TY - JOUR

T1 - A new approach to semantic sustainability assessment

T2 - text mining via network analysis revealing transition patterns in German municipal climate action plans

AU - Bickel, Manuel W.

N1 - Funding Information: This work was funded by the Leuphana University under its PhD fellowship program. Funding Information: The financial support scheme of the NKI for municipalities is laid out in the so-called municipal legal guideline (Kommunalrichtlinie) [40] that is the basis for partial funding of the three standard implementation steps: (i) preparation of MCAPs, (ii) 3-year management of implementation, and (iii) capital-intensive implementation measures [39–41]. The capital is provided out of the Energy and Climate Fund (Gesetz zur Errichtung eines Sondervermögens ‘Energie-und Klimafonds’— EKFG), which is financed by federal budget funds and national revenues from emission trading [42, 43]. For operational support, a practical guide for drawing up MCAPs [44, 45], similar to the ones provided by ICLEI or CoM, was published by the German Institute of Urban Affairs (Deutsches Institut für Urbanistik—Difu), which assigned the role of the national service center for municipal climate protection [46]. It should be noted that individual municipalities have prepared MCAPs before the NKI was launched. However, their activities have largely been aligned with the NKI, which functions as the framework for the majority of German MCAPs. Publisher Copyright: © 2017, The Author(s).

PY - 2017/12/1

Y1 - 2017/12/1

N2 - Background: Various monitoring approaches have shown that urban areas and their energy systems are major contributors to climate change. Corresponding observations have mostly been based on physical data. However, text data is an untapped source of information that can be analyzed by text mining methods. Taking the example of the German Energy Transition, an interpretation network analysis was used to assess local transition patterns in 16 municipal climate action plans of regional centers in the State of Lower Saxony. Based on the holistic concept of social-ecological systems, three analytical perspectives were introduced, the social system, the energy system, and the three principles of strong sustainability, which inspired three questions: What is the “horizon of attention” regarding the stages of the energy system? What potential, in terms of coordination or collaboration, can be identified on basis of network links between societal sub-systems and the energy system? Are strong sustainability principles adequately linked to the energy system to support a transition towards sustainability? Methods: A computer-aided interpretation network analysis was used. The (co-)occurrence of indicative words representing pre-defined categories was checked in the measures proposed in the plans to analyze the importance and connectedness of these categories. For this purpose, three thesauri were created as fixed literature-based categorization schemes. Results: Municipalities had a nuanced understanding of climate protection focusing on energy conversion and end-use. Public administrations were closely connected role models, economic stakeholders seemed only partly interlinked. The plans referred to all three sustainability principles. However, their implementation might not fully acknowledge the ecological carrying capacity, because, e.g., the strategy of setting limits could not be clearly identified. Conclusions: To advance municipal climate protection, current cross-sectoral multilevel governance approaches should be improved with emphasis on capacity of local administrations, electricity grids, or renewables in the sectors heat and mobility. Also, more emphasis on sustainability communication and education based on all three sustainability principles will be crucial for a transition towards sustainability. From a methodological viewpoint, the text mining approach could confirm and complement recent studies. Considering its limitations and prospects, it can be advanced to useful tool sets for semantic sustainability assessments.

AB - Background: Various monitoring approaches have shown that urban areas and their energy systems are major contributors to climate change. Corresponding observations have mostly been based on physical data. However, text data is an untapped source of information that can be analyzed by text mining methods. Taking the example of the German Energy Transition, an interpretation network analysis was used to assess local transition patterns in 16 municipal climate action plans of regional centers in the State of Lower Saxony. Based on the holistic concept of social-ecological systems, three analytical perspectives were introduced, the social system, the energy system, and the three principles of strong sustainability, which inspired three questions: What is the “horizon of attention” regarding the stages of the energy system? What potential, in terms of coordination or collaboration, can be identified on basis of network links between societal sub-systems and the energy system? Are strong sustainability principles adequately linked to the energy system to support a transition towards sustainability? Methods: A computer-aided interpretation network analysis was used. The (co-)occurrence of indicative words representing pre-defined categories was checked in the measures proposed in the plans to analyze the importance and connectedness of these categories. For this purpose, three thesauri were created as fixed literature-based categorization schemes. Results: Municipalities had a nuanced understanding of climate protection focusing on energy conversion and end-use. Public administrations were closely connected role models, economic stakeholders seemed only partly interlinked. The plans referred to all three sustainability principles. However, their implementation might not fully acknowledge the ecological carrying capacity, because, e.g., the strategy of setting limits could not be clearly identified. Conclusions: To advance municipal climate protection, current cross-sectoral multilevel governance approaches should be improved with emphasis on capacity of local administrations, electricity grids, or renewables in the sectors heat and mobility. Also, more emphasis on sustainability communication and education based on all three sustainability principles will be crucial for a transition towards sustainability. From a methodological viewpoint, the text mining approach could confirm and complement recent studies. Considering its limitations and prospects, it can be advanced to useful tool sets for semantic sustainability assessments.

KW - German energy transition (Energiewende)

KW - Municipal climate action plan

KW - Semantic network analysis

KW - Semantic sustainability assessment

KW - Text mining

KW - Urban energy system

KW - Sustainability Science

KW - Environmental planning

KW - Energy research

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85024851475&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1186/s13705-017-0125-0

DO - 10.1186/s13705-017-0125-0

M3 - Journal articles

AN - SCOPUS:85024851475

VL - 7

JO - Energy, Sustainability and Society

JF - Energy, Sustainability and Society

SN - 2192-0567

IS - 1

M1 - 22

ER -