ALBERT

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 2903: A Variance Maximization Based Weight Optimization Method for Railway Transportation Safety Performance Measurement Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10082903 Authors: Dongye Sun Yuanhua Jia Lingqiao Qin Yang Yang Juyong Zhang Based on the idea of maximizing variances, a weight optimization method is proposed in this research to improve railway transportation safety evaluation. Firstly, the main evaluation indicators that can reflect the safety of railway transportation are selected as the independent variables. Secondly, in order to avoid the influence of experts’ empowerment on the evaluation results of railway transport safety, fuzzy set theory is introduced to generate the variation range of the weights of each evaluation index, which is used as the constraint of weight optimization model. Then, the weight optimization model for railway transportation safety performance measurement is established based on the principle of maximum variance. The structure of the optimization model shows the characteristics of the quadratic programming model. Therefore, the optimal weight is calculated by using the branch bounded algorithm, which is one of the quadratic programming model solution algorithms. Finally, the empirical analysis of the safety performance measurement for 18 railway bureaus shows that using the optimized index weight for safety performance measurement can not only make full use of prior information but also ensure that 18 railway bureaus can be distinguished to the maximum extent.

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 2902: A Theory of Optimal Green Defaults Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10082902 Authors: Georg Meran Reimund Schwarze This paper develops an analytical framework for studying the Baumol–Oates efficiency of traditional single instrument abatement policies vis-à-vis green defaults in the face of price inertia and passive choice by subpopulations. In this special case of behavioural heterogeneity, command and control approaches can outperform price-based instruments while pure tax/subsidy schemes need to be adjusted in order to achieve politically desired levels of abatement. We also prove that choice-preserving nudges are superior to any single-instrument policy in this case. An average marginal abatement cost rule is developed to optimize the green defaults and traditional policies of standards and prices under different degrees of market rigidity.

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 2934: Is Jakarta’s New Flood Risk Reduction Strategy Transformational? Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10082934 Authors: Matthias Garschagen Gusti Ayu Ketut Surtiari Mostapha Harb On a conceptual and normative level, the debate around transformation in the context of disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation has been rising sharply over the recent years. Yet, whether and how transformation occurs in the messy realities of policy and action, and what separates it from other forms of risk reduction, is far from clear. Jakarta appears to be the perfect example to study these questions. It is amongst the cities with the highest flood risk in the world. Its flood hazard is driven by land subsidence, soil sealing, changes in river discharge, and—increasingly—sea level rise. As all of these trends are set to continue, Jakarta’s flood hazard is expected to intensify in the future. Designing and implementing large-scale risk reduction and adaption measures therefore has been a priority of risk practitioners and policy-makers at city and national level. Against this background, the paper draws on a document analysis and original empirical household survey data to review and evaluate current adaptation measures and to analyze in how far they describe a path that is transformational from previous risk reduction approaches. The results show that the focus is clearly on engineering solutions, foremost in the Giant Sea Wall project. The project is likely to transform the city’s flood hydrology. However, it cements rather than transforms the current risk management paradigm which gravitates around the goal of controlling flood symptoms, rather than addressing their largely anthropogenic root causes. The results also show that the planned measures are heavily contested due to concerns about ecological impacts, social costs, distributional justice, public participation, and long-term effectiveness. On the outlook, the results therefore suggest that the more the flood hazard intensifies in the future, the deeper a societal debate will be needed about the desired pathway in flood risk reduction and overall development planning—particularly with regards to the accepted levels of transformation, such as partial retreat from the most flood-affected areas.

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 2944: Measuring Knowledge Diffusion in Water Resources Research and Development: The Case of Korea Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10082944 Authors: Inkyung Cho Jungkyu Park Eunnyeong Heo Technological knowledge created through government R&D investment not only contributes to technology and market expansion, but is also a major factor in evaluating a nation’s innovation capacity. As government budgets are limited, establishing an effective investment strategy is important. The purpose of this paper is to suggest R&D investment priorities in terms of the centrality of knowledge diffusion—which technology field is targeted in knowledge diffusion—and rapidity of knowledge diffusion—how quickly technological knowledge diffuses. The analysis focused on a water resources R&D program led by the Korean government. The centrality and rapidity of knowledge diffusion were analyzed using network analysis and patent citation information, respectively. By showing that results differ depending on whether centrality or rapidity are used to rank investments, the findings suggest the need for multiple analyses when establishing an R&D investment strategy. Moreover, this study expanded analysis of knowledge diffusion to the second diffusion, and confirmed that, when the rapidity of knowledge diffusion through the second diffusion is considered, priorities for government R&D investments change. The results have useful implications for R&D investment by identifying investment priorities in the water resources sector, and changes in those priorities when mid- to long-term knowledge diffusion is considered.

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 2931: What Drives the Rise of Metro Developments in China? Evidence from Nantong Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10082931 Authors: Shutian Zhou Guofang Zhai Yijun Shi This paper addresses to the rapid rise of metro developments in Chinese cities to reconsider the official justifications of such mega-projects and the underlying driving forces behind proposal and approval processes. Qualitative approaches were undertaken in this in-depth case study of Nantong’s metro project, through insights into planning documents and evidences gathered from interviews, together with relevant socioeconomic data. Our research findings reveal four major motivations to develop metro projects in China: the city’s expected improvements through the metro system, the local economic power as the essential requirement and source of confidence for project development, the inter-city competition as an invisible factor driving project proposals, and the changing domestic political economy as the direct cause of its approval. As a topic that is frequently studied in the relevant literature and often advocated by metro projects promoters, the local expected achievements in terms of modal shift to public transport, transit-oriented development, economic growth, and tax maximisation are highlighted in this case study. Additionally, in China, inter-city competition and economic-political reasons involved in initiating, promoting, and approving urban mega-projects are also vital to the whole process.

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 2930: Translating Agroecology into Policy: The Case of France and the United Kingdom Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10082930 Authors: Raquel Ajates Gonzalez Jessica Thomas Marina Chang The popularity of agroecology has grown over the last few years as an alternative paradigm for food systems. This public attention has meant agroecology is increasingly becoming institutionalised and integrated into food policy frameworks. While there is a significant body of literature discussing the origins and worldviews intrinsic to agroecology, hardly any academic publications focusing on analysing policies claiming to have an agroecological focus exist. This first policy study of its kind contributes to the scarce agroecological policy literature by interrogating what we argue is a ‘translation’ process, which starts with the vision of agroecology and analyses how the concept changes once it has been operationalised into a policy document or law. Evidence from two European agricultural policy contexts, namely France and the United Kingdom, is presented. The methodology followed focused on the analysis of the context, problem construction, conceptualisation of agroecology, operational principles, and policy instruments included in the policy documents. Three main themes emerged from the case studies: differences in framing agroecology in the public policy arena; common dependencies to existing configurations influencing translations of agroecology in public policies; and the need for democratic discussion on the hybridisation of agroecology itself, as well as on implied, but often veiled, political choices. This paper concludes that a selective and relational hybridisation of agroecology is emerging during its ‘translation’ into public policies.

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 2929: Advanced Oxidation Processes and Nanofiltration to Reduce the Color and Chemical Oxygen Demand of Waste Soy Sauce Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10082929 Authors: Hyun-Hee Jang Gyu-Tae Seo Dae-Woon Jeong Currently, the ozone (O3) oxidation efficiency in the treatment of waste soy sauce provides 34.2% color removal and a 27.4% reduction in its chemical oxygen demand (COD). To improve the O3 oxidation efficiency, hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) is used to cause a H2O2/O3 process. In H2O2/O3 process experiments, a previously optimized pH of 11 and applied O3 dose of 50 mg L−1 were used and the H2O2/O3 ratio was varied between 0.1 and 0.9 in intervals of 0.2. The results show that an H2O2/O3 ratio of 0.3 results in the highest efficiencies in terms of color removal (51.6%) and COD reduction (33.8%). Nanofiltration (NF) was used to pretreat the waste soy sauce to improve color removal and COD reduction. The results showed that NF with an NE-70 membrane results in 80.8% color removal and 79.6% COD reduction. Finally, the combination of NF and H2O2/O3 process resulted in the best treatment efficiency: 98.1% color removal and 98.2% COD reduction. Thus, NF & H2O2/O3 process can be considered as one of the best treatment methods for waste soy sauce, which requires high intrinsic color removal and COD reduction efficiencies.

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 2924: Every City a Food Growing City? What Food Growing Schools London Reveals about City Strategies for Food System Sustainability Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10082924 Authors: Hannah Pitt Mat Jones Emma Weitkamp Cities have emerged as leaders in food system innovation and transformation, but their potential can be limited by the absence of supportive governance arrangements. This study examined the value of Food Growing Schools London (FGSL) as a programme seeking city-wide change through focusing on one dimension of the food system. Mixed methods case study research sought to identify high-level success factors and challenges. Findings demonstrate FGSL’s success in promoting food growing by connecting and amplifying formerly isolated activities. Schools valued the programme’s expertise and networking opportunities, whilst strategic engagement facilitated new partnerships linking food growing to other policy priorities. Challenges included food growing’s marginality amongst priorities that direct school and borough activity. Progress depended on support from individual local actors so varied across the city. London-wide progress was limited by the absence of policy levers at the city level. Experience from FGSL highlights how city food strategies remain constrained by national policy contexts, but suggests they may gain traction through focusing on well-delineated, straightforward activities that hold public appeal. Sustainability outcomes might then be extended through a staged approach using this as a platform from which to address other food issues.

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 2926: Multicriteria Approach towards the Sustainable Selection of a Teahouse Location with Sensitivity Analysis Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10082926 Authors: Ji Chen Jinsheng Wang Tomas Baležentis Fausta Zagurskaitė Dalia Streimikiene Daiva Makutėnienė The teahouse market has seen an expansion across various countries. In order to identify the most reasonable paths for development, the choice of location for the outlets needs to account for a number of conflicting criteria. Therefore, the multicriteria approach is required to effectively handle the location selection problem. In this paper, we develop a multicriteria framework for teahouse selection and apply it in the context of Lithuania. The indicator system is set up in order to capture the different aspects of the candidate locations. We also apply two multicriteria decision-making techniques (the evaluation based on distance from average solution (EDAS) method and the weighted aggregated sum product assessment with normalization (WASPAS-N) method) in order to ensure the robustness of the results. The weights of criteria were determined based on the expert survey. In addition, a Monte Carlo simulation was applied to check the sensitivity in changes of the criterion weights. The empirical application demonstrated validity of the proposed approach in choosing the optimal location of a teahouse.

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 2922: An Economical, Sustainable Pathway to Indole-Containing Oxindoles: Iron-Catalyzed 1,6-Conjugate Addition in Glycerol Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10082922 Authors: Lan Tan Abdul Rahman The search for economical, sustainable and practical pathways in synthetic science would contribute to improving resource efficiency, developing a recycling economy and driving new-type urbanization. Green synthesis has established firm ground providing the right green yardstick for development of a sustainable approach to bioactive high-added value molecules and drug discovery, and further development of sustainable manufacturing processes in the pharmaceutical industry toward a green resource efficient economy. In this study, the combination of FeCl3 and glycerol exhibits a versatile and high catalytic activity in the atom economical 1,6-conjugated addition of para-quinone methides derived from isatins with indoles using the right green yardstick. The sustainable pathway provides the preparation of bioactive indole-containing oxindoles in excellent yields with superior advantages, such as the ready availability, low price and environmentally benign character of iron catalysis, easy product separation, cheap and safe bio-renewable glycerol as a green solvent, and catalytic system recycling under mild conditions.

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 2921: The Small World of the Alternative Food Network Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10082921 Authors: Catherine Brinkley This research offers the first use of graph theory mathematics in social network analysis to explore relationships built through an alternative food network. The local food system is visualized using geo-social data from 110 farms and 224 markets around Baltimore County, Maryland, with 699 connections between them. Network behavior is explored through policy document review and interviews. The findings revealed a small-world architecture, with system resiliency built-in by diversified marketing practices at central nodes. This robust network design helps to explain the long-term survival of local food systems despite the meteoric rise of global industrial food supply chains. Modern alternative food networks are an example of a movement that seeks to reorient economic power structures in response to a variety of food system-related issues not limited to consumer health but including environmental impacts. Uncovering the underlying network architecture of this sustainability-oriented social movement helps reveal how it weaves systemic change more broadly. The methods used in this study demonstrate how social values, social networks, markets, and governance systems embed to transform both physical landscapes and human bodies. Network actors crafted informal policy reports, which were directly incorporated in state and local official land-use and economic planning documents. Community governance over land-use policy suggests a powerful mechanism for further localizing food systems.

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 2920: Ski Tourism and Web Marketing Strategies: The Case of Ski Resorts in France and Spain Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10082920 Authors: Eduard Cristobal-Fransi Natalia Daries Antoni Serra-Cantallops José Ramón-Cardona Maria Zorzano The impacts of climate change are affecting ski tourism in Europe’s southernmost ski resorts, such as those in France, and Spain. This is leading to changes in the scheduling of activities which, in turn, imply changes in how ski resorts are managed. The main aim of this work is to analyze whether ski resort websites are developing an effective marketing strategy and if they are adapted to e-commerce and the needs of contemporary society, including the adaptations needed to better face climate change and the stagnation the sector is suffering. In order to achieve this, we have developed a model to analyze ski resort websites; it is based on web content analysis, taking four factors into account: information, communication, e-commerce, and additional functions. We will, secondly, apply the eMICA (Extended Model of Internet Commerce Adoption) methodology to analyze the maturity of such e-commerce activities in ski tourism. Fifty-two ski resorts in Spain and 173 in France were analyzed. Results show that, while alpine ski resorts in general, and those in France in particular, are better prepared, resorts still have to facilitate more effective communication and interaction with their target public. A minority of resorts provide information on environmental certifications and snowmaking.

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 2919: A Landscape-Scale Adjoining Conservation (LAC) Approach for Efficient Habitat Expansion: The Case of Changbai Mountain, Northeast China Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10082919 Authors: Jianwei Bai Lina Tang Qingchun Wang Fengri Li The biodiversity crisis and ecosystem degradation caused by habitat destruction and human activities can be reduced by organizing protected areas. However, many protected areas currently take the form of “green islands,” which has led to serious habitat isolation in many places. We thus introduce herein a landscape-scale adjoining conservation (LAC) approach for the protection and restoration of ecosystems across the boundaries between protected areas and surrounding non-protected areas. The strategy of the LAC approach is to effectively expand conservation areas by connecting isolated areas of important ecosystems or habitats outside of protected areas. The methodology of the LAC approach involves integrated analyses that consider both habitat quality and landscape patterns. Forest-habitat quality is characterized by species composition and stand structure, and habitat connectivity is quantified by the max patch area of habitat and total habitat area. The focal statistic is useful for examining habitat clumps that result from landscape fragmentation. As a case study, we apply the LAC approach to adjoining restoration of broadleaf Korean pine mixed forest on the Changbai Mountain in northeastern China. We developed a metric called the Restoration Efficiency of Landscape Expansion (RELE) to evaluate the LAC approach. The results indicate that a minimal restoration effort can produce significant effects in terms of the expansion of contiguous habitat, as quantified by RELE.

