- Go to the Sessions
-
- a. Environmental Sustainability
- b. Corporate Sustainability Strategy
- c. Social Values for a Sustainable Economy
- d. Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Sources
- e. Sustainable Urban Development
- f. Sustainable Development Policy and Practice
- g. Sustainable Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Innovation
- h. Remote Sensing for Sustainable Management of Land and Biodiversity, Sustainable Agriculture
- i. Related Topics
- Event Details
Call for Papers
The World Sustainability Forum 2012 (WSF-2012) will cover timely research topics concerned with sustainability and sustainable development. The conference will include nine topical sessions focusing on:
1. Environmental Sustainability (Section A).
2. Corporate Sustainability Strategy (Section B).
3. Social Values for a Sustainable Economy (Section C).
4. Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Sources (Section D).
5. Sustainable Urban Development (Section E).
6. Sustainable Development Policy and Practice (Section F).
7. Sustainable Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Innovation (Section G).
8. Remote Sensing for Sustainable Management of Land and Biodiversity (Section H)
9. General and Related topics (Section I)
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 2nd World Sustainability Forum Conference will be held at www.sciforum.net, a new platform developed by MDPI to organize electronic conferences for scholars.
Please submit your abstract with max 2500 character (in English) by September 10, 2012. Abstracts should be submitted online at https://sciforum.net/conference/wsf2/page/call. All submissions will be reviewed by our scientific committee. For accepted abstracts, a full draft paper should be submitted by October 15, 2012.
Paper Submission Guidelines
For information about the procedure for submission, peer-review, revision and acceptance of conference proceedings papers, please refer to the section "Instruction for authors":
https://sciforum.net/conference/wsf2/page/instructions
Conference Chairs
[email protected]
Sessions
A. Environmental SustainabilityB. Corporate Sustainability Strategy
C. Social Values for a Sustainable Economy
D. Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Sources
E. Sustainable Urban Development
F. Sustainable Development Policy and Practice
G. Sustainable Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Innovation
H. Remote Sensing for Sustainable Management of Land and Biodiversity, Sustainable Agriculture
I. Related Topics
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 200-300 words covering the areas of manuscripts for the proceedings issue) online on this website until 10 September 2012.
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 2nd World Sustainability Forum.
All authors will be notified by 25 September 2012 about the acceptance of their abstract.
3. If the abstract is accepted for this conference, the author is asked to submit his manuscript, optionally along with a PowerPoint and/or video presentation of his/her paper, until the submission deadline of 15 October 2012.
4. The manuscripts and presentations will be available on https://sciforum.net/conference/wsf2/page/call for discussion and rating during the time of the conference 1 – 30 November 2012.
5. The Open Access Journal Sustainability will publish the proceedings of the conference as a Special Issue. After the conference, the Conference Committee will select manuscripts that may be included for publication in this Special Issue. Five of the manuscripts with the highest scientific quality will be published free of charge following a successful peer-review.
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
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!
Submission: Manuscripts should be submitted online at https://sciforum.net/conference/wsf2/page/call 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 World Sustainability Forum Microsoft Word template file 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.
LaTeX: ensure to send a copy of your manuscript as a PDF file also, if you decided to use LaTeX. When preparing manuscripts in LaTeX, please use the MDPI LaTeX template files.
Manuscript Preparation
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).
Formatting / Style: The paper style of the Journal Sustainability should be followed. You may download a template file to prepare your paper. 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.
Potential Conflicts of Interest
It 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. It 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.
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 (82)
Id | Title | Authors | Presentation | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
sciforum-002689 | Heritage, Nature and Development Outside the Metropolis; Discussing Issues of Attractivity, Growth, Participation and Sustainable Development | N/A |
Show Abstract |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Heritage and nature are both prominent landscape features and resources for different forms of use. They could also be main assets for creating sustainable development, especially in rural and non-metropolitan communities. However, they are also contested areas, involving different groups of actors and interests. In this paper three contested areas, and suggestions for methods to move forward, will be discussed. The first ara may be labelled attractivity. Small municipalities in Sweden tend to experience demographic and economic downturns as many young people move out, and traditional industries close down. In order to turn the negative trends new ways of competeing for attractive citizens, not least the new creative class, and business are emerging. In this game heritage and nature are rendered new importance and new meanings. But these new meanings will probably enhance social stratification, as less attractive segments of citizens are excluded. The second area is (economic) growth. According to politicians from top to bottom, the economic future of rural and smaller non-metropolitan areas lay in tourism, albeit long histories of various forms of industries and production. But tourism does not go well with lifestyles and relationships with nature and heritage of most local inhantants. Also, so far most of the small scale nature and heritage business have problems of becoming profitable enough. The third area is the, by the authorities, increased demand for citizen participation in management of protected nature and heritage. Participation has so far mostly been a top-down affair, as the authorities have not been willing to step down from deciding which values that should be protected, only the work and costs for management. The retraction of the authorities is challenged by the citizens\' demands for information and knowledge, that is, and increased presence of experts. Nature and heritage, and how these resources may contribute to a sustainable development, is thus contested. There is a need for new ways of working in order to turn contestion into inclusive strategies, and thereby enhance the strengths of the contribution from nature and heritge to sustainable development. In this paper the possibilities of living labs and the creation of innovative systems for sustainable development as means for turning nature and heritage into sources of socially inclusive, sustainable development will be put forward. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
