Search Results (1,143)

This article presents an integrated design studio pedagogy for flood-resilient urban waterfronts that employs groundscape strategies, treating the ground as an active design medium to generate hybrid structures integrating landscape, architecture, and infrastructure. Implemented at the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design (Fall 2024), the studio challenged students to transform North Little Rock’s flood-vulnerable riverfront by replacing conventional levee infrastructure with ground-based public architectural interventions. The study adopts a pedagogical case-study approach, examining a studio cohort in which all projects were developed under shared site conditions, design constraints, and instructional frameworks. Five assignments progressed from collaborative precedent analysis to individual technical development, integrating computational modeling, performance simulations, and expert consultations across structural, envelope, MEP, and site engineering. Student work is analyzed through comparative sectional diagrams and selected in-depth project studies to evaluate how groundscape functioned as a shared solution type for multiscalar integration. The results show that groundscape operates productively when tested against specific site constraints rather than deployed as a generalized esthetic. In response to flood elevations, degraded ecology, and limited public access, students developed distinct ground-based operations—such as embedding, lifting, and integrating flood walls as spatial thresholds—demonstrating architecture’s capacity to mediate between civic space, environmental performance, and flood protection. By situating groundscape within a problem-oriented pedagogy, the study consolidates modernist, postmodern, and contemporary groundscape discourse and demonstrates how architectural education can engage productively with climate-adaptation challenges. Full article

Extreme weather events have raised the frequency of power outages, posing critical challenges to the sustainability and resilience of modern power systems. In such cases, distributed energy resources (DERs) can effectively support the re-establishment of sustainable power supply for critical loads within the distribution network and reduce power outage losses. In this paper, a sustainable fault recovery framework based on an intentional islanding scheme is proposed to partition the distribution system in order to optimize the priority restoration of critical loads, while taking the operational constraints of the system into consideration. In addition, a blockchain-based P2P insurance mechanism is applied to mitigate the outage losses of the network’s users with a higher degree of security and transparency. By linking technical restoration decisions with financial risk-sharing mechanisms, the proposed framework improves economic sustainability and social equity among network users. For this purpose, a multi-layer, multi-objective optimization algorithm is proposed for optimal partitioning of the distribution network, management of DERs, and demand side management of flexible loads in order to minimize the outage losses and the insurance premium, while maintaining satisfactory performance of the network. To validate the feasibility of the proposed algorithm, the 45-node distribution network of Alexandria, Egypt is used. The results show that a reduction in peak load, outage losses, and operational costs are achieved, with an overall saving of 17.34%, in addition to a premium reduction of 41.3%. These results highlight the effectiveness of the proposed framework in enhancing the environmental, economic, and operational sustainability of distribution systems under outage conditions. Full article

Translating diverse stakeholders’ needs for tourism into precise technical requirements for mobile resilience applications is a significant challenge, especially for at-risk coastal communities. Therefore, we developed a structured decision-support framework that uses the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) combined with Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) to systematically identify and prioritize functional features for a disaster-resilient tourism application called AuTour. The framework was validated through a case study in Aurora Province, Philippines, involving 152 diverse stakeholders, including government officials, tourism operators, and technology students. The AHP analysis results revealed that safety infrastructure (a mean weight of 0.5256) was the dominant design criterion, far outweighing environmental sustainability (0.2480) and community preparedness (0.1241). The MCDA ranked key functional modules using these criteria to determine an optimal system architecture. The highest-priority features identified were a real-time Disaster Preparedness Alert module, a geospatial Smart Tourism Guide, and a participatory Health Surveillance module. The analysis results confirmed high utility for features incorporating AI-powered chatbots (a mean score of 4.1921) and multi-dialect communication capabilities (4.1513). The developed scalable, data-driven framework can be used for user-centered design in the critical domain of disaster-resilient technology. By translating stakeholder priorities into a ranked set of technical specifications, the framework contributes to the development of resilient mobile systems, supporting the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals for innovation (SDG 9) and resilient infrastructure (SDG 11). Full article

