A formal village/neighbourhood planning process is typically focused on three planning levels (national, regional and local) and is usually linked with administrative units of the territory (state, region or municipality). The local planning level (village or neighbourhood) “pocket plan” is a development challenge for spatial planners. The small coastal village Tuja in Latvia was taken as a pilot territory for “pocket planning” due to the unique location; biodiversity and ecosystems; significant natural, cultural, economic and social values; specific interests; and the needs of the involved local society. All these factors create a dynamic flow of data and information. Geographic information systems (GIS) are widely used as planning support systems. GISs for pocket plans must accommodate the special needs of communities in villages and neighbourhoods. Ensuring the availability of information in dynamic real time is an opportunity to build both community integration in specific environments and to understand the future plans of the territory. Access to a WEB-GIS (internet GIS) provides possibilities for every person with a mobile phone to use and update information. Static and statistical information is generally used for spatial planning. For pocket plans, the data and information flow has to be dynamic and has to interact with non-professional users. The special wishes and needs of every member of a community must be accommodated by a pocket plan for the well-being of the people and the sustainability of the surrounding territory. Small territory planning involves a very narrow circle of individuals or communities that identify spatial development needs for the future, which includes the socio-economic, cultural, historical, environmental and climate change scenarios. In order to assess the development opportunities and needs of such areas, the detection, accumulation and monitoring of reliable data is necessary. Methodically derived data (facts) provide objectivity and transparency. Currently, as information between the present and the past is able to circulate very fast, analysis of the current situation to forecast the future and show different constructed realities (scenarios) using a GIS is necessary. Therefore, to explore and determine a local needs-based and smart spatial planning approach, we must identify indicators that can be used for the short-term and long-term analysis of specific territories in coastal areas.

The construction sector is a major contributor to global waste output, with construction and demolition waste (CDW) producing substantial environmental, economic, and logistical challenges. Traditional methods for handling waste in developing countries have failed to implement sustainability concepts successfully, resulting in inefficient resource consumption and increasing landfill reliance. This study develops an Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) framework to integrate circular economy (CE) principles into construction waste management (CWM). The framework evaluates four criteria under economic, environmental, social, and technological categorization and applies expert-based pairwise comparisons to prioritize alternative strategies. To ensure reliability, the results were further validated through sensitivity analysis and cross-validation using complementary MCDM methods, including the TOPSIS, WSM, and WPM. The research attempted to determine the most successful waste management approach by examining critical economic, social, technical, and environmental issues in the setting of Sri Lanka as a case study. A hierarchical model was built, and expert views were gathered using pairwise comparisons to assess the relative importance of each criterion. The results showed that environmental considerations had the greatest relative importance (41.6%), followed by economic (38.4%), technical (12.6%), and social aspects (7.4%). On-site waste segregation appeared as the most suitable method owing to its immediate contribution to sustainability, while off-site treatment, prefabrication, modular construction, and waste-to-energy conversion followed. The research underlines the significance of organized decision-making in waste management and advises incorporating real-time data analytics and artificial intelligence to boost adaptable and sustainable construction practices.

Recognising the fact that economic realities change the world faster than global politics, in 2010 the European Commission approved the strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth, called EUROPE 2020, in order to promote greater economic independence and achieve a more sustainable future. The strategy puts forward three mutually reinforcing priorities: (P1) Smart Growth: developing an economy based on knowledge and innovation; (P2) Sustainable Growth: Promoting a more resource efficient, greener and more competitive economy; (P3) Inclusive Growth: Promoting a high-employment economy delivering social and territorial cohesion. In the context of EUROPE 2020, the Smart Specialisation Strategy in Latvia (RIS3) has been set up and introduced as a strategic document for the development of support mechanisms of high value-added economic growth, including the maritime technology sector. The present study explores the mechanisms for the introduction of Blue Growth and RIS3 Strategies, which should be used to develop the maritime technology industry by assessing the efficiency of these mechanisms. Thus, the study addresses the issues of the implementation of modern technologies in the coastal municipalities and planning regions of Latvia.

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought many changes in everyone’s life. Villages and rural areas are among the places where people have sought refuge in order to stay away from others and to be able to comply with government regulations during an emergency. Crisis conditions require the choice of means of communication, remote employment and self-help and self-support. Smart and strong communities or villages – this means more than only technologically and economically advanced communities – can be more successful in overcoming the crisis. This study analyses the characteristics of smart communities, the external factors influencing the functioning of these communities, as well as the specific circumstances caused by the first wave period of the Covid-19 pandemic (from March 2020 till June 2020). Collecting basic information on smart communities, external factors and special circumstances, and using the methods of analysis, comparison and drawing conclusions, the most important factors that have positively affected communities in the pandemic conditions have been taken into account within the framework of this study, clearly indicating the sustainability and development advantages of smart communities in Latvia. Nobody knows what will be “new normal” after COVID-19, but some benefits of smart thinking are noticed

The purpose of this research is to investigate the possibilities of electricity consumption-associated cost reduction in buildings owned by a medium-sized logistics company in Latvia (A_LV), which is a part of the larger international business ecosystem (A). The company is not using all of its facilities for its own business needs, some of them are rented out, and therefore the possibility of impacting electricity consumption in rented out buildings is limited. During the research, mixed-type approaches combining qualitative and quantitative research methods and data analysis were employed, where the quantitative methods helped to analyze the company’s electricity consumption and cost changes in different time periods, while the qualitative methods were used in a literature review. As primary data sources, A_LV’s internal electricity consumption reports and invoices for electricity payments were used, along with publicly available data on electricity consumption in Latvia and wholesale market price fluctuations. Although A_LV has numerous areas of electricity consumption optimization, this research is limited to few of them—lighting system optimization, energy management and automation applications, forklift charging regime adjustments, and choice of electricity retailer and tariff plan.

Zinātniskā publikācija ir sagatavota kā turpinājums nanotehnoloģiju industrijas produktu komercializācijas pētījumam Latvijā. Lai izveidotu inženierekonomisko rādītāju sistēmu daudzfunkcionālajām nano-pārklājumu tehnoloģijām tiek izmantoti zinātniskie indikatori, to teorētiskais pamatojums, kā arī Latvijas inovatīvo daudzfunkcionālo materiālu ražotāju aptaujas un ekspertinterviju rezultāti