Search Results (268)

Environmental crime has been increasingly recognised as transnational organised crime, but efforts to build a coherent and effective international response are still in development and under threat from shifts in the funding landscape. This mixed methods study addresses the role of one significant group of actors in environmental crime enforcement, which are non-governmental organisations (NGOs) who gather intelligence that can be shared with law enforcement and regulatory agencies. The study compares their intelligence practices to findings from traditional intelligence sectors, with a focus upon criminal justice and policing. The research generated quantitative and qualitative data from NGO practitioners, which is integrated to discern three overarching themes inherent in these NGOs’ intelligence practices: the implementation of formal intelligence practices is still underway in the sector; there remains a need to improve cooperation to break down silos between agencies and NGOs, which requires an improvement in trust between these entities; the operating environment provides both opportunities and challenges to the abilities of the NGOs to deliver impact. The study concludes by positing that the characteristics of NGOs mean that this situation constitutes ‘green intelligence’, contextualising intelligence theory and highlighting areas in which agencies can further combat environmental crime. Full article

Urban areas are at the forefront in addressing global challenges such as climate change and biodiversity loss. Among the key responses are nature-based solutions, which are increasingly being integrated into policy frameworks but which require strong community engagement for their effective implementation. This paper presents the findings of surveys conducted within the Place Lab in Katowice, Poland, an initiative developed as part of an international project and used as a participatory tool for co-creating and implementing green infrastructure. The project applies both place-based and people-centred approaches to support European cities in their transition towards regenerative urbanism. Place Lab activities encourage collaboration between local authorities and residents, enhancing awareness and fostering participation in environmental initiatives. The survey data collected during the project allowed for the evaluation of changes in public attitudes and levels of engagement and for the identification of broader societal phenomena that may influence the implementation of nature-based solutions. The findings revealed, for instance, that more women were interested in supporting the project, that residents tended to be sceptical of governmental actions on climate change, and that views were divided on the trade-off between urban infrastructure such as parking and roads and the presence of green areas. Furthermore, questions of responsibility, awareness, and long-term commitment were frequently raised. Building on the survey results and the existing literature, the study proposes a set of indicators to assess the contribution of citizen participation to the adoption of nature-based solutions. While the effectiveness of nature-based solutions in mitigating climate change impacts can be assessed relatively directly, evaluating civic engagement is more complex. Nevertheless, when conducted transparently and interpreted by experts, indicator-based assessment can offer valuable insights. This study introduces a novel perspective by considering not only drivers of engagement but also the obstacles. The proposed indicators provide a foundation for evaluating community readiness and commitment to nature-based approaches and may be adapted for application in other urban settings and in future research on climate resilience strategies. Full article

Background/Objectives: Vaccine hesitancy is becoming an increasing concern, leading to preventable outbreaks of infectious diseases. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the United States served as an intriguing case study for exploring how risk perception and trust in health authorities, including scientists, are influenced by government policies and how these factors affect vaccine hesitancy. Methods: We conducted a secondary analysis using the MIT COVID-19 Survey dataset to investigate whether risk perception and trust differ between states governed by Democratic or Republican governors. Results: Our analysis (n = 6119) found that participants did not vary significantly by state political affiliation in terms of their sociodemographic factors (such as age, gender, self-rated health, education, and whether they live in a city, town, or rural area), their perceived risk for the community, or their ability to control whether they become infected. However, there was a difference in the perceived risk of infection, which was higher in states governed by Republicans. Trust also varied by gubernatorial affiliation, with higher levels of trust reported among residents of Democratic-leaning states. We also found a strong mediation effect of trust on vaccine hesitancy, but this was not the case for risk perception. Conclusion: Therefore, it appears that vaccine acceptance relies on trust in health authorities, which is influenced by governmental policies. State officials should work with local health officials to build trust and increase timely responses to public health crises. Full article

This research explores the concept of open building (OB) in the context of low-cost housing, focusing on its historical applications in Egypt during the 1980s. By evaluating past experiences, the study aims to extract key lessons that can inform the design and implementation of contemporary social housing projects. The goal is to foster resilience and diversity in housing typologies to ensure they align with the evolving needs of residents. To achieve these objectives, the research employed a multi-dimensional strategy, beginning with a comprehensive literature review of the open building movement (OB); then, the study traced the evolution of the OB movement in Egypt using a qualitative analysis approach, which involved analyzing its implementation in low-cost housing projects over the past four decades. Through this historical lens, the study identifies design principles and strategies that can enhance social housing projects by applying OB. Considering the life cycle cost, OB enables an incremental process that would align with users’ financial capacities. The research revealed the substantial capacity of open building (OB) to address Egypt’s social housing challenges, primarily by fostering user-driven flexibility in housing unit design and area selection. This empowers occupants to choose spaces perfectly suited to their family’s evolving needs. Moreover, the findings provide a roadmap for revitalizing the OB movement by analyzing and overcoming past implementation difficulties, consequently balancing the initial cost and long-term economics for citizens and significantly reducing the governmental sector’s expenditure. Full article

