Search Results (13,432)

Consumer food waste is a major global challenge to sustainable development, generating massive carbon and water footprints, exacerbating food insecurity, and undermining the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. While extensive research has documented individual and contextual drivers of consumer food waste, critical gaps remain in understanding how core marketing tools shape wasteful behavior, particularly the unintended post-purchase consequences of ubiquitous price promotions. Addressing this gap, we unpack the psychological mechanism underlying the classic social dilemma of promotions: short-term individual economic savings from discounts conflict with long-term collective ecological welfare. Across four rigorous studies, including a real-world field experiment in a university canteen, we establish a causal effect of price promotions on increased consumer food waste behavior. We further demonstrate that this effect is mediated by enhanced perceived resources: price promotions generate subjective feelings of windfall gains and resource abundance, which in turn increase consumers’ willingness to discard edible food. We identify two practical actionable boundary conditions that attenuate this pro-waste effect: the impact of price promotions on food waste is eliminated when consumers focus on money spent (rather than money saved) from the transaction, and when they perceive their spending as exceeding their psychological budget. Our findings advance the literature on price promotions and sustainable consumption by documenting a previously unrecognized hidden cost of promotional marketing, unpacking the micro-psychological foundations of the social dilemma in food waste decisions, and providing evidence-based, actionable implications for policymakers, food retailers, and food service operators to curb promotion-induced food waste. Full article

The concept of the 15 minutes city is increasingly present in the structure of spatial planning for large urban centers, with the main goal of improving quality of life by facilitating access to basic necessities for the population. This study aims to provide an integrated assessment of spatial accessibility for two urban centers that differ in structure and organization, with the main goal of identifying best practices that can be borrowed from one urban center to another in order to streamline sustainable spatial planning based on the strategic concept of the 15 minutes city. The entire research process is based on the development of a completely new and innovative GIS spatial analysis model that will add value to the specialized literature both through the geoinformational approach to the analysis, integration and through the exclusive use the freely available GIS databases (using the OpenStreetMap database), functionally integrated through network analysis and equations weighing the importance of accessibility needs for the population. For the analysis of pedestrian accessibility, in minutes, a total of 4826 locations were used for Cluj–Napoca and 5050 for Pecs, which were structured into 12 subclasses and five main classes (Recreational and Cultural, Public Services and Safety, Education and Health, Commercial, and Public Transport) established in accordance with the main requirements of the 15 minutes city development methodology. The integration of subclasses and accessibility classes was achieved by weighting their importance according to the responses obtained after the implementation of questionnaires to identify the working population’s perception of accessibility in their daily routine. The comparative analysis of the intermediate and final results of the proposed model leads to the establishment of directions and decision-making in the territorial planning process through the transfer of knowledge, solutions, and techniques between the two urban centers to eliminate or reduce negative hotspots and develop a more sustainable urban center in terms of accessibility and as close as possible to a 15 minutes city. Full article

The Black Sea is highly vulnerable to environmental degradation, making the evaluation of contaminant transfer within its food webs essential for ecosystem protection, sustainable resource management, and human health risk assessment. Marine organisms accumulate contaminants through three main processes: bioconcentration (direct uptake from the abiotic environment), biomagnification (trophic transfer through consumption of contaminated prey), and bioaccumulation, which integrates contaminants from all exposure pathways. Despite numerous studies reporting contaminant concentrations in Black Sea waters, sediments, and biota, integrated analyses of trophic transfer within both pelagic and benthic food webs in the Romanian coastal sector remain limited. This study assessed the bioamplification of heavy metals—HMs, persistent organic pollutants—POPs (OCPs, PCBs) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons—PAHs along the main pelagic and benthic food webs in the Romanian coastal sector, based on concentrations measured in representative invertebrate and fish species. The results revealed a compartment-driven contamination pattern, with the benthic food web functioning as an important reservoir and transfer pathway. Heavy metals showed variable and context-dependent trophic transfer, with selective amplification for Cu and Ni in some benthic links, trophic dilution or neutral transfer for Cd and Pb, and more consistent retention for Cr. In contrast, several PCB congeners showed clear biomagnification, particularly in benthic predator–prey relationships. PAHs displayed compound-dependent trophic transfer, with more pronounced amplification in benthic pathways. Overall, biomagnification was stronger for organic pollutants, particularly PCBs, than for heavy metals. The study contributes to two United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): SDG 14 (Life Below Water) and SDG 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production). Full article

