Analysing of the sustainable development goals in Damascus University during Syrian crisis using the strategy in the university and the bibliometrics data from SciVal

Abstract

Most countries strive to reach effective sustainable development policies, given the repercussions of this policy on many aspects, such as the economic growth of countries. The adoption of policies of sustainability by developing countries may lead to their development faster than expected. This research aims to study the strategies applied in one of the universities of developing countries and the sustainability policies adopted at that university which is Damascus University. The study focuses on the time during last four years of the Syrian crisis through several factors, with a focus on the analysis based on the SciVal and Scopus databases and the strategies applied by the university itself. In this research, we use the method of extracting and analysing the data of the sixteen sustainable development goals (SDGs) of Damascus University within Scopus and SciVal. We also analyse the strategies used in the university in order to reach some of the determinants of SDGs. By analysing Scopus and SciVal data, we find that the third goal of SDGs is the most widespread in terms of scientific research in Damascus University. We find that the application of such policies led to an important goal in the environment, which is the ratio of green space in Damascus University reaching to more than 63 percent of the total flat area of the university. In addition, we find that the application of sustainable development policies led to the generation of energy from renewable sources by 11% of the total electrical energy consumed at the university. The university has been able to reach lots of indicators of the sustainable development goals and it remains apply others.