Modelling the nexus of carbon dioxide emissions, economic growth, electricity production and consumption: Assessing the evidence from Pakistan

The economy of Pakistan has constantly been plunged due to its severe electricity shortages over the last 2 decades and persistently faces challenges in revamping its electricity supply network. The purpose of this research was to assess the causal relationship between carbon dioxide emissions (CO2), combustible renewable and waste (CRW), electric power consumption (EC), electricity production from coal (EPC), hydroelectric (EPH) and natural gas (EPN) sources, energy use (EU) and gross domestic product (GDP). The scope of this research included Pakistan’s annual time series data from 1971 to 2014. This study employed Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bound testing analysis to determine the long-term and short-term correlations among all research parameters. This research also conducted Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF), Phillips-Perron (PP) and Kwiatkowski-Phillips-Schmidt-Shin (KPSS) tests to evaluate the stationarity existence among dependent variable and independent variables. The outcomes of the fully modified least squares (FMOLS), dynamic ordinary least square (DOLS) and canonical co-integrating regression (CCR) estimators showed that coefficients of EC, EPH and GDP all were a significantly positive relationship with CO2 emissions, while the coefficients of CRW, EPC and EU were negatively significant, respectively. Furthermore, the outcomes from the short-run analysis revealed that the error correction term value was -0.8668, which indicates that from short-run to long-run equilibrium, the adjustment of the deviation of CO2 emission is by 86.68 percent annually. Moreover, the diagnostic results also demonstrated that the model employed in this research is stable and reliable. Pakistan was selected in this research work because of the deficit of power and if environmental degradation continues unchecked, it will eventually affect the state’s economic growth and CO2 emissions. The study’s primary policy recommendation is that government energy policymakers in Pakistan who create the environment framework in should pursue conservative energy measures as such measures will not negatively impact economic growth

Smart city-ranking of major Australian cities to achieve a smarter future

© 2020 by the authors. A Smart City is a solution to the problems caused by increasing urbanization. Australia has demonstrated a strong determination for the development of Smart Cities. However, the country has experienced uneven growth in its urban development. The purpose of this study is to compare and identify the smartness of major Australian cities to the level of development in multi-dimensions. Eventually, the research introduces the openings to make cities smarter by identifying the focused priority areas. To ensure comprehensive coverage of all aspects of the smart city's performance, 90 indicators were selected to represent 26 factors and six components. The results of the assessment endorse the impacts of recent government actions taken in different urban areas towards building smarter cities. The research has pointed out the areas of deficiencies for underperforming major cities in Australia. Following the results, appropriate recommendations for Australian cities are provided to improve the city's smartness

Global Policy Review on Embodied Flows: Recommendations for Australian Construction Sector

There has been a call for the construction industry to become more energy efficient in its planning and activities, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to help combat climate change. The Australian Building Codes Board has implemented ‘Energy Efficiency’ standards through the National Construction Codes to direct the industry towards net zero emissions goals. However, the Board has maintained a focus on operational flows considerations despite this only being a part of the total expenditure in a building lifecycle. Embodied flows, the energy output, and emissions from harvesting, manufacturing, transporting, and manufacturing materials for a building have not been included as a part of the current standards despite their growing share in the outputs of construction. A qualitative document analysis using data from academic articles and industry publications was performed to identify the context in embodied policy development. Findings reveal an abundance of different legislations and initiatives globally, recommending techniques that may effectively achieve embodied flow reductions. The results highlighted that Australia needs to capitalize on the potential reductions in overall energy and emissions from construction. Other regions have provided a strategic and legislative basis for the industry to emulate

A Systematic Review on the Existing Research, Practices, and Prospects Regarding Urban Green Infrastructure for Thermal Comfort in a High-Density Urban Context

