Empirical Examination of Factors Influencing the Adoption of Green Building Technologies: The Perspective of Construction Developers in Developing Economies

This study seeks to better understand the determinants of green building technology (GBT) adoption intention of construction developers in developing countries. In order to address these objectives, this study integrates the Diffusion of Innovation theory, the theory of Resource-based View, and the Resource Dependence Theory to analyze and construct the theoretical model of developers’ intentions to adopt GBTs from three perspectives, namely, technological, organizational, and environmental. The model was tested using survey data collected from 142 experienced managers in Vietnam. Data analysis was performed by SEM using the partial least squares (PLS) approach. The findings show that perceived GBT advantages, perceived GBT disadvantages, top management leadership, government support, project partners’ green building readiness, and social demand of green buildings are the significant factors that affect GBT adoption intention by developers. However, organizational GBT resource and GBT market readiness have no significant effect on developers’ GBT adoption intention. Theoretical and practical implications and limitations of the research are discussed, and suggestions for future research are also proposed

Evolutionary social and biogeophysical changes in the Amazon, Ganges–Brahmaputra–Meghna and Mekong deltas

Policy-making in social-ecological systems increasingly looks to iterative, evolutionary approaches that can address the inherent complexity of interactions between human wellbeing, provision of goods, and the maintenance of ecosystem services. Here, we show how the analysis of available time-series in tropical delta regions over past decades can provide important insight into the social-ecological system dynamics in deltaic regions. The paper provides an exploratory analysis of the recent changes that have occurred in the major elements of three tropical deltaic social-ecological systems, such as demography, economy, health, climate, food, and water. Time-series data from official statistics, monitoring programmes, and Earth observation data are analysed to explore possible trends, slow and fast variables, and observed drivers of change in the Amazon, Ganges–Brahmaputra–Meghna and Mekong deltas. In the Ganges–Brahmaputra–Meghna delta zone, increasing gross domestic product and per capita income levels since the 1980s mirror rising levels of food and inland fish production. In contrast, non-food ecosystem services, such as water availability, water quality, and land stability appear to be deteriorating. In the Amazon delta, natural and anthropogenic perturbations are continuously degrading key ecosystem services, such as carbon storage in biomass and soils, the regulation of water balance, and the modulation of regional climate patterns. In the Mekong delta, rapid economic development, changing land-use practices, and salinity intrusion are progressively putting more pressure on the delivery of important provisioning services, such as rice and inland aquaculture production, which are key sources of staple food, farm incomes, and export revenue. Observed changes in many key indicators of ecosystem services point to a changing dynamic state and increased probability of systemic threshold transformations in the near future