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This study aims to report business preferences for achieving net-zero power production emissions in Saskatchewan, Canada as well as business perceptions of the most preferable power production sources, barriers to change and suggestions for improvement. Mixed methods included focus groups and a survey with experimental design. This research demonstrates that this method of advancing academic and business knowledge systems can engender a paradigmatic shift to decarbonization.

The study is a mixed-methods study using five focus groups and a survey which included a 15-min information video providing more information on power production sources (small modular reactors and biomass). Participants requested more information on these topics in the initial three focus groups.

There is a significant gap in Canadian Government targets for net-zero emissions by 2050 and businesses’ plans. Communications, knowledge and capacity gaps identified include lack of regulatory requirements, institutional barriers (including a capacity charge in the event a business chooses to self-generate with a cleaner source) and multi-level governance dissonance. More cooperation between provincial governments and the federal government was identified by participants as a requirement for achieving targets. Providing information to survey respondents increased support for clean and renewable sources, but gender and knowledge are still important characteristics contributing to support for different power production sources. Scientists and teachers were the most trusted sources of information. Power generated from small modular nuclear reactors was identified as the primary future source of power production followed by solar, wind and natural gas. Research results also confirmed the high level of support for hydropower generated in Saskatchewan versus import from Manitoba based on high values of energy solidarity and security within the province.

This study is original, as it concerns upstream system power production portfolios and not failed projects; the mixed-method research design including a focus group and an experimental survey is novel. This research partially addresses a gap in knowledge surrounding which knowledge systems advance paradigmatic shifts and how and whether involving business people in upstream power production decisions can inform decarbonization.

This study aims to determine shoreline change statistics and net erosion and accretion, along the Kuakata Coast, a magnificent sea beach on Bangladesh’s southernmost point.

The research follows a three stages way to achieve the target. First, this study has used the geographic information system (GIS) and remote sensing (RS) to detect the temporal observation of shoreline change from the year 1991 to 2021 through satellite data. Then, the digital shoreline analysis system (DSAS) has also been explored. What is more, a prediction has been done for 2041 on shoreline shifting scenario. The shoreline displacement measurement was primarily separated into three analytical zones. Several statistical parameters, including Net Shoreline Movement (NSM), Shoreline Change Envelope (SCE), End Point Rate (EPR) and Linear Regression Rate (LRR) were calculated in the DSAS to quantify the rates of coastline movement with regard to erosion and deposition.

EPR and LRR techniques revealed that the coastline is undergoing a shift of landward (erosion) by a median rate of 3.15 m/yr and 3.17 m/yr, respectively, from 1991 to 2021, 2.85 km² of land was lost. Naval and climatic influences are the key reasons for this variation. This study identifies the locations of a significantly eroded zone in Kuakata from 1991 to 2021. It highlights the places that require special consideration while creating a zoning plan or other structural design.

This research demonstrates the spatio-temporal pattern of the shoreline location of the Kuakata beach, which would be advantageous for the region’s shore management and planning due to the impacts on the fishing industry, recreation and resource extraction. Moreover, the present research will be supportive of shoreline vulnerability. Hence, this study will suggest to the local coastal managers and decision-makers for particularizing the coastal management plans in Kuakata coast zone.

To address the problem that the current train operation mode that train selects one of several offline pre-generated control schemes before the departure and operates following the scheme after the departure, energy-saving performance of the whole metro system cannot be guaranteed.

A cooperative train control framework is formulated to regulate a novel train operation mode. The classic train four-phase control strategy is improved for generating specific energy-efficient control schemes for each train. An improved brute force (BF) algorithm with a two-layer searching idea is designed to solve the optimisation model of energy-efficient train control schemes.

Case studies on the actual metro line in Guangzhou, China verify the effectiveness of the proposed train control methods compared with four-phase control strategy under different kinds of train operation scenarios and calculation parameters. The verification on the computation efficiency as well as accuracy of the proposed algorithm indicates that it meets the requirement of online optimisation.

