Rita Lopes

Universidade NOVA de Lisboa | NOVA · Centre for Research on Environment and Sustainability (CENSE)

This paper presents an innovative approach for conducting collaborative scoping processes aiming to elicit multiple values of ecosystem services. The proposed methodology rests on three steps combining different participatory tools that promote a comprehensive examination of the perceptions hold by relevant stakeholder groups. The first step consis...

A participatory system dynamics modelling approach is advanced to support conceptualization of feedback processes underlying ecosystem services and to foster a shared understanding of leverage intervention points. The process includes systems mapping workshop and follow-up tasks aiming at the collaborative construction of causal loop diagrams. A ca...

Improving formulation and implementation of sustainable strategies is increasingly dependent upon more integrated and participatory decision-making processes. This paper explores the use of qualitative system dynamics tools and a participatory modelling approach to support scoping stages of an integrated sustainability assessment (ISA) process. To...

Several authors have described the usefulness of participatory system dynamics approaches in environmental decision-making processes, particularly in supporting problem scoping and policy analysis. This paper explores how these approaches may be expanded to provide a coherent, deliberative platform, which structures Integrated Sustainability Assess...

The links between the political agendas of climate change, the energy transition, and energy poverty are multiple, complex, and overlapping. In line with European Union policy demands, Member States are implementing the various policies necessary to address these agendas, with an emergent focus on their synergistic potential. Successful implementat...

Competing agendas are common within the sustainability field, given its complex and diverse social, economic, and environmental priorities. They can cause less effective policy results, where multiple goals can result in trade-offs and policy compromises. This paper proposes a conceptual framework: CompeSA – Assessing Competing Sustainability Agend...

International agencies, non-governmental organisations, technical experts, and academia have strongly recommended that water resources planning and strategic environmental assessment (SEA) processes should be supported by indicators that can be used to characterise, assess and monitor water resources overtime against management objectives. Moreover...

The purpose of this guide is to provide you with a state of the art overview of business, financing and governance models, relevant to the heritage-led regeneration of Historic Urban Areas. This guide is part of the HUB-IN project, which stands for: ‘Hubs of Innovation and Entrepreneurship for the Transformation of Historic Urban Areas’. This proje...

Discover how historic urban areas can be regenerated through entrepreneurship and innovation. - https://atlas.hubin-project.eu/

The purpose of this working paper is to provide an overview of the current context within which the HUB-IN Mission and Vision will be developed and delivered. It presents an analysis of the current state of play of heritage-led regeneration that is already taking place in Historic Urban Areas throughout Europe, and highlights the role that innovati...

This paper describes a collaborative process engaging key stakeholders to co-create a shared vision for 2035 and a roadmap for action to support a circular economy transition in the packaging of the food and beverages sector in Portugal. Although the need to engage stakeholders is widely acknowledged, few collaborative initiatives can be found in t...

Ecosystem services is a value-laden concept, encompassing multiple legitimate views, value systems and potential controversies. On the other hand, it offers a platform to promote participation and to search for new paths of collaborative action. Based on these assumptions this work aims to answer the question “how to structure a participatory proce...

Ecosystem services are dynamically interdependent. When conducting studies on ecosystem services valuation and assessment, the interdependencies and feedback structures underpinning ecosystem functioning should be identified and explicitly considered in management processes, especially when the goal is to pursue a plural and integrative approach th...

Ecosystems are the support of our lives, with their goods and services backing up human wellbeing. The concept of ecosystem services was advanced as a metaphor to demonstrate the importance of nature and its processes to the existence of our societies. Since the early stages of its adoption, this concept has been seen as a promising way to emphasis...

The valuation of multiple ecosystem services requires the design of valuation processes able to integrate different dimensions of value and to cope with complexity. Following the “value-articulating institution” framework, we note that three core problems arise: the cognitive, normative and composition problems. Combining valuation methods, such as...

This Special Issue on “Ecosystem Services and Institutional Dynamics” is composed of a selection of papers which were originally presented during the 10th biennial conference of the European Society for Ecological Economics held in June 2013 in Lille. Ecosystem services, i.e. the material and immaterial benefits people obtain from ecosystems, has b...