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 2986: Mapping and Understanding the Dynamics of Landscape Changes on Heterogeneous Mediterranean Islands with the Use of OBIA: The Case of Ionian Region, Greece Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10092986 Authors: George Kefalas Konstantinos Poirazidis Panteleimon Xofis Stamatis Kalogirou Mediterranean islands contain heterogeneous landscapes, resulting from the complex interactions between natural and anthropogenic processes, and have significant ecological and conservation importance. They are vulnerable systems to global change and the monitoring of changes, induced by the interacting environmental drivers, is of particular importance for applying a sustainable management regime. The aim of this study was to detect and analyze the landscape dynamics and changes in landscape composition over a 30-year period on the Ionian Islands of Western Greece. State-of-the-art object-oriented image analysis on freely available remote sensing data such as Landsat images was employed achieving final mapping products with high spatial and thematic accuracy (over than 85%), and a transferable classification scheme. The main drivers of environmental change are tourism and associated activities, wildfires and livestock breeding which act in different ways and intensities within and between the islands. The repopulation of those islands, after a period of significant depopulation from the 1940s to the 1980s, and the boom of tourism since the mid-1970s prevented further land abandonment and the recultivation of abandoned land which indicates that tourism and agriculture can be complementary rather than competing economic sectors. Despite the significant increase of tourism, a general trend was observed towards increasing cover of high-density vegetation formations, such as shrublands and forests. At the same time, wildfires, which are in some cases associated with livestock breeding, continue to be an important vegetation degradation factor preventing further ecosystem recovery on the study islands.

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 2985: An Exploration of the Debt Ratio of Ski Lift Operators Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10092985 Authors: Martin Falk Robert Steiger This article examines the determinants of the debt-to-capital ratio of ski lift operators. The analysis is based on the total population of 248 ski lift operators in Austria. The median debt-to-capital ratio is 73%, with a highly skewed distribution, where almost every fourth operator exhibits negative equity capital. Robust regressions show that the debt-to-capital ratio significantly depends on the size of the ski area, elevation, location, presence of a neighboring ski area, supply of accommodation nearby, and the proportion of foreign overnight stays. However, the significance and magnitude of these factors differ between East and West Austria. For eastern Austria, larger ski operators, with neighboring resorts close by and a vast supply of accommodation, have a significantly lower debt-to-capital ratio. In western Austria, elevation and presence of a neighbor are significant predictors. Operators with a neighbor nearby exhibit a 15-percentage-point lower debt ratio.

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 3026: Quantifying Climate Change and Ecological Responses within the Yangtze River Basin, China Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10093026 Authors: Feiyan Chen Aiwen Lin Hongji Zhu Jiqiang Niu The interactions between climate change and vegetation have a significant impact on the dynamics of the global carbon cycle. Based on the observed meteorological data from 1961 to 2013 and the temperature and precipitation data simulated by various climate models (simulations phase 5 of the Climate Model Intercomparison Project dataset), this paper analyzes the temperature and precipitation changes of the Yangtze River Basin (YRB) and finds that they are a similar trend, that is, the temperature presents a significant upward trend (R2 = 0.49, p < 0.01), and the variation trend of precipitation is not significant (R2 = 0.01). Specifically, based on observed meteorological data, the annual mean temperature increased significantly and the area of increasing temperature accounted for 99.94% of the total region (p < 0.05); however, there was no significant change in annual precipitation. Ecological indicators (normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI); enhanced vegetation index (EVI); leaf area index (LAI); gross primary production (GPP); and net primary production (NPP)) of the YRB showed an increasing trend, and annual NDVI, annual EVI, LAI, annual total GPP and annual total NPP increased at respective rates of 0.002 yr−1, 0.001 yr−1, 0.07 m2m−2decade−1, 9 TgCyr−1yr−1, and 6 TgCyr−1yr−1, respectively. Correlation analysis between temperature/precipitation and NDVI/EVI/LAI/GPP/NPP was used to determine the relationships between climatic parameters and ecological indicators. Specifically, the temperature is significantly positively correlated with annual NDVI (R2 = 0.37, p < 0.05), with annual mean LAI (R2 = 0.35, p < 0.05) and with annual GPP (R2 = 0.37, p < 0.05). In addition, there is a moderate positive correlation between mean EVI and mean growing season air temperature (R2 = 0.24); annual mean air temperature is a moderate positive correlation with annual NPP (R2 = 0.28). Our findings confirm that temperature is more closely related to ecological factors than precipitation over the YRB in these decades.

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 3024: Spatial Equilibrium Allocation of Urban Large Public General Hospitals Based on the Welfare Maximization Principle: A Case Study of Nanjing, China Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10093024 Authors: Zhengna Song Tinggan Yan Yunjian Ge This study aims to utilize the new gravity P-median model to conduct an empirical study for the spatial equilibrium layout of general hospitals in the urban area of Nanjing City, based on multiple requirements for spatial equilibrium, involving spatial equity-efficiency, service utility fairness, and utilization efficiency. The major results are as follows: (1) the new layout can achieve the goal of obtaining a proximate, high-quality medical service in 30 min even for those who reside on the outskirts, which is less than the current 65.6 min. Moreover, the new layout corresponds better to the population distribution and traffic network layout. (2) When compared with several typical characteristics of accessibility to hospitals, including severe gradient variation, five high-value centers, and the efficiency orientation in the current layout, the new demonstrates distinctive ones: comparatively moderate accessibility variation; more relatively high-value areas scattered in different parts of the city; more convenient accessibility on the outskirts; a better balance of the equitable appeal from the inhabitants residing in different areas. (3) The new layout can attain spatial equilibrium at a higher level, the representative indices to measure spatial equity, spatial efficiency, chance fairness, and utilization efficiency have been ameliorated by 54%, 13%, 63%, 14%, respectively. The study reveals that: (1) The new gravity P-median model has the validity and practicability in solving facility location and scale configuration problems with high time complexity, under complicated situations due to multiple targets and multi-agent competition. (2) The model can be applied to decision making related to public infrastructure planning in different types of development areas, by setting concerning parameters or making some minor adjustments to the model in different scenarios. Such research can provide some reference for the location-allocation problem of high-grade facilities in metropolises, and support the decision-making basis for urban infrastructure planning.

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 3044: The Effect of Destination Social Responsibility on Tourists’ Satisfaction: The Mediating Role of Emotions Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10093044 Authors: Huynh Anh Thu Tran Yun Seop Hwang Cheon Yu Seung Jick Yoo The purpose of this study is to define destination social responsibility as a multidimensional construct and examine the relationships between destination social responsibility, tourists’ emotions and their satisfaction, through the lens of corporate social responsibility. A model is empirically tested with a sample of 359 random foreign tourists visiting Hoi An, Vietnam. The results indicate that all destination social responsibility dimensions, including economic, environmental, legal–ethical, and philanthropic responsibilities significantly enhance tourists’ emotions, while only legal–ethical and philanthropic responsibilities directly affect tourists’ satisfaction. The findings also confirm the mediating effect of emotions between destination social responsibility and tourists’ overall satisfaction.

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 3030: Integration of Demand Response and Photovoltaic Resources in Residential Segments Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10093030 Authors: Ana García-Garre Antonio Gabaldón Carlos Álvarez-Bel María del Carmen Ruiz-Abellón Antonio Guillamón The development of renewable sources in residential segments is basic to achieve a sustainable energy scenario in the horizon 2030–2050 because these segments explain around 25% of the final energy consumption. Demand Response and its effective coordination with renewable are additional concerns for residential segments. This paper deals with two problems: the demonstration of cost-effectiveness of renewables in three different scenarios, and the application of the flexibility of demand, performing as energy storage systems, to efficiently manage the generation of renewable sources while improving benefits and avoiding penalties for the customer. A residential customer in Spain has been used as example. The work combines the use of a commercial simulator to obtain photovoltaic generation, the monitoring of customer to obtain demand patterns, and the development of a Physically-Based Model to evaluate the capability of demand to follow self-generation. As a main result, the integration of models (load/generation), neglected in practice in other approaches in the literature, allows customers to improve revenue up to 20% and reach a basic but important knowledge on how they can modify the demand, development of new skills and, in this way, learn how to deal with the characteristics and limitations of both Demand and Generation when a customer becomes a prosumer. This synergy amongst demand and generation physically-based models boosts the possibilities of customers in electricity markets.

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 3029: Assessment of Advanced Natural Ventilation Space Cooling Potential across Southern European Coastal Region Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10093029 Authors: Nikola Pesic Jaime Roset Calzada Adrian Muros Alcojor Analyzing the Köppen–Geiger climate classification and available climate data for the southern European Mediterranean coast, eight reference geolocations were selected for this analysis: the cities of Valencia, Barcelona, Marseille, Rome, Koper, Split, Athens and Nicosia. The first part of the research applies the climate potential for natural ventilation (CPNV) methodology that evaluates the theoretical availability of natural ventilation (NV) for each city location corresponding to human hygrothermal conditions. The second part of the article evaluates possible cooling energy savings (ES) applying the advanced natural ventilation (ANV) space-cooling strategy. A hypothetical four-story atrium office building model is designed for the building performance simulation (BPS) using mixed-mode (or hybrid-mode) and night-time natural ventilation (NNV) approaches. The objective is to present a comparison overview of possible space cooling ES between chosen geolocations. In the context of the current European Union’s (EU) energy transition (ET) process, the article displays ANV possibilities, as a renewable energy resource (RES), in the reduction of building space cooling energy demands (ED) on the electricity grid.

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 3031: An Empirical Investigation of the Relationship between Overall Equipment Efficiency (OEE) and Manufacturing Sustainability in Industry 4.0 with Time Study Approach Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10093031 Authors: Poorya Ghafoorpoor Yazdi Aydin Azizi Majid Hashemipour Nowadays, small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) are becoming increasingly competitive. In order to fulfill the rapidly changing market and diversified demands of customers, the SMEs need to achieve and maintain high productivity and quality, with fast response, sufficient flexibility, and short lead times. Therefore, Industry 4.0 offers various manufacturing paradigms that might be a solution in order to increase the productivity of SMEs such as intelligent and flexible manufacturing. Furthermore, in the last decade, the emphasis on adopting eco-friendly practices, implementing sustainability measures, and protecting the environment has continued to grow, to gain traction across SMEs. In fact, because of this need, many SMEs are now adopting sustainable manufacturing practices in response to this increased focus on sustainability and environmental stewardship. The main purpose of this paper is to design and study the implementation of a sustainable, intelligent material handling system for material distribution with utilizing an agent-based algorithm as control architecture. A time study-based methodology has been implemented to evaluate the overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) to identify the matters that need to be resolved and optimized to increase the OEE percentage with consideration of the sustainability of the system. An exhaustive analytical trend applied to the generated time study data. Accordingly, further hardware, software, and layout design limitation and problems detected, and the proper solutions were anticipated. The observed time study results were presented, a fundamental set of analytical observation and information with associated histograms was reviewed. In addition, the study aims to recognize and analyze effective factors on the sustainability of improved processes, using a simple model. To do this, using experts’ viewpoints, affective factors on the sustainability of process improvement activities are determined.

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 3079: Integrating Climate Forecasts with the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) for High-Resolution Hydrologic Simulations and Forecasts in the Southeastern U.S. Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10093079 Authors: Vinit Sehgal Venkataramana Sridhar Luke Juran Jactone Arogo Ogejo This study provides high-resolution modeling of daily water budget components at Hydrologic Unit Code (HUC)-12 resolution for 50 watersheds of the South Atlantic Gulf (SAG) region in the southeastern U.S. (SEUS) by implementing the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model in the form of a near real-time, semi-automated framework. A near real-time hydrologic simulation framework is implemented with a lead time of nine months (March–December 2017) by integrating the calibrated SWAT model with National Centers for Environmental Prediction coupled forecast system model version 2 (CFSv2) weather data to forecast daily water balance components. The modeling exercise is conducted as a precursor for various future hydrologic studies (retrospective or forecasting) for the region by providing a calibrated hydrological dataset at high spatial (HUC-12) and temporal (1-day) resolution. The models are calibrated (January 2003–December 2010) and validated (January 2011–December 2013) for each watershed using the observed streamflow data from 50 United States Geological Survey (USGS) gauging stations. The water balance analysis for the region shows that the implemented models satisfactorily represent the hydrology of the region across different sub-regions (Appalachian highlands, plains, and coastal wetlands) and seasons. While CFSv2-driven SWAT models are able to provide reasonable performance in near real-time and can be used for decision making in the region, caution is advised for using model outputs as the streamflow forecasts display significant deviation from observed streamflow for all watersheds for lead times greater than a month.

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 3081: Modeling a Three-Mode Hybrid Port-Hinterland Freight Intermodal Distribution Network with Environmental Consideration: The Case of the Yangtze River Economic Belt in China Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10093081 Authors: Dai Yang Dong Li Efficiency challenges of the hinterland connectivity, along with growing green concerns necessitate the integration of economic goals and environmental considerations, for port-hinterland logistics problems. This study focused on innovative modeling, for a three-mode port-hinterland intermodal freight distribution system, from the perspective of shippers. A hybrid distribution network topology, combining point to point, hub-and-spoke, and connected hubs was designed as route alternatives for loads from origin to destination. A bi-objective decision framework involving analytical scenarios of emissions limitation, emissions taxation, and an emissions trading scheme, was developed for policy analysis, and then applied to a real-life hinterland logistics network in the Yangtze River Economic Belt in China. The results showed that the implementation of the three emissions policies, all resulted in great changes in flows between intermodal routes and achieved emissions reduction goals. Nevertheless, the conflict between logistics costs and carbon emissions, differs from policy to policy. Some inflection points were identified to offer decision supports on policy insights, for the port-hinterland distribution network. Lastly, a sensitivity analysis on cost and emissions parameters was given. It revealed that the flow changes and trade-off relationship between economic and environmental objectives, were both sensitive to the road transportation mode.

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 3077: Political Cycles and the Mix of Industrial and Residential Land Leasing Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10093077 Authors: Li Fang Chuanhao Tian Xiaohong Yin Yan Song This paper studies how political cycles change the mix of industrial and residential land in urban land leasing. The mixture of different types of land leasing in cities affects urban landscape, resident welfare, and economic sustainability. Using prefecture-level panel data from China and statistical regressions, this paper finds that cities lease out 3% more industrial land, as a percentage of total annual urban land leasing, when their party committee secretaries have been in office for no more than two years. In the same period, they lease out 2% less residential land. This is explained by the strategic behaviors of party committee secretaries to increase their chances of political promotion. Urban land leasing fuels local economic performance and increases the chance of city leaders’ promotion. While the economic benefits of residential land are immediate, those of industrial land cannot be reaped until two years later. This divided timeline results in more aggressive leasing of industrial land early on in party committee secretaries’ service terms, and that of residential land later on. Mayors’ service terms do not have the same effect. This political cycle distorts the temporal and spatial distributions of industrial and residential land in cities, and results in inefficient land use and unstable real estate markets.

