Skip Content
You are currently on the new version of our website. Access the old version .

Sustainability, Volume 12, Issue 22

2020 November-2 - 482 articles

Cover Story: Electronic toll collection (ETC) plays an important role in preventing traffic congestion and improving environmental conditions in urban and rural areas. An attempt is made in this paper to evaluate the overall performance of a toll station when a lane is dedicated to ETC. In total, 39 scenarios considered specific traffic characteristics, variable toll booth setups and different penetration rates of the ETC tag users for cars and heavy vehicles. Results showed that when the right lane of the toll station is converted to an ETC lane, its penetration rate must be greater than 15% for private vehicles and 20% for heavy goods vehicles (HGV) to reduce traffic congestion and to improve environmental conditions. Finally, the above outcomes were confirmed through a preliminary discounted cash flow analysis. View this paper
  • Issues are regarded as officially published after their release is announced to the table of contents alert mailing list .
  • You may sign up for email alerts to receive table of contents of newly released issues.
  • PDF is the official format for papers published in both, html and pdf forms. To view the papers in pdf format, click on the "PDF Full-text" link, and use the free Adobe Reader to open them.

Articles (482)

  • Article
  • Open Access
5 Citations
3,758 Views
16 Pages

Companies’ Sustainable Growth, Accounting Quality, and Investments Performances. The Case of the Romanian Capital Market

  • Mihai Carp,
  • Leontina Păvăloaia,
  • Constantin Toma,
  • Iuliana Eugenia Georgescu and
  • Mihai-Bogdan Afrăsinei

23 November 2020

The paper analyzes the influence of sustainable growth (SGR) as a reflection of the manner of strategic business organization, particularly in the quality of reported financial information (magnitude of discretionary accruals—DAC) as an express...

  • Article
  • Open Access
38 Citations
7,056 Views
15 Pages

The Influence of Cleaning Frequency of Photovoltaic Modules on Power Losses in the Desert Climate

  • Ali Hasan Shah,
  • Ahmed Hassan,
  • Mohammad Shakeel Laghari and
  • Abdulrahman Alraeesi

23 November 2020

Dust accumulation on the photovoltaic (PV) surface decreases the solar radiation penetration to the PV cells and, eventually, the power production from the PV system. To prevent dust-based power losses, PV systems require frequent cleaning, the frequ...

  • Article
  • Open Access
9 Citations
4,651 Views
30 Pages

Current (2020) and Long-Term (2035 and 2050) Sustainable Potentials of Wood Fuel in Switzerland

  • Matthias Erni,
  • Vanessa Burg,
  • Leo Bont,
  • Oliver Thees,
  • Marco Ferretti,
  • Golo Stadelmann and
  • Janine Schweier

23 November 2020

Wood fuel has become central in environmental policy and decision-making processes in cross-sectoral areas. Proper consideration of different types of woody biomass is fundamental in forming energy transition and decarbonization strategies. We quanti...

  • Article
  • Open Access
10 Citations
4,567 Views
19 Pages

23 November 2020

This paper addresses the methodological challenges of working with Indigenous peoples in the Anthropocene. Drawing from the author’s geographical fieldwork with Tayal people, one of sixteen nationally recognized Indigenous groups in Taiwan, it...

  • Article
  • Open Access
31 Citations
4,624 Views
22 Pages

Linkages among Soil Properties and Litter Quality in Agroforestry Systems of Southeastern Brazil

  • Priscila S. Matos,
  • Steven J. Fonte,
  • Sandra S. Lima,
  • Marcos G. Pereira,
  • Courtland Kelly,
  • Júnior M. Damian,
  • Marcelo A. Fontes,
  • Guilherme M. Chaer,
  • Felipe C. Brasil and
  • Everaldo Zonta

23 November 2020

Agroforestry systems have been promoted as a solution to address trade-offs between environmental conservation efforts and the need for increased agricultural productivity on smallholder farms in Brazil. However, the impact of land use change from de...