This study examines the determinants and impacts of household biogas adoption among dairy-based mixed crop–livestock systems in West Java, Indonesia. Using primary survey data from 201 households, we estimate adoption drivers through logistic regression and assess post-adoption outcomes using propensity score matching combined with doubly robust estimation. The results show that adoption is primarily driven by structural feasibility and institutional exposure, particularly livestock ownership, participation in technical training, perceived time-saving benefits, and fuel-cost pressure, while general socioeconomic variables such as income and education are not statistically significant. Treatment-effect estimates indicate that adoption leads to significant reductions in LPG and firewood consumption, as well as decreased use of chemical fertilizers, reflecting partial substitution of external inputs with locally available resources. However, these benefits are unevenly distributed, with stronger effects observed among households with larger livestock holdings, while training plays a more critical role for smaller-scale farmers. The findings are interpreted through a sustainability–resilience framework, which is used as an analytical lens rather than a causal measurement model. The results highlight the importance of institutional support, service provision, and policy alignment in determining the durability and scalability of biogas adoption. The study contributes to the literature by integrating determinants of adoption with causal impact estimation and situating household-level outcomes within broader socio-technical systems. Full article

The European Union’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), the world’s first system to impose tariffs on the carbon emissions of imported products, commenced its transition period in October 2023 and is scheduled for full implementation in January 2026. This mechanism exerts a profound impact on the global trade landscape and corporate environmental management practices. Taking the CSI All Share Index constituent companies as a research sample, this paper empirically evaluates the impact of the CBAM transition period on the environmental scores of Chinese export enterprises utilizing the Propensity Score Matching Difference-in-Differences (PSM-DID) method. The results indicate that the CBAM transition period significantly inhibits the short-term environmental performance of regulated enterprises. Mechanism analysis reveals that increased financing constraints serve as a core mediating channel, wherein escalated compliance costs and compressed cash flows crowd out resources for low-carbon investments. Furthermore, heterogeneity analysis demonstrates that the negative impact is more pronounced among state-owned enterprises, firms with lower audit quality, and firms with a higher proportion of female executives. Accordingly, the study recommends establishing targeted green transition financing mechanisms, accelerating domestic carbon market reforms, and strengthening international technical harmonization to build corporate resilience against global climate governance shocks and promote sustainable growth. Full article

Vulnerabilities in conventional agri-food supply chains (CAFSCs) necessitate a shift toward resilient, localized production models. Within the Agri-Food 4.0 landscape, urban Controlled-Environment Hydroponic Agriculture (CEHA) systems address these challenges by shortening supply chains and mitigating climate-induced breakdowns. However, structurally aligning Triple Bottom Line (TBL)-oriented stakeholder needs with complex technical specifications remains a critical challenge in sustainable CEHA system design. To address this challenge, the present study proposes a novel framework integrating the Full Consistency Method (FUCOM) and Quality Function Deployment (QFD) within a Finite Interval Type-2 (FIT2) Gaussian fuzzy environment. This approach systematically translates TBL-oriented priorities into precise engineering specifications, mapping 17 stakeholder needs (SNs) to 30 technical design requirements (TDRs) while capturing linguistic uncertainty and hesitation. The findings reveal a clear strategic focus on environmental and social sustainability. Specifically, high product quality, food safety and traceability, consumer acceptance, and minimization of environmental impacts emerge as the primary drivers of CEHA adoption. The QFD translation identifies scalable IoT infrastructure, sensor maintenance and calibration, and AI-enabled decision support as the most critical TDRs. The framework’s reliability and structural robustness were rigorously validated through comprehensive analyses, including Kendall’s W test to confirm expert consensus, alongside a Leave-One-Out (LOO) approach, weight perturbations, and a structural evaluation of TDR intercorrelations. These findings provide a scientifically grounded roadmap for designing sustainable, intelligent urban agricultural systems. Ultimately, this framework offers actionable managerial implications for agribusiness stakeholders to bridge strategic TBL-oriented goals with practical engineering, significantly enhancing Agri-Food 4.0 supply chain resilience. Full article

