Search Results (30)

As global climate change intensifies, research on low-carbon practices has become a critical component of sustainable tourism development. The carbon emission profile of ski tourism differs significantly from other tourism sectors. Ski resorts have a mountainous terrain and typically maintain relatively high levels of vegetation, endowing them with inherent advantages for pioneering low-carbon and sustainable tourism practices. However, the substantial energy demands associated with artificial snowmaking systems and advanced infrastructure pose significant challenges to reducing carbon emissions in ski resort operations. This study gathers first-hand data on sustainable tourism development in the Chongli ski resort—the region that hosted the 2022 Winter Olympics—through field investigations and interviews with key industry stakeholders. It develops a comprehensive framework accounting for carbon emissions in ski resorts by integrating input–output analysis with enterprise-level data, focusing on four core operational sectors: catering, skiing, wholesale and retail, and leasing and business services. Furthermore, this study examines the coupling relationship between carbon emissions and operating revenue. Using correlation and regression analyses, this study identifies the key drivers of carbon emissions across these operational departments within the ski tourism sector. The results indicate that carbon emissions from these four sectors in the Chongli ski resort exhibit periodic fluctuations with an overall upward trend year by year. Nevertheless, progress in low-carbon development is evident, suggesting that the resort is on a trajectory toward achieving peak carbon emissions and eventual carbon neutrality. The inclusion of natural endowments, market-scale effects, festival and special events, and capital investment in ski tourism collectively serve as crucial drivers for low-carbon sustainability in Chongli. Based on these findings, this study proposes targeted recommendations to support low-carbon sustainable development, offering scientific insights for similar Winter Olympics host cities. This study integrates top-down input–output analysis with bottom-up enterprise data, taking Chongli, the host city of the Winter Olympics, as a timely case study. It constructs a four-dimensional low-carbon development model based on the identification of key natural, social, and economic driving factors, and strengthens the reliability of the conclusion by relying on first-hand field research and operator interview data. Our study provides an analysis of methodological innovation, framework integrity, and solid empirical evidence that accounts for micro-scale carbon emissions in ski resorts. Full article

With the impact of fossil energy on the climate environment and the development of energy technologies, new energy vehicles, represented by electric cars, have begun to receive increasing attention and emphasis. The rapid proliferation of public charging infrastructure for NEVs has concurrently influenced traditional petrol station networks, creating measurable disparities in their spatial distributions that warrant systematic investigation. This research examines Wenzhou City, China, as a representative case area, employing multi-source Point of Interest (POI) data and spatial analysis models to analyse differential characteristics in spatial layout accessibility, service equity, and underlying driving mechanisms between public electric vehicle charging stations (EV) and traditional gas stations (GS). The findings reveal that public electric vehicle charging stations exhibit a pronounced “single-centre concentration with weak multi-centre linkage” spatial configuration, heavily reliant on dual-core drivers of population density and economic activity. This results in marked service accessibility declines in peripheral areas, resembling a cliff-like drop, and a relatively low spatial equity index. In contrast, traditional gas stations demonstrate a “core-axis linkage” diffusion pattern with strong coupling to urban road networks, showing gradient attenuation in service coverage efficiency along transportation arteries, fewer suburban service gaps, and more gradual accessibility reductions. Location entropy analysis further indicates that charging station deployment shows significant capital-oriented tendencies, with certain areas exhibiting paradoxical “excess facilities” phenomena, while gas station distribution aligns more closely with road network topology and transportation demand dynamics. Furthermore, the layout characteristics of public charging stations feature a more complex and diverse range of land use types, while traditional gas stations have a strong dependence on industrial land. This research elucidates the spatial distribution patterns of emerging and legacy energy infrastructure in the survey regions, providing critical empirical evidence for optimising energy infrastructure allocation and facilitating coordinated transportation system transitions. The findings also offer practical insights for the construction of energy supply facilities in urban development frameworks, holding substantial reference value for achieving sustainable urban spatial governance. Full article

