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This study focuses on highlighting the major effects and challenges being faced in the implementation of the green roof technique in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Green roofs have proven to be energy efficient, environment friendly, and economical in a long run. Due to the increasing global environment temperature, it has become necessary to implement such sustainable methods that help in the achievement of urban sustainability. Saudi Arabia has seen some reluctance in the implementation of green roofs in buildings. The reasons for not adopting this system have not been reported as yet. To study the level of awareness among the public and the challenges they are facing regarding green roofs, this study was taken up. A survey questionnaire was designed with a high level of flexibility covering the key issues, including the related areas that are affected in the daily life of a resident and also the challenges faced by the general public in the installation of such systems in their existing or new buildings. An extensive literature review and a reconnaissance survey were performed before shortlisting the major factors and challenges to be included in the survey questionnaire. An overwhelming response was received from the people of Riyadh City. Almost 94% of people agreed to the fact that green roofs enhance the aesthetics of the building, and the same number of people agreed that they play a role in controlling the air quality. On the other hand, 91% of the respondents identified the climate of the area as the biggest challenge in implementing green roofs on the buildings. The study concludes with strong recommendations for the local authorities to plan quick actions. The study shall help the building owners, city planners, and policy makers in identifying the major hurdles being faced by the residents in adopting green roofs and will help them to provide solutions to these issues.

In the current scenario, climatic adversities and a growing population are adding woes to the concerns of food safety and security. Furthermore, with the implementation of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 12 by the United Nations (UN), focusing on sustainable production–consumption, climatic vulnerabilities need to be addressed. Hence, in order to map the sustainable production–consumption avenues, agricultural practices need to be investigated for practices like Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA). A need has arisen to align the existing agricultural practices in the developing nation towards the avenues of CSA, in order to counter the abrupt climatic changes. Addressing the same, a relation hierarchical model is developed which clusters the various governing criteria and their allied attributes dedicated towards the adoption of CSA practices. Furthermore, the developed model is contemplated for securing the primacies of promising practices for the enactment of CSA using the duo of the Analytical Hierarchical Process (AHP) and Fuzzy AHP (FAHP). The outcomes result in the substantial sequencing of the key attributes acting as a roadmap toward the CSA. This emphasizes the adoption of knowledge-based smart practices, which leaps from the current agricultural practices toward the CSA. Furthermore, by intensifying the utilization of the improved and resilient seed varieties and implying the fundamentals of agroforestry, we secure primacy to counter the adversities of the climate.

When building homes, sustainability principles should be followed throughout the process to achieve maximum advantages. Building information modeling (BIM) activities can aid in achieving sustainable goals. Third-world countries’ building industry implements informal approaches to information dissemination through email newsletters and websites. This research seeks to provide a model for the application of BIM and its relationship with overall sustainable success (OSS) in building projects. BIM activities were identified from the literature, and a survey form was distributed to 180 professionals in the Egyptian construction industry. Partial Least Squares-Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to establish the structure of BIM activities and assess their correlation with project success, revealing BIM accounts for 30% of sustainability. The study’s findings inform decision-making to improve project sustainability and reduce costs by introducing BIM to developing countries’ construction industries.

This study presents a multi-objective optimization approach for designing hybrid renewable energy systems for electric vehicle (EV) charging stations that considers both economic and reliability factors as well as seasonal variations in energy production and consumption. Four algorithms, MOPSO, NSGA-II, NSGA-III, and MOEA/D, were evaluated in terms of their convergence, diversity, efficiency, and robustness. Unlike previous studies that focused on single-objective optimization or ignored seasonal variations, our approach results in a more comprehensive and sustainable design for EV charging systems. The proposed system includes a 223-kW photovoltaic system, an 80-kW wind turbine, and seven Lithium-Ion battery banks, achieving a total net present cost of USD 564,846, a levelized cost of electricity of 0.2521 USD/kWh, and a loss of power supply probability of 1.21%. NSGA-II outperforms the other algorithms in terms of convergence and diversity, while NSGA-III is the most efficient, and MOEA/D has the highest robustness. The findings contribute to the development of efficient and reliable renewable energy systems for urban areas, emphasizing the importance of considering both economic and reliability factors in the design process. Our study represents a significant advance in the field of hybrid renewable energy systems for EV charging stations.

