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• Ecological restoration is not just an environmental issue and it is a societal problem. This paper analyzes ecological restoration and its impact on society in coal resource-based areas, focusing on the Ruhr region in Germany and Liulin County in China. Through the analysis and comparison, the study not only reveals the unique ecology-social system and explain the reasons for dependence on coal, but the finding shows that industrial transformation is a key factor in determining ecological restoration of coal resource-based regions. • The industries abandoned by the Ruhr area were taken over by China. Shanxi Province is very similar to the Ruhr area in terms of ecological destruction and social development at that time. The Ruhr region has become one of the most polluted areas in the world due to its coal and steel industry. After nearly 40 years of arduous practice, ecological governance and economic transformation in the Ruhr area achieved initial success. • Shanxi Province in China is a hub for energy and heavy chemical industries, and it ranks first in coal production nationally.. The Liulin county is located in the west of Shanxi Province, it is a typical coal mining subsidence and is scattered with numerous villages affected by subsidence due to coal mining. Shanxi Province and the Liulin county is undergoing difficult industrial transformation. • The author of this work visited the Duisburg-Essen University for a year, located in the Ruhr area of Germany, and learned about the ER and transformation in the Ruhr. When the author returned to China, she conducted field research for a two-month survey in Liulin County. Therefore, the author collected a large amount of literature ,data sources and gained practical experiences in these two areas. The coal resource-based areas rely on coal resources and primary processing as their pillar industries, such as the old industrial areas in China and Germany. Long-term, large-scale coal mining has significantly damaged the ecological environment of mining areas. Environmental restoration refers to repairing, rehabilitating, or revitalizing ecosystems that have been degraded, damaged, or destroyed by human activities or natural disasters. In fact, ecological restoration is not just an environmental issue and it is a societal problem. Ecological restoration is closely linked to natural resources, the environment, the economy, society, and politics. These factors form a social ecological system and it is the basis for local stability and sustainable development in the coal resource-based areas. In this process, the relationship between government, enterprise, and local people is constantly being reshaped and defined, then it causes changes in the local social ecology and political ecology. The paper researches the Ruhr area in Germany and the Liulin County in China, the former is a world-famous old industrial and the latter is a typical coal mining subsidence district. By analyzing and comparing the ecological restoration and significant social changes in the Ruhr area and the Liulin County at different periods, the findings show the unique ecology— social system of the coal resource-based area, then enhances the effective measures for ecological restoration and sustainable development of the coal resource-based areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how perceived social equity (distributional equity, procedural equity, and recognitional equity) affects acceptance of protected areas by local communities. We also consider the consequences of these perceptions on the behaviour of local people in relation to biodiversity conservation. Despite increasing importance being given to social issues in protected area management, there is limited evidence about the effect of perceived equity on local support for conservation initiatives. Questionnaires (mostly face-to-face interviews) were undertaken with 426 households living in and around the Giant Panda National Park, which lies across the Sichuan, Shanxi and Gansu provinces of China. Structural equation modelling revealed that local residents with positive perceptions of procedural and distributional equity were more willing to support conservation and engage in conservation behaviours. Surprisingly, perceived recognitional equity had no effect on acceptance and negatively impacted conservation behaviour. This highlights that, although it is essential to promote recognitional equity, the complexities around this must be considered further. The context (e.g. age, education, village of residence) moderates the relationships between procedural equity, distributional equity and local acceptance. We suggest that, in order to achieve better park-people relationships, in addition to addressing equity concerns, it is also necessary to implement supplementary measures, such as community co-management and benefit sharing with host communities. • Procedural and distributional equity facilitate acceptance of protected areas. • Recognitional equity has an intricate relationship with local support. • Perceived justice tends to be non-linear in relation to local support. • The location of communities influences local pro-conservation behaviours. • There is a need for a better understanding of the equity-acceptance relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Water resources system has multi-link characteristics. • The resilience evaluation index system of water resources system is constructed. • The resilience of regional water resources system is evaluated. • The temporal and spatial evolution characteristics of resilience are analyzed. As environmental and human changes combine, water shortage and ecological fragility are becoming increasingly serious issues in the basin. The national "14th Five-Year Plan" proposes to build resilient basins to enhance disaster resilience. On the basis of clarifying the multi-link characteristics of water resources system resilience under the influence of meteorology-hydrology-ecology-society-economy, this paper reveals the interrelationship and chain reaction among the factors affecting the resilience of water resources system by clarifying the multi-link characteristics of water resources system resilience. Based on the interconnections among meteorology-hydrology-engineering-economic society-ecology in regional water resources systems, this study constructs a resilience evaluation index for the water resources system. The index considers different objectives, dimensions, and scales to provide a comprehensive assessment of the system's resilience. Based on the multi-dimensional relationship of the evaluation index system, the TOPSIS (Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution) method based on entropy weight method is employed to depict the resilience level of the water resources system at varying spatial and temporal scales. By focusing on Shanxi Province as the research subject, a multi-link evaluation framework for assessing the resilience of the water resources system is established, and a quantitative approach to evaluate its resilience is investigated. The results show that the level of water resources resilience in Shanxi Province has improved from 2017 to 2021, and there are certain spatial and temporal differences. In 2021, only Lvliang City and Yangquan City have low resilience level, and the resilience level of other cities has been improved. Among them, Taiyuan City has the highest resilience level of 0.56, which belongs to the high resilience level. The research results can improve the cognitive level of multi-link evolution mechanism of resilience to a certain extent, and provide scientific basis for multi-dimensional targeted regulation of water resources system resilience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]