Ethiopia has 74.3 million hectares of arable land and an irrigation potential of 3,088,395 hectares. Despite the country's vast irrigation potential, it hasn’t benefited much. A huge percentage of Ethiopia’s population is currently food insecure and a very significant portion lives under the national poverty line. Studies have confirmed the role of irrigation in alleviating poverty and promoting food security. Irrigation plays a huge role in poverty reduction, especially in developing countries like Ethiopia where agriculture is the backbone of the economy and the major source of employment. Irrigation does so by boosting farmer incomes, improving crop productivity, providing more employment and better pay rate, and contributing to the national GDP in the long run. Irrigation also promotes food security by contributing to all the dimensions including, food availability, access to food, food utilization, and stability. Given such importance of irrigation in poverty and hunger alleviation, it’s believed that the development of the sector massively contributes to the realization of sustainable development goals (SDG). Hence, this article voices the need for exploiting the huge irrigation potential and improving the irrigation sector, in order for the country to pull its population out of the misery of hunger and poverty.

A project-based module on Sustainable Development Goal number 5, Gender Equality, was im-plemented on 5 different groups of Business English students consisting of a total number of 62 students in higher education. The main purpose of this project was to raise awareness of this goal by means of a flipped method in which students were required to carry out some research on specific areas of the aforementioned goal and work in teams to elaborate oral presentations. Once their findings were shared in class, students were expected to answer a written questionnaire of open-ended questions which were part of a qualitative analysis. Results of this survey showed that not only 90% of the students gained in depth knowledge of this goal, but also 85% had built a positive attitude to take initiative and 80% were optimistic about future gender equality. Finally, 70% of students suggested further social action to curb the problem of gender discrimination. On the whole, the flipped classroom method of learning combined with project-based group work have proven to be an effective way to raise awareness of this goal, create a more positive attitude, in-crease their willingness to take action as well as widening their English lexical resources.

This paper explores the emergence of Sustainability-Linked Bonds (SLBs) as an innovative instrument to finance sustainability objectives. SLBs have emerged as a transformative financial instrument, establishing an explicit link between cost of funding and sustainability objectives. SLBs were first launched in 2019 and represent 7% of labelled bonds, still dominated by the more established green bonds. Issuance of SLBs now exceeds $250 billion. Following initial enthusiasm, they are now facing criticism. In the context of the growth of sustainable finance and concerns of greenwashing, this paper investigates ways to enhance the design of SLBs. Drawing on literature and expert interviews, the findings highlight the strong potential of SLBs to contribute to sustainability financing, especially in hard-to-abate sectors. The paper identifies the key positive attributes of SLBs and their limitations in five areas: key performance indicators’ (KPI) selection, sustainability performance targets’ (SPT) calibration, bond characteristics, reporting practices, and resource requirements. Recommendations to financial intermediaries, issuers and policy makers include defining standardized KPIs based on a materiality assessment, requesting SPTs to be supported by science and in line with an issuer’s core strategy, tailored step-up mechanisms and avoidance of call loopholes, and stricter reporting. SLBs represent an opportunity to add rigor to sustainable finance and better price externalities, where material topics have an explicit impact on cost of funding and credit ratings.

Both the sustainability discourse and the debate on citizen science are strongly focused on the natural and technical sciences. Yet, numerous participatory research activities can be identified in the social sciences and humanities that address sustainability issues of various kinds. These have hardly been studied so far, and their contribution to addressing sustainability challenges is poorly known. The study investigates which sustainability topics are taken up by citizen science in the humanities and social sciences, which factors influence the choice of topics, and its implications. For this purpose, the concept of Citizen Social Science (CSS) is taken up and sustainability is operationalized via the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and its specific Targets. Based on a collection of CSS activities in Germany, the addressed sustainability topics are identified accordingly. It is then analyzed how these patterns depend on the main characteristics of CSS projects. The findings indicate a focus on three SDGs related to education, sustainable cities and partnerships for the Goals, while at the same time the project consortia are very heterogeneous. CSS shows particular strengths here through its multi-stakeholder approach. Going forward, the linkage of Citizen Science to the SDGs needs to be further formalized so that its transformative effects can be incorporated into SDG monitoring and the scientific institutions need additional incentives to participate in CSS.

