Assessment of urban sustainable development using fuzzy comprehensive evaluation

1. Introduction In 1987, World Commission on Environment and Development explained the concept of sustainable development for the first time in the report Our Com- mon Future, which has reached a wide agreement. “Sustainable development seeks to meet the needs and aspirations of the present without compromis- ing the ability to meet those of the future”. In other words, it refers to the harmonious development of economy, society, resources and environment, which are an inseparable system.…     

A model of techno-economic evaluation for eco-industrial park project

An eco-industrial park or estate is a community of manufactaring and service businesses located together on a common property. The goat of ElP is to create a win-win harmonious development aspect of ecooomic development and environmental protection. This paper emphasizes that the external .effect of an EIP is its main characteristic of technoeconomic evaluation for eco-industrial park project. From the view of the property, rights, the EIP＇s product is typicalty public-private. The government should take some inca.rares for the quantitative analysis on ecological positive externalities of the enterprises in EIP, and also should adopt Coase＇s Theorem, which supports that the market transaction is the best way to deal with positive externalities （external economics or diseconoraics）, or Pigou＇s Theorem, which holds that the government anti-positive externalities programs are the best way to cope with positive externalities, to internalize the EIP＇s external effects, which is also a fundamental tool to encourage investors to actively invest in EIP projects, Furthermore. this paper thinks that the EIP ＇s income should be equal to the income of staple products of the private property, and that of its by-products of the public property. According to this principle, this paper has put forward three major indicators, net present value （NPV）, internal rate of renan （IRR）, and investment repayment period （IRP）, which are also extensively used indicators in ardinary project techno-economic evaluation model to evaluate EIP technoeconomic effects. Theoretically, the indicatory not only can be used in EIP project evaluation, but also can provide a quantitative measure toot for the government to support EIP＇s construction to the maximum. In the end. a case is analyzed.     

An economic evaluation of SPREAD on Rwanda’s rural population

Sustainable Partnerships to Enhance Rural Enterprises and Agricultural Development (SPREAD) was a programme to enhance the value chain for commodities in Rwanda including coffee. The implicit concept was that improving the value chain would increase the incomes for smallholders and, hence, reduce the poverty rate. The results indicate that Rwanda coffee prices increased relative to an index price for traded coffee with the implementation of SPREAD. In addition, the results indicate that participation in the coffee market at this time was associated with higher household income and lower rates of poverty.     

Do hard pegs avoid currency crises? An evaluation using matching estimators

Using the bias-corrected matching estimators of Abadie and Imbens (2006) as a control for the self-selection problem of regime adoption, we estimate the average treatment effect of hard pegs on the occurrence of currency crises. We find the evidence that hard pegs significantly decrease the likelihood of currency crises compared with other regimes.     

Bibliometrics-based evaluation of the Blockchain research trend: 2008 – March 2017

The aim of this study is to review the literature growth and author productivity of Blockchain technology research from 2008 to March 2017. 801 articles were retrieved from Scopus database and analyzed with bibliometrics approach using different perspective views. The author productivity was derived using the Lotka’s law and K-S test was performed to verify the reliability. The result indicates that the number of literatures on Blockchain is still increasing. Three stages of Blockchain research change were discovered. In 2008 to 2013, the topics were related to the Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies; in 2014 to 2015, the number of Bitcoin literatures grew rapidly; after 2016, a lot of researchers are paying attention to the techniques of Blockchain and smart contract. Moreover, the distribution of author productivity meets the study of Lotka. This study presents state-of-the-art and abstract the trend of Blockchain research regarding several perspectives of bibliometrics analysis.     

Should special agricultural safeguard be ignored? An evaluation for dairy trade

This study measured the impact of special agricultural safeguards (SSG) on dairy products imports by the US and Japan. It was observed that dairy products have been the most affected by this protectionist measures, and that these countries are relevant importers that impose SSG. The tariff lines subject to SSG were selected, and the period of analysis was from 1995 to 2015. The results showed that the impact of SSG applied by the US was much higher than for Japan. The overall estimated value of imports that did not happen due to the application of SSGs was approximately USD 2 billion. Specifically for the Brazilian economy, the condensed milk not exported to the US due to SSG applied cost the country BRL 345 million in GDP value and almost 4.5 thousand jobs. These results might be underestimating these effects, since the SSG tariff was not subject to calculation in several years.     

