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Accurate and up‐to‐date biodiversity forecasts enable robust planning for environmental management and conservation of landscapes under a wide range of uses. Future predictions of the species composition of ecological communities complement more frequently reported species richness estimates to better characterize the different dimensions of biodiversity. The models that make community composition forecasts are calibrated with data on species' geographic patterns for the present, which may not be good proxies for future patterns. The future establishment of novel communities represents data on species interactions unaccounted for by these models. However, detecting them in a systematic way presents challenges due to the lack of monitoring data for landscapes with high environmental turnover, where such communities are likely to establish. Here, we propose lightweight monitoring over both ecological and anthropogenic disturbance gradients using passive sensors (i.e., those that operate continuously without much human input) to detect novel communities with the aim of updating models that make community composition forecasts. Monitoring over these two gradients should maximize detection of novel communities and improve understanding of relationships between community composition and environmental change. Further, barriers regarding cost and effort are reduced by using relatively few sensors requiring minimal upkeep. Ongoing updates to community composition forecasts based on novel community data and better understanding of the associated uncertainty should improve future decision‐making for both resource management and conservation efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on environmental reporting within individual sectors and industries is limited. Generic studies have typically focused on the reporting practices of the world's largest corporates. Some industries and sectors are under-represented within these studies, limiting the potential for industry- or sector-specific analysis. Forest and paper is one industry frequently under-represented. This study examines environmental reporting amongst the top 100 forest and paper companies. The scale of environmental report publication is investigated, and the breadth and depth of reporting on the key industry issues of forest management and fibre procurement examined. The results show reporting is more prevalent amongst larger corporates but marked regional variations are evident. Most noticeably, Scandinavian companies are reporting more extensively, both in terms of the number of levels at which they report and the depth of information included on forest management and fibre procurement. Reasons for the marked regional variations in reporting are considered and markets for forest products and preferences within those markets for specific certification schemes identified as potential influencing factors. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Restoration ecology is a deepening and diversifying field with current research incorporating multiple disciplines and infusing long-standing ideas with fresh perspectives. We present a list of 10 recent pivotal papers exemplifying new directions in ecological restoration that were selected by students in a cross-disciplinary graduate seminar at the University of California, Berkeley. We highlight research that applies ecological theory to improve restoration practice in the context of global change (e.g. climate modeling, evaluation of novel ecosystems) and discuss remaining knowledge gaps. We also discuss papers that recognize the social context of restoration and the coupled nature of social and ecological systems, ranging from the incorporation of cultural values and Traditional Ecological Knowledge into restoration, to the consideration of the broader impacts of markets on restoration practices. In addition, we include perspectives that focus on improving communication between social and natural scientists as well as between scientists and practitioners, developing effective ecological monitoring, and applying more integrated, whole-landscape approaches to restoration. We conclude with insights on recurrent themes in the papers regarding planning restoration in human-modified landscapes, application of ecological theory, improvements to restoration practice, and the social contexts of restoration. We share lessons from our cross-disciplinary endeavor, and invite further discussion on the future directions of restoration ecology through contributions to our seminar blog site . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Canadian environmental effects monitoring (EEM) program is a regulated, cyclical, industry-funded program designed to determine whether receiving water impacts exist when a mill is in compliance with its discharge limits. The results from three cycles of the fish monitoring program (1992 to 2004) are available from over 200 surveys of fish compared between sites located upstream and downstream of pulp and paper mill effluent outfalls. Previous meta-analyses have shown a national average response pattern across cycles characterized by an increase in endpoints measuring energy storage and growth and a decrease in a reproductive endpoint, consistent with a response of nutrient enrichment in combination with some form of metabolic disruption. Although the national average pattern of effects was temporally consistent, there was some variability in the magnitude of effects among cycles. Questions were raised as to whether the intercycle variability was due to changes in effluent quality or due, at least in part, to other factors. The present study compares responses over the first three cycles, and shows that the choice of sentinel species is likely to be a major contributing factor to the variability in observed effects. Subset analyses using studies from mills that used the same sentinel species across cycles reveal fairly uniform responses and little evidence of significant improvements in overall fish health from cycles one to three. However, a meta-analysis using 1991 data collected from 10 mills before the implementation of the EEM program and data from the same mills collected during cycles one to three of the program reveal significantly reduced effects on relative liver weight and potential improvements in other endpoints. Environ. Toxicol. Chem. 2010;29:440–452. © 2009 SETAC [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid and accurate detection of ammonia is very important for manufacture and environmental monitoring, which needs to be developed urgently. Herein, a thin film‐based fluorescence sensor is fabricated by using a ternary europium (III) complex probe for ammonia. The new complex Eu(TPM)3(2‐PBO) (1) was designed and synthesized by utilizing a trifluoromethyl substituted β‐diketone ligand TPM and a diimine ligand 2‐PBO (TPM = 1,1,1‐trifluoro‐5,5‐dimethyl‐2,4‐hexanedione, 2‐PBO = 2‐(2′‐pyridyl)‐benzoxazole). This complex probe was synthetically characterized by elemental analysis, crystallographic and spectroscopic analysis, and photoluminescence (PL) study. The crystallographic analysis revealed complex 1 as a neutral complex structure with the Eu(III) center in a distorted square antiprism EuO6N2 coordination polyhedron. Based on this complex probe, a thin film fluorescence sensor with highly sensitive and selective response to ammonia was developed by polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA): complex composite and cellulose paper support. When the paper‐based sensor was exposed to ammonia, its PL emission showed a sensing behavior of rapid quenching. Surprisingly, this new method can achieve excellent limit of detection as low as 2.740 × 10−6 ppm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soft actuators have demonstrated promising applications in artificial muscles, bionic robotics, smart apparatus, and beyond. Nevertheless, most of the current soft actuators only present actuating features without any real‐time sensory feedbacks, which may prohibit the timely correction of actuation error leading to the damage of the systems and target objects especially in some interactive applications. Here, a multi‐responsive actuator with self‐sensing function is enabled by a bilayer structure composing of MXene coated‐paper and polyethylene. This actuator can be triggered by multi‐stimuli and performs large deformation with low power consumption but high response speed because of the remarkable photothermal and hygroscopic performance of MXene. Meanwhile, this actuator can detect its own deformation with an amplified sensing signal on the basis of the synergetic strain‐ and stimulus‐resistance response of the MXene coated‐paper. It is demonstrated that this actuator can not only serve as a multi‐responsive switch to monitor the environmental temperature and humidity, but also as a smart gripper. This multi‐responsive actuator with self‐sensing function provides a potential application in the field of soft robotics, intelligent switch, and bionic prosthesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A facile and digital do‐it‐yourself technique is proposed to fabricate inexpensive sensors on flexible substrates (paper, cloth, and plastic film). A set of office‐grade equipment (i.e., laserjet printer, thermal laminator, computer‐aided paper cutter), and commercially available supplies (i.e., baking wax paper, furniture restoration metal‐leaf) are used. Forming electrodes through traditional printing and defining a fluidic confinement region through crafting practice enable fabrication of a wide range of devices without requiring customized specialty instruments, costly infrastructure, and complicated fabrication steps, unlike previously introduced methods. Three different levels of experiments are designed to assess the comprehensiveness and responsiveness of the proposed method to the needs of existing research fields. The performances of the fabricated features at each level are evaluated to cover various application domains in environmental monitoring and biomedical diagnostics utilizing conductometric, colorimetric, biochemical, and chemoresistive detection principles. Devices with varying size of features, from nanometers to centimeters, are fabricated and characterized. This method provides an alternative route to decentralized production of low‐cost flexible sensors and other devices, with a minimal step, time, and facilities. The operation of such devices is simple and can be further empowered by smartphones for data analysis and transmission. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The negative impact humans have on the environment directly affects the environmental security. Over the years, it has been proven that wars make drastic and sometimes unrecoverable environmental damage. Remote sensing has played a main role in providing necessary data for spatiotemporal analysis. This paper reviews remote sensing implementation of war activities for environmental monitoring. This review is timely due to the exponentially increasing number of works published in recent years. This paper's main objective is to locate the papers and find geographic link, sensor use, and environmental degradation type. Following a discussion of remote sensing's capabilities, this overview illustrates numerous environmental damages caused by military operations in various world places. Our study found that wars have a detrimental influence on the ecosystem across the world, with major reasons being forest loss, oil spills, and urban growth. According to the findings, remote sensing, particularly middle‐resolution satellite images, is extensively and successfully employed for environmental security monitoring. The rehabilitation of a deteriorated environment should be one of the key areas of future study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental strategy is currently in transition from a reductionist view of individual technologies in isolation to a holistic and interdisciplinary view of the relationship between society, technology, and environmental impact. As a contribution to this larger effort, this paper uses a systems analytic approach to develop a ‘sector-stream matrix’ of functions and objectives that have an impact on the environment. In particular, the overall ‘built-and-natural-environment system’ is divided into two subsystems, labeled the ‘people’ and ‘product’ streams; analysis of the two streams can be used both qualitatively and quantitatively in order to gain insight into the causes of environmental impact. As an example of the latter, an application of the sector-stream matrix to the breakdown of energy use in the UK is presented. Advantages of the matrix approach over the traditional division into sectors (industrial/transport/other) and other applications and side issues are discussed. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. and ERP Environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This review paper comprehensively analyzes recent advancements in optical fiber‐based biosensors, focusing on conventional fiber and photonic crystal structures. This paper overviews the significant applications of optical fiber biosensors, including bioimaging, quality analysis, food safety, and field environment monitoring, setting the stage for subsequent discussions. The primary objective of the review is to systematically evaluate recent literature concerning optical fiber‐based biosensors, emphasizing their sensitivities and resolutions. The second section explores integrating plasmonic materials such as graphene, TDMC, germanium, black phosphorus, and silicon within optical fiber biosensors, elucidating their roles in enhancing sensitivity and resolution in biosensing applications. A detailed examination of photonic crystal fibers (PCF) follows, categorizing them into internally and externally metal film‐coated biosensors, highlighting their distinct advantages and limitations. Comparative analyses in two tables delineate the performance and sensitivity of optical fiber‐based biosensors, mainly focusing on different coating strategies. The final section of the review discusses emerging trends and applications in optical fiber biosensing technologies, underscoring their potential to transform biomedical and environmental monitoring fields. By synthesizing recent developments and challenges, this review aims to offer researchers and practitioners a comprehensive understanding of optical fiber‐based biosensors, facilitating informed decision‐making and driving further advancements in the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chemosensing, an interdisciplinary scientific domain, plays a pivotal role ranging from environmental monitoring to healthcare diagnostics and (inter)national security. Metal‐organic gels (MOGs) are recognized for their stability, selectivity, and responsiveness, making them valuable for chemosensing applications. Researchers have explored the development of MOGs based on different metal ions and ligands, allowing for tailored properties and sensitivities, and have even demonstrated their applications as portable sensors such as paper‐based test strips for practical use. Herein, several studies related to MOGs development and their applications in the chemosensing field via UV‐visible or luminance along with electrochemical approach are presented. These papers explored MOGs as versatile materials with their use in sensing bio or environmental analytes. This review provides a foundational understanding of key concepts, methodologies, and recent advancements in this field, fostering the scientific community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents some preliminary results of a research project started in May 2002 on the German transportation planning system, commissioned by the Federal Environmental Agency. The main aim of this project is to find ways to integrate formal strategic environmental assessment (SEA) and to identify technical and methodological opportunities for implementing the SEA Directive. It reveals that whilst environmental aspects are already taken into account to a reasonable extent, certain amendments are needed in order to fully meet the requirements of the SEA Directive. Furthermore, the paper calls for a new type of ‘Federal Transport Development Plan’. This should focus on an assessment of strategic alternatives as the basis for the integration of individual projects. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Detection of trace magnesium ion (Mg2+) is important in environmental and health monitoring. In this work, high‐performance Mg2+ sensor was developed from label‐free carbon dots. The novel carbon dots were prepared for the first time from natural rubber through the two‐step pyrolysis and hydrothermal method. They showed selectivity towards Mg2+ against a range of metal ions in solution and yielded a detection limit of 4.3 μM. The Mg2+ detection in real water samples showed an excellent recovery of 97.21 to 99.21 %. A paper‐based sensor was also fabricated as a portable device, showing a detection limit of 8.0 μM. UV‐vis and X‐ray absorption studies provided some evidences of the unique dynamic interactions between carbon dots and Mg2+ ions. In summary, the novelty of this work lies upon (i) developing a methodology of converting abundant, low‐cost natural rubber into carbon dots and (ii) fabricating sensitive and selective sensors from the label‐free carbon dots for the detection of Mg2+ both in solution and as paper‐based devices. The findings in this work will therefore have potential for environmental and health monitoring applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional marine monitoring can be a resource‐intensive process that often covers a network of sampling stations where data are collected manually by divers, or discretely using in situ water samples at different depths at fixed positions followed by laboratory analysis. As such, environmental status is often reported after a delay of months or years. However, things are set to change for the better. Recent advances in technologies, such as remote sensing, machine learning techniques, modeling for non‐experts, acoustic monitoring, and intelligent integration of modeling and sensor measurements will revolutionize the future of marine environmental monitoring and monitoring systems. This special series touches upon some of the new technologies and models that may be an integrated part of ecosystem assessment and management in the future. Although technologies are being developed and integrated for marine monitoring around the world, the integration with ecosystem models is still in the early days. Still, this series highlights inspirational examples of the time ahead of us. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2022;18:888–891. © 2022 The Authors. Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Society of Environmental Toxicology & Chemistry (SETAC). Key Points: Papers in the special series show advances in various technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the past decade, a large volume of peer‐reviewed papers has examined the potential impacts of oil and gas resource extraction in the Canadian oil sands (OS). A large proportion focuses on terrestrial biology: wildlife, birds, and vegetation. We provide a qualitative synthesis of the condition of the environment in the oil sands region (OSR) from 2009 to 2020 to identify gaps and progress cumulative effects assessments. Our objectives were to (1) qualitatively synthesize and critically review knowledge from the OSR; (2) identify consistent trends and generalizable conclusions; and (3) pinpoint gaps in need of greater monitoring or research effort. We visualize knowledge and terrestrial monitoring foci by allocating papers to a conceptual model for the OS. Despite a recent increase in publications, focus has remained concentrated on a few key stressors, especially landscape disturbance, and a few taxa of interest. Stressor and response monitoring is well represented, but direct monitoring of pathways (linkages between stressors and responses) is limited. Important knowledge gaps include understanding effects at multiple spatial scales, mammal health effects monitoring, focused monitoring of local resources important to Indigenous communities, and geospatial coverage and availability, including higher attribute resolution in human footprint, comprehensive land cover mapping, and up‐to‐date LiDAR coverage. Causal attribution based on spatial proximity to operations or spatial orientation of monitoring in the region is common but may be limited in the strength of inference that it provides. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2022;18:388–406. © 2021 The Authors. Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Society of Environmental Toxicology & Chemistry (SETAC). KEY POINTS: We provide a qualitative synthesis of the condition of the environment in the Canadian oil sands region (OSR) in northeastern Alberta from 2009 to 2020 to identify gaps and progress cumulative effects assessments. Despite a recent increase in publications, focus has remained concentrated on a few key stressors and a few taxa of interest, for which monitoring is well represented, though direct monitoring of pathways (linkages between stressors and responses) is limited. Important gaps include a lack of understanding of effects at multiple spatial scales, a lack of focused monitoring of local resources important to Indigenous communities, and geospatial data resolution and availability. Causal attribution based on spatial proximity to oil sands operations or spatial orientation of monitoring in the OSR is common but may be limited in the strength of inference that it provides. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The desire to document and understand the cumulative implications of oil sands (OS) development in the ambient environment of northeastern Alberta has motivated increased investment and release of information in the past decade. Here, we summarize the knowledge presented in the theme‐based review papers in this special series, including air, surface water, terrestrial biology, and Indigenous community‐based monitoring in order to (1) consolidate knowledge gained to date, (2) highlight key commonalities and gaps, and (3) leverage this knowledge to assess the state of integration in environmental monitoring efforts in the OS region and suggest next steps. Among air, water, and land studies, the individual reviews identified a clear focus on describing stressors, including primarily (1) contaminant emission, transport, transformation, deposition, and exposure, and (2) landscape disturbance. These emphases are generally partitioned by theme; air and water studies focus heavily on chemical stressors, whereas terrestrial monitoring focuses on biological change and landscape disturbance. Causal attribution is often stated as a high priority objective across all themes. However, studies often rely on spatial proximity to attribute cause to industrial activity, leaving causal attribution potentially confounded by spatial covariance of both OS‐ and non‐OS‐related stressors in the region, and by the complexity of interacting pathways between sources of environmental change and ecological receptors. Geospatial and modeling approaches are common across themes and may represent clear integration opportunities, particularly to help inform investigation‐of‐cause, but are not a replacement for robust field monitoring designs. Cumulative effects assessment remains a common focus of regional monitoring, but is limited in the peer‐reviewed literature, potentially reflecting a lack of integration among monitoring efforts beyond narrow integrated interpretations of results. Addressing this requires greater emphasis on a priori integrated data collection and integrated analyses focused on the main residual exposure pathways, such as atmospheric deposition. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2022;18:428–441. © 2021 The Authors. Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Society of Environmental Toxicology & Chemistry (SETAC). KEY POINTS: Our summary of the peer‐reviewed literature since 2010 from the Alberta oil sands region reveals an emphasis on chemical stressors and their association with atmospheric emissions, transport, transformation, and deposition, as well as an emphasis on landscape disturbance and associated effects.System‐wide gaps in the literature, including topics of concern to local Indigenous communities, derive from a disconnect between theme areas (air, water, land), contribute to an incomplete knowledge of functional linkages, and may undermine the ability to inform regulatory or policy action.Combining papers not explicitly designed together creates interpretative and analytical challenges, and overcoming these may require future optimization of and integration between targeted monitoring projects and entire theme areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past decades, concerns regarding the local and cumulative impacts of oil sands development have been increasing. These concerns reflect the industry's emissions, land disturbance, water use, and the resulting impacts to Indigenous Rights. Effective environmental management is essential to address and ultimately manage these concerns. A series of ambient regional monitoring programs in the oil sands region (OSR) have struggled with scope and governance. In the last 10 years, monitoring has evolved from a regulatory‐driven exercise implemented by industry into a focused, collaborative, multistakeholder program that attempts to integrate rigorous science from a multitude of disciplines and ways of knowing. Monitoring in the region continues to grapple with leadership, governance, data management, scope, and effective analysis and reporting. This special series, "A Decade of Research and Monitoring in the Oil Sands Region of Alberta, Canada," provides a series of critical reviews that synthesize 10 years of published monitoring results to identify patterns of consistent ecological responses or effects, significant gaps in knowledge, and recommendations for improved monitoring, assessment, and management of the region. The special series considered over 300 peer‐reviewed papers and represents the first integrated critical review of the published literature from the region. This introductory paper of the series introduces the history of ambient environmental monitoring in the OSR and discusses historic and ongoing challenges with the environmental monitoring effort. While significant progress has been made in areas of governance, expanded geographical scope, and inclusion of Indigenous communities in monitoring in the region, significant issues remain regarding a lack of integrated reporting on environmental conditions, public access to data, and continuity of monitoring efforts over time. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2022;18:319–332. © 2021 The Authors. Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Society of Environmental Toxicology & Chemistry (SETAC). KEY POINTS: This article introduces a special series that reviews over 300 manuscripts published over 10 years across environmental disciplines in the oil sands region of Alberta.The series is the first integrated critical review of published literature in the region.We discuss the history of ambient environmental monitoring in the region and the historic and ongoing challenges including how western science and Indigenous knowledge have been considered.While some progress has been made, significant issues remain regarding a lack of integrated reporting on environmental conditions, lack of public access to data, and discontinuity of monitoring efforts over time due, in part, to political influence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: With the rapid development of China's social economy, the transportation needs of its residents continue to increase and encourage rapid and continual development of the Chinese high‐speed railway system. The design of China's high‐speed railway station is the integration of a new model that includes the layout of upcoming booking, traffic, waiting, tickets, and other functions to be set in the area known as the waiting hall. As such, the waiting hall has become an extremely important element of the environmental monitoring system. This paper proposes the design of a high‐speed rail station environmental monitoring system based on the LoRa communication technology. This system aims to enable the real‐time monitoring of temperature, humidity, illuminance, and noise decibels in high‐speed railway stations. The wireless communication present in the proposed system adopts the LoRa technology features of low power consumption, low cost, and long‐range communication. In this study, we set up a prototype of a LoRa enabled network in the lab building of Hohai University to transmit the environmental data. Moreover, we analyzed the signal propagation of LoRa in an indoor environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) as a kind of sensing material plays an important role for environmental monitoring and human health. In this paper, we prepared a luminescent Cd‐MOF: [Cd2L·4H2O]·H2O. (H4L = 2,5‐bis‐(3,4‐dicarboxy‐phenyl)thiophene‐amide) under the solvothermal condition. Single crystal X‐ray diffraction analysis shows that Cd‐MOF has a 2D layer structure, and it exhibits a strong fluorescence emission at 470 nm. The sensing experiment displays