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Recently, the European Commission identified the goal to achieve a double transition—ecological and digital—as one of the greatest challenges on the areas of the planet across various sectors of the society [...]

The Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (Jingjinji) region is the most densely populated region in China and suffers from severe water resource shortage, with considerable water-related issues emerging under a changing context such as construction of water diversion projects (WDP), regional synergistic development, and climate change. To this end, this paper develops a framework to examine the water resource security for 200 counties in the Jingjinji region under these changes. Thus, county-level water resource security is assessed in terms of the long-term annual mean and selected typical years (i.e., dry, normal, and wet years), with and without the WDP, and under the current and projected future (i.e., regional synergistic development and climate change). The outcomes of such scenarios are assessed based on two water-crowding indicators, two use-to-availability indicators, and one composite indicator. Results indicate first that the water resources are distributed unevenly, relatively more abundant in the northeastern counties and extremely limited in the other counties. The water resources are very limited at the regional level, with the water availability per capita and per unit gross domestic product (GDP) being only 279/290 m3 and 46/18 m3 in the current and projected future scenarios, respectively, even when considering the WDP. Second, the population carrying capacity is currently the dominant influence, while economic development will be the controlling factor in the future for most middle and southern counties. This suggests that significant improvement in water-saving technologies, vigorous replacement of industries from high to low water consumption, as well as water from other supplies for large-scale applications are greatly needed. Third, the research identifies those counties most at risk to water scarcity and shows that most of them can be greatly relieved after supplementation by the planned WDP. Finally, more attention should be paid to the southern counties because their water resources are not only limited but also much more sensitive and vulnerable to climate change. This work should benefit water resource management and allocation decisions in the Jingjinji region, and the proposed assessment framework can be applied to other similar problems.

This research focuses on the evolution of the largest iceberg A68 and analyzes the trajectory using Sentinel-1 SAR data. The monitoring began when A68 calved Larsen C Ice shelf on 12 July 2017, and ended on 1 February 2021. A total of 47 images were analyzed and studied to ascertain the changes in the area, trajectory and the factors that might have influenced said changes. The big size of the iceberg caught the scientific community’s attention when it started moving towards South Georgia Island, a habitat of penguins and seals. The pattern of decrease and increase in the iceberg’s size was analyzed and compared with the surrounding sea ice extent to account for longitudinal stretching and shrinkage. Iceberg’s trajectory was also studied to take into account the underlying seabed and ice rises, and their implication on A68’s maneuverability, giving rise to unique motions in the coastal regime. Two subsequent calving events in the iceberg were distinctly observed in March 2019 and April 2020. Since its inception up to December 2019, its drift was fairly gradual, with the pick up in pace observed upon its entry into open waters and departure from the peninsular region. The decrease in size was also fairly gradual with only two main calving events, as mentioned above. The cold water and sea ice surrounding the iceberg potentially helped maintain a steady state. Post its sojourn into the Southern Ocean, major calving began in December 2020 and continued through January 2021. This study explores the potential of SAR remote sensing in iceberg monitoring and tracking.

The main purpose of this scoping literature review is to map empirical research concerning the satisfaction of road race participants, as well as what leads to their return and how events should be promoted and managed. The search was made on EBSCO, Academic Search Complete, Business Source Complete, Web of Science online database for studies between 2000 and 2020 using the following as keywords: “road race”, “marathon”, “running event”, “running”, “satisfaction”, “event loyalty”, “consumer behaviour”, “marketing”, and “communication”. After applying the inclusion criteria, 32 studies were selected. The descriptive analysis showed that satisfaction with the event depends on the quality of service provided, the image of the event, satisfaction with personal performance, perceived economic value, and disconfirmation of expectation, while the intention to revisit is largely affected by satisfaction with the event in different populations. In addition, various market segmentations are obtained according to the age and the gender, as well as important management and marketing information. The conclusions of this review can contribute to a better management and organization of road racing events around the world.

The adoption of circularity indicators in the electrical and electronic sector is understood to play a critical role in organisational decision making during the transition from a linear to a circular economy. Yet, it is widely recognised that there is no standardised method of measuring circularity performance. Additionally, the extent of literature uncovers a range of shortcomings of existing cross-sector circularity indicators, including a predominant focus on end-of-life, limited coverage of social measurements, a lack of sector specificity and limited capture of product functionality, durability or sharing. Furthermore, the current electrical and electronic sector-specific circularity indicators focus greatly on repair and recycling, failing to acknowledge the significant impact on circularity of the design and manufacturing, distribution and use phases. Therefore, this research set out to answer how electrical and electronic manufacturers can measure the circular economy performance of their products by developing and testing multidimensional circularity indicators for all products’ life cycle stages. To achieve this, a two-fold qualitative approach was adopted. Firstly, a stakeholders’ workshop aiming to generate, categorise and rate novel circularity indicators was held. Secondly, a focus group piloted the resulting workshop’s circularity indicators. The findings highlight key factors that influence circularity indicators’ applicability to electrical and electronic products, including product function, service arrangement, and customer type. The research has implications for electrical and electronic organisations seeking pathways to the circular economy by understanding, assessing, and measuring the circularity of their products.

This work investigates Industry 4.0 technologies by developing a new key performance indicator that can determine the energy consumption of machine tools for a more sustainable supply chain. To achieve this, we integrated the machine tool indicator into a cyber–physical system for easy and real-time capturing of data. We also developed software that can turn these data into relevant information (using Python): Using this software, we were able to view machine tool activities and energy consumption in real time, which allowed us to determine the activities with greater energy burdens. As such, we were able to improve the application of Industry 4.0 in machine tools by allowing informed real-time decisions that can reduce energy consumption. In this research, a new Key Performance Indicator (KPI) was been developed and calculated in real time. This KPI can be monitored, can measure the sustainability of machining processes in a green supply chain (GSC) using Nakajima’s six big losses from the perspective of energy consumption, and is able to detect what the biggest energy loss is. This research was implemented in a cyber–physical system typical of Industry 4.0 to demonstrate its applicability in real processes. Other productivity KPIs were implemented in order to compare efficiency and sustainability, highlighting the importance of paying attention to both terms at the same time, given that the improvement of one does not imply the improvement of the other, as our results show.