- Go to the Sessions
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- a. Sustainable Use of the Environment and Resources
- b. Social Aspects of Sustainability
- c. Economic, Business and Management Aspects of Sustainability
- d. Sustainable Engineering and Science
- e. Energy Sustainability
- f. Sustainable Urban and Rural Development
- g. Sustainable Agriculture, Food and Wildlife
- h. Sustainability Education and Approaches
- i. Sustainability of Culture and Heritage
- p. Posters
- Event Details
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- Welcome from the Chairs
- Event Calls
- Conference Chairs
- Sessions
- Instructions for Authors
- List of Accepted Submissions
- List of Authors
- Sponsors and Partners
- Chairs of the 4th World Sustainability Forum
- Scientific Advisory Committee
- Organizing Committee
- Conference Organizers
- List of Keynotes & Videos
- Editions in this series
Welcome from the Chairs
It is my great pleasure to welcome you to the 4th World Sustainability Forum. The Forum covers research in many areas relating to sustainability and sustainable development, and includes sessions in many important areas:
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Participants in this multidisciplinary conference will have the opportunity to examine, explore and critically engage with issues and advances in these and related areas. We hope to facilitate debates on theoretical and practical investigations, and to allow participants to "make a difference".
A special feature of the Forum is that it is an electronic conference. This type of conference is particularly appropriate and useful for the 4th World Sustainability Forum because research concerned with sustainability and sustainable development is progressing rapidly, while activities in industry, government and academia are simultaneously becoming increasingly globalized. Successful research therefore requires interaction with individuals and groups around the world, demonstrating the need for new types of communication within our community. An electronic conference provides a platform for rapid and direct exchanges about the latest research findings, as well as a possibility for global meetings with no limitations related to traveling. To further remove barriers to "attendance", participation in the Forum as an author or other participant is free of charge. The 4th World Sustainability Forum will be held at www.sciforum.net/conference/wsf-4, on a platform developed by MDPI to organize electronic conferences and sponsored by MDPI and the scientific open access journal Sustainability. Accepted papers will be published in the proceedings of the Forum, and selected papers will be published in Sustainability. I offer my sincere thanks to all attendees, and especially to authors, keynote presenters, members of the Scientific Advisory Committee, session chairs and organizers.
I hope that your participation in the 4th World Sustainability Forum will prove to be interesting, productive and enjoyable. Prof. Dr. Marc A. Rosen
Chair of the 4th World Sustainability Forum Editor-in-Chief of the Journal Sustainability Past President, Engineering Institute of Canada and Professor Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science
University of Ontario Institute of Technology
Oshawa, Ontario, Canada Marc A. Rosen is a Professor in the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology in Oshawa, Canada. He served as founding dean from of the Faculty from 2002-08. Dr. Rosen was President of the Engineering Institute of Canada for 2008-10. He served as President of the Canadian Society for Mechanical Engineering from 2002 to 2004, and is a registered Professional Engineer in Ontario. With over 50 research grants and contracts and 400 technical publications, Dr. Rosen is an active teacher and researcher in thermodynamics, sustainable energy, and the environmental impact of energy systems. Much of his research has been carried out for industry. He has also worked for such organizations as Imatra Power Company in Finland, Argonne National Laboratory near Chicago, and the Institute for Hydrogen Systems near Toronto. Dr. Rosen has received numerous awards and honours, including an Award of Excellence in Research and Technology Development from the Ontario Ministry of Environment and Energy, the Engineering Institute of Canada’s Smith Medal for achievement in the development of Canada, and the Canadian Society for Mechanical Engineering’s Angus Medal for outstanding contributions to the management and practice of mechanical engineering. He is a Fellow of the Engineering Institute of Canada, the Canadian Academy of Engineering, the Canadian Society for Mechanical Engineering, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and the International Energy Foundation.
