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Sustainability, Volume 8, Issue 9

2016 September - 132 articles

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Articles (132)

  • Article
  • Open Access
10 Citations
6,816 Views
15 Pages

An Assessment of Productivity Patterns of Grass-Dominated Rangelands in the Hindu Kush Karakoram Region, Pakistan

  • Faisal Mueen Qamer,
  • Chen Xi,
  • Sawaid Abbas,
  • Manchiraju S. R. Murthy and ,
  • Wu Ning and
  • Bao Anming
  • + 1 author+ 0 author

22 September 2016

Rangelands in the Hindu Kush Karakoram region provide a resource base for nomadic livestock grazing, which is one of the major traditional livelihood practices in the area. The present study assessed the spatiotemporal patterns and trends of rangelan...

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainability in the Mountains Region)
  • Article
  • Open Access
84 Citations
16,760 Views
16 Pages

Communicating Sustainability: An Operational Model for Evaluating Corporate Websites

  • Alfonso Siano,
  • Francesca Conte,
  • Sara Amabile,
  • Agostino Vollero and
  • Paolo Piciocchi

21 September 2016

The interest in corporate sustainability has increased rapidly in recent years and has encouraged organizations to adopt appropriate digital communication strategies, in which the corporate website plays a key role. Despite this growing attention in...

(This article belongs to the Section Economic and Business Aspects of Sustainability)
  • Article
  • Open Access
44 Citations
8,013 Views
19 Pages

21 September 2016

The economic development of China’s coastal areas is being constrained by resources and the environment, with sustainable development being the key to solving these problems. The data envelopment analysis (DEA) model is widely used to assess sustaina...

(This article belongs to the Section Social Ecology and Sustainability)
  • Case Report
  • Open Access
41 Citations
16,629 Views
15 Pages

21 September 2016

The present paper demonstrates that inundation levels in the Mekong Delta’s largest city, Can Tho, are predominantly determined by ocean tides, sea-level rise, and land subsidence. Our analysis of inundation patterns projects that the duration of inu...

(This article belongs to the Section Sustainable Urban and Rural Development)
  • Article
  • Open Access
35 Citations
13,919 Views
27 Pages

Strategic Transport Management Models—The Case Study of an Oil Industry

  • Srđan Dimić,
  • Dragan Pamučar,
  • Srđan Ljubojević and
  • Boban Đorović

21 September 2016

The awareness of the need to preserve the environment and establish sustainable development evolved as the result of the development of the world economy and society. Transport plays a very important role in this process. It is recognized as one of t...

(This article belongs to the Section Economic and Business Aspects of Sustainability)
  • Article
  • Open Access
45 Citations
12,145 Views
20 Pages

Assessing the Sustainability Performance of Organic Farms in Denmark

  • Evelien M. De Olde,
  • Frank W. Oudshoorn,
  • Eddie A. M. Bokkers,
  • Anke Stubsgaard and ,
  • Claus A. G. Sørensen and
  • Imke J. M. De Boer
  • + 1 author+ 0 author

21 September 2016

The growth of organic agriculture in Denmark raises the interest of both producers and consumers in the sustainability performance of organic production. The aim of this study was to examine the sustainability performance of farms in four agricultura...

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Agriculture–Beyond Organic Farming)
  • Article
  • Open Access
74 Citations
20,938 Views
24 Pages

21 September 2016

A key but contentious aspect of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is the means of implementation (MOI). Many developing countries emphasize the importance of international assistance while developed countries focus more on domestic financing and t...

(This article belongs to the Special Issue 5th World Sustainability Forum - Selected Papers)
  • Review
  • Open Access
12 Citations
9,383 Views
18 Pages

21 September 2016

For realizing sustainable development, EV (Electric Vehicle) is currently considered as one of the most promising alternative due to its cleanness and inexhaustibility. However, the development and dissemination of EV has stagnated because it faces m...

