Authentication protocol is a critical part of any application to manage the access control in many applications. A former research recently proposed a lightweight authentication scheme to transmit data in an IoT subsystem securely. Although the designers presented the first security analysis of the proposed protocol, that protocol has not been independently analyzed by third-party researchers, to the best of our knowledge. On the other hand, it is generally agreed that no cryptosystem should be used in a practical application unless its security has been verified through security analysis by third parties extensively, which is addressed in this paper. Although it is an efficient protocol by design compared to other related schemes, our security analysis identifies the non-ideal properties of this protocol. More specifically, we show that this protocol does not provide perfect forward secrecy. In addition, we show that it is vulnerable to an insider attacker, and an active insider adversary can successfully recover the shared keys between the protocol’s entities. In addition, such an adversary can impersonate the remote server to the user and vice versa. Next, the adversary can trace the target user using the extracted information. Finally, we redesign the protocol such that the enhanced protocol can withstand all the aforementioned attacks. The overhead of the proposed protocol compared to its predecessor is only 15.5% in terms of computational cost. Full article

The Paris Agreement recognized the significant role of forests in climate change mitigating and adapting. It also emphasized the importance of the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+) mechanism as a vital tool for achieving the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels. This study aims to assess the REDD+ readiness of Bhutan, India, Myanmar, and Nepal in preparation for effectively implementing REDD+ at the national level. A total of 57 indicators across five categories were used to evaluate readiness: overall readiness, technical readiness, institutional readiness, financing readiness, and strategy and safeguard readiness. The indicator-based questionnaire was administered to government officials, NGOs, private sectors, and academics. The results showed that Nepal was slightly more advanced in overall readiness, owing in part to the longer readiness period of the World Bank-supported Terai Arc ER-P. India scored highly in technical readiness and has several sub-national programmes for REDD+ implementation. Bhutan had strong ratings for strategy and safeguard readiness but lower scores for institutional and financing readiness. Myanmar had consistent ratings across readiness areas, but a lower score for technical readiness. However, political and governance situations pose significant challenges to the effective implementation of REDD+ in Myanmar. Full article

Marine development and eco-environmental management have received increasing attention over the past two decades, however, no effective universal approach has been established to achieve marine development without destroying marine ecosystems. This study discusses the integrated ocean management (IOM) for meeting the sustainable development goal (SDG14) through the following four aspects: the marine eco-environment foundation, market mechanism, management support, and space consideration. Our findings highlight how to enhance the coastal and marine areas management efficiency to achieve ecological and socioeconomic values for sustainable development through the benign interaction of marine ecosystem and socioeconomic systems. The presented case study examines the IOM framework for achieving SDG14 in the Bohai Sea. Furthermore, content analysis and semi-structured interviews were conducted. The framework is theoretically and empirically explored in light of the Bohai Sea’s management, focusing on the role of the government and incentive. Further, issues preventing effective IOM are highlighted and a framework for optimizing the IOM implementation to better balance the interests of various industries is suggested. When implementing the IOM framework, each region should fully play to its own advantages and push forward with some focused aspects first. The long-term effect of the Bohai Sea’s management may need time to be verified, and the role of the market mechanism and multi-interest coordination mechanism need more special attention for the Bohai Sea in the future. Full article

Climate change effects on long-term groundwater (GW) resource developments in the Tana Basin, Ethiopia, are a growing concern. Efforts to provide estimates under various climatic uncertainties are lacking in the region. To address this need, we deployed a fine-resolution (500 m) GW model using MODFLOW-NWT for the Tana Basin, Upper the Blue Nile region. The GW model was calibrated based on 98 historical instantaneous well-level measurements (RMSE = 16.36 m, 1.6% of range), and 38 years of monthly lake level data (RMSE = 0.2 m, 6.7% of range). We used the model to simulate long-term climate change impacts by considering two representative concentration pathways, (RCPs) 4.5 and 8.5, from the two extreme global circulation models (MIROC5 for wetter conditions and CSIRO-Mk3 for drier conditions) available in the region. While the MIROC5 simulated GW table (GWT) was found to be stable, the CSIRO-Mk3 simulated GWT exhibited large fluctuations within +2 m to −4 m by 2100 due to climate change. More critical impacts were predicted for the lake, where total lake releases from the baseline scenario were foreseen to be changed by +50% (MIROC5) or −22% (CSIRO-Mk3) by the end of 2100. Full article

