Long-term Sustainable Planning Research Articles

Information and Communications Technology Retooling Program: Optimizing Teachers’ Competency

The main purpose of this study is to evaluate the ICT retooling program for teachers and its influence on their competency and performance. A research-made questionnaire was distributed to 260 Junior High School teachers in Bulacan District II, including Baliwag, Bustos, and Plaridel. Additionally, School Principals, Master Teachers, Head Teachers, and Education Program Supervisors in Bulacan were evaluated using a modified research questionnaire. The findings revealed that teachers viewed the ICT Retooling Program positively, noting its encouragement of participation and diverse perspectives rather than a sole focus on technical skills. However, this led to relatively low post-program enthusiasm for educational innovation. Teachers rated themselves competent in ICT, excelling in knowledge creation, deepening, and acquisition dimensions, and demonstrated proficiency in utilizing ICT for teaching and learning, particularly in positive ICT use criteria. The study concluded that a balance between soft skills development (confidence, assertiveness, networking) and technical skills is necessary to foster innovation in education. Continuous professional development in ICT is crucial for translating policy directives into classroom actions and creating inclusive learning environments. Recommendations include conducting a needs assessment to identify areas for improvement in teachers' ICT skills and aligning ICT retooling programs with broader school improvement goals. These recommendations should be integrated into the school improvement plan for increased effectiveness. A long-term sustainability plan, including continuous professional development and technology integration, is essential. Financial aid for graduate degree programs should be provided to sustain teacher competency. Lastly, the Sobel Test is recommended to measure the significance of the teachers' ICT Competency Framework (CFT) and PPST results in the ICT retooling program.

Decarbonising the power sector of the Dominican Republic: An approach from electric mobility transition

The electrical power and land transportation systems of the Dominican Republic are facing significant challenges due to growing demand in both sectors. These two systems are responsible for around 62% of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. With the deployment of electric mobility, the power and transport sectors can synergise and contribute significantly to long-term sustainable planning. This article analyses the impact of the penetration of electric mobility programmed by the Dominican Republic's National Institute of Transit and Land Transport (INTRANT), the country's goal of reducing GHG emissions by 27% by 2030 and the decarbonisation process. Using the open-source modelling system OSeMOSYS, four scenarios are built to explore strategies that contribute to sustainable development in the long term. Meeting climate change commitments necessitates that all coal-fired plants in the country will be closed or transformed by 2040. Despite the positive role of electric mobility in reducing GHG, decarbonising the electricity sector while facing the energy crisis requires investments totalling around 16 billion USD. Failing to make these investments will incur expenses of approximately 6 billion USD on the user's side in the period from 2024 to 2030 to cover energy needs; this figure represents more than 270% of the amount that should be invested in the electrical power system to supply these users' needs.

Dhaka’s Dual Crisis: A Call for Collective Action on Waste Contamination and Homeless Animal Welfare

Dhaka, Bangladesh, is grappling with a dual crisis as waste pollution and a severe health crisis affecting homeless animals cast a worrying shadow over the city’s reputation. This article carefully explores metropolises’ interconnected challenges, emphasising the critical need for a collective response from governments, citizens, and diverse organisations. The waste management crisis, characterised by inefficient disposal systems and increased garbage piles, poses substantial health risks to the population. At the same time, homeless animals endure dire living conditions, which raises significant concerns for animal welfare. Notably, this article addresses a significant research gap by highlighting the limited existing studies examining the effects of waste pollution on animal welfare. In doing so, it proposes a comprehensive approach that includes immediate waste management solutions, public awareness campaigns, government support for animal welfare, community participation, international cooperation, policy reform, emergency medical care for animals, as well as long-term sustainable planning, and a robust monitoring and Evaluation framework. Through qualitative and quantitative methods, including surveys, expert interviews and a systematic literature review, the study identifies sources of pollution, factors affecting animal population development indicators. The findings underscore the need for urgent and concerted efforts to address these interrelated challenges and restore the city’s ecological and social well-being for all its species.

