Decision Support Systems and Knowledge Management for Sustainable Engineering

Dear Colleagues,

Modern engineering approaches focus on the design and operation of systems and products in a way that allows for the sustainable use of resources. Sustainable engineering aims to provide frameworks that ensure development without compromising the quality of the natural environment and the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. In that context, decision making processes must be enriched by approaches and tools that allow decision makers to consider a wide range of sustainable options.

Since the publication of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) many international and national organizations have published strategies for achieving sustainability, some of which have already been implemented. Meanwhile, also the international standardization bodies, IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission), ISO (International Organization for Standardization), and ITU (International Telecommunication Union) have published strategy papers or even videos on their efforts to meet the SDGs. For example, IEC work directly impacts 12 of the 17 SDGs. For each goal ISO has identified the standards that make the most significant contribution. Moreover, according to ITU information and communication technologies (ICTs) are the main enablers that will accelerate the achievement of all SDGs. However, the academic and scientific debate on the contribution of standardization to sustainability is still in its infancy. So far, it focuses particularly on the role of standardization for life cycle assessment and in supply chains. New developments, like digitalization and artificial intelligence, require both standards, but might also have a strong impact on sustainability. However, the scientific community has not yet addressed these complex interactions in-depth. For a more critical assessment of the strategies of the international standardization bodies, but also to provide a sound scientific base to derive recommendations for their improvement, research and evidence-based insights are needed. Here, big data and new data sources provided by the Internet and social media networks, like those investigated within the European Horizon 2020 project EURITO, might help to provide the data base to investigate the new challenging questions about the relationship between sustainability and standardization.

Recently, great progress is taking place in the fields of operation research and management science, where intelligent quantitative analysis, statistics, and prediction analytics are employed in a variety of interdisciplinary research areas, aiming to assist policy makers and managers with the consideration of a variety of sustainable options. 

This Special Issue welcomes contributions on theory, methods, and applications, as well as case studies coming from cross-discipline aspects of sustainable engineering, economics, production, energy, and the environment. The Special Issue will be a reference for the way in which a variety of quantitative approaches can assist the design, planning, and evaluation of candidate sustainable options and strategies.

Assist. Prof. Athanasios P. Vavatsikos
Prof. Dimitrios E. Koulouriotis
Assoc. Prof. Ioannis Nikolaou
Prof. Konstantinos P. Tsagarakis
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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