Jul 2026· Global Environmental Politics· Vol 26, pp. 132-156· 0 citations
Abstract
Climate technologies, “nature tech,” and digital earth infrastructures are now rapidly proliferating as tools to monitor and manage changing environments. Such technologies remake the actors, sites, institutions, and practices involved in environmental governance. They can transplant governance from state to nonstate actors and from public to private institutions. They can also forestall more full-scale social, political, and ecological change needed to address the root causes of climate change. Building on the concept of “cli-mentality” from Steig and Oels (2025), this research article proposes a technology-centric investigation in the form of “techno-climentality” to analyze the consequences of these proliferating devices and infrastructures. Through interview, survey, and case study research on digitalizing forests in locations worldwide, we show how technology-led environmental governance can create unequal power, resource, and knowledge practices, along with transformations in community engagement. Techno-climentality centers on how digital technologies can depoliticize and remove environmental governance from wider accountability, yet also be transformed toward more pluralistic and just practices of governance.
Algorithms, digital technologies, and the platform economy are tightly interconnected, which significantly changes everything. This paper, based on the premise of algorithmic governance, conducts a literature review and develops a three-part logical-analytical framework for the relationship between technology, platforms, and urban governance to analyze the reforms of the city governance due to platform intervention. Studies indicate that algorithms are more than just a tool characteristic but also a governance power with allocation of resources and shaping of rules. This embedding is a dynamic process of co-shaping between technology and institutions. The digital platforms, taking advantage of their strength in data and algorithms, have turned into quasi-governance organizations that engage in the sphere of public life and disrupt the old dichotomy of public and private power, creating a new tripartite of power. Simultaneously, they become part of the multidimensional innovation in urban governance in organization, authority, responsibility and space which creates a technical governance model based on the participation of platforms in the governance led by the Party and government. Moreover, the algorithmic governance is at a significant risk including the black box of algorithms, monopoly on data and online exclusion, which are predisposed to failure of regulation, over-empowerment of platforms, and social division.
Yilin Liu, Shukun Yang· Journal of Applied Economics...· 0 citations
Rapid urbanization and intensifying climate extremes are increasing pressure on conventional urban drainage systems, accelerating interest in digital transformation. Yet how such transformation unfolds in practice, particularly in medium-sized cities, remains poorly understood. Using Lianyungang City, China, as an illustrative case, this study examines stakeholder perceptions of the socio-technical conditions associated with its digital drainage transformation. Drawing on a structured questionnaire survey of drainage professionals, the analysis assesses stakeholder perceptions of system performance, awareness and expectations of digital technologies, governance readiness, and stage-specific barriers. The results reveal strong support for digitalization but persistent constraints. At the initiation stage, progress is limited by aging infrastructure, shortages of interdisciplinary expertise, and financial constraints. During implementation, socio-technical misalignment, legacy-system incompatibility, fragmented data governance, and weak operation and maintenance capacity dominate. Governance limitations are a perceived limiting factor on scaling digital initiatives, while transparency and public participation remain underprioritized. The study advances a capacity-oriented understanding of digital drainage transformation and offers policy insights for medium-sized cities.
Lei Fan, Bowen Tan· Discover Civil Engineering· 0 citations
Amid growing climate, environmental, and governance challenges, strengthening urban resilience has emerged as a global priority. Scholars worldwide recognise the potential of digital tools such as Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to enhance local governments' adaptive planning, risk management, and service delivery. However, technological sophistication alone does not guarantee a positive impact—particularly in low-capacity, resource-constrained municipal settings such as aid-dependent Central Asian (CA) countries. The paper contributes to the ongoing debate by shifting analytical focus from GIS as a technical solution to its institutional embedding within local governance processes. It addresses a theoretical gap in the literature regarding the role of institutional absorption and readiness in shaping the sustainability of digital tools. Drawing on the Naryn town case, the study examines how digital governance interventions unfold when tailored to local capacity constraints. Methodologically, the research integrates stakeholder consultations, semi-structured interviews with civil servants, technical system reviews, and field observations of GIS usage and training. Findings reveal that institutional fit, targeted training, and iterative stakeholder engagement were more decisive for the practical uptake of GIS than the system's technical design. The study concludes that adaptive, context-sensitive GIS implementation can serve as a practical decision-support system and a catalyst for institutional transformation, offering lessons for urban resilience in similar governance contexts.
Chynarkan Saparova, M. Junussova, Azamat Karypov· GI_Forum· 0 citations
Across different historical periods, urban transformation has consistently been driven by three fundamental forces: capital accumulation, ideological shifts, and technological advancement. The smart city paradigm is situated within this third domain, where information technology and digital infrastructures act as key drivers of development. However, this technological emphasis also raises critical concerns. The pursuit of efficiency may risk marginalizing human interests, blurring the boundaries between technological systems and social realities. Therefore, a central challenge in smart city development lies in balancing technological innovation with democratic governance, ensuring that citizens remain at the heart of urban transformation processes. In response to these challenges and opportunities, SMART CITY Universitas Indonesia proudly presents The 6th International Conference on Smart City Innovations (ICSCI) 2026. This conference serves as a platform for the exchange of knowledge, ideas, and experiences among academics, researchers, policymakers, and industry practitioners. It aims to foster interdisciplinary collaboration and to generate practical solutions addressing pressing urban issues, including smart cities, urban mobility, resilient infrastructure, and sustainability. Through this initiative, Universitas Indonesia reaffirms its commitment to contributing actively to global research networks and advancing impactful, solution-oriented scholarship. Building on the success of previous ICSCI conferences held in Bandung (2018), Semarang (2019), Jakarta (2020), Bali (2023), and Jakarta (2025), the 6th ICSCI will be held on 11–12 May 2026 at Grand Mercure Kemayoran Jakarta, Indonesia. Organized by SMART CITY Universitas Indonesia in support of the Research for Global Impact Universitas Indonesia 2025 Program, the conference provides an international forum for presenting and disseminating cutting-edge research and innovative practices. The event features distinguished keynote speakers, invited experts, and participants from diverse sectors, including academia, government, and industry. The main theme of ICSCI 2026, “Smart Governance and Technology-Driven Urban Transformation for Sustainable and Resilient Cities,” emphasizes the integration of governance frameworks, technological innovation, and sustainability principles in shaping future urban environments. This theme is further elaborated through several sub-themes, including social innovation and data-driven policy for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), urban transformation toward smart and inclusive cities, strengthening urban resilience, and the role of smart governance in sustainable urban planning. List of Organizing Committee of the 6th ICSCI 2026 is available in this PDF.