Ports play a pivotal role in global trade but are also associated with significant environmental and social challenges. Despite growing research on green ports, existing studies remain fragmented, with limited integration between technological, environmental, and governance perspectives within the blue economy framework. This review examines the transition from green port initiatives toward integrated blue-economy-oriented port systems by synthesizing recent advances in sustainable maritime infrastructure, smart port technologies, renewable energy integration, and policy frameworks. The analysis reveals three major findings. First, ports are increasingly evolving into energy-integrated hubs, with leading examples adopting shore power systems, renewable energy microgrids, and hydrogen-based infrastructure, thereby contributing to emissions reductions. Second, digitalization through artificial intelligence, IoT, and data-driven logistics significantly enhances operational efficiency, reduces energy consumption, and improves real-time decision-making. Third, effective governance frameworks that combine regulatory measures and incentive-based instruments are critical to accelerating sustainability transitions while ensuring economic competitiveness. In addition, the review highlights the growing integration of biodiversity conservation, marine pollution mitigation, and community engagement into port management strategies, reflecting a shift toward ecosystem-based approaches. Overall, the findings demonstrate that ports are transitioning from conventional logistics hubs into integrated socio-technical systems that enable low-carbon maritime transport while supporting inclusive and resilient coastal development. Full article

The increasing demand for energy, rising electricity costs, and the growing need to reduce carbon emissions have driven industries toward the adoption of Renewable Energy Sources (RES) and Energy Storage Systems (ESS). However, selecting the most suitable ESS for industrial peak-shaving applications remains a complex decision involving technical, economic, and operational considerations. This paper proposes a practical and structured methodology for ESS selection that integrates conventional performance criteria with Industry 5.0 (I5.0) requirements, emphasizing sustainability, resilience, and human-centric industrial operation. Unlike existing multi-criteria decision-making approaches, the proposed framework reduces reliance on expert-based weighting, improving transparency and reproducibility. The methodology is implemented in two stages: initial KPI-based shortlisting of technologies, followed by detailed comparative performance analysis. A case study conducted in a European tire manufacturing plant compares lithium-ion batteries and flywheel energy storage systems under different peak-shaving strategies. Lithium-ion batteries demonstrated superior performance, covering approximately 80% of demand peaks compared with the 73% achieved by the flywheel system, confirming the effectiveness of the proposed methodology for practical industrial ESS selection. Full article

This study investigates the structural misalignment between official wage benchmarks and actual market wages in the Republic of Korea to establish an independent, forestry-specific wage system essential for labor sustainability. Historically, the Republic of Korea forestry project costs have relied on construction industry benchmarks, leading to a “diverging hypothesis” where official rates fail to reflect the specialized risks and technical skills required in forest operations. To address this, a comprehensive wage survey was conducted in 2025 across 13 specialized forestry occupations. Utilizing a sampling frame of 7555 sites, 1044 units were selected via stratified sampling with square-root proportional allocation, ensuring a relative standard error (RSE) of 2.5%. The findings reveal that market wages consistently exceed construction benchmarks by 4.5% to 41.0%. The most significant disparities were observed in leadership and mechanized roles, reflecting substantial “risk–responsibility” and “skill premiums”. Furthermore, the study identifies a structural shift toward risk-transfer strategies, such as stumpage sales, in response to the Serious Accidents Punishment Act (SAPA). These results underscore the urgent need for a specialized wage framework to ensure safety and long-term resilience. Ultimately, such institutional refinement is a prerequisite for securing the high-quality human capital necessary for a sustainable circular bioeconomy. Full article