  • Article
  • Open Access
60 Citations
5,502 Views
15 Pages

23 November 2020

Based on urban economic data in the Yangtze River Delta region of China from 2011 to 2017, this study empirically explores the characteristics of green finance development and its influencing factors through the establishment of a time fixed effects...

  • Review
  • Open Access
282 Citations
28,687 Views
28 Pages

Construction 4.0: A Literature Review

  • Eric Forcael,
  • Isabella Ferrari,
  • Alexander Opazo-Vega and
  • Jesús Alberto Pulido-Arcas

23 November 2020

The construction industry is experiencing changes in its processes and work methods, and the advancement of new technologies in recent decades has led to a new concept known as Construction 4.0, coined in 2016 in Germany. Since its definition is stil...

  • Article
  • Open Access
27 Citations
5,098 Views
25 Pages

Integrated Evaluation of Indoor Particulate Exposure: The VIEPI Project

  • Armando Pelliccioni,
  • Paolo Monti,
  • Giorgio Cattani,
  • Fabio Boccuni,
  • Marco Cacciani,
  • Silvia Canepari,
  • Pasquale Capone,
  • Maria Catrambone,
  • Mariacarmela Cusano and
  • Cinzia Perrino
  • + 20 authors

23 November 2020

Despite the progress made in recent years, reliable modeling of indoor air quality is still far from being obtained. This requires better chemical characterization of the pollutants and airflow physics included in forecasting tools, for which field o...

  • Article
  • Open Access
17 Citations
7,408 Views
20 Pages

23 November 2020

A sharing economy is an alternative system that enables pro-environmental behavior by improving efficiency through product-sharing. However, some motivations and requirements for doing laundry can increase the environmental burden, which suggests tha...

  • Article
  • Open Access
28 Citations
5,876 Views
24 Pages

Development of a Soil Quality Index for Soils under Different Agricultural Management Conditions in the Central Lowlands of Mexico: Physicochemical, Biological and Ecophysiological Indicators

  • Héctor Iván Bedolla-Rivera,
  • María de la Luz Xochilt Negrete-Rodríguez,
  • Miriam del Rocío Medina-Herrera,
  • Francisco Paúl Gámez-Vázquez,
  • Dioselina Álvarez-Bernal,
  • Midory Samaniego-Hernández,
  • Alfredo Josué Gámez-Vázquez and
  • Eloy Conde-Barajas

23 November 2020

The Bajío—Mexico’s central lowlands—is a region of economic importance because of its agricultural industry. Over time, agricultural practices have led to soil deterioration, loss of fertility, and abandonment. In this study,...

  • Article
  • Open Access
16 Citations
5,134 Views
19 Pages

23 November 2020

Increasing public transport use is recognized by many countries as crucial to the pursuit of a global strategy for environmental sustainability and improving urban mobility. Understanding what users value in a public transport service is essential to...

  • Article
  • Open Access
39 Citations
6,874 Views
13 Pages

Mobile Learning for Sustainable Development and Environmental Teacher Education

  • María Sebastián-López and
  • Rafael de Miguel González

23 November 2020

Outdoor learning has, for a long time, been an important instructional resource in school education, usually embedded in the natural sciences and social sciences curricula. Teaching geography, geology, or biology beyond the traditional classroom allo...

  • Article
  • Open Access
10 Citations
4,430 Views
15 Pages

23 November 2020

This paper extends the conventional wisdom of social networks and entrepreneurship by clarifying the relationship between network diversity and venture growth as well as by studying the mediation effect of entrepreneurial alertness on network diversi...

  • Article
  • Open Access
11 Citations
5,834 Views
29 Pages

23 November 2020

Electric vehicles have been issued to achieve sustainable mobility. Main factors to sustainable electric vehicle (EV) are that lithium-ion battery (LIB) has to maintain lower cost, lighter weight, SOC (state of charge), thermal stability, and driving...

