Search Results (3,150)

This study explores the dynamic relationship between industrial robots, education, and environmental sustainability in the United States, emphasizing their role in reducing CO₂ emissions. The research aims to quantify how automation, human capital, and the energy transition contribute to carbon mitigation within a data-driven, AI-oriented policy framework. Quarterly data spanning 2011Q1–2024Q4 were analyzed using the advanced Quantile-on-Quantile Autoregressive Distributed Lag (QQARDL) model, which captures heterogeneous long- and short-run effects across emission distributions. Results reveal that industrial robot adoption, education, and renewable energy transition significantly reduce emissions, with the strongest effects occurring at both high- and low-emission quantiles. Economic growth and financial development also support decarbonization when complemented by green finance and innovation, while urbanization increases emissions unless aligned with compact urban design and clean energy systems. The findings imply that AI-driven industrial robotics and education jointly foster sustainability through efficiency, innovation, and awareness. Policymakers are encouraged to integrate automation strategies, renewable energy incentives, and sustainability education into climate policy. This study provides empirical evidence supporting the Resource-Based View, highlighting human capital and intelligent automation as strategic assets for achieving long-term carbon neutrality. Full article

Electromagnetic (EM) fields, as one of the basic forms of energy in the built and lived environment (BLE), present an environmental health challenge, yet they often remain an overlooked concern, particularly with the development of information and communication technologies (ICT) and energy systems. Although these fields are essential for the contemporary infrastructure, society needs to engage in a thorough discussion regarding their potential impact on health. In light of this, a commitment should be made to design and manage technologies and infrastructure that strive to lower EM pollution, while ensuring optimal functionality. Achieving this goal requires viable urban planning and sustainability strategies. The motivation of this study is to examine various instances to foster a deeper understanding of the EM in the BLE. It explores significant sources of exposure and major safety guidelines. A literature review and EM field audits in three locations within two cities in Canada and the UK have been provided to understand the trends and serve as a comparative sample. Key transition pathways towards EM sustainability have been proposed, including the establishment of observatory systems in urban locations, hygiene practices, risk governance, and an interplay between sustainability and technology. Full article

Urban energy systems are expected to undergo a rapid transition towards smart, sustainable, and resilient infrastructures. Within this transformation, the interaction between smart buildings and energy grids plays a critical role in shaping future urban energy solutions. Smart building–grid interaction strategies facilitate the bidirectional energy flow between buildings and urban energy systems and support the integration of renewable energy sources (RESs) into cities’ energy systems through advanced control systems, sensing technologies, and digital infrastructures. However, the adoption of these solutions remains complex due to fragmented key performance indicators (KPIs) and the diversity of enabling technologies, and it requires accurate performance-driven design and operation. Despite recent advancements, the management and evaluation of the interaction of smart buildings and urban energy systems remain challenging due to overlapping and fragmented KPIs as well as the complexity of enabling technologies. Therefore, this study aims to review the recently published research works and provide a holistic taxonomy of KPIs and enabling technologies for such interplay between smart buildings and urban energy systems to achieve the goal of sustainable energy transition in cities. The study identifies and categorizes several existing KPIs across sustainability dimensions, including technical, environmental, economic, and social, covering the KPIs to measure the performance of smart building–urban energy systems from a sustainability-aware lens, offering an integrative framework for assessing urban energy resilience and efficiency. Additionally, the study contributes to classifying the enabling technologies for smart building and urban energy system interaction and discusses the interdependencies among such technology clusters. The findings contribute to ongoing urban energy transitions by promoting systemic approaches to planning, performance evaluation, and decision-making for sustainable and equitable urban energy futures. This contributes to the sustainability of the building and energy sectors at the urban scale by promoting and helping multi-dimensional performance assessment and informed decision-making. Full article

The South-to-North Water Diversion Project (SNWDP), the world’s largest water transfer initiative, is designed to address northern China’s acute water scarcity by diverting approximately 45 km³ of water annually from the south through three major routes, with completion targeted for 2050. This review demonstrates that the SNWDP has already improved water security for over 150 million people, stabilized groundwater, and supported agricultural and urban development, but also presents significant challenges, including escalating costs, large-scale resettlement, and substantial environmental concerns such as ecosystem alteration, salinity intrusion, pollutant transfer, and risks to biodiversity and water quality. While mitigation and adaptive management efforts are ongoing, their long-term effectiveness remains uncertain. Notably, the SNWDP’s influence extends beyond China: by enhancing food production self-sufficiency, it can help stabilize global food markets during concurrent droughts and serves as a model—albeit a debated one—for large-scale water management and governance. The project’s hydropolitical and geopolitical dimensions, especially regarding the planned western route and potential transboundary impacts, underscore the need for international dialog and monitoring. Overall, the SNWDP exemplifies both the opportunities and dilemmas of 21st-century megaprojects, with its legacy dependent on balancing economic, environmental, and social trade-offs and on transparent, participatory governance to ensure sustainable outcomes for China and the global community. Full article

