Search Results (178)

This study aims to enhance the security of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) within the Internet of Drones (IoD) ecosystem by detecting and preventing Denial-of-Service (DoS) attacks. We introduce DroneDefender, a web-based intrusion detection system (IDS) that employs machine learning (ML) techniques to identify anomalous network traffic patterns associated with DoS attacks. The system is evaluated using the CIC-IDS 2018 dataset and utilizes the Random Forest algorithm, optimized with the SMOTEENN technique to tackle dataset imbalance. Our results demonstrate that DroneDefender significantly outperforms traditional IDS solutions, achieving an impressive detection accuracy of 99.93%. Key improvements include reduced latency, enhanced scalability, and a user-friendly graphical interface for network administrators. The innovative aspect of this research lies in the development of an ML-driven, web-based IDS specifically designed for IoD environments. This system provides a reliable, adaptable, and highly accurate method for safeguarding drone operations against evolving cyber threats, thereby bolstering the security and resilience of UAV applications in critical sectors such as emergency services, delivery, and surveillance. Full article

In response to recent policies on sustainable finance, nature restoration, soil protection, and biodiversity conservation, it is increasingly important for projects to assess their impacts on natural capital to safeguard Ecosystem Services (ES). Nature-Based Solutions (NBSs) are recognized as strategic tools for fostering cost-effective, nature- and people-centered development. Yet, standard economic and financial assessment methods often fall short, as many ES lack market prices. Indirect, ecosystem-based approaches—such as ES monetization and environmental cost accounting—are therefore critical. This study evaluates the feasibility of investing in NBSs by estimating their economic and financial value through indirect ES valuation. An empirical methodology is applied to quantify environmental costs relative to ES delivery, using Willingness to Pay (WTP) as a proxy for the economic relevance of NBSs. The proposed ES-Cost Accounting (ES-CA) framework was implemented across major NBS categories in Europe. Results reveal that the scale of NBS implementation significantly influences both unit environmental costs and ES provision: larger interventions tend to be more cost-efficient and generate broader benefits, whereas smaller solutions are more expensive per unit but provide more localized or specialized services. The findings offer practical guidance for robust cost–benefit analyses and support investment planning in sustainable climate adaptation and mitigation from an ES perspective. Full article

Low-altitude logistics (LAL), supported by unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and emerging urban air mobility operations within the low-altitude airspace (typically <1000 m), is rapidly reshaping last-mile distribution and time-critical delivery. However, LAL systems remain vulnerable to compound disruptions spanning weather, infrastructure, governance, and cybersecurity. Using a PRISMA-guided protocol, this systematic review synthesizes 1600 peer-reviewed studies published from 2020 to 2025 and combines bibliometric mapping (VOSviewer) with qualitative content analysis to consolidate the knowledge base on low-altitude logistics resilience (LALR). We conceptualize LALR via four coupled pillars, including robustness, adaptability, recoverability, and redundancy. The synthesize evidence across key vulnerability domains consists of platform reliability, communication and infrastructure readiness, regulatory fragmentation, cyber exposure, and weather-driven operational uncertainty. Building on the synthesis, we propose a Technology–Policy–Ecosystem roadmap that links (i) AI-enabled autonomy and risk-aware planning, (ii) adaptive governance tools such as regulatory sandboxes and dynamic airspace/UTM management, and (iii) ecosystem-level interventions, notably public–private partnerships and equity-oriented service design for underserved areas. We further outline a research agenda centered on measurable resilience metrics, activate redundancy design, climate-adaptive UAV operations, and digital-twin-enabled orchestration for scalable and sustainable LAL ecosystems. Full article

The integration of IT services is a critical challenge for public organizations that seek to modernize their operational ecosystems and strengthen mission-oriented processes. In the field of fiscal oversight, supreme audit institutions (SAIs) increasingly require systematized and interoperable service architectures to ensure transparency, accountability, and effective public resource control. However, existing literature reveals persistent gaps concerning how service integration models can be deployed and validated within complex government environments. This study describes an enterprise architecture-driven service integration model designed and evaluated within the Office of the General Comptroller of the Republic of Colombia (Contraloría General de la República, CGR). The study tests the hypothesis that an Enterprise Architecture-driven integration model provides the necessary structural coupling to align technical IT performance with the legal requirements of fiscal oversight, which is an alignment that typically does not appear in generic governance frameworks. The methodological approach followed in this study combines an IT service management maturity assessment, process analysis, architecture repository review, and iterative validation sessions with institutional stakeholders. The model integrates ITILv4 (Information Technology Infrastructure Library), TOGAF (The Open Group Architecture Framework), COBIT (Control Objectives for Information and Related Technologies), and ISO20000 into a coherent framework tailored to the operational and regulatory requirements of an SAI. Results show that the proposed model reduces service fragmentation, improves process standardization, strengthens information governance, and enables a unified service catalog aligned with fiscal oversight functions. The empirical validation demonstrates measurable improvements in service delivery, transparency, and organizational responsiveness. The study contributes to the field of applied system innovation by: (i) providing an integration model, which is scientifically grounded and evidence-based, (ii) demonstrating how hybrid governance and architecture frameworks can be adapted to complex public-sector environments, and (iii) offering a replicable approach for SAIs that seek to modernize their technological service ecosystems through enterprise architecture principles. Future research directions are also discussed to provide guidelines to advance integrated governance and digital transformation in oversight institutions. Full article

