Journal articles on the topic 'Energy policy – United States – Decision making'
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1
Spezio, Teresa Sabol. "The Santa Barbara Oil Spill and Its Effect on United States Environmental Policy." Sustainability 10, no. 8 (August 3, 2018): 2750. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su10082750.
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The National Environmental Policy Act of 1970 (NEPA) paved the way for comprehensive federal environmental policy in the United States. NEPA has successfully allowed citizens and others to become active participants in the environmental decision-making process for federal infrastructure projects throughout the evolution of environmental policy in the United States. Its efficacy was enhanced because of an oil spill off the Santa Barbara coast in January 1969. This disaster gave the framers of NEPA an example of the consequences of the lack of environmental policy in federal decision making. Using their original proactive approach along with the reactive response to the spill, they created a policy that has can be seen as a foundation for 21st century sustainability and resilience programs.
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Ladin, Sarah. "Energy-Water Nexus, the Clean Power Plan, and Integration of Water Resource Concerns into Energy Decision-Making." Michigan Journal of Environmental & Administrative Law, no. 7.1 (2017): 205. http://dx.doi.org/10.36640/mjeal.7.1.energy-water.
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Energy regulation in the United States is now at a crossroads. The EPA has begun the process to officially repeal the Clean Power Plan and currently has no plan to replace it with new rulemaking to regulate carbon emissions from the U.S. energy sector. Even though the Clean Power Plan is more or less at its end, its regulatory structure stands as a model of the way decision-makers in the United States regulate the energy sector and the environment. Since the beginning of the modern environmental legal system, decision-makers have chosen to silo the system. Statutes and agencies focus on just one media or one issue. Tackling the climate crisis will inevitably require an integrationist model of lawmaking. The Clean Power Plan took the same problematic route as past regulation. While the Clean Power Plan rightfully addressed rising carbon levels, it failed to account for another growing problem associated with climate change: quickly depleting water resources. Although the consequences of the energy-water nexus are clear, U.S. decision-makers continue to ignore the need to integrate energy and water decision-making. Continuing to compartmentalize environmental problems, rather than addressing climate change impacts in a holistic manner, will not bring about the results that are desperately needed. The tools needed to integrate decision-making exist throughout the three branches of government. Congress can and should step in to pass a new statute, which establishes a legal mandate on agencies to fully consider the implications of energy policy and energy regulation on water resources. The federal courts can read a legal requirement into the Clean Air Act or the Administrative Procedure Act that would require federal action in the energy sphere to account for impacts on water resources. Finally, the President can use his power to force federal agencies to consider water resources more thoroughly than in the past. While some of these mechanisms may be hard to envision given the current political atmosphere, implementation is necessary to ensure water and energy security in the face of a growing climate crisis.
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Yuktadatta, Pattaphol, Mostafa Saidur Rahim Khan, and Yoshihiko Kadoya. "Financial Literacy and Exercise Behavior in the United States." Sustainability 13, no. 16 (August 23, 2021): 9452. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su13169452.
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Lack of exercise is an important public health issue in the United States due to its link to obesity and other health risk factors. Despite several policy interventions, many Americans do not exercise sufficiently. Given recent findings that financial literacy helps to improve people’s rational decision-making ability and encourages people to exercise in Japan, we conduct a similar study for the United States, which has also been experiencing lack of exercise but has a different cultural setting. Culture has important influences on decision making and exercise behavior. This study investigates whether financial literacy is associated with exercise behavior in the United States. We used Osaka University’s 2010 Preference Parameters Study dataset and performed a probit regression analysis to test our hypothesis that financially literate people are likely to exercise more. In support of our hypothesis, we find that Americans with better financial literacy are more likely to exercise at least once a week. Additionally, financial education has a similar association with exercise behavior. Our results suggest that authorities could consider using financial literacy as an alternative policy intervention to promote regular exercise among the American population.
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Mousavian, Seyed Hossein, and Salman Ameri. "The End of the Middle East’s Unipolar Era." Bandung 8, no. 2 (September 3, 2021): 293–306. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/21983534-08020008.
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Abstract This Policy Insight article argues that a growing security partnership between Russia, Iran, China, Turkey, Iraq, and Syria (rictis) will push the Middle East into an era of bipolarity. The paper demonstrates that rictis has significant convergence on regional security issues, and that these interests are distinct from those held by the American Security Camp, a collection of states that include the United States, Saudi Arabia, Israel, and the United Arab Emirates. The paper also argues that rictis has military and energy advantages that allow it to confront the American Camp’s regional dominance. Our analysis demonstrates how rictis might help deter unilateralism and democratize regional decision-making.
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Karakoc, Deniz Berfin, Junren Wang, and Megan Konar. "Food flows between counties in the United States from 2007 to 2017." Environmental Research Letters 17, no. 3 (February 28, 2022): 034035. http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac5270.
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Abstract Food supply chains are essential for distributing goods from production to consumption points. These complex supply chains are important for food security and availability. Recent research has developed novel methods to estimate food flows with high spatial resolution, but we do not currently understand how fine-grained food supply chains vary in time. In this study, we use an improved version of the Food Flow Model to estimate food flows (kg) between all county pairs across all food commodity groups for the years 2007, 2012, and 2017 (which requires estimating 206.3 million links). We then determine the core counties to the US food flow networks through time with a multi-criteria decision analysis technique. Our estimates of county-to-county food flows in time are freely available with this paper and could be useful for future research, policy, and decision-making.
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Geng, Limin, Wenxing Shen, and Zenan Xu. "Embodied carbon and influencing factors of China’s paper industry’s export trade to the United States." BioResources 17, no. 2 (April 18, 2022): 3107–29. http://dx.doi.org/10.15376/biores.17.2.3107-3129.
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The paper industry is a high-carbon emission and energy-intensive industry. From the perspective of low-carbon trade and carbon neutrality, its energy conservation and emission reduction are worthy of attention. This study used the input-output model to calculate the embodied carbon emissions of China’s paper industry’s export trade to the United States from 2006 to 2020 and used the logarithmic mean division index (LMDI) method to analyze influencing factors of the change of embodied carbon emissions. The study found that the embodied carbon emissions of China’s paper industry’s export trade to the United States generally shows a stable downward trend after reaching the peak with the increase of export trade scale; scale effect is the main factor that causes the embodied carbon emissions, while technological progress, policy support, and environmental regulations are important driving forces to promote carbon emission reduction. The research results of this paper not only can test and guide China’s paper industry trade policies and industrial policies, but they can also provide decision-making reference for China and the United States to promote the carbon emission reduction of the paper industry.
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Koehler, Kirsten, Megan Latshaw, Thomas Matte, Daniel Kass, Howard Frumkin, Mary Fox, Benjamin F. Hobbs, Marsha Wills-Karp, and Thomas A. Burke. "Building Healthy Community Environments: A Public Health Approach." Public Health Reports 133, no. 1_suppl (November 2018): 35S—43S. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0033354918798809.
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Environmental quality has a profound effect on health and the burden of disease. In the United States, the environment-related burden of disease is increasingly dominated by chronic diseases. At the local level, public health practitioners realize that many policy decisions affecting environmental quality and health transcend the authorities of traditional health department programs. Healthy decisions about the built environment, including housing, transportation, and energy, require broad collaborative efforts. Environmental health professionals have an opportunity to address the shift in public health burden toward chronic diseases and play an important role in the design of healthy communities by bringing data and tools to decision makers. This article provides a guide for community leaders to consider the public health effects of decisions about the built environment. We present a conceptual framework that represents a shift from compartmentalized solutions toward an inclusive systems approach that encourages partnership across disciplines and sectors. We discuss practical tools to assist with environmental decision making, such as Health Impact Assessments, environmental public health tracking, and cumulative risk assessment. We also identify priorities in research, practice, and education to advance the role of public health in decision making to improve health, such as the Health Impact Assessment, as a core competency for environmental health practitioners. We encourage cross-disciplinary communication, research, and education that bring the fields of planning, transportation, and energy in closer collaboration with public health to jointly advance the systems approach to today’s environmental challenges.
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Ovchynnikova, Olena. "Risk and Uncertainty in Sustainable Development: Undertaking Politics of the Climate Change in the United States." Problemy Ekorozwoju 15, no. 1 (January 1, 2020): 229–35. http://dx.doi.org/10.35784/pe.2020.1.24.
