Recently, the off-grid smart house has been attracting attention in Japan for considering global warming. Moreover, the selling price of surplus power from the renewable energy system by Feed-In Tariff (FIT) has declined. Therefore, this paper proposes an off-grid smart house with the introduced Photovoltaic (PV) system, Solar Collector (SC) system, Hot Water Heat Pump (HWHP), fixed battery and Electric Vehicle (EV). In this research, a multi-objective optimization problem is considered to minimize the introduced capacity and shortage of the power supply in the smart house. It can perform the electric power procurement from the EV charging station for the compensation of a shortage of power supply. From the simulation results, it is shown that the shortage of the power supply can be reduced by the compensation of the EV power. Furthermore, considering the uncertainty for PV output power, reliable simulation results can be obtained. Full article

This paper deals with the study of Holocene geomorphic evolution of rivers around Songshan Mountain in relation to human frequentation in Prehistoric periods. The investigations were performed by means of an integration of GIS data processing; field surveys and particle size analysis. In 8000–3000 aBP; in the Songshan Mountain Region, large-scale river sedimentation occurred. This increased the elevation of river beds that were higher than today. After 3000 aBP; the upper reaches of the rivers experienced a down cut; while the lower reaches experienced continuing sedimentation. The data on the elevation of prehistoric settlements above the river levels were obtained from Digital Elevation Models (DEMs). These data were corrected according to the evolutionary features of fluvial landforms in order to obtain synchronous elevations above river levels of prehistoric settlements. The relationship between sediment distribution and the Holocene geomorphic evolution was investigated through the statistical analysis of the elevation above the river levels. Outputs from our analyses enabled us to differentiate three evolutionary stages. During the first one, related to Peiligang culture (9000–7500 aBP), populations mainly settled on both hilly relief and high plateaus depending on their agriculture production modes. During the second stage, from Yangshao (7500–5000 aBP) to the Longshan period (5000–4000 aBP), settlements were mainly distributed on mountainous areas and hilly lands to avoid flooding and to develop agriculture. Finally, during the Xiashang culture (4000–3000 aBP), a large number of settlements migrated to the plain area to facilitate trade of goods and cultural exchanges. Full article

The literature on tourism and events is endless; a niche in this wide research field is represented by food and wine research. The growing interest shown by wine tourists has nurtured the proliferation of wine events and the growth of the wine tourism business; as a consequence, academicians’ interest in this issue has increased. At the same time, research on tourism and events is an evolving field and it has moved from a main economic focus to a broader perspective: some scholars have highlighted how the growing interest towards green and sustainable practices has stimulated academic research and a lot has been done on the management of environmental issues. Given the resonance of wine tourism and the role it has for local and rural development, the interest towards the issue of sustainability in wine is more than warranted. Thus, this paper aims to provide some useful insights about where research has gone and where it is going; a thorough literature review has been performed. Full article

International cooperation is a must to achieve the goal of sustainable development, since only through cross border actions’ complex issues like environmental degradation can be faced. Supranational initiatives and shared objectives are the only path for getting a durable and effective green strategy, which transcends boundaries or governments and fosters a common effort for sustainability through networking. The European Neighborhood and Partnership Instrument (ENPI) aims at reinforcing cooperation between the European Union (EU) and partner countries’ regions placed along the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. To this extent, MESP (Managing the Environmental Sustainability of Ports for a durable development) can be considered as a typical cross border cooperation project, willing to create a sustainable environmental management of port in northern and southern shores of the Mediterranean basin. This has been achieved through the development of specific guidelines towards environmental sustainability and the collection of common tools, methodologies, good practices and innovations focused on pollution reduction that can be replicated in Mediterranean ports and further. This was possible through the creation of a strong cooperation network and long-lasting collaborations among partners and stakeholders such as harbour cities, port authorities, universities, research centres and scientific skills. Full article

Precipitation is the main water source for vegetation survival in arid and semi-arid areas. However, previous studies always focus on the effects of precipitation in different time scales, but ignore the effects of precipitation in different spatial scales. To further study the effects of precipitation fluctuation in different spatial scales, we used the wavelet analysis method to analyze its temporal and spatial change based on data from eighteen meteorological stations during 1961–2015 in Horqin region. Results showed that: (1) from the overall tendency of precipitation changes, the precipitation inter-annual variations in Horqin region had the tendency of gradually decreasing from the southeast (District IV) to the northwest; (2) the precipitation anomalies of District I–IV between 1960 and 1980 were small and approximate to the normal value; (3) in the time scale of 23–32 years, the cyclical fluctuations were very significant and the annual precipitation underwent two cyclical fluctuations from a period of low precipitation to a period of high precipitation; and (4) as results of analyzing the spatial wavelet variance of sub-region, the main cycle of precipitation in District I, District II and District III was between 10 and 11 years, while the main cycle of precipitation in District IV was 25 years. The main conclusions include the following. (1) This region tended to be arid, and the precipitation gradually decreased from the southeast (District IV) to northwest (District I). (2) The influence of spatial differentiation characteristics on precipitation fluctuation in this region was cyclical fluctuation, which gradually decreased from the southeast to the northwest. The length of the cyclical change period gradually shortened. In the first main cycle, whose annual precipitation changes were most significant, the changing characteristic was District IV and District I decreased from 25 years to 10 years. (3) Predicated from the cyclical changing law that the annual precipitation decreases from high to low, the Horqin region will remain in a period of low precipitation between 2016 and 2020. Full article

