Search Results (36,789)

This study examines how sustainability orientation shapes sustainability behavior among entrepreneurial small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Turkey. Grounded in self-determination theory (SDT) and the theory of planned behavior (TPB), this study develops and empirically tests a conditional process model in which perceived social support functions as a mediating mechanism and sustainable entrepreneurship operates as a boundary condition. Data were collected from 519 senior managers of ISO 14001-certified SMEs using a two-wave survey design to mitigate common method variance (CMV). Using Hayes’ PROCESS macro, the results indicate that sustainability orientation is positively associated with sustainability behavior and that perceived social support partially mediates this relationship by facilitating the translation of sustainability values into action. Furthermore, sustainable entrepreneurship strengthens both the direct association between sustainability orientation and sustainability behavior and the indirect pathway operating through perceived social support. SMEs with higher sustainable entrepreneurship capabilities are better positioned to leverage internal values and external social reinforcement to enact proactive sustainability practices. Overall, the findings highlight the joint role of motivational orientations, social reinforcement, and entrepreneurial capability in shaping sustainability outcomes. The study contributes to sustainability and entrepreneurship research by clarifying how value-based orientations are converted into sustainable behavior and offers practical implications for policymakers and SME leaders seeking to accelerate sustainability transitions in emerging economies. Full article

This study provides a comprehensive evaluation of waste-to-energy (WtE) technologies in Saudi Arabia, focusing on municipal solid waste (MSW) across various cities, in alignment with Saudi Vision 2030. Saudi Arabia generates approximately 16 million tons of MSW annually, primarily composed of organic matter (37–57%), followed by paper (11–28%) and plastics (5–36%). According to Vision 2030 projections, MSW generation is expected to increase to approximately 30 million tons per year by 2033, driven by population growth, urbanization, and increased tourism activities. Waste quantities notably increase during the Hajj and Ramadan seasons. The study assesses three main WTE technologies: biochemical, chemical, and thermochemical processes. Anaerobic digestion (AD) effectively converts organic waste into biogas with a methane content of 60% to 80%, potentially yielding up to 2.99 TWh annually. Transesterification efficiently targets fats in waste, generating around 244.2 GWh per year. Thermochemical processes, including incineration, gasification, and pyrolysis, are suitable for high-calorific waste. Incineration can significantly reduce waste volume and generate up to 2073 MW while lowering GHG emissions. Economic assessments reveal that biochemical methods are the most cost-effective for managing organic waste, while thermochemical methods, despite higher capital costs, achieve significant energy recovery. Integrating WTE technologies with recycling is crucial for enhancing environmental sustainability and supporting Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 objectives. Full article

Temperate forests play a key role in biodiversity conservation, climate regulation, and the provision of ecosystem services. However, land-use changes and urban expansion have intensified landscape fragmentation processes, reducing ecological connectivity and ecosystem functionality. Despite the importance of community-owned forests in northern Mexico, evaluations of landscape configuration within these territories remain limited. This study compared land-use and land-cover patterns and fragmentation metrics in four community-managed ejidos in Durango, Mexico, using Landsat imagery from 2000 and 2020. Land-cover maps were produced through supervised classification with a Random Forest algorithm and validated using standard accuracy metrics. Landscape composition, configuration and connectivity were assessed at class and landscape levels using a set of spatial metrics calculated with FRAGSTATS. The results reveal contrasts among ejidos. Ciénega de los Caballos and Navajas show greater representation of secondary vegetation accompanied by changes in patches and edge densities. San retains a more cohesive configuration with comparatively higher aggregation and connectivity, whereas El Tunal y Anexos exhibit stronger subdivision and lower connectivity. These outcomes emphasize the value of spatial metrics for identifying differences in landscape structure between observation years and for supporting comparative assessment in community-managed forest territories. The study provides spatially explicit information that may assist territorial planning and forest management at this scale. Full article

The accurate calculation of excavation volume is critical for open-pit mine planning and management. Traditional methods are often inefficient and constrained by operational conditions. In contrast, digital surface model (DSM) differential analysis using stereophotogrammetry enables rapid acquisition of excavation volume, which holds significant value for retrospective excavation process. However, the actual mining process is not a simple matter of “excavation” or “backfilling”, but rather a complex mining pattern involving repeated excavation as new coal seams are exposed. This study utilized multi-source stereo remote sensing data (ZY-3, GF-7 satellite and UAV data) to construct a high-precision DSM time series spanning 2013 to 2025, focusing on analyzing the topographical evolution patterns of three representative mining pits. Research indicates that constructing DSMs during summer and autumn yields higher conformity with actual terrain, RMSE = 1.67 m and ME = −0.07 m. To address diverse mining patterns, we propose two calculation methods: the Cumulative Method (CM), which captures iterative excavation-backfilling cycles, and the First-Last Subtraction Method (FLSM), which mitigates cumulative DSM errors during continuous excavation. For phased mining operations, a hybrid method combining both approaches yields optimal results. Validation in three typical pits showed relative calculation errors of 1.36%, −0.49%, and 1.68%, respectively. The study indicates that the surface morphology changes in open-pit mines exhibit distinct non-linear characteristics. The method proposed herein not only enhances computational accuracy but also provides technical support for tracing historical coal excavation volumes. Full article