  • Article
  • Open Access
13 Citations
3,500 Views
17 Pages

Assessing Collaborative Capabilities for Sustainability in Interorganizational Networks

  • Juliana Maria Gonçalves de Almeida,
  • Cláudia Fabiana Gohr and
  • Luciano Costa Santos

23 November 2020

Sustainability in interorganizational networks depends on developing collaborative capabilities for this purpose. However, to improve their collaborative capabilities for sustainability (CCS), companies in interorganizational networks need methods to...

  • Article
  • Open Access
53 Citations
6,075 Views
22 Pages

Modeling Cross-National Differences in Automated Vehicle Acceptance

  • Shelly Etzioni,
  • Jamil Hamadneh,
  • Arnór B. Elvarsson,
  • Domokos Esztergár-Kiss,
  • Milena Djukanovic,
  • Stelios N. Neophytou,
  • Jaka Sodnik,
  • Amalia Polydoropoulou,
  • Ioannis Tsouros and
  • Yoram Shiftan
  • + 2 authors

23 November 2020

The technology that allows fully automated driving already exists and it may gradually enter the market over the forthcoming decades. Technology assimilation and automated vehicle acceptance in different countries is of high interest to many scholars...

  • Article
  • Open Access
6 Citations
4,869 Views
15 Pages

23 November 2020

Changes in construction projects are very frequent and are expected to occur at any stage of the project. These changes modify the original scope of work and affect the project in various aspects. To minimize these effects, there is a need to impleme...

  • Article
  • Open Access
31 Citations
7,657 Views
14 Pages

Sustainable Tourism and Facilities Preferences: The Sustainable Tourist Stay Scale (STSS) Validation

  • Alessandra Fermani,
  • Maria Rita Sergi,
  • Angelo Carrieri,
  • Isabella Crespi,
  • Laura Picconi and
  • Aristide Saggino

23 November 2020

This study aims to start the development of the Sustainable Tourist Stay Scale (STSS), a self-report instrument designed to measure tourists’ preferences regarding the degree to which they accept accommodation and programs in tourism facilities...

  • Article
  • Open Access
53 Citations
5,771 Views
21 Pages

23 November 2020

Environmental sustainability has become a significant approach for firms to enhance their competitive advantage and reputation. This study examines the association between environmental sustainability disclosures and firm value, in addition to the mo...

  • Review
  • Open Access
17 Citations
4,676 Views
20 Pages

23 November 2020

Resilience is being widely adopted as a comprehensive analytical framework for understanding sustainability dynamics, despite the conceptual challenges in developing proxies and indicators for researchers and policy makers. In our study, we observed...

  • Article
  • Open Access
26 Citations
7,128 Views
27 Pages

Reusing Newspaper Kiosks for Last-Mile Delivery in Urban Areas

  • José M. González-Varona,
  • Félix Villafáñez,
  • Fernando Acebes,
  • Alfonso Redondo and
  • David Poza

23 November 2020

The current increase in e-commerce is generating growing problems in urban areas in terms of both traffic flow (increasing traffic, no parking spaces) and environmental issues (noise, atmospheric pollution, etc.). In parallel, an iconic element of hi...

  • Article
  • Open Access
15 Citations
4,928 Views
20 Pages

23 November 2020

Previous investigations of the settlement intentions of China’s floating population have been undermined by an oversimplification of the concepts and measurements related to settlement intentions. More attention should be paid to influencing fa...

  • Article
  • Open Access
4 Citations
3,954 Views
18 Pages

Sustainability in Mineral Exploration—Exploring Less Invasive Technologies via Patent Analysis

  • Stephane Ruiz-Coupeau,
  • Björn Jürgens,
  • Michaela Keßelring and
  • Victor Herrero-Solana

23 November 2020

This paper presents a bibliometric study on patents and scientific publications related to airborne electromagnetic methods used as less invasive technologies in mineral exploration. A statistical analysis of the documents reveals the main players, t...

  • Article
  • Open Access
4 Citations
5,504 Views
10 Pages

23 November 2020

The development of children’s fundamental motor skills (FMS) is shaped by the environment surrounding them. The purpose of this study was to examine whether the changes of children’s FMS after an intervention program differed between clas...

