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The Public–Private Partnership (PPP) mode has been widely used in the urban water environment treatment project (UWETP). The public is the direct perceiver of urban water environment treatment PPP project (UWETP-PPP), and their satisfaction with it can reflect the project's success to some extent. The purpose of this paper is to provide operational management strategies for special-purpose vehicle (SPV) company through public satisfaction evaluation of UWETP-PPP.

A questionnaire was designed through the literature review and experts' opinions that consisted of 33 indexes to investigate public satisfaction with UWETP-PPP. Then, the exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was used to confirm the evaluation index system of public satisfaction. Next, the weights of the indexes were calculated by the normalized mean method and fuzzy synthetic evaluation (FSE) was applied to evaluate public satisfaction with UWETP-PPP. Finally, the importance-performance analysis (IPA) was used to suggest improvement strategies of public satisfaction with UWETP-PPP.

The factors affecting public satisfaction with UWETP-PPP are preliminarily determined, and an evaluation model that provides a specific basis for evaluating public satisfaction with UWETP-PPP in the future is constructed. Furthermore, some strategies and suggestions to improve the performance level of UWETP-PPP are put forward.

First, the factors influencing public satisfaction with UWETP-PPP are numerous and complex. The factors discussed in this study may be further refined to make the research more reliable and effective. Second, the sample from this study can be expanded to multiple projects, so as to make the study more general. Finally, given that the influencing factors in the paper were elicited by using scores obtained through a questionnaire survey, it would bring bias to the result to some extent. The evaluation method can be further improved, such as combining with interval intuitionistic fuzzy evaluation.

In the context of the characteristics of PPP projects in water environment treatment and the huge demand of the country to apply PPP model in the territory of water environment treatment, this study evaluated the public satisfaction with UWETP-PPP in Xuchang City, China. The result provided a beneficial reference for the private organizations to take appropriate actions to improve the public satisfaction level of UWETP-PPP, so as to improve the performance level of SPV. It also provided a system of public satisfaction evaluation with UWETP-PPP, which can be considered as the standard of public satisfaction survey, thus improving the comprehensiveness of the UWETP-PPP performance evaluation system and the government regulatory capacity, thus affecting the sustainable development of UWETP-PPP.

In addition, the research results provide a useful reference for the public organizations to issue a UWETP-PPP regulation rule, review a UWETP-PPP design plan, and conduct new similar project decision-making. In summary, the study results not only serve as a good reference for the evaluation of public satisfaction of eco-environmental PPP projects, but also have essential application value for improving the service level, performance improvement and operational management of the SPV.

The research results of this paper have certain wide-spread value, and the research framework and research method can be applied to other infrastructure section, such as transportation, stadium et al.

The operation of water environment treatment Public-Private Partnership projects (WETP-PPP) is crucial to the project effectiveness. However, there are often problems in projects that attach importance to construction and neglect operation management, which seriously affect the project operation effect. To ensure the good operation effect of the WETP-PPP, an evolutionary game model of the regulation strategy during the operation period of WETP-PPP is constructed.

An evolutionary game model of regulation is established which considers the government, the project company and the public in water environment treatment Public-Private Partnership projects (WETP-PPP). Five scenarios of equilibriums and the game's evolutionary stable strategies are analyzed, and the corresponding stability conditions are then obtained. Finally, through the simulation, the influence of different factors on the choice of the three-party strategy is analyzed.

First, the key factors that affect the evolution game are the regulation costs and performance rewards of the government, the project company's operation costs and penalties for opportunism and the public supervision costs and rewards. Second, in order to ensure the operation effect, the government needs the performance incentive from the superior government. Third, the public's supervision enthusiasm needs to be mobilized by the government. Last, the penalty strength of speculative operation should be strong enough to play a deterrent role.

The theoretical research in this paper has some limitations. Initially, due to the large number of participants in WETP-PPP, in addition to the government department, the project company and the public studied in this paper, it also involves the consulting industry and financial institutions. In the future, more participants can be added to form four-party interest relationships and conduct four-party evolutionary game research. Second, the operation environment of WETP-PPP is complex and changeable, and various influencing factors are intertwined, the number of parameters involved in this paper is limited, and further detailed research is needed in the future.

