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Les développements des systèmes de transport, les changements dans les tendances de consommation et des conditions telles que la COVID-19 ont augmenté à la fois la demande et la charge du transport de marchandises. Étant donné que diverses entreprises transportent des marchandises dans le monde entier pour évaluer la durabilité, la vitesse et la résilience des systèmes de transport de marchandises, des systèmes de mesure de la fluidité des données et du fret sont nécessaires. Dans cette étude, un modèle de prise de décision intégré est proposé pour donner la priorité aux alternatives de mesure de la fluidité du fret. Le modèle proposé est composé de deux étapes principales. Dans la première étape, la méthodologie logarithmique des poids additifs (LMAW) basée sur les normes de Dombi est utilisée pour trouver les poids des critères. Dans la deuxième phase, une évaluation étendue basée sur la méthode de la distance de la solution moyenne (EDAS) avec Dombi onction pour l'agrégation est présentée pour déterminer les résultats finaux de classement des alternatives. Trois alternatives de mesure de la fluidité du fret sont proposées, à savoir ne rien faire, intégrer les activités de fret dans Metaverse pour mesurer la fluidité et former une gouvernance mondiale des activités de fret pour mesurer la fluidité à partir des données disponibles. Treize critères, qui sont regroupés sous quatre aspects principaux à savoir la technologie, la gouvernance, l'efficacité et la durabilité environnementale, et une étude de cas au cours de laquelle un cadre de base est formé pour que les experts évaluent les alternatives compte tenu des critères utilisés dans le processus décisionnel multicritères. Les résultats de l'étude indiquent que l'intégration des activités de fret dans Metaverse pour mesurer la fluidité est l'alternative la plus avantageuse, alors que ne rien faire est la moins avantageuse. Los desarrollos en los sistemas de transporte, los cambios en las tendencias de consumismo y condiciones como el COVID-19 han aumentado tanto la demanda como la carga en el transporte de mercancías. Dado que varias empresas transportan mercancías en todo el mundo para evaluar la sostenibilidad, la velocidad y la resistencia de los sistemas de transporte de mercancías, se necesitan sistemas de medición de datos y fluidez de la carga. En este estudio, se propone un modelo integrado de toma de decisiones para priorizar las alternativas de medición de la fluidez de la carga. El modelo propuesto se compone de dos etapas principales. En la primera etapa, se utiliza la Metodología Logarítmica de Pesos Aditivos (LMAW) basada en normas Dombi para encontrar los pesos de los criterios. En la segunda fase, se presenta una Evaluación extendida basada en el método de Distancia de la Solución Media (EDAS) con Dombi unción para la agregación para determinar los resultados finales de clasificación de las alternativas. Se proponen tres alternativas de medición de la fluidez de la carga, a saber, no hacer nada, integrar las actividades de carga en Metaverse para medir la fluidez y formar una gobernanza global de las actividades de carga para medir la fluidez a través de los datos disponibles. Trece criterios, que se agrupan en cuatro aspectos principales: tecnología, gobernanza, eficiencia y sostenibilidad ambiental, y un estudio de caso en el que se forma un marco básico para que los expertos evalúen las alternativas considerando que los criterios se utilizan en el proceso de toma de decisiones multicriterio. Los resultados del estudio indican que integrar las actividades de carga en Metaverso para medir la fluidez es la alternativa más ventajosa, mientras que no hacer nada es la menos ventajosa. Developments in transportation systems, changes in consumerism trends, and conditions such as COVID-19 have increased both the demand and the load on freight transportation. Since various companies are transporting goods all over the world to evaluate the sustainability, speed, and resiliency of freight transportation systems, data and freight fluidity measurement systems are needed. In this study, an integrated decision-making model is proposed to advantage prioritize the freight fluidity measurement alternatives. The proposed model is composed of two main stages. In the first stage, the Dombi norms based Logarithmic Methodology of Additive Weights (LMAW) is used to find the weights of criteria. In the second phase, an extended Evaluation based on the Distance from Average Solution (EDAS) method with Dombi unction for aggregation is presented to determine the final ranking results of alternatives. Three freight fluidity measurement alternatives are proposed, namely doing nothing, integrating freight activities into Metaverse for measuring fluidity, and forming global governance of freight activities for measuring fluidity through available data. Thirteen criteria, which are grouped under four main aspects namely technology, governance, efficiency, and environmental sustainability, and a case study at which a ground framework is formed for the experts to evaluate the alternatives considering the criteria are used in the multi-criteria decision-making process. The results of the study indicate that integrating freight activities into Metaverse for measuring fluidity is the most advantageous alternative, whereas doing nothing is the least advantageous one. أدت التطورات في أنظمة النقل، والتغيرات في اتجاهات النزعة الاستهلاكية، وظروف مثل COVID -19 إلى زيادة الطلب والحمل على نقل البضائع. نظرًا لأن العديد من الشركات تنقل البضائع في جميع أنحاء العالم لتقييم استدامة وسرعة ومرونة أنظمة نقل البضائع، فهناك حاجة إلى أنظمة قياس سيولة البيانات والشحن. في هذه الدراسة، يُقترح نموذج متكامل لصنع القرار للاستفادة من إعطاء الأولوية لبدائل قياس سيولة الشحن. يتكون النموذج المقترح من مرحلتين رئيسيتين. في المرحلة الأولى، يتم استخدام منهجية لوغاريتمية الأوزان المضافة (LMAW) القائمة على معايير دومبي لإيجاد أوزان المعايير. في المرحلة الثانية، يتم تقديم تقييم موسع يعتمد على طريقة المسافة من الحل المتوسط (EDAS) مع Dombi unction للتجميع لتحديد نتائج الترتيب النهائي للبدائل. يتم اقتراح ثلاثة بدائل لقياس سيولة الشحن، وهي عدم القيام بأي شيء، ودمج أنشطة الشحن في ميتافيرس لقياس السيولة، وتشكيل حوكمة عالمية لأنشطة الشحن لقياس السيولة من خلال البيانات المتاحة. ثلاثة عشر معيارًا، تم تجميعها تحت أربعة جوانب رئيسية وهي التكنولوجيا والحوكمة والكفاءة والاستدامة البيئية، ودراسة حالة يتم فيها تشكيل إطار أرضي للخبراء لتقييم البدائل مع مراعاة استخدام المعايير في عملية صنع القرار متعددة المعايير. تشير نتائج الدراسة إلى أن دمج أنشطة الشحن في ميتافيرس لقياس السيولة هو البديل الأكثر فائدة، في حين أن عدم القيام بأي شيء هو البديل الأقل فائدة.