Urban green infrastructures (UGI) have been suggested as a natural solution to tackle the problem of human thermal comfort as well as to reduce energy consumption in buildings under the pressures of rapid urbanization and global warming. However, the acceptance of UGI to mitigate the urban heat effect is not yet universal. The development of such an infrastructure is also not consistent across the regions, emphasizing the different objective parameters and methodologies. A systematic review has been conducted to analyze the published research work on UGI, targeting thermal comfort, in the past decade to identify the trends of UGI development around the world. The result shows that most of the studied locations were situated around the Mediterranean Sea region in a temperate climate, and most of the studied cities are within countries with a high gross domestic product, large urban area and urban population, primary energy consumption, and high greenhouse gas and carbon dioxide emissions. Extensive green roofs are the most popular type of UGI and mostly use Sedum plants. In the published studies, experimental setups are the most common methods by which to collect data. EnergyPlus is the most popular software used to conduct energy analysis for buildings, whereas ENVI-met is more commonly used for microclimate analysis. These results indicated that the direction of UGI studies is driven by climate characteristics and the socioeconomic factors of geographical location, which favor low construction cost and maintenance needs, with a minimal irrigation requirement for small-scale UGI projects. Understanding the trend of UGI approaches for thermal comfort allows researchers to standardize practices that help the decision-making process for future researchers while recognizing the limitations and potential of current UGI practices. It is recommended that future studies should include arid and equatorial climate regions, with more focus on large-scale projects including high-rise building environments to comprehensively evaluate the effectiveness of UGIs

An Investigation to Identify the Effectiveness of Socioeconomic, Demographic, and Buildings’ Characteristics on Surface Urban Heat Island Patterns

Despite implementing adaptation strategies and measures to make cities sustainable and resilient, the urban heat island (UHI) has been increasing risks to human health and the urban environment by causing hot spots in city areas. This study investigates the spatial patterns in the surface urban heat island (SUHI) over the study site and develops its relationships to socioeconomic, demographic, and buildings’ characteristics. This paper examines the role of building roof types, building roof material, building height, building age, and socioeconomic and demographic factors in driving the SUHI in a city. Numerous studies have focused primarily on the influence of biophysical and meteorological factors on variations in land surface temperatures (LSTs); however, very little attention has been paid to examining the influence of socioeconomic, demographic, and building factors on SUHIs within a city. The analysis has been carried out by processing Landsat based LST data to UHI in the Google Earth Engine (GEE) cloud-based platform. The satellite-based research is further integrated with GIS data acquired from the state government and local city council. Linear regression and multiple regression correlations are further run to examine selected factors’ variance on SUHI. Results indicate socioeconomic, demographic, and building factors contribute significantly to SUHI generation; these factors collectively can explain 28% of the variance in SUHI patterns with significant p-values

An estimation of virtual trades of embedded water and land through Sri Lankan seasonal crops’ trades to improve the cropping preferences

Due to the increase in population, growing urbanization, and higher demands for processed and unprocessed foods, resources related to food production have become scarce. Water and land can be considered as the primary resources to determine the crop production potential of a country. Ideally, countries that lack water and land resources can import these in virtual form. Sri Lanka is a country rich in water resources that faced bankruptcy recently. This study analyzes and explores the potential for use of land–water resources in Sri Lanka. A comprehensive framework is generated to identify the virtual land–water trade by considering ten major imports and nine major export crops in Sri Lanka. Consequently, the top ten imports/exports and top ten import/export trade partners are identified. The analysis reveals that Sri Lanka is a heavily import-dominant country, having seven times higher imports compared to exports. The country imports wheat, which is 82% of its import crops, and the same crop is the largest export (85% of crop export). Compared to its trade partners, Sri Lanka has sufficient water resources, but availability of arable land is limited. Banana is the largest export of the country, which involves higher embedded water and less land, matching the resource availability to Sri Lanka, whereas the trade partners are expected to continue importing the crop due to their water and land stress conditions. Finalization of the long-awaited agriculture policy of the country is strongly recommended

Identification of Major Inefficient Water Consumption Areas Considering Water Consumption, Efficiencies, and Footprints in Australia