Mountain Social–Ecological Systems (MtSES) are global assets, providing essential ecosystem services to nearly half of humanity, yet they are disproportionately vulnerable to global change, experiencing “polytraps” of depopulation, poverty, and environmental degradation. Despite the inherent human dimension in sustainability, the social pillar remains conceptually chaotic, forming a highly fragmented “publication labyrinth”, and is often neglected in favor of more easily quantifiable environmental and economic metrics. These oversights leave mountain communities in a precarious state, underscoring an urgent need for robust, context-specific assessment tools. This paper addresses this critical gap by employing a two-step methodology: first, a literature review identifies prevailing social sustainability issues in mountain contexts; second, a comparative analysis evaluates prominent frameworks and indicator-based tools against these themes, using Ostrom’s multi-tier Social–Ecological Systems (SES) framework as the theoretical lens. Our findings reveal a persistent environmental bias in MtSES research and highlight the necessity for frameworks that integrate local knowledge, address power imbalances, and support bottom-up governance. A tool is proposed with indicators specifically for mountainous contexts. This study contributes to theory by offering a structured approach to unpack the elusive “social” in SES and to practice by providing a model and tool for developing actionable, context-sensitive social sustainability assessments, thereby fostering resilience and equitable development in vulnerable mountain regions. Ultimately, by operationalizing these social dimensions, this research provides a direct roadmap for achieving key United Nations Sustainable Development Goals in marginalized high-altitude contexts, particularly focusing on No Poverty (SDG 1), Good Health and Well-being (SDG 3), Reduced Inequalities (SDG 10), Sustainable Communities (SDG 11), and Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions (SDG 16). Full article

The rapid rise in generative AI (GenAI) in higher education creates a tension between institutional goals for AI literacy and everyday classroom practice: while universities increasingly call for ethical and skills-focused engagement, faculty adoption is uneven and often constrained by uncertainty. To examine this gap, we combined campus-wide attitude surveys, a longitudinal content analysis of 1716 syllabi, and a review of publicly available GenAI assignment collections. Results revealed a persistent implementation gap: although sustained professional development was associated with shifts in faculty perspectives, a majority of course-level policies remained prohibitive or punitive and were not aligned with stated institutional aims. While consistent professional development has helped faculty accept the need for GenAI literacy, most individual faculty policies remain prohibitive, at odds with both the institutional push for transparency in GenAI literacy and the faculty’s stated stance toward the need for teaching GenAI skills. Our analysis of publicly available GenAI-themed assignments demonstrated that engaging students with GenAI can take various shapes depending on instructor and course goals. This work positions AI-themed assignments as a practical solution to faculty reluctance, providing a promising pathway for hesitant educators to integrate AI literacy into their courses and meet the evolving needs of their students. Full article

Frequent flash floods threaten human well-being, hydropower infrastructure, and ecosystems. However, the long-term evolution of flash flood patterns over recent decades remains insufficiently understood, particularly in data-scarce high-altitude regions. Using multi-source remote sensing data integrated with historical disaster records and field investigations, this study examined the spatiotemporal evolution and driving factors of flash floods across the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau (QTP). The results indicate that flash floods have increased exponentially, which may be influenced by disaster management policies, with peaks in July–August and frequent occurrences from April to September. The seasonal trajectory of the center of gravity of flash floods from April to September exhibited a clear directional pattern. Regions with the highest disaster density were concentrated in the headwaters of five major rivers, including the Yarlung Zangbo, Jinsha, Nu, Lancang, and Yellow Rivers. Shapley Additive Explanation (SHAP) and Random Forest analyses reveal that soil moisture, anthropogenic intensity, and seasonal runoff variability are the dominant driving factors. With ongoing socioeconomic development, intensified human activities have become a key contributor to the increasing frequency of flash floods. These findings highlight the value of remote sensing-based assessments for flash flood monitoring and early warning and provide scientific support for risk mitigation, loss reduction, and the advancement of water-related targets under the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. Full article

