Search Results (331)

Cold-region community outdoor spaces are not only everyday activity settings for older adults in winter, but also public-space types that need to be translated into design evidence for architecture and healthy human-settlement research. Existing restorative-environment studies usually treat improved mood, perceived restoration, and environmental appraisal as evidence of health benefits. The key finding of this study is that subjective restoration and physiological recovery are not always synchronized after outdoor exposure in cold-region communities. This discordance reveals a design risk and an innovative value that can be overlooked when restoration is evaluated only through perception-based indicators. Based on a winter field exposure experiment with 345 older adults in a community in Shenyang, China, this study compared staged changes in systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), pulse pressure (PP), POMS, ROS, and ENPQ across an activity plaza, a greenway walkway, and a street corridor. It further developed a psychophysiological concordance classification and a residual cardiovascular risk indicator for the recovery period. The greenway walkway showed the most stable concordant recovery, with 86.84% of women and 79.35% of men showing concordant recovery. The activity plaza showed a clear pattern of emotional recovery: the proportions of women and men whose psychological state improved without a synchronized SBP decrease were 61.58% and 50.32%, respectively. The street corridor had the highest recovery-failure rates, at 92.63% for women and 91.61% for men. Among women, 90.53% reached SBP values of 140 mmHg or higher during the walking phase in the street corridor, and 59.47% remained above this risk threshold during recovery. These results show that health evaluation of cold-region community outdoor spaces should not rely only on subjective restoration indicators, but should also include psychophysiological concordance and residual risk after exposure. The study translates site health effects into three architectural design judgments: concordant-restoration spaces, emotional-restoration spaces, and recovery-failure spaces, providing a testable evidence framework for age-friendly community renewal, path organization, green buffering, and winter wind-protection design. Full article

The growth of advanced cyber threats has inspired organisations to start using powerful cybersecurity platforms, but the process of selection is analytically challenging due to the multidimensional, uncertain, and conflicting character of the evaluation criteria. The prevailing culture of decision-support frameworks is based on unyielding numerical evaluations that cannot reflect the underlying vagueness of expert judgment and the dynamic interplay of macro-environmental factors. This paper presents a combined Fuzzy Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (FMCDM) system, which uses polygonal fuzzy numbers, in particular pentagonal fuzzy representation, and four other complementary methods of MCDM (Fuzzy AHP, Fuzzy TOPSIS, Fuzzy VIKOR, and Fuzzy COPRAS), integrated by a Borda Count consensus system. Sixteen assessment sub-criteria are logically obtained through an analysis of PESTEL (Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Environmental, and Legal) and weighted using the Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process. The model is used to compare six cybersecurity platforms, including Microsoft Security Framework, CrowdStrike Falcon, Cisco Cybersecurity Portfolio, Palo Alto Networks Cortex, Fortinet Security Fabric, and Sophos Central. In this study, Fuzzy AHP demonstrates that the aggregate weight of political factors is the highest (0.4181), followed by cross-border data management, regulatory compliance, and government incentives as the most popular sub-criteria. According to the results from the Fuzzy TOPSIS, Fuzzy VIKOR, and Fuzzy COPRAS methods, Microsoft Security Framework ranks consistently in the first place, and CrowdStrike Falcon and Cisco Cybersecurity Portfolio were ranked second and third, respectively. The framework presented in the study provides decision-makers with a reproducible, uncertainty-conscious basis for cybersecurity platform selection. Full article

Large-scale location-based virtual reality (LBE VR) has become an important form of immersive cultural tourism, but its role in supporting sustained value transformation remains insufficiently understood. In this study, “sustained value transformation” refers to the extension, reinterpretation, and circulation of cultural, educational, social, and engagement-related value across physical venues, embodied virtual narratives, and digital platforms. Rather than assessing economic performance, environmental impact, or long-term operational viability, this study focuses on the cultural and social circulation of experiential value. It examines how physical venues, embodied virtual narratives, and digital platforms jointly mediate visitor experience in LBE VR-based cultural tourism. It compares representative LBE VR projects in museums and heritage institutions, emerging public cultural spaces, and commercial venues in China. A total of 10,862 project-related textual items and 464 visual samples were collected from Xiaohongshu and Douyin and analyzed through comparative content and visual analyses. The findings show that visitor choices are shaped by both the spirit of place in physical venues and platform-visible experience labels. In museums and heritage institutions, institutional knowledge authority and embodied narrative depth help visitors recognize interactive educational value. In emerging public cultural spaces, the intertwining of historical narratives and commercial operations produces more ambiguous experience labels. In commercial venues, platform discussions focus more strongly on value-for-money judgment, sensory stimulation, product quality, and service experience. The study argues that sustained value transformation in LBE VR-based cultural tourism cannot rely solely on platform traffic. Instead, it depends on collaboration among cultural institutions, tourism enterprises, platform content creators, educational actors, and community stakeholders to preserve cultural distinctiveness, improve experience quality, and extend cultural and social value beyond the immediate on-site experience. Full article

