Search Results (1,546)

Over the past two decades, the world has experienced a significant and relentless increase in environmental degradation, measured through carbon emissions (CO₂). These emissions have been one of the persistent global concerns. South Africa boosts abundance of natural resources and some of the world’s most substantial mineral deposits, endowments in the form of precious metals, diamonds and gold. The paper aims to examine the impact of socio-economic and energy-related factors on environmental degradation from a South African perspective. Using multivariate annual data spanning from 1991 to 2022, the Autoregressive Distributed Lag Model (ARDL) was employed to determine both short-run and long-run impact of financial development (FD), renewable energy (RE), non-renewable energy (NRE), unemployment rate (UNE), economic growth (GDPPC), and population growth (PoPG) on CO₂ emission. The results show that NRE remains a dominant driver for environmental degradation, while RE is positively associated with emissions under current system conditions. FD exhibits short-run emission-intensity but long-run mitigation effects. The results suggest a need for relevant policymakers to prioritize coal displacement, stimulate economic growth and promote access to green financing, and related technologies and consumption, to enhance and promote environmental quality in South Africa. The conclusion is that South Africa’s energy-economy nexus is still at a transitional stage, where targeted policy intervention and structural reform are essential to accelerate the shift towards a low-emission economy. Future research can extend the analytical depth by exploring asymmetries, disaggregating fossil fuels, and incorporating broader environmental indicators. Full article

Environmental sustainability of natural and synthetic fibers used in textiles and composites depends on their impacts throughout production, use, and end-of-life (EoL) stages. Natural fibers are renewable and biodegradable but may require substantial water and agricultural inputs, whereas synthetic fibers contribute to fossil resource depletion, microplastic pollution, and persistent waste generation. Natural fibers are often regarded as more sustainable alternatives to synthetic fiber; however, evidence from a life cycle assessment (LCA) reveals a more nuanced reality. As demand for fiber-based materials increases across textile and composite applications, a deeper understanding of the environmental implications of both natural and synthetic options becomes essential. This review compares these fiber categories from a life cycle perspective, examining carbon footprint, energy demands, resource consumption, and EoL pathways. Natural fibers such as cotton, flax, jute, hemp, sisal, banana, coir, and emerging plant-based alternatives offer advantages including biodegradability and carbon sequestration during cultivation. Nevertheless, agricultural practices and subsequent industrial processing require substantial land, water, and chemical inputs. Synthetic fibers, predominantly derived from fossil resources, provide a long service life and consistent performance but are associated with high greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, dependence on non-renewable feedstocks, microplastic pollution, and broader environmental impacts. By presenting a comprehensive life cycle-based comparison, this review identifies the conditions under which each fiber type may offer environmental benefits, supporting informed material selection for sustainable development. Full article

The water rights trading market (WRM) acts as a policy tool to enhance water resources allocation efficiency. However, how WRM affects food production deserves further exploration. This study examines whether WRM affects food production and through which channels this effect may operate. Using WRM policy as a quasi-natural experiment, this study investigates the role of WRM in food production in China. The results show that WRM can expand the grain sown area and enhance the efficiency of production factor allocation, thus increasing food production. Meanwhile, the grain-increasing effect of WRM does not lead to excessive water consumption. The heterogeneity discussion shows that the impact of WRM is more obvious in the south and the regions with high disaster rates and abundant water resources. More importantly, compared with provincial WRM, national WRM plays a particularly positive role in increasing food production. Furthermore, the development of factor marketization can better exert the positive impact of WRM, but government intervention will weaken the positive impact of WRM. In short, these findings are valuable for developing countries to develop WRM and improve food security. Full article

