Search results

The research aims to explore the wisdom, knowledge and practices in vernacular housing settlements with their sustainability underpinnings as tools for modelling rural affordable housing in tropical regions. The study is based on a weaving settlement in Bargarh district of Odisha, which is globally acclaimed for its Ikkat style of weaving.

A hierarchical framework of sustainability resting on the three pillars of ecological, economical and environmental dimensions is derived from existing theoretical research. This framework of 22 indicators is subsequently assigned to assess the sustainability of the vernacular weavers' settlement through quantitative evaluation. A qualitative assessment through observation and deduction also verifies the result.

Since the vernacular weavers settlement performs very well on the sustainability scorecard, the paper suggests that its best practices can be incorporated while designing affordable housing so that social, cultural and heritage values are retained and a climate conscious, energy-efficient sustainable approach is ensured.

The recommendations from the assessment has many lessons while framing policies for rural affordable housing as it cannot have one size that fits all settlement typology irrespective of the occupational, climatic and social needs.

The sustainable design and planning principles embedded in this vernacular settlement offers a valuable blueprint to re-imagine the affordable housing in rural areas which can be myopic if it does not take into account the occupational needs and life style of craftsmen dwellers.

This study aims to investigate the effect of the copresence of ferrous (Fe²⁺) ions and sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) on the activity of an amylase enzyme during the desizing of greige viscose fabric for potential industrial applications. The removal of starches is an essential step before processing the fabric for dyeing and finishing operations. The authors tend to accomplish it in eco-friendly and sustainable ways.

The experiments were designed under the Taguchi approach, and the results were analyzed using grey relational analysis to optimize the process. The textile properties of absorbency, reducing sugars, bending length, weight loss, Tegawa rating and tensile strength were assessed using the standard protocols. The control and optimized viscose specimens were investigated for certain surface chemical properties using advanced analytical techniques including scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA).

The results demonstrate that the Fe²⁺ concentration and process time were the main influencing factors in the amylolytic desizing of viscose fabric. The optimized process conditions were found to be 0.1 mm Fe²⁺ ions, 3 mm SDS, 80°C, 7 pH and 30 min process time. The copresence of Fe²⁺ ions and SDS promoted the biodesizing of viscose fabric. The SEM, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, XRD and TGA results demonstrated that the sizing agent has efficiently been removed from the fabric surface.

The amylase desizing of viscose fabric in the presence of certain metal ions and surfactants is a significant subject as the enzyme may face them due to their prevalence in the water systems. This could also support the biodesizing and bioscouring operations to be done in one bath, thus making the textile pretreatment process both economical and environmentally sustainable.

The authors found no report on the biodesizing of viscose fabric in the copresence of Fe²⁺ ions and the SDS surfactant under statistical multiresponse optimization. The biodesized viscose fabric has been investigated using both conventional and analytical approaches.

The export competitiveness has only calculated on only two aspects either comparatively advantageous or comparatively disadvantageous products for India or China. There is not any thorough study that has been undertaken for Indian manufacturing sector at a segregated level along with that of China. So, in the light of these shortcomings, the purpose of this study is to analyse the dynamics of export competitiveness of indian manufacturing sector vis-à-vis its emerging counterpart, china in the global market.

A modified revealed comparative advantage index has been used in two different phases of 2001–08 and 2010–18 to find the dynamic pattern of manufacturing exports of India and China in the world market.

The study revealed that India has shown a positive response in increasing its competitive positioned products from low-technology to medium-technology products during the study period. There has been a decline in the competitive positioned products of China and simultaneously China’s threatened product lines have shown an immense increment over the years. Moreover, Indian exports are concentrated to few low-technology and resource-intensive products, that share more than 50% of total exported value for its manufacturing in the global market, whereas, China is much diversified and the exported value is more scattered over its manufactured items.

The study does not include the factors that impacted the export competitiveness of the sample economies and thus adds a limitation to this study.

As there is very limited research on dynamics of export competitiveness of Indian manufacturing exports at harmonised system 6-digit level with China, this study fulfils the gap.

The purpose of this paper is to review cases of artificial reefs built through additive manufacturing (AM) technologies and analyse their ecological goals, fabrication process, materials, structural design features and implementation location to determine predominant parameters, environmental impacts, advantages, and limitations.

The review analysed 16 cases of artificial reefs from both temperate and tropical regions. These were categorised based on the AM process used, the mortar material used (crucial for biological applications), the structural design features and the location of implementation. These parameters are assessed to determine how effectively the designs meet the stipulated ecological goals, how AM technologies demonstrate their potential in comparison to conventional methods and the preference locations of these implementations.