The move to sustainable energy systems has increased the requirement for comprehensive decision support frameworks that are uncertainty-aware to guide the selection of solar power plant sites. The rapid growth of investments in solar energy has increased the demand for systematic and accurate decision-support tools to choose the best sites for photovoltaic (PV) power facilities. The selection of solar power plant sites is a complicated multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) problem that involves technical, economic, environmental, social, and technological aspects. The process is typically associated with ambiguity and incomplete knowledge of experts. To overcome these problems, this paper offers an interval-valued neutrosophic fuzzy TOPSIS (IVN-TOPSIS) method, which extends the standard TOPSIS methodology by including truth, indeterminacy, and falsity membership degrees as interval values. The methodology is utilized in a real case study in the Mediterranean region of Türkiye, comprising three provinces with great potential: Antalya, Mersin, and Adana. An assessment of a complete set of environmental, economic, social, and technological criteria is performed using expert judgments stated in interval-valued neutrosophic language assessments. They were incorporated into a Geographic Information System (GIS) to produce a suitability map indicating the most suitable sites for the facility. The suggested approach is different from the traditional crisp or fuzzy MCDM techniques since it clearly models the degrees of truth, indeterminacy, and falsehood, thus providing a more detailed representation of the expert evaluations. According to the data, Mersin is the most ideal site for the construction of a solar power plant, followed by Antalya, and the least suitable site is Adana. The results suggest that sustainable solar energy planning must go beyond technical resource potential and include integrated and uncertainty-aware assessments. The suggested IVN-TOPSIS framework can serve as a powerful decision-support tool to policymakers, planners, and investors that wish to encourage regionally balanced and sustainable renewable energy development. Full article

Urban flood vulnerability is increasingly shaped by the interaction between climate change, urbanization, and spatial planning practices, particularly in Mediterranean metropolitan areas. This study develops an integrated GIS–AHP framework to assess the susceptibility component of flood vulnerability in the urban area of Thessaloniki, Greece. Using open-access geospatial data, ten indicators representing soil, hydrological, and environmental conditions are derived and spatially analyzed. The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), based on expert judgment, is applied to estimate the relative importance of these indicators and to support their integration into a composite flood susceptibility index. The results reveal strong spatial heterogeneity, with high susceptibility concentrated in low-lying, densely urbanized areas and zones near drainage pathways. Among the examined factors, the Topographic Wetness Index emerges as the most influential, highlighting the persistent role of terrain-driven hydrological processes even in highly built environments. The proposed framework provides a transparent and transferable methodology for identifying flood-prone areas and supports evidence-based urban planning and climate resilience strategies. The findings contribute to the broader discussion on vulnerability and resilience in urban systems by linking spatial analysis with decision-support tools in a policy-relevant context. Full article

The concept of technological singularity is discussed here in the context of architecture (of buildings, not software). This is the point at which non-human intelligence is conjectured to surpass ordinary human cognitive limits. Empirically constrained AI may already offer a useful corrective to mainstream architectural culture in one crucial aspect—its capacity to evaluate design that adapts to human emotional health. Postwar building architecture as an institutional power system rewards abstraction and stylistic conformity through media prestige while not always accounting for embodied human experience. By narrowing judgment criteria, architectural studio pedagogy trains tacitly for imitation, not seeking evidence that conflicts with dominant formal ideologies. Yet findings from environmental psychology, health-related design research, neuroscience, and recent AI-based studies show that built form measurably affects empathic response and user well-being. This paper examines what effects dominant architectural culture could impose on the public by producing informationally impoverished, stressful environments. We argue that built environment design may suffer from an epistemic closure because (i) architectural education does not foster curiosity in how design affects users—the core mechanism for intelligence development—and (ii) architectural media may legitimate non-adaptive form languages by habituating populations to ignore distress signals from geometries associated with elevated stress markers. However, empirically constrained AI can now be directed to apply that relevant knowledge base to improve the built environment. The most suggestive evidence in the paper is that LLM emotional scores, LLM geometric scores, human eye-tracking, and large public surveys converge on the same designs. In this sense, the AI singularity can be framed as a domain-specific, testable hypothesis in architecture. This paper does not report new generated results derived from Empirically Constrained Scaffolding (ECS), which appear in prior applications, but reproduces the original prompts as an illustration of the method. Full article