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 3078: Proposing a Value-Based Digital Government Model: Toward Broadening Sustainability and Public Participation Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10093078 Authors: Jungwoo Lee Byoung Joon Kim SeonJu Park Sungbum Park Kangtak Oh It has generally been well-established, by a number of studies, that the rapid advance and global diffusion of information and communication technology (ICT) is impacting the milieu of governance along with a socio-technical transformation of society at all levels. With a growing interest in digital government, the inquiry concerning a common digital model has been raised. To assist public administrators in thinking about new digital government for their organizations, a new developmental model framework is proposed in this article. This model is drawn from value-based analysis contained in developmental policies, and a subsequent policy development process is also proposed. In doing so, the new model would represent accelerated socio-technical transformation with intelligent technologies, escalating wicked problems appearing despite technological advances. The limitations of the current finite state model are also discussed.

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 3074: How Water Bottle Refill Stations Contribute to Campus Sustainability: A Case Study in Japan Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10093074 Authors: Takuro Uehara Alayna Ynacay-Nye The purpose of this study was to explore the feasibility of installing Water bottle Refill Stations (WRSs) and their contributions to campus sustainability by means of encouraging pro-environmental behavior in students. Plastic waste is one of the most critical environmental issues. Therefore, we investigated how WRS can deter students from using disposable plastic bottles. We conducted a survey at a Japanese university to address (1) students’ Willingness To Pay (WTP) to install WRS, (2) their Willingness To Use (WTU) WRSs while acknowledging its environmental benefits, and (3) the impact of communicating information about points (1) and (2). We utilized Goal-Framing Theory (GFT) and the Integrated Framework for Encouraging Pro-Environmental Behavior (IFEP) as the theoretical background of our study. The results of our survey found that the mean WTP was 2211 JPY (1 JPY = 0.01 USD), an amount students would donate just once. This finding indicates students would be willing to pay to install a WRS at their university. The mean WTP students supported would be enough to cover the WRS installation and maintenance costs. According to our study, 58.82% of students stated that they would be willing to use WRS. In doing so, students would save 45,191 disposable plastic bottles and reduce 10,846 kg of related CO2 emissions every year. Our study also showed a statistically significant increase in WTP and WTU WRS as we introduced more and more information about pro-environmental behaviors to students. This finding indicates the importance of information campaigning and learning how to encourage pro-environmental behavior.

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 3075: The Service Supply Effect of Cooperatives under Economic Transformation: A Demand-Supply Perspective Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10093075 Authors: Xiangyu Wu Yunlong Ding As an important part of the sustainable development of agriculture in China, cooperatives have become a hot topic. However, previous literature has mixed results on the relationship between quantity growth and service supply effect of cooperatives. By conducting multiple correspondence analysis, descriptive statistics, and Pearson’s chi-square test on survey data of 785 farmers, this paper aims to describe the characteristics of cooperatives’ members and evaluate the current state of cooperatives’ service supply from a demand-supply perspective. The results of the survey show that male, middle-aged, and middle-class farmers or farmers who plant local optimal crops are more likely to become the members of cooperatives. There is a huge gap between service supply and demand of farmers; cooperatives have a positive effect on reducing the degree of service demand. This effect is only significant when concerning sale, pest control, and mechanization. On the whole, there is a weak correlative relationship between the current service supply of cooperatives and the service demand of farmers in China.

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 3062: Farmers’ Perception of Water Quality and Risks in the Mashavera River Basin, Georgia: Analyzing the Vulnerability of the Social-Ecological System through Community Perceptions Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10093062 Authors: Sisira S. Withanachchi Ilia Kunchulia Giorgi Ghambashidze Rami Al Sidawi Teo Urushadze Angelika Ploeger Competing natural resources usage that leads to dramatic land use changes can threaten the balance of a social-ecological system. When this is the case, communities are directly exposed to the negative consequences of those land use changes. The Mashavera River Basin is considered one of the hotspots of environmental pollution in Georgia. This is of importance for public health because the food production from this basin meets a substantial proportion of the country’s food demand. The farmers’ perception of the water quality and their perceived risks to the economy, health, and lifestyle reflect the status of the environmental and social conditions. The inclusion of farmers’ risk perceptions is an important stage of water quality governance that could enable active civic participation. The approach of this research study was the convergence model in the triangular design of the mixed method approach. As part of the social data, the research study was conducted with a survey of 177 households, for which agriculture was either a main or partial source of income. A few focus group discussions were also conducted. A binary logistic regression analysis was employed as the main method for the analysis. The results from the pollution load index (PLI) were used as the supportive data to verify some geospatial hypotheses. We found that aesthetic attributes (i.e., color changes observed in the river) and the source of the water contamination (i.e., mining sites) were the main predictor variables for a perceived risk to water quality, health, and livelihoods. The people who work in agriculture as the main income source had more concern about their ability to sell their agricultural products as a result of water contamination in the river, compared with people for whom agriculture is a secondary source of income or for self-consumption. Age, amount of land, years of agricultural experience, and the source of water supply for agriculture did not have a significant effect on any of the risk perception or water quality perception models. The results indicate that the health risk is perceived more strongly in areas with more heavily contaminated water compared to less polluted areas. We propose that conducting a public risk perception assessment is an ideal means to detect people’s concerns regarding water quality governance for future risk analysis in Georgia. Another recommendation of this study is an integrated model of risk assessment that combines the results from a public risk perception assessment and a technical assessment. The benefits of such an integrated assessment include finding new hazard-sensitive areas for further analysis, the possibility to cross-check data for verification, communal communication of hazardous conditions by utilizing local knowledge, and the direct participation of the community in monitoring risks.

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 3057: Assessing Sustainable Food Systems Governance in EU’s Outermost Regions—The Case of the Azores in Portugal Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10093057 Authors: Paola Andrea Hernández Maria Helena Guimarães Maria Rivera Emiliana Silva The European Union’s (EU) remote rural areas undergo unique organizational challenges to counteract geopolitical, economic, and environmental constraints and engage in a competitive global food market. A one size fits all recipe to mend specific issues has also proven inefficient and led policy-makers to acknowledge the importance of implementing sustainable landscape governance to promote rural development. This paper inquires what are the challenges and opportunities food systems must adopt in a sustainable landscape governance approach, based on a qualitative research work carried out in the Azores Region (Portugal) in 2016. Data was gathered via eleven semi-structured interviews to key stakeholders and participatory observation in six events related to the management of the Azores’ food system. A grounded theory method structured qualitatively research participants’ perceptions about the Region’s food regime. This analysis is hereby furthered according to the four criteria proposed by the sustainable landscape governance assessment method. Our results indicate the lack of coordination among actors, institutions and policies in the Azores Region could be counteracted by promoting inclusive participation and integrated knowledge to attain cohesive, sustainable, and efficient outcomes at the landscape level. The methodology has proven to be adequate and instrumental in identifying sustainable landscape governance issues in other food systems.

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 3055: Potential Recovery Assessment of the Embodied Resources in Qatar’s Wastewater Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10093055 Authors: Mohammad A. T. Alsheyab Sigrid Kusch-Brandt Due to the ever-growing demand for natural resources, wastewater is being considered an alternative source of water and potentially other resources. Using Qatar as an example, this study assesses the resources embodied in wastewater and paves the way to combine wastewater treatment with advanced resource recovery (water, energy, nitrogen, phosphorous, added value products) which can turn wastewater management from a major cost into a source of profit. In this sense, wastewater is no longer seen as a problem in need of a solution, rather it is part of the solution to challenges that societies are facing today. Based on estimated quantities of generated urban wastewater and its average composition, mass flow analysis is implemented to explore the maximum availability of major wastewater constituents (solids, organic compounds, nutrients, chloride, alkalinity, sulfide). An assessment analysis reveals that, in Qatar, more than 290,000 metric tons total solids, 77,000 metric tons organic compounds, 6000 metric tons nitrogen, 81,000 metric tons chloride, 2800 metric tons sulfide, and 880 metric tons of phosphorus are embedded in about 176 million m3 of urban wastewater annually. One promising valorization strategy is the implementation of anaerobic digestion with biogas production, and the organic materials contained in Qatar’s wastewater corresponds to more than 27 million m3 of methane (equivalent to an energy content of more than 270 GWh) per year. The results further suggest that the recovery of nitrogen, phosphorus, and sulfide should be given priority.

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 3052: Land Use and Land Cover Dynamics and Assessing the Ecosystem Service Values in the Trans-Boundary Gandaki River Basin, Central Himalayas Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10093052 Authors: Raju Rai Yili Zhang Basanta Paudel Bipin Kumar Acharya Laxmi Basnet Land use and land cover is a fundamental variable that affects many parts of social and physical environmental aspects. Land use and land cover changes (LUCC) has been known as one of the key drivers of affecting in ecosystem services. The trans-boundary Gandaki River Basin (GRB) is the part of Central Himalayas, a tributary of Ganges mega-river basin plays a crucial role on LUCC and ecosystem services. Due to the large topographic variances, the basin has existed various land cover types including cropland, forest cover, built-up area, river/lake, wetland, snow/glacier, grassland, barren land and bush/shrub. This study used Landsat 5-TM (1990), Landsat 8-OLI (2015) satellite image and existing national land cover database of Nepal of the year 1990 to analyze LUCC and impact on ecosystem service values between 1990 and 2015. Supervised classification with maximum likelihood algorithm was applied to obtain the various land cover types. To estimate the ecosystem services values, this study used coefficients values of ecosystem services delivered by each land cover class. The combined use of GIS and remote sensing analysis has revealed that grassland and snow cover decreased from 10.62% to 7.62% and 9.55% to 7.27%, respectively compared to other land cover types during the 25 years study period. Conversely, cropland, forest and built-up area have increased from 31.78% to 32.67%, 32.47–33.22% and 0.19–0.59%, respectively in the same period. The total ecosystem service values (ESV) was increased from 50.16 × 108 USD y−1 to 51.84 × 108 USD y−1 during the 25 years in the GRB. In terms of ESV of each of land cover types, the ESV of cropland, forest, water bodies, barren land were increased, whereas, the ESV of snow/glacier and grassland were decreased. The total ESV of grassland and snow/glacier cover were decreased from 3.12 × 108 USD y−1 to 1.93 × 108 USD y−1 and 0.26 × 108 USD y−1 to 0.19 × 108 USD y−1, respectively between 1990 and 2015. The findings of the study could be a scientific reference for the watershed management and policy formulation to the trans-boundary watershed.

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 3050: Assessing Map-Reading Skills Using Eye Tracking and Bayesian Structural Equation Modelling Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10093050 Authors: Weihua Dong Yuhao Jiang Liangyu Zheng Bing Liu Liqiu Meng Map reading is an important skill for acquiring spatial information. Previous studies have mainly used results-based assessments to learn about map-reading skills. However, how to model the relationship between map-reading skills and eye movement metrics is not well documented. In this paper, we propose a novel method to assess map-reading skills using eye movement metrics and Bayesian structural equation modelling. We recruited 258 participants to complete five map-reading tasks, which included map visualization, topology, navigation, and spatial association. The results indicated that map-reading skills could be reflected in three selected eye movement metrics, namely, the measure of first fixation, the measure of processing, and the measure of search. The model fitted well for all five tasks, and the scores generated by the model reflected the accuracy and efficiency of the participants’ performance. This study might provide a new approach to facilitate the quantitative assessment of map-reading skills based on eye tracking.

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 3049: Analysis of Sustainable Materials for Radiative Cooling Potential of Building Surfaces Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10093049 Authors: Roxana Family M. Pinar Mengüç The main goal of this paper is to explore the radiative cooling and solar heating potential of several materials for the built environment, based on their spectrally-selective properties. A material for solar heating, should have high spectral emissivity/absorptivity in the solar radiation band (within the wavelength range of 0.2–2 μm), and low emissivity/absorptivity at longer wavelengths. Radiative cooling applications require high spectral emissivity/absorptivity, within the atmospheric window band (8–13 μm), and a low emissivity/absorptivity in other bands. UV-Vis spectrophotometer and FTIR spectroscopy, are used to measure, the spectral absorption/emission spectra of six different types of materials. To evaluate the radiative cooling potential of the samples, the power of cooling is calculated. Heat transfer through most materials is not just a surface phenomenon, but it also needs a volumetric analysis. Therefore, a coupled radiation and conduction heat transfer analysis is used. Results are discussed for the selection of the best materials, for different applications on building surfaces.

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 3053: Comfort as a Service: A New Paradigm for Residential Environmental Quality Control Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10093053 Authors: Juan Gómez-Romero Miguel Molina-Solana María Ros M. Dolores Ruiz M. J. Martin-Bautista This paper introduces the concept of Comfort as a Service (CaaS), a new energy supply paradigm for providing comfort to residential customers. CaaS takes into account the available passive and active elements, the external factors that affect energy consumption and associated costs, and occupants’ behaviors to generate optimal control strategies for the domestic equipment automatically. As a consequence, it releases building occupants from operating the equipment, which gives rise to a disruption of the traditional model of paying per consumed energy in favor of a model of paying per provided comfort. In the paper, we envision a realization of CaaS based on several technologies such as ambient intelligence, big data, cloud computing and predictive computing. We discuss the opportunities and the barriers of CaaS-centered business and exemplify the potential of CaaS deployments by quantifying the expected energy savings achieved after limiting occupants’ control over the air conditioning system in a test scenario.

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 3111: Why Do Firms in Emerging Markets Report? A Stakeholder Theory Approach to Study the Determinants of Non-Financial Disclosure in Latin America Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10093111 Authors: Ignacio J. Duran Pablo Rodrigo Even though literature studying the determinants of non-financial disclosure (NFD) is pervasive, Latin America has been overlooked in this tradition. In this sense, scholars have not evidenced which factors compel companies in this context to report this information despite its voluntary nature. Drawing on Stakeholder Theory as a basis, we derive eight possible antecedents of NFD from extant literature and test them in a sample of 643 Latin American firms for a 10 year span (2006–2015). Using a logit panel model, our evidence indicates that firm size, market-to-book ratio, systematic risk, and industry membership are factors that pressure companies to report. However, contrary to our conceptual development we find that profitability and regulatory quality inversely affects NFD. This leads us to posit that Latin America is unique in terms of reporting because agency costs may arise when disclosing data and also that feeble regulations could summon firms to fill this void through NFD. We thus contribute to this strand by revealing that stakeholders in this milieu are essentially different than in developed countries, and therefore the underlying reasons to engage in NFD also differ.

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 3113: Value Migration to the Sustainable Business Models of Digital Economy Companies on the Capital Market Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10093113 Authors: Marek Jabłoński The topic of a sustainable business model is currently the subject of much scientific research that covers a wide range of topics, from terminological aspects to aspects related to the impact of sustainability factors on company development. So far, however, the topic of sustainability in business models operating in electronic markets has only been studied to some extent. This article covers broad research into the value migration to sustainable business models of companies operating in the digital economy on the capital market. The aim of the article is to present key results of research into value migration to sustainable business models of companies operating in the digital economy on the capital market. The relevant literature on the trends in the application of the sustainability concept in the digital economy, the attributes of business models, and the interpretation of value within the concept of business models is also reviewed. The results obtained are ambiguous.