Study on the evaluation system for the cleaner production of the mine

It is important to establish the evaluation system of the cleaner production of the mining enterprise, which canprovide the technical support and guidance for the cleaner production evaluation and facilitating the promotion ofcleaner productive techniques so as to realize the integration of economic development and environmental protection.This paper, according to the characteristic of mining and Analytic Hierarchy Process （AHP）, establishes the evaluationindex system, puts forward the overall quantitative evaluation method based on Fuzzy Mathematics and the experts’experience, and establishes the evaluation system of cleaner production. The main problems in cleaner production of themine are analyzed by calculation, and some countermeasures and suggestions are proposed.     

Tobit or OLS? An empirical evaluation under different diary window lengths

Researchers analysing time-use data often estimate limited dependent variable models because time spent must be nonnegative and cannot be more than the total amount of time in a given observation period. While the traditional empirical technique applied to such cases is maximum likelihood estimation of a Tobit (censored regression) model, recent debate has questioned whether linear models estimated via Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) are preferable. On the one hand, Tobit models are deemed necessary to address the significant censoring (i.e. large numbers of zeroes) typically found in time-use data, in the face of which OLS estimators would be biased and inconsistent. Yet, optimization occurs over a longer period than that covered by the typical time diary (often a day), and thus some argue that reported zeroes represent a measurement problem rather than true nonparticipation in the activity, in which case OLS would be preferred. We provide direct empirical evidence on this question using the Australian Time Use Surveys, which record time-use information for two consecutive diary days, by estimating censored and linear versions of a parental child care model for both 24-hour and 48-hour windows of observation in order to determine the empirical consequences of estimation technique and diary length.     

The depletion of coastal environmental resources by human activities and its monetary evaluation

The marine environment provides rich and varied resources and services or functions for human＇s production and life. Many countries have competitively exploited and utilized sea and ocean to develop marine economy for some years. The over-exploitation of marine environment and the overuse of marine resources have led to resource degradation,environmental pollution and ecosystem destruction. Considering the depletion of coastal environmental resources dur-ing planning, governing and decision-making is an important measure to promote the harmonious and sustainabledevelopment of coastal environmental resources and social economy, the main precondition of which is that the depletionof coastal environmental resources by human activities has been monetarily evaluated. Firstly, this paper summarizesrelevant references in this field and analyzes different sorts of depletion of coastal environmental resources caused byhuman activities and the necessity and importance of the monetary evaluation. Finally, this paper extensively discussesthe corresponding evaluation models of the depletion of marine mineral resources, marine organism resources, mari-time transport resources, intertidal zones and shallow seas, and marine environmental functions and services includingenvironmental capacity, gas regulation, disturbance prevention, recreation and biodiversity.     

A grey dynamic model for the evaluation of regional sustainable development and its empirical study

Currently, traditional development issues, such as economic stagnation, as well as new challenges like environmental degradation and globalization, need attention. Sustainable development, including economic, environmental, and social elements, is a main goal of decision-makers. The key to sustainable decision-making is to evaluate and forecast the status quo of sustainable development. Policy makers need a tool based on scientific information to forecast the effects of future actions on sustainability and make policies for sustainable development. This paper analyzes the relation of the economy, environment and social welfare by the grey dynamic model. The proposed method uses time series and basic indicators of ecological system, including economic, environmental and social sub-systems. It is applied to Heilongjiang Province and Jiangsu Province. The results have proved different status quo of sustainable development in these two regions, and suggestions are proposed, such as optimization of industrial structure and eco-industrial development. The conclusion is that there is no unique sustainable path, and accordingly, policy makers should choose different criteria and strategies to make efficient sustainable decisions for each region.     