Mangroves are crucial for biodiversity conservation, coastal protection, and supporting local livelihoods. Mangroves may also protect coasts from storms and rising sea levels and can play a major role in climate mitigation. Threats to their health include activities such as infrastructural development, urban encroachment, aquaculture and crop farming, and oil and gas exploration. We review the threats and opportunities for the restoration of mangrove ecosystems on the coasts of Africa, which are highly impacted by oil spills. The most important challenge for mangrove restoration identified in this review is the restoration of appropriate hydrologic and salinity regimes prior to natural recruitment or the active planting of propagules. Full article

Background/Objectives: Sizeable between- and within-country inequalities in childhood immunization impair progress towards the goals set by the global Immunization Agenda 2030 (IA2030) of achieving universal coverage of all persons with essential life-saving vaccines. Monitoring global trends in immunization inequalities helps to identify population subgroups that are less likely to benefit from vaccines and provides evidence for tracking progress on regional and global goals and informing equity-oriented interventions. This paper assesses the state of within-country inequality in childhood immunization across low- and middle-income study countries. Methods: Using data from household health surveys, the analysis quantifies within-country inequality across up to 92 countries, areas and territories, for nine childhood immunization indicators (seven coverage indicators and two indicators of non-receipt of vaccines) by five dimensions of inequality (child sex, mother’s age, mother’s education, household economic status and place of residence). Absolute and relative summary measures of inequality (difference, ratio, slope index of inequality, relative index of inequality and population attributable risk) were calculated to assess the latest situation of inequality (i.e., using the most recent survey from 2014 to 2023) and change over time (i.e., comparisons with data from 2004 to 2013). Results: The latest situation of inequality revealed overall low or no inequality by child sex, mother’s age and place of residence, with more pronounced inequality related to mother’s education and household economic status. The median differences between the most and least educated subgroups ranged between 9 and 14 percentage points for immunization coverage indicators, and between 6 and 9 percentage points for non-receipt of vaccines indicators. The extent of inequality in childhood immunization tended to remain about the same as the previous decade, with modest reductions in absolute economic-related and place of residence inequality in DTP3 immunization, as well as place of residence inequality in full immunization (declining by 3.25, 2.42, and 2.16 percentage points over 10 years, respectively). Distinct patterns of economic-related inequality were evident across country income groups, with low-income countries reporting larger inequality than lower- and upper-middle-income countries; there was substantial variation at the country level. Conclusions: Economic- and education-related inequalities in childhood immunization within low- and middle-income countries have persisted over the past decade. Full article

Global climate change and increasingly complex geological conditions have led to more frequent landslides in the red-bed sedimentary layers of western Sichuan, China, posing severe threats to human safety and hindering progress toward regional Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly those related to disaster risk reduction and ecological protection. To address this challenge and advance sustainable disaster management, this study proposes a lightweight hybrid model, termed Transformer–Attention–LSTM, which integrates the global attention mechanism of Transformers with the local time-series modeling capabilities of Long Short-Term Memory networks. Focusing on the Kuyaogou landslide, the model achieves an optimal balance between parameter scale, sequence length, and prediction accuracy. The mean Coefficient of Determination (R²) values for the test samples in the X, Y, and Z directions reached 0.948, representing enhancements of 9.9%, 4.2%, and 2.3%, respectively, compared to the suboptimal Attention–LSTM model. Concurrently, the Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) and Mean Absolute Error (MAE) were reduced to 9.23 mm and 7.17 mm, respectively. Based on these displacement predictions, the landslide evolution stage was determined by calculating the tangent angle, indicating that the Kuyaogou landslide will remain in a stable creep phase over the ensuing ten-day period with low overall risk of rapid movement, though localized instability requires continued monitoring. This research provides a ‘small, fast, and accurate’ paradigm for red-bed landslide displacement prediction, offering scientific support for disaster prevention and emergency decision-making. The framework demonstrates potential for broader application in monitoring other geological hazards, thereby contributing to the implementation of sustainable development strategies in geohazard-prone regions. Full article

