ALBERT

Description: Surrounded by the ocean, Taiwan has been increasingly developing coastal tourism projects. Concerns that negative impacts might be brought about by prosperous tourism have resulted in a recent focus on sustainable tourism. Sustainable tourism involves policies that acknowledge the interdependences among the environment, the community, and the economy. The goal of sustainable tourism is to enhance and protect the environment while satisfying basic human requirements, as well as those of the contemporary and future tourism industries to improve quality of life. On the other hand, unsustainable coastal tourism might undermine the natural environment and society, resulting in air, water, and soil pollution, wildlife habitat disruption, and changes of local community cultural characteristics. Therefore, performance evaluation of coastal tourism, using an indicator framework to facilitate sustainable development and enhance the effectiveness of coastal resources exploitation, is critical. Through a literature review and expert surveys using the methods of the fuzzy Delphi method (FDM) and the fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (FAHP), this study builds a performance indicator framework and identifies the key factors affecting the sustainable development of coastal tourism in Taiwan. The results can serve as a reference for the public sector to be used for the sustainable planning and development of coastal tourism.

Description: Many countries and scholars have used various strategies to improve and optimize the allocation ratios for carbon emission allowances. This issue is more urgent for China due to the uneven development across the country. This paper proposes a new method that divides low-carbon economy development processes into two separate periods: from 2020 to 2029 and from 2030 to 2050. These two periods have unique requirements and emissions reduction potential; therefore, they must involve different allocation methods, so that reduction behaviors do not stall the development of regional low-carbon economies. During the first period, a more deterministic economic development approach for the carbon emission allowance allocation ratio should be used. During the second period, more adaptive and optimized policy guidance should be employed. We developed a low-carbon economy index evaluation system using the entropy weight method to measure information filtering levels. We conducted vector autoregressive correlation tests, consulted 60 experts for the fuzzy analytic hierarchy process, and we conducted max-min standardized data processing tests. This article presents first- and second-period carbon emission allowance models in combination with a low-carbon economy index evaluation system. Finally, we forecast reasonable carbon emission allowance allocation ratios for China for the periods starting in 2020 and 2030. A good allocation ratio for the carbon emission allowance can help boost China’s economic development and help the country reach its energy conservation and emissions reduction goals.

Description: In the Internet of Things era, panel displays play a major role in human life, because humans frequently use liquid crystal displays to monitor their electrical devices. The display industry creates remarkable economic output, but every manufacturing process inevitably has some undesirable effects on the environment. With the increasing awareness of environmental protection, balanced development is necessary to address the emerging market trends. However, short-sighted manufacturing corporations that focus solely on financial performance can achieve only short-term profits. The purpose of this study was to develop the most effective sustainable improvement strategies that can enhance competitive advantages in real-world situations. The proposed method combines the balanced scorecard and a new hybrid modified multiple attribute decision-making model which together adopt the DEMATEL technique to construct the influential network relation map and develop the DEMATEL-based ANP with the VIKOR method to deliver strategies that integrate environmental sustainability and competitive advantage. Finally, a real-world case study applying the proposed method to the cases of liquid crystal display manufacturers was conducted. Then, this paper discusses the effective use of natural resources, development of enterprises, and sustainable competitive advantage in this context. Various manufacturers, communities, and stakeholders can benefit from the coopetition solutions explained by the proposed method.

Description: Soil is the most basic resource for sustainable agricultural production; it promotes water quality, is a key component of the biogeochemical cycles and hosts a huge diversity of organisms. However, we are not paying enough attention to soil degradation produced by land use. Modern agriculture has been successful in increasing yields but has also caused extensive environmental damage, particularly soil degradation. In the Argentine Pampas, agriculturization reached a peak with the generalized use of the no-till technological package: genetically modified soybeans tolerant to glyphosate, no-till, glyphosate, and inorganic fertilizers. This phenomenon has been widely spread in the country; the no-till package has been applied in large areas and has been used by tenants in a 60%–70% of cultivated lands. Thus, those who were involved in developing management practices may not be the same as those who will face degradation issues related to those practices. Indeed, most evidence reviewed in this paper suggests that the most widely distributed practices in the Pampas region are actually producing severe soil degradation. Biological degradation is particularly important because soil biota is involved in numerous soil processes on which soil functioning relies, affecting soil fertility and productivity. For example, soil meso- and macrofauna are especially important in nutrient cycling and in soil structure formation and maintenance, and they are key components of the network that links microbial process to the scale of fields and landscapes where ecosystem services are produced. However, the knowledge of the impact of different agricultural managements on soil meso- and macrofauna in Pampas agroecosystems is far from conclusive at this stage. The reason for this lack of definite conclusions is that this area has been given less attention than in other parts of the world; the response of soil fauna to agricultural practices is complex and taxa-dependent; and there is a wide variety of practices in the main types of agricultural systems, making generalizations difficult. A review of the existing studies on soil meso- and macrofauna in agroecosystems, revealed that (a) agricultural soils, regardless of farming system, are strongly modified in biological aspects compared to the same soils without human interventions; (b) there are no conclusive results about no-till benefits compared to reduced tillage or conventional tillage; (c) agricultural managements that are alternative to the traditional conventional systems are very poorly represented in research.

Description: The goal of achieving sustainable tourism is now a priority for many tourism planners. It has been suggested that stakeholder analysis is an essential step in determining sustainable tourism in regions, given its highly contextual nature. However, previous research has tended to focus heavily on stakeholders with the assumption that attitudes within groups are homogeneous. This research questions this assumption and in doing so, takes a critical approach by examining attitudes towards sustainable tourism and then assesses whether attitudes align with stakeholder groups. The study was conducted in the island state of Tasmania, Australia, and utilised the Q-methodology to examine attitudes towards sustainable tourism in the Bay of Fires region. The results concur with recent research, which shows that attitudes do not always align with those of stakeholder groups. The critical and reflexive approach suggests that assumptions regarding stakeholder attitudes need to be reviewed and more attention given to people’s contextualised attitudes, rather than the stakeholder group in which they sit.

Description: Urban metabolism analysis has become a useful and effective tool to explore urban socio-economic processes. In this research, in order to explore the similarities and differences of metabolic characteristics and variation rules of different types of resource-dependent cities, we selected two cities—Taiyuan and Jincheng, the capital and a traditional resource-dependent city of Shanxi province, respectively, as research subjects, we also established an urban metabolic evaluation framework by employing a set of eight emergy-based indicators from socio-economic data from 2007 to 2014, and compared the similarities and discrepancies from the perspectives of metabolic structure, intensity, pressure, and efficiency, and put forward some suggestions for pursuing sustainable development for both cities and pointed out that more types of resource-dependent cities should be incorporated in future research work.

Description: In light of the growing importance of data network quality in the wireless industry, this study analyzes and compares efficiencies in management, service quality, network quality, and market in the 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) wireless industry. For this purpose, a bootstrap data envelopment analysis (DEA) model using representative U.S. wireless carriers as decision making units (DMUs) was designed and conducted, with further verification through the Mann-Whitney U and Wilcoxon W test, to examine the differences in efficiency distribution. The results indicate that, in terms of efficiency distribution, network quality efficiency and market efficiency belongs to the same group as that which has high management efficiency. Based on these results, this paper suggests implications and strategic guidelines for wireless carriers for improvement in management efficiency.

Description: The role of tourism in rural areas is pivotal for the integration and valorization of territorial resources and it is strengthened by the capacity to promote local community participation in processes of development. The paper addresses the issue by presenting and discussing a case study of a rural area of southern Italy where a territorial network for the development of local tourism has been set up. The innovative initiative aimed, firstly, to facilitate a closer connection between production and consumption by reducing transaction costs and, secondly, to connect local production with quality conscious consumers looking for traditional products. The network project also aimed to create conditions conducive to increasing the competitiveness of the local production chain and tourism sector. The case study shows how the challenge for many rural territories lies in increasing levels of trust and rebuilding social capital as a precondition of developing the tourism sector and fostering socio-economic development as a whole. Traditional institutions, as well as hybrid institutions, with the support of research organizations, can play a key role.

Description: For resilience building, cities need to foster learning and innovation processes among all actors in order to develop transformative capacities of urban governance regimes to manage extraordinary situations as well as continuous change. A close collaboration of urban governmental actors and citizens is, therefore, of high importance. This paper explores two different discourses on urban governance: participation and self-organized collective action for the management of the commons. Both address the involvement of citizens into governance, albeit from different perspectives: on the one hand from the viewpoint of the government, selectively handing some of its power over to citizens, on the other hand from the perspective of citizens who self-organize for a collective management of urban commons. Based on experiences in the Austrian city of Korneuburg, it is argued that the collective action literature may help overcome some of the self-criticisms and shortcomings of the participation discourse. More specifically, Elinor Ostrom’s design principles for the management of the commons provide valuable input to overcome restrictions in thinking about citizen participation and to effectively design institutions for long-term urban co-management.

Description: Sustainable mining has received much attention in recent years as a consequence of the negative impacts of mining and public awareness. The aim of this paper is to provide mining companies guidance on improving the sustainability of their sites through effective community engagement based on recent advances in the literature. It begins with a review of the literature on sustainable development and its relationship to stakeholder engagement. It then uses the literature to determine the dominant factors that affect community perceptions of mining projects. These factors are classified into five categories: environmental, economic, social, governance and demographic factors. Then, we propose a new two-stage method based on discrete choice theory and the classification that can improve stakeholder engagement and be cost-effective. Further work is required to validate the proposed method, although it shows potential to overcome some of the challenges plaguing current approaches.

Description: To comply with recent international trends and initiatives, and in order to help achieve sustainable development, Korea has established a greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction target of 37% (851 million tons) of the business as usual (BAU) rate by 2030. Regarding environmentally-oriented standards such as the IGCC (International Green Construction Code), there are also rising demands for the assessment on CO2 emissions during the life cycle in accordance with ISO (International Standardization Organization’s Standard) 14040. At present, precast concrete (PC) engineering-related studies primarily cover structural and construction aspects, including improvement of structural performance in the joint, introduction of pre-stressed concrete and development of half PC. In the manufacture of PC, steam curing is mostly used for the early-strength development of concrete. In steam curing, a large amount of CO2 is produced, causing an environmental problem. Therefore, this study proposes a method to assess CO2 emissions (including absorption) throughout the PC life cycle by using a life cycle assessment (LCA) method. Using the proposed assessment method, CO2 emissions during the life cycle of a precast concrete girder (PCG) were assessed. In addition, CO2 absorption was assessed against a PCG using conventional carbonation and CO2 absorption-related models. As a result, the CO2 emissions throughout the life cycle of the PCG were 1365.6 (kg-CO2/1 PCG). The CO2 emissions during the production of raw materials among the CO2 emissions throughout the life cycle of the PCG were 1390 (kg-CO2/1 PCG), accounting for a high portion to total CO2 emissions (nearly 90%). In contrast, the transportation and manufacture stages were 1% and 10%, respectively, having little effect on total CO2 emissions. Among the use of the PCG, CO2 absorption was mostly decided by the CO2 diffusion coefficient and the amount of CO2 absorption by cement paste. The CO2 absorption by carbonation throughout the service life of the PC was about 11% of the total CO2 emissions, which is about 16% of CO2 emissions from ordinary Portland cement (OPC) concrete.

Description: Although China has promoted the construction of Chinese Sustainable Ground Transportation (CSGT) to guide sustainable development, it may create substantial challenges, such as rapid urban growth and land limitations. This research assessed the effects of the Hangzhou Bay Bridge on impervious surface growth in Cixi County, Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, China. Changes in impervious surfaces were mapped based on Landsat images from 1995, 2002, and 2009 using a combination of multiple endmember spectral mixture analysis (MESMA) and landscape metrics. The results indicated that the area and density of impervious surfaces increased significantly during construction of the Hangzhou Bay Bridge (2002–2009). Additionally, the bridge and connected road networks promoted urban development along major roads, resulting in compact growth patterns of impervious surfaces in urbanized regions. Moreover, the Hangzhou Bay Bridge promoted the expansion and densification of impervious surfaces in Hangzhou Bay District, which surrounds the bridge. The bridge also accelerated socioeconomic growth in the area, promoting rapid urban growth in Cixi County between 2002 and 2009. Overall, the Hangzhou Bay Bridge is an important driver of urban growth in Cixi County, and policy suggestions for sustainable urban growth should be adopted in the future.