(This article belongs to the Section Economic and Business Aspects of Sustainability)
  • Article
  • Open Access
11 Citations
5,702 Views
16 Pages

21 September 2016

Scholars have recently been debating how economic structure affects regional economic performance. Regional economic structure typically indicates how the industries in regions are organized. The attribute of industrial organization in regions is typ...

(This article belongs to the Section Economic and Business Aspects of Sustainability)
  • Article
  • Open Access
24 Citations
5,822 Views
17 Pages

20 September 2016

This paper explores how to handle multiple criteria decision-making (MCDM) problems in which the criteria values of alternatives take the form of comparative linguistic expressions. Firstly, the new concept of hesitant trapezoidal fuzzy numbers (HTrF...

(This article belongs to the Section Energy Sustainability)
  • Article
  • Open Access
25 Citations
11,015 Views
15 Pages

20 September 2016

To realize more sustainable and resilient urban social-ecological systems, there is great need for active engagement from diverse public agencies, non-profit organizations, businesses, natural resource managers, scientists, and other actors. Cities p...

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Urban Resilience and Urban Sustainability: From Research to Practice)
  • Article
  • Open Access
149 Citations
22,933 Views
20 Pages

20 September 2016

The commitment to understanding the implications of a 1.5 °C global temperature warming limit has contributed to a growing realisation that transformative adaptation is necessary to avoid catastrophic environmental and social consequences. This is pa...

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Urban Resilience and Urban Sustainability: From Research to Practice)
  • Article
  • Open Access
4 Citations
4,758 Views
13 Pages

20 September 2016

Market competition creates strategic incentives for firms to communicate private information about their own product quality through certification. Although voluntary certification has recently gained importance in the agricultural industry, informat...

  • Article
  • Open Access
243 Citations
15,181 Views
18 Pages

Flash Flood Hazard Susceptibility Mapping Using Frequency Ratio and Statistical Index Methods in Coalmine Subsidence Areas

  • Chen Cao,
  • Peihua Xu,
  • Yihong Wang,
  • Jianping Chen and ,
  • Lianjing Zheng and
  • Cencen Niu
  • + 1 author+ 0 author

19 September 2016

This study focused on producing flash flood hazard susceptibility maps (FFHSM) using frequency ratio (FR) and statistical index (SI) models in the Xiqu Gully (XQG) of Beijing, China. First, a total of 85 flash flood hazard locations (n = 85) were sur...

  • Article
  • Open Access
77 Citations
12,121 Views
17 Pages

19 September 2016

The competitiveness of a tourism destination depends on the sustainability of its economic and environmental resources. The aim of this paper is to determine the key factors in achieving the sustainability of a tourism destination in relation to the...

  • Article
  • Open Access
1 Citations
5,041 Views
17 Pages

18 September 2016

Fuel cells may be the key to a more environmentally-friendly future because they emit low carbon dioxide per unit of energy supplied. However, little work has investigated the potential financial risks pertaining to fuel cell systems. Often used in t...

(This article belongs to the Section Sustainable Engineering and Science)
  • Concept Paper
  • Open Access
57 Citations
10,799 Views
17 Pages

16 September 2016

Innovative solutions are often conjured as a key factor for companies to come closer to the goal of ecological sustainability. Furthermore, proactive eco-innovation activities can encompass competitive advantages. Companies are therefore well advised...

  • Article
  • Open Access
52 Citations
9,868 Views
21 Pages

16 September 2016

Resource depletion and environmental degradation have become serious challenges for China’s sustainable development. This paper constructs indicators to assess China’s green economy performance and green productivity growth, in which economic expansi...

(This article belongs to the Section Environmental Sustainability and Applications)
  • Article
  • Open Access
135 Citations
20,442 Views
16 Pages

15 September 2016

Based on the theory of planned behavior, the moderating effects of product knowledge on the relationships between three independent variables and green purchase intentions were explored. Independent variables included green purchase attitudes, subjec...