For decades, industrial trans fatty acids (iTFAs) have remained a critical focus of the scientific community, the food industry, and regulatory authorities because of their well-established role in the development of cardiovascular diseases, metabolic disorders, and chronic systemic inflammation. Rather than providing a descriptive overview, this review critically synthesizes current evidence on the elimination of industrial TFAs by integrating health, technological, regulatory, and sustainability perspectives into a comprehensive interdisciplinary analysis. The review outlines the biochemical characteristics and dietary sources of trans fatty acid isomers, highlighting the continuing scientific debate regarding the differential health effects of industrially produced and naturally occurring ruminant-derived TFAs. It also examines the evolution of scientific evidence that led to major regulatory actions by international organizations, including the World Health Organization (WHO) and the European Commission, resulting in legally binding restrictions that have substantially reduced industrial TFA intake and improved public health. Particular emphasis is placed on the critical assessment of current fat reformulation strategies, considering not only their technological functionality but also their nutritional quality, long-term metabolic implications, and contribution to sustainable food systems. Full hydrogenation, fractionation, chemical and enzymatic interesterification, and oleogelation are comparatively evaluated with respect to their advantages, limitations, and potential technological, nutritional, and environmental trade-offs. In addition, lipid microencapsulation is discussed as an emerging strategy for protecting oxidation-sensitive polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), thereby facilitating their incorporation into functional foods while maintaining nutritional quality. Unlike previous reviews that primarily focus on health outcomes or individual processing technologies, this review systematically integrates the sustainability dimensions of alternative fat modification approaches, including resource efficiency, energy consumption, clean label product development, and circular economy principles. Furthermore, it identifies current knowledge gaps related to the long-term metabolic safety, industrial scalability, and environmental performance of emerging lipid technologies. By combining these complementary perspectives, the review provides a comprehensive interdisciplinary synthesis that supports evidence-based fat reformulation and offers practical guidance for researchers, food manufacturers, and policy makers seeking to develop safer, nutritionally improved, technologically functional, and environmentally sustainable lipid systems. Full article

Implementation of real-scale systems for rainwater harvesting, treatment and reuse of greywater in residential areas is challenging because several factors should be considered for full adoption and satisfaction of decision-makers, urban developers and users. Technological, construction, operational, social (acceptance), impact on water resources, regulatory, and economic factors are involved. This study presents the implementation of a full-scale hybrid system for rainwater harvesting, treatment and reuse of greywater in a residential building located in Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico. The study included intervening in the hydraulic infrastructure of an already constructed residential building for collecting greywater, harvesting and collecting rainwater, designing and constructing an 80 m² controlled natural soil treatment system (CNSTS) and a 65 m³ storage tank for treating and storing rain and greywater. Furthermore, the full-scale hybrid system was monitored under real operating conditions for a two-month period to assess its performance. Results showed that the CNSTS has the potential to replace up to 2835 m³ year⁻¹ of potable water, equivalent to 65% of the building’s annual water consumption. The CNSTS achieved removal efficiencies of up to ~90% for Chemical Oxygen Demand, 90% for surfactants, and 50% for total nitrogen. Most of the measured parameters complied with the corresponding limits established by the Mexican standards NOM-003-SEMARNAT-1997 for non-potable water reuse, NOM-001-SEMARNAT-2021 for wastewater discharges, and NOM-127-SSA1-2021 for potable water with the exception of methylene blue active substances (surfactants), which exceeded the permissible limit during the initial monitoring stage, highlighting the need for further optimization of the system’s vegetative cover. Based on these findings, conceptual designs and preliminary evaluations were conducted for additional buildings, resulting in potable water substitution rates above 90% with investment payback periods of 2 to 5 years, depending on the water demand and the water catchment potential. Full article

The growing demand for natural aggregates and continued stockpiling of steel slag have increased interest in using steel slag aggregate (SSA) in road engineering. However, delayed hydration of free calcium oxide (f-CaO) and free magnesium oxide (f-MgO), porous and rough surfaces, and the potential release of hazardous elements constrain its long-term application. This review compares aging treatment, surface modification, direct carbonation, microbially induced calcium carbonate precipitation (MICP), and combined treatments from a raw-material heterogeneity and defect-oriented perspective. Their effectiveness is strongly condition-dependent. Aging treatment can control volume expansion, but reaction depth and treatment uniformity remain limited. Surface modification can reduce water absorption and improve interfacial performance but cannot eliminate internal expansive phases. Direct carbonation and MICP can stabilize reactive phases, refine pore structures, and reduce the mobility of some elements, but are limited by mass transfer and equipment requirements, and by mineralization uniformity and ammonium by-product management, respectively. Combined treatments can address multiple defects but increase process complexity, resource consumption, and quality-control requirements. Because material properties and evaluation methods vary among studies, reported performance gains should not be directly used for technology ranking. Instead, technology selection should follow the framework of “raw-material characteristics–dominant defects–preferred technology–engineering boundaries”. From a life-cycle perspective, sustainability depends on balancing resource and environmental benefits against additional treatment burdens. Near-term implementation should integrate raw-material classification, process monitoring, long-term durability and dynamic leaching verification, and the progressive incorporation of key performance and environmental indicators into road-material specifications and engineering acceptance criteria. Full article

