Search Results (147)

This research examines how community support for sustainable tourism development is influenced by sustainable hospitality in protected park areas. This relationship focuses primarily on the effect of perceived eco-social performance (ESP) as an enhancement of the community’s perceived location-specific environmental attachment (CEA), leading to increased pro-sustainable tourism intentions through CEA. Despite the growing focus on sustainability within hospitality industries, there remains very little scholarly research that explores how local communities perceive sustainable hospitality practices and how these perceptions then manifest as emotional attachment, followed by behavioural support. To achieve the stated goal, researchers employed an explanatory sequential mixed-methods design to collect quantitative survey data from residents living in close proximity to a protected area destination, and the quantitative data were used separately to develop qualitative insights into residents’ support for sustainable tourism initiatives. Findings of this study reveal that perceived ESP significantly enhances CEA, providing an impetus for increased PSTI (via direct and indirect pathways) for communities in close proximity to a protected area destination. CEA further enhances PSTI significantly and acts as a significant mediator in the relationship between perception and behavioural support for sustainable tourism. Qualitative findings further indicate that eco-social hospitality practices fulfil the following: develop community pride; increase the sense of environmental responsibility among the community; and create opportunities for actively supporting sustainable tourism. These findings demonstrate that, while sustainable hospitality practices generate observable actions, they also create deeper psychological connections between communities and their environment. The cumulative findings from this study contribute to a greater understanding of how ESP can strategically contribute to growing the number of communities supporting sustainable tourism through the creation of CEA, thereby expanding the overall community’s intention to support sustainable tourism development. Full article

This paper explores the behavioural change process initiated within the Gdańsk Coastal City Living Lab (CCLL)—a site-based effort, initiated under the H2020 SCORE project and significantly deepened through the Horizon Europe PRO-CLIMATE project—through the lens of transforming human–nature relationships for sustainable urban biodiversity conservation. While SCORE established the technical baseline for Nature-based Solutions (NbSs), PRO-CLIMATE provides the critical behavioural framework to ensure these solutions are socially adopted and sustained. Located in a flood-prone coastal city, the Gdańsk CCLL addresses the critical need for nature-based solutions (NbSs) in minimizing the negative impacts of climate change, particularly pluvial flooding. At the heart of this initiative is a participatory change process facilitated by local Change Agents in collaboration with key stakeholders across water management, local government, academia, and civil society. Drawing on interdisciplinary insights from social science, the paper uses the Nature Futures Framework to analyse how conservation actions are influenced by the relational, intrinsic, and instrumental values that stakeholders and residents attach to nature. The paper situates these values in the Gdańsk context and examines how they shape motivations and willingness to engage in urban NbS, such as green roofs, retention parks, and rainwater gardens. The study presents qualitative findings from stakeholder engagement workshops, Change Agents’ reflections, and support mechanisms from behavioural change experts. It evaluates how behavioural change was facilitated through shared vision building, feedback loops, and trust-based relationships, and how barriers were negotiated. A key contribution of the paper is the exploration of how bottom-up and top-down processes intersect in urban adaptation strategies and how behavioural change frameworks can be designed to institutionalise sustainable human–nature interactions in urban governance. The Gdańsk case offers transferable insights for other cities facing climate vulnerabilities while striving to embed biodiversity conservation into everyday practice. Full article

Urban microclimates are traditionally interpreted and modelled based on permanent built surfaces, while semi-permanent elements such as stationary vehicles remain largely overlooked in urban climate studies. Despite their distinct radiative and thermal behaviour and increasing spatial prevalence in contemporary cities, parked vehicles are rarely represented in urban microclimate modelling frameworks. This study provides an exploratory assessment of a commonly used three-dimensional modelling workflow to approximate near-vehicle air temperature patterns at the micro-scale by comparing simulated results with field measurements collected in Lisbon, Portugal. Air temperature was measured in an open parking environment with unobstructed sky exposure, at multiple heights above two black and two white parked vehicles during summer, and corresponding simulated values were extracted at matching locations. Simulated mean air temperatures showed reasonable agreement with observations (MAE = 0.6–0.9 °C; RMSE = 0.7–1.3 °C), suggesting that simplified modelling approaches can reproduce general air temperature patterns under controlled conditions. However, larger localised deviations were observed near vehicle surfaces and rear positions, particularly for dark-coloured vehicles, highlighting limitations in resolving fine-scale radiative and aerodynamic processes. The findings indicate that stationary vehicles can be represented as distinct urban surfaces, while emphasising the need for improved parameterisation to enable their integration into urban microclimate models at larger spatial scales. Full article