Based on the evolutionary game theory, this article discusses the evolution law of the tripartite game behavior of the government department, the project company and the public, which is helpful to clarify the strategy evolution path of the tripartite in the WETP-PPP, and the generation condition and evolution mechanism of the equilibrium strategy of the tripartite game. The key parameters affecting the tripartite strategy selection are analyzed through simulation, which can provide reference for the government department to formulate relevant measures. At the same time, it broadens the application field of evolutionary games and supplements the research on the management mechanism of WETP-PPP during the operation period.

Based on the evolutionary game theory, this paper introduces the supervision behavior of the public, which can provide a new perspective for researchers to conduct relevant research. Secondly, for the regulation during the operation of WETP-PPP, this paper can provide reference for the government department to establish a scientific public supervision system, improve the government supervision mechanism and other relevant measures, which can help promote the public supervision willingness, improve the regulation efficiency of the government and guide the project company to reduce speculation, so as to ensure the effect of water environment management.

This paper focuses on the regulation of WETP-PPP during the operation period to research interactions among the government, the project company and the public. Based on the analysis of the evolutionary game, some suggestions are put forward, such as perfecting the government regulation mechanism, optimizing the reward and punishment system for the project company and broadening the channels of public supervision. The research results of this paper can provide support for the government's regulation of WETP-PPP and ensure the project operation effect.

This paper examines pre- and post-production water treatment practices among food processors and investigates factors, especially managerial perceptions of environmental pressure that encourage or preclude either process.

To consider potential spillover effects across two water-treatment practices, the bivariate probit model based on random utility theory is used to investigate how practices are influenced by managerial perceptions of environmental pressure and measured by manager perceptions on water costs, water availability, water safety and quality.

Results indicate that firms with a managerial perception that water costs are low are less likely to conduct both pre- and post-production water treatment practices, while the perception of high water quality has a negative effect on water treatment prior to use. This study also confirms the positive correlation of the pre- and post-water treatment practices among food processors. Practices also change with firm features including production scope, scale, target market and expected future sales growth.

This study provides unique insights about water treatment practices and generates knowledge to enhance food safety and environmental sanitation in the food industry. Results are helpful to design and provide additional training and educational programs that target the enhancement of environmental and water quality awareness among food company managers and modify food safety policy instruments and environmental regulations pertaining to surface water resources.

Research exploring water-treatment practices in the food industry has been limited. Using a representative sample of food processors in the city of Shanghai, this study contributes to the literature on the examination of internal drivers of voluntary environmental management (VEM) with a focus on managerial perceptions of environmental pressure, establishes the correlation between pre- and post-production water treatment practices and identifies and quantifies the effects of relevant factors.

In recent years, with the increasingly serious urban water environmental pollution, the government has exerted considerable effort to promote the comprehensive improvement of the water environment and conducted numerous urban water environment treatment public–private partnership (PPP) projects (UWETP-PPP). The sustainability assessment of UWETP-PPP has important theoretical and practical significance for the public and private sectors to systematically evaluate the sustainability of projects and promote the sustainable development of projects. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to advance a method to evaluate the sustainability of UWETP-PPP.

The paper adopted fuzzy logic method to evaluate the sustainability of UWETP-PPP. First, this paper constructed the sustainability assessment indicator system of UWETP-PPP. Second, this paper determined the appropriate linguistic scale for assessing the performance ratings and importance weights of UWETP-PPP sustainability indicators and collected experts’ evaluations of the project through questionnaires. Then, the linguistic variables were approximated as fuzzy numbers through the concept of fuzzy theory. Finally, the sustainability of the project was determined and the weak sustainability aspects of the project were identified by calculation.

The feasibility of this method was verified by a specific case. And, the results of the case study showed that the UWETP-PPP in Xuchang City, China, was sustainable, and the indicators of weak sustainability of the project were identified, namely, internal return ratio (IRR), sustainable cash flow, provision of employment opportunities, energy efficiency, comprehensive use of water resources, use of innovation materials, renewal of project facilities, adoption of advanced engineering technology, use of construction waste and waste recycling and reuse. This paper also proposed corresponding suggestions for further improving the sustainability of the UWETP-PPP in Xuchang City, China.

