Addressing the unprecedented international interest in China's high-speed railways, this book adopts a global perspective to examine the success of the system and probes into its going-global strategy in the context of the "Belt and Road" initiative, providing readers around the world a better understanding of infrastructure construction under the "Belt and Road" plan, as well as the global vision of communication and mutual exchange and prosperity among the countries along the Belt and Road route. The previous American President, Barack Obama, once told President Xi Jinping that there were two things about China that he particularly admired: the high-speed railway system, and the mathematics education. "The Belt and Road, and the Global Strategy of China's High-speed Rail" provides scholarly researchers and those generally interested in China's High-speed rail excellent insight into this impressive and rapid development.

Of the global population of more than 7 billion people, some 800 million do not have enough to eat today. By 2050, the population is expected to exceed 9 billion. It has been estimated that some 15% of food production is lost to plant diseases; in developing countries losses may be much higher. Historically, plant diseases have had catastrophic impact on food production. For example: potato blight caused the Irish famine in 1845; brown spot of rice caused the Great Bengal Famine of 1943; southern corn leaf blight caused a devastating epidemic on the US corn crop in 1970. Food security is threatened by an ongoing sequence of plant diseases, some persistent for decades or centuries, others more opportunistic. Wheat blast and banana xanthomonas wilt are two contrasting examples of many that currently threaten food production. Other emerging diseases will follow. The proposed title aims to provide a synthesis of expert knowledge to address this central challenge to food security for the 21st century. Chapters [5] and [11] are available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.

This second volume in this set of books discusses various sustainable approaches in textiles and the fashion sector with a focus on consumerism and the supply chain. Sustainability is one of the important aspects in today's industrial context, and is no exception to textiles and fashion. Sustainability and strict adherence to the principles of sustainability has become as one of the essential needs again for any industrial sector including textiles and fashion. There are countless measures in terms of various approaches to make the textiles and fashion sector sustainable. These measures, but not limited to, ranging from innovating and implementing new fibres and raw materials, introducing innovative manufacturing methods, chemicals, processes to focus on all the possible stages of a textile product's life cycle from cradle to grave. These approaches include making the textiles and fashion sector circular and also development of new products from sustainable raw materials/processes or combination of both.

This book offers an overview of salt stress, which has a devastating effect on the yields of various agricultural crops around the globe. Excessive salts in soil reduce the availability of water, inhibit metabolic processes, and affect nutrient composition, osmotic balance, and hydraulic conductivity. Plants have developed a number of tolerance mechanisms, such as various compatible solutes, polyamines, reactive oxygen species and antioxidant defense mechanisms, ion transport and compartmentalization of injurious ions. The exploitation of genetic variation, use of plant hormones, mineral nutrients, soil microbe interactions, and other mechanical practices are of prime importance in agriculture, and as such have been the subject of multidisciplinary research. Covering both theoretical and practical aspects, the book provides essential physiological, ecological, biochemical, environmental and molecular information as well as perspectives for future research. It is a valuable resource for students, teachers and researchers and anyone interested in agronomy, ecology, stress physiology, environmental science, crop science and molecular biology.

This text offers a holistic approach to the two topics of the highest interest in the current and future food industry: sustainability and nutrition. The current knowledge is narrow and specific to individual topics focusing on either one nutrient or one discipline. Food is part of a wide circle of disciplines: nutrition, technology, sensory, environmental aspects, psychology, economy, culture and society. In the recent years, the sales of innovative foods such as meatless burgers, allergen-free products and personalized nutrition have skyrocketed. Sustainable Food Innovation presents the big picture on each nutrient: industrial and natural sources (ingredients, food products), consumer acceptability (price, sensory quality) and nutritional properties (quantity and quality) with each chapter focusing on a specific essential nutrient. Further chapters illustrate the role of other elements of interest such as bioactive. In addition, experimental data is added to enrich the book. Online discussions on current food trends are analyzed and presented to the reader in the effort to understand consumers' psychology. This will be the first publication to combine literature review and research data and the first to offer a comprehensive discussion on sustainable food innovation. The ultimate goal is to educate consumers and experts, providing technical and socioeconomic knowledge in a multidisciplinary context. Ultimately, informed technologists will develop healthier, sustainable food products and informed consumers will make informed decisions on nutrition and food choices.

