ABSTRACT: Exergy is described as a tool for addressing climate change, in particular through identifying and explaining the benefits of sustainable energy, so the benefits can be appreciated by experts and non-experts alike and attained. Exergy can be used to understand climate change measures and to assess and improve energy systems. Exergy also can help better understand the benefits of utilizing sustainable energy by providing more useful and meaningful information than energy provides. Exergy clearly identifies efficiency improvements and reductions in wastes and environmental impacts attributable to sustainable energy. Exergy can also identify better than energy the environmental benefits and economics of energy technologies. Exergy should be applied by engineers and scientists, as well as decision and policy makers, involved in addressing climate change.

ABSTRACT: The landscape is a part of the earth’s surface with a characteristic relief, formed by a set of functionally interconnected ecosystems and elements of civilization. The sustainability of the landscape and its territory is examined on the basis of its ecological stability. This means the ability of a given system to persist even under interfering influence and to reproduce its essential characteristics in the conditions of external disturbance. The aim of the paper is based on content analysis, description of selected landscape, vegetation stage, determination of megatype sensu Meeus and method of calculation of ecological stability coefficient according to Michal and Miklós to determine changes in landscape character of the studied area. The result of the paper is the identification of changes in the landscape character of the researched area, as well as the proposal of a strategic vision for the landscape plan in the researched municipality in the cadastre of the South Bohemian region in the Czech Republic. Despite several uncertainties, this article proves that it is feasible to analyze long‐term land‐use tendency to generate more meaningful, spatially explicit information, which can form the ground for landscape planning and ecosystem management.

ABSTRACT: The review paper embodies the current trends and advancements involved in the transformation of biomass to enhanced products, bioenergy, and chemicals. Some selected chemical process like the slow-fast pyrolysis, catalytic fast pyrolysis, hydrothermal liquefaction, transesterification and lignin valorization by depolymerization are aptly suited for biorefinery processing, and were discussed in this review. The (catalytic) fast pyrolysis and hydrothermal liquefaction are quite similar, but differ in their feedstock preparations, reactor configuration and thermal or energy optimization. The review covers the biomass selection, chemical conversion techniques and most importantly the required heterogeneous catalysts (where applicable). The work further suggests the superiority of dedicated chemicals over drop-in and smart drop-in chemicals, due the complete usage of biomass. Relative to the oil refinery process, biorefining is quite novel and accompanied by its drawbacks. These challenges range from catalyst poisoning and deactivation to energy intensiveness and eventually as being cost-ineffective. The challenge encountered in biorefinery is in the economic feasibility, as it is inferred from this review that the pre-treatment process takes up to about 20% of the conversion cost. Although the biorefinery plant employ lignocellulosic biomass, but study shows that the use of biomass is largely under-utilized. The solid products/ wastes from pyrolysis for example, can be utilized as source of energy for the process. In the pursuit for sustainability, it is essential to ensure a balance-energy-mix, where every other type of energy will have a role to play to avoid dependence on only one solution for the future. Therefore, in contrast to the dwindling fossil fuels, it can be generally speculated that the future for biorefining is bright. It was concluded that with vast knowledge on the suitable heterogeneous catalysts and proper optimization of process parameters (temperatures, pressure, and reactant species); some of the biorefining processes will result into a significant increase in industrial fuels and bio-based drop-in chemicals leading towards commercialization.

ABSTRACT: This study examined the factors influencing construction professionals and contractors’ resistance behaviours towards sustainable construction practices in Nigeria. 56 variables identified from literature were categorised into four main factors. Questionnaire was designed based on the extracted variables and distributed to construction professionals and contractors in South-East Nigeria. The data generated through the questionnaire survey were analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) Software. The result revealed that industry, policy, human, and environment factors were significantly influencing professionals and contractors’ resistance behaviours to implementation of sustainable construction practices. However, the Mean Score Index result revealed that policy factors with an average MSI of 4.68 exert the greatest influence on professionals’ and contractors’ resistance behaviours. The overall result showed that all the variables have significant influences on professionals’ and contractors’ resistance behaviours, but five sub-factors (limited knowledge and awareness, additional cost of change, the prevailing economic condition, incompatibility of change process and organisational culture, and laws and regulations) each with an average MSI of 5.00 have the greatest individual influences on construction stakeholders’ resistance behaviours towards sustainable construction practices in Nigeria. The Mann-Whitney U Test result affirmed that there is no significant difference (p>0.05) between the rankings of professionals and contractors on the factors influencing their resistance behaviours. In view of this, the study raised concern about the training routes of the construction practitioners, conventional construction practices and existing policy and legislative frameworks including government commitment towards implementing sustainable construction practices in Nigeria.

