Sustainable development of energy, water and environment systems: 25 years after our common future
Article Type: Guest editorial From: Management of Environmental Quality: An International Journal, Volume 25, Issue 1
The 1980s of the previous century mark a point in the history when awareness was growing about the risk for overstepping global environmental limits, the need to adapt the use of natural resources to the long-term carrying capacity of the planet, as well as about the fact that unequal opportunity and unequal distribution of resources were at the heart of the problem. The predominant thinking at that time was: it is either the environment you can protect or it is the economy you can develop,but not both at the same time.
The Brundtland Commission faced this setting with a new political idea: a sustainable development is how it is recommended to face the challenge of meeting the needs of present generations without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. This political concept includes equity and justice, within and between generations, and clear idea of developing a shared understanding of the long-term goals for human life on earth, new governance instruments and collective action.
In celebration of the 25th anniversary of the “Report on Our Common Future” – the most important point in turning the world towards a more sustainable future, the 7th SDEWES Conference was aimed at looking into sustainable development Whats, Hows and Whos of energy, water and environment systems and providing responsive scientific support to the emerging international,European, regional and national challenges. Being held in Ohrid, the pearl of Macedonia and another UNESCO world heritage site, this was the first in the series of SDEWES conferences organized outside Dubrovnik, and served as a venue for more than 200 world-wide scientists and specialists and those interested in learning about the sustainability of development, coming from 45 countries to present research progress and to discuss the state of the art, the future directions and priorities in the various areas of sustainable development.
This special issue includes six selected SDEWES papers which cover a variety of environmental issues, including sustainable development planning at local level, controlling the protected cultivation, integrated product policy, drinking water networks and green electricity production, as well as a number of energy-related topics like costs of rural electricity production,sustainable power density and energy planning.
Specifically, studying the interactions between local government institutions and civil society in achieving local sustainable development on the case of Drina River Basin municipalities, it was shown that local sustainable development planning, although still lacking the proper methodological approach and facing insufficiencies in institutional and implementation capacities,is becoming more appreciated by local authorities in the Western Balkan region (Milutinovic and Zivkovic, 2013). Protected cultivation, as a specific topic under local sustainable development, was considered in Iliev et al. (2013). The underlying study presented a design of a fuzzy logic-based control system which optimizes the greenhouse energy and water consumption and discussed its advantages over the traditional greenhouse automation control systems.
As far as the industrial policy is concerned, an integrated product policy decision support framework for the Republic of Macedonia was formulated in Grncharovska et al. (2013), which takes into account the unique circumstances faced by the country, particularly the mandatory transposition of European Union (EU) environmental legislation, limited availability of national data and the low level of environmental awareness. It was argued that by incorporating a long-term view, explicit measurement of progress towards integrated product policy implementation and the consideration of possible future consequences of policy decisions made in the present, this framework could significantly increase the likelihood of successful integrated product policy implementation and improve environmental outcomes compared to those obtained using more conventional approaches.
Addressing the water-energy synergy, an innovative methodology aiming to identify potential interconnections among separate municipal networks and new hydropower possibilities was presented in Blanc and Cherix (2013). This methodology makes it possible to compile on a unique map complex and dissociated elements, giving decision-makers an overview focused on added-value in terms of water resources and consumption, as well as economic and energy impacts.
To the end of energy-related topics, in the time extended definition of land use proposed in Buceti (2013), power density could eventually become the universal parameter to compare the different energy options and to show how limitation in land comes to be the root of all resources limitations. Accordingly, the paper argued that the sustainable power density may be an indicator much more significant than economic ones usually used. Finally, focusing on Slovenian case, Pusnik et al. (2013) presented a repeatable and practical application of three widely used multi-criteria methods in the process of national energy policy development, as a methodological approach for finding realistic solutions to the problem of the future development challenges in small energy systems.
The guest editors believe that the selected papers and addressed issues would be of interest for the readers of the international journal Management of Environmental Quality.
At last, the guest editors would like to thank all the reviewers who have made most valuable contribution by reviewing, commenting and advising authors. Special thanks should go to the administration staff of the international journal Management of Environmental Quality for their excellent support.
Professor Natasa Markovska
Research Center for Energy, Informatics and Materials, Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Skopje, Macedonia
Professor Neven Duic
Department of Energy, Power Engineering and Environment, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
References
Blanc, G. and Cherix, G. (2013), “Drinking water networks interconnections and green electricity production: case study in a Swiss Alps pilot region”, Management of Environmental Quality: An International Journal, Vol. 25 No 1, pp. 52-62
Buceti, G. (2013), “Sustainable power density in electricity generation”, Management of Environmental Quality: An International Journal, Vol. 25 No 1, pp. 5-18
Grncharovska, T.O., Sharma, M. and Dukovski, V. (2013), “An integrated product policy (IPP) decision framework”, Management of Environmental Quality: An International Journal, Vol. 25 No 1, pp. 63-74
Iliev, O.L., Sazdov, P. and Zakeri, A. (2013), “A Fuzzy logic based controller for integrated control of protected cultivation”, Management of Environmental Quality: An International Journal, Vol. 25 No 1, pp. 75-86
Milutinovic, S. and Zivkovic, S. (2013), “Planning local sustainable development in the Western Balkan”, Management of Environmental Quality: An International Journal, Vol. 25 No 1, pp. 19-29
Pusnik, M., Sucic, B. and Urbancic, A. (2013), “Integrated and realistic approach to energy planning – a case study of Slovenia”, Management of Environmental Quality: An International Journal, Vol. 25 No 1, pp. 30-51
