Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Data-Driven Solutions for Sustainable Systems

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue titled "Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Data-Driven Solutions for Sustainable Systems" explores the transformative role of AI and data-driven technologies in addressing critical sustainability challenges. It aims to showcase innovative methodologies and applications that integrate AI with tools such as IoT, blockchain, and big data to design efficient, resilient, and environmentally conscious systems. The scope spans diverse domains, including energy, agriculture, urban development, and healthcare, focusing on solutions that align with global sustainability goals.

This issue contributes to the existing literature by advancing AI-driven frameworks for optimizing resource use, predicting environmental changes, and enabling decentralized systems. It builds on prior research in AI for energy efficiency, IoT for smart systems, and big data for decision-making, introducing emerging concepts like hybrid AI models and real-time analytics. Moreover, it addresses the ethical and governance challenges of sustainable AI applications, providing a comprehensive perspective on their societal impacts.

By bridging technology and sustainability science, this Special Issue serves as a resource for researchers and practitioners seeking innovative solutions to global challenges. It advances the discourse on leveraging AI and data analytics for creating scalable, equitable, and sustainable systems that contribute to a better future.

The focus on sustainable systems situates this issue at the intersection of two key research domains: artificial intelligence and sustainability science. It builds upon and contributes to the existing literature in several ways:

AI and Sustainability: The existing works have demonstrated the potential of AI in energy efficiency, carbon footprint reduction, and natural resource conservation. This issue expands on these applications by addressing emerging challenges and integrating novel technologies such as hybrid AI frameworks.

Data-Driven Decision Making: Recent research emphasizes the importance of big data and machine learning for decision-making in sustainable systems. This Special Issue contributes to this body of knowledge by exploring more sophisticated data-driven approaches, including real-time analytics and edge computing.

IoT and Smart Systems: IoT-enabled smart systems have been extensively studied in the context of smart cities and agriculture. The Special Issue builds on this by exploring synergies between IoT and AI for enhanced sustainability outcomes.

Ethics and Social Implications: The current literature on AI ethics and governance often lacks a sustainability perspective. This issue aims to bridge this gap by incorporating ethical frameworks specifically tailored for AI applications in sustainability.

By addressing these themes, the Special Issue aims to advance the theoretical and practical understanding of how AI and data-driven solutions can contribute to sustainable development goals (SDGs) and pave the way for scalable, equitable, and environmentally sound systems. It seeks to be a valuable resource for researchers, practitioners, and policymakers working at the nexus of technology and sustainability.

Dr. Yousef Farhaoui
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.