The Brigalow Catchment Study: A comparison of four methods to estimate peak runoff rate for small catchments before and after land use change in the Brigalow Belt bioregion of central Queensland, Australia

Study regionBrigalow Belt bioregion of north-eastern Australia. Study focusDynamic SedNet is used to model erosion from 42.4 Mha of grazing land in the Great Barrier Reef catchments to guide the $3 billion Reef 2050 Long-Term Sustainability Plan 2021–2025. Improving Dynamic SedNet by incorporating the Modified Universal Soil Loss Equation requires spatially derived peak runoff rate. This study evaluated four simple methods to estimate peak runoff rate at a site representative of the 15 Brigalow Belt bioregion catchments that intersect with the 35 Great Barrier Reef catchments. Performance was assessed against measured data from three long-term catchments of the Brigalow Catchment Study both pre-clearing (1965–1982), when all catchments were virgin brigalow scrub prior to land use change, and post-clearing (1984–2004), after one catchment was converted to cropping and another to grazing. New hydrological insights for the regionUseful estimations were obtained from the scaling technique (R2 = 0.90; NSE = 0.79), multiple regression models (R2 = 0.90; NSE = 0.63), and the variable infiltration rate method (R2 = 0.88; NSE = 0.71). Estimations using the curve number and graphical peak discharge method gave an R2 of 0.85; however, NSE was typically negative because the method systematically underestimated runoff rate. Despite different data requirements and complexity, all four methods were easily applied with parameters derived from widely available rainfall data, measured runoff volume data, and basic physical descriptors of the catchment.

Long-Term Urban Epidemic and Disaster Resilience: The Planning and Assessment of a Comprehensive Underground Resilience Core

This study utilizes the enclosed and stable environment of underground space for long-term sustainable planning for urban epidemics and disasters. Owing to the COVID-19 epidemic, cities require long-term epidemic–disaster management. Therefore, this study proposed a strategy for integrating multiple functions to plan a comprehensive Underground Resilience Core (URC). A planning and assessment methods of URC were proposed. With this methodology, epidemic- and disaster- URCs were integrated to construct a comprehensive-URC in underground spaces. The results show: (1) Epidemic-resilient URCs adopting a joint progressive approach with designated hospitals can rapidly suppress an epidemic outbreak. (2) The regularity of the morphology of underground spaces determines the area of the URC. Bar-shaped underground spaces have the potential for planning disaster-URCs. (3) The URC planning efficiency ranking is as follows: Bar shapes lead overall, T shapes are second under seismic resilience, and Cross shapes are second under epidemic resilience. (4) The potential analysis of planning a comprehensive-URC in the underground parking in Chinese cities showed that the recovery time can be advanced from 29% to 39% and the comprehensive resilience can be improved by 37.63%. The results of this study can serve as sustainable urban planning strategies and assessment tools for long-term epidemic–disaster management.

Investigating Climate Change Effects on Evapotranspiration and Groundwater Recharge of the Nile Delta Aquifer, Egypt

