The relevance of information and communication technologies for environmental sustainability – A prospective simulation study

2006 ◽  
Vol 21 (11) ◽  
pp. 1618-1629 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lorenz M. Hilty ◽  
Peter Arnfalk ◽  
Lorenz Erdmann ◽  
James Goodman ◽  
Martin Lehmann ◽  
...  
2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 263-272
Author(s):  
Sulaman Hafeez Siddiqui ◽  
Sohail Saeed ◽  
Areeba Khan ◽  
Hina Bhatti

Purpose: The benefits of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in environmental resource management has been a topic of hot discussion for the policymakers across the world.  For the purpose, the government of Pakistan took initiative in 2018 to use technology for the country’s social welfare, financial benefits and to enhance environmental sustainability and named it as “Digital Pakistan Initiative”.Design/Methodology/Approach: For analysis, this study took CO2 emissions as the dependent variable and ICT, FDI inflows, and Trade Openness as independent variables. Data were collected on bimonthly basis from 2004 through 2019, and analyzed employing ARDL approach. Main purpose of the study was to examine the short-run and long-run relationship among carbon emissions and ICT, FDI Inflows and Trade Openness.Findings: The findings show that there exists a short-run relationship among all the variables; however, FDI inflows and trade openness have a significant relationship with CO2 emissions. The results also exhibit that there is no long-run relationship between CO2 emissions, FDI inflows, and Trade openness while ICT has an insignificant long-run relationship with CO2 emissions. With the increase of information and communication, the country’s environmental sustainability is also increased. Implications/Originality/Value: The current study was based on least considered variables and the pioneer in testing the complex relationship through VAR estimation.


Author(s):  
Ayyoob Sharifi ◽  
Zaheer Allam

As interest in smart city initiatives continues to grow rapidly, various involved actors and stakeholders increasingly rely on assessment frameworks or indicator sets for different purposes such as monitoring and benchmarking performance, identifying strengths and weaknesses, and determining priority intervention areas. Accordingly, many smart city assessment frameworks and/or indicator sets have been developed in the last decade. To guide actors and stakeholders in their selection of the most suitable frameworks, several studies have examined contents and structure of smart city assessment frameworks or indicator sets. Such studies have significantly improved our understanding of the thematic focus of assessment tools and their methodological approaches. However, there is still a lack of knowledge on the taxonomy of smart city indicators. In addition, since other concepts such as sustainability and resilience are increasingly recognized to be connected to the smart city concept, more clarity on how different assessment frameworks or indicator sets are aligned with sustainability and resilience dimensions and characteristics is needed. To fill these gaps, we developed a taxonomy and examined 33 assessment frameworks or indicator sets in terms of indicator type, sectoral linkages, and alignment with sustainability and resilience dimensions and characteristics. In terms of indicator type, results show that output indicators are dominant but limited attention has been paid to impact indicators. In terms of sectoral focus, existing indicators are mainly related to information and communication technologies, economy, and governance. Regarding resilience abilities, indicators are mainly related to planning abilities and limited attention has been paid to recovery and adaptation. As for resilience characteristics, reasonable levels of alignment with resourcefulness and efficiency were observed, but indicators are not well-aligned with other important characteristics such as redundancy and diversity. Finally, in terms of sustainability, limited alignment with the environmental dimension was found, which raises concerns regarding the suitability of smart city indicators for guiding environmental sustainability and informing efforts aimed at addressing climate change issues. Results of this study can support interested stakeholders in their efforts to select the most suitable assessment frameworks or indicator sets for promoting resilient, smart, and sustainable communities.


foresight ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-87 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlos Rodríguez Casal ◽  
Christine Van Wunnik ◽  
Luis Delgado Sancho ◽  
Jean Claude Burgelman ◽  
Paul Desruelle

PurposeThis paper aims to present the results of a research project that the Institute for Prospective Technology Studies commissioned to research the possible effects of information and communication technologies (ICT) on a set of environmental indicators in 2020.Design/methodology/approachThe project adopted an innovative methodology combining qualitative scenario‐building and quantitative modelling.FindingsThe general conclusion was that the impact of ICT is roughly between −20 and +30 percent. Therefore there are significant opportunities for improving environmental sustainability through ICTs, which can rationalise energy management in housing (or facilities), make passenger and freight transport more efficient, and enable a product‐to‐service shift across the economy.Originality/valueThe impact of ICT should accordingly be taken into account by environmental policies in order to ensure that ICT applications make a positive contribution to environmental outcomes, and, at the same time, to suppress rebound effects.


