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Human actions on natural ecosystems have not only jeopardized human well-being but also threatened the existence of other species. On the other hand, the benefits resulting from a greater integration between the logic of nature and human occupations have been seen as motivating factors for the prevention and mitigation of environmental impacts in landscape planning, since it provides human well-being through the grant of resources, regulation of the environment and socio-cultural services called ecosystem services. This article highlights the relevance of using ecosystem integrity indicators related to the functioning of ecological support processes for landscape planning.

The research used the photosynthetic performance of vegetation through carbon fluxes in the landscape, defining areas where different approaches to green infrastructure can be applied, gaining over the majority of work in this area, in which low degrees of objectivity on measurement and consequent ecological recovery still prevail. Thus, using the conceptual support of restoration ecology and remote sensing, the work identified different vegetation performances in relation to the supporting ecological processes using the multispectral CO₂flux index, linked to the carbon flux to identify the photosynthetic effectiveness of the vegetation and the Topographic Wetness Index (TWI).

With a study in the Distrito Federal (DF), the results of the different performances of vegetation for ecological support, through electromagnetic signatures and associated vegetation formations, allowed for the identification of hotspots of greater integrity that indicate multifunctional areas to be preserved and critical areas that deserve planning actions using green infrastructure techniques for their restoration and integration into the landscape.

This approach could be the initial step towards establishing clear and assertive criteria for selecting areas with greater potential for the development of supporting ecological processes in the territorial mosaic.

There are countless challenges concerning the process of interest mediation. Regarding territorial planning, the participation of different stakeholders is essential. In this sense, Geodesign is a method that supports decision-making based on geocollaboration and co-creation, using geospatial data and tools. The purpose of this study was to use the method to support the co-creation of environmental projects and policies climate-oriented for the Iron Quadrangle region, Brazil.

The Brazilian platform of Geodesign, GISColab, was used to support the activity. The experiment involved undergraduate and graduate students in Urban Planning and in Geography and technicians that work with planning subjects. Social isolation measures imposed by the pandemic resulted in an adaptation of the dynamic, which was held entirely online.

The study group proposed 28 designs, in which the most discussed topics were landscape (43%), climate (25%) and risk (25%). This may be associated with the fact that the workshop was conducted in consideration of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the environmental crisis, but it might also suggest the group’s prior concern with such issues. Other SDGs were contemplated, with the productive sector as the most negatively impacted by proposals. This situation reinforces the importance of incorporating different actors (a term used for participants in the Geodesign method, referring to representatives from groups of the society) into planning processes. Geodesign was easily accepted and assimilated by participants.

The proposed methodology proved to be positive for this type of study and GISColab, the Brazilian Geodesign platform, was easily adapted to the characteristics and demands of the experience.

The purpose of this study is to analyze the horizontal expansion of Burayu Town between 1990 and 2020. The study typically acts as a baseline for integrated spatial planning in small- and medium-sized towns, which will help to plan sustainable utilization of land.

Landsat5-TM, Landsat7 ETM+, Landsat5 TM and Landsat8 OLI were used in the study, along with other auxiliary data. The LULC map classifications were generated using the Random Forest Package from the Comprehensive R Archive Network. Post-classification, spatial metrics, and per capita land consumption rate were used to understand the manner and rate of expansion of Burayu Town. Focus group discussions and key informant interviews were also used to validate land use classes through triangulation.

The study found that the built-up area was the most dynamic LULC category (85.1%) as it increased by over 4,000 ha between 1990 and 2020. Furthermore, population increase did not result in density increase as per capita land consumption increased from 0.024 to 0.040 during the same period.

As a result of financial limitations, there were no high-resolution satellite images available, making it challenging to pinpoint the truth as it is on the ground. Including senior citizens in the study region allowed this study to overcome these restrictions and detect every type of land use and cover.

Data on urban growth are useful for planning land uses, estimating growth rates and advising the government on how best to use land. This can be achieved by monitoring and reviewing development plans using satellite imaging data and GIS tools.

The use of Random Forest for image classification and the employment of local knowledge to validate the accuracy of land cover classification is a novel approach to properly customize remote sensing applications.

In the last few years, the size of Linked Open Data (LOD) describing artworks, in general or domain-specific Knowledge Graphs (KGs), is gradually increasing. This provides (art-)historians and Cultural Heritage professionals with a wealth of information to explore. Specifically, structured data about iconographical and iconological (icon) aspects, i.e. information about the subjects, concepts and meanings of artworks, are extremely valuable for the state-of-the-art of computational tools, e.g. content recognition through computer vision. Nevertheless, a data quality evaluation for art domains, fundamental for data reuse, is still missing. The purpose of this study is filling this gap with an overview of art-historical data quality in current KGs with a focus on the icon aspects.