Background/Objectives: Dietary behaviors among young adults in Japan have become increasingly polarized, highlighting the limitations of traditional knowledge-based health education. Behavioral science-based approaches such as nudging and gamification may offer alternative strategies. This study aimed to develop and examine a Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB)-based path model of healthy dietary choice behavior among young Japanese adults and to examine patterns associated with a star-rating gamification feature embedded in a nutrition management mobile application. Methods: A total of 188 participants aged 18–39 years completed an online survey assessing TPB constructs and normative factors. Participants used either a star-rating or non-rating version of the FoodLog Athl application. Composite-score-based path analysis and conditional process analyses were conducted to examine relational patterns among constructs. Results: Intention and self-efficacy jointly explained 48% of the variance in dietary behavior, with self-efficacy emerging as the strongest predictor. Several moderation patterns were observed, including those of gender, university year, diet app use, awareness of consequences, and ascription of responsibility. Compared with users of the non-rating version, star-rating users were observed to show higher nutrient scores but lower self-efficacy and dietary behavior scores, along with greater awareness of dietary consequences. These post-intervention findings are exploratory. Conclusions: Self-efficacy plays a central role in healthy dietary choice behavior among young adults, and its association with behavior appears to be shaped by perceived consequences and responsibility. By applying a composite-score-based path analysis within an SEM framework, this study clarifies the structural relationships among TPB components in everyday dietary choice behavior among Japanese young adults. Star-rating feedback may enhance reflective awareness and shows potential as a gamified nudging tool but further research is needed to clarify its effects. Full article

While governance theories are well-established, their operational application to transboundary serial cultural heritage remains minimally explored, particularly regarding comparative methodologies for evaluating cooperation maturity. This study addresses this gap by investigating the relationships among institutional models, cooperation mechanisms, and management maturity levels across different countries. The research utilizes a qualitative comparative analysis of the management plans of fifteen transboundary serial cultural heritage sites on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Findings show that governance is not limited to the functioning of legal and administrative structures, but is also shaped by trust among stakeholders, knowledge exchange, and participant processes. Four main governance models were identified: institutionalized multinational networks, federal–modular structures, bilateral–local cooperation, and community-led collaboration. In parallel, the developed Corporate Governance and Maturity Positioning Map reveals that the sites fall along six distinct levels, ranging from basic communication to sustained governance networks. The study argues that the primary factor determining management effectiveness is the intensity of interaction and continuity of coordination rather than institutional capacity. Overall, the findings suggest that cultural heritage governance should be understood as a multi-layered, learning-based, and diplomatic process. Full article

Old urban areas are often prone to waterlogging and sewage contamination owing to their haphazard spatial arrangements, extensive impervious surfaces, and insufficient drainage infrastructure, thereby posing significant risks to both public safety and aquatic ecosystems. Sponge City retrofitting offers a viable solution. Currently, the study area is facing issues of waterlogging and pollution caused by rainfall. Conventional modeling approaches for optimizing the spatial allocation of Low-Impact Development (LID) practices typically quantify only the overall retrofit proportion. However, these methods fail to specify the optimal placement of individual facilities to balance hydrological benefits against construction costs. To bridge this gap between theoretical optimization and practical implementation, this study proposes an iterative approximation framework. First, the Non-Dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm II (NSGA-II) was coupled with the Storm Water Management Model (SWMM) to generate a Pareto front, from which optimal solutions were selected using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). The configuration was further refined through multiple iterations of “exhaustive search combined with Euclidean distance” analysis to determine the optimal types and locations of LID facilities. The results show that: In Scenario 3, the Euclidean distance after LID retrofitting achieved a narrowing gap from 5 to 3 to 1. This indicates that the proposed progressive approximation solving process can be directly applied to specific retrofit targets, providing concrete construction guidance for LID retrofitting in older communities’ areas. Conclusions showed that (1) the specific locations for implementing LID facilities within sub-catchments become progressively clearer, ultimately defining precise retrofitting sites. (2) The proposed progressive approximation approach effectively and systematically reduces this disparity. (3) Retrofitted LID measures effectively managed stormwater and controlled pollution. Full article

