Mapping sustainability: A comparative analysis proposal across EU countries and regions.

This paper addresses the need to understand the structure of sustainability change in the face of the unpredictability of modern civilization. The aim of the paper is to examine the structure of sustainability change in relation to smaller spatial units such as the regions of the European Union and to compare these results with those achieved at the country level. For this purpose, the sustainable development indicators available in the Eurostat database were analyzed. Studies published to date have tended to focus on the performance of national economies or selected regions. In this article, the available data on regions are also analyzed. The study aims to compare the level of sustainable development achieved at the level of EU countries and regions located within them. Methodologically, the study uses advanced methods of comparative analysis, and the synthesis of the data enables the construction of a synthetic measure using taxonomic methods, facilitating the classification of EU countries and regions into clusters. The results highlight significant divergences in sustainability achievements between EU countries and regions. The study reveals the importance of studying sustainable development in smaller geographical cross-sections. The results highlight the need to expand access to data at the regional level (sustainability indicators) to facilitate more comprehensive analyses and inform targeted policy interventions. Looking to the future, the study recommends further research into the inter-linkages between sustainability and other critical areas in EU regions, such as innovation and competitiveness.

The impact of space development structure on the level of ecological footprint - Shift share analysis for European Union countries.

The impact of the space development structure on the level of the ecological footprint is an important element of the sustainable development policy, determining not only its directions, but also indicating the manner of respecting environmental principles. The aim of the research is to assess the impact of the spatial development structure on the ecological footprint level. The considerations are based on the assumption that the spatial development structure is a determinant of the ecological footprint level. The study used the shift share analysis method. Selected European countries were the subject of the research. The research period covered the years 2009-2019. The spatial differentiation of the GDP level and the ecological footprint were compared. For each country, the components of structural changes were determined and their changes over time were assessed. The study positively verified the main hypothesis and the auxiliary hypothesis. The ecological footprint decreased in the analyzed period. This phenomenon was not evenly distributed in European countries. Regions with a higher level of changes in the phenomenon than the EU average can be distinguished. The greatest changes in the demand for biosphere' natural resources in hectares of land and sea were recorded in Latvia and Lithuania. In contrast, the largest decrease in the size of the ecological footprint was observed in Cyprus. Differentiation of changes was visible within the individual components making up the ecological footprint in the analyzed period. The biggest changes took place within the fishing grounds. The smallest changes were recorded for cropland. This paper is expected to provide policy makers with a set of policy proposals to achieve sustainable environmental and economic development.

Multi-objective optimization technique: A novel approach in tourism sustainability planning.

Strategic management of complex decisional problems in the tourism sector requires the implementation of proper planning procedures for sustainable tourism activities, due to either the number of actors involved, the presence of conflicting goals and the need of resource rationalization. Thus, the aim of the research is to implement a new approach for the selection of projects to be funded by public administration, in order to maximize the efficiency of public resource allocation. Furthermore, the proposed technique enhances the inclusion of the three dimensions of sustainability in tourism policy planning and implementation phases. The Multi-objective Optimization model accounts for environmental, social and economic impacts, to select tourism activities to be realized in order to maximize stakeholder utility. In order to test the model, we selected a case study: a call for tender drafted by an Italian Public administration, whose aim was to support the attractiveness of the urban areas. Findings illustrate that, in comparison with multicriteria techniques, the proposed model allows to achieve a better allocation of public funds, in both quantitative (i.e., amount of resources allocated) and qualitative (selection of projects with positive social and environmental implication) terms.

Best-compromise solutions for waste management: Decision support system for policymaking.

Proper management of urban waste might support sustainable and circular development, while mismanagement increases both costs and socio-environmental negative outcomes. In particular, the organic fraction constitutes the largest share of urban waste. In the circular economy framework, it is described as a valuable resource, to be converted into soil improver, biogas and energy. The aim of the paper is to propose a Decision Support System (DSS) for policymakers, based on linear programming techniques. This model is expected to improve the current methodologies for planning and managing organic fraction of municipal solid waste and provide useful insights about public resources allocation. The proposed optimization model is tested on Campania Region (Italy), which is a clear example of the negative implications of improper waste management. Based on the goals recently set by Campania regional government, the model allows to select the most cost-effective and sustainable solutions for treating organic waste. Results show three different scenarios associated to the impacts that each possible outcome has on the stated objectives. The "Ideal Solution" is not achievable, but it is used as a benchmark; the "Max NPV Solution" is feasible, but it reports several major drawbacks. Finally, the "Best Compromise Solution" allows to increase regional composting capability by six time and biogas availability by seven times, with environmental implications that are very similar to the ideal ones.

How can social media analytics assist authorities in pandemic-related policy decisions? Insights from Australian states and territories.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Due to COVID-19, various countries introduced lockdowns and limited citizen movements. These restrictions triggered an increased use of digital technologies and platforms by the public. This provides an opportunity for the authorities to capture public perceptions on COVID-19 from social media channels to make informed decisions. The use of social media analytics during pandemics for decision-making, however, is an understudied area of research. Thus, this study aims to generate insights into how social media analytics can assist authorities in pandemic-related policy decisions. METHODS: This study involved a social media analysis approach-i.e., systematic geo-Twitter analysis-that contains descriptive, content, sentiment, and spatial analyses. Australian states and territories are selected as the case study context for the empirical investigation. This study collected 96,666 geotagged tweets (originated from Australia between 1 January and 4 May 2020), and analysed 35,969 of them after data cleaning. RESULTS: The findings disclose that: (a) Social media analytics is an efficient approach to capture the attitudes and perceptions of the public during a pandemic; (b) Crowdsourced social media data can guide interventions and decisions of the authorities during a pandemic, and; (c) Effective use of government social media channels can help the public to follow the introduced measures/restrictions. CONCLUSION: The findings are invaluable for authorities to understand community perceptions and identify communities in needs and demands in a pandemic situation, where authorities are not in a position to conduct direct and lengthily public consultations.