Ninety percent of the people added to the planet over the next 30 years will live in African and Asian cities, and a large portion of these populations will reside in deprived neighborhoods defined by slum conditions, informal settlement, or inadequate housing. The four current approaches to neighborhood deprivation mapping are largely silo-ed, and each fall short of producing accurate, timely, comparable maps that reflect local contexts. The first approach, classifying “slum households” in census and survey data and aggregating to administrative areas, reflects household-level rather than neighborhood-level deprivation. The second approach, field-based mapping, can produce the most accurate and context-relevant maps for a given neighborhood, however it requires substantial resources, preventing up-scaling. The third and fourth approaches, human interpretation and machine classification of satellite, aerial, or drone imagery, both overemphasize informal settlements, and fail to represent key social characteristics of deprived areas such as lack of tenure, exposure to pollution, and lack of basic public services. The latter, machine classification of imagery, can be automated and extended to incorporate new and multiple sources of data. This diverse collection of authors represent experts from these four approaches to neighborhood deprivation mapping. We summarize common areas of understanding, and present a set of requirements to produce maps of deprived urban areas that can be used by local-to-international stakeholders for advocacy, planning, and decision-making.

High Education Institutions (HEI) play a key role in fostering sustainability since students will be future active society members. By providing them with the knowledge, skills, and mindset needed to address environmental challenges, they can contribute to increase sustainability in a long-term approach. With the effects of climate change strongly affecting water availability across planet, it is increasingly relevant to understand if higher education students are aware of this situation, to develop adequate measures to promote sustainable behaviors regarding water uses. This study aimed to assess students’ perceptions regarding water efficiency through a questionnaire submitted in 7 HEI in Portugal. Students recognized the importance of water with older students, women and science students demonstrating a greater awareness. Inspite of this 27% students do not know what the average water consumption in Portugal is and only 18% accurately reported the consumption range in Portugal. There is also a lack of knowledge (>50% students) if common water efficiency measures are applied in their HEI. The main information sources identified by the students were “social communication” and “internet/social media”, revealing that water efficiency knowledge transfer in high education can be improved.

Simulation-Based Medical Education that uses Virtual Patients has become increasingly important during the COVID-19 pandemic. With the need for social distancing and minimizing contact, medical simulation technology has provided a valuable tool for healthcare professionals to practice and improve their skills without the need for face-to-face interactions. MedSIM is a medically accurate simulation platform with Virtual Patients designed for undergraduate medical education. Our study involved two groups of students. The PreCOVID group, before the pandemic, underwent conventional teaching methods. The COVID group, during the pandemic, had students exposed to conventions skills taught earlier and were taught again with MedSIM. Students indicated high satisfaction with the clinical skills demonstrated by the Virtual Patients. More than half agreed that MedSIM had enabled them to perform all kinds of procedures on patients (PreCOVID group 68.8%, COVID group 71.3%), showed cues and consequences much like those in natural clinical environments (PreCOVID 68.4%, COVID 71.3%). Also, MedSIM allowed them to have a repetitive practice that helps in critical skills transfer to actual patients (PreCOVID 72.7%, COVID 74.7%). MedSIM met the expectations of most of the students. Students from both groups rated the online performance of the MedSIM simulator as "Very good." Analysis from a customized word cloud indicated that most students found MedSIM to be good and of educational value. MedSIM platform enhances healthcare professionals' skills and knowledge, leading to better patient outcomes and increased access to healthcare, supporting SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-being). It also provides a safe and controlled environment for healthcare professionals to learn and practice essential skills, supporting SDG 4 (Quality Education).

The multiple crises that the world is facing – climate change, COVID-19 and war have halted or reversed the progress of the world towards the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals. Using a case study of Dayalbagh, a locality in metropolitan Agra, India, and headquarters of the Radhasoami faith, we examine the potential benefits of employing agroecology to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The active, disciplined and cooperative community-based lifestyle followed in Dayalbagh with a strong focus on agriculture and service demonstrates how most of the SDGs can be achieved. It offers lessons for policy makers in terms of focus areas for policy support and reaching the last, lowest, least and the lost.

Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6.2 sets an ambitious target of leaving no one without adequate sanitation by 2030. The key concern is the lack of local human and financial capital to fund the collection of reliable information to monitor progress towards the goal. As a result, national and local records may be telling a different story of the proportion of safely managed sanitation that counts towards achieving the SDGs. This paper unveils such inconsistency in sanitation data generated by urban authorities and proposes a simple approach for collecting reliable and verifiable information on access to safely managed sanitation. The paper is based on a study conducted in Babati Town Council in Tanzania. Using a smartphone-based survey tool, city health officers were trained to map 17,383 housing units in the town. A housing unit may comprise of two or more households. The findings show that 5% practice open defecation, while 82% of the housing units have some forms of sanitation. Despite the extensive coverage, only 31% of the faecal sludge generated is safely contained, while 64% is not. This study demonstrates the possibility of using simple survey tools to collect reliable data for monitoring progress towards safely managed sanitation in the towns of global south.