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Mr. Matthias Burkhalter, MDPI AG, Basel, Switzerland
Ms. Samanta La Russa, MDPI AG, Basel, Switzerland
Dr. Shu-Kun Lin, MDPI AG, Basel, Switzerland
E-mail: [email protected]
Tel. +41 61 683 77 35
Call for Papers
Research concerned with sustainability and sustainable development is progressing fast. Simultaneously, activities within industry, government and academia are becoming more globalized. Successful research requires interaction with multiple partners around the world. We are facing an obvious need for new types of communication within our scientific community. Sciforum.net electronic conferences provide a platform for fast exchange of the latest research findings, as well as a possibility for global meetings with no limitations related to traveling.
The World Sustainability Forum 2014 (WSF-4) will cover timely research topics concerned with sustainability and sustainable development. The conference will include nine topical sessions focusing on:
Sustainable Use of the Environment and Resources
Social Aspects of Sustainability
Economic, Business and Management Aspects of Sustainability
Sustainable Engineering and Science
Energy Sustainability
Sustainable Urban and Rural Development
Sustainable Agriculture, Food and Wildlife
Sustainability Education and Approaches
Sustainability of Culture and Heritage
This inter- and multi-disciplinary conference aims to examine, explore and critically engage with issues related to recent insights and advances in these topics. In particular, the conference will encourage both theoretical and practical debates surrounding environmental, economical and social contexts for those who want to go beyond the buzzword.
The conference will be completely free of charge, both to attend and for authors to publish and is sponsored by MDPI and the scientific journal Sustainability. Selected papers will be published in the journal Sustainability. The 4th World Sustainability Forum Conference will be held at www.sciforum.net, a platform developed by MDPI to organize electronic conferences for scholars.
Please submit your abstract with max 2500 character (in English) by 3 September, 2014. Abstracts should be submitted online at http://https://sciforum.net/conference/wsf-4/page/call. All submissions will be reviewed by our scientific committee. For accepted abstracts, a proceedings paper should be submitted by 1 October, 2014.
Paper Submission Guidelines
For information about the procedure for submission, peer-review, revision and acceptance of conference proceedings papers, please refer to the section "Instructions for Authors": https://sciforum.net/conference/wsf-4/page/instructions
Conference Chairs
Marc Rosen
[Not defined]
[email protected]
Samanta La Russa
MDPI AG
[email protected]
Milos Cuculovic
MDPI AG
[email protected]
Juha Javanainen
MDPI
[email protected]
Sessions
A. Sustainable Use of the Environment and ResourcesB. Social Aspects of Sustainability
C. Economic, Business and Management Aspects of Sustainability
D. Sustainable Engineering and Science
E. Energy Sustainability
F. Sustainable Urban and Rural Development
G. Sustainable Agriculture, Food and Wildlife
H. Sustainability Education and Approaches
I. Sustainability of Culture and Heritage
P. Posters
Instructions for Authors
Submissions should be done by the authors online by registering with www.sciforum.net, and using the "New Submission" function once logged into system.
1. Scholars interested in participating with the conference can submit their abstract (about 200-250 words covering the areas of manuscripts for the proceedings issue) online on this website until 3 September 2014.
2. The Conference Committee will pre-evaluate, based on the submitted abstract, whether a contribution from the authors of the abstract will be welcome for the 4th edition of the World Sustainability Forum. All authors will be notified by 17 September 2014 about the acceptance of their abstract.
3. If the abstract is accepted for this conference, the author is asked to submit the manuscript, optionally along with a PowerPoint and/or video presentation of his/her paper (only PDF), until the submission deadline of 1 October 2014.
4.. The conference proceedings papers and presentations will be available on https://sciforum.net/conference/wsf-4/ for discussion during the time of the conference 1-30 November 2014.
5. The Open Access Journal Sustainability will publish Special Issue of the conference and accepted papers will be published in the proceedings of the conference itself. After the conference, the Conference Committee will select manuscripts that may be included for publication in the Special Issue of the journal Sustainability (the submission to the journal is independent from the conference proceedings and will follow the usual process of the journal, including peer-review, APC...).