Urban wetlands are strategic socio-ecological systems that provide diverse cultural ecosystem services, including recreation, environmental education, and spiritual connections with nature. At the same time, they can generate ecosystem disservices, undermine human well-being, and challenge urban sustainability. This study investigates visitors’ perceptions of such disservices in three Ramsar-designated wetlands in Bogotá, Colombia (Santa María del Lago, Juan Amarillo, and Córdoba) to assess their influence on tourist experiences and their potential role in fostering urban peace. A mixed-methods approach was employed, combining structured surveys, quantitative analysis, and qualitative coding. The results reveal that pollution, insecurity, and unpleasant odors significantly reduce visitors’ willingness to return, with notable variations across gender groups and wetland sites. Visitors also emphasized the need to strengthen infrastructure, surveillance, and environmental education. These findings underscore the importance of incorporating disservice analysis into wetland governance as a strategy to advance regenerative tourism, promote environmental justice, and support peacebuilding in Latin American metropolitan contexts, with broader implications for global urban sustainability. Full article

Access to safe water and sanitation remains a pressing challenge in Sub-Saharan Africa. Rapid urbanisation, fragile governance, and increasing climate hazards continue to undermine the sustainability of WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) services. This study examines whether Mozambique’s normative and institutional framework effectively supports sustainable urban WASH service delivery in Beira, the country’s second-largest city. Combining a critical policy review with six semi-structured interviews involving institutional actors and community leaders, the research employs a qualitative, phenomenological design to explore the interaction between national frameworks and local practices. Findings reveal five interrelated dimensions shaping sustainability: governance coordination, infrastructure robustness and maintenance, community participation, climate resilience, and financial viability. Although post-disaster investments and recent policy reforms have led to improvements, significant challenges persist. These include overlapping institutional mandates, underdeveloped preventive maintenance systems, limited recognition and support for community-led initiatives, fragmented climate adaptation efforts, and strong dependence on external funding. The study also reveals how historical legacies, particularly colonial-era governance structures, continue to shape water and sanitation delivery. By integrating policy analysis with local perspectives, the paper contributes to debates on WASH sustainability in African cities, particularly in climate-vulnerable secondary urban centres. It highlights the need for systemic reforms that clarify institutional roles, institutionalise maintenance practices, formalise community engagement, embed nature-based adaptation strategies, and strengthen financial transparency. These changes are essential if Beira, and similar cities across sub-Saharan Africa, are to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 6 under mounting climate pressure. Full article

Urban park areas mitigate urbanization’s negative impacts by integrating environmental, social and cultural benefits. Development strategies should enable participation and consider all user groups’ needs, following sustainability principles. However, ensuring multifunctionality often generates conflicting decisions. While the universal necessity for safety is widely acknowledged, its implementation frequently results in the diminution of a crucial sense of privacy. For example, the universally recognized need for safety may compromise the willingness sense of privacy or intimacy. This can discourage those for whom this need is important and prevent urban parks from fully utilizing their social potential. This study examines how spatial configurations of plant forms within urban parks shape personal experiences. We used an intra-group design to evaluate photographs of park spaces, manipulated using Photoshop AI algorithms to examine safety, privacy, preference, and willingness to spend time. Variables included space size and shape. The study used Computer-Assisted Web Interviewing (CAWI) with 300 participants. Regression and mediation analyses showed willingness to visit derives from space attractiveness, influenced by perceived safety and privacy. Analyses revealed the following: open areas were safest but the least private, corridor spaces were the least safe but the most private; curtain screens enhanced perception better than corridor screens; small spaces with corridor screens were least attractive; space size mattered less for open spaces than screened spaces; and spatial configuration was critical in assessing small spaces. The findings of this research enhance our comprehension of the perception of park spaces. They hold potential practical implications for sustainable design, facilitating the development of plant forms that are more socially effective, particularly those with substantial environmental value, such as dense vegetation that serves as visual screens. Neglecting these preferences may result in inappropriate design decisions that fail to accommodate users’ needs and behaviors, thereby not fully capitalizing on the potential of urban green spaces. Full article