Description: Rapid urbanization and rapid urban growth present great challenges to the sustainable utilization of land resources. This paper discusses the on-going process of construction-to-ecological land conversion (CELC) in terms of three aspects: land use, environmental effects, and system responses. CELC is compared to other current land conversion strategies in China. Taking Shenzhen City as an example, this paper introduces five areas in which CELC has been implemented since 2009, including basic farmland protection zones, mining areas, ecological corridors, inefficient industrial zones, and urban villages. This paper argues that Shenzhen’s CELC model can improve the ecological environment, control urban sprawl, and promote sustainable land use and, thus, serve as an example for other cities in China.

Description: Northeast China (NEC) is one of China’s major rice production areas and has experienced obvious climate warming over the past three decades, similar to other mid- to high-latitude regions in the Northern Hemisphere. The present study investigates the temporal and spatial impacts of climate warming on rice yield in mid–high latitude regions. In this study, two time series datasets of rice yield and climate records in the NEC, including 178 county sites and 105 climate stations and covering the period from 1980 to 2008, were compiled. From these data, the responses of rice yield to the rice-growing season temperature (GST), growing degree days (GDD), and precipitation (GSP) were estimated using a regression model. The results indicate that rice yield benefits from climate warming in the NEC. GST positively impacted rice yield in 64.6% of the counties, with an increase of approximately 3.65%; GDD positively impacted yield in 64% of the counties, an increase of approximately 3.2%; and GSP negatively impacted rice yield in 68% of the counties, with a decrease of approximately −2.3%. Spatial variation was observed in the climate-rice yield relationships. The statistical relationships of GST and GDD with rice yield were significantly and positively correlated with latitude, longitude, and altitude, while that of GSP and rice yield was significantly and negatively correlated with latitude and longitude and showed a nonsignificant positive correlation with altitude. In summary, climate warming has significantly increased rice yield over the last three decades in the region north of 42°N, east of 122.4°E, and at an elevation of 134–473 m, which covers the majority of the rice-growing areas in the NEC.

Description: SMEs need to protect their innovation outcomes and increase profits from their innovations in order to make their growth sustainable. The appropriability regime enables SMEs to secure financial returns on their R&D investment so that SMEs can continuously invest in innovation and obtain financial gains. However, the appropriability regime can change the effects of protecting innovation outcomes depending on the capacity of knowledge exploration, especially for SMEs, and previous studies have not discussed these issues. Thus, the main objective of this paper is to explore how the knowledge exploration capacity affects the relationship between different types of appropriability regimes and innovation performance. Multivariate regression is used to analyze the manufacturing SMEs sampled from the Korea Innovation Survey 2007 (KIS 2007). Our results demonstrate that both formal and informal appropriability regimes can improve firm’s innovation performance. Furthermore, although both inventive and absorptive capacity have positive moderating effects on the relationship between the informal appropriability regime and innovation performance, the inventive capacity moderates negatively the relationship between the formal appropriability regime and innovation performance. As a whole, the significance of this paper lies in providing further understanding of the different types of appropriability regimes and knowledge exploration capacity in SMEs.

Description: This paper examines how and to what degree government policies of garbage fees and voluntary source separation programs, with free indoor containers and garbage bags, can affect the effectiveness of municipal solid waste (MSW) management, in the sense of achieving a desirable reduction of per capita MSW generation. Based on city-level panel data for years 1998–2012 in China, our empirical analysis indicates that per capita MSW generated is increasing with per capita disposable income, average household size, education levels of households, and the lagged per capita MSW. While both garbage fees and source separation programs have separately led to reductions in per capita waste generation, the interaction of the two policies has resulted in an increase in per capita waste generation due to the following crowding-out effects: Firstly, the positive effect of income dominates the negative effect of the garbage fee. Secondly, there are crowding-out effects of mandatory charging system and the subsidized voluntary source separation on per capita MSW generation. Thirdly, small subsidies and tax punishments have reduced the intrinsic motivation for voluntary source separation of MSW. Thus, compatible fee charging system, higher levels of subsidies, and well-designed public information and education campaigns are required to promote household waste source separation and reduction.

Description: An urban forest assessment is essential for developing a baseline from which to measure changes and trends. The most precise way to assess urban forests is to measure and record every tree on a site, but although this may work well for relatively small populations (e.g., street trees, small parks), it is prohibitively expensive for large tree populations. Thus, random sampling offers a cost-effective way to assess urban forest structure and the associated ecosystem services for large-scale assessments. The methodology applied to assess ecosystem services in this study can also be used to assess the ecosystem services provided by vacant land in other urban contexts and improve urban forest policies, planning, and the management of vacant land. The study’s findings support the inclusion of trees on vacant land and contribute to a new vision of vacant land as a valuable ecological resource by demonstrating how green infrastructure can be used to enhance ecosystem health and promote a better quality of life for city residents.

Description: Understanding human mobility patterns provides us with knowledge about human mobility in an urban context, which plays a critical role in urban planning, traffic management and the spread of disease. Recently, the availability of large-scale human-sensing datasets enables us to analyze human mobility patterns and the relationships between humans and their living environments on an unprecedented spatial and temporal scale to improve decision-making regarding the quality of life of citizens. This study aims to characterize the urban spatial-temporal dynamic from the perspective of human mobility hotspots by using mobile phone location data. We propose a workflow to identify human convergent and dispersive hotspots that represent the status of human mobility in local areas and group these hotspots into different classes according to clustering their temporal signatures. To illustrate our proposed approach, a case study of Shenzhen, China, has been conducted. Six typical spatial-temporal patterns in the city are identified and discussed by combining the spatial distribution of these identified patterns with urban functional areas. The findings enable us to understand the human dynamics in a different area of the city, which can serve as a reference for urban planning and traffic management.

Description: This study explores the technical and scale efficiency of two types of Greek fishing vessels, small-scale vessels and bottom trawlers, using a bias-corrected input-oriented Data Envelopment Analysis model. Moreover, the associations between efficiency scores and vessel’s and skipper’s characteristics are also explored. The results indicate that small-scale vessels achieve a very low average technical efficiency score (0.42) but a much higher scale efficiency score (0.81). Conversely, bottom trawlers achieve lower scale but higher technical efficiency scores (0.68 and 0.73, respectively). One important finding of this study is that the technical efficiency of small-scale vessels, in contrast to trawlers, is positively associated with the experience of the skipper. In a looser context, it can be said that small-scale fisheries mainly rely on skill, whereas bottom trawlers rely more on technology. This study concludes that there is space for improvement in efficiency, mainly for small-scale vessels, which could allow the achievement of the same level of output by using reduced inputs.

Description: Technology analysis (TA) is an important issue in the management of technology. Most R&D (Research & Development) policies have depended on diverse TA results. Traditional TA results have been obtained through qualitative approaches such as the Delphi expert survey, scenario analysis, or technology road mapping. Although they are representative methods for TA, they are not stable because their results are dependent on the experts’ knowledge and subjective experience. To solve this problem, recently many studies on TA have been focused on quantitative approaches, such as patent analysis. A patent document has diverse information of developed technologies, and thus, patent is one form of objective data for TA. In addition, sustainable technology has been a big issue in the TA fields, because most companies have their technological competitiveness through the sustainable technology. Sustainable technology is a technology keeping the technological superiority of a company. So a country as well as a company should consider sustainable technology for technological competition and continuous economic growth. Also it is important to manage sustainable technology in a given technology domain. In this paper, we propose a new patent analysis approach based on statistical analysis for the management of sustainable technology (MOST). Our proposed methodology for the MOST is to extract a technological structure and relationship for knowing the sustainable technology. To do this, we develop a hierarchical diagram of technology for finding the causal relationships among technological keywords of a given domain. The aim of the paper is to select the sustainable technology and to create the hierarchical technology paths to sustainable technology for the MOST. This contributes to planning R&D strategy for the sustainability of a company. To show how the methodology can be applied to real problem, we perform a case study using retrieved patent documents related to telematics technology.

Description: Based on two substitute products, we study the inventory and contract coordination strategy of a three-echelon supply chain, which consists of two suppliers, a manufacturer and a retailer, under supply disruption and stochastic demand. We investigate the channel gross profit model of the centralized supply chain and obtain a unique optimal order quantity. Under a decentralized decision, we find that the commonly-used wholesale price contracts cannot coordinate the system. Then, we propose a buy-back contract and prove that this contract can more efficiently coordinate the system than the former. At last, we show that the integrated performance of the decentralized system can be maximized through choosing the buy-back parameter by the manufacturer and reveal that the effects of supply uncertainty and the substitution behavior of customers on the optimal decision by numerical examples.

Description: Localisation may be used as a strategy to remedy the harmful socio-ecological impacts of economic globalisation, and lead to improved sustainability achievements. This article describes the formation of a regional-level localisation index for the 20 districts of Bhutan, demonstrating a way to identify localised places using regionally specific data. Secondary source data were gathered in Bhutan according to localisation expert-identified metrics, which were then weighted, standardised, scored and ranked. This enabled the formation of a Bhutanese regional-level localisation index. The index may assist those seeking regional-level localisation case studies by enabling the identification of localised places in Bhutan. The article also summarises sustainability-planning interviews carried out across Bhutan to determine causal factors relating to localisation scores, in particular focusing on the top localisation-scoring district, Dagana. The interviews revealed that Bhutan is a highly localised country that has long and intentionally planned many aspects of localisation.

Description: Urban expansion is considered as one of the most important problems in several developing countries. Bangkok Metropolitan Region (BMR) is the urbanized and agglomerated area of Bangkok Metropolis (BM) and its vicinity, which confronts the expansion problem from the center of the city. Landsat images of 1988, 1993, 1998, 2003, 2008, and 2011 were used to detect the land use and land cover (LULC) changes. The demographic and economic data together with corresponding maps were used to determine the driving factors for land conversions. This study applied Cellular Automata-Markov Chain (CA-MC) and Multi-Layer Perceptron-Markov Chain (MLP-MC) to model LULC and urban expansions. The performance of the CA-MC and MLP-MC yielded more than 90% overall accuracy to predict the LULC, especially the MLP-MC method. Further, the annual population and economic growth rates were considered to produce the land demand for the LULC in 2014 and 2035 using the statistical extrapolation and system dynamics (SD). It was evident that the simulated map in 2014 resulting from the SD yielded the highest accuracy. Therefore, this study applied the SD method to generate the land demand for simulating LULC in 2035. The outcome showed that urban occupied the land around a half of the BMR.

Description: The notion of the bioeconomy has gained importance in both research and policy debates over the last decade, and is frequently argued to be a key part of the solution to multiple grand challenges. Despite this, there seems to be little consensus concerning what bioeconomy actually implies. Consequently, this paper seeks to enhance our understanding of what the notion of bioeconomy means by exploring the origins, uptake, and contents of the term “bioeconomy” in the academic literature. Firstly, we perform a bibliometric analysis that highlights that the bioeconomy research community is still rather fragmented and distributed across many different fields of science, even if natural and engineering sciences take up the most central role. Secondly, we carry out a literature review that identifies three visions of the bioeconomy. The bio-technology vision emphasises the importance of bio-technology research and application and commercialisation of bio-technology in different sectors of the economy. The bio-resource vision focuses on processing and upgrading of biological raw materials, as well as on the establishment of new value chains. Finally, the bio-ecology vision highlights sustainability and ecological processes that optimise the use of energy and nutrients, promote biodiversity, and avoid monocultures and soil degradation.

Description: The regional growth of the goods and services trade has placed greater pressure on the ports of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) members, especially in the developing countries. The purpose of this study is to apply the generalized metafrontier Malmquist productivity index (gMMPI) to compare the port productivity of developed countries (DCs) and developing countries (LDCs) in APEC. The results indicate that, first, the average rate of utilized capacity among the ports of APEC members was only 65.7% during 2002–2011, which means that another 34.3% of additional through put can be handled with the same level of resources. Second, the average productivity of the container ports in the DCs appeared to be higher than those located in the LDCs. The main sources of productive growth in the DCs were based on scale efficiency change (SEC), technical efficiency change (TEC), and potential technological relative change (PTRC), while the main source of productive growth in LDCs was based on SEC. Third, SEC appeared to be the dominant factor that affects the utilization of all ports.

