Search Results (1,203)

The Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry plays a crucial role in global economic development, but it is also a major contributor to environmental degradation and resource consumption. Despite increasing alignment with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the sector remains highly fragmented, with limited integration of Modern Methods of Construction (MMC), Lean Management, Circular Economy and Socio-Digital Enablers frameworks into a unified sustainability model. This review article employs the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) methodology to systematically identify and analyse existing literature and address these research gaps. The PRISMA procedure was conducted through a structured process involving the identification of studies from Scopus and Web of Science databases using predefined keywords related to SDGs and the AEC sector. It was followed by screening and eligibility assessment based on publication type, timeframe (2022–2026), subject relevance, and full-text accessibility, resulting in a final dataset of 42 studies for analysis and then applying bibliometric analysis (Biblioshiny and VOSviewer) to define thematic clusters. The results reveal strong research concentration on SDG 11, SDG 12, and SDG 9, while SDG 2 and SDG 14 remain underexplored within the AEC literature. The findings also highlight that the convergence of MMC, Lean Management, Circular Economy practices, and social and digital technologies increasingly drives sustainable industrialisation. A structured content analysis is further conducted to categorise approaches, barriers, and implementation strategies across the four identified components of industrialisation. Overall, this study contributes a comprehensive and integrated framework for understanding sustainable industrialisation in the AEC sector and provides a structured evidence base to support future research and policy development aligned with the SDGs. Full article

Standardized drought indices such as the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) are widely used in both monitoring and climate-change impact assessments. However, SPI values are not uniquely defined unless the reference climatology used for standardization is explicitly stated and justified−a methodological issue that becomes critical under non-stationary climate conditions. Here, we present a methodological assessment of how reference-climatology strategy affects SPI-based drought projections under climate change, using Türkiye’s 26 major basins as a hydroclimatically diverse testbed. These assessments inform sustainable water resources planning, agricultural adaptation, and climate-resilient infrastructure design under non-stationary climate. Daily precipitation projections from 56 GCM-RCM pairs (EURO-CORDEX EUR-11, 0.11° (approximately 12 km at the mid-latitudes of the study domain); CMIP5 RCP8.5) were bias-corrected against ERA5-Land and aggregated to basin means. We computed SPI-9 and compared two commonly used reference strategies: (i) a fixed historical baseline (1970–2005), applied consistently to both historical and future periods (fixed-baseline SPI); and (ii) a period-specific baseline (period-specific SPI; future SPI values are standardized to the climatology of the future evaluation period itself). Using the same climate simulations, the two strategies yield markedly different drought projections. At the country scale, end-of-century drought time reaches 458 months under the fixed-baseline strategy, whereas the period-specific strategy indicates 393 drought months. Corresponding severity summaries are likewise stronger under fixed-baseline standardization. The contrast is even stronger in several Mediterranean basins, where fixed-baseline standardization produces persistently severe drought conditions. These results show that SPI-based drought projections are substantially sensitive to the choice of reference-climatology strategy, and that the same climate ensemble can support materially different drought narratives depending on how anomalies are standardized. Because the two strategies differ in both reference-timing and calibration-window length (36 versus 95 years), the headline contrast should be interpreted as a combined effect rather than as a pure baseline-timing result. In the present implementation, the period-specific strategy uses a single future calibration period (2006–2100), so the comparison should be interpreted as a stress test of reference framing under non-stationary climate rather than as an equal-length baseline experiment. An equal-length late-baseline sensitivity check (1970–2005 versus 2065–2100; both spanning 36 years) shows that the fixed-to-late-baseline contrast is larger than the fixed-to-period-specific contrast in 25 of 27 spatial units, including a 3.0-fold amplification at the national scale, indicating that the reference-timing effect persists when calibration-window length is held constant. Because the analysis is based on a CMIP5-driven RCP8.5 ensemble, the numerical projections should be interpreted as a high-end stress-test envelope rather than as the most likely outcome. We therefore recommend that drought projection studies explicitly report the reference-climatology strategy, justify the calibration window, and distinguish between analyses designed to quantify change relative to a historical climate and analyses designed to describe anomalies relative to an evolving future climate. These methodological choices have direct implications for sustainable water resources management and drought-risk preparedness in water-stressed Mediterranean systems, and contribute to broader sustainability targets such as Sustainable Development Goal 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation), SDG 13 (Climate Action), and SDG 15 (Life on Land). Full article

