Search Results (237)

Systemic cognition combines the humanities and social sciences with systems science to support a unified field, Human Systems Integration (HSI). It draws on complementary, sometimes conflicting, fields of research, including phenomenology, positivism, logic, teleological approaches, humanism, computer science, and engineering. It is time to gain a deeper understanding of our approach to HSI in complex socio-technical systems. Over the past fifty years, we have transformed our lives in unprecedented ways through technology, both in terms of useful and usable hardware and software resources. We have developed means of transport that enable geographical connectivity anywhere and at any time, which is now a standard feature. We have developed information systems that will allow people to communicate with each other in seconds, anywhere on the planet, and at any time. Systemic cognition aims to provide ontological support for discussing this sociotechnical evolution and to develop HSI not only based on a Human-Centered Design (HCD) approach, but also by focusing on society, which is becoming increasingly immersed in a world equipped with artificial resources (particularly with the growing incorporation of artificial intelligence), which separates us from nature. This article proposes an epistemological approach that extends contemporary theories of systemic and socio-cognitive modeling by integrating constructivism and research on HCD-based HSI developed over the last three decades. Aeronautical examples are used to support the concepts being developed. Full article

This study examines the role of Digital Twin technologies in advancing Environmental, Social, and Governance performance within multinational corporations. Grounded in socio-technical systems theory and stakeholder theory, the research investigates how digital twins facilitate the integration of organizational capabilities with external accountability mechanisms. A multi-method research design is employed, comprising in-depth case studies, capital market event analysis, and machine learning-assisted regression to capture both qualitative and empirical insights. Case evidence from Siemens, Unilever, Tesla, and BP reveals that DT adoption is associated with measurable ESG gains, including reduced emissions, improved safety, enhanced supplier compliance, and accelerated reporting cycles. Event study findings show statistically significant abnormal returns following ESG-oriented DT announcements, while regression analysis confirms a positive association between DT adoption and ESG performance. Governance structures are explored as potential moderators of this relationship. The findings underscore DTs as strategic enablers of ESG value creation, beyond their technical utility. By enhancing transparency, auditability, and stakeholder trust, DTs contribute to both internal transformation and external legitimacy. This research advances the discourse on ESG digitalization and offers actionable implications for corporate leaders and policymakers seeking to foster sustainable, technology-driven governance in complex global value chains. However, because the quantitative component relies on cross-sectional data, the relationships identified should be interpreted as associations rather than definitive causal effects. Full article

Coastal ecosystems represent a complex and dynamic interface for renewable energy development, combining solar radiation, coastal winds, and marine biomass. In regions such as La Guajira (Colombia), these resources create a unique opportunity to design hybrid systems that integrate solar, wind, and bio-based energy generation. This study applied a multicriteria assessment encompassing technical, economic, environmental, and social dimensions to evaluate the feasibility of this integration. The study adopts a narrative review approach supported by peer-reviewed literature, satellite-derived environmental datasets, and regional technical reports. Three criteria were used to assess the potential of these bioresources: (i) availability and spatiotemporal variability, (ii) physicochemical and energetic characteristics, and (iii) suitability for thermochemical and biochemical valorisation routes. Reported data indicate that pelagic Sargassum reaching the wider Caribbean contains 20–30% ash, 25–35% carbohydrates, and lower heating values between 8 and 12 MJ kg⁻¹, while cactus biomass in arid environments can reach LHV of 13–16 MJ kg⁻¹ and moisture contents below 15%. The coastal region of La Guajira also receives solar irradiation levels exceeding 6 kWh m⁻² day⁻¹ and wind speeds above 8 m s⁻¹, creating favourable conditions for hybrid bioenergy–renewable systems. Finally, the multicriteria analysis reveals that integrating coastal renewable resources could drive the transition towards a circular, inclusive, and low-carbon bioeconomy in coastal territories such as La Guajira. Full article

River flood management is a complex, multidimensional challenge that requires the integration of technical, social, and regulatory perspectives, among others. This study examines the main challenges in achieving sustainable river flood management and provides a comprehensive framework for addressing them. It explores approaches to mitigate the increasing frequency and severity of river floods, which are worsened by urban expansion and climate change. This study distinguishes river floods from other types, highlighting their specific characteristics and impacts. It presents a timeline of flood management, from traditional levee construction to modern integration in water resources management. Three critical perspectives are included: the Social Component, which stresses the importance of community engagement, equitable risk distribution, and cultural considerations; the Technical Component, which evaluates current technologies such as predictive hydrological models, green infrastructure, and early warning systems; and the Regulatory Component, which reviews existing policies and legal frameworks, noting gaps in international cooperation and enforcement. The paper emphasizes the need for interdisciplinary collaboration and robust governance. By addressing these core challenges, it offers insights for policymakers, engineers, and stakeholders seeking to mitigate flood risks in a rapidly changing world. Full article