The Laogulou Yashu Archaeological Site in Chongqing represented a significant discovery in the study of medieval Chinese urban heritage. Among its remains, the 13th century terraced building F1 stood out for its scale and function as a governmental qiaolou (gate tower). This study reconstructed the original architectural design of F1 using an archaeotectural approach that integrated archaeological evidence and Song Dynasty architectural treatises, especially Yingzao Fashi, and comparatively analysed the building with contemporaneous structures and visual references. By applying the statistical estimation of historical measurement units (chi), typological analysis based on modular standards (cai) and the interpretive modelling of structural elements, the research offered a historically grounded and dimensionally coherent reconstruction. The study not only enhanced the understanding of Southern Song governmental architecture but also contributed a replicable methodological framework for reconstructing complex historical buildings from fragmentary archaeological data. Full article

With the continuous expansion of global trade, achieving sustainable maritime transport optimization and operations has become a key strategic direction for transforming maritime transport companies. To summarize the current state of research and identify emerging trends in sustainable maritime transport optimization and operations, this study systematically examines representative studies from the past decade, focusing on three dimensions, technology, management, and policy, using data sourced from the Web of Science (WOS) database. Building on this analysis, potential avenues for future research are suggested. Research indicates that the technological field centers on the integrated application of alternative fuels, improvements in energy efficiency, and low-carbon technologies in the shipping and port sectors. At the management level, green investment decisions, speed optimization, and berth scheduling are emphasized as core strategies for enhancing corporate sustainable performance. From a policy perspective, attention is placed on the synergistic effects between market-based measures (MBMs) and governmental incentive policies. Existing studies primarily rely on multi-objective optimization models to achieve a balance between emission reductions and economic benefits. Technological innovation is considered a key pathway to decarbonization, while support from governments and organizations is recognized as crucial for ensuring sustainable development. Future research trends involve leveraging blockchain, big data, and artificial intelligence to optimize and streamline sustainable maritime transport operations, as well as establishing a collaborative governance framework guided by environmental objectives. This study contributes to refining the existing theoretical framework and offers several promising research directions for both academia and industry practitioners. Full article

Global refugee flows’ increasing scale and complexity pose significant challenges to national education systems. Turkey, hosting one of the largest populations of refugees and individuals under temporary protection, faces unique pressures in ensuring equitable educational access for refugee students. Addressing these challenges requires a shift from linear, fragmented interventions toward holistic, systemic approaches. This study applies a Community-Based System Dynamics (CBSD) methodology to explore the systemic barriers affecting refugee students’ participation in education. Through structured Group Model Building workshops involving teachers, administrators, and Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) representatives, a causal loop diagram (CLD) was collaboratively developed to capture the feedback mechanisms and interdependencies sustaining educational inequalities. Five thematic subsystems emerged: language and academic integration, economic and family dynamics, psychosocial health and trauma, institutional access and legal barriers, and social cohesion and discrimination. The analysis reveals how structural constraints, social dynamics, and individual behaviors interact to perpetuate exclusion or facilitate integration. This study identifies critical feedback loops and leverage points and provides actionable insights for policymakers and practitioners seeking to design sustainable, systems-informed interventions. Our findings emphasize the importance of participatory modeling in addressing complex societal challenges and contribute to advancing systems thinking in refugee education. Full article

Construction delays are a repeated problem in government buildings projects in Kuwait, always leading to increased costs and schedule slippage. This pilot study investigates key delay factors and corresponding solutions strategies by analyzing the responses from 60 construction professionals representing project management consultants (PMCs), contractors, and consultants. Using a structured questionnaire and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), the study identifies and validates critical delay constructs and explores useful solutions measures from stakeholders’ perspectives. The findings provide foundational data to refine the main study and enhance model validity for structural equation modeling (SEM). The top of the delay factors are poor contractor monitoring, weakness of consultant project management team, and design faults. Recommended solutions strategies include establishing a monitoring system to track subcontractor progress and addressing potential delays proactively, ensuring timely approval for the required workforce, and establishing clear delivery schedules. The results validate the questionnaire’s reliability (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.920) and provide insights into urgency areas for delay mitigation in the Kuwaiti governmental building construction sector. Full article