Most existing studies optimised energy-efficient train timetable or train control strategies through an offline process, which has a defect in coping with the disturbance or delays effectively and promptly during real-time train operation. This paper studies an online optimisation of cooperative train control based on the rolling optimisation idea, where energy-efficient train operation can be realised once train running time is determined, thus mitigating the impact of unpredictable operation situations on the energy-saving performance of trains.

The authors have carried out a research project on artisanal salt activity in the Gulf of Cadiz, providing a new vision of the theories of intangible cultural heritage. The main objective has been to characterise artisanal salt activity in terms of its cultural and sustainable values, a perspective that had not been addressed until now. Moreover, the replacement of this activity by a more industrialised one has contributed to problems in the preservation of this heritage and a transformation of its places.

The research has combined qualitative methodology, based on observation and fieldwork, with a statistical review of the phenomenon under study. Finally, the data has been triangulated to understand the heritage and sustainable value, as well as its historical evolution.

All this contributes to understanding the importance of artisanal salt activity as an element of the intangible cultural heritage of the region, for the conservation of biodiversity and sustainable ways of life in the marshes of the Gulf of Cadiz, and the possibility of preserving it in the face of the problems of globalisation.

To date, there has been no research that combines sustainability and heritage in the field of salt activity. Likewise, until this study was carried out, there had been no research on salt activity from the perspective of intangible cultural heritage.

This paper aims to examine the role of stakeholders and their interconnected relationships based on power and interests in realising sustainable development in coastal areas using the Maritime Village program in Tambaklorok, Semarang City, Indonesia as a case study.

Data were collected from in-depth interviews and focus group discussions (FGD) with stakeholders, observations, as well as online news, and official government reports, followed by taxonomic analysis.

The results showed the four categories of stakeholders, namely players, context setters, subjects, and crowd. The Ministry of Public Works and Housing (PUPR), Regional Development Planning Agency (BAPPEDA) of Semarang City, Spatial Planning Agency (DISTARU) of Semarang City, and the Fisheries Office of Semarang City were found to be key players with a role in the success of the program. PT Pelindo (Indonesia Port Corporations) was identified as a context setter with low interests but high power, acting as an accelerator in the development program.

The originality of this study lied in its examination of the power and interests of stakeholders involved in government projects. It was recommended to strengthen coordination among the stakeholders to ensure the success of the program.

This paper aims to illustrate the scope and challenges of using computer-aided content analysis in international marketing with the aim to capture consumer sentiments about COVID-19 from multi-lingual tweets.

The study is based on some 35 million original COVID-19-related tweets. The study methodology illustrates the use of supervised machine learning and artificial neural network techniques to conduct extensive information extraction.

The authors identified more than two million tweets from six countries and categorized them into PESTEL (i.e. Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Environmental and Legal) dimensions. The extracted consumer sentiments and associated emotions show substantial differences across countries. Our analyses highlight opportunities and challenges inherent in using multi-lingual online sentiment analysis in international marketing. Based on these insights, several future research directions are proposed.

First, the authors contribute to methodology development in international marketing by providing a “use-case” for computer-aided text mining in a multi-lingual context. Second, the authors add to the knowledge on differences in COVID-19-related consumer sentiments in different countries. Third, the authors provide avenues for future research on the analysis of unstructured multi-media posts.

The paper introduces ethical and aesthetical implications emerging from participative forms of adaptive heritage reuse. Its aim is to depict the overall framework to contextualize the investigations explored in the Special Issue titled “Ethics and aesthetics of adaptive heritage reuse in Europe.” Therefore, the article confronts with potentialities and contradictions of “open” heritage processes, introducing key critical elements to recode heritage practices and planning in today’s conjuncture of global change.

The paper drawn on a literature review, which combines different bodies of studies: heritage, urban studies, care studies and recent policy documents. A photographic essay, moreover, serves to “augment” the presented argumentations through a visual apparatus resulting from one of Gaia Ginevra Giorgi’s artwork, which develops in the intersection between performative art, participation and territorial reuse.