Manuscripts for the proceedings issue must have the following organization:
First page:
Title
Full author names
Affiliations (including full postal address) and authors' e-mail addresses
Abstract (200-250 words)
Keywords
Introduction
Methods
Results and Discussion
Conclusions
(Acknowledgements)
References
Manuscripts should be prepared in MS Word or any other word processor and should be converted to the PDF format before submission. The publication format will be PDF. The manuscript should count at least 3 pages (incl. figures, tables and references). There is no page limit on the length, although authors are asked to keep their papers as concise as possible..
Authors are encouraged to prepare a presentation in PowerPoint or similar software, to be displayed online along with the Manuscript. Slides, if available, will be displayed directly in the website using Sciforum.net's proprietary slides viewer. Slides can be prepared in exactly the same way as for any traditional conference where research results can be presented. Slides should be converted to the PDF format before submission so that our process can easily and automatically convert them for online displaying.
Besides their active participation within the forum, authors are also encouraged to submit video presentations. If you are interested in submitting, please contact the conference organizer – [email protected] to get to know more about the procedure. This is an unique way of presenting your paper and discuss it with peers from all over the world. Make a difference and join us for this project!
Authors that wish to present a poster only, i.e. without proceedings paper, can do so in section P. - Posters of this conference. Posters will be available on this conference website during and after the event. Like papers presented on the conference, participants will be able to ask questions and make comments about the posters. Posters that are submitted without paper will not be included in the proceedings of the conference.
Submission: Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.sciforum.net/login by registering and logging in to this website.
Accepted File Formats
MS Word: Manuscript prepared in MS Word must be converted into a single file before submission. When preparing manuscripts in MS Word, the Electronic Conference on Sensors and Applications Microsoft Word template file (see download below) must be used. Please do not insert any graphics (schemes, figures, etc.) into a movable frame which can superimpose the text and make the layout very difficult.
World Sustainability Forum Microsoft Word template file
Paper Format: A4 paper format, the printing area is 17.5 cm x 26.2 cm. The margins should be 1.75 cm on each side of the paper (top, bottom, left, and right sides).
Paper Length: The manuscript should count at least 3 pages (incl. figures, tables and references). There is no page limit on the length, although authors are asked to keep their papers as concise as possible.
Formatting / Style: The paper style of the Journal Sustainability should be followed. You may download the template file to prepare your paper (see above). The full titles and the cited papers must be given. Reference numbers should be placed in square brackets [ ], and placed before the punctuation; for example [4] or [1-3], and all the references should be listed separately and as the last section at the end of the manuscript.
Authors List and Affiliation Format: Authors' full first and last names must be given. Abbreviated middle name can be added. For papers written by various contributors a corresponding author must be designated. The PubMed/MEDLINE format is used for affiliations: complete street address information including city, zip code, state/province, country, and email address should be added. All authors who contributed significantly to the manuscript (including writing a section) should be listed on the first page of the manuscript, below the title of the article. Other parties, who provided only minor contributions, should be listed under Acknowledgments only. A minor contribution might be a discussion with the author, reading through the draft of the manuscript, or performing English corrections.
Figures, Schemes and Tables: Authors are encouraged to prepare figures and schemes in color. Full color graphics will be published free of charge. Figure and schemes must be numbered (Figure 1, Scheme I, Figure 2, Scheme II, etc.) and a explanatory title must be added. Tables should be inserted into the main text, and numbers and titles for all tables supplied. All table columns should have an explanatory heading. Please supply legends for all figures, schemes and tables. The legends should be prepared as a separate paragraph of the main text and placed in the main text before a table, a figure or a scheme.
t is the authors' responsibility to identify and declare any personal circumstances or interests that may be perceived as inappropriately influencing the representation or interpretation of clinical research. If there is no conflict, please state here "The authors declare no conflict of interest." This should be conveyed in a separate "Conflict of Interest" statement preceding the "Acknowledgments" and "References" sections at the end of the manuscript. Financial support for the study must be fully disclosed under "Acknowledgments" section.