Description: Water erosion causes reduced farmland productivity, and with a longer period of cultivation, agricultural productivity becomes increasingly vulnerable. The vulnerability of farmland productivity needs assessment due to long-term water erosion. The key to quantitative assessment is to propose a quantitative method with water loss scenarios to calculate productivity losses due to long-term water erosion. This study uses the agricultural policy environmental extender (APEX) model and the global hydrological watershed unit and selects the Huaihe River watershed as a case study to describe the methodology. An erosion-variable control method considering soil and water conservation measure scenarios was used to study the relationship between long-term erosion and productivity losses and to fit with 3D surface (to come up with three elements, which are time, the cumulative amount of water erosion and productivity losses) to measure long-term water erosion. Results showed that: (1) the 3D surfaces fit significantly well; fitting by the 3D surface can more accurately reflect the impact of long-term water erosion on productivity than fitting by the 2D curve (to come up with two elements, which are water erosion and productivity losses); (2) the cumulative loss surface can reflect differences in productivity loss caused by long-term water erosion.

Description: Building on longitudinal data from 73 Chinese manufacturing firms during 2009–2012, we assess whether and how firms gain higher efficiency in achieving their sustainability goals by adopting management practice standards (ISO 9001, ISO 14001, and/or OHSAS 18001). We propose four pathways for firms to gain sustainability efficiency in their certification journey: participation, qualitative integration, quantitative expansion, and temporal accumulation. Our results confirm that firms certifying management standards gain higher efficiency in pursuing their sustainability goals than firms without these standards. We also find some support for increased efficiency effect in firms with diverse management systems over firms with only a single certificate in 2011. Finally, our results highlight the experiential and temporal accumulation effect of such efficiency gains, that is, firms with prior certification experience or having a longer certification history demonstrate higher efficiency gains in pursuing their sustainability goals.

Description: As the main source of CO2 emissions in China, the industrial sector has faced pressure for reducing emissions. To achieve the target of 50% reduction of industrial carbon intensity by 2020 based on the 2005 level, it is urgent to formulate specific CO2 emission mitigation strategies in the provincial industrial sector. In order to provide decision-making support for the development and implementation of mitigation policy, our undesirable slack based measure (SBM) model is firstly applied to evaluate the industrial CO2 emission efficiency under total-factor frame (TFICEE) in 13 prefecture-level cities of Jiangsu Province, the largest CO2 emitter in China. Then, we analyze space-time distribution and distributional evolution tendency of TFICEE by using the GIS visualization method and kernel density estimation, respectively. Finally, we utilize the industrial abatement model to estimate the CO2 abatement potential of Jiangsu’s industrial sector. The empirical results show that there exists a significant spatial inequality of TFICEE across various regions in Jiangsu, but the regional disparity has been narrowing during our study period. Additionally, average annual industrial CO2 emission reductions in Jiangsu Province can attain 15,654.00 (ten thousand tons), accounting for 28.2% of its average annual actual emissions, which can be achieved by improving production technology, adjusting industrial structure and raising the level of industry concentration.

Description: Transforming mature tourism resorts has evolved toward a greater involvement of public authorities and away from the mere renovation of public spaces. Authorities today are required to lead the reorganization of tourism activities through the development of co-operative networks between all stakeholders involved. In this paper, a participatory integrated approach has been designed and implemented in collaboration with Spanish authorities and the tourism sector to propose a strategy to achieve the renovation of tourism resorts. This methodology was applied to Puerto de la Cruz, the oldest tourism destination in the Canary Islands and a clear paradigm of a consolidated resort. The objective is to define and implement policies to transform Puerto de la Cruz into a more sustainable tourism destination.

Description: Future challenges to the global food supply chain are complex. In order to embrace sustainability, companies should change their management practices towards more efficient resource use. Food waste being a misuse of resources, we identify its causes and possible ways of minimising it. To achieve this goal, we conducted explorative research with qualitative and quantitative data through in-depth semi-structured interviews and an open questionnaire with top Spanish food service companies. Results show that most businesses mainly tend to minimise food waste according to economic criteria, without taking into account the social, ethical or environmental factors. As a consequence, just “visible” food waste that has an economic impact on the results is minimised. Nevertheless, visibility of real waste is often low. At the same time, awareness of (and therefore initiatives to reduce) food waste that does not directly affect a firm’s profit can be increased through multi-stakeholder collaboration. Opportunities for reducing food waste therefore arise from increasing the visibility of food that is discarded as well as addressing plate waste. We identify best practices that could lead to a reduction of the amount of food waste generated in the out of home channel in Spain.

Description: Quantitative measures of transport disadvantage are reviewed in this paper from the perspective of their effectiveness to investigate social exclusion. The effectiveness is assessed using criteria derived through a review of the concepts of transport disadvantage and social exclusion and their operationalisation. The specified criteria are related to issues of spatial (e.g., urban accessibility, and public transport accessibility), temporal (e.g., public transport availability, and facility opening hours), and social attributes of travel and activity participation (e.g., personal mobility, and disability). Four groups of transport disadvantage measures are identified and evaluated. These include deprivation-based measures, mobility-based measures, accessibility-based measures, and activity-based measures. The review suggests that although the first three categories of measures have traditionally been used to identify transport disadvantage, they do not satisfy issues surrounding activity participation—the key outcome of social exclusion. The activity space concept is a way in which these issues can be incorporated, as it is a measure of the outcomes of activity participation and their associated travel to that activity. Participation in an activity means that an individual has overcome the spatial, temporal and social barriers of travel for that activity. The research using the activity space concept has, however, inadequately identified individual travel and activity participation. This has been due to a separate application of a range of different indicators to assess activity space size. These indicators are by their nature multidimensional—e.g., area visited, distance travelled, and number of activity sites visited. Although each indicator represents a specific qualitative/quantitative aspect of travel and activity participation, researchers have treated these indicators in an isolated manner to identify transport disadvantage and consequently transport-related social exclusion. This paper identifies the weaknesses and strengths associated with these measures; and methods are directed to overcome the limitations.

Description: Significant potential for reducing thermal energy consumption in buildings of moderate and cold climate countries lies within wind energy utilisation. Unlike solar irradiation, character of wind speeds in Central and Northern Europe correspond to the actual thermal energy demand in buildings. However, mechanical wind energy undergoes transformation into electrical energy before being actually used as thermal energy in most wind energy applications. The study presented in this paper deals with hydraulic systems, designed for small-scale applications to eliminate the intermediate energy transformation as it converts mechanical wind energy into heat directly. The prototype unit containing a pump, flow control valve, oil tank and piping was developed and tested under laboratory conditions. Results of the experiments showed that the prototype system is highly efficient and adjustable to a broad wind velocity range by modifying the definite hydraulic system resistance. Development of such small-scale replicable units has the potential to promote “bottom-up” solutions for the transition to a zero carbon society.

Description: In the face of climate change, scholars and policymakers are increasingly concerned with fostering “urban resilience”. This paper seeks to contribute towards a better understanding of synergies and differences in how academics and local decision-makers think about resilience in the context of climate change. We compare definitions and characteristics of urban climate resilience in the academic literature with a survey of 134 local government representatives from across the U.S. Our analysis shows discrepancies in how academics and practitioners define and characterize urban climate resilience, most notably in their focus on either “bouncing back” or “bouncing forward” after a disturbance. Practitioners have diverse understandings of the concept, but tend to favor potentially problematic “bouncing back” or engineering-based definitions of resilience. While local government respondents confirm the importance of all 16 resilience characteristics we identified in the academic literature, coding practitioners’ free response definitions reveals that they rarely mention qualities commonly associated with resilience in the scholarly literature such as diversity, flexibility, and redundancy. These inconsistencies need to be resolved to ensure both the usability of climate resilience research and the effectiveness of resilience policy.

Description: This paper examines small hotels that have some type of environmental certification. A survey of 210 small (less than 50 employees) Catalonian hotels was conducted to investigate whether there are significant differences in the results of the implementation practices between hotels that adopt these certifications due to environmental pressure (from the government, customers, suppliers and other stakeholders) and hotels that voluntarily commit to green policies. Significant differences were identified in the results on the hotels when structural equation modelling (SEM) was undertaken. This investigation suggests that hotels that voluntarily commit to green policies obtain better results than other hotels. The conclusion is that governments must not only regulate, but also promote awareness actions in small and medium-sized (SME) tourism companies to improve the environment. SME tourism companies must understand that both the environment and they themselves will benefit.

Description: The study aims to contribute to the literature by empirically examining the relationship between small and medium sized enterprises’ (SMEs) mission statements and their performance in sustainable strategy formulation. Although it seems that there is a relatively vast amount of research with regard to mission statements of companies, very few studies have focused on the relationship between mission statements and performance. When these few studies are taken into consideration, it is difficult to reach any overall conclusion since their findings are mixed and inconclusive. To achieve this aim, 3034 SMEs operating in organized industrial zones in Turkey were examined via a survey approach. In order to investigate the relationships among the variables, nine categories of mission statements as independent variables and four performance indicators (financial, market, production, and overall) as dependent variables were analyzed through logistic regression. This study identified three mission components, (1) survival, growth, and profit; (2) philosophy and values; and (3) public image, as the common independent variables in explaining the performance of SMEs. Survival, growth, and profit is the most frequently observed mission component regardless of the subsector differentiation in the entire sample, which reflects the significance of business sustainability for SMEs in the Turkish manufacturing context. Besides, among all performance indicators, SMEs’ market performance was found to be the lowest when compared to other performance indicators (financial, production, overall). Although the firms were placed in different manufacturing subsectors, similar mission statements were highlighted so that the discourse similarity might be considered as evidence of isomorphism characteristics for SMEs.

Description: The electricity industry is a basic industry of the national economy. It has experienced several large-scale power shortages, hard power shortage and soft power shortage, which have brought a great threat to China’s sustainable economic development. To solve this problem better, it is necessary to make a quantitative assessment of the economic impacts of power shortage. The CGE model is commonly used for simulating economic shocks and policy effects. It describes supply, demand and equilibrium in different markets by simulating the economic mechanism through a set of equations. Once changed, the exogenous variables will affect a certain part of the system and then the whole system, leading to changes in quantities and prices. The equilibrium state will also change from one to another. A static CGE model is built in this paper, and the Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) of eight sectors of China in 2007 is compiled, in order to simulate the economic impacts of hard power shortage and soft power shortage. Simulation results show that the negative effects of power shortage on economic development are very significant, and the effects vary in different sectors. Especially, under the background of hard power shortage, the industrial sector suffers most. The economic cost of power shortage is considerable, and the main reason for it is the specific administrative pricing system in China. The low electricity price in the long term will lead to insufficient construction and hard power shortage; moreover, that in the short run would result in soft power shortage. In order to solve the problem of power shortage completely, power system reform is inevitable.

Description: Following a regional-level study conducted in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan (Wang et al., 2014 [1]), this paper presents an approach for municipal renewable energy planning and its experimental application in a Japanese municipality using a Geographic Information System (GIS). The proposed approach is comprised of local issue identification, renewable energy potential evaluation and visualization, site comparison and scenario analysis. GIS was used to analyze and visualize solar, wind and biomass (forest and agriculture residue) potential within Kawamata Town, Fukushima, Japan. According to local conditions, all potential sites were coded and then compared based on different criteria, such as solar radiation, wind speed, slope and land uses, among others. In the scenario analysis section, two scenarios, “renewable energy prioritized” and ”evacuation area prioritized”, were adopted and compared. The scenarios are altered in terms of placement and the number of renewable energy facilities inside and outside evacuation areas within the town. The results generated through the proposed approach can provide information on local potentials of renewable energy resources, as well as renewable energy development alternatives at the municipal level. They can be used in the interactive dialogue for the municipal renewable energy planning process, to help to fulfill the municipality’s post-earthquake energy developmental vision.