This study aims to investigate the effect of organizational identification (OI) on green organizational behavior (GOB) and the mediating role of psychological well-being (PWB) in this relationship. To achieve this research goal, a quantitative study was conducted using a structured questionnaire designed to assess the relevant variables. Data was collected from 264 white-collar employees in the service sector in Istanbul. Surveys were collected from participants face-to-face, using a judgmental sampling method. Hypotheses were tested using AMOS22, SPSS 24 and PROCESS Macro. The significance of indirect effects was analyzed by employing the bootstrapping technique. The results indicate that OI has positive and significant direct effects on GOB and PWB. Furthermore, PWB was found to significantly predict GOB. The bootstrapping analysis revealed that the indirect effect was significant, supporting a partial mediation model. This research illustrates that OI increases GOB both directly and indirectly through PWB. The findings are considered to be of relevance to the literature because this is one of the few studies that addresses the concept of green organizational behavior, which is a focal point in the organizational behavior literature, and it emphasizes the importance of psychological resources in promoting environmentally friendly behaviors within organizations. Full article

Increasing attention has been directed toward walkability evaluation because pedestrian environments are closely associated with mobility patterns, environmental quality, and everyday spatial experience. However, most existing walkability studies either emphasize objective spatial indicators or rely on subjective satisfaction surveys, while the relationship between expert evaluation and user satisfaction has received relatively limited attention, particularly regarding its nonlinear characteristics. In addition, walkability frameworks developed for urban public environments are often directly applied to university campuses without adequately considering the distinctive behavioral characteristics of campus pedestrian activities. To address these limitations, this study proposes an integrated AHP–Kano walkability evaluation framework for campus pedestrian systems. The framework combines the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) with the Kano model to establish a perception-sensitive and behavior-oriented evaluation structure. AHP is employed to determine the relative importance of environmental indicators through expert judgment, while the Kano model is introduced to capture the asymmetric effects of different environmental attributes on user satisfaction. GIS analysis and field investigation were employed as supplementary spatial diagnostic tools to support the interpretation of pedestrian–environment characteristics. Using the Xiamen campus of Huaqiao University as a case study, this research constructs a multidimensional evaluation system covering accessibility, safety, comfort, landscape quality, and service functionality. Questionnaire surveys and expert evaluations were conducted to analyze the relationship between objective environmental importance and subjective perceptual response. The results indicate that safety- and accessibility-related attributes primarily function as must-be requirements that prevent dissatisfaction, whereas environmental cleanliness and selected experiential elements exhibit stronger satisfaction-enhancing effects. Several landscape-related indicators, commonly emphasized in urban walkability studies, demonstrate relatively weak perceptual sensitivity in campus contexts, reflecting the task-oriented and time-constrained nature of campus pedestrian behavior. The present study extends existing walkability research in several important respects. Rather than relying on conventional linear assumptions, the proposed framework incorporates nonlinear perceptual responses into walkability evaluation. The findings further demonstrate that pedestrian perception is highly context-dependent in campus environments, while the integrated framework further provides a behavior-sensitive basis for prioritizing spatial interventions. Full article

Cascade hydropower alters river hydrological regimes and threatens aquatic ecosystems, calling for robust ecological risk assessment (ERA). Conventional assessments often rigidly apply the full five-layer Driving Force–Pressure–State–Impact–Response framework, leading to indicator redundancy and unbalanced weighting. Single weighting methods also fail to reconcile expert judgment with data variability. To address these issues, we developed a three-layer (target–element–indicator) evaluation system embedding DPSIR logic without its full structure, focusing on hydrological regime, water environmental quality, and aquatic ecology with ten indicators. We used an improved group AHP-CRITIC coupling method for weighting: AHP aggregates expert judgments via geometric mean, and CRITIC integrates data variability and inter-indicator conflict. Multi-attribute utility theory normalized indicators into a unified security index, applied to four cascade stations in the middle Jinsha River using 66-year (1953–2018) hydrological and seven-year (2013–2019) in situ monitoring data. The evaluation obtained a comprehensive index of 0.71 to 0.74, which is generally safe. River connectivity loss was the primary limiting factor. Hydrological alteration was mild overall with a value of 0.139, while extreme flow decline rate variation reached a high level of 0.83. Weekly regulated stations achieved over 97% ecological flow guarantee, which is much higher than daily regulated stations. This streamlined framework improves interpretability for cascade basins and supports sustainable watershed management. Full article