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are global objectives adopted by countries worldwide to achieve sustainable development by 2030 and consist of 17 goals and 169 specific targets. Among them, SDG 15 (Life on Land) aims to conserve terrestrial ecosystems and promote their sustainable use. Successful implementation of SDG 15 requires continuous management of terrestrial ecosystems and positive forest transitions. However, systematic analyses examining the role of green official development assistance (ODA), which supports environmental improvement in developing countries, remain limited. Accordingly, this study investigates the role that green ODA can play in forest transitions. Focusing on green ODA provided to developing countries between 2010 and 2023, this study employed shapley additive explanations (SHAP), an explainable artificial intelligence (XAI) technique, to predict its influence on SDG 15 implementation scores and to analyze the contributions of economic, environmental, and social indicators. In addition, a SHAP value-based decomposition and a gap index were calculated to examine the contribution of green ODA relative to its input. The results indicate that the overall contribution of green ODA to SDG 15 implementation in developing countries is relatively limited. However, statistically significant effects were observed in country groups with higher levels of SDG 15 implementation performance. In contrast, the effects were weakened or constrained in some country groups with lower levels of SDG 15 implementation. These findings suggest that green ODA may function as a transition accelerator that facilitates positive forest transitions in countries with stronger capacities for implementing SDG 15. Strengthening and improving the existing limitations of green ODA could enhance its role and enable it to contribute more effectively to sustainable development and the conservation of terrestrial ecosystems in developing countries. Full article

This review paper takes as its starting point a number of intriguing conundrums. Firstly, there is much interest in the research community in the assessment of happiness as a part of sustainability, including the development of indicators and indices, although it is often acknowledged that quantifying something as subjective as happiness is a challenge. Secondly, despite this compelling and oft-repeated case, the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) indicator framework has just one mention of ‘happiness’ in all the 267 indicator metadata documents. While ‘sustainable happiness’ is often stated as a desired outcome of the SDGs, it seems that happiness has not been regarded as part of the ongoing assessment process. The review answers the question as to why that should be so. The methodology is founded on a review of the existing literature on SDG indicators and happiness, especially the insights gained from established examples of happiness indices, such as the Gross National Happiness Index (GNHI) of Bhutan and the Happy Planet Index (HPI), as well as other initiatives to create such indices in parallel to the SDGs, such as the ‘SDGs for Happiness’ and the ‘Sustainable Wellbeing Index’. Given that indicators and indices are typically intended to attract attention from the media, the paper explores the reporting of various happiness indices in one form of media—newspapers. One would expect that happiness indicators and indices would have an attraction for journalists, but do they? The review concludes that the complexity of measuring happiness on top of a ‘quagmire’ (as some authors put it) of quantification challenges with the SDG indicators seems the most likely explanation for its absence to date. But with experience gained by 2030, maybe there will be an opportunity to consider the inclusion of happiness, drawing insights in particular from the GNHI and HPI, for a successor SDG indicator framework. Full article

Against the backdrop of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), innovation-driven development serves as the core engine of long-term sustainable economic development, while resource misallocation has emerged as a critical bottleneck constraining sustainable innovation and coordinated regional development. Grounded in the neoclassical theory of factor allocation, this paper incorporates capital misallocation, labor misallocation and the digital economy into a unified analytical framework. Using China’s provincial panel data spanning 2001 to 2024, we systematically investigate the impact effects, underlying transmission mechanisms and regional heterogeneity of resource misallocation and the digital economy on scientific and technological innovation through benchmark regression, robustness tests and heterogeneity analysis. The results show that resource misallocation exerts a significant and robust inhibitory effect on technological innovation, with the inhibitory effect of capital misallocation being more pronounced than that of labor misallocation. The digital economy has a significant positive driving effect on technological innovation, and it can also indirectly boost technological innovation by alleviating resource misallocation, with its mitigating effect on resource misallocation presenting obvious structural differences and a stronger correction effect on capital misallocation than on labor misallocation. Economic growth and technological innovation form a mutually reinforcing “growth-innovation” virtuous cycle. In addition, the innovation effects of both resource misallocation and the digital economy exhibit significant regional heterogeneity, where the digital economy’s innovation-driven effect and misallocation-mitigating effect are notably stronger in eastern China than in the central and western regions. The theoretical contribution of this paper lies in constructing a transmission mechanism framework of “digital economy to resource misallocation to technological innovation”, which enriches the connotations of factor allocation and innovation theories. Its practical value is to provide policymakers with differentiated development paths for the digital economy and optimization strategies for factor allocation, thus facilitating the effective implementation of the innovation-driven development strategy. Full article