  • Article
  • Open Access
44 Citations
12,156 Views

Measuring Corporate Sustainability and Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance Value Added

  • Alena Kocmanová,
  • Marie Pavláková Dočekalová,
  • Stanislav Škapa and
  • Lenka Širáňová

15 September 2016

The aim of the paper is to propose a model for measuring sustainable value which would complexly assess environmental, social, and corporate governance contribution to value creation. In the paper the concept of the Sustainable Environmental, Social...

(This article belongs to the Section Economic and Business Aspects of Sustainability)
  • Article
  • Open Access
47 Citations
13,965 Views
21 Pages

15 September 2016

This paper aims to address both the sustainability and environmental issues for cellular base stations in off-grid sites. For cellular network operators, decreasing the operational expenditures of the network and maintaining profitability are importa...

  • Review
  • Open Access
22 Citations
30,087 Views
20 Pages

14 September 2016

A subtropical watershed and wetland covering nearly 47,000 km2 in the southeastern United States, the Florida Everglades is a degraded, human-dominated environment. As a unique and important ecosystem, the Everglades provide a variety of important en...

(This article belongs to the Section Environmental Sustainability and Applications)
  • Article
  • Open Access
17 Citations
11,446 Views
26 Pages

14 September 2016

This study empirically analyzes reporting on long-term value creation for Canadian public mining and energy companies. It represents an important first step in determining the quality of reporting and its determinants for large public companies. In t...

(This article belongs to the Section Economic and Business Aspects of Sustainability)
  • Article
  • Open Access
33 Citations
6,587 Views
12 Pages

14 September 2016

The government green purchase is widely considered to be an effective means of promoting sustainable consumption. However, how to identify the greener product is the biggest obstacle of government green purchase and it has not been well solved. A qua...

(This article belongs to the Section Economic and Business Aspects of Sustainability)
  • Article
  • Open Access
58 Citations
9,300 Views
17 Pages

Changes in Cropland Status and Their Driving Factors in the Koshi River Basin of the Central Himalayas, Nepal

  • Basanta Paudel,
  • Jungang Gao,
  • Yili Zhang,
  • Xue Wu and ,
  • Shicheng Li and
  • Jianzhong Yan
  • + 1 author+ 0 author

13 September 2016

In recent decades, human activities have significantly transformed land use and land cover (LULC) and the environment of the Central Himalayas region. LULC is a major component of environmental and climatic research. The aim of this study was to dete...

  • Article
  • Open Access
11 Citations
5,987 Views
16 Pages

13 September 2016

The share of biofuels has increased significantly over the last decade, which has lead to several negative impacts on the environment. As a solution, several governments worldwide have promoted the use of certification systems, which have been implem...

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biomass Energy Conversion)
  • Article
  • Open Access
21 Citations
7,163 Views
22 Pages

13 September 2016

Aboveground and underground spaces along the urban rail transit (AUSURT) are integral parts of the urban space. Collaborative planning of AUSURT can help to improve the efficiency of urban space use and boost urban sustainable development (USD). This...

(This article belongs to the Section Sustainable Urban and Rural Development)
  • Article
  • Open Access
484 Citations
43,777 Views
15 Pages

A Conceptual Framework for Circular Design

  • Mariale Moreno,
  • Carolina De los Rios,
  • Zoe Rowe and
  • Fiona Charnley

13 September 2016

Design has been recognised in the literature as a catalyst to move away from the traditional model of take-make-dispose to achieve a more restorative, regenerative and circular economy. As such, for a circular economy to thrive, products need to be d...

(This article belongs to the Section Economic and Business Aspects of Sustainability)
  • Article
  • Open Access
45 Citations
10,348 Views
14 Pages

13 September 2016

Failure modes and effects analysis ( F M E A ) substantially facilitates the efforts of industrial manufacturers in prioritizing failures that require corrective actions to continuously improve product quality. However, the conventional approac...

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Competitive and Sustainable Manufacturing in the Age of Globalization)
  • Review
  • Open Access
37 Citations
10,267 Views
17 Pages

13 September 2016

Despite its ambiguities, the concept of resilience is of critical importance to researchers, practitioners, and policy-makers in dealing with dynamic socio-ecological systems. In this paper, we critically examine the three empirical approaches of (i)...