This study’s analyses are based on established KG evaluation methodologies, adapted to the domain by addressing requirements from art historians’ theories. The authors first select several KGs according to Semantic Web principles. Then, the authors evaluate (1) their structures’ suitability to describe icon information through quantitative and qualitative assessment and (2) their content, qualitatively assessed in terms of correctness and completeness.

This study’s results reveal several issues on the current expression of icon information in KGs. The content evaluation shows that these domain-specific statements are generally correct but often not complete. The incompleteness is confirmed by the structure evaluation, which highlights the unsuitability of the KG schemas to describe icon information with the required granularity.

The main contribution of this work is an overview of the actual landscape of the icon information expressed in LOD. Therefore, it is valuable to cultural institutions by providing them a first domain-specific data quality evaluation. Since this study’s results suggest that the selected domain information is underrepresented in Semantic Web datasets, the authors highlight the need for the creation and fostering of such information to provide a more thorough art-historical dimension to LOD.

In academics and industry, significant efforts have been made to lead planners and control teams in evaluating project performance and control. In this context, numerous control metrics have been devised and put into practice, often with little emphasis on analyzing their underlying concepts. To cover this gap, this research aims to identify and analyze a holistic list of control metrics and their functionalities in the construction industry.

A multi-step analytical approach was conducted to achieve the study’s objectives. First, a holistic list of control metrics and their functionalities in the construction industry was identified. Second, a quantitative analysis based on social network analysis (SNA) was implemented to discover the most important functionalities.

The results revealed that the most important control metrics' functionalities (CMF) could differ depending on the type of metrics (lagging and leading) and levels of control. However, in general, the most significant functionalities include managing project progress and performance, evaluating the look-ahead level’s performance, measuring the reliability and stability of workflow, measuring the make-ready process, constraint management and measuring the quality of construction flow.

This research will assist the project team in getting a comprehensive sensemaking of planning and control systems and their functionalities to plan and control different dynamic aspects of the project.

Using a combination of the geographical information system (GIS) and the Canadian water quality index (WQI), the current study sought to provide a long-term general assessment of the water quality of the Shatt Al-Arab River (SAAR), focusing on its suitability for living organisms. Likewise, SPSS statistics was used to develop a nonlinear WQI regression model for the study area.

The study required four decades of data collection on some environmental characteristics of river water. After that, calculate the WQI and conduct the spatial analysis. Eight variables in total, including water temperature, dissolved oxygen, potential hydrogen ions, electrical conductivity (EC), biological oxygen demand, turbidity, nitrate and phosphate, were chosen to calculate the WQI.

Throughout the study periods, the WQI values varied from 55.2 to 79.83, falling into the categories of four (marginal) and three (fair), with the sixth period (2007–2008) showing the most decline. The present research demonstrated that the high concentration of phosphates, the high EC values, and minor changes in the other environmental factors are the major causes of the decline in water quality. The variations in ecological variables' overlap are a senior contributor to changes in water quality in general. Notably, using GIS in conjunction with the WQI has shown to be very effective in reducing the time and effort spent on investigating water quality while obtaining precise findings and information at the lowest possible expense. Calibration and validation of the developed model showed that this model had a perfect estimate of the WQI value. Due to its flexibility and impartiality, this study recommends using the proposed model to estimate and predict the WQI in the study area.

Even though the water quality of the SAAR has been the subject of numerous studies, this is the only long-term investigation that has been done to evaluate and predict its water quality.

The purpose of this study is to examine the development of environmental performance (EP) through sustainable practices (SPs), environmental corporate social responsibility (environmental CSR) and behavioural intentions (BIs) among Pakistan’s small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

In this study, the researchers applied a quantitative approach which involved significant cross-sectional data. The authors used an online survey to serve the aim of this study. The survey’s respondents are top managers of Pakistan’s manufacturing firms. The authors received 196 valid cases to obtain suitable outcomes from the data.

By using the structural equation model, the path analysis shows that green practices (GPs) have a positive and significant effect on SPs and environmental CSR. This study’s findings also demonstrate that environmental CSR plays a substantial role in developing the SPs, BIs and EP. The results of this study also show that SP plays a positive and significant role towards BIs and EP. Finally, BI predicts the EP.

This study's findings provide planners and policymakers with guidelines to create EP through environmental CSR, SPs and BIs. This study's findings are valuable results in identifying green practices’ significant role in establishing environmental CSR and SPs. Finally, this study's findings offer a new perception of integrating these factors and their contribution to EP.

This study examined the development of EP in the challenging situation of the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, in terms of the empirical findings, this study provides original value.

