ALBERT

Description: Climate change mitigation measures linked to households’ energy consumption have huge greenhouse gases (GHG) emission reduction potential and positive impact on energy poverty reduction. However, measures such as renovation of residential buildings or installation of micro generation technologies based on renewable energy sources have not realized their full energy saving and GHG emission reduction potentials, due to the energy efficiency paradox and other barriers. These climate change mitigation policies targeting the households’ sector can deliver extra benefits such as energy poverty reduction and implementation of the energy justice principle; therefore, they require more attention of scholars and policy makers. The aim of this paper is to analyze the energy poverty and climate change mitigation issues in EU households based on a systematic literature review, and to provide future research paths and policy recommendations. Based on the systematic literature review, this paper develops an integrated framework for addressing energy poverty, just carbon free energy transition and climate change mitigation issues in the EU. Additionally, we argue that more targeted climate change policies and measures are necessary in the light of the shortcomings of current measures to reduce energy poverty and realize climate change mitigation potential linked to energy consumption in households.

Description: 〈span〉The implementation of modern technologies in geosciences, and specifically the study of earthquakes, is vital for continued progress in this field. For example, the last 25 yr have seen new technologies such as Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar, the Global Positioning System, and light detection and ranging help scientists observe and place new constraints on the seismic cycle over unprecedented time and space scales.〈/span〉

Description: The purpose of this study is to promote a new way of application composite materials to restore eutrophic waters. A new sustainable way of application is based on the “teabag” method, in which materials were placed in water-permeable bags and immersed in the water column in order to sorb phosphate—one of the main contributory element for the eutrophication problem. Particularly, the two composites materials of Phoslock™ (lanthanum-modified bentonite, LMB) and Bephos™ (Fe-modified bentonite, f-MB) were tested and bench-scale batch experiments were employed to investigate their sorption efficiency in the forms of slurry and teabag. The adsorption kinetics and the relevant adsorption isotherms were deployed, while the effect of the materials on turbidity and their aging were also investigated. Experimental results showed that Phoslock™ and Bephos™ (as teabag), being applied at initial concentration range: 0.05–5 mg/L, they sustained a maximum adsorption capacity of 7.80 mg/g and 25.1 mg/g, respectively, which are considered sufficient rates for P concentrations reported at natural aquatic ecosystems. At the same time this new method did not cause turbidity in the water column, since the material was not released into the water, thus, preventing potential harmful consequences for the living organisms. Moreover, the “teabag” method prevents the material to cover the lake bottom, avoiding the phenomenon of smothering of benthos. Βy teabag method, the materials can be collected for further applicability as soil improver or crops fertilizer. Finally, it was argued that the possibility to recycle Phoslock™ and Bephos™ materials for agricultural use is of paramount importance, sustaining also positive impacts on sustainable ecology and on the routes of circular economy (CE).

Description: During the last decade, the demand for electricity has increased significantly, both for companies and consumers. Therefore, in every country, there are companies developing and functioning to provide various forms of electric energy. The quality of the services that they provide has been of major concern for these companies for the last few years. The objective of this study is to examine residential customers’ satisfaction of electricity providers in Greece regarding various factors, such as the products, services, customer service, and the pricing policy. The present research was conducted with the use of a specially developed website questionnaire; 689 questionnaires were collected from January to June, 2019. The results were analyzed with the multicriteria satisfaction analysis (MUSA) method, which is considered as an aggregation–disaggregation approach developed on the qualitative analysis regression. The results of the study showed that the residential customers were quite satisfied. More specifically, the average global satisfaction index of the residential customers was about 52.15%. Using the results of this study, electricity providers will have the chance to frame their future products and services so as to keep their industrial customers satisfied. This empirical study may serve as a reference for other electricity providers who desire to carry out similar studies in the future.

Description: Willingness to invest in renewable energy sources (RES) is predictable under data mining classification methods. Data was collected from the area of Evia in Greece via a questionnaire survey by using a sample of 360 respondents. The questions focused on the respondents’ perceptions and offered benefits for wind energy, solar photovoltaics (PVs), small hydro parks and biomass investments. The classification algorithms of Bayesian Network classifier, Logistic Regression, Support Vector Machine (SVM), C4.5, k-Nearest Neighbors (k-NN) and Long Short Term Memory (LSTM) were used. The Bayesian Network classifier was the best method, with a prediction accuracy of 0.7942. The most important variables for the prediction of willingness to invest were the level of information, the level of acceptance and the contribution to sustainable development. Future studies should include data on state incentives and their impact on willingness to invest.

