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Ecological Economics, Environmental Health Policy and Climate Change

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A special issue of International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (ISSN 1660-4601). This special issue belongs to the section "Health Economics".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 July 2016) | Viewed by 56627

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Prof. Dr. Jason Levy

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Guest Editor

Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management, University of Hawaii, 2540 Dole Street, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA
Interests: epidemiology and prevention of congenital anomalies; psychosis and affective psychosis; cancer epidemiology and prevention; molecular and human genome epidemiology; evidence synthesis related to public health and health services research
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Peiyong Yu

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Guest Editor

University of Hawaii-West Oahu, 91-1001 Farrington Highway, Kapolei, HI 96707, USA
Interests: urban economics; applied microeconomics; and environmental economics

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Negotiators recently reached a historic consensus on a global climate change pact at the Paris United Nations (UN) Climate Change conference, which commits nearly every country to lowering planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions to hopefully mitigate the most devastating impacts of climate change. This historic accord, which United Nations diplomats have been working toward for nine years, has significant global economic, health and environmental policy implications: for the first time, developing countries, such as China and India, are required to reduce emissions. This agreement could represent a key moment in human history: a time in which changes in global economic and environmental policies start to address the dangerous and inexorable rise in carbon emissions that began during the Industrial Revolution. Accordingly, this Special Issue is focused on policy changes that affect climate change, and hence human health and ecological integrity. In addition to the subjects mentioned above, we welcome rigorous and insightful contributions from all disciplines related to climate change, ecological economics and global environmental policy, including those related to economic assessments, human health assessments and regulatory policies.

Dr. Jason K. Levy
Dr. Peiyong Yu
Guest Editors

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Published Papers (11 papers)

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Research

353 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Selecting Cooking Methods to Decrease Persistent Organic Pollutant Concentrations in Food of Animal Origin Using a Consensus Decision-Making Model

by Xiao Tan, Zaiwu Gong, Minji Huang and Zhou-Jing Wang

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2017, 14(2), 187; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph14020187 - 14 Feb 2017

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 3761

Abstract

Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) pose serious threats to human health. Increasing attention has been paid to POPs to protect the environment and prevent disease. Humans are exposed to POPs through diet (the major route), inhaling air and dust and skin contact. POPs are very lipophilic and hydrophobic, meaning that they accumulate in fatty tissues in animals and can biomagnify. Humans can therefore be exposed to relatively high POP concentrations in food of animal origin. Cooking animal products can decrease the POP contents, and different cooking methods achieve different reduction rates. Here, a consensus decision-making model with interval preference relations is used to prioritize cooking methods for specific animal products in terms of reducing POP concentrations. Two consistency mathematical expressions (I-consistency and

I I

-consistency) are defined, then the ideal interval preference relations are determined for the cooking methods with respect to different social choice principles. The objective is to minimize disparities between individual judgments and the ideal consensus judgment. Consistency is used as a constraint to determine the rationality of the consistency definitions. A numerical example indicated that baking is the best cooking method for decreasing POP concentrations in grass carp. The I-consistency results were more acceptable than the

I I

-consistency results. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ecological Economics, Environmental Health Policy and Climate Change)

1159 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Problem Formulation in Knowledge Discovery via Data Analytics (KDDA) for Environmental Risk Management

by Yan Li, Manoj Thomas, Kweku-Muata Osei-Bryson and Jason Levy

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2016, 13(12), 1245; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph13121245 - 15 Dec 2016

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 5195

Abstract

With the growing popularity of data analytics and data science in the field of environmental risk management, a formalized Knowledge Discovery via Data Analytics (KDDA) process that incorporates all applicable analytical techniques for a specific environmental risk management problem is essential. In this emerging field, there is limited research dealing with the use of decision support to elicit environmental risk management (ERM) objectives and identify analytical goals from ERM decision makers. In this paper, we address problem formulation in the ERM understanding phase of the KDDA process. We build a DM³ ontology to capture ERM objectives and to inference analytical goals and associated analytical techniques. A framework to assist decision making in the problem formulation process is developed. It is shown how the ontology-based knowledge system can provide structured guidance to retrieve relevant knowledge during problem formulation. The importance of not only operationalizing the KDDA approach in a real-world environment but also evaluating the effectiveness of the proposed procedure is emphasized. We demonstrate how ontology inferencing may be used to discover analytical goals and techniques by conceptualizing Hazardous Air Pollutants (HAPs) exposure shifts based on a multilevel analysis of the level of urbanization (and related economic activity) and the degree of Socio-Economic Deprivation (SED) at the local neighborhood level. The HAPs case highlights not only the role of complexity in problem formulation but also the need for integrating data from multiple sources and the importance of employing appropriate KDDA modeling techniques. Challenges and opportunities for KDDA are summarized with an emphasis on environmental risk management and HAPs. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ecological Economics, Environmental Health Policy and Climate Change)