In order to yield the expected benefits, sustainability initiatives need to be undertaken by means of a close cooperation between universities on the one hand, and societal partners on the others. The principle of co-creation and co-execution of sustainability initiatives increases the value for all by mutual learning, and the sharing of expertise and resources. But pursuing sustainability initiatives with a community and societal involvement is not simple. There is a perceived need for a better understanding of how universities can interact with society, in order to support the implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. This book is an attempt to address this need, by a novel approach which focuses on current potentials and challenges, across a wide range of fields and expertise. The book focuses on how the theory and practice of sustainable development interact and shows the need for a continuation of the dialogue among sustainability academics and practitioners, so as to address the issues, matters and problems at hand. The spectrum of themes addressed on this book also entails how environmental values and ethics are applied and the relationship between social, biological and cultural diversity. It also includes a broad disciplinary approach to sustainability, including education, research and case studies, and the links with human-environment relations in a sustainable development context.

This book empirically examines a diverse range of groundwater issues and different approaches to deal with such concerns taking into account responses from government bodies, community organizations, scientists, private sector, and academia. The overarching objective of this book is to empirically examine groundwater governance and groundwater law. It aims to provide a better understanding of the complexities surrounding groundwater governance in order to reconceptualize and retheorize the governance of subterranean resources having as entry points equity and sustainability concerns. This involves understanding what people do when using, sharing, protecting, and measuring groundwater; and why do they do what they do, i.e., what are their motivations to resort to certain practices. This is done through the comparative and contrasting investigation of six case studies from countries from the Global North and Global South. It offers a different perspective of literature given that it explains how groundwater governance and law are in practice rather than what they should be. Additionally, the research presented in this book provides ideas on how to rethink the design and implementation of groundwater law grounded on empirically based descriptions and the understanding of groundwater problems.

This book delves into corporate governance, sustainability, and information systems related to the aviation sector. Due to globalization and rise in cross-border business, the aviation sector has become an essential means of transport. However, the industry has tremendous impact on social, economic, and natural environments and carries significant risks. The book explores such issues plaguing the aviation sector under three key areas: CSR and sustainability, information systems and risk management, and corporate governance and accountability in the airline industry. The book concludes with an analysis of the impact of COVID-19 crisis on the industry and ways to respond and recover from the effects of the pandemic.

The book explains the impact of bank business models on company business models by discussing the relationship among banks decision-making processes, sustainable values creation in company business models, and ESG risk. The monograph provides a combination of financial and management-related activities, in the context of bank business models, taking into account the concept of sustainability, and will be of particular interest to both in-house practitioners, giving them innovative knowledge about the models presented and used, and to students and young researchers. The project is financed within the framework of the program of the Minister of Science and Higher Education under the name "Regional Excellence Initiative" in the years 2019 - 2022; project number 001/RID/2018/19; the amount of financing PLN 10,684,000.00.

This book continues the discussion in the first two volumes on the challenges that organizations face in order to implement sustainability, ethics, and effective corporate governance, all of which are important elements of "standing out" from other companies. Examining the background of the New European Consensus on development with the new guiding motto 'Our World, Our Dignity, Our Future,' the authors explore how this new legislation on sustainability issues around the world is forcing companies to deal directly with sustainability issues. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (2030 Agenda), adopted by the United Nations in September 2015, is the international community's response to global challenges and trends in connection with sustainable development. With the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at its core, the 2030 Agenda is a transformative political framework designed to eradicate poverty and achieve sustainable development globally. It balances the economic, social, and environmental dimensions of sustainable development, including the key issues of governance and peaceful and inclusive societies, and recognizes the essential interlinkages between its goals and targets, i.e., that they must be implemented as a whole and not selectively. The respective chapters in this volume raise a number of questions regarding corporate social responsibility, ethics, and corporate governance in the face of new technology, and new approaches to climate change and sustainability reporting.