As climate change mitigation intensifies, retrofitting existing buildings has emerged as a critical and cost-effective strategy to improve energy performance, resilience, and sustainability. This systematic literature review (SLR) analysed 97 peer-reviewed articles published between 2015 and 2025, retrieved from the Scopus database using a title-based search strategy combining keywords related to building performance and retrofit actions. A five-stage screening process was employed to refine results based on publication type, discipline relevance, and research alignment. VOSviewer was used for scientometric mapping, complemented by descriptive and content analyses, to identify six thematic clusters: envelope optimisation, energy economics, environmental quality, system efficiency, passive retrofitting, and digital/data-driven planning. The review also applies a PESTEL framework to evaluate retrofit benefits across political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal dimensions. Finally, seven future research directions are proposed, including digital twin (DT) integration, artificial intelligence (AI) adoption, circular economy (CE) principles, stakeholder engagement, and climate-resilient design. By consolidating fragmented research, this study provides actionable insights for scholars, practitioners, and policymakers, establishing building retrofitting as a strategic pathway toward sustainable and climate-responsive urban development. Full article

As urban areas in developing countries, including South Africa, continue to grapple with the adverse challenges of climate change and rapid population growth, there is an increasing call for nature-inspired solutions. This is because nature-based solutions (NbSs) can significantly enhance urban resilience by managing stormwater, reducing flooding and creating livable spaces within urban centers. One such NbS is permeable pavement, which has gained attention for its ability to allow water to infiltrate rather than run off. However, while its use is growing in developed nations, the story is not the same in South Africa, where the literature is silent on its usage and issues of flooding and other associated disasters have persisted. Therefore, this study adopts a post-positivist approach to investigate the application and challenges of permeable pavements as an NbS in South African urban areas. The study reveals a low level of permeable pavement use, albeit an encouraging level of awareness among built environment professionals. Covariance-based structural equation modelling further revealed the significant causes of this poor application. The findings provide valuable insights for policymakers to create incentives and frameworks that promote permeable pavement adoption in urban areas facing environmental challenges. Moreover, this research contributes to the limited literature on NbSs in South Africa, offering a foundation for future studies and addressing the pressing need for innovative solutions to flooding and urban resilience. Full article

Recognizing the negative consequences of auto-oriented urban transportation, Chinese cities began developing Urban Street Design Guidelines (USDGs) in 2016. The literature on urban transportation design from a decision-making perspective is very limited. As the first systematic evaluation of the pioneering effort by cities in China, this study analyzes local USDG documents and interviews key practitioner stakeholders from ten large cities by adapting a leading policy evaluation tool of urban street design for sustainable transportation based on the Complete Streets Policy Framework. A total of 11 USDGs adopted between 2016 and 2020 were evaluated to represent the wide range of urban contexts in China. The evaluation revealed an average performance of only 30.9% of the total possible score. Despite strong aspirations, local USDGs face significant implementation challenges, lack consideration of disadvantaged communities, and need clarify modal priorities in diverse contexts. Targeted improvements could contribute to more effective and sustainable urban street building and management in China’s cities. As an ex-ante assessment, this study provides a key reference for the future analyses of the outcomes of local USDGs. Full article

Building cycling-friendly street environments is crucial for promoting sustainable urban mobility. However, existing studies exploring the influence of the built environment on cycling have paid limited attention to the three-dimensional characteristics of street landscapes and have mostly relied on linear assumptions. To address these gaps, this study employs street view imagery and interpretable machine learning methods to investigate the nonlinear and interaction effects of street landscape elements on residents’ cycling preferences in Xiamen Island, China. The results reveal that the visual indices of buildings, sky, vegetation, and roads are the most influential variables affecting cycling preferences. These factors exhibit pronounced nonlinear relationships with cycling preference. For instance, buildings exhibit a threshold effect, with positive influences on cycling preference when the building index is below 0.12 and negative effects when it exceeds 0.12. A low sky index significantly suppresses cycling preference, whereas higher values offer only limited additional benefits, with an optimal range of 0.1–0.25. Vegetation contributes positively only at relatively high levels, suggesting that its index should ideally exceed 0.3. The road index shows a V-shaped relationship: values between 0.15 and 0.25 reduce cycling preference, whereas values below 0.15 or above 0.25 enhance it. Moreover, clear interaction effects among these variables are observed, suggesting that the combined visual composition of the streetscape plays an important role in shaping cycling preferences. These findings deepen the understanding of how street landscape characteristics influence cycling behavior and provide nuanced, practical insights for designing cycling-friendly streets and promoting sustainable travel in urban environments. Full article

