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Ethiopia is experiencing deterioration in river quality resulting in adverse effects on human health and hydrobionts. This study aimed to analyse the effects of specific environmental stressors on the distribution and abundance of macroinvertebrates in the Upper Awash River. The study was conducted from January 2018 to March 2018. Macroinvertebrates were collected from five sites using standard handheld nets. Physicochemical parameters including electrical conductivity, dissolved oxygen, total phosphorous, nitrate-nitrogen, pH, dissolved oxygen and water temperature that can affect the distribution and abundance of macroinvertebrates were assessed. A total of 14,465 individuals belonging to 33 families of insects and 5 families of the noninsect group were identified. Among all recorded taxa, Diptera was the most abundant and diversified order. Macroinvertebrates among the five sites showed variation in species evenness, richness, and Shannon Diversity Index. Values obtained from biotic indices and environmental parameters indicated the presence of organic pollution at different levels. The impacted downstream site paper mill waste (Walgata) had the relatively highest H-FBI index followed by Osole (more agricultural activities) indicating that Walgata and Osole were poorer in benthic faunal diversity than other sites. In addition, as habitat and water quality degradation increased, the number and percentage of Plecoptera, Ephemeroptera, and Trichoptera (EPT) decreased. The selected metrics will be also useful for the monitoring and assessment of the riverine systems and to access the impact of different stressors. As perturbation increased, species diversity, ETHbios index, Average Score Per Taxon, and family richness decreased, while the percentage of Chironomidae, Diptera, Dominant Taxa, and Hilsenhoff Family-Level Biotic Index increased indicating that tolerant species become abundant in degraded river bodies. Environmental protection agencies of governmental and nongovernmental organizations should make awareness for the local people so that they reduce activities that affect the river. Paper factory should also monitor its effluent from directly discharging into the Upper Awash River. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Magazines and newspapers, as two kinds of municipal solid waste, were investigated as the fuel feedstock in a hybrid direct carbon fuel cell. These carbon sources, together with a reference carbon source-activated charcoal, were characterized by such techniques as X-ray diffraction spectra, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and thermal gravimetric analysis, among others. The results indicate that the carbon from magazine waste paper was more abundant in calcite and magnesium calcite, with more oxidation degree of carbon and higher thermal reactivity, compared with the other two carbon sources. Then, the cell performance fed with such carbon sources was tested in a homemade device. The cell fed with magazine waste paper carbon showed the highest performance among the three carbon sources, with a peak power density of 172 mW/cm 2 at 650 °C. The cell performance results indicated that waste paper carbon sources, with a surface containing certain inherent impurities (calcite and magnesium calcite) and a high oxidation degree of carbon, could favor the thermal gasification of carbon fuel, and thus considerably enhance cell performance, especially for the operating temperatures below 700 °C. This study demonstrated that waste paper carbon sources could be promising fuel feedstock for hybrid direct carbon fuel cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the processes which should be taken to establish debris indices that assess the orbital environmental impact of spacecraft or missions in orbit. The first process is establishing a methodology and criteria for evaluating an impact on the orbital environment. This study proposed an assessment method to evaluate the cumulative environmental changes during an evaluation period. It evaluated the impact of an uncontrolled LC mission abandoned in orbit. This study used Near-Earth Orbital Debris Environment Evolutionary Model (NEODEEM), an orbital environmental evolutionary model that Kyushu University and JAXA developed. The second process is the debris index formulation. This study considered four steps to establish the debris index. To reveal the establishing process of a debris index, this study used debris indexes as candidates which consider expected number of fragments generated from an object. The calculated debris index values were compared to the impact on the environment assessed by the evolutionary model to see if there was any correlation. Further, this study conducted numerical simulations of un-controlled large-constellation satellites abandoned in low earth orbit in different scenarios, and of active debris removals of large intact objects by NEODEEM. This paper discusses the applicability of proposed environmental assessment methods and the debris index. • Two processes to establish a debris index are proposed. • A methodology and criteria for evaluating environmental impacts is discussed. • Four steps to formulate a debris index is discussed. • Correlations between debris indexes and environmental impacts are compared. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to compare the evidence level of environmental indicators that follow the GRI guidelines, related to the three leading companies in 2012, within the Brazilian pulp and paper industry, Suzano, Klabin and Fibria. To achieve this goal, an analysis of annual sustainability reports and websites of the companies was conducted. The companies primarily reported those aspects related to materials, water, biodiversity and others, while products and services, compliance, and energy were less emphasized. The results show that the three companies presented a low evidence level, with missing or incomplete indicators. Finally, despite the reports presented and classified as A+ and B+, it is possible to conclude that the companies did not include key indicators and presented unorganized information and a lack of standardization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

LCA studies on waste management have been promoted as they can help policy makers choose the best environmental options. However, the increasing globalization of raw materials and waste makes the optimization of waste management strategies and policies quite challenging. Therefore, new approaches are needed in order to identify the consequences of markets on the waste management systems. This paper concentrates on the quantification of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of recycling processes. The aim is to generate a comprehensive assessment of GHG emissions as a consequence of increasing the amount of material collected for recycling. Consequential life cycle assessment (CLCA) is an effective methodological framework for addressing GHG quantifications within market, but to properly perform and assess all of the market links between raw materials and waste, it is necessary to determine the cause-effect chains made up of physical flows. Thus, we propose integrating the methodologies of material flow analysis (MFA) and CLCA. We applied these methodologies to the paper and cardboard recycling system in Spain. The GHG results varied between −36 kg CO 2 eq. and −317 kg CO 2 eq. per ton of waste paper collected, depending on the quantity of waste paper exported and the source of marginal pulp considered. The cumulative energy demand (CED) was also calculated as complementary indicator. Similar trends as for GHG emissions were obtained. The future GHG quantifications should be based on the flows described by MFA analysis and should be quantified using CLCA because methodologies that accurately account for GHG are necessary for decision-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current cases and studies show that the aerosol propagation of COVID-19 is possible in the office buildings. The paper explored the ventilation level and monitoring methods for indoor infection risk in office buildings, improved the Wells-Riley equation and ventilation rate equation, providing the possibility of real-time monitoring of the transmission risk of COVID-19 in office buildings. Then, the main influencing factors of the exposure risk of SARS-CoV-2, including working density, dwell time, and fresh air volume per person, were field measured in three office areas and three conference rooms of an office building in Shenzhen, China. In addition, the field monitored carbon dioxide (CO2) data were used to estimate the possibility of COVID-19 infection in offices and conference rooms. The results show that the number of staff, ventilation rate, and office hours are all important factors affecting the infection risk of workers in the office building environment, but the existing literature rarely considers these three points at the same time. In addition, the paper adopted the method of assessing the infection risk from place to place, time to time, and person to person in the building environment, providing early warning for office buildings and helping to control the spread of airborne diseases. The results can be beneicial to understanding and taking necessary safety considerations against the infection risk in closed public or governmental environments. The paper explored the ventilation level and monitoring methods for indoor infection risk in office buildings and improved the Wells-Riley equation and ventilation rate equation, providing the possibility of real-time monitoring of the transmission risk of COVID-19 in office buildings. The results showed that the number of staff, ventilation rate, and office hours are all important factors affecting the infection risk of workers in the office building environment, but the existing literature has rarely considered these three points at the same time. Meanwhile, research has further demonstrated the connection between the risk of virus infection and indoor monitoring environmental