Description: A study was conducted to determine the efficacy of applying ground magnesium limestone (GML) or ground basalt in combination with bio-fertilizer to sustain rice production on an acid sulfate soil in Malaysia. Soils from Kelantan Plains, Malaysia, were treated with GML, ground basalt, bio-fertilizer, GML + bio-fertilizer, and ground basalt + bio-fertilizer (4 t·ha−1 each). Results showed that soil fertility was improved by applying the soil amendments. GML and basalt contain some Zn and Cu; thus, application of these amendments would increase their contents in the soil needed for the healthy growth of rice. Basalt applied in combination with bio-fertilizer appeared to be the best agronomic option to improve the fertility of acid sulfate soils for sustainable rice production in the long run. In addition to increasing Ca, Mg, Zn, and Cu reserves in the soil, water pH increased and precipitated Al3+ and/or Fe2+. Ground basalt is cheaper than GML, but basalt dissolution in the acidic soil was slow. As such, its ameliorative effects could only be seen significantly from the second season onwards. The specially-formulated bio-fertilizer for alleviating the infertility of acid sulfate soil could also enhance rice growth. The use of the bio-fertilizer fortified with N2-fixing bacteria is a green technology that would help reduce NO3− and/or NO2− pollution and reduce the cost of rice production. The phosphate-solubilizing bacteria (PSB) present in the bio-fertilizer not only increased the available P, but also helped release organic acids that would inactivate Al3+ and/or Fe2+ via the process of chelation.

Description: While organic farming is well established in Europe a nd USA, it is still catching up in Asian countries. The government of South Korea has implemented environmentally friendly farming that encompasses organic farming. Despite the promotion of environmentally friendly farming, it still has a low share in South Korea and partially converted farming has emerged in some districts of South Korea. However, the partially converted farming has not yet been investigated by the government. Thus, our study implemented a financial analysis to compare the annual costs and net returns of conventional, partially converted and environmentally friendly farming in Gangwon Province. The result showed that environmentally friendly farming was more profitable with respect to farm net returns. To find out the factors affecting the adoption of environmentally friendly farming, multinomial logistic regression was implemented. The findings revealed that education and subsidy positively and significantly influenced the probability of farmers’ choice on partially converted and environmentally friendly farming. Farm size had a negative and significant relationship with only environmentally friendly farming. This study will contribute to future policy establishment for sustainable agriculture as recommended by improving the quality of fertilizers, suggesting the additional investigation associated with partially converted farmers.

Description: We report on a rapid and practical method to assess social dimensions of performance in small-scale and industrial fisheries globally (Social Wellbeing in Fisheries Tool (SWIFT)). SWIFT incorporates aspects of security (fairness and stability of earnings, benefits of employment to local fishing communities, worker protection, and personal safety and health in communities associated with fisheries); flexibility (including opportunity for economic advancement); and the fishery’s social viability (including whether the fishery is recruiting new harvesters and diverse age classes of workers, whether women’s participation and leadership in global production networks are on an upward trajectory.). We build on resilience research by conceptualizing wellbeing in terms of security, flexibility, and viability, and assessing wellbeing at individual, community, and system levels. SWIFT makes social performance measures more broadly accessible to global production networks, incorporates an everyday understanding of wellbeing for people involved in the seafood industry, and helps put social sustainability into measurable terms that are relevant for businesses.

Description: Direct-seeding rice has grown in popularity in recent years and is widespread in China. This study focused on the effects of pig slurry (PS) on grain quality and safety in direct-seeding rice. Application of more than 210 m3·hm−2 increased rice yield and dry matter accumulation, compared with conventional chemical fertilizer treatment (CK2). At the heading and maturing stage, a high dosage of PS (T6, T8 and T9 treatments) promoted uptake of Pb, Cu, Zn, Fe and Mn by rice plants and grain, but retarded uptake of Cr, Co and Ni, indicating an ability to alleviate toxicity of some heavy metals. Compared with CK2, PS alleviated the transfer of Pb, Cr, Co, Ni and Cu from straw to grain, but enhanced the transport of Zn, Fe and Mn. Although PS application slightly diminished the processing quality, including brown rice, milled rice and head milled rice, it significantly decreased the amylose content, optimized the starch profile, and improved the overall quality. The results confirmed the feasibility and safety of PS application to direct-seeding rice, and determined that PS basal and panicle fertilizer could increase yield and improve the rice quality when applied between 210 and 240 m3·hm−2.

Description: This paper uses Spillane’s (2001) theory and Gronn’s (2000) concerted efforts approach to examine distributed leadership in a low-carbon city agenda. The main purpose of the paper is to find empirical evidence of a relationship between distributed leadership and the achievement of the agenda. Eight constructs emerged that informed our understanding of distributed leadership dimensions within the low-carbon city framework: vision, organizational framework, organizational culture, consensus, instructional programs, expertise, team leader leadership, and team member leadership. The evidence shows that there is a positive relationship between distributed leadership and the outcome of the low-carbon city agenda, and that a dispersed pattern in distributing leadership is required to enhance community engagement. The findings also suggest that an organizational culture that facilitates multiple sources of leadership may largely contribute to the effectiveness of distributed leadership practices in realizing the low-carbon city agenda.

Description: A wider use of renewable energy is emerging as a viable solution to meet the increasing demand for global energy while contributing to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. However, current literature on renewable energy, particularly on wind power, highlights the social barriers and public opposition to renewable energy investment. One solution to overcome the public opposition, which is recommended by scholars, is to deploy a collaborative approach. Relatively little research has specifically focused on the role of effective communication and the use of a knowledge-broker in collaborative decision-making. This study attempts to fill this gap through the proposition of a participatory framework that highlights the role of the knowledge-broker in a wind project decision-making process. In this paper, five illustrative wind projects in Ontario are used to highlight the current situation with public participation and to address how the proposed framework could have improved the process. Based on the recommended collaborative framework, perception must shift from the dominant view of the public as “a risk to be managed” towards “a resource that can be tapped”. The developers need to improve sharing what they know and foster co-learning around questions and concerns.

Description: As the shale gas revolution expands globally, the future potential and economic profits of overseas shale gas reserves have attracted the interest of Chinese investors. Overseas shale gas development is becoming an investment hotspot for Chinese oil companies. However, this multibillion-dollar venture is surrounded by a complex and uncertain environment. Therefore, this paper carries out an integrated and publicly available model for assessing risk in overseas shale gas investments. The purpose of this model is to address the index weight calculation and risk ranking and provide investor with risk information. In view of this, the comprehensive weights are obtained based on an analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and entropy weight methods; and the Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) method is performed to rank target countries. First, the paper identities five categories of risks with full consideration of the economic risk, political risk, geological risk, technological risk, and internal managements risk. Based on the risk identification, the assessment index system is established and valued. Secondly, China is taken as an example nation to use this model to prove the effectiveness of the proposed model and help the investor make wise decisions. According to the results, low-risk countries, such as Canada, Argentina, United States, and Algeria can be considered to be future key targets of shale gas investment abroad, while investors should be more cautious of high-risk countries such as South Africa and Brazil. Finally, policy recommendations are proposed to optimize the overseas shale gas investments from both the government and investor perspectives.

Description: The goal of this research is to investigate the factors that affect carsharing demand. As a proxy for carsharing demand, the number of (booking) transactions made by carsharing users is counted based on the data from one of the two major carsharing operators in Seoul, Korea. In order to identify the factors influencing station-based carsharing usage, multiple linear regression modeling was performed with the number of carsharing transactions as a dependent variable and with the three groups of independent variables: Built environment, demographic, and transportation variables. Instead of using the locations of the pods, this study uses the residential locations of carsharing users who made transactions, and the final result analyzing 420 districts shows that six variables significantly influence carsharing usage. Carsharing demand is high in an area where a higher proportion of building floor area is used for business, and which has a higher proportion of young residents in their 20s and 30s. It can also be predicted that the area with more registered cars and less subway entrances will show higher carsharing demand. The analysis result also suggests that providing additional carsharing pods, especially pods that utilize city owned public parking facilities, will help promote carsharing usage. This research establishes a basis for future research efforts to forecast carsharing demand and to identify areas with high potential, especially in major Asian cities.

Description: Debates over wolf policy are driven by an underlying attitudinal divide between people from urban and rural areas. This study explores how the power relationship between urban and rural groups interact with individual attitude formation in relation to wolf policy, in order to understand why dissatisfaction with wolf policy tends to result in group level conflict patterns. Using Swedish survey data, I analyze attitudes to wolf policy, in relation to collective level effects and rural political alienation. Findings indicate that individual level attitudes towards the Swedish wolf policy are in part determined by collective attitude patterns: effects that could be contingent on political alienation. This highlights the possibility of reducing attitude polarization with respect to the wolf policy, by addressing political alienation among the rural population.

Description: The importance of environmental consequences due to diverse substances that are emitted during the production of concrete is recognized, but environmental performance tends to be evaluated separately from the economic performance and durability performance of concrete. In order to evaluate concrete from the perspective of sustainable development, evaluation technologies are required for comprehensive assessment of environmental performance, economic performance, and durability performance based on a concept of sustainable development called the triple bottom line (TBL). Herein, an assessment method for concrete eco-efficiency is developed as a technique to ensure the manufacture of highly durable and eco-friendly concrete, while minimizing both the load on the ecological environment and manufacturing costs. The assessment method is based on environmental impact, manufacturing costs, and the service life of concrete. According to our findings, eco-efficiency increased as the compressive strength of concrete increased from 21 MPa to 40 MPa. The eco-efficiency of 40 MPa concrete was about 50% higher than the eco-efficiency of 24 MPa concrete. Thus eco-efficiency is found to increase with an increasing compressive strength of concrete because the rate of increase in the service life of concrete is larger than the rate of increase in the costs. In addition, eco-efficiency (KRW/year) was shown to increase for all concrete strengths as mixing rates of admixtures (Ground Granulated Blast furnace Slag) increased to 30% during concrete mix design. However, when the mixing rate of admixtures increased to 40% and 60%, the eco-efficiency dropped due to rapid reduction in the service life values of concrete to 74 (year/m3) and 44 (year/m3), respectively.

Description: The basis for implementing demands for a green city is the use of, among other things, innovative “clean” technologies. However, it is mostly and directly connected to the increased use of electric energy. Green transport is an appropriate example of this. By contrast, conventional sources of energy (e.g., based on coal) have a very negative impact on people and the environment. Therefore, this article mentions an attempt to solve a complex problem of employing renewable energy sources (RES) as an element of the “green city” system. The research was carried out on the basis of a feasibility study (decision game) for the location of a wind farm in the vicinity of the city of Szczecin, Poland. When constructing the decision models, multiple-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) methods were applied, especially analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and preference ranking organization method for enrichment evaluation (PROMETHEE).

Description: Ecosystem services have become a critical issue in the environmental literature, however knowledge on whether women and men similarly value ecosystem services is still nascent. We aim at advancing the understanding of the relation between gender and environmental perceptions through the analysis of values assigned by women and men to ecosystem services supplied by home gardens in Vall Fosca (Catalan Pyrenees, north-eastern Spain). We found that women give a higher value than men to all ecosystem services. Overall, women’s valuation of the full range of ecosystem services provided by home gardens was 7.55% higher than men’s valuation. Gender socialization influences the way people interact with and value the environment, including highly managed environments such as home gardens. We argue that considering gendered differences in ecosystem services valuation may lead to policies more effective in enhancing ecosystem services provision.

Description: This study investigates the evolutionary patterns of renewable energy technology in East Asian countries—Japan, Korea, and China—as an emerging technology where the catch-up strategy is actively taking place. To reflect the quality of technology development activities, we assess each country’s research and development (R&D) activities using patent citation analysis. The goal of this study is to overcome the limitations of prior research that uses quantitative information, such as R&D expenditures and number of patents. This study observes the process of technological catch-up and leapfrogging in the East Asian renewable energy sector. Furthermore, we find that each nation’s technology development portfolio differs depending on the composition share of technologies. Policymakers in emerging economies can use the findings to shape R&D strategies to develop the renewable energy sector and provide an alternative method of evaluating the qualitative development of technology.

Description: This paper investigated the influence of diffuser layouts on the energy performance of stratified air distribution systems (STRAD). The energy saving potentials of STRAD systems are theoretically analyzed. The cooling coil load of a STRAD system is proportion to the return air temperature, while inversely proportional to the exhaust air temperature. Based on that, numerical studies are conducted for the applications of STRAD systems in three typical building space types. Two evaluation indices are developed to assess the energy performance of STRAD systems. The simulation results demonstrated that further energy saving could be achieved by keeping the exhaust grille at ceiling level and decreasing the height of return grille. Therefore, in order to optimize the energy saving capacity of STRAD systems, the return grille is recommended to be located as low as possible, whilst paying special attention on the “short-circuit” of cold supply air. Furthermore, when the STRAD system is applied in large space buildings with a big horizontal span, supply diffusers should be distributed surrounding the occupied zone as uniformly as possible, while avoiding installing return diffusers at exterior walls.

