• Energy Research
• 11. Sustainability close
• 13. Climate action close
• 15. Life on land close
• 6. Clean water close
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A key determinant and outcome of successful environmental education is ‘pro-environmental behavior’, i.e., behavior that involves conscious action to mitigate adverse environmental impacts at personal or community level, e.g., reducing resource consumption and waste generation, avoiding toxic substances, and organizing community awareness initiatives. However, some theorists have sought to move away from rationalist models of behavioral modification, towards holistic pedagogical initiatives that seek to develop action competence. In light of the global push towards achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), emerging evidence suggests that education initiatives should foster action competence so students may be equipped to contribute to sustainable development as part of their education. The UNESCO Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) Roadmap 2030 has also identified key priority areas to strengthen ESD in formal curricula. This article reports two informal environmental education initiatives for promoting action competence and pro-environmental behaviors in school-aged children. The authors recommend that formal education settings (e.g., schools) should incorporate self-directed, free-choice project-based learning to augment environmental education programs and promote students’ action competence for contribution to attainment of SDGs. To this end, we propose a Free-Choice Project-based Learning for Action Competence in Sustainable Development (ACiSD) Curriculum, comprising six implementation dimensions, namely: (1) project duration and teaming arrangements, (2) topic selection, (3) student support, (4) teacher support, (5) learning environments, and (6) digital access and equity. For each implementation dimension, we recommend action steps to help educators implement this curriculum in their own educational settings, with the aid of an illustrative worked example.

Room occupancy prediction based on indoor environmental quality may be the breakthrough to ensure energy efficiency and establish an interior ambience tailored to each user. Identifying whether temperature, humidity, lighting, and CO2 levels may be used as efficient predictors of room occupancy accuracy is needed to help designers better utilize the readings and data collected in order to improve interior design, in an effort to better suit users. It also aims to help in energy efficiency and saving in an ever-increasing energy crisis and dangerous levels of climate change. This paper evaluated the accuracy of room occupancy recognition using a dataset with diverse amounts of light, CO2, and humidity. As classification algorithms, K-nearest neighbors (KNN), hybrid Adam optimizer–artificial neural network–back-propagation network (AO–ANN (BP)), and decision trees (DT) were used. Furthermore, this research is based on machine learning interpretability methodologies. Shapley additive explanations (SHAP) improve interpretability by estimating the significance values for each feature for classifiers applied. The results indicate that the KNN performs better than the DT and AO-ANN (BP) classification models have 99.5%. Though the two classifiers are designed to evaluate variations in interpretations, we must ensure that they have accurate detection. The results show that SHAP provides successful implementation following these metrics, with differences detected amongst classifier models that support the assumption that model complexity plays a significant role when predictability is taken into account.

Environmental factors may operate differently when relations are measured across different geographical locations, a phenomenon known as spatial non-stationarity. This study investigates the spatial non-stationarity effect of unhealthy food environments and green spaces on the T2DM prevalence rate at the neighborhood level in Toronto. This study also compares how the results vary between age groups, classified as all adults (20 and above), young adults (from 20 to 44), middle adulthood (from 45 to 64), and seniors (65 and above). The geographically weighted regression model is utilized to explore the impacts of spatial non-stationarity effects on the research results, which may lead to biased conclusions, which have often been ignored in past studies. The results from this study reveal that environmental variables dissimilarly affect T2DM prevalence rates among different age groups and neighborhoods in Toronto after controlling for socioeconomic factors. For example, the green space density yields positive associations with diabetes prevalence rates for elder generations but negative relationships for younger age groups in twenty-two and four neighborhoods, respectively, around Toronto East. The observed associations will provide beneficial suggestions to support government and public health authorities in designing education, prevention, and intervention programs targeting different neighborhoods to control the burden of diabetes.

A reverse osmosis system driven by photovoltaic energy is an eco-friendly and sustainable way to produce freshwater in rural areas without connection to a power grid and with available brackish water sources. This paper describes a project where a photovoltaic-driven low-pressure reverse osmosis system (LPRO-PV) was designed, tested under laboratory conditions, and installed in Samalayuca, Chihuahua, Mexico, to evaluate the technical feasibility and social impact of this technology. The LPRO-PV system was tested with synthetic water with a salinity of 2921 ± 62.3 mg/L; the maximum freshwater volume produced was 1.8 ± 0.06 m3/day with a salinity value of 91 ± 1.9 mg/L. The LPRO-PV system satisfied the basic freshwater requirements for a local family of three members for one year, including the mobility-restriction period due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The social evaluation analysis reflects the importance of considering the technical aspects derived from the experimental tests, as well as the users’ perception of the performance and operation of the system. As a result of the implementation of this technology and the benefits described by the users, they committed to the maintenance activities required for the LPRO-PV system’s operation. This technology has great potential to produce fresh water in arid and isolated regions with high-salinity groundwater sources, thus fulfilling the human right to safe and clean drinking water.