Understanding Sensor Cities: Insights from Technology Giant Company Driven Smart Urbanism Practices.

The data-driven approach to sustainable urban development is becoming increasingly popular among the cities across the world. This is due to cities' attention in supporting smart and sustainable urbanism practices. In an era of digitalization of urban services and processes, which is upon us, platform urbanism is becoming a fundamental tool to support smart urban governance, and helping in the formation of a new version of cities-i.e., City 4.0. This new version utilizes urban dashboards and platforms in its operations and management tasks of its complex urban metabolism. These intelligent systems help in maintaining the robustness of our cities, integrating various sensors (e.g., internet-of-things) and big data analysis technologies (e.g., artificial intelligence) with the aim of optimizing urban infrastructures and services (e.g., water, waste, energy), and turning the urban system into a smart one. The study generates insights from the sensor city best practices by placing some of renowned projects, implemented by Huawei, Cisco, Google, Ericsson, Microsoft, and Alibaba, under the microscope. The investigation findings reveal that the sensor city approach: (a) Has the potential to increase the smartness and sustainability level of cities; (b) Manages to engage citizens and companies in the process of planning, monitoring and analyzing urban processes; (c) Raises awareness on the local environmental, social and economic issues, and; (d) Provides a novel city blueprint for urban administrators, managers and planners. Nonetheless, the use of advanced technologies-e.g., real-time monitoring stations, cloud computing, surveillance cameras-poses a multitude of challenges related to: (a) Quality of the data used; (b) Level of protection of traditional and cybernetic urban security; (c) Necessary integration between the various urban infrastructure, and; (d) Ability to transform feedback from stakeholders into innovative urban policies.

Evaluation of the Italian transport infrastructures: A technical and economic efficiency analysis.

•The deregulation process played a key role in terms of airport efficiency.•The technical efficiency of 32 Italian airports has been evaluated•The methodological approach has been twofold: DEA and Tobit model•The main results show that efficiency is independent of an airport's size.•The findings highlight the decisive role of public shareholders in small airports.

Medicine 4.0: New Technologies as Tools for a Society 5.0.

Are new technologies in the medicine sector a driver to support the development of a society 5.0? Innovation pushes the artisan to become smart and lean, customer-oriented but within a standardized environment of production, maintaining and ensuring the quality of the product. An artisan is a user and innovator, as an essential part of the industrial chain. In the healthcare sector, the doctor is the industrial artisan, and medicine can be considered as an example of a smart tool, strongly tailored, that embeds the innovation of materials, nano-devices, and smart technology (e.g., sensors and controllers). But how much of society is ready to host smart technology "on board", becoming "on life", constantly connected with remote controls that allow us to monitor, gather data, and, in any case, act, with preventive healthcare solutions? After a short overview of the medicine sector, a preliminary, tentative link between technological innovation and the healthcare sector allows us to adopt several outlooks on how to change research, always more transdisciplinary, combining science with social science in order to remain human-centered.

Waste recycling patents and environmental innovations: An economic analysis of policy instruments in the USA, Japan and Europe.

Since natural resources are finite, new policy instruments to sustain the most efficient processes of waste recycling are required in all countries. To this end, it is critical to explore all technology mechanisms underlying solid waste researchers and practitioners' behaviors. The study focuses on to demonstrate the importance of knowledge diffusion between the source and destination of environmental innovations. This way, policymakers can elaborate opportune strategies to improve the efficiency of innovation activities. By analyzing a sample of 240 large international firms from the USA, Japan, and Europe, this paper discusses the extent to which innovation inputs, research and development, and relative technological spillovers affect environmental innovation-that is measured by the number of waste recycle and land fertilizers patents. The novelty of the study comes from introducing a knowledge production function approach to analyze the role of technological knowledge spillovers on waste recycling and land fertilizers efficiency at the firm level. The technological relatedness between the firms is computed through technological proximity, based on the construction of technological vectors for each firm. The results reveal a significant positive impact of external spillovers on firms' environmental innovation levels. This finding is important particularly in terms of policy implications concerning industrial strategies; as in order to improve environmental innovation, incentives that favor industrial relatedness and establishing integration between firms are crucial.

A bibliometric and network analysis of Lean and Clean(er) production research (1990/2017).

In recent years, the renewed interest in environmental issues has gradually required manufacturers to simultaneously pursue a more rational use of resources and a reduction in wastes production. New strategies, technologies and organisational innovations must be therefore conceived to "create more value with less impact" (WBCSD, 2010). An interesting and promising perspective for achieving internal efficiency, market effectiveness and environmental eco-efficiency is that of integrating the environmental variable in the Lean Production (LP) paradigm. Scholars and practitioners have been working for some years in this direction of eco-innovation. The present article aims at obtaining a quali/quantitative overview of Lean and Clean(er) production (L&C) research through a bibliometric and network analysis, by using a scientific literature database; in particular, it investigates how Clean(er) Production research and publications are progressively embedded in the field of LP, what are the main topics in this sub-field and common research themes. A comprehensive picture was made by analysing data concerning publications, authors, affiliations, and the countries of origin. Evolutionary profiles, major topics investigated, leading authors and collaborations have been reported. The results also reveal promising spaces for the development of L&C production research, in order to achieve economic and environmental benefits.