Cd‐MOF as multitarget probe can selectively detect Cr (VI) anions and 4‐nitroaniline (4‐NA) with high sensitivity, good anti‐interference ability, and good recyclability. In addition, dual‐emission Eu3+@Cd‐MOF was obtained by encapsulating Eu3+ ions into Cd‐MOF, in which Cd‐MOF sensitizes Eu3+ ion emission. Accordingly, Eu3+@Cd‐MOF also acts as multitarget and self‐calibrated probe to selectively detect Cr (VI) ions and 4‐NA synchronously at the same conditions. However, the changes of fluorescence emissions of Eu3+@Cd‐MOF toward Cr (VI) ions are different from that of the original Cd‐MOF. The possible sensing mechanism be attributed to the competitive energy absorption between Cd‐MOF or Eu3+@Cd‐MOF and the analytes. All the results may provide broad prospects for developing multitarget sensing platform for sensing environment pollutants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses a method of determining the minimum safe altitude of an uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) at any point within a designated airspace by conducting a glide reachability analysis. Recently, fixed‐wing UAVs are more regularly deployed near population centers and in extreme environments, requiring increasingly robust emergency systems and planning. The long‐ranges and adverse terrain associated with monitoring the Volcán de Fuego in Guatemala by a team from the University of Bristol (UoB) increases the likelihood that motor failure would result in the aircraft being unable to Return To Home (RTH) and impossible to retrieve. A method for delineating a boundary representing the minimum safe altitude required for the aircraft to safely glide to the airfield in the event of a motor failure was developed within MATLAB, defined by the UAV's minimum glide angle in wind. This model was subsequently compared with flight data from UoB missions around Fuego to better improve its accuracy and analyze the limitations of the missions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental externalities of place‐based policy have generally been overlooked despite their welfare consequences. This paper studies the air‐pollution effect of development zones in urban China using a geo‐coded data set of 2720 counties from 1998 to 2016. By adopting the generalized difference‐in‐difference framework to resolve the problem of endogenous locational selection for place‐based policies, we find that development zones reduce ambient PM2.5 concentration by around 1.8%, leading to a total social gain of $7.75 billion USD. The environmental benefit varies by the zone's dominant industry, geographical region, administrative affiliation and time of establishment. We further show that development zones are comparably cleaner due to the incentives of central and local governments, manifested by the desire to administratively promote development zones, the attempt to satisfy residential demands for higher quality‐of‐life cities, and the employment of the national environmental monitoring system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Good health is pursued by people all over the world. However, the continual industrialisation has led to more and more atmospheric contamination, and PM2.5$_{2.5}$ has caused serious harm to our life safety and living environment. Without increasing the cost of sustainable industrial production, more and more attention has been paid to the related researches on improving PM2.5$_{2.5}$ monitoring, prevention and control level. Therefore, it is extremely urgent to establish a robust PM2.5$_{2.5}$ monitoring model that can adapt to a variety of scenarios, not only in local places like campuses but also in wide area like city. Existing work has proven that PM2.5$_{2.5}$ monitoring can be achieved by means of photos. But experiments show that the stated‐of‐the‐art methods are far from ideal for PM2.5$_{2.5}$ monitoring when the author tested the performance in two public datasets. To solve the aforesaid issue, this paper ulteriorly proposes a novel photo‐based PM2.5$_{2.5}$ monitoring model, which fuses the results of existing methods by firstly using the weighted average based on the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator regression for learning the basic linear component, secondly using the support vector regression for learning the non‐linear residual component, and finally incorporating the above two outputs to infer the final PM2.5$_{2.5}$ concentration. The main contributions and innovations of this paper are embodied in: (1) the innovative use of image quality assessment model to extract 9 features for PM2.5$_{2.5}$ monitoring, (2) separately extract macro information and micro information from PM2.5 pictures, (3) two newly‐established large‐scaled datasets are applied to verify the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed PM2.5$_{2.5}$ monitoring model. Experiments show that on the latest PM2.5$_{2.5}$ datasets (local and wide), the proposed model has achieved high performance and demonstrated strong robustness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Historically, environmental research and monitoring in the Alberta oil sands region (OSR) located in northeastern Alberta, Canada, have largely neglected, meaningful Indigenous participation. Through years of experience on the land, Indigenous knowledge (IK) holders recognize change on the landscape, drawing on inextricable links between environmental health and practicing traditional rights. The cumulative impacts of crude oil production are of great concern to Indigenous communities, and monitoring initiatives in the OSR provide unique opportunities to develop Indigenous community‐based monitoring (ICBM). A review of ICBM literature on the OSR from 2009 to 2020 was completed. Based on this review, we identify best practices in ICBM and propose governance structures and a framework to support meaningful integration of ICBM into regulatory environmental monitoring. Because it involves multimedia monitoring and produces data and insights that integrate many aspects of the environment, ICBM is important for natural science research. ICBM can enhance the relevance of environmental monitoring by examining relationships between physical and chemical stressors and culturally relevant indicators, so improving predictions of long‐term changes in the environment. Unfortunately, many Indigenous communities distrust researchers owing to previous experiences of exploitive use of IK. In the present paper, we recommend important practices for the integration of IK into regional environmental monitoring programs. ICBM is important to communities because it includes conditions to which communities can exercise traditional rights, and highlight how industrial activities affect this ability. Equally important, ICBM can generate a resurgence of Indigenous languages and subsequently traditional practices; it can also revive the connection with traditional lands and improve food security. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2022;18:407‐427. © 2021 The Authors. Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Society of Environmental Toxicology & Chemistry (SETAC). KEY POINTS: The paper provides a unique way of organizing the integration of Indigenous knowledge (IK) and Western science (WS) using a conceptual model, which can allow regional monitoring programs to constantly evaluate research objectives and identify gaps.It is not the intention of this paper to adapt IK or WS to any model or monitoring program, but to discuss the integrative ability of both to better understand pressure/stressor‐pathways and response relationships of environmental impacts in the oil sands region.Contextualizing each program into the conceptual model is useful for large monitoring programs, such as the Oil Sands Monitoring (OSM) program, to integrate large amounts of data assessing different aspects of the environment over time and space.Indigenous community‐based monitoring approaches, such as those led by the Mikisew Cree and Athabasca Chipewyan First Nations, support regional monitoring where data are easily captured in regional‐scale models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) find applications in diverse fields such as environmental monitoring, healthcare, and military surveillance. Nonetheless, one of the primary challenges encountered by WSNs is congestion. Congestion arises in WSNs when there is a high volume of traffic on the network, leading to significant repercussions. These repercussions encompass packet loss, heightened latency durations, and diminished network efficiency. This paper presents an innovative congestion control mechanism named Dual Indicator Random Early Detection (DIRED). DIRED leverages two indicators, namely queue length and packet loss rate, to dynamically adjust the dropping probability of packets, thereby mitigating congestion and enhancing network performance. For the successful execution of the DIRED model, a congestion control algorithm is introduced. This strategy efficiently prevents the deterioration of network performance that can commonly arise from extremely low packet drop probabilities. Simulations are conducted to evaluate the proposed DIRED model, comparing it with the KACO and KFOA techniques. The results demonstrate that DIRED outperforms KACO and KFOA in terms of network performance, achieving a more optimal balance between performance metrics and packet‐dropping probability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the measurement of X-rays has attracted much attention. Especially in the aspects of environmental monitoring, radiation protection, and radiation therapy, to obtain more accurate measurement values, it is necessary to set up a corresponding reference device to trace the magnitude. This paper aims to establish a 350–450 kV wide spectrum and high air-kerma rate X-ray radiant mass. First, the