(This article belongs to the Section Social Ecology and Sustainability)
  • Article
  • Open Access
37 Citations
9,976 Views
16 Pages

13 September 2016

It is a critical question for environmental governance to examine whether the administrative award and punishment measures are effective in promoting environmental governance performance. Choosing the implementation of a mandatory target system (MTS)...

(This article belongs to the Section Economic and Business Aspects of Sustainability)
  • Article
  • Open Access
8 Citations
5,513 Views
14 Pages

Estimating Air Particulate Matter Using MODIS Data and Analyzing Its Spatial and Temporal Pattern over the Yangtze Delta Region

  • Jianhui Xu,
  • Hong Jiang,
  • Zhongyong Xiao,
  • Bin Wang and ,
  • Jian Wu and
  • Xin Lv
  • + 1 author+ 0 author

13 September 2016

The deteriorating air quality in the Yangtze delta region is attracting growing public concern. In this paper, seasonal estimation models of the surface particulate matter (PM) were established by using aerosol optical thickness (AOT) retrievals from...

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Air Pollution Monitoring and Sustainable Development)
  • Article
  • Open Access
59 Citations
12,391 Views
14 Pages

12 September 2016

Over 1000 hectares of citrus fruits crops are grown in the Bajo Andarax district in Almeria (Spain). The withdrawal of EU subsidies for conventional production led to a drastic loss of economic profitability of the holdings and, consequently, the aba...

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Agriculture–Beyond Organic Farming)
  • Article
  • Open Access
93 Citations
10,406 Views
16 Pages

12 September 2016

An explanation and quantification of the water-energy-food nexus (WEF-Nexus) is important to advance our understanding of regional resource management, which is presently in its infant stage. Evaluation of the current states, interconnections, and tr...

(This article belongs to the Section Environmental Sustainability and Applications)
  • Article
  • Open Access
12 Citations
4,624 Views
17 Pages

11 September 2016

Energy is a critical factor of economic growth, but the overuse of it results in global warming and climate change. Hence, energy efficiency improvement can help mitigate climate change and prevent economic losses or even ecological extinction. The d...

  • Article
  • Open Access
56 Citations
8,950 Views
21 Pages

Fostering Residential Demand Response through Dynamic Pricing Schemes: A Behavioural Review of Smart Grid Pilots in Europe

  • Kris Kessels,
  • Carolien Kraan,
  • Ludwig Karg,
  • Simone Maggiore and ,
  • Pieter Valkering and
  • Erik Laes
  • + 1 author+ 0 author

11 September 2016

Many smart grid projects make use of dynamic pricing schemes aimed to motivate consumers to shift and/or decrease energy use. Based upon existing literature and analyses of current smart grid projects, this survey paper presents key lessons on how to...

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Smart Grid)
  • Article
  • Open Access
44 Citations
6,837 Views
15 Pages

10 September 2016

This study used two types of Recycled Concrete Aggregates (RCAs) with the same original virgin aggregate, but with different amounts of residual mortars. To verify that the mechanical properties of the concrete were affected by changing the unit volu...

(This article belongs to the Section Sustainable Engineering and Science)
  • Article
  • Open Access
170 Citations
20,332 Views
31 Pages

10 September 2016

This article discusses the idea of city as a platform. The analysis focuses on the forms and implications of citizen involvement in publicly-supported participatory innovation platforms that facilitate urban economic development in the welfare societ...

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Intelligent Environments and Planning for Urban Renewal)
  • Article
  • Open Access
7 Citations
6,902 Views
19 Pages

10 September 2016

Sustainability research faces many challenges as respective environmental, urban and regional contexts are experiencing rapid changes at an unprecedented spatial granularity level, which involves growing massive data and the need for spatial relation...

