Search

The bioeconomy model provides an alternative view of global economic systems by putting sustainable practices combined with digital approaches at the forefront to tackle issues such as climate change. To address this new business trends, financial institutions began to set up the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) business units to evaluate their business strategies. This paper is aimed at examining the nonfinancial effect created by the digital transformation (DT) activities, highlighting the role of enterprise heterogeneity after the implementation of Environmental Protection Law (EPL) in China. We employ the panel data of A-share listed companies from 2010 to 2020, selecting DT and ESG indicators as the important representations of "Industry 5.0." Our empirical results demonstrate a positive impact of EPL on the ESG performance in sight of resource enterprises (REs), environmental enterprises (EEs), and polluting enterprises (PEs), but a negative impact of EPL on the DT indicators among those environmental related industries. Additional causal relationship regression reveals that enterprise DT has an intrinsic promoting effect on the ESG performance, emphasizing on the high risk of digitization process being the shock transmitters to enterprise nonfinancial indices. Notably, the connectedness of environmental policy illustrates dynamic patterns by parallel trend test and propensity score matching (PSM) DID regression. This paper is prone to benefit lawmakers, regulators, and firm executives responsible for analyzing and assessing enterprise digitization behavior by exploring the influence of macrolevel environmental policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Turkey has been one of the earliest participants of the international climate policy process, since the Ministerial Conference on Atmospheric Pollution and Climate Change held in 1989. The country has prepared strategy documents, actions plans, sectoral policies, and projects to detect and adapt climate change effects. However, any of this has not turned into a main plan to support climate change mitigation on an international scale. The purpose of this paper is to identify local climate change mitigation strategies of Sakarya city, Turkey, by strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis. For this purpose, relevant information were gathered from Covenant of Mayors, greenhouse gas inventories of the city, National Energy Efficiency Action Plan, online workshop with 44 local stakeholders from private sector and local universities held on 13.10.2020. The results emphasized the importance of the cross-link between local adaptation and mitigation in terms of energy demand and energy-based emissions on national and international scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we present a nonlinear deterministic mathematical model for malaria transmission dynamics incorporating climatic variability as a factor. First, we showed the limited region and nonnegativity of the solution, which demonstrate that the model is biologically relevant and mathematically well-posed. Furthermore, the fundamental reproduction number was determined using the next-generation matrix approach, and the sensitivity of model parameters was investigated to determine the most affecting parameter. The Jacobian matrix and the Lyapunov function are used to illustrate the local and global stability of the equilibrium locations. If the fundamental reproduction number is smaller than one, a disease-free equilibrium point is both locally and globally asymptotically stable, but endemic equilibrium occurs otherwise. The model exhibits forward and backward bifurcation. Moreover, we applied the optimal control theory to describe the optimal control model that incorporates three controls, namely, using treated bed net, treatment of infected with antimalaria drugs, and indoor residual spraying strategy. The Pontryagin's maximum principle is introduced to obtain the necessary condition for the optimal control problem. Finally, the numerical simulation of optimality system and cost-effectiveness analysis reveals that the combination of treated bed net and treatment is the most optimal and least-cost strategy to minimize the malaria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Human activities are directly related to fossil fuel consumption and cause global warming and climate change effects by emitting greenhouse gas into the lower atmosphere. To reduce and adapt to such effects, renewable energy sources such as surface dams, including hydroelectric energy (HE) generation units, are gaining importance. In the current literature, HE potential calculations are based on formulations that are quite simple, clear and do not distinguish between different situations. In this paper, two classification methodologies are proposed for better assessment of HE production. The first one is based on the concept of the hypsographic curve to distinguish different drainage basin features into "Young," "Mature" and "Old." The second classification takes into account the newly defined energy index (EI) principle, which helps to classify the HE generation capability of drainage basins into "Very low," "Low," "Normal," "High" and "Very high." The application of the proposed methodology is presented for three drainage basins from the upstream sub‐basins of the Tigris River in Turkey. A comparison of the results shows that the proposed methodologies not only give numerical values but also sets linguistically rational and logical rules for the HE potential of a drainage basin. In the upstream basin of the Tigris River, the EI values vary between 0.705 and 0.122, corresponding to the "High" and "Low" categories, respectively. It is recommended