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Sustainability
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Targeting Environmental Challenges Using Interactive Visual Technology
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Targeting Environmental Challenges Using Interactive Visual Technology

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Environmental Sustainability and Applications".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 June 2022) | Viewed by 7857

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Masood Masoodian

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Arts, Design and Architecture, Aalto University, Espoo, Finland
Interests: visualization; visual design; interactive media; interaction design
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Thomas Rist

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute for Computer Science, University of Applied Sciences Augsburg, Augsburg, Germany
Interests: interactive systems design; intelligent multimodal user interfaces; computer games development; visualization
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Environmental concerns have now become global challenges faced by the entire world. Human-centered technologies, tools, and services are, therefore, urgently needed to assist people in dealing with these challenges. Interactive visual technologies can play an important role in helping users to become better aware of environmental issues and challenges, and understand their causes, as well as their socio-economic impacts. As a consequence, users can then take environmentally-conscious and appropriate actions, such as conserving energy, consuming natural resources more efficiently, dealing with sustainability-related concerns, and so on. Interactive visual technologies can also, in particular, address human behavior and support changes in negative behavior, which can then result in better achieving environmental user goals. Furthermore, such technologies can be used to create a bridge between environmental sciences and other disciplines, including many life sciences, economics, and sociology.

This Special Issue focuses on the role of interactive visual technologies in targeting current and future environmental challenges. The emphasis is on the interactive and visual aspects of such technologies, which might be software applications, tools, visualizations, educational games, gamification, and other digital services in the private, public, or industrial sectors. The topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the design, development, deployment, and evaluation of interactive visual technologies for:

-Monitoring and visualization of different kinds of environmental and user data;

-Monitoring and detection of human behavior and activity patterns impacting environmental factors, both on the small-scale, individual level and on the large-scale, population level;

-Facilitating exploration, interpretation, comparison, explanation, and simulation modeling using different kinds of environmental and user data;

-Creating awareness, influencing choices, and encouraging environmentally conscious human behavior changes;

-Utilizing different kinds of environmental data to support related applications in other areas, such as education, policy-making, public health, and well-being.

Prof. Dr. Masood Masoodian
Prof. Dr. Thomas Rist
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

  • Environment
  • Interactive Visual Technologies
  • Visual Design
  • Interaction Design
  • Visualization
  • Visual Data Analytics
  • Explainability
  • Service Design
  • Design of Educational Tools
  • User Studies and Evaluations
  • Human-Centered Technology
  • Persuasive Technologies
  • Behavior Change

Published Papers (3 papers)