This study investigates the durability of timber buildings through a systematic literature review and a service life assessment of two representative building components. The review focused on degradation mechanisms, reasons for demolition, reference service life values, and strategies for extending service life. The deterioration of timber was found to be primarily driven by biological, physical, and mechanical processes, with moisture as a critical factor. Although degradation mechanisms are thoroughly documented, evidence concerning the physical lifespan of timber buildings remains scarce. Most demolitions are due to obsolescence and inadequate maintenance rather than structural failure. Reference service life values are frequently derived from expert judgment and often lack transparent boundary conditions. Nevertheless, factor-based service life prediction models offer a framework for evaluating structural components. When applied to a reference building, the method yielded estimated service lives of 100 years for an interior LVL beech column and 81 years for an exterior wall stud. These findings align with observed lifespans reported in demolition studies. More robust empirical data on demolition ages and refined reference values under standardized conditions are needed. Such improvements would enhance the accuracy of service life prediction models, support more realistic environmental assessments, and strengthen the role of timber as a sustainable construction material. Full article

Selecting the right energy storage system (ESS) for grid integration is a high-stakes decision involving conflicting technical, economic, environmental, and risk criteria under deep uncertainty. The existing fuzzy multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) methods either fail to capture neutral or abstaining expert judgments or treat evaluation criteria as independent, which is an unrealistic assumption in complex engineering decisions. To address both limitations simultaneously, this study develops four new aggregation operators by extending the Bonferroni mean (BM) into the q-rung picture fuzzy sets (q-RPFSs) framework: the q-RPFBM-based, q-RPFWBM-based, q-RPFGBM-based, and q-RPFWGBM-based operators. Unlike the existing q-RPFS operator families (Dombi, Frank, Fermatean, Yager, Maclaurin), which aggregate criteria independently, BM-based operators explicitly model pairwise interactions among criteria with a structurally distinct aggregation logic that is especially critical when criteria such as cost, risk, reliability, and environmental impact are mutually correlated. The theoretical validity of the operators is confirmed through proofs of idempotency, monotonicity, and boundedness. Applied to a comprehensive ESS selection problem for Türkiye (covering nine alternatives across nineteen sub-criteria and five main criteria, including an explicit risk dimension), the framework consistently identifies pumped hydro storage as the optimal choice. Sensitivity analyses under varying q, s, and t parameters, as well as perturbed criterion weights, confirm the robustness of this ranking. The proposed framework offers energy planners and decision-makers a principled and transparent tool for evaluating ESS under high uncertainty and criterion interdependence. Full article

Background: Territorial logistics management has become increasingly important in turbulent environments, where digitalization, sustainability, resilience, and governance interact to shape regional logistics performance. This study aims to identify the strategic dimensions that structure territorial logistics management. Methods: A sequential mixed-methods design was adopted. First, relevant variables were identified through a structured literature review and expert judgment. Second, a survey of 376 specialists was analyzed using principal component analysis (PCA) to explore the empirical structure of the retained variables. Results: The analysis identified a four-dimensional structure comprising: (1) digital infrastructure and intelligent logistics, (2) sustainability and circular economy, (3) systemic resilience and risk management, and (4) territorial logistics, governance, and accessibility. Together, these dimensions explained more than 70% of the total variance. Conclusions: The findings suggest that territorial logistics management is a multidimensional phenomenon shaped by the interaction of technological, environmental, institutional, and spatial factors. The study provides an empirically grounded exploratory framework for understanding territorial logistics and supporting more integrated strategies for smart, sustainable, and resilient supply chains. Full article