The present study aims to demonstrate the significance of religious tourism and its impact on both the economy and socio-culture. Religious tourism provides a sacred and spiritual environment that has the potential to shape the motivational state of individuals searching for cultural and religious landmarks and destinations to support their spiritual well-being. Hence, it is imperative to maintain close relationships between religion, culture, and tourism as they play a crucial role in promoting spirituality and human development, particularly in the context of globalization and sustainable economic development. In the latter part of the paper, research was conducted to formulate strategies aimed at the development of religious tourism in the northeast region of Romania, which is an economically underprivileged area with significant untapped tourist potential. The findings suggest that via improvements in infrastructure, the creation of a favorable business environment, enhanced promotion, development of accommodation facilities, and improvement in services, the area can achieve a higher quality of life and sustainable development.

This paper discusses the effect of various climatic conditions that pertain to passive design measurements and their relationships with building configurations to improve indoor thermal comfort based on the different climate zones in Egypt to support Egypt’s sustainability agenda 2030. We find the most appropriate design settings that can increase the indoor thermal comfort, such as building orientation and shape. These settings can be modeled using DesignBuilder software combined with Egyptian meteorological data. This software is used accompanied by computational fluid dynamics to numerically assess the outcomes of different changes, by simulating indoor climate condition factors such as wind speed and temperature. Natural ventilation simulations were performed for four different shapes to create comprehensive dataset scenarios covering a general range of shapes and orientations. Seven scenarios were optimized to put forward a series of building bioclimatic design approaches for the different characteristic regions. The results indicated that the temperature decreased by about 3.2%, and the air velocity increased within the study domain by 200% in the best and the worst cases, respectively, of the four different shapes. The results of the study gave evidence that the configuration of buildings, direction, and wind speed are very important factors for defining the natural ventilation within these domains to support the green building concept and the sustainable design for a better lifestyle.

Exploring the sensitivity of rural households’ livelihood strategies to livelihood capital is of great significance for improving rural households’ livelihood levels. This paper selects 23 livelihood capital measurement indicators and conducts an in-depth survey of rural households. In addition, the entropy method and a weighted comprehensive model are used to explore the basic characteristics of rural households’ livelihood capital in the upper reaches of the Min River, China, in 2017. Furthermore, econometric models are used to analyze the sensitivity of rural households’ livelihood strategies to livelihood capital. As indicated from the research, the livelihood capital levels of different types of rural households in the study area are not equivalent. The types of rural households with different livelihood strategies can be ordered in terms of quantity as follows: non-agricultural type > non-agricultural dominant type > agricultural dominant type > pure agricultural type. Livelihood strategies have different sensitivities to different livelihood capital measurement indicators. Among these indicators, cash income, the number of relatives and friends available for financial assistance, and the number of civil servants have positive effects on the livelihood strategy selection of non-agricultural dominant rural households and non-agricultural rural households. However, the average age of laborers, area of cultivated land and gardens, number of livestock and poultry, and present value of production tools have negative effects. These evaluation results can provide a scientific decision-making basis for the formulation of poverty alleviation policies by relevant government departments.

The lockdown and social distancing policies to reduce COVID-19 spread and perceived safety threats of COVID-19 significantly affected people’s travel behavior. Greece has been suffering from the COVID-19 pandemic, and people’s mobility behavior has been greatly affected. This study aims at: (1) exploring the variations in individuals’ trip frequencies by mode and purpose before and after the COVID-19 outbreak; (2) understanding the effects of individual differences (i.e., sociodemographic details) and perceptions towards COVID-19 (i.e., the perceived threats of COVID-19) on people’s mobility behavior changes after the outbreak; (3) underlining the individuals’ perceptions of the COVID-19 threat on the willingness of public transportation usage. Overall, 403 responses were collected in late 2020. A series of random parameter Probit modeling results reveal multiple individual and perception factors affecting the changes in mobility behavior in Greece. The results from structural equation modeling indicate that perceived COVID-19 threats affect the attitudes and subjective norms towards people’s intentions to use public transportation. The results from this study provide valuable insights for transportation authorities to develop effective strategies to manage traffic during the spread of disease for a possible future epidemic.