Description: The way people innovate and create new ideas and bring them to the market is undergoing a fundamental change from closed innovation to open innovation. Why and how do firms perform open innovation? Firms’ open innovation is measured through the levels of firms’ joint patent applications. Next, we analyze network structures and characters of firms’ joint patent applications such as betweenness and degree centrality, structure hole, and closure. From this research, we drew conclusions as follows. First, the structure of collaboration networks has both direct and indirect effects on firms’ innovative performance. Second, in the process of joint patent applications, there is a long tail phenomenon in networks of joint patent applications. Third, the number of patents and International Patent Classification (IPC) subclasses together constitute a meaningful measure of the innovation performance of firms.

Description: The profits of the ESCO (Energy Services Company) and EU (Energy Using Organization) in the EPCP (energy performance contracting project) rely on the signing of the shared savings contract and the successful operation of the project, and the probability of the project’s success is decided by the complementary efforts of the ESCO and EU. However, the effort selection of the two sides face the bidirectional moral hazard caused by asymmetric information. Based on the robustness of shared savings contract, this paper establishes a bidirectional moral hazard model under asymmetric information to analyze the complementary efforts selection of the ESCO and EU with the given revenue sharing rules, and analyzes the differences of the complementary efforts under symmetric and asymmetric information conditions and the impacts of those efforts on the shared savings contract’s robustness by using a numerial simulation. The results show that compared with information symmetry, the bidirectional moral hazard will erode the project’s value under information asymmetry, the project’s success probability and the level of the parties’ efforts will decrease, which reveals the negative impact of asymmetric information on the robustness of the shared savings contract, and the significance of eliminating information asymmetry effectively as well as incentivizing the parties to increase the degree of complementary efforts to enhance the probability of the project’s success. Finally, policy recommendations regarding the introduction of incomplete contracts, promoting guaranteed savings contracts, and improving energy savings audits for the enhancement of the robustness of the shared savings contract are provided. This research will be helpful to improve the theoretical research on the contract’s robustness, perfect the design of the energy service contract, and formulate the related support policies.

Description: In this paper, we consider a two-echelon sustainable supply chain with price-sensitive demand. The government taxes the carbon footprint of each item caused by producing, transporting, and consuming the products. Both the supplier and retailer can exert efforts to reduce the carbon footprint. In a non-cooperative setting, the government only taxes the supplier, so that the retailer has no incentive to exert any effort to reduce the carbon footprint and the supplier merely decides on the selling price to maximize its own profit. We develop a centralized supply chain and show that there is an optimal solution to maximize the channel profit. Since the centralized policy may not be always not practical, we propose a tax-sharing contract, where both parties profit from the carbon footprint reduction. This problem is modeled as the Stackelberg game and Nash game. The results show that the leader has more power than the follower, which results in more profit. The Stackelberg game provides boundaries for both parties’ profits in the Nash game. Although the tax-sharing contract does not result in full cooperation, its efficiency is still much higher than that of the non-cooperative case. The results are illustrated with some numerical experiments.

Description: Detailed analysis of continuous time-series data from regions undergoing rapid urbanization can accurately reveal spatial variations on short time scales. This study used the city of Changchun in Jilin Province, China, as a case study to analyze total and annual changes in area—especially decreases in rural settlement area—as well as regional differences in these changes and driving forces of rural settlement evolution. Quantitative analytical techniques include a dynamic percentage of rural settlements, the distribution index of rural settlements, the regression correlation analysis, and other spatial analysis methods. Data were derived from a variety of sources, including land-use databases and social and economic statistics. The results show that the area of rural settlements decreased between 2009 and 2014, with the urban construction land expansion and decreases in cultivated lands. Rural settlements also became increasingly fragmented after 2009. Most of the rural settlements were located close to the urban construction land, and changes in rural settlement area were more pronounced with decreasing distance to the closest urban construction land, illustrating the effect of urban sprawl on rural settlement changes. The analysis also shows that the decreasing area of rural settlements between 2009 and 2014 is directly caused by urban sprawl. Regional development strategies and urban planning indirectly contribute to changes in the scale and spatial distribution of rural settlements by guiding urban development. The geographical environment and strict cultivated-land-protection policies also indirectly restrict changes in rural settlements by determining the restrictive area of urban expansion. No significant changes were found in the influence of population change on changing areas of rural settlements. In conclusion, the interaction of strategy for social-economic development, natural geography environments, and human demand jointly caused changes in rural settlements.

Description: Based on the previous research findings about resilience, this study focused on the differences between resilience and adaptation from an agricultural drought case study in southern China. A conceptual variation between resilience and adaptation was explored to understand the distinction between resilience and adaptation. In fact, both are attributes of hazard-affected bodies and have connections and differences. Resilience pays more attention to the short-term response to loss (potential) during and post disaster, while adaptation places stress on system’s response to disaster risk before disaster, loss or impacts in- and after disaster in the long term in order to reduce vulnerability and enhance resilience. Land use and crop structure change, land policy change and labors turnover present the detailed differences between resilience and adaptation in the case study. Deficiencies of human resources, technology and policy in adapting to disaster risks were founded and discussed. This perspective would offer a way with greater potential in application of adaptation concept, especially in the process of integrated risk governance and regional sustainable development.

Description: This paper investigates the economic impacts of climate change on cereal crop production in Northern Ghana using 240 households comprising maize and sorghum farmers. The Ricardian regression approach was used to examine the economic impacts of climate change based on data generated from a survey conducted in the 2013/2014 farming seasons. Forty-year time-series data of rainfall and temperature from 1974 to 2013, together with cross-sectional data, were used for the empirical analysis. The Ricardian regression estimates for both maize and sorghum showed varying degrees of climate change impacts on net revenues. The results indicated that early season precipitation was beneficial for sorghum, but harmful for maize. However, mid-season precipitation tended to promote maize production. Temperature levels for all seasons impacted negatively on net revenue for both crops, except during the mid-season, when temperature exerted a positive effect on net revenue for sorghum. Our findings suggest that appropriate adaptation strategies should be promoted to reduce the negative impacts of prevailing climate change on cereal crop production.

Description: In order to meet the dual requirements of economic development and energy consumption, the Chinese government has adopted a series of measures and policies to improve energy efficiency. However, the developing characteristics are not the same in different regions. Thus, it is necessary to analyze the actual energy efficiency levels in a more targeted manner. In this paper, 30 provinces in China will be adopted to study energy efficiency based on the statistical data from National Energy Administration and National Bureau of Statistics. With the trends of Chinese energy consumption and economy development, the Lorenz curve between Chinese energy consumption and GDP is fitted firstly. The Lorenz coefficient (0.1562) shows that the energy allocation in China is neither reasonable nor balanced. Then, by cluster analysis, the regions of different provinces are newly divided into five divisions from the dimensions of economy and energy, i.e., (high development level and high consumption level, HH), (moderate development level and moderate consumption level, MM), (moderate development level and low consumption level, ML), (low development level and low consumption level, LL), and (low development level and moderate consumption level, LM). Based on the division results, the provincial promotion potentialities are estimated quantitatively according to the absolute convergence feature of energy efficiency promotion. The provinces that have more promotion potentialities of energy efficiency are located, such as Hebei (56.29%) in division (HH), Liaoning (38.15%) in division (MM), Anhui (44.17%) in division (ML), Ningxia (71.63%) in division (LL), and Xinjiang (35.26%) in division (LM), According to the different provincial potentialities, energy efficiency in China needs to improve more, but the improvement approaches should be specific and differential. Driven by technology, policy and mechanism, and industrial restructuring, the Chinese economy and energy resources should be integrated afresh to promote the energy efficiency level. Some optimal strategies on energy efficiency promotion are discussed, finally, aiming to provide effective references for the Chinese government to make relative policies. The study proposes a new perspective for provincial energy efficiency research which can also provide a reference for other countries.

Description: Long-Term Socio-Ecological Research (LTSER) is an inter- and transdisciplinary research field addressing socio-ecological change over time at various spatial and temporal scales. In the Austrian Eisenwurzen region, an LTSER platform was founded in 2004. It has fostered and documented research projects aiming at advancing LTSER scientifically and at providing regional stakeholders with relevant information for sustainable regional development. Since its establishment, a broad range of research activities has been pursued in the region, integrating information from long-term ecological monitoring sites with approaches from social sciences and the humanities, and in cooperation with regional stakeholders. Based on the experiences gained in the Eisenwurzen LTSER platform, this article presents current activities in the heterogeneous field of LTSER, identifying specific (inter-)disciplinary contributions of three research strands of LTSER: long-term ecological research, socio-ecological basic research, and transdisciplinary research. Given the broad array of diverse contributions to LTSER, we argue that the platform has become a relevant “boundary organization,” linking research to its regional non-academic context, and ensuring interdisciplinary exchange among the variety of disciplines. We consider the diversity of LTSER approaches an important resource for future research. Major success criteria of LTSER face specific challenges: (1) existing loose, yet stable networks need to be maintained and extended; (2) continuous generation of and access to relevant data needs to be secured and more data need to be included; and (3) consecutive research projects that have allowed for capacity building in the past may be threatened in the future if national Austrian research funders cease to provide resources.

Description: The fuzzy front-end plays a most crucial part in new product development (NPD), leading to the success of product development and product launch in the market. This study proposes a novel method, TTRI_MP, by combining Crawford and Di Benedetto’s model and Cooper’s model, to strengthen the management of the fuzzy front-end. The proposed method comprises four stages: market exploration and technology forecasting, idea generation and segmentation, portfolio analysis and technology roadmapping (TRM). In the first stage, SWOT was utilized to identify the key strategic areas, and the technology readiness level (TRL) was adopted to position the level of developed technologies. In the second stage, the business concepts were required to go through the viability test and customers, collaborators, competitors and company (4C). In the third stage, the Strategic Position Analysis (SPAN) and Financial Analysis (FAN) developed by IBM were employed in the portfolio analysis to screen out potential NPD projects. In the last stage, the selected NPD projects were linked with their functions and technologies in the TRM chart. The method was successfully implemented by a research team working on a flexible fabric supercapacitor at the Taiwan Textile Research Institute (TTRI).

Description: Sustainable service innovation is a critical attribute in restaurant management that is widely recognized by experts and restaurant owners. In this paper, we investigated ideas on sustainable service innovation in restaurants gathered from interviews with restaurant managers, government experts and scholars in Taiwan. The analytical results show that five dimensions are major indicators of sustainable service innovation in the restaurant management field. These include the following dimensions: sustainable service innovation, food service technology, organizational learning, adoption of innovation and organizational environment. We also found that these five dimensions are important and that they deeply impact restaurant performance. We discuss the characteristics of these five attributes, and talk about the theoretical and empirical implications of research findings.

Description: The electric vehicle charging infrastructure is in the initial development period in China, where there is an imbalanced supply and demand structure, an increasingly mature institutional environment, and an imperfect support system. The infrastructure is important for supplying energy to electric vehicles, and it needs to be provided in a reasonable manner with a moderately advanced layout. Due to large-scale investment, unclear financing rights and responsibilities, a single participant, interlinked risks, and other factors, “absence” and “dislocation” of the charging infrastructure coexist. The public–private partnership (PPP) model is an effective supply path for the infrastructure. Thus, introducing the PPP model into the charging infrastructure can leverage social capital, eases the burden on local finance, enhances the level of project management and profitability, and reduces construction and operation risks. For the participant level of PPP projects in the charging infrastructure, the present study elucidates the support mechanisms required by the government, social capital, and intermediaries in order to construct an effective charging infrastructure in China.

Description: This paper aims to develop a set of valid and reliable indicators to evaluate the regional land subsidence disaster vulnerability. The proposed indicator system can provide effective theoretical support for further land subsidence risk evaluation and risk management. This study transfers the qualitative analysis of land subsidence vulnerability to quantitative evaluation by developing a universal land subsidence vulnerability indicator system and outlining a corresponding vulnerability analysis framework. The land subsidence vulnerability analysis in Xixi-Chengnan area, Jiangsu Province, China used as the case study to prove the applicability and the simplified use of the proposed system. Based on the flexibility of the proposed universal indicator system, indicators can be added into and deleted from the system, according to the actual situation in a certain study area.