In archaeological contexts, isolated or poorly connected masonry elements are very common due to the absence of floors and weak connections between walls. As a result, under horizontal actions, vulnerability to out-of-plane (OOP) failures often becomes the most critical issue for their preservation. As is well-known, limit analysis-based approaches provide a reliable assessment of the expected OOP failure mechanisms and the associated acceleration capacity for existing masonry buildings. However, these approaches mainly refer to box-type buildings and cannot be directly applied to archaeological remains, whose morphology may differ significantly. With a specific focus on the Pompeii Archaeological Park (PAP), this study proposes a two-level classification of archaeological walls aimed at identifying their most likely OOP failure mechanisms and the most suitable analytical models available in the literature to predict their behaviour. The first level identifies recurring typologies based on the morphology of wall connections, relying on geometrical data that can be easily obtained from maps and/or on-site surveys. The second level then evaluates the effectiveness of these connections by investigating their construction techniques. The paper, therefore, proposes a general methodology for assessing the vulnerability of archaeological masonry walls to OOP failure mechanisms and discusses its application to some walls in the PAP. Full article

The global energy transition aims to decarbonise both transportation and electricity generation to mitigate climate change and reduce reliance on fossil fuels. Electrification of private transportation, through the adoption of electric vehicles, presents a promising pathway to achieving the first objective. Concurrently, the rapid advancement and cost reduction of photovoltaic technology have positioned solar energy as a viable solution for renewable electricity production. This review synthesises recent modelling and empirical studies examining the synergies and challenges of coupling EV charging with photovoltaic electricity production. It explores the multifaceted benefits of this integration across various contexts: residential, workplace, highways, and public parking infrastructures. Additionally, the review delves into practical considerations essential for real-world implementation, such as political incentives, charging stations, and tariff structures. By offering an overview of the cost effectiveness and implementation challenges across the four corners of the world, in a diversity of climate, solar irradiance and mobility behaviours, the review bridges the gap identified in the previous reviews on the potential of coupling electric vehicle charging with photovoltaic electricity production. Full article

Ecotourism in protected areas creates a conservation paradox: tourism revenue funds protection, yet tourism infrastructure simultaneously degrades the wildlife it protects. We examined this paradox in white-faced capuchins (Cebus imitator) in Tortuguero National Park, comparing behaviour across a high-tourism accommodation site (2152 monthly guests) and a strictly regulated terrestrial trail. Using focal animal and sweep sampling methods, we recorded 477 behavioural units across 261 min, analysing locomotion, feeding, and agonistic behaviours through generalized linear models. Primates in accommodation areas exhibited significantly reduced high substrate use (p = 0.005), showed a trend toward increased anthropogenic food reliance (p = 0.070), and higher—but not statistically significant—rates of agonistic behaviours (p > 0.05). The negative correlation between natural foraging and active food supply (r = −0.31) is consistent with anthropogenic provisioning that may alter primate ecological functions. These findings demonstrate that effective conservation in tourism contexts requires integrated management addressing three interconnected challenges: (1) habituation to human presence, (2) food provisioning with cascading consequences, and (3) ecosystem-level degradation through altered primate functions. We recommend evidence-based interventions including secured waste management, enforcement of wildlife feeding prohibitions, and environmental education programs with community participation. Ecotourism sustainability requires managing human–wildlife interactions and integrating local stakeholder perspectives to preserve animal welfare and ecosystem functions essential for conservation. Full article