One of the most critical challenges in maritime transport decarbonization, as part of the EU greenhouse gas (GHG) neutrality strategy, is the reduction in GHG and harmful emissions from the energy systems of existing vessels. Furthermore, the potential for implementing decarbonization technologies in operating vessels remains significantly more limited compared to newly constructed ships. Selecting appropriate decarbonization measures requires a comprehensive evaluation of technological feasibility, economic viability, and environmental performance, in accordance with the regulatory frameworks established by the IMO and the EU. A major limitation in such decision-making processes is ensuring the representativeness and reliability of expert judgments. In order to improve the reliability of results by expanding and structuring the information base, this study proposes and implements a method based on the integration of SWOT analysis with multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) methods. The objective of this study was to examine the methodological aspects of testing the integrated application of comprehensive analysis and ranking methods for decarbonization technologies as applied to a prototype oil tanker. Based on the SWOT analysis method, technological solutions that are available for practical application were identified for the medium-term decarbonization period considered in the study, up to 2030–2035. Subsequent rating based on several applied multi-criteria (MCDM) analysis methods (TOPSIS, COPRAS, SAW) allowed us to examine the range, stability and sensitivity of the obtained solutions in relation to the methods themselves and scenarios with variations in the weighting factors of the evaluation criteria. The complete match of the ratings obtained using the TOPSIS and COPRAS methods confirms the stability of the multi-criteria decision-making process (priority-compromise order): CCS, kite, air lubrication, Flettner rotor. The performed sensitivity analysis showed that the technology rankings remain relatively stable when the weighting factor for the CO₂ reduction criterion varies within a range of approximately ±10%, while larger deviations result in an increasing difference between all three MCDM methods. For the TOPSIS method, the change limits for the critical values of the threshold indicators were ±20%, the COPRAS method showed intermediate results, and changing the weighting coefficients within a ±20% range did not alter the selection of the best technology. The results obtained allow for a positive assessment of the effectiveness of the proposed integrated methodology when applied as an alternative in the initial stage of ranking decarbonization methods for in-service ships. Full article

Scaffold-related falls remain a major safety concern in demolition projects, where temporary access systems are frequently erected, modified, used, and dismantled under changing structural and site conditions. These characteristics complicate risk prioritization because scaffold failures may involve interacting human, technical, organizational, and environmental factors. This study develops an expert-based risk prioritization framework for scaffold-related fall risks in demolition projects by integrating Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA), interval neutrosophic fuzzy (INF) theory, Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL), and Multi-Attributive Border Approximation Area Comparison (MABAC). Using the 4M1E perspective, namely Man, Machine, Material, Method, and Environment, 37 demolition-specific failure modes were identified through literature review and expert elicitation. Ten experts evaluated these failure modes using the SODE criteria, namely Severity, Occurrence, Detection difficulty, and Expected Cost impact. INF theory was used to represent uncertainty, hesitation, and judgmental variation in expert assessments. INF-DEMATEL was applied to examine interrelationships among the SODE criteria and derive interdependence-aware criterion weights, while INF-MABAC was used to rank the failure modes according to their distance from the Border Approximation Area. The framework was illustrated through an empirical application in Taiwan’s demolition industry. The results identified Severity as the most influential criterion. The highest-priority failure modes were insufficient safety awareness, improper scaffold-to-structure anchoring, and inadequate scaffold maintenance and inspection governance. Comparison with risk priority number (RPN)-based methods and sensitivity analyses using expert exclusion and Severity-weight variation showed that the ranking was generally consistent and reasonably stable under the tested conditions. The proposed framework provides a structured, uncertainty-aware decision-support procedure for identifying prevention priorities in demolition scaffold operations. Full article

This study develops a GIS-based multicriteria decision analysis framework to assess the territorial suitability of onshore wind energy in Colombia. The proposed approach combines technical and socio-environmental suitability modelling with territorial interpretation based on conflict and governance, moving beyond conventional siting models focused mainly on wind resource availability and infrastructure proximity. The technical assessment included wind speed, wind power density, terrain slope, land cover, land use, and proximity to electrical grids, main roads, settlements, and water bodies. In addition, a National Conflict Index and a National Governance Index were constructed to represent broader territorial conditions that may affect project implementation. Quantitative variables, including wind speed, wind power density, terrain slope, and distance-based criteria, were transformed onto a common suitability scale using linear fuzzy membership functions, whereas qualitative variables, including land cover and land use, were incorporated through categorical reclassification. The National Conflict Index and National Governance Index were first constructed using CRITIC to obtain objective weights for their internal variables. Subsequently, the final onshore wind suitability criteria were weighted through the linear Best–Worst Method based on expert judgment. The standardized suitability layers and corresponding BWM-derived weights were integrated through weighted spatial overlay to generate a national suitability map, while the conflict and governance indices were used to interpret the territorial conditions associated with the resulting suitable areas. The results show a highly selective territorial pattern, with the most favorable areas concentrated mainly in La Guajira (1286.09 km²) and Cesar (574.45 km²), and more fragmented secondary opportunities in Nariño, Boyacá, Norte de Santander, Cundinamarca, Atlántico, and Magdalena. Three territorial intervention scenarios were identified: priority intervention, complementary or selective development, and low relative priority. The main contribution of the study is the articulation of a BWM-weighted technical and socio-environmental suitability model with CRITIC-based conflict and governance indices, offering a replicable framework to support strategic planning and public policy decisions for onshore wind deployment in Colombia. Full article