Climate change (CC) directly affects crops’ growth stages or level of maturity, solar radiation, humidity, temperature, and wind speed, and thus crop evapotranspiration (ETc). Increased crop ETc shifts the fraction of discharge from groundwater aquifers, while long-term shifts in discharge can change the groundwater level and, subsequently, aquifer storage. The long-term effect of CC on the groundwater flow under different values of ETc was assessed for the Nile Delta aquifer (NDA) in Egypt. To quantify such impacts, numerical modeling using MODFLOW was set up to simulate the groundwater flow and differences in groundwater levels in the long term in the years 2030, 2050, and 2070. The model was initially calibrated against the hydraulic conductivity of the aquifer layers of the groundwater levels in the year 2008 from 60 observation wells throughout the study area. Then, it was validated with the current groundwater levels using an independent set of data (23 points), obtaining a very good agreement between the calculated and observed heads. The results showed that the combination of solar radiation, vapor pressure deficit, and humidity (H) are the best variables for predicting ETc in Nile Delta zones (north, middle, and south). ETc among the whole Nile Delta will increase by 11.2, 15.0, and 19.0% for the years 2030, 2050, and 2070, respectively. Zone budget analysis revealed that the increase of ETc will decrease the inflow and the groundwater head difference (GWHD). Recharge of the aquifer will be decreased by 19.74, 27.16, and 36.84% in 2030, 2050, and 2070, respectively. The GWHD will record 0.95 m, 1.05 m, and 1.40 m in 2030, 2050, and 2070, respectively when considering the increase of ETc. This reduction will lead to a slight decline in the storage of the Nile Delta groundwater aquifer. Our findings support the decision of the designers and the policymakers to guarantee a long-term sustainable management plan of the groundwater for the NDA and deltas with similar climate conditions.

GIS-Based Analysis to Identify the Distribution and Accessibility of Urban Green Space in Dhaka Metropolitan City, Bangladesh

Urban Green Space (UGS) plays an important role in minimizing the negative effects of urbanization on city dwellers, which is predominantly factored into the accessibility to UGS. This study elucidated the distribution and accessibility of UGS in Dhaka, Bangladesh considering the paucity of such important scientific studies in the given area. The methodological structure of this study employed a multispectral Landsat satellite image from 2020 for identifying the logically defined UGSs, as well as a minimum proxy distance being the parameter to estimate accessibility to the UGS through a primary survey scheme and literature review. Considering UGS as a public area, we adopted a hybrid (combination of supervised and unsupervised classification) method followed by post-classification for UGS distribution assessment. The unsupervised classification identified the overall distribution of green spaces, whereas the anomalies of generated classes were rectified during the post-classification. Following the study findings, UGS in Dhaka metropolitan city accounts for only 602 ha or 1.9% of the total geographical space, with Ramna thana ranked as the highest contributor of 111 ha. However, in terms of accessibility to the UGS by city residents, 19.9% of the buildings in Dhaka metropolitan city were computed to be within the determined proxy distance of 500 m around the UGS. Also, parallel to UGS distribution, green space in Ramna thana (111 ha) exhibited the highest accessibility rate (64%) to the UGS compared with other thanas in Dhaka metropolitan city. The baseline findings will contribute to the long-term sustainable urban planning and development of more accessible green spaces in the study area.

Standardization of data collection in the initial medical history: Implementation of an improvement plan in an oncology department.

306 Background: Non-standardized data collection in medical records has a negative impact on the quality of care: it increases the possibility of medical errors, hinders the performance of clinical studies, precludes the development of improvement plans and impedes accreditation in quality-of-care programs. The ASCO QOPI (Quality Oncology Practice Initiative) certification program accredits the quality of care of oncology departments through a self-assessment process. An overall quality score (OQS) above 75% on 26 measures that focus on quality of care and patient safety is required for application. In order to begin the certification process, we analysed the quality of the data collected in our initial medical history to implement improvement actions. Methods: Based on the 26 QOPI measures, plus 17 additional measures that were chosen by consensus as relevant, we performed a retrospective baseline analysis of the data collected in the initial medical history of patients assessed in June 2021. Patients with breast cancer, colorectal cancer and non-small cell lung carcinomas who initiated systemic treatment were included. Those who participated in clinical trials were excluded. The OQS of the 26 patients analyzed was 59%. Given this negative result, and once the problem was identified, the objective was established (OQS > 75%), changes were prioritized and an improvement plan was developed based on rounds of training, feedback and reinforcement to the entire medical team, and through the design of a template with the essential data to be collected. Results: With the baseline result of June 2021 (n = 26; OQS = 59%), improvement rounds were performed in November 2021 (n = 29; OQS = 82%), December 2021 (n = 26; OQS = 74%), January 2002 (n = 35; OQS = 75%), February 2022 (n = 32; OQS = 78%) and March 2022 (n = 31; OQS = 79%). Conclusions: Correct data collection in medical records is essential for quality of care. Simple short-term measures based on training, feedback and reinforcement, and the creation of a data template, have increased OQS from 59% to exceed the 75% threshold required by QOPI to apply for the certification program. However, a long-term sustainable plan needs to be established through the introduction of computerized checklists in the free-text electronic medical history.