As cities grow denser, renewing old communities has become vital to improving urban functions and achieving high-quality development. However, institutional, economic, social, and technical factors intertwine, constraining the renewal process and limiting its effectiveness. Therefore, this study aims to identify and analyze the barriers to the Renewal of Old Residential Communities (RORCs). Twenty-eight barriers were identified through a literature review, questionnaires, and face-to-face interviews with community residents and professionals involved in RORCs. Based on the statistical results of 183 valid survey responses, this study identified the top five barriers to RORCs as follows: insufficient renewal funding, divergent resident demands and opinions, conflicts of interest among stakeholders, high renewal costs, and complex property rights. The 28 barriers to RORCs were further extracted into seven latent factors based on exploratory factor analysis (EFA): (1) Policy and Planning Deficiencies, (2) Infrastructure and Historical Legacy Issues, (3) Resident Participation and Community, (4) Spatial and Physical Limitations, (5) Consensus Execution and Management Inadequacies, (6) Economic and Financial Constraints, and (7) Property Rights Complexity and Social Structure. Through an in-depth interpretation of these groups, this study enhances the understanding of the systemic barriers to RORCs and provides practical insights for policymakers and practitioners to prioritize interventions and formulate integrated, sustainable renewal strategies suited to high-density urban contexts. Full article

Estuary governance exemplifies the challenge of decision-making under incomplete knowledge, thereby turning knowledge integration into a central practice of governance. Varying across cross-border governance settings, the forms of this integration try to respond to the persistent challenges of governing complex socio-environmental systems characterized by uncertainties and contested stakeholder landscapes. Tracing the pathway ‘from flow to gate’, this paper examines how knowledge integration unfolds within collaborative estuary governance, using a comparative case study of the Schelderaad (Scheldt estuary) and the Forum Tideelbe (Elbe estuary) as illustrative governance regimes. Empirical data were collected through document analysis, media sources, and semi-structured interviews with stakeholders from both examples. This study employs a novel three-phase conceptual lens to systematically assess contextual preconditions, integration processes, and resulting effects of knowledge integration in these settings. The findings highlight that effective knowledge integration depends not solely on technical expertise and institutional arrangements, but also on social dynamics, ultimately shaping the legitimacy and learning capacity of collaborative estuary governance. In this way, the comparative analysis highlights the relevance of context sensitivity, institutional anchoring, and the fundamentally social nature of knowledge integration, which can either foster shared understanding and cross-border learning or reinforce disagreement, mistrust, and conflict. Full article

Rural collective entrepreneurship poverty alleviation within the university participation context is regarded as a “socio-technical-economic” hybrid system, which aims to generate long-term economic benefits and social well-being for rural collectives through the knowledge of universities and realize the effect of poverty alleviation. However, the existing research has largely overlooked the dynamic mechanisms involved, especially how rural collectives transition from a passive response to a proactive creation in the context of university participation. Thus, we employ Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS) theory’s “detectors-IF/THEN rules-effectors” framework through a longitudinal case study. These findings demonstrate that (1) detectors have transitioned from “specialized knowledge embedding” to “diverse knowledge embedding,” which enables broader information scanning; (2) IF/THEN rules undergo cognitive destructuring to cognitive restructuring, fostering adaptive knowledge orchestration strategies; and (3) effectors shift from exploiting vertically related opportunities to horizontally related opportunities. (4) Cross-phase evolution: The knowledge flow mechanism of “knowledge spillover-organizational learning-knowledge absorption” propels “detectors, IF/THEN rules, and effectors” from the passive response phase to the proactive creation phase. This study advances theoretical understanding of CAS and research on entrepreneurship for poverty alleviation. Full article

Historic social housing in Mediterranean cities faces the dual challenges of energy inefficiency and cultural preservation. This study presents a pilot methodological framework for energy retrofitting of historical residence buildings, using the Kaisariani Asia Minor refugee housing complex in Athens as a case study. A bibliometric analysis revealed a research gap, as clusters concerning heritage retrofitting and social housing remain weakly connected, highlighting limited interdisciplinary integration between cultural conservation and energy-efficient design. The proposed framework combines historical analysis, energy consumption assessment, and technical evaluation to examine three retrofit scenarios that integrate thermal insulation, upgraded HVAC systems, renewable domestic hot water, and photovoltaic installations. Results demonstrate that substantial performance improvements can be achieved without compromising architectural authenticity. The most comprehensive scenario achieved a 97% reduction in primary energy demand, a 63–76% decrease in heating and cooling loads, and significant CO₂ emission reductions, maintaining economic feasibility with a payback period of approximately ten years. The findings emphasize that conservation-compatible retrofitting can transform obsolete housing into low-energy buildings, fostering environmental, social, and cultural sustainability. Beyond quantitative energy gains, the study underlines the importance of integrating heritage values and community identity into urban regeneration strategies, offering a transferable model for Mediterranean municipalities seeking to align climate action with cultural continuity. Full article