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 3109: Influence of Environmental Knowledge on Affect, Nature Affiliation and Pro-Environmental Behaviors among Tourists Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10093109 Authors: Min-Seong Kim Jinwon Kim Brijesh Thapa Jeju Island is a popular destination in South Korea that is dependent on nature-based tourism. The annual increase in the influx of visitors has created major environmental impacts due to overuse and commercial expansion. With projected growth in arrivals and the development of tourism infrastructure, the island will experience perpetual challenges for sustainable management of natural resources. However, the role of visitors will be central via a commitment to practice pro-environmental behaviors to protect the island from further degradation. This study was grounded in the cognition-affection-attitude-behavior model to examine the predictive validity of tourists’ environmental knowledge, environmental affect, and nature affiliation on pro-environmental behavior. The data comprised responses from 304 domestic visitors who had visited Jeju Island. The empirical findings indicate that environmental affect was significantly impacted by two dimensions of environmental knowledge (i.e., subjective and objective). Additionally, nature affiliation was positively impacted by environmental affect, while pro-environmental behavior was significantly influenced by both environmental affect and nature affiliation. Overall, these findings provide theoretical and practical implications for sustainable tourism at a nature-based destination. The findings can be utilized for implementation of intervention programs and visitor management at Jeju Island.

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 3107: Spatial–Temporal Evolution and Factor Decomposition for Ecological Pressure of Carbon Footprint in the One Belt and One Road Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10093107 Authors: Qipeng Sun Yafang Geng Fei Ma Chao Wang Bo Wang Xiu Wang Wenlin Wang Low-carbon and green development is important to promote the sustainable economic and social development of countries along the One Belt and One Road. These countries have distinct differences in their ability to withstand carbon emission pressures and their driving factors, due to different stages of development and economic characteristics. This paper presents a model of ecological pressure of the carbon footprint in energy consumption (EPcfec), defined by three states: light, balanced, and heavy pressure. The EPcfec was calculated from data on 56 countries along the One Belt and One Road from 1994–2014, and analysis of the data’s temporal and spatial evolutionary rules was conducted. Furthermore, we used the LMDI method to extract the driving forces of EPcfec and evaluated the contribution of these factors to the overall region and seven sub-regions. The results showed that EPcfec growth slowed over time, with the value of EPcfec reaching 3190.51 in 2014. Resource-rich countries have a greater value of EPcfec and are mainly distributed in parts of West Asia, North Africa, and Southeast Asia. The per capita export of goods and services, and the population density on productive land contribute to ecological pressure on the carbon footprint. Energy structure, the influence of international trade on GDP, and energy intensity exerted an inhibitory effect on the ecological pressure of the carbon footprint. This paper proposes mitigation measures for optimizing energy structure, improving energy efficiency, developing low energy consumption, and promoting green international trade. Our results provide support for countries along the One Belt and One Road to mitigate ecological pressures resulting from their carbon footprint.

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 3116: MCR-Modified CA–Markov Model for the Simulation of Urban Expansion Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10093116 Authors: Xiuquan Li Meizhen Wang Xuejun Liu Zhuan Chen Xiaojian Wei Weitao Che Ecosystem balance is an important factor that affects healthy and sustainable urban development. The traditional cellular automata (CA) model considers only a few ecological factors, however, the MCR model can account for ecological factors. In previous studies, few ecological factors were added to the CA model. Thus, the minimal cumulative resistance (MCR) model is combined with the CA and Markov models for the simulation of urban expansion. To verify the reliability of the method, the Wuhan metropolitan area was selected as a representative urban area, and its expansion in the past and future was simulated. Firstly, seven influential factors were selected from the perspective of location theory. The transformation rules of the comprehensive resistance surface followed by the modified CA–Markov model were constructed on the basis of the MCR model. The expansion of the Wuhan metropolitan area in 2013 was simulated on the basis of the 1996 and 2006 maps of land-use status, and the kappa coefficient was used as an index to evaluate the accuracy of the proposed method. Then, the expansion of the Wuhan metropolitan area in 2020 was simulated. Finally, the simulation results obtained with and without the MCR model were compared and analysed from the macro- and micro levels. Results show that the prediction accuracy of the two models differed for ecological regions, such as woodlands and water bodies. The similarities between the regions that were overestimated and underestimated by the MCR-modified CA–Markov model and non-MCR model may be attributed to solution of the land-use transfer matrix with the Markov model. The accuracy of the MCR-modified CA–Markov model for predicting forests, water and other ecological regions was higher than that of the Markov model. Therefore, the proposed MCR-modified CA–Markov model has potential applications in environmentally-conscious urban expansion.

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 3106: Global Green Shift: When Ceres Meets Gaia. By John Mathews. Anthem Press: New York, USA, 2017; 258 pp; ISBN-10: 1783086408 Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10093106 Authors: Dan Prud’homme In Global Green Shift: When Ceres Meets Gaia, John Mathews makes a fresh and compelling case for increasing the use of renewables and other green initiatives: what he calls a “green shift”.[...]

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 3108: A Risk Analysis of Precision Agriculture Technology to Manage Tomato Late Blight Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10093108 Authors: Yangxuan Liu Michael R. Langemeier Ian M. Small Laura Joseph William E. Fry Jean B. Ristaino Amanda Saville Benjamin M. Gramig Paul V. Preckel Precision agriculture technology can transform farming related data into useful information, which may lead to more efficient usage of agricultural resources and increase sustainability. This paper compares precision agriculture technology with traditional practices in scheduling fungicide application so as to manage late blight disease in tomato production. The following three fungicide scheduling strategies were evaluated: a calendar-based strategy, the BlightPro Decision Support System based strategy (DSS-based strategy), and a strategy that does not involve fungicide application. The data from field trials and computer simulation experiments were used to construct distributions of the net return per acre for the calendar-based and the DSS-based strategies. These distributions were then compared using three standard approaches to ranking risky alternatives, namely: stochastic dominance, stochastic dominance with respect to a function, and stochastic efficiency with respect to a function. Assuming no yield differences between the calendar-based and the DSS-based strategies, the calendar-based strategy was preferred for highly late blight susceptible cultivars, and the DSS-based strategy was preferred for moderately susceptible and moderately resistant cultivars. Assuming no yield differences, the value of the BlightPro Decision Support System ranged from −$28 to $48 per acre. With the yield improvement for the DSS-based strategy included, the DSS-based strategy was preferred for the cultivars in all of the disease-resistance categories with the value ranging from $496 to $1714 per acre.

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 3103: A Study on Estimation Equation for Damage and Recovery Costs Considering Human Losses Focused on Natural Disasters in the Republic of Korea Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10093103 Authors: Young Seok Song Moo Jong Park In this study, we conduct an estimation study of the damage costs, recovery costs, and human losses in the case of natural disasters in the Republic of Korea. This research method analyzed human losses, damage costs, and recovery costs caused by natural disasters that swept across the Republic of Korea over the past 16 years, from 2000 to 2015, including extreme wind, heavy snowfall, typhoon, wind wave, and heavy rainfall. Damage status and trend of occurrence were reviewed for each year’s human losses, damage costs, and recovery costs. We propose a calculating equation of the linear regression equation that estimates damage costs and recovery costs considering human losses. The correlation coefficient was 0.898 for the estimation of human losses and damage costs, and 0.889 for the estimation of human losses and recovery costs. In addition, the correlation of both equations was found to be 166% of damage costs when calculating recovery costs. The results of this study can be used as descriptive statistical data to estimate damage costs and recovery costs according to human losses in case of natural disasters.

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 3112: Sustainability, Popular and Integrated Reporting in the Public Sector: A Fad and Fashion Perspective Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10093112 Authors: Lucia Biondi Enrico Bracci This paper provides a comparative analysis of different public accountability means used in the public sector - namely sustainability reporting, popular financial reporting and integrated reporting - in order to highlight their similarities and differences, and reflect on their development, with specific reference to the Italian context. In particular, we speculate about the practical and research implications of their emergence, through the lenses of accountability and managerial fad and fashion literature. The main novelty of the paper is that it is one of the first studies providing a comparative analysis of the three reporting tools debated both in practice and in research. We argue about their diffusion patterns, the commonalities and differences, which suggests different stages of evolution, different actors and forces at play. We provide some preliminary evidence on the risk that accountability innovations may end up just in a fad and fashion uptake, creating inefficiencies and not achieving the aims they are intended for. We also show how the available frameworks and standards have more in common than not, and that there is a risk of creating only new labels, without real innovation or improvement of public accountability.

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 3101: The Role of Factors Affecting the Adoption of Environmentally Friendly Farming Practices: Can Geographical Context and Time Explain the Differences Emerging from Literature? Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10093101 Authors: Daniele Mozzato Paola Gatto Edi Defrancesco Lucia Bortolini Francesco Pirotti Elena Pisani Luigi Sartori Environmentally Friendly Farming Practices (EFFPs) are tools aimed at providing ecosystem services or mitigating the environmental impacts of intensive agriculture. A large literature has explored the factors affecting the adoption of EFFPs by farmers. However, opposite effects of several factors on uptake have often emerged. We carried out a qualitative meta-analysis of the literature seeking to identify some geographical and temporal trends that can provide a rationale to explain these opposite results. To reach this goal, we analysed the literature and classified the following factors affecting farmers’ behaviour according to the theory of reasoned action and planned behaviour: farm, farmer, informational, and social factors. Our perspective in exploring the existing literature shows that the geographical context and the temporal period under analysis, considered as different adopters’ cohorts, can explain most of the opposite effects. For example, while the different effects of farm structural factors show specific geographical patterns, those of the management and economic factors follow temporal trends. The impact of some farmers’ socio-demographical characteristics and some social factors can be explained in terms of both geographical context and time. The broad trends we found cast light on the importance of further research adopting the same methodological approach in different geographical contexts and under a temporal perspective.

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 3104: Tracking of Physical Activity, Sport Participation, and Sedentary Behaviors over Four Years of High School Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10093104 Authors: Lovro Štefan Marjeta Mišigoj-Duraković Antonela Devrnja Hrvoje Podnar Vilko Petrić Maroje Sorić Background: The aim of the present study was to investigate the extent of tracking of physical activity (PA), sports participation (SP), and sedentary behaviors (SB) over four years of high school education among the Croatian Physical Activity in Adolescence Longitudinal Study (CRO-PALS) cohort. Methods: In this investigation, participants were 844 high school students (15.6 years at baseline; 49% girls). The SHAPES questionnaire was used to assess PA, SP, and SB at ages 15, 16, 17, and 18 and tracking was assessed using generalized estimating equations. Results: Tracking coefficients for PA were similar in both sexes, ranged from 0.49 to 0.61, and indicated moderate tracking, while the tracking of SB tended to be somewhat higher over the four years of follow-up (β = 0.60–0.72). Youth that participated in sports at baseline had a 16 to 28 times higher odds of continued participation at follow-up, depending on the type of sport and gender. Finally, both low physical activity and high screen time showed strong tracking in both genders. Conclusion: PA and SB tracked moderately between ages 15 and 18. Moreover, the strong tracking of low PA and high screen time indicates that the detection of these risk factors at the beginning of high school should be advocated.

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 3095: Theoretical Guidance on Evacuation Decisions after a Big Nuclear Accident under the Assumption That Evacuation Is Desirable Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10093095 Authors: Yaling Deng Shuliang Zou Daming You The development of nuclear power is a major measure for implementing energy-saving and emission reduction strategies all over the world. For a long time, the hazards of nuclear accidents have been obstacles to the development of nuclear power. Temporary evacuation is the fastest and most effective emergency measure to ensure the safety of residents in a short period of time after a nuclear accident. Numerous nuclear accident emergency management personnel make judgments based on personal work experience and subjective awareness when formulating a nuclear accident emergency evacuation plan. How to make a scientific and reasonable decision on the emergency evacuation of nuclear accidents in the shortest time is a common problem faced by many emergency departments when a nuclear accident occurs. In a complex and ever-changing radiation environment, how to maximize the use of limited information and make decisions quickly in an uncertain environment is a core issue that effectively reduces the risk of nuclear accidents. This paper constructs a set of assessment system of nuclear accident emergency evacuation plan selection based on the characteristics of nuclear accident emergencies under uncertain environmental conditions. It uses triangular fuzzy language to describe nuclear accident emergency evacuation decision plans and the weighting of relevant factors. Additionally, the K-means clustering method is used to calculate the weight of experts, which reduces the influence of subjective factors considered by decision makers. Finally, a decision model for emergency evacuation of nuclear accidents is constructed based on the TOPSIS decision model.

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 3082: Specification Testing of Production in a Stochastic Frontier Model Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10093082 Authors: Xu Guo Gao-Rong Li Michael McAleer Wing-Keung Wong Parametric production frontier functions are frequently used in stochastic frontier models, but there do not seem to be any empirical test statistics for the plausibility of this application. In this paper, we develop procedures to test whether or not the parametric production frontier functions are suitable. Toward this aim, we developed two test statistics based on local smoothing and an empirical process, respectively. Residual-based wild bootstrap versions of these two test statistics are also suggested. The distributions of technical inefficiency and the noise term are not specified, which allows specification testing of the production frontier function even under heteroscedasticity. Simulation studies and a real data example are presented to examine the finite sample sizes and powers of the test statistics. The theory developed in this paper is useful for production managers in their decisions on production.

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 3085: Resampling Techniques for Real Estate Appraisals: Testing the Bootstrap Approach Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10093085 Authors: Vincenzo Del Giudice Francesca Salvo Pierfrancesco De Paola Applied to real estate markets analysis, the resampling methods aim to contribute to the knowledge growth of real estate market dynamics, overcoming the issues related to the data scarcity and operational limits of traditional statistical theory. Among resampling methods, the Bootstrap technique appears to be the most suitable for the interpretation of real estate phenomena. In this study, for residential properties located in Cosenza (Calabria Region, Italy), a Bootstrap approach has been used in order to determine the marginal prices of the real estate characteristics detected, comparing the results with those obtainable with a traditional Multiple Regression Analysis.

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 3122: Evaluating Knowledge and Assessment-Centered Reflective-Based Learning Approaches Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10093122 Authors: Jordi Colomer Laura Serra Dolors Cañabate Teresa Serra This paper addresses the development of knowledge and assessment-centered learning approaches within a reflective learning framework in a first-year physics class in a university faculty. The quality of students’ reflections was scored using a Self-reporting Reflective Learning Appraisal Questionnaire at the end of each learning approach. The results showed the differences between the approaches based on reflections on the learning control through self-knowledge, by connecting experience and knowledge, as well as through self-reflection and self-regulation. Assessment-centered activities fundamentally help students identify aspects of their attitudes towards, as well as regulate, their sustainability learning education.

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 3128: Stepping Outside the Self Promotes Pro-Environmental Behaviors Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10093128 Authors: Chenxuan Hou Emine Sarigöllü Myung-Soo Jo Dapeng Liang Although different self-perspectives can prompt different mindsets, leading to different responses, little is known about how self-perspective impacts pro-environmental behaviors. This study explores the effect of self-perspective, i.e., either self-immersed or self-distanced perspective, on environmental attitudes and behavior. Based on an online survey of 409 respondents in the United States, we find that pro-environmental behaviors are perceived as more important and less costly from a self-distanced perspective, compared to a self-immersed one, which in turn facilitates more engagement in pro-environmental behaviors. Furthermore, a self-distanced perspective is more prevalent than a self-immersed perspective when individuals are less satisfied with and perceive less control over their pro-environmental behaviors. This study extends the self-perspective theory to research on pro-environmental behaviors, and offers useful implications for individuals to address conflicts between environmental and self-interested considerations, as well as for public policy makers and practitioners to promote more engagement in pro-environmental behaviors.