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Scientific evidence of climate change has never been more profound. Activists around the world now demand climate action from global leaders on almost a daily basis. Yet, decision makers are not in a rush to deal with the climate emergency. The present article looks at the politics of climate change through the lens of decision-making under uncertainty to understand whether uncertainty and risk can explain the lack of decisive action on the part of the global leadership and posits that the politics of climate change reflect the climate system itself: complex, multi-layered, driven by many inter-related elements and diverse in its manifestations.
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Alkhaledi, Khaled, Allison Arnold, Kenneth Means, In-Ju Kim, and Salaheddine Bendak. "A Novel Multicriteria Decision Making Model for Sustainable Stormwater Management." Sustainability 12, no. 22 (November 15, 2020): 9508. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su12229508.
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Precipitation not absorbed by the soil or local vegetation and remain on the surface leading to stormwater can cause soil erosion, flooding, property damage, and overflow to wastewater treatment facilities. This paper introduces a novel multicriteria decision-making model to choose among various sustainable solutions that can help in managing stormwater. This model is intended to help decision-makers in handling stormwater through proper utilization of precipitation while ensuring public safety and adhering to runoff regulations. The model also aims to present sustainable technologies that can help in reducing harmful stormwater overflows. As a way of constructing and validating the model, precipitation and other relevant data from the North-Eastern region of the United States were used. The model can be altered though to suit other regions in the world. The model was further validated by seeking the opinion of a group of experts on its constructs. Statistical analysis identified high item-to-total correlations for model constructs and a model Cronbach’s alpha value of 0.84 leading to conclude that the model is valid. Yet, green solutions presented in this study and the developed model should be considered as a first step in determining sustainable stormwater solutions and further research in this area is needed.
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Lane, Murdock, Genskow, Betz, and Chatrchyan. "Climate Change and Dairy in New York and Wisconsin: Risk Perceptions, Vulnerability, and Adaptation among Farmers and Advisors." Sustainability 11, no. 13 (June 29, 2019): 3599. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su11133599.
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Climate change impacts on agriculture have been intensifying in the Northeastern and Midwestern United States. Few empirical studies have considered how dairy farmers and/or their advisors are interpreting and responding to climate impacts, risks, and opportunities in these regions. This study investigates dairy farmer and advisor views and decisions related to climate change using data from seven farmer and advisor focus groups conducted in New York and Wisconsin. The study examined how farmers and advisors perceived climate impacts on dairy farms, the practices they are adopting, and how perceived risks and vulnerability affect farmers’ decision making related to adaptation strategies. Although dairy farmers articulated concern regarding climate impacts, other business pressures, such as profitability, market conditions, government regulations, and labor availability were often more critical issues that affected their decision making. Personal experience with extreme weather and seasonal changes affected decision making. The findings from this study provide improved understanding of farmers’ needs and priorities, which can help guide land-grant researchers, Extension, and policymakers in their efforts to develop and coordinate a comprehensive strategy to address climate change impacts on dairy in the Northeast and the Midwest US.
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Anker, Helle Tegner, Hendrik Schoukens, Chris Backes, An Cliquet, Sanne Akerboom, Jana Bovet, Elissa Cavallin, Wolfgang Kock, Donald McFillivray, and Fiona mathews. "Wind Energy Projects and Species Protection Law: A Comparative Analysis of the Application of EU Law in Five Member States." European Energy and Environmental Law Review 28, Issue 4 (April 1, 2019): 144–58. http://dx.doi.org/10.54648/eelr2019111.
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Wind farms and their associated transmission infrastructure can have negative impact on biodiversity. Offshore wind farms, for example, can pose threats to animals like harbor porpoises and migrating birds and onshore wind farms and transmission grids may harm birds and bats.In this article we analyse how European Union species protection law is transposed and applied to decision-making on wind energy projects in five member states, namely Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and the United Kingdom. The analysis aims to understands the differences in the interpretation and application of national species protection law, point out deficiencies, and make recommendations, partly based on learning from best practices. Though transposition in national law is almost identical, implementation practice in these states varies substantially. The question in raised whether the legal regime, as currently applied, can be improved to serve the aims of a considerable increase of renewable energy sources whilst simultaneously protecting biodiversity.
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Butt, Ali Azhar, John Harvey, Arash Saboori, Maryam Ostovar, Manuel Bejarano, and Navneet Garg. "Decision Support in Selecting Airfield Pavement Design Alternatives Using Life Cycle Assessment: Case Study of Nashville Airport." Sustainability 13, no. 1 (December 31, 2020): 299. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su13010299.
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The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has taken measures to improve safety, reduce costs, increase resilience, and improve the sustainability of the United States (U.S.) airfield infrastructure by using a life-cycle cost analysis methodology to increase the efficient use of economic resources needed for expanding and preserving the airfield system. However, a life-cycle assessment (LCA) approach for evaluating the environmental impacts of decisions regarding airfield infrastructure has yet to be fully developed and applied. The objective of this study is to demonstrate the use of the airfield LCA framework that was developed for the FAA and can be used by U.S. airports. The comparison of alternative pavement designs at Nashville International Airport (BNA) is presented. The scope of the study was from cradle to laid; materials, materials transportation, and construction stages of the pavement life cycle are considered, and the maintenance, use and end of life stages are not considered. Primary data were acquired from BNA and secondary data were used in situations of unavailability of primary data. The case study showed that performing LCA provides opportunities for airports to consider energy use and environment-related impacts in the decision-making process.
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Simon, Jay. "Weight Approximation for Spatial Outcomes." Sustainability 12, no. 14 (July 11, 2020): 5588. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su12145588.
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When preferences explicitly include a spatial component, it can be challenging to assign weights to geographic regions in a way that is both pragmatic and accurate. In multi-attribute decision making, weights reflect cardinal information about preferences that can be difficult to assess thoroughly in practice. Recognizing this challenge, researchers have developed several methods for using ordinal rankings to approximate sets of cardinal weights. However, when the set of weights reflects a set of geographic regions, the number of weights can be enormous, and it may be cognitively challenging for decision makers to provide even a coherent ordinal ranking. This is often the case in policy decisions with widespread impacts. This paper uses a simulation study for spatial preferences to evaluate the performance of several rank-based weight approximation methods, as well as several new methods based on assigning each region to a tier expressing the extent to which it should influence the evaluation of policy alternatives. The tier-based methods do not become more cognitively complex as the number of regions increases, they allow decision makers to express a wider range of preferences, and they are similar in accuracy to rank-based methods when the number of regions is large. The paper then demonstrates all of these approximation methods with preferences for water usage by census block in a United States county.
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Toerien, Daan. "Orderliness in Tourism Enterprise Dynamics in United States Micropolitan Statistical Areas." Sustainability 13, no. 11 (May 31, 2021): 6180. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su13116180.
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Micropolitan statistical areas (micropolitans) are important elements in understanding the small-town economic forces operating in the United States. This study focuses on the tourism enterprise dynamics of micropolitans. These dynamics are an oft-neglected element in tourism analyses and reports. Power law (log-log) regression analyses are central to the examination of complex socio-economic systems, and have been used here. Micropolitan tourism enterprises are ubiquitous and there is much non-linear orderliness in the interplay between their demographic and entrepreneurial characteristics. The dynamics of the orderliness result in important differences. For instance, total micropolitan employment increases sub-linearly (more slowly) than increases in tourism enterprise numbers, while tourism employment increases super-linearly (more rapidly). This difference could be important in considerations of micropolitan employment. The relationship of tourism and poverty has often been debated. Here, a statistically significant negative correlation was observed between the number of tourism enterprises and a measure of community prosperity/wealth of the micropolitans. Expansion of the tourism sector apparently reduces community poverty in micropolitans. However, community poverty is also lower in larger micropolitans. Therefore, further analyses are needed to examine the potentially spurious correlation. Overall, future decision-making could be supported by the quantified information about the tourism dynamics of micropolitans.
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Cullis, James D. S., Nicholas J. Walker, Fadiel Ahjum, and Diego Juan Rodriguez. "Modelling the water energy nexus: should variability in water supply impact on decision making for future energy supply options?" Proceedings of the International Association of Hydrological Sciences 376 (February 1, 2018): 3–8. http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/piahs-376-3-2018.