Resilience Engineering (RE) studies have successfully identified and described many instances of resilient performance in high hazard sectors as well as in the far more frequent cases where people and organisations cope with the uncertainties of daily operations. Since RE was first described in 2006, a steady accumulation of insights and efforts have provided the basis for practical tools and methods. This development has been documented by a series of texts in the Resilience Engineering Perspectives series as well as by a growing number of papers and reports. This book encapsulates the essential practical lessons learned from the use of Resilience Engineering (RE) for over ten years. The main contents are a series of chapters written by those who have been instrumental in these applications. To increase the value for the reader, each chapter will include: rationale for the overall approach; data sought and reason(s) for choosing; data sources used, data analyses performed, and how recommendations were made and turned into practice. Serving as a reference for practitioners who want to analyse, support, and manage resilient performance, this book also advances research into RE by inquiring why work goes well in unpredictable environments, to improve work performance, or compensate for deficiencies.

The edited volume explores the topic of experiential walks, which is the practice of multi- or mono-sensory and in-motion immersion into an urban or natural environment. The act of walking is hence intended as a process of (re-)discovering, reflecting and learning through an embodied experience. Specific attention is devoted to the investigation of the ambiance of places and its dynamic atmospheric perception that contribute to generating the social experience. This topic is gaining increasing attention and has been studied in several forms in different disciplines to investigate the particular spatial, social, sensory and atmospheric character of places. The book contains chapters by experts in the field and covers both the theory and the practice of innovative methods, techniques, and technologies. It examines experiential walks in the perspective of an interdisciplinary approach to environmental and sensory urban design by organising the contributions according to three specific interrelated focuses, namely the exploration and investigation of the multisensory dimension of public spaces, the different ways to grasp and communicate the in-motion experience through traditional and novel forms of representation, and the application of the approach to urban participatory planning and higher education. Shedding new light on the topic, the book offers both a reference guide for those engaged in applied research, and a toolkit for professionals and students.

This book presents important developments and applications of green chemistry, especially in the field of organic chemistry. The chapters give a brief account of green organic reactions in water, green organic reactions using microwave and in solvent-free conditions. In depth discussions on the green aspects of ionic liquids, flow reactions, and recoverable catalysts are provided in this book. An exclusive chapter devoted to green Lewis acid is also included. The potential of supercritical fluids as green solvents in various areas of organic reactions is explained as well. This book will be a valuable reference for beginners as well as advanced researchers interested in green organic chemistry.

This book addresses the emergent need to act on reducing or getting rid of micro plastic pollution, to achieve a sustainable environment. Microplastics are small plastic pieces, which are less than five millimeters long which can be harmful to our oceans and aquatic life. These predominantly include microfibers from clothing, microbeads, and plastic pellets. Microplastics impact aquatic creatures, turtles and birds. According to the first study on estimation of human ingestion of microplastic, on average a person consumes at least 50,000 particles of microplastic a year and breathes a similar quantity. Ingested microplastic particles can physically damage organs and also compromise immune function and stymie growth and reproduction. This book presents six informative chapters in order to alleviate the above mentioned issues .

This book highlights novel materials for dye-containing wastewater treatment and presents an up-to-date information on dye degradation/adsorption using new promising materials such as nanocomposites. Development of various industrial sectors, including textile, food, paper, leather, rubber, cosmetic and printing has led to generation of wastewater which contain dye molecules as well as other inorganic and organic compounds. Considering serious health hazards and environmental damage associated with dyes in the environment, researchers and professionals have been attempting to find the most effective methods of treatment. Of late, various composites have received wide attention due to their outstanding properties in wastewater treatment, that are presented in this book.

This book brings contemporary Chinese scholarship into Africa, the relations between African states, and the relations between China and Africa into focus. As China becomes the biggest partner for many African states, constructing infrastructure across the continent, Western scrutiny has increased. This book offers a comprehensive look at what Chinese scholars have encountered on the ground, as well as comparative studies of how different nations have engaged with Africa.

This book informs about knowledge gain in soil and land degradation to reduce or prevent it for meeting the mission of the Sustainable Developments Goals of the United Nations. Essence, extent, monitoring methods and implications for ecosystem functioning of main soil degradation types are characterized in overview chapters and case studies. Challenges, approaches and data towards identification of degradation in the frame of improving functionality, health and multiple ecosystem services of soil are demonstrated in the studies of international expert teams. The book consists of five parts, containing 5-12 single chapters each and 36 in total. Parts are explaining (I) Concepts and Indicators, (II) Soil Erosion and Compaction, (III) Soil Contamination, (IV) Soil Carbon and Fertility Monitoring and (V) Soil Survey and Mapping of Degradation The primary audience of this book are scientists of different disciplines, decision-makers, farmers and further informed people dealing with sustainable management of soil and land.

