Sustainable development deficit in Europe: modelling, ranking, and classification of countries

The paper focuses on evaluation of progress of European and neighbouring countries in sustainable development using the system of environmental, social and economic indicators. The task of the research is to identify the problem (deficit) points of countries from the sustainable development point of view. The system of indices which characterize deficit in different sustainable development dimensions has been evaluated. The ranking of European and some neighbouring countries on sustainability problems level has been developed. The counties under consideration have been classified on significance and nature of their sustainable development problems. It is shown that the level of sustainable development is not related with the level of economic development, some of the most economically developed European countries have deep sustainability problems and, in contrast, it is possible to reach good progress toward sustainable development despite economic difficulties

Eco-Efficiency Assessment Of Electric Vehicles In The European Union Countries: The Case Of Mix-Sources Of Energy

European Union (EU) member states have considered the environmental impacts of transportation and have prompted Electric Vehicle (EV) usage as one of the technological advancements that could reduce emissions and energy and water consumption. However, this depends on how EVs react to eco-friendly behaviors during their life cycle. The research utilizes a combined life cycle assessment (LCA) and a principal component analysis (PCA) technique to assess the eco-efficiency performance of EVs in EU member states. Considering the energy mix for electricity generation, three environmental indicators (GHG emission, water consumption, and energy consumption) and one economical (contribution to GDP) indicator were used to compute the eco-efficiency scores for 28 EU member states. First, the values for each environmental and economic indicators were obtained. The eco-efficiency scores for each corresponding EU member states were then calculated and compared. From the results of the eco-efficiency analysis, Belgium was found to have the highest eco-efficiency score, while Estonia was tagged to be the least eco-efficient countr

El desarrollo sostenible en la Unión Europea: análisis del desempeño relativo mediante un indicador sintético dinámico

En la actualidad, la Agenda 2030 y el compromiso de cumplir con los Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible constituyen la hoja de ruta en materia de desarrollo y cooperación tanto a nivel europeo como a nivel internacional. Este trabajo pretende analizar el desempeño relativo realizado por los países de la Unión Europea, aplicando un enfoque metodológico basado en el análisis factorial de datos en tres dimensiones y las técnicas de clasificación no supervisadas. El uso de un indicador sintético dinámico permitirá visualizar y cuantificar las semejanzas y divergencias por grupos de países y a nivel individual. Pese a los avances logrados en el conjunto de la UE, el estudio muestra que persisten diferencias significativas entre países y objetivos.  

A comparative analysis of development in Southeast European countries

There are different kinds of indicators which measure levels of development. The use of varying methods could alter the ranking of a particular country. In this paper, Southeast European countries are ranked according to the World Bank, the UNDP and the I-distance method. The aim of the paper is to provide a comparison between the ranking results obtained with those methods for the period 2007–2012. The principal objective of the study is the ranking of SEE countries using the I-distance technique – a multivariate statistical method for ranking entities – and to discover whether this method gives a better ranking of countries than income per capita and the HDI. To answer this question, similar variables of economic development are used within the research methods. Due to the observed period, some government finance variables are also included. Despite certain limitations, such as lack of data for SEE countries, the results show that the ranks of countries are highly similar regardless of the method used. Nevertheless, there are some differences in the countries’ rankings in some years: there are small differences from year to year both in terms of HDI and GNI per capita. However, the I-distance method shows greater differences between countries. First published online 26 January 2017

Industry 4.0 and social development in the aspect of sustainable development : relations in EC countries

