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Urbanization in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has seen rapid growth in recent decades, resulting in significant changes to the region’s landscape and ecosystems, including wetlands. This study aims to examine the causes and effects of urbanization on wetlands. This study lays down the need to intervene to protect and restore wetlands in SSA.

The methodology used was a systematic literature review, supported by the VOSviewer software and the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews criteria, with data analyzed using abductive reasoning and content analysis.

This study found that a complex web of factors reflecting regional and global trends propels urbanization in Sub-Saharan Africa. Urbanization is driven by population growth, economic development, infrastructure development and migration, leading to significant changes in the region’s ecosystems. The key effects include biodiversity loss, flooding and altered hydrology, water quality degradation and loss of livelihood. The study identifies sprawling urbanization, densification, informal settlement, fragmented urbanization and planned urban expansion as patterns of urbanization affecting wetlands.

This study offers practical recommendations for policymakers, planners and local communities to ensure long-term urban sustainability while conserving wetland ecosystems in SSA. Thus, there is a need for continued cooperation, technology and discovery sharing, and cooperative research funding initiatives with the global community. It also commends implementing green infrastructure, like artificial wetlands, to mitigate the adverse environmental effects and promote sustainable development.

This study used VOSviewer software visualization to uncover structural trends and research frontiers, focusing on wetland conservation in the context of urban areas in SSA, where rapid urbanization adds to wetland degradation.

This study examines the efficiency dynamics of public health service providers in Colombia between 2010 and 2021. In order to achieve this objective, a data panel is utilized to assess the effectiveness of 841 institutions across three levels of complexity (1, 2 and 3) in providing patient care, taking into account user satisfaction from 2010 to 2021.

By employing growth mixture analysis (GMA) and other statistical techniques, we may identify unique efficiency profiles among hospitals with different levels of complexity.

The results demonstrate varied efficiency patterns, with certain profiles generally retaining or improving efficiency over time, while others observe fluctuations or reductions. Efficiency outcomes are significantly impacted by factors such as capital investment, operational costs and workforce mix. Efficiency levels can be improved by making strategic investments in capital infrastructure and implementing effective operational cost management.

Changes in the healthcare market conditions in recent years in Colombia have compelled healthcare providers (IPS) to transform themselves into sustainable organizations.

This study aims to explore and analyse building energy performance (BEP) policies and regulations worldwide. It presents a perspective on the status quo of policy packages for the built environment. This study spans the six years between 2018 and 2023 to give a broad overview of the BEP policy landscape.

An exploratory search of secondary sources was conducted within a six-year timeline. The six-year period enabled the creation of a pre- and post-COVID baseline through which comparisons of policy trends could be made. The International Energy Agency (IEA) and Scopus databases were the principal sources of relevant literature. A data extraction tool and four research questions were used to ensure the relevance of the selected sources. The primary limitation of this work is that the chosen time frame limited the number of policies and regulations investigated.

At the time of writing this paper, 272 were retrieved from the IEA database, together with 65 eligible studies from the Scopus database. After data analysis, it was established that most national policies target renewable energy installations, heating and cooling of buildings, net-zero ambitions, fiscal instruments and long-term national interests. However, most studies focus on BEP policy assessment, renewable energy and the social impact of policies. Furthermore, four main findings emerged from the analysed data. These point to fragmentation of policy goals across the BEP landscape, institutional influence in energy policy formulation and little consideration of socio-economic-environmental impacts within BEP policy packages.

This research contributes to the discourse on BEP policies and regulations by bringing BEP policy to the forefront. It highlights a fragmented BEP policy landscape and advocates for improved collaboration between academia, the private sector and policymakers to encourage accountability for the life-cycle energy performance of buildings and their services within policy frameworks. Additionally, this research identifies a need for integrative and holistic policy solutions.

In the era of rapid urbanization, fostering an inclusive housing market system for most low-income urban residents remains a challenge in Sub-Saharan African countries. This study aims to investigate the realities of housing markets in Hawassa City, Ethiopia, and interrogate whether these markets foster social inclusion for households at the lower end of the market in the post-1990s.

The study used a mixed research approach. Primary data was generated using household surveys and key-informant interviews administered to residents and officers. The study also reviewed the municipality’s policy documents and reports. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and theme-based qualitative interpretation.

Hawassa City exhibited formal and informal housing market patterns guided by national, regional and city-wide policy and regulatory frameworks. Nevertheless, trends in these markets do not seem to capture the realities of residents’ ability to pay for housing and demonstrate social exclusions. The yawning gaps between demand and supply of housing largely necessitated the black market and the subsequent commercialization of housing by visible and invisible actors.

The study suggests further research on ethnographic understanding of the visible and invisible actors operating in the housing markets and adverse impacts on peri-urban farmers. The present study did not address rental housing markets adequately, and this could be open for further research.