The maritime industry is under increased challenges of balancing operational effectiveness and environmental responsibility. This study examines the application of intelligent agents as a technology that can align these two goals in the triple-bottom-line model that involves social responsibility, environmental footprint, and economic sustainability. An agent architecture taxonomy is outlined and adapted to the maritime industry, distinguishing between reactive, deliberative, hybrid, and multi-agent systems (MAS). The application of these architectures is analysed throughout the maritime domain. In the ship-centric environment, the analysis highlights the role of agents in autonomous navigation, energy-efficient meteorological routing, and predictive maintenance. The analysis in the port and supply-chain domain demonstrates a shift towards decentralized asset orchestration and logistic coordination rather than centralized control. The paper outlines certain barriers to widespread adoption, namely the reality gap of simulation-based training and the lack of transparency in deep-learning models (“black box” problem). The paper concludes by outlining a future research agenda proposing a use of explainable artificial intelligence (XAI), high-fidelity simulation-to-real transfer, and communication protocol standardization to continue the trend of developing strong autonomous capabilities in sustainable maritime logistics. Full article

The advancement of sustainable energy is a key component of the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. Technology advancements have made tidal current energy (TCE) a promising renewable energy source. China possesses abundant TCE resources and has gradually incorporated TCE into its energy and marine development policies. In China, TCE projects are currently being implemented on a large scale. However, despite policy-level recognition, TCE development in China has received limited regulatory attention, particularly with respect to environmental protection and ecological risk governance. Existing governance frameworks largely rely on general marine environmental and ecological policies, which are insufficient to address the three-dimensional, underwater characteristics and cumulative ecological risks. This study analyzes the evolution of China’s TCE-related laws and policies and identifies key deficiencies in current environmental regulation. To promote the sustainable TCE projects, the paper proposes tentative recommendations to promote the sustainable development of TCE in China, including the formulation of specialized environmental impact assessment guidelines grounded in the precautionary principle, future policies for addressing the cumulative environmental impact of large-scale TCE deployment, and the establishment of an environmental risk assessment system tailored to the data limitations and ecological characteristics of TCE exploitation. Full article

Concrete infrastructure in coastal regions is prone to premature degradation due to crack formation under aggressive environmental exposure. Conventional repair methods remain costly and often ineffective. This study evaluates a biomineral self-healing system incorporating Paenibacillus polymyxa spores and calcium carbonate (CaCO₃) to improve the durability and mechanical performance of medium-strength concrete with a design compressive strength of 21 MPa, intended for vulnerable coastal housing. A full factorial experimental program was conducted using three bacterial concentrations (1.0%, 1.5%, 2.0% of mixing water volume) and three CaCO₃ dosages (3%, 5%, 7% as cement replacement). Specimens were pre-cracked under compressive loading, exposed to a simulated coastal environment, and monitored for 28 days. The optimal formulation (2% bacteria + 5% CaCO₃) yielded an 8.8% increase in compressive strength and a 24% increase in flexural strength compared with the control. Crack width reduction reached up to 0.23 mm (65.7%) under wet curing, with effective sealing observed for cracks ≤ 0.5 mm. Recovered compressive strength after healing reached 17.3 MPa, equivalent to 71% of the design strength. These findings demonstrate the potential of P. polymyxa as a viable non-ureolytic agent for self-healing concrete, offering a simple and scalable strategy to extend service life in resource-limited coastal regions while supporting Sustainable Development Goals 9 and 11. Full article