Because of the global increase of climate change effects, floods are becoming more frequent and severer, especially in urban areas of coastal cities and islands where floodplains have turned into buildings because of rapid urbanisation, leading to a higher risk of damages. Urban heritage areas should be highly considered in the time of evacuation because of the vulnerability of streets and buildings and limitations on taking counteractions. Given these limitations, this study aims to propose a network of potential evacuation routes based on spatial configuration analysis of the heritage areas.

Penang Island's heritage site, namely, George Town, located on the northwest coast of Malaysia, is chosen as the case study. By using an approach of spatial configuration analysis using space syntax techniques in addition to considering the potential starting points for evacuation and flood risk map of the area, this study analysed the area's street network values for evacuation function during flood crisis time.

Potential evacuation routes were identified for flood disasters in the George Town heritage area. Furthermore, the proposed evacuation routes were evaluated in terms of time for evacuation by metric step-depth analysis of space syntax.

A few studies have focused on practical guidelines for evacuation routes based on spatial configuration analysis, an important yet neglected approach in this regard, especially concerning urban island areas. This study can contribute to providing strategies to reduce vulnerability and casualties in urban heritage areas.

In the swiftly evolving business landscape, environmental, social and governance (ESG) considerations have gained exceptional prominence, as stakeholders increasingly emphasize accountability and sustainability. This study aims to meticulously probe the intricate interplay between ESG factors, financial performance and the distinct corporate governance landscape that characterizes the Nordic region's crucible of proactive societal and environmental commitment.

The authors begin with a data set of 899 Nordic firms across Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland and Iceland. Using the Thomson Reuters database, they refine this data set by excluding non-regional headquarters and entities without ESG scores or year-long financial data. This resulted in a focused data set of 1,360 firm-years spanning a decade, forming the foundation for investigating the link between ESG factors and financial performance in Nordic firms.

Drawing upon empirical data, the authors systematically dissect the correlation between specified financial ratios and ESG scores on the bedrock of sustainability evaluation. The findings underscore a partially significant, yet robust relationship between ESG endeavors and financial performance metrics. Furthermore, the intricate interplay of corporate governance dimensions’ reveals intriguing correlations with financial indicators among the surveyed Nordic enterprises. However, the findings also reveal an intricate weave that underscores the ESG and financial performance nexus.

This study addresses stakeholders’ theory and unique positions and contributes to the current discussion on sustainability reporting literature by providing empirical evidence of ESG influences on firm profitability through board characteristics in the specific context of the Nordic region. The sample for this study encompasses firms listed in Nordic countries; thus, the results may not be generalizable to unlisted firms and other countries or regions.

This study suggests that Nordic firms are advanced in reporting ESG in response to diverse stakeholder demands as part of their regular activities. This study provides valuable insights for diverse stakeholders including researchers and regulatory bodies.

This study provides an understanding of stakeholders about the association of ESG and sustainability practices with firm profitability, which might lead to making the world a better place.

While illuminating the multifaceted ESG-financial performance nexus, this study reveals its intricate nature. This complexity accentuates the compelling need for further exploration to decode the exact outcomes and myriad factors contributing to the array of correlations observed. Through this comprehensive inquiry, this research advances the understanding and underscores the pivotal role of a focused investigation. This study seeks to harmonize ESG practices and financial performance seamlessly within the Nordic business realm.

This article aims to explain the role of philosophical anchors and research paradigms in business research, and how they can be extrapolated in the transformative era of automation, digitalization, hyperconnectivity, obligations, globalization and sustainability (ADHOGS) in the midst of disruption, volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity (DVUCA).

This article entails a general review based on the 3Es of exposure, expertise and experience, delving into the ontological, epistemological, methodological, axiological and rhetorical aspects of the major research paradigms—i.e. positivism, post-positivism, constructivism, interpretivism and pragmatism—and their interplay with the emergent trends shaping business research.

This article underscores the multifaceted nature of business research in the modern day, with an increasing need for blending, or shifting between, research paradigms to address the complex issues arising from automation, digitalization, hyperconnectivity, obligations, globalization and sustainability (ADHOGS). This article also highlights the nuanced interplay between research paradigms and theoretical perspectives, demonstrating the rich, diverse potential of business research inquiries.

While this article provides a broad overview of the interplay between research paradigms and emerging trends, future research could explore each of these interplays in greater detail, conducting empirical studies or utilizing specific case studies.

Researchers and practitioners should be open to adopting, combining or switching between different paradigms according to the demands of their research questions, context and trends shaping the business landscape, thereby underscoring the need for methodological flexibility and reflexivity in business research.

The shift toward embracing digital transformations and integrating sustainability in business research holds significant implications, driving socially responsible and sustainable business practices at the micro-level, and by extension, industrial revolution and sustainable development at the macro-level.

This article offers a holistic and contextualized view of the philosophy of science and research paradigms for business research, bridging the gap between philosophical foundations and contemporary research trends.