Delineation and evaluation of the captive limestone mining area change and its influence on the environment using multispectral satellite images for industrial long-term sustainability

Dynamics in Limestone mining sites are usually subjected to spatiotemporal land cover change, which has a long-term impact on the land and environment. The objectives of this article are mapping demarcation, and transformation assessment of active captive limestone mines and their impact assessment on the environment at the Yerraguntla cement industrial region in YSR Kadapa district, Andhra Pradesh, India from the year 2006–2019 using Remote Sensing & Geographical Information System (RS&GIS). In this research work, first, the Normalized Differential Vegetation Index (NDVI) is computed, second NDVI image is resampled using NDVI threshold values, and the Nearest-Neighbor sampling method uses the QGIS raster calculator, which produces the mines area of 469.92 ha with Sentinel-2A MSI and 555.39 ha with Landsat-8(OLI) which is evaluated with delineated high resolution (∼1m/pixels) Google Earth image (486.47 ha) from Google Earth Pro (freeware) and industry reports (487.10 ha) in 2019. Third active mines are demarcated using NDVI breakpoints. Results found that the limestone Mining area increased by 206.10% from 2006 to 2019, with Producer's Accuracy (PA), User's Accuracy (UA), and Kappa coefficients of 98.82%, 92.79%, and 0.92 in 2019, and 96.74%, 85.17 %t, and 0.82 in 2006. The compatibility between Landsat-8 and Sentinel-2A NDVI images is determined with Pearson's correlation coefficient (PCC) of 0.84 in 2019. In 2019, a linear negative Regression slope was revealed between NDVI & LST with a Correlation coefficient of 0.248, indicating negative environmental influences and vegetation control on LST. This research will aid industry and environmental engineers in comprehending the effects of limestone mine changes on LST and proposing an environmentally acceptable land-environmental management plan for long-term sustainability.

The SDGs: A change agenda shaping the future of business and humanity at large

The <scp>SDGs</scp>: A change agenda shaping the future of business and humanity at large

Image-driven hydrological parameter coupled identification of flood plain wetland conservation and restoration sites

A good many works focus on wetland vulnerability; some works also explore restoration sites at a very limited spatial extent. But the satellite image-driven hydrological data-based approach adopted in this work is absolutely new. Moreover, existing work only focused on identifying restoration sites in the present context, but for devising long-term sustainable planning, predicted hydrological parameters based on possible restoration sites may be an effective tool. Considering this, the present work focused on exploring hydrological data (water presence frequency (WPF), hydro-period (HP) and water depth (WD)) from time-series satellite images. This exploration may resolve the hydrological data scarcity of wetland over the wider geographical areas. Using these parameters, we developed wetland restoration and conservation sites for different historical years (2008, 2018) and predicted years (2028) using ensemble machine learning (EML) models. From the analysis, it was found that water depth, hydro-period and WPF became poorer over the period, and the trend may seem to continue in predicted years. Among the applied EML models, Random Subspace (RS) predicted wetland restoration and conservation sites precisely over others. The predicted area under high-priority restoration sites is 34% in 2018, which was 14% in 2008. In 2028, 12% more areas may fall in this priority level. Wetland away from main streams (mainly ortho-fluvial wetland) and fringe wetland parts should be given more priority for restoration. These present and predicted information will effectively help to frame sustainable wetland restoration planning.