  • Article
  • Open Access
34 Citations
6,564 Views
12 Pages

23 November 2020

SARS-CoV-2 emerged in late 2019. Since then, it has spread to several countries, becoming classified as a pandemic. So far, there is no definitive treatment or vaccine, so the best solution is to prevent transmission between individuals through socia...

  • Article
  • Open Access
24 Citations
8,146 Views
21 Pages

23 November 2020

An organization’s capacity to sustain a crisis, and to benefit from work-from-home (WFH) arrangements in routine times, is dependent on its employees’ ability to successfully adjust to WFH conditions. The COVID-19 pandemic, which forced v...

  • Article
  • Open Access
5 Citations
4,708 Views
11 Pages

23 November 2020

This paper works towards the enactment of a Lewin–Deleuze–Guattari rhizome. We assemble Deleuze and Guattari’s principles of the rhizome, Lewin’s idea of re-education, and reflections on the performance of one of the authors i...

  • Article
  • Open Access
8 Citations
4,516 Views
13 Pages

Citizen Scientists Showed a Four-Fold Increase of Lynx Numbers in Lithuania

  • Linas Balčiauskas,
  • Laima Balčiauskienė,
  • John A. Litvaitis and
  • Eugenijus Tijušas

23 November 2020

By the early 2000s, Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx) were nearly extirpated in Lithuania. To determine their status, we used snow-track counts in 2006–2012 and volunteer monitoring in 1999–2005 and 2015–2018. Using simple questionnaires, w...

  • Article
  • Open Access
4 Citations
3,415 Views
12 Pages

23 November 2020

Location-based social media have facilitated us to bridge the gap between virtual and physical worlds through the exploration of human online dynamics from a geographic perspective. This study uses a large collection of geotagged photos from Flickr t...

  • Article
  • Open Access
7 Citations
3,896 Views
15 Pages

23 November 2020

The concentration of warehouses in peripheral regions of metropolitan areas in a time period is called logistics sprawl (LS). Identifying this phenomenon could help to reduce externalities related to urban freight transport, mainly, the distance trav...

  • Article
  • Open Access
28 Citations
10,075 Views
16 Pages

The Perspective of E-Business Sustainability and Website Accessibility of Online Stores

  • Carmen Adina Paștiu,
  • Ionica Oncioiu,
  • Daniel Adrian Gârdan,
  • Silvia Ștefania Maican,
  • Iuliana Petronela Gârdan and
  • Andreea Cipriana Muntean

23 November 2020

E-commerce’s latest trends, highlighted by the global phenomena of the COVID-19 pandemic, explicitly show substantial changes in the online consumers’ behavior as well. More and more specialists are talking about the emergence of a new pa...

  • Article
  • Open Access
21 Citations
5,425 Views
12 Pages

A New Mindset for Circular Economy Strategies: Case Studies of Circularity in the Use of Water

  • Elisabeth Viles,
  • Javier Santos,
  • Tamara Fernández Arévalo,
  • Martín Tanco and
  • Florencia Kalemkerian

23 November 2020

In a circular economy (CE) environment, it is important to make good and efficient use of resources and consider that the waste generated in production processes can be a valuable resource. However, the tools and methodologies conventionally used to...

  • Article
  • Open Access
24 Citations
4,331 Views
13 Pages

Effect of a Sustainable Air Heat Pump System on Energy Efficiency, Housing Environment, and Productivity Traits in a Pig Farm

  • Myeong Gil Jeong,
  • Dhanushka Rathnayake,
  • Hong Seok Mun,
  • Muhammad Ammar Dilawar,
  • Kwang Woo Park,
  • Sang Ro Lee and
  • Chul Ju Yang

23 November 2020

High electricity consumption, carbon dioxide (CO2), and elevated noxious gas emission in the global livestock sector have a negative influence on environmental sustainability. This study examined the effects of a heating system using an air heat pump...