Urban energy systems are expected to undergo a rapid transition towards smart, sustainable, and resilient infrastructures. Within this transformation, the interaction between smart buildings and energy grids plays a critical role in shaping future urban energy solutions. Smart building–grid interaction strategies facilitate the bidirectional energy flow between buildings and urban energy systems and support the integration of renewable energy sources (RESs) into cities’ energy systems through advanced control systems, sensing technologies, and digital infrastructures. However, the adoption of these solutions remains complex due to fragmented key performance indicators (KPIs) and the diversity of enabling technologies, and it requires accurate performance-driven design and operation. Despite recent advancements, the management and evaluation of the interaction of smart buildings and urban energy systems remain challenging due to overlapping and fragmented KPIs as well as the complexity of enabling technologies. Therefore, this study aims to review the recently published research works and provide a holistic taxonomy of KPIs and enabling technologies for such interplay between smart buildings and urban energy systems to achieve the goal of sustainable energy transition in cities. The study identifies and categorizes several existing KPIs across sustainability dimensions, including technical, environmental, economic, and social, covering the KPIs to measure the performance of smart building–urban energy systems from a sustainability-aware lens, offering an integrative framework for assessing urban energy resilience and efficiency. Additionally, the study contributes to classifying the enabling technologies for smart building and urban energy system interaction and discusses the interdependencies among such technology clusters. The findings contribute to ongoing urban energy transitions by promoting systemic approaches to planning, performance evaluation, and decision-making for sustainable and equitable urban energy futures. This contributes to the sustainability of the building and energy sectors at the urban scale by promoting and helping multi-dimensional performance assessment and informed decision-making. Full article

Shading system design is a complex, multi-objective optimization problem that requires balancing interdependent economic, environmental, social, energy, architectural, and daylighting factors, while also integrating decision-makers’ preferences and user satisfaction. This study aims to develop and validate a hybrid decision-support framework that addresses both quantitative and qualitative data under uncertainty to improve shading system performance. This paper proposes a novel framework that integrates fuzzy logic with multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) methods. The Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (Fuzzy-AHP) is employed for criteria prioritization, whereas the Fuzzy Quality Function Deployment (Fuzzy-QFD) translates customer needs into technical requirements. Two evolutionary algorithms, the Single-Objective Genetic Algorithm (SOGA) and the Non-Dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm II (NSGA-II), were implemented and compared. The framework was validated through its application to an existing educational building in Mansoura, Egypt, evaluating both fixed and dynamic shading solutions. The results indicate that the proposed framework effectively translates customer requirements into design criteria and accurately identifies optimal shading solutions, with SOGA outperforming NSGA-II in optimization performance, while dynamic shading systems significantly enhance glare control and visual comfort, thereby confirming the framework’s efficiency in managing interdependent objectives under uncertain conditions. Overall, the framework provides a robust and systematic methodology for incorporating customer satisfaction into shading design and advancing sustainable building performance. Full article

Maintaining air quality is an important environmental challenge, affecting both urban and regional areas where industrial, agricultural, and energy activities intersect. The Upper Hunter Valley, NSW, experiences emissions from coal mining, power generation, agriculture, and wood fires, compounded by local meteorology, geology, and climate change. This study applies a political economy framework to examine historical governance structures including colonial legacies, institutional arrangements, and power relations and how they shape stakeholder roles and influence decision-making related to air quality. Technical applied research including improving dust monitoring, occupational health studies, and investigations into alternative fuels provided an empirical basis for identifying key stakeholders, including mining and energy companies, regulatory agencies, local councils, community groups, and environmental organisations. The analysis demonstrates how these actors influence governance processes, social licence to operate, and public perceptions of environmental risk. Findings indicate that effective air quality management requires multi-level, collaborative approaches that integrate technical expertise, regulatory oversight, and community engagement. The study highlights the importance of systemic strategies that align economic, environmental, and social objectives, providing insight into the governance of contested environmental resources in historically and politically complex regional contexts. This article is a rewritten and expanded version of the study “Analysis of air quality stakeholders in the Upper Hunter”, presented at the Clean Air conference, in Hobart, Australia, August 2024. Full article

