There is a growing interest in environmental policies about how to implement public participation engagement in the context of water resources management. This paper presents a robust methodology, based on ordered weighted averaging (OWA) operators, to conflict resolution decision-making problems under uncertain environments due to both information and stakeholders' preferences. The methodology allows integrating heterogeneous interests of the general public and stakeholders on account of their different degree of acceptance or preference and level of influence or power regarding the measures and policies to be adopted, and also of their level of involvement (i.e., information supply, consultation and active involvement). These considerations lead to different environmental and socioeconomic outcomes, and levels of stakeholders' satisfaction. The methodology establishes a prioritization relationship over the stakeholders. The individual stakeholders' preferences are aggregated through their associated weights, which depend on the satisfaction of the higher priority decision maker. The methodology ranks the optimal management strategies to maximize the stakeholders' satisfaction. It has been successfully applied to a real case study, providing greater fairness, transparency, social equity and consensus among actors. Furthermore, it provides support to environmental policies, such as the EU Water Framework Directive(WFD), improving integrated water management while covering a wide range of objectives, management alternatives and stakeholders.
In 2015, the United Nations approved the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development, an opportunity for countries and their societies to face the challenge of successfully addressing the transition to a more sustainable future for people and the planet, leaving no one behind. The agenda defines a total of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of universal application to promote economic growth, a commitment to social needs and the protection of the environment. For the successful achievement the ambitious and demanding SDGs, individuals, businesses, governments, and higher education institutions should work collaboratively.
This paper aims to contribute to the implementation of the SDGs in the mechanical engineering subjects, and to define appropriate indicators and validation processes to assess their level of fulfillment as established in the 2030 Agenda. As a result, better decisions can be made regarding the efforts that universities - including students, academics and researchers and professional services staff - must invest to incorporate the SDGs into their initiatives, structures, and policies.
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