Search

This research paper proposes a novel multi-model approach, integrating the CARIMA-SARIMA-GPM framework, to assess the combined impacts of climate change and land use change on the potential of concentrated photovoltaic (CPV) systems. By considering both climatic variables and land use patterns, this study aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of how these factors influence CPV performance in the context of a changing environment. The proposed methodology offers valuable insights into the future viability and sustainability of CPV technology, enabling informed decision-making for policymakers, energy planners, and investors in the Middle East and Africa. As a result, the ability of the hybrid evolutionary CARIMA-SARIMA-GPM to predict the potential of CPV energy output for assessing the impacts of climate change on it was investigated in Alice Springs, the Middle East, and Africa. The outcome showed that the hybrid model significantly outperformed the other machine learning approaches. The fitted model was used to assess the potential impacts of climate change on CPV generation in Alice Springs, Australia, as well as the Middle East's and Africa's comparable climatic conditions. According to the study, climate change had the greatest impact on solar CPV energy production in Alice Springs, where it decreased the most by 8.577% under moderate forcing scenarios (SSP245) during the boreal summer season; moderately in the Middle East, where it decreased the mode by 2.316% under mitigation scenarios (SSP126) during the boreal summer season; and extremely minimally in Africa, where it decreased the mode by 1.263% under the far future sequencing period (2051–2099). Climate change also increased solar CPV energy production significantly in the Middle East in the far future sequencing period (2051–2099), as well as in Alice Springs, Australia, and Africa in the near future sequencing period (2015–2050). The strongest forcing scenario (SSP585) increased by 7.644% during the boreal autumn season in Africa; moderately increased by 6.502% during the boreal spring season in the Middle East; and had the least beneficial effects in Alice Springs, Australia, with increases of 5.538% during the boreal winter season. On an annual basis, all three regions showed a similar trend. Climate change (CLC) and urban expansion (URE) were also investigated in the Middle East and Africa for their effects on changes in solar CPV energy output. URE had a greater impact in Africa than the Middle East under the effective scenario, with a URE value of 45.45% for Africa and 20.15% for the Middle East, whereas CLC had a greater impact in the Middle East than Africa, with a CLC value of 29.01% compared to 5.47% for Africa. CLC and CPV residual factors, on the other hand, have a greater impact in the Middle East than in Africa, with effects of 29.01% and 50.83%, respectively, compared to 5.47% and 49.09%. The potential difference that drives the remediation of specific pollutants lies in the application of advanced technologies and sustainable practices. By exploring innovative solutions, such as using renewable energy sources like concentrated photovoltaic (CPV) systems, we can effectively mitigate the impacts of climate change and land use changes on pollutant concentrations. These technologies have the potential to significantly reduce pollution levels and create a cleaner and healthier environment for future generations. Assessing the CPV potential in different regions like Alice Springs, Australia, the Middle East, and Africa allows us to identify areas with high solar energy resources that can be harnessed for efficient pollutant remediation. Implementing prompt climate mitigation and adaptation measures is crucial for achieving a net-zero energy transition in the Middle East and Africa by 2050. In this context, prioritizing solar energy as the primary source of renewable energy is imperative for successful low-carbon economic planning in these regions. • CARIMA-SARIMA-GPM outperforms other applicable models • By 2100, the CPV potential in Alice Springs could increase by 0.082–5.338% at 1.5 °C • By 2100, the Middle East's CPV potential could increase by 0.021–0.221% at 1.5 °C. • By 2100, Africa's CPV potential could increase by 0.133–7.644% at 1.5 °C. • Climate change has harmed Alice Springs and the Middle East more than Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past seven years, the advancement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is gaining increasing attention in the African context. Consistent with this effort, the present study aims to review the existing literature systematically to document contribution and methodological gaps. Specifically, the review systematically explores, through bibliometric literature and systematic method reviews, authors, countries, cited papers, journals, author's keywords, topic dendrogram, and methodological choices of papers associated with Africa SDGs scholars. The R Studio software is used to analyze 200 papers on SDGs, authored by 606 scholars and published in 102 peer-reviewed leading sources between 2015 and 2022. The results reveal that SDGs literature in Africa is an imminent study area, and there are two main strands of literature advancing SDGs in Africa: (1) business growth, entrepreneurship, and poverty reduction, and (2) renewable energy, tourism, and ICT. Key findings from the analysis of the papers are discussed, and implications for future research directions consisting of research questions, research methods and designs, and SDGs research are provided. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Agriculture productivity in Africa and most developing countries are far from optimum. • Digitalization is a potential game changer for agricultural productivity. • Sensors, IoT, AI, and smartphones are key for Africa's agricultural digitalization. • Digitalization could strengthen African food security and globally. • Infrastructure and policy challenges digitalization on the continent. Africa's agriculture has over time, improved and expanded in scale and efficiency, yet its productivity is far from its optimum, and the majority of the continent is still food insecure. To harness its potential for a drastic increase to avoid continued mass hunger and support the bioeconomy's growth, farm productivity in Africa must be retooled. This paper examines the role of digitalization as a potential game changer and an impetus for a transformational future for large-scale and smallholder farming and livelihoods through driving technological and methodological innovation and automation. Digitalization is seen here as consisting of four supporting elements: sensors (in situ or remote), wireless transmission of data, artificial intelligence (AI), and transmission of diagnoses and or recommendations to the end user. In addition to strengthening food security on the continent and globally and the ensuing economic benefits, other cross-cutting effects are presented. These include risk management through early warning systems for natural disasters, improved decision-making with big data, reduction in rural-urban migration by the attraction of youth towards agriculture, and the improvement in environmental stewardship and building climate resilience. Challenges to realizing the benefits of digitalization, including lack of infrastructure and human resource expertise and the role of public-private partnerships in developing solutions, are also addressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of still-low-but-rising levels of motorization and economic growth, increasing social and spatial inequalities, and growing concerns about air pollution and climate change, the formulation and implementation of policies, practices and partnerships that can support an accelerated implementation of sustainable mobility policies is an urgent concern for rapidly developing cities. This paper seeks to contribute to reframing some of the knowledge and methodologies produced in and about cities of Sub-Saharan Africa, through a comprehensive assessment of mobility patterns and accessibility needs within a larger debate about mobility transitions and sustainable development. By deploying a mixed-methods approach that builds upon case-study focus groups and city-wide accessibility and mobility analysis in the city of Freetown, Sierra Leone's capital, the paper maps travel patterns and their links with structural factors such as urban form, poverty, informality and social identities at the macro, meso and micro levels. The paper also presents evidence from a variety of methods that illustrate the significance of accessibility-centred information and analysis for establishing policy priorities for improving urban mobility and accessibility in the local, African and global contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Blockchain technology can improve supply chain transparency to solve many problems in agricultural supply chains, such as lack of social responsibility and poor environmental performance. However, how to enable the transparency and sustainability of supply chain through blockchain technology is indeed a complex decision-making problem. Based on the technology-organization-environment (TOE) theoretical framework, this paper develops a hierarchical enablers framework for improving sustainable supply chain transparency (SSCT) by blockchain technology in the cocoa industry. Then, the best-worst method (BWM) is used to evaluate the weights of main enablers and sub-enablers by a real case of cocoa supply chain in an emerging African economy. The case results indicate the most important main enabler is "Technical Characteristics", and the top three sub-enablers are: "blockchain smart contract", "blockchain security," and "tracking product components", respectively. The framework and method of this study can help decision-makers and supply chain managers develop strategies to promote the effective application of blockchain to improve SSCT. As far as we know, this paper is one of the first studies to evaluate blockchain's enablers for SSCT, especially in the context of African emerging economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Resource