Given China’s increasingly severe population ageing, urban comprehensive parks are important places for older adults’ daily activities. Improving their quality directly affects the physical and mental health of older adults. Most previous studies have explored spatial optimisation strategies from a single dimension, focusing either on behaviour or on perception; studies on simultaneous improvements in behavioural and perceptual levels across functional space types remain limited. This study selects 40 activity spaces from four urban comprehensive parks in Shenzhen as samples. It systematically analyses differences in older adults’ behavioural patterns and perceptual experiences across six types of functional spaces. Based on the results, a comprehensive behaviour–perception evaluation model is developed to identify optimisation priorities for different space types. Furthermore, generalised linear regression models are employed to explore the relationships between environmental elements and older adults’ behaviours and perceptions, from which targeted optimisation strategies are derived. First, significant differences are observed among six functional space types in older adults’ concentrated leisure behaviour, dispersed exercise behaviour, concentrated exercise behaviour, and safety, while the remaining indicators are relatively balanced. Second, the evaluation model classifies the 40 samples into four space types, including high behavioural level–high perceptual level, high behavioural level–low perceptual level, low behavioural level–high perceptual level, and low behavioural level–low perceptual level. Third, 12 environmental elements, including area, degree of greenery, and leisure facilities, are associated with older adults’ behavioural and perceptual levels in urban comprehensive parks. Fourth, optimisation strategies are proposed for problem spaces with low behavioural or perceptual levels across the six functional space types, including behavioural strategies such as expanding activity spaces and avoiding excessive plant density, as well as perceptual strategies such as improving plant landscape layering and balancing spatial colour combinations. This study develops a quantitative evaluation and spatial optimisation framework guided by older adults’ behaviour and perception, providing theoretical support and practical insights for the sustainable improvement of urban comprehensive park quality. Full article

Urban curbside loading and unloading zones are increasingly affected by competing non-logistics uses, such as outdoor terraces or resident parking, leading to reductions in effective curbside length. These design decisions can significantly alter service capacity and generate environmental externalities in urban freight operations that are rarely quantified. This study introduces the Factor of Occupancy (F_o) as a space–time design indicator for curbside unloading zones, defined as the product of effective curbside length and the maximum authorised dwell time. Using direct observational data from an urban block in Zaragoza (Spain), the analysis focuses on a loading and unloading zone whose effective length was reduced by approximately 6 m due to the installation of a restaurant terrace. Two curbside configurations are compared: a reduced configuration (8 m) and a restored configuration (14 m), keeping demand and temporal constraints constant. F_o is integrated into a loss-based queueing model (M/M/1/1) to estimate blocking probabilities and the number of served and rejected freight operations. To capture the environmental implications of curbside capacity loss, the paper proposes the Hidden Carbon Emissions (HCE) indicator, which quantifies the additional CO₂ emissions generated by rejected vehicles through block recirculation and idling during illegal occupancy, based on observed behaviour and publicly available emission factors. The results show that restoring curbside length substantially increases effective service capacity and reduces rejected vehicles, leading to a marked decrease in hidden CO₂ emissions per operation. The findings highlight that minor curbside design decisions can produce measurable impacts on both urban freight efficiency and environmental performance. Full article

Urban parks are essential to sustainable cities, providing climate regulation, supporting biodiversity, and offering vital spaces for recreation and overall well-being. At the same time, their soils can act as long-term reservoirs for persistent organic pollutants (POPs), reflecting decades of atmospheric deposition, diffuse urban emissions, and historical land-use practices. This review synthesises current knowledge on the occurrence, sources, and environmental behaviour of priority POPs, including OCPs, PCBs, PCDD/Fs, PBDEs, PFAS, and PAHs, in the soils of urban parks and gardens worldwide. Evidence from multiple regions reveals consistent patterns: urban parks accumulate complex mixtures of legacy and emerging contaminants, reflecting both historical inputs and ongoing urban activities. These contaminants primarily contribute to scenarios of chronic, low-level exposure through the ingestion of soil and dust, inhalation of resuspended particles, dermal contact, and, in some cases, dietary intake when food is cultivated in contaminated park soils. While such exposure pathways have been associated with a range of adverse health outcomes in toxicological and epidemiological studies, the presence of POPs in park soils does not imply that urban parks represent hazardous environments. Instead, it emphasises the importance of proportionate, evidence-based assessments within spaces that yield substantial net benefits to public health. Despite growing research interest, significant gaps remain, including limited understanding of mixture toxicity, insufficient data on temporal trends, a lack of harmonised monitoring strategies, and the absence of exposure scenarios specifically tailored to recreational soils. This review also examines major international and European regulatory frameworks and soil-quality guideline approaches relevant to urban and recreational soils, identifying mismatches between scientific evidence and regulatory practice. By integrating perspectives from environmental chemistry, toxicology, urban ecology, and policy, this review highlights the importance of targeted monitoring and context-specific management strategies to ensure that urban parks remain safe, healthy, and equitable components of increasingly complex urban landscapes. Full article