Binge drinking is a pattern of alcohol abuse. Its prevalence and associated risk factors are not well documented. Heavy drinking, on the other hand, has a well-studied association with bereavement . This report uses a cross-sectional, population-based survey to estimate prevalence of bingeing and its association with new bereavement. Bingeing is defined as 4 or more drinks (women) or 5 or more drinks (men) in a 2-to-4-hour setting. For the first time, the Georgia Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey (BRFSS) included a bereavement item, ‘Have you experienced the death of a family member or close friend in the years 2018 or 2019?’. Methods: Georgia BRFSS is a complex sampling survey administered annually. It is designed to represent the 8.1 million persons in the U.S. state of Georgia aged 18 years and older. Alcohol consumption patterns are routinely measured in the common core. In the 2019 field survey, the state added a new item probing for bereavement in the prior 24 months predating the pandemic of COVID-19. Imputation and weighting techniques were applied to yield population prevalence rates of new bereavement, bingeing, and their co-occurrence with other high-risk health states. Models, adjusted for age, gender, and race were used to estimate the risk for other unhealthy behaviors posed by the co-occurrence of bereavement and bingeing. Results: In Georgia, bereavement is common (45.8 %), and alcohol consumption is common (48.8 %). Bereavement and alcohol use co-occurred among 1,796,817 persons (45 % of all drinkers). The subset of co-occurring bereavement and binging totaled 608,282 persons. Within this group, the highest rates of bereavement were associated with death of a friend / neighbor (30.7%) or 3 plus deaths (31.8%). Conclusions: While bingeing is a known risk to public health, its co-occurrence with recent bereavement is a new observation. Public health surveillance systems need to monitor this co-occurrence to protect both individual and societal health. In a time of global bereavement, documenting its influence on binge drinking can support the work towards Sustainable Goal #3 – Good health and Well-Being. Keywords: BRFSS, Binge Drinking, Population Survey, Bereavement, SDG#3. Mental Health

Ukraine is an associate member of the European Union and in the coming years it is expected that all the data and services already used by European Union countries will become available for Ukraine. An important program, which is the basis for building European monitoring services for Smart Cities, is the Copernicus program. The two most important services of this program are Copernicus Land Monitoring Service (CLMS) and Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS). CLMS provides important information on Land Use in Europe. In the context of Smart Cities, the most valuable one is the Urban Atlas service, which is related to local CLMS services and provides a detailed digital city plan in vector form, which is segmented into small functional areas classified by the CORIN nomenclature. The Urban Atlas is a geospatial layer with high-resolution, which is built for all European cities with a population of more than 100,000 that combines high-resolution sat-ellite data, city segmentation by blocks and functional areas, important city infrastructure, etc. This product is used as a basis for city planning and obtaining analytics on the most important indicators of city development including air quality monitoring. For Ukraine, such geospatial products are not provided under the Copernicus program. It is important to start work on its development and implementation as early as possible, so that when the first city atlas appears, Ukraine will be ready to work with it together with the European community. This requires preparing the basis for na-tional research and training national stakeholders and users to use this product. To make this happen it’s necessary to have national geospatial product, which can be used as an analogue of the city atlas. In this article authors analyzed the existing methods of air quality assessment and assessment of the SDG indicator 11.6.2 achieving for European cities, based on which the indicator 11.6.2 for Ukraine for 5 years was evaluated for the first time. The obtained results are analyzed and the values of indicator 11.6.2 for Ukraine are compared with European countries.

Protected areas have been used worldwide to conserve natural resources. Nevertheless, economic activities to provide income for communities living inside and surrounding conservation areas remain an issue. This study aimed to assess the sustainability of a Deuterodon iguape hatchery, placed inside an Atlantic Rainforest Park, to leverage this small native fish's grow-out farming, affording income and food security for local families. We have used a set of indicators of economic, social, and environmental sustainability. The initial investment is about US$ 40,000, which returned in ~2 years. The internal rate of return is close to 50%, including the externality costs, which is attractive for public and private investments. The hatchery generated few direct jobs, but the workforce can be recruited in the community, and hatchery can enable the establishment of several small grow-out farms, leveraging the development of indirect jobs and self-employments. The system had a low environmental impact, showing minor release of pollutants, low risk for biodiversity, and absorption of 18 g of CO2 equivalent per thousand post-larvae produced, contributing to the struggle against climate change. Therefore, D. iguape hatchery demonstrates the potential of combining biodiversity conservation and income generation, meeting the Sustainable Development Goals of Agenda 2030.

