Smart ports as governance infrastructures for social and environmental accountability in the sustainable blue economy

Smart Governance: Policy Framework for Digital Public Services

Smart governance represents a modern approach to public administration that uses digital technologies, data-driven decision-making, and citizen-centric service models to improve efficiency, transparency, and accountability. With the rapid growth of information and communication technologies (ICT), governments are shifting from traditional bureaucratic systems to digitally transformed governance models that emphasize interoperability, inclusiveness, and responsiveness. Technologies such as e-governance platforms, mobile government services, artificial intelligence, blockchain, and cloud computing are reshaping the government–citizen relationship. This study proposes an integrated policy framework for smart governance to ensure secure, accessible, and sustainable digital public service delivery. Using a multidisciplinary and mixed-method approach, including policy analysis, global case studies, and quantitative performance evaluation, the research examines factors such as interoperability, citizen engagement, institutional capacity, and regulatory compliance. The findings indicate that governments with integrated policy and strong technological governance achieve higher efficiency and greater public trust. However, challenges such as cybersecurity risks, data privacy concerns, digital illiteracy, and organizational resistance remain significant barriers. The study recommends strategic policy interventions and collaborative governance models to support sustainable digital transformation in public administration.

Cybernetic Governance for Renewable Energy Systems Using Blockchain: A Framework for Trustworthy Impact Monitoring

The transition toward decentralized renewable energy systems creates monitoring problems that current digital infrastructures do not solve: sustainability claims are produced by the same actors they evaluate, environmental evidence is reported periodically rather than observed continuously, and the communities most affected by deployment cannot inspect the data used to represent their territories. Existing integrated platforms combine subsets of the blockchain, Internet of Things (IoT) sensing and life cycle assessment (LCA) at the data layer, but they do not organize that integration through an explicit governance structure. This paper contributes a cybernetic governance framework in which the Viable System Model (VSM) supplies the organizing structure of a blockchain–IoT–LCA monitoring architecture, so that sensing, distributed trust, strategic intelligence and participatory governance are recursively coupled rather than sequentially chained. The framework was developed and evaluated under the Design Science Research paradigm, and instantiated in the IMPACT Energy.CO platform across two technology routes, wind and solar, in La Guajira, Cesar, Atlántico and Magdalena, Colombia. Evaluation against six pre-declared criteria reports 45 executed test cases with a 100% pass rate, 90% unit and 87% integration code coverage, load tests up to 5000 concurrent users with zero errors and sub-second mean response, an operating hash-chained provenance layer issuing verifiable LCA certificates, 14 participatory validation workshops, 199 users trained and 166 technicians certified. We use traceability in a deliberately narrow sense throughout: the property whereby a committed record can be linked to the ingested data series, model version and computation that produced it, and its integrity and ordering checked by a party that does not trust the producer. It is provenance and integrity traceability from the point of ingestion onward, and it is not metrological traceability: the architecture cannot verify that an original sensor measurement corresponds to the physical quantity it purports to represent. We accordingly make explicit what the architecture does not guarantee: a ledger protects records after commitment but cannot certify measurement at the point of capture, and we present a threat model, a set of implemented controls and the residual risk that remains. This study contributes an architecture, a reproducible development and evaluation method, and a calibrated account of what verifiable environmental monitoring can and cannot deliver in contested Global-South territories.

Governing the Digital Commons: A Blockchain-based Governing the Digital Commons: A Blockchain-based Decentralised Autonomous Organisations Framework for Decentralised Autonomous Organisations Framework for Ecosystem Coordination Ecosystem Coordination

Architecting Digital Twins for Environmental Governance: Integrating AIoT Monitoring and Complex Systems Modeling

