IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v11y2019i7p1961-d219374.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A Novel ICT Framework for Sustainable Development Goals

Author

Listed:
  • Olivera Kostoska

    (Faculty of Economics—Prilep, “St. Kliment Ohridski” University, 7000 Bitola, Macedonia
    Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts, 1000 Skopje, Macedonia)

  • Ljupco Kocarev

    (Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts, 1000 Skopje, Macedonia
    Faculty of Computer Science and Engineering, Ss. Cyril and Methodius University, 1000 Skopje, Macedonia)

Abstract

Sustainable development is critical to ensure the future of humanity. Therefore, the assessment and governance of sustainability becomes a central challenge our society is facing. This paper provides a novel ICT framework for addressing sustainable development goals. It is characterized by both local and global considerations, in the context of economic, ecological, and social aspects of sustainable development. The framework consists of three modules: data module, sustainability module, and governance module. Data module integrates data from several sources, processes data, infers knowledge, and transforms data into understandable information and knowledge. The second module implements SDGs at the level of municipality/city, ensures ranking of locally transformed SDGs to arrange them in line with the values and needs of the local communities, and proposes an integrated approach in modeling the social-ecological systems. By implementing governance theories, the governance module permits an effective citizen engagement in governance of SDGs. The ICT framework addresses short-term and long-term SDGs and allows for the vertical and horizontal linkages among diverse stakeholders, as well as for their contributions to the nested rule structures employed at operational, collective, and constitutional levels. Thus, the framework we provide here ensures a paradigm shift in approaching SDGs for the advancement of our society.