Against the backdrop of a polycrisis shaped by the interaction of climate change, resource constraints, and digital transformation, urban ecological welfare performance (EWP) captures cities’ ability to achieve higher welfare outcomes while limiting resource consumption and environmental costs. It also indicates their capacity to sustain green development and welfare provision under multiple pressures. Using panel data for 242 prefecture-level cities in China from 2008 to 2023, this study measures urban EWP with a super-efficiency slacks-based measure (SBM) model. It then treats China’s national smart city pilot policy as a quasi-natural experiment and applies a multi-period difference-in-differences (DID) model to estimate the effect of smart city construction (SC) on EWP. The results indicate that SC significantly improves EWP, and this finding remains robust across a range of sensitivity tests. Mechanism analyses provide evidence consistent with resource allocation optimization and green technological innovation as two potential channels. Relatively larger estimates are observed for cities in northeastern China, large cities, and non-resource-based cities. The interaction estimates further suggest that greater fiscal investment intensity and higher internet penetration strengthen the positive relationship between SC and EWP. These findings support the context-sensitive implementation of smart city strategies and coordinated improvements in ecological sustainability and residents’ welfare. Full article

With the rapid development of the Thai economy and the continuous improvement of national living standards, the Thai people’s demand for freshness, quality, and diversity of agricultural products is constantly increasing. Efficient agricultural product logistics can not only ensure the supply and quality of agricultural products, but also promote the optimization of resource allocation and logistics infrastructure construction, with direct implications for reducing food loss, lowering energy consumption, and enhancing the resilience of regional food systems—key dimensions of sustainable agricultural development. In order to analyze the development status of agricultural product logistics in Thailand, the paper constructed an evaluation system consisting of four dimensions and seven indicators. Factor analysis and natural break point method were used to measure the development level of agricultural product logistics in 77 provinces of Thailand from 2012 to 2023, and the spatial pattern evolution characteristics were analyzed. The research conclusion is as follows: (1) From 2012 to 2023, the comprehensive score of agricultural product logistics in Thailand increased from 24.01 to 30.89, indicating a significant enhancement in overall strength; (2) the logistics level of agricultural products in various provinces of Thailand shows heterogeneous characteristics; (3) by calculating the strength of agricultural product logistics attraction between cities, the Central Plains Agricultural Product Logistics Circle centered on Bangkok, the Northern Plains Agricultural Product Logistics Circle centered on Chiang Mai Province, and the Southern Logistics Circle centered on Pattani and Yala provinces were determined. Full article

The National Big Data Comprehensive Pilot Zone (NBDCPZ) constitutes a landmark institutional initiative designed to advance and deploy data elements while strengthening governance capacity for environmental sustainability and low-carbon transition. Drawing on a panel dataset covering 285 Chinese cities at or above the prefectural level over the 2005–2023 period, this study capitalizes on the sequential rollout of the NBDCPZ to establish a quasi-natural experimental design. It employs a staggered difference-in-differences (DID) design to examine the policy’s causal effects on urban environmental quality—specifically, its effectiveness in curbing air pollution and carbon emissions—and further identifies the underlying mechanisms driving these effects and sources of contextual heterogeneity. The results demonstrate that the policy yields substantial benefits in curbing urban pollution and advancing carbon reduction; this conclusion remains robust across multiple sensitivity checks. Mechanism analysis reveals that the policy achieves synergistic gains in pollution reduction and carbon mitigation by promoting green innovation and reducing energy consumption, as well as by fostering digital industry agglomeration and accelerating digital innovation. Heterogeneity analysis shows significant structural variation in policy effects: non-resource-based cities exhibit more pronounced carbon mitigation effects, whereas resource-based cities, large cities, and old industrial bases demonstrate stronger pollution control effects. Full article

