This case study analyzes the socio-institutional relationship of watershed protection over the past decade in the Maasin watershed in the Philippines. In this study, the methodology of data gathering basically made use of a historical transect tool of Participatory Rapid Appraisal (PRA). Interviews, focus group discussion, workshops, photo documentations were conducted. ; PES-1 (Payments for Environmental Services Associate Award)
[EN] There is a growing interest in model-based decision support systems contributing to strategic planning. The application of these in the case of urban infrastructure planning requires methods specifically aimed at addressing the relational uncertainties arising from the complex, multi-scale, nature of this field. This study presents UPSS, a comprehensive urban planning support system integrating the generation of planning alternatives, the evaluation of alternatives under a set of relevant scenarios selected dynamically in a cognitive way, and the proposal of policies to accompany the planning alternative. For this purpose, UPSS integrates two novel methods. These deal respectively with the ex post identification of relevant scenarios for the evaluation of the vulnerability and resilience of the alternatives, and with the assessment of relational uncertainty. According to the risks and opportunities borne by the system, the process makes it possible to select an infrastructure plan to alleviate the problem of urban vulnerability, as well as a set of relational contracts for its proper implementation across the different governmental scales of the infrastructure system. The whole process is tested via a case study, in which USPP first proposes optimal urban infrastructure plans that contribute to ameliorate the problem of urban vulnerability in Spain, then evaluates the risks and opportunities attached to the planning alternatives, and finally presents sets of policy measures to accompany the implementation of the alternative selected. ; The authors acknowledge the financial support of the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, along with FEDER funding (Project: BIA2017-85098-R). ; Salas, J.; Yepes, V. (2019). MS-ReRO and D-ROSE methods: Assessing relational uncertainty and evaluating scenarios risks and opportunities on multi-scale infrastructure systems. Journal of Cleaner Production. 216:607-623. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.12.083 ; S ; 607 ; 623 ; 216
This paper presents new evidence on the role of subsidized contraceptives in influencing fertility behavior. It draws on two types of disruptions that affected the public supply of free contraceptives in the Philippines: a sharp reduction induced by the phase out of contraceptive donations to the country from an external donor coupled with a government policy that shirked public funding to fill the supply shortfall, and substantial fluctuations in the shipment of free contraceptives to the country's provinces that was brought about by supply chain issues. It finds that birth rates were responsive to both broad and transitory changes in public contraceptive supply: provinces which experienced big declines in the supply of freecontraceptives also had big increases (or small decreases) in birth rates, while temporary supply drops (increases) were followed by rising (falling) birth rates. It also identifies poor, less educated, and rural women as the groups which were least able to cope with short-term gaps in public contraceptive supply.
The DEPURANATt project received co-financing from the European Union through its interregional cooperation programme, Interreg IIIB Atlantic Arc Programme. This project, coordinated by the Canary Islands Institute of Technology, allowed French, Portuguese and Spanish institutions to work together on sustainable management of wastewater in rural and protected areas. Within the framework of this project, twelve natural wastewater treatment systems have been built or adapted from pre-existing systems in Portugal, Andalusia and the Canary islands. In these systems, a shared ambitious protocol of physical-chemical and microbiological analyses was established, and several studies carried out with respect to the agronomical quality of the effluents and the physiology of the plants. These analytical campaigns also attempted to promote a positive image of these systems to, and in, the rural areas. Moreover, it is important for the target publics to value correctly the possibilities created by regenerated wastewater and vegetal biomass, and thus accept the same as integral methods which contribute to sustainable local development. Several studies relating to social integration were focused, to this end, on measuring people's acceptance of these systems in their areas, whereas the environmental impact of the systems was determined using an adapted life cycle assessment methodology. The economic analysis of the systems focused on analysing the financial indicators, empirical cost functions, and the potential market for these technologies. Furthermore, maps of potential areas where natural wastewater treatment systems may be implemented have been created. Finally, a support tool for deciding upon the installation of conventional or natural wastewater treatment systems has been designed with the aim of informing at technicians about the most suitable technology to be applied in each ...