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26 pages, 12016 KiB  
Article
Aqua: Leveraging Citizen Science to Enhance Whale-Watching Activities and Promote Marine-Biodiversity Awareness
by Mara Dionisio, Mafalda Mendes, Marc Fernandez, Valentina Nisi and Nuno Nunes
Sustainability 2022, 14(21), 14203; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su142114203 - 31 Oct 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2019
Abstract
Life-supporting ecosystems are facing impending destruction. The human–computer interaction (HCI) community must rethink how to design technological interventions that reconcile concepts and theories for ecological computing. Proponents of sustainable HCI have pushed for tools and systems that aim to decenter the human in [...] Read more.
Life-supporting ecosystems are facing impending destruction. The human–computer interaction (HCI) community must rethink how to design technological interventions that reconcile concepts and theories for ecological computing. Proponents of sustainable HCI have pushed for tools and systems that aim to decenter the human in a shift toward posthuman design—a theoretical approach that challenges the assumption that only humans are stakeholders of technology as it increasingly shapes the future. Building on the iconic value of whales and the economic impact of whale watching as a form of ecotourism, we developed Aqua, a digital tool that leverages the potential of citizen science to engage tourists in marine-biodiversity awareness and conservation. This manuscript is advancing the field of sustainable HCI and tourism applications in two ways: first, we deliver an artifact contribution by designing and implementing a digital tool to enhance whale-watching activities. Second, we offer an empirical research contribution through observation and data gathering while comparing participants’ experiences of a whale-watching trip with and without the digital tool. Finally, preliminary insights are provided to inform the design of future digital tools aimed at promoting environmental conservation and citizen-science approaches among tourists. This work presents progression in understanding and informs the design of digital tools to engage tourists in novel and sustainable experiences. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Targeting Environmental Challenges Using Interactive Visual Technology)
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19 pages, 4746 KiB  
Article
Exploring Environmental and Geographical Factors Influencing the Spread of Infectious Diseases with Interactive Maps
by Saturnino Luz and Masood Masoodian
Sustainability 2022, 14(16), 9990; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su14169990 - 12 Aug 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1656
Abstract
Environmental problems due to human activities such as deforestation, urbanisation, and large scale intensive farming are some of the major factors behind the rapid spread of many infectious diseases. This in turn poses significant challenges not only in as regards providing adequate healthcare, [...] Read more.
Environmental problems due to human activities such as deforestation, urbanisation, and large scale intensive farming are some of the major factors behind the rapid spread of many infectious diseases. This in turn poses significant challenges not only in as regards providing adequate healthcare, but also in supporting healthcare workers, medical researchers, policy makers, and others involved in managing infectious diseases. These challenges include surveillance, tracking of infections, communication of public health knowledge and promotion of behavioural change. Behind these challenges lies a complex set of factors which include not only biomedical and population health determinants but also environmental, climatic, geographic, and socioeconomic variables. While there is broad agreement that these factors are best understood when considered in conjunction, aggregating and presenting diverse information sources requires effective information systems, software tools, and data visualisation. In this article, we argue that interactive maps, which couple geographical information systems and advanced information visualisation techniques, provide a suitable unifying framework for coordinating these tasks. Therefore, we examine how interactive maps can support spatial epidemiological visualisation and modelling involving distributed and dynamic data sources and incorporating temporal aspects of disease spread. Combining spatial and temporal aspects can be crucial in such applications. We discuss these issues in the context of support for disease surveillance in remote regions, utilising tools that facilitate distributed data collection and enable multidisciplinary collaboration, while also providing support for simulation and data analysis. We show that interactive maps deployed on a combination of mobile devices and large screens can provide effective means for collection, sharing, and analysis of health data. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Targeting Environmental Challenges Using Interactive Visual Technology)
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20 pages, 4211 KiB  
Article
Exploring the Problem Space of CO2 Emission Reductions from Academic Flying
by Aksel Biørn-Hansen, Daniel Pargman, Elina Eriksson, Mario Romero, Jarmo Laaksolahti and Markus Robért
Sustainability 2021, 13(21), 12206; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su132112206 - 05 Nov 2021
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 3210
Abstract
CO2 emissions from aviation have been predicted to increase over the coming decades. Within the academic world, flying is often perceived to be a necessary prerequisite to being a successful researcher. Many Swedish universities have ambitious climate goals, but are simultaneously among [...] Read more.
CO2 emissions from aviation have been predicted to increase over the coming decades. Within the academic world, flying is often perceived to be a necessary prerequisite to being a successful researcher. Many Swedish universities have ambitious climate goals, but are simultaneously among the top emitters in the public sector. Reaching stated climate goals could feasibly be met through a combination of measures, including decreased flying. One way to address the challenge is to support behavioural interventions with the help of interactive visualizations of CO2 emissions from flying. Those few examples that exist in the research literature are generally directed towards management and are less applicable to universities, given the large autonomy researchers enjoy and their discretionary control of research project funds. This paper uses a design-oriented research approach to present an analysis of the problem space at the intersection of interactive visualizations using air travel data to reduce CO2 emissions from business air travel at our own university, KTH Royal Institute of Technology. Through a number of design experiments, evaluations and investigations, we have unearthed needs, challenges and opportunities for the creation of visualization tools to support more sustainable travel practices at universities and in other knowledge-intensive organisations. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Targeting Environmental Challenges Using Interactive Visual Technology)
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