To enhance the design and construction efficiency of artificial ground freezing (AGF) in water-rich sandy strata, this study takes the No. 2 cross-passage of Zhengzhou Metro Line 8 as a case study and conducts an integrated analysis combining field monitoring and numerical simulation. During the freezing process, a sensor network was deployed to capture real-time data on temperature distribution and pore water pressure evolution. Based on the collected measurements, a three-dimensional hydrothermal coupled model was developed using COMSOL Multiphysics 6.1 and validated against field data. The results demonstrate a distinct multi-stage evolution in the formation of the frozen curtain, with the highest heat exchange rate observed at the initial phase. Under a 50-day freezing schedule, increasing the average coolant temperature by 4 °C still yielded a frozen wall that meets the design thickness requirement. Additionally, several cost-effective freezing schemes were explored to accommodate varying construction timelines. This study supports sustainable urban infrastructure development by minimizing energy consumption during artificial ground freezing (AGF) processes. Full article

Post-industrial cities across Europe are undergoing profound transformation, where sustainable building design plays an increasingly strategic role in redefining urban identity and function. The transition toward sustainable urban environments requires innovative construction technologies and performance-driven standards. This study examines the role of sustainable building design in post-industrial urban regeneration, focusing on Katowice, Poland—a city undergoing significant socio-spatial and economic transformation. Through descriptive case studies of selected buildings, the research highlights how high-performance construction techniques, including advanced insulation, energy-efficient ventilation, and integrated daylighting, contribute to prestigious certifications while reducing energy demand for heating, cooling, and lighting. Beyond technical performance, the analyzed projects demonstrate how sustainable buildings can act as catalysts for post-industrial urban renewal, fostering social engagement, environmental responsibility, and architectural innovation. The novelty of this work lies in linking building-scale sustainability interventions with city-scale urban transformation dynamics, offering practical insights for similar post-industrial contexts in Central and Eastern Europe. This research provides the first comparative analysis of certified and non-certified sustainable buildings in the context of post-industrial regeneration in this region. The post-industrial revitalization of Katowice is largely driven by advancements in building energy systems, such as high-efficiency HVAC technologies and other sustainable solutions. The findings demonstrate that sustainable architecture can act as a tangible driver of social, economic, and spatial renewal, providing practical insights for post-industrial regeneration strategies across similar urban contexts. Full article

This paper describes the implementation of a rainwater harvesting and treatment system in an informal urban community in Bogotá, using a participatory methodology based on Service Learning (SL). The project began with a territorial diagnosis and community prioritization of needs, identifying access to water and its quality as the main issue. Together with the community, a system for rainwater capture, pretreatment, storage, and filtration was designed and built, adapted to local conditions. Monitoring of physicochemical and microbiological parameters across different climatic periods showed significant improvements in the quality of treated water, meeting national standards for most indicators. Simultaneously, an educational process was carried out through workshops and hands-on activities, strengthening local capacities and promoting hygiene and water management practices. The analysis highlights the system’s adaptability to climate variability, community ownership, and the replicability of the model. It concludes that the integration of appropriate technology, community participation, and education can effectively improve access to and quality of water in vulnerable urban contexts, contributing to quality of life and sustainable development. Full article

This paper explores how collective resilience is built and sustained through situated, relational, and reparative approaches to design within conditions of deep spatial inequality. Focusing on Johannesburg’s Slovo Park settlement and the long-standing 15 year collaboration between the Slovo Park Community Development Forum (SPCDF) and 1to1—Agency of Engagement, it examines how participatory tool-making—centred on two keystone tools, the Blue File (a community-held, cloud-based knowledge repository) and the Timeline Tool (a multi-workshop planning and accountability device)—supports iteration, voice change, leadership transitions, and decision-making “with the map in hand.” Grounded in Southern urbanist theory and spatial justice scholarship, the paper re-politicises resilience as ongoing negotiation, repair, and shared authorship. It details how a map-based pointing practice translated situated knowledges into spatial choices; how the Blue File preserved continuity and evidence through leadership turnover; and how the Timeline Tool embedded care and transparency. Alongside benefits, the paper surfaces key tensions—expectation management, idea overload, triage and prioritisation, and legitimacy during leadership changes—and shows the concrete decision protocols used to move from many inputs to buildable design options. It concludes with ethical reflections for practitioners working in postcolonial/post-apartheid contexts and offers transferable lessons for allied urban conditions. Full article