Water from mountain regions is a crucial natural resource because of its major economic, social, and environmental significance. Wildfires may disrupt the normal functioning of the hydrological cycle, limiting water resources for nearby areas and degrading water quality in mountainous regions as contaminants enter water systems from the burning of vegetation and soil. In August 2022, the Serra da Estrela mountain, situated in the Mediterranean biogeographical region, was affected by a large wildfire that consumed 270 km² of the Serra da Estrela Natural Park, often resulting in severe vegetation burn, although the soil burn severity was low to moderate in most of the area. The research objective is to assess the impact of this wildfire on the hydrogeochemistry of groundwater and surface water in the Manteigas-Covão da Ametade sector of Serra da Estrela in the context of a wildfire with limited soil burn severity. Groundwater and surface water samples were collected from October 2022 to September 2023 and were analyzed for pH, Total Organic Carbon, electrical conductivity, major ions, potentially toxic elements, iron (Fe), and Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons. A stormy event in mid-September 2022, occurring before the first sampling campaign, removed most of the ash layer and likely caused transient hydrogeochemical changes in streams. However, the analytical results from the sampled waters revealed that the post-wildfire hydrogeochemical effects are not evident. In fact, the hydrogeochemical changes observed in groundwater and surface water appear to be primarily influenced by the regular hydrological behaviour of aquifers and streams. The low to moderate soil burn severity, the high soil hydrophobicity, and the temporal distribution of precipitation explain why the hydrogeochemistry was primarily influenced by groundwater flow paths, the types and weathering of local lithologies, soil types, dilution effects following wet periods, and seasonal changes in the tributaries feeding into streams, rather than by post-wildfire effects. These outcomes provide valuable insights for water resource management and for developing strategies to mitigate wildfire impacts in mountainous environments. Full article

Interest in the adoption of autonomous vehicles (AVs) continues to grow. It is essential to design new software architectures that meet stringent real-time, safety, and scalability requirements while integrating heterogeneous hardware and software solutions from different vendors and developers. This paper presents a lightweight, modular, and scalable architecture grounded in Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) principles and implemented in ROS 2 (Robot Operating System 2). The proposed design leverages ROS 2’s Data Distribution System-based Quality-of-Service model to provide reliable communication, structured lifecycle management, and fault containment across distributed compute nodes. The architecture is organized into Perception, Planning, and Control layers with decoupled sensor access paths to satisfy heterogeneous frequency and hardware constraints. The decision-making core follows an event-driven policy that prioritizes fresh updates without enforcing global synchronization, applying zero-order hold where inputs are not refreshed. The architecture was validated on a 1:10-scale autonomous vehicle operating on a city-like track. The test environment covered canonical urban scenarios (lane-keeping, obstacle avoidance, traffic-sign recognition, intersections, overtaking, parking, and pedestrian interaction), with absolute positioning provided by an indoor GPS (Global Positioning System) localization setup. This work shows that the end-to-end Perception–Planning pipeline consistently met worst-case deadlines, yielding deterministic behaviour even under stress. The proposed architecture can be deemed compliant with real-time application standards for our use case on the 1:10 test vehicle, providing a robust foundation for deployment and further refinement. Full article

This study investigates the fire behaviour of Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs) and Internal Combustion Engine Vehicles (ICEVs) in confined environments such as underground parking facilities and tunnels. Using the Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS), several scenarios were modelled to analyse the effects of ventilation and automatic suppression systems on fire growth, heat release, and smoke propagation. Three ventilation configurations—reduced, standard, and increased airflow—were evaluated to determine their influence on combustion dynamics and thermal development. Results show that BEV fires produce higher peak Heat Release Rates (up to 7 MW) and longer combustion durations than ICEVs, mainly due to self-sustained battery reactions. Increased ventilation enhances smoke removal but intensifies flames and radiant heat transfer, while limited airflow restricts combustion yet leads to hazardous smoke accumulation. The inclusion of a sprinkler system effectively reduced temperatures by over 60% within 100 s of activation, though residual heat in BEVs poses a risk of re-ignition. This underlines the need for tailored ventilation and suppression strategies in modern underground facilities to ensure safety in the transition toward electric mobility. Full article