Description: Perceptions of climate change by rural communities are centered on observations of variations in temperature and rainfall patterns supported by observations and projections on climate alterations in the form of increased temperatures and scarce rainfall by scientists worldwide. The present study documented perceptions of climate variation and the community’s ability to adapt to climate change hazards threatening the production of subsistence crops. Data were collected through interactions with 100 participants. In the study, climate change is explained as variations in temperature and rainfall patterns which resulted in excessive heat, erratic rainfall patterns and drought negatively impacting on subsistence crop production. Community members have the potential to limit the impacts of climate hazards on subsistence crop production. The negative impacts of climate hazards are limited by community members’ indigenous knowledge of rainfall prediction, the seasons, crop diversification and mixed cropping. Mulching and the application of kraal manure improve the soil structure and fertility to reduce crop failure. These adaptation measures are resilient to the negative impact of climate hazards and may be helpful in the development of adaptation policies to assist rural communities vulnerable to climate change hazards.

Description: The hospitality industry is facing major challenges, among them the new competition from novel forms of supply in the sharing economy. Airbnb, Homeaway, and Niumba, among other websites offering accommodations, are having an important impact in the sector, changing existing conditions and the market for the traditional hospitality industry. In this context, a strategy based in differentiation can help to prevent drops in revenues and profitability. The main objective of this paper is analyse if commitment towards sustainability has a positive impact on financial performance and can be considered a positive strategy in this new environment. The empirical data refer to a sample of hotels in Barcelona, one of the most important tourist cities in Europe. Our results suggest that there is no clear relationship between sustainability and better financial performance; however, sustainability commitment is associated with a minimum size, which can also have positive effects in terms of economies of scale and finally affect profitability. Hotels more committed to environmental issues are located in areas with a lower density of Airbnb apartments, and this geographical distribution can be more positive than a situation of massive tourist concentration in specific areas with negative externalities for neighbours.

Description: Noise pollution due to highway traffic has drawn the attention of transportation agencies worldwide. Noise pollution is an irritant to residents, especially in urban areas near roads with high traffic volume. In addition to its adverse effects on the quality of life, traffic noise can induce stress that could lead to sleep disturbance and anxiety. Traditionally, noise barrier walls have been used for highways to mitigate traffic noise. However, using barrier walls as a noise abatement measure has proven to be very expensive. In addition to the cost, noise barrier walls are not always effective because they must break the line of sight to work properly, which is not always possible in case of intersections or driveways. Therefore, researchers especially from Europe and USA have been very proactive to reduce the noise at source. A number of research studies show traffic noise can be reduced by using an alternative surface type or changing texture of the pavement while complying with other requirements of sustainability, i.e., safety, structural durability, construction and maintenance costs. This paper presents a comprehensive review of the research conducted on this subject. A review of the tire-pavement noise generation and amplification mechanism, various traffic noise measurement methods and correlation among these methods, in addition to the abatement techniques used by various agencies to reduce pavement noise, is also presented.

Description: Irrigation is facing increasing pressure from other competitive water users to reduce water consumption in a water scarce region. Based on the Basin-wide Holistic Integrated Water Assessment (BHIWA) model, the effects of water management strategies on water balance in the dry regions of North China were analyzed. The results show that, with the decrease of irrigation water supply reliability (IWSR) and the increase of irrigation water use efficiency (WUE), irrigation water use decreased significantly, leading to reduced agriculture water consumption, and sustained ground water levels. Compared with the increase of WUE, the decrease of IWSR contributes more to reducing irrigation water consumption and protecting groundwater. Sensitivity tests show that among various water cycle components, irrigation water use is most sensitive to changes, followed by agriculture water consumption, and then groundwater level. Reducing IWSR is an effective strategy to reduce irrigation water consumption and promote sustainable water resources management, which could be the support of basic data and theory for regional water resources planning.

Description: The control of low power systems, which include renewable energy sources, a local network, an electrochemical storage subsystem and a grid connection, is inherently hierarchical. The lower level consists of the wind energy sources (power limitation at rated value in full load regime and energy optimization in partial load regime) and photovoltaic (energy conversion optimization) control systems. The present paper deals with control problem at the higher level and aims at generating the control solution for the energetic transfer between the system components, given that the powers of the renewable energy sources and the power in the local network have random characteristics. For the higher level, the paper proposes a mixed performance criterion, which includes an energy sub-criterion concerning the costs of electricity supplied to local consumers, and a sub-criterion related to the lifetime of the battery. Three variants were defined for the control algorithm implemented by using fuzzy logic techniques, in order to control the energy transfer in the system. Particular attention was given to developing the models used for the simulation of the distributed energy system components and to the whole control system, given that the objective is not the real-time optimization of the criterion, but to establish by numerical simulation in the design stage the “proper” parameters of the control system. This is done by taking into account the multi-criteria performance objective when the power of renewable energy sources and the load have random characteristics.

Description: The Luang Prabang World Heritage Site experienced tremendous change caused by rapid development and tourism growth. It is recognized that change is inevitable in evolving historic urban cities. Adequate information is essential in formulating strategies to manage change without compromising heritage values. Existing studies are critical of the impact of tourism negatively transforming Luang Prabang but lack in-depth analysis and a significant sample size to clearly discern the changes. This paper addresses the need to visualize the significant changes affecting the built environment of the core inscribed area of Luang Prabang World Heritage. Geographic information systems (GIS) were applied to compare the landscape between 1999 and 2009 based on indicators adopted from the Safeguarding and Preservation Plan (PSMV). Four significant changes were identified as follows: (1) there was an evident shift from residential to touristic use, particularly to guesthouses; (2) Lao traditional architecture has replaced modern architecture; (3) modern building materials have replaced traditional building materials; and (4) traditional roof materials have replaced modern roof materials. Changes in landscape were interpreted and factors that caused the changes were identified from the local stakeholders’ perspective.

Description: Permeable pavements have been used widely across the world to manage urban stormwater. The hydrological behaviour of permeable surfaces is a complex process affected by many factors, such as rainfall intensity, rainfall duration, pavement geometrical conditions, and clogging level of the permeable surface, amongst others. This laboratory study was carried out to assess the influence of clogging level and rainfall intensity on the infiltration capacity of porous mixture surfaces used in Permeable Pavement Systems (PPS). Porous Concrete (PC) and Porous Asphalt (PA) mixtures with different air void contents (15%, 20%, and 25%) were subject to different clogging scenarios by using varying sediment loads (0, 500, and 1000 g/m2). Permeability experiments were carried out for each clogging scenario through a new rainfall simulator specially developed, tailored, and calibrated for the laboratory simulation of a wide range of rainfall events. Permeability measurements were taken under all different scenarios as a result of the combination of the different rainfall events (50, 100, and 150 mm/h) simulated over the specimens of porous mixtures and the sediment loads applied to them. The results showed that the PC mixtures tested perform better than the PA ones in terms of infiltration capacity, showing less potential for clogging and being more easily cleaned by the wash-off produced by the simulated rainfall events.

Description: The block type and structural systems in buildings affect the amount of building materials required as well as the CO2 emissions that occur throughout the building life cycle (LCCO2). The purpose of this study was to assess the life cycle CO2 emissions when an apartment housing with ‘flat-type’ blocks (the reference case) was replaced with more sustainable ‘T-type’ blocks with fewer CO2 emissions (the alternative case) maintaining the same total floor area. The quantity of building materials used and building energy simulations were analyzed for each block type using building information modeling techniques, and improvements in LCCO2 emission were calculated by considering high-strength concrete alternatives. By changing the bearing wall system of the ‘flat-type’ block to the ‘column and beam’ system of the ‘T-type’ block, LCCO2 emissions of the alternative case were 4299 kg-CO2/m2, of which 26% was at the construction stage, 73% was as the operational stage and 1% was at the dismantling and disposal stage. These total LCCO2 emissions were 30% less than the reference case.

Description: Universities are paramount change drivers in bringing about a culture of sustainability in society by setting themselves up as models and nurseries for sustainable development. Thus, assessment of sustainability integration within universities is key to their impact on sustainable development. This study conducted an assessment of different public sector universities of Saudi Arabia based on five components: (i) Teaching and Curriculum; (ii) Research and Scholarship; (iii) Campus Operations; (iv) Management and Community; and (v) Financial Management. The sustainability assessment questionnaire (SAQ) was utilized as a tool to discern the component-wise sustainability assessment for Saudi universities. The outcomes of the survey reveal that, in stark contrast with the universities of the developed world, offerings of sustainability relevant academic courses in Saudi Arabia are still lacking. Most Saudi universities still need to integrate research and scholarship in the area of sustainability; sustainable-campus operations in the current scenario are not sufficient. The results also reveal that sustainability-related projects are not prioritized within universities and sustainable financial management practices are not significant. This article concludes by proposing some recommendations emphasizing the importance of adopting sustainability practices in Saudi universities.

Description: The Chinese government started an important project “Geographical conditions monitoring (GCM)” in 2012, which aims at fully revealing the spatial pattern of natural resources, and economic and social development. Urban development assessment and analysis are an important topic of the comprehensive statistics in GCM project. This study quantitatively evaluates the sustainable development level of 287 cities at prefecture level and above in China and analyzes their spatial distribution. Both an index system of urban sustainable development (USI) constructed by three aspects, namely society, economy and environment, and the TOPSIS-Entropy method are adopted. The results show that the overall level of urban sustainable development in China is not high, and obvious differences in urban sustainable development among cities exist. The coordination of social, economic and environmental sustainable development in China is at a low level. In terms of spatial distribution, cities from eastern coastal areas of China are at relatively higher levels of sustainable development with central and northeastern cities ranking second and western ones lowest. Several spatial clusters of urban sustainable development can be found. The “High–High” clusters, in which cities have high levels of sustainable development, are distributed in urban agglomerations. Finally, some suggestions have been provided to achieve all-round sustainable development in China.

Description: Elevated walkways can bring pedestrian-friendly urban space back to high-density urban centers that are planned largely for vehicle traffic—for instance, the Lujiazui CBD in Shanghai. Most studies on elevated walkways have focused on transportation planning, structural safety as well as urban form and design. Few have paid attention to thermal conditions and pedestrian comfort issues on elevated levels. Considering all of the environmental factors that influence human thermal comfort, one could claim that there will be more breezes on elevated levels compared to sidewalks at the ground levels, but they can be exposed to increased solar radiation and thus higher radiant temperatures, if not properly shaded. The overall effect of the change in elevation on human thermal comfort is thus unknown. This study attempts to investigate the microclimate and human thermal comfort of a recently completed Lujiazui Elevated Walkway (LEW) system in the Lujiazui CBD, Shanghai, under a hot-humid sub-tropical climate. Micrometeorological measurements and a guided questionnaire survey were carried out on peak summer days. The data analysis indicates that the LEW is thermally more uncomfortable than its ground level counterpart. Air temperature was higher, whereas wind velocity is lower on the skywalk level than on the ground level, which is counter-intuitive. The resultant physiological equivalent temperature (PET) indicates warm conditions on the ground level (with good shading) while there are hot conditions on the skywalk. Based on the empirical findings, design strategies are proposed to improve the thermal comfort conditions on the LEW, and to better support pedestrian activities in this typical high-rise high-density urban area.

Description: Sustainability is a crucial factor in Long-Term Care (LTC) programmes, which implies whether the programmes have the capability of sustaining a quality service over the long term. To evaluate the sustainability of community-based LTC programmes, a novel hybrid framework has been demonstrated with a mixed Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) technique. According to extensive literature review and the fuzzy Delphi method, four pillars of initial criteria and twelve sub-criteria have been determined. Then a weighted hierarchy has been constructed with Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to constitute the evaluation index system. In order to prove our framework, a case study of four community-based LTC programmes in Michigan is presented by applying the fuzzy technique for order preference by similarity to an ideal solution (TOPSIS) method. The results indicate that programme P2 has the best potential of sustainability, and sub-criteria associated with economy outweigh other sub-criteria. The sensitivity analysis verifies that the result of the ranking remains stable regardless of the fluctuation in sub-criteria weights, which proves the evaluation results and proposed model to be accurate and effective. This study develops a comprehensive and effective framework for evaluating community-based LTC programmes from the sustainability perspective.