The study has implications for revisiting housing policy-making, especially for understanding the policy and practical gaps and thus promoting a socially inclusive housing market system targeting low-income people.

The study provides a comprehensive analysis of housing markets in Hawassa City through the lens of operational values of social inclusivity (Elsinga et al., 2020). The findings provide baseline data on policy and implementation gaps for promoting a socially inclusive housing market system, especially for low-income people. In this regard, the contribution is empirical. In addition, this manuscript renders a conceptual framework for analyzing housing markets in other similar contexts of sub-Saharan Africa.

Despite the increased retrofitting of Finnish residential buildings, there are limited post-retrofit studies on the actual measured indoor environmental quality (IEQ) and occupant satisfaction during summer-time. This paper provides a better understanding of the actual performance of retrofitted residential apartment buildings in Finland, focusing on some aspects of and the risk of summer overheating through post-occupancy evaluation (POE).

The study used both qualitative and quantitative data collection methods, including satisfaction surveys, indoor air temperature and relative humidity measurements, self-reported behaviour forms, open-ended discussions, and site visits in five apartments in different residential buildings in Tampere city, monitored during the summer-time, for at least 2 weeks at a time.

While occupants were positive regarding most aspects of IEQ, concerns about indoor air quality (IAQ), summer overheating and acoustic comfort were raised. The summer-time monitoring highlighted that indoor air temperatures could reach as high as 27 °C for 2–9 days depending on the monitored apartment. Little cloud cover and warmer outdoor temperatures directly influenced indoor air temperature overheating. For some aspects of the investigated IEQ parameters, it was noted that while occupants’ satisfaction was influenced by the length of their residence, their acceptance of the same conditions remained positive over time (i.e. more than one year) as they adapted over time.

The number of participants and case studies was relatively small due to the well-known difficulty in gaining access to private homes, so the results do not allow generalisation but do provide interesting insights of these specific cases to be validated with future additional research. The short sequential rather than long-term parallel monitoring of the case study apartments was another limitation making comparison between cases and understanding reasons for differences difficult.

Findings highlight the need to maintain the performance of housing in Finland during summer-time. The highlighted subjective issues emphasised in this study underscore the necessity for enhanced pre- and post-retrofit quality processes and the prompt resolution of issues as they arise. The integration of POE studies into all residential construction practices becomes pivotal for the advancement of sustainable homes now, but also in the future, especially when subjected to a warming climate.

This study is among the few POE studies conducted in Finland, offering insights into post-retrofit performance and occupant satisfaction during the summer-time. The study highlights the potential of POE to understand the performance of retrofitted Finnish apartments from a user-centric perspective.

Access to clean drinking water is a major encumbrance in developing countries. In Ghana, urban water supply is below internationally recognised standards, especially among the urban poor, sub-urban and rural communities. Stakeholders and institutional inefficiencies may be hindrances facing the Ghanaian water supply process. Therefore, this study aims to appraise the motivational factors and outcome of stakeholders’ engagement and identify the factors that influence effective institutional management of urban water supply in Ghana.

Sequential exploratory mixed methods were adopted and analysed to proffer answers to the research questions. Nineteen participants and 521 respondents were sampled for the qualitative and quantitative phases.

Findings reveal that the institutional processes and stakeholder engagement significantly influence the effectiveness of the management of urban water supply in Ghana. Findings identified 35 motivational factors and categorised them into the health of the population, socio-economic, technological and innovation trends, policy reform and adaptive governance. Also, the 22 institutional factors identified were categorised into three groups: regulatory framework, ethics for managing water supply and the culture of managing water supply.

Besides the study addressing the theoretical gap regarding which variables are germane in influencing the effective management of urban water supply, the study may be among the top studies that have appraised the role of stakeholders in the institutional management of urban water supply in Ghana.

This article explores the concept of state entrepreneurship, particularly focusing on its darker aspects when states act as creative destroyers.

This study employs a systems-theoretical approach to develop a comprehensive framework for understanding the nature of statehood and its role in driving disruptive innovation. The research design includes an analysis of cases of state-mandated planned obsolescence, examining the ethical, political and economic implications of these strategies.

The main findings highlight that while state-driven innovation is often justified by noble goals such as climate change mitigation, these strategies may lead to ethically questionable outcomes, particularly when economic benefits for the state or associated entities are involved. The study also demonstrates that several aspects of state entrepreneurship align with established definitions of dark side entrepreneurship. The article concludes by underscoring the need for further research into the social costs incurred as states pursue their entrepreneurial missions.

