Development of Smart Waste Bin for Solid Waste Management

Growing urbanisation in developing countries, population growth, and changes in human activities and consumption patterns have resulted in significant amounts of trash that must be appropriately disposed of, treated, and managed to provide a sustainable environment and a reasonable standard of life for the growing population. The aim of the paper is to design a smart dustbin for proper disposal of waste without any human intervention by providing a smart technology for waste system monitoring, reducing human time, effort, and intervention. This paper presents a smart waste bin integrated with a microcontroller-based Arduino board which is interfaced with ultrasonic sensors, MQ-2 sensor, servo motor, LCD and GSM modem. The Arduino microcontroller is programmed using Arduino C which measures the height of the dust bin using the ultrasonic sensor. Once the waste gets to the pre-set level, the microcontroller activates the GSM modem to send a message to a designated number. The status of the waste in the bin is transferred to the designated line and display on the LCD whenever it exceeds the pre-set value. The replacement of the traditional waste bin with smart waste bin help in efficient management of waste by assuring that filled waste bin are emptied when the pre-set value is exceeded. This also help in reducing time involve in checking the status of the waste bin and number of trips embarked by the waste collection vehicle and total expenditure associated with collection is minimized. It eventually helps to maintain cleanliness in our environment. Therefore, the system makes the waste collection more efficient.

The Effect of Human Activities Towards Coastal Dynamics and Sustainable Coastal Management

One of the disasters that often occur in coastal areas is abrasion. Abrasion causes coastal dynamics, including the East Coast of Rembang, Kragan Village, Kragan District, Rembang Regency. From 1975 to 1990, at least 50 meters of land from this area has been lost due to abrasion. This dynamic may become one of the causes of unsustainable management of the coastal environment and its natural resources. Various efforts have been made to overcome abrasion, but abrasion continues to hit this area, even until 2020. Qualitative and quantitative approaches were carried out in this study to discover the coast dynamics and various human activities that may trigger abrasion. Image interpretation, observation, interviews, and questionnaires were used as data collection techniques at three observation points in the Kragan Village area. This study concludes that the beach in Kragan Village has experienced dynamics with a total land loss of 46 meters from 2003 to 2020. Harmful activities carried out by humans resulted in abrasion so that the coast experienced dynamics. Human activities also affect coastal management, namely the basic principles of integrated coastal management and processes in the management of coastal areas.

Exploring the Factors Associated with Climate-Related Issues in a Special Economic Development Zone: Application of a DPSIR Framework

The rapid global increase in Special Economic Zones (SEZs) raises concerns regarding potential impacts on the environment, especially water use intensity, an increased risk of natural disasters, and an elevated greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. However, studies examining these impacts are limited. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to examine the influence of SEZ development factors on flooding, water scarcity, and GHG emissions using Tak SEZ in Thailand as a case study. A Driver-Pressure-State-Impact-Response (DPSIR) framework, together with structural equation modeling (SEM) through the partial least squares (PLS) approach, has been used to examine the interrelationships between these factors. The results revealed that economic, industrial, and urban development are key drivers associated with flooding, water scarcity, and GHG emissions in the zone. The increased population density, water consumption, waste generation, and vehicular traffic are all significantly put pressure on climate change impacts. The integration of DPSIR framework together with PLS-SEM technique to explore the relationship among multiple sustainability indicators contributes to the existing sustainability assessment methodology. Future research can utilize the presented indicators to identify potential factors for the evaluation of other types of development zones that have a variety of socio-economic activities.

Research on the Impact of Technology Innovation on Quantity and Quality of Economic Growth in the Yangtze River Delta of China: A Comparative Study

High-quality economic development (HQED) has recently become a crucial sustainable growth mode in China, which pursues economic growth while maintaining social equity and green ecology. The HQED of the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) has played an exemplary role in achieving the leap from “China speed” to “China Quality”. In this paper, we first use the entropy-weight multidimensional comprehensive evaluation method to calculate the HQED index as a proxy for the quality of economic growth. Then, using panel data of 41 cities in the YRD, we conduct a comparative study to examine impacts of technological innovation (TI) on quantity and quality of economic growth by employing different panel estimation models over the period 2009-2019 and check the robustness in five ways. Finally, this paper investigates the TI-economic growth link based on the panel quantile regression across the conditional distributions of economic growth levels. Results show that TI has significantly positive effects in terms of both quantity and quality of economic growth, and the promoting effect on the quantity of economic growth is almost four times higher than that of quality under mean estimations by double fixed-effects. The effect on quantity of economic growth is also stronger than that of quality under the conditional distribution, and TI has a stronger impact for regions with higher levels of economic growth.