Environmental science emerged as a discipline based on physical measurements, such as soil pollutant levels (Ailijiang et al., 2022), ecological restoration (Yue et al., 2026), city surface temperature (Shafizadeh-Moghadam et al., 2025), and microbial density in air samples (Hayleeyesus & Manaye, 2014). However, its objects of study increasingly extend beyond the confines of the laboratory. Questions that were once sufficiently answered with measurement data now require answers through draft laws, Constitutional Court decisions, financial reports of mining companies, and even traditional ritual discourses governing community access to forests. In other words, environmental science can no longer stand alone as a purely natural science (Siegert, 2016). The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) framework attempts to encapsulate this shift in a single set of targets and indicators that can be used across sectors. However, these indicators do not always translate equally across domains. They are relatively easy to condense into a company’s environmental compliance rating, but much more difficult to translate into legal doctrine, ritual meaning, or market behavior, as each has an internal logic that cannot be fully understood by a single indicator.
The assumption that economic, social, and environmental targets can be pursued simultaneously without infecting others has also repeatedly been shown to underestimate the trade-offs between them. For example, land-use changes that drive economic growth continue to erode ecosystem services even as measured well-being increases (Schirpke et al., 2023), while biodiversity loss and the climate crisis are still often considered externalities (Dasgupta & Levin, 2023), not binding limits. Country-wide evidence suggests that this is not accidental but structural, depending on the extent to which a country’s institutions can translate environmental commitments into truly binding practices. What drives this, not to culminate in governance, is not a single institution, but rather a collective capacity to enforce policies, equitably allocate resources, and listen to stakeholder claims. This capacity is rarely an abstract concept, manifesting in very concrete forms such as protected and unprotected conservation zones within plantation concessions (Li et al., 2024), or environmental management oversight regimes that are oriented toward responding to emerging problems rather than being anticipatory or proactive (Prasetyaningsih et al., 2022). Therefore, the task of environmental science is not simply to measure damage more precisely, but rather to explore the power relations, legal architecture, and everyday behavior that determine whether measurements actually result in protection.
This 16th issue of the Journal of Environmental Science and Sustainable Development is structured to reflect this shift. The empirical core of the discipline, such as climate and soil moisture trends, oil-contaminated soil, urban heat, forest regeneration, and chemical biofertilizers, remains intact. However, it is juxtaposed with studies on smart city governance, cross-generational consumer psychology, traditional ritual language, heritage market revitalization, and the constitutionality of resource priorities.
The articles in this edition cover geographic and sectoral contexts, ranging from long-term climate and soil moisture trends in the Western Himalayas, urban heat mapping and bioremediation of oil-contaminated soil, to smart city governance, green consumer behavior, and the implementation of household composting in Indonesia, India, and Vietnam, as well as the governance of traditional rituals in Flores, heritage market revitalization in Surakarta, sustainable performance in the Indonesian sector, and the validity of various business permits.
Unknown authors· Journal of Environmental Sci...· 0 citations
This paper critically investigates the cultural politics inherent in China’s pursuit of enhanced grassroots public cultural service effectiveness. Drawing on a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis of 51 national demonstration projects, the study identifies four configurational pathways to effectiveness: resource-dependent, strategy-outcome oriented, process-driven, and comprehensive multi-dimensional types. These pathways correspond to varying regional resource endowments and development contexts. Resource assurance capacity emerges as a pivotal condition, but its significance extends beyond material support: it functions as a governance tool through which the state establishes administrative dependency, requiring localities to conform to standardized models in exchange for resources. This dependency, compounded by the state’s imperative to replicate “successful models,” systematically erodes endogenous cultural vitality. It does so through two mechanisms: standardized formats displace informal local practices, and communities’ capacity for autonomous cultural innovation atrophies. The findings illuminate a core tension: while the state strengthens governance capacity by incorporating local innovations into replicable models via resource control, this very standardization suppresses local variations and diminishes grassroots cultural distinctiveness. Theoretically, this study advances understanding of cultural governance by revealing how performance metrics function as technologies of “governance at a distance,” transforming complex cultural practices into calculable outputs while masking the political work they perform. Practically, it offers policymakers a diagnostic framework for recognizing when standardization threatens cultural diversity and provides guidance for designing tiered governance approaches that balance efficiency gains with the preservation of local cultural vitality.
Xi Zhang, Lian Ran· Humanities and Social Scienc...· 0 citations