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The COVID-19 pandemic represents a type of force majeure that significantly and unexpectedly affected all human lifestyles. This study includes an integrative review of articles published across Scopus and Web of Science journals and compiled using the systematic review methodology based on the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) Statement and VOSreview (visualization of similarities) software by defining keywords that include “construction industry” and “force majeure” and “environmental risks” as a starting point. Moreover, the research years and the countries covered by this research were determined in a second stage. Finally, the abstracts of selected studies were reviewed in order to extract factors similar to the pandemic conditions of COVID-19 along with the brief results of the research. Out of 6384 publications identified and 56 publications reporting, 20 studies fulfilled the inclusion criteria with full text. Based on our findings, there has been a continuous growth of publications on construction risk and environmental research since 2010. Malaysia had the greatest contribution to the research topic of the countries covered by the study, followed by Egypt. The Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management journal published the greatest number of publications related to the research topic. In this review, the most important previous studies are classified according to their handling of force majeure and environmental risks and the most important factors mentioned in these studies are identified. In addition, recommendations are made for dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic and for mitigating its effects on the construction industry in the Arab world and Malaysia. The results of this review will benefit researchers and construction companies alike in furthering research on reducing the risks of COVID-19 to construction projects and avoiding the significant economic loss that results from stopping these projects.

Public Transport (PT) extremely suffered from the Covid-19 pandemic. While trying to guarantee the service supply as regularly as possible, great efforts have been made by Transport Companies to deal with constantly changing emergency prescriptions. Moreover, overall uncertainty led to a sharp shift in travel behaviors and habits, resulting in a general increase in private (especially motorized) modes. Over the past months, a lot of research has tried to investigate the several perspectives for the PT sector, during and beyond the Covid-19, by accounting for e.g., new technologies, innovative service supply or transport modes, etc. which have been implemented overtime. However, after two-years from the Covid-19 outbreak, the transport demand is still not back to the pre-pandemic situation. Considering the trends of the past two-years, this paper aims at exploring how the transport demand has varied, with respect to the Covid-19 impact, the safety prescriptions, and the PT service supply, to shed light over still unobserved factors that may be useful to move forward. By considering the area of Brescia as a case study, the analysis compares the transport demand from the different urban PT systems (i.e., buses, metro light rail and bike sharing) of Brescia with the related service supply (i.e., kms-travelled, service availability, etc.), the Covid-19 infections, the service limitations (i.e., lockdowns, vehicle capacity reductions, etc.), to understand whether relationships exist among the several variables included. It emerged that the progressive easing of restrictions, the enhancements of intermodal transport system and the improvement of service's quality could have contributed to recovery transport demand. Future developments of the research could be addressed to extend the available database to confirm or improve the research findings.

In the backdrop of COVID19 recovery, Pakistan is still struggling to cope with the economic challenges and disruptions caused in the energy supply chain. On one hand where COVID has brought serious socio-economic costs and prolonged delays, it has also provided opportunity for developing countries such as Pakistan to “build-forward-better” their economies in a more sustainable and climate friendly manner. This study particularly highlights the impact of COVID on energy supply and demand sectors of Pakistan, its near- and long-term impacts, and what policy interventions can be adopted to put Pakistan on-track to achieve its Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). The economic focus in on “Green Recovery” and what key interventions will foster a rapid transition towards decarbonization in Pakistan. Low Emission Analysis Platform (LEAP) model is used to provide energy sector outlook (2020-2040) of Pakistan under different scenario i.e., Pre COVID growth, Business-as-Usual, Slow Recovery, and Green Recovery from COVID. The results obtained from the model depicts that following a green recovery scenario, Pakistan can reduce around 10 Mtoe (9%) of its total energy use, 53 TWh of electricity, 19 Mt of emissions from demand sectors, and 11 Mt of emissions from the power sector by 2030. For total levelized cost of the power sector, the green recovery scenario represents a generation cost of $13 billion by 2030 which further highlights that energy efficiency could lead to cost savings of approximately $3 billion each year by 2030. Green recovery is however still a daunting task as it would require economic stimulus of $8 billion only to recover to its pre COVID scenario and total investments of $120 billion by 2030.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, educational mobile games may play a significant role to facilitate students’ learning. Several studies have indicated that these games using mobile phones may improve students’ learning motivation and effectiveness when they are equipped with appropriate learning strategies. However, investigating the impact of learning strategies in students’ utilization of educational mobile games has received little scholarly attention during the COVID-19 pandemic. Hence, this research proposed two learning games scenarios to fill this gap. In the first scenario, students were offered an educational mobile game with a learning strategy called ‘scaffolding strategy’; while in the second scenario, the same game was offered without the strategy. To achieve this objective, an experimental design with a research model was developed to examine the role of scaffolding learning strategy in students’ use of educational mobile games. In this experimental study, 43 students from two classes participated in the two learning scenarios. The results indicate that educational mobile gaming with the scaffolding learning strategy significantly influenced students’ utilization of the mobile game. In addition, the adoption of the learning strategy significantly affected students’ perceived enjoyment, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and behavioural intention to use, compared with the same game without the learning strategy. The results also indicate that the introduction of the scaffolding learning strategy into the educational mobile game will increase students’ learning effectiveness and motivation.

Throughout the 21st century, urban reports demand solutions to the obsolescence and aging process suffered by the existing buildings, due to the growth and expansion of cities that took place in the second half of the 20th century [...]