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 3127: Recommended Widths for Separated Bicycle Lanes Considering Abreast Riding and Overtaking Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10093127 Authors: Xingchen Yan Tao Wang Xiaofei Ye Jun Chen Zhen Yang Hua Bai The paper aimed to develop width recommendations for separated bicycle lanes considering abreast riding and overtaking behaviors. We investigated eight segments of separated bicycle lanes in Nanjing with cameras, analyzed the major types of abreast riding and overtaking, and then explored the volume threshold for two-abreast riding as well as the suitable clearances in a comfortable overtaking, using a binomial logistic model for both. The main results and conclusions are as follows: (1) two-abreast riding and an electric bicycle passing a conventional bicycle were the main categories of abreast riding and overtaking, respectively. (2) The volume threshold at which two-abreast riding occurred was 1075 bicycles/h/m. (3) Distances of 0.48 m, 1.48 m, and 0.56 m were the suitable clearances for the distance from the center of the passed rider to the nearest curb, the distance center to the center of riders while overtaking, and the distance from the center of the passing rider to the nearest curb, respectively. (4) Below 1075 bicycles/h/m, a bicycle lane 2 m in width was acceptable; above that, 2.5 m was suggested as the minimum width of the bicycle lane.

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 3179: Leverage Points for Governing Agricultural Soils: A Review of Empirical Studies of European Farmers’ Decision-Making Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10093179 Authors: Bartosz Bartkowski Stephan Bartke What drives farmers’ decision-making? To inform effective, efficient, and legitimate governance of agricultural soils, it is important to understand the behaviour of those who manage the fields. This article contributes to the assessment and development of innovative soil governance instruments by outlining a comprehensive understanding of the determinants of farmers’ behaviour and decision-making. Our analysis synthesises empirical literature from different disciplines spanning the last four decades on various farm-level decision-making problems. Based on a conceptual framework that links objective characteristics of the farm and the farmer with behavioural characteristics, social-institutional environment, economic constraints, and decision characteristics, empirical findings from 87 European studies are presented and discussed. We point out that economic constraints and incentives are very important, but that other factors also have significant effects, in particular pro-environmental attitudes, goodness of fit, and past experience. Conversely, we find mixed results for demographic factors and symbolic capital. A number of potentially highly relevant yet understudied factors for soil governance are identified, including adoption of technologies, advisory services, bureaucratic load, risk aversion and social capital, social norms, and peer orientation. Our results emphasise the importance of a broad behavioural perspective to improve the efficiency, effectiveness, and legitimacy of soil governance.

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 3173: Exploring the Hierarchical Structure of China’s Railway Network from 2008 to 2017 Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10093173 Authors: Shiwei Lu Yaping Huang Zhiyuan Zhao Xiping Yang The analysis of transport networks is an important component of urban and regional development and planning. Based on the four main stages of China’s railway development from 2008 to 2017, this paper analyzes the hierarchical and spatial heterogeneity distribution of train flows. We found a high degree of spatial matching with the distribution of China’s main railway corridors. Then, using a classical community detection algorithm, this paper attempts to describe the functional structure and regional effects of China’s railway network. We also explore the impacts of construction policies and changes to train operations on the spatial organizing pattern and evolution of network hierarchies. The results of this empirical study reveal a clear pattern of independent communities, which in turn indicates the existence of a hierarchical structure in China’s railway network. The decreases in both the number of communities and average distance between community centers indicate that the newer high-speed rail services have shortened the connections between cities. In addition, the detected communities are inconsistent with China’s actual administrative divisions in terms of quantity and boundaries. The spatial spillover and segmentation effects cause the railway network in different regions to be self-contained. Finally, the detected communities in each stage can be divided into the categories of monocentric structure, dual-nuclei structure, and polycentric structure according to the number of extracted hubs. The polycentric structure is the dominant mode, which shows that the railway network has significant spatial dependence and a diversified spatial organization mode. This study has great significance for policymakers seeking to guide the future construction of high-speed rail lines and optimize national or regional railway networks.

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 3172: An Exploration of the Cultural Landscape Model of Zhuge Village Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10093172 Authors: Li Xu Shang-Chia Chiou Since ancient times, China has adhered to designing human settlement based on the concept of “defending the emperor and safeguarding the ordinary”. With its spatial structure in accordance with the Chinese ancient strategist Zhuge Liang’s art of war “the Diagram of the Eight-Sided Battle Formation” and in line with the terrain of natural landscape, Zhuge Village, the settlement of Zhuge Liang’s descendants in middle Zhejiang Province, has formed a landscape model featuring cultural characteristics. Using literature research, field research, schema cognition and analysis method, this paper investigates and analyzes aspects such as the siting of settlement, spatial layout, landscape images, ritual activities, and landscape changes so as to explore the concepts from ancient art of war to spatial design as well as analyze its landscape forms and the construction of its landscape model. The paper aims to reveal how the designer of Zhuge Village transformed the spatial deployment of the battle formation in the ancient art of war into the spatial landscape model of “living and working in peace and contentment”. In addition, this paper intends to explore the cultural landscape model of the traditional settlement on the basis of Chinese traditional cultural symbol, “the Eight Trigrams”, in hope that it will provide some inspiration for urban public landscape design in China.

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 3178: University Students’ Social Demand of a Blue Space and the Influence of Life Experiences Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10093178 Authors: Jason P. Julian Graham S. Daly Russell C. Weaver Blue spaces such as rivers provide many ecosystem services (ES), including freshwater for consumption, habitat, water quality regulation, and multiple cultural amenities. While many studies have quantified the biophysical supply of ES provided by rivers, fewer have explored the social demand for ES due to the considerable effort involved in collecting these data. The San Marcos River (SMR) and the Texas State University (TXST) students that use this blue space represent a dynamic social-ecological system (SES) where nature experiences shape student values of the system. In this study, we survey the TXST student population about their use, value, and perception of the SMR, a highly used river of which headwaters originate on and flow through campus. From our extensive survey of these students, we find that educational and life experiences matter. Overall, we find that student exposure to the SMR in space, time, and experience does have measurable effects on their use, value, and perception of ES. This SES study demonstrates the importance of life experiences, place-based knowledge, and experiential learning in influencing one’s well-being and value of natural environments.

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 3170: Using Information on Settlement Patterns to Improve the Spatial Distribution of Population in Coastal Impact Assessments Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10093170 Authors: Jan-Ludolf Merkens Athanasios T. Vafeidis Broad-scale impact and vulnerability assessments are essential for informing decisions on long-term adaptation planning at the national, regional, or global level. These assessments rely on population data for quantifying exposure to different types of hazards. Existing population datasets covering the entire globe at resolutions of 2.5 degrees to 30 arc-seconds are based on information available at administrative-unit level and implicitly assume uniform population densities within these units. This assumption can lead to errors in impact assessments and particularly in coastal areas that are densely populated. This study proposes and compares simple approaches to regionalize population within administrative units in the German Baltic Sea region using solely information on urban extent from the Global Urban Footprint (GUF). Our results show that approaches using GUF can reduce the error in predicting population totals of municipalities by factor 2 to 3. When assessing exposed population, we find that the assumption of uniform population densities leads to an overestimation of 120% to 140%. Using GUF to regionalise population within administrative units reduce these errors by up to 50%. Our results suggest that the proposed simple modeling approaches can result in significantly improved distribution of population within administrative units and substantially improve the results of exposure analyses.

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 3171: Factor Decomposition of the Changes in the Rural Regional Income Inequality in Southwestern Mountainous Area of China Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10093171 Authors: Yun Xu Xiaoping Qiu Xueting Yang Guojie Chen This study aimed to determine factors of rural income inequality changes in Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan, China, to help formulate measures to reduce regional inequality and alleviate poverty in the southwestern mountainous area of China, which experiences frequent natural disasters and poor living conditions. Changes in rural income inequality are examined, which are then decomposed into different component factors based on the Gini index. Income inequality is comprised of four types of income source: wages, household operations, properties, and transfers. This analysis focuses on the period of 2003 to 2011—a special transitional stage during which the Wenchuan earthquake intervened. The results indicate that income from household operations plays a dominant role in income inequality. Its contribution to the overall inequality fluctuates from 36.40 to 50.39% and had a positive effect on reducing inequality after the earthquake. Wage income contributed the second-most to income inequality and had positive and negative effects on reducing inequality before and after the earthquake, respectively. Transfer and property incomes are important forces in income inequality that have different influencing mechanisms. Transfer income positively helps reduce income inequality. Exclusive favors or preferences should be granted to such areas.

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 3174: The Effect of Network Structure on Performance in South Korea SMEs: The Moderating Effects of Absorptive Capacity Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10093174 Authors: Choonghyun Kim Jaekang Lee This study has analyzed how the network structure (density, centrality) affects the performance (convergence, overall) in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) with the different business exchange activities. In addition, we conducted a moderating effect of absorptive capacity (ability, motivation). Based on previous literature about the network and absorptive capacity, research hypotheses were developed and tested using a sample of 226 SMEs in South Korea. The results show that network density and centrality have a positive effect on perceived convergence and overall performance. These results are consistent with previous network studies relating to structural characteristics. To raise total performances in firms with different business exchange activities, they need to enhance density and centrality. For example, firms with different business exchange activities and high levels of density and centrality are able to easily obtain various types of information from other members of 7000 firms in Korea. Through this, they can improve performance. We also conducted the moderated regression analysis. The results show that employee ability has a positive moderating effect on the relationship between centrality and the overall performance while employee motivation has a negative moderating effect. The implications and directions for future study along with limitations are presented.

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 3169: The Impact of Population Migration on Urban Housing Prices: Evidence from China’s Major Cities Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10093169 Authors: Yingchao Lin Zhili Ma Ke Zhao Weiyan Hu Jing Wei With increasingly high housing prices, the urban housing problem has changed from an economic issue to a livelihood issue in China. Taking 32 major cities in China as an example, this paper employed data from 2007 to 2016 to build a panel data model to empirically study the impact of population migration on urban housing prices. From the two perspectives of the national level and regional level (eastern region, central region and western region), the results of this study showed that (1) on the national level, population inflow had a significant positive correlation with urban housing prices, where a population inflow rate increase of 1% increased urban housing prices by 0.31%; and (2) on the regional level, a population inflow rate increase of 1% increased urban housing prices in the eastern region by 1.34%, but population inflow had no obvious impact on the urban housing prices in the central and western regions. Based on the results, this study suggested addressing housing supply imbalances through housing product diversification and affordable housing system improvement, and addressing construction land supply imbalances by building a perfect system linking land-use planning to population; at the same time, it also suggested building more nationally central cities following the urbanization trend, and taking this as the key to developing urban agglomerations, reasonably decentralizing the population flow, promoting the healthy and stable development of the real-estate market and advancing sustainable urbanization. The above conclusions have practical significance for China and other developing countries to coordinate population and urban development in the process of rapid urbanization.

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 3177: Transformation Is ‘Experienced, Not Delivered’: Insights from Grounding the Discourse in Practice to Inform Policy and Theory Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10093177 Authors: Ronlyn Duncan Melissa Robson-Williams Graeme Nicholas James A. Turner Rawiri Smith David Diprose Calls for transformation, transformative research, and transformational impact are increasingly heard from governments, industry, and universities to recast a course towards sustainability. This paper retraces a social, qualitative, and interpretive research endeavor to contribute to broadening the conceptual base of transformation. Drawing on perspectives of practitioners involved in working with communities to bring about change in how land and water are managed, the objective of the research was to elicit a range of practice-based encounters of transformation to inform policy and theory. In identifying precursors and processes for change, the findings bring into view the often unseen internal and experiential dimensions of transformation. As such, the research provides insights on where transformation takes place, what the first step of transformation might look like, and what might be deemed transformational. The paper also builds on social practice theory to produce an explanatory model of transformational capacity that is enabled and constrained by structures, processes, understanding, and authority that impact on social practices of knowledge generation (including science) and land and water decision-making.

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 3168: Operational Efficiency of Chinese Provincial Electricity Grid Enterprises: An Evaluation Employing a Three-Stage Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) Model Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10093168 Authors: Haoran Zhao Huiru Zhao Sen Guo With the implementation of new round electricity system reform in China, the provincial electricity grid enterprises (EGEs) of China should focus on improving their operational efficiency to adapt to the increasingly fierce market competition and satisfy the requirements of the electricity industry reform. Therefore, it is essential to conduct operational efficiency evaluation on provincial EGEs. While considering the influences of exterior environmental variables on the operational efficiency of provincial EGEs, a three-stage data envelopment analysis (DEA) methodology is first utilized to accurately assess the real operational efficiency of provincial EGEs excluding the exterior environmental values and statistical noise. The three-stage DEA model takes the amount of employees, the fixed assets investment, the 110 kV and below distribution line length, and the 110 kV and below transformer capacity as input variables and the electricity sales amount, the amount of consumers, and the line loss rate as output variables. The regression results of the stochastic frontier analysis model indicate that the operational efficiencies of provincial EGEs are significantly affected by exterior environmental variables. Results of the three-stage DEA model imply that the exterior environmental values and statistical noise result in the overestimation of operational efficiency of provincial EGEs, and the exclusion of exterior environmental values and statistical noise has provincial-EGE-specific influences. Furthermore, 26 provincial EGEs are divided into four categories to better understand the differences of operational efficiencies before and after the exclusion of exterior environmental values and statistical noise.

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 3156: Towards Sustainable Development of Online Communities in the Big Data Era: A Study of the Causes and Possible Consequence of Voting on User Reviews Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10093156 Authors: Jie Zhao Jianfei Wang Suping Fang Peiquan Jin This paper focuses on the review voting in online communities, which allows users to express their own opinions in terms of User-generated Content (UGC). However, the sustainable development of online communities is likely to be affected by the social influence of UGC. In this paper, we study the so-called crowd intelligence paradox of review voting in online communities. The crowd intelligence paradox means that the quality of reviews is not highly connected with the increasing of review votes. This implies that a review with many votes is likely to be of low quality, and a review with few votes is likely to be of high quality. The crowd intelligence paradox existing in online communities inhibits users’ wishes of participating in social networks and may impact the sustainable development of online communities. Aiming to demonstrate the existence of the crowd intelligence paradox in online communities, we first analyzed a large set of reviews crawled from Net Ease Cloud Music, which is one of the most popular online communities in China. The maximum likelihood (ML) and the hierarchical regression approaches are used in this step. Then, we construct a new research model called the Voting Adoption Model (VAM) to study how different factors impact the crowd intelligence paradox in online communities. Particularly, we propose six hypotheses based on the VAM model and conduct experiments based on the measurement model and the structural model to evaluate the hypotheses. The results show that the quality of reviews is not influential to review votes, and the hot-site attribute is a dominant factor influencing review voting. In addition, the variables of the VAM model, including information credibility, perceived ease of use, and social influence have significant impacts on review voting. Finally, based on the empirical study, we present some research implications and suggestions for online communities to realize healthy and sustainable development in the future.