Ensuring access to water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) facilities, coupled with behavior change education in schools, is fundamental for fostering a conducive learning environment and promoting principles of inclusion, dignity, and equality. This study focuses on 12 primary schools in Anápolis, Brazil, encompassing 4,394 students and 248 teachers. WASH assessments were conducted through a questionnaire, observation of water and sanitation facilities and structures, and microbiological analysis. Over the period 2018 to 2020, the proportion of schools with safely managed drinking water surged from 42% to 92%. However, sanitation conditions in the schools were categorized as a basic level, with hygiene services rated as limited in 92% of the schools due to the absence of soap. While this study reveals that Anápolis schools generally align with WASH guidelines for basic/advanced drinking water services, there is a crucial need for enhancements in both hardware and software facilities to address sanitation and hygiene challenges.

This text mining study delves into the multifaceted contributions of the energy sector to the Sus-tainable Development Goals (SDGs). By analyzing a wide range of academic literature, we un-cover key themes, trends, and challenges shaping the intersection of energy and sustainability. The findings reveal that the energy sector plays a pivotal role in achieving SDGs such as affordable and clean energy (SDG 7) and climate action (SDG 13). Critical issues encompass governance, policy frameworks, and technological innovations. This research underscores the need for inter-disciplinary collaboration and holistic approaches in addressing complex energy-related sus-tainability challenges. The insights derived here provide guidance to policymakers, researchers, and stakeholders seeking to harness the energy sector's potential for a more sustainable and eq-uitable future.

Interpretive Structural Modelling (ISM) is widely used to understand the complex connections between different components. This study presents a bibliometric overview of ISM research with a focus on its linkages to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and the impact of COVID-19. The study analyzed 1988 publications on ISM published between 2012 and 2021, of which 1202 were directly mapped to the SDG and 59 were related to COVID-19. The study identified key authors, institutions, countries, and journals involved in the research and their linkages to the SDG. The results showed that ISM research is strongly linked to SDG 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production) and SDG 9 (Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure). We also identified influential SDG based on centrality measures like betweenness and eigenvector. The top four countries contributing to ISM publications were India, China, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The most frequently cited journals were Benchmarking: An International Journal, Sustainability, Journal of Modelling in Management, and Journal of Cleaner Production. Four main clusters were identified in the ISM research, including (1) integration with AHP & Fuzzy Logic for promoting sustainability alignment, (2) ISM-based strategy development for various stakeholders, (3) ISM-based decision-making in various fields, and (4) ISM-based risk evaluation. For the first time studies that used ISM approach to understand the epidemiological characteristics of COVID-19 were identified and their key findings were discussed. The study also identified several emerging topics for future ISM research, such as blockchain & IoT, environmental management systems, climate change adaptation, smart cities, and humanitarian logistics and their potential linkages to SDG.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) purport to report holistically on progress towards sustainability and do so using more than 231 discrete indicators with a primary objective to achieve a balance between the environment, social and economic aspects of development. The research question underpinning the analyses presented in this paper is: are the indicators in the SDGs sufficient and fit-for-purpose to assess the trajectory of natural resources towards sustainability? We extracted the SDG indicators that monitor the state of natural resources, or alternately support policy or governance for their protection, and determined if these are adequate to provide the essential data on natural resources to achieve the aims of the SDGs. The indicators are clustered into four natural resource categories; land, water (both marine and freshwater), air and biodiversity. Indicators for monitoring land resources show that the most comprehensive land resource indicator, for degraded land, is not fully implemented and that missing from land monitoring is an evaluation of vegetation health outside of forests and mountains, the condition of soils, and most importantly the overall health of terrestrial ecosystems. Indicators for monitoring water resources have substantial gaps, unable to properly monitor water quality, water stress, many aspects of marine resources and most significantly, the health of fresh and salt water ecosystems. Indicators for monitoring of air have recently become more comprehensive, but linkage to IPCC results would benefit both programmes. Monitoring of biodiversity is perhaps the greatest weakness of the SDG Agenda, having no comprehensive assessment even though narrow aspects are monitored. Again, deliberate linkages to other global biodiversity programmes (e.g. CBD and the Post 2020 Biodiversity Framework; IPBES; Living Planet, etc.) are recommended on condition that data can be defined at a country level. While the SDG list of indicators in support of natural resource is moderately comprehensive, it lacks holistic monitoring in relation to evaluation of ecosystems and biodiversity to the extent that these missing but vital measures of sustainability threaten the entire SDG Agenda. In addition, an emerging issue is that even where there are appropriate indicators, the amount of country-level data remains inadequate to fully evaluate sustainability. This signals the delicate balance between the extent and complexity of the SDG Agenda and uptake at a country level