This book preserves and scientifically interprets the African foreknowledge on water resources management. It offers insight into the relevance of the traditional knowledge and practices to modern approaches on sustainable water management. The African continent has partially preserved its natural habitat for centuries. In this book, this knowledge is combined with the current scientific understanding. The traditional practices are categorized as: i) water harvesting, ii) water transportation, iii) water storage and conservation, iv) water treatments, v) myths and folk stories about water management or conservation, vi) water resource management systems, and vii) soil-water-forest conservation/management systems sub-topics. The findings presented here are in line with SDG 6, which aims at ensuring availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all by the year 2030.

This book discusses current trends, challenges, and opportunities in the fields of business, hospitality, and tourism, particularly in Eastern Europe. Featuring selected papers presented at the second annual Modern Trends in Business Hospitality and Tourism International Conference held in Cluj-Napoca, Romania in 2022, this book explores sustainable business (re)modelling in various fields including hospitality and tourism from managerial, marketing, financial, and information technology & communications (IT&C) points of view. Topics include changing dimensions of modern business and hospitality post-COVID; business challenges and opportunities during crises; modern customer experiences; human capital leadership & organizational behavior, and investment financing in post-COVID-19 recovery.

This book describes the alarming condition of agriculture in the Anthropocene, when the ethical conception of agriculture as a service of common utility for both society and environment has progressively been marginalized. The ethical utility of agriculture has been sidetracked with the increasing industrialisation of society, the involvement of agriculture in the business-as-usual economy, and the consequential environmental and societal impacts it has had. Thus, re-establishing a meaningful bridge between ethics and agriculture is necessary. A relatively new science (ecology) with both a new epistemological tool (that of the ecosystem concept), and a unique narrative of sustainable development, can help bridge this gap. This book focuses on ethics as a lever for raising scientific, technical, social, economic and political solutions to adopt in agriculture as a model of symbiotic relationships between man and nature. It provides a detailed discussion of the ecological intensification practices in order to maximize ecological and ethical services, wherein agroecosystems will follow.

The book is a collection of analyses on country-specific and universal efforts, programmes and projects from Africa and beyond, aimed at realising the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Specifically, the chapters focus on the achievements and challenges that can potentially aid countries of the world and the United Nations in achieving the 17 SDGs. The chapters focus more on the challenges, prospects and concrete steps taken in the Global South towards the attainment of these goals.

This book is a pioneering work to position the creative city concept within Malaysian urban development discourse. The chapters are written and systematically sequenced to be all-encompassing and comprehensible to audiences both from the academic and non-academic realms. The nascency of creative city development in Malaysia has motivated the timely exploration of the viability of this strategy for selected Malaysian cities (i.e. Kuala Lumpur, George Town, Ipoh, Johor Bahru). The book also discusses the global discourse on creative city and its critiques. This is followed by an overview of Malaysia's macrolevel socio-economic and political structures as well as national policies to frame the Malaysian creative city narrative. The case study chapters are novel, as each Malaysian city unravels its unique experiences and dissects the way the city responds to the creative city agenda amidst local nuances and idiosyncrasies.

This volume contains the papers of the 1st Workshop IFToMM for Sustainable Development Goals (I4SDG), held online on November 25-26, 2021. The main topics of the workshop include the aspects of theory, design and practice of mechanism and machine science which are instrumental in reaching a sustainable development, such as: biomechanical engineering, sustainable energy systems, robotics and mechatronics, green tribology, computational kinematics, dynamics of machinery, industrial applications of mechanism design, gearing and transmissions, multibody dynamics rotor dynamics, vibrations, humanitarian engineering, and socio-technical systems for sustainable and inclusive development. The contributions, which were selected by means of a rigorous international peer-review process, highlight numerous exciting ideas that will spur novel research directions and foster multidisciplinary collaboration among different specialists, demonstrating that medical and service robotics will drive the technological and societal change in the coming decades.