Purpose: The aim of this paper is to focus on the analysis and assessment of the level of development of Industry 4.0, the social development in the context of the implementation of the concept of sustainable development and to determine the relationship of these phenomena in EU countries. Design/Methodology/Approach: Due to the fact that both Industry 4.0 and social development are complex issues, the research uses taxonomic measures based on the TOPSIS method, which replace the multi-feature description of the studied objects by a single aggregate size, which greatly facilitates their analysis. For the purposes of this article, an attempt was made to construct a synthetic measure of the development of Industry 4.0, as well as a synthetic measure of social development in the context of implementing the concept of sustainable development based on a previously selected set of diagnostic variables. The research also used the so-called threshold method to classify EU countries into homogeneous typological groups. In addition, a correlation analysis was carried out in order to examine whether there is a correlation between the analysed phenomena. Findings: The results of the research indicate that there is a moderate variation in the level of social development in the EU countries in the context of implementing the concept of sustainable development and a significant variation in the level of development of Industry 4.0. The analysis showed that there is a very high positive correlation between the two. Practical Implications: Modern economies are faced with the need to meet the challenges resulting from the fourth industrial revolution, for which the emergence of Industry 4.0 is significant. The changes resulting from the implementation of the concept of Industry 4.0 concern not only industry and its enterprises, but also affect the overall shape of socio-economic processes. Originality/value: Social development considered in connection with the development of Industry 4.0 a relatively new economic category, still not well described in the literature. The way they are combined in the article is a relatively new proposal, important from the point of view of each of these areas.peer-reviewe

Incidencia de la calidad el aire en el desarrollo urbano sostenible. Metodología de pronóstico basado en herramientas de aprendizaje automático