Providing residential solid waste collection (RSWC) services is the first and most indispensable part of residential solid waste management and is crucial for rural environment protection. This paper seeks to analyze the determinants of RSWC services’ provision at the village level, based on a latest survey data set of 150 villages in the Poyang Lake Eco-Economic Zone (PLEEZ) in Jiangxi Province. Using a Probit regression model and a Bivariate Probit regression model, our results indicated that: (1) The provision of RSWC services is not evenly distributed and richer villages have more RSWC services; (2) A showcasing phenomenon exists in the provision of RSWC services. Villages that are more populous, nearer to the township government, and located in the new countryside and old liberated areas saw an increase in the provision of RSWC facilities, services that will more easily showcase village leaders’ political achievement, while the provision of RSWC workers and both RSWC facilities and workers, services that will less easily showcase village leaders’ political achievement, do not increase in these villages; (3) Informal governance characteristics, such as the ratio of largest family clans, whether village leaders come from the village’s largest family clans, and the number of people working in the upper-level government have strong predictive power over the provision of RSWC services, while formal governance characteristics, such as elections, do not matter in RSWC services’ provision. Full article

Many frequent and severe air pollution incidents have emerged across the vast parts of China recently. The identification of factors and mapping social vulnerability has become extremely necessary for environmental management and sustainable development. However, studies associating social vulnerability with air pollution remain sparse. With reference to research achievements of social vulnerability, this study made a new trial regarding social vulnerability assessment to air pollution. With the projection pursuit cluster (PPC) model, the top three factors contributing to social vulnerability index (SVI) were discovered and SVI and SVI dimensions (susceptibility, exposure, and adaptability) were evaluated. Results revealed that adaptability values are higher than susceptibility and exposure values. SVI is in a poor condition as, for the whole region, most values belong to the high-medium level. High SVI values mainly appear in the northern and the southern ends of study area. SVI in Shanghai is lower than in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces. On the scale of prefecture-level city, it can be found that the low-value centers of SVI always occurred in urban core areas. The spatial variation and inequality in social vulnerability provide policy-makers a scientific basis for air pollution prevention and sustainable management. Full article

Past studies examining survival factors of biotechnology firms have focused on pioneer countries, such as the USA, the UK and Germany. However, as the biotechnology industry in Asia is reaching the take-off stage and showing a high growth rate, the research on survival factors in the context of Asian latecomers is needed. The present research investigates internal and external factors affecting the survival of SMEs (Small and Medium-sized Enterprises) in the biotechnology industry in South Korea. The Cox hazard model was employed to perform a robust estimation in survival analysis. The analysis of internal factors showed that the origin of a firm (i.e., having prior experience or spin-offs) and the business sub-sector (i.e., platform-based) affect the hazard rates of biotechnology firms. In terms of external factors, unlike strategic alliances, government R&D funding lowered hazard rates for the firm’s survival. Additionally, considering that the reasons of firm exit can be divided into bankruptcy and M&A (Mergers and Acquisitions), the different effects of origins from other firms and strategic alliance for firm survival are confirmed. The results suggest that prior experience, platform-based and constant government R&D funding contribute to the sustainable development of SMEs in the biotechnology industry. Full article

In this paper, we intend to identify the characteristics of occurrence of unsold new housing stocks and draw the implications for the housing business strategy that can effectively cope with the market risk under the Korean housing market. As a result of the analysis, most of the theoretical causality of occurrence of unsold new housing stocks under the three-dimensional Korean housing market was found to correspond to the empirical analysis result. In addition, the chonsei market that produces the characteristic movement of Korean housing market had a significant relation with occurrence of unsold new housing stocks. Because of these results, it is thought that the proposed housing business strategy can effectively cope with the housing market risk. It is thought that we need to additionally examine the financial validity of the proposed housing business model by calculating the cash flow and grope for policy support measures to materialize it on the basis of the analysis result of this paper. Full article

Hydrogen produced by renewable sources represents an interesting way to reduce the energetic dependence on fossil fuels in the transportation sector. This paper shows a feasibility study for the production, storage and distribution of hydrogen in the western Sicilian context, using three different renewable sources: wind, biomass and sea wave. The objective of this study is the evaluation of the hydrogen demand, needed to replace all diesel supplied buses with electrical buses equipped with fuel cells. An economic analysis is presented with the evaluation of the avoidable greenhouse gas emissions. Four different scenarios correlate the hydrogen demand for urban transport to the renewable energy resources present in the territories and to the modern technologies available for the production of hydrogen. The study focuses on the possibility of tapping into the potential of renewable energies (wind, biomass and sea wave) for the production of hydrogen by electrolysis. The use of hydrogen would reduce significantly the emissions of particulate and greenhouse gases in the urban districts under analysis. Full article