  • Review
  • Open Access
33 Citations
17,737 Views
26 Pages

Egyptian and Greek Water Cultures and Hydro-Technologies in Ancient Times

  • Abdelkader T. Ahmed,
  • Fatma El Gohary,
  • Vasileios A. Tzanakakis and
  • Andreas N. Angelakis

23 November 2020

Egyptian and Greek ancient civilizations prevailed in eastern Mediterranean since prehistoric times. The Egyptian civilization is thought to have been begun in about 3150 BC until 31 BC. For the ancient Greek civilization, it started in the period of...

  • Article
  • Open Access
9 Citations
3,858 Views
10 Pages

Soil Organic Carbon and Labile Carbon Pools Attributed by Tillage, Crop Residue and Crop Rotation Management in Sweet Sorghum Cropping System

  • Mashapa Elvis Malobane,
  • Adornis Dakarai Nciizah,
  • Fhatuwani Nixwell Mudau and
  • Isaiah Iguna Chabaari Wakindiki

23 November 2020

Labile organic carbon (LOC) fractions are considered as sensitive indicators of change in soil quality and can serve as proxies for soil organic carbon (SOC). Although the impact of tillage, crop rotation and crop residue management on soil quality i...

  • Article
  • Open Access
9 Citations
4,729 Views
16 Pages

Measurement and Verification of Zero Energy Settlements: Lessons Learned from Four Pilot Cases in Europe

  • Angeliki Mavrigiannaki,
  • Kostas Gobakis,
  • Dionysia Kolokotsa,
  • Kostas Kalaitzakis,
  • Anna Laura Pisello,
  • Cristina Piselli,
  • Rajat Gupta,
  • Matt Gregg,
  • Marina Laskari and
  • Afroditi Synnefa
  • + 2 authors

23 November 2020

Measurement and verification (M&V) has become necessary for ensuring intended design performance. Currently, M&V procedures and calculation methods exist for the assessment of Energy Conservation Measures (ECM) for existing buildings, with a...

  • Article
  • Open Access
43 Citations
9,656 Views
18 Pages

23 November 2020

The rising trend of people dining out has made food waste in restaurants become a significant issue because of sustainability. Consumers’ attitudes toward food waste in restaurants are still undergoing scrutiny. The main purpose of this study w...

  • Article
  • Open Access
53 Citations
7,543 Views
14 Pages

23 November 2020

Defects in residential building façades affect the structural integrity of buildings and degrade external appearances. Defects in a building façade are typically managed using manpower during maintenance. This approach is time-consuming...

  • Article
  • Open Access
4 Citations
2,834 Views
11 Pages

A Prototype Plant for Oilseed Extraction: Analysis of Mass and Energy Flows

  • Ramoon B. L. Temporim,
  • Alessandro Petrozzi,
  • Valentina Coccia,
  • Franco Cotana and
  • Gianluca Cavalaglio

23 November 2020

The focus of this study is to analyze the energy flows related to cardoon oil processing based on the estimated electricity consumption. It was carried out in a prototype oilseed extraction plant located in Umbria Region, Italy. This installation con...

  • Article
  • Open Access
9 Citations
3,217 Views
9 Pages

Variability of the Motor Behavior during Continued Practice of the Same Motor Game: A Preliminary Study

  • Asier Gonzalez-Artetxe,
  • José Pino-Ortega,
  • Markel Rico-González and
  • Asier Los Arcos

22 November 2020

Motor behavior assessment during games could help physical education teachers and team coaches to design effective and efficient motor interventions. This study aimed to assess the variability of the physical and behavioral responses during continued...

  • Article
  • Open Access
6 Citations
3,557 Views
21 Pages

Maintenance Decision-Making of an Urban Rail Transit System in a Regionalized Network-Wide Perspective

  • Baofeng Sun,
  • Jiaojiao Liu,
  • Junyi Hao,
  • Xiuxiu Shen,
  • Xinhua Mao and
  • Xianmin Song

22 November 2020

The networked operation of Urban Rail Transit (URT) brings the new challenge of network-wide maintenance. This research focuses on the URT Network-Wide Maintenance Decision-Making Problem (URT-NMDP), including regionalized maintenance network design...