Sustainable water resources management assessment frameworks (SWRM-AF) with associated indicators and benchmarks have appeared widely during the last decades to improve or maintain water resources. Examination or evaluation of their appropriateness and refinement for particular arid and semi-arid regions is a relatively unexplored area. To fill this gap in knowledge, a systematic review of relevant 21st century studies identified within two extensive databases, Scopus and Engineering Village, and in grey literature, is undertaken in this study. Therein, 17 studies are identified and thoroughly explored to identify their focus, application, and framework construction. The results of the comparative analysis among these frameworks show that the average numbers of components and indicators are 4.5 and 17.6, respectively. Meanwhile, categorical rescaling (47.1%), equal weighting (47.1%), arithmetic technique (82.35%), local scale (52.8%), and interval of the final index value of [0–100] (41.2%) are the most commonly used normalization methods and elements. The paper concludes that none of the existing tools reviewed is 100% applicable for arid and semi-arid regions, and therefore the case is made for developing a new bespoke SWRM-AF. The outcomes of this paper provide some useful insights into what should be included therein (e.g., stakeholder engagement and specific indicators to fit the context).

The need for continuous global improvement in the construction industry’s current state is inevitable. This pursuit for advancement is to benefit all concerned stakeholders in the construction industry, and innovation has been acknowledged as this improvement measure. Interestingly, Building Information Model (BIM) is a typical example of such innovation in the construction industry. It circumvents human errors, lessening project costs, strengthening productivity and quality, and reducing the project delivery time. This analysis investigates the factors influencing BIM implementation in construction in developing nations. A comprehensive literature review was performed to determine what factors contribute to BIM adoption. These drivers were categorized using exploratory factor analysis (EFA). Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) was also used with a questionnaire survey of 100 Nigerian building engineering professionals. Findings from the model highlight the most critical drivers of sustainable BIM deployment. The study’s conclusion will serve as a guideline for policymakers in developing nations that want to finish successful projects by avoiding BIM implementation drivers and improving the accomplishment of building projects via the usage of BIM.

One of the most commonly debated concerns regarding foreign direct investment inflows is the associated environmental adversities that accompany the influx of foreign funds. As a result, assessing the environmental impacts of foreign direct investment inflows is necessary for achieving environmentally friendly economic growth in the contemporary era. Accordingly, the global economies including the members of the Group of Twenty (G-20) should focus on attracting clean foreign direct investments. Against this backdrop, controlling for energy consumption and urbanization, this extant study scrutinizes the effects of foreign direct investment inflows on the carbon dioxide emission figures of selected G-20 countries between 1992 and 2018. The econometric analysis conducted in this paper involves recently developed methods that are efficient in handling cross-sectionally dependent heterogeneous panel data sets. Besides, the analysis is also conducted for sub-panels of high-, upper-middle-, and lower-middle-income G-20 countries to evaluate the possible heterogeneous environmental effects across the G-20 countries belonging to different income levels. Overall, the results highlight that higher foreign direct investment inflows surge carbon dioxide emissions whereby the pollution haven hypothesis is evidenced to hold for the G-20 nations of concern. Similarly, both at the aggregated and disaggregated levels, greater consumption of energy is witnessed to boost carbon dioxide emissions in the long run. Moreover, urbanization is found to trigger carbon dioxide emissions for the G-20 nations overall and the lower-middle-income G-20 nations. Further, the causality analysis reveals that carbon dioxide emissions have bidirectional causal relationships with foreign direct investment inflows, energy consumption, and urbanization. In line with these major findings, this study recommends that the governments of the G-20 countries inhibit inflows of dirty foreign direct investments, reduce fossil fuel dependency, and adopt green urbanization policies for achieving higher economic growth without marginalizing environmental well-being.

Sustainable development reflects an underlying tension to achieve economic growth whilst addressing environmental challenges, and this is particularly the case for the aviation sector. Although much of the aviation-related focus has fallen on reducing aircraft emissions, airports have also been under increasing pressure to support the vision of a low carbon energy future. One of the main sources of airport-related emissions is passenger journeys to and from airports (the surface access component of air travel), which is the focus of this paper. Two aspects associated with the relationship between sustainable development and airport surface access are considered. Firstly, there is an evaluation of three technological innovation options that will enable sustainable transport solutions for surface access journeys: telepresence systems to reduce drop-off/pick-up trips, techniques to improve public transport and options to encourage the sharing of rides. Secondly, the role of behavioral change for surface access journeys from a theoretical perspective, using empirical data from Manchester airport, is evaluated. Finally, the contribution of technology and behavioral intervention measures to improvements in sustainable development are discussed.