Due to population growth, climatic change, and growing water usage, water scarcity is expected to be a more prevalent issue at the global level. The situation in Australia is even more serious because it is the driest continent and is characterized by larger water footprints in the domestic, agriculture and industrial sectors. Because the largest consumption of freshwater resources is in the agricultural sector (59%), this research undertakes a detailed investigation of the water footprints of agricultural practices in Australia. The analysis of the four highest water footprint crops in Australia revealed that the suitability of various crops is connected to the region and the irrigation efficiencies. A desirable crop in one region may be unsuitable in another. The investigation is further extended to analyze the overall virtual water trade of Australia. Australia’s annual virtual water trade balance is adversely biased towards exporting a substantial quantity of water, amounting to 35 km3, per trade data of 2014. It is evident that there is significant potential to reduce water consumption and footprints, and increase the water usage efficiencies, in all sectors. Based on the investigations conducted, it is recommended that the water footprints at each state level be considered at the strategic level. Further detailed analyses are required to reduce the export of a substantial quantity of virtual water considering local demands, export requirements, and production capabilities of regions

Development of an analytical model for the FRP retrofitted deficient interior reinforced concrete beam-column joints

Beam‐column joints (BCJs) constructed until the 1970s carry a low shear capability due to the absence of shear reinforcement. Fiber‐reinforced polymers (FRP) are more reliable than other materials to strengthen a weak BCJ. To date, plenty of analytical models have been developed to analyze the actual contribution of the FRP to the shear strength of RC BCJs. However, the models developed are either too complex in computational efforts or based on empirical coefficients that result in compromised results. The models that formulate the contribution of FRP to the shear strength of the FRP‐strengthened deficient interior BCJ are very limited, and such models are too complex. An adequate BCJs’ FRP strain equation must still be developed to address these issues. Therefore, the FRP effective strain equation and contribution of FRP to RC BCJs are derived in this research work using an updated database of the appropriate BCJs. The initial analytical model of Bousselham, which Del Vecchio later improved, is further extended to FRP‐strengthened deficient interior BCJs. For this purpose, an updated database of the 32 tests around the world of FRP-strengthened interior BCJs deficient in seismic reinforcement is prepared. Firstly, the experimental effective FRP strain is derived using the experimental database. Then, a power‐type equation is derived for the effective FRP strain by considering the crucial parameters of the FRP‐strengthened interior BCJs. Finally, the experimental shear strengths and those determined with the proposed equation of the FRP‐strengthened joints are compared. The average ratio between the experimental and analytical (proposed model) joint shear strengths of the considered specimens ensured the accuracy of the suggested model. The suggested approach makes computing the FRP enhancements required to avoid shear failure in interior joints easy and reliable for researchers and field engineers interested in seismically reinforcing existing structures

A comprehensive review of incorporating steel fibers of waste tires in cement composites and its applications

Accumulating vast amounts of pollutants drives modern civilization toward sustainable development. Construction waste is one of the prominent issues impeding progress toward net-zero. Pollutants must be utilized in constructing civil engineering structures for a green ecosystem. On the other hand, large-scale production of industrial steel fibers (ISFs) causes significant damage to the goal of a sustainable environment. Recycled steel fibers (RSFs) from waste tires have been suggested to replace ISFs. This research critically examines RSF’s application in the mechanical properties’ improvement of concrete and mortar. A statistical analysis of dimensional parameters of RSFs, their properties, and their use in manufacturing various cement-based composites are given. Furthermore, comparative assessments are carried out among the improvements in compressive, split tensile, and flexural strengths of plain and RSF-incorporated concrete and mortar. In addition, the optimum contents of RSF for each strength property are also discussed. The influence of RSFs parameters on various strength properties of concrete and mortars is discussed. The possible applications of RSF for various civil engineering structures are reviewed. The limitations and errors noticed in previous review papers are also outlined. It is found that the maximum enhancement in compressive strength (CS), split tensile strength (STS), and flexure strength (FS) are 78%, 149%, and 157%, respectively, with the addition of RSF into concrete. RSF increased cement mortars’ CS, STS, and FS by 46%, 50.6%, and 69%, respectively. The current study encourages the building sector to use RSFs for sustainable concrete