Cost–benefit analysis – evaluation model of cloud computing deployment for use in companies

The use of cloud computing services appears to offer significant cost advantages. The most frequently mentioned advantages include investment and operating costs saving, high elasticity of services as well as increased flexibility of certain business processes. On the other hand, the adoption of cloud computing in enterprise environments is non-trivial. Understanding the organizational benefits and drawbacks is far from straightforward. The adoption of cloud computing results in a considerable amount of organizational change that will affect employees. The aim of this contribution is to conduct and describe the evaluation model of cloud computing that would be applicable in business practice for evaluating the effectiveness of such investments. The target users of this model are primarily people in companies with decision-making power in the investment field. The appropriate starting point based on the multi-criteria evaluation was the cost–benefit analysis (CBA) approach for cloud computing (CC). A multi-method approach (systematic literature review, analysis of real cloud computing services, expert interview, case study) was applied in order to develop and evaluate the formal model. We found that our model fits the practical requirements and supports decision-making in cloud computing.     

Quantitative evaluation of sustainable development based on ecological footprint method： a case study of Tianjin

Since the coneept of sustainable devetopment emerged in the late 1980s, more and more countries and regions have been utilizing sustainable development as their developing stratety. But decades have passed without any effective methods available to quantitatively assess sustainable development. Since the ecological footprint evaluation method initiated in 1992, it has become popular in quantitative assessment of sustainable development because of its convenience, easy-understanding, and rehability. As one of the biggest coastal cities in north China and the economic center of the Bohai Coastal Region, Tianjin＇s gross domestic product （GDP） was 369. 762 billion yuan in 2005, accounting for 2.0°of the whole nation＇s GDP. The paper analyzes Tianjin＇s development with the ecological footprint method, and the results show that Tianjin＇s ecoiogical footprint and biocapacity in 2005 were 2.507gha/cap and 0.2 76gha/cap respectively. The ecological deficit was 2.230gha/cap.And from 1980 to 2005,Tianjin＇s ecological deficit per 10^4 yuan GDP decreased;while per capita ecological deficit has been tending to increase rapidly in recent years.All these result demonstrate that Tianjin is in a state of unsustainable development.     

The impact of government debt on the long-run natural real interest rate – a quantitative evaluation

Persistently low natural real interest rates are a problem for monetary policy and financial stability. I analyse to what extent a permanent increase in government debt that is financed by higher taxes could raise the long-run natural real interest rate. As a measurement tool, I use an incomplete markets model with capital and government bonds. Increasing the public debt/GDP ratio by one percentage point raises the real interest rate by between 0.4 and 1.5 basis points, depending on the degree of inequality generated by the model and the tax instrument used to balance the government’s budget constraint. I also show that the interest rate effect of a change in public debt/GDP predicted by the model is significantly smaller than its empirical counterpart for the US, due to the fact that the model understates the empirical fraction of households that are constrained in their consumption decision.     

What does it mean to find the face of the franchise? Physical attractiveness and the evaluation of athletic performance

We show that attractiveness, as measured by facial symmetry, leads to greater rewards in professional sports. National Football League quarterbacks who are more attractive are paid greater salaries and this premium persists after controlling for player performance.     

Emergy evaluation of the artificial forest ecosystems in the watershed of Miyun Reservoir：a case study for ecosystems valuation and environmental management

To build the artificial forest ecosystem is the major eco-economic development model in the watershed of Miyun Reservoir. It is very important to evaluate the benefits of those ecosystems. Emergy theories are very helpful for us to establish a science-based assessment framework. Emergy evaluation of the artificial forest ecosystems in the watershed of Miyun Reservoir is used to asses the relative values of several ecological functions （sometimes called ecosystem services） and main ecosystem storages （sometimes called natural capital）. The main driving energies, internal processes and storages are evaluated. The main functions, including transpiration, GPP and infiltration, are evaluated, which are 609em$/ha/yr, 6,245em$/ha/yr and 340em$/ha/yr respectively. The total values of major environmental services are 4,683em$/ha/yr in the artificial forest ecosystem. The main storages of natural capital including live biomass, soil moisture, organic matter, underground water and landform are estimated, which are 112,028em$/ha, 9em$/ha, 40,718em$/ha, 34em$/ha and 6,400,514em$/ha respectively. The largest value is landform, which accounts for 97.7% of these calculated total emdollar values. The concept of replacement value is explored using the emergy values of both ecosystem services and natural capital. The total calculated replacement values are 302,160em$/ha.