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 3151: Foreign Monitoring and Audit Quality: Evidence from Korea Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10093151 Authors: Sang Cheol Lee Mooweon Rhee Jongchul Yoon This study investigates the effects of both foreign majority shareholders and foreign investors’ participation in the board of directors on audit quality, as reflected by auditor size and audit fees. In addition, the study examines the moderating effect of an agency problem on the relationship between foreign investors and the monitoring of audit quality. Using 1574 non-financial firm-year observations listed on the Korea Stock Exchange from 2000 to 2003, we find that the presence of foreign investors such as foreign block shareholders and foreign outside directors increases audit quality. At the same time, the monitoring role of foreign block shareholders is more powerful than that of foreign external directors. Moreover, the foreign block shareholders in professional management-controlled firms exert a more profound influence on audit quality than do those in owner-controlled ones. These test results imply that foreign investors with independence, expertise, and monitoring incentives could play an important role in improving the corporate governance system in Korea, which in turn would not only enhance firm value, but also strengthen the sustainability of Korean companies.

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 3150: Multi-Criteria Group Decision Making for Green Supply Chain Management under Uncertainty Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10093150 Authors: Hepu Deng Feng Luo Santoso Wibowo This paper presents a multi-criteria group decision making model for effectively evaluating the performance of green supply chain management (GSCM) practices under uncertainty in an organization. The subjective assessments of individual decision makers are appropriately represented with the use of intuitionistic fuzzy numbers for better tackling the uncertainty existent. An algorithm is developed to assist individual decision makers in evaluating the performance of alternative GSCM practices across all the evaluation criteria. An example is presented for demonstrating the applicability of the proposed model in solving similar problems in the real-world setting.

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 3196: SWOT Analysis of the Application of International Standard ISO 14001 in the Chinese Context. A Case Study of Guangdong Province Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10093196 Authors: Marco Pesce Chenyi Shi Andrea Critto Xiaohui Wang Antonio Marcomini Industry has long been one of the most important drivers of Chinese economic growth. In order to improve the environmental footprint of industrial areas, Chinese authorities have established mechanisms of environmental control in the internal management processes of companies. In this regard, the international standard ISO 14001 for environmental management systems is the management tool that has had widest adoption among Chinese companies since its creation in 1996. The main purposes of the paper are to investigate the available international and national statistics on the adoptionof ISO 14001 in China, and present opinions on ISO 14001 of the 72 representatives of small and medium enterprises and multinational companies of Guangdong province that participated to the workshop “New tools and standards to advance and measure corporate sustainability”, held in Guangzhou on 26 January 2018. The analysis of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) was adopted as the research method to collect opinions on the ISO 14001 standard. Participants were asked to discuss strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities considering four business aspects: sustainability, internal processes, stakeholder engagement, and resource management. Our findings indicate that companies fully embraced ISO 14001 and recognized the necessity of a standardized approach to identify environmental aspects. On the other hand, they also expressed concern about aspects such as the certification cost, the focus on certification itself and not on the improvement of environmental performance, and the lack of integration with sustainability tools such as life cycle assessment (LCA) and other sustainability paradigms such as circular economy and corporate social responsibility (CSR).

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 3193: Social Hotspot Analysis and Trade Policy Implications of the Use of Bioelectrochemical Systems for Resource Recovery from Wastewater Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10093193 Authors: Mobolaji B. Shemfe Siddharth Gadkari Jhuma Sadhukhan Bioelectrochemical systems (BESs) have been catalogued as a technological solution to three pressing global challenges: environmental pollution, resource scarcity, and freshwater scarcity. This study explores the social risks along the supply chain of requisite components of BESs for two functionalities: (i) copper recovery from spent lees and (ii) formic acid production via CO2 reduction, based on the UK’s trade policy. The methodology employed in this study is based on the UNEP/SETAC guidelines for social life-cycle assessment (S-LCA) of products. Relevant trade data from UN COMTRADE database and generic social data from New Earth’s social hotspot database were compiled for the S-LCA. The results revealed that about 75% of the components are imported from the European Union. However, the social risks were found to vary regardless of the magnitude or country of imports. “Labour and Decent Work” was identified as the most critical impact category across all countries of imports, while the import of copper showed relatively higher risk than other components. The study concludes that BESs are a promising sustainable technology for resource recovery from wastewater. Nevertheless, it is recommended that further research efforts should concentrate on stakeholder engagement in order to fully grasp the potential social risks.

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 3190: Governance of the Bioeconomy: A Global Comparative Study of National Bioeconomy Strategies Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10093190 Authors: Thomas Dietz Jan Börner Jan Janosch Förster Joachim von Braun More than forty states worldwide currently pursue explicit political strategies to expand and promote their bioeconomies. This paper assesses these strategies in the context of the global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Our theoretical framework differentiates between four pathways of bioeconomic developments. The extent to which bioeconomic developments along these pathways lead to increased sustainability depends on the creation of effective governance mechanisms. We distinguish between enabling governance and constraining governance as the two fundamental political challenges in setting up an effective governance framework for a sustainable bioeconomy. Further, we lay out a taxonomy of political support measures (enabling governance) and regulatory tools (constraining governance) that states can use to confront these two political challenges. Guided by this theoretical framework, we conduct a qualitative content analysis of 41 national bioeconomy strategies to provide systematic answers to the question of how well designed the individual national bioeconomy strategies are to ensure the rise of a sustainable bioeconomy.

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 3192: Evaluation of UR-UVGI System for Sterilization Effect on Microorganism Contamination in Negative Pressure Isolation Ward Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10093192 Authors: Jong-Il Bang Jeongyeon Park Anseop Choi Jae-Weon Jeong Jin Yong Kim Minki Sung A negative pressure isolation ward prevents the outflow of airborne microorganisms from inside the ward, minimizing the spread of airborne contamination causing respiratory infection. In response to recent outbreaks of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), Korea has increased the number of these facilities. However, airborne contaminants that flow into the ward from adjacent areas may cause secondary harm to patients. In this study, the sterilization effect of upper-room ultraviolet germicidal irradiation (UR-UVGI) on microorganisms generated within the negative pressure isolation ward and those flowing inward from adjacent areas was evaluated through field experiments and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis, to assess the potential of this approach as a supplementary measure to control such microorganisms. The sterilization effect was found to be not high because of high-level ventilation. CFD analysis under various conditions shows that the sterilization effect for indoor-generated microorganisms varies with the level of UV radiation, the source locations of the indoor-generated microorganisms, air supplies and exhausts, the UVGI system, and the airflow formed under the specified conditions. Our results show that when the UVGI system is installed in the upper part of the ward entrance, contaminated air from adjacent area is strongly sterilized.

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 3186: Investigating Health Systems in the European Union: Outcomes and Fiscal Sustainability Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10093186 Authors: Madalina Ecaterina Popescu Eva Militaru Amalia Cristescu Maria Denisa Vasilescu Monica Mihaela Maer Matei Healthcare systems aim to provide access to good quality care, while ensuring equity and solidarity. The fiscal sustainability of healthcare systems has become a matter of concern in recent European Union (EU) debates, considering the ever increasing need for adequate healthcare determined by factors such as aging population, investments in technology and infrastructure, medical products and wages. Our paper seeks to measure the health system performances of the EU countries by building up a composite index, which will then be used as a tool in investigating the relationship between health performance and the fiscal sustainability of health systems. A principal components analysis (PCA) was applied to build the composite index through the use of the most relevant health indicators provided by Eurostat and the Sustainable Development Knowledge Platform. The composite index offers a comprehensive performance assessment and provides a clear ranking of the EU countries based on their health system performances. Further investigation of the link between health performance and fiscal sustainability revealed that higher ranks are associated with higher shares of health expenditures in gross domestic product (GDP), a large share of employment in the health sector, and higher duration of working life. These patterns are followed by efficient health systems, encountering reduced sustainability risks.

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 3185: Platform Adoption Factors in the Internet Industry Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10093185 Authors: Junic Kim This study examines the factors influencing the choices of Internet platform services by applying the technology acceptance model. For this purpose, the analysis is conducted with 222 people who use different types of Internet platforms by utilizing structural equation modeling. The results show that perceived usefulness had positive effects on the intention to use, perceived ease of use, diversity, and security risks affected by the perceived usefulness, and the indirect influences on the intention to use. In addition, satisfaction (in relation to service quality) was found to affect both perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness. This research is significant because it will make it possible to predict users’ perceptions of Internet platforms, which is important for establishing relevant strategies.

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 3183: Cultural Perspective of Traditional Cheese Consumption Practices and Its Sustainability among Post-Millennial Consumers Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10093183 Authors: Zanete Garanti Aysen Berberoglu (1) Background: The consumption of traditional foods has been linked to economic, social, and environmental sustainability; therefore, the main challenge of a changing marketplace is to ensure that young generations continue consuming traditional products. The current study uses a consumer culture theory (CCT) perspective to examine the following: (1) the way individuals use their traditional products to identify themselves with the culture and to feel that they are a part of the community, (2) the underlying values that turn young consumers into loyal customers of hellim/halloumi cheese, and (3) its implications to hellim/halloumi producers. (2) Methods: A qualitative research method is applied to study the perceptions of post-millennials towards traditional cheese products from a cultural perspective. (3) Results: The results of the study reveal that loyalty towards traditional food products amongst post-millennials is build based on (1) the memories that surround the food, (2) the rituals that preparing and eating a food involve, and (3) the identity that it builds, allowing people feel sense of belonging to their ethnic group. (4) Conclusions: Loyalty amongst post-millennials towards traditional food products tends to be emotional, rather than rational or behavioral. It allows us to present both theoretical and managerial implications. It also calls for more empirical research to understand the changing marketplace and post-millennials’ consumption habits.

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 3195: Equilibrium Strategy-Based Optimization Method for Carbon Emission Quota Allocation in Conventional Power Plants Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10093195 Authors: Qian Huang Qing Feng Yuan Tian Li Lu Carbon emissions have become significant obstacles to sustainable development. To control carbon emissions, rational carbon emissions quota allocation provides an effective way. As conventional power plants (CPP) are the major contributors to global carbon emissions, this study proposes an equilibrium strategy-based bi-level multi-objective model for carbon emissions quota allocation which fully considers the conflict between the authority and the CPPs, and the conflict between economic development and environmental protection. In addition, uncertainty theory is employed to represent the imprecise parameters in reality. The proposed model is then applied to Shenzhen to show the practicality and efficiency of the proposed model. An interactive algorithm is developed to calculate. Based on results, the proposed method can achieve carbon emissions reductions, cooperative authority-CPPs relationship and economic-environmental coordination. It also indicates that the authority would allocate greater quotas to lower carbon emissions power plants. These results demonstrate the proposed method could help seek optimal allocation policies.

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 3187: Measuring Taxi Accessibility Using Grid-Based Method with Trajectory Data Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10093187 Authors: Shixiong Jiang Wei Guan Zhengbing He Liu Yang Accessibility has drawn extensive attention from city planners and transportation researchers for decades. With the benefits of large-scale and varying time, this study aims to combine the taxi global positioning system (GPS) data with a cumulative opportunity measure to calculate taxi accessibility in Beijing, China. As traffic conditions vary significantly over time and space, we select four typical time periods and introduce a grid-based method to divide the study area into grid cells. Both the GPS signals and opportunities that include the constant points of interest, total drop-offs, and dynamic drop-offs, are aggregated in these grid cells. The cumulative opportunity measure counts all reachable grid cells within the given travel time threshold, along with the corresponding opportunities. The results demonstrate that the accessibility varies in the four time periods, with better performance seen in the late-night hours. Although the spatial distributions of the three kinds of opportunities are different, these accessibilities show great similarity. In addition, the relative accessibilities of different measures are highly correlated. In general, grid cells with higher accessibilities in one time period are likely to also have higher accessibilities in other time periods. Moreover, the results suggest that taxi accessibility can be measured from its trajectory data only.

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 3182: Soil and Water Conservation in Burkina Faso, West Africa Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10093182 Authors: Clement Nyamekye Michael Thiel Sarah Schönbrodt-Stitt Benewinde J.-B. Zoungrana Leonard K. Amekudzi Inadequate land management and agricultural activities have largely resulted in land degradation in Burkina Faso. The nationwide governmental and institutional driven implementation and adoption of soil and water conservation measures (SWCM) since the early 1960s, however, is expected to successively slow down the degradation process and to increase the agricultural output. Even though relevant measures have been taken, only a few studies have been conducted to quantify their effect, for instance, on soil erosion and environmental restoration. In addition, a comprehensive summary of initiatives, implementation strategies, and eventually region-specific requirements for adopting different SWCM is missing. The present study therefore aims to review the different SWCM in Burkina Faso and implementation programs, as well as to provide information on their effects on environmental restoration and agricultural productivity. This was achieved by considering over 143 studies focusing on Burkina Faso’s experience and research progress in areas of SWCM and soil erosion. SWCM in Burkina Faso have largely resulted in an increase in agricultural productivity and improvement in food security. Finally, this study aims at supporting the country’s informed decision-making for extending already existing SWCM and for deriving further implementation strategies.

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 3188: Simplified Analytical Model and Shaking Table Test Validation for Seismic Analysis of Mid-Rise Cold-Formed Steel Composite Shear Wall Building Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10093188 Authors: Jihong Ye Liqiang Jiang To develop the cold-formed steel (CFS) building from low-rise to mid-rise, this paper proposes a new type of CFS composite shear wall building system. The continuous placed CFS concrete-filled tube (CFRST) column is used as the end stud, and the CFS-ALC wall casing concrete composite floor is used as the floor system. In order to predict the seismic behavior of this new structural system, a simplified analytical model is proposed in this paper, which includes the following. (1) A build-up section with “new material” is used to model the CFS tube and infilled concrete of CFRST columns; the section parameters are determined by the equivalent stiffness principle, and the “new material” is modeled by an elastic-perfect plastic model. (2) Two crossed nonlinear springs with hysteretic parameters are used to model a composite CFS shear wall; the Pinching04 material is used to input the hysteretic parameters for these springs, and two crossed rigid trusses are used to model the CFS beams. (3) A linear spring is used to model the uplift behavior of a hold-down connection, and the contribution of these connections for CFRST columns are considered and individually modeled. (4) The rigid diaphragm is used to model the composite floor system, and it is demonstrated by example analyses. Finally, a shaking table test is conducted on a five-story 1:2-scaled CFS composite shear wall building to valid the simplified model. The results are as follows. The errors on peak drift of the first story, the energy dissipation of the first story, the peak drift of the roof story, and the energy dissipation of the whole structure’s displacement time–history curves between the test and simplified models are about 10%, and the largest one of these errors is 20.8%. Both the time–history drift curves and cumulative energy curves obtained from the simplified model accurately track the deformation and energy dissipation processes of the test model. Such comparisons demonstrate the accuracy and applicability of the simplified model, and the proposed simplified model would provide the basis for the theoretical analysis and seismic design of CFS composite shear wall systems.