ABSTRACT: Coastal and marine environments provide ecosystem services related to human well-being. However, the link between these ecosystem services and lifestyle of nearby populations is rarely recognized. This study proposes environmental events involving a series of hands-on activities, stimulating families’ awareness of both the local foods (rice, fish, and seaweed) and marine environment and linking them to the coastal environment. The present study quantitatively evaluated the changes in adults’ perceptions of Osaka Bay and attitudes on rice and fish consumption through a year-long program. We found that continuous participation (increased visit to the coastal area) effectively changed the participants’ perceptions of Osaka Bay and increased opportunities for eating local foods at home. In addition, the living experiences and realistic experiences increased the participants’ familiarity with Osaka Bay. These results suggest that the proposed program is a powerful tool that can assist marine and conservation education outside school.

ABSTRACT: Poverty is one of the central issues and the most far-reaching social matters on the planet. It has no geological limit. Along these lines, this examination has done to distinguish the determinants of the rural household poverty in Sodo Zuria Woreda of Wolaita Zone, Ethiopia. To accomplish this goal, 152 rural family units were chosen using a systematic random sampling technique following the corresponding method’s likelihood. The primary and secondary data optional information just as quantitative and qualitative subjective details have been used. In this investigation, the Cost of Basic Needs approach has applied to determine the extent of the poverty line and Foster-Greer and Thorbecke Poverty Index has used to decide the degree of rural poverty. The aftereffect of the basic needs approach’s cost shows that the investigation zone’s poverty line was about 5348.073 Birr every year per adult equivalent consumption. Utilizing this poverty line as a benchmark, the investigation demonstrated that 39.47 per cent of the family units were poor. The headcount index, poverty gap and squared poverty gap indexes among poor people families are 0.3947, 0.1035 and 0.0427. The Binary Logit Regression model’s discoveries show eight significant variables at under 1%, 5% and 10% likelihood level among 15 factors. As needs are, the family size was a positive relationship with the rural family’s poverty and measurably significant. In the interim, sex, age, educational level, land size, total livestock unit, use of technology and participation of saving have a tangible negative relationship with the rural household poverty and factually huge up to under 10% likelihood level. There is a need to reinforce the link between rural development and poverty reduction programs that consider old aged and female-headed families in mediations, limit populace size through integrated family planning and education obligations introduce appropriate livestock packages, and create awareness of the farmers for using new agricultural technologies.

ABSTRACT: The main transmission mechanism of COVID-19 is through close contact, aerosols, droplets, and fomites transmission of the disease in closed spaces. In this study, the importance of ventilation in preventing the expansion of COVID-19 is reviewed. In total, 20 articles are reviewed. The obtained results show that ventilation has a crucial role in preventing COVID-19 expansion in indoor air environments. However, it should be used properly; otherwise, it will cause further expansion of the disease, as suggested for SARS. Appropriate ventilation can effectively prevent the expansion of COVID-19, and it will be more effective if be combined with particle filtration and air disinfection. The benefit of ventilation in highly polluted outdoor air conditions is an important field to be investigated in future studies. Finally, the results show that the six basic COVID-19 control strategies include: hand hygiene, social distancing, screening and case finding, isolation and separating, decontamination and disinfection, and effective ventilation. We hope that the results of the present study help researchers and health decision-makers in designing programs further perceive the importance of factors related to indoor conditions to control COVID-19 expansion.