Description: Since the 20th century, the deterioration of the ecological environment around the world has challenged urban space construction. With the development of urbanization, the consumption of resources and energy has increased, the level of biodiversity has decreased, environmental pollution is approaching the critical level, and the contradiction between human habitat activity and ecological environment has become increasingly prominent. The sustainable development of urban space along with its economic and social benefits, taking into account the quality of life and ecological environment, has become a new and important subject that needs to be explored. In this study, the indices of the evaluation system for sustainable urban spatial development in regions with underdeveloped economies but rich in ecological resources are arranged in sequence through the systematic coupling analysis of collaborative evaluation information and a quantitative analysis. The influences of urban space elements on sustainable urban development are disclosed. On the basis of the generated data, an evaluation system for sustainable urban spatial development with a complete set of information is proposed. The proposed system is applicable to urban spatial development evaluation in regions in China with underdeveloped economies but rich in ecological capital. First, the basic concept of system coupling is introduced, and a coupling relationship between urban sustainable development and urban space is proposed. Second, the elements of urban space and the sustainable development in the Qin-Ba mountain area are extracted, and the precedence diagram method is used to construct a sustainable evaluation system for urban space development in the Qin-Ba mountain area. Third, the sustainable evaluation process of urban spatial development is proposed. Finally, the sustainable evaluation system for urban spatial development in the Qin-Ba mountain area is applied to evaluate the urban spatial development in Shangluo, Qin-Ling Mountains, China. The results show that, among the investigated 14 indicators, the proportion of industrial land use mainly influences sustainable urban spatial development. As for the rest of the index factors, per capita green land area and green coverage ratio of built-up areas, per capita urban construction land area, proportion of forestry area, greening rate of built-up areas, total industrial dust emission density, proportion of cultivated area, and average volume fraction of residential areas are the secondary influencing factors of sustainable urban spatial development. The evaluation system in this research is constructed with the three aspects of “green coordination”, “green development”, and “green sustainability” of sustainable urban spatial development, and it complements the evaluation contents of urban–rural ecological space coordination, land resource protection, and green development community, and so on. The conclusion of this study not only can provide a useful reference for urban spatial development planning for underdeveloped ecological capital areas of China but also can provide a theoretical basis for the management and control policy of sustainable urban spatial development.

Description: An efficient position based visual sevroing control approach for Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) by employing Non-linear Model Predictive Control (N-MPC) is designed and presented in this work. In the proposed scheme, a mechanism is incorporated within the vision-based controller that determines when the Visual Tracking Algorithm (VTA) should be activated and new control inputs should be calculated. More specifically, the control loop does not close periodically, i.e., between two consecutive activations (triggering instants), the control inputs calculated by the N-MPC at the previous triggering time instant are applied to the underwater robot in an open-loop mode. This results in a significantly smaller number of requested measurements from the vision tracking algorithm, as well as less frequent computations of the non-linear predictive control law. This results in a reduction in processing time as well as energy consumption and, therefore, increases the accuracy and autonomy of the Autonomous Underwater Vehicle. The latter is of paramount importance for persistent underwater inspection tasks. Moreover, the Field of View constraints (FoV), control input saturation, the kinematic limitations due to the underactuated degree of freedom in sway direction, and the effect of the model uncertainties as well as external disturbances have been considered during the control design. In addition, the stability and convergence of the closed-loop system has been guaranteed analytically. Finally, the efficiency and performance of the proposed vision-based control framework is demonstrated through a comparative real-time experimental study while using a small underwater vehicle.

Description: Cloud computing hastens technology driven innovation by taking advantage of the speed, the cost-effectiveness, the efficiency and the security that such applications offer. By using cloud computing, public organizations can exploit the economies of scale and innovate both efficiency and rapidly. The present study focuses on the factors influencing the adoption of a new technological application within the procedures of change management. It examines the willingness to adopt cloud computing for the case of administrative employees in a higher education institute working environment. A prediction model explores a Ubiquitous cloud computing adoption system (USAS), utilizing the theory of technology acceptance model (TAM) and resulting that end users are welcoming the adoption of the cloud computing. Policy makers should move towards empowering the stakeholders with e-skills to stimulate technology driven innovation, resulting in improvements in effectiveness and efficiency, in the creation of new jobs and in the promotion of sustainable development practices.

Description: Achieving climate change mitigation goals requires the mobilization of all levels of society. The potential for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from households has not yet been fully realized. Given the complex climate change situation around the world, the importance of behavioral economic insights is already understood. Changing household behavior in mitigating climate change is seen as an inexpensive and rapid intervention measure. In this paper, we review barriers of changing household behavior and systematize policies and measures that could help to overcome these barriers. A systematic literature review provided in this paper allows to define future research pathways and could be important for policy-makers to develop measures to help households contribute to climate change mitigation.