The multi-energy flow coordination optimization of the self-sufficient hydrogen energy park is becoming a research focus. However, without explicit consideration of tank car, the optimization remains incomplete, thereby undermining practical applicability. In this paper, a Dynamic Adaptive Grey Wolf Optimization (DA-GWO) algorithm is proposed for self-consistent multi-energy flow coordination optimization, considering hydrogen energy-based tank cars in hydrogen railway energy parks. First, a foundational model of the hydrogen-based railway energy system was constructed that integrates green non-dispatchable units such as wind power and photovoltaics, as well as dispatchable units such as fuel cells, gas boilers, and cogeneration units. Given the diversity and complexity of in-service hydrogen railway tank cars, a probabilistic model of daily charging behaviour was constructed using a Monte Carlo method to simulate real-world operating conditions of tank cars, thereby enhancing the reliability of the hydrogen-powered railway model. Considering the diverse and complex units in the self-consistent hydrogen energy park for hydrogen-powered railways, a DA-GWO algorithm was constructed for the multi-energy flow optimization. Through a self-adaptive parameter adjustment, the algorithm’s global optimization performance is improved. Finally, the model parameters were further adjusted with data from a coastal Chinese city, and the optimization experimental tests were conducted to validate the proposed method. From the results, the proposed method can save at least 6.7% cost compared with the grey wolf optimization method and the PSO (Particle Swarm Optimization) optimization method. Full article

The issue of tourism in protected natural areas is becoming central to defining new patterns of use, so managers, policy makers, and local businesses have an interest in improving visitor experiences and the promotion of sustainable tourism. This study analysed the factors influencing tourists’ choices regarding the role of ecosystem services provided by protected natural areas by studying the behaviour of 400 visitors to the Gran Paradiso National Park (Italy). The results identified the key motivations driving tourists’ choices and behaviour, categorising them into distinct visit patterns in relation to the role air quality, consumption of local products, and biodiversity. Furthermore, certification systems were found to be central in defining the level of appreciation of local products among visitors. These results can provide valuable insights into improving visitor experiences and promoting sustainable tourism and highlights the potential of ecosystem services as a key driver for conservation-oriented tourism strategies. Full article

Mixed-use development (MXD) is crucial for urban planning and travel. The COVID-19 outbreak had a significant impact on travel behaviour and MXD projects worldwide, particularly in high-income countries. However, limited studies have explored the predictors of MXD usage and travel patterns in low- and middle-income countries, including Malaysia, and how these events were affected by COVID-19. Using the Rowley and extended Hopenbrouwer and Louw models, this study investigates the travel patterns within MXD premises, their associated factors, and residents’ perspectives of internal and external trips before and during COVID-19 in Klang Valley, Malaysia. A mixed-method study was conducted by using a validated survey and performing a structured interview with MXD residents. A total of 134 and 52 respondents participated in the survey and qualitative interviews, respectively. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, logistic regression models, and thematic analysis. A significantly higher proportion of MXD respondents engaged in external travel compared to internal travel before and during COVID-19. Before COVID-19, external travel was significantly higher among younger residents, government servants, higher-income earners, and those who owned a car and had recently moved to MXD areas. The odds of internal travel were significantly higher among private-sector employees, students, and low-income earners. During the pandemic, external travel frequency was significantly higher among male residents, older residents, government servants, high-income earners, and those with multiple vehicles. Residents with more parking lots tended to travel less internally compared to those with fewer parking lots allocated. Qualitative analyses revealed that cost-saving, convenience and comfort, social lifestyle, health and well-being, and green environment were the factors that shaped MXD residents’ perceived benefits of trip internalisation. Meanwhile, the barriers to internal trips included the lack of infrastructure, poor management, lifestyle activities/individual factors, and environmental factors. The recommended strategies to reduce external trips were to ensure diversified services and accessibility, inclusiveness in planning activities, promoting social interaction, and work-from-home policies. These findings reflect the strategies that can be incorporated to reduce external trips generated by MXD and enhance effective traffic management. Full article