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1266 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Carbon Balance and Contribution of Harvested Wood Products in China Based on the Production Approach of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

by Chunyi Ji, Wenbin Cao, Yong Chen and Hongqiang Yang

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2016, 13(11), 1132; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph13111132 - 12 Nov 2016

Cited by 24 | Viewed by 4655

Abstract

The carbon sequestration of harvested wood products (HWP) plays an important role in climate mitigation. Accounting the carbon contribution of national HWP carbon pools has been listed as one of the key topics for negotiation in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. On the basis of the revised Production Approach of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (2013) (IPCC), this study assessed the accounting of carbon stock and emissions from the HWP pool in China and then analyzed its balance and contribution to carbon mitigation from 1960 to 2014. Research results showed that the accumulated carbon stock in China’s HWP carbon pool increased from 130 Teragrams Carbon (TgC) in 1960 to 705.6 TgC in 2014. The annual increment in the carbon stock rose from 3.2 TgC in 1960 to 45.2 TgC in 2014. The category of solid wood products accounted for approximately 95% of the annual amount. The reduction in carbon emissions was approximately twelve times that of the emissions from the HWP producing and processing stage during the last decade. Furthermore, the amount of carbon stock and emission reduction increased from 23 TgC in 1960 to 76.1 TgC in 2014. The annual contribution of HWP could compensate for approximately 2.9% of the national carbon dioxide emissions in China. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ecological Economics, Environmental Health Policy and Climate Change)

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334 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Measurement of Low Carbon Economy Efficiency with a Three-Stage Data Envelopment Analysis: A Comparison of the Largest Twenty CO₂ Emitting Countries

by Xiang Liu and Jia Liu

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2016, 13(11), 1116; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph13111116 - 09 Nov 2016

Cited by 41 | Viewed by 4146

Abstract

This paper employs a three-stage approach to estimate low carbon economy efficiency in the largest twenty CO₂ emitting countries from 2000 to 2012. The approach includes the following three stages: (1) use of a data envelopment analysis (DEA) model with undesirable output to estimate the low carbon economy efficiency and calculate the input and output slacks; (2) use of a stochastic frontier approach to eliminate the impacts of external environment variables on these slacks; (3) re-estimation of the efficiency with adjusted inputs and outputs to reflect the capacity of the government to develop a low carbon economy. The results indicate that the low carbon economy efficiency performances in these countries had worsened during the studied period. The performances in the third stage are larger than that in the first stage. Moreover, in general, low carbon economy efficiency in Annex I countries of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is better than that in Non-Annex I countries. However, the gap of the average efficiency score between Annex I and Non-Annex I countries in the first stage is smaller than that in the third stage. It implies that the external environment variables show greater influence on Non-Annex I countries than that on Annex I countries. These external environment variables should be taken into account in the transnational negotiation of the responsibility of promoting CO₂ reductions. Most importantly, the developed countries (mostly in Annex I) should help the developing countries (mostly in Non-Annex I) to reduce carbon emission by opening or expanding the trade, such as encouraging the import and export of the energy-saving and sharing emission reduction technology. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ecological Economics, Environmental Health Policy and Climate Change)

491 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Cost-Sharing of Ecological Construction Based on Trapezoidal Intuitionistic Fuzzy Cooperative Games

by Jiacai Liu and Wenjian Zhao

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2016, 13(11), 1102; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph13111102 - 08 Nov 2016

