Sustainability Performance Of Systems Research Articles

Solar powered wireless water quality monitoring system for ornamental fish

Ornamental fish have become a popular pet choice due to their convenience and attractiveness. In order to protect the growth and health of ornamental fish and timely improve the water quality conditions, a solar powered wireless water quality monitoring system for ornamental fish was proposed and developed. The system includes the solar power supply module, sensing module and master control module. The solar power supply module includes the solar panel with solar power management module. The sensing module includes the pH and temperature sensor and the master control unit module includes the microprocessor, data remote transmission unit and the organic light-emitting diode (OLED) screen display. The system sustainability performance, sensing performance, and the system evaluation of the solar powered wireless monitoring system for water quality were analyzed and evaluated. The system could effectively acquire the pH and temperature sensor data in water by solar energy powering and wirelessly transmit to the remote monitoring devices such as the smart phone by WiFi or Bluetooth. The proposed system has a potential application example for many kinds of water quality monitoring by renewable energy harvesting to improve the sustainability and quality.

Power energy system sustainability performance evaluation and improving path of two regional economic circle in China

The power energy system is the foundation of the sustainable development of the human society and has an important impact on the economic, environmental and security of human society development. This paper first establishes the input and output evaluation index system of sustainable development capability of power energy system from the economic, social, environmental and security dimensions, and then uses the CCR-DEA model considering the undesired output and Malmquist index to dynamically measure the sustainable development efficiency of the power system in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and Yangtze River Delta from 2005 to 2016 and decompose the corresponding items. The future development situation was analyzed through scenario analysis. The results show that: (1) Beijing and Shanghai is better than that in other provinces and cities in the same region, showing an upward trend; (2) The changes in the efficiency of sustainable development of power energy systems in Beijing, Shanghai, Zhejiang and Anhui provinces are mainly caused by technical efficiency changes. That in Tianjin, Hebei and Jiangsu are from two aspects: technical efficiency and scale efficiency; (3) The sustainable development capacity of the power system in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei economic circle is higher than that of the Yangtze river delta power system, and this gap has the tendency of further widening according to the strategic development plan of the two regional power energy systems; (4) In the future, China's regional electric energy system development plans should draw on the energy development strategic plan of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, especially the Xiong'an National New District, so as to achieve coordinated and sustainable development of power energy systems in various regions.

Socio-technical strategies and behavior change to increase the adoption and sustainability of wastewater resource recovery systems

Given the increasing vulnerability of communities to the negative impacts of untreated wastewater, resource recovery (RR) systems provide a paradigm shift away from a traditional approach of waste separation and treatment towards a productive recovery of water, energy and nutrients. The aim of this research is to understand the relationships between factors that influence the adoption and sustainability of wastewater-based RR systems to inform technology implementation strategies. The study presents a theory-informed, community-influenced system dynamics (SD) model to provide decision-makers with an adaptable tool that simulates system-level responses to the strategies that are developed for the coastal town of Placencia, Belize. The modeling framework is informed by literature-based theories such as the theory of diffusion of innovations (TDI) and the theory of planned behavior (TPB). Various methods, including surveys, interviews, participatory observations, and a water constituents mass balance analysis are used to validate relationships and numerically populate the model. The SD model was evaluated with field data and simulated to identify strategies that will improve the adoption and sustainability of RR systems. Site demonstrations (marketing strategy) made a significant impact on the stock of adopted RR systems. The stock of sustained RR systems is driven by the sustainability rate (i.e. economic and environmental viability) which can be improved by more site demonstrations and tank options (technical strategy). These strategies, however, only contributed to incremental improvements in the system's sustainability performance. This study shows that changing community behaviors (i.e. reporting the correct number of users and reclaiming resources), represented by structural change in the SD model, is the more significant way to influence the sustainable management of the community's wastewater resources.