Romanian Students' Environment-Related Routines during COVID-19 Home Confinement: Water, Plastic, and Paper Consumption.

The disruptive force of the COVID-19 pandemic is lessening in power and plans are being made for the postcrisis period, among which increasing the sustainability of higher education is of significant importance. The study aims at establishing students' existing environment-related routines during their home confinement, as a basis for applying green measures to campus living once academic life is resumed with the physical presence of students. The collected data rely on self-reported information provided by 816 students from Politehnica University of Timisoara (Romania), collected via an online, anonymous survey. The novelty of the approach is that household environment-related routines are investigated during a crisis period, with the possibility to build upon the results to implement tailored measures to encourage or diminish environmentally relevant consumption by young, highly skilled individuals. The students display a moderate awareness of environmental issues and indicate consumption routines that may be steered towards an increased sustainability-conscious campus life, through the combined intervention of the university, city administration, and stakeholder involvement. The findings are used to explore the possible directions for action towards increasing or contributing to the territorial sustainability in the socio-ecological context of Timisoara, the largest university city in the western part of Romania via educational, managerial and policy interventions.

Sustainable Environmental Strategies for Shrinking Cities Based on Processing Successful Case Studies Facing Decline Using a Decision-Support System.

Since the middle of the last century post-industrial cities around the world have been losing population and shrinking due to the decline of their structural growth models, showing important socioeconomic transformations. This is a negative phenomenon but one that cities can benefit from. The aim of this work is to verify what type of measures against urban decline would be most suitable if applied to a specific case study. To do this, international cases of shrinking cities where successful measures were already carried out facing decline: (i) are collected, (ii) are classified based on several influencing criteria, and (iii) are grouped under similar alternatives against the decline. Measures and criteria focused on achieving sustainability are emphasized. Alternatives are then prioritised using an Analytic Hierarchy Process designed at several hierarchical levels. The results are discussed based on the construction of sustainable future scenarios according to the optimal alternatives regarding the case study, improving the model validity. The work evidences that environmental and low-cost measures encouraging the economy and increasing the quality of life, regardless of the city size-population range where they were performed, may be the most replicable. Future research lines on the integration of the method together with other decision-support systems and techniques are provided.

Tipologías de percepción, bajo criterios de sustentabilidad territorial,del proceso de ocupación urbano-rural: localidad quinta de bogotá / Types of perception with territorial sustainability criteria, of the process of occupancy urban - rural: fifth district of bogotá

En la localidad de Usme (Bogotá, Colombia) la tendencia de ocupación territorial ha sido la autogestión y autoconstrucción de las viviendas, lo que ha generado problemas socioambientales, que desencadenan la crisis de la sustentabilidad. En este sentido, el objetivo de esta investigación es identificar las percepciones de la población de la localidad de Usme frente al proceso de ocupación urbano-rural, bajo criterios de sustentabilidad territorial, con el fin de formar grupos de acuerdo a sus percepciones y ubicarlos en planos factoriales para su interpretación. Para ello, se utilizaron herramientas de toma de información, como la entrevista semiestructurada y la encuesta. La primera, se analizó mediante la técnica de análisis de contenido con el software ATLAS.ti 7® , y la segunda, con la técnica estadística de análisis de correspondencias múltiples con el software DtmVic 5.7® , para generar la correspondiente tipificación. Se obtuvo cinco grupos o clúster. El grupo 5 asoció mayor cantidad de variables con un 44,62%, representado por la UPZ Comuneros, definida por considerar como principal actividad contaminante el Relleno Sanitario Doña Juana, y atribuir el crecimiento de la localidad al desplazamiento forzado y la urbanización de tipo informal. En contraste, el grupo 1 asoció menor cantidad de variables con un 3,8%, estando representado por de la UPZ Ciudad Usme y zona rural, quienes atribuyen como principal actividad contaminante la urbanización de tipo legal, que ha propiciado el crecimiento urbano, debido a los intereses políticos y privados. Por lo tanto, se puede señalar que se percibe de manera diferenciada la forma de ocupación y, a su vez, las condiciones socioambientales que ocurren en cada UPZ de la localidad.

In Usme (Bogotá, Colombia) the trend of settlement has been self-management and self-help housing, which has led to social and environmental problems that trigger the crisis of sustainability. In this sense, the objective of this research is to characterize the perceptions of the population of the district, about the occupation process of urban-rural, under territorial sustainability criteria, in order to form groups according to their perceptions and place them on factorial planes for interpretation and identification of variables. To do this, was used as source information, the semi-structured interview and survey. The first, was analyzed by content analysis technique with ATLAS.ti 7® software, and second, with the statistical technique of multiple correspondence analysis with software DtmVic 5.7® , to generate the appropriate classification. Five groups were obtained. The group with most variables associated with an 44.62% was the number 5, represented by the Comuneros UPZs, defined by considering main polluting activity Doña Juana Landfill, and attribute the growth of the district, to forced displacement and informal urbanization. In contrast, group 1, variables associated were 3.8%, is represented by the UPZ City and rural Usme, who attributed as the main polluting activity, urbanization formal, which it has attracted the urban growth, for political and private interests. Therefore, it can be noted that perceive differently the form of occupation of the town and in turn, the socio-environmental conditions given in each UPZ of the town.