Overview
- Editors:
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Naim Hamdia Afgan
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Instituto Superior Técnico, Portugal
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Maria Graça Carvalho
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Instituto Superior Técnico, Portugal
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Table of contents (55 chapters)
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Economic Evaluation of New and Renewable Energy Source
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- P. Principi, C. Di Perna, E. Ruffini
Pages 247-258
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- H. Wilkening, A. G. Venetsanos, T. Huld, J. G. Bartzis
Pages 259-267
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Solar Energy Utilisation
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- Fabio Orecchini, Riccardo Del Po, Vincenzo Naso
Pages 285-298
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- Ingo Romey, Gisbert Markert
Pages 325-332
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- F. Gugliermetti, L. Grossi
Pages 345-359
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- N. Kesri, R. Outemzabet, A. Zouaoni
Pages 361-368
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Fuel Cells Development
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- W. J. Quadakkers, J. Piron-Abellan, V. Shemet, L. Singheiser
Pages 391-398
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- P. P. Pinto, A. M. Brasil, T. L. Farias, R. Lemke
Pages 399-409
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- Ausilio Bauen, Flavio Foradini, David Hart
Pages 421-428
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Biomass and Waste Energy Utilisation
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- C. Storm, H. Spliethoff, K. R. G. Hein
Pages 459-476
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- Alberto Fichera, Cinzia Losenno, Arturo Pagano
Pages 477-487
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- B. J. P. Buhre, J. Andries
Pages 489-499
About this book
Sustainable development encompasses economic, social, and ecological perspectives of conservation and change in natural resources. It is generally defined as development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. This definition is based on the ethical imperative of equity within and between generations. Moreover, apart from meeting; "the basic needs of all"; sustainable development implies sustaining the natural life support systems on Earth, and extending to all the opportunity to satisfy their aspirations for a better life. Hence, sustainable development is more precisely defined as a process of change in which the exploitation of resources, the direction of investments, the orientation of technological development, and institutional change are all in harmony and enhance both current and future potential to meet human needs and aspiration. To date, various definitions and stationary-state criteria of sustainability have been proposed. Many authors have been concerned with only part of the problem, such as the technological assumptions, the ability to substitute natural resources in economic transformation processes, and the resilience and importance of ecological processes. But, the social dimension did not receive the same attention, and has not been adequately integrated into formal analysis. The engineering community has to play an important role in sustainable development with appropriate evaluation of the engineering systems. In this respect energy, water and environment systems require multi-criteria evaluation methods for the assessment of the economic, environmental and social aspect of the systems.