Transdisciplinary interventions for environmental sustainability

Ghina Chammas; Sammy Kayed; Anwar Al Shami; Wassim Kays; Michele Citton; Mohamad Kalot; Elie Al Marj; Marwan Fakhr; Nadine A Yehya; Salma N Talhouk; Mahmoud Al-Hindi; Salah Zein-El-Dine; Hani Tamim; Issam Lakkis; Majdi Abou Najm; Najat A Saliba

doi:10.1016/j.wasman.2020.03.043

Transdisciplinary interventions for environmental sustainability

Waste Manag. 2020 Apr 15:107:159-171. doi: 10.1016/j.wasman.2020.03.043. Epub 2020 Apr 10.

Authors

Ghina Chammas¹, Sammy Kayed², Anwar Al Shami³, Wassim Kays⁴, Michele Citton⁵, Mohamad Kalot⁶, Elie Al Marj⁷, Marwan Fakhr⁸, Nadine A Yehya⁹, Salma N Talhouk¹⁰, Mahmoud Al-Hindi¹¹, Salah Zein-El-Dine¹², Hani Tamim¹³, Issam Lakkis¹⁴, Majdi Abou Najm¹⁵, Najat A Saliba¹⁶

Affiliations

¹ American University of Beirut, Nature Conservation Center, Lebanon. Electronic address: gc18@aub.edu.lb.
² American University of Beirut, Nature Conservation Center, Lebanon. Electronic address: natureprj@aub.edu.lb.
³ American University of Beirut, Nature Conservation Center, Lebanon. Electronic address: aa267@aub.edu.lb.
⁴ American University of Beirut, Nature Conservation Center, Lebanon. Electronic address: naturevillage@aub.edu.lb.
⁵ American University of Beirut, Nature Conservation Center, Lebanon. Electronic address: mc106@aub.edu.lb.
⁶ American University of Beirut, Nature Conservation Center, Lebanon. Electronic address: mkalot@kumc.edu.
⁷ American University of Beirut, Nature Conservation Center, Lebanon.
⁸ American University of Beirut, Nature Conservation Center, Lebanon. Electronic address: mf90@aub.edu.lb.
⁹ American University of Beirut, Suliman S. Olayan School of Business, Lebanon. Electronic address: nyehya@ucdavis.edu.
¹⁰ American University of Beirut, Department of Landscape and Ecosystem Management, Faculty of Agriculture and Food Sciences, Lebanon. Electronic address: ntsalma@aub.edu.lb.
¹¹ American University of Beirut, Department of Chemical Engineering, Maroun Semaan Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, Lebanon. Electronic address: ma211@aub.edu.lb.
¹² American University of Beirut, Department of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Lebanon. Electronic address: sz01@aub.edu.lb.
¹³ American University of Beirut, Department of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Lebanon. Electronic address: htamim@aub.edu.lb.
¹⁴ American University of Beirut, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Maroun Semaan Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, Lebanon. Electronic address: il01@aub.edu.lb.
¹⁵ American University of Beirut, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Maroun Semaan Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, Lebanon. Electronic address: mabounajm@ucdavis.edu.
¹⁶ American University of Beirut, Nature Conservation Center, Lebanon; American University of Beirut, Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Lebanon. Electronic address: ns30@aub.edu.lb.

PMID: 32283490
DOI: 10.1016/j.wasman.2020.03.043

Abstract

This paper presents a case study of a transdisciplinary research based on an ex-post assessment of the environmental and socio-behavioral contexts of solid waste management in Lebanese peri-urban communities. Lessons learned are compiled into the Transdisciplinary Interventions for Environmental Sustainability conceptual framework. The approach starts with building a team of researchers and non-academic partners, continues with co-creating solution-oriented knowledge, and ends by integrating and applying the produced knowledge. The co-created knowledge includes the environmental and socio-behavioral ex-post assessment's results. The former reveals low air pollution levels, evidence of waste-related water contamination, and higher self-reported frequencies of ill-health symptoms and diseases closer to the landfill. The latter indicates that the community's perception about waste production differs from the real accounting of generated waste. Nine lessons are identified: (1) inherent common interest between the researchers and the community, (2) flexible interdisciplinary research team, (3) representative citizen committee, (4) contextually-informed outreach coordinator, (5) iterative research process accounting for the shifting socio-political context, (6) common expectations of the research process, (7) boundary objects leading to spin-off activities in the same setting, (8) effective communication strategy, and (9) ex-post assessment of subsequent societal and scientific impacts. The non-phased framework links all nine pointers in a logical order to ease scalability. The study answers a global need for a unified, clear, broadly adopted framework for transdisciplinarity and a deeper understanding of factors ensuring full-circle knowledge co-creation in waste-related contexts in the global South. The study offers managerial and research implications and suggests avenues for further research.

Keywords: Co-creation; Global South; Lebanon; Solid waste management; Transdisciplinary sustainability research.