Estimation and Spatio-Temporal Change Analysis of NPP in Subtropical Forests: A Case Study of Shaoguan, Guangdong, China

Exploring the spatial and temporal dynamic characteristics of regional forest net primary productivity (NPP) in the context of global climate change can not only provide a theoretical basis for terrestrial carbon cycle studies, but also provide data support for medium- and long-term sustainable management planning of regional forests. In this study, we took Shaoguan City, Guangdong Province, China as the study area, and used Landsat images and National Forest Continuous Inventory (NFCI) data in the corresponding years as the main data sources. Random forest (RF), multiple linear regression (MLR), and BP neural network were the three models applied to estimate forest NPP in the study area. Theil–Sen estimation, Mann–Kendall trend analysis and the standard deviation ellipse (SDE) were chosen to analyze the spatial and temporal dynamic characteristics of NPP, whereas structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to analyze the driving factors of NPP changes. The results show that the performance of the RF model is better than the MLR and BP neural network models. The NPP in the study area showed an increasing trend, as the NPP was 5.66 t·hm−2·a−1, 7.68 t·hm−2·a−1, 8.17 t·hm−2·a−1, 8.25 t·hm−2·a−1, and 10.52 t·hm−2·a−1 in 1997, 2002, 2007, 2012, and 2017, respectively. Spatial aggregation of NPP was increased in the period of 1997–2017, and the center shifted from the mid-west to the southwest. In addition, the forest stand factors had the greatest effect on NPP in the study area. The forest stand factors and environmental factors had a positive effect on NPP, and understory factors had a negative effect. Overall, although forest NPP has fluctuated due to the changes of forestry policies and human activities, forest NPP in Shaoguan has been increasing. In the future, the growth potential of NPP in Shaoguan City can be further increased by continuously expanding the area proportion of mixed forests and rationalizing the forest age group structure.

Public–Private Partnerships in the distance learning program during COVID-19 pandemic times in the Philippines: Identification of practices and principles

Several challenges fill the distance learning program in the Philippines and the Public-Private Partnerships implementation process. The educational system in the Philippines, like any other developing country, is severely affected during these pandemic times. Although the public schools already employed the programs and resource mobilization, partnership effectiveness is not yet fully determined. As such, our qualitative study applied the concept lenses of SDG#17 and SDG#4 to describe the degree of integration of practices and principles during the implementation of PPPs in the distance learning program. Semi-structured interviews and content analysis were conducted among public school principals in Mandaluyong City in NCR, Philippines. The prevailing PPP practices and principles are Upfront commitment to maintenance, and predictability and transparency of whole-oflife costs, creation of specific obligations of both parties, the establishment of educational objectives in the MOA, evaluation of the work progress &amp; completion based on the targets, and lastly, sharing results of the outcome of these educational endeavors. The commitment of the teachers is the main enabling factor, while the poor internet connectivity and effect and restrictions brought about by the COVID19 pandemic are the hindering factors in the distance learning program. This paper can serve as a source of reference in establishing a long-term sustainable plan for implementing partnership efforts in quality education across the regions in the Philippines. We could also utilize the results of this study in the process of policy innovation to implement all the PPPs and maximize the impact elsewhere in achieving all the SDGs.ReferencesAlmarri, K. &amp; Abuhijleh, B. (2017) A qualitative study for developing a framework for implementing public-private partnerships in developing countries. Journal of Facilities Management. 15(2), 170–189. doi: 10.1108/jfm-07-2016-0031Axinn, W.G., &amp; Pearce, L.D. (2006). Mixed method data collection strategies. New York, NY, USA: Cambridge University Press.Burmeister, E. &amp; Aitken, L. (2012). Sample size: How many is enough? Australia Critical Care, 25(4), 271–274. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aucc.2012.07.002Balanay R.M., &amp; Halog A. (2016). Teaching education for sustainable development at university level: A case study from the Philippines. Teaching Education for Sustainable Development at University Level. 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Building consensus and increasing self-efficacy: participatory scenarios as a tool for developing food security solutions in West Africa