sciforum-000117 | Greywater Recycling Systems in Urban Mixed-Use Regeneration Areas: Economic Analysis and Water Saving Potential | , , , | N/A |
Show Abstract |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Greywater (GW) recycling for non-potable uses such as toilet flushing is a management strategy to meet urban water demand with substantial water saving. This paper proposes a system that collects GW from residential buildings and recycles it for toilet flushing in both residential and office buildings. The total cost and water saving of standard sanitation technology were compared with 5 other options requiring less or no potable water use in toilets. Scenarios compare: no GW, individual GW, and shared GW systems with and without low-flush appliances. Typical residential and office buildings in urban mixed-use regeneration areas in the UK were used for these analyses. The results implied that constructed wetland treatment technology with standard appliances is more economically and environmentally viable than other scenarios. By increasing the water and wastewater price, shared GW systems with and without low-flush appliances were viable options within highly water efficient domestic and office buildings. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
sciforum-002803 | Urban Development, Cemeteries, and a Need to Remember | N/A |
Show Abstract |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
For the majority of its short tenure, the Mt. Pleasant Plains Cemetery (1860-1890), served as the largest African American cemetery in the District of Columbia. However, no sooner than it was founded, local residents and city officials expressed animosity toward the cemetery and had it subsequently condemned and the land reappropriated. Largely succeeding in their efforts to remove the cemetery and the memory of those interred, the lives of more than 8,000 African Americans and several European Americans remain concealed underground for more than a century. In 2005, soil erosion revealed the remains of several burials and with it the memory of the historic cemetery resurfaced. Using data acquired from an on-going archival and archaeological survey, this paper will demonstrate how deliberate attempts to erasure the historic memory of the African American presence have coincided with the disenfranchisement of African Americans in the capital of the United States of America. Furthermore the case of Mt. Pleasant Plains Cemetery serves as an ardent reminder of importance of maintaining public memory in the face of urban development. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
sciforum-002700 | Industry Location Assessment for Multinational Enterprises in Latvia | , | N/A |
Show Abstract |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The research is drawn on the main hypothesis that Latvia does not use its advantageous location effectively supported by the previous research results published this year in the book "Climate change and adaptation to it: Latvia" where the authors found the modern industrial real property market stock would not need any further growth and pointed on the local industrial real estate market misbalance. The research subject is the leading industrial multinational enterprises from the Baltic Sea Region working in Latvia. The survey is planned to be conducted in Latvia. A focus of the research is on finding out the key principles in those companies\' choice on the most appropriate territory to the industrial objects and industrial location specifics. The Paper contains the questionnaire with the projected results, the analysis of other scientists\' work results on the industrial location research and the model previously introduced. The worked out model is devoted to forecast stock of the modern industrial premises in Europe in the territory of the Republic of Latvia by the original approach of including the European climate change issue as a basis to assign the sustainable supply of the industrial premises, applying complex of the methods like logical approach and comparison, the system and dynamic row\'s analyses. The Paper is a message to professional critical view and assessment on the model and the questionnaire. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
sciforum-002605 | Management of natural lake water resources: problems and solutions | , | N/A |
Show Abstract |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Conceptually, water resources management means optimization of a goal function which integrates requirements and, and constraints, of, interconnected hydrological, ecological and economic aspects of the water resource management. Establishment of the goal function should allow combining of the economic activities, hydroecological studies and economic valuation within a holistic methodological framework. The set of the management measures allowing the optimization of the goal function under a pre-condition of conservation of the ecosystem services in some predefined reference/desirable state defines sustainable management policy.The examples of the natural waterbodies for which such a goal function has been established are extremely rare if at all they exist (unknown to us). In this presentation, we outlined a methodological framework for sustainable water resource management comprising of ecological monitoring, quantified water quality and an ecosystem model. We tested the proposed framework on the subtropical Lake Kinneret (Israel), a major national water resource. Methodologically, this study linked the economic activities in Lake Kinneret and its watershed (i.e. nutrient loads and water supply regimes) with lake water quality, sustaining of which was considered the management objective. Based on analysis of the monitoring data and model scenario simulations we established quantitative relationships between changes to lake water level and nutrient loading and water quality. We assessed a set of values of nutrient loads from