Cultural ecosystem services (CESs) play a critical role in urban residents’ well-being, yet conventional evaluations rely heavily on green-space area and overlook how facility quality and basic services influence the delivery of actual cultural benefits. To address this methodological gap, this study develops a three-tier evaluation framework—service potential, actual supply capacity, and actual service utility—to quantify multistage attenuation in CES provision across 95 parks in seven central districts of Shenyang, China. The framework integrates 114 quantitative and qualitative indicators from field surveys, national facility standards, and perception-based assessments, enabling a scientifically robust and replicable assessment of how cultural benefits are transformed from ecological structure to human experience. Results reveal that single-index, area-based assessments substantially overestimate CES supply: district-level supply–demand ratios drop from 66 to 195% to only 11–55% once quality and basic services are incorporated. Comprehensive and special parks retain the highest CES potential, whereas community and linear parks undergo significant losses due to aging facilities, insufficient maintenance, and inadequate infrastructure. Education and cultural services exhibit the most severe shortages, with deficits reaching 59–84%, underscoring structural limitations in learning-oriented spaces. By distinguishing structural (quantity), functional (quality), and experiential (basic service) constraints, the framework provides clear diagnostic guidance for targeted planning and management. Its multistage structure also reflects broader principles of sustainable urban development: improving CES requires not only expanding ecological elements but also enhancing service quality, strengthening infrastructure, and promoting equitable access to cultural benefits. The framework’s generalizability makes it applicable to high-density cities worldwide facing land scarcity and green-space inequality, supporting efforts aligned with SDG 11 to build inclusive, resilient, and culturally vibrant urban environments. Full article

This study explores the digital transformation and public value created through the target city’s smart city Mobile Payment APP and digital city token system within the context of sustainable governance in Taiwan. Adopting a convergent mixed-methods research design, this research integrates quantitative Importance–Performance Analysis (IPA) surveys of 632 users with qualitative in-depth semi-structured interviews involving eight key stakeholders (namely, government officials, system developers, affiliated merchants, and citizen representatives). This methodology assesses service quality, user satisfaction, and cross-sector collaboration effects. The findings reveal that the mobile payment platform significantly enhances digital service delivery; fosters user engagement; and supports sustainable urban development goals, particularly net-zero carbon emissions. However, the IPA results highlight critical service gaps in the “Priority Improvement Zone,” specifically regarding the insufficient number of affiliated merchants and inconvenient information search functions. Qualitative findings attribute these gaps to cross-departmental administrative barriers and security-focused design trade-offs. This study contributes empirical evidence on the integration of financial technology and public service innovation as a means to advance smart governance and sustainable urban ecosystems. The results provide actionable insights for policymakers, city planners, and service designers focused on promoting digital public services that facilitate economic vitality, environmental sustainability, and collaborative governance. Full article

Ecosystem services provided by coastal and marine environments are increasingly recognised as of paramount importance for human wellbeing. To inform marine spatial planning and its implementation, as well as to manage conflicts between marine resource beneficiaries, we developed a comprehensive estimate of the economic value of the ecosystem services of Algoa Bay (AB) from 2000 to 2019. This is to assist in the development of effective policies concerning the management of marine resources. We quantified and assessed the monetary value by integrating 15 ecosystem services (ES) across five ecosystems using a range of economic valuation techniques and four scenarios. The scenarios differentiate between the local and global beneficiaries of the services and a conservative and alternative valuation estimate. These latter two valuation benefits are calculated using different sets of valuation estimates. We identified that onshore ecosystems, and recreation and tourism services, hold the most value. We estimated that the value grew from USD 613.4 million to USD 1695.9 million for local beneficiaries and from USD 1127.7 million to USD 2787.9 million for global beneficiaries between 2000 and 2019. The local values are roughly equivalent to the municipal budget, implying that the value of the ES is at least equal to that of the combined value of public service delivery. This highlights the significant economic contributions of marine and coastal ecosystems to local economies. This valuation provides a framework to make explicit the value that beneficiaries derive from marine ecosystems and provides a novel perspective on the valuation of ES in the coastal and marine ecosystems. This framework can be replicated elsewhere where there is a need to develop the ocean economy in an equitable and sustainable way. Full article