The article demonstrates that states are organisations that pursue business models that would be considered unethical if adopted by other organisations. These models include strategies of state-mandated forms of planned obsolescence, a strategy commonly regarded as environmentally unsustainable or even criminal if performed by business organisations.

Islamic finance growth depends on factors that are crucial for fostering positive perceptions and increasing acceptance, particularly in Muslim countries. This study aims to investigate the influence of awareness, knowledge, religion and the advantages on perceptions of Shariah scholars toward Islamic banks in Pakistan and the mediating role of attitude.

The study collected data through a questionnaire from 200 Shariah scholars in Pakistan who have completed or are currently enrolled in Islamic banking and finance courses. It employed exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses using SPSS and AMOS software to analyze the data to evaluate measurement and structural models, ensuring the validity and reliability of the constructs and testing hypotheses to examine the relationships among factors and perception.

The study identified a significant influence of knowledge and attitude on perception, thus supporting H3 and H9. H2, H6 and H8 indicate an insignificant impact of awareness, religious motivation and advantage on perception. This highlights the need for Islamic banks to bridge academic and industry gaps, ensuring that their promotional efforts emphasize monitoring by Sharia committees. The research revealed significant impacts of factors on attitude, confirming H1, H3, H5 and H7. Importantly, attitude was found to play a pivotal role as a mediator between factors and Shariah scholars’ perceptions of Islamic banking in Pakistan.

By investigating the perspectives of Shariah scholars, this research seeks to provide insights into enhancing the understanding and development of Islamic banking practices within the context of Islamic principles and global financial landscapes.

This research contributes to the field by uniquely focusing on Shariah scholars’ perceptions of Islamic banking, addressing a significant gap in literature because little research has been conducted to address these issues from the Shariah scholars’ perspectives.

This study aims to present an innovative sandbox platform that implements a decision support system (DSS) to assess the sustainable development goals (SDGs) addressed at the municipal level. It intends to determine the relative importance of each SDG in municipalities and explore the synergies that can be discovered among them.

Participatory action research is used to develop a DSS and an algorithm designated as discrete heavy fuzzy was also developed, which extends the Apriori algorithm to include discrete quantitative assessments of the level of SDG compliance by each project. A scenario consisting of three municipalities in Portugal (i.e. Porto, Loulé and Castelo de Vide) was chosen to demonstrate the implementation of the sandbox platform and to interpret the observed results.

The results reveal significant differences in the typology of SDGs addressed by each municipality. It was found that municipal sustainable projects are strongly influenced by the contextual factors of each municipality. Porto has projects that address the first five SDGs. Loulé appears projects that promote innovation, the fight against climate change and the development of sustainable cities. Castelo de Vida has initiatives related to innovation and infrastructure and decent work and economic growth.

This study provides knowledge about the relative importance of the SDGs in Portuguese municipalities and explores the synergies among them. The proposed sandbox platform fills the gaps of the ODSlocal Webtool by proposing a dynamic and interactive approach for the exploration of quantitative indicators regarding the implementation status of the SDGs established in the 2030 Agenda.

This study provides knowledge about the relative importance of the SDGs and the various synergies that exist between them considering the Portuguese municipalities. The sandbox platform presented and developed within this study allows filling the gaps of the ODSlocal Webtool that gathers essentially qualitative information about each project and offers a dynamic and interactive exploration with quantitative indicators of the implementation status of the SDGs established in the 2030 Agenda.

This study aims to introduce the results of a research carried out to develop a prototype of a highly energy-efficient modular detached house, called CASA+ CASA means HOUSE in spanish, adapted to the climatic features of central-southern Chile. The project enables a sustainable alternative to facilitate the reconstruction of the residential areas after the impact of the 2010 earthquake.

The methodology is based on an “integrated design process” of a case study that proposes a constructive response that quantitatively and qualitatively improves the initial data of traditional dwellings. The characteristics of the new system have been simulated with specific software to validate the final decisions, considering the cost–benefit ratio.

Simulation tools were used to assess and improve the system’s energy performance with respect to present options and to analyse its economic and construction viability. We obtained several economically competitive housing prototypes that substantially reduced energy consumption and the CO₂ footprint by between 20% and 80%.

The prototype has not been developed, as we are waiting for funding, but all its energy features have been simulated.

Furthermore, this experience also identified similar modifications made to the design of the houses, which revealed general possibilities for improving energy performance.

The origin of this research is a public call for international researchers to improve the quality of the new homes to be built in Chile after the strong earthquake of 2010. The result of the research has been put at the direct service of Chilean society and in other international projects for the construction of low-energy social housing.

These are the result of a long research aimed at establishing a new architectural model that, in addition to improving the architectural quality of the product, obtains significant improvements in energy consumption and CO₂ emissions. The most particular aspect is the practical vocation and its implementation with real construction with the support of construction companies.