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Most Indian cities restrict access to green spaces due to the fast growth of urban gray spaces. The dynamic convergences of these two spaces could enhance city-level land degradation. This issue is rarely studied in Indian cities, however. This study seeks to examine the interactive nature of urban green (V) and gray (U) spaces and to model land degradation susceptibility (LDS) in Balurghat City, India. Decade-wise remote sensing data are analyzed to understand city statutory level transformation, alteration of different land-use types, and city grid-level U–V interaction scenarios. Identified LDS parameters such as soil organic carbon content (SOCC), land productivity dynamics (LPD), vegetation dynamics (Vdynamics), and urban developed land dynamics (Udynamics) are modeled using the analytical hierarchy process method. The structural equation model evaluates the current model fitting. Results show a steady increase in U concentration conversion per grid (by reducing V) from 2000 to 2020, suggesting the dynamic situation of U and V in the city. The model-fitting statistics show that the SOCC strongly influences LDS, followed by Vdynamics, Udynamics, and LPD. The significance of this study remains in its methodological framework, identified city-level LDS drivers, and approaches to evaluate urban V and U in a spatiotemporal frame. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A pneumonia outbreak was primarily reported in the fall of 2019 in Wuhan, Hubei province, China, with the identity SARS-CoV-2, a novel coronavirus. It quickly grew from a local epidemic to a global pandemic and was declared a public health emergency by the WHO. A total of three prominent waves were identified across the globe, with a slight temporal variability as per the geographical locations, and has impacted several sectors which connect the world. By March 2022, the coronavirus had infected 444.12 million people and claimed 6.01 million human lives worldwide, and these numbers have not yet stabilized. Our paper enlightens readers on the seven strains of human coronaviruses, with special emphasis on the three severe deadliest outbreaks (SARS-2002, MERS-2012, and COVID-19). This work attempts a comprehensive understanding of the coronavirus and its impact on the possible sectors that link the world through the economic chain, climate conditions, SDGs, recycling of the event, and mitigations. There are many points that are raised by the authors in the possible sectors, which are emerging or are as yet unnoticed and thus have not been taken into consideration. This comprehension will leave sets of new challenges and opportunities for the researchers in various streams, especially in earth sciences. Science-integrated research may help to prevent upcoming disasters as a by-product of (existing) epidemics in the form of coronavirus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]