Explore, Design and Act for Sustainability: A Participatory Planning Approach for Local Energy Sustainability

Fouché, Elaine; Brent, Alan C.

doi:10.3390/su12030862

Cited by 14 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…The established practical framework, if utilized systematically, may contribute to improving the resilience of the communities where microgrids are deployed. However, practitioners will require a good understanding of methodologies from the sustainability sciences, such as transformative transdisciplinarity (van Breda 2019) and participatory approaches (Fouché & Brent 2020), which are integrated effectively in systems engineering practices, with an emphasis on the technical design and implementation of sustainable microgrids. This is the ongoing goal of, among others, the Sustainable Energy for All initiative of the United Nations (2020), and the Smart Village initiative of the IEEE (2020).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sustainable Microgrids for Remote Communities: A Practical Framework for Analyzing and Designing

Brent

Chatterjee

Burmester

et al. 2021

The Palgrave Handbook of Climate Resilient Societies

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Decentralized microgrid systems have provided electricity to off-grid communities, devoid of the necessary energy services, for a number of decades. However, in many instances microgrid systems have failed in delivering sustainable electricity supply. This has resulted in communities, primarily residing in remote or islanded areas of developing countries, having lower social and economic resiliency compared to the urban areas with centralized grid connectivity. The lack of a detailed standard framework, for cross-sectional evaluation of the sustainability and reliability of microgrid systems, has been identified. This chapter then introduces a conceptual framework to improve the design of remote microgrid systems. The framework comprises of modules that incorporate essential features, such as stakeholder engagement, sustainability aspects, energy management, and improving energy efficiency, as well as overall system autonomy -when undertaking the analysis and design of microgrids. The process, to make the framework practical, was established through the Working Group on Sustainable Energy Systems for Developing Communities (SESDC) of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). The outcomes when applying the framework, and associated process, are demonstrated with a case study in India. The outcomes show the contribution of the practical framework in attaining sustainable development goal number seven (SDG7) -enabling clean electricity access for remote communities -and supporting the Sustainable Energy for All initiative of the United Nations, and the Smart Village initiative of the IEEE -to improve the resilience of these communities.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sustainable Microgrids for Remote Communities: A Practical Framework for Analyzing and Designing

Brent

Chatterjee

Burmester

et al. 2021

The Palgrave Handbook of Climate Resilient Societies

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“…2 ). The working hypothesis must be improved by assessing practical case studies in a shorter cyclic period than in the prevalent Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) cycle (Fouché and Brent 2020 , p. 8). Conventional social survey methods, such as literature review, participatory observation, semi-structured interview, and questionnaire survey, are used in assessments.…”

Section: Action Research With An Adaptive and Abductive Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

Community capability building for environmental conservation in Lake Biwa (Japan) through an adaptive and abductive approach

Kondo

Fujisawa²,

Ishikawa

et al. 2021

Socio Ecol Pract Res

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In the south basin of Lake Biwa, Shiga, Japan, overgrown aquatic weeds (submerged macrophytes) impede cruising boats and cause unpleasant odors and undesirable waste when washed ashore. To address this socio-ecological problem, Shiga Prefectural Government implemented a public program to remove overgrown weeds and compost them ashore to conserve the lake environment, while coastal inhabitants and occasional volunteers remove weeds from the beaches to maintain the quality of the living environment. However, these effects are limited because of disjointed social networks. We applied an adaptive and abductive approach to develop community capability to jointly address this problem by sharing academic knowledge with local actors and empowering them. The initial multifaceted reviews, including interviews and postal questionnaire surveys, revealed that the agro-economic value of composted weeds declined in historical and socio-psychological contexts and that most of the unengaged public relied on local governments to address environmental problems. These findings were synthesized and assessed with workshop participants, including local inhabitants, governmental agents, businesspeople, social entrepreneurs, and research experts, to unearth the best solution. The workshops resulted in the development of an e-point system, called Biwa Point, to promote and acknowledge voluntary environmental conservation activities, including beach cleaning. It may contribute to enhancing the socio-ecological capability of communities. Additionally, ethical issues, such as publication of inconvenient truths, undesired interpretation by the researchers, and social constraints in research methods, arose through our research practice.

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“…A conceptual model to bring together diverse researchers and stakeholders is presented Figure 3. This builds on an extensive body of literature of participatory approaches and stakeholder engagement [38][39][40][41][42][43][44]. It first begins with a stakeholder mapping exercise that identifies key stakeholders and decision-makers connected with community sports fields in the community of interest.…”

Section: Mechanisms For Bringing Together Intellectually Diverse Researchers and Stakeholdersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reimagining Sustainable Community Sports Fields of the Future: a Framework for Convergent Science-Stakeholder Decision-Making

et al. 2021

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Community-level sports fields are public spaces that provide numerous physical, mental, and societal benefits. These fields are often governed, constructed, managed, and used by various interacting groups who have different value systems and preferences that impact their decisions. While sports fields offer an opportunity for community engagement and physical activity to residents of communities, poor field quality or lack of access from misinformed decisions can increase health issues and decrease physical activity participation, especially among youth. That is in addition to decisions made regarding water and energy resources required to maintain these fields. Those who have decision-making authority should consider input from the entire community and other relevant stakeholders; however, there is a lack of convergence and breakdown in communication among stakeholders' needs and priorities. Additionally, decision-makers often lack effective tools and proper knowledge to select and manage fields to meet demand in a sustainable and just manner. The objective of this white paper is to propose an innovative framework for research that could lead to the development of a common platform for multi-stakeholder dialogue about issues related to improving the social, economic, and environmental sustainability of community-level sports fields. The framework can be implemented by innovatively bringing together physical and social scientists to (1) map and assemble pertinent stakeholders and visualize the stakeholder network, (2) measure leverage points within the stakeholder network that optimize sustainable and inclusive communication and decision-making, (3) identify perspectives surrounding decisions at the community level (through prioritizing different social, economic, and environmental

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Explore, Design and Act for Sustainability: A Participatory Planning Approach for Local Energy Sustainability

Cited by 14 publications

References 40 publications

Sustainable Microgrids for Remote Communities: A Practical Framework for Analyzing and Designing

Sustainable Microgrids for Remote Communities: A Practical Framework for Analyzing and Designing

Community capability building for environmental conservation in Lake Biwa (Japan) through an adaptive and abductive approach

Reimagining Sustainable Community Sports Fields of the Future: a Framework for Convergent Science-Stakeholder Decision-Making

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