Arable land is the natural resource of food production, plays a key role in safe guarding people’s livelihood, maintaining social stability, and ecological balance. In the context of the great challenge of rapid loss of arable land and rapid growth of food demand due to rapid socio-economic development, scientific forecasting of arable land demand and supply, can clarify the conservation pressure of regional arable land, provide a reference for formulating effective arable land policies, and ensuring regional food security and sustainable development. Therefore, with the help of system dynamics model and Gray-Markov model, this study predicts and analyzes the balance of arable land supply and demand in China, and reached the following conclusions. (1) During the projection period, with the continuous development of living standards and agricultural technology, both per capita food demand and food production show an upward trend. However, the combined effects of changes in diet structure and grain yields on changes in arable land demand are smaller than those brought about by population changes. Therefore, the trend of arable land demand is similar to that of population change, and the arable land demand in China reaches a peak of 112.78 million hm² in 2026. (2) The amount of arable land possession is always greater than the amount of arable land replenishment, and the arable land supply area shows a continuous decreasing trend, and the arable land supply in China is 127.16 million hm² in 2035. (3) China’s supply holdings are all able to meet the demand of China’s arable land, but combined with existing studies, it is insufficient to meet the demand of crop rotation fallow between 2023 and 2030, which is not conducive to sustainable development. In the future, arable land protection policies should be comprehensively improved and strictly implemented to ensure national food security and achieve sustainable use of arable land. Full article

Energy transition has a prominent role in 21st-century urban agendas. Worldwide, cities pursue the local implementation of international, national and regional agendas aiming at a sustainable energy transition. Landscape integration, multifunctionality and community participation are three of the key concepts here. These concepts are interpreted differently across the different spatial levels. The object of this paper is to analyse the application of the three sustainability concepts at the regional, local and site levels for the city of Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The results show that the degree of implementation of the concepts depends on what factors are considered important at each spatial level. At the regional and local levels, landscape integration with regards to social factors such as finances and co-ownership drive successful implementation, thanks to the organisation of effective participatory processes. At the site level, landscape integration and multifunctionality with regards to spatial factors such as the ecological, recreational and historical landscape factors drive successful implementation through effective landscape design activities. However, the sustainability of the energy transition implementation process is affected by a lack of social-ecological systems thinking. Participation processes—if present—focus either on social or spatial factors but fail to interconnect them. The regional and local levels that currently demonstrate major abstraction and separation of social and spatial factors would benefit from effective exchange with the site level. At that scale, design activities are the arena to combine and reconcile social and spatial factors. Full article

This investigation delves into the effectiveness of employing vegetable-based cutting fluids and nanoparticles in milling AZ31 magnesium alloy, as part of the pursuit of ecologically sustainable manufacturing practices. The study scrutinizes three different cutting environments: (i) dry cutting; (ii) minimum quantity lubrication (MQL) with rice bran oil as the base oil and turmeric oil as an additive; and (iii) MQL with rice bran oil as the base oil, and turmeric oil and kaolinite nanoparticles as additives. Fuzzy logic was implemented to develop the design of experiments and assess the impact of these cutting environments on carbon emissions, surface quality, and microhardness. Upon conducting an analysis of variance (ANOVA), it was determined that all the three input parameters (cutting environment, cutting speed, and feed) greatly affect carbon emissions. The third cutting environment (MQL + bio-oils + kaolinite) generated the lowest carbon emissions (average of 9.21 ppm) and surface roughness value (0.3 um). Confirmatory tests validated that the output parameters predicted using the multiobjective genetic algorithm aligned well with experimental values, thus affirming the algorithm’s robustness. Full article

Taking advantage of the growing production of organic waste for its conversion to waste-to-energy (WtE) also contributes to mitigating the problems associated with its final disposal, which is a global trend of increasing application. This work presents an innovative approach for the identification and prioritization of WtE alternatives available from the use of food waste (FW) present in the municipal solid waste (MSW) of a Colombian municipality with source separation and selective collection: (i) a systematic literature review, which allows one to identify WtE alternatives; (ii) the prospective MIC-MAC method (Matrice d’Impacts Croisés Multiplication Appliqués à un Classement) allowed the selection of criteria and sub criteria; (iii) the analytical hierarchical process (AHP) and the technique of order of preference by similarity to the ideal solution (TOPSIS), allowed a ranking of selected alternatives considering the technical, environmental, and social aspects. The WtE technologies identified were anaerobic digestion, gasification, incineration, biogas recovery from landfills, and pyrolysis; this last was excluded due to its greater application potential with substrates such as plastic waste. The six sub-criteria identified and prioritized were social acceptability (36%), greenhouse gas emissions mitigated (16.17%), MSW reduction (15.83%), energy production (13.80%), technological maturity (12.95%), and electrical energy conversion efficiency (5.25%), with the decreasing order of preferences of anaerobic digestion (78.2%), gasification (47.5%), incineration (27.4%), and biogas recovery from landfills (6.6%); the latter was the least desirable alternative (lower social acceptance and CO₂ tons mitigated in relation to the other options). The innovative nature of this study is the identification and consideration of the comprehensive management of this type of waste of a large number of criteria (120 environmental, 52 social, and 59 technical) and the validation of the results through a sensitivity analysis, which allowed us to confirm for this study, that anaerobic digestion is the most favorable technology for the treatment and energy use of FW. Full article