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Abstract. Many countries, like South Africa, Australia, India, China and the United States, are highly dependent on coal fired power stations for energy generation. These power stations require significant amounts of water, particularly when fitted with technology to reduce pollution and climate change impacts. As water resources come under stress it is important that spatial variability in water availability is taken into consideration for future energy planning particularly with regards to motivating for a switch from coal fired power stations to renewable technologies. This is particularly true in developing countries where there is a need for increased power production and associated increasing water demands for energy. Typically future energy supply options are modelled using a least cost optimization model such as TIMES that considers water supply as an input cost, but is generally constant for all technologies. Different energy technologies are located in different regions of the country with different levels of water availability and associated infrastructure development and supply costs. In this study we develop marginal cost curves for future water supply options in different regions of a country where different energy technologies are planned for development. These water supply cost curves are then used in an expanded version of the South Africa TIMES model called SATIM-W that explicitly models the water-energy nexus by taking into account the regional nature of water supply availability associated with different energy supply technologies. The results show a significant difference in the optimal future energy mix and in particular an increase in renewables and a demand for dry-cooling technologies that would not have been the case if the regional variability of water availability had not been taken into account. Choices in energy policy, such as the introduction of a carbon tax, will also significantly impact on future water resources, placing additional water demands in some regions and making water available for other users in other regions with a declining future energy demand. This study presents a methodology for modelling the water-energy nexus that could be used to inform the sustainable development planning process in the water and energy sectors for both developed and developing countries.
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Khochiani, Ramin, and Younes Nademi. "Energy consumption, CO2 emissions, and economic growth in the United States, China, and India: A wavelet coherence approach." Energy & Environment 31, no. 5 (November 7, 2019): 886–902. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0958305x19881750.
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Climate change is one of the most dangerous threats to human beings, and therefore, it is of great importance for the researchers to inform the policy makers of the threats of climate change and global warming. One of the main causes of climate change is the greenhouse gas emissions, particularly CO2 emissions. In this paper, we try to find a nexus between energy consumption, CO2 emissions, and economic growth in the United States, China, and India, known as three most polluting countries in the world. For this purpose, we applied the wavelet correlation and the partial wavelet coherence approaches during the period 1971–2013. The empirical results for the United States show that the GDP is positively correlated with the CO2 emissions and energy consumption in all frequencies. For China, there is a significant positive relationship between the GDP and CO2 emissions/energy consumption for the short-term horizon. However, for India, although there is a significant positive relationship between the GDP and CO2 emissions, the nexus between the GDP and the energy consumption is not clear. Furthermore, the pollution haven hypothesis was confirmed by the obtained empirical results. Based on our study, we suggest the policy makers in these three countries making supportive decisions for the producers to use modern environment-friendly technologies and renewable energies in their products.
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Brazeau, Randi H., and Marc A. Edwards. "A REVIEW OF THE SUSTAINABILITY OF RESIDENTIAL HOT WATER INFRASTRUCTURE: PUBLIC HEALTH, ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS, AND CONSUMER DRIVERS." Journal of Green Building 6, no. 4 (November 2011): 77–95. http://dx.doi.org/10.3992/jgb.6.4.77.
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Residential water heating is linked to the primary source of waterborne disease outbreaks in the United States, and accounts for greater energy demand than the combined water/wastewater utility sector. Furthermore, home water heating is the second largest energy consumer in the home and thus represents an integral part of the water-energy nexus. To date, there has been little practical research that can guide decision-making by consumers, public health officials and regulators with regards to water heater selection and operation to minimize energy costs and the likelihood of waterborne disease. Scientific uncertainties associated with existing “green” advice have potentially created misguided policy with long-term negative repercussions. This review is aimed at defining the current state of knowledge related to hot water infrastructure and in highlighting current gaps in the research. While there are many sustainability claims of certain water heater types (i.e., hot water recirculation systems and instantaneous water heaters) these claims have not been substantiated in head-to-head testing of the interplay between water temperature, energy, microbial growth, and scaling, all measures that need to be better defined.
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Gallego-Álvarez, Isabel, María Belén Lozano, and Miguel Rodríguez-Rosa. "Analysis of Social Sustainability Information in a Global Context According to the New Global Reporting Initiative 400 Social Standards." Sustainability 11, no. 24 (December 10, 2019): 7073. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su11247073.
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Interest is increasing in what information companies disclose regarding the social aspects of their operations. This research therefore develops an index to analyze the social disclosure of companies from various countries and geographical regions including Latin America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and the United States. Using categorical principal component analysis and partial triadic analysis, we build a numerical value for a specific social individual index by firm. Then, we analyze the extent to which this disclosure follows the Global Reporting Initiative 400 social standards, which became effective on 1 July 2018. In addition to considering geographical aspects, we also analyze social disclosure based on industry, which facilitates firms’ decision-making and policy formation in social disclosure.
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Chen, Shang Yuan. "USE OF GREEN BUILDING INFORMATION MODELING IN THE ASSESSMENT OF NET ZERO ENERGY BUILDING DESIGN." Journal of Environmental Engineering and Landscape Management 27, no. 3 (September 19, 2019): 174–86. http://dx.doi.org/10.3846/jeelm.2019.10797.
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In the face of extreme climate, Net Zero Energy Buildings (NZEBs) represent a very high standard of building energy conservation. The design of NZEBs requires continuous design improvement and analysis in a decision-making process that seeks to meet energy conservation goals. This paper recommends the use of green Building Information Modelling (BIM) to support the design of zero-energy buildings. The design of NZEBs requires two sets of tasks: First, it requires determination of whether the building will offer high-energy efficiency, and, second, it lacks the installation of sufficient renewable energy equipment to meet the building’s load needs. After drawing on the spirit of the United States’ Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design and considering the current situation in Taiwan, this paper recommends the use of electricity Energy Usage Intensity as a measurement unit providing a holistic indicator of energy usage and takes optimized energy performance as a performance target for various solutions. This study demonstrated procedural steps in the application of green BIM and analyzed restrictions on the implementation of green BIM to the analysis of NZEB design.
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Wu, Zhaodan, Quanliang Ye, and Ze Tian. "Effects of the Policy and Human Intervention on the Infrastructure-Environment Nexus in China." Sustainability 12, no. 18 (September 4, 2020): 7279. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su12187279.
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With the outstanding investment in infrastructure during the past decades, the evaluation of the infrastructure-environment nexus is highly required to achieve the sustainable development of economy, resources and environment, as well as human being. This study analyzes the supply-chain-wide blue water withdrawal occurred in China for global infrastructure development, and one step further, the potential effects of policy and human intervention on future infrastructure-related environmental performances. Our results showed that the blue water withdrawal in China was main for the domestic infrastructure construction because of its rapid-growing investment, coupled with that in the United States, Japan, and India. Energy-related products (e.g., “Electricity by coal”) and primary materials (e.g., “Basic iron and steel”), highly required for the construction of infrastructure, have played relatively great roles in China’s blue water withdrawal. For the future sustainable development of infrastructure, we also addressed that efficiency improvement and nonconventional water resource utilization could cover half of the blue water gap between the current development trend and the sustainable one. In light of the synergies among infrastructure development, environmental sustainability and socioeconomic intervention, it is vital to uphold economic and environmental efficiency in the decision-making of infrastructure development.
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Schley, Hannah L., Ilene F. West, and Christopher K. Williams. "Advancing Wildlife Policy of Eastern Timber Wolves and Lake Sturgeon through Traditional Ecological Knowledge." Sustainability 14, no. 7 (March 24, 2022): 3859. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su14073859.
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Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) is becoming more prominent in wildlife management decisions and policy making. The cooperation of TEK and Western science paradigms have been beneficial for conserving our natural resources and wildlife populations. However, there are still concerns with accepting TEK as part of wildlife management, policy, and regulations. With increasing challenges to wildlife conservation, it is vital to implement Indigenous TEK to form more robust and holistic approaches to wildlife management. Here, we present two case studies in the upper Midwest region of the United States involving the Ojibwe tribe that show the importance of TEK collaboration and how that knowledge can be used for the betterment of ecologically sensitive species—lake sturgeon and eastern timber wolves.
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Adhikari, Ram K., Robert K. Grala, Stephen C. Grado, Donald L. Grebner, and Daniel R. Petrolia. "Landowner Satisfaction with Conservation Programs in the Southern United States." Sustainability 14, no. 9 (May 4, 2022): 5513. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su14095513.