The biogas from waste has emerged as a realistic and reliable renewable energy proposition and can deliver social-economic benefits when integrated with local communities. In the last decade, the biogas sector in European countries has seen unprecedented growth due to favorable policy supports and perceived social-economic benefits. Among different biogas producing schemes, waste to biogas using anaerobic digestion is considered most environment friendly due to minimum carbon leakage and positive waste resource recycling impact. Many countries, including the UK, envision creating a circular economy utilizing Biogas from Waste (BfW) recycling potential. This paper aims to analyze the state of the UK’s BfW scheme through the lens of circular economy and discern areas that need attention to usher BfW potential in supporting a circular economy. The paper also discussed key challenges and barriers to create a local circular economy using the BfW scheme. Based on the analysis, it is observed that the BfW scheme in the UK is currently impeded due to lack cross-sectoral policy coherence, and far from contributing to a circular economy. Additionally, the UK's waste to energy concept is concentrated around incinerator-based systems without much attention on improving resource efficiency and waste recycling. This paper makes three recommendations to improve prospects of the BfW scheme in the UK (1) decentralized approach in the BfW scheme development, (2) considering bio-waste and digestate as value streams, and (3) creating a policy cohesiveness across multiple departments.

The global warming debate has neglected and thus underestimated the importance of technical change in considering reduction in greenhouse gases and adaptation to climate change. Relevant quantitative cases of long-run technical change during the past 100 years are presented in computing, communications, transport, energy, and agriculture. A noteworthy technological trajectory is that of decarbonization, or decreasing carbon intensity of primary energy. If human societies have not yet reached the end of the history of technology, the cost structure for mitigation and adaptation changes could be cheap.

Abstract Rapid economic growth and accelerating urbanization in the past three decades have accelerated the exhaustion of China’s mineral resources. China is the world’s largest consumer and importer of nickel resources; therefore, a growing domestic demand will increase China’s import dependence and in turn make it potentially vulnerable to supply shortages. One hundred years from 1950 to 2050 were examined for China’s nickel utilization. Identified domestic nickel resources can only sustain China’s industries until 2017, but nickel will reach peak utilization around the year of 2020–2022. Given the 5% annual increase in applications and the growing importation of minerals in China, the carrying duration of nickel resources until 2020 will require a nickel-recycling rate of more than 90%. To sustain China’s nickel utilization, future strategies should foster three solutions: maintaining a high level of imports, adjusting the landscape of nickel applications, and shifting from virgin mining of geological minerals to urban mining of anthropogenic resources.