Climate change has amplified the severity of droughts with potentially adverse impacts on agriculture in western Canada. This study assessed meteorological and agricultural drought in the Southern Saskatchewan River Basin (SSRB) using an array of drought indices, including the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI), the Standardized Precipitation-Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI), the Self-Calibrated Palmer Drought Severity Index (scPDSI), the Soil Moisture Deficit Index (SMDI), and the Evapotranspiration Deficit Index (ETDI). These indices were evaluated using multiple regional climate model (RCM) projections assuming 1.5, 2.0, and 3.0 °C thresholds of global warming. A modified Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT-M) was used to simulate the soil water content (SWC), actual evapotranspiration (AET), and potential evapotranspiration. The results of a sensitivity analysis using the SUFI-2 method in SWAT-CUP showed that the model performed well with BIAS lower than 10% and NSE and R higher than 0.7, and the range of SWC output closely matched the observed SWC. According to the RCM projections, the annual precipitation increases for all three global temperature thresholds while the annual mean temperature increases at a greater rate than the rise in global mean temperature. The projected PDSI and the SPEI suggest that drought duration and severity will exceed historical values while SPI will remain largely unchanged. Furthermore, severe drought conditions (SMDI < 2.0) are more frequent under the 3.0 °C global temperature scenario. The mean ETDI was historically 0.58 while the projected value is 0.2, 0.1, and −0.2 for the first to third scenarios, respectively. Simulated values, spatial maps, and heat maps of SMDI and ETDI illustrated that Canesm2.CRCM5 projects the driest conditions among all the RCMs. Agricultural drought indices, which incorporate SWC data, show more significant effects than meteorological drought indices. The increasing dryness will potentially impact agricultural crop production, particularly under the third scenario (3 °C) in the SSRB. Full article

International student mobility is an important dimension of internationalisation in higher education, involving a high percentage of students in certain subject areas. A literature review revealed the absence of studies deepening our knowledge of this group of students in specific contexts and stages. Thus, this survey study was undertaken to gather data on the profiles and academic and professional careers of a sample of students. Specific differences in their intrinsic and extrinsic motives for their choice of degree subject were found. A total of 314 students from 14 Master’s degree programmes at two public universities responded, 42.4% of whom were international students. The data showed differences in reasons for choice between international and Spanish-native students when enroling in a Master’s degree programme. The foreign students had diverse motivations, in many cases related to each other, with no predominance of extrinsic or intrinsic motives. This suggests that, when students are deciding to study abroad, universities should consider the importance of offering guidance to these students at the stage prior to accessing the Master’s degree. Full article

Several kinds of research from both global and local perspectives have discussed social entrepreneurship and inclusive development. Accordingly, this article aims to highlight the key contributors (authors, institutions, countries, journals) and knowledge structure (co-authorship analysis and cooccurrence-of-keyword analysis) of this research domain. Utilizing the bibliographic data of 300 articles extracted from the Scopus database, we primarily employed Biblioshiny software, resulting in 673 authors from 69 different countries and 496 different institutions. Furthermore, the yearly publication of the 300 documents rose from 1 in 1996 to 24 in 2022, with an average age of 6.08 years and a citation rate of 13.79 yearly. Remarkably, the number of publications on this subject accelerated in 2014. According to the study’s findings, the most productive country in line with research publishing is the USA. The most productive institution has been recognized as the Amrita School of Engineering. The most active author is reported to be Kadol N. The most prolific journal is Entrepreneurship and Regional Development. In addition to this, the top three most frequent terms are ‘social development’, ‘economic development’ and ‘entrepreneur. ‘Social entrepreneurship’, ‘social and economic effects’, ‘sustainable development’ and ‘social development’ are the latest keywords in this field that predict future trends. Taken collectively, this review is an expedient resource for gaining a thorough grasp of the state of the art and prospective routes for future research. Full article

