International Journal of Environment and Sustainable Development (6 papers in press)

Regular Issues

• Circular water management solutions for optimising irrigated agricultural production in Ghana: the relevance of nanotechnology  
  by Emmanuel K. Boon, Thorolf Konrad Franz Gross, Richard Oppong-Boateng, Oleksandra Karintseva 
  Abstract: The agricultural sector is the main source of employment, food and income in rural areas in most African countries like Ghana. However, due to several factors, including water scarcity, over reliance on rain-fed agriculture, increasing climate change impacts and pollution of freshwater sources, agricultural productivity is lagging behind the high population growth rate and demand for food. Food and nutrition insecurity, poverty, inadequate employment opportunities and poor quality of life are the dire consequences, especially in the rural communities. This paper argues that deploying the circular water management (CWM) approach in conjunction with nanotechnology applications will help to improve irrigation water provision to smallholder farmers to mitigate these intertwined socio-economic challenges. A mixed research design method guided the research and preparation of the paper. The findings of a comprehensive desk research informed the design of a semi-structured interview guide for collecting data from 11 purposively sampled agricultural scientists and experts of sustainable development, water resources management and nanotechnology in Upper West Region (UWR) in Northern Ghana. In addition, 20 postgraduate students debated on key water resource management issues during a focus group discussion (FGD) and recommended appropriate mitigation measures.
  Keywords: agriculture; circular economy; food security; irrigation; nanotechnology; water.
  DOI: 10.1504/IJESD.2024.10063505
   
  
• Life cycle assessment and software tools comparison  
  by Michal Sečkár, Marián Schwarz, Juraj Golej, Darina Veverková 
  Abstract: The purpose of this study was to provide the necessary information about life cycle assessment (LCA), from the definition of the goal and scope through the inventory analysis, the life cycle impact assessment, the interpretation of the results, and the use of LCA study. Moreover, information about SimaPro, GaBi, openLCA, and Umberto software were described and SimaPro and Gabi software were compared. The requirements of what the software should enable and what is necessary for its operation and use by experts were discussed. The two most frequently used software were studied in terms of several criteria. The advantages and disadvantages of each software were analysed. The results show that both software are special and different in some way. It is important to be aware of the differences among the used software and databases, especially when interpreting results and in comparative studies.
  Keywords: life cycle assessment; LCA; SimaPro; GaBi; software.
  DOI: 10.1504/IJESD.2024.10064669
   
  
• Growth, education and sustainability: an overview  
  by Gaetano Lisi 
  Abstract: This paper aims to give a contribution to the body of literature on growth, education and sustainability. To date, this particular body is not firmly established but it is, nevertheless, growing. Indeed, the close link between sustainable development and human capital has only recently been analysed in depth, and mainly with empirical analyses. The contribution of this paper is threefold, viz.: 1) it reviews the related literature; 2) it develops a basic theoretical model for the empirical analysis; 3) it performs a panel-type empirical analysis that covers 81 countries and 11 time periods (2012-2022). The main result of this work is that generic human capital (education) is not solely the engine of economic growth because it is also, potentially, the architect of sustainable development, since human capital (education) is also necessary to increase awareness of environmental issues. Hence, the study result suggests that investment in education is the only policy that can achieve both growth and sustainability.
  Keywords: education; growth; sustainability; environmental quality.
  DOI: 10.1504/IJESD.2024.10064679
   
  
• The impacts of municipal solid waste collection and transport technologies in smart cities: trends and challenges  
  by Hendrigo Venes, Rodrigo De Alvarenga Rosa, Renato Ribeiro Siman 
  Abstract: The concept of Smart City (SC) is an extensive approach to the functioning of urban centres and among the most important issues associated with SC’s applications is urban waste management, which negatively impacts society’s environment and health if not properly managed. This article proposes to identify the worldwide trends in solid waste collection and transportation in SC and the main challenges in future research. Hence, a review was performed using Methodi InOrdinatio and bibliometrix R-tool, applied to two merged databases, to review a selected portfolio and contribute to direct future research. Results show that environmental and economic dimensions appeared more frequently in the articles (94.3%) and that social analysis is scarce when dealing with waste management, since only 10% of articles addressed social aspects. The social contexts of sustainable development are important factors to be considered due to the many informal and associated waste pickers working with waste collection and separation in low and middle-income countries.
  Keywords: municipal solid waste management; MSWM; smart cities; SC; waste collection; waste transportation.
  DOI: 10.1504/IJESD.2024.10065201
   
  
• Evaluation of the urban development index based on Silicon Valley index  
  by Guilin Wang 
  Abstract: Based on the Silicon Valley Index, urban development index of the Yangtze River Delta is designed and assessed by entropy index model. The results show that: 1) the urban development index have significant differences in levels, the same city has significant differences in different dimensions, and the same latitude has significant differences in different cities; 2) there are significant differences in the contribution rates and driving effects of each subsystem to the urban development index, resulting in unbalanced urban development levels between cities; 3) obvious differences in the driving effect of various indicators on urban development index are found. The ratio of housing price to income and urbanisation rate have the most stirring influence on the urban development index, with the index weights of 0.1355 and 0.1230, respectively. In short, urban development index in the study area is low and needs to be further improved.
  Keywords: Silicon Valley index; urban development index; small and medium-sized city; Yangtze River delta.
  DOI: 10.1504/IJESD.2025.10066347
   
  
• How does legitimacy pressure drive corporate greenwashing? Evidence from China  
  by Qiong Yao, Huihao Lin, Huiying Hu, Mingli Li 
  Abstract: This paper employs institutional theory and information asymmetry theory to explore the impact of legitimacy pressures on corporate greenwashing, whilst concurrently assessing the moderating roles of environmental visibility and geographical location. Specifically, it poses two main questions: (1) What is the relationship between legitimacy pressures and corporate greenwashing? (2) How do environmental visibility and geographical location, through the lenses of institutional theory and information asymmetry theory, affect the interplay between legitimacy pressures and corporate greenwashing? This investigation analysed data from 130 publicly listed companies and formulated an empirical model to evaluate the hypotheses. The results indicate that legitimacy pressures have an inverted U-shaped effect on greenwashing. Factors such as organisational visibility, environmental regulations, and geographical distance temper this inverted U-shaped relationship between legitimacy pressures and greenwashing.
  Keywords: greenwashing; legitimacy pressure; environmental visibility; geographical location; China.