Environmental governance in the Global South increasingly unfolds within complex socio-technical systems characterized by fragmented institutional capacities, distributed sensing infrastructures, and high socio-ecological uncertainty. In this context, Digital Twins have emerged as a promising paradigm for integrating cyber–physical systems with decision intelligence, yet most implementations remain limited to industrial optimization or urban infrastructure management. This article proposes an architectural framework for Digital Twins oriented toward environmental governance by integrating Artificial Intelligence of Things (AIoT), monitoring networks with complex systems modeling and cybernetic governance principles. Methodologically, the study combines conceptual development grounded in systems science and the Viable System Model (VSM) with an illustrative empirical case study from the Caribbean Mining Corridor in Colombia, where a distributed AIoT environmental monitoring network operates within the Hub Ambiental del Caribe initiative. The proposed architecture links real-time environmental sensing, predictive analytics, and recursive governance structures to enable anticipatory environmental decision-making. The results demonstrate how Digital Twin infrastructures can function as cybernetic platforms that transform fragmented environmental data into actionable decision intelligence across institutional levels. By embedding feedback mechanisms, open environmental data governance, and participatory monitoring capacities, the framework supports adaptive management in highly dynamic socio-ecological contexts. The study concludes that Digital Twins designed as governance infrastructures—rather than purely technical replicas—can significantly enhance environmental decision support systems and foster climate justice-oriented transitions in vulnerable territories of the Global South.

Institutional capacity and sustainable critical raw material supply chains: A comparative analysis of extractive governance

Critical raw materials (CRMs) are essential to the green and digital transitions, underpinning technologies such as renewable energy systems, electric vehicles, and advanced manufacturing. As demand increases, governments increasingly pursue policy objectives related to security of supply, diversification, sustainability, and innovation and circularity. While these objectives are often treated as distinct policy goals, their achievement depends on the institutional governance conditions through which CRM supply chains are organised. This article examines how institutional governance conditions shape the resilience and sustainability of CRM supply chains across different governance contexts. Drawing on Sustainable Supply Chain Management (SSCM) and the Triple Bottom Line (TBL), it employs a qualitative comparative legal and institutional analysis of Australia (lithium), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (cobalt), Canada (nickel), Chile (copper), and the European Union under the Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA). The analysis demonstrates that legal and regulatory frameworks, administrative capacity and coordination, rights-based safeguards, and environmental governance operate collectively to shape resilient and sustainable CRM supply chains. The findings show that supply chain resilience depends less on resource endowment than on institutional governance conditions capable of providing regulatory predictability, procedural legitimacy, and long-term environmental stewardship. The study contributes by reframing security of supply, diversification, sustainability, and innovation and circularity as system-level governance outcomes rather than independent policy objectives.

Smart Water Governance and Social Inclusion: Opportunities and Challenges among Rural Households and Jal Jeevan Mission Beneficiaries in Kerala

The growing integration of digital technologies into public administration has transformed governance systems across the world. Within the water sector, smart water governance has emerged as an innovative approach that combines digital technologies, real-time monitoring systems, data analytics, geographic information systems, and citizen-centric platforms to improve water management and service delivery. While these technological interventions offer significant opportunities for enhancing efficiency, transparency, and sustainability, concerns remain regarding social inclusion, digital inequalities, and equitable access to governance processes. Kerala, despite its abundant rainfall and extensive water resources, continues to face challenges such as seasonal water scarcity, groundwater depletion, water pollution, and uneven access to safe drinking water. Recent initiatives under the Jal Jeevan Mission and various state-level programmes have increasingly incorporated digital technologies into water management systems. However, limited empirical evidence exists regarding how these interventions are perceived and experienced by rural communities. This study examines the opportunities and challenges associated with smart water governance among rural households and Jal Jeevan Mission beneficiaries in Kerala. A survey was conducted among 300 households selected from Palakkad, Malappuram, and Thrissur districts. The findings reveal moderate levels of awareness regarding smart water governance initiatives, positive perceptions towards technology-enabled water management, and significant concerns regarding digital exclusion among vulnerable groups. The study argues that smart water governance should be understood not merely as a technological innovation but as a socio-technical process that requires digital literacy, community participation, institutional accountability, and social inclusion. The findings contribute to emerging debates on digital governance, environmental justice, and sustainable water management in developing societies.