The overview revealed that the dominant artificial reef implementation occurs in the Mediterranean and Atlantic Seas, both accounting for 24%. The remaining cases were in the Australian Sea (20%), the South Asia Sea (12%), the Persian Gulf and the Pacific Ocean, both with 8%, and the Indian Sea with 4% of all the cases studied. It was concluded that fused filament fabrication, binder jetting and material extrusion represent the main AM processes used to build artificial reefs. Cementitious materials, ceramics, polymers and geopolymer formulations were used, incorporating aggregates from mineral residues, biological wastes and pozzolan materials, to reduce environmental impacts, promote the circular economy and be more beneficial for marine ecosystems. The evaluation ranking assessed how well their design and materials align with their ecological goals, demonstrating that five cases were ranked with high effectiveness, ten projects with moderate effectiveness and one case with low effectiveness.

AM represents an innovative method for marine restoration and management. It offers a rapid prototyping technique for design validation and enables the creation of highly complex shapes for habitat diversification while incorporating a diverse range of materials to benefit environmental and marine species’ habitats.

The purpose of this work is to investigate the effect of filament composition with different specifications on the thermal comfort properties of bi-layer knitted fabrics.

In this paper eight bi-layer knitted fabrics with the same knitting structure but different filament compositions were prepared, and the thermal-wet comfort properties of these fabrics were examined. According to experimental data, the effect of filament composition on the thermal comfort properties of fabric was analyzed.

The increasing difference of hydrophilicity between inner and outer layers resulted in the enhancement of moisture management properties. Better thermal-physiology performance was exhibited by fabrics made up of finer and circular section fibers. Excellent thermal transfer, drying performance and one-way water transport capacity benefited the improvement of dynamic cooling effect of fabrics.

This work provides a useful and effective method for the development of bi-layer knitted fabric applied for sports and summer clothing.

The aim of the present paper to compare the cleaning treatments of paper samples exposed to artificial aging, toluene and isopropyl alcohol gel in cleaning wax stains.

In total, paper samples were made from wood pulp. They had a deterioration phenomenon represented in the stains of the paraffin wax, so two types of cleaning were used: A traditional method using a toluene solution and another new method using isopropanol gel by a cotton swap in a circular movement until the completion of the cleaning process. Then, all paper samples were treated with toluene and isopropanol to handle the second artificial aging and detect how the samples were affected by artificial aging. For identifying the efficacy of these materials in removing paraffin wax stains, a range of examinations and analyses were used, such as universal serial bus, scanning electron microscope, infrared analysis (IR), pH analysis, color change analysis. Moreover, these results were compared with the standard sample’s results.

The results of examinations and analyses proved that the use of toluene affected the paper samples. Their effects were twice as weak, fragile and degraded paper fibers compared to isopropanol gel. Therefore, the isopropanol gel is preferred for paper cleaning to the toluene solution.

This paper highlights the efficiency of isopropyl alcohol gel in cleaning wax stains from historical paper supports.

Promoted for its inclusivity, agricultural value chain (AVC) financing leverages social capital and mechanisms such as off-take agreements and forward contracts to reduce borrowing and lending costs and risks for both farmers and lending institutions. AVC financing has been defined as the flow of financial products and services to and among the various actors within the AVC to address constraints of production and distribution and fulfill the needs of those involved in the chain by reducing risk and improving efficiency. This paper investigates how farmers' involvement in AVC affects their access to credit.

The authors collected primary data from 400 crop farmers in northern Ghana through a semi-structured questionnaire and analyzed the data, using the multinomial endogenous switching regression model.

Joint participation in AVC increased the amount of formal and informal credit received by 64 and 78%, respectively, compared to nonparticipation. Similarly, participation in AVC horizontal linkage and AVC vertical linkage increased the amount of formal and informal credit received by 40 and 47% and 46 and 74%, respectively, compared to nonparticipation. Irrigation farming, extension visits, knowledge of AVC in the community, access to a storage facility and trust in contract farming significantly influenced farmers' participation in AVC.

The authors’ work offers valuable insights into how different dimensions of value chain participation can impact smallholder farmers' access to credit. This work also underscores the importance of considering both formal and informal credit sources when analyzing the outcomes of value chain participation. The findings could enable formal financial providers to identify, liaise and/or resource informal financial players such as value chain actors to supply both formal and informal credit to farmers in AVCs.

This study was conducted to analyse the socio-ecological problems faced by the Suhelwa Wildlife Sanctuary and understand its potential and challenges for developing ecotourism following Triple Bottom Line (TBL) principles. The study also benchmarked best ecotourism practices across the globe to create an ecotourism plan that would provide alternative livelihood and help in sustainable management of the area by reducing poverty, dependency on forests and biodiversity protection.

