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In planning regional road development, planners often face a challenge to reconcile various interests and interpretations on the ultimate goals which complicate the discussion decision-making processes. This situation is defined as strategic ambiguity. Standard procedures for impact assessment are mostly ineffective at offering solutions that satisfy all involved stakeholders. This paper analyses the situation by using a Multiple Stream Framework (MSF) approach. MSF identifies three factors, labelled "streams', i.e. the problems, the solutions, and the politics streams, that open sustainability 'windows' for integrating different interests. This paper investigates the opening of such windows in two highway projects in Indonesia. Both projects showed a high ambition for achieving environmental sustainability. In these cases, the window was opened through (i) recognition of the problems and the solutions by the active involvement of stakeholders, (ii) coalitions with influential stakeholders for political supports, and (iii) mobilization of resources and policy networks by the stakeholders. It is concluded that planners might influence the streams to outline decision-making processes and to implement environmental impact assessments effectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Making sustainability operational within organisational practice requires dealing with three interrelated questions: A "what-question", an "attribute-question" and a "who-question". The complexity of these questions needs a tailor-made interpretation of sustainability. This paper provides a framework that can be used for obtaining such a tailor-made interpretation of sustainability. This framework is based on the notion that staff members somehow need to make sense of sustainability. By taking a cognitive mapping approach, a multidimensional space of sustainability can be deduced. The interpretation of the dimensions of this space can then provide a definition of sustainability. We illustrate the framework by obtaining an image of sustainability for a firm of consulting engineers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Asia-Pacific region includes a majority of the world's population and many of its most rapidly growing economies. It is also home to the world's largest number of extremely poor people, many fragile states, and unsustainable environmental practices. The region has increased its influence in the world economy but is still grappling to overcome complex interrelated challenges of poverty, inequality and sustainable development. Its priorities must be addressed as a central element of any post-2015 global development goal framework. Drawing from lessons of the Millennium Development Goals, this paper suggests a conceptual framework to guide a new generation of goals, along with an intergovernmental approach to implementation. The “ZEN” framework stresses the distinct challenges of achieving zero extreme poverty (Z), setting country-specific “Epsilon” benchmarks for broader development challenges (E), and promoting environmental sustainability both within and across borders (N). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The causal link between accessibility to resources and economic development is frequently claimed, but not always supported by evidence-based studies. This is also the case for increased access to public sector information which is believed to offer major opportunities to boost innovation and growth, and contribute to reducing current economic difficulties. Recognising that little is present in the literature to support conclusively this belief, this paper discusses the main issues that arise when trying to assess the impact of open public sector data on innovation and growth in the private sector. The authors focus in particular on the impact of publicly accessible spatial environmental information on small and medium enterprises, presenting some research questions and proposing a research strategy to address them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes several factors of environmental change that affect a tourist destination along its cycle of evolution identifying for this purpose some of the existing interdependent bonds within the conceptualization of a tourism/environment system. A tourist municipality case study illustrates the impact of environmental change on the local tourist competitiveness to focus afterward on management practices responses aimed at minimizing the negative impact on the environment resulting from the local tourist activity itself. Finally, a series of conclusions derived from the analysis conducted are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Government agenda setting has been a focus of research in the field of policy sciences for over two decades. The concept of a policy window is explored as a driver of governmental agenda setting. The Regional Municipality of York, Ontario, Canada was chosen as a case study for exploring the application of strategic environmental assessment at the municipal level through a policy window lens. Problem, policy and political streams converged to provide the necessary conditions for improved environmental assessment and infrastructure planning in York Region. A focusing event and the resulting crisis motivated stakeholders to identify and act on the problem. An SEA-type approach was initiated as one key response. A variety of activities were initiated by York Region including the development of a Sustainability Strategy, synchronisation of master planning, wider consideration of alternatives at the master plan level and improved public consultation. Conclusions are drawn and several recommendations are presented and discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]