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Landowner satisfaction with conservation programs affects their participation decisions and subsequently effectiveness of these programs in improving environmental quality. This study determined the influence of landownership goals, environmental concerns, frequency of contacts with federal agencies, and socioeconomic factors on landowner satisfaction with available conservation programs in the Mississippi Alluvial Valley and East Gulf Coastal Plain sub-geographies of the Gulf Coastal Plains and Ozarks Landscape Conservation Cooperative. A generalized ordered logit model for each conservation program was constructed to analyze factors influencing landowner satisfaction levels with these programs. Of the 14 federal conservation programs assessed, the top programs, based on a satisfaction level, included Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), Conservation Technical Assistance (CTA), Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP), and Agricultural Conservation Easement Program (ACEP). The size of agricultural land owned, landownership goals including profit-making and personal recreation, concerns about wildlife habitat losses, and frequent contacts with federal agencies were positively related to landowner satisfaction levels. Better strategies addressing landowner’s environmental concerns, communicating technical knowledge, clarifying contract terms, and supporting financial resource leveraging will help reach the enrolled and non-enrolled landowners to increase their participation in conservation efforts.
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Rihn, Alicia L., Melinda J. Knuth, Bryan J. Peterson, Ariana P. Torres, Julie H. Campbell, Cheryl R. Boyer, Marco A. Palma, and Hayk Khachatryan. "Investigating Drivers of Native Plant Production in the United States Green Industry." Sustainability 14, no. 11 (June 1, 2022): 6774. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su14116774.
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Native plant use in United States (U.S.) ornamental landscapes is expected to increase in upcoming years. Various market, production, and economic factors may influence a nursery firm’s likelihood of growing and selling native plants. The objective of this study was to investigate production-related factors (e.g., integrated pest management (IPM) strategies, firm characteristics, and plant types sold) that impact commercial native plant sales in the U.S. The research questions included the following: (a) What production factors drive growers to produce native plants? (b) What production factors increase native plant sales? Insights on production-related factors that influence native plant production can be used to understand the decision-making process of native plant growers and encourage additional production of native plants to meet expected increases in demand. Data from the 2014 and 2019 Green Industry Research Consortium’s National Green Industry Survey were used to address this research objective. Green industry firms were categorized by their annual native plant sales, and an ordered probit model was used to assess differences in IPM strategies, firm characteristics, number of plant types grown, sales attributed to different plant types, and actions to address labor issues. In general, firms selling native plants participated in more IPM strategies, sold a more diverse array of plants, and used more sales avenues than non-native plant firms. IPM strategies varied by native plant sales, with firms generating higher native plant sales exhibiting a higher likelihood of removing infested plants, circulating air, managing irrigation, using beneficial insects, and planting pest resistant varieties as part of their IPM strategy than non-native plant firms. Annual native sales and paying higher wages were impacted by plant types sold. Understanding current production and business practices can help identify practices resulting in market success for native plants, the use of which can enhance sustainable landscapes by increasing biodiversity and ecosystem services.
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Haque, Md Ariful, Zifei Liu, Akinbile Demilade, and Nallapaneni Manoj Kumar. "Assessing the Environmental Footprint of Distiller-Dried Grains with Soluble Diet as a Substitute for Standard Corn–Soybean for Swine Production in the United States of America." Sustainability 14, no. 3 (January 20, 2022): 1161. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su14031161.
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The swine diet formulation in the United States of America (U.S.A.) is entering a new era of decision making to promote low-carbon pork production systems. As a part of the decision-making process, the precision nutrition approaches to customize diet and alternative feeding options that are economically viable and environmentally sustainable are given priority. Hence, the objective of this study is to identify an alternative diet over a standard corn–soybean meal diet. The byproducts from the supply chain of human food and biofuels, i.e., distiller-dried grain with solubles (DDGS), are chosen as an alternative option to formulate a swine diet. First, two alternative byproduct diets with low and high DDGS inclusion (10.1% and 28.8%, respectively) were formulated using the least-cost technique. Second, a life cycle inventory was created, followed by data collection from the key sources, including DATA SMART-2017, USDA, RIA-GREET 2018, and the relevant literature. Third, in SimaPro 8.5.2.0 (PRé Sustainability: LE Amersfoort, The Netherlands), the ReCiPe 2016, the midpoint method by economic allocation was used to investigate the environmental footprint of the formulated diets to inform sustainability decisions of swine-farm managers. The considered functional unit is the ‘lb diet’, and the system boundary is the farm gate that considers only the feed production stage. The observed results include global warming potential, land use, water consumption, fossil resources scarcity, and terrestrial ecotoxicity. The comparative results of a 28.8% DDGS diet over the standard corn–soybean meal diet for the displacement ratio of 0.69 show an approximate global warming potential saving of 0.04 kg CO2 eq. per lb DDGS feed at the feed production stage. Moreover, the DDGS displacement ratio of 0.69 does not significantly impact water consumption and fossil resources; however, it can reduce land use by 26% and terrestrial ecotoxicity by 8% compared to the standard diet. Overall, the quantified environmental footprint results of the byproduct DDGS diets indicate that the footprints of DDGS diets were lower than the standard diet.
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Chen, Qian, Eric Romich, Andrew Cruse, Andrea Gorzitze, Hongsen Shi, and Lingying Zhao. "SURVEYING THE EDGES: HOMEOWNERS' PERSPECTIVES ON RESIDENTIAL ENERGY EFFICIENCY AND RENEWABLE ENERGY IMPROVEMENTS IN OHIO." Journal of Green Building 14, no. 1 (January 2019): 111–30. http://dx.doi.org/10.3992/1943-4618.14.1.111.
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While energy costs, home size, and home age in Ohio fall into an average range for the United States as a whole, homes in Ohio are well below the average price, making homeowners particularly cost sensitive when considering investments on energy savings features. In addition, Ohio is the seventh largest emitter of carbon dioxide in the nation, suggesting that reducing energy use can have an outsized environmental impact. These not only pose a tremendous challenge but also an urgency to home energy conservation in Ohio. This study examines residential consumers' understanding of and attitudes toward various energy efficiency measures (EEMs) and renewable energy systems (RESs) through a questionnaire survey with a sample size of 519 Ohio homeowners. The survey results not only revealed Ohio homeowners' knowledge gap but also identified barriers to implementing these improvements. The findings can assist in developing high-quality, well-tailored education and outreach programs to help homeowners make informed energy saving decisions. They can also help guide local policy decisions and the development of effective initiatives or incentive programs. This study suggests that it is imperative to fill the knowledge gap among homeowners, educate them about reasonable expectations on return on investment, and increase their awareness of non-energy benefits that could be achieved through home energy efficiency and renewable energy improvements.
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Serfilippi, Elena, Daniele Giovannucci, David Ameyaw, Ankur Bansal, Thomas Asafua Nketsia Wobill, Roberta Blankson, and Rashi Mishra. "Benefits and Challenges of Making Data More Agile: A Review of Recent Key Approaches in Agriculture." Sustainability 14, no. 24 (December 9, 2022): 16480. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su142416480.
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Having reliable and timely or ongoing field data from development projects or supply chains is a perennial challenge for decision makers. This is especially true for those operating in rural areas where traditional data gathering and analysis approaches are costly and difficult to operate while typically requiring so much time that their findings are useful mostly as learning after the fact. A series of innovations that we refer to as Agile Data are opening new frontiers of timeliness, cost, and accuracy. They are leveraging a range of technological advances to do so. This paper explores the differences between traditional and agile approaches and offers insights into costs and benefits by drawing on recent field research in agriculture conducted by diverse institutions such as the World Bank (WB), World Food Program (WFP), United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and the Committee on Sustainability Assessment (COSA). The evidence collected in this paper about agile approaches—including those relying on internet and mobile-based data collection—contributes to define a contemporary dimension of data and analytics that can contribute to more optimal decision-making. Providing a theoretical, applied, and empirical foundation for the collection and use of Agile Data can offer a means to improve the management of development initiatives and deliver new value, as participants or beneficiaries are better informed and can better respond to a fast-changing world.
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Ha, Young-Kyou, and Su-Han Woo. "Transportation Infrastructure or Economic Power? Development of the Automobile Industry in the United States." Sustainability 14, no. 3 (January 31, 2022): 1649. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su14031649.
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The motive for the Korean automobile industry’s US investment is the easing of trade regulations and managing a stable supply chain by establishing local production. The Korean automobile industry has undergone major changes due to strong trade regulations since the beginning of the Trump administration and the COVID-19 pandemic. This has affected parts production, procurement, and automobile manufacturing and shaken the foundation of the automobile industry supply chain. The purpose of this study is to provide implications for additional investment decisions by analyzing the impact of the US industry and economy on the success of the automobile industry if Korean automobile companies advance into the US. This study conducted panel analysis by collecting 10 years of data to investigate the impact of economic, industrial, and infrastructure factors in each state on the success of the automobile industry. This study reflected the characteristics and investment motivation of the automobile industry. The study findings revealed that an export-oriented industrial area is suitable for strategic investment rather than a region where the economy is simply large or where all industries are developed. In addition, when making investment decisions, it is important to prioritize the internal capabilities of the company rather than external factors.