This paper presents research which has defined a new typology of urban patterns (sprinkling), different from the internationally recognized standard urban sprawl, as well as various indicators that have been implemented to measure sprinkling. It is important to highlight that the damage caused to the environment and communities by urban sprinkling is much more serious and irreversible than that notoriously caused by urban sprawl. The paper introduces the difficult methodological and planning aspects of retrofitting (de-sprinkling), a true challenge for land management. We argue that even partial inversion of many negative effects is impossible in the short term. Only medium- to long-term, organized, and politically coordinated programs can tackle the various issues associated with sprinkling. Full article

Cultivated land in China has faced severe challenges in recent years due to rapid urbanization. In 1997, the “cultivated land requisition-compensation balance” policy was implemented by the government to maintain the quantity and quality of cultivated land. Previous studies mainly focused on the quantity changes of cultivated land. In this study, from a quality perspective, we characterized the occupation and compensation of cultivated land in Wenzhou City utilizing remote sensing and geographic information systems during 2005–2010 and 2010–2014. Our results indicated that although the quantity balance of cultivated land has been achieved in Wenzhou, there was a trend of consuming prime cultivated land for urbanization while compensating with less productive land. It was also found that topography, water resources, and accessibility play important roles in cultivated land changes, with urbanization occurring on the eastern coastal plain where high quality lands are prevalent. Less than 60% of the gained lands were under cultivation, with the majority of reclaimed land from forests and coastal areas and located in remote regions. Therefore, we suggest that a “cultivated land protection red line” policy should be implemented to protect the best cultivated lands, while preventing random land reclamation to secure agricultural and environmental sustainability. Full article

Energy conservation and CO₂ abatement is currently an important development strategy for China. It is significant to analyze how to reduce energy consumption and CO₂ emissions in China’s energy-intensive machinery industry. We not only employ a cointegration method and scenario analysis to predict the future energy demand and CO₂ emissions in China’s machinery industry, but we also use the Monte Carlo simulation to test the validity of the predictions. The results show that energy demand in the industry will respectively reach 678.759 Mtce (million ton coal equivalent) in 2020 and 865.494 Mtce in 2025 under the baseline scenario. Compared with the baseline scenario, the energy savings in 2020 will respectively be 63.654 Mtce and 120.787 Mtce in the medium and advanced scenarios. Furthermore, we forecast the corresponding CO₂ emissions as well as the reduction potential respectively in 2020 and 2025. In order to achieve energy conservation and emissions reduction, the government should increase energy price, levy environmental taxes based on the emissions level of machinery enterprises, promote mergers and acquisitions of enterprises, and expand the scale of enterprises. This paper provides a reference for energy conservation and CO₂ abatement policy in China’s machinery industry. Full article

Green infrastructure is a unique combination of economic, social, and environmental goals and benefits that requires an adaptable framework for planning, implementing, and evaluating. In this study, we propose an experimental framework for policy, implementation, and subsequent evaluation of green stormwater infrastructure within the context of sociotechnical systems and urban experimentation. Sociotechnical systems describe the interaction of complex systems with quantitative and qualitative impacts. Urban experimentation—traditionally referencing climate change programs and their impacts—is a process of evaluating city programs as if in a laboratory setting with hypotheses and evaluated results. We combine these two concepts into a singular framework creating a policy feedback cycle (PFC) for green infrastructure to evaluate municipal green infrastructure plans as an experimental process within the context of a sociotechnical system. After proposing and discussing the PFC, we utilize the tool to research and evaluate the green infrastructure programs of 27 municipalities across the United States. Results indicate that green infrastructure plans should incorporate community involvement and communication, evaluation based on project motivation, and an iterative process for knowledge production. We suggest knowledge brokers as a key resource in connecting the evaluation stage of the feedback cycle to the policy phase. We identify three important needs for green infrastructure experimentation: (i) a fluid definition of green infrastructure in policy; (ii) maintenance and evaluation components of a green infrastructure plan; and (iii) communication of the plan to the community. Full article

This research constructs a 1 km × 1 km Shanghai energy consumption and carbon emission spatial grid through a bottom-up approach. First, we locate all energy consumption locations in Shanghai via GIS. Second, we calculate energy consumption and associated CO₂ emissions by energy type, by usage type, and by facilities. Finally, we use a spatial grid to represent the energy consumption and CO₂ emissions. The grid shows CO₂ emissions in Shanghai are highly spatially correlated with energy types and volumes of consumption. This research also finds out that high energy consumption and carbon emission locations in Shanghai display significant spatial aggregation. In 7209 spatial energy consumption cells, the top 10 grids of emissions account for 52.8% of total CO₂ emissions in Shanghai; the top 20 grids account for 64.5% and the top 50 grids account for 76.5%. The most critical point emission sources are coal-fired power plants and iron and steel plants. The most important line emission sources are the Yan’an Road and Inner Ring viaducts. The area emission sources that account for the most future-projected growth are commercial and residential natural gas. After this spatial analysis, this paper makes policy suggestions and solutions to conserve energy consumption and mitigate carbon emissions in Shanghai. Full article