The need for efficient water management is critical today, as this resource faces increasing scarcity due to population growth, pollution, climate change, depletion, and overexploitation of water resources. This further exacerbates the problem of intermittent water supply (IWS), where consumers receive running water for less than 24 h a day, 7 days a week, affecting more than one billion people worldwide. This article presents the development and implementation of a smart water metering and monitoring system (SWMMS) for households affected by IWS. The system comprises IoT devices that record water levels and consumption and supply events in real time; cloud computing services to store and process the readings taken by the IoT devices; and a mobile application that allows users to view the available volume, consult their daily consumption history, and receive alerts for prolonged consumption time, overflows, and low water levels. The system was implemented for 115 days in a home suffering from an IWS, where a lower number of consumption events were recorded during the first 40 days of monitoring due to an initial behavioral response to continuous observation (Hawthorne effect), rather than an improvement in efficiency induced by the system. Full article

The rapid development of digital technologies presents both a challenge and an opportunity for strengthening sustainability in construction project management. Within the broader digitalization agenda, Building Information Modelling (BIM) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) have emerged as key tools for improving environmental and economic performance through resource optimization. While traditional methods for optimizing resources, costs, and time remain relevant, the integration of BIM and AI introduces innovative capabilities that support decision-making, process automation, and data-driven sustainability strategies. The aim of this research is to analyze the extent to which BIM and AI are used for sustainable resource optimization in construction and to quantify their potential impact on the optimization of costs, resources, and time in the sector. A cross-sectional survey was conducted among construction companies operating in three European markets, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Croatia. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, correlation and regression analysis, and statistical hypothesis testing to assess the significance of relationships between technology adoption and sustainability outcomes. The results confirm that BIM adoption is positively correlated with improved sustainability management and optimization practices, with usage levels varying by company size and project scale. In contrast, AI adoption remains at a low level, indicating untapped potential for broader application. These findings contribute to understanding the role of digital tools in driving sustainable transformation in the construction sector and highlight areas for further research and practical deployment. BIM demonstrates particularly strong correlations with cost planning (r = 0.983), resource planning (r = 0.964), and schedule planning (r = 0.867), while AI shows robust associations with cost planning (r = 0.925), schedule planning (r = 0.865), and resource planning (r = 0.809). The findings indicate that maximum effectiveness is achieved when BIM and AI are deployed in a complementary manner under skilled human oversight. Full article

Rising concentrations of organic carbon (OC), phosphorus, and nitrogen in liquid waste from urban, industrial, and agricultural sources pose persistent challenges for environmental protection and resource recovery. Despite extensive application of microfiltration (MF) and ultrafiltration (UF) in wastewater treatment, their role in selective organic carbon and nutrient fractionation remains insufficiently clear-cut and is often interpreted solely through nominal pore size. This review was guided by the hypothesis that the reported limitations of MF and UF for nutrient separation are not intrinsic to the technologies but arise from simplified interpretations of separation mechanisms. A unified analytical framework was developed by synthesizing recent studies, linking membrane surface charge, pore structure, solute speciation, fouling-induced secondary layers, and operating conditions to the observed separation behavior. The analysis shows that MF fractionates particulate OC and suspended solids, whereas UF extends separation to macromolecular OC and phosphorus mainly via indirect retention mechanisms. Dissolved nitrogen species largely permeate both membranes unless they are transformed into retainable forms. Performance differences between MF and UF are conditional and system-dependent, with enhanced selectivity emerging through process integration. MF and UF can thus be repositioned as strategic fractionation interfaces within integrated treatment systems supporting circular economy–oriented wastewater management. Full article

This study examines how digital transformation (DX) unfolds in Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) through an analytical integration of dynamic capabilities (DCs) and service-dominant logic (SDL). While DX research is abundant, existing studies tend to discuss internal organizational capabilities (DCs) and external value co-creation (SDL) in isolation, offering limited insight into how resource-constrained SMEs execute transformation in practice. Employing a multiple case study approach based on Japanese SMEs, this paper uses the micro-foundations of DC (sensing, seizing, and transforming) as an analytical lens to examine how the resource integration processes emphasized in SDL are operationalized through phased organizational decision-making. The findings illustrate that while DC provides the organizational process logic for change, SDL offers the perspective through which SMEs overcome internal resource scarcity by engaging in external collaboration. By bridging internal capability-based and external co-creation perspectives, this study contributes to a more granular and contextually grounded understanding of transformation processes under resource constraints. From a practical perspective, the findings highlight the importance of fostering dialogue and building external relationships as conditions for activating dynamic capabilities and mitigating organizational rigidity, offering practically relevant implications for SME managers and policymakers. Full article