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Mobley, William, Kayode O. Atoba, and Wesley E. Highfield. "Uncertainty in Flood Mitigation Practices: Assessing the Economic Benefits of Property Acquisition and Elevation in Flood-Prone Communities." Sustainability 12, no. 5 (March 9, 2020): 2098. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su12052098.
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Adopting effective flood mitigation practices for repetitive flood events in the United States continues to play a prominent role in preventing future damage and fostering resilience to residential flooding. Two common mitigation practices for reducing residential flood risk consist of raising an existing structure to or above base flood elevation (BFE) and acquiring chronically damaged properties in flood prone areas and restoring them back to serve their natural functions as green open spaces. However, due to data accuracy limitations, decision makers are faced with the challenge of identifying the financially optimal approach to implementing mitigation measures. We address this problem through the following research questions: What does the optimal allocation of flood mitigation resources look like under data uncertainty, and what are the optimal methods to combining mitigation measures with consideration for the best economic benefits? Using a robust decision making (RDM) approach, the effects of uncertainty in property values, construction and demolition costs, and policy implementation options such as structure selection and budget allocation were measured. Our results indicate that the amount budgeted for mitigation and how those funds are allocated directly influence the selection of the most economically viable mitigation practices. Our research also contributes to the growing need for evaluating specific flood mitigation strategies.
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Herrick, Charles. "Self and Place Constructs in Climate Change Vulnerability Assessments: Gaps and Recommendations." Sustainability 13, no. 5 (March 9, 2021): 2990. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su13052990.
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In the United States, climate change vulnerability assessments are usually conceived as objectified exercises, based on theoretical orientations such as rational choice or systems theory. They adopt sectorial or population-level frames of reference and are operationalized by means of aggregating mathematical models, geospatial analytical platforms, and advanced visualization tools. While vulnerability assessments are intended to inform decision making, they often lack process-based mechanisms that enable them to be framed in terms of localized knowledge and perspectives. This is a weakness because occupant attitudes regarding places can spark unyieldingly negative reactions to expert-generated, objectivist vulnerability assessment processes and their outputs. In this paper, I attempt to demonstrate the salience of self and place constructs and explore the implications of their tendency to block serious reflection about the nature of potential vulnerabilities and risk management interventions. If acknowledged and addressed in a manner that is empathetic and context sensitive, it may be possible to channel these perspectives to elevate and deepen dialog about climate change and help to identify and compile circumstantially appropriate menus of adaptation policy interventions.
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Huang, Yee, Robert L. Glicksman, Catherine O’Neill, William L. Andreen, Victor Flatt, William Funk, Robin Kundis Craig, Alice Kaswan, and Robert R. M. Verchick. "Climate change and the Puget Sound: Building the legal framework for adaptation." Climate Law 2, no. 3 (2011): 299–344. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/cl-2011-039.
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Regardless of the efforts governments may take to mitigate the impacts of greenhouse gas emissions and other human activities on climate change, the need for society to adapt to climate change is unavoidable. Adapting to the myriad impacts of climate change will require actions at all levels of government. This article focuses on the anticipated impacts of climate change on the Puget Sound region in the northwestern United States as an example of the range of problems climate change will present and of the solutions available to governments and others interested in avoiding or minimizing the adverse impacts of climate change. As a guide for policy-makers, the article offers general principles for formulating climate change adaptation policies, suggestions for changes in decision-making processes that make them more suitable for addressing the unpredictable impacts of climate change, and strategies for adapting to three specific categories of climate change effects: impacts on the hydrologic cycle, sea-level rise, and altered meteorological conditions. The strategies and recommendations analysed in the article can provide a model for climate change adaptation policies, both in the Puget Sound region and more broadly, that are both environmentally protective and socially equitable.
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Jiang, Fengchang, John Awaitey, and Haiyan Xie. "Analysis of Construction Cost and Investment Planning Using Time Series Data." Sustainability 14, no. 3 (February 1, 2022): 1703. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su14031703.
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Construction costs and investment planning are the decisions made by construction managers and financial managers. Investment in construction materials, labor, and other miscellaneous should consider their huge costs. For these reasons, this research focused on analyzing construction costs from the point of adopting multivariate cost prediction models in predicting construction cost index (CCI) and other independent variables from September 2021 to December 2022. The United States was selected as the focal country for the study because of its size and influence. Specifically, we used the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software and R-programming applications to forecast the elected variables based on the literature review. These forecasted values were compared to the CCI using Pearson correlations to assess influencing factors. The results indicated that the ARIMA model is the best forecasting model since it has the highest model-fit correlation. Additionally, the number of building permits issued, the consumer price index, the amount of money supply in the country, the producer price index, and the import price index are the influencing factors of investments decisions in short to medium ranges. This result provides insights to managers and cost planners in determining the best model to adopt. The improved accuracies of the influencing factors will help to enhance the control, competitiveness, and capability of futuristic decision-making of the cost of materials and labor in the construction industry.
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Wang, Yufan, and Haili Zhang. "Achieving Sustainable New Product Development by Implementing Big Data-Embedded New Product Development Process." Sustainability 12, no. 11 (June 8, 2020): 4681. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su12114681.
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Literature suggests that new product development (NPD) has an impact on sustainable organizational performance. Yet, previous studies in NPD have mainly been based on “experience-driven”, not data-driven, decision-making in the NPD process. We develop a research model to examine how the big data-embedded NPD process affects the sustainable innovation performance of NPD projects. We test the proposed model and conduct the cross-national comparison using data collected on 1858 NPD projects in the United States of America (USA), the United Kingdom (UK), and Australia. The research findings suggest that big data-embedded business analysis, product design, and product testing increase sustainable innovation performance in all three countries. The study findings also reveal several surprising results: (1) in the USA, big data-embedded product testing has the highest effect on sales growth and gross margin, (2) in Australia, big data-embedded commercialization has the highest effect on sales growth and gross margin, and (3) in the UK, big data-embedded commercialization has the highest effect on second-year sales growth, first-year, and third-year gross margin; in addition, big data-embedded product testing has the highest effect on third-year sales growth and second-year gross margin.
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Perea-Moreno, Miguel-Angel, Esther Samerón-Manzano, and Alberto-Jesus Perea-Moreno. "Biomass as Renewable Energy: Worldwide Research Trends." Sustainability 11, no. 3 (February 7, 2019): 863. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su11030863.
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The world’s population continues to grow at a high rate, such that today’s population is twice that of 1960, and is projected to increase further to 9 billion by 2050. This situation has brought about a situation in which the percentage of the global energy used in cities is increasing considerably. Biomass is a resource that is present in a variety of different materials: wood, sawdust, straw, seed waste, manure, paper waste, household waste, wastewater, etc. Biomass resources have traditionally been used, and their use is becoming increasingly important due to their economic potential, as there are significant annual volumes of agricultural production, whose by-products can be used as a source of energy and are even being promoted as so-called energy crops, specifically for this purpose. The main objective of this work was to analyze the state of research and trends in biomass for renewable energy from 1978 to 2018 to help the research community understand the current situation and future trends, as well as the situation of countries in the international context, all of which provides basic information to facilitate decision-making by those responsible for scientific policy. The main countries that are investigating the subject of biomass as a renewable energy, as measured by scientific production, are the United States, followed by China, India, Germany and Italy. The most productive institutions in this field are the Chinese Academy of Sciences, followed by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Danmarks Tekniske Universitet and the Ministry of Education in China. This study also identifies communities based on the keywords of the publications obtained from a bibliographic search. Six communities or clusters were found. The two most important are focused on obtaining liquid fuels from biomass. Finally, based on the collaboration between countries and biomass research, eight clusters were observed. All this is centered on three countries belonging to different clusters: USA, India and the UK.
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Khan, Shabeer, Niaz Ahmed Bhutto, Uzair Abdullah Khan, Mohd Ziaur Rehman, Wadi B. Alonazi, and Abdullah Ludeen. "Ṣukūk or Bond, Which Is More Sustainable during COVID-19? Global Evidence from the Wavelet Coherence Model." Sustainability 14, no. 17 (August 24, 2022): 10541. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su141710541.
