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Elisabeth Conrad

Bio: Elisabeth Conrad is an academic researcher from University of Malta. The author has contributed to research in topics: European Landscape Convention & Public participation. The author has an hindex of 12, co-authored 24 publications receiving 985 citations.

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TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined the evolution of European land management over the past 200 years with the aim of identifying key episodes of changes in land management, and their underlying technological, institutional and economic drivers.

233 citations

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TL;DR: It is suggested that there is quite some overlap in the literature on CNT concepts, and that more effort needs to be made towards multi-disciplinary research which explores how CNT can be useful to environmental planning and conservation research on the field.

217 citations

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TL;DR: Expectations of the participation process, the extent to which practices meet expectations, and ways in which participation practices could be rendered more effective are identified, as well as wider insights into processes of assessment and evaluation.
Abstract: Conrad, E., Cassar, L. F., Christie, M., Fazey, I. (2011). Hearing but not listening? A participatory assessment of public participation in planning.Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy, 29 (5), 761-782

83 citations

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TL;DR: In this article, the authors consider the challenge of decoupling economic growth from environmental degradation; in contrast to several large-scale cross-country analyses that focus on limited indicators of environmental degradation, they analyze in some depth the experience of a single small-scale island state setting.
Abstract: This paper considers the challenge of decoupling economic growth from environmental degradation; in contrast to several large-scale cross-country analyses that focus on limited indicators of environmental degradation, we analyze in some depth the experience of a single small-scale island state setting (Malta). We use available statistical data to derive decoupling factors, in order to consider the extent to which decoupling has been achieved in four sectors: (i) energy intensity, climate change, and air quality; (ii) water; (iii) waste; and (iv) land. Results indicate relative decoupling between economic growth and several indicators considered, and to a lesser extent, relative decoupling between population growth and the same indicators of environmental pressure. Absolute decoupling has been achieved in at least one instance but there has been no decoupling of land development from either economic or population growth. Land use and population thus appear to be notable sources of pressure. The results suggest that decoupling analyses that present environmental degradation in terms of single variables (e.g., carbon emissions) may misrepresent somewhat the state of the environment at local level. Furthermore, the study highlights the need for methodologies that factor in the “embedding” of small-scale settings within much larger trade networks, for a more accurate estimation of environmental impact, and points to some limitations of solely quantitative analyses of environment-ecology relationships.

74 citations


Cited by
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, a Soft Systems Methodology in Action is presented, with a focus on the soft systems methodology in action, and a discussion of its application in soft systems.
Abstract: (1991). Soft Systems Methodology in Action. European Journal of Information Systems: Vol. 1, No. 3, pp. 215-216.

1,011 citations

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TL;DR: It is argued that many sustainability interventions target highly tangible, but essentially weak, leverage points (i.e. using interventions that are easy, but have limited potential for transformational change), and there is an urgent need to focus on less obvious but potentially far more powerful areas of intervention.
Abstract: Despite substantial focus on sustainability issues in both science and politics, humanity remains on largely unsustainable development trajectories. Partly, this is due to the failure of sustainability science to engage with the root causes of unsustainability. Drawing on ideas by Donella Meadows, we argue that many sustainability interventions target highly tangible, but essentially weak, leverage points (i.e. using interventions that are easy, but have limited potential for transformational change). Thus, there is an urgent need to focus on less obvious but potentially far more powerful areas of intervention. We propose a research agenda inspired by systems thinking that focuses on transformational 'sustainability interventions', centred on three realms of leverage: reconnecting people to nature, restructuring institutions and rethinking how knowledge is created and used in pursuit of sustainability. The notion of leverage points has the potential to act as a boundary object for genuinely transformational sustainability science.

748 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, a conceptual analysis of cultural ecosystem services and how they are linked to the concepts of landscape, heritage and identity is presented. And the authors propose that methods for valuation of cultural heritage in landscapes are integrated into assessments of ecosystem services to inform policy making and physical and spatial planning.
Abstract: This paper aims to provide a conceptual analysis of cultural ecosystem services and how they are linked to the concepts of landscape, heritage and identity. It discusses how these cultural ecosystem services can be assessed and integrated into spatial and physical planning. The paper presents two case studies to shed light on the assessment process. A case study from Sweden combines an analysis of ecosystem services with methods for documenting cultural heritage values in landscapes. A second case study from the Arafura–Timor Seas combines an analysis of cultural ecosystem services with methods for assessment of priority environmental concerns at the seascape scale. We demonstrate that the methods from cultural heritage conservation provide tools for the analysis of historical values as well as historical drivers of change in landscapes that can add time-depth to more spatially focused ecosystem assessments. We propose that methods for valuation of cultural heritage and identity in landscapes are integrated into assessments of ecosystem services to inform policy making and physical and spatial planning for sustainable management of ecosystems and landscapes. This could also provide an approach for bringing about integrated implementation of conventions and instruments from the environmental and cultural heritage fields, respectively.

406 citations

13 May 2011
TL;DR: Decoupling natural resource use and environmental impacts from economic growth is discussed in this article, where Fischer-Kowalski et al. present a report of the Working Group on Decoupling to the International Resource Panel.
Abstract: Decoupling natural resource use and environmental impacts from economic growth. A Report of the Working Group on Decoupling to the International Resource Panel / Fischer-Kowalski, M., Swilling, M., von Weizsacker, E.U., Ren, Y., Moriguchi, Y., Crane, W., Krausmann, F., Eisenmenger, N., Giljum, S., Hennicke, P., Romero Lankao, P., Siriban Manalang, A. UNEP, 2011, 174 p., ISBN: 978-92-807-3167-5 http://www.unep.org/resourcepanel/decoupling/files/pdf/Decoupling_Report_English.pdf Voir ci-dessous...

382 citations