Battery energy storage systems (BESS) are considered a good energy source to maintain supply and demand, mitigate intermittency, and ensure grid stability. The primary contribution of this paper is to provide a comprehensive overview of global energy markets and a critical analysis of BESS’ participation in frequency control ancillary service (FCAS) markets. This review synthesises the current state of knowledge on the evolution of the energy market and the role of battery energy storage systems in providing grid stability, particularly frequency control services, with a focus on their integration into evolving high-renewable-energy-source (RES) market structures. Specifically, solar PV and wind energy are emerging as the main drivers of RES expansion, accounting for approximately 61% of the global market share. A BESS offers greater flexibility in storage capacity, scalability and rapid response capabilities, making it an effective solution to address emerging security risks of the system. Moreover, a BESS is able to provide active power support through power smoothing when coupled with solar photovoltaic (PV) and wind generation. In this paper, we provide an overview of the current status of energy markets, the contribution of battery storage systems to grid stability and flexibility, as well as the challenges that BESS face in evolving electricity markets. Full article

Taxis play a crucial role as an on-demand transportation mode in developing countries due to perceived inefficiencies of cities’ public transportation systems. However, studies on the locational distribution of taxis in urban areas are limited, despite the need to improve passenger service quality by balancing the demand and supply of taxi services. Notably, taxi stations possess distinct characteristics compared with other public transport stations that serve passengers directly; in contrast, taxi stations solely support taxi drivers in locations where they begin and conclude their work. This study aims to determine the spatial distribution pattern and assess the agglomeration economies of taxi stations, using Bangkok as a case study, a city with a significant number of registered taxis and dispersed taxi stations. This research takes into account various spatial variables, including land price, land use mix index, population density, and gas station locations. The primary tool for analyzing the spatial distribution pattern was the spatial statistics model, employing ArcGIS 10.8 software. The analysis consisted of three steps: testing for clustered or dispersed patterns using Moran’s I, applying Anselin’s local Moran’s I (LISA) to examine the relationship between taxi station coordinates and spatial variables such as land price, land use mix index, and population density, and evaluating the relationship between taxi stations and energy service stations using the network analysis tool. The results revealed that taxi stations exhibited a spatially clustered pattern and were closely correlated with the land use mix index, land price, and population density, as indicated by Moran’s index values of 0.425, 0.328, and 0.373, respectively, especially those located within a 3000 m radius of gas stations. These findings elucidate the location selection of taxi stations, which tend to prioritize areas that can generate maximum profits for the taxi business rather than those with minimal location costs. They also tend to be situated in proximity to market areas. Additionally, the study recommends that the government consider promoting electric taxis as a sustainable mode of urban transport in the future to reduce the usage of natural gas (NGV) and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). Full article

The growing population, intensified anthropogenic pressures and climate variability have increased the demands on available water resources, and water reuse has become a high priority, particularly in areas of the world suffering from water stress. The main objectives of this review paper are to consider and identify the potential opportunities and challenges in the implementation of water reuse schemes worldwide by considering and analyzing different fields of interest in water reuse, the current and future global drivers of water reuse policies, the existing advances in treatment and reuse technologies promising elimination of environmental footprint and human health risk, an analysis of the trends in potable and non-potable reuse, and the development of quality criteria and issues related to transition circular economy. Moreover, the major knowledge gaps in critical issues on different domains of water reuse schemes are discussed. For this study, a thorough analysis of the current literature was conducted, using research and review articles, technical reports, specific national (and EU) proposals, guidance documents, and legislative initiatives and actions, as well as any validly disseminated findings by scientists around the world in the wider scientific area of (alternative) water resources, water supply, water management, sustainable development, and protection of public health. Water reuse practices are expected to increase in the future, mainly in developed countries and climate-vulnerable areas of the planet. Current advances in wastewater treatment and water reuse technologies can provide the opportunity for the foul exploitation of alternative water resources, increasing the potential of potable and non-potable water reuse systems worldwide, relying on pollutant/contaminant elimination, and improving economic and energy performances. Moreover, paradigmatic and technological switches based on an improved understanding of the relationships between the water cycle and the Water–Energy–Food (WEF) Nexus will increase the perspective of water reuse schemes. The benefits of the recovery of nutrients through sewage wastewater treatment are also highlighted, arising from reduced costs associated with their sheer removal and the supplement of fertilizers to the WEF Nexus. On the other hand, reduced nutrient removal may promote agricultural or landscape reuse practices, contributing to less energy consumption and reducing GHGs emissions. Regarding the management of water use schemes, a holistic approach (integrated management) is proposed, incorporating regulatory actions, actions increasing public awareness, interconnection among actors/stakeholders, and efficient control and monitoring. The establishment of quality criteria is paramount to preventing undesirable impacts on humans and the environment. The study considers the “one water” concept, which means equal water quality criteria independent of the origin of water, and instead differentiates among different types of water reuse as a means to facilitate implementation and management of potable and non-potable water reuse. Finally, it highlights the need to understand the impacts of water reuse systems on ecosystem services (ESs) and the consequences of achieving the global sustainable development goals (SDGs). Full article

