- 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
Marc Rosen
[Not defined]
[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 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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sciforum-002737 | Simulation of Vertical Growth Near the Green Area of "Avenida Brasil" in Antofagasta Midtown, Chile | N/A |
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Vertical cities growt is argument of discussion world-width. Population increases and better soil use is needed, in terms of efficiency and density, in many cities of the world. However, an excessive vertical growth seems to be dengerous, especially near the green areas of midtowns. In this paper the case of Antofagasta, Chile, is studied. Town of Antofagasta locates in the north desert coast of Chile, in a typical arid climate, latitude 23° South and longitude 70° West. Green areas are quite precious in arid climates, and have to be preserved by building overheating effect. In the last 20 years, in Antofagasta have been constructed almost 30 new towers, more than 70 meters high. At least 7 of these towers are negatively affecting nowadays the "Avenida Brasil" area, a green park of 70 meters large and one kilometer long, which is the principal green area of the city center. Paper studies two possible future evolutions: one following the actual trend, and other one proposing new building concept, limited in vertical dimension and integrated in the environment. Parameters analyzed are: temperature, humidity, solar radiation, wind speed and direction in the green area. Results show the impact of building growth in terms of overheating and wind reduction on the ground area studied. Additionally, social impact of living in towers is also discussed in the paper, searching for better design in order to guarantee user\'s comfort, satisfaction and stimulation in their residences. Thermal, visual and acoustical effects produced by towers are considered in the critical evalaution of Antofagasta city evolution. Part of this work relates to architectural laboratory "energy and architecture" currently on-going at School of Architecture of the Northern Catholic University. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
sciforum-002516 | Changes in Soil Physical Characteristics Affected by Green Manuring of Different Cereals | , | N/A |
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In order to determine the influence of different cereals as green manures on organic carbon and soil physical properties, an experiment was conducted in 2011 in Khaton Abad Agricultural Research Station of Islamic University (Khorasgan branch), Esfahan, Iran (latitude 32o 40/ N, longitude 51o 58/ E, and 1570 m elevation). A completely randomized block design with 3 replications was used. Green manures were included barley, rye, triticale and clover with two levels of farm yard manures namely, 30 and 60 ton/ha and one treatment of chemical fertilization as a control treatment and decomposition time of manures in two levels, the first one is one day after turning green manure to soil and the second one is 4 weeks after returning of them. Manure was mixed with soil immediately after spreading it. All crops were returned to the soil with mouldboard ploughing, before heading stage for cereal, and 10 percentage of flowering for clover, respectively. All experimental characteristics, namely, EC, pH, CaCO3, organic carbon (OC), P2O5, K2O, Zn, Mn, Fe and Cu significantly influenced by treatment. The highest EC, organic carbon, P2O5, K2O, Zn and Mn of the soil was related to application of 60 kg N/ha. The maximum pH and Fe content of soil was obtained in application of 30 kg N/ha and in a treatment in which rye was burning. The treatment in which clover was used as a green manure has obtained the highest Cu content of soil, which had significant difference with other treatments. There were no significant differences in CaCO3 among application of 30 kg N/ha, control treatment, rye as a green manure, triticale as green manure, and triticale as a green manure after four weeks. Control treatment had obtained the lowest EC, Organic carbon, P2O5, K2O, Zn, Fe and Cu of soil. Moreover, the maximum CaCO3 and Mn of soil were achieved in a treatment in which clover was used as a green manure. The treatment in which rye was used as a green manure had obtained the highest pH. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
sciforum-002755 | Application of Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment to the Bamboo and Aluminum Bicycle in Surveying Social Risks of Developing Countries |
Ya-Ju Chang ,
Erwin Schau ,
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N/A |
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Due to the arising internationally awareness of sustainable development, sustainability has become an ultimate goal for worldwide industries to pursue. To construct a sufficient method for assessing sustainability on the product level nowadays is an important issue but still a challenge. The mature approach, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), is used to evaluate the environmental burdens. Taking the economic and social dimensions into consideration for a comprehensive life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA) is necessary and so far in its infancy. Therefore, developing the LCSA is essential and inevitable. To do so, there are two main aims of this study: first, combining LCA, life cycle costing (LCC) and social life cycle assessment (SLCA) on a case study of the bamboo bicycle and the aluminum bicycle, to emphasize on the theoretical development of an overall, scientifically and widely valid method for the integrated sustainability assessment. Second, the study takes the origin of raw materials for bamboo and bauxite from respectively China and Guinea, and bicycle manufacturing in Germany to administer the SLCA practically. The hot spot social life cycle database is used as a starting point for the practical analysis of the social situations of the countries. The study compares environmental impacts between the two bicycles. The overall LCA results indicates that the bamboo bicycle is more environmental advantageous than the aluminum one. If observing only the processes related to frame production, the outcome shows there are significant differences between the two bicycles in specific impact categories such as freshwater eco-toxicity, freshwater eutrophication, marine eco-toxicity and human toxicity; however, while checking the results for the whole life-cycle of the bicycle, the mentioned differences are minor. Besides, this paper adopts LCC fitting best together with LCA boundary as a consistent pillar of sustainability assessment. In LCC, the study focuses on the two perspectives from the manufacturer and the user of the two bicycles. While probing social circumstance of developing countries deeply in the SLCA, the results reveal that in China, shortage of labor right, low average wage, and insufficient sanitation in urban area are the main issues. For Guinea, the critical topics are gender equity, child labor, long working time, low wage, lack of labor law and completed legal system, high dropout rate, less improved sanitation, and low living standard. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
sciforum-002605 | Management of natural lake water resources: problems and solutions | , | N/A |
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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. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
sciforum-002772 | Engaging Social Capital for Decentralized Urban Stormwater Management |
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Hale Thurston ,
Lee Rhea
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N/A |
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Decentralized approaches to urban stormwater management, whereby installations of green infrastructure (e.g., rain gardens, bioswales, constructed wetlands) are dispersed throughout a management area, are cost-effective solutions with co-benefits beyond just water abatement. Instead of investing in traditional approaches for managing stormwater, such as deep tunnels and high capacity treatment facilities (i.e., gray infrastructure), municipalities that invest in green approaches (i.e., natural capital) may reap multiple benefits from increased green space, ecosystem services, increased property values, and community engagement. To maximize the provision of these benefits, water managers should account for social and other human capitals in their management plans. In this presentation, we will highlight the role of human, social, and cultural capitals in the USEPA\'s groundbreaking study in the Shepherd Creek watershed (Cincinnati OH USA). The study investigated whether market-based mechanisms can be used to engage citizens to participate in voluntary stormwater management on their private property and would this lead to a sufficient number of green infrastructure installations to reduce storm flow volume. We invested in the human capital of the neighborhood in order to educate the residents on the urban stormwater problem and their potential role as private stormwater managers. Further, we quantified the role of social capital and found that as residents engaged in the program, their neighbors were significantly more likely to engage. This finding highlights the role of social networks in building trust in novel programs, especially those proposed by external agents. When a member of a social network engages in a program and shares his/her positive experience with members of his/her social network in order to get them to enroll, that initial participant appropriates social capital to influence the actions of others. As more residents of a neighborhood engage, perhaps the neighborhood will shift to a culture of private stormwater managers. If so, we expect to see increased green infrastructure on private land over time, and that may spread to other communities. Such a cultural shift would have profound implications on urban stormwater 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