This paper makes two contributions: first, the fuzzy logic method is applied to provide new ideas for a sustainability assessment of UWETP-PPP, and the assessment results facilitate ways to monitor and estimate the degree of sustainability. Second, the identified indicators of weak sustainability provide useful references for the public and private sectors regarding implementing appropriate measures to improve the sustainability level of UWETP-PPP.

The optimal payment in the whole operation and maintenance period of water environment treatment PPP projects has become the main approach to realize sustainable development of projects. This study is aimed at constructing an effective payment model for the whole life period of projects to achieve win-win among all stakeholders, so as to provide a theoretical reference and managerial implications for the public sector in the whole operation and maintenance period.

In the whole operation and maintenance period of water environment treatment PPP projects, this article investigates how the public sector optimizes the payment in the whole operation and maintenance period of projects. Firstly, the projects' whole operation and maintenance period is divided into several stages according to the performance appraisal period. And then, the multi-stage dynamic programming model is constructed to design the payment construct model for the public sector in each performance appraisal stage. The payment from the public sector is the decision variable, and the deduction from the private sector is a random variable.

The optimal payment model showed that the relatively less objective weight of public sector leaded to its relatively more total payment and vice versa. Therefore, the sustainable development of the projects can only be ensured when the objective weights both of them should be balanced. Additionally, the deduction from the performance appraisal of private sector plays an important role in the model construction. The larger deduction the private sector undertakes, the smaller profits private sector has. Since the deduction at each stage is a random variable, the deduction varies with the different probability distributions obeyed by the practical deduction in each stage.

The findings from this study have provided theoretical and application references, and some managerial implications are also given. First, the improvement of the pricing system of public sector should be accelerated. Second, the reasonable profit of the private sector must be guaranteed. While pursuing the maximization of social benefits, the public sector should make full use of the price sharing mechanism in the market and supervise the real income situation of the private sector. Third is increasing the public to participate in pricing. Additionally, it is a limitation that the deduction is assumed to conform to a uniform distribution in this study. Other probability distributions on deduction can be essentially further sought, so as to be more line with the actual situation of the projects.

The optimal payment in whole operation and maintenance period of the projects has become an important issue, which is a key to project success. This study constructs a multi-stage dynamic programming model to optimize payment in the whole period of projects. Additionally, this study adds its value through deeply developing the new theories of optimal payment to more suitable for the practical problems, so that to optimize the design of payment mechanism. Meanwhile, a valuable reference for public and private sectors is provided to ensure the sustainable development of the projects.

The paper aims to look at the Brian Mercer Awards for Innovation from the Royal Society.

The paper investigates the Brian Mercer Awards for Innovation, which are aimed at individuals or groups working in the general area of the built environment.

The paper finds that the Brian Mercer Awards for Innovation are intended to fund the development of an already proven concept or prototype through to the creation of a near‐market product for commercial exploitation. In addition to the main awards, The Royal Society has given Brian Mercer Awards for Feasibility to seven projects that it believes could become successful products in the coming years. One of these is a new wastewater treatment system that will not only recycle waste but will also produce reusable water, enough energy to power itself, and will be smaller than traditional plants has won a top Innovation Award.

The paper provides useful information on Brian Mercer Awards for Innovation.

Sustainable development goals (SDGs) are gaining significant importance in the current environment. Many businesses are keen to adopt SDGs to get a competitive edge. There are certain challenges in realigning the present working scenario for sustainable development, which is a primary concern for society. Various firms are adopting sustainable engineering (SE) practices to tackle such issues. Artificial intelligence (AI) is an emerging technology that can help the ineffective adoption of sustainable practices in an uncertain environment. In this regard, there is a need to review the current research practices in the field of SE in AI. The purpose of the present study is to comprehensive review the research trend in the field of SE in AI.

This work presents a review of AI applications in SE for decision-making in an uncertain environment. SCOPUS database was considered for shortlisting the articles. Specific keywords on AI, SE and decision-making were given, and a total of 127 articles were shortlisted after implying inclusion and exclusion criteria.