Access to reliable water supply is critical for sustainable development and public health, yet many peri-urban and rural communities in the developing world face challenges such as poor maintenance, faulty infrastructure, and inadequate governance of water services, hindering the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). In Emina-Boadi, a small town in Kumasi, Ghana, residents increasingly rely on boreholes due to substandard service from the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL). This shift highlights concerns about water reliability, quality, and affordability, impacting public health and hindering progress toward SDG 6. This case study assesses water service levels using key performance indicators (KPIs) such as quantity, quality, affordability, accessibility, and reliability, focusing on sources like boreholes, hand pumps, piped water, hand-dug wells, rainwater, and surface waters. The study aims to delineate the roles of different water providers, understand community dynamics, and evaluate contributions to rural development and SDG 6 through stakeholder interviews and questionnaires. Leveraging the WASHCost framework, which aims to improve planning methods and provision of water and sanitation services by addressing the lack of cost information in rural and peri-urban areas, and the Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) framework, which monitors progress toward global targets related to water, sanitation, and hygiene, the study categorizes indicators and draws connections among them. Findings reveal a significant preference for borehole services, with 87% usage and an 83% reliability rate compared to 13% for GWCL. Daily water consumption averages 60.75 liters per person, with on-premises access improving water collection efficiency to 7 minutes. Dissatisfaction with GWCL services highlights the need for improved delivery aligned with community needs and SDG targets. Adopting sustainable management practices, enhancing infrastructure, and improving governance are crucial for ensuring safe and affordable water access for all residents of Emina-Boadi and similar communities.

Taiwan’s Chi Mei Medical Center has a vision of becoming a sustainable organization. They found they violated the sustainable development goal (SDG) 13 (“Climate Action”) since its workflows consume excessive tangible resources and waste much operation time. To fulfill the vision, the Chi Mei Medical Center first introduced electronic invoicing. Implementing this electronic invoicing included adopting cloud E-invoice data and creating a software robot for auditing them. This study presents this software robot and its contributions. The software robot replaces an internal auditor to log into Taiwan’s E-invoice platform, download cloud E-invoice data, and detect the inconsistency between these cloud and on-premise data. Internal auditors of the Chi Mei Medical Center only needed to confirm the detection results. They welcome this software robot since it significantly reduces their work burdens. They approved more software robots for assisting other workflows. Besides, the Chi Mei Medical Center earned profits after eliminating paper invoices. This elimination helped release less carbon. This study concludes that chasing a sustainable organization is unnecessarily equivalent to the requirement of more costs. A software robot represents the last puzzle for constructing a paperless workflow since it can resolve the resistance of existing workers to a new workflow.

This paper analyzes the potential strategies for a bank merger from a Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) perspective, focusing on three key criteria: profitability, market share, and service quality. In the short-term, the merged bank should prioritize optimizing financial performance through cost management, revenue stream identification, and risk management practices. Market share expansion can be achieved through targeted customer acquisition and retention efforts, market research, and competitive analysis. Service quality can be enhanced through improved customer service, efficient complaint resolution processes, and leveraging technology. These short-term plans align the merged bank's operations with the identified criteria and promote responsible banking practices that contribute towards the SDGs. In the long-term, the merged bank should focus on diversifying revenue streams, expanding its customer base, and optimizing cost structure. Long-term strategies should include establishing a strong brand presence, customer loyalty programs, and continuous improvement in service quality. The paper emphasizes the importance of monitoring progress, making necessary adjustments, and aligning with SDGs for sustained profitability and long-term success in the marketplace. The findings of this study provide valuable insights for banks considering a merger and highlight the significance of considering SDGs in their strategic planning.

Introduction: In rural communities in regions with limited resources the provision of clean water remains challenging. Fecal contamination of water is very common and results in a high incidence of diarrhea, subsequent acute kidney injury and mortality particularly in the very young and old. Membrane filtration is a practical solution to this problem and recent innovation allows membrane filtration using recycled hemodialyzers. We, Easy Water for Everyone, have quantified the systematic effect on health outcomes. Material and Methods: Between 02/2018 and 12/2018, 4 communities in rural Ghana (in the Greater-Accra region) were each provided with a high-volume membrane filtration devices (NUF 500; NuFiltration using recycled hemodialyzers). Health data from montly household surveys and chart review in local healthcare facilities were collected with approval from Ghana Health Services. Specifically, data was collected on gastrointestinal disease, acute kidney injury and therapeutic interventions. Incidence rates for a five-months period before and after implementation of the device were calculated and compared to rates during the same months from 4 neighboring communities that were not yet provided with the device. Results: Acceptance of the devices and the purified water in the studied villages was good and self-reported data of 1130 villagers over 10 months from 9 studied communities in rural Ghana (11% younger than 5 years and 14 % older than 65 years) were included in this analysis. The overall monthly incidence rate of diarrhea showed a decline following the implementation of the device in the 4 study villages from a mean of 0.18 to 0.05 cases per person-month for a reduction in rates by 72% (rate ratio = 0.27). By contrast, the control group of 4 villages in the same region showed no decline in mean rates during the same months as the study period with mean rates changing not significantly from 0.11 to 0.08 cases per person-month. Discussion: Provision of a hemodialyzer membrane filtration device markedly improves health outcomes as measured by diarrhea incidence within rural communities. While our data awaits confirmation in a larger population and further statistical analyses accounting for village characteristics, seasonality and subject demographics, the obvious decline in incidence rates supports widespread use of hemodialyzer membrane filtration devices, particularly in rural regions. Rollout of the device in further sites will likely increase our understanding in terms of risk and other preventive factors modifying the incidence of diarrhea and subsequent acute kidney injury.