Karst mountain areas, as complex geological systems formed by carbonate rock development, possess unique three-dimensional spatial structures and hydrogeological processes that fundamentally influence regional ecosystem evolution, land resource assessment, and sustainable development strategy formulation. In recent years, through the implementation of systematic ecological restoration projects, the ecological degradation of karst mountain areas in Southwest China has been significantly curbed. However, the research on the fine-grained land use mapping and quantitative characterization of spatial heterogeneity in karst mountain areas is still insufficient. This knowledge gap impedes scientific decision-making and precise policy formulation for regional ecological environment management. Hence, this paper proposes a novel methodology for land use mapping in karst mountain areas using very high resolution (VHR) remote sensing (RS) images. The innovation of this method lies in the introduction of strategies of geographical zoning and stratified object extraction. The former divides the complex mountain areas into manageable subregions to provide computational units and introduces a priori data for providing constraint boundaries, while the latter implements a processing mechanism with a deep learning (DL) of hierarchical semantic boundary-guided network (HBGNet) for different geographic objects of building, water, cropland, orchard, forest-grassland, and other land use features. Guanling and Zhenfeng counties in the Huajiang section of the Beipanjiang River Basin, China, are selected to conduct the experimental validation. The proposed method achieved notable accuracy metrics with an overall accuracy (OA) of 0.815 and a mean intersection over union (mIoU) of 0.688. Comparative analysis demonstrated the superior performance of advanced DL networks when augmented with priori knowledge in geographical zoning and stratified object extraction. The approach provides a robust mapping framework for generating fine-grained land use data in karst landscapes, which is beneficial for supporting academic research, governmental analysis, and related applications. Full article

The process of youth leaving residential care, for those who grew up in care, remains a global challenge. In South Africa, leaving care is complicated by the almost complete absence of aftercare support services, and a general lack of preparation for leaving care. This study aims to describe South African care-leavers’ views on how well they think they were prepared for care-leaving and what they believe could improve preparation for leaving care. This study is framed in resilience theory, to identify the interactional processes that facilitate better-than-expected outcomes. One-on-one qualitative interviews were conducted with 17 care-leavers, from both state-run and non-governmental residential care facilities. Grounded theory methods of data analysis were used. Participants identified both enablers of care-leaving (e.g., supportive relationships and early workplace exposure) and hinderances to their leaving care (e.g., overprotection and lack of family reunification services). This study concludes that more purposeful preparation for leaving care is required, with an emphasis on building youths’ capacity for interdependence, completion of education before leaving care, and ensuring family reunification work is done. Full article

The prioritization of energy policies by local governments represents a process of competitive attention allocation among various policy tools, and its outcomes significantly influence the ultimate effectiveness of the low-carbon transformation of energy. Building on the theoretical framework of governmental attention allocation, the research first analyzes how internal–external governmental relations shape policy tool prioritization through comparative case studies, followed by a discrete choice experiment (DCE) to empirically examine local governments’ preferences for policy tool attributes under different relational conditions. The findings reveal that county governments (CGs) dominated by intergovernmental relationships tend to align their priorities with the governance requirements of higher-level authorities and emphasize clarity, operability, economic attributes, and political considerations in policy tool selection. In contrast, governments dominated by government–enterprise relationships place greater emphasis on the impact of policy tools on enterprise production and focus primarily on economic attributes and operability. The study demonstrates that under different internal–external government relations, CGs prioritize distinct attributes of policy tools, which leads to varied rankings of energy policy tools. Building effective incentive and constraint mechanisms on the basis of rationalizing vertical intergovernmental and government–enterprise relationships, while optimizing energy policy supply to guide local governments in selecting context-appropriate energy policy tools, serves as a crucial approach to advancing urban low-carbon energy transitions and achieving sustainable socioeconomic development. Full article