Description: The long-lasting “guns versus butter” argument reflects the fact that China has been experiencing a difficult choice in terms of improving the defense and social welfare sectors, and thus achieving fiscal sustainability. The result, however, is controversial. The present paper therefore re-examines the relationship between defense and social welfare by employing continuous wavelet analysis during a long period of 1950–2014 in China. We focus in particular on their dynamic correlation and the lead-lag relationship across different frequency bands. Our results clearly show the inexistence of the crowding-out effect between defense expenditure and social welfare; moreover, the increase in defense (social welfare) expenditure could stimulate the expansion of social welfare (defense) spending. In addition, we find a positive relationship between defense and social welfare with defense leading during 1961–1968 in the short term, when China suffered from the economic breakdown and the social turbulence caused by the Great Famine, Sino-Soviet border conflict, etc. Notably, social welfare also led the progress in defense during 1984–1988 and 1995–1998 in the medium and long terms by the further deepening of the opening-up policy and enforcing the economic system reform.

Description: In the transformation of urban distribution industry, the problem of enterprises generally retaining a self-distribution mode is highlighted, and it is not conducive for enterprises to develop core business. Around the hot issue of climate change, but also the target of energy conservation and emission reduction, this paper puts forward the method of urban distribution mode to reduce carbon emission intensity, introduces four kinds of typical urban distribution mode, analyzes the core influencing factors of urban distribution mode, studies the carbon accounting method of urban distribution, put forwards the method of low carbon urban distribution mode, analyzes the current situation of the distribution of Guangzhou City, determines the main research types of goods, and applies the method proposed in this paper to the specific enterprises. Urban distribution mode integration and carbon emissions intensity reduction are both considered in this work. The specific application result of 11.28% reduction on carbon emission intensity shows that this method can effectively guide enterprises to develop low carbon urban distribution mode and reduce carbon emission intensity of urban distribution.

Description: Environmental degradation threatens the long term resiliency of the US food and farming system. While USDA has provided conservation incentives for the adoption of best management practices (BMPs), only a small percentage of farms have participated in such conservation programs. This study uses conjoint analysis to examine Vermont farmers’ underlying preferences and willingness-to-accept (WTA) incentives for three common BMPs. Based on the results of this survey, we hypothesize that federal cost share programs’ payments are below preferred incentive levels and that less familiar and more complex BMPs require a higher payment. Our implications focus on strategies to test these hypotheses and align incentive payments and other non-monetary options to increase BMP adoption.

Description: The planting of sugarcane crops has expanded in the last decade in the southeast of Brazil, mainly due to its use for biofuel production, such as ethanol. This expansion in the State of São Paulo has occupied land that was previously used for cattle production. The change in land use affects soil and water through changes in ground cover and disturbance associated with farming practices. The objective of the following study was to determine the impact on runoff and erosion resulting from the conversion of pastureland to sugarcane for biofuel production. Erosion plots measuring 100 m2 were built on a farm in Itirapina-SP, Brazil, on land with a slope gradient of 9% and soil composed of Quartz-sand Neosols (Typic quartzipsaments). The treatments were an 18-year old pasture and a new sugarcane plantation, with three replicates for each. After each rainfall episode, erosion and runoff were monitored during the first and second years after sugarcane was planted. The results show increased runoff and soil loss during the first year, though levels decreased in the second year when the sugarcane residue mulch ground cover increased. In addition, the necessary rainfall characteristics (e.g., intensity, duration) required to produce runoff and soil erosion were identified.

Description: With industrial integration accelerating in domestic and foreign enterprise, industrial integration is becoming the only way for regional development to break through its bottleneck. Compared with advanced foreign enterprises, there exists a significant gap in regional industrial integration, especially in the urban agglomeration of the energy chemical industries of Urumqi-Changji-Shihezi in Xinjiang. Findings from field visits and quantitative analysis show that the energy chemical industry in urban agglomeration is in a state of dispersed distribution, serious convergence in industrial structure, low level of specialization, and weak collaborative relationships. These issues seriously hamper the sustainable development of urban agglomeration. Specific actions aimed at these problems and the development bottleneck mainly include the integration of industrial parks in the central city and integration orientation on the level of urban agglomeration. Only by speeding up the pace of industry integration can Urumqi-Changji-Shihezi’s urban agglomeration maintain and improve its market competitiveness. Accordingly, it can promote innovation and sustainability in the energy chemical industry and improve the overall level of development.

Description: Sustainable use of natural resources in the production of construction materials has become a necessity both in Europe and Turkey. Construction products in Europe should have European Conformity (CE) and Environmental Product Declaration (EPD), an independently verified and registered document in line with the European standard EN 15804. An EPD certificate can be created by performing a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) study. In this particular work, an LCA study was carried out for a refractory brick production for environmental assessment. In addition to the LCA, the Life Cycle Cost (LCC) analysis was also applied for economic assessment. Firstly, a cradle-to-gate LCA was performed for one ton of magnesia spinel refractory brick. The CML IA method included in the licensed SimaPro 8.0.1 software was chosen to calculate impact categories (namely, abiotic depletion, global warming potential, acidification potential, eutrophication potential, human toxicity, ecotoxicity, ozone depletion potential, and photochemical oxidation potential). The LCC analysis was performed by developing a cost model for internal and external cost categories within the software. The results were supported by a sensitivity analysis. According to the results, the production of raw materials and the firing process in the magnesia spinel brick production were found to have several negative effects on the environment and were costly.

Description: Companies seek to stand out from their competitors and react to other competitive threats. Making a difference means doing things differently in order to create a product that other companies cannot provide. This can be achieved through an innovation process. This article analyses, by means of a structural equation model, the current situation of Mexican maquiladora companies, which face the constant challenge of product innovation. The model associates three success factors for new product development (product, organization, and production process characteristics as independent latent variables) with benefits gained by customers and companies (dependent latent variables). Results show that, in the Mexican maquiladora sector, organizational characteristics and production processes characteristics explain only 31% of the variability (R2 = 0.31), and it seems necessary to integrate other aspects. The relationship between customer benefits and company benefits explains 58% of the variability, the largest proportion in the model (R2 = 0.58).

Description: Policy makers and tourism developers must understand visitors’ mobility behavior and how they consume space and tourism resources in order to set up sustainable cultural tourism destinations. With this in mind, it should also be pointed out that the mobility patterns of tourists in urban destinations are mainly located in the city center (spatial centrality), the analysis of which enables us to define “how central” the resources (museums, monuments, etc.) are and what the interactions between them are. Comprehending which factors influence visitors’ urban mobility behavior is key to understanding tourists’ consumption of space and their connections with the tourism assets of the city. Furthermore, when tourists visit a destination, they make a mental representation of the destination, constructing a mental map of it. Thus, tourists consume not only spaces but also the image of a city/destination. Moreover, the latter influences the former. The quality of surrounding architecture and urbanism plays a crucial role in enhancing the experiential value of a destination and influencing space consumption preferences. Clearly, visitors are more likely to use/consume environments that are easily navigated and mentally legible. In order to explore these patterns, a real experiment was performed based on visitor behavior in the city of Bilbao. In addition, the central places of Bilbao were determined and an analysis of the spatial interaction between cultural sites was performed, making use of a new methodology based on GPS technologies, network analysis, and surveys. This methodology is the main contribution of this work. The results suggest that (1) easy mobility (walkability, accessibility, different transport modes) of the visited space facilitates the tourist experience; (2) simple and eligible mental maps of the city that are easily perceived by visitors facilitate the rapid consumption of the tourist destination; and (3) the centrality of the tourism resources affects the mobility of visitors and the consumption of the destination. Thus, by understanding how tourist mobility works in a destination and analyzing tourism resources’ centrality, policy makers may better tailor sustainable strategies for cultural tourism destinations.

Description: Prior work on innovation has generally emphasized the importance of an organization’s exposure to external knowledge. This study, in contrast, redirects our attention toward conditions under which such exposure serves as constraints on organizational endeavors to achieve environmentally preferable innovation. We develop a two-stage model for sustainable innovation. A firm in the first stage explores a variety of alternatives and develops strategic intentions to address broader environmental concerns; thus, it may benefit from access to both diverse sources of external knowledge and network ties that enable an extensive search for new information. In the second stage, a firm exploits limited available options to achieve its strategic intentions. We suggest that dependence on external knowledge in the first stage makes the transition toward the second stage challenging, thereby reducing the probability that a firm’s strategic intentions for sustainability result in actual innovation outcomes. We test our theory using the 2014 Korean Innovation Survey. Our results show that diverse sources of external knowledge through rich network ties, albeit the positive main effects on innovation outcomes, negatively moderate the relationship between a firm’s intentions for environmental sustainability and its achievement of sustainable innovation. Several theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Description: While various methodologies for quantifying carbon emissions of pavement construction are developed worldwide, adopting and promoting the existing tools to China’s market is found fairly challenging due to institutional constraints. Therefore, the objectives of this study are to propose a methodology for measuring carbon emissions of pavement construction compatible with the fixed pricing systems prevalent in China; and develop an automatic tool for carbon estimations. The total carbon emissions are measured by aggregating emissions of energy consumption and materials used along with four stages, namely material manufacture, transportation, construction, and disposal. A set of composite carbon emission factors for energy and materials was calculated based on existing emission factors with the consideration of the boundaries concerned. The quantity of energy and materials used in pavement construction are obtained through bills of quantity and the fixed price system. The database of the emission factors for energy and materials was embedded into a C# based tool, and validated in a real case.

Description: Use of fertilizers has enabled a massive increase in crop production yields. However, this has come with severe negative externalities (e.g., greenhouse gas emission; eutrophication of non-agricultural ecosystems). Eco-innovations are one option to reduce the environmental impact of fertilizers without compromising fertilizer productivity. Although numerous eco-innovations in the domain of fertilizers are available, they have not yet seen a sufficient adoption rate. In this paper we explore main drivers for adoption of eco-innovations in the German fertilizer supply chain based on empirical investigations at three levels of the fertilizer supply chain: producers, traders, and farmers. We strive to take a “chain perspective” on environmental concerns and knowledge of fertilizer specific eco-innovations. The study was carried out in two steps: initially we conducted exploratory expert interviews with eight actors of the fertilizer supply chain. The statements generated thereby fed into a questionnaire answered by 57 participants stemming from fertilizer production (n = 12), traders (n = 34) and farmers (n = 11) level. Findings suggest that drivers for eco-innovations are perceived differently by the various actors in the fertilizer supply chain. Overall knowledge on eco-innovations decreases downstream the chain. By taking a chain perspective on the adoption of eco-innovation, our paper contributes to the emerging body of literature on drivers for eco-innovation, and also maps out managerial implications of fostering the implementation of eco-innovations in the fertilizer supply chain.

Description: The purpose of this work is to carry out an accurate and extensive environmental analysis of the steel production occurring in in the largest integrated EU steel mill, located in the city of Taranto in southern Italy. The end goal is that of highlighting the steelworks’ main hot spots and identifying potential options for environmental improvement. The development for such an analysis is based on a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of steel production with a cradle to casting plant gate approach that covers the stages from raw material extraction to solid steel slab production. The inventory results have highlighted the large solid waste production, especially in terms of slag, which could be reused in other industries as secondary raw materials. Other reuses, in accordance with the circular economy paradigm, could encompass the energy waste involved in the steelmaking process. The most burdening lifecycle phases are the ones linked to blast furnace and coke oven operations. Specifically, the impact categories are influenced by the energy consumption and also by the toxicity of the emissions associated with the lifecycle of steel production. A detailed analysis of the toxicity impacts indicates that LCA is still not perfectly suitable for toxicity assessments and should be coupled with other more site specific studies in order to understand such aspects fully. Overall, the results represent a first step to understanding the current levels of sustainability of the steelworks, which should be used as a starting point for the development both of pollution control measures and of symbiotic waste reutilization scenarios needed to maintain the competitiveness of the industrial plant.