Market acceptance of renewable energy technologies involves both the demand and supply sides, though the main empirical literature has focused on the demand side under the titles like public, communities, users’, market or even social acceptance. In this study, I focus on solar businesses (niche actors) as the suppliers of solar PV services in Iran. My main research questions are: (i) which factors drive solar businesses to establish and do business in the solar PV field despite the fossil-based economy and energy policies in Iran? (ii) what are the practical barriers to solar business in Iran? and (iii) which roles do Iranian solar businesses play in bringing solar PV development forward? I collected the data via 20 semi-structured interviews with solar businesspeople in diverse Provinces in Iran. Taking an inductive approach (Grounded Theory) toward the data, my results lead to significant insights: the dominance of intrinsic behavioural drivers over the major extrinsic barriers among Iranian solar businesspeople, moreover to their key roles in educating people and driving the innovative deployment of solar PV. This research helps to inform first, policymakers about the existing potential among solar businesses, and second the solar businesses themselves about adopting better business strategies. Full article

The implementation of autonomous delivery solutions in last-mile logistics operations is considered promising. Autonomous delivery solutions can help in tackling urban challenges related to last-mile logistics operations. Urbanization creates higher mobility and transportation demand, which contributes to increased congestion levels, traffic, air pollution, and accident rates. Moreover, mega-trends, such as e-commerce, demand that logistics companies react to increased customer expectations in terms of delivery time and service. Concerning service, electrified autonomous delivery solutions have the potential to operate 24/7 and can help to overcome driver shortages. This paper conducts a systematic literature review. Based on the literature set, a snowballing procedure was applied. Complementary gray literature was included. This work discusses different autonomous delivery solutions such as Autonomous Delivery Robots (ADRs), Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), two- or multi-tiered systems, and the concept of passenger and freight integration. The work presents advantages and disadvantages, enabling the comparison of solutions. Furthermore, a research agenda is provided, from which practical-managerial and theoretical implications can be derived. The research agenda can help researchers, manufacturers, businesses, and governmental institutions to prepare for the arrival and subsequent implementation of autonomous delivery services. Various implications related to energy demand, legislation, implementation strategy, training, and risk and safety are presented. The outcome of this work calls for collaboration among various stakeholders, encourages mutual learning, and hints at the importance of national and international development projects. Full article

Developing localized climate mitigation strategies requires understanding how national consumption drives local carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions from a sectoral perspective. Exploring the carbon footprint considering inter-provincial trade is vitally important; however, few studies have explored the production side of embodied carbon emissions and the drivers of embodied carbon. Here, we use the multi-regional input–output model to calculate the flow of embodied carbon between provincial departments on Shanghai’s production side in 2012, 2015, and 2017. We also establish a decomposition method for the embodied carbon index with small data demand. Our results show that from 2012 to 2017, the outflow increased and went to tertiary industries in neighboring and economically developed provinces. Among them, the activity effect drove the increase in carbon emissions, and the technique effect drove the reduction in embodied carbon. Surprisingly, we found that the low efficiency of the energy utilization of metal products and the unreasonable structure of other services increased embodied carbon emissions from 2012 to 2015. Sectors with high exogenous embodied carbon emissions are critical areas in which collaborative mitigation efforts between Shanghai and downstream provinces drive these emissions. Shanghai should avoid falling into the “low-carbon trap” of developing countries. It should continue to adjust its industrial structure and increase the use of low-carbon energy to achieve carbon reduction. Full article

