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Abstract Floods are challenging the resilience of societies all over the world. In many countries there are discussions on diversifying the strategies for flood risk management, which implies some sort of policy change. To understand the possibilities of such change, a thorough understanding of the forces of stability and change of underlying governance arrangements is required. It follows from the path dependency literature that countries which rely strongly on flood infrastructures, as part of flood defense strategies, would be more path dependent. Consequently there is a higher chance to find more incremental change in these countries than in countries that have a more diversified set of strategies. However, comparative and detailed empirical studies that may help scrutinize this assumption are lacking. To address this knowledge gap, this paper investigates how six European countries (Belgium, England, France, The Netherlands, Poland and Sweden) essentially differ with regard to their governance of flood risks. To analyze stability and change, we focus on how countries are responding to certain societal and ecological driving forces (ecological turn; climate change discourses; European policies; and the increasing prevalence of economic rationalizations) that potentially affect the institutional arrangements for flood risk governance. Taking both the variety of flood risk governance in countries and their responses to driving forces into account, we can clarify the conditions of stability or change of flood risk governance arrangements more generally. The analysis shows that the national-level impact of driving forces is strongly influenced by the flood risk governance arrangements in the six countries. Path dependencies are indeed visible in countries with high investments in flood infrastructure accompanied by strongly institutionalized governance arrangements (Poland, the Netherlands) but not only there. Also more diversified countries that are less dependent on flood infrastructure and flood defense only (England) show path dependencies and mostly incremental change. More substantial changes are visible in countries that show moderate diversification of strategies (Belgium, France) or countries that ‘have no strong path yet’ in comprehensive flood risk governance (Sweden). This suggests that policy change can be expected when there is both the internal need and will to change and a barrage of (external) driving forces pushing for change.

ObjectivesHeavy alcohol use can cause somatic and mental diseases, affects patients’ social life and is associated with social isolation, unemployment and reduced quality of life. Therefore, societal costs of alcohol dependence are expected to be high. The aim of this study was to estimate excess costs of patients with alcohol dependence diagnosed using theDiagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th Edition criteria compared with individuals without alcohol dependence in Germany.DesignIn a secondary analysis, baseline data of patients with alcohol dependence enrolled in a randomised controlled trial (German Clinical Trials Register DRS00005035) were compared with data collected via a telephone survey from individuals without alcohol dependence and that had been matched by entropy balancing. Health service use was evaluated retrospectively for a 6-month period.SettingsFour German psychiatric university clinics (patients with alcohol dependence) and the German general adult population (individuals without alcohol dependence).Participantsn=236 adult patients with alcohol dependence and n=4687 adult individuals without alcohol dependence.Primary and secondary outcome measuresThe excess costs of health service use, absenteeism and unemployment of patients with alcohol dependence were calculated and compared with individuals without alcohol dependence. In subgroup analyses, the associations between excess cost and gender, comorbidities and the duration of disease were investigated.ResultsTotal 6-month excess costs of €11 839 (95% CI €11 529 to €12 147) were caused by direct excess costs of €4349 (95% CI €4129 to €4566) and indirect costs of €7490 (95% CI €5124 to €9856). In particular, costs of inpatient treatment, formal long-term care, absenteeism and unemployment were high.ConclusionsAlcohol dependence causes substantial direct and indirect excess costs. Cost-effective interventions to prevent and treat alcohol dependence are urgently needed.Trial registration numberDRKS00005035.

In the sociological tradition, markets are understood to be constituted of social relations: relations of trust, friendship, power and dependence, which have moral and emotional qualities. In this paper, we explore how people in energy poor households construct the energy market and its impact on energy policy. Drawing on secondary analysis of a large collection of qualitative interviews on the lived experience of energy poverty carried out from 2003 to 2018 (n = 197 interviews and 20 selected), and the results of an OFGEM quantitative survey on consumer engagement released in 2018, we document the experience of the energy poor as actors in the British retail energy market. We uncover a number of challenges and opportunities facing energy poor participants in the market: having access to good quality information about suppliers, energy tariffs and grants, and having the skills and resources to act on this is important, without these it can be difficult for people to take action. In explaining people’s engagement with the market, we draw on the concept of ‘socio-economic attachments’, showing how a supportive network of family and friends, and people’s trust of and resulting loyalty to their energy supplier mediate their engagement. These findings lead us to relational explanations of the retail energy market, with related policy recommendations: if we are to aim for people to act ‘rationally’, they will need support to navigate the market from intermediaries.