Proactive accident prediction is a fundamental prerequisite for the environmental and social sustainability of high-risk sectors. Accident prediction research has expanded rapidly across transportation, construction, fire safety, chemical/process industries, and mining, yet many models that perform well in offline benchmarks fail in field deployment because algorithm capability, data regime, and operational constraints are misaligned. This review synthesizes cross-industry evidence on how accident prediction is practiced under distinct data conditions, including spatiotemporal, multimodal, and data-scarce settings, and compares mainstream methods from statistical baselines to machine learning and deep learning in terms of deployability rather than accuracy alone. Building on this synthesis, we propose the Model–Data–Scenario Adaptation (MDSA) framework, a systems-level protocol that operationalizes deployment-aware model selection through a multi-dimensional scoring rubric and an iterative validation loop. MDSA balances predictive performance with interpretability, robustness, data dependency, and implementation cost. A chemical industry case study demonstrates how accuracy-centric selection can fail operationally and how MDSA yields a more viable choice under real constraints. The framework ultimately facilitates long-term sustainable risk governance by balancing predictive performance with operational constraints, thereby contributing to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs 3, 8, 9, and 11). Full article

Ecological security is fundamental to achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and maintaining ecosystem stability in ecologically sensitive regions. Mountainous protected areas, where ecological fragility and human pressure coexist, require dynamic evaluation frameworks that go beyond static pattern description. This study proposes an extended SPMOR (State–Pressure–Modelling–Optimization–Response) framework to assess the spatiotemporal evolution of ecological security in the Fanjingshan Mountain Region, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Southwest China. Multi-source environmental and socio-economic datasets were standardized, objectively weighted using the CRITIC method, and integrated to construct a grid-based Ecological Security Index (ESI) for 2002, 2007, 2012, 2017, and 2022. Spatial autocorrelation analysis with global and local Moran’s I was employed to identify clustering patterns and temporal shifts. Results show that the average ESI increased from 0.4983 in 2002 to a peak of 0.5238 in 2012, before declining to 0.4945 in 2022. Global Moran’s I remained consistently high, ranging from 0.6516 to 0.6862, indicating persistent spatial clustering of ecological security. Spatially, the region exhibited a stable core–periphery structure, with high-security zones concentrated in the core reserve and low-security clusters distributed along human activity corridors. These findings suggest the coexistence of ecological restoration effects and renewed development pressures in mountainous protected areas. The proposed SPMOR framework provides a structured and potentially applicable approach for ecological security evaluation and offers practical insights for sustainable management of mountainous protected regions. Full article

Wetlands are vital ecosystems that provide critical provisioning, regulating, cultural, and supporting services that underpin biodiversity conservation and local livelihoods. Despite their importance, ecosystem service valuation is often overlooked in coastal wetland restoration, limiting recognition of their contributions to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). To address this gap and overcome methodological fragmentation in wetland assessments, this study develops the Integrated Ecosystem Valuation and Management of Wetlands (IEVMW) framework, which integrates the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA), Drivers–Pressures–State–Impact–Response (DPSIR) framework, IPCC climate risk assessment, and Total Economic Value (TEV) approaches into a unified methodology. The framework was applied to the Kol Wetlands in India to identify ecosystem services, assess climate-related risks, estimate economic values, and develop management recommendations. Results indicate that provisioning services contribute the highest economic value, followed by regulating and cultural services. Climate change was estimated to place approximately 11.7% and 13.0% of ecosystem service value at risk in North Kol and South Kol, respectively, corresponding to a combined economic value at risk of ₹42.9 crore, with provisioning services being the most vulnerable. The IEVMW framework provides a practical and scalable approach for linking ecosystem service valuation, climate risk assessment, and governance, thereby supporting climate-resilient wetland management and biodiversity conservation across diverse socio-environmental contexts. Full article

