Hazards stemming from extreme natural events have exhibited heightened prominence in recent years. The natural hazard management process adopts a comprehensive approach that encompasses all stakeholders involved in the disaster management cycle. “Actions for Resilience” (A4R) represents a standardised concept derived from ISO/TR 22370:2020 that integrates principles from various scientific disciplines to enhance resilience in systems, whether they are socio-ecological systems, communities, or organisations. A4R emphasises proactive measures and interventions aimed at fostering resilience rather than merely reacting to crises or disruptions. It recognises that resilience is a multifaceted concept influenced by various factors, including social, economic, environmental, and institutional dimensions. Central to A4R is the understanding of complex system dynamics. Also, A4R involves rigorous risk assessment to identify potential threats and vulnerabilities within a system, as well as to build adaptive capacity within systems. A4R advocates for the development of resilience metrics and monitoring systems to assess the effectiveness of interventions and track changes in resilience over time. These metrics may include indicators related to social cohesion, ecosystem health, economic stability, and public infrastructure resilience. In this context, the study aims to apply the proposed hierarchy of factors and group decision-making using fuzzy numbers to identify strategic priorities for improving the urban resilience of the pilot area. The identified priority factors are then analysed across different scenarios, and corresponding actions are described in detail.

Water, energy, food, and ecosystem (WEFE) components constitute fundamental dimensions contributing to human well-being, poverty alleviation, and sustainable development. Despite the prevalent specialization among WEFE professionals, there is a lack of multidisciplinary approaches in their work, with limited attention given to carbon footprint management. Against this backdrop, this study aims to explore the potential role of standardization and multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) in implementing the WEFE approach within the food sector. The research entails a comprehensive examination of the International Standard Organization (ISO) 22000 certifications in Balkan countries, coupled with an analysis of the ISO 14067 standard and its alignment with food safety requirements. Finally, this study proposes a novel MCDA framework for integrating food safety considerations with criteria, factors, and indicators aimed at addressing both food safety and carbon footprint management. A hierarchical structure composed of influential criteria and factors was used to rank activities in sustainable, preferably carbon-neutral food production. Group decision making was applied in the fuzzy domain using triangular numbers, and the influence of experts was determined based on their experience. Practical recommendations aimed at managing trade-offs between the requirements of two elaborated standards are provided, emphasizing key environmental, societal, and economic insights to identify critical indicators for addressing biases in food safety and carbon footprint management.

Circular economy indicators can be used for ranking countries and their hierarchical clustering. It shows the differences and similarities in the progress between individual countries, made toward the realization of the principles of the circular economy (CE). CE is a modern concept and the aspiration to preserve resources and protect the environment. The paper presents a cluster analysis at the level of the European Union (EU27) countries, based on the data of CE composite indicators, which is managed by the statistical office of the European Union (Eurostat). SPSS IBM 26.0 statistics software was used for cluster analysis, while the ANOVA method was applied to check the statistical significance of the obtained results. The most important results achieved in the paper are the classification into 6 clusters within the EU27 countries, with similar policies in the area of the circular economy. The best-ranked cluster is cluster 6 which consists of only 1 country, the Netherlands, the European leader in the circular economy. Accordingly, this paper aims to determine the similarities and differences between the EU member states in the implementation of circular economy postulates by dividing them into clusters. In this way, the highest mean values of the indicators within the cluster will be determined, and thus the circular economy model that other clusters should follow.

Water, energy, food, and ecosystem (WEFE) components constitute fundamental dimensions contributing to human well-being, poverty alleviation, and sustainable development. Despite the prevalent specialization among WEFE professionals, there is a lack of multidisciplinary approaches in their work, with limited attention given to carbon footprint management. Against this backdrop, this study aims to explore the potential role of standardization and multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) in implementing the WEFE approach within the food sector. The research entails a comprehensive examination of ISO 22000 certifications in Balkan countries, coupled with an analysis of ISO 14067 standard and its alignment with food safety requirements. Finally, the study proposes a novel MCDA framework for integrating food safety considerations with criteria and indicators aimed at addressing both food safety and carbon footprint management. A hierarchical structure composed of influential criteria and factors was used to rank activities in sustainable, preferably carbon-neutral food production. Group decision-making was applied in the fuzzy domain using triangular numbers, and the influence of experts was determined based on their experience. Practical recommendations and an integrative framework are provided, drawing on key insights to identify critical indicators for addressing biases in food safety and carbon footprint management.

The transition towards the circular economy (CE) model has gained recognition as a critical component in envisioning a sustainable future for humanity, owing to the inherent unsustainability of the current linear economic model of production and consumption. By repurposing resources and goods at the end of their useful lives, CE seeks to minimize waste creation while extending the life of these materials and products in the manufacturing cycle. The European Commission (EC) has backed switching from linear to CE to decrease undesirable interactions between the economy and the environment. Performance indicators developed under the CE monitoring framework are the best instruments for monitoring progress towards CE. The purpose of the current research is to examine the CE performance of the European Union (EU) countries - the Netherlands, France, and Germany. The analysis demonstrates strong relationships between important environmental parameters and the way they affect CE performance through a neural network procedure. The insights gained from this study, along with the broader research context provided by related studies, enhance the understanding of the difficulties and complexities in implementing and monitoring CE progress in different contexts.