Browsing by Subject "SDG"
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Item Open Access Barriers to the practice of sustainable interior architecture and design for interior renovations: A Parsimonious-Cybernetic Fuzzy AHP approach(Elsevier BV, 2022-06-30) Ashour, Mojtaba; Mahdiyar, A.; Haron, S. H.; Hanafi, M. H.While the notion of sustainability has long been a major concern in the built environment, the practice of sustainable interior architecture and design still falls short. This study aimed to identify and analyse barriers to the practice of sustainable interior architecture and design. To this end, after identifying 30 potential obstacles through a review of literature, a two-round Enhanced Fuzzy Delphi Method involving 13 qualified experts was employed resulting in the exclusion of 10, and the addition of one new barrier. To prioritise the remaining, a novel Parsimonious Cybernetic Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process was introduced, significantly reducing the number of pairwise comparisons and eliminating the need for a complicated AHP questionnaire. Results showed the highest prioritised barriers are: (1) lack of sufficient sustainability modules in the education of interior architects/designers, (2) designers' lack of experience and technical understanding, (3) lack of codes, regulations and specific legal frameworks designed for different types of projects, (4) lack of interest from the client, and (5) designers’ lack of training. The findings of this study provide valuable insights for professional interior architects/designers, educators, statutory authorities, governments, and policymakers. Considering the dearth of existing literature on this topic, the present study fills this gap by providing a comprehensive list of barriers to sustainable interior architecture and design, establishes the groundwork for future research to build upon, and introduces a novel P-CFAHP that has not been employed before.Item Open Access Rural electrification: An overview of optimization methods(Elsevier Ltd, 2021-12-23) Akbas, B.; Kocaman, Ayşe Selin; Trotter, P. A.; Nock, D.In order to provide “affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all” by 2030 under Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG7), rural electrification needs significant progress as the majority of people without access to electricity reside in rural areas. Optimization methods can play a critical role in this progress, providing an analytical framework to achieve a variety of economic, social, and environmental objectives subject to budget, resources, local demographics and other constraints. This review paper presents the first overview of optimization-based solution methodologies developed or applied for rural electrification. Based on our review, we first propose four archetype problems for rural electrification, namely (i) optimal system configuration and unit sizing, (ii) optimal power dispatch strategy, (iii) optimal technology choice, and (iv) optimal network design. We discuss each problem type, and provide a systematic classification based on the problem objective, proposed solution methodology, components, scale, region as well as their relationship to the different SDG7 components. We reveal research gaps and open questions for future studies for energy researchers and aim to draw the attention of the optimization community to the challenging and unique problems that need urgent attention in this critical area.