Burgeoning green technologies on ScienceOpen

How are we supposed to have an informed debate about climate change when so much important information remains locked away from the public?

At ScienceOpen, we have more than 7000 Open Access research papers on climate change, and that’s just the beginning.

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Research on emerging green technologies such as renewable energies, low-impact development strategies, advanced materials, smart water, and waste water management and remanufacturing is indispensable in tackling some of the world’s most pressing issues through continuous technological advancement.

Improving scientific literacy in these evolving fields is crucial, and at ScienceOpen we are helping to provide basic access to the latest important research.

Our recent additions of 2 publisher-led and 2 researcher-led collections bring together a selection of the latest innovations in the fields of energy engineering and management and ecology. They help us rethinking the relationship between our built and natural environment in the context of grand global challenges and offer life greening solutions for a sustainable social civilization.

1. Renewable energy sources and green technologies

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• Green building and energy engineering management: Frontiers of Engineering Management

Frontiers of Engineering Management (FEM) is an Open Access research journal, administered jointly by Chinese Academy of Engineering, Higher Education Press, Tsinghua University, Huazhong University of Science and Technology and published by the prestigious Higher Education Press.

It provides a high quality international platform for the academicians, researchers, professionals, and practitioners in the broad field of engineering management from which green engineering practices and system construction is a dominant line of research.

They cover:

• Green building technologies including practices of creating and using healthier and more resource-efficient models of construction, renovation, maintenance and demolition

• Research achievements and future prospects of industrial greening and remanufacturing management
• Smart City projects and the development of Green Eco-Urban Areas
• Green innovation in urban traffic
• Studies on socially responsible investing strategies
• Scientific evaluation of policy effectiveness for energy efficiency
• Ecological risk management surveys

All of these are crucial in developing our thinking and practices in green industry, as well as the future of technological investment in the field.

• Solar energy – Silicon Thin Film Solar Cells

Solar cells harness the immense power of our sun and represent one of the best known and widely used green technologies. Their cost-effectiveness as well as rising efficiencies make thin film solar cells stand out from among the different solar cell technologies.

Bringing together results from the fields of electronic materials, materials science and optics, Silicon Thin Film Solar Cells is a new collection by Jürgen Hüpkes, an expert in renewable energy and solid state physics. His collection includes nearly 100 of the top articles on the latest advancements in the field. More specifically, the collection is dedicated to the optoelectronic properties of TCOs (transparent conductive oxides, fundamental components in optoelectronic devices) and light-trapping structures applied in solar cells.

Some of our favourite articles include:

• Ultra-thin alumina layer encapsulation of bulk heterojunction organic photovoltaics for enhanced device lifetime
• Influence of the atmospheric species water, oxygen, nitrogen and carbon dioxide on the degradation of aluminum doped zinc oxide layers
• Flexible Transparent Conductive Films on the Basis of Ag Nanowires: Design and Applications: A Review
• Advanced properties of Al-doped ZnO films with a seed layer approach for industrial thin film photovoltaic application

2. Sustainable water management

You don’t have to be a great Bond villain to know that the next great challenge of our future is going to be water security and sustainability. Water, once an abundant natural resource, is becoming more and more valuable due to reasons like droughts, pollution and overuse and an ever-increasing demand from our growing global population.

Two new ScienceOpen collections, Journal – American Water Works Association and Hydrology aim to help address the major threat of water scarcity and outline strategies for the optimization of water usage, clean water, and generating a sufficient drinking water supply all around the globe.

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• Journal – American Water Works Association

The Journal – American Water Works Association, published continuously since 1914, is the flagship publication of the American Water Works Association. Each month, their journal serves as a forum for leaders in the water and wastewater industry to publish their latest ground-breaking research.

As well as peer-reviewed research and technical articles, the journal published articles featuring best management practices, industry news, and the most current information on regulations affecting the water industry in the United States.

Along the lines of sustainable water management, articles address issues like:

• How to improve water accessibility and quality across the nation,
• Water crisis management in Flint, Michigan

• Scientific basis for regulatory priorities and water safety policies
• Innovations in water infrastructure
• Research on renewable water supplies and desalination techniques
• Low impact solutions for industrial and agricultural water use

• Hydrology

The researcher led collection Hydrology puts water cycle management into a global context and investigates the impact of climate change on water resources. It contains 125 peer reviewed research articles from 14 journals with almost 6500 views on our platform. Major topics addressed include:

• Environmental monitoring and reports on chemical water pollutants
  • Groundwater arsenic contamination throughout China.
  • Characterization of spatial patterns in river water quality using chemometric pattern recognition techniques
  • Spatial water quality assessment of Langat River Basin (Malaysia) using environmetric techniques
• Fresh water consumption and related public health implications
  • The water footprint of humanity.
  • Quality comparison of tap water vs. bottled water in the industrial city of Yanbu (Saudi Arabia)
  • Global assessment of exposure to faecal contamination through drinking water based on a systematic review
  • Climate change and human health: present and future risks.
• Groundwater research
  • Decreasing groundwater quality at Cisadane riverbanks: groundwater-surface water approach
  • Medical Hydrogeology of Asian Deltas: Status of Groundwater Toxicants and Nutrients, and Implications for Human Health
  • Impact of climate changes during the last 5 million years on groundwater in basement aquifers
• Research on the changing conditions of aquatic habitat and groundwater ecosystem
  • Earthquakes trigger the loss of groundwater biodiversity
  • Impacts of Surface Water Diversions for Marijuana Cultivation on Aquatic Habitat in Four Northwestern California Watersheds
  • Stimulating the in situ activity of Geobacter species to remove uranium from the groundwater of a uranium-contaminated aquifer

All these studies aim to contribute to a dynamic and harmonious relationship between humankind and nature and facilitate discussion among different academic communities of different regions of the world.

To explore the rest of green content on ScienceOpen, check out our enhanced discovery tools. If you don’t want to miss a single paper on ecology, burgeoning green technologies or energy engineering, you can architect your own saved searches which help you stay up to date in your research interests.