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Understanding the co-movement and lag–lead relations among indices is integral to financial decision making. These parameters show the reactiveness of the market towards new information. Understanding them helps to minimize risk and facilitates optimal portfolio diversification. By employing the wavelet coherence econometric model, the authors of this study analyzed the intricate relations among the Bond and Ṣukūk indices using global data belonging to the United States (US), the United Kingdom (UK), Middle East and North Africa (MENA), and Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. The findings indicated the presence of strong but similar implications of the initial shock of COVID-19 deaths on both Islamic and conventional markets’ volatilities, especially in long-term investment bands (64–128 days). The results oppose the general belief that Islamic finance is more sustainable and less volatile to crises than its traditional counterparts. Moreover, the authors of this study report diverse relationships among bond and Ṣukūk indices throughout the sample periods. We consistently found low correlations in short-term investment bands (4–16), leading to optimal diversification opportunities. However, high correlations were reported due to COVID-19 in the long-term investment bands (128–256), leading to low diversification opportunities for long-term investors.
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Li, Fujia, Kexin Guo, and Xiaoyong Liao. "Risk Assessment of China Rapeseed Supply Chain and Policy Suggestions." International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 20, no. 1 (December 27, 2022): 465. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20010465.
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Rapeseed, as the most important oil crop in the world, not only affects national food security but also affects energy security and environmental security. It is very important to conduct a risk assessment of China’s rapeseed supply chain and put forward suggestions to construct a safe, effective, and accessible supply chain. In order to accurately evaluate the safety of the rapeseed supply chain from 2010 to 2020, we applied fuzzy multiconnection theory and analytic hierarchy process model (AHP). A comprehensive risk assessment model for the rapeseed supply chain with two primary indicators and 10 secondary indicators was constructed. By establishing the rapeseed risk evaluation model, we quantitatively analyzed the risk of China’s rapeseed supply chain. The domestic risk of production is still high, and the international risk under the high import dependence is alarming. We put forward risk prevention and countermeasures for China’s rapeseed supply chain. The results show that China has a large demand for rapeseed products, but the increase in China production is limited and the import from other countries is unstable. The proposed suggestions are designed to optimize and enhance the stability of the rapeseed product’s supply chain. It is recommended to continue to consolidate and deepen the cooperation with traditional trading partners such as Germany, Spain, the United States, and Brazil; expand other import sources to build a more diversified and efficient rapeseed product import network and extend the supply chain of rapeseed products. This research can be a basis for making decisions for promoting the sustainable and efficient development of the rapeseed supply chain.
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Ghahramani, Ladan, Katelin McArdle, and Sandra Fatorić. "Minority Community Resilience and Cultural Heritage Preservation: A Case Study of the Gullah Geechee Community." Sustainability 12, no. 6 (March 13, 2020): 2266. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su12062266.
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The Gullah Geechee community of the south-eastern United States endures today as a minority group with a significant cultural heritage. However, little research has been conducted to explore this community’s resilience in the face of climate change and other environmental impacts. The database Web of Science was searched and 109 publications on the Gullah Geechee community were identified. Using quantitative and qualitative methods, we analyzed the publications to identify patterns and primary research themes related to the Gullah Geechee community’s resilience. Findings revealed that Gullah Geechee‘s cultural heritage is vulnerable to climatic and societal changes, but can also be a source for enhancing community resilience and promoting more sustainable community-led heritage and tourism developments. A framework is proposed for building community resilience in the context of minority and/or marginalized communities (e.g., Gullah Geechee). This study highlights the urgent need to not only better understand and incorporate a community’s economic dimensions and losses in various decision- and policy-making processes but also their cultural and social dimensions and losses. This systematic analysis can help inform both heritage preservation and community-led tourism practices and policies related to the Gullah Geechee community, as well as help direct new research efforts focusing on minority and/or marginalized community resilience.
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Castro, Cyndi V., and Hanadi S. Rifai. "Development and Assessment of a Web-Based National Spatial Data Infrastructure for Nature-Based Solutions and Their Social, Hydrological, Ecological, and Environmental Co-Benefits." Sustainability 13, no. 19 (October 4, 2021): 11018. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su131911018.
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Comprehensive datasets for nature-based solutions (NBS), and their diverse relationships have not yet been accumulated into a deployable format. This research describes the development of a novel National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) system for NBS co-benefits throughout the contiguous United States. Here, we gather and integrate robust geospatial datasets from the social, ecological, environmental, and hydrologic domains using seamless, cloud-based data services to facilitate the trans-disciplinary assessment of NBSs as a function of society and Earth. This research enhances practical decision making and research by assimilating web-based datasets and describing the missing links between national policy and robust adoption of NBSs as a sustainability solution. This NSDI serves to foster participatory planning capabilities and integrate local sustainability goals into decision–support frameworks. Such a platform strengthens the knowledge base necessary for addressing multiple, co-evolving issues of societal relevance, an essential component of fully espousing NBSs within the realm of socio-technological systems and improving policies and implementation regarding sustainable solutions. The efficacy of the proposed platform to serve as a holistic data information system is assessed by exploring important characteristics associated with geospatial NSDI tools, namely, openness, spatial functionality, scalability, and standardization. By placing GIS strengths and weaknesses in the context of transdisciplinary NBSs, we reveal strategic directions toward further co-production of such NSDIs. We conclude with recommendations for facilitating a shared vision of transdisciplinary technologies to strengthen the amalgamation of broad co-benefits and multi-disciplinary influences in sustainability planning.
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Stanujkic, Dragisa, Gabrijela Popovic, Edmundas Kazimieras Zavadskas, Darjan Karabasevic, and Arune Binkyte-Veliene. "Assessment of Progress towards Achieving Sustainable Development Goals of the “Agenda 2030” by Using the CoCoSo and the Shannon Entropy Methods: The Case of the EU Countries." Sustainability 12, no. 14 (July 16, 2020): 5717. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su12145717.
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The United Nations Member States adopted the “Agenda 2030” which contains 17 sustainable development goals (SDG) that involve a certain number of targets and indicators. Although the indicators are helpful in defining the position of the current country relative to the goals’ achievement, it is very complex to determine its position relative to other countries, because this requires an extensive analysis. Therefore, in this paper, the application of the multiple-criteria decision-making approach (MCDM) in defining the position of the EU (Europe Union) countries relative to the SDGs is proposed. The MCDM model is based on the Combined Compromise Solution (CoCoSo) and the Shannon Entropy methods. The final results highlight Sweden as the country that best implemented the set SD goals and has the best outputs relative to them, while Romania is in last place. The main reason for these kinds of results could be that the countries on the bottom of the list are relatively new EU members and have not been made to properly implement SDGs yet. The conclusion is that the obtained results are fully objective and rational, and that the applied model is applicable for performing this kind of analysis.
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Kim, Jeonghun, and Ohbyung Kwon. "A Model for Rapid Selection and COVID-19 Prediction with Dynamic and Imbalanced Data." Sustainability 13, no. 6 (March 11, 2021): 3099. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su13063099.
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The COVID-19 pandemic is threatening our quality of life and economic sustainability. The rapid spread of COVID-19 around the world requires each country or region to establish appropriate anti-proliferation policies in a timely manner. It is important, in making COVID-19-related health policy decisions, to predict the number of confirmed COVID-19 patients as accurately and quickly as possible. Predictions are already being made using several traditional models such as the susceptible, infected, and recovered (SIR) and susceptible, exposed, infected, and resistant (SEIR) frameworks, but these predictions may not be accurate due to the simplicity of the models, so a prediction model with more diverse input features is needed. However, it is difficult to propose a universal predictive model globally because there are differences in data availability by country and region. Moreover, the training data for predicting confirmed patients is typically an imbalanced dataset consisting mostly of normal data; this imbalance negatively affects the accuracy of prediction. Hence, the purposes of this study are to extract rules for selecting appropriate prediction algorithms and data imbalance resolution methods according to the characteristics of the datasets available for each country or region, and to predict the number of COVID-19 patients based on these algorithms. To this end, a decision tree-type rule was extracted to identify 13 data characteristics and a discrimination algorithm was selected based on those characteristics. With this system, we predicted the COVID-19 situation in four regions: Africa, China, Korea, and the United States. The proposed method has higher prediction accuracy than the random selection method, the ensemble method, or the greedy method of discriminant analysis, and prediction takes very little time.