Mangrove Ecosystem Biodiversity in Malacca Strait and Its Economic Values to Local Community: A Case Study in Riau Coastline

The mangrove ecosystem holds a lot of potentials to be utilized by local communities in the Riau Coastline. Therefore, this study was carried out to assess the biodiversity of flora and fauna in the Riau Coastline mangrove ecosystem and its impacts on local communities. The transect was performed to identify soil conditions, distribution, and the dominance of flora species, while field observations and interviews with residents were conducted to determine the presence of fauna and discover the ecosystem’s benefit to the local community's economy. Based on the results, Rhizophora mucronata and Rhizophora apiculata has the highest relative dominance (RDC) and important value index in all observed stations. On the other hand, the fish/water biota species has the highest diversity and have economic that mostly serve as a catch for local fishermen. Ecotourism is also encouraged to boost the community's economy and aid ecological learning for sustainability purposes. The mangrove ecosystem's existence remains sustainable because fisheries are the main commodity, however, logging is less desirable as a source of income.

The Impact of Sustainable Certification on Financial and Market Performance: Evidence from Indonesian Palm Oil Companies

The palm oil industry is a strategic sector that plays an important role for national economics. Although the palm oil industry's role and contribution are high, land clearing and operation are often associated with environmental and social issues. The sustainable certification was then developed to ensure that palm oil companies can continue to operate without involving environmental and social deprivation. The previous research related to the impact of a sustainable certification found several positive and negative impacts on palm oil companies' performance in general. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the impact of sustainable certification on Indonesia's palm oil companies' financial and market performance. This research focused on 14 palm oil companies in Indonesia that went public with an observation year between 2014 and 2019. Analysis through panel regression found that sustainable certification has no impact on Indonesia's palm oil companies' financial and market performance. The study could be a recommendation and justification for palm oil companies for consider to take a sustainable certification.

Optimal Urban Logistics - Through the Choice of Sustainable Axes

In a world where urbanization is becoming more and more widespread, big figures can be seen around internal urban migration further aggravating the environmental urban situation, which results from several previous factors. This is the case with globalization, online shopping, or polluting industrial and human sources. The major solutions are centered primarily on the concern for urban mobility, the involvement of the stakeholders concerned, the optimization of journeys, the use of lanes and roads, the choice of vehicles as well as the zoning or choice of logistics locations. Sustainability is one of the primary elements of flow management; it is one of the most important pillars of the concept of "urban logistics". Indeed, the final goal goes beyond the delivery of goods, going so far as to place the environment as an essential support for urban logistics. In this paper we present a literature review on sustainable logistics, we will try to answer the following problem: Urban logistics: Where are we? To respond to this problem, we are taking the following approach: Presentation of the basic concepts, choice of articles to be used for the study which will induce us to determine the axes and the main actors, with the aim of specifying the most predominant aspects which must be treated and prioritized in order to make urban logistics more optimal.

Solar Energy Potential Evaluation. Case of Study: M'Sila, an Algerian Province

Solar energy is the most important green energy source that may be used to address the problems caused by conventional energy sources. The research in this paper aims to evaluate the solar energy potential of M'Sila, an Algerian internal region, and to determine which technology, among those currently available on the market, is adequate for harnessing that potential for electricity production (PV and CSP). This assessment was based on data (daily temperature and daily solar irradiation) collected at M'Sila weather station for one year and from the NASA site for 34 years from 1984 to 2017. These data were treated with excel 2016 software to determine the total horizontal, diffuse and direct normal solar irradiation. During the study period, the total solar irradiation falling on a horizontal surface in M'Sila (GHI) was estimated to be 1.79 MWh/m2/year. The diffuse solar irradiation incident on a horizontal surface (DHI) and direct normal irradiation, respectively, were estimated to be 594.88 kWh/m2/year, 2117.93 kWh/m2/year. M'Sila is a favourable land for the installation of concentrating solar power plants and photovoltaic panels due to its significant potential energy. The parabolic trough system is recommended. While polycrystalline PV modules should be promoted and installed in M'Sila.