In recent years, the network technology known as Internet of Vehicles (IoV) has been developed to improve road safety and vehicle security, with the goal of servicing the digital demands of car drivers and passengers. However, the highly dynamical network topology that characterizes these networks, and which often leads to discontinuous transmissions, is one of the most significant challenges of IoV. To address this issue, IoV infrastructure-based components known as roadside units (RSU) are designed to play a critical role by providing continuous transmission coverage and permanent connectivity. However, the main challenges that arise when deploying RSUs are balancing IoVs’ performances and total cost so that optimal vehicle service coverage is provided with respect to some target Quality of Service (QoS) such as: service coverage, throughput, low latency, or energy consumption. This paper provides an in-depth survey of RSU deployment in IoV networks, discussing recent research trends in this field, and summarizing of a number of previous papers on the subject. Furthermore, we highlight that two classes of RSU deployment can be found in the literature—static and dynamic—the latter being based on vehicle mobility. A comparison between the existing RSU deployment schemes proposed in existing literature, as well as the various networking metrics, are presented and discussed. Our comparative study confirms that the performance of the different RSU placement solutions heavily depends on several factors such as road shape, particularity of road segments (like accident-prone ones), wireless access methods, mobility model, and vehicles’ distribution over time and space. Besides that, we review the most important RSU placement approaches, highlighting their strengths and limitations. Finally, this survey concludes by presenting some future research directions in this domain. Full article

Competing socioecological demands and pressures on land and water resources have the potential to increase land use conflict. Understanding ecosystem service provisioning and trade-offs, competing land uses, and conflict between stakeholder groups in catchments is therefore critical to inform catchment management and the sustainable use of natural resources. We developed a novel stakeholder engagement methodology that incorporates participatory conflict mapping in three catchments with a short questionnaire to identify the perceptions of 43 participants from four key land and water management stakeholder groups: environmental regulators, water industry practitioners, the farm advisor community, and academics. The participatory mapping exercise produced heat maps of perceived conflict and land use competition, providing spatial detail of the complex combination of land use issues faced by catchment managers. Distinct, localised hotspots were identified in areas under pressure from flooding, abstraction, and urbanisation; as well as more dispersed issues of relevance at the landscape scale, such as from farming, forestry, energy production, and tourism. Subsequent regression modelling linked perceived conflict to land cover maps and identified coastal, urban, and grassland areas as the most likely land cover types associated with conflict in the study catchments. Our approach to participatory conflict mapping provides a novel platform for catchment management and can facilitate increased cooperation among different catchment stakeholders. In turn, land and water management conflicts can be recognised and their underlying drivers and likely solutions identified in an effort to better manage competing demands on catchment resources. Full article

Although both aggregate and per capita energy consumption in Bangladesh is increasing rapidly, its per capita consumption is still one of the lowest in the world. Bangladesh gradually shifted from petroleum-based energy to domestically sourced natural-gas-based energy sources, which are predicted to run out within next two decades. The present study first identified the determinants of aggregate commercial energy and its three major components of oil, natural gas, and coal demand for Bangladesh using a simultaneous equations framework on an annual database covering a period of 47 years (1972–2018). Next, the study forecast future demand for aggregate commercial energy and its three major components for the period of 2019–2038 under the business-as-usual and ongoing COVID-19 pandemic scenarios with some assumptions. As part of a sensitivity analysis, based on past trends, we also hypothesized four alternative GDP and population growth scenarios and forecast corresponding changes in total energy demand forecast. The results revealed that while GDP and lagged energy demand are the major drivers of energy demand in the country, we did not see strong effects of own- and cross-price elasticities of energy sources, which we attributed to three reasons: subsidized low energy prices, time and cost required to switch between different energy-mix technologies, and suppressed energy demand. The aggregate energy demand is expected to increase by 400% by the end of the forecasting period in 2038 from its existing level in 2018 under the business-as-usual scenario, whereas the effect of COVID-19 could suppress it down to 300%. Under the business-as-usual scenario, the highest increase will occur for coal (3.94-fold), followed by gas (2.64-fold) and oil (2.37-fold). The COVID-19 pandemic will suppress the future demand of all energy sources at variable rates. The ex ante forecasting errors were small, varying within the range of 3.6–3.7% of forecast values. Sensitivity analysis of changes in GDP and population growth rates showed that forecast total energy demand will increase gradually from 3.58% in 2019 to 8.79% by 2038 from original forecast values. Policy recommendations include capacity building of commercial energy sources while ensuring the safety and sustainability of newly proposed coal and nuclear power installations, removing inefficiency of production and distribution of energy and its services, shifting towards renewable and green energy sources (e.g., solar power), and redesigning subsidy policies with market-based approaches. Full article

