The affectations caused by extreme events of natural origin such as droughts and floods in traditional homes in the province of Gran Chaco, in Bolivia, are frequent. These aspects compromise the habitat of the populations that occupy them, as is the case of the original Weenhayek people, as an alternative for the improvement of the human habitat of this town. Through theoretical and empirical methods, five variables used for the development of the adaptation model were determined, from the bases of planned adaptation as a component of urban-territorial resilience, in search of an improvement of socio-environmental systems in the face of the effects of climate change, exemplified in the Weenhayek native people. The model establishes the improvements of traditional dwellings, from a current trend of deterioration to one of preservation, conservation and growth in the Weenhayek culture, through various features, such as: Respects the cultural design of the house that integrates local patterns of the environment, ecosystem and contemporary construction elements without affecting its image, the materials and construction techniques used are of a traditional nature, but with contemporary elements that improve their application, durability, stability, as an articulated construction system, commits governments in all instances to the technical-constructive study of the rural areas of the human settlements of the Weenhayek people, and establishes a starting point towards new studies focused on native peoples.
Traditional building heating warms entire rooms, often leaving some dissatisfied with uneven warmth. Recently, the personalized heating system has addressed this by providing targeted warmth, enhancing comfort and satisfaction. The personalized heating system in this study is a new enclosed personalized heating system consisting of a semi-enclosed heating box and an insulated chair covered with a thick blanket. The study compares the heating effects of semi-enclosed and enclosed localized heating systems on the body and examined changes in subjects’ thermal sensations. Due to the lower heat loss of the enclosed personalized heating system compared to the semi-enclosed version, it created thermal micro-environments with higher ambient temperatures. The maximum air temperature increase within the enclosed system was twice that of the semi-enclosed system, with the heating film surface temperature rising by up to 6.87 ℃. Additionally, the temperature of the skin could increase by as much as 6.19 ℃, allowing individuals to maintain thermal neutrality even when the room temperature dropped as low as 8 ℃. A two-factor repeated measures analysis of variance revealed differences in temperature sensitivity across various body regions, with the thighs showing a notably higher response under high-power heating conditions. The corrective energy and power requirements of the enclosed personalized heating system also made it more energy-efficient than other personalized heating systems, with a minimum value reaching 6.07 W/K.
Water pollution has become a serious threat to our ecosystem. Water contamination due to human, commercial, and industrial activities has negatively affected the whole world. Owing to the global demanding challenges of water pollution treatments and achieving sustainability, membrane technology has gained increasing research attention. Although numerous membrane materials have focused, the sustainable water purification membranes are most effective for environmental needs. In this regard sustainable, green, and recyclable polymeric and nanocomposite membranes have been developed. Materials fulfilling sustainable environmental demands usually include wide-ranging polyesters, polyamides, polysulfones, and recyclable/biodegradable petroleum polymers plus non-toxic solvents. Consequently, water purification membranes for nanofiltration, microfiltration, reverse osmosis, ultrafiltration, and related filtration processes have been designed. Sustainable polymer membranes for water purification have been manufactured using facile techniques. The resulting membranes have been tested for desalination, dye removal, ion separation, and antibacterial processes for wastewater. Environmental sustainability studies have also pointed towards desired life cycle assessment results for these water purification membranes. Recycling of water treatment membranes have been performed by three major processes mechanical recycling, chemical recycling, or thermal recycling. Moreover, use of sustainable membranes has caused positive environmental impacts for safe waste water treatment. Importantly, worth of sustainable water purification membranes has been analyzed for the environmentally friendly water purification applications. There is vast scope of developing and investigating water purification membranes using countless sustainable polymers, materials, and nanomaterials. Hence, value of sustainable membranes has been analyzed to meet the global demands and challenges to attain future clean water and ecosystem.
Smart electric meters play a pivotal role in making energy systems decarbonized and automating the energy system. Smart electric meters denote huge business opportunities for both public and private companies. Utility players can manage the electricity demand more efficiently whereas customers can monitor and control the electricity bill through the adoption of smart electric meters. The study examines the factors affecting the adoption intention of smart electric meters in Indian households. This study draws a roadmap that how utility providers and customers can improve the smart electric meters adoption. The study has five independent variables (performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, environmentalism, and hedonic motivation) and one dependent variable (adoption intention). The sample size for the study is four hundred and sixty-two respondents from Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR). The data was analysed using structural equation modelling (SEM). The results of this study have confirmed that performance expectancy, environmentalism, and social influence have a significant impact on the intention of adopting smart electric meters. Therefore, utility providers can improve their strategies to attract more customers to adopt smart electric meters by focusing more on the performance of smart electric meters and by making them environmentally friendly. This research offers meaningful insights to both customers and utility providers to make energy systems decarbonized and control energy consumption.
To achieve the energy transition and carbon neutrality targets, governments have implemented multiple policies to incentivize electricity suppliers to invest in renewable energy. Considering different government policies, we construct a renewable energy supply chain consisting of electricity suppliers and electricity retailers. We then explore the impact of four policies on electricity suppliers’ renewable energy investments, environmental impacts, and social welfare. We validated the results based on data from Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, China. The results show that government subsidy policies are more effective in promoting electricity suppliers to invest in renewable energy as consumer preferences increase, while no-government policies are the least effective. We also show that electricity suppliers are most profitable under the government subsidy policy and least profitable under the carbon cap-and-trade policy. Besides, our results indicate that social welfare is the worst under the carbon cap-and-trade policy. With the increase in carbon intensity and renewable energy quota, social welfare is the highest under the subsidy policy. However, the social welfare under the renewable energy portfolio standard is optimal when the renewable energy quota is low.
The urgency of ecological problems has become increasingly complex, so responses from diverse parties are needed, including in the context of ecological citizenship. The general hypothesis proposed in this research is that the problem of climate change has an influence on the high level of attention of the global community, including academics, to environmental issues related to the active role of citizens demanding environmental justice and sustainable development. This study aims to explore globally published documents to provide an in-depth discussion concerning ecological citizenship. Bibliometric analysis was employed from the Scopus database. The main findings confirm the significant contribution of ecological citizenship in shaping global understanding of the role of individuals in maintaining environmental sustainability. The research theme mapping shows the diversity of issues that have been explored, with particular emphasis on environmental education and social justice, providing a basis for recommendations for future research. In particular, environmental education has been recognized as a critical element in shaping society’s understanding of environmental issues, while social justice underscores the importance of fair distribution and critical analysis of inequality in social and ecological contexts. Future research recommendations include the exploration of effective strategies in promoting the concept of ecological citizenship, developing a holistic environmental education curriculum, and more active research in the context of social justice in various regions, including Asia. This bibliometric analysis is expected to contribute substantially to formulating policies and practical actions that support the vision of inclusive ecological citizenship, which positively impacts overcoming global environmental challenges.
Copyright © by EnPress Publisher. All rights reserved.