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 3810

Abstract

There exist some fuzziness and uncertainty in the process of ecological construction. The aim of this paper is to develop a direct and an effective simplified method for obtaining the cost-sharing scheme when some interested parties form a cooperative coalition to improve the ecological environment of Min River together. Firstly, we propose the solution concept of the least square prenucleolus of cooperative games with coalition values expressed by trapezoidal intuitionistic fuzzy numbers. Then, based on the square of the distance in the numerical value between two trapezoidal intuitionistic fuzzy numbers, we establish a corresponding quadratic programming model to obtain the least square prenucleolus, which can effectively avoid the information distortion and uncertainty enlargement brought about by the subtraction of trapezoidal intuitionistic fuzzy numbers. Finally, we give a numerical example about the cost-sharing of ecological construction in Fujian Province in China to show the validity, applicability, and advantages of the proposed model and method. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ecological Economics, Environmental Health Policy and Climate Change)

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475 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Role of Health Co-Benefits in the Development of Australian Climate Change Mitigation Policies

by Annabelle Workman, Grant Blashki, David Karoly and John Wiseman

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2016, 13(9), 927; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph13090927 - 20 Sep 2016

Cited by 8 | Viewed by 7178

Abstract

Reducing domestic carbon dioxide and other associated emissions can lead to short-term, localized health benefits. Quantifying and incorporating these health co-benefits into the development of national climate change mitigation policies may facilitate the adoption of stronger policies. There is, however, a dearth of research exploring the role of health co-benefits on the development of such policies. To address this knowledge gap, research was conducted in Australia involving the analysis of several data sources, including interviews carried out with Australian federal government employees directly involved in the development of mitigation policies. The resulting case study determined that, in Australia, health co-benefits play a minimal role in the development of climate change mitigation policies. Several factors influence the extent to which health co-benefits inform the development of mitigation policies. Understanding these factors may help to increase the political utility of future health co-benefits studies. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ecological Economics, Environmental Health Policy and Climate Change)

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348 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Group Decision Framework with Intuitionistic Preference Relations and Its Application to Low Carbon Supplier Selection

by Xiayu Tong and Zhou-Jing Wang

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2016, 13(9), 923; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph13090923 - 19 Sep 2016

Cited by 19 | Viewed by 3829

Abstract

This article develops a group decision framework with intuitionistic preference relations. An approach is first devised to rectify an inconsistent intuitionistic preference relation to derive an additive consistent one. A new aggregation operator, the so-called induced intuitionistic ordered weighted averaging (IIOWA) operator, is proposed to aggregate individual intuitionistic fuzzy judgments. By using the mean absolute deviation between the original and rectified intuitionistic preference relations as an order inducing variable, the rectified consistent intuitionistic preference relations are aggregated into a collective preference relation. This treatment is presumably able to assign different weights to different decision-makers’ judgments based on the quality of their inputs (in terms of consistency of their original judgments). A solution procedure is then developed for tackling group decision problems with intuitionistic preference relations. A low carbon supplier selection case study is developed to illustrate how to apply the proposed decision model in practice. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ecological Economics, Environmental Health Policy and Climate Change)

743 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Medical Waste Disposal Method Selection Based on a Hierarchical Decision Model with Intuitionistic Fuzzy Relations

by Wuyong Qian, Zhou-Jing Wang and Kevin W. Li

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2016, 13(9), 896; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph13090896 - 09 Sep 2016

Cited by 15 | Viewed by 4620

Abstract

Although medical waste usually accounts for a small fraction of urban municipal waste, its proper disposal has been a challenging issue as it often contains infectious, radioactive, or hazardous waste. This article proposes a two-level hierarchical multicriteria decision model to address medical waste disposal method selection (MWDMS), where disposal methods are assessed against different criteria as intuitionistic fuzzy preference relations and criteria weights are furnished as real values. This paper first introduces new operations for a special class of intuitionistic fuzzy values, whose membership and non-membership information is cross ratio based ]0, 1[-values. New score and accuracy functions are defined in order to develop a comparison approach for ]0, 1[-valued intuitionistic fuzzy numbers. A weighted geometric operator is then put forward to aggregate a collection of ]0, 1[-valued intuitionistic fuzzy values. Similar to Saaty’s 1–9 scale, this paper proposes a cross-ratio-based bipolar 0.1–0.9 scale to characterize pairwise comparison results. Subsequently, a two-level hierarchical structure is formulated to handle multicriteria decision problems with intuitionistic preference relations. Finally, the proposed decision framework is applied to MWDMS to illustrate its feasibility and effectiveness. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ecological Economics, Environmental Health Policy and Climate Change)