Heating and cooling using aquifer thermal energy storage (ATES) has hardly been applied outside the Netherlands, even though it could make a valuable contribution to the energy transition. The Climate-KIC project "Europe-wide Use of Energy from aquifers" - E-USE(aq) - aimed to pave the way for Europe-wide application of ATES, through the realization and monitoring of six ATES pilot plants across five different EU countries. In a preceding paper, based on preliminary results of E-USE(aq), conclusions were already drawn, demonstrating how the barriers for this form of shallow geothermal energy can be overcome, and sometimes even leveraged as opportunities. Based on final pilot project results, key economic and environmental outcomes are now presented. This paper starts with the analysis of specific technological barriers: unfamiliarity with the subsurface, presumed limited compatibility with existing energy provision systems (especially district heating), energy imbalances and groundwater contamination. The paper then shows how these barriers have been tackled, using improved site investigation and monitoring technologies to map heterogeneous subsoils. In this way ATES can cost-efficiently be included in smart grids and combined with other sources of renewable (especially solar) energy, while at the same time achieving groundwater remediation. A comparative assessment of economic and environmental impacts of the pilots is included, to demonstrate the sustainability of ATES system with different renewables and renewable-based technologies. The paper concludes with an assessment of the market application potential of ATES, including in areas with water scarcity, and a review of climate beneficial impact.

Abstract Using a complicated stepped analysis, Ewing and Rong study the impact of sprawl on household energy use. They argue that dispersed land use brings about larger houses and more detached units, which consume more energy than the smaller houses and attached units typical of more compact communities. This comment suggests that their conclusions are intuitive and obvious, but that their complex methodology linking three unrelated data sets renders their quantitative conclusions suspect. Further, a simple engineering analysis can show more meaningful results, sprawl is more likely to affect energy use through increased vehicle miles traveled than house size or type, and household energy use can be mitigated by increasing the efficiency of the building envelope, heating/cooling system, appliances, and lighting. Still, combining the effects of compact urban development with the effects of energy‐efficient vehicles and housing unit design can be a real winner in our quest for more energy‐efficient communi...

The management of municipal solid waste (MSW) is a complex and expensive task. This is especially the case in developing countries, where waste generation rates are continuously increasing and where current MSW management strategies are focused on inadequate practices, such as landfilling and incineration, which result in numerous health and environmental problems. The anaerobic digestion (AD) of MSW has been implemented worldwide as a solution to decrease the amount of waste ending up in landfills. This process allows for the recovery of energy from the organic fraction of MSW (OFMSW) in the form of biogas, which is largely composed of methane. Therefore, the goal of the present study was to evaluate the biochemical methane potential (BMP) of the OFMSW generated within different socioeconomic strata of the Metropolitan Area of Guadalajara (MAG), Mexico. From a microscale perspective, the microbial communities within the experimental AD system were analyzed using high-throughput sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene to assess the relationship between these communities and the biogas composition. This microbial identification revealed a typical AD composition consisting of the following six phyla: Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Chloroflexi, Euryarchaeota, Firmicutes, and Proteobacteria. Furthermore, through the identification of Methanobacterium and Methanosaeta, two methanogenesis pathways (hydrogenotrophic and acetoclastic) were pinpointed. From a macroscale perspective, a multi-stage Gompertz kinetic model was used to describe cumulative biogas production. This model considered the complex nature of the OFMSW substrate in order to estimate the potential level of biogas production in the MAG using a weighted average that was based on the size of the population in each socioeconomic stratum evaluated (732.8 mL⋅g−1 VS). This novel contribution to the literature provides an estimation of the potential economic, energetic, and environmental benefits of treating the OFMSW produced in the MAG through AD. Through this approach, an estimated 8.5 MWh·year−1 of electrical power could be produced, translating into 1.13 million USD of yearly revenue and resulting in reduced GHG emissions (10,519 tonne CO2eq⋅year−1).

AbstractClimate change and environmental problems will force or induce millions of people to migrate. In this article, I describe environmental migration and articulate some of the ethical issues. To begin, I give an account of these migrants that overcomes misleading dichotomies. Then, I focus attention on two important ethical issues: justice and responsibility. Although we are all at risk of becoming environmental migrants, we are not equally at risk. Our risk depends on our temporal position, geographical location, social position, and the kind of society in which we live. We all contribute to environmental problems, but we do not contribute equally. About 11% of the world population is responsible for 50% of carbon emissions. These inequalities raise issues of justice because many of the people who are at high risk have contributed little to the problems. Since the issues of justice are relatively clear and compelling, I focus more attention on issues of responsibility. I use Iris Marion Young’s account of responsibility for structural injustice to address four key questions about moral responsibility and environmental migration.