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Bafail, Omer. "A DEMATEL Framework for Modeling Cause-and-Effect Relationships of Inbound Contamination in Single-Stream Recycling Programs." Sustainability 14, no. 17 (August 31, 2022): 10884. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su141710884.
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Material Recovery Facilities (MRFs) are the foundation of United States recycling programs. MRFs collect recyclable materials from end users for export to be processed abroad or to sell to mills for further refinement and reuse. The most popular type of recycling collection in the United States is Single-Stream Recycling (SSR). Numerous studies have validated the program’s popularity and consumer acceptance. In contrast to other recycling plans, SSR’s favored status rests on its minimal consumer burden, which requires only a cursory identification of potentially recyclable materials for placement in a single container separate from other waste. Researchers have also found that collecting SSR materials requires less staff and cheaper collection vehicles. While SSR generates greater end-user acceptance than other recycling collection programs, SSR differs markedly in terms of higher inbound contamination rates and quality of recovered recycling materials. Single-stream collection increases cross-contamination through mixing recyclable and non-recyclable materials in a single container. High contamination rates lower the quality of incoming recyclables and increase overall MRF operating costs due to additional sorting time and related staffing costs. This paper aims to analyze the causes of high inbound contamination in SSR using Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) techniques to support deeper analysis of the relative importance of three factors that scholars have identified as being related to SSR inbound contamination of MRFs. Based on the results obtained, the absence of awareness campaigns is one of the crucial factors increasing inbound contamination due to the inefficiency of the SSR system in separating unrecyclable from recyclable materials; therefore, the sorting equipment at MRFs requires further improvement. Focused analysis of causal inbound contamination factors may assist in furthering efforts to reduce SSR contamination.
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Kwon, Hyun Joo, and Mira Ahn. "Boomers’ Intention to Choose Healthy Housing Materials: An Application of the Health Belief Model." Sustainability 11, no. 18 (September 6, 2019): 4869. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su11184869.
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This study aims to understand the decision-making process of healthy housing material selection of boomers who were born between 1946 and 1964 in the United States within the Health Belief Model (HBM) framework incorporating personal factors. The main constructs were three HBM components (perceived benefits, threats, and barriers), personal domains (knowledge, health concerns, and sensitivity to housing materials), and behavioral intention to choose healthy housing materials. With a nationwide random sample of boomers living in their homes (N = 306), path analysis was used to test the proposed research model. The findings indicate that behavioral intention to choose healthy housing materials is influenced by perceived benefits and threats. Of the personal factors, the knowledge component is directly and indirectly significantly associated with the behavioral intention. Insignificant association of perceived barriers and other personal components (health concerns and sensitivity) to the intention and the HBM components yield meaningful implications and discussions. The contribution of the HBM application to this study is to provide a foundation for understanding healthy housing material choosing behaviors for the general prevention of potential health issue purposes rather than actual maintenance. This paper discusses the significance of breadth and reliability of knowledge and the role of the relevant professionals to provide and communicate this knowledge.
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Brookbanks, Warren J. "Sexual Predators, Extended Supervision, and Preventive Social Control: Risk Management Under the Spotlight." International Journal of Mental Health and Capacity Law 1, no. 15 (September 5, 2014): 97. http://dx.doi.org/10.19164/ijmhcl.v1i15.204.
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<p align="LEFT">The purpose of this article is to assess the legitimacy of the preventive detention model represented by New Zealand's Parole (Extended Supervision) Amendment Act 2004 in light of the legislative response to sex offenders in other jurisdictions, notably the United States and England. It is argued that the growing legislative practice of imposing administrative detention post-sentence represents a dangerous trend in criminal justice and disguises a largely undeclared agenda to isolate and demonise sex offenders as a class. It also has implications for other offender groups who may be targeted because the particular class is perceived as presenting a particular type of risk. Since the empowering legislation is often passed in haste and without due consideration of its long term impacts, it bears the hallmarks of a pre-reflective, “at least we’re doing something,” response to the problem of sex offending. It also provides a context for pretextual and sanist judicial values to operate, permitting distorted and illinformed judicial decision-making, particularly where judges’ thinking is infected by populist punitive approaches. Invariably, such legislation and the policy surrounding it, fails completely to address fundamental causal patterns underlying sex offending phenomena.</p><p align="LEFT">It is suggested that in order to address these phenomena squarely, it will be necessary to abandon the current tendency towards isolating sex offenders and refocus our energy on traditional responses of retribution, reform and rehabilitation within conventional principles of criminal process.</p>
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Nam, Kiju, Mi-Jeong Cho, and Myeong-Hun Lee. "An Analysis of the Importance of Local Support Factors of the Development of Integrated Resorts." Sustainability 12, no. 2 (January 15, 2020): 633. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su12020633.
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The casino-based integrated resort (IR), which started in Las Vegas in the United States, has moved to Asia and successfully opened Macau’s IR and Singapore’s Marina Bay Sands. As of 2019, three IRs, Inspire, Paradise City, and Midan City, are being constructed in Yeongjongdo Island and, among them, Paradise City is currently in operation after completing its first stage of development. Although the planned creation of three integrated resorts on Yeongjongdo Island was accompanied by the government’s policy support and legal support, the support of the local residents for the IR development projects can have a different effect from that of other areas. For the development of integrated resorts, not only the policy and legal support but also the local support is an important factor. So, this study was conducted focusing on which part of the integrated resort development project should be considered important to get sufficient local support. The results of this study showed that the resort operators and local residents have different opinions on the importance of local support factors. The so-called integrated resort experts considered the environmental and socio-cultural factors important, while the local residents considered factors such as the establishment and completion of the development plan as well as the sustainability as the most important factors. It is expected that this study will contribute to the formation of trust in the relevant policies by disclosing the contents of the implementation and system improvement of IR development projects and providing participation opportunities for residents in the process. This study will be also able to provide objective guidance in decision-making to policymakers who plan the development of such integrated resorts by identifying the factors important to elicit support from the local residents in advance, as well as to public or private developers who want to proceed with IR development projects.
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Xu, Zhaocheng, and Jingchuan Hou. "Effects of CEO Overseas Experience on Corporate Social Responsibility: Evidence from Chinese Manufacturing Listed Companies." Sustainability 13, no. 10 (May 11, 2021): 5335. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su13105335.
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With increasing economic globalization, CEOs with overseas study or work experience play a crucial role in corporate strategic decision making, especially in emerging economies. Using Chinese manufacturing companies publicly listed on the Shanghai or Shenzhen Stock Exchanges, we explore the influence of CEO overseas experience on corporate social responsibility (CSR), based on the upper echelons theory and behavioral theory of the firm. We find that CEOs with overseas experience have a stronger CSR thinking concept and are more inclined to fulfill CSR than CEOs without overseas experience. We also analyze the effects of the organization’s external environment (market competition intensity) and internal resources (organizational slack resources) on this relationship, and find that all of these factors can strengthen the relationship. We find that the effect of CEO overseas study experience is stronger than that of overseas work experience; CEOs with overseas experience from developed countries such as Europe and the United States have a stronger effect on CSR; CEO overseas experience leads to better performance in state-owned enterprises; but when the CEO is also the chairman of the board, the effect of CEO overseas experience on CSR is weaker; female CEOs’ overseas experience has a stronger positive effect on CSR than male CEOs’; and the effect of CEO overseas experience on CSR is greater when the CEO is highly educated.
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Lu, Yi, Ying Qian, Huayan Huangfu, Shuguang Zhang, and Shan Fu. "Ensuring the Safety Sustainability of Large UAS: Learning from the Maintenance Risk Dynamics of USAF MQ-1 Predator Fleet in Last Two Decades." Sustainability 11, no. 4 (February 21, 2019): 1129. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su11041129.
Full textAbstract:
The mishap statistics of large military unmanned aerial systems (UAS) reveal that human errors and organizational flaws pose great threats to their operation safety, especially considering the future application of derived civilian types. Moreover, maintenance accidents due to human factors have reached a significant level, but have received little attention in the existing research. To ensure the safety and sustainability of large UAS, we propose a system dynamics approach to model the maintenance risk mechanisms involving organizational, human, and technical factors, which made a breakthrough in the traditional event-chain static analysis method. Using the United States Air Force (USAF) MQ-1 Predator fleet case, the derived time-domain simulation represented the risk evolution process of the past two decades and verified the rationality of the proposed model. It was identified that the effects of maintainer human factors on the accident rate exceeded those of the technical systems in a long-term view, even though the technical reliability improvements had obvious initial effects on risk reduction. The characteristics of maintainer errors should be considered in system and maintenance procedure design to prevent them in a proactive way. It is also shown that the approach-derived SD model can be developed into a semi-quantitative decision-making support tool for improving the safety of large UAS in a risk-based view of airworthiness.