that these two classification procedures be considered before the construction of any dam for HE production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water level (WL) forecasting has become a difficult undertaking due to spatiotemporal fluctuations in climatic factors and complex physical processes. This paper proposes a novel hybrid machine learning model based on an artificial neural network (ANN) and the Marine Predators algorithm (MPA) for modeling monthly water levels of the Tigris River in Al-Kut, Iraq. Data preprocessing techniques are employed to enhance data quality and determine the optimal input model. Historical data for water level and climatic factors data are utilized from 2011 to 2020 to build and assess the model. MPA-ANN algorithm's performance is compared with recent constriction coefficient-based particle swarm optimization and chaotic gravitational search algorithm (CPSOCGSA-ANN) and slime mold algorithm (SMA-ANN) to reduce uncertainty and raise the prediction range. The finding demonstrated that singular spectrum analysis is a highly effective method to denoise time series. MPA-ANN outperformed CPSOCGSA-ANN and SMA-ANN algorithms based on different statistical criteria. The suggested novel methodology offers good results with scatter index (SI) = 0.0009 and coefficient of determination (R2 = 0.98). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alpine glaciers are vulnerable to climate changes, and their recession due to warming has already induced a large number of geohazards closely related to the glacial motion, such as debris flow. Strong coupling of the geology, geomorphology, climate, and glacial action controls the type, size, development, and frequency of debris flow along the Parlung Zangbo River, Southeastern (SE) Tibetan Plateau. Field investigation in recent years indicates that the north bank is prone to much more frequenter debris flows than the south bank. The sharp contrast between the two river banks is due to the different formation conditions of debris flows, especially glaciers and geomorphology. The present paper examines the differences in the glacier and geomorphology conditions for glacier-related debris flows to occur, through a combination of field investigation, interviews with local residents, and geomorphological parameter, and glacier distribution analysis in the ArcGIS platform. The result indicates that, compared to the south bank of the Parlung River, the north bank has more favorable conditions in the glacier and geomorphology south, which is more conducive to the occurrence of debris flow. In conclusion, three kinds of mechanisms due to different formation conditions, especially glacier and geomorphology, are analyzed. The glacier-related debris flows on the south and north banks occur through different mechanisms due to different formation conditions. The debris flows on the north bank primarily occur in modes I and III, while the south bank is dominated by modes II and III debris flows. Based on the result, effective measures are proposed for mitigating damage to roads and railways within this area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Recently, due to climate change and global warming, carbon free power generation is becoming important. Among various heat sources to replace fossil fuels, a Molten Salt Reactor (MSR) can be a successful alternative power source. The MSR uses liquid nuclear fuel instead of solid fuel which enables to have high power density, compact size, and inherent safety features. The MSR Experiment (MSRE) which was conducted by Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) had demonstrated these possibilities. However, since the MSRE focused on the nuclear reactor design and operation rather than generating electricity, many issues are still needed to be addressed to fully evaluate potential of an MSR. One of the key issues is to calculate the optimal pinch temperature range of the primary and secondary heat exchangers of the MSR heat transport system. Thus, in this study, to calculate the optimal pinch temperature range of the heat exchangers of the MSR heat transport system, heat transport system, and power conversion system for MSRE are designed conceptually. A Plate Fin type Heat Exchanger (PFHE) is newly suggested and evaluated in this paper for MSR heat transport system application to achieve high compactness and satisfactory performance. Furthermore, to calculate the optimal pinch temperature range from an economic point of view, a PFHE annual cost model is utilized to estimate the cost of PFHE with respect to the pinch temperature. An optimal pinch temperature range is recommended from the study for the early design phase of MSR, which is 5 ~ 15 K. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of rapid urbanization, the reduction of urban ecological land area, space chaos, and fragmentation have led to a series of climate and environmental problems. This paper takes the ecological patches of the urban climate environment compensation space as the research object and establishes several urban canopy models of several cases based on geographic information data. Then, we input them into the mesoscale WRF-UCM model and simulate after loading the meteorological data to derive the meteorological indicators of each case, quantitatively analyze the meteorological conditions in the ecological patch boundaries with different surface attributes, and conduct research on the "quality-efficiency" correspondence of the physical characteristics of the ecological patches and the spillover effects of climate regulation. Studies have shown that the highest surface temperature difference between water patches and patches with other attributes ∆ Tsk is up to 6.5°C in winter and 11.5°