Food security in West Africa is threatened by climate change, as well as demographic shifts and land constraints. Communities and policy-makers in the region need to plan for long term sustainability and food security when many conditions are highly uncertain. Participatory scenario planning has been proposed as a tool for building strategic action in the face of uncertainty. Proponents have made claims that this process can generate consensus and self-efficacy for action, but these claims have not been tested empirically. We used two parallel scenario processes in Ghana and Mali, designed with the goal of prioritizing strategic actions for food security, to gather data from participants on their views of the top challenges to food security in their region, the causes of those challenges, and actors who should be implementing solutions. The data indicate that the scenario process did promote consensus among participants on these topics, as well as self- and collective-efficacy to take action, and that these characteristics persisted past the duration of the scenario process. Agreement among local and regional actors around what actions to take to promote food security and belief that they are capable of implementing those actions are key prerequisites for planning under conditions of high uncertainty. Participatory scenario exercises are therefore a useful tool.

The Crossroads of Ecotourism Dependency, Food Security and a Global Pandemic in Galápagos, Ecuador

International esteem for Galápagos’ natural wonders and the democratization of travel have contributed to a 300% increase in annual tourist entries to the archipelago from 2000 (68,989) to 2018 (275,817). The attendant spike in tourism-related anthropogenic impact coupled with deficient infrastructure development has put the archipelago’s natural capital and carrying capacity at risk. The complex nature of Galápagos’ food insecurity is linked to the archipelago’s geographic isolation, its diminishing agricultural workforce, international tourists’ demand for recognizable food, and a lack of investment in sustainable and innovative agricultural futures. Food security is key to the long-term well-being of Galapagueños, who sustain Galápagos’ tourism industry. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has further exposed the vulnerability of human systems in Galápagos, especially the fragility of Galápagos’ ecotourism dependency. Galapagueños’ struggle to endure the tourism sector’s slow rebound following the 2020 travel restrictions points to an urgent need to implement food security measures as an indispensable component of the archipelago’s long-term sustainability plan. This article presents ethnographic data to discuss the tourism sector’s impact on local food systems, Galapagueños’ right to food sovereignty, efforts to increase agricultural production, and why strengthening institutional partnerships is vital to Galápagos’ food self-sufficiency.

The Quality Evaluation of Rare Disease Registries-An Assessment of the Essential Features of a Disease Registry.

Rare disease (RD) registries aim to promote data collection and sharing, and facilitate multidisciplinary collaboration with the overall aim of improving patient care. Recommendations relating to the minimum standards necessary to develop and maintain high quality registries are essential to ensure high quality data and sustainability of registries. The aim of this international study was to survey RD registry leaders to ascertain the level of consensus amongst the RD community regarding the quality criteria that should be considered essential features of a disease registry. Of 35 respondents representing 40 RD registries, over 95% indicated that essential quality criteria should include establishment of a good governance system (ethics approval, registry management team, standard operating protocol and long-term sustainability plan), data quality (personnel responsible for data entry and procedures for checking data quality) and construction of an IT infrastructure complying with Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable (FAIR) principles to maintain registries of high quality, with procedures for authorized user access, erasing personal data, data breach procedures and a web interface. Of the 22 registries that performed a self-assessment, over 80% stated that their registry had a leader, project management group, steering committee, active funding stream, website, and user access policies. This survey has acceptability amongst the RD community for the self-quality evaluation of RD registries with high levels of consensus for the proposed quality criteria.