A burgeoning body of scholarship identifies and discusses botanic gardens as increasingly important centres of biodiversity conservation and sustainability. Notwithstanding the high quality and richness of this literature, it encompasses relatively autonomous fields of expertise that are neither designed nor expected to promote cross-disciplinary, integrative, accounts of botanic gardens as institutions of conservation and sustainability. Bridging key aspects of the botanic garden literature, this article brings into conversation historical accounts with contemporary scholarship on the matter. In so doing, it unveils dilemmas and challenges faced by botanic gardens as they grapple with their historic legacies, but also renew their relevance in nurturing sustainable socio-environmental futures. The article proceeds by covering three focal points. First, it summarizes the scholarly literature on the history of botanic gardens. Second, it presents accounts of current scientific and biodiversity conservation endeavours as reflexive engagements with their historical legacies. Third, it addresses the recent emergence of socio-cultural missions at botanic gardens as a significant step beyond their historical focus on plants and plant ecosystems.

Storing apples for up to a year is a well-established practice aimed at providing a continuous, locally-produced fruit supply to consumers and adapting to market trends for optimized profits. Temperature control is the cornerstone of postharvest conservation and apples are typically kept at temperatures from 0 to 3 °C. However, the energy-intensive process of the initial cool down and subsequent temperature maintenance poses significant financial challenges and contributes to the carbon footprint. Higher storage temperatures could reduce cooling-related energy usage but also pose the risk of enhanced ripening and quality loss. This work explores different storage technologies aiming to reduce energy consumption such as 1-methylcyclopropene, ultra-low oxygen and dynamic controlled atmosphere together with raised temperatures. The integration of advanced monitoring and control systems, coupled with data analytics and energy management in apple storage is also discussed. These sustainable strategies can be implemented without cost-intensive construction measures in standard storage facilities. Furthermore, beneficial side effects of higher storage temperatures in terms of a reduced occurrence of storage disorder symptoms and higher maintenance of quality attributes are also discussed for this special issue on sustainable horticultural production systems and supply chains.

Student mobility is one of the most important indicators to reflect institutional internationalization in a sustainable higher education system. While student mobility issues have been addressed persistently, the phenomenon is rarely discussed in association with higher education expansion. Since higher education sustainable development has received much scholarly attention, monitoring student mobility flows to adjust international strategies is necessary. This study explored practical approaches to detect student mobility flows in the process of higher education expansion. Targeting Taiwan’s higher education system as an example, we addressed the topic of system expansion and the core issues of student mobility. Target series data were collected from 1950 to 2021, including higher education enrollment, gross enrollment ratio (GER), and number of inbound and outbound students. The data were transformed with index formats, for example enrollment increasing ratio (IR) and net flow ratio. The cross-correlation function (CCF) and autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) were used to determine the correlations of the series data and their future trends. The findings suggested that the effect of system expansion, with GER and IR, might influence the mobility ratios significantly in the process of higher education expansion. This study confirmed that the time series approaches work well in detecting the phenomena of higher education expansion and their effects on student mobility flows in the future.

Sharing facilities with other households offers the most realistic opportunity for access to sanitation to many households in low-income settings. However, questions remain about the safety of shared toilets, including those shared at the household level. This study sought to compare the usage and microbial safety of household-level shared and unshared toilets in a Ghanaian rural district to investigate any association between their microbial safety and sharing status. A semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect data on the user characteristics of the sampled toilets, while common contact surfaces (door handles and toilet seats) were assessed for faecal contamination following standard swab sampling and analytical protocols. The results of the study indicate that sharing toilets affords about 90% more household-level access to sanitation as compared to single-household toilets. Toilet sharing mostly occurred between two households, with a maximum user population of 14 per toilet. Generally, there was a high prevalence of faecal contamination of the door handles and seats of both shared and unshared toilets, but this had no association with the sharing status of the toilets. The median concentration of E. coli on door handles and seats of shared toilets were 34.3 x 105 and 103.2 x 105 CFU/ml respectively as compared to 54.7 x 105 and 125.0 x 105 CFU/ml respectively on unshared toilets. In conclusion, the sharing of toilets at the household level nearly doubles access to sanitation at home without necessarily exposing the users to a higher risk of faecal-oral disease transmission.