  • Article
  • Open Access
10 Citations
5,490 Views
25 Pages

22 November 2020

This article addresses the topic of environmental comfort from a salutogenic and pedagogical point of view. It begins by presenting a wide framework aimed at describing the complexity and specificity of the acoustic issue and the need to integrate de...

  • Article
  • Open Access
54 Citations
10,499 Views
23 Pages

22 November 2020

As social problems become more extensive and diverse, one of the most critical capabilities of social entrepreneurs is connecting and aligning various stakeholders. Social entrepreneurs can solve problems better through collaboration with stakeholder...

  • Article
  • Open Access
26 Citations
6,797 Views
18 Pages

Measuring Urban Resilience to Climate Change in Three Chinese Cities

  • Mingshun Zhang,
  • Yaguang Yang,
  • Huanhuan Li and
  • Meine Pieter van Dijk

22 November 2020

Building an urban resilience index results in developing an increasingly popular tool for monitoring progress towards climate-proof cities. This paper develops an urban resilience index in the context of urban China, which helps planners and policy-m...

  • Article
  • Open Access
54 Citations
12,808 Views
13 Pages

22 November 2020

The diffusion of the culture of sustainability and circular economy increasingly pushes companies to adopt green strategies and integrate circular business models in the corporate agenda. It assumes higher relevance in the packaging industry because...

  • Article
  • Open Access
5 Citations
4,676 Views
26 Pages

22 November 2020

Does financial inclusion contribute to sustainable mountain development by providing access to financial resources and creating economic opportunities for poor mountain people? Keeping this question in mind, the present study aimed to investigate the...

  • Article
  • Open Access
42 Citations
8,155 Views
20 Pages

The Intention to Purchase Recycled Products: Towards an Integrative Theoretical Framework

  • Barbara Bigliardi,
  • Domenico Campisi,
  • Giovanna Ferraro,
  • Serena Filippelli,
  • Francesco Galati and
  • Alberto Petroni

22 November 2020

The growing interest of the scientific literature regarding purchase behavior, circular economy and new business models has generated the need, as well as the opportunity, for a comprehensive review and categorization of the state of the existing res...

  • Article
  • Open Access
7 Citations
3,828 Views
25 Pages

A Sociological View on Designing a Sustainable Online Community for K–12 Teachers: A Systematic Review

  • Dabae Lee,
  • Jiyoon Jung,
  • Suhkyung Shin,
  • Anne Otternbreit-Leftwich and
  • Krista Glazewski

22 November 2020

As a way to support teachers’ professional development activities and build communities of practice for teachers, education researchers and practitioners have put considerable effort into building an online learning community for K–12 tea...

  • Article
  • Open Access
16 Citations
4,081 Views
16 Pages

An Investigation on the Use by Academic Researchers of Knowledge from Scientific Social Networking Sites

  • Vincenzo Corvello,
  • Maria Cristina Chimenti,
  • Carlo Giglio and
  • Saverino Verteramo

22 November 2020

Scientific social networking sites like ResearchGate or Academia.edu have become part of the work practice of academic researchers. These digital platforms have been designed precisely to encourage the exchange of knowledge between scholars and to he...

  • Article
  • Open Access
34 Citations
6,508 Views
22 Pages

The Impact of Corruption, Economic Freedom and Urbanization on Economic Development: Western Balkans versus EU-27

  • Nerajda Feruni,
  • Eglantina Hysa,
  • Mirela Panait,
  • Irina Gabriela Rădulescu and
  • Alina Brezoi

22 November 2020

The topic of economic development has been addressed in recent decades from more and more points of view in order to identify the factors with significant impact on this phenomenon. Identifying the factors and measuring their impact on economic devel...

of 10

Get Alerted

Add your email address to receive forthcoming issues of this journal.

XFacebookLinkedIn
Sustainability - ISSN 2071-1050