Using a balanced panel of ten major fishing and trading nations (China, Chile, Indonesia, Peru, Thailand, Vietnam, Norway, India, Denmark, and Canada) over the years 2000–2020, this study investigated the relationship between international fishery trade and the fishing footprint, a consumption-based ecological indicator measuring the bioproductive marine area required to sustain seafood consumption. Cross-sectional dependence tests, second-generation panel unit root tests (PANICCA), LM bootstrap cointegration analysis, and long-run coefficient estimation using fully modified OLS (FMOLS), dynamic OLS (DOLS), fixed effects, and method of moments quantile regression (MMQR) are all part of the sequential econometric framework used in this analysis. Findings consistently show that the domestic fishing footprint is positively correlated with imports, domestic production, real GDP, and per capita food consumption, but adversely correlated with fishery exports. Additionally, MMQR estimates show that the negative export link becomes stronger at higher quantiles of the distribution of fishing footprint, indicating that the moderating influence of exports is strongest in nations that are already under a lot of ecological strain. Although the panel data do not allow for direct dissection of these channels, these findings are interpreted considering three potential mechanisms: certification-linked catch limits, aquaculture substitution in export volumes, and distant-water fleet displacement. It is recommended that policymakers include sustainability criteria into import laws, broaden the scope of eco-certification, and make investments in aquaculture to supplement the management of wild-capture fisheries. The findings of this study contribute significantly to the monitoring of global sustainability agendas, particularly aligning with United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production) and SDG 14 (Life Below Water) by providing empirical evidence on how trade dynamics influence the fishing footprint. Full article

Background/Objective: Achievement of Sustainable Development Goals SDG 2 (child nutrition) depends upon SDG 6 (water insecurity) and SDG 13 (climate action) in multiple ways. However, the current climate–nutrition literature mostly considers water’s effects on nutrition through agriculture and food production. Here, we identify the climate’s impact on child nutrition through its effect on both household food and water security and on their interaction across varying environmental contexts. Methods: Using nationally representative data from India, we estimate the climate’s direct association with household water access (time spent fetching water), and both direct and indirect association with household food security (women’s dietary diversity), and child’s dietary diversity and nutrition (HAZ score). Data from 42,567 women and 39,667 children (6–23 months) are analyzed using linear regression and structural equation modeling. Results: A unit increase in rainfall is linked to an 18 percent decrease in time to water and an 8.3 percent increase in women’s dietary diversity score. A temperature increase is associated with an increase in time to water and decreased women’s dietary diversity. Time to water mediates the association of temperature and rainfall with women’s dietary diversity, child’s dietary diversity and child’s HAZ score. Households in regions of higher water availability are associated with increased dietary diversity, increased HAZ, and decreased time to water; however, the interaction between climate and regional water availability shows varying effects. Conclusions: Climate is associated with household food and water security, which together mediate its association with nutrition. These findings call for broadening the climate action framework to explicitly recognize the multidimensional linkages between SDG 6 and SDG 2. Full article

This study examines disciplinary differences in approaches to sustainability education among faculty in engineering, nursing, and environmental and sustainability studies at a large Rocky Mountain university. Researchers investigate how these disciplines conceptualize and implement sustainability education, as well as faculty perspectives on curricular content as they relate to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The study further examines barriers to sustainability education in relation to the broader state and national political climate. This research addresses a notable need in the literature by strengthening sustainability education content across disciplines, particularly where important aspects receive less emphasis. The manuscript concludes with recommendations for professionals seeking to integrate and advocate for sustainability across the curriculum. Full article

Morocco has developed one of the most comprehensive sustainability governance architectures among middle-income emerging economies, yet the relationship between its formal regulatory ambition and on-the-ground implementation effectiveness remains poorly understood. This narrative literature review provides an integrated, critically analytical account of Morocco’s sustainability governance system, organised around three interlocking dimensions: (i) a progressively strengthened legislative corpus anchored by the 2011 Constitution and Framework Law 99-12; (ii) a portfolio of national sustainability strategies aligning domestic policy with Paris Agreement commitments, Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs); and (iii) corporate sustainability practices driven by regulatory obligations, international supply chain pressures, and ESG disclosure norms. Drawing on 124 sources, comprising 62 peer-reviewed articles, 38 legislative texts, and 24 institutional reports, and applying institutional isomorphism theory as an integrating analytical lens, the review advances three theoretical propositions concerning the conditions under which formal governance architectures translate into effective sustainability outcomes. It further proposes a validated conceptual framework and develops a comparative positioning of Morocco against peer economies (Tunisia, Egypt, South Africa, and Turkey). Critical implementation gaps are identified in enforcement capacity, SME integration, sustainability data infrastructure, and green finance, contributing a balanced and evidence-grounded assessment of Morocco’s sustainability transition. These findings offer actionable insights for policymakers, regulators, and business leaders operating in the Moroccan and broader African context. Full article