The integration of Building Information Modeling [BIM] and Digital Twins [DT] has emerged as a central driver of digital transformation in the architecture, engineering, and construction sector. Yet, its systemic impact remains constrained by conceptual fragmentation and uneven institutional adoption. This study synthesizes contemporary BIM–DT scalability and each to identify dominant technological and application dimensions, examine the governance conditions shaping scalability, and develop an analytical framework that advances understanding beyond technology-centered syntheses. A two-stage analytical design was employed, combining bibliometric keyword co-occurrence analysis of 1295 Scopus-indexed records with systematic qualitative synthesis of 56 peer-reviewed journal articles published between 2020 and 2025, following PRISMA guidelines. Six interrelated analytical dimensions characterize the current BIM–DT research landscape: BIM–DT integration advancements and applications; interoperability and visualization; safety enhancement; energy efficiency; data-driven decision making; and stakeholder collaboration. Across these dimensions, a persistent misalignment emerges between technological capability and organizational readiness, with deficiencies in standards, governance, and sociotechnical coordination constituting the principal barriers to large-scale deployment. The findings reframe BIM–DT convergence not as a discrete technological upgrade but as the emergence of a coordinated socio-technical information ecosystem spanning the full building lifecycle. By foregrounding governance conditions, data stewardship, and institutional coordination, this study extends understanding of how digital twins expand BIM from design coordination to operational governance and establishes a foundation for more systematic implementation of intelligent, resilient, and sustainable built-environment systems. Full article

The cultivation of Hericium erinaceus in China accounts for about 85% of the global supply. Its decentralized production systems have developed across diverse climate zones, leading to distinct, location-specific practices recorded in local technical standards. This scoping review synthesizes these empirical protocols from five agro-climatic regions. It illustrates how adaptive strategies such as cold-tolerant strains in the northeast and market-driven precision in the subtropics are associated with yield stability. These practices reflect two interconnected forms of diversity. One is the diversity of cultivation systems themselves, from forest-based methods to industrial-scale production systems. The other is the diversity of locally adapted strains developed for specific environments. We use the Intelligent Germplasm–Cultivation–Processing–Market (GCPM) Integration framework to connect local practices with broader questions of systemic resilience. The evidence draws on field-validated standards, not controlled experiments, reflecting the current state of research. This work presents China’s practical knowledge as a reference for designing context-sensitive, climate-resilient cultivation systems elsewhere, suggesting that resilience may depend more on intelligent adaptation to local conditions than on one-size-fits-all solutions. Full article

The study presents an engineering solution for maintaining traffic flow during road and utility operations, such as trench excavation. The analysis of existing organizational and technical approaches, along with global experience in temporary bridge use, showed that most foreign analogs were developed for military purposes and are not fully suitable for urban conditions in Kazakhstan and CIS countries. As an alternative solution, the development of a mobile overpass adapted for operation in dense urban environments is proposed. The present study continues earlier research focused on optimizing the placement of mobile overpass supports while accounting for the nonlinear deformation behavior of the soil foundation. At the previous stage, a rational distance between the supports and the trench edge was substantiated, and horizontal soil deformations were reduced. In the current study, the primary focus is on the design of the undercarriage, which determines the mobility, stability, and operational feasibility of the structure. A morphological analysis and synthesis method is applied to select a rational configuration of the undercarriage. A 3D model and a 1:4 scale test bench were developed, followed by load tests of 50–200 kg. The maximum deflection of −1.19 mm at 200 kg demonstrated an almost linear deformation pattern. The constructed regression model ($R^2=0.97$) confirmed the accuracy and reliability of the design. The developed mobile overpass is versatile, cost-effective, and practical, improving the resilience of urban transport infrastructure, reducing traffic congestion during roadworks, and creating a foundation for serial production in Kazakhstan and CIS countries. Full article