Rapid urbanization causes severe parking problems in developing cities. Parking policies cannot be strictly applied in some cases because of varying claims by developers. The variables such as household density, car ownership, and availability of public transport, and the new challenges such as sustainability, climate change, and sustainable mobility still remain insignificant in parking policies. The appropriate parking policies are immediately needed; however, the question is “which policy is appropriate for which city?” In this study, the evolution of residential parking policies is analyzed through the policy analysis process and parking survey methods. In conclusion, maintaining the status quo and not monitoring the applied policy results during the peak period of urbanization caused an irreversible spillover problem. In particular, some exemptions, such as the derogation payment and lack of public district parking lots, increased the pressure on the on-street parking capacity and sustainability of streets. A case study parking survey in a large-city center shows that parking demand is exceeding the capacity by 166% for average daily occupancy on weekdays and 111% on weekends in 2022, compared to 61% in 2015. Five policy alternatives are developed and the “zone parking policy” is concluded to be the most appropriate one for districts while the “mobility level of zones” needs more action at the city level. Full article

Soil is a composite material of great interest to civil engineers. When the quality of such composite soils is poor, ground improvement techniques must be adopted to withstand the design load of superstructure. Existing soil stabilizers include lime and cement; however, their environmental safety and sustainable use during stabilization have been receiving increasing attention in recent years. This study investigated the use of granite sand (GS) and calcium lignosulphonate (CLS) as sustainable stabilizers that could be blended with clayey soils. The considered dosages of GS were 30%, 40% and 50%, and those of the CLS were 0.25%, 0.5%, 1% and 1.5%. Direct shear and consolidation tests were performed on the GS–CLS blended soil samples that were cured for 7 and 14 days. The amended stabilizers improved the shear parameters and consolidation characteristics at an optimum dosage of 30% GS and 0.5% CLS. Maximum improvements of 84% and 163% were observed in the cohesion and angles of internal friction, respectively. A significant change was also observed in the consolidation characteristics, making them practically applicable. The soil hydraulic conductivity was reduced by 14%, and the coefficient of consolidation increased by 203% for 30% GS and 05% CLS. Carbon footprint analyses were performed on the soil composition that would be best-suited for a typical homogenous earthen dam section. The results showed that the use of GS and CLS together reduced the carbon emissions by 6.57 and 7.7 times, compared to traditional stabilizers, such as cement and lime. Full article

Wetlands are valuable urban resources and can provide various ecosystem services for cities. In order to face the continuous urbanization and market economy environment, relevant government-related management, decision-makers, and stakeholders can make objective and comprehensive value judgments and decide the fate of urban wetland resources. Our quantitative approach to the ecosystem services value provided by wetlands produced clear, direct, and persuasive monetization data. The assessment of the net value of ecosystem services (NES) provides one such method. Considering the transition of the Xixi Wetland into the Xixi National Wetland Park in Hangzhou as an example, we first determined the calculation model of its NES. Second, we utilized the equivalent factor, contingent valuation, travel cost, and benefit transfer methods to calculate its value of ecosystem services (VES), service cost, and NES. The results are shown below. In 2016, the VES of Xixi Wetland park was RMB 16.973 billion, NES was RMB 16.938 billion, and service cost was RMB 34.8158 million. The value of cultural services was the main contributor to NES, which accounted for 99.27% of the total. Real estate appreciation, cultural heritage, and recreational value were the main contributors to its cultural service value. Third, through the scenario comparison, we concluded that the NES of the protective development model (the wetland park mode) adopted by Xixi Wetland was RMB 3.186 billion more than that of the protection model. In other words, the protective development model is more practical and sustainable for protecting the Xixi Wetland. Finally, the limitations and shortcomings of the study are summarized. Full article

Salinity is one of the outstanding abiotic stress conditions that a significant part of the world faces. In recent years, beneficial microorganisms started to be utilized in plants to overcome several abiotic factors, including salinity. The effects of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) mixture on growth and enzymatic responses in basil under salt stress were investigated using saline doses of 0 mM (Control), 150 mM, and 300 mM. Results showed that AMF enhanced all growth parameters, but only the leaf number was statistically significant. However, antioxidant enzymes, such as ascorbate peroxidase (APX) by 25%, catalase (CAT) by 25%, and superoxide dismutase (SOD) by 5%, significantly enhanced. At the same time, the accumulation of oxidative enzymes, like hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) and malondialdehyde (MDA), was reduced, from 12.05 μmol g⁻¹ fw (control) to 11.17 μmol g⁻¹ fw (AMF) and from 14.29 μmol g⁻¹ fw to 10.74 μmol g⁻¹ fw, respectively. AMF also significantly alleviated the chlorophyll loss caused by increasing saline doses. Multivariate analyses revealed the co-occurrence of stress metabolism enzymes as well as the proximate effect of AMF inoculation on basil yield and enzymatic activity. As a result, AMF was considered an appropriate tool for increasing growth and reducing salt stress under both stress-free and saline conditions. Full article