managers' preferences, local agricultural and tenure systems, and biophysical conditions most influenced whether FMNR was suitable. • The need for in situ rootstock and seedlings meant that FMNR was more suitable in bush fields than in compound fields. • Local land and tree tenure systems led to FMNR being more suitable for household-controlled fields than communal land. Restoring degraded landscapes is critical for achieving global environmental and development goals, and agroforestry is increasingly promoted as a nature-based solution to land degradation. Farmer-managed natural regeneration (FMNR) is an agroforestry-based approach for restoring degraded agricultural land and it has been widely implemented in African drylands. However, a recent systematic review found significant gaps in the evidence base for FMNR, including that its upscaling has been based on inadequate understandings of local contexts. Furthermore, studies reporting on farmer adoption of FMNR have mainly relied on quantitative data from household surveys, resulting in limited understandings of what motivates farmers who practice FMNR. This paper draws on the results of a qualitative study in northeastern Ghana to address two questions: 1) How and why do farmers practice FMNR? And 2) How does context influence farmers' rationales for practicing FMNR? We found that farmers grounded their perspectives on the utility of FMNR in nuanced understandings of the local farming and land and tree tenure systems. The results of our study also demonstrate how farmers' decision-making was situated within socially and agroecologically differentiated contexts, which were conditioned by long-term, multi-faceted change in the region. We conclude that in spite of the rush to scale up FMNR, more attention should be directed to assessing where, when, and for whom FMNR might be appropriate. Such assessments should be grounded in resource managers' preferences, local agricultural and land and tree tenure systems, and the requisite biophysical conditions for FMNR. To support these efforts, we propose an FMNR suitability assessment framework, based on our findings and those from related studies. As landscape restoration is scaled up globally, initiatives should be informed by evidence demonstrating how and why resource managers might practice a restoration activity as well as how context influences their choices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Flood-based Agricultural Systems (FAS), which rely on temporary floods, provide livelihoods for nearly 50 million smallholder farmers across water-stressed African basins. This paper analyses the impact of externally driven agricultural production and productivity improvement interventions in FAS, taking the Ethiopian Fogera floodplain as a case study. Ostroms' Governing the Commons Principles were used as analytical framework. Field data was gathered through focus group discussions and interviews with 266 farmers and pastoralists, and 10 local administration staff, while the AquaCrop model was used to simulate maize yield under varied floodwater management and farming practices. The interventions in the Fogera floodplain replaced vital maize and teff food crops with high-return upstream rice cultivation. It has characteristics similar to other interventions across Africa: 1) inadequate integration of local agricultural water management practices; 2) narrow focus on short-term economic gains and insufficient attention to long-term sustainability of livelihoods and environmental issues; and 3) lack of detailed ex-ante analysis of basin-wide consequences – it failed to prioritize the needs of downstream vegetable producers and pastoralists using shallow wells. The intervention missed several low-cost opportunities, including the establishment of rules to protect downstream water rights; the construction of gabion-strengthened on-farm structures to efficiently distribute floods or raised brick-walls to reinforce shallow wells; and the implementation of measures for improved soil fertility and weed management. The study establishes that these missed opportunities could have enhanced livelihoods by doubling rice yield to 6 tons/ha; increased teff and maize harvests by one-third, to 3 and 5 tons/ha respectively; and mitigated 25% vegetable yield loss and 40% reduction in grazing land. These opportunities could have also produced environmental benefits, including reduced soil moisture and fertility depletion. Lessons from the Fogera floodplain on making interventions cost-effective and considering basin-wide livelihood impacts are relevant to FAS globally. • Analysed external improvement interventions in Flood-based Agricultural Systems. • Farmer-led systems have fair floodwater sharing, but low agricultural productivity. • Implemented interventions have not improved floodwater management and productivity. • Many low-cost improvement opportunities missed due to lack of basin-wide approach. • Identified affordable and up-scalable basin-wide livelihood improving interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]