Here, changes in sustainability are assessed using statistical data for all countries between 1990 and 2015, with a focus on the fifteen most populous countries. The indicators used cover GDP for the economy; poverty, education, and health for human capabilities; as well as environmental impacts on water, climate, air, and bioresources. An authoritative model is used to describe the environmental impacts, resulting from pressures driven by population and affluence; and responses, through decreasing resource intensity, measured by the resource use per GDP, and improving environmental efficiency, defined as emissions per resource use. Resource intensity decreases in most countries. Environmental efficiency improves for wastewater and NOx, hardly changes for CO₂, and increases in nature protection areas, but this rarely compensates for deforestation. The combination of pressures and responses reduced water pollution and air pollution, and mitigated climate change in high-income countries, but did not reduce the degradation of biodiversity. While the pressures, responses, and environmental impacts of economic growth vary across all countries, twenty-five growing economies have reduced those environmental impacts. Changes toward sustainability are discussed with regard to the growing share of services in economies in the ‘EKC hypothesis’, innovation for achieving higher value at lower impact in the ‘green growth’ idea, and regulations that lead to profitable environmental investments in the ‘Porter hypothesis’. Combined, they only partially explain the changes because they ignore the low prices of natural resources and high shareholder consumption. Additionally, regulations are needed that increase the price of environmental impacts relative to the price of man-made resources and enforce high-quality performance standards. Full article

The construction sector has a significant impact on natural resources consumption and waste generation. In accordance with circular economy principles, the adoption of secondary materials, encompassing both reused and recycled components, by construction companies is of increasing strategic importance, especially in cities and their surrounding areas. However, enterprises in this sector continue to face substantial challenges related to implementation of these materials. The article aims to investigate the opinions of representatives of companies operating in the construction sector in the West Pomeranian Voivodeship of Poland regarding the benefits and obstacles associated with the implementation of secondary materials, as well as to identify measures that could contribute to the wider use of these materials in practice. The study was conducted using a diagnostic survey method based on computer-assisted web interviews. The sample comprised 46 respondents from the West Pomeranian Voivodeship of Poland. The analysis of the collected opinions emphasized that waste reduction, protection of the environment and natural resources are perceived as the most significant benefits. Among the main obstacles to implement these materials, respondents highlighted the lack of specialized platforms for secondary materials trading, difficulties in materials sorting, including construction and demolition waste, as well as complex bureaucratic procedures. In the respondents’ opinion, the measures crucial for facilitating the use of secondary materials include the development of legislation enabling the reclassification of waste as secondary construction materials, ensuring reliable access to these materials, and providing government support. It was revealed that despite broad recognition of environmental benefits, the primary obstacle is the absence of an effective marketplace for secondary materials, pointing to a crucial role for institutional intervention. Recommendations for companies’ managers from the construction sector, designers and local policymakers were proposed. Full article

The environmental management of highly saline coal mine wastewater presents a critical challenge for European mining regions, particularly under the constraints of the EU Water Framework Directive. This study presents a cradle-to-grave life cycle assessment of a novel zero liquid discharge (ZLD) system developed under the EU-funded LIFE Brine-Mining project and deployed at the Ziemowit mine in Poland. The system was designed to treat coal mine brine (TDS ~80 g/L) and recover valuable resources, including high-purity water, sodium chloride, magnesium hydroxide, calcium carbonate, and calcium sulphate. The assessment was conducted in accordance with EN 15804 using the Environmental Footprint v3.1 methodology, ecoinvent v3.10, and a functional unit of 1 m³ of saline wastewater inflow, covering all life cycle stages from raw material extraction to end-of-life and resource recovery (Module D). The results indicate a fossil-based global warming potential of 73.86 kg CO₂ eq. per functional unit, with 66% attributed to operational electricity consumption (module B6, 44 kWh/m³) and 29% to auxiliary chemical consumption (module B1). Three key environmental hotspots were identified: module B1 dominates ozone depletion potential (67%), module B6 dominates acidification potential (66%), and raw material extraction (module A1) dominates abiotic depletion of minerals and metals (43%). Resource recovery credits (Module D) offset 11.80 kg CO₂ eq. of GWP-fossil, cause the ADP-minerals and metals indicator to become net negative, and reduce the water deprivation potential by approximately 50%. A sensitivity analysis confirmed that results are robust to ±10% variations in wastewater inflow, with GWP-total varying within a narrow −0.5% to +0.6% range once the volume-proportional nature of chemical and electricity consumption is correctly accounted for. These findings provide a quantitative sustainability baseline for the scale-up and replication of integrated ZLD technologies in the European mining sector, demonstrating that circular brine treatment can simultaneously address regulatory water quality targets, reduce primary resource consumption, and deliver measurable environmental credits aligned with EU circular economy and sustainable development objectives. Full article