indicators, providing a new path for further accurate prediction of indoor infection risk. The results can be beneficial to understanding and taking necessary safety considerations against the infection risk in closed public or governmental environments. Therefore, evaluating indoor transmission risks through monitoring environmental indicators is feasible and could be used as a reference basis for practical applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the global economic and environmental importance of the leather industry, the specialized literature still presents an important gap in analyzing the environmental performance of the leather manufacturing process from the waste generated. This paper aims to propose an unprecedented index (Index of Leather Manufacturing - ILM) to evaluate the environmental performance of leather manufacturing processes. The development of the index combines Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and a Multicriteria Decision Method (MCDM) and is oriented to consider the impact of waste on environmental health. Its estimate is based on: the calculation of the environmental potential impact of the waste; the waste quantity produced by the company over a given period; the relative geographic coverage that each waste can achieve; the assessment of the appropriateness of the disposal of waste generated by the firm. The proposed index was tested on a large Brazilian leather manufacturer. The results showed that the waste management in the company is not perfect but is well rated, and residues with the greatest environmental impact are: wetblue shavings, wetblue sawdust, and gaseous emissions from beam house operation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scientific tools capable of identifying distribution patterns of species are important as they contribute to improve knowledge about biodiversity and species dynamics. The present study aims to estimate the spatiotemporal distribution of sardine (Sardina pilchardus, Walbaum 1792) in the Portuguese continental waters, relating the spatiotemporal variability of biomass index with the environmental conditions. Acoustic data was collected during Portuguese spring acoustic surveys (PELAGO) over a total of 16,370 hauls from 2000 to 2020 (gap in 2012). We propose a spatiotemporal species distribution model that relies on a two-part model for species presence and biomass under presence, such that the biomass process is defined as the product of these two processes. Environmental information is incorporated with time lags, allowing a set of lags with associated weights to be suggested for each explanatory variable. This approach makes the model more complete and realistic, capable of reducing prediction bias and mitigating outliers in covariates caused by extreme events. In addition, based on the posterior predictive distributions obtained, we propose a method of classifying the occupancy areas by the target species within the study region. This classification provides a quite helpful tool for decision makers aiming at marine sustainability and conservation. Supplementary materials accompanying this paper appear on-line. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Determinants of farmer well-being can be derived from objective and subjective measures of social components, environmental sustainability indicators, and quality of life indices, as well as the multiple scales that farms and farmers operate. Yet, despite multiple frameworks on farmer well-being, the extent to which farmer-expressed values are used in the development of farmer well-being indicators is unclear. Challenges can arise from extracting indicators that are insufficiently grounded in place, or that inadequately incorporate context and biocultural relations and practices. Here in this scoping review, we synthesize the methodologies in the literature on assessing farmer well-being and identify the extent to which farmer well-being domains are derived from values expressed directly by farmers. We consolidated and coded 92 papers to respond to the following questions: (1) What are the most frequent farmer well-being domains in published studies? (2) What methods are used to elicit multidimensional farmer well-being domains? (3) Do well-being domains used in the literature adequately reflect a biocultural context, including place-based influences on well-being? Our results show that economics and social relationships are frequent domains of how farmer well-being is identified and assessed. These domains tend to be measured simultaneously, while less common domains, such as governance and place, are rather isolated. A suite of methods was used to assess well-being domains, ranging from basic surveys to in-depth participant observation. Yet, we identify gaps in the methods for deriving farmer well-being indicators. Specifically, methods that refer to farmer-expressed values were rare and domains identified through a place-based approach were often not recorded, but, arguably, critical in developing multidimensionality of farmer well-being. We show that while the translocal approach is well represented in established well-being frameworks, farmer expression is not foundational in well-being assessments but is needed in order to center farmer values when generating indicators of well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the relative sensitivities of seven commonly used indices of stream benthic community composition and three multivariate indices to effects associated with mines, pulp and paper mills, and urbanization. The indices included total abundance, number of taxa, diversity (H9), evenness, Hilsenhoff's biotic index (HBI), the BioMAP water quality index (WQI), the percent model affinity (PMA), and the first three ordination axes from a correspondence analysis. The second objective of the study was to determine the degree of redundancy among these indices. Six data sets (two from each of the three types of development) were used to address the objectives. In each data set, replicate benthic samples were collected from reference areas as well as one or more downstream areas exposed to a point-source or non-point-source discharge. The PMA approach and the ordination axes indicated significant differences between the reference and downstream communities for all six data sets (p < 0.05). With the exception of H', each of the other metrics revealed significant effects associated with one or two, but not all three, types of development. For example, the HBI and WQI indicated significant effects associated with pulp and paper mills and urbanization, but not mining. In all studies, effect sizes (i.e., the standardized difference between means for the reference and exposed areas expressed in units of standard deviations [SDs]) exceeded 2 SDs. However, effect sizes for the PMA and the first or second ordination axis scores were generally larger than effect sizes for the other metrics, indicating that these indices were often the most sensitive indicators of development. In addition, a high degree of redundancy was found among the various metrics, perhaps because the effects were large (i.e., >2 SDs). The greater sensitivity of the ordination axes and the PMA approach emphasizes their value as indices of benthic community composition. As a result, we... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many cities worldwide are at the frontline of environmental challenges during their future planning. Navi Mumbai presents many opportunities to move a city toward sustainability. The land is scarce for development purposes in Mumbai, which has resulted in the creation of the suburban area of Navi Mumbai. As the latter has numerous water bodies and drainage channels, which lie in the ecosensitive zone, to stop organic development, the environmental suitability index along with the accessibility index needs to be assessed to promote future organized growth. The present study investigated the planning of the new areas and assessed environmental suitability and accessibility for various zones seeking future development. The analytical derivation of the environmental suitability index was based on the parameters, subindex, and attributes of environmental issues in that area. The parameters included (1) soil permeability, (2) water-holding capacity, (3) porosity, (4) properties of groundwater and marine water, (5) properties of air, and (6) noise. The entire area was divided into five zones for the current work. The analytical framework was a developed methodology of indices calculated from five monitoring stations obtained from the City and Industrial Development Corporation of Maharashtra Limited, India (CIDCO). The accessibility parameters of the transportation network were measured using alpha indices (α). Finally, a nondominated sorting algorithm was used to obtain final suitability based on the Pareto optimality condition. The development suitability of an area was obtained by computing the environmental suitability index and accessibility index. This computation decides which of the five stations is best for which type of planning. The study developed a dimension-wise suitability index for Navi Mumbai, aiming to streamline the planning process and integrate policies essential for planning to attain sustainable development for Navi Mumbai. During future planning, policymakers and planners have often ignored environmental aspects in ecofragile areas. Hence, planning for new development in ecofragile areas has often been haphazard, piecemeal, and organic. The framework adopted in this paper, combining the environmental suitability index and the accessibility index, intended to assess the area's health and prescribe future actions to reduce the negative environmental impacts of development and regulate the same. The paper showed how data on soil, water, groundwater, air, and noise can be used in a simple mathematical model to compute the environmental suitability index of an area. Similarly, graph-theoretic measures of the whole transportation network can measure the accessibility index of the area. Finally, the development suitability of the area can be