In post-pandemic Peru, delivery platforms have become key market-access infrastructures for microenterprises, yet regional evidence remains limited. This study examines the extent to which—and under what conditions—the adoption of delivery services is associated with innovative business growth in La Libertad (2021–2025). A cross-sectional survey of 200 microentrepreneurs assessed delivery adoption, business model innovation (BMI), digital capabilities, and the institutional environment. Statistical analyses indicate that the use of delivery platforms is positively associated with business growth and that an indirect association operates through BMI. Likewise, higher levels of digital capabilities are associated with a steeper adoption–growth association, while more favorable institutional conditions are associated with higher odds of business formalization. These findings suggest that delivery platforms may function as catalysts for growth and formalization when adoption co-occurs with strategic redesign and digital skill development within supportive local ecosystems. The study contributes to sustainable entrepreneurship scholarship by providing regional-level evidence from a developing economy and underscoring that technological adoption alone is insufficient without complementary innovation and capability building. Although environmental metrics were not included, future research should incorporate verified indicators to assess the environmental dimension of delivery-based entrepreneurship comprehensively. Full article

In recent years, several countries have introduced strategic plans aimed at promoting metaverse ecosystems. While these initiatives highlight the metaverse as both a technological frontier and a policy priority, the underlying rationales and metaverse approaches remain insufficiently understood. This gap raises the need to critically examine why governments are investing in the metaverse ecosystem and how metaverse is being approached as an innovative platform for digital public services and businesses. An inductive and deductive content analysis was conducted on various regional, national and supranational metaverse strategic plans (n = 7). Virtual worlds can be understood as persistent, immersive, and interactive digital environments that integrate 3D visualisation, simulation, and real-time data to support activities across social and economic domains. The findings indicate that the metaverse is a virtual space shaped by the dual imperative of addressing societal needs—such as public service delivery and stakeholder engagement—and fostering business opportunities within the evolving digital ecosystem. The analysis revealed four main reasons to promote the social and industrial metaverse ecosystem: sustainability; digital sovereignty; competitive advantage and stakeholder building relationship. The results indicate that the metaverse operates mainly through both transactional and connected approaches, where digital twins, artificial intelligence, and extended reality converge to enable user experiences in ways that transcend physical limitations. Full article

The increasing rate of land use change, particularly deforestation and agricultural expansion, has intensified soil degradation, leading to reduced sediment retention and accelerated soil erosion. This study aims to analyze soil erosion and sediment retention in the Lam Phra Phloeng (LPP) watershed, Thailand, using a coupled modelling approach integrating the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) and the Sediment Delivery Ratio (SDR) model from the Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs (InVEST) suite. Six land use classes (forest, cropland, rangeland, flooded vegetation, built-up areas, and water bodies) were identified using Sentinel-2 MSI satellite data, with a Random Forest (RF) classification algorithm achieving an overall accuracy of 91.3% (Kappa coefficient = 0.89). The results indicate that forested areas exhibit the highest sediment retention, whereas croplands and rangelands experience the most significant soil loss due to erosion. The RUSLE model estimated an average annual soil loss ranging between 50 and 90 tons/ha/year, with the highest erosion rates observed in agricultural lands with steep slopes and minimal vegetation cover. The InVEST SDR model further corroborates these findings, showing that sediment retention is predominantly concentrated in densely vegetated areas, reinforcing the crucial role of natural forests in preventing soil displacement. This complementary modelling approach identifies priority areas for soil conservation practices. This study is the first study to integrate the RUSLE and InVEST models for the Lam Phra Phloeng watershed, providing a coupled assessment of erosion risk and sediment retention capacity and offering a novel and transferable framework for watershed-scale conservation planning and soil management in tropical monsoonal environments. Full article

The rapid rise of virtual hospitals has created an urgent need for secure, interoperable, and patient-centered (PC) access to medical data across distributed healthcare environments. However, most existing hospital information systems and electronic medical records (EMRs) were not designed to support decentralized service delivery or cross-institutional collaboration. While many prior solutions advocate replacing legacy systems with new architectures, such approaches often face significant cost, integration, and adoption challenges. This paper introduces a novel blockchain-based Virtual Care Access Control (VCAC) model that extends—rather than replaces—legacy systems and EMRs to support secure data sharing across virtual hospital ecosystems. Leveraging the core features of distributed ledger technology (DLT)—including immutability, decentralized auditability, and consensus-driven access—the VCAC framework embeds a six-tier PC information classification scheme into a blockchain-based layer. This model enables fine-grained, role-based access to clinical data, supporting PC treatment in comorbidity-aware contexts, emergency access, and policy-driven governance while maintaining institutional autonomy. We demonstrate how VCAC mitigates key confidentiality, integrity, and availability risks common to legacy systems. The model is evaluated through a breast cancer outpatient use case, illustrating its practical potential to transform fragmented infrastructures into secure, interoperable, and PC virtual care platforms—without disrupting existing healthcare operations. Full article