Tesis por compendio[ES] La calidad del aire es un determinante de la salud y bienestar de las poblaciones; su mejora es parte de algunas metas de los objetivos de desarrollo sostenible (ODS) con la Agenda 2030. Al respecto, se han definido a nivel mundial protocolos, acuerdos, convenios y lineamientos de política para lograr avanzar en el cumplimiento de los ODS. Existen además reportes nacionales de avance en la implementación de metas específicas, según la agenda de cada país y en algunos casos en el ámbito de ciudad, cuyos indicadores pueden integrarse en las dimensiones más conocidas del desarrollo sostenible: la dimensión ambiental, la social y la económica. Existe información sobre el monitoreo del estado de la calidad de los recursos y de condiciones del territorio en diversos temas. Sin embargo, no en todos los territorios, en sus diferentes escalas espaciales, se realiza una continua evaluación de su desempeño sostenible y, además factores de deterioro ambiental como la contaminación del aire, son tratados como determinantes aislados con la generación de reportes de su comportamiento y el desarrollo de planes de monitoreo y de mitigación. Del mismo modo, para los diferentes temas que hacen parte de las dimensiones de la sostenibilidad, existen herramientas de modelación para evaluar el comportamiento de sus indicadores; sin embargo, no se cuenta con un instrumento que pronostique el nivel de avance en el desarrollo sostenible y además que identifique la influencia de la calidad del aire en su comportamiento. Las herramientas de aprendizaje automático pueden aportar en la respuesta a dicha situación, al ser instrumentos útiles en el pronóstico del comportamiento de un conjunto de datos. Por consiguiente, el objetivo central de este trabajo doctoral es establecer la incidencia de la calidad del aire sobre el desarrollo urbano sostenible, en sus dimensiones ambiental, social y económica, mediante el uso de herramientas de aprendizaje automático, como soporte para la toma de decisiones. Este objetivo involucra el diseño y ejecución de una metodología para identificar la influencia de indicadores en materia de calidad del aire, sobre el desarrollo urbano sostenible. Este trabajo doctoral se desarrolló como compendio de un conjunto de publicaciones que incluyen 1) la revisión del estado del arte para la identificación de las variables y parámetros que podrían calificar las dimensiones individuales del desempeño sostenible, 2) la evaluación del nivel de avance en el desarrollo sostenible de una zona urbana y el análisis estadístico de su desempeño sostenible según las variables analizadas; 3) la identificación, selección y aplicación de las herramientas de aprendizaje automático y por último 4) la identificación del grado de influencia de la calidad del aire en el pronóstico del nivel de sostenibilidad establecido. Para ello se hizo uso del software ArcGIS para el análisis espacial y del software de acceso libre R para los análisis estadísticos y la aplicación de las herramientas de aprendizaje automático. Esta investigación se realizó a partir de un estudio de caso en una localidad de la ciudad de Bogotá, en Colombia que es la capital del país, situada sobre una planicie altitudinal en la cordillera oriental y a 2625 metros sobre el nivel del mar. Bogotá es una de las ciudades más pobladas en América Latina y es una de las capitales mundiales que ha presentado altos niveles de contaminación por material particulado, siendo éste un factor de riesgo para su población. La metodología construida permite evaluar la influencia de la calidad del aire en el desarrollo urbano sostenible mediante herramientas de aprendizaje automático. Es aplicable a zonas urbanas y orienta el paso a paso para la determinación de los factores de mayor relevancia en cada una de las dimensiones de la sostenibilidad, constituyéndose en un instrumento de soporte para la toma de decisiones respecto a la implem[CA] La qualitat de l'aire és un determinant de la salut i benestar de les poblacions; la seua millora és part d'algunes metes dels objectius de desenvolupament sostenible (ODS) amb l'Agenda 2030. Sobre aquest tema, s'han definit a nivell mundial protocols, acords, convenis i alineaments de política per a aconseguir avançar en el compliment dels ODS. Existeixen reportes nacionals d'avanç sobre la implementació de metes específiques, segons l'agenda de cada país i en alguns casos en l'àmbit de ciutat, els indicadors de la qual poden integrar-se en les dimensions més conegudes del desenvolupament sostenible: la dimensió ambiental, la social i l'econòmica. Existeix informació sobre el monitoratge de l'estat de la qualitat dels recursos i de les condicions del territori en diversos temes. No obstant això, no en tots els territoris, en les seues diferents escales espacials, es realitza contínua avaluació del seu acompliment sostenible i, a més a més, factors de deterioració ambiental com la contaminació de l'aire, són tractats com a determinants aïllats amb la generació de reportes del seu comportament i el desenvolupament de plans de monitoratge i de mitigació. De la mateixa manera, per als diferents temes que fan part de les dimensions de la sostenibilitat, existeixen eines de modelatge per a avaluar el comportament dels seus indicadors; no obstant això, no es compta amb un instrument que pronostique el nivell d'avanç en el desenvolupament sostenible i a més que identifique la influència de la qualitat de l'aire en el seu comportament. Les eines d'aprenentatge automàtic poden aportar en la resposta a aquesta situació, en ser instruments útils en el pronòstic del comportament d'un conjunt de dades. Per consegüent, l'objectiu central d'aquest treball doctoral és establir la incidència de la qualitat de l'aire sobre el desenvolupament urbà sostenible, en les seues dimensions ambiental, social i econòmica, mitjançant l'ús d'eines d'aprenentatge automàtic, com a suport per a la presa de decisions. Aquest objectiu involucra el disseny i execució d'una metodologia per a identificar la influència d'indicadors en matèria de qualitat de l'aire, sobre el desenvolupament urbà sostenible. Aquest treball doctoral es va desenvolupar com a compendi d'un conjunt de publicacions que inclouen 1) la revisió de l'estat de l'art per a la identificació de les variables i paràmetres que podrien qualificar les dimensions individuals de l'acompliment sostenible, 2) l'avaluació del nivell d'avanç en el desenvolupament sostenible d'una zona urbana i l'anàlisi estadística del seu acompliment sostenible segons les variables analitzades; 3) la identificació, selecció i aplicació de les eines d'aprenentatge automàtic i finalment 4) la identificació del grau d'influència de la qualitat de l'aire en el pronòstic del nivell de sostenibilitat establit. Per a això es va fer ús del programari ArcGIS per a l'anàlisi espacial i del programari d'accés lliure R per a les anàlisis estadístiques i l'aplicació de les eines d'aprenentatge automàtic. Aquesta investigació es va realitzar a partir d'un estudi de cas en una localitat de la ciutat de Bogotà, a Colòmbia que és la capital del país, situada sobre una planícia altitudinal en la serralada oriental i a 2625 metres sobre el nivell de la mar. Bogotà és una de les ciutats més poblades a Amèrica Llatina i és una de les capitals mundials que ha presentat alts nivells de contaminació per material particulat, sent aquest un factor de risc per a la seua població. La metodologia construïda permet avaluar la influència de la qualitat de l'aire en el desenvolupament urbà sostenible mitjançant l'ús d'eines d'aprenentatge automàtic. És aplicable a zones urbanes i orienta el pas a pas per a la determinació dels factors de major rellevància en cadascuna de les dimensions de la sostenibilitat, constituint-se en un instrument de suport per a la presa d[EN] Air quality is a determinant to the health and well-being of populations; its improvement is part of some of the targets of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with the 2030 Agenda. In this regard, protocols, agreements, pacts, and policy guidelines have been defined worldwide to progress in the SDGs' achievement. Additionally, there are national progress reports on reaching specific goals, based on each country's agenda. In certain cases, these include city-level reports, whose indicators, both at the national and city levels, can be integrated into the central and best-known dimensions of sustainable development, namely the environmental, social, and economic dimensions. There is information concerning the monitoring of the state of resource quality and territorial conditions in various areas. However, not all territories in their different spatial scales are continuously evaluated for their sustainable performance. Moreover, environmental deterioration factors such as air pollution are handled as isolated determinants with reports generated on their behavior, in addition to developing monitoring and mitigation plans. Likewise, there are modeling tools to evaluate the behavior of different components that are part of the dimensions of sustainability. However, there is no instrument that forecasts the level of progress in sustainable development that also identifies the influence of air quality on its behavior. Machine learning tools can contribute to responding to this situation, as they are able to predict the behavior of a data set. Therefore, the primary objective of this doctoral work is to establish the incidence of air quality on urban sustainable development, in its environmental, social, and economic dimensions, through the use of machine learning tools to support decision-making. This objective entails designing and implementing a methodology to identify the influence of air quality indicators on urban sustainable development. This doctoral thesis was developed as a compendium of a set of publications which include: 1) the review of the state of the art for identifying variables and parameters that could qualify the individual dimensions of sustainable performance; 2) the evaluation of the level of progress of the sustainable development of an urban area, and the statistical analysis of its sustainable performance based on the variables analyzed; 3) the identification, selection, and use of machine learning tools, and lastly 4) the identification of the influence of air quality on the prediction of the established sustainability level. The ArcGIS program was used for the spatial analysis, and the free-access software R for the statistical analysis, and the use of the machine learning tools. This research was performed based on a case study of a locality in the capital of Colombia; Bogotá, which is located on an altitudinal plain in the eastern mountain range at 2625 meters above sea level. Bogotá is one of the most populated cities in Latin America and is one of the world capitals with the highest levels of air pollution from particulate matter, which is a risk factor for its population. The methodology developed enables evaluating the influence of air quality on urban sustainable development with machine learning tools. This methodology is valid in urban areas, and through a step-by-step approach, determines the most relevant factors for each sustainability dimension. It has become a tool to support decision-making regarding the implementation and progress of the SDGs from the micro-territory level.Molina Gómez, NI. (2021). Incidencia de la calidad el aire en el desarrollo urbano sostenible. Metodología de pronóstico basado en herramientas de aprendizaje automático [Tesis doctoral]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/168398TESISCompendi