calculated by combining the environmental suitability index and the accessibility index. The level of domination result signifies the most suitable station/node for different types of development. Based on the results, policymakers and planners can determine an ecofragile area's future land use development as required. This model can further be adopted by local governing authorities to plan for zoning, zoning regulations, and approval of a proposed development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main objective of the presented paper was the analysis of the current state of food security in the world, segmentation of 100 selected countries and determination of its main driving factors. The analysis used 27 indicators covering 5 basic areas: agricultural production, poverty, demography, economic development, and environmental indicators. The analysis was based on data from the FAO and World Bank for the most recent available period, which was year 2020. The data dimension was reduced with the application of factor analysis, and the main driving factors of food sufficiency were determined. The result was 6 factors: technological development, economic development, agricultural production, environmental factor, and physical quality of life and environment. To group similar countries in terms of selected indicators, a cluster analysis was performed, whereby countries were grouped by similarity into three clusters. The 1st cluster consisted of the most economically developed countries, where only 2.54% of the population suffers from malnutrition. The countries in this cluster were characterized by high levels of economic development, high caloric intake of the population, and high, life expectancy. On the other hand, they recorded negative development in demographic indicators such as fertility and birth rates. The 2nd cluster included the poorest areas of the African continent, which were most endangered by direct food insufficiency (23.74% of the population). In contrast to the first cluster, these countries were characterized by low levels of economic development, high prices, and low-calorie intakes of the population, as well as low life expectancy, while on the other hand, these countries had high fertility and birth rates. The third largest cluster consisted of countries with a medium threat of food insufficiency, where 6.37% of the population suffers from malnutrition. The countries in the third cluster excelled in terms of crop and livestock production volumes, but in contrast to this, they achieved lower levels of fat, protein, and calorie intake of population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sustainable implementation of resources and the transition to low-carbon construction is on the world's daily agenda. This paper describes the development of criteria for the efficient management of material resources in low-carbon construction. Net income, gross profit, balance sheets, and equity are proposed as indicators that serve as criteria for assessing the efficient use of resources. Nonlinear regression models were the methodological basis for the establishment of cause-and-effect relationships of the volume of construction of transport structures. It was established that since construction companies do not purchase materials for storage, the cost of materials for use in low-carbon technological construction work is directly proportional to the cost of construction. The volume of production in the construction industry is determined by construction costs. More efficient use of low-carbon materials reduces cost and construction waste. In this paper, we have established the relationship between the indicator of efficiency for the functioning of the construction enterprises in Ukraine and the use of low-carbon materials for the construction of transport structures. The practical value of the obtained results for low-carbon construction management lies in proving the relationship between the performance indicators of the construction enterprise (net profit, gross profit, output volume, balance sheets, and equity capital) and the use of low-carbon material resources. Our results form the basis for future research into the use of a cost-based model for low-carbon economy transition in municipalities and regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: We studied ecotoxicological responses of aquatic insects to evaluate the recovery of a watercourse with a history of over 100 years as a recipient of pulp and paper mill effluents. The recovery of the water quality began in 1985 due to the improved technology, but ecotoxicological effects on biota have still been evident two decades later, as indicated by morphological abnormalities in tracheal gills of caddis larvae. We hypothesized that these abnormalities are related to organic contaminants, such as resin acids, alkylated PAHs and chlorinated organic compounds, released historically from the mills, and more recently via resuspension from the sediment. Samples were collected between 1999 and 2008, and the species composition and morphological abnormalities in the gill tufts were analysed. We tested a Hydropsychidae index (HA) based on species sensitivity scoring as an indicator of improved overall water quality, especially oxygen concentrations. Gill abnormalities were used as morphological biomarkers indicating potential ecotoxicity. The increased HA values revealed improved oxygen levels and associated recovery of benthic macroinvertebrate community structure. However, the incidence of gill abnormalities remained elevated until the year 2008 indicating slow recovery, as 20-year impacts on population health and ecotoxicity was detected in the watercourse polluted by pulp and paper industry. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Bound states in the continuum (BICs) have received considerable attention in the field of nanophotonics due to their highly confined resonance and high Q factor, which effectively eliminates radiation loss. Various periodic structures have been studied to achieve BICs, with photonic crystal slabs (PCSs) being a prominent example. In PCS, multiple BICs can be merged to strongly suppress out-of-plane-scattering losses caused by fabrication imperfections. In this paper, we investigate the impact of reflection-type merging BICs on the Goos–Hänchen shift (GH shift) and demonstrate a remarkable enhancement of the GH shift, exceeding five orders of wavelength. We show the dynamic changes of the GH shifts with the isolated, merging, and merged BICs, achieving positive and negative GH shifts in different angles of peak reflectance for the same frequency. Our research highlights that even minor fabrication imperfections can result in a significant change in the GH shift, which can serve as a means for detecting manufacturing defects. Furthermore, we propose an ultrasensitive environmental refractive index sensor based on the enhanced GH shift by an isolated BIC. Our study contributes to the understanding of BICs and their potential applications in nanophotonics, including advanced optical communication devices, nanodevice fabrication, and highly sensitive sensors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to compare the sustainability dimensions reported on the websites of public and private universities in Ghana, an emerging economy. Design/methodology/approach: The universities in Ghana were categorized under public and private universities. The top five under each category were chosen (by Edu Rank's ratings), and data was gathered from the websites of the sampled universities. Data analysis was conducted using Global Reporting Initiative (GRI-G4) framework and sustainability tools for campus assessment. Findings were then analyzed through stakeholder theory's lens and organizational characteristics such as ownership, students' acceptance ratios, performance, size and age. Findings: This study's results show that the key aspects of sustainability disclosed on the websites of the sampled private and public universities in Ghana are more of economic and campus sustainability assessment indicators than the social and environmental dimensions. Contrary to the popular notion that private sector organizations do more sustainability reporting than those in the public sector, in the case of Ghana, the sampled public universities reported more than the privately owned universities. This study attributes the extent and variations of sustainability reporting among the public and private Ghanaian universities to the universities' characteristics such as students' acceptance ratios, performance, size, ownership and age. Practical implications: The findings from this study indicate that in improving the value of sustainability reporting, stakeholders of the educational sector in emerging economies should encourage universities to adopt the GRI-G4 framework and campus sustainability assessment indicators in disclosing their sustainability initiatives. Originality/value: To the best of the author's knowledge, this paper is the first study to compare the extent and variations in sustainability reporting between public and private universities in an emerging economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fibre reinforced polymers (FRPs) are increasingly being used in construction due to their light weight, ease of installation, low maintenance, tailor made properties, and corrosion resistance. The UK FRP industry produces 240,000 tonnes of products a year with 11% of this being for the construction industry in a variety of structural and on-structural applications. Products made from FRP materials can offer significant environmental benefits, for example, FRPs used in bridges can reduce the overall weight of the structure and so offer reduced transport and installation impacts. However, although the in service environmental benefits of composites are known, there is far less understanding of the environmental and social implications associated with the manufacture of FRP materials and products. Current and impending waste management legislation will put more pressure on the industry to address the options available