Monte Carlo simulation was used to simulate the establishment of a model of the light engine, and the energy spectra of different tube voltages and different additional filters were calculated to obtain the average photon energy. Then the average photon energy was compared with the extrapolated average photon energy so that the deviation was within ±5%. Finally, half-value measurements are made on additional filters that meet the requirements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) has been widely used with its main characteristics of resilience, scalability, and mobility. However, the node battery capacity in WSN is limited. In addition, in scenes with emergencies such as forest ecological monitoring, data packets of wildfire emergencies have higher real‐time requirements than periodic normal data. Therefore, this paper proposes an energy‐efficient MAC protocol based on Receiver initiation and Multi‐Priority Backoff (RMP‐MAC). RMP‐MAC adopts the wake‐up matching mechanism initiated by the receiver. The sender adjusts its schedule according to the wake‐up information of the receiver to match the receiver, which reduces the energy consumption of idle listening. In addition, RMP‐MAC proposes a multi‐priority factor adaptive backoff mechanism based on event priority, node remaining energy level, and the number of data packets waiting in the transmission queue, ensuring the transmission of emergency data in the actual situation of forest ecological monitoring. Simulation experiments show that compared with PB‐MAC, AP‐MAC, and MPQ‐MAC, RMP‐MAC can reduce energy consumption by 20.22%, 12.47%, and 6.62% respectively. In addition, it has improved in the average collisions, network throughput, and average delay of packets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current trends in the application of bioindication methods are related to the use of submersible tools that perform real‐time measurements directly in the studied aquatic environment. The methods based on the registration of changes in the behavioral responses of zooplankton, in particular Crustaceans, which make up the vast majority of the biomass in water areas, seem quite promising. However, the multispecies composition of natural planktonic biocenoses poses the need to consider the potential difference in the sensitivity of organisms to pollutants. This paper describes laboratory studies of the phototropic response of plankton to attracting light. The studies were carried out on a model natural community that in equal amounts includes Daphnia magna, Daphnia pulex, and Cyclops vicinus, as well as on the monoculture groups of these species. The phototropic response was initiated by the attracting light with a wavelength of 532 nm close to the local maximum of the reflection spectrum of chlorella microalgae. Standard potassium bichromate was used as the model pollutant. The largest phototropic response value is registered in the assemblage. The concentration growth rate of crustaceans in the illuminated volume was 4.5 ± 0.3 ind (L min)−1. Of the studied species, the phototropic response was mostly expressed in Daphnia magna (3.7 ± 0.4 ind (L min)−1), while in Daphnia pulex, it was reduced to 2.4 ± 0.2 ind (L min)−1, and in Cyclops vicinus, it was very small—0.16 ± 0.02 ind (L min)−1. This is caused by peculiar trophic behavior of phyto‐ and zoophages. The addition of a pollutant, namely potassium bichromate, caused a decrease in the concentration rate of crustaceans in the attracting light zone, while a dose‐dependent change in phototropic responses was observed in a group of species and the Daphnia magna assemblage. The results of laboratory studies showed high potential of using the phototropic response of zooplankton to monitor the quality of its habitat thus ensuring the early diagnostics of water pollution. Besides, the paper shows the possibility of quantifying the phototropic response of zooplankton using submersible digital holographic cameras (DHC). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

1. An ecological model was developed using genetic programming (GP) to predict the time-series dynamics of the diatom, Stephanodiscus hantzschii for the lower Nakdong River, South Korea. Eight years of weekly data showed the river to be hypertrophic (chl. a, 45.1 ± 4.19 μg L−1, mean ± SE, n = 427), and S. hantzschii annually formed blooms during the winter to spring flow period (late November to March). 2. A simple non-linear equation was created to produce a 3-day sequential forecast of the species biovolume, by means of time series optimization genetic programming (TSOGP). Training data were used in conjunction with a GP algorithm utilizing 7 years of limnological variables (1995–2001). The model was validated by comparing its output with measurements for a specific year with severe blooms (1994). The model accurately predicted timing of the blooms although it slightly underestimated biovolume (training r2 = 0.70, test r2 = 0.78). The model consisted of the following variables: dam discharge and storage, water temperature, Secchi transparency, dissolved oxygen (DO), pH, evaporation and silica concentration. 3. The application of a five-way cross-validation test suggested that GP was capable of developing models whose input variables were similar, although the data are randomly used for training. The similarity of input variable selection was approximately 51% between the best model and the top 20 candidate models out of 150 in total (based on both Root Mean Squared Error and the determination coefficients for the test data). 4. Genetic programming was able to determine the ecological importance of different environmental variables affecting the diatoms. A series of sensitivity analyses showed that water temperature was the most sensitive parameter. In addition, the optimal equation was sensitive to DO, Secchi transparency, dam discharge and silica concentration. The analyses thus identified likely causes of the proliferation of diatoms in ‘river-reservoir hybrids’ (i.e. rivers which have the characteristics of a reservoir during the dry season). This result provides specific information about the bloom of S. hantzschii in river systems, as well as the applicability of inductive methods, such as evolutionary computation to river-reservoir hybrid systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ocean monitoring is an expensive and time consuming endeavor, but it can be made more efficient through the use of teams of autonomous robots. In this paper, we present a system for the autonomous identification and tracking of ocean fronts by coordinating the sampling efforts of a heterogeneous team of autonomous surface vehicles (ASVs) and autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs). The primary contributions of this study are (1) our algorithm for performing autonomous coordination using general autonomy principles: Sequential Allocation Monte Carlo Tree Search (SA‐MCTS) which incorporates domain knowledge into the environmental estimation through both augmenting a standard Gaussian process with a nearest neighbors prior and planning in a drifting reference frame, (2) our decision support user interface to help human operators oversee the autonomous system, and (3) the demonstration of the system's operation in a 2‐week long deployment in the Gulf of Mexico using a heterogeneous team of four Slocum gliders and two robotic ocean surface samplers. With these contributions, we aim to bridge the gap between state of the art autonomy algorithms and marine vehicle planning methods that have been tested in large‐scale field trials. This paper presents the first deployment of a general, heuristic‐based, multi‐robot coordination algorithm for an extended sampling mission. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The commencement of the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration has highlighted the urgent need to improve restoration science and fast‐track ecological outcomes. The application of remote sensing for monitoring purposes has increased over the past two decades providing a variety of image datasets and derived products suitable to map and measure ecosystem properties (e.g. vegetation species, community composition, and structural dimensions such as height and cover). However, the operational use of remote sensing data and derived products for ecosystem restoration monitoring in research, industry, and government has been relatively limited and underutilized. In this paper, we use the Society for Ecological Restoration (SER) ecological recovery wheel (ERW) to assess the current capacity of drone‐airborne‐satellite remote sensing datasets to measure each of the SER's recommended attributes and sub‐attributes for terrestrial restoration projects. Based on our combined expertise in the areas of ecological monitoring and remote sensing, a total of 11 out of 18 sub‐attributes received the highest feasibility score and show strong potential for remote sensing assessments; while sub‐attributes such as gene flows, all trophic levels and chemical and physical substrates have a reduced capacity for monitoring. We argue that in the coming decade, ecologists can combine remote sensing with the ERW to monitor restoration recovery and reference ecosystems for improved restoration outcomes at the local, regional, and landscape scales. The ERW approach can be adapted as a monitoring framework for projects to utilize the benefits of remote sensing and inform management through scalable, operational, and meaningful outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the vigorous development of the Internet of Things and artificial intelligence, the active sensing system based on triboelectric nanogenerators plays an excellent performance potential and application value as a pioneering technology for smart manufacturing. Nevertheless, achieving