This paper presents a technical and economic feasibility analysis of a microgrid based on an existing traction substation supplying a 3 kV DC railway network. The study is based on real 15-min electricity consumption measurements and applies an engineering-oriented methodology to assess the integration of distributed energy resources, including wind turbines, photovoltaic generation, and a battery energy storage system. The analysis focuses on component sizing, land-use constraints, and investment efficiency under conservative and transparent assumptions. The results demonstrate that traction substation-based microgrids are technically feasible under realistic environmental and spatial conditions. The conducted variant analysis reveals a clear trade-off between the number of installed wind turbines and the required photovoltaic installation area, highlighting the importance of generation redundancy and source diversification for infrastructure-critical applications. The energy storage system is designed as a reliability-oriented backup component, ensuring continuity of supply during primary power outages rather than serving as an optimization or arbitrage asset. From an economic perspective, the obtained investment efficiency indicators indicate that the proposed microgrid configuration can achieve acceptable performance for capital-intensive infrastructure assets, particularly when supported by appropriate financing conditions and policy instruments. Overall, the study confirms that traction substation-based microgrids constitute a viable solution for enhancing energy supply diversification, resilience, and decarbonization of railway power systems, while providing a transparent framework for early-stage decision-making. Full article

The proliferation of digital assets has catalyzed a profound decoupling between intangible property and traditional inheritance jurisprudence. Under the existing legal framework in Taiwan, practitioners must rely on the testamentary forms prescribed in Article 1189 of the Civil Code, which are fundamentally ill equipped to handle cryptographic assets. Specifically, Notarized Wills (Article 1191) necessitate full disclosure to a notary, creating a “Privacy–Security Paradox” where revealing private keys exposes assets to misappropriation. Conversely, while Sealed Wills (Article 1192) offer confidentiality, they are plagued by risks of physical degradation and technical non-executability. This study proposes zkWill, an EVM-compatible decentralized testamentary framework designed to bridge these structural gaps. By leveraging Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZKPs), zkWill achieves a state of “blind compliance,” verifying that a sealed will meets the statutory requirements of the Civil Code without disclosing its underlying content. The system integrates the Permit2 protocol for secure asset migration and combines AES-256 encryption with IPFS to immunize testaments against centralized storage failures. Unlike conventional services that demand custodial trust, zkWill employs decentralized oracles to trigger automated execution, ensuring legacy distribution without compromising wallet private keys. Empirical data from the Arbitrum Sepolia testnet confirms that the framework maintains constant verification efficiency and a judicially resilient audit trail, providing a paradigm that harmonizes legal pragmatism with cryptographic security for digital inheritance. Full article

While telemedicine has proliferated globally, its sustainable implementation in resource-constrained settings remains understudied. This study evaluates the efficacy, determinants of patient satisfaction, and systemic resilience of a “Home Ward” model at a rural Thai community hospital. Employing a convergent mixed-methods design, we surveyed 51 participants and conducted in-depth interviews with service users (n = 5) and a multidisciplinary team (n = 7). Multiple linear regression revealed high patient satisfaction ( = 3.70), explaining 67.3% of the variance (R² = 0.673). Notably, Perceived Usefulness (β = 0.589, p < 0.001) and the Effectiveness of Symptom Monitoring (β = 0.317, p < 0.05) significantly predicted satisfaction. Conversely, Overall System Quality was not a significant predictor (β = 0.142, p > 0.05), highlighting a ‘Low-Tech, High-Touch’ paradox. Qualitative analysis elucidated this through the “Human-in-the-Loop” mechanism, where Village Health Volunteers (VHVs) and healthcare providers bridge the digital divide. However, the study identifies an “invisible workload”—non-formalized discretionary effort—that sustains this resilience. Findings suggest that rural digital health governance should prioritize human intermediaries and pragmatic utility over purely technical upgrades. The study concludes that long-term sustainability requires institutionalizing human support networks while mitigating the exploitation of healthcare personnel’s goodwill. Full article