Bibliometric study and network analyses were performed to analyse the current research trends and to see the research collaboration between researchers and countries. Emerging research themes were identified by using structural topic modelling (STM) and were discussed further.

Research propositions corresponding to each research theme were presented for future research directions. Finally, the implications of the study were discussed.

This work presents a systematic review of articles in the field of AI applications in SE with the help of bibliometric study, network analyses and STM.

This study aims to optimize the preparation conditions and modify the nanofiltration (NF) membranes to prepare high-performance polysulfone/sulfonated polysulfone composite nanofiltration (PSF/SPSF-NF) membranes through interfacial polymerization.

Investigating the impacts of anhydrous piperazine (PIP) concentration, trimesoyl chloride (TMC) concentration and basement membrane type on NF membrane performance, the optimal membrane was prepared. In addition, nano-SiO₂ was added to the active separation layer to modify the NF membranes.

The comprehensive performance of PSF/SPSF-NF membranes was optimized when the concentration of PIP was 0.75 Wt.% and the concentration of TMC was 0.15 Wt.%, at which time the water flux was 66.1 L·m⁻²·h⁻¹ and the retention rate of Na₂SO₄ was 98.1%. The comprehensive performance of polysulfone/sulfonated polysulfone-SiO₂ nanofiltration (PSF/SPSF-SiO₂-NF) membranes was optimized when the blending ratio of nano-SiO₂ to PIP was 2:3, with a pure water flux of 81.9 L·m⁻²·h⁻¹ and a Na₂SO₄ retention rate of 95.9%. Compared to polysulfone nanofiltration (PSF-NF) membranes and PSF/SPSF-NF membranes, NF membranes with nano-SiO₂ increased the flux recovery rate by 22.9% and 8.7%.

PSF/SPSF-SiO2-NF membrane exhibits excellent antifouling properties.

There is currently no literature available on the preparation of NF membranes using polysulfone/sulfonated polysulfone (PSF/SPFS) as a substrate. This provides a method for modifying NF membranes, starting with the modification of the basement membrane and then modifying the active separation layer.

Increases in industrialisation in developing countries bring bout increases in the levels of industrial waste which have to be disposed of. Increasing the efficiency of such waste disposal processes can be achieved by effective quality control systems. The objectives of waste control systems are multiple but can broadly be considered to be environmental and economic. This article shows how goal programming can be successfully applied to the type of quality control problem in which the levels of inputs and process variables are fixed in order to meet a required specification of output which is expressed by multiple characteristics. The authors conclude that the success of the approach depends crucially on the efficiency of the necessary regression analysis.

With the increasing complexity of public–private partnership (PPP) projects, the amount of data generated during the construction process is massive. This paper aims to develop a new information management method to cope with the risk problems involved in dealing with such data, based on domain ontologies of the construction industry, to help manage PPP risks, share and reuse risk knowledge.

Risk knowledge concepts are acquired and summarized through PPP failure cases and an extensive literature review to establish a domain framework for risk knowledge using ontology technology to help manage PPP risks.

The results indicate that the risk ontology is capable of capturing key concepts and relationships involved in managing PPP risks and can be used to facilitate knowledge reuse and storage beneficial to risk management.

The classes in the risk knowledge ontology model constructed in this research do not yet cover all the information in PPP project risks and need to be further extended. Moreover, only the framework and basic methods needed are developed, while the construction of a working ontology model and the relationship between implicit and explicit knowledge is a complicated process that requires repeated modifications and evaluations before it can be implemented.

The ontology provides a basis for turning PPP risk information into risk knowledge to allow the effective sharing and communication of project risks between different project stakeholders. It can also have the potential to help reduce the dependence on subjectivity by mining, using and storing tacit knowledge in the risk management process.

The apparent suitability of the nine classes of PPP risk knowledge (project model, risk type, risk occurrence stage, risk source, risk consequence, risk likelihood, risk carrier, risk management measures and risk case) is identified, and the proposed construction method and steps for a complete domain ontology for PPP risk management are unique. A combination of criteria- and task-based evaluations is also developed for assessing the PPP risk ontology for the first time.