Copyright
MDPI AG, the publisher of the Sciforum.net platform, is an open access publisher. We believe that authors should retain the copyright to their scholarly works. Hence, by submitting a Communication paper to this conference, you retain the copyright of your paper, but you grant MDPI AG the non-exclusive right to publish this paper online on the Sciforum.net platform. This means you can easily submit your paper to any scientific journal at a later stage and transfer the copyright to its publisher (if required by that publisher).
List of accepted submissions (74)
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sciforum-001532 | A Systematic Review of Sustainable Housing Examples: Results Synthesised from the PUBMED and ScienceDirect Databases | N/A |
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Accommodation for both humans and animals could have impacted on bothoccupants and environments at the same time. Consequently, sustainable housing with asystematic life-cycle assessment has been one of the research focuses in the recent decadeswith an aim to lessen negative impacts on natural environments and to optimise occupanthealth and wellbeing. Following this context, it was aimed to carry out a systematic reviewto synthesise existing literature published until September 2014 on sustainable housingexamples from two largest research databases covering health and development research.There were 10 research articles found in the PUBMED database and other 8 researcharticles additionally found in the ScienceDirect database. Sustainable housing examplesmainly came from Americas and Europe while a few were from Africa and Australia. Nosound studies were found from Asia. The research quality of these studies was from low tomedium only. Research into sustainable housing examples for either humans or animals isstill limited and research methodology was not robust enough to give clear indications onthe promotion of sustainability in different housing environments. Collaborations betweenepidemiologists and engineers to employ real-life housing examples and to conduct rigorousresearch and follow-ups are therefore suggested. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
sciforum-003204 | Rainwater Harvesting: Trade-offs Between Pluvial Flood Risk Alleviation and Mains Water Resource Savings | , | N/A |
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Stormwater run-off generally refers to pluvial, i.e. rainfall related, water that does not soak into the ground at the point at which it falls. The volume and timing of stormwater run-off, specifically from roof tops is highly important to urban flood control and its capture has the potential for non-potable uses within (e.g. for WC flushing and for washing machines) and outside the home (e.g. car washing and garden watering). The former runs a risk of flash floods where local and downstream stormwater (or combined sewer) systems become overburdened in times of extreme rainfall events. The later will influence potential future urban water supplies, which is particularly important at time(s) where mains water availability is scarce (e.g. times of drought or when the national demand for water in the UK increases beyond supply capabilities) population. Rainwater harvesting (RWH) systems can benefit flood risk and water supply however their ability to do either / both is dependent on the subtleties of filling and emptying (i.e. stored water volume or spare storage capacity) which are not fully understood, particularly in peak flow events. Through the use of five years worth of daily rainfall data for Birmingham (2007 - a record breaking year for UK flooding, to 2011) these subtleties are investigated through a sensitivity type analysis of tank size, occupancy rates and technology efficiency. The results show that RWH tanks sized according to BS8515 would not have been capable of capturing rainfall that fell in peak flow events. Moreover not all yearly non-potable demands would have been met. If tanks were over-sized by a factor of 3.0 (i.e. use the larger of 15% yearly non-potable demands or rainfall) this would have been sufficient to meet all demands and eliminate roof-top run-off. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
sciforum-001941 | Education for Sustainability: How can Educators Address the Failure of Government? | , | N/A |