Energy system models for the analysis of future scenarios are mainly driven by the set of energy service demands that define the broad outlines of socio-economic development throughout the model time horizon. Here, the long-term effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the drivers of the industrial production in six energy-intensive subsectors are addressed using Vector AutoRegressive models. The model results are computed either considering or not considering the effects of the pandemic. The comparison to established pre-pandemic trends allows for validating the robustness of the selected model. The anticipated effect of the pandemic to 2040 shows a long-term reduction by 3% to 10%, according to the different subsector, in the industrial energy service demand. When the computed service demands are used as input to the TIMES-Italy model, which shows good capability to reproduce the energy consumption of the industrial sectors in the period 2006–2020, the impact of the pandemic on energy consumption forecasts can be assessed in a business-as-usual scenario. The results show how the long-term effects of the shock caused by the pandemic could lead, by 2040, to a total industrial energy consumption 5% lower than what was foreseen before the pandemic, while the energy mix remains almost unchanged. Full article

The proliferation of ridesourcing services has raised both hopes and concerns about their role in cities. The impacts of ridesourcing services are complex and multi-faceted. Through reviewing the literature, this study aims to identify the social, economic, and environmental impacts of these services and highlight opportunities and challenges that lay ahead of them for resolving issues related to urban transportation. According to the results, ridesourcing services offer safe modes of transport that provide convenient mobility options, improve transit availability in disadvantaged and remote areas, and respond to taxi demand fluctuations. They can create new job opportunities by employing new human resources that have not been used before, provide flexible working hours for drivers, and are more efficient than taxi cabs. These services provide other opportunities to extend or complement public transit, reduce car ownership and congestion, and minimize parking supply. However, they are criticized for unfair competition with traditional taxis, limited compliance with social legislation, and lack of affordability. They are not available in all places and exclude some vulnerable and socially disadvantaged groups. Labor rights are not secure in this industry, and driver income is not stable. Finally, there is also evidence showing that, in some cases, they contribute to the growth of VMT, energy use, greenhouse gas emissions, and congestion in cities. Full article

This study examined the current state of water demand and associated energy input for water supply against a projected increase in water demand in sub-Saharan Africa. Three plausible scenarios, namely, Current State Extends (CSE), Current State Improves (CSI) and Current State Deteriorates (CSD) were developed and applied using nine quantifiable indicators for water demand projections and the associated impact on energy input for water supply for five Water Service Providers (WSPs) in Kenya to demonstrate the feasibility of the approach based on real data in sub-Saharan Africa. Currently, the daily per capita water-use in the service area of four of the five WSPs was below minimum daily requirement of 50 L/p/d. Further, non-revenue water losses were up to three times higher than the regulated benchmark (range 26–63%). Calculations showed a leakage reduction potential of up to 70% and energy savings of up to 12 MWh/a. The projected water demand is expected to increase by at least twelve times the current demand to achieve universal coverage and an average daily per capita consumption of 120 L/p/d for the urban population by 2030. Consequently, the energy input could increase almost twelve-folds with the CSI scenario or up to fifty-folds with the CSE scenario for WSPs where desalination or additional groundwater abstraction is proposed. The approach used can be applied for other WSPs which are experiencing a similar evolution of their water supply and demand drivers in sub-Saharan Africa. WSPs in the sub-region should explore aggressive strategies to jointly address persistent water losses and associated energy input. This would reduce the current water supply-demand gap and minimize the energy input that will be associated with exploring additional water sources that are typically energy intensive. Full article

With a rapid increase in the awareness of carbon reduction worldwide, the industry of electric vehicles (EVs) has started to flourish. However, the large number of EVs connected to a power grid with a large power demand and uncertainty may result in significant challenges for a power system. In this study, the optimal charging and discharging scheduling strategies of G2V/V2G and battery energy storage system (BESS) were proposed for EV charging stations. A distributed computation architecture was employed to streamline the complexity of an optimization problem. By considering EV charging/discharging conversion efficiencies for different load conditions, the proposed method was used to maximize the operational profits of each EV and BESS based on the related electricity tariff and demand response programs. Moreover, the behavior model of drivers and cost of BESS degradation caused by charging and discharging cycles were considered to improve the overall practical applicability. An EV charging station with 100 charging piles was simulated as an example to verify the feasibility of the proposed method. The developed algorithms can be used for EV charging stations, load aggregators, and service companies integrated with distributed energy resources in a smart grid. Full article