Einsatz von öffentlichen und nicht öffentlichen Kommunikationsstrategien im Sinne des PA-Managements nachweisen. Verbände nutzen hierbei - wie Protestgruppen und NGOs - die Öffentlichkeit, um über die externe Kommunikation Aufmerksamkeit und Zustimmung für ihre Interessen im politischen System zu generieren. Als Fallbeispiel dienen die Verbände der Branche der erneuerbaren Energien während der Novellierungen zum Erneuerbare-Energien-Gesetz.
In 2009, the German government launched its "National Development Plan for Electric Mobility" which set the concrete target of having 1 million electric vehicles on the road by 2020. However, there have been hypes around e-mobility before and even if this goal were to be reached, a merely quantitative aim of a certain number of electric vehicles will not suffice to contribute to a more sustainable development in transport. This requires a more comprehensive vision of sustainable e-mobility as a system innovation. Thus, the question addressed in this thesis is: How can we assess - at this critical early stage - whether there is potential for e-mobility developing as a sustainable system innovation? A theoretical framework will be developed for assessing the potential of a wider transition at an early stage by analyzing current patterns of socio-technical co-evolution and embedding these in a wider framework of the structural dynamics involved in transitions. The aim of the analysis is to identify whether 'system-innovative' projects do emerge in the case of Germany/Baden-Württemberg and what patterns (e.g. in terms of specific actor constellations, institutional adjustments etc.) can explain this. It will be shown that the system-innovative potential of this e-mobility niche remains limited, due to the powerful influence of incumbents, conflicting political goals and traditional science approaches. A few more system-innovative activities emerge where powerful actors from outside are involved, who are capable of viewing mobility in a more systemic way (e.g. actors from the public transport or housing sector). It is argued that the role of large demonstration projects is important, but they need to be designed as transdisciplinary research projects from the beginning.
For a long time, water shortages and flooding have been challenges in many parts of China. Meanwhile, the Chinese government announced the change of water management from engineering-oriented approach towards integrated approach in the last decades. However, the announced changes in management approach does not necessarily lead to the wide implementation of institutions, infrastructures and practice. They can be confronted by a strong resistance from the existing management approach. In fact, the development of water resources management is a complex process. Such a complexity raise the following questions: did fundamental changes really take place in the structure of water supply and demand management and flood management in China? If yes, how? In order to answer this question, the author (1) developed conceptual frameworks to enable a detailed and precise analysis of regime development; (2)applied the elaborated conceptual frameworks to explore the development of the water resources management regime in China, at the example of three case studies. These three case studies were: - Flood Management (IFM) took place in the Dongting Lake Area in the middle Yangtze River, - Water allocation in the Yellow River Basin, - The experimentation period of Water Saving Society in China. With the support of the developed framework, the case studies show that fundamental changes, i.e. transitions, have taken place in flood management regime and water supply-demand regime in China, but transitions have not yet completed, due to, namely, the lack of reconfiguration of other regime components and other relevant regimes. In addition, the case studies also depict how the start of transitions were triggered and how informal learning processes influenced regime development. The thesis contributed to sustainability transitions research by developing an operational approach to analyze transitions of water resource management regime and by expanding the empirical basis for transitions research to natural resources management regime in emerging economies.
Die Produktion von Biokraftstoffen ist wegen der Konkurrenz mit der Lebensmittelproduktion ein weltweit umstrittenes Thema. Die vorliegende Arbeit beschäftigt sich mit einer Pflanze, die giftig ist, und daher bei der Biokraftstoff-Produktion nicht in Konkurrenz mit der Lebensmittelproduktion tritt. Der Name der Pflanze ist Jatropha curcas und sie ist unter anderem in Südamerika heimisch.
Die Autorin hat eine Methode zur Abschätzung des Anbaupotenzials von J. curcas entwickelt, die auf einer ArcGIS-Datenbank, internationalen Anbau-Erfahrungen und einer Studie der bolivianischen Regierung und dem Entwicklungsprogramm der Vereinten Nationen beruht. Die vorliegende Untersuchung ist eine Fall-Studie zur möglichen Biokraftstoff-Produktion aus J. curcas in einer Region in Bolivien. Im Untersuchungsgebiet El Gran Chaco im Departamento Santa Cruz sind rund 7 Mio. ha Boden fortgeschritten erodiert, dies entspricht 86 % der Gesamtoberfläche des Untersuchungsgebiets. Zugleich ist das Untersuchungsgebiet durch niedrigen Niederschlag, Dürre-Anfälligkeit, trockene Luft, und Nährstoffarmut charakterisiert.
Neben der Bestimmung des J. curcas Anbaupotenzials im Untersuchungsgebiet werden auch die Auswirkungen des Anbaus präsentiert. Es werden Handlungsempfehlungen zu einer nachhaltigen Biodieselproduktion im industriellen Maßstab für Regierung, Bauern und Investoren vorgenommen. Dabei werden ökologische und sozioökonomische Kriterien berücksichtigt.
Die Arbeit kommt zu dem Ergebnis, dass für Länder wie Bolivien mit entsprechenden klimatischen Bedingungen, genügend Ackerfläche, geringer Bevölkerungsdichte und ausreichender Flächen-Verfügbarkeit sowie Anfälligkeit für Krisen wie Nahrungsmittel- und Energieknappheit, der Anbau von Biokraftstoffpflanzen ein Beitrag für wirtschaftliches Wachstum sein und auch regionale Probleme wie den steigenden Diesel-Importbedarf (teilweise) lösen kann.
The rising global demand for metals in a context of declining ore grades is driving the opening of new mines and the expansion of existing ones, disturbing substantial land areas (especially by open pits). However, how much land is currently disturbed globally? How much land could be disturbed by metal mining in 2050? This study investigates the global area disturbed by mining of iron, bauxite, copper, gold, and silver for the first time. The first part consists of the calculation of the specific land requirements, i.e. the area newly disturbed caused by the ore extraction at the mine site. The second part addresses the global area disturbed in the year 2011 whereas the third presents scenarios of how such area might evolve until 2050. The last part addresses the current and future pressures on global biodiversity by metal mines and shows possibilities for the future opening of new mines in low biodiversity areas, alleviating pressures in high biodiversity ones. This study presents the findings of the author´s dissertation hoping they are used as a frame to develop policies and incentives to reduce the amount of area directly disturbed by mines and their pressures on biodiversity.