This study aims to help researchers quickly understand the latest research status of kiwifruit picking robots to expand their research ideas. The centralized picking of kiwifruit is confronted with challenges such as high labor intensity and labor shortage. A series of social issues including the decline in agricultural population and population aging have further increased the cost of its harvest. Therefore, intelligent picking robots replacing manual operations is an effective solution. This paper, through literature review and organization, analyzes and evaluates the performance characteristics of various current kiwifruit picking robots. It summarizes the key technologies of kiwifruit picking robots, from the aspects of robot vision systems, mechanical arms, and the end effector. At the same time, it conducts an in-depth analysis of the problems existing in automatic kiwifruit harvesting technology in modern agriculture. Finally, it is concluded that in the future, research should be carried out in aspects such as kiwifruit cluster recognition algorithms, picking efficiency, and damage cost and universality to enhance the operational performance and market promotion potential of kiwifruit picking robots. The significance of this review lies in addressing the imminent labor crisis in agricultural production and steering agriculture toward intelligent and precise transformation. Its contributions are reflected in greatly advancing robotic technology in complex agricultural settings, generating substantial technical achievements, injecting new vitality into related industries and academic fields, and ultimately delivering sustainable economic benefits and stable agricultural supply to society. Full article

The architectural heritage of the 20th century has proved to be highly vulnerable to the test of time, with slight variations in different geographical contexts. The lack of value recognition, restrictions imposition, and resulting protection has led to the loss of memory of material and immaterial values. Restoring dignity has been the primary goal of those who have given substance and vitality to the theme of Modern Restoration, inheriting from the past the method that requires, in order to catalogue each work, the essential stages of knowledge and documentation, preliminary to conservation and enhancement. It is precisely in this scenario, after analysing the experiences of institutions, bodies and associations in the field of filing and cataloguing, that the needs brought about by the digital transition were taken on board; the aim is to define, within the PRIN 2022 DIMHENSION project, an innovative operative protocol that is economically, socially and technically sustainable, aimed at the computerised management of 20th century architectural heritage. The steps are the identification of the global description of the history of the building, translation of the entire body of data into information assets (H-BIR), and the possibility of consultation using parametric models (H-BIM). A Digital Register has therefore been designed, initially for an international sample of late 20th century façade systems, which goes well beyond their dynamic documentation, creating the conditions for a platform for consulting the complex of information, structured in an H-BIR archive interfaced with an H-BIM object library. Full article

Background: Generating electricity from renewable sources continues to receive significant attention from both scholars and professional communities. This is mainly because traditional energy use harms public health, threatens biodiversity, and increases pollution, particularly in developing countries. Meanwhile, renewable technologies are considered one of the most effective solutions to enrich energy security for future usage with clean practices and affordable prices. However, planning such applications may become complex due to the convolution of many technical, economic, environmental, and social dimensions, particularly from a supply chain management viewpoint. Methods: The paper identifies the dimensions affecting the supply chain variables of downstream processes in renewable energy supply systems, especially for generating electricity in Egypt. Also, this paper investigates the relationships between the dimensions of renewable energy supply systems and the downstream supply chain variables that are closely related to the Egyptian energy sector. Results: The different relationships between these indicators and downstream supply chain variables are revealed. Conclusions: This study employed conceptual causality diagramming to organize these relationships harmoniously, which helps to analyze the behavior of the supply chain during the transitions to renewable energy applications and its implications, whether at the managerial or policy and procedural levels. Full article

Under the dual pressures of global climate change and energy structure transition, the offshore wind–solar–current energy coupling hydrogen production (OCWPHP) system has emerged as a promising integrated energy solution. However, its complex multi-energy structure and harsh marine environment introduce systemic risks that are challenging to assess comprehensively using traditional methods. To address this, we develop a novel risk assessment framework based on hesitant fuzzy sets (HFS), establishing a multidimensional risk criteria system covering economic, technical, social, political, and environmental aspects. A hybrid weighting method integrating AHP, entropy weighting, and consensus adjustment is proposed to determine expert weights while minimizing risk information loss. Two aggregation operators—AHFOWA and AHFOWG—are applied to enhance uncertainty modeling. A case study of an OCWPHP project in the East China Sea is conducted, with the overall risk level assessed as “Medium.” Comparative analysis with the classical Cumulative Prospect Theory (CPT) method shows that our approach yields a risk value of 0.4764, closely aligning with the CPT result of 0.4745, thereby confirming the feasibility and credibility of the proposed framework. This study provides both theoretical support and practical guidance for early-stage risk assessment of OCWPHP projects. Full article