The low-altitude economy (LAE), encompassing urban air mobility, drone logistics and sub 3000 m aerial surveillance, demands secure, intelligent infrastructures to manage increasingly complex, multi-stakeholder operations. This survey evaluates the integration of Internet of Things (IoT) networks, artificial intelligence (AI) decision-making and blockchain trust mechanisms as foundational enablers for next-generation LAE ecosystems. IoT sensor arrays deployed at ground stations, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and vertiports form a real-time data fabric that records variables from air traffic density to environmental parameters. These continuous data streams empower AI models ranging from predictive analytics and computer vision (CV) to multi-agent reinforcement learning (MARL) and large language model (LLM) reasoning to optimize flight paths, identify anomalies and coordinate swarm behaviors autonomously. In parallel, blockchain architectures furnish immutable audit trails for regulatory compliance, support secure device authentication via decentralized identifiers (DIDs) and automate contractual exchanges for services such as airspace leasing or payload delivery. By examining current research and practical deployments, this review demonstrates how the synergistic application of IoT, AI and blockchain can bolster operational efficiency, resilience and trustworthiness across the LAE landscape. Full article

Despite the rapid adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) on a global scale, a comprehensive framework that maps its end-to-end value chain is missing. The presented study employed a multi-layered framework to analyze the value creation and delivery mechanism of the five core layers of an AI value chain, including (1) hardware, (2) data management, (3) foundational AI, (4) advanced AI capabilities, and (5) AI delivery. Using a qualitative–descriptive approach with a multi-faceted thematic analysis and a SWOT-based bottleneck analysis of each core layer, the study maps a sequential value flow from a globally dependent hardware foundation to the deployment of AI services. The analysis reveals that international knowledge flows shape the ecosystem, while the “last-mile” integration challenge is not merely a technical issue; instead, it highlights a significant socio-technical disconnect between technological advancements and the preparedness of the workforce. This study provides a holistic framework that frames the AI value chain as a socio-technical system, offering critical insights for stakeholders. The findings emphasize that unlocking AI’s full potential requires strategic investment in the managerial competencies and digital skills that constitute human–capital readiness. Full article

The rapid growth of fintech is revolutionizing the delivery, access, and management of financial services. It also presents new risks and opportunities for investment. Despite growing scholarly interest, current research often remains fragmented and continues to explore technological innovation, investment behavior, and risk management in isolation without fully addressing their interrelated dynamics. This lack of integration has hindered a comprehensive understanding of how fintech transforms financial ecosystems and subsequent decision-making processes. By conducting a systematic literature review, study addresses the research gap by examining key developments, trends, and patterns within this field through bibliometric analysis using VOSviewer 1.6.20 and Biblioshiny 2025. From the perspectives of authors, affiliations, papers, and journals, this investigation identifies publication trends, key contributors, and geographic distribution. The results also indicate that numerous areas warrant further investigation, such as sustainability, inclusion, risk management, technologies, and behavioral traits. The review provides a more comprehensive understanding of how fintech is affecting investment practices and risk considerations by consolidating findings and analyses. It underscores substantial prospects for future research and fosters a more comprehensive academic dialogue, thereby facilitating the advancement of more informed, responsive, and forward-thinking fintech strategies in financial management. Full article

Ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) provides a practical framework for enhancing urban resilience. This study had three objectives: (i) to quantify the structural attributes and ecosystem services (ESs) of campus street trees, (ii) to integrate LiDAR-derived metrics with the i-Tree Eco model to improve assessment accuracy, and (iii) to evaluate how quantified ESs contribute to climate resilience and inform localized EbA strategies. Field surveys were complemented with LiDAR data to enhance estimation of leaf area index (LAI), canopy dimensions, and tree height. Results show that 2643 street trees representing 29 species provide substantial ESs, including carbon storage of 508,230 kg, annual carbon sequestration of 48,580.5 kg, removal of major air pollutants totaling 2132 kg/year, and stormwater runoff reduction of 2351.8 m³/year, with a combined annual economic value of USD 202,822.10. A small number of species dominated ES delivery, with C. camphora and M. indica contributing disproportionately to canopy structure and ecological benefits. These findings highlight the critical role of urban vegetation in carbon mitigation, air-quality regulation, and flood adaptation at the parcel scale. The study provides a replicable framework for integrating LiDAR-enhanced i-Tree assessments into urban greening policies. It also emphasizes the need for species diversification and the inclusion of omitted services (e.g., biodiversity support, microclimate regulation) in future work to deliver more comprehensive EbA planning. Full article