Suggested Citation

  • Olivera Kostoska & Ljupco Kocarev, 2019. "A Novel ICT Framework for Sustainable Development Goals," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(7), pages 1-31, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:7:p:1961-:d:219374
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/7/1961/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/7/1961/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bresnahan, Timothy F. & Trajtenberg, M., 1995. "General purpose technologies 'Engines of growth'?," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 65(1), pages 83-108, January.
    2. Francesco Fuso Nerini & Julia Tomei & Long Seng To & Iwona Bisaga & Priti Parikh & Mairi Black & Aiduan Borrion & Catalina Spataru & Vanesa Castán Broto & Gabrial Anandarajah & Ben Milligan & Yacob Mu, 2018. "Mapping synergies and trade-offs between energy and the Sustainable Development Goals," Nature Energy, Nature, vol. 3(1), pages 10-15, January.
    3. Cédric Gossart, 2015. "Rebound effects and ICT : a review of the literature," Post-Print hal-01258112, HAL.
    4. Joshua C. Gellers, 2016. "Crowdsourcing global governance: sustainable development goals, civil society, and the pursuit of democratic legitimacy," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 16(3), pages 415-432, June.
    5. Campagnolo, Lorenza & Eboli, Fabio & Farnia, Luca & Carraro, Carlo, 2018. "Supporting the UN SDGs transition: Methodology for sustainability assessment and current worldwide ranking," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 12, pages 1-19.
    6. Igor Linkov & Benjamin D. Trump & Kelsey Poinsatte-Jones & Marie-Valentine Florin, 2018. "Governance Strategies for a Sustainable Digital World," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-8, February.
    7. World Commission on Environment and Development,, 1987. "Our Common Future," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780192820808.
    8. Jack H. Townsend & Vlad C. Coroama, 2018. "Digital Acceleration of Sustainability Transition: The Paradox of Push Impacts," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(8), pages 1-19, August.
    9. Maria J. Pouri & Lorenz M. Hilty, 2018. "Conceptualizing the Digital Sharing Economy in the Context of Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-19, November.
    10. Gray, Rob, 2010. "Is accounting for sustainability actually accounting for sustainability...and how would we know? An exploration of narratives of organisations and the planet," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 35(1), pages 47-62, January.
    11. Bart van Ark, 2016. "The Productivity Paradox of the New Digital Economy," International Productivity Monitor, Centre for the Study of Living Standards, vol. 31, pages 3-18, Fall.
    12. Crawford, Sue E. S. & Ostrom, Elinor, 1995. "A Grammar of Institutions," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 89(3), pages 582-600, September.
    13. Passey, Robert & MacGill, Iain, 2009. "Energy sales targets: An alternative to White Certificate schemes," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(6), pages 2310-2317, June.
    14. Caroline Zimm & Frank Sperling & Sebastian Busch, 2018. "Identifying Sustainability and Knowledge Gaps in Socio-Economic Pathways Vis-à-Vis the Sustainable Development Goals," Economies, MDPI, vol. 6(2), pages 1-22, March.
    15. Jan C. T. Bieser & Lorenz M. Hilty, 2018. "Assessing Indirect Environmental Effects of Information and Communication Technology (ICT): A Systematic Literature Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(8), pages 1-19, July.
    16. Federico Biagi, 2013. "ICT and Productivity: A Review of the Literature," JRC Working Papers on Digital Economy 2013-09, Joint Research Centre.
    17. Steinberger, Julia K. & van Niel, Johan & Bourg, Dominique, 2009. "Profiting from negawatts: Reducing absolute consumption and emissions through a performance-based energy economy," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 361-370, January.
    18. Polák, Petr, 2017. "The productivity paradox: A meta-analysis," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 38-54.
    19. Elinor Ostrom, 2010. "Beyond Markets and States: Polycentric Governance of Complex Economic Systems," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 100(3), pages 641-672, June.
    20. Guy Baeten, 2000. "The Tragedy of the Highway: Empowerment, Disempowerment and the Politics of Sustainability Discourses and Practices," European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 8(1), pages 69-86, February.
    21. Cédric Gossart, 2015. "Rebound effects and ICT : a review of the literature," Grenoble Ecole de Management (Post-Print) hal-01258112, HAL.
    22. Pamela S. Chasek & Lynn M. Wagner, 2016. "Breaking the mold: a new type of multilateral sustainable development negotiation," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 16(3), pages 397-413, June.
    23. Kristine Kern & Harriet Bulkeley, 2009. "Cities, Europeanization and Multi‐level Governance: Governing Climate Change through Transnational Municipal Networks," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(2), pages 309-332, March.
    24. Arnaud Pincet & Shu Okabe & Martin Pawelczyk, 2019. "Linking Aid to the Sustainable Development Goals – a machine learning approach," OECD Development Co-operation Working Papers 52, OECD Publishing.
    25. Diane F. Frey & Gillian MacNaughton, 2016. "A Human Rights Lens on Full Employment and Decent Work in the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda," SAGE Open, , vol. 6(2), pages 21582440166, June.
    26. Efrat Eizenberg & Yosef Jabareen, 2017. "Social Sustainability: A New Conceptual Framework," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(1), pages 1-16, January.
    27. Ali Intezari & David Pauleen, 2014. "Management Wisdom in Perspective: Are You Virtuous Enough to Succeed in Volatile Times?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 120(3), pages 393-404, March.
    28. Andreas Muhar & Christopher M. Raymond & Riyan J.G. van den Born & Nicole Bauer & Kerstin Böck & Michael Braito & Arjen Buijs & Courtney Flint & Wouter T. de Groot & Christopher D. Ives & Tamara Mitro, 2018. "A model integrating social-cultural concepts of nature into frameworks of interaction between social and natural systems," Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 61(5-6), pages 756-777, May.
    29. Anders S. G. Andrae & Tomas Edler, 2015. "On Global Electricity Usage of Communication Technology: Trends to 2030," Challenges, MDPI, vol. 6(1), pages 1-41, April.
    30. Brendan Burchell & Kirsten Sehnbruch & Agnieszka Piasna & Nurjk Agloni, 2014. "The quality of employment and decent work: definitions, methodologies, and ongoing debates," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 38(2), pages 459-477.
    31. Milligan, Ben & O'Keeffe, Michelle, 2019. "Global Governance of Resources and Implications for Resource Efficiency in Europe," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 155(C), pages 46-58.