This study investigated the underwater abrasion resistance of recycled aggregate concrete according to ASTM C1138 using recycled aggregates obtained from demolished concrete as a 100% replacement of natural aggregates. The objective was to reduce the consumption of natural resources and minimize construction and demolition waste. In addition, ground granulated blast furnace slag (BFS) was used as a supplementary cementitious material at replacement ratios of 25% and 50%. Three BFS products with Blaine fineness values of 3000, 4000, and 6000 cm²/g were used to investigate their effects on the compressive strength and underwater abrasion resistance of recycled aggregate concrete. The experimental results showed that the compressive strength of recycled aggregate concrete was approximately 7% lower than that of natural aggregate concrete. However, the underwater abrasion test according to ASTM C1138 showed that the abrasion depth of recycled aggregate concrete was comparable to that of natural aggregate concrete. After 72 h of testing, the abrasion depth of recycled aggregate concrete was only slightly higher than that of natural aggregate concrete. In contrast, recycled aggregate concrete exhibited a higher weight loss, with an average value of 2.10% compared with 1.77% for natural aggregate concrete. Among the BFS mixtures, increasing the Blaine fineness of BFS resulted in lower abrasion depth and lower mass loss. Concrete containing BFS6000 exhibited the best underwater abrasion resistance within the BFS mixtures, although all BFS mixtures showed higher abrasion depth and mass loss than recycled aggregate concrete without BFS. At the 25% replacement ratio, concrete containing BFS6000 exhibited the lowest abrasion depth (3.11 mm) and weight loss (3.37%), whereas concrete containing BFS3000 showed higher values. A similar trend was observed at the 50% replacement ratio, although both abrasion depth and weight loss slightly increased compared with the corresponding 25% mixtures. The results demonstrate that recycled aggregate concrete combined with BFS has good potential for hydraulic structures and other concrete structures exposed to underwater abrasion. Although a slight reduction in compressive strength was observed, the underwater abrasion resistance can be improved by using BFS with higher Blaine fineness together with quality-controlled recycled aggregates. These findings provide useful information for the development of sustainable recycled aggregate concrete and support the efficient utilization of recycled materials in hydraulic engineering applications. Full article

This study assesses the technical performance and environmental impact of traditional and eco-efficient materials used in civil construction in Colombia through a structured synthesis of scientific, technical, and regulatory evidence covering the period 2010–2025. The analysis integrates mechanical performance indicators, environmental footprint metrics, and the national regulatory framework supporting sustainable material adoption. Results show that conventional materials—Portland cement, structural steel, ceramic bricks, and timber—remain essential due to their proven structural reliability but are also responsible for the highest contributions to CO₂ emissions, energy consumption, and resource depletion. In contrast, eco-efficient alternatives, including blended concretes with mineral additions, geopolymers, rammed earth, Guadua angustifolia, and natural biocomposites, achieve carbon emission reductions between 40% and 85% while maintaining comparable mechanical performance for specific applications. Colombian policies—notably Resolutions 1257 of 2021 and 0194 of 2025—promote waste valorization and low-impact materials, yet their implementation remains limited by technical, economic, and knowledge barriers. The findings support a decision-oriented framework for material selection that balances structural efficiency with environmental responsibility. Full article

This paper introduces a novel physical layer authentication technique for Internet of Things (IoT) networks, leveraging channel state information (CSI) data from Wi-Fi signals to distinguish between authorised and unauthorised nodes and thereby enhancing security without compromising performance. The core novelty lies in its integrated framework, which employs non-negative matrix factorization (NMF) for efficient feature selection and a Gaussian mixture model (GMM) for identifying complex patterns within the CSI data specifically adapted to the dynamic nature of IoT networks. NMF is utilised to mitigate the high dimensionality and redundancy inherent in raw CSI metrics, reducing processing load, extracting salient features, alleviating overfitting risks, and exhibiting superior resilience to noise. Following NMF, the GMM component is used for data classification, capitalising on its probabilistic and soft clustering attributes to represent intricate distributions and handle heterogeneous CSI data characteristics. This integrated proposed methodology not only exploits the inherent nonlinear and probabilistic characteristics of CSI data but also upholds computational efficiency, making it highly suitable for implementation in resource-constrained IoT wireless networks. The model achieves exceptional classification proficiency, with an accuracy rate of 99.83 percent and a recall of 100 percent, which are crucial for cybersecurity and anomaly detection. Furthermore, the system is designed for efficiency and minimal resource consumption, exhibiting good computational efficiency, reduced training duration, and lower energy consumption compared with more complex, heavily exploited architectures for CSI data processing like CNN and CNN + LSTM, making it particularly suitable for resource-constrained IoT environments. Full article