Suhelwa Wildlife Sanctuary was chosen because this area has several socio-ecological crises with limited livelihood options, and there is an urgent need for alternative livelihood opportunities in the form of ecotourism. The study followed an ethnographic approach through observation, participant observation, and semi-structured interviews. Content and thematic analysis was conducted through Atlas Ti9.0 software for data analysis. Subsequently, benchmarking best ecotourism practices through a literature review was done to develop an ecotourism action plan.

The First finding was related to the study area divided into three themes: problems, potential for ecotourism development, and challenges for ecotourism development. The second finding was related to benchmarking best practices and suggesting an action plan.

This work studied an area not sufficiently acknowledged by academicians and policymakers concerning ecotourism development. The work also benchmarks the best practices for ecotourism and proposes a sight-specific ecotourism action plan in accordance with TBL.

Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is regarded as a region with one of the worst cases of armed conflict and climate risk. This paper examines the interactive effect of armed conflict and climate risk on gender vulnerability in SSA.

The difference and system generalised method of movement (GMM) were used to examine the relationship between the variables using annualised data of 35 SSA countries from 1998 to 2019.

The paper found strong evidence that armed conflict and climate change are positive predictors of gender vulnerability. The impact of climate change on gender vulnerability is found to be more direct than indirect.

The direct and indirect positive effect of armed conflict and climate change on gender vulnerability implies that climate change drives gender vulnerability through multiple channels. This underscores the need for a multi-disciplinary policy approach to addressing gender vulnerability problem in SSA.

The study contributes to the climate action debate by highlighting the need for climate action to incorporate gender inclusive policies such as massive investment in infrastructure and safety nets that offer protection to the most vulnerable girls and women affected by armed conflict and climate change. Societies should as a matter of urgency strive to structural barriers that predispose girls and women to biodiversity loss.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-09-2022-0595

This paper aims to highlight the localised shelter solutions to fulfil adequate and disaster resilient housing needs of urban informal settlers of Honiara, the capital city of Solomon Islands, in a way that is sensitive to their unique challenges, values and aspirations, is gender- and disability-inclusive, and considers housing from the complete lifecycle of a disaster (pre-, during- and post-).

Qualitative data was gathered through empirical research through five community workshops at five hotspot settlements, two stakeholder workshops and a stakeholder interview. Semi-structured questions as well as photographs of housing and settlement were used for data collection. With an emphasis on self-recovery, the identified shelter needs were then matched with the roles and responsibilities of the Government to support a process of “assisted” self-preparedness and recovery.

The output of the research was the Solomon Islands Shelter Guide. This paper draws from the Guide to present some of the findings. One of the key findings was an emphasis on shelter self-preparedness and self-recovery. However, in order for them to do that, they needed a combination of assistance – technical knowledge, materials and financial support – which is tailored to their settlement’s specific needs and based on hazard damage assessment. While the Guide provides one form of the assistance (i.e. technical), this paper is a call for action from the Solomon Islands Government and shelter responders to fulfil the rest of the community needs for shelter adequacy.

The paper contributes to existing scholarship on shelter after disasters by adding “assisted” in front of self-recovery, in line with the limited access to resources by the most vulnerable to recover, despite housing being” a human right and definition of adequate housing (UN-Habitat, 2015, 2021), which includes freedom of choice, entitlements and meeting minimum adequacy criteria.

There are many implications of this research. Since the publication of the Shelter Guide, there is excitement among most humanitarian and development agencies, government authorities and the local communities in Honiara. The Guide forms the first step in contributing to identified needs and strengthening community capacities to self-build, self-recover or self-retrofit one’s house based on their own choice of materials, design, social and economic circumstance. However, it provides one of the three elements identified as needs by the communities, as i) technical guidance, and a kit-of parts for multi-hazard safe housing, ii) financial and economic assistance and iii) a political voice or being supported and heard by the government. The research team are working with the same five urban informal communities in 2022–2023 to develop and operationalise local disaster plans (in partnership with local non-government organisations), capacity-building activities and translation of the Shelter Guide into technical posters (for local builders) and graphic novel in local pidgin language, as part of the Climate Resilient Honiara project (funded by the United Nations framework convention on climate change (UNFCCC) Adaptation fund and administered by UN-Habitat). In the longer term it would be worth evaluating the practical implications of the Guide or to examine whether the proposed socio-technical and governance guidance will find roots in the local culture.

While the Guide adhered to internationally agreed concepts of self-recovery, incremental shelter and core space, it contributes to existing scholarship on shelter after disasters by adding “assisted” in front of self-recovery, in line with housing as a human right and adequate housing (UN-Habitat, 2015, 2021), including freedom of choice, entitlements and meet minimum adequacy criteria, all of which require materials and financial assistance by the relevant in-country authorities.