Exploring Crisis and Conflict Management Through a Scenario Study of a Waste Incineration Project in Hangzhou, China

Lingmei Fu, Jinmei Wang () and Qing Yang ()
Additional contact information
Lingmei Fu: College of Emergency Management, Nanjing Tech University, Nanjing 211816, China
Jinmei Wang: School of Management, Wuhan Institute of Technology, Wuhan 430205, China
Qing Yang: School of Safety Science and Emergency Management, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 430070, China

Sustainability, 2025, vol. 17, issue 17, 1-24

Abstract: Municipal solid waste (MSW) incineration projects often trigger “Not In My Backyard” (NIMBY) conflicts, which pose persistent crises to social development and sustainable governance. This study introduces a novel “reputation–interest” space model grounded in scenario–response theory to reframe NIMBY conflicts as processes of crisis transformation. We construct a multi-stakeholder indicator system and propose a crisis resilience degree model to capture both the risks and opportunities embedded in conflict dynamics. The application object is a waste incineration project in Hangzhou, China. The analysis reveals how NIMBY conflict can evolve from strong resistance to a neighbor–benefit effect. Empirical results show that the crisis resilience degree of the project evolved from 37.26% to 89.26%, from the initial strong resistance of the residents to the successful in situ landing, which improved the crisis resilience, recovering resilience from the crisis. The results provide actionable insights for policymakers to turn NIMBY conflicts into drivers of social trust and sustainable urban transformation.

Keywords: MSW NIMBY conflicts; crisis management; crisis resilience degree; scenario-response; reputation-interests model (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/17/7846/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/17/7846/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:17:p:7846-:d:1738676

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().