The Global Health Network Middle East and North Africa (TGHN MENA) was officially launched on 21 October 2024, representing a pivotal initiative to address the region’s distinct and complex public health challenges. Building on the comprehensive global framework of the central TGHN network, the regional TGHN MENA network was founded by region-based experts with support from the TGHN team. The network was established as a pioneering initiative to bring together 18 partners from 14 countries, representing various sectors such as academia, policymakers, and governmental and non-governmental organizations, to tackle pressing issues such as chronic diseases, mental health, and climate change impacts. High-level panel discussions were held to define the goals of TGHN MENA in building resilient public health systems. This perspective outlines the network’s vision for building resilient health systems through research prioritization and capacity strengthening, amidst growing uncertainties in the regional public health landscape. The MENA region has diverse and complex public health challenges related to health systems, emergencies, chronic disease, mental health disorders, and climate change, due to cultural, social, and geographic differences. The TGHN MENA network is a community of practice and can identify commonalities and priorities and find shareable solutions. Key strategies proposed include establishing an open-access, online platform to support knowledge exchange, implementing on-the-job training and capacity-strengthening initiatives, and emphasizing the use of artificial intelligence in public health research. This perspective outlines TGHN MENA’s inaugural one-year action plan, which emphasizes regular knowledge-sharing activities, capacity-building initiatives, and sustained partners’ commitment as foundational steps towards improved public health outcomes in the region. Full article

Background/Objectives: Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly integrated into everyday life, including the complex and highly regulated healthcare sector. Given healthcare’s essential role in safeguarding human life and well-being, AI deployment requires careful oversight to ensure safety, effectiveness, and ethical compliance. This paper aims to examine the current regulatory landscapes governing AI in healthcare, particularly in the European Union (EU) and the United States (USA), and to propose practical tools to support the responsible development and implementation of AI systems. Methods: The study reviews key regulatory frameworks, ethical guidelines, and expert recommendations from international bodies, professional associations, and governmental institutions in the EU and USA. Based on this analysis, the paper develops structured questionnaires tailored for AI developers and implementers to help operationalize regulatory and ethical expectations. Results: The proposed questionnaires address critical gaps in existing frameworks by providing actionable, lifecycle-oriented tools that span AI development, deployment, and clinical use. These instruments support compliance and ethical integrity while promoting transparency and accountability. Conclusions: The structured questionnaires can serve as practical tools for health technology assessments, public procurement, accreditation processes, and training initiatives. By aligning AI system design with regulatory and ethical standards, they contribute to building trustworthy, safe, and innovative AI applications in healthcare. Full article

Citizen science (CS) is increasingly recognized as a complementary approach for addressing soil health challenges—including erosion, pollution, nutrient imbalances, and biodiversity loss—by harnessing public participation to broaden spatial and temporal data collection. This review synthesizes findings from the following: (i) a systematic analysis of peer-reviewed literature and grey sources, (ii) a database of 96 CS initiatives compiled by the European PREPSOIL project, and (iii) questionnaire surveys and workshops conducted in five Living Labs across Europe. Our analysis indicates that volunteer-driven monitoring can enhance the volume and granularity of soil data, providing critical insights into parameters such as organic carbon content, nutrient levels, and pollutant concentrations. However, persistent challenges remain, including inconsistencies in data validation, volunteer attrition, and concerns regarding digital literacy and data privacy. Despite these challenges, ongoing efforts to standardize protocols, integrate remote sensing and sensor-based validation methods, and employ feedback mechanisms improve data reliability and participant engagement. We conclude that sustained capacity-building, transparent data governance, and stakeholder collaboration, from local communities to governmental bodies, are essential for fully realizing the potential of citizen science in soil conservation. This work is framed within the context of the European Soil Mission, and CS is demonstrated to meaningfully support sustainable land management and evidence-based policymaking by aligning public-generated observations with established scientific frameworks. Full article

This study constructs a system dynamics (SD)-based energy efficiency model for retrofitting existing residential buildings by considering urban residential buildings in Liaoning Province, China. In this study, we sorted the boundaries of building energy efficiency accounting, analyzed the current status of related research and system dynamics theory, determined the influencing factors and transmission mechanisms of residential building energy efficiency renovation, set the research boundaries and assumptions, drew the circuit diagrams of various subsystems, determined the main equations and parameters of the model, and ensured the reliability of the model through stability and historicity tests. Through scenario simulation and analysis, it was found that, from 2016 to 2035, the comprehensive benefits of urban residential building renovation will grow slowly in the early stage and rapidly in the late stage, which will potentially have large benefits. The socio-economic environment, governmental policies, energy-saving technologies, market demand, and other factors influence each other, among which the progress of energy-saving technologies has the greatest impact on the comprehensive benefits. Changing the inputs of a certain aspect cannot make the benefits of energy consumption, environment, and economic tripartite grow equally. The energy consumption benefit potential of centralized heating renovation is larger. The results of this study provide a theoretical basis and decision support for the energy-saving transformation of existing residential buildings. Full article