the watershed and water levels that will allow conservation of the lake water quality within predefined limits thereby defining limits for a sustainable management policy for the lake water resources. The defined sustainable management policy is in good correspondence with the loads and permissible water level ranges estimated from lake-based monitoring . Our approach to assessment of the sustainable management policy was based on a single, hydroecological criterion: the necessity to sustain lake water quality within a desirable, reference state. However, in reality, the sustainable management policy should be focused on a social-ecological system and not an aquatic ecosystem per se. Therefore, water resources management should be based on multi-criteria; it should also account for the economic aspects (costs and benefits for society) of the problem. Establishment of the quantitative relationships between economic activities, water quality and total economic value of water resources is a challenging scientific problem. Its solution will be a pivotal step towards adaptive water resources management. |
List of Authors (137)
Proceedings & Editors
Chair of the 2nd World Sustainability Forum
Scientific Advisory Committee
Organizing Committee
Dr. Brietta Pike (Basel, Switzerland)
Mr. Thomas Schurter (Basel, Switzerland)
List of Keynotes & Videos
Sustainable city
Energy Sustainability
Industry location assessment for multinational enterprises
A. Environmental Sustainability
Prof. Dr. Miklas Scholz, University of Salford, UK
Dr. Judith Tisdall, La Trobe University, Australia
Session Chairs
Professor Miklas Scholz, The University of Salford
Professor Judy Tisdall
B. Corporate Sustainability Strategy
Prof. Dr. John P. Ulhøi, Aarhus University, Denmark
Session Chair
Professor John Ulhoi
C. Social Values for a Sustainable Economy
Dr. Michael J. Heckenberger, University of Florida, USA
Prof. Dr. Terence J. Centner, University of Georgia, USA
Due to evidence that current economies are unsustainable, various efforts are being made to develop sustainable economies. Yet, proponents struggle to define what is meant by sustainability, particularly, in relation to contested social and cultural values. The session welcomes ideas for social values that might be incorporated into parameters for sustainable economies on topics that could include equity, empathy, education, human rights, poverty, health, environmental qualities, energy, and nutrition. We welcome ideas for a dialogue on socio-cultural values, including diverse gender, race and class-based differences, which should be considered in devising parameters for sustainability studies, such as climate change, ecological diversity and integrity, socio-economic development, urbanism, and environmental justice.
Session Chairs
Professor Michael Heckenberger
Professor Terence Centner
D. Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Sources
Prof. Dr. Jesus Martinez-Frias, CSIC-INTA, Spain
This session aims to merge two topics of maximum scientific, technological and social-cultural interest (the so called twin pillars of sustainable energy policy): the objective of efforts to diminish the amount of energy required to provide products and services and the energy which comes from natural resources, which are naturally replenished . Energy is one of the hot themes of Rio+20 where one of the key questions is: How can we provide access to clean energy for everyone, and make sure that the energy we produce doesn’t contribute to climate change? It is well known that the more we use renewable energy, the more we benefit the environment, which has positive returns for everybody’s way of life. The session will describe the state-of-the-art, highlighting recent developments in both “pillars”. We also welcome contributions on advances in analytical techniques as well as other multidisciplinary issues from an earth and planetary perspective.
Session Chairs
Professor Jesus Martinez-Frias, Instituto de Geociencias, IGEO (CSIC-UCM)
Professor Jesus Martinez-Frias, Instituto de Geociencias, IGEO (CSIC-UCM)
E. Sustainable Urban Development
Dr. Michael J. Heckenberger, University of Florida, USA
The idea of sustainable urban development dates to the early 20th century, but radical 20th century changes in global population (<10% in 1900; >50 % in 2012) and associated size and distribution of cities and land-use, even in most remote areas of the globe, underscores the critical importance of urban sustainability, including global ecology and climate change. This session addresses major themes in urban studies in terms of sustainability, such as history and form, urban development and planning, environmental and social justice, socio-cultural diversity, public space and land-use, and the aesthetics and representations of urban life, and the tension between scientific models and applications and the diversity and socio-cultural rights of local groups and contexts, including minorities, marginalized groups and other vulnerable groups that comprise the majority of people affected by contemporary urbanism.
Session Chair
Professor Michael Heckenberger
F. Sustainable Development Policy and Practice
Prof. Dr. Christopher Koroneos, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece
Prof. Dr. Sharon Megdal, University of Arizona, USA
The term \'sustainable development\' was defined by the report entitled Our Common Future released in 1987 by the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED), the United Nations Brundtland Commission, as the development that "meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”. The concept of sustainable development takes into consideration the three constituent parts: environmental sustainability, economic sustainability and sociopolitical sustainability. All these three dimensions must be given equal weight. Thus, some key issues that must be taken into consideration to ensure that development was sustainable, could be:
• Water Issues
• Energy
• Food Security
• Environmental Degradation
• Climate Change
• Population and Human Resources
• Industry
• Issues of Urban Living
• North-South Dialogue
• Economic Development and Environment
• Trade and Environment
Session Chairs
Professor Christopher Koroneos
Dr. Sharon Megdal, University of Arizona
G. Sustainable Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Innovation
Prof. Dr. Marc A. Rosen, University of Ontario Institute of Technology, Canada
Show all published submissions (4) Hide published submissions (4)
Submissions
List of Papers (4) Toggle list
H. Remote Sensing for Sustainable Management of Land and Biodiversity, Sustainable Agriculture
Prof. Dr. Daniele Riccio, University of Napoli Federico II, Italy
Session Chair
Professor Daniele Riccio