This paper examines how artificial intelligence can support sustainability assessment in cultural industries, using national film industries as a test case. The Film Industry Sustainability Index (FISI) is introduced as a composite indicator covering cultural diversity, economic resilience, and Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) alignment for 42 national economies from 2005 to 2023. Knowledge-Enhanced Mamba (KE-Mamba), a selective state-space forecasting model, is then proposed to combine annual panel indicators with country-level film-industry knowledge graph (KG) embeddings and large language model (LLM)-derived screenplay-oriented narrative proxies from film synopses. To reduce factual errors in title-level narrative scoring, the LLM is anchored to verified United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) records and the European Audiovisual Observatory’s LUMIERE film-admissions database using rank-one model editing (ROME). On the 2020–2023 held-out test period, KE-Mamba achieves a composite FISI mean absolute error (MAE) of 0.0389, a mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) of 5.61%, and an $R^2$ of 0.934, outperforming autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA), tree-based, long short-term memory (LSTM), and base Mamba baselines. Additional robustness checks using a pre-pandemic split, two-way fixed-effects panel regression, alternative FISI weighting schemes, KG embedding ablations, and human validation of LLM narrative scores support the reliability of the proposed framework. Policy simulations are interpreted as model-based projected associations rather than causal estimates. The results show that knowledge-enhanced sequence models can provide transparent forecasting support for sustainable cultural-industry policy. Full article

Against the backdrop of rapid urbanization, urban land-resource use faces the dual challenge of improving efficiency while maintaining ecological sustainability. Enhancing urban land green use efficiency contributes to the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, particularly SDG 11 and SDG 15. As an emerging governance approach for urban green infrastructure, the National Sponge City Policy (NSCP) aims to address urban waterlogging through nature-based solutions while improving land multifunctionality and ecological carrying capacity. Based on city-level panel data from 2005 to 2022, this study employs a difference-in-differences (DID) approach to identify the policy effect of the NSCP on ULGUE and further examines three transmission channels: innovation effects, infrastructure-support effects, and population-agglomeration effects. The novelty of this study lies in integrating the NSCP into the analytical framework of urban land green use efficiency, extending previous research that mainly focused on waterlogging control, water-resource management, and ecological benefits, and further developing a “policy intervention-factor reallocation-ULGUE improvement” mechanism pathway. The empirical results show that the NSCP significantly improves land green use efficiency in pilot areas, and this conclusion remains valid across multiple robustness checks. The mechanism analysis indicates that strengthened green innovation capacity, improved green infrastructure, and population agglomeration are key channels through which the policy effect is realized. Heterogeneity analysis further reveals that the policy effect varies across regions, dominant industrial structures, and industrial-base types. Overall, the NSCP promotes green spatial governance and efficient resource utilization, providing important institutional experience for coordinating ecological protection and urban development. Full article

The ethical dimensions of sustainability can be overlooked by academics and project professionals despite ethics being relevant to the achievement of United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). A survey of United Kingdom (UK)’s construction industry leaders is used to identify ethical challenges and solutions, while highlighting the link between sustainability, ethics and individual behaviour. A Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) approach is employed to scope out a series of ethical scenarios via an analysis of people, work tasks, culture and training, and subsequently validated via an industry workshop. It is argued that while project tools and techniques fail to engage adequately with ethical issues (e.g., stakeholder management), a proactive examination of attitude, norm, control and intention by project managers at appropriate project times can assist with the identification of potential ethical issues: a TPB-based prompt sheet being presented to assist project managers with their ethics work. The paper makes an original contribution that highlights the relationship between sustainability, ethical working practices and UN SDGs. Despite the relevance of ethics to SDGs, no prior study has used TPB to model ethical scenarios in construction project management. Full article