In the era of mounting water scarcity, particularly in arid regions, the agricultural sector is striving to optimize the water resource management practices. Treated wastewater (TWW) has emerged as a viable alternative to freshwater for irrigation, offering a sustainable solution to water conservation. However, ensuring the safety and quality of TWW is paramount to safeguard for both crop health and environmental integrity. Electrical conductivity (EC), a critical factor in assessing TWW suitability for irrigation, can significantly impact crop yields and soil health since it is directly linked to the concentration of dissolved salts and ions. Therefore, this study delves into the development of advanced predictive models for EC assessment by employing supervised machine learning (ML) techniques like the Support Vector Regression (SVR), Adaptive Network-based Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS), and Multiple Linear Regression (MLR). The TWW samples collected from Al-Qatif area, Saudi Arabia were assessed in the lab through a sensor-based real-time monitoring system integrated with Internet of Things (IoT) network and a multiprobe device. The key water quality parameters assessed involved, temperature (T), pH, Oxidation Reduction Potential (ORP), Resistivity (RES), Total Dissolved Solids (TDS), Salinity and Turbidity which served as the foundation for these models, given their profound influence on and their anticipated impact on EC levels. Following feature selection, two distinct model combinations were identified for the SVR, ANFIS and MLR models. Furthermore, to evaluate prediction performance, four statistical criteria, including coefficient of determination (R²), correlation coefficient (R), mean square error (MSE), and root mean square error (RMSE), were employed. Overall, the comparative performance results proved that ANFIS-M2 indicated the strongest predictive capability with the R² value of 0.99572 and 0.75145 and the RMSE values of 0.00965 and 0.01134, respectively in both calibration and verification stages.

Efficient implementation of clean energy technologies, including pioneering solutions like mobile solar PV systems mounted on trailers (MSPT), is pivotal for addressing energy challenges, especially in regions with constrained power grid access. This endeavour is vital for meeting escalating elec-tricity demands and aligning with the UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) aimed at ensuring dependable and sustainable energy provision in developing countries. This paper investigates the aerodynamic behaviour of a designed MSPT using numerical and experimental approaches. Spe-cifically, the study focuses on the effects of wind velocity and tilt angels on the drag and lift forces, as well as drag and lift coefficients on the panel used in the MSPT system. Additionally, the overall wind force acting on the entire MSPT (including 9 large solar PV panels) was examined, considering the combined effects of wind flow and the system's geometry. The simulations were conducted using ANSYS-Fluent software and experimental testing was performed utilizing scaled-down models to validate the accuracy of the simulation. The insights and the knowledge from this study can be utilized to optimize the design, installation, and operation of such systems, ultimately enhancing their performance, reliability, and paving ways for further improvements in mobile solar PV technology.

The regions with the best economy have a greater capacity to develop low-income or social impact housing, thus contributing to the reduction of poverty, and therefore, to the fulfillment of the Sustainable Development Goals. This is observed in fewer people living in extreme poverty and with fewer unmet basic needs. The present article analyzes the correlation between development by the main economic sectors in the different regions (departments) of Colombia, and the offer of low-income housing. The valid relationship found is between the economic condition of the regions (GDP) and non-social housing (more expensive commercial value) (Spearman´s Rho: 0.9). That means that there is an imbalance between regional economic capacity and the low-income housing offer because their economic potential allows them to have less of a demanding population, that is, living in poverty. This correlation is higher with activities that are mostly developed in an urban environment, such as manufacturing, construction, real estate, and finance and insurance. On the contrary, the correlation is lower with industries such as mining and agriculture, which mostly operate in rural areas. The analysis for low-income housing and economic sectors GDP yields low correlations, but are especially dismissible for more rural industries, such as mining and agriculture. The analysis shows the change of trend in the correlations for the year 2021, the beginning of the post-pandemic economic recovery.

The pursuit of human-centered, sustainable and resilient production is shaping a future-oriented approach to manufacturing processes in the context of Industry 5.0. How can such production be implemented? For this purpose, this article analyses the effects of the developed Dresden Model of Adaptability on the integration of holistic sustainability. The focus is on investigating the promotion of economic, environmental and social sustainability goals in terms of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals as well as analysing strategies to increase resilience to changing environmental conditions. A human-centered perspective is considered. The model proves to be a holistic approach that drives sustainable development of the production system through the comprehensive integration of human, technology, and organisational structures.