for dealing with FRP waste. Such waste legislation focuses on dealing with waste through the w aste hierarchy and will therefore put more pressure on solving FRP waste management through recycling and reuse. At present the most common disposal method for UK FRP waste is landfill. To assist in the transition from disposal in landfill to recycling, the FRP industry needs to consider designing materials and components for easier deconstruction, reuse and recycling at the end of the product life. This paper will highlight the key issues affecting the FRP industry, taking a cradle to grave approach and assessing the environmental impacts at each stage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research concerning the future of sound in towns and cities is focused on two main issues: studies are conducted separately on the comfort, i.e., assessment of visual scenery and sound levels in a cityscape and separately, on the health protection issues. The policy of the acoustic environment control with regard to the health of its inhabitants is traditionally connected with measurements of noise levels presented with the help of the coefficients Lden and Lnight noise indicators, while the models based on tranquillity rating (TR) with the help of the coefficients LAmax, LAmin, LAeq, LA10. None of these coefficients refers to the soundscape. In this paper, we present a justification of the necessity to enter into discussion on the need to combine these research areas. The authorities managing towns and cities of the future should be provided with tools enabling them to assess modernisation projects from the point of view of both health and comfort of inhabitants. We present our ideas treating them as an invitation to a scientific discourse, in the form of analysis of actual projects concerning modification of existing cityscapes. The modifications are aimed at returning some unfavourably developed spaces to the inhabitants. When analysing the changes proposed in the projects, we take into account two models of the revitalised area quality assessment. The first model is used to assess the effect of noise on health. The second model, based on the indicator known as the TR, serves simultaneous assessment of an area from both visual and acoustical aspects. The models used contemporarily by scientists show multiple flaws, therefore, for the TR indicator we propose a modification taking the sound structure into account. The modification embodies the idea of masking unpleasant sounds with friendly ones. The changes to the model are presented, in this paper, in the context of two projects which were worked out in the framework of 12th edition of the intercollegiate workshop cycle The New Cityscapes. In the course of each workshop of the cycle, we combined art, science, and technology in order to seek solutions creating a better future. In view of the importance of this issue and the need to introduce a certain level of universalism, the authors offer an invitation to join a discussion on the future of sound in urban agglomerations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the integrated regional development of the Yangtze River Delta has become a national strategy of China, the scope of regional integration has expanded and regional economic geography has changed, which has a profound impact on regional environmental governance. Based on the 3D analysis framework of new economic geography, this paper used the 3D analysis framework of new economic geography to study the impact of regional market segmentation, density, distance, and other economic and geographical factors on urban environmental governance in the Yangtze River Delta. Based on the panel data of 41 cities in the Yangtze River Delta from 2003 to 2019, this paper used the relative price method to calculate the market segmentation index of the cities in the delta, built a comprehensive evaluation index system for environmental governance, and used the global entropy weight method to measure the urban environmental governance index. The empirical research mainly drew the following conclusions: ① The level of urban environmental governance in the Yangtze River Delta was on the rise, and there were obvious regional differences in environmental governance. These regional differences mainly came from the gap between provincial administrative regions, but the regional gap showed a trend of convergence as a whole. ② Judging from the impact of economic and geographical factors on urban environmental governance in the Yangtze River Delta, market segmentation had a significant negative impact on urban environmental governance. After using instrumental variables to alleviate endogenous biases, market segmentation had a greater negative effect on urban environmental governance. The relationship between environmental governance and economic density, as well as between environmental governance quality and population density, showed an inverted U-shaped relationship. The improvement of traffic accessibility was conducive to improving urban environmental governance. The geographical distance from the regional central city had a significant negative impact on urban environmental governance. Robustness tests were carried out from different perspectives, and the above research conclusions still held. ③ Environmental governance had positive spatial autocorrelation. The spatial spillover effect of economic geographical factors such as market segmentation, economic density, and population density on the environmental governance of surrounding cities was just opposite to its impact on local environmental governance. Therefore, it is necessary to speed up the unified large market construction and market integration in the Yangtze River Delta, enhance the accessibility of transportation between cities in the delta, control the economic density and population density of cities, prevent environmental governance risks caused by excessive economic density and population density, build a long-term synergistic mechanism, and promote the coordinated improvement of urban environmental governance in the delta. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the greatest challenges of our time is monitoring the rapid environmental changes taking place worldwide at both local and global scales. This requires easy-to-use and ready-to-implement tools and services to monitor and quantify aspects of bio- and geodiversity change and the impact of land use intensification using freely available and global remotely sensed data, and to derive remotely sensed indicators. Currently, there are no services for quantifying both raster- and vector-based indicators in a "compact tool". Therefore, the main innovation of ESIS/Imalys is having a remote sensing (RS) tool that allows for RS data processing, data management, and continuous and discrete quantification and derivation of RS indicators in one tool. With the ESIS/Imalys project (Ecosystem Integrity Remote Sensing—Modelling and Service Tool), we try to present environmental indicators on a clearly defined and reproducible basis. The Imalys software library generates the RS indicators and remote sensing products defined for ESIS. This paper provides an overview of the functionality of the Imalys software library. An overview of the technical background of the implementation of the Imalys library, data formats and the user interfaces is given. Examples of RS-based indicators derived using the Imalys tool at pixel level and at zone level (vector level) are presented. Furthermore, the advantages and disadvantages of the Imalys tool are discussed in detail in order to better assess the value of Imalys for users and developers. The applicability of the indicators will be demonstrated through three ecological applications, namely: (1) monitoring landscape diversity, (2) monitoring landscape structure and landscape fragmentation, and (3) monitoring land use intensity and its impact on ecosystem functions. Despite the integration of large amounts of data, Imalys can run on any PC, as the processing and derivation of indicators has been greatly optimised. The Imalys source code is freely available and is hosted and maintained under an open source license. Complete documentation of all methods, functions and derived indicators can be found in the freely available Imalys manual. The user-friendliness of Imalys, despite the integration of a large amount of RS data, makes it another important tool for ecological research, modelling and application for the monitoring and derivation of ecosystem indicators from local to global scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the 2030 carbon peak target, this paper studies the top-down provincial carbon quota allocation in China's iron and steel industry. Considering the principles of fairness, efficiency, sustainability and development, three provincial carbon quota allocation schemes are constructed based on entropy method, three-stage DEA and ZSG-DEA model respectively, which make up for the gap of carbon quota allocation scheme with the total amount of carbon peak target of the iron and steel industry. The allocation results show that the allocation based on the entropy method can roughly solve the problem of uneven distribution of carbon quota of the steel industry in various provinces, and the carbon quota in the steel industry decreases from the eastern region to the western region. Considering the two environmental indicators of local government competition and urbanization level, the initial carbon quota allocation scheme can be effectively adjusted, which is conducive to promote the enthusiasm of some underdeveloped areas. The allocation scheme, which combines the entropy method with the ZSG-DEA model, can enhance the efficiency of carbon quota allocation among provinces while ensuring fairness. However, this fairness is limited and more advantageous to economically developed regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vision-based autonomous obstacle avoidance for unmanned air vehicle (UAV) is a vital research field to ensure the safety of UAV flight in the national airspace. In this paper, a proposed detector is introduced to extract the feature (corner) points of static obstacles from the surrounding cluttered environment for small quadrotor UAVs flying at low altitudes. The detected feature points are the bottleneck for most autonomous obstacle avoidance to facilitate tracking and identification of risk processes during UAV's take-off phase. The proposed feature point detector is based on the estimated phase image of the first image derivatives and the homogeneity test examination to give the proposed detector adaptive behavior. The performance of the proposed detector is compared with various feature point detectors in terms of several quantitative assessment indices and environmental conditions. From the experimental results, the proposed detector achieves promising results for significantly extracting the surrounding feature points. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are several standardized meteorological, hydrological, agricultural, and environmental indices for drought classification into a set of dry categories all of which are derived from the basic concept of standardized precipitation index (SPI). Almost all these indices are based on crisp (bivalent) logic where boundary limits between neighboring categories are numbers without transboundary inclusiveness. The SPI procedure depends on the standard normal (Gaussian) probability distribution function (PDF) with zero mean and standard deviation equal to one. This paper proposed fuzzification of the SPI limits among categories for the inclusion of more than one category with different membership degrees. This method is referred to as the fuzzy SPI (FSPI) procedure, which provides drought tracing possibility and categorization. At the end for a numerical value, one can defuzzify the fuzzy result through defuzzification methods. FSPI provides preliminary warning system in terms of two or more fuzzy rule propositions and categories. Thus, one can know the logical alternatives of the drought behavior of a given hydro-meteorology variable. The application of the FSPI is presented for New Jersey State wise and Istanbul annual precipitation records. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bidirectional vortex combustors are among the most efficient devices in terms of pollutants emission, fuel residence time, an extended range of stable operation. Despite many papers devoted to flow structure in the bidirectional chamber, their heat transfer and wall temperature distributions are not well-studied experimentally as well as most available calculation results are based on adiabatic or isothermal wall conditions. The present paper reports on new experimental and numerical results on flow and flame structures and surface temperature distributions obtained for a combustor with a toroidal vortex chamber. These results show a strong effect of the combustor operation mode and geometry configuration on its thermal conditions. Based on experimental validation, a reliable numerical approach for fluid dynamics, combustion, and heat transfer simulations in the bidirectional vortex chamber is suggested. This approach could assist in determining the most efficient parameters of the bidirectional combustor in terms of energy and environmental indicators as well as wall thermal conditions and service life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The inclusion of environmental provisions in regional trade agreements is conducive to protecting the environment, but it may also inhibit trade liberalization. How to protect the environment and promote trade development deserves further study. This paper used the regional trade agreements signed and entered into force as well as bilateral export data from 67 countries along the Belt and Road from 1995 to 2018, and innovatively constructed and quantified three indicators of the depth of environmental provisions according to the classification of environmental provisions in the TREND database. The study also constructed a high-dimensional fixed-effect model and empirically tested the impact of the depth of these environmental provisions on exports by PPML estimation. The results showed that: ①The total depth, core depth, and enforcement of environmental provisions had a significant inhibitory effect on export trade, and the depth of environmental provisions with enforceability had a greater inhibitory effect on exports. ②This conclusion was still valid after considering potential endogenous problems and conducting a series of robustness tests, such as re-measuring core explanatory variables and dividing sample intervals. ③Heterogeneity analysis found that increasing the depth of environmental provisions only significantly inhibited exports in the samples of' South-North' and' North-South' countries and the export share of dirty products, but the impact of specific clauses on export trade varied greatly. ④Mechanism testing showed that the depth of environmental provisions inhibited exports mainly by increasing production costs and inhibiting technological innovation. ⑤Further extended analysis showed that there was an inverted-N relationship between the depth of environmental provisions measured by quantity and exports, and the gap in domestic environmental regulations in member countries would strengthen the export inhibition effect of environmental provisions. This paper provides policy implications for promoting trade development and environmentally friendly and high-quality construction of the Belt and Road Initiative in countries along the Belt and Road. These countries can appropriately increase the depth of environmental provisions in future negotiations for signing new RTAs or upgrading existing RTAs, and give full play to the' innovative compensation effect' of environmental provisions. At the same time, they should actively expand regional trade agreements, give priority to countries with similar economic development levels, and focus on the specific clauses of RTA environmental provisions in future trade agreement negotiations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main purpose of the paper is to highlight the impact of foliar fertilization during the various growth stages of winter wheat and its role in achieving high-quality and superior production. Foliar fertilizers play a crucial role in calibrating and forming active growth intervals correlated with productivity factors. The research was conducted over a two-year period using the Andrada winter wheat variety. It involved the application of four different foliar fertilizers: basic mineral fertilization, FoliMAX Orange (two treatments and three treatments), FoliMAX CerealsMIX (two treatments and three treatments), and Microfert U (three treatments). Depending on the treatment, two or three applications of foliar with foliar fertilizers were carried out at various stages of winter wheat development, including pre-flowering and grain formation. The research method used to record physiological parameters was non-destructive (the leaves were not detached from the plant) and was based on the use of the CIRAS-3 foliar gas analyzer, which simultaneously determines several physiological and environmental indicators. As an indicator read by the device, photosynthesis was chosen for leaf temperature and leaf transpiration, correlated with production and quality indices. By applying the foliar fertilizer treatments to the wheat culture, we managed to increase production and improve the quality. After using different foliar fertilizers, the assimilation and physiological parameters had higher values of over 30 μmolm−2·s−1. Foliar fertilization applied to the winter wheat variety resulted in an average production increase between 450 and 765 kg·ha−1 and quality indices with a protein percentage between 11.5 and 12.6%, gluten content between 21.5 to 24.0% and the Zeleny index between 29.0 and 39.0%, and the mass of one thousand grains was between 48.0 and 50.5 g. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are many oily sludge treatment technologies with great development prospects, and due to the lack of an objective and scientific technology evaluation system, there have been different opinions and views on the selection of technologies. To address this issue, this paper establishes a multicriteria decision system based on hierarchical analysis and gray decisionmaking, discusses the weights of oily sludge treatment technologies in terms of economic benefits, technology, environment and social indicators, and categorizes the relevant impact indicators into target level, criterion level and program level, etc. So as to analyze them qualitatively and quantitatively. The results show that in the hierarchical analysis decision system, the order of influence of the weight of each indicator on the research objectives is as follows: technical and environmental impact indicators occupy an absolute advantage for the treatment and disposal of oily sludge, with a weight of 0.5886 for environmental indicators and 0.2074 for technical indicators, whose main impact indicators include the resourceization of oily sludge with a weight of 0.6104 and the pollution degree of soil with a weight of 0.5115. Because X2 shows a high correlation in the evaluation model, the preferred oily sludge and blast furnace slag catalytic pyrolysis treatment, a comprehensive evaluation of oily sludge treatment technologies will help researchers to have a good understanding of the recent developments and future research directions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Power Electronics (PE) is pivotal in fostering renewable energy. However, focusing on usage efficiency shifts environmental impacts across its life cycle, leading to excessive resource extraction and waste accumulation. Integrating environmental impact indicators in PE development is crucial for informed design decisions. Nevertheless, the current literature lacks the provision of adequate understanding of the PE product development process for successful ecodesign in PE industry. To effectively tackle the industrial integration aspect of ecodesign that enable functional and system innovation, this