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In many respects education systems worldwide still contribute more to the obstacles than to solutions in humanity's quest to implement acceptable forms of sustainable living. The same appears to be the case with governments, especially at superregional and national levels. We summarise the evidence suggesting that many governments fall short of their own broadly stated commitments towards sustainability. Their achievements are evaluated in relation to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and currently discussed notions about the forthcoming Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Also, widely advocated transition strategies, in the educational sector and elsewhere, have met with only partial success. Our findings confirm our previous critical assessment of the UN's Decade of Education for Sustainable Development and of the dominant interpretations of sustainable development per se. We describe the extent of the shortfall and offer some explanations for it. In the classroom, efforts to educate for sustainability are dominated by contingencies, norms and possibilities that differ fundamentally from governance in their dynamics and contingencies. It is therefore possible for teachers at all levels to take the initiative in ways that can compensate to some extent for the failures of governments. This possibility is documented by example cases and further expanded conceptually to describe a productive operating space for educators to help prepare learners for the inevitable challenges of the transition. We refer specifically to the goals of making communities more resilient, reducing their ecological overshoot, and maximising their human security. It is the level of community that offers the greatest potential for mitigating the failures of government as well as of education. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
sciforum-003123 | Sustainability Performance of Local vs Global Food Supply Chains: The Case of Bread Chains in Italy |
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Oriana Gava ,
Francesca Galli
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There is an increasing interest in the potential of local foods and short food supply chains to overcome the unsustainable practices of global/industrial food supply chains. However this opposition is being questioned together with the actual sustainability of food chains. The assessment of the sustainability performance of food chains poses several challenges because of the multiple dimensions to be considered, the different actors involved and the lack of a shared methodology for the assessment.This paper develops a comparative assessment among three wheat-to-bread chains in Italy in relation to their degree of localness and different dimensions of sustainability. Recently the gap between wheat producers, processors and consumers is gradually bridging across the EU and re-localization experiences of bread supply chains have spread. Based on a systematic literature analysis, in depth interviews and questionnaires we develop a comparative assessment on three critical attributes of sustainability for these supply chains, based on a set of selected indicators: nutritional and health properties of final products, technological innovation of the process and biodiversity preservation. This allows to shed light on synergies and tradeoffs between sustainability attributes and potential paths for sustainability improvement. This paper presents the preliminary results of the FP7 EU research project Glamur (Global and Local Food Assessment: a multidimensional performance based approach). | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
sciforum-002362 | Energy Analysis of Supercritical Water and Ammonia (Kalina) Power Cycle |
Abtin Ataei ,
Mohammad Yousef Alizadeh ,
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The application of supercritical Rankine cycle iscommon in order to improve the energetic efficiency of thermal power plants,but due to the low temperature of the gas turbine exhaust outlet, theutilization of supercritical steam cycle as a bottoming cycle in combinedcycles is not possible. Therefore, to achieve a higher efficiency, water asworking fluid of the cycle, should be replaced with another fluid with a lowercritical temperature. For this purpose, water and ammonia mixture (Kalinacycle) has been selected as the bottoming cycle in this manuscript. Unlike thepure water, the mixture of water and ammonia does not evaporate in a constanttemperature, which reduces the evaporator's exergy lost in the heat transferprocess. The energetic efficiency of a supercritical Kalina cycle equipped withan over atmospheric condenser, under thermodynamic conditions of 515 oCand 165 Bar for the gas turbine, ammonia mass fraction are 30% and 70% forcondenser and boiler which is 12% more than Rankine cycle efficiency in the sameconditions. This article is dedicated to modeling and thermodynamic analysis ofa Kalina cycle and introduction of thermo-physical properties of the water andammonia mixture in process of evaporation and condensation. In addition, theperformance comparison of the Kalina cycle and Rankine cycle in terms ofdifferent thermodynamic conditions is issued in this paper. |