Polyurethanes are widely used polymeric materials; their crosslinked structure and compositional diversity significantly hinder effective end-of-life management. The review emphasizes polyurethane recycling technologies, with chemical aspects discussed only insofar as they directly affect recyclability. The influence of polyol and isocyanate structure on phase separation, network architecture and thermal stability is discussed in the context of degradation and depolymerization mechanisms. Mechanical, chemical, thermochemical and emerging biological recycling routes are compared, with emphasis on their respective advantages, limitations and technological maturity. Mechanical recycling remains the most accessible option on an industrial scale but typically leads to reduced mechanical and thermal-insulation performance. Chemical recycling—particularly glycolysis, hydrolysis and aminolysis—enables partial recovery of polyols suitable for reuse in new polyurethane formulations, albeit at the cost of higher energy demand and increased process complexity. The environmental impact of polyurethane recycling is considered in terms of energy consumption, greenhouse-gas emissions, waste-reduction potential and alignment with circular-economy principles. Emerging biological and hybrid recycling strategies are highlighted as promising low-temperature alternatives with potential environmental benefits, despite their current low technological readiness. Key structural and technological barriers to efficient polyurethane recycling are identified, and future research directions toward improved sustainability and resource efficiency are outlined. Full article

Petrochemical hybrid renewable energy systems (PHRESs), integrating renewable and fossil energy sources, have garnered more and more attention for sustainable manufacturing. However, achieving concurrent optimization of energy supply reliability and carbon mitigation in these complex systems remains a critical challenge. This study proposes an innovative bilateral optimization framework coupling supply-side energy management with demand-side flexibility. On the supply side, a scenario-based two-stage stochastic programming method synergizes with energy storage systems to address renewable energy intermittency, considering a time-of-day tariff from the grid. On the utilization side, heat energy-based and shaft work-based energy interchangeability are introduced and leveraged to enable both qualitative and quantitative flexibility in process unit requirements and thus obtain energy consumption relaxation models for relaxing the design boundaries of PHRESs. These dual strategies are then coupled in a two-stage mixed-integer programming model framework for the optimal design of PHRESs. Applied to a large-scale refinery incorporating carbon taxation and dynamic electricity price, the proposed methodology demonstrates superior performance through five comparative cases. Compared to the Base Case, the Optimal Case using the proposed method can reduce the total annual cost by 14.82%, and stochastic programming reveals over a 40% probability of carbon mitigation in the uncertain space. Full article

Traditional claim management relies heavily on manual analysis and expert judgment, resulting in inefficiencies, information omissions, and heightened risks of disputes. To address these challenges, this paper constructs a domain-specific ontology for construction engineering claims through a five-step process, organizing the relevant knowledge into five unified core classes. Based on this ontology, a knowledge graph is built and stored in Neo4j. The resulting knowledge graph-enhanced LLM question-answering system, evaluated using BLEU-4, BERT-Cosine similarity, ROUGE-1, and ROUGE-L metrics, demonstrates superior performance compared to both the base LLM and Vector RAG approaches. The results indicate that the proposed ontology effectively serves the purpose of knowledge sharing and reuse while providing practical support for construction claim management. Full article

Non-thermal plasma is a promising technology for odor abatement from agricultural and domestic waste. However, its widespread application is often limited by the inherent trade-off between energy efficiency and processing capacity in conventional reactors. To address this challenge, we propose a novel multi-needle-to-cylinder dielectric barrier discharge reactor integrated with a deflector ring. By synergistically optimizing the electrode topology and modulating the flow field, this reactor achieves enhanced removal of complex ammonia–sulfur odor mixtures. The underlying mechanisms were elucidated through computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations coupled with systematic performance evaluation. Experimental results demonstrate that an 8-needle electrode configuration provides the optimal balance between discharge density and energy efficiency. CFD simulations further reveal that the deflector ring effectively suppresses gas bypass and promotes recirculation vortices downstream, thereby extending the residence time significantly. Mechanistic studies indicate that the removal of recalcitrant inorganic sulfides (e.g., CS₂ and H₂S) follows a synergistic mass-transfer–reaction controlled process, which is markedly improved by flow field optimization. In contrast, organic sulfides are governed primarily by chemical kinetics and show little dependence on flow variations. Under an extremely short residence time of 0.57 s (corresponding to a flow rate of 2.0 m³/h) and an ultra-low specific energy input of 6.26 J/L, the system achieved nearly complete removal of organic sulfides. Even for challenging inorganic sulfides, removal efficiencies reached 80.9% for H₂S and 45.3% for CS₂, while O₃/NOx/SO₂ byproducts were quantified. For industrial deployment, these byproducts can be managed by standard downstream polishing. By effectively coordinating discharge characteristics with flow dynamics, this study provides both theoretical insight and technical support for the development of next-generation, energy-efficient, high-throughput industrial odor control systems. Full article