study employs empirical research, combining literature analysis with in-depth interviews with PE designers. Requirements for an ecodesign support to integrate ecodesign practices into the Product Development Process (PDP) of PCB-based Power Electronic Components (PECs) is proposed in this paper based on the interview results. These specifications are delineating the necessary working and decision- making steps. Subsequently, a parameterized Functional Block-based Life Cycle Analysis (FB-LCA) model is proposed under the requirement. A five-step methodology is proposed to operationalise the implementation of the FB-LCA model, aiming to supporting the definition of functional structure, configuration of technical solutions and choice of hardware components by considering environmental impacts generated all along life cycle, from manufacturing, transport, use, circularity scenario, end-of-life .The case study of a PCB-based boost converter design is conducted in collaboration with a PE engineer to test the practical implementation of FB-LCA model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multi-sensor fire detection has been widely used, which allows monitoring multiple environmental indicators. However, most multi-sensor detection methods detect fires only by comparing the measurements of environmental indicators at each detection time with the preset thresholds. It is prone to fire false alarms due to neglecting the time series characteristics of environmental information. To improve the robustness and accuracy of fire detection, this paper proposes a new multi-sensor fire detection method based on long short-term memory (LSTM) networks, named EIF-LSTM. EIF-LSTM integrates environmental information fusion, which is divided into two steps. First, EIF-LSTM extracts the time series characteristics of the monitoring environment by processing multi-sensor time series readings, including environmental indicator variation information and environmental level information. Second, the normalized multi-sensor time series readings, environmental indicator variation information and environmental level information are fused together for fire prediction. The LSTM network realizes the extraction of environmental time series characteristics due to its ability to learn long-term dependencies. The addition of two kinds of time series information increases the detection dimension and enhances the fusion effect. Experimental results on a real-world fire dataset show that EIF-LSTM is capable of achieving state-of-the-art detection performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental product declarations (EPD) to EN 15804 provide information about the embodied carbon dioxide of construction products – their life cycle greenhouse gas emissions – alongside reporting the use of renewable and non-renewable primary energy and secondary fuels, among the other environmental indicators. As the number of EPD to EN 15804 increases, they become a useful data resource to consider these impacts. In moving towards a reduction in the embodied carbon of products, it is necessary to use renewable energy resources efficiently to allow the transition to net zero; this is because of the increasing demands on renewable energy to decarbonise industry, transport and domestic energy consumption and the limited capacity to expand renewable generation. This paper reviews published EPD data for structural and reinforcing steels, cement, bricks and structural timber products, and considers, for the cradle to gate 'product' life cycle stage, exploring the relationship of embodied carbon with embodied energy (total energy used), the balance of renewable and non-renewable energy, and the efficient use of energy. It is found, for bricks and timber, that EPD show products that use a greater percentage of renewable energy have higher embodied energy, suggesting a less efficient use of renewable energy for these products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The agenda for sustainable development actualizes sustainability analysis of countries' social, ecological, and economic conditions, as well as the necessity of designing practical recommendations to realize the sustainable development goals (SDGs). Sustainability analysis is a part of decision making and policy development in a broad environmental, economic, and social context. That is why this analysis goes beyond simple technical assessment. In order to make sustainability a target variable in development strategies, it is necessary to use special methods combining mathematical tools and managerial content. The paper systematizes modern mathematical methods for assessing economic sustainability and proposes a methodology for the integrated assessment of the social, economic, and environmental sustainability of countries, which were tested on data from 24 EU countries over 12 periods. The case study results derived from spatial and temporal samples are consistent with the currently observed processes in the EU. The content basis is the UN concept of sustainable development, the instrumental basis is multivariate comparisons, the Mahalanobis distances method, the correlation and regression analysis, analysis of variance, time series analysis, and trends analysis. Composite indices of social, economic, and environmental sustainability of the EU countries, each of them including five indicators, were developed in this study; the levels of social, economic, and environmental sustainability of EU countries were determined, as well as individual instability indicators. Mahalanobis distances and relative and absolute sustainability indicators were calculated and determined. Cluster analysis of the EU countries by levels of social, economic, and environmental instability and Mahalanobis distances, the diagnosis of the current situation and dominant trends were carried out for testing the hypothesis that there are positive relations between the instability of development and Mahalanobis distances. Hypotheses about the relationship between instability and the level of country development, reflected in the values of socio-economic and environmental indicators, and whether countries with good values of social, environmental, and economic indicators are the most sustainable, were investigated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The photonic spin Hall effect (PSHE) has been intensively studied and widely applied, especially in spin photonics. In this paper, we present the analysis of PSHE in the Plexcitonic system. The signature of the Plexciton is studied by implanting an organic semiconductor layer over the plasmon active metal. We report a high spin-dependent transverse shift of ∼ 60 μm, which is ∼200-fold larger than that of the pure Plasmonic counterpart. The underlying mechanism of PSHE is explained in the circular-polarization basis using the concept of superposition of abnormal and normal modes. It is observed that the transverse shift is highly sensitive to the alterations in the environmental refractive indices leading to its application as a highly sensitive PSHE-based refractometer, with a high sensitivity of 81°/RIU. We believe these results may open pathways for modulating the PSHE and developing nanophotonic applications such as advanced sensors and next-generation optical devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper aims to address energy poverty from the social dimension of access to energy and its relationship with environmental variables such as relief, temperature, and precipitation in the municipalities of Mexico; through the construction of an energy poverty indicator using 2020 census data and cartographic analysis with GIS. The results for Mexico 2020 reveal that approximately 43.75% of the municipalities experience high and very high energy poverty. Regional differences in energy poverty are noted, three targeted sectors of energy poverty were located, to the north, west and south of Mexico. This can be explained by the marked economic and social differences that exist in the country. A relationship was found between energy poverty and social conditions that can be influenced by climate change. The incorporation of the spatial dimension may be relevant in the study of energy poverty in Mexico. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

the increase in waste generation and constant growth requires quantification of emissions in order to assess the problem and contribute to its mitigation. The study evaluated the impact of non-hazardous waste through organic and inorganic indicators, such as annual tons of paper and cardboard, plastics, ferrous metal, food waste, garden and wood, for three base scenarios (BS) for the period 2016-2018, a reference scenario (integration of the base scenarios) and a futuristic scenario determined by the increase in production. These scenarios were built based on the availability of information from the safety and environmental sector of the industry to calculate CO2-eq (Carbon Dioxide Equivalent) using the GHG-MRS tool, based on pre-defined parameters adapted to the availability of information and the conditions of the case study. The 2016 EB estimated 60 t/a/CO2-eq, the 2017 EB presented 46 t/a/CO2-eq, the 2018 EB generated 14 t/a/CO2-eq, while the reference scenario determined 60 t/a/CO2-eq. The data provide a prospective vision for decision-making in a petrochemical industry in southern Tamaulipas, contributing to the problem of increasing waste from a specific sector with regional implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thirty years ago, Wall published "Exergy Ecology Democracy - Concepts of a vital society or a proposal for an exergy tax". This paper discusses this milestone contribution by Wall. It has traced a path toward economic, environmental and societal sustainability and proposed exergy as a robust indicator for measuring progress. This paper is divided into two parts. The first focuses on better understanding Wall's role in today's scenario. This second part presents different methods that allow using exergy to assess the sustainability of economic, industrial and societal processes. First, it