Multi-layer perceptron-Markov chain-based artificial neural network for modelling future land-specific carbon emission pattern and its influences on surface temperature

Reliable and accurate environmental state prediction can help in long-term sustainable planning and management. Enormous land-use/ land-cover (LULC) transformation has been increasing the carbon emissions (CEs) and land surface temperature (LST) around the world. The study aimed to (i) examine the influences of land specific CEs on LST dynamics and (ii) simulate future potential LULC, CEs and LST pattern of Khulna City Corporation. Landsat satellite images of the year 2000, 2010 and 2020 were used to derive LULC, LST and CEs pattern and change. The correlation between land-use indices (NDBI, NDVI, NDWI) and LST was examined to explore the impacts of LULC change on LST. Unplanned urbanization has increased 11.79 Km2(26.10%) buildup areas and 25,268 tons of CEs during 2000–2020. The calculated R2 value indicates the strong positive correlation between CEs and LST. To simulate the future LULC, CEs and LST pattern for the year 2030 and 2040, multi-layer perceptron-Markov chain (MLP-MC)-based artificial neural network model was utilized with the accuracy rate of 94.12%, 99% and 98.48% for LULC, LST and CEs model, respectively. The simulation shows that by 2040, buildup area will increase to 87.33%, net CEs will increase by 19.82 × 104tons, and carbon absorptions will decrease by 23. 55 × 104tons and 69.54% of the total study area's LST will be above 390C. Such predictions signify the necessity of implementing a sustainable urban development plan immediately for the sustainable, habitable and sound urban environment.

“It’s one of the few things that … pulls us together when the outside world is really tough.” Exploring the outcomes and challenges of a charity-led community garden in a disadvantaged English city

ABSTRACT This article explores a charity-led community gardening project working in a disadvantaged community in northern England and provides a detailed analysis of the outcomes for vulnerable people. This article contributes to the research on community gardens by emphasising the need to plan for long-term sustainability. The project received external funding for 3 years and implemented urban agriculture activities based around a community garden and a team of volunteers. The project successfully engaged marginalised people, who strongly voiced outcomes including increased skills and confidence, reduced isolation, improved health and wellbeing, and the opportunity to give back to their local community. Support from staff, volunteering in a team, enjoying gardening and accessing nature provided a strong platform for engagement and impacts. However, there were also significant challenges which required ongoing professional management such as ensuring a safe and comfortable environment. In addition, after the funding finished, the future of the community garden was fragile and marginalised participants were vulnerable to outcomes not being sustained in the long term.

Long-term sustainable energy plan to reduce air pollution in the Republic of Moldova

This paper is an energy system analysis of current energy systems in the Republic of Moldova. By recognizing the adverse health effects of pollution-based energy sources, a new energy plan for the Republic of Moldova is introduced. This sustainable energy plan is based on three main renewable energy sources: wind power, solar energy, and pumped hydropower. In addition, the amount of energy produced for electricity and heat, transportation and other residential, commercial, and industrial purposes is assessed and calculated. Then, based on the accessibility of these three main sustainable energy sources in Moldova, a feasible redistribution of the amount of energy accordingly is suggested. This long-term energy plan would serve as a geo-political strategy that also provides Moldova with the opportunity to reduce air pollution and increase their quality of life.

Energy Demand and Carbon Emission Peak Forecasting of Beijing Based on Leap Energy Simulation Method

&lt;p&gt;The long-term forecasting of the energy demand is an important issue of an area’s sustainable development, especially for mega cities such as Beijing. Beijing is changing its energy supply strategy to depend on energy imports from other provinces due to the city’s long-term low carbon sustainable development plan. Beijing has promised that it will reach the peak value of energy consumption by 2050 and the peak value of the carbon emissions by 2030. To understand whether this can be achieved, this study built an energy demand simulation model using the LEAP with different development scenarios. The results show that, the peak value of Beijing’s energy demand is between 108.25 and 131.74 Mtce during the period of 2044 to 2048, while the peak value of carbon emissions is between 134 and 139.38 million tons in 2025. We also find that adjusting the industry structure and improving the tertiary industry’s energy usage efficiency can be efficient ways to reduce energy consumption. These approaches not only reduce the negative influence of the economic development, but also achieve the energy saving and carbon emission reducing requirements. This study provides an interpretation of the implications for the future energy and climate policies of Beijing.&lt;/p&gt;&#x0D;