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 3209: Comparing the Hydrological Responses of Conceptual and Process-Based Models with Varying Rain Gauge Density and Distribution Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10093209 Authors: Zhaokai Yin Weihong Liao Xiaohui Lei Hao Wang Ruojia Wang Precipitation provides the most crucial input for hydrological modeling. However, rain gauge networks, the most common precipitation measurement mechanisms, are sometimes sparse and inadequately distributed in practice, resulting in an imperfect representation of rainfall spatial variability. The objective of this study is to analyze the sensitivity of different model structures to the different density and distribution of rain gauges and evaluate their reliability and robustness. Based on a rain gauge network of 20 gauges in the Jinjiang River Basin, south-eastern China, this study compared the performance of two conceptual models (the hydrologic model (HYMOD) and Xinanjiang) and one process-based distributed model (the water and energy transfer between soil, plants and atmosphere model (WetSpa)) with different rain gauge distributions. The results show that the average accuracy for the three models is generally stable as the number of rain gauges decreases but is sensitive to changes in the network distribution. HYMOD has the highest calibration uncertainty, followed by Xinanjiang and WetSpa. Differing model responses are consistent with changes in network distribution, while calibration uncertainties are more related to model structures.

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 3208: Development of an Ex-Ante Sustainability Assessment Methodology for Municipal Solid Waste Management Innovations Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10093208 Authors: Jing Wang Stephanie D. Maier Rafael Horn Robert Holländer Ralf Aschemann Various municipal solid waste management (MSWM) innovations have emerged in developing countries in face of the challenges posed by increasing waste generation and poor MSWM practice. We present a methodology to assess the potential sustainability impact of MSWM innovations in a holistic manner. The Life Cycle Sustainability Analysis (LCSA) framework and the United Nations (UN) sustainable development goals (SDGs) facilitated the methodology development. The result of applying the methodology to the case of waste bank (WB) in Bandung City shows that WB potentially generates the greatest sustainability impact in the resource recovery phase and the smallest impact in the collection and final disposal phase. All negative impacts could arise in the economic dimension. Surprisingly, WB as a national strategy to achieve 3Rs would not effectively solve Bandung City’s landfill problem. Almost all SDGs would benefit from the WB program under the assumed conditions. This methodology will facilitate the decision-making in MSWM by (1) comparing available innovations to find the optimal solution, (2) identifying the hot spots and taking measures to combat the negative impacts, (3) providing the basis for monitoring the implementation process and the ex-post performance assessment.

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 3210: Quantitative Analysis and Evaluation of Enterprise Group Financial Company Efficiency in China Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10093210 Authors: Yanni Huang Sumei Luo Guohu Xu Guanyou Zhou As a special financial institution, the financial company has a significant impact on the financial market and real economy. Therefore, further study of the efficiency of financial companies is of great practical significance. China’s financial company is equivalent to the “internal bank” of its affiliated group. Therefore, this paper refers to the quantitative analysis and evaluation method of the banking industry, combined with the data characteristics of the financial company’s industry. This paper carries out quantitative analysis and evaluation of the efficiency of 79 Chinese enterprise group finance companies from 2011 to 2016 through the DEA model and the Malmquist index model. The results are as follows: From the static point of view (based on the DEA model), the overall efficiency of Chinese financial companies is low and the efficiency is less affected by scale efficiency than that of pure technical efficiency; from the industry classification, the efficiency of oil processing, steel, and nonferrous metal financial companies is better than other industries. From the dynamic point of view (based on the Malquist index model), the overall efficiency of financial companies from 2011 to 2016 has been slightly improved and the efficiency is easily influenced by the change of scale efficiency; from the industry category, the changes of the efficiency, scale efficiency and pure technical efficiency of financial companies of military industry are fastest, and the technical progress of the auto industry financial companies is optimal.

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 3211: Evaluating the Effectiveness of Investment in Human Capital in E-Business Enterprise in the Context of Sustainability Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10093211 Authors: Alžbeta Kucharčíková Martin Mičiak Miloš Hitka The enterprises operating in the e-business area represent an example of a sustainable entrepreneurship. These enterprises belong to those for which the people are the most valuable assets. Human capital management (HCM) represents a modern concept of people management that is based on the business strategy. Via measurement and assessment of the effectiveness of the utilization of human capital and effectiveness of investment in its development, this concept leads to the increase of performance and competitiveness of the enterprise within the context of sustainability. As part of the questionnaire survey, we found that enterprises in Slovakia have little use of the HCM concept. Despite the fact that they consider investing in education or training as the main form of investment in human capital, they do not evaluate the effectiveness of this investment in practice. By analyzing foreign studies, we have found that e-business enterprises consider IT education to be very important for their performance, competitiveness, and sustainability. The aim of the article is to explain the nature of HCM and to propose an approach to assess the effectiveness of investment in education as a part of the HCM process. Implementation of the approach was implemented in a fast-growing medium-sized IT and e-business enterprise where education is mainly implemented in the IT field. We also used an internal enterprise data analysis. The proposed example of HCM implementation in the part of evaluating the effectiveness of investment in education and the article can serve as a theoretical and practical aid to human resources managers in implementing the HCM concept.

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 3204: Fostering Alliances with Customers for the Sustainable Product Creation Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10093204 Authors: Marjan Leber Andrea Ivanišević Jelena Borocki Mladen Radišić Beata Ślusarczyk Our paper analyzes close collaboration between a manufacturer of domestic appliances and consumer electronics and its customers. It reflects on the inclusion of open innovation by users that is presented in the paper on the case of the development of the refrigerator door handle, with an emphasis on design and functionality. The main research question we wanted to answer was whether a buyer (customer/consumer) might actively participate in the process of a new product development. It was interesting to test it in a highly dynamic industry setup since white goods are becoming an integral part of consumers’ life style and not just a mere home appliances used for routine housekeeping tasks. Research sample includes 146 respondents. We applied the conjoint analysis and quality function deployment (QFD) in order to test and understand how customers perceive the different attributes of a new product development process.

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 3235: Effects of Market Reform on Facility Investment in Electric Power Industry: Panel Data Analysis of 27 Countries Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10093235 Authors: Juyong Lee Youngsang Cho Yoonmo Koo Chansoo Park In this study, we analyzed the effects of electricity market reform on investment in generation facilities. We used the data of 27 OECD member countries and considered ownership structure, horizontal and vertical unbundling, change of transaction method, and government regulation as explanatory variables for market reform. We used four regression models, in which we examined the effects of market reform on the capacity of generation facilities, supply reserve ratio, total investment, and base-load share, respectively. For each panel regression model, we performed a Hausman test to identify the model between random effect and fixed effect. Based on the estimation results, we found that electricity market reform has a negative effect on generation facilities in most countries. Both privatization and regulation have negative impacts on the generation facility and base-load share. On the other hand, the level of liberalization of transactions have positive effects on the generation facility, supply reserve ratio, and base-load share. The empirical analysis also showed that horizontal unbundling does not have a meaningful effect on investment, but vertical unbundling contributes to increasing the supply reserve ratio.

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 3234: Banding of Fertilizer Improves Phosphorus Acquisition and Yield of Zero Tillage Maize by Concentrating Phosphorus in Surface Soil Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10093234 Authors: Md. Khairul Alam Richard W. Bell Nazmus Salahin Shahab Pathan A.T.M.A.I. Mondol M.J. Alam M.H. Rashid P.L.C. Paul M.I. Hossain N.C. Shil Zero tillage increases stratification of immobile nutrients such as P. However, it is unclear whether near-surface stratification of soil P eases or hampers P uptake by maize (Zea mays L.) which needs an optimum P supply at/before six–leaf–stage to achieve potential grain yield. The aim of the three-year study was to determine whether P stratification, under zero tillage, impaired yield of maize and which P placement methods could improve P uptake on an Aeric Albaquept soil subgroup. Phosphorus fertilizer was placed by: (a) broadcasting before final tillage and sowing of seeds; (b) surface banding beside the row; and (c) deep banding beside the row (both the band placements were done at three–four leaf stage) Phosphorus treatments were repeated for 3 years along with three tillage practices viz.: (a) zero tillage (ZT); (b) conventional tillage (12 cm; CT); and (c) deep tillage (25 cm; DT). In the third year, all the tillage practices gave similar yield of Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI) hybrid maize–5, but the highest grain yield was obtained by surface band P placement. After three years of tillage and P placements, the root mass density (RMD) at 0–6 cm depth increased significantly from 1.40 mg cm−3 in DT under deep band placement to 1.98 mg cm−3 in ZT under surface band placement, but not at the other depths. The combination of ZT practices, with broadcast or surface band placement methods, produced the highest available, and total P, content in soil at 0–6 cm depth after harvesting of maize. Accordingly, a significant increase in P uptake by maize was also found with surface banding of P alone and also in combination with ZT. Organic carbon, and total N, also increased significantly at depths of 0–6 cm after three years in ZT treatments with P placed in bands. By contrast, CT and DT practices, under all placement methods, resulted in an even distribution of P up to 24 cm depth. Phosphorus application, by surface banding at the three–four leaf stage, led to increased P uptake at early growth and silking stages, which resulted in highest yield regardless of tillage type through increased extractable P in the soil. Even though ZT increased P stratification near the soil surface, and it increased plant available water content (PAWC) and RMD in the 0–6 cm depth, as did surface banding, it did not improve maize grain yield. Further research is needed to understanding the contrasting maize grain yield responses to P stratification.

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 3232: Agricultural Transition and Technical Efficiency: An Empirical Analysis of Wheat-Cultivating Farms in Samarkand Region, Uzbekistan Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10093232 Authors: Babakholov Sherzod Kyung-Ryang Kim Sang Hyeon Lee Wheat and wheat products are an important part of the daily diet of Uzbek people, and thus, are under strategic consideration in terms of food security in Uzbekistan since the beginning of independence. In this study, wheat production during agricultural transition is reviewed and determinants of technical efficiency of wheat-cultivating farms in the Samarkand region are analyzed. Analyses are accomplished in two steps. In the initial step, technical efficiency of wheat farms is estimated using data envelopment analyses (DEA) and determenants of inefficiencies are analyzed by the Tobit model in the second step. Data for this study were collected from 124 randomly sampled private farms engaged in wheat production in the Samarkand region. The mean value of technical efficiency scores of wheat-growing farmers were found to be 0.79 and 0.82 under constant return to scale (CRS) and variable return to scale (VRS) assumptions. Empirical results suggest that there is a considerable scope for increasing production through reallocation of existing resources or that private farmers can reduce their input costs by 21 and 18 percent while holding the same production levels. The age of farmers, farmers’ education on agriculture, soil fertility, and the quality of seeds were found as the main determinants of technical efficiency in the study area.

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 3230: An Analysis of Environment Behavior Relationships towards the Design of a Local Mixed-used Street: Based on Behavior Settings of Belgium Street in Cebu City, Philippines Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10093230 Authors: Joachim Michael Espina Suguru Mori Rie Nomura Streets function as public spaces that improve the aspects of social sustainability by accommodating the daily activities of people, further contributing to the strengthening of relationships in society and the expansion of people’s social networks. This research focuses on studying the relationship of human behavior and the street environment in Cebu, Philippines, which can help to contribute to a better approach towards street improvements. Filipino behavior settings were identified and classified based upon people’s activities on the street that were gathered using the Behavior Mapping Method. From the analysis of behavior settings on the behavior maps, the current use of the street has been classified into zones, and has shown potential for street sharing by being flexible enough to accommodate both behavior settings and vehicular traffic at different times. Based on the findings of the analysis, design proposals were created as an interview tool to extract information from respondents on the street. From the results of the interviews, considerations such as the importance of preserving the existing behavior settings, promoting safety, and preventing conflicts on the street can be used to develop an improved street design.

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 3233: Approaches on the Screening Methods for Materiality in Sustainability Reporting Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10093233 Authors: Wu Shao Chen Recent decades have seen a surge in corporate sustainability reports (SRs); their proliferation, however, does not ensure effective and consistent reporting on materiality. To improve the completeness, consistency and uniformity of SRs, this study aims at providing a review on the definition and identification of materiality and to propose screening methods for materiality assessments using publicly available resources. We found that most acknowledged standards and initiatives diverge in their definitions and approaches towards materiality. Four screening methods are proposed, including two that are directly usable: (1) Sustainability Accounting Standards Board Materiality Map™ and (2) Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Sustainability Topics for Sectors; and two involving more desktop research: (3) GRI’s Sustainability Disclosure Database and (4) modeling from a life-cycle perspective. The second and third approaches are tested through a comparison study for the apparel and energy industries in selected regions using content analysis. The results indicate that the two approaches, with different levels of complexity, yield inconsistency in obtaining the most (i.e., the top three) material topics. The GRI’s Sustainability Disclosure Database is recommended for practitioners due to its balanced disclosure on management, economic, environmental and social sustainability themes.

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 3238: The Influence of Cognitive Dimensions on the Consumer-SME Relationship: A Sustainability-Oriented View Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10093238 Authors: Francesco Caputo Luca Carrubbo Debora Sarno While companies are investing increasingly in sustainability measures, the effects of firms’ sustainability actions on consumer perceptions should not be taken for granted and deserve to be investigated. By adopting the interpretative lens of consumer culture theory, this paper defines a set of cognitive dimensions which can describe consumer perceptions of sustainability actions and the behaviors of small–medium enterprises (SMEs), with the aim of identifying the relationships between firms’ sustainability actions and the economic performance of SMEs. To this extent, the cognitive dimensions proposed by Green & Petre (1996) are re-elaborated to define a set of customer cognitive dimensions in the sustainability domain (resilience, wholeness, mapping, coding, and engagement). Thus, the relationships between SMEs’ sustainability actions and behaviors, the defined cognitive influencers and SME performance is empirically tested. In particular, a survey of a sample of 1137 customers of 175 Italian SMEs is analyzed using structural equation modelling (SEM). The findings show that the adoption of certain sustainability actions influences consumer perceptions, which in turn impacts the economic performance of SMEs.

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 3229: Hybrid Input-Output Analysis of Embodied Carbon and Construction Cost Differences between New-Build and Refurbished Projects Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10093229 Authors: Craig Langston Edwin H. W. Chan Esther H. K. Yung Refurbishing buildings helps reduce waste, and limiting the amount of embodied carbon in buildings helps minimize the damaging impacts of climate change through lower CO2 emissions. The analysis of embodied carbon is based on the concept of life cycle assessment (LCA). LCA is a systematic tool to evaluate the environmental impacts of a product, technology, or service through all stages of its life cycle. This study investigates the embodied carbon footprint of both new-build and refurbished buildings to determine the embodied carbon profile and its relationship to both embodied energy and construction cost. It recognizes that changes in the fuel mix for electricity generation play an important role in embodied carbon impacts in different countries. The empirical findings for Hong Kong suggest that mean embodied carbon for refurbished buildings is 33–39% lower than new-build projects, and the cost for refurbished buildings is 22–50% lower than new-build projects (per square meter of floor area). Embodied carbon ranges from 645–1059 kgCO2e/m2 for new-build and 294–655 kgCO2e/m2 for refurbished projects, which is in keeping with other studies outside Hong Kong. However, values of embodied carbon and cost for refurbished projects in this study have a higher coefficient of variation than their new-build counterparts. It is argued that it is preferable to estimate embodied energy and then convert to embodied carbon (rather than estimate embodied carbon directly), as carbon is both time and location specific. A very strong linear relationship is also observed between embodied energy and construction cost that can be used to predict the former, given the latter. This study provides a framework whereby comparisons can be made between new-build and refurbished projects on the basis of embodied carbon and related construction cost differentials into the future, helping to make informed decisions about which strategy to pursue.