The author argues that for adaptive heritage reuse to be really sustainable, ethical and aesthetical heritage codes need to be reassessed and reoriented toward the present socio-ecological priorities, multiplicating the ways cultural heritage is conceived, valued and reused. The paper suggests proceeding along the creative paths of uncertainty, providing the first elements to develop political projects of abundance and enjoyment for current urban settlements.

The presented argumentations can be used as a baseline by heritage managers and policymakers to experiment with participative processes of adaptive heritage reuse and to identify more environmentally and socially just trajectories of urban development.

The paper expands the concept of adaptive heritage reuse, considering the active participation of both human and non-human agents. Treating heritage in a laic way, namely free from absolute and preordered judgments of value, it deals with uncomfortable heritage materiality and contexts, illuminating the quality of unpleasant or odd forms of beauty.

Recognition that not every climate adaptation policy is a good one has shifted attention to new tools and methods to measure the adequacy and effectiveness of adaptation policies. This study aims to propose and apply and applies an innovative adaptation policy assessment framework to identify the extent to which climate adaptation policies in Vietnam exhibit conditions that are likely to ensure a sufficient, credible and effective adaptation.

In total, 21 conditions, categorized under five normative principles and covering critical issue areas in adaptation domain, form the climate adaptation policy assessment framework. The principles were double-checked and tested in case studies through observations and analyses of policy documents to ensure that each condition should be distinct and not overlapping across principles. To see if the principles and attendant conditions were able to capture all relevant aspects of adaptation, the authors used structured expert judgment. In total, 39 policy documents pertaining to climate change adaptation were selected for qualitative document analysis. In-depth interviews with local officials and experts were conducted to address data gaps.

The study reveals major weaknesses constituting a reasonably worrisome picture of the adaptation policies in Vietnam since several critical conditions were underrepresented. These results shed new light on why some adaptation policies falter or are posing adverse impacts. The findings suggest that a sound policy assessment framework can provide evidence on what effective adaptation policy looks like and how it can be enabled. The framework for climate adaptation policy assessment in this study can be easily adjusted and used for different socio-environmental contexts in which new conditions for policy assessment might emerge.

The findings show underlying weaknesses constituting a reasonably worrisome picture of the adaptation regime in Vietnam. In the absence of mechanisms and measures for accountability and transparency in policy processes, adaptation in Vietnam appears more likely to be prone to maladaptation and corruption. While solving these problems will not be easy for Vietnam, the government needs to evaluate whether the short-term gains in sustaining the existing adaptation policies really make progress and serve its long-term climate-adaptive development goals.

Although interpretations of adaptation effectiveness may be very divergent in different normative views on adaptation outcomes, the authors argue that a common, agreed-upon effectiveness can be reached if it is clearly defined and measurable in adaptation policies. Thus, the climate adaptation policy assessment framework proposed in this study is critical for policymakers, practitioners, donors and stakeholders dealing with adaptation to better understand the weaknesses in policymaking processes, pinpoint priority areas of action and timely prevent or prepare for possible adverse impacts of policies.

The purpose of this study is to explore the concept of long-term thinking in a non-business context to gain deeper insights into bridging the gap between the theory of long-term thinking and its application as a management strategy.

To explore the concept of long-thinking further in a non-business setting, a grounded theory study was conducted with preschool leaders in a municipality in Sweden to examine how the leaders describe, define and apply the concept of long-term thinking in their schools. Interviews with school leaders, both written and oral, were used for data collection.

This study illustrates that the concept of long-term thinking can be twofold. First, the description can be as an anchor that reflects a mission. Second, the description can be a steering mechanism that guides decision-making. The findings also reinforce the importance of organisations developing an organisational culture that connect their vision and goals with the values and needs of their customers.

This study was carried out in a single organisation and shows a snapshot of the organisation's status at the time the data were collected. Therefore, the findings are not generalisable to all organisational settings; rather the findings may be transferable to other settings.

The results can be used to help identify areas where preschools in a municipal context can engage with sustainable quality development in order to build systems that support work with quality in a more structured way.

Long-term thinking is seen, within both theory and organisations, as necessary to achieve success in terms of sustainable development and quality, and this study contributes with knowledge about the current gap between theories of long-term thinking and practice in organisations.