Fibre-reinforced polymer composites incorporating synthetic reinforcements such as glass and carbon fibres are widely used due to their superior mechanical performance. However, their energy-intensive production and end-of-life disposal contribute to an increased carbon footprint and significant environmental burden. Natural fibre-reinforced composites have emerged as promising low impact alternatives, but variability in their mechanical performance and the lack of controlled comparative studies limit their structural application. This study presents a controlled experimental comparison of alkaline-treated unidirectional flax/epoxy and hemp/epoxy composites fabricated using the vacuum-assisted resin infusion moulding (VARIM) process. Alkali treatment was employed to enhance the fibre–matrix interfacial bonding. Mechanical characterization was conducted through tensile, flexural, impact, interlaminar shear strength (ILSS), and Vickers microhardness testing in accordance with relevant ASTM and ISO standards. The flax/epoxy composites exhibited superior in-plane mechanical performance including, 9.1% higher tensile modulus, 13.8% higher flexural strength and 20.5% higher flexural modulus compared to hemp/epoxy composites. A significant improvement was observed in impact performance, with hemp composites showing 87.4% higher impact strength, indicating enhanced resistance to dynamic loading. Conversely, hemp/epoxy composites demonstrated a 10.6% higher ILSS, suggesting improved interfacial shear resistance and fibre interlocking. These findings confirm that the fibre type significantly influences composite performance, with flax fibres providing superior stiffness and strength, while hemp fibres offer better interlaminar shear behaviour and impact strength. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) fractographic analysis was additionally conducted on fracture surfaces to characterize failure mechanisms and fibre–matrix interfacial morphology. The present study provides a reliable comparative framework for material selection and demonstrates the potential of flax- and hemp-based composites as sustainable alternatives for lightweight structural applications. This study supports the development of sustainable composite materials and contributes to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly SDG 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production), SDG 13 (Climate Action), and SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities). Full article

Climate change represents one of the defining global health challenges of the 21st century, with far-reaching implications for population health, health systems, and health equity. The acceleration of environmental change, evidenced by record-breaking global temperatures, extreme weather events, and ecological degradation, poses a direct threat to achieving Sustainable Development Goal 3 (SDG 3), which aims to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all. This manuscript presents a narrative review and policy analysis of the intersection of climate change and global public health in light of the outcomes of the 2025 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30) in Belém, Brazil. Drawing on peer-reviewed literature, major institutional reports, and relevant policy documents, we explore how climate change exacerbates communicable and non-communicable diseases, undermines health system resilience, and disproportionately affects vulnerable populations worldwide. Particular attention is given to heat-related morbidity, infectious disease expansion, air pollution, food and water insecurity, displacement, gender inequities, antimicrobial resistance, and mental health impacts. The paper highlights the significance of the Belém Health Action Plan (BHAP), which is treated here as a COP30-associated action framework that places health more centrally within climate policy discussions. However, major challenges remain, including its voluntary orientation, the absence of dedicated financing mechanisms within the framework itself, and limited clarity on accountability arrangements, as identified through our synthesis of the available policy and evidence base. We argue that achieving SDG 3 is no longer feasible without integrating climate adaptation and mitigation into health systems and policies, and that progress will depend on translating global commitments into context-specific country strategies, governance arrangements, and implementation pathways. Full article

In the bourbon industry, rickhouses store bourbon barrels undergoing the maturation process. Ambient conditions—including temperature, relative humidity, and overall air composition—play a critical role in the maturation process of bourbon within rickhouses. The presence of ethyl alcohol vapors is a byproduct of the aging process and has been a long-standing issue within the industry. Exposure to ethanol vapor can hasten the corrosion of barrel hoops, potentially compromise the integrity of the barrels and lead to product loss. Newly constructed rick-houses have been designed to mitigate the vapors with natural ventilation from windows and air vents. This study shows that natural ventilation does not really allow air to move through the stacks, even in an empty rickhouse. The evaluation was performed using differential pressure measurements and smoke tracing to characterize extremely low-energy airflow. Differential pressure measurements and smoke tracing conducted on the first floor and crawl space of a newly constructed empty rickhouse indicated that while air enters the warehouse through windows and vents, it does not effectively penetrate the interior rick structures. Airflow is largely confined to the crawl space and walkways, with limited movement into the central rick areas, indicating that natural ventilation alone may be insufficient for comprehensive air circulation. The findings provide important insights into airflow behavior and its implications for the spirits industry, while contributing to a growing body of evidence suggesting that natural ventilation alone may be insufficient to adequately mitigate a known de-passivating agent, ethyl alcohol vapor, accumulation in current rickhouse designs. The results align with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals of “Sustainable Cities and Communities” (SDG 11) and “Responsible Consumption and Production” (SDG 12). Improved understanding of airflow characteristics may support the development of better-ventilated rickhouses, enhancing sustainable production practices and reducing the impact of material and product losses on surrounding communities. Full article