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Digitalization and Its Application of Sustainable Development

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 April 2024 | Viewed by 5884

Special Issue Editor

STEM, University of South Australia, Adelaide, SA 5001, Australia
Interests: digital transformation; AI; data analytics; internet of things

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

It is our pleasure to announce a new Special Issue of Sustainability titled "Digitalization and Its Application of Sustainable Development".

Sustainability is a core concept in modern society that is concerned with meeting the needs of the present without compromising the resources of future generations. The concept of sustainability has three primary goals, including environmental protection (e.g., carbon emission, waste management), social development (e.g., human rights, diversity, equity), and economic development (e.g., profitability). Sustainability digitalization, also known as sustainable digital transformation, refers to the process of digitalizing the economy in a long-lasting green way to meet these goals. Digitalization, environmental factors, and social and economic factors are, indeed, interlinked. Sustainable digitalization relies on innovative technology solutions, such as Industry 4.0, AI, Big Data, and the cloud, to generate unique opportunities and strategically address challenges. For example, the large-scale adoption of the Internet of Things sensor network provides organizations with the capability of making well-informed decisions to efficiently and effectively manage resources.  Sustainability digitization also delivers efficiency improvement in varied aspects of policy-making, organization management, innovative engineering and technology advancement, resulting in new policies, business models and processes.

However, it must be acknowledged that, at the same time, digitalization presents organizations with challenges, such as data security, resource efficiency, and skill shortage for digital transformation. Therefore, for this Special Issue, we seek papers presenting digitalization methodologies, approaches and case studies for sustainability applications that provide insightful knowledge to shed light on how digitalization can assist sustainability improvement.

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

  • Digital transformation strategies, practices, and processes.
  • Sustainability digitization innovations and entrepreneurship.
  • Digitization in the circular economy.
  • Sustaining and evaluating digital transformations.
  • Digital transformation governance and risk management.
  • Digitalization enablers and barriers.
  • Smart technology solution design and adoption.
  • Smart Industry initiatives.
  • Digitalization and sustainability in the education system.

Dr. Jing Gao
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • digitalization
  • sustainability
  • digital transformation

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

14 pages, 2825 KiB  
Article
A Desktop Assessment of Ozone Micro-Nanobubble Technology for Algae and PFAS Removal from Surface Water Bodies Using Open-Source Water Quality Data
by Soheil Aber, Rachelle Aguada, Randimal Marasinghe, Christopher W. K. Chow, Raufdeen Rameezdeen and Ke Xing
Sustainability 2024, 16(2), 668; https://doi.org/10.3390/su16020668 - 12 Jan 2024
Viewed by 1529
Abstract
Ozone is an excellent oxidant and helps in breaking down both organic and inorganic compounds; this effect is further enhanced when it decomposes into hydroxyl radicals. Several studies confirm the good performance of ozonation and micro-nanobubble technology in eradicating algae and per- and [...] Read more.
Ozone is an excellent oxidant and helps in breaking down both organic and inorganic compounds; this effect is further enhanced when it decomposes into hydroxyl radicals. Several studies confirm the good performance of ozonation and micro-nanobubble technology in eradicating algae and per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances. However, very little is known about the application of ozone micro-nanobubble technology in small-scale treatment; hence, this research aims to assess the potential of this technology. A survey was performed to obtain the water quality parameters of some selected water bodies via relevant open-source databases. The water quality was compared against the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) guidelines to identify those that did not meet the criteria and it was identified that 18% of the surface water bodies were below the recommended guidelines. The identified water sources were then used for the treatment simulation, which applies the literature-reported % removal of water quality parameters to predict the effectiveness of ozone micro-nanobubble technology for the selected water sources in this study. Furthermore, the time (dose) that is needed for the treatment using this technology was estimated based on the surface area of the water bodies. The scalability study was conducted to assess how many water bodies could be treated within a day using a 50 m3/h flow rate, which yielded a value of 27%. It was concluded that ozone micro-nanobubble technology can treat algae and per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances in surface waters as part of their treatment process by reducing treatment frequency and environmental impacts. By observing the benefits of ozone micro-nanobubble technology, there is a considerable chance that the surface water bodies in the City of Salisbury and, therefore, other small-scale water treatment plants, will be healthier after undergoing this process. This study demonstrated the advantages of applying open-source water quality data as a quick approximation of the evaluation of new treatment techniques, which will help engineers to better predict the performance of the designed field trials. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Digitalization and Its Application of Sustainable Development)
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16 pages, 277 KiB  
Article
What Does CGI Digital Technology Bring to the Sustainable Development of Animated Films?
by Zhentao Sun
Sustainability 2023, 15(14), 10895; https://doi.org/10.3390/su151410895 - 11 Jul 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 3573
Abstract
This study examines the impact of the use of CGI digital technology on the sustainability of animated films. The study shows that because of the powerful virtual capabilities of CGI digital technology, CGI animated films that use CGI digital technology have a huge [...] Read more.
This study examines the impact of the use of CGI digital technology on the sustainability of animated films. The study shows that because of the powerful virtual capabilities of CGI digital technology, CGI animated films that use CGI digital technology have a huge box office advantage over non-CGI animated films that do not use CGI digital technology, greatly increasing the profitability of animated films and expanding the scope for their sustainability. This study found that CGI digital technology enables animated films to achieve the same visual realism as live-action films, breaking down the barriers to viewing traditional animation and greatly enhancing the competitiveness of animated films. These results show that CGI digital technology has had a profound positive impact on the sustainable development of animation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Digitalization and Its Application of Sustainable Development)
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