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1348 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Quantifying the Effect of Macroeconomic and Social Factors on Illegal E-Waste Trade

by Loukia Efthymiou, Amaryllis Mavragani and Konstantinos P. Tsagarakis

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2016, 13(8), 789; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph13080789 - 05 Aug 2016

Cited by 17 | Viewed by 7610

Abstract

As illegal e-waste trade has been significantly growing over the course of the last few years, the consequences on human health and the environment demand immediate action on the part of the global community. Though it is argued that e-waste flows from developed to developing countries, this subject seems to be more complex than that, with a variety of studies suggesting that income per capita is not the only factor affecting the choice of regions that e-waste is illegally shipped to. How is a country’s economic and social development associated with illegal e-waste trade? Is legislation an important factor? This paper aims at quantifying macroeconomic (per capita income and openness of economy) and social (human development and social progress) aspects, based on qualitative data on illegal e-waste trade routes, by examining the percentage differences in scorings in selected indicators for all known and suspected routes. The results show that illegal e-waste trade occurs from economically and socially developed regions to countries with significantly lower levels of overall development, with few exceptions, which could be attributed to the fact that several countries have loose regulations on e-waste trade, thus deeming them attractive for potential illegal activities. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ecological Economics, Environmental Health Policy and Climate Change)

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689 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Health Impacts from Corn Production Pre-and Post-NAFTA Trade Agreement (1986–2013)

by Oliver Mendoza-Cano, Ramón Alberto Sánchez-Piña, Álvaro Jesús González-Ibarra, Efrén Murillo-Zamora and Cynthia Monique Nava-Garibaldi

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2016, 13(7), 709; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph13070709 - 13 Jul 2016

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 5418

Abstract

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a powerful methodology for the study of health impacts and public policies. We performed this study to quantitatively explain the potential health impacts on disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) of corn produced in Mexico and imported from the United States of America (U.S.) from 1984 until 2014. The processes are hybrid and organic corn production. The functional unit was defined as 1 ton of corn production. Results indicate a total value of 178,431, 244,175, and 283,426 DALYs of three decades: 1984–1993, 1994–2003, and 2004–2013, of Mexican production; the U.S. production and transport were also calculated, showing values of 29,815, 65,837, and 107,729 for the same three decades. Additionally, DALYs were obtained for the category of human health and climate change by functional unit: 802.31 (1984–1993), 802.67 (1994–2003), and 803.92 (2004–2013), and for imported corn transported to Mexico from the U.S., 859.12 (1984–2013). DALYs on human toxicity were obtained: 99.05 (1984–1993), 99.05 (1994–2003), and 99.04 (2004–2013), and for the corn imported and transported to Mexico from the U.S., 116.25 (1984–2013). Conclusions: Environmental and health impacts in terms of DALYs are higher when corn is imported versus the corn produced in Mexico. Environmental health and nominal corn cultivation and transport impacts have increased as a result of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Mexico needs to redefine its public policies to suffer less of an environmental burden from corn to ensure global environmental health and food security. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ecological Economics, Environmental Health Policy and Climate Change)

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534 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Role of Science in Advising the Decision Making Process: A Pathway for Building Effective Climate Change Mitigation Policies in Mexico at the Local Level

by Roberto Barraza, Gilberto Velazquez-Angulo, Edith Flores-Tavizón, Jaime Romero-González and José Ignacio Huertas-Cardozo

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2016, 13(5), 451; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph13050451 - 27 Apr 2016

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 5462

Abstract

This study examines a pathway for building urban climate change mitigation policies by presenting a multi-dimensional and transdisciplinary approach in which technical, economic, environmental, social, and political dimensions interact. Now, more than ever, the gap between science and policymaking needs to be bridged; this will enable judicious choices to be made in regarding energy and climate change mitigation strategies, leading to positive social impacts, in particular for the populations at-risk at the local level. Through a case study in Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico, we propose a multidimensional and transdisciplinary approach with the role of scientist as policy advisers to improve the role of science in decision-making on mitigation policies at the local level in Mexico. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ecological Economics, Environmental Health Policy and Climate Change)

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