material innovation to strike a good balance between active sensing systems and environmental friendliness remains a difficult task. As the most abundant biopolymer on earth, the sustainability potential and excellent performance of cellulose are of great importance for the development of smart sensing systems. This review intends to provide a new perspective on the sustainability of smart active sensing systems to design and fabricate cellulosic triboelectric materials for self‐powered sensing systems. Herein, the structure and advantageous properties of cellulosic triboelectric materials are briefly described. Furthermore, the structure–property–application relationship of the materials is addressed from the perspective of material design and structure optimization. Next, the latest applications of cellulose triboelectric materials are comprehensively described in smart sensing fields such as environmental monitoring, smart home, smart medical, human–machine interaction, and the Internet of everything. Lastly, the current challenges and future developments of cellulose triboelectric materials for smart sensor systems are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports the use of silane monolayers of different polarities to enable recognition and selective interfacial enrichment of nonpolar versus polar gases for spectroscopic mid‐infrared (MIR) on‐chip sensing. However, detection of gases using on‐chip waveguides (WGs) is challenging because of the low concentrations of gas molecules within the evanescent field surrounding the WGs. To solve this issue, high‐surface‐area, precisely‐controlled‐thickness nanocoatings are introduced whose surface modification with strategically selected silanes enables control of preferential adsorption and concentration of polar versus nonpolar gas analytes. Conformal nanocoatings are constructed using layer‐by‐layer deposition of mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs) at substrate withdrawal speeds controlled within the capillary regime. Surface modification of the WG‐immobilized MSNs with hydrophobic triethoxy(octyl)silane enables, for the first time, enhanced sensitivity and selectivity towards nonpolar methane gas as compared to its polar counterpart acetone. On the other hand, modification of the nanocoatings with (3‐aminopropyl)triethoxysilane leads to preferential binding of polar acetone vapors. This work demonstrates the capability of interfacial modification for controlling the selection and enhancement of the spectroscopic features of gas analytes with different polarities. The developed interfacial assemblies can enable diverse spectroscopic gas sensing platforms for applications in health diagnostics, environmental monitoring, and process control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biomonitoring studies of vulnerable populations in low‐ and middle‐income countries are limited because traditional sampling methods are challenging to implement in low‐resource settings. The present study examined the feasibility, precision, and accuracy of dried blood spots (DBS) for human biomonitoring of nonessential elements (cadmium [Cd], mercury [Hg], and lead [Pb]) in an area of northern Tanzania with artisanal and small‐scale gold mining activities. Pregnant women (n = 44) were recruited in Geita during antenatal clinic visits, and DBS from capillary blood were collected on filter paper. As a gold‐standard comparison, venous blood was sampled from the same participants and compared with the DBS. Venous blood, DBS, and quality control samples were analyzed for chemical elements by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. Field blanks were very clean for most elements, generally only twice as high as corresponding laboratory filter blanks. No significant differences were found between duplicate DBS samples taken from the same participants, with near perfect intraclass correlation coefficients (0.99) for Cd, Hg, and Pb, indicating excellent reliability. Moreover, correlation was strong (r2 > 0.9) and significant (p < 0.0001) between DBS and the quantitative venous blood, with regression line slopes close to 1.0 (0.847, 0.976, and 0.969 for Cd, Hg, and Pb, respectively), indicating high accuracy of the DBS method compared with the gold‐standard approach. The DBS method is minimally invasive and was a feasible, precise, and accurate means of measuring exposure to Cd, Hg, and Pb in pregnant women in a low‐resource setting. Environ Toxicol Chem 2019;38:1285–1293. © 2019 SETAC [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Comments on progress towards meeting the requirements of the European Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) Directive. Call for papers made on the SEA section’s listserver of the International Association for Impact Assessment in March 2003; General challenges and opportunities of implementing the SEA Directive; Changes to environmental assessment in transport planning.

Here, we present a comprehensive holography‐based system designed for detecting microparticles through microscopic holographic projections of water samples. This system is designed for researchers who may be unfamiliar with holographic technology but are engaged in microparticle research, particularly in the field of water analysis. Additionally, our innovative system can be deployed for environmental monitoring as a component of an autonomous sailboat robot. Our system's primary application is for large‐scale classification of diverse microplastics that are prevalent in water bodies worldwide. This paper provides a step‐by‐step guide for constructing our system and outlines its entire processing pipeline, including hologram acquisition for image reconstruction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rapid development of the Internet of Things (IoTs), numerous distributed wide‐area low‐power electronic devices have been utilized in various fields, such as wireless monitoring sensors and wearable electronics. Due to the dispersion and mobility of microelectronic devices, their energy supply faces serious challenges. The inconvenience and non‐environmental friendliness of using traditional centralized low entropy energy and chemical batteries to power distributed microelectronic devices are becoming increasingly prominent. Environmental energy harvesting technology with high entropy characteristics is considered an effective solution for low‐power electronic devices. This paper comprehensively reviews the recent progress in microelectronic technologies based on energy harvesting and signal sensing. First, state‐of‐the‐art micro‐power electronic devices in humans, animals, and the environment are introduced. Secondly, the available micro‐energy sources in the environmentare elaborated and summarized. Then, the principles and characteristics of ambient microenergy harvesting technologies based on different mechanisms are classified, summarized, and analyzed. In addition, this work comprehensively summarizes the applications of self‐powered micro‐electronics technology in 11 different fields, including human, animal, and environment. Finally, research challenges, technical difficulties, and research gaps in self‐powered microelectronics based on micro‐energy harvesting technology are discussed and summarized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several models have been developed with streamflow as a covariate for predicting daily pesticide concentrations in surface water systems. Among these models, the SEAWAVE‐QEX model has been proposed by the United States Environmental Protection Agency for regulatory assessments. In this paper, the model was modified to include alternative transformations of streamflow data, and to include no streamflow covariates. The predictive performance of the modified models was evaluated and compared with the original SEAWAVE‐QEX model using a high frequency sampling dataset that includes 9 sites with 10 years of data from the Atrazine Ecological Monitoring Program. Streamflow transformations evaluated included those in the SEAWAVE‐QEX model (short‐term and mid‐term flow anomalies), reduced models with only short‐term flow anomaly or without any flow covariates, normalized Box‐Cox transformation of flow, and combinations of normalized Box‐Cox and flow anomalies. Loglinear interpolation was also evaluated. The normalized Box‐Cox transformation provided best predictive performance and significantly better predictive performance than that of the SEAWAVE‐QEX model for a target quantity of regulatory interest, such as the maximum 1‐day rolling average (similarly for the maximum 60‐day rolling average, but not significantly so). The no‐flow covariate model was only slightly worse than Box‐Cox. Significant differences in predictive performance of the SEAWAVE‐QEX model were detected across sites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a pure water antenna with frequency reconfigurability, which is composed of a water resonator, L‐shaped feeder, and metal ground pad. An L‐shaped feeding structure is designed so that the working frequency can be adjusted by changing the water level of the resonator. The cross‐stack periodic water radiator structure improves the radiation efficiency by 2–4 dB compared with simple rectangular structure. The working frequency of this antenna is around 1 GHz, and will decrease by 17 MHz for every 5 mm increase in water level, which proves the feasibility of this antenna for water level monitoring. It has the potential for application in the field of wireless environmental monitoring for the Internet of Things. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wind energy, one of the most promising and renewable energy sources, is extensively exploited around the world. However, in traditional triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) for wind energy harvesting, due to the limitations of device structures with high friction force, the collection of wind energy at low speeds is always faced with enormous challenges. To overcome this difficulty, an ultralow friction and highly effective windmill‐like nanogenerator (WNG) is proposed. Herein, the WNG is based on a freestanding mode TENG and adopts a rotational triboelectric layer with contact–separation mode. This special design successfully achieves a smaller friction resistance, allowing wind energy to be captured at low speeds. Under the minimum wind speed, the optimized WNG has a maximum load power of 0.753 µW, which can illuminate nine LEDs simultaneously. The WNG can convert wind energy into enough electricity to power a hygrometer or a digital clock under the maximum wind speed. Moreover, a wind speed detection system based on WNG is developed and proves the superiority of real‐time wind speed detection by appropriate computation parameters. This work not only shows the development potential of the WNG in low‐speed wind energy collection but also expends the application potential of TENG‐based self‐powered environmental monitoring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European Green Deal and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) ask for a more holistic approach to production and consumption along value chains. The role of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) in supporting policy design and monitoring is then pivotal to achieving policy ambitions. This paper explores the potential support of LCA to EU (European Union) policies and the SDGs, considering also the Planetary Boundaries (PBs) framework. The assessment focuses on (a) the relationship between LCA, the SDGs, and the European Green Deal; (b) the potential use of LCA in support of the monitoring of SDG12 and the environmental impacts of production and consumption; and (c) the relevance of an absolute sustainability dimension, including the integration of the PBs framework in EU policy and the SDGs. Results highlight that the interlinkages between LCA, EU policy, SDGs, and the PBs can be classified as existing, missing, or existing depending on the LCA framework. In general, LCA was identified to strengthen and further enable EU policies toward achieving the SDGs while remaining within the physical limits of the planet. This is because LCA can be a pivotal method to quantify and assess environmental impacts of value chains and consumption patterns, enabling the evaluation of their implication on environment‐related SDGs and assessing them against the PBs. The example of the Consumption Footprint highlights that the concept and Life Cycle Impact Assessment method of an LCA framework can determine the linkage among EU policy, SDGs, and the PBs. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2022;18:1221–1232. © 2022 The Authors. Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Society of Environmental Toxicology & Chemistry (SETAC). Key Points: Life cycle assessment might have a crucial role in addressing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in an integrated manner, linking the modeling of production and consumption with the environmental related goals of the SDGs.Qualitative interlinkages among SDGs could be quantified by implementing a life cycle assessment based framework.Life cycle based indicators resulting from combining product characteristics with consumption intensities are pivotal to monitor evolution of impacts over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: While the number of environmental flows and water science programmes continues to grow across the globe, there remains a critical need to better balance water availability in support of human and ecological needs and to recognise the environment as a legitimate user of water. In water‐stressed areas, this recognition has resulted in friction between water users in the public and private sectors. An opportunity exists for practitioners to be on the forefront of the science determining best practices for supporting environmental water regimes. This Special Issue brings together a collection of environmental flows science and water management papers organised around three major themes: (1) method development and testing; (2) application case studies; and (3) efficacy evaluation. Contents of this Special Issue are intended to foster collaboration and broaden transferability of the information, technical tools, models and methods needed to support environmental water management programmes. The technical sophistication of methods and modelling tools, while important to the advancement of environmental water science, may come at the expense of easily interpretable outcomes that positively influence management decisions. Researchers need to be more proactive in translating the results of advanced modelling methodologies into user‐friendly tools and methods. This will allow stakeholders and water managers to proactively test alternative water allocation scenarios to help address growing human water demands in the face of droughts and changes in climatic patterns. The application of environmental flows science and water management strategies cannot be done in isolation. Implementation involves a complex decision‐making process that integrates ecological, hydrologic and social science across diverse multifaceted governance systems and requires active stakeholder involvement. Scientists and managers must strengthen partnerships at multiple scales to develop sensible science investment strategies so that collective knowledge can be translated into wise environmental water management decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The US offshore wind industry is maturing with several projects in various stages of development. These projects require site wind and environmental data before and during operation. Conventional techniques such as fixed‐bottom meteorological towers present economical and permitting challenges for the US. Floating Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) buoys offer significant advantages including reduced costs, less permitting, and reusability. This paper presents the validation of the first floating LiDAR buoy in Northeast US waters. The buoy, named DeepCLiDAR, includes a LiDAR, ecological monitoring sensors, and metocean sensors. A three‐phase LiDAR validation plan was executed, and its results are presented. The objective of the validation plan was to verify the accuracy of measurements made by the LiDAR buoy in wave environments against an unmoving reference wind measurement. Due to a lack of reference met masts, the use of a LiDAR on land as a baseline reference was implemented for validation. Comparison to a reference LiDAR instead of a traditional meteorological tower was a unique approach required in the Northeast US waters due to the absence of a reference fixed‐bottom meteorological tower in the region at the time of this study. The testing included a comparison of wind speed measurements made by the buoy deployed 15 km offshore from the mainland and a land‐based reference LiDAR located on a nearby island. This paper presents the methodology and results of this program, which indicate favorable agreement. This was the first such validation program in the Northeast USA which is now seeing rapid development of offshore wind. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes a series of proof‐of‐concept Beyond Visual Line Of Sight unmanned aerial vehicle flights which reached a range of up to 9 km and an altitude of 4,410 m Above Mean Sea Level over Volcán de Fuego in Guatemala, interacting with the volcanic plume on multiple occasions across a range of different conditions. Volcán de Fuego is an active volcano which emits gas and ash regularly, causing disruption to airlines operating from the international airport 50 km away and impacting the lives of the local population. Collection of data from within the plume develops scientists' understanding of the composition of the volcano's output and is of use to scientists, aviation, and hazard management groups alike. This paper presents preliminary results of multiple plume interceptions with multiple aircraft, carrying a variety of sensors. A plume‐detection metric is introduced, which uses a combination of flight data and atmospheric sensor data to identify flight through a volcanic plume. Future work will develop the automation of plume tracking such that reliable scientific data sets can be gathered in a robust manner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Monitoring compliance with environmental laws is essential to overcoming possible implementation shortfalls jeopardizing their effectiveness. Besides improving our ecological understanding of wildlife, remote tracking technologies also allow us to take advantage of such ecological knowledge to use wildlife as sentinels of compliance with law.We illustrate this sentinel potential of wildlife using GPS tracking of large scavengers with complementary functional traits (i.e. 21 griffon vultures and 13 wolves) to assess compliance with EU sanitary regulations allowing livestock carcass disposal in the field.Wildlife sentinels allowed the systematic evaluation of 489 livestock carcasses left in the field, which revealed an important mismatch between on‐paper and in‐reality implementation of these regulations. While <45% of the carcasses were placed in authorized areas, compliance with all the criteria required by the regulations on livestock carcass disposal (e.g. from carcass characteristics such as species, age or production system to its location far away from water, buildings or roads) ranged from 0% to 4.2%, with no major differences between regions with uneven implementation.Major gaps in compliance pointed towards insufficient and over‐bureaucratized designation of scavenger feeding zones, where livestock carcass