Maarten Van Opstal

• BA, MA, MSc
• Drs. at Vrije Universiteit Brussel

Many areas of science, including conservation and environmental management, regularly require engaging stakeholders or experts to produce consensus or technical inputs. The Delphi technique is an iterative and anonymous participatory method used for gathering and evaluating such expert‐based knowledge. We outline the methodology of the Delphi techn...

Mainstream literature concerning sustainable development (SD) only rarely addresses ‘cultural’ sustainability aspects (specifically in sustainability discourses in the countries of the North). The spread of language, practical knowledge, rites, traditions, believes, worldviews, inventions, and the transfer of empirical and theoretical knowledge are...

Since the 1980s, the Asian region has seen a groundswell of support for community-based natural resource management (CBNRM), as an answer to claimed overall diversity loss, critiques on ‘fortress conservation’, and advocacy for indigenous rights. CBNRM evolved rapidly from an alternative view toward a widely endorsed concept. Yet, at the same momen...

In our rapidly globalizing world, continuous readjustment of the scientific basis of sustainable development (SD) is a prerequisite for sustainability. We shed light on the shift in international discourse concerning culural diversity and SD. We analyse worldviews as a constitutive element of SD, proposing to re-interpret SD as a joint worldview-co...

A huge tension exists between recognizing sustainable development (SD) as a meta-discourse and accepting a limitless interpretational width. We analyse the impacts of diversity of worldviews on the interpretation of SD—as a knowledge-based concept—through a critical literature review, resulting in recommendations on the topic. We apply a social-con...

As processes embedded in specific local contexts and involving the integration of a diversity of interpretations, assessments have to be more than checklists for policy-makers. Rising cultural particularisms and the complex consequences of global change increasingly shape what Heisbourg calls the stratification of the world. In our globalizing worl...

Onderzoek naar de theorie en de praktijk van duurzaamheidsbeoordeling wenst een antwoord te bieden op drie uitdagingen. Hoe duurzame ontwikkeling interpreteren? Kan de complexiteit van maatschappelijke uitdagingen gestructureerd worden? Hoe kan duurzaamheidsbeoordeling het beleid daadwerkelijk beïnvloeden? Op basis van onze onderzoekservaring in Eu...

Seaports are known for their wide diversity of activities, on water and on land. International ports are often connected to larger industrial areas (e.g. global container cargo growth) and these are interconnected and connected with the mainland by a large mobility network. Globalization causes ports to grow fast and develop in a rising tempo. Se...

In this research concerning the role of information for prevention strategies in nuclear crisis situations, I focused on the information towards the public. First I mentioned the legal right of information of the Belgian citizen. A human being has a fundamental basic need for information in order to function. Next I searched for a way to define the...