  • Article
  • Open Access
39 Citations
6,953 Views
18 Pages

Analyzing Forces to the Financial Contribution of Local Governments to Sustainable Development

  • Manuel Pedro Rodríguez Bolívar,
  • Andrés Navarro Galera,
  • Laura Alcaide Muñoz and
  • María Deseada López Subires

10 September 2016

In many countries, the economic crisis brought high volumes of deficit and debt in public entities, which jeopardized the ability of governments to continue providing public services and caused considerable imbalances of economic growth in different...

(This article belongs to the Section Economic and Business Aspects of Sustainability)
  • Article
  • Open Access
13 Citations
6,814 Views
15 Pages

9 September 2016

There is an increasing need for company awareness of environmental problems and sustainable business practices. As a post-consumption activity, the reverse supply chain aims to extract value from products at the end of their lifecycle; it offers a me...

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainability in Supply Chain Management)
  • Article
  • Open Access
42 Citations
6,376 Views
12 Pages

9 September 2016

China has experienced rapid urban expansion and agricultural land loss, and the land conversion has accelerated in central provinces since the mid-1990s. The goal of this paper is to examine the relative importance of socioeconomic and policy factors...

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Decipher the Present to Shape the Future- Rethinking the Urban–Rural Nexus)
  • Article
  • Open Access
13 Citations
7,535 Views
23 Pages

9 September 2016

This paper advocates the stance that sustainable approaches in architecture, although usually associated to contemporary practice, have a very complex relationship with the history of architecture and urbanism. By adopting an interpretative framework...

  • Article
  • Open Access
56 Citations
10,171 Views
22 Pages

Exploring Land Use and Land Cover of Geotagged Social-Sensing Images Using Naive Bayes Classifier

  • Asamaporn Sitthi,
  • Masahiko Nagai,
  • Matthew Dailey and
  • Sarawut Ninsawat

9 September 2016

Online social media crowdsourced photos contain a vast amount of visual information about the physical properties and characteristics of the earth’s surface. Flickr is an important online social media platform for users seeking this information. Each...

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Ecosystems and Society in the Context of Big and New Data)
  • Article
  • Open Access
36 Citations
11,525 Views
26 Pages

FS-OpenSecurity: A Taxonomic Modeling of Security Threats in SDN for Future Sustainable Computing

  • Yunsick Sung,
  • Pradip Kumar Sharma,
  • Erik Miranda Lopez and
  • Jong Hyuk Park

9 September 2016

Software Defined Networking (SDN) has brought many changes in terms of the interaction processes between systems and humans. It has become the key enabler of software defined architecture, which allows enterprises to build a highly agile Information...

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced IT based Future Sustainable Computing)
  • Article
  • Open Access
24 Citations
10,136 Views
10 Pages

9 September 2016

The 2012 Doha meeting established the continuation of the Kyoto protocol, the legally-binding global agreement under which signatory countries had agreed to reduce their carbon emissions. Contrary to this assumed obligation, all G20 countries with th...

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Air Pollution Monitoring and Sustainable Development)
  • Article
  • Open Access
3 Citations
5,379 Views
13 Pages

8 September 2016

Although it has been widely accepted that insertion into global production networks may play a critical role in fostering local supplier upgrading, scholars have yet to fully incorporate heterogeneous configurations of buyer-supplier relationships wi...

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Competitive and Sustainable Manufacturing in the Age of Globalization)
  • Article
  • Open Access
31 Citations
8,455 Views
23 Pages

8 September 2016

In this article we review prior literature regarding the concept of social license to operate, and related concepts, including corporate social responsibility, sustainable development, stakeholder management and cumulative effects. Informed by these...

(This article belongs to the Section Economic and Business Aspects of Sustainability)
  • Article
  • Open Access
18 Citations
7,471 Views
16 Pages

Integrated Land Governance for Eco-Urbanization

  • Zhan Wang,
  • Xiangzheng Deng and
  • Cecilia Wong

7 September 2016

“Eco-urbanization” emphasizes the importance of the ecological and environmental aspects of urbanization, which is to approach a balanced and healthy ecosystem through paying attention to the ecological intercorrelation of many factors. This involves...

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Sustainability - ISSN 2071-1050