    32. repec:bla:jcmkts:v:47:y:2009:i::p:309-332 is not listed on IDEAS
    33. Joseph, George, 2012. "Ambiguous but tethered: An accounting basis for sustainability reporting," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 23(2), pages 93-106.
    34. David Moher & Alessandro Liberati & Jennifer Tetzlaff & Douglas G Altman & The PRISMA Group, 2009. "Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses: The PRISMA Statement," PLOS Medicine, Public Library of Science, vol. 6(7), pages 1-6, July.
    35. Arvanitis, Spyros & Loukis, Euripidis N., 2009. "Information and communication technologies, human capital, workplace organization and labour productivity: A comparative study based on firm-level data for Greece and Switzerland," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 21(1), pages 43-61, February.
    36. Taedong Lee, 2013. "Global Cities and Transnational Climate Change Networks," Global Environmental Politics, MIT Press, vol. 13(1), pages 108-127, February.
    37. Johannes Emmerling & Laurent Drouet & Lara Aleluia Reis & Michela Bevione & Loic Berger & Valentina Bosetti & Samuel Carrara & Enrica De Cian & Gauthier De Maere D'Aertrycke & Tom Longden & Maurizio M, 2016. "The WITCH 2016 Model - Documentation and Implementation of the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways," Working Papers 2016.42, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei.
    38. Charles Roger & Thomas Hale & Liliana Andonova, 2017. "The Comparative Politics of Transnational Climate Governance," International Interactions, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(1), pages 1-25, January.
    39. Murray, Cameron K., 2013. "What if consumers decided to all ‘go green’? Environmental rebound effects from consumption decisions," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 240-256.
    40. Yosef Jabareen, 2008. "A New Conceptual Framework for Sustainable Development," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 10(2), pages 179-192, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Lange, Steffen & Pohl, Johanna & Santarius, Tilman, 2020. "Digitalization and energy consumption. Does ICT reduce energy demand?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 176(C).
    2. Szalavetz, Andrea, 2018. "Digitális átalakulás és fenntarthatóság. A technológiaoptimista környezetgazdászok és a pesszimista ökológiai közgazdászok közötti vita újraindítása [Digital transformation and environmental sustai," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(10), pages 1067-1088.
    3. Nicolas Moreau & Thibault Pirson & Grégoire Le Brun & Thibault Delhaye & Georgiana Sandu & Antoine Paris & David Bol & Jean-Pierre Raskin, 2021. "Could Unsustainable Electronics Support Sustainability?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(12), pages 1-7, June.
    4. Tilman Santarius & Johanna Pohl & Steffen Lange, 2020. "Digitalization and the Decoupling Debate: Can ICT Help to Reduce Environmental Impacts While the Economy Keeps Growing?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(18), pages 1-20, September.
    5. Maria J. Pouri & Lorenz M. Hilty, 2018. "Conceptualizing the Digital Sharing Economy in the Context of Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-19, November.
    6. Cédric Gossart, 2015. "Rebound effects and ICT : a review of the literature," Post-Print hal-01258112, HAL.
    7. Laura Sasse-Werhahn, 2019. "The Practical Wisdom behind the GRI," Humanistic Management Journal, Springer, vol. 4(1), pages 71-84, July.
    8. Stefan Niederhafner, 2013. "Comparing functions of transnational city networks in Europe and Asia," Asia Europe Journal, Springer, vol. 11(4), pages 377-396, December.
    9. Möller, Jasmin & Daschkovska, Kateryna & Bogaschewsky, Ronald, 2019. "Sustainable city logistics: rebound effects from self-driving vehicles," Chapters from the Proceedings of the Hamburg International Conference of Logistics (HICL), in: Jahn, Carlos & Kersten, Wolfgang & Ringle, Christian M. (ed.), Digital Transformation in Maritime and City Logistics: Smart Solutions for Logistics. Proceedings of the Hamburg International Conference of Logistics, volume 28, pages 299-337, Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH), Institute of Business Logistics and General Management.
    10. Gianluca Elia & Alessandro Margherita & Claudio Petti, 2020. "Building responses to sustainable development challenges: A multistakeholder collaboration framework and application to climate change," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(6), pages 2465-2478, September.
    11. Lie Ma & Qiu Xie & Shiying Shi & Xiaosu Ye & Aifeng Zhao, 2017. "Regional Maldistribution of China’s Hospitals Based on Their Structural System," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(6), pages 1-18, June.
    12. Li, Xiang & Lepour, Dorsan & Heymann, Fabian & Maréchal, François, 2023. "Electrification and digitalization effects on sectoral energy demand and consumption: A prospective study towards 2050," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 279(C).
    13. Diego Aboal & Ezequiel Tacsir, 2018. "Innovation and productivity in services and manufacturing: the role of ICT," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 27(2), pages 221-241.
    14. Cédric Gossart, 2015. "Rebound effects and ICT : a review of the literature," Grenoble Ecole de Management (Post-Print) hal-01258112, HAL.
    15. Orenstein, Daniel E. & Shach-Pinsley, Dalit, 2017. "A Comparative Framework for Assessing Sustainability Initiatives at the Regional Scale," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 245-256.
    16. Rauf Gönenç & Béatrice Guérard, 2017. "Austria’s digital transition: The diffusion challenge," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 1430, OECD Publishing.
    17. repec:ipg:wpaper:2014-587 is not listed on IDEAS
    18. Joyeeta Gupta & Aarti Gupta & Courtney Vegelin, 2022. "Equity, justice and the SDGs: lessons learnt from two decades of INEA scholarship," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 22(2), pages 393-409, June.
    19. Makena Coffman & Karen Umemoto, 2010. "The triple-bottom-line: framing of trade-offs in sustainability planning practice," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 12(5), pages 597-610, October.
    20. Agnieszka Wojewódzka-Wiewiórska & Anna Kłoczko-Gajewska & Piotr Sulewski, 2019. "Between the Social and Economic Dimensions of Sustainability in Rural Areas—In Search of Farmers’ Quality of Life," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-26, December.
    21. Huilian Han & Hui Li, 2020. "Coupling Coordination Evaluation between Population and Land Urbanization in Ha-Chang Urban Agglomeration," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-23, January.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:7:p:1961-:d:219374. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.