presents an example showing the inadequacy of domestic material consumption (DMC) in evaluating the sustainability of import-export operations. Second, how exergy can apply to increase the significance of DMC has been discussed. A new indicator that allows coupling with DMC has been defined to improve the information delivered by DMC and make it a more effective sustainability indicator. Third, some ecological indicators are discussed. The use of exergy to integrate DMC and assess lifecycle and polluting emissions into the environment has been discussed. Finally, an effective exergy tax proposal is presented as an instrument for stimulating an effective transitionward sustainability of consumption and people's habits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper probes the effectiveness of competitive industrial performance (CIP) and renewable energy in enhancing load capacity factor in top-10 CIP economies for the period 1990–2018. We run panel econometric techniques that address cross-sectional dependence, endogeneity and heterogeneity to provide policy recommendations with the applications of industry, innovation, and infrastructure (SDG 9), which is linked to affordable and clean energy (SDG 7) and climate action (SDG 13). In the empirical analysis, two different environmental quality indicators such as CO 2 emissions and load capacity factor are used. While cointegration between variables cannot be detected in the emissions model, evidence for the existence of cointegration is presented in the load capacity factor model. The findings in the paper suggest that economic growth and competitive industrial performance adversely impact environmental quality, while renewable energy consumption and human capital can improve load capacity factor. The result shows that human capital and renewable energy consumption can be strong tools for stimulating load capacity factor in top-10 CIP economies. Countries with high competitive industrial performance need to return to a green economy without losing their competitiveness. • SDG-based environmental policies was presented for the top-10 CIP economies. • A battery of second generations methods was employed. • Investigating the impacts of Competitive industrial performance on environmental quality. • Competitive industrial performance has a negative impact on environmental quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the ocean, mesoscale or submesoscale structures and coastal processes are associated with fine scales. The simulation of such features thus requires the hydrodynamic equations to be solved at high-resolution (from a few hundred meters down to a few tens of meters). Therefore, local mesh refinement is a primary issue for regional and coastal modeling. The AGRIF (adaptive grid refinement in Fortran) library is committed to tackling such a challenge for structured grids. It has been implemented in MARS3D (Model for Application at Regional Scale), a semi-implicit, free-surface numerical model developed by Ifremer (the French Research Institute for Exploitation of the Sea) for coastal environmental research and studies. As its time scheme uses an alternating-direction implicit (ADI) algorithm, the two-way nesting implementation differs from the one in explicit models. The present paper describes the specifics of the AGRIF introduction and how the nesting preserves some essential properties (mass, momentum and tracer conservations) along with the induced constraints (bathymetric coherence between grids and increase in computation cost). The use and the performance of this new tool are detailed over two configurations that illustrate the wide range of scales and resolutions typically targeted by coastal applications. The first one is based on multiple high-resolution (500 m) grids that pave the coastal ocean over thousands of kilometers, allowing a continuum between the regional and coastal scales. The second application is more local and has a finer resolution (50 m). It targets a recurrent question for semi-enclosed bays, i.e., the renewal time indicator. Throughout these configurations, the paper intends to compare the two-way nesting method with the traditional one-way approach. It highlights how the MARS3D-AGRIF tool proves to be an efficient way to both improve the physical hydrodynamics and unravel ecological challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Finlay–Wilkinson regression is a popular method for analysing genotype–environment interaction in series of plant breeding and variety trials. It involves a regression on the environmental mean, indexing the productivity of an environment, which is driven by a wide array of environmental factors. Increasingly, it is becoming feasible to characterize environments explicitly using observable environmental covariates. Hence, there is mounting interest to replace the environmental index with an explicit regression on such observable environmental covariates. This paper reviews the development of such methods. The focus is on parsimonious models that allow replacing the environmental index by regression on synthetic environmental covariates formed as linear combinations of a larger number of observable environmental covariates. Two new methods are proposed for obtaining such synthetic covariates, which may be integrated into genotype‐specific regression models, that is, criss‐cross regression and a factor‐analytic approach. The main advantage of such explicit modelling is that predictions can be made also for new environments where trials have not been conducted. A published dataset is employed to illustrate the proposed methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Renewable energy consumption has gained growing importance in the world energy consumption portfolio over recent years. One of the reasons is the increasingly negative development of climate change. The research carried out in this paper aims to discern whether the examined economic indicator (GDP per capita) and the environmental indicator (CO2 emissions per capita) affect the renewable energy consumption in the region of the Visegrad Group (V4 - Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovak Republic) countries, and to draw implications for public administration in the given issue. The fixed effects panel regression model was used to verify the mentioned relationships between variables from 1990-2020. The results show that the level of the share of renewable energy consumption on the total energy consumption in the region of the V4 countries can be affected by the GDP per capita (positive relationship validated) and the CO2 emissions per capita (negative relationship validated). These results are mostly in line with the findings of other researchers conducted on different samples of countries, although some differences can be noted, especially regarding the direction of the relationship. The implications of the research results are presented on three levels: practical implications for the business sector, emphasis placed on political implications for public administration, and theoretical implications that lay the foundation for further research. The main limitation of the research results comes from the sample used in V4 countries and, thus, from the limited possibilities of generalizing the results. The direction of further research in the addressed issue will include a larger number of countries in the research and the use of various quantitative and qualitative research methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we take the Yangtze River Economic Belt as the study area and analyze three types of environmental regulation tools, namely, command-and-control (CAC), market-incentivized (MI) and public-type (PT). We apply the threshold effect to test the impact of each of these tools on regional economic growth and analyze the relationships between the tools and environmental regulation. The entropy method is used to calculate the comprehensive environmental pollution index of each province and city in the Yangtze River Economic Belt. Using Stata 14.0 measurement software and based on provincial data with respect to the Yangtze River Economic Belt from 2014 to 2021, a panel threshold model is used to test the impact of the three types of environmental regulation tools on regional economic growth and analyze the relationship between environmental regulation and regional economic growth. It is found that the relationship between environmental regulation and economic growth is non-linear. There is no significant relationship between CAC environmental regulation and regional economic growth; there is a single threshold effect between market-incentive environmental regulation and public participation environmental regulation on the economic growth of the Yangtze River economic belt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study intends to shed light on the environmental impacts of energy decisions in South Korea by analyzing the correlation between energy consumption patterns and environmental indicators such as carbon dioxide emissions. In 2021, global CO2 emissions increased by 6%—to the highest ever level of 36.3 billion tons—according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). This increase in CO2 emissions is a big problem for all countries around the world. The aim of this article is an analyze the impact of fossil fuels, renewable energy, and nuclear energy on South Korea's environment based on the STIRPAT (stochastic impact by regression on population, affluence, and technology) model. Exploring the intricate nexus between economic and energy indicators and environmental outcomes, this study employs the STIRPAT model to analyze the influence of GDP, population dynamics, fossil fuels, renewable energy, and nuclear energy on South Korea's environment. The yearly data from 1972 to 2021 are analyzed in this paper using an autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model. The reliability of this study is also examined by employing FMOLS (fully modified ordinary least squares) and CCR (canonical cointegrating regression) estimators. This study confirms the findings