List of Authors (167)
Chairs of the 4th World Sustainability Forum
University of Ontario Institute of Technology, Oshawa, Canada
Editor-in-Chief of the Journal Sustainability
Scientific Advisory Committee
Organizing Committee
Conference Organizers
Chairs of the 4th World Sustainability Forum
Prof. Dr. Marc A. Rosen
University of Ontario Institute of Technology, Oshawa, Canada
Editor-in-Chief of the Journal Sustainability
Scientific Advisory Committee
Dr. Joo Hwa (Philip) Bay, Curtin University of Technology, Australia
Prof. Dr. Rachel J.C. Chen, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, USA
Prof. Dr. Matthias Finkbeiner, Technische Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany
Prof. Dr. Michael J. Heckenberger, University of Florida, Gainesville, USA
Dr. Kathryn Hegarty, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia
Dr. Monzur A. Imteaz, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia
Dr. Giuseppe Ioppolo, University of Study of Messina, Italy
Prof. Dr. Christopher Koroneos, National Technical University of Athens, Athens, Greece
Prof. Dr. Jesús Martínez Frías, CSIC-UCM, Madrid, Spain
Prof. Dr. Marc A. Rosen, University of Ontario Institute of Technology, Oshawa ON, Canada
Prof. Dr. Miklas Scholz, University of Salford, Salford, United Kingdom
List of Keynotes & Videos
Presentation of the Poster "Gross National Happiness, Limits to Growth, and Challenges to Bhutan's Development Approach"
Comments
Prof. Dr. Marc A. Rosen - Energy Sustainability: Needs and Challenges
Comments



A well organized, set-on-earth explanation of a key issue.
Kind regards,
Andres Caballero
Barranquilla, Colombia



A. Sustainable Use of the Environment and Resources
This section is chaired by: Prof. Dr. Miklas Scholz, University of Salford, Salford, United Kingdom
Session Chair
Professor Miklas Scholz, The University of Salford
B. Social Aspects of Sustainability
This section is chaired by: Dr. Joo Hwa (Philip) Bay, School of Built Environment, Architecture and Interior, Curtin University of Technology, Australia
Session Chair
Professor Joo Hwa Bay
C. Economic, Business and Management Aspects of Sustainability
This section is chaired by: Prof. Dr. Rachel J.C. Chen, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, USA
Session Chair
Dr. Rachel Jc Chen, University of Tennessee
D. Sustainable Engineering and Science
This section is chaired by: Dr. Giuseppe Ioppolo, Department of Economics, Business, Environment and Quantitative Methods (SEAM), University of Study of Messina, Italy
Session Chair
Professor Giuseppe Ioppolo, University of Study of Messina
E. Energy Sustainability
This section is chaired by: Prof. Dr. Christopher Koroneos, National Technical University of Athens, Athens, Greece Prof. Dr. Jesús Martínez Frías, CSIC-UCM, Madrid, Spain
Session Chairs
Professor Jesus Martinez-Frias, Instituto de Geociencias, IGEO (CSIC-UCM)
Professor Christopher Koroneos
F. Sustainable Urban and Rural Development
This section is chaired by: Prof. Dr. Michael J. Heckenberger, University of Florida, Gainesville, USA
Session Chair
Professor Michael Heckenberger
G. Sustainable Agriculture, Food and Wildlife
This section is chaired by: To be announced.
Session Chair
Professor Marc Rosen
Show all published submissions (8) Hide published submissions (8)
Submissions
List of Papers (8) Toggle list
H. Sustainability Education and Approaches
This section is chaired by: Dr. Kathryn Hegarty, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia
Session Chair
Dr. Kathryn Hegarty
I. Sustainability of Culture and Heritage
This section is chaired by: Prof. Dr. Michael J. Heckenberger, University of Florida, Gainesville, USA
Session Chair
Professor Michael Heckenberger
P. Posters
In this section posters can be presented stand-alone, i.e. without a proceedings papers that goes with it. Posters will be available online on this website during and after the e-conference. However, posters will not be added to the proceedings of the conference.
Session Chair
Professor Marc Rosen
This video help to make aware of particular vision of development in Bhutan, its potential strengths
and drawbacks.
Kind regards,
Andres Caballero
Barranquilla, Colombia