Abstract As an integral part of individual lives and one of the strongest inputs to global economies, tourism is affected by such social tensions and can play an important role in reducing them; therefore it offers an interesting challenge for serious discussions regarding tourism and regional sustainability. Tourism is traditionally associated with pleasure, leisure and escape from the ordinary world and is often contrasted with other, more serious economic activities such as manufacturing and extraction. As a result governments and planners often ignore tourism; furthermore, outside of the field of tourism academic research, the relationship between tourism and sustainability received too little attention considering that tourism can play an increasingly integral role in regional sustainable development processes.

Negative relationships between urban density and greenhouse gas emissions from daily travel are well established in the literature. However, recent research suggests that higher urban density is associated with higher emissions from long-distance leisure travel, such as car weekend trips and international flights. This article presents the first systematic review of empirical evidence on these associations and discusses potential explanations. A two-step article selection process yielded 27 empirical articles, complemented by one article published during the review process. When international travel is included in the analysis, the results suggest that residents of the largest cities, and particularly those from centrally located and densely built areas, travel more to cover long distances than do others, after controlling for demographic and socioeconomic variables. When only domestic travel is included, residents of larger settlements and areas of higher density engage in less long-distance travel for leisure purposes than those living in smaller settlements and sparsely built areas. The results of the review are indicative and warrant more research. Generalization is currently limited because of the wide variety of travel behavior measures used, consideration of different travel modes and trip purposes, and geographic scope. There is a strong need for replication of the results using consistent methodology, using data from longer and more recent time spans, and expanding to more diverse geographical settings, especially outside Europe. The systematic review is followed by a narrative review of theoretical explanations of the associations. The most common explanations include: rebound effects, the compensation hypothesis, access to transport infrastructure, urban lifestyles, sociopsychological characteristics, and social networks. Socioeconomic variables are controlled in a majority of the reviewed studies, and business travel is excluded from the review, so the concentration of wealth and business in cities may explain the findings only to some extent. Nonetheless, there is not enough empirical evidence on the causal character of the associations and therefore further qualitative and multidisciplinary work is needed. Compact city and urban densification policies are not strongly challenged by current evidence, and most common policy recommendations point to including air travel into carbon taxing or quota schemes.

Intensification of Brazilian cattle ranching systems has attracted both national and international attention due to its direct relation with Amazon deforestation on the one hand and increasing demand of the global population for meat on the other. Since Brazilian cattle ranching is predominantly pasture-based, we particularly focus on pasture management. We summarize the most recurrent opportunities and risks associated with pasture intensification that are brought up within scientific and political dialogues, and discuss them within the Brazilian context. We argue that sustainable intensification of pasturelands in Brazil is a viable way to increase agricultural output while simultaneously sparing land for nature. Since environmental degradation is often associated with low-yield extensive systems in Brazil, it is possible to obtain higher yields, while reversing degradation, by adopting practices like rotational grazing, incorporation of legumes and integrated crop-livestock-forestry systems. Technical assistance is however essential, particularly for small- and medium-scale farmers. Sound complementary policies and good governance must accompany these measures so that a 'rebound effect' does not lead to increased deforestation and other adverse social and environmental impacts. It is also important that animal welfare is not compromised. Although the discussion is presented with respect to Brazil, some aspects are relevant to other developing countries.

The aim of this study is to better understand the recent changes in the feedstocks of anaerobic digestion plants, the driving forces behind these changes and consequent opportunities to strengthen closed-cycle energy production and promote the circular bioeconomy approaches. The study analyses Poland – a country with a highly diversified agrarian structures and with various levels of the development and focus of regional agricultural sectors which belong to the main sources of biosubstrates to be energetically processed in anaerobic digestion (AD) plants. Biowaste, including biowastes originating in agri-food production and in households, is indicated as one of the key sources for a more sustainable biogas generation. Our findings indicate and prove a gradual shift in the mix of substrates, including the growing role of energy processing of biowaste from households and municipalities. It was also ascertained that in the initial phase of the development of Polish biogas market in early 2010s, the AD substrates in most important position were agricultural raw materials (energy crops) and agricultural waste. On the other hand, during the course of time and due to developing legal requirements as well as financial and market conditions, the biowastes from the food industry and of municipal origin have gradually gained significance. An unintentional shift towards the energy processing of the more sustainable AD substrates in Poland is visible despite a rather low environmental awareness of AD operators.