Sustainability assessment by local population: a case study in rural areas

Manso, Sandra; Caeiro, Sandra; Pardo, Carlos

Publication

Sustainability assessment by local population: a case study in rural areas

2019Journal article

dc.contributor.author	Manso, Sandra
dc.contributor.author	Caeiro, Sandra
dc.contributor.author	Pardo, Carlos
dc.date.accessioned	2019-09-13T12:27:47Z
dc.date.available	2019-09-13T12:27:47Z
dc.date.issued	2019
dc.description.abstract	Since the nineties, a lot has been written about local sustainability, mostly about big cities and/or big regions. These days the debate about small towns and/or rural municipalites has also come about. It is up to all the agents, political and from the community, as well as to the citizens to promote the transformation to more sustainable societies. It is therefore urgent the development of tools like the Indicator System (IS) at a local level, having in mind the involvement of all the agents, that will allow us to evaluate whether we are near or far from that transformation. The incorporation of sustainability criteria and its measurement, having in mind the singular characteristics of these municipalities, will allow us to know and evaluate the Sustainable Development (SD) at a local level, to increase the sensibility of the agents about environmental issues and to promote change in the community. For that to happen the population’s involvement is essential for it allows the strengthening of the commitment for SD. The case study presented is about the Beira Baixa region in the interior of Portugal, its population represent 0.8% of the resident population of Portugal. That translates as one of the lowest populational densities. The main objective of this study is to present the results of the questionnaire applied to a representative sample of the resident population of Beira Baixa, Portugal, over 18 years of age. The general aim of the questionnaire was to inquire the population awareness about sustainability concepts and IS and self-assessment of the local sustainability. The results allow us to verify that a large majority of the participants has hear the term SD, the media being the largest contributor to this and that the promotion of the SD is our own responsibility. In terms of the SD dimensions, it is the environmental and economical ones the most important, in contrast with the social and governance/institutional. About half of the participants considers that their quality of life “stayed the same”, but a quarter of them considers that it is “worse”. When asked about IS, less than half of the participants had ever heard about IS for SD, and the ones that had, heard it mostly through the media. These participants consider that the selection of the indicators should factor the citizens’ opinion, but little more than half of the participants would like to participate in that selection. It is important a wide spread of SD and of the IS among the population, because there is a clear imbalance between the economic and environmental dimension and the social and governance/institutional dimensions.	pt_PT
dc.description.version	info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion	pt_PT
dc.identifier.isbn	978-88-943228-6-6
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10400.11/6659
dc.language.iso	eng	pt_PT
dc.peerreviewed	yes	pt_PT
dc.rights.uri	http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/	pt_PT
dc.subject	Local sustainability	pt_PT
dc.subject	Indicator system	pt_PT
dc.subject	Public participation	pt_PT
dc.subject	Rural municipality	pt_PT
dc.subject	Transition	pt_PT
dc.title	Sustainability assessment by local population: a case study in rural areas	pt_PT
dc.type	journal article
dspace.entity.type	Publication
oaire.citation.conferencePlace	Nanjing, China	pt_PT
oaire.citation.endPage	814	pt_PT
oaire.citation.startPage	803	pt_PT
oaire.citation.title	The 25th International Sustainable Development Research Society Conference: Sustaining Resources for the Future	pt_PT
person.familyName	Manso
person.givenName	Sandra
person.identifier.ciencia-id	D811-550C-6788
person.identifier.orcid	0000-0002-4745-884X
rcaap.rights	restrictedAccess	pt_PT
rcaap.type	article	pt_PT
relation.isAuthorOfPublication	29d5edf2-62f4-438e-b0ec-742b1a724bff
relation.isAuthorOfPublication.latestForDiscovery	29d5edf2-62f4-438e-b0ec-742b1a724bff