2012 ◽  
Vol 52 (No. 7) ◽  
pp. 335-340
Author(s):  
I. Rábová

The identification of the improvement areas and utilization of information and communication technologies in agriculture, as the support of the agricultural development in line with the environmental sustainability criteria, have gained importance and priority in our knowledge driven society. Rules define constraints, conditions and policies of how the business processes are to be performed but they also affect the behavior of the resource and facilitate the strategic business goals achieving. They control the business and represent business knowledge. The article deals with business rules and rule technology and identifies the business and technical opportunities they afford company. It shows also how to specify and classify business rules from the business perspective and to establish an approach to managing them that will enable a faster change in business processes and other business concepts in particular business in agricultural area. This article could provide business analysts with an essential approach to understanding, redesigning and communicating what really happens in the business processes. 


2018 ◽  
Vol 86 (1) ◽  
pp. 20-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giorgia Nesti

Smart cities are a new approach to urban development based on the extensive use of information and communication technologies and on the promotion of environmental sustainability, economic development and innovation. The article is aimed at discussing whether the adoption of a smart city approach entails the transformation of existing institutional structures and administrative practices. To this end, four cases of European smart cities are analysed: Amsterdam, Barcelona, Turin and Vienna. The article describes their models of governance, investigates the level of transformation that occurred in their governmental structures, outlines the main drawbacks and identifies possible connections with the emergent paradigm of the New Public Governance.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (23) ◽  
pp. 13103
Author(s):  
Francesco Russo ◽  
Antonio Comi

Today, local administrations are faced with the presence of greater constraints in terms of the use of space and time. At the same time, large amount of data is available to fleet managers that can be used for controlling their fleets. This work is set in the context defined by sustainable city logistics, and information and communication technologies (ICTs), to formalize the three themes of the smart city (transport, ICTs and energy savings) in a single problem. Following this, the main purpose of the study is to propose a unified formulation of the basic problem of fleets, i.e., the traveling salesman problem (TSP), which explicitly includes the use of emerging information and communication technologies (e-ICTs) pointing out the learning process of path costs in urban delivery. This research explores the opportunity to extend the path cost formation with a within-day and day-to-day learning process, including the specification of the attributes provided by e-ICTs. As shown through a real test case, the research answers to queries coming from operators and collectivities to improve city liveability and sustainability. It includes both economic sustainability for companies/enterprises and environmental sustainability for local administrations (and collectivities). Besides contributing to reduce the times and kms travelled by commercial vehicles, as well as the interference of freight vehicles with other traffic components, it also contributes to road accident reduction (social sustainability). Therefore, after the re-exanimation of TSP, this paper presents the proposed unitary formulation and its benefits through the discussion of results obtained in a real case study. Finally, the possible innovation guided by e-ICT is pointed out.


2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 124-132
Author(s):  
Walid Chatti

Despite progress in reducing air pollutants in several countries, freight transport continues to have undesirable effects on environmental quality, human health, and the economy. Road freight transport, in particular, is associated with various negative externalities, including environmental and health damages, and the overexploitation of non-renewable natural resources. This paper investigates how ICTs interact with road freight transport to affect environmental quality regarding reducing CO2 emissions. The empirical strategy is focused on the yearly dataset from 2002 to 2014 in 43 countries. Using the two-step GMM techniques, the findings suggest that ICTs can decrease road freight transport’s negative impacts on environmental sustainability. Besides, the interactions of mobile phone and fixed telephone technologies with road freight transport are more efficient in reducing pollution than using internet networks. This paper underlines the importance of using ICTs to dampen road freight transport’s negative effects on environmental sustainability.


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