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 3236: Precondition Cloud and Maximum Entropy Principle Coupling Model-Based Approach for the Comprehensive Assessment of Drought Risk Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10093236 Authors: Xia Bai Yimin Wang Juliang Jin Xiaoming Qi Chengguo Wu As a frequently occurring natural disaster, drought will cause great damage to agricultural production and the sustainable development of a social economy, and it is vital to reasonably evaluate the comprehensive risk level of drought for constructing regional drought-resistant strategies. Therefore, to objectively expound the uncertainty of a drought risk system, the precondition cloud and maximum entropy principle coupling model (PCMEP) for drought risk assessment is proposed, which utilizes the principle of maximum entropy to estimate the probability distribution of cloud drops, and the two-dimensional precondition cloud algorithm to determine the certainty degree of drought risk. Moreover, the established PCMEP model is further applied in a drought risk assessment study in Kunming city covering 1956–2011, and the results indicate that (1) the probability of drought events for different levels exhibits a slight increasing trend among the 56 historical years; and (2) both the integrated certainty degree and its component of drought risk are more evident, which will be more beneficial to determine the drought risk level. In general, the proposed PCMEP model provides a new reliable idea to evaluate the comprehensive risk level of drought from a more objective and systematic perspective.

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 3237: The Continuous Mediating Effects of GHRM on Employees’ Green Passion via Transformational Leadership and Green Creativity Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10093237 Authors: Jianfeng Jia Huanxin Liu Tachia Chin Dongqing Hu Responding to environmental challenges is a new manifestation of innovation for organizations, which enables firms to gain competitive advantages by conducting innovative activities for not only themselves, but also for the whole society. In this context, much attention has been paid to “green creativity.” However, few studies have explored the impact of green creativity from the perspective of interactions between individuals and organizational contexts. Therefore, we aimed to explain the variance in employees’ green creativity by examining three factors outside the organizational context: transformational leadership, green human resource management (GHRM), and individual factors including employees’ green passion. Drawing from the ability–motivation–opportunity theory, we found that transformational leaders can inspire employees’ green passion through influencing GHRM, and ultimately positively affect employees’ green creativity. Data collected from two sources (employees and human resources managers) in medical firms in northeast China at two time points demonstrated the important effects of transformational leadership, GHRM, and employees’ green passion on green creativity, thus offering new theoretical insights and practical suggestions.

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 3228: Relevance Analysis on the Variety Characteristics of PM2.5 Concentrations in Beijing, China Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10093228 Authors: Binxu Zhai Jianguo Chen Wenwen Yin Zhongliang Huang Air pollution has become one of the most serious environmental problems in the world. Considering Beijing and six surrounding cities as main research areas, this study takes the daily average pollutant concentrations and meteorological factors from 2 December 2013 to 13 October 2017 into account and studies the spatial and temporal distribution characteristics and the relevant relationship of particulate matter smaller than 2.5 μm (PM2.5) concentrations in Beijing. Based on correlation analysis and geo-statistics techniques, the inter-annual, seasonal, and diurnal variation trends and temporal spatial distribution characteristics of PM2.5 concentration in Beijing are studied. The study results demonstrate that the pollutant concentrations in Beijing exhibit obvious seasonal and cyclical fluctuation patterns. Air pollution is more serious in winter and spring and slightly better in summer and autumn, with the spatial distribution of pollutants fluctuating dramatically in different seasons. The pollution in southern Beijing areas is more serious and the air quality in northern areas is better in general. The diurnal variation of air quality shows a typical seasonal difference and the daily variation of PM2.5 concentrations present a “W” type of mode with twin peaks. Besides emission and accumulation of local pollutants, air quality is easily affected by the transport effect from the southwest. The PM2.5 and PM10 concentrations measured from the city of Langfang are taken as the most important factors of surrounding pollution factors to PM2.5 in Beijing. The concentrations of PM10 and carbon monoxide (CO) concentrations in Beijing are the most significant local influencing factors to PM2.5 in Beijing. Extreme wind speeds and maximal wind speeds are considered to be the most significant meteorological factors affecting the transport of pollutants across the region. When the wind direction is weak southwest wind, the probability of air pollution is greater and when the wind direction is north, the air quality is generally better.

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 3226: Business Models and Sustainability in Nature Tourism: A Systematic Review of the Literature Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10093226 Authors: Samira Sahebalzamani Giovanna Bertella This study explores the business model literature within nature tourism, focuses on its sustainability-related aspects, and adopts some of the results of the literature review by Reinhold et al. The research questions concern how scholars use and operationalize the business model concept in the context of nature tourism, and to what extent sustainability-related aspects are included and discussed. A literature review was conducted including a total of 18 scientific articles from various disciplines. The findings suggest that scientific literature about business models in nature tourism is very limited, both in relation to the number of articles and their content. With regard to the latter, the business model concept is sometimes adopted without any clear definition, sustainability-related aspects—especially those relative to the environmental dimension—are scarcely discussed, the perspective adopted is usually static, and innovation for sustainability is only marginally included. This indicates a clear gap in the literature and a considerable potential for future studies.

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 3227: Understanding Land Use and Rural Development in the National Scheme of Village Relocation and Urbanization in China: A Case Study of Two Villages in Jiangsu Province Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10093227 Authors: Qidong Huang Jiajun Xu Hua Qin Xinyu Gao Large-scale village relocation and urbanization, one of the most significant social changes in China, bring villages both development opportunities and social risks. The social risks mainly stem from the government’s strong position in land expropriation and policy preference for urban development. We observe the amalgamation of Anyang and Bomu Village in China and explore the specific role of land policies in the social change and restructuring of the two villages. We find that clan gentries challenge the government’s “absolute” authority over land and landless villagers start the trend of “de-urbanization.” Our research presents targeted policy recommendations in terms of weakening the role of the government in urbanization, strengthening dialogues between the government and clans and coordinating urban and rural land use.

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 3225: Financial Imbalances in Regional Disaster Recovery Following Earthquakes—Case Study Concerning Housing-Cost Expenditures in Japan Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10093225 Authors: Tadayoshi Nakashima Shigeyuki Okada In the aftermath of the 1995 Kobe Earthquake, a large-scale effort towards reconstruction of houses damaged by the quake was required. This led to increased mortgage, thereby financially plaguing a number of earthquake victims and inhibiting their long-term sustainability and self-supported recovery. The current framework of housing reconstruction assistance provided by the Japanese government does not account for regional disparities in cost and other socioeconomic factors. This study proposes a technique for estimating the cost of reconstructing household units damaged in an earthquake by considering the effects of construction methods influenced by regional climatic zones. The financial constraints on rebuilding resources have been estimated by considering the annual regional income and household savings, as determined by social factors and employment opportunities. The susceptibility of regions to the occurrence of earthquakes has also been factored in the calculation of recovery costs. Together, these factors are used to provide a more complete picture of economic costs associated with earthquake recovery in different regions of Japan, thereby revealing large disparities in the difficulty and financial burden involved in the reconstruction of household units. Results of this study could be used to develop a robust system for earthquake-recovery assistance that accounts for differences in recovery costs between different regions, thereby improving the speed and quality of post-earthquake recovery.

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 3218: Permaculture—Scientific Evidence of Principles for the Agroecological Design of Farming Systems Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10093218 Authors: Julius Krebs Sonja Bach Modern industrial agriculture is largely responsible for environmental problems, such as biodiversity loss, soil degradation, and alteration of biogeochemical cycles or greenhouse gas emission. Agroecology, as a scientific discipline as well as an agricultural practice and movement, emerged as a response to these problems, with the goal to create a more sustainable agriculture. Another response was the emergence of permaculture, a design system based on design principles, as well as a framework for the methods of ecosystem mimicry and complex system optimization. Its emphasis, being on a conscious design of agroecosystems, is the major difference to other alternative agricultural approaches. Agroecology has been a scientific discipline for a few decades already, but only recently have design principles for the reorganization of faming systems been formulated, whereas permaculture practitioners have long been using design principles without them ever being scrutinized. Here, we review the scientific literature to evaluate the scientific basis for the design principles proposed by permaculture co-originator, David Holmgren. Scientific evidence for all twelve principles will be presented. Even though permaculture principles describing the structure of favorable agroecosystems were quite similar to the agroecological approach, permaculture in addition provides principles to guide the design, implementation, and maintenance of resilient agroecological systems.

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 3217: Challenges and Strategies in Place-Based Multi-Stakeholder Collaboration for Sustainability: Learning from Experiences in the Global South Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10093217 Authors: Bárbara Ayala-Orozco Julieta A. Rosell Juliana Merçon Isabel Bueno Gerardo Alatorre-Frenk Alfonso Langle-Flores Anaid Lobato Addressing complex environmental problems requires the collaboration of stakeholders with divergent perspectives, a goal that is challenged by diverse factors. Challenges hindering multi-stakeholder collaboration (MSC) for sustainability have previously been addressed in the context of transnational partnerships. However, less is known regarding how place-based MSC operates, especially in the context of the Global South. To contribute to addressing the factors that hinder place-based MSC for sustainability in the Global South, we analyzed 38 MSC projects spanning diverse ecological and social contexts across Mexico. In a series of participatory workshops, 128 stakeholders from academia, government, business, local communities, and civil society organizations discussed factors that hinder place-based MSC and co-constructed strategies to strengthen collaboration. Some challenges coincided with those identified in previous studies (e.g., divergent visions, inadequate project planning), whereas other concerns that have not been commonly regarded as important emerged as crucial obstacles for MSC. We discuss these challenges in the context of areas of limited statehood and point to the traditions of popular education and participatory action research as a source of valuable tools for place-based MSC. We identify strategies capable of addressing diverse challenges, a result that could aid prioritizing resource allocation to strengthen MSC.

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 3223: An Index to Measure the Sustainable Information Society: The Polish Households Case Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10093223 Authors: Jarosław Wątróbski Ewa Ziemba Artur Karczmarczyk Jarosław Jankowski Since the 1960s, a turning point for civilization related to the increasing role of information and communication technologies (ICT) in creating the modern society can be observed. The sustainable information society (SIS) entails a new phase of information society development, in which the ICT adoption by the society stakeholders is the key enabler of sustainability. One of the most important issues in the debate about the SIS is the means to measure it. In this paper, a methodological framework for creating SIS evaluation indexes is presented. In practical terms, an exemplary adjustable index for evaluating SIS in households is created based on the presented approach. During the empirical research, the presented index is used to evaluate SIS in Polish households. The study showed the usefulness of the proposed approach and confirmed the fact that it can be used to build other SIS indices.

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 3222: Can Government Communication Facilitate Policy Understanding Toward Energy Conservation? Evidence from an Old Industrial Base in China Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10093222 Authors: Rui Mu Yan Li Yan Fu Policy understanding toward energy conservation is fundamental for voluntary energy-saving activities in the industrial sector. To increase policy understanding, government communication has been regarded as a means of helping enterprises to recognize, learn, and interpret energy conservation policies. This article builds up a conceptual framework for government communication and policy understanding. In the conceptual framework, the authors distinguish three dimensions (prior consultation, policy marketing, and policy training) of government communication, and make a distinction between subjective and objective policy understanding. The role of government communication in facilitating policy understanding is empirically tested in the field of energy-saving in China. The article finds that prior consultation and policy training have significant positive influence on policy understanding, and the effect of policy training is slightly larger than that of prior consultation. However, policy marketing does not show any significant impact on policy understanding. In particular, the role of prior consultation lies in promoting subjective policy understanding, while the function of policy training is to improve objective policy understanding. These findings have important implications for the government to carry out energy conservation. The article ends up with some practical policy recommendations.

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 3224: Perspectives of Ecological Footprint in European Context under the Impact of Information Society and Sustainable Development Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10093224 Authors: Ghita Saseanu Gogonea Huidumac-Petrescu The perspective of ecological footprint, which is a tool for measuring and monitoring the sustainability of the new information society and the higher degree of openness in the European economy powered by the globalization process, was approached from the viewpoint of accelerated technical, scientific, and innovative progress. This research aims at identifying and forecasting patterns of environmental footprint behavior in European countries, depending on factors reflecting the innovation activity, the degree of economic freedom, and EU membership status. In the article, three factors are identified that explain to a large extent the variation of the ecological footprint values: employment in foreign controlled enterprises, eco-innovation index, and region. The statistical and econometric methods used in the analysis are aimed at applying a Proportional-Odds Cumulative Logistic regression model in order to verify the existence of the association between the statistical variables and to forecast the likelihood of changing the ecological footprint from a lower to a higher score under the impact of selected factors by quantifying their influence. The results have led to the conclusion that, by applying the model, both the share of the employed population in the foreign-controlled enterprises and the eco-innovation index will have a significant direct influence on the variability in the ecological footprint (through the odds-ratio). Referring to the EU membership, the model shows that non-EU member countries or newer EU member countries are predominantly assigned low ecological footprint scores.

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 3265: Continuous Seasonal and Large-Scale Periglacial Reservoir Sedimentation Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10093265 Authors: Daniel Ehrbar Lukas Schmocker Michael Doering Marco Cortesi Gérald Bourban Robert M. Boes David F. Vetsch Sustainable reservoir use is globally threatened by sedimentation. It has been generally recognized that inadequate consideration of reservoir sedimentation has caused the worldwide decline of net storage. Numerical models are useful tools to simulate sedimentation processes and can be used to derive efficient counter-measures and sediment management strategies. They can be applied to both existing and potential future reservoirs to predict long-term sedimentation. In this study, an application of a simple, robust, and stable numerical 1D model to Gebidem reservoir in Switzerland accompanied by field measurements is presented. It focusses on seasonal and large-scale reservoir sedimentation processes that occur continuously throughout the whole deposition season, while episodic events like turbidity currents are not taken into account. The model simulates both the delta formation of coarse sediments and the lake-wide sedimentation from homopycnal flows. The model is used to assess the effects and significance of varying boundary conditions like inflow, suspended sediment concentration, particle size distribution (PSD), or reservoir operation. It will be demonstrated that future reservoir operation and PSD are as important as future runoff evolution. Based on these findings, implications on future reservoir operation, also considering climate change, are discussed. Finally, an outlook on pending research topics is given.

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 3261: The 2001–2017 Façade Renovations of Jongno Roadside Commercial Buildings Built in the 1950s–60s: Sustainability of Ordinary Architecture within Regionality Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10093261 Authors: Dai Whan An Jae-Young LEE This paper examines 41 roadside commercial buildings of the Jongno region built in the 1950s–60s that received façade renovations between 2001 and 2017. The aim is to show the relations between the forms of renovation and the regionality of the commercial areas, which have been historically formed in the original city center of Seoul, as well as the relation of these connections to the sustainability of ordinary architecture. Because Jongno has been the city center for the 600 years following the Joseon dynasty, the region is still a center for politics, administration, economics, and culture. Specialized commercial areas exist in each region within Jongno, and each of these reflect their own regionality. Within such regionality, the roadside commercial buildings are adapting and changing to fit the times, and regionality is sustained through façade renovation of ordinary architecture. The façade renovations of roadside commercial buildings that reflect such regionality and sustainability do not involve redevelopment through overall demolition, which represents a loss of regionality and history and is conducted undemocratically; rather, the practice should be acknowledged for adding value as past heritage and the simultaneous incorporation of present and future values.