Background: Cancer patients require cross-professional care during the diagnosis and treatment periods. Therefore, methods for effectively carrying out case management are essential to tumor care. Purpose: To investigate the effects of using the community software LINE Official Ac-count on oral cancer case management. Methods: An experimental design was used; 100 patients were randomly divided into two groups by using a computer-generated random number table. The experimental group used LINE Official Account, which gave them self-care information, timely messages, and one-on-one health-care consultations. The control group followed standard healthcare practices. Results: The experimental group was satisfied with the self-care information provided by LINE Official Account (86.9%), patients regularly checked the self-care information (89.4%) and would check the information when receiving a push notification (54.3%). Ten patients used the one-on-one consultation(20.0%). LINE Official Account had a significant effect on the rate of participation in support groups. Generalized estimating equations indicated a significant difference between the two groups regarding the overall quality of life over 7 days (P = 0.023). Conclusion: Community software applications used in oncological case management can improve self-management and empower, also enable tracking of long-term follow-up effectiveness and reinforce the case manager’s role as a family therapist. Therefore, this study recommends that case manager systems be incorporated into mobile applications to increase the sustainable management, accessibility, effectiveness, and satisfaction of oncological management systems. This study also provides the value of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with Good Health and Well-being, and decreased social withdrawal among patients with oral cancer.

The response of building elements during earthquakes has been an area of concern for different researchers around the world. The NSEs are the first elements to attain failure, the buildings after damages in safety priority are classified as in “Life Safety” mode, but in reality, they are in “Collapse Safety” mode and the occupants inside the buildings are in a state of “Non-Life Safety” as a result of falling of the hazardous NSE’s like cladding's, partitions, hanging objects. In addition to the Life Cycle Cost Assessment (LCCA), the Social Life Cycle Assessment (SLCA) is overlooked by the majority of the researchers, the community must be prepared to respond to an event more efficiently without any major casualties or loss of life. It is expected that by the end of 2050, almost double the construction will take place, the embodied energy during the pre-construction, post-construction and demolition generates a lot of CO2s into the environment, hence sustainability should be given due importance, helping in the achievement of Sustainable Developmental Goals (SDGs).

(1) Background: Depressional wetlands are highly vulnerable to changes in temperature and rainfall, affecting littoral vegetation, thus HydroGeoMorphic (HGM) wetland types. This study aimed to assess the utility of Sentinel-2A vegetation indices in enhancing delineation and sub-classify depressional HGM types. (2) Methods: We sampled 84 pairs of four vegetation indices from 10x10m plots along 14 belt transects in eight depressional wetlands in Mpumalanga, South Africa. We evaluated vegetation index differences between and within wetlands, focusing on lit-toral gradients. (3) Results: Significant differences (Bonferroni p

Target 12.3 of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) calls for halving per capita global food waste at the retail and consumer levels, by 2030. The Food Waste Index is suggested as a methodology for grasping the situation. This paper focuses on the consumer level (household food waste). We argue that in order for generating useful information for devising and implementing effective measures for reducing food waste, it should be measured at Level 3 of the Food Waste Index, based on sorting analysis of generated waste, making a distinction between avoidable and non-avoidable food waste. Furthermore, a breakdown by sub-categories that reflect the flow of food in the household could help identify target behaviours. We have developed a categorisation scheme that is internationally agreeable and adoptable, and 1) generates useful information for policy-making and for tackling with reduction of food waste, 2) makes clear the concept of avoidable food waste, and 3) is practical and does not overcomplicate the work of grasping the situation of food wastage. Results of workshops regarding this scheme suggest that the scheme satisfies the criteria. This scheme has been applied to a few sorting analyses of household food waste in Japan, and their results are compared.

A single Information security is of pivotal concern for consistently streaming information over the widespread internetwork. The bottleneck flow of incoming and outgoing data traffic introduces the issue of malicious activities taken place by intruders, hackers and attackers in the form of authenticity desecration, gridlocking data traffic, vandalizing data and crashing the established network. The issue of emerging suspicious activities is managed by the domain of Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS). The IDS consistently monitors the network for identifica-tion of suspicious activities and generates alarm and indication in presence of malicious threats and worms. The performance of IDS is improved by using different signature based machine learning algorithms. In this paper, the performance of IDS model is determined using hybridization of nestrov-accelerated adaptive moment estimation –stochastic gradient descent (HNADAM-SDG) algorithm. The performance of the algorithm is compared with other classi-fication algorithms as logistic regression, ridge classifier and ensemble algorithm by adapting feature selection and optimization techniques