of previous research by showing that the rising South Korea GDP and population can lead to higher CO2 emissions and that a strategy switching to renewable energy can cut down on CO2 emissions in Korea, as it exhibits a coefficient of −0.085 *. The robustness results of FMOLS and CCR's findings support baseline ARDL findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the lack of feedback analysis tools, it is impossible to assess the adaptability of a renovated community for different users. Therefore, this paper discusses the adaptability evaluation system for renovated communities from the perspective of healthy sustainability. The correlation between the adaptability of older communities and both relevant subjects and objective environments was analysed. Two significant findings were obtained. First, an innovative adaptability evaluation system was developed using rough set theory, structural equation modelling and importance–performance analysis. This system assessed different attributes of the capital system (social, economic and environmental) and different indicators in the area of health sustainability. Second, the system usability was verified through the study. In this way, the correlation between space health, environmental health, service health, health performance optimisation and health adaptability after community renovation was obtained. The results also showed that spatial changes significantly affect the adaptability and health performance (e.g. elderly-oriented performance, juvenile fitness and energy utilisation performance) of communities. These performances need to be optimised further in community renovation. This study provides a simple and applicable tool for evaluating the effectiveness of community renovation, thus ensuring more sustainable renovation practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Earth faces an unprecedented ecological crisis: the destruction of its ecosystems. Despite increasing interest in restoration, including through the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (Decade), lack of financing and resources mean efforts to reverse degradation have advanced slowly. Restoration efforts require new approaches to ensure the needs of different stakeholders are met. However, analyses of policies and opportunities that help to finance restoration while improving socioecological outcomes, are lacking. This paper analyzes livelihood security funding and opportunities for ecosystem restoration, drawing on India's Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), the world's largest livelihood security program. The paper analyzes MGNREGA's performance between financial years 2013–2021, focusing on the financing of ecosystem restoration‐related works, community mobilization and policy implementation in the early part of the COVID‐19 pandemic. Then, the paper reflects on the benefits and shortcomings of MGNREGA and considers wider lessons for the Decade. MGNREGA generated significant funding flows and numbers of projects nationally, which can contribute to ecosystem restoration. Policy design enabled the continuation and increase of works even during the first year of the COVID‐19 pandemic. Our findings demonstrate the potential of linking ecosystem restoration with development policies to unlock funds, on a national scale. To maximize contributions to ecosystem restoration nevertheless requires capacity building, inclusion of environmental indicators and integration of best ecosystem restoration practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to establish the optimal price of low-carbon products and set the optimal target carbon emissions in the production cycle so as to maximize profits, this paper proposes the optimal pricing model of environmental quality index futures from the perspective of green finance. This paper mainly studies the optimal pricing and carbon emission strategy of low-carbon products of a single enterprise under the carbon trading system based on the quota system. When enterprises join the carbon trading system, how to optimally determine their target carbon emissions in the production cycle and the optimal price of their low-carbon products in order to maximize their own profits, based on the carbon emission quotas freely allocated by the government in the face of exogenous carbon trading prices and different consumer preferences for low-carbon products in the market, is discussed in detail. The experimental results show that the low marginal cost of emission reduction will urge enterprises to implement low-emission strategies as much as possible, and the marginal cost of a specific size will enable enterprises to implement low-carbon policies with low emissions, and the optimal emissions will decline with the increase of carbon prices. However, from the perspective of 50–300 carbon trading prices, the profits generated are less than those of the minimum emission strategy, and the difference between the two is generally one order of magnitude. Therefore, if the internal conditions permit and the external carbon trading price is reasonable, enterprises should reduce carbon emissions as much as possible. The properties obtained from the model analysis and the numerical conclusions given in the example part reflect the relationship between the enterprise product pricing, the marginal cost of emission reduction, and the target emission decision-making and draw some valuable information for the enterprise and the government decision-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the ocean, meso / submesoscale structures and coastal processes are associated with fine scales. The simulation of such features thus requires the hydrodynamic equations to be solved at high-resolution (from a few hundred meters down to a few tens of meters). Therefore, local mesh refinement is a primary issue for regional and coastal modelling. As over structured grids, AGRIF (Adaptive Grid Refinement In Fortran) library is committed to tackle this challenge. It has been implemented in MARS3D, which is a numerical model developed by Ifremer (the French research institute for the exploitation of the sea) for coastal environmental researches and studies. The present paper describes how the dedicated implementation preserves some essential principles (mass conservation, constant preserving…) along with the induced constraints. The use and the performance of this new tool are detailed over two configurations that illustrate the wide range of scales and resolutions typically targeted by coastal applications. The first one is based on multiple high-resolution (500m) grids that pave the coastal ocean over thousands of kilometres, allowing a continuum between the regional and coastal scales. The second application is more local and has a finer resolution (50m). It targets a recurrent question for semi-enclosed bays: the renewal time indicator. Throughout these configurations, the paper intends at comparing the two-way nesting method with the traditional one-way approach and highlights how MARS3D-AGRIF tool proves to be an efficient way significantly improve the physical hydrodynamics and bring it biological issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of sustainable agriculture is widely used to develop international and national policies for the sector. The European Green Deal, which promotes stable food supply, guarantees revenues for farmers and green living environment. Overcoming rural deprivation is usually the central topic of its implementation. The path to sustainable agriculture requires a holistic approach, considering the complexity of social, economic, cultural, technical, and environmental aspects. In this paper we explore the main preconditions to sustainable development of the agricultural sector in Bulgaria based on select indicators, structured in three main groups: economic, social and environmental. We prioritize certain critical challenges, matching them with appropriate interventions with a great potential for impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Seismic losses due to earthquakes have been shown to have significant economic, social and environmental consequences. Over recent years, research to predict potential economic and social impact due to seismic risk has been increasing. Recognizing that the traditional philosophy of life safety design can lead to extensive damage and demolition which has a large environmental cost, incorporating environmental impacts associated with the expected seismic damage over a building's life is a key step as the building industry moves towards both sustainable and seismically resilient design. This paper introduces a framework that uses environmental indicators quantifying losses from seismic response that can then be used to advocate for a change in seismic performance objectives. First, existing literature and previously developed approaches for quantifying potential environmental impact due to seismic damage are summarized. Next, performance based earthquake engineering concepts are used to demonstrate a probabilistic approach to quantify potential environmental impacts using a range of environmental and resource use indicators over the life span of a case study building. In addition, a case study is presented to compare different environmental indicators between a Code Minimum building and the same building redesigned for a higher seismic performance. The majority of the composition of the environmental indicator values are from the inclusion of the non-repairable scenario, and from the repair activities, the majority of the impacts are from damage to drift sensitive components including curtains walls, partitions and elevators. For the Code Minimum building the non-repairable scenario contributes to between 8 to 11% the total seismic cost. For the Stronger Stiffer building, the non-repairable scenario contributes around 3% of the initial impact. Neglecting non-repairable scenarios does significantly reduce the potential environmental impacts when analyzing buildings designed for current code minimum structural standards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]