disposal is authorized. The indiscriminate nature of distance criteria from carcasses to watercourses, buildings and infrastructure further affected compliance.Synthesis and applications. GPS‐tagged scavengers allow the on‐ground monitoring of carcasses, the addressing of potential risks for wildlife, livestock and human health, the quantitative assessment of compliance with the law and would improve estimates of carcass availability, substantially contributing to more effective legislation enforcement. Our results show the huge potential of GPS‐tagged wildlife as sentinels for monitoring compliance to enhance the environmental rule of law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deep‐sea biodiversity, a source of critical ecological functions and ecosystem services, is increasingly subject to the threat of disturbance from existing practices (e.g., fishing, waste disposal, oil and gas extraction) as well as emerging industries such as deep‐seabed mining. Current scientific tools may not be adequate for monitoring and assessing subsequent changes to biodiversity. In this paper, we evaluate the scientific and budgetary trade‐offs associated with morphology‐based taxonomy and metabarcoding approaches to biodiversity surveys in the context of nascent deep‐seabed mining for polymetallic nodules in the Clarion‐Clipperton Zone, the area of most intense interest. For the dominant taxa of benthic meiofauna, we discuss the types of information produced by these methods and use cost‐effectiveness analysis to compare their abilities to yield biological and ecological data for use in environmental assessment and management. On the basis of our evaluation, morphology‐based taxonomy is less cost‐effective than metabarcoding but offers scientific advantages, such as the generation of density, biomass, and size structure data. Approaches that combine the two methods during the environmental assessment phase of commercial activities may facilitate future biodiversity monitoring and assessment for deep‐seabed mining and for other activities in remote deep‐sea habitats, for which taxonomic data and expertise are limited. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2022;18:655–663. © 2021 SETAC Key Points: For meiofauna in the Clarion‐Clipperton Zone, morphology‐based taxonomy is less cost‐effective than metabarcoding, but offers scientific advantages, such as the generation of density, biomass, and size structure data.An approach that combines morphological and molecular methods is comparable in cost to morphology‐based taxonomy alone, and may be necessary during initial environmental assessment.Ultimately, metabarcoding may allow for long‐term environmental monitoring in deep‐sea systems that are (1) undersampled and data‐limited; (2) not easily accessible; or (3) dominated by meiofauna‐sized taxa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Power transformer rooms have been gradually installed in residential buildings due to an increasing demand for power supply and space requirement. However, the noise generated by transformers during operation has become a hot topic of complaints. In order to solve the problem of transformer noise pollution and explore the rules of noise for power transformer rooms, a portable noise monitoring system consisting sensor array and a vibration and noise tester is developed in this paper. The noise characteristics of a power transformer room in Guangzhou city are obtained through field tests, which include the time‐domain characteristics, spectrum characteristics, and A‐weighted sound level characteristics. Results show that the frequency component of noises is stable, but the amplitude varies. The sound pressure of the power transformer room has obvious periodicity and the amplitude is 0.1–0.2 Pa. The dominant noise frequency is fixed at 300 Hz. According to different positions, the A‐weighted sound level is distributed between 55 and 65 dB. The research is not only of great help to formulate transformer noise assessment methods, but also of great significance to improve people's living environment and ensure power system's reliable operation. © 2021 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by Wiley Periodicals LLC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Specific recognition of ultratrace levels of ions in semi-water using super-quicker methods is still a challenge for environmental monitoring. Herein we report a fluorescent and colormetric sensor ( ZH) based on supramolecular self-assembly, whose structure was destroyed by the addition of ultratrace of silver ions. The process promoted either naked eye visible color changes or fluorescence intensity quenched in conjunction with a wide pH range. Systematic studies revealed very high selectivity (0.07 µmol/L) for silver ions, and other common cations, e.g., Hg2+, Cu2+, Cd2+, Pb2+ had nearly no influence on the sensing behavior. This sensor also served as a multiple use of component in sensing materials by addition of I− into the mixture of ZH and Ag+ (about 5 times). What's more, ZH containing filter paper emerged distinct color and fluorescence changes upon exposure to silver (Ag+), which could be used as a portable method to undertake field testing for Ag +. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The past decade has seen the development and overall acceptance of the concept of Integrated Flood Risk Management. This approach strives to balance positive and negative effects of riverine floods and combines it with risk management concepts. In practice, this has led to a diversification of flood management practices that go beyond traditional structural flood protection measures towards non-structural measures. These include giving more space for rivers, backwards location of dykes, re-naturalisation of flood plains and a suite of improved information systems including improved flood forecasting services, promoting flood risk awareness and self-help capabilities. The paper describes in some detail the process of benchmarking to support effective planning, implementation and monitoring of integrated flood risk management activities that require a set of quantifiable measures, against which progress in flood risk management can be referenced. The case of the extreme Elbe River floods in 2002 and 2013 triggered the development and implementation of the Elbe Flood Protection - Action Plan that in large parts has been implemented. The paper shows the basic concepts of the Elbe Flood Protection Plan and its actions and puts these in the context of a benchmarking framework. The paper concludes that although elements of a benchmarking concept are outlined in the Action Plan, the establishment of benchmarking practices as a tool in flood risk management is in its infancy. The development of a consistent benchmarking procedure would have the potential to improve further the effectiveness of Integrated Flood Risk Management practices in national and international river basins. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Industrial growth, technological development, and increased human activities for comfort and luxurious life increase different environmental parameters like temperature, humidity, carbon monoxide, methane, and smoke. The value of these parameters are increasing steadily which has adverse effects on human life and human health and is also the cause of various disease like cancers and lung disease. It is now essential to monitor the environmental parameters of a region frequently. For the automatic continuous monitoring of environmental parameters of any location, this paper proposes to use vehicular ad hoc network (VANET), which is one of the promising subclasses of mobile ad hoc network (MANET). Automatic monitoring of environmental parameters of any location includes measurement of environmental parameters of a location, transmission of environmental parameters from the measured location to the observation center, and analysis of the parameters at the observation center. Two aspects are discussed for the transmission of parameters from the location of measurement to the observation center: first by vehicular communication and second by vehicular cloud. The analysis of the environmental parameters at the observation center is done using probabilistic neural network (PNN). Apart from this, different generic network parameters like end‐to‐end delay, number of hops, and network gaps for the proposed work are computed for the transmission of different environmental parameters and is compared with different VANET routing protocols like geographic source routing (GSR), anchor‐based street and traffic‐aware routing (A‐STAR), and peripheral node‐based geographic distance routing (P‐GEDIR). Vehicular motion is created using Simulation of Urban MObility (SUMO), and the network parameter values, like end‐to‐end delay and number of hops, are obtained using OMNET++. A testbed experiment is conducted for the classification of sensor data which is adoptable in practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SUMMARY Wireless sensor and actuator networks (WSANs) for environmental disaster scenarios are considered in this paper. A fully independent and autonomous WSAN system that is able to detect and extinguish a fire in a burning wildland area is proposed. Although forest fire detection is a classical application for sensor networks, in this paper, this research area is extended, taking into account actuators and their ability to put out fire in the presence of measurement inaccuracy and network degradation. A system architecture is proposed, modelled and discussed. An extensive set of computer simulations analysing the system performance is reported. The presented results show the efficiency of fire-fighting actions depending on the sensors' density and the actuators' mobility. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]