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Scientific, Socio-Economic and Integrated Approaches to Sustainable Development—Impact on Globalization, Technology and Environmental Management

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Urban and Rural Development".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2020) | Viewed by 26419

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Mechanical, Energy and Management Engineering Department, University of Calabria, 87036 Cosenza, Italy
Interests: building materials; innovative families of binders; greenhouse gas emission; pollutant degradation; photocatalysis; globalization; geopolymers; durability and sustainability of traditional or innovative mortars
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Scientific development, socioeconomic changes, modernization of infrastructure, and sustainable development are completely interlinked to each other. The majority of greenhouse gases are linked to the construction and operation of infrastructure, and buildings alone are estimated to account for more than 30% of global resource consumption and energy end use. As a result, the impact on environmental problems, management, and on globalization is drastic. Life below water and life on land are inextricably linked to present and future infrastructure assets, which is the final impact of sustainable development. Socioeconomic variation in society, the scientific approach to solve the needs of society, and finally the integration of all the major conditions have to be studied for a sustainable society. The impact of all those has to be addressed in terms of economic development, scientific outcomes, as well as the integration of an efficient system. At the same time, we rely upon diverse forms of infrastructure to deliver essential services and support our economies. Poverty is increasing on one side, whereas people are becoming more technology-savvy. Artificial intelligence or artificial brains are coming into act, whereas we are losing our green environment, and more green space is being destroyed to make room for smart cities. Empirical, theoretical, and econometric topics related to the world’s socioeconomy and labor condition will be also entertained for a sustainable society. Human wellbeing depends on water and sanitation infrastructure, just as quality education and productivity depend on access to energy. Purposefully-planned urban infrastructure including smart public transportation, green and energy-efficient buildings, as well as green spaces are vital to ensure that the world’s fast-growing cities are in line with the 2030 Agenda keeping the sustainability to our environment. Therefore, in this Special Issue, we will mostly focus on the impact of globalization in our society. Not only that, but we will also try to find a solution via an economical approach to create a balance between corporate sustainability and agricultural reforms. Several environmental technologies and their management for a sustainable society will be addressed. The long lifespan of newly built assets means that today’s decisions will have long-lasting impacts on our planet and future generations. The conventional “grow first, clean up later” approaches to economic growth are increasingly placing the futures of regional economies and societies at risk. A variety of angles, including the infrastructure financing gap, nature-based solutions, and tools for project-level assessment such as environmental and social impact assessments or the integration of sustainability considerations into cost–benefit analyses will also be included in this Special Issue.

Prof. Dr. Sudip Chakraborty
Prof. Dr. Sebastiano Candamano
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • globalization
  • social economy
  • technology
  • environmental management
  • sustainable development
  • world economy
  • poverty
  • nature-based solutions

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

11 pages, 245 KiB  
Article
What Are the Implications of Globalization on Sustainability?—A Comprehensive Study
by Sai Tang, Zhuolin Wang, Gengqi Yang and Wenwen Tang
Sustainability 2020, 12(8), 3411; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su12083411 - 22 Apr 2020
Cited by 29 | Viewed by 11361
Abstract
It is becoming more and more certain that globalization is not just purely an economical phenomenon; it is exhibiting itself on a worldwide level. Amid globalization’s observable appearances, the most obvious are the larger international mobility of goods and services, flows of finance [...] Read more.
It is becoming more and more certain that globalization is not just purely an economical phenomenon; it is exhibiting itself on a worldwide level. Amid globalization’s observable appearances, the most obvious are the larger international mobility of goods and services, flows of finance capital, data and information and most importantly people. On top of that, there are technological progresses and more international cultural interactions, which are facilitated by the enhancement of free trade of large quantities of more differentiated goods and also through immigration and tourism. The political changes and ecological concerns play an important part in this regard. In the current study, sustainability Indices are linked with the KOF Globalization Index to understand if more globalized countries are performing better in terms of sustainable development and its dimensions, especially environmental sustainability. Sustainability indices such as Human Development Index (HDI) and Environmental Performance Index (EPI) showed a stronger relation with different levels of globalization while others (Red List Index (RLI), Environment Sustainability Index (ESI)) did not. The results reveal that globalization has a positive implication on sustainability in the overall perspective. Full article
10 pages, 277 KiB  
Article
What Does Google Trends Tell Us about the Impact of Brexit on the Unemployment Rate in the UK?
by Mihaela Simionescu, Dalia Streimikiene and Wadim Strielkowski
Sustainability 2020, 12(3), 1011; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su12031011 - 31 Jan 2020
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 6614
Abstract
Considering the debate related to the potential effects of Brexit on the UK economy, the aim of this paper is to assess the impact of Brexit on the monthly unemployment rate since the vote for the UK leave from the European Union. This [...] Read more.
Considering the debate related to the potential effects of Brexit on the UK economy, the aim of this paper is to assess the impact of Brexit on the monthly unemployment rate since the vote for the UK leave from the European Union. This is one of the most important indicators of sustainable development for the country. The novelty of this research is given by the use of microdata to reflect the political instability brought by Brexit, with Google Trends being the tool for collecting the data. Moreover, the data for the four countries that compose the UK are considered (England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales) in a panel data and multilevel framework. The results are consistent with the analysis of important macroeconomic indicators and indicate that Brexit concerns decreased the unemployment rate in the period June 2016–March 2019, with few arguments being provided for this. The state policies should encourage the investment in order to support the future economic growth and sustainable development of the UK. Full article
19 pages, 7202 KiB  
Article
The Coordinated Relationship between Investment Potential and Economic Development and Its Driving Mechanism: A Case Study of the African Region
by Guoen Wei, Pingjun Sun, Zhenke Zhang and Xiao Ouyang
Sustainability 2020, 12(1), 442; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su12010442 - 06 Jan 2020
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 7476
Abstract
In order to analyze the coordination relationship between investment potential and economic development and its driving mechanisms, this study integrated the entropy weight method, coupling coordination degree model, exploratory spatial data analysis, geographic detector, and geographically weighted regression model. The developed approach was [...] Read more.
In order to analyze the coordination relationship between investment potential and economic development and its driving mechanisms, this study integrated the entropy weight method, coupling coordination degree model, exploratory spatial data analysis, geographic detector, and geographically weighted regression model. The developed approach was applied using data from 51 African countries from 2008 to 2016. The results showed that: (1) While the level of economic development in the African continent has increased steadily, the overall investment potential needs to be improved. The mean economic development index rose from 0.116 to 0.151, but the economic gap among countries was still highly evident. (2) Uncoordinated development and barely coordinated development level were the dominant types of relationship between investment potential and economic development in African countries. The spatial distribution showed significant agglomeration characteristics; the sub-hot spot and sub-cold point regions maintained strong dependence with their hot spot and cold point counterparts. The hot spot areas gradually formed an agglomeration in Southern Africa and highly fragmented distribution in other areas. The cold spot areas formed a spatial distribution pattern of “one core and one belt” with some countries in Western Africa forming the core, while some Central and East African countries constituting the belt. (3) The coordination relationship between investment potential and economic development was influenced mainly by factors including economic base, residents’ living standard, industrial construction level, information support level, and business friendliness. Using geographically weighted regression coefficient distribution of indicators, the driving mechanisms of spatial distribution could be divided into five types: economic base driven, industry-driven, information application-driven, business convenience-driven, and consumer market-driven. Full article
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