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Bridgelall, Raj. "Reducing Risks by Transporting Dangerous Cargo in Drones." Sustainability 14, no. 20 (October 12, 2022): 13044. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su142013044.
Full textAbstract:
The transportation of dangerous goods by truck or railway multiplies the risk of harm to people and the environment when accidents occur. Many manufacturers are developing autonomous drones that can fly heavy cargo and safely integrate into the national air space. Those developments present an opportunity to not only diminish risk but also to decrease cost and ground traffic congestion by moving certain types of dangerous cargo by air. This work identified a minimal set of metropolitan areas where initial cargo drone deployments would be the most impactful in demonstrating the safety, efficiency, and environmental benefits of this technology. The contribution is a new hybrid data mining workflow that combines unsupervised machine learning (UML) and geospatial information system (GIS) techniques to inform managerial or investment decision making. The data mining and UML techniques transformed comprehensive origin–destination records of more than 40 commodity category movements to identify a minimal set of metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) with the greatest demand for transporting dangerous goods. The GIS part of the workflow determined the geodesic distances between and within all pairwise combinations of MSAs in the continental United States. The case study of applying the workflow to a commodity category of dangerous goods revealed that cargo drone deployments in only nine MSAs in four U.S. states can transport 38% of those commodities within 400 miles. The analysis concludes that future cargo drone technology has the potential to replace the equivalent of 4.7 million North American semitrailer trucks that currently move dangerous cargo through populated communities.
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McKenzie, Sean, Hilary Parkinson, Jane Mangold, Mary Burrows, Selena Ahmed, and Fabian Menalled. "Perceptions, Experiences, and Priorities Supporting Agroecosystem Management Decisions Differ among Agricultural Producers, Consultants, and Researchers." Sustainability 10, no. 11 (November 8, 2018): 4096. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su10114096.
Full textAbstract:
The sustainability of agriculture depends as much on the natural resources required for production as it does on the stakeholders that manage those resources. It is thus essential to understand the variables that influence the decision-making process of agricultural stakeholders to design educational programs, interventions, and policies geared towards their specific needs, a required step to enhance agricultural sustainability. This study employed a survey of multiple-choice and open-ended questions to examine the perceptions, experiences, and priorities that influence management decisions of agricultural stakeholders across Montana, United States. A total of 272 respondents completed a survey, representing five distinct agricultural stakeholder groups: 103 (34.9%) conventional producers, 78 (28.7%) consultants, 37 (13.6%) researchers, 33 (12.1%) organic grain producers, and 21 (7.7%) organic vegetable producers. The results revealed that, while stakeholder groups have distinct perceptions, experiences, and priorities, there were similarities across groups (pseudo-F = 22.92, p = 0.001). Specifically, organic vegetable and organic small-grain producers showed similar responses that were, in turn, divergent from those of conventional producers, researchers, and crop consultants. Conventional small-grain producers and researchers showed overlapping response patterns, while crop consultants formed an isolated group. Six clusters resulting from the classification of the multiple-choice response dataset associated with specific agricultural professions (χ2 = 549.72, p = 0.001). The classification of open-ended questions that assessed agronomic challenges and research needs resulted in six distinctive clusters, with specific associations between clusters and agricultural stakeholder groups (χ2 = 164.41, p = 0.001). These results reinforce the need for agricultural education and programs that address unique and shared experiences, priorities, and concerns of multiple stakeholder groups. This study endorses the call for a paradigm shift from the traditional top-down agricultural extension model to one that accounts for participants’ socio-ecological contexts to facilitate the adoption of sustainable agricultural systems that support environmental and human wellbeing.
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Kukal, Meetpal S., Suat Irmak, and Kiran Sharma. "Development and Application of a Performance and Operational Feasibility Guide to Facilitate Adoption of Soil Moisture Sensors." Sustainability 12, no. 1 (December 31, 2019): 321. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su12010321.
Full textAbstract:
Soil moisture sensors can be effective and promising decision-making tools for diverse applications and audiences, including agricultural managers, irrigation practitioners, and researchers. Nevertheless, there exists immense adoption potential in the United States, with only 1.2 in 10 farms nationally using soil moisture sensors to decide when to irrigate. This number is much lower in the global scale. Increased adoption is likely hindered by lack of scientific support in need assessment, selection, suitability and use of these sensors. Here, through extensive field research, we address the operational feasibility of soil moisture sensors, an aspect which has been overlooked in the past, and integrate it with their performance accuracy, in order to develop a quantitative framework to guide users in the selection of best-suited sensors for varying applications. These evaluations were conducted for nine commercially available sensors under silt loam and loamy sand soils in irrigated cropland and rainfed grassland for two different installation orientations [sensing component parallel (horizontal) and perpendicular (vertical) to the ground surface] typically used. All the sensors were assessed for their aptness in terms of cost, ease of operation, convenience of telemetry, and performance accuracy. Best sensors under each soil condition, sensor orientation, and user applications (research versus agricultural production) were identified. The step-by-step guide presented here will serve as an unprecedented and holistic adoption-assisting resource and can be extended to other sensors as well.
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Pyka, Irena, and Aleksandra Nocoń. "Banks’ Capital Requirements in Terms of Implementation of the Concept of Sustainable Finance." Sustainability 13, no. 6 (March 22, 2021): 3499. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su13063499.
Full textAbstract:
In 2015, the governments of 193 United Nations member states adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, followed by the Paris Agreement. Their detailed solutions assume the inclusion of the concept of sustainable finance into investment decision-making processes, including directing capital towards sustainable investments and stopping climate change. The main subject of the study is sustainable finance, which is one of the pillars of the sustainable development of the global economy, which has also become an important objective of the European Union, enshrined in the Treaty of Lisbon. The main aim of the paper is an extrapolation of risks appearing in the unstable environment of credit institutions, which are increasingly boldly directing their expectations on their inclusion in the sustainable finance concept implementation. The empirical research included in the first stage a questionnaire survey, while in the second one, a quantitative comparative analysis. The research was aimed at verifying the research hypothesis stating that after the global financial crisis, banks meet the new prudential capital regulations, however by their inclusion in the concept of green finance, they will increase a share of mitigation in the bank risk management strategy. The research, carried out in the Polish banking sector, has shown that domestic banks meet all prudential requirements resulting from the new capital norms. However, investment strategies, based on the composition of the portfolio in accordance with the principles of sustainable finance and on high rates of return in the long term, will change banks’ resilience to key risks from the perspective of sustainable development.
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Sehgal, Vinit, Venkataramana Sridhar, Luke Juran, and Jactone Arogo Ogejo. "Integrating Climate Forecasts with the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) for High-Resolution Hydrologic Simulations and Forecasts in the Southeastern U.S." Sustainability 10, no. 9 (August 29, 2018): 3079. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su10093079.
Full textAbstract:
This study provides high-resolution modeling of daily water budget components at Hydrologic Unit Code (HUC)-12 resolution for 50 watersheds of the South Atlantic Gulf (SAG) region in the southeastern U.S. (SEUS) by implementing the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model in the form of a near real-time, semi-automated framework. A near real-time hydrologic simulation framework is implemented with a lead time of nine months (March–December 2017) by integrating the calibrated SWAT model with National Centers for Environmental Prediction coupled forecast system model version 2 (CFSv2) weather data to forecast daily water balance components. The modeling exercise is conducted as a precursor for various future hydrologic studies (retrospective or forecasting) for the region by providing a calibrated hydrological dataset at high spatial (HUC-12) and temporal (1-day) resolution. The models are calibrated (January 2003–December 2010) and validated (January 2011–December 2013) for each watershed using the observed streamflow data from 50 United States Geological Survey (USGS) gauging stations. The water balance analysis for the region shows that the implemented models satisfactorily represent the hydrology of the region across different sub-regions (Appalachian highlands, plains, and coastal wetlands) and seasons. While CFSv2-driven SWAT models are able to provide reasonable performance in near real-time and can be used for decision making in the region, caution is advised for using model outputs as the streamflow forecasts display significant deviation from observed streamflow for all watersheds for lead times greater than a month.