Description: Economic systems are connected to the natural environment through a continuous flow of energy and materials. The production of economic wealth implies the use of natural resources and their transformation into goods (bound to become, at least partially, waste in the future), current waste (pollution) and low-valued energy (entropy). The scarcity of natural resources and the negative externalities arising from their use throughout the entire value chain are quite natural motivations for the current policy push towards a more dematerialized and a more circular economy. In this perspective, the EU seems to be approaching a new frontier in environmental policy. The main contribution of this paper is a qualitative assessment of a coordinated set of dematerialization policies, which aim at fostering the socially efficient use (and re-use) of virgin materials at firm level. The policy mix we propose envisages a green tax reform (GTR) with a material tax, which aims at shifting relative input prices in favour of labour and capital, and a policy of funding research and development activities in the area of resource efficiency. In order to support firms in their transition to higher material efficiency, we foresee targeted skill enhancement programmes. Finally, to prevent firms to shift towards less material-intensive production, potentially leading to lower output quality, we complete the policy mix with specific command-and-control measures, aiming at setting minimum quality standards for selected product categories. The qualitative assessment of this mix of policies relies on the four basic criteria of the economic policy analysis (effectiveness, efficiency, equity and feasibility). Since the EU is deeply integrated in the world economy, and it is a net importer of virgin resources, our policy evaluation necessarily takes an open-economy perspective. In this vein, the paper reviews the state of affairs of the major world countries (USA, Japan and China in particular) on this issue, and contextualizes the EU action in a global perspective.

Description: This paper identifies and discusses the benefits, threats, and vulnerabilities related to the digital revolution. It aims to motivate research and its funding regarding digital threats and vulnerabilities related, in particular, to anticipating unintended, undesirable rebound effects, tipping points, critically fast evolutionary change rates, trade-offs, etc. A brief analysis of the history of the mind and technology reveals slow technological development over tens of thousands of years (including the invention of a place-value digital number system). Then, a small series of groundbreaking ideas (e.g., binary logic, Shannon’s symbolic analysis of relay and switching circuits, architectures of computing) enabled the industry-driven invention of programmable computing machines. Ultimately, the mastery of electron and semiconductor physics allowed for economical and seemingly unlimited storage capacity that made digital tools available to all domains of society. Based on the historical analysis, a coupled human-environment systems perspective (that includes a hierarchy assumption ranging from the human cell to the human species) enables the identification of several potential challenges to society and science. First, digital nano-engineering promotes genetic modifications (i.e., directed evolution), and synthetic biology enables a new level of the appropriation of nature. The understanding of cell-based biocomputers may call for new forms of logic. These and other challenges require thorough sustainability research in order to anticipate major changes on all levels of human systems. Second, the human individual is exposed to new forms of vulnerability. In particular, the potential epigenetic effects resulting from the excessive use of digital information of historically unknown speed, density, and contents and the loss of (the Western common-law right to) privacy resulting from big data (whose ownership is often unknown) should become subjects of research. Third, digital technologies are responsible for rapid changes in all social and economic structures. The paper suggests that thorough, discipline-based interdisciplinary research is needed in order to develop basic knowledge for creating and managing resilient relationships between human systems and their digital environments.

Description: Wind energy has become a fast growing industry in China in the last decade. The development of the wind energy industry presents interesting policy questions. In the context of China, in additional to national energy policies, provincial policies were designed and implemented to stimulate the growth of wind power. This paper examines factors, especially provincial wind energy policies, in driving the growth of wind power capacity in the Chinese provinces. Statistical analysis with a longitudinal data set for wind power capacity in Chinese provinces from 2001 to 2012 reveals that the adoption of wind energy policies and a general energy plan at the provincial level are having positive effects on the growth of wind capacity in Chinese provinces.

Description: Daylight plays a significant role in sustainable building design. The purpose of this paper was to investigate the impact of manual solar shades on indoor visual comfort. A developed stochastic model for manual solar shades was modeled in Building Controls Virtual Test Bed, which was coupled with EnergyPlus for co-simulation. Movable solar shades were compared with two unshaded windows. Results show that movable solar shades have more than half of the working hours with a comfortable illuminance level, which is about twice higher than low-e windows, with a less significant daylight illuminance fluctuation. For glare protection, movable solar shades increase comfortable visual conditions by about 20% compared to low-e windows. Moreover, the intolerable glare perception could be reduced by more than 20% for movable solar shades.

Description: Information and communication technologies (ICT) are present in almost all fields of human activity. The expansion of their use should be balanced by the results of the studies on the negative effects on the environment. The relationship between these technologies and the environment is relatively new. The application of environmental criteria is commonly referred to as green ICT or green computing. Awareness of the importance of the ecosystem has led to increased interest in its protection both in production and in consumption. Green ICT should be a major concern not only for the hardware and software producers but also for the users. They could stimulate the demand for less harmful products for the environment with an essential role in the after-sales stages. Companies can contribute to this process by resource efficiency, dematerialization, and minimizing e-waste, increasing recycling, and producing fewer CO2 emissions. The decision to adopt green ICT depends on the expected benefits and investments. This decision depends on costs, competitiveness, financial support, managers and employees’ characteristics and skills, legal regulations, supply, and demand. The contributions of the paper cover identifying, analysing and classifying general and specific determinants of green ICT adoption in organizations based on the literature in this field.

Description: This article aims to investigate the environmental and economic sustainability of five dairy farms in the Umbria Region (Italy). The study also provides an assessment of aggregate sustainability, which is less investigated with reference to cattle milk both globally and in Italy, through the analysis of the relationship between economic and environmental performance. Primary data were collected through a direct survey carried out in 2014. The environmental assessment was conducted with a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) “cradle to farm gate” approach, while the economic dimension was evaluated by determining the direct and indirect costs related to the factors involved in the production process. A correlation analysis and a linear regression were performed in order to study the relationship between the carbon footprint (CF) and operating income. The average operating income amounted to 0.03 Euro/L of milk. The CF values of the five companies are contained within a variation range comprised between 0.90 and 1.76 kg CO2 eq/L of milk. The existence of an inverse relationship between the CF of milk and operating income confirms the hypothesis regarding the possibility of implementing strategies aimed at improving performance in both investigated dimensions at the same time, thus increasing the aggregate sustainability.

Description: In Italy, the accumulation of driftwood along the shore is a significant issue, especially for the coastal municipalities of the Central and Northern regions. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the distribution and availability of the coastal driftwood in Italy and its impacts, as well as analyzing its chemical–physical properties to evaluate possible employment in combustion applications. On the basis of a data gathering campaign for the period 2010–2014, about 60,000 tons of driftwood are reported to accumulate along the Italian shores every year. The two regions hardest-hit were Liguria and Veneto, with about 15,000 tons and 12,000 tons, respectively. Three sites were selected for driftwood sampling. The main issue deriving from chemical characterization was the high chlorine content (up to 2% on dry basis) and metal oxides in the ashes. Driftwood samples were then subjected to a natural washing cycle for 1 month; results revealed a significant drop in chlorine and metal oxides contents (up to 80%) and a low decrease of the lower heating value (about 20%). Furthermore, the percolated water was analyzed in terms of chemical oxygen demand (COD), showing values (up to 1100 mg O2/L) above the Italian limits for discharges into surface waters.

Description: As the world’s second largest economy, China ranks among the world’s top nations when it comes to carbon emission. Accordingly, its attitude towards climate change is closely followed by all parties concerned. There have been few studies on the role of environmental governance in the transformation process to low-carbon, especially Chinese ones. This study analyzes the impact of government environmental regulation on the low-carbon city transformation process by adopting Shenzhen as the research object. One of the world’s youngest super cities, Shenzhen also happens to be the city with the lowest carbon emission intensity in China. The multi-level governance framework is a useful mechanism with which to gauge divisions of responsibility and resources. This paper uses multilevel environmental governance to explain the policy for dealing with the climate in the city of Shenzhen. Striving to explore green low-carbon development path for the whole country, Shenzhen provides practical experience for countries to cope with global climate change.

Description: The potential distribution of Olea ferruginea was predicted by Maxent model for present and the upcoming hypothetical (2050) climatic scenario. O. ferruginea is an economically beneficial plant species. For predicting the potential distribution of O. ferruginea in Pakistan, Worldclim variables for current and future climatic change scenarios, digital elevation model (DEM) slope, and aspects with the occurrence point were used. Pearson correlation was used to reject highly correlated variables. A total of 219 sighting points were used in the Maxent modeling. The area under curve (AUC) value was higher than 0.98. The approach used in this study is considered useful in predicting the potential distribution of O. ferruginea species, and can be an effective tool in the conservation and restoration planning for human welfare. The results show that there is a significant impact under future bioclimatic scenarios on the potential distribution of O. ferruginea in Pakistan. There is a significant decrease in the overall distribution of O. ferruginea due to loss of habitats under current distribution range, but this will be compensated by gain of habitat at higher altitudes in the future climate change scenario (habitat shift). It is recommended that the areas predicted suitable for the O. ferruginea may be used for plantation of this species while the deforested land should be restored for human welfare.

Description: With the rise and development of information technology (IT) services, the amount of data generated is rapidly increasing. Data from many different places are inconsistent. Data capture, storage and analysis have major challenges. Most data analysis methods are unable to handle such large amounts of data. Many studies employ neural networks, mostly specifying the number of hidden layers and neurons according to experience or formula. Different sets of network topologies have different results, and the best network model is selected. This investigation proposes a system based on the ensemble neural network (ENN). It creates multiple network models, each with different numbers of hidden layers and neurons. A model that does not achieve the accuracy rate is discarded. The proposed system derives the weighted average of all remaining network models to improve the accuracy of the prediction. This study applies the proposed method to generate agricultural yield predictions. The agricultural production process in Taiwan is more complex than those of manufacturing or other industries. The Council of Agriculture provides agricultural forecasting primarily based on the planted area and experience to predict the yield, but without consideration of the overall planting environment. This work applies the proposed data analysis method to agriculture. The method based on ENN has a much lower error rate than traditional back-propagation neural networks, while multiple regression analysis has an error rate of 12.4%. Experimental results reveal that the ENN method is better than traditional back-propagation neural networks and multiple regression analysis.

Description: Urban and rural areas differ in economic, social and environmental terms. Due to the diverging dynamics in urban and rural areas, the social and economic distance between them might increase in the future even more. Rural entrepreneurs with linkages to urban areas are able to bridge the rural–urban divide by accessing some of the urban features, such as knowledge and markets, while at the same time profiting from the advantages of their peripheral location. This paper highlights exploratory results from qualitative interviews with rural entrepreneurs, and we illustrate entrepreneurial linkages to urban centers. The interview data show that rural entrepreneurs with rural–urban linkages develop sensibility for core market demands and trends, they valuate rural assets, and they combine rural and urban sources of knowledge for innovation. Through their entrepreneurial activity, rural entrepreneurs with linkages to urban areas might constitute an opposite force to polarizing concentration of economic activities in cities. Hence, rural entrepreneurs with urban linkages might contribute to sustainable economic relationships between urban and rural areas.

Description: Many studies have tried to predict corporate performance and stock prices to enhance investment profitability using qualitative approaches such as the Delphi method. However, developments in data processing technology and machine-learning algorithms have resulted in efforts to develop quantitative prediction models in various managerial subject areas. We propose a quantitative corporate performance prediction model that applies the support vector regression (SVR) algorithm to solve the problem of the overfitting of training data and can be applied to regression problems. The proposed model optimizes the SVR training parameters based on the training data, using the genetic algorithm to achieve sustainable predictability in changeable markets and managerial environments. Technology-intensive companies represent an increasing share of the total economy. The performance and stock prices of these companies are affected by their financial standing and their technological capabilities. Therefore, we apply both financial indicators and technical indicators to establish the proposed prediction model. Here, we use time series data, including financial, patent, and corporate performance information of 44 electronic and IT companies. Then, we predict the performance of these companies as an empirical verification of the prediction performance of the proposed model.

Description: Sustainable design aims to reduce the negative impacts either on people (e.g., create healthy) or on planet (e.g., minimize waste). In other words, sustainable design is the philosophy thattendstoimprovedesignperformancebyincorporatinghealthandsafetyattributes(forpeople), and environmental attributes (for planet) into products. In this paper, we develop an analytical model to examine the sustainable design operations in a supply chain which consists of one retailer and one manufacturer. The manufacturer designs the products by investigating sustainable design efforts, such that the products can better coordinate human needs. Motivated by the real industry practice, we consider two business modes for the manufacturer: a nonprofit organization (i.e., a demand quantity seeker) or a commercial firm (i.e., a profit seeker). We obtain the optimal operational decisions in both the decentralized case and the centralized case, and we also compare the results. Managerial insights are derived, and the efficiency of the sustainable design is also discussed.