This doctoral thesis focuses on tourism recovery, sustainability and future development under the influence of global industry crisis. Part I provides the introduction. Part II introduces the conceptual framework of three published theoretical papers. The first paper focuses on bibliometric studies of tourism and COVID-19 topics. The current state of the art reveals interdisciplinary research interests on crisis management, tourism sustainability and stakeholder collaborations. It also identifies underexplored topics on the social, environmental, cultural and governance dimensions of sustainable tourism and stresses the function of technology and innovation in helping sustainable governance and protocols. The second paper focuses on the thematic analysis of tourism sustainability and COVID-19 and highlights new growth potentials in high technologies utilization, strategic planning and management. The third paper focuses on the thematic analysis of China’s tourism recovery and resilience strategies. Measures related to tourism industrial reemployment, digitalization, nature, cultural heritages and dark tourism became important factors in the future development of China’s tourism. Part III introduces two empirical studies, with the fourth paper – panel data analysis upon cross-sectional sustainable performances of tourism and hospitality companies, in discovering their relationships with corporate financial performances when moderated by global industrial crises. It contributes to advancing our comprehension of the determinants influencing sustainability in the hospitality sector, with a nuanced understanding of how global industrial crises moderate these dynamics. The fifth paper was an empirical study on tourism sustainability and innovation – in finding the relationships between environmental innovation and tourism sustainable performances, financial performances, and how the relationships would be influenced under the global crisis lens. It has highlighted environmental innovation as a potential worthy investment and green transition opportunity, in dealing with global climate change, innovative capabilities in environmental management, and fulfillment of stakeholder social commitment. Part IV demonstrates the conclusions, implications, limitations and future research. Esta tesis doctoral se centra en la recuperación del turismo, la sostenibilidad y el desarrollo futuro bajo la influencia de la crisis de la industria global. La parte I proporciona la introducción. La Parte II presenta el marco conceptual de tres artículos teóricos publicados. El primer artículo se centra en estudios bibliométricos sobre turismo y temas de COVID-19. El estado actual del arte revela intereses de investigación interdisciplinarios sobre gestión de crisis, sostenibilidad del turismo y colaboraciones de partes interesadas. También identifica temas poco explorados sobre las dimensiones social, ambiental, cultural y de gobernanza del turismo sostenible y destaca la función de la tecnología y la innovación para ayudar a la gobernanza y los protocolos sostenibles. El segundo documento se centra en el análisis temático de la sostenibilidad del turismo y la COVID-19 y destaca nuevos potenciales de crecimiento en la utilización, la planificación estratégica y la gestión de altas tecnologías. El tercer artículo se centra en el análisis temático de las estrategias de recuperación y resiliencia del turismo de China. Las medidas relacionadas con el reempleo industrial del turismo, la digitalización, la naturaleza, los patrimonios culturales y el turismo oscuro se convirtieron en factores importantes en el desarrollo futuro del turismo de China. La Parte III presenta dos estudios empíricos, y el cuarto artículo es un análisis de datos de panel sobre el desempeño sostenible transversal de las empresas de turismo y hotelería, para descubrir sus relaciones con el desempeño financiero corporativo cuando está moderado por crisis industriales globales. El quinto documento fue un estudio empírico sobre la sostenibilidad y la innovación del turismo, para encontrar las relaciones entre la innovación ambiental y el desempeño sostenible del turismo, el desempeño financiero y cómo las relaciones se verían influenciadas bajo la lente de la crisis global. La Parte IV demuestra las conclusiones, implicaciones, limitaciones y futuras investigaciones. Aquesta tesi doctoral se centra en la recuperació del turisme, la sostenibilitat i el desenvolupament futur sota la influència de la crisi global de la indústria. La part I proporciona la introducció. La segona part presenta el marc conceptual de tres articles teòrics publicats. El primer article se centra en estudis bibliomètrics de turisme i temes de COVID-19. L'estat actual de l'art revela interessos de recerca interdisciplinaris sobre gestió de crisi, sostenibilitat turística i col·laboracions amb les parts interessades. També identifica temes poc explorats sobre les dimensions social, ambiental, cultural i de governança del turisme sostenible i subratlla la funció de la tecnologia i la innovació per ajudar a la governança i els protocols sostenibles. El segon article se centra en l'anàlisi temàtica de la sostenibilitat turística i la COVID-19 i destaca els nous potencials de creixement en la utilització de les altes tecnologies, la planificació estratègica i la gestió. El tercer article se centra en l'anàlisi temàtica de les estratègies de recuperació i resiliència turística de la Xina. Les mesures relacionades amb la reocupació industrial del turisme, la digitalització, la natura, els patrimonis culturals i el turisme fosc es van convertir en factors importants en el desenvolupament futur del turisme de la Xina. La part III introdueix dos estudis empírics, amb el quart article: anàlisi de dades de panells sobre el rendiment transversal transversal de les empreses de turisme i hostaleria, per descobrir les seves relacions amb els resultats financers de les empreses quan són moderades per les crisis industrials globals. El cinquè document va ser un estudi empíric sobre la sostenibilitat i la innovació del turisme: per trobar les relacions entre la innovació ambiental i els rendiments sostenibles del turisme, els resultats financers i com es veurien influenciades les relacions sota la lent de la crisi global. La part IV mostra les conclusions, implicacions, limitacions i investigacions futures.

Renewed COVID-19 outbreaks and uneven vaccination progress are prolonging the fight against the disease in developing Asia. This is contributing to a divergence in growth paths in the region that is partly being determined by the progress on tackling COVID-19. Asian Development Outlook 2021 Update raises regional growth forecasts for East Asia and Central Asia, and revises them down for South Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific. The main risks to the region’s economic prospects still center on the pandemic, particularly the emergence of new variants, lagging vaccine rollouts, and waning vaccine effectiveness. As economies recover from the pandemic, the threats of climate change will take center stage again. Sustainable food production and agricultural systems that are resilient to climate change will be crucial for developing Asia. To transform agriculture in the region, its economies must tackle challenges from changing consumer demand, changing demographics, and a changing and more fragile environment.