Government to business stakeholder communication: "From sing and dance to show and tell."

Objective of the Study: The present Thesis study focuses on investigating government to business stakeholder communication through the Case Entity's - the Finnish National Commission on Sustainable Development(FNCSD)- communication practices with the key stakeholder group of Finnish companies. The research aims to answer how the FNCSD works to communicate to its corporate stakeholders and how its communication is perceived by corporate stakeholders. Methodology: The research was conducted as a qualitative single case study with 12 semi-structured, thematic interviews. Two employees from the Secretariat of the National Commission and ten corporate participants were interviewed; the latter ten interviewees represented the different corporate stakeholders of interest to the Finnish National Commission on Sustainable Development. Findings: The findings of this study indicate that the FNCSD should take the approach of "showing and telling" to ensure positively perceived communication from the side of corporate stakeholders: explicitly communicating clear messages and presenting concrete value added that stakeholders would get from adhering to the communication. Additionally, the use of strategic intermediaries was highlighted as an important medium to improve dialogue between corporate stakeholders and the FNCSD as well as to enhance the government body's credibility. The study also showed that corporate stakeholders would equate the nature and transparency of the FNCSD's own governance with the nature of its communication. Furthermore, the FNCSD itself struggles in balancing the demands from corporate stakeholders and the expectations from Finnish government regarding the approach to government communication

Air quality and urban sustainable development: the application of machine learning tools

[EN] Air quality has an efect on a population¿s quality of life. As a dimension of sustainable urban development, governments have been concerned about this indicator. This is refected in the references consulted that have demonstrated progress in forecasting pollution events to issue early warnings using conventional tools which, as a result of the new era of big data, are becoming obsolete. There are a limited number of studies with applications of machine learning tools to characterize and forecast behavior of the environmental, social and economic dimensions of sustainable development as they pertain to air quality. This article presents an analysis of studies that developed machine learning models to forecast sustainable development and air quality. Additionally, this paper sets out to present research that studied the relationship between air quality and urban sustainable development to identify the reliability and possible applications in diferent urban contexts of these machine learning tools. To that end, a systematic review was carried out, revealing that machine learning tools have been primarily used for clustering and classifying variables and indicators according to the problem analyzed, while tools such as artifcial neural networks and support vector machines are the most widely used to predict diferent types of events. The nonlinear nature and synergy of the dimensions of sustainable development are of great interest for the application of machine learning tools.Molina-Gómez, NI.; Díaz-Arévalo, JL.; López Jiménez, PA. (2021). Air quality and urban sustainable development: the application of machine learning tools. International Journal of Environmental Science and Technology. 18(4):1-18. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13762-020-02896-6S118184Al-Dabbous A, Kumar P, Khan A (2017) Prediction of airborne nanoparticles at roadside location using a feed–forward artificial neural network. Atmos Pollut Res 8:446–454. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apr.2016.11.004Antanasijević D, Pocajt V, Povrenović D, Ristić M, Perić-Grujić A (2013) PM10 emission forecasting using artificial neural networks and genetic algorithm input variable optimization. Sci Total Environ 443:511–519. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2012.10.110Brink H, Richards JW, Fetherolf M (2016) Real-world machine learning. Richards JW, Fetherolf M (eds) Manning Publications Co. Berkeley, CA. https://www.manning.com/books/real-world-machine-learning. Accessed 26 Apr 2020Cervone G, Franzese P, Ezber Y, Boybeyi Z (2008) Risk assessment of atmospheric emissions using machine learning. Nat Hazard Earth Syst 8:991–1000. https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-8-991-2008Chen S, Kan G, Li J, Liang K, Hong Y (2018) Investigating China’s urban air quality using big data, information theory, and machine learning. Pol J Environ Stud 27:565–578. https://doi.org/10.15244/pjoes/75159Corani (2005) Air quality prediction in Milan: feed-forward neural networks, pruned neural networks and lazy learning. Ecol Model 185:513–529. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2005.01.008Cruz C, Gómez A, Ramírez L, Villalva A, Monge O, Varela J, Quiroz J, Duarte H (2017) Calidad del aire respecto de metales (Pb, Cd, Ni, Cu, Cr) y relación con salud respiratoria: caso Sonora, México. Rev Int Contam Ambient 33:23–34. https://doi.org/10.20937/RICA.2017.33.esp02.02de Hoogh K, Héritier H, Stafoggia M, Künzli N, Kloog I (2018) Modelling daily PM2.5 concentrations at high spatio-temporal resolution across Switzerland. Environ Pollut 233:1147–1154. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2017.10.025Franceschi F, Cobo M, Figueredo M (2018) Discovering relationships and forecasting PM10 and PM2.5 concentrations in Bogotá, Colombia, using Artificial Neural Networks, Principal Component Analysis, and k-means clustering. Atmos Pollut Res 9:912–922. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apr.2018.02.006García N, Combarro E, del Coz J, Montañes E (2013) A SVM-based regression model to study the air quality at local scale in Oviedo urban area (Northern Spain): a case study. Appl Math Comput 219:8923–8937. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amc.2013.03.018Gibert K, Sànchez-Màrre M, Sevilla B (2012) Tools for environmental data mining and intelligent decision support. In iEMSs. Leipzig, Germany. http://www.iemss.org/society/index.php/iemss-2012-proceedings. Accessed 26 Nov 2018Gibert K, Sànchez-Marrè M, Izquierdo J (2016) A survey on pre-processing techniques: relevant issues in the context of environmental data mining. Ai Commun 29:627–663. https://doi.org/10.3233/AIC-160710Gounaridis D, Chorianopoulos I, Koukoulas S (2018) Exploring prospective urban growth trends under different economic outlooks and land-use planning scenarios: the case of Athens. Appl Geogr 90:134–144. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apgeog.2017.12.001Holloway J, Mengersen K (2018) Statistical machine learning methods and remote sensing for sustainable development goals: a review. Remote Sens 10:1–21. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs10091365Ifaei P, Karbassi A, Lee S, Yoo Ch (2017) A renewable energies-assisted sustainable development plan for Iran using techno-econo-socio-environmental multivariate analysis and big data. Energy Convers Manag 153:257–277. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enconman.2017.10.014Kadiyala A, Kumar A (2017a) Applications of R to evaluate environmental data science problems. Environ Prog Sustain 36:1358–1364. https://doi.org/10.1002/ep.12676Kadiyala A, Kumar A (2017b) Vector time series-based radial basis function neural network modeling of air quality inside a public transportation bus using available software. Environ Prog Sustain 36:4–10. https://doi.org/10.1002/ep.12523Karimian H, Li Q, Wu Ch, Qi Y, Mo Y, Chen G, Zhang X, Sachdeva S (2019) Evaluation of different machine learning approaches to forecasting PM2.5 mass concentrations. Aerosol Air Qual Res 19:1400–1410. https://doi.org/10.4209/aaqr.2018.12.0450Krzyzanowski M, Apte J, Bonjour S, Brauer M, Cohen A, Prüss-Ustun A (2014) Air pollution in the mega-cities. Curr Environ Health Rep 1:185–191. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40572-014-0019-7Lässig K, Morik (2016) Computat sustainability. Springer, Berlin. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31858-5Li Y, Wu Y-X, Zeng Z-X, Guo L (2006) Research on forecast model for sustainable development of economy-environment system based on PCA and SVM. In: Proceedings of the 2006 international conference on machine learning and cybernetics, vol 2006. IEEE, Dalian, China, pp 3590–3593. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICMLC.2006.258576Liu B-Ch, Binaykia A, Chang P-Ch, Tiwari M, Tsao Ch-Ch (2017) Urban air quality forecasting based on multi- dimensional collaborative support vector regression (SVR): a case study of Beijing-Tianjin-Shijiazhuang. PLoS ONE 12:1–17. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0179763Lubell M, Feiock R, Handy S (2009) City adoption of environmentally sustainable policies in California’s Central Valley. J Am Plan Assoc 75:293–308. https://doi.org/10.1080/01944360902952295Ma D, Zhang Z (2016) Contaminant dispersion prediction and source estimation with integrated Gaussian-machine learning network model for point source emission in atmosphere. J Hazard Mater 311:237–245. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhazmat.2016.03.022Madu C, Kuei N, Lee P (2017) Urban sustainability management: a deep learning perspective. Sustain Cities Soc 30:1–17. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2016.12.012Mellos K (1988) Theory of eco-development. In: Perspectives on ecology. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-19598-5_4Ni XY, Huang H, Du WP (2017) Relevance analysis and short-term prediction of PM2.5 concentrations in Beijing based on multi-source data. Atmos Environ 150:146–161. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosenv.2016.11.054Oprea M, Dragomir E, Popescu M, Mihalache S (2016) Particulate matter air pollutants forecasting using inductive learning approach. Rev Chim 67:2075–2081Paas B, Stienen J, Vorländer M, Schneider Ch (2017) Modelling of urban near-road atmospheric PM concentrations using an artificial neural network approach with acoustic data input. Environments 4:1–25. https://doi.org/10.3390/environments4020026Pandey G, Zhang B, Jian L (2013) Predicting submicron air pollution indicators: a machine learning approach. Environ Sci Proc Impacts 15:996–1005. https://doi.org/10.1039/c3em30890aPeng H, Lima A, Teakles A, Jin J, Cannon A, Hsieh W (2017) Evaluating hourly air quality forecasting in Canada with nonlinear updatable machine learning methods. Air Qual Atmos Health 10:195–211. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11869-016-0414-3Pérez-Ortíz M, de La Paz-Marín M, Gutiérrez PA, Hervás-Martínez C (2014) Classification of EU countries’ progress towards sustainable development based on ordinal regression techniques. Knowl Based Syst 66:178–189. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.knosys.2014.04.041Phillis Y, Kouikoglou V, Verdugo C (2017) Urban sustainability assessment and ranking of cities. Comput Environ Urban 64:254–265. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compenvurbsys.2017.03.002Saeed S, Hussain L, Awan I, Idris A (2017) Comparative analysis of different statistical methods for prediction of PM2.5 and PM10 concentrations in advance for several hours. Int J Comput Sci Netw Secur 17:45–52Sayegh A, Munir S, Habeebullah T (2014) Comparing the performance of statistical models for predicting PM10 concentrations. Aerosol Air Qual Res 14:653–665. https://doi.org/10.4209/aaqr.2013.07.0259Shaban K, Kadri A, Rezk E (2016) Urban air pollution monitoring system with forecasting models. IEEE Sens J 16:2598–2606. https://doi.org/10.1109/JSEN.2016.2514378Sierra B (2006) Aprendizaje automático conceptos básicos y avanzados Aspectos prácticos utilizando el software Weka. Madrid Pearson Prentice Hall, MadridSingh K, Gupta S, Rai P (2013) Identifying pollution sources and predicting urban air quality using ensemble learning methods. Atmos Environ 80:426–437. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosenv.2013.08.023Song L, Pang S, Longley I, Olivares G, Sarrafzadeh A (2014) Spatio-temporal PM2.5 prediction by spatial data aided incremental support vector regression. In: International joint conference on neural networks. IEEE, Beijing, pp 623–630. https://doi.org/10.1109/IJCNN.2014.6889521Souza R, Coelho G, da Silva A, Pozza S (2015) Using ensembles of artificial neural networks to improve PM10 forecasts. Chem Eng Trans 43:2161–2166. https://doi.org/10.3303/CET1543361Suárez A, García PJ, Riesgo P, del Coz JJ, Iglesias-Rodríguez FJ (2011) Application of an SVM-based regression model to the air quality study at local scale in the Avilés urban area (Spain). Math Comput Model 54:453–1466. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mcm.2011.04.017Tamas W, Notton G, Paoli C, Nivet M, Voyant C (2016) Hybridization of air quality forecasting models using machine learning and clustering: an original approach to detect pollutant peaks. Aerosol Air Qual Res 16:405–416. https://doi.org/10.4209/aaqr.2015.03.0193Toumi O, Le Gallo J, Ben Rejeb J (2017) Assessment of Latin American sustainability. Renew Sustain Energy Rev 78:878–885. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2017.05.013Tzima F, Mitkas P, Voukantsis D, Karatzas K (2011) Sparse episode identification in environmental datasets: the case of air quality assessment. Expert Syst Appl 38:5019–5027. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eswa.2010.09.148United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs (2019) World urbanization prospects The 2018 Revision. New York. https://doi.org/10.18356/b9e995fe-enWang B (2019) Applying machine-learning methods based on causality analysis to determine air quality in China. Pol J Environ Stud 28:3877–3885. https://doi.org/10.15244/pjoes/99639Wang X, Xiao Z (2017) Regional eco-efficiency prediction with support vector spatial dynamic MIDAS. J Clean Prod 161:165–177. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.05.077Wang W, Men C, Lu W (2008) Online prediction model based on support vector machine. Neurocomputing 71:550–558. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neucom.2007.07.020WCED (1987) Report of the world commission on environment and development: our common future: report of the world commission on environment and development. WCED, Oslo. https://doi.org/10.1080/07488008808408783Weizhen H, Zhengqiang L, Yuhuan Z, Hua X, Ying Z, Kaitao L, Donghui L, Peng W, Yan M (2014) Using support vector regression to predict PM10 and PM2.5. In: IOP conference series: earth and environmental science, vol 17. IOP. https://doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/17/1/012268WHO (2016) OMS | La OMS publica estimaciones nacionales sobre la exposición a la contaminación del aire y sus repercusiones para la salud. WHO. http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2016/air-pollution-estimates/es/. Accesed 26 Nov 2018Yeganeh N, Shafie MP, Rashidi Y, Kamalan H (2012) Prediction of CO concentrations based on a hybrid partial least square and support vector machine model. Atmos Environ 55:357–365. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosenv.2012.02.092Zalakeviciute R, Bastidas M, Buenaño A, Rybarczyk Y (2020) A traffic-based method to predict and map urban air quality. Appl Sci. https://doi.org/10.3390/app10062035Zeng L, Guo J, Wang B, Lv J, Wang Q (2019) Analyzing sustainability of Chinese coal cities using a decision tree modeling approach. Resour Policy 64:101501. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resourpol.2019.101501Zhan Y, Luo Y, Deng X, Grieneisen M, Zhang M, Di B (2018) Spatiotemporal prediction of daily ambient ozone levels across China using random forest for human exposure assessment. Environ Pollut 233:464–473. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2017.10.029Zhang Y, Huan Q (2006) Research on the evaluation of sustainable development in Cangzhou city based on neural-network-AHP. In: Proceedings of the fifth international conference on machine learning and cybernetics, vol 2006. pp 3144–3147. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICMLC.2006.258407Zhang Y, Shang W, Wu Y (2009) Research on sustainable development based on neural network. In: 2009 Chinese control and decision conference. IEEE, pp 3273–3276. https://doi.org/10.1109/CCDC.2009.5192476Zhou Y, Chang F-J, Chang L-Ch, Kao I-F, Wang YS (2019) Explore a deep learning multi-output neural network for regional multi-step-ahead air quality forecasts. J Clean Prod 209:134–145. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.10.24

Development of a facilities management framework for sustainable building practices in Nigeria

There is need for sustainable building practice in Nigeria as buildings generally show signs of poor design for ventilation, natural lighting, energy management, water management, waste management and other building services. These buildings under perform in relation to the purpose for which they have been built. Building users often complain that the buildings do not provide the required services such as functioning air-conditioning systems, effective water and energy management systems and waste management. Facilities management (FM) professionals in Nigeria have recognised the role that they can play in the practice of sustainable building as a way to proffering a solution to the above mentioned problems. Six objectives were set for the study: to identify the constituents of sustainable building with reference to literature and internationally recognised standards; to evaluate the role of FM in relation to the sustainable building at the design, the construction and operations stages of the building life-cycle; to develop a conceptual framework that shows the facilities manager’s role in sustainable buildings; to evaluate the perception of facilities managers in relation to their competence in achieving sustainable buildings; to investigate the drivers and barriers to the facilities manager’s role in achieving sustainable buildings; and finally to develop and validate a framework for sustainable building practice for FM in Nigeria. The methodology adopted for this research included a combination of extensive literature review, content analysis of relevant literature and documents, 20 interviews and a questionnaire survey of 139 members of IFMA Nigeria in order to identify sustainable building constituents and the facilities manager’s role in sustainable buildings. The findings of the research helped in developing a framework for the achievement of sustainable buildings through the facilities manager’s role at the design, construction and operations stages of the building’s life-cycle