Search Results (5,427)

This research experimentally investigates the association between multidimensional risk factors and economic growth, quantified by GDP as a partial indicator of advancement towards economically relevant Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This research experimentally investigates the correlation between multidimensional risk variables and economic growth, quantified by GDP as a partial indicator of advancement towards economically relevant Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Saudi Arabia, particularly in alignment with the objectives of Saudi Vision 2030. This study utilizes annual data from 1990 to 2024 and employs the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bounds testing approach to examine the short-run and long-run relationships between economic growth, as measured by GDP, and five key risk dimensions: governance effectiveness, financial development, environmental pressure, human capital, and oil price volatility, which act as proxies for risk dimensions. The main contribution of this study is the integration of these governance, financial, environmental, human capital, and oil price risk factors into a single ARDL framework for Saudi Arabia from 1990 to 2024, using GDP growth as a proxy for progress toward SDGs within the Saudi Vision 2030 context, addressing gaps in prior studies that focus on individual determinants. The empirical evidence indicates a long-term cointegration relationship among the variables. Our findings indicate that government effectiveness and investment in human capital are important positive factors associated with long-term economic growth, thereby validating the importance of institutional improvements and educational expenditures. In contrast, fluctuations in oil prices and environmental pressures are linked to adverse association, highlighting issues related to resource dependency and ecological degradation. Financial development exhibits a negative long-run association, indicating potential inefficiencies or diminishing returns in loan distribution. The study offers essential policy recommendations, such as expediting digital governance reforms, allocating financial resources to non-oil SMEs (SDG 8), aligning educational curricula with labor market demands, and implementing stricter environmental regulations to separate economic growth from emissions. Full article

Education in entrepreneurship offers university students the opportunity to develop sound problem-solving and critical-thinking dexterity, which are crucial for navigating contemporary higher education. This research explores the opportunities and challenges of education in entrepreneurship within universities based in Lebanon, focusing on the role of fostering entrepreneurial alertness/awareness. This paper further examines how emerging technologies—specifically Generative Artificial Intelligence (Gen-AI)—impact these relationships. In spite of the increasing relevance of entrepreneurship, the results reveal constant limitations in students’ innovation and creativity, together with a lack of mentorship and training prospects for teachers. The study underlines the importance of integrating innovative systems, digital technological means, and sustainable education values to support SDG 4 (Quality Education) and reinforce learning quality environments. To empirically explore the relationships between the variables, the research uses a quantitative research design, using SmartPLS4 to investigate the structural paths between entrepreneurship education, student innovative behavior, entrepreneurial alertness, and the use of Gen-AI. Our data was collected from 197 participants through a validated survey scheme, together with insights received from instructors and students. The results indicate that instructors consider entrepreneurship education positively and recognize the potential of Gen-AI to improve teaching quality, encourage entrepreneurial alertness, and strengthen quality learning practices. Students also highlighted their requirement to acquire new skills and access new opportunities to enhance their decision-making abilities. Generally, the results/findings suggest that entrepreneurship education—emboldened by entrepreneurial alertness and moderated by Gen-AI—plays a vital role in improving students’ innovative behaviors and progressing SDG 4 through high-quality, inclusive, and transformative higher education. Full article

Researching teachers’ 21st-century competences is critical for developing a sustainable, quality educational environment and accomplishing the objective of quality education. A lifelong learning philosophy ensures teacher development, paving the way for quality education (SDG4). In this study, a valid and reliable scale was established to provide the target group of middle school teachers with 21st-century abilities to enhance their quality teaching process and long-term professional growth. In this context, the developed scale has 33 items. The factor analysis results revealed that the scale is three-dimensional and accounts for 63.66% of the overall variation. Furthermore, second-order confirmatory factor analysis confirmed that the proposed model satisfied the acceptable fit criteria. Positive correlations between factors were observed, and reliability analysis revealed a high internal consistency (α = 0.947), thereby validating the scale’s reliability, validity, and practical utility. In conclusion, the scale developed is a valuable assessment tool for assessing teachers’ 21st-century skills, and the data gathered from it can help improve secondary teacher quality and create professional development programs. In this regard, contributions will be made to the development of long-term policies. Teacher development should be considered critical to achieving “quality education”, which is one of the Sustainable Development Goals. Full article

Ice and snow tourism (IST) is a significant global trend, offering Russia opportunities for tourism growth and seasonal diversification. This study investigates the potential of ice and snow art as a distinct subcategory of IST on Lake Baikal. Our research is based on an analysis of academic publications and official policy documents, field surveys conducted in winter 2025, and stakeholder consultations, with the “Olkhon Ice Fest” serving as a case study. The findings indicate a clear shift toward IST, with the number of winter tourists on Olkhon Island increasing by 70% between 2021 and 2024. The festival’s key features—its use of the natural ice landscape, a unique artistic technique, an explicit ecological focus, and strong entrepreneurial initiative—support the development of a conceptual model of IST on Lake Baikal grounded in ecotourism principles. Ensuring the long-term sustainable development of IST in the region requires improved governance, infrastructure, and transport systems, as well as support for green businesses and increased environmental awareness among tourists. This study contributes to the ongoing discourse on sustainable winter tourism by demonstrating the interconnections among environmental sustainability, socioeconomic benefits, and cultural innovation, thereby situating local IST practices within the broader framework of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Full article

Organic pig farming in Europe is endorsed as a promising route to more sustainable livestock production, but its ultimate contribution to the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is a contested matter. This study takes a critical perspective on the potential of organic pig farming to contribute to SDGs that may include SDG 2 (Zero Hunger), SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-being), SDG 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth), SDG 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production), SDG 13 (Climate Action), and SDG 15 (Life on Land). Organic farming systems delivered better animal welfare outcomes and positive benefits for biodiversity, soil health, and rural employment. Continued improvements in sourcing feed, greenhouse gas emissions per unit of product, animal health, and market could improve their contributions to agricultural sustainability. This study concludes that organic pig farming does not represent a guarantee of sustainable livestock production, but it could represent credible sources of sustainable livestock innovation if sufficient policy, practice, cost accounting, and sustainable metrics are organized together to support organic systems. Organic pig farming focused on innovation and policy support can make it a role model for the transition of European livestock sector towards the 2030 Agenda. Full article

Education can be conceptualized as a complex socio-technical system in which teacher engagement functions as a dynamic component supporting system performance and adaptability. The present study examines how science teachers’ perceptions of sustainable education interact with their levels of work engagement, providing empirical insights into system-level relationships relevant to educational sustainability. The study sample consisted of 246 science teachers, and data were collected using the Sustainable Education Scale and the Engaged Teacher Scale. Adopting a systems-informed analytical perspective, the study employs machine learning methods (Random Forest, CART, Extra Trees, and Bagging Regression) to explore non-linear relationships and interaction patterns that may remain obscured in conventional linear analyses. The results indicate that structural factors such as weekly teaching hours and academic qualifications are associated with variations in both sustainable education perceptions and work engagement. Moreover, the findings suggest a reciprocal relationship between sustainability-oriented perceptions and teacher engagement, consistent with feedback dynamics observed in complex educational systems. Rather than proposing a new theoretical framework or algorithm, the study demonstrates the utility of machine learning as a methodological tool for examining system-level interactions and emergent patterns in education, offering empirical insights that may inform sustainability-oriented practices in complex social systems. Full article

Economic growth is required for making progress in most of the sustainable development goals (SDGs). Energy access and quality education, along with gender equality, are amongst the SDGS and have also been amongst the essential factors to achieve improvement in economic growth. Hence, this research explores the impact of energy poverty alleviation, education quality, and gender equality on per capita GDP across E7 economies for the years of 2000–2024 benefiting from panel econometrics. The panel causality analysis uncovers a bidirectional causality between energy poverty alleviation, gender equality, and economic growth but a bilateral causal nexus from education quality to economic growth. Further, the cointegration coefficients indicate that education quality and gender equality are drivers of economic growth in E7 countries, while energy poverty alleviation is a positive determinant of economic growth in only China, India, and Indonesia. Full article

(1) Background: Urban traffic micro-environments show strong spatial and temporal variability. Short and intensive campaigns remain a practical approach for understanding exposure patterns in complex environments, but they need clear and interpretable summaries that are not limited to simple site or time segmentation. (2) Methods: We carried out a multi-site campaign across five traffic-affected micro-environments, where measurements covered several pollutants, gases, and meteorological variables. A machine learning framework was introduced to learn interpretable operational regimes as recurring multivariate states using clustering with stability checks, and then we evaluated their added explanatory value and cross-site transfer using a strict site hold-out design to avoid information leakage. (3) Results: Five regimes were identified, representing combinations of emission intensity and ventilation strength. Incorporating regime information increased the explanatory power of simple NO₂ models and allowed the imputation of missing H₂S day using regime-aware random forest with an $R^2$ near 0.97. Regime labels remained identifiable using reduced sensor sets, while cross-site forecasting transferred well for NO₂ but was limited for PM, indicating stronger local effects for particles. (4) Conclusions: Operational-regime learning can transform short multivariate campaigns into practical and interpretable summaries of urban air pollution, while supporting data recovery and cautious model transfer. Full article

Environmental sustainability has become a global priority due to its profound implications for human health. Universities play a pivotal role in advancing sustainability through education, research, and institutional practices. This study investigates faculty awareness, perceptions, and sustainability practices, as well as factors influencing these outcomes. A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 118 faculty members across various disciplines and academic ranks in Saudi universities. A structured self-administered questionnaire assessed three constructs: awareness of environmental sustainability, perceptions of health implications, and sustainability practices. Descriptive statistics were computed for overall scale means and item-level responses. Independent-sample t-tests and one-way ANOVA were used to examine group differences across gender, academic rank, discipline, teaching experience, and formal sustainability training. Chi-square tests assessed associations between demographic variables and training participation. The result shows that the faculty demonstrated high awareness (M = 4.09) and strong perceptions of the environmental–health nexus (M = 4.16). Awareness items ranged from 3.96 to 4.22, while health perception items ranged from 3.87 to 4.34. Sustainability practices were moderately high (M = 3.97), with the highest engagement in pollution reduction and the lowest in energy-saving behaviours. Training emerged as the strongest predictor of sustainability outcomes, with trained faculty scoring significantly higher across all constructs (p < 0.001). Therefore, Saudi university faculty possess strong awareness and positive perceptions of environmental sustainability and its health implications, relating to SDG. Full article

This classroom-based case study examines how an AI-mediated Socratic dialogue, implemented through ChatGPT, can support students’ engagement and perceived learning in undergraduate thermodynamics. Conducted in a first-year engineering physics course at a private university in northern Mexico, the activity invited small student groups to interact with structured prompts designed to promote inquiry, collaboration, and reflective reasoning about the adiabatic process. Rather than functioning as a source of answers, ChatGPT was intentionally positioned as a mediating scaffold for Socratic questioning, prompting students to articulate, examine, and refine their reasoning. A mixed-methods approach was employed, combining a 10-item Likert-scale survey with construct-level statistical analysis of two focal dimensions: perception of learning and engagement, including an exploratory comparison by gender. Results indicated consistently high levels of perceived learning and engagement across the cohort, with average scores above 4.5 out of 5. At the construct level, no statistically significant gender differences were observed, although a single item revealed higher perceived learning among female students. Overall, the findings suggest that the educational value of ChatGPT in this context emerged from its integration within a Socratic, inquiry-oriented pedagogical design, rather than from the technology alone. These results contribute to ongoing discussions on the responsible and pedagogically grounded integration of generative AI in physics education and align with Sustainable Development Goal 4 (Quality Education). Full article

Geothermal energy is a crucial component of climate adaptation and sustainability transitions, as it provides a dependable, low-carbon source of baseload power that can accelerate sustainable energy transitions and enhance climate resilience. Yet, in East Africa—one of the world’s most promising geothermal regions, with the East African Rift—a unique climate-energy opportunity zone—the harnessing of geothermal power remains slow and uneven. This study examines the contextual conditions that facilitate the successful and sustainable development of geothermal power in the region. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with 17 experienced professionals who have worked extensively on geothermal projects across East Africa, the analysis identifies how technical, institutional, managerial, and relational circumstances interact to shape outcomes. The findings indicate an interdependent configuration of success conditions, with structural, institutional, managerial, and meta-conditions jointly influencing project trajectories rather than operating in isolation. The most frequently emphasised enablers were resource confirmation and technical design, leadership and team competence, long-term stakeholder commitment, professional project management and control, and collaboration across institutions and communities. A co-occurrence analysis reinforces these insights by showing strong patterns of overlap between core domains—particularly between structural and managerial factors and between managerial and meta-conditions, highlighting the mediating role of managerial capability in translating contextual conditions into operational performance. Together, these interrelated circumstances form a system in which structural and institutional foundations create the enabling context, managerial capabilities operationalise this context under uncertainty, and meta-conditions sustain cooperation, learning, and adaptation over time. The study contributes to sustainability research by providing a context-sensitive interpretation of how project success conditions manifest in geothermal development under climate transition pressures, and it offers practical guidance for policymakers and partners working to advance SDG 7 (Affordable and Clean Energy), SDG 9 (Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure), and SDG 13 (Climate Action) in Africa. Full article

This study evaluates China’s National Smart Education Platform (NSEP) as a national digital reform aligned with SDG 4 (quality education) and SDG 10 (reduced inequalities), yet evidence remains limited on whether such platforms reduce urban–rural gaps in real-world use and outcomes. A quantitative, stratified, random survey of students, teachers, and administrators used validated scales to measure perceived ease of use (PEOU), perceived usefulness (PU), user satisfaction (US), behavioral intention (BI), engagement level (EL), learning outcomes (LO), and system quality (SQ). The measures demonstrated strong reliability. Hierarchical regression analyses supported an extended technology acceptance model (TAM): SQ, PEOU, and PU significantly predicted US and BI, with PU showing the strongest effect. Interaction effects indicated context-sensitive adoption and the results suggested a persistent rural disadvantage in adoption even after accounting for key predictors. Mediation analyses further showed that US and BI transmitted technology beliefs to LO. Nevertheless, urban–rural gaps remained evident, particularly in PEOU and SQ, and teachers consistently reported a lower PEOU than students and administrators. These findings suggest that NSEP has the potential to support SDG-oriented digital equity, but closing urban–rural gaps requires teacher-centered design, improved usability and system reliability, and targeted infrastructure and capacity-building support in rural contexts. Full article

This study introduces the Sustainable Development Goals Achievement Measurement Framework (SDG-AMF), a novel analytical tool used to systematically evaluate the relationships between digitalization and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Unlike the United Nations (UN) E-Government Development Index (EGDI) and Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Digital Government Indicators (DGIs) frameworks, the proposed SDG-AMF links digitalization indicators to specific SDG outcomes using proxy-based time-series analysis. The SDG-AMF provides a unified, statistically grounded approach that connects digital development with measurable sustainability outcomes. Using direct, high-quality time-series data (2010–2024) from internationally recognized sources, the framework maps key digitalization indicators such as Internet penetration, e-government maturity, research and development (RD) expenditure, gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, and gender participation in information and communication technology (ICT) to the selected SDG targets (SDGs 4, 5, 8, 9, and 16). Through correlation and regression analyses, the study identifies enabling and inhibiting relationships, highlighting Saudi Arabia’s strengths in digital infrastructure and e-government maturity while emphasizing areas for improvement, such as civic participation and RD intensity. Comparative benchmarking with digitally advanced economies underscores Saudi Arabia’s strengths in Internet penetration and e-government maturity, while gaps in RD investment are identified. The SDG-AMF provides policymakers with a replicable roadmap and scalable model to align foundational connectivity and governance reforms with advanced digital transformation, facilitating progress toward achieving Sustainable Development Goals worldwide. This research contributes original methodological insights and equips stakeholders with practical tools to monitor, compare, and accelerate SDG progress in the digital era. Full article

A low-carbon economy serves as a core pathway and pivotal engine for advancing the SDGs. Drawing on provincial panel data across 30 Chinese administrative regions spanning 2011–2023, the present study empirically examines how new infrastructure interacts with low-carbon economic development levels and their underlying transmission mechanisms by building an econometric model. Empirical results demonstrate that “new infrastructure” generates a notably positive facilitating impact on low-carbon economic development, with this influence being more pronounced in the central and western regions of China and policy pilot zones, while a rebound effect is identified in eastern China. Among various types of new infrastructure, information infrastructure and innovation infrastructure play particularly prominent roles, while integrated infrastructure shows a positive yet statistically insignificant impact. Mechanism analysis reveals that new infrastructure advances low-carbon economic progress primarily by curbing capital factor misallocation, while the elevation of the population urbanization level can amplify the facilitative impact of new infrastructure on the low-carbon economy. On this basis, it is imperative to raise investment in new infrastructure and enhance its systematic coordination with traditional infrastructure; implement differentiated layout strategies aligned with regional features; rationally steer the population urbanization process; and effectively facilitate the decoupling of carbon emissions from economic growth, thereby furnishing a robust underpinning for the full attainment of SDGs. Full article

The growing prominence of inclusive development reflects persistent dissatisfaction with traditional growth-centric paradigms that failed to integrate social equity and environmental sustainability. However, the literature discourse of inclusive development lacks systematic analyses of its theoretical and conceptual structures. This paper presents a bibliometric analysis of inclusive development, mapping its intellectual structure, research dynamics, and scholarly contributions. Using bibliographic data from the Scopus and analytical tools including R version 4.5.1 and VOSviewer version 1.6.19, we assess the publication trends and citation patterns. The term first appeared in 1995, emerged slowly, and saw an exponential increase in publications around 2015, coinciding with the Sustainable Development Goals. There are 1871 publications (302 were published in 2024), with over 4500 scholars across 143 countries, publishing in over 1000 sources. The results feature prolific and influential authors, sources, countries, larger geographic regions, and publications. We find disparities among countries, anomalies between influential and prolific contributors, and hints of distinct author groupings. Findings suggest scholars and practitioners risk forming skewed conceptualizations of inclusive development without a clear understanding of the field’s structure. This paper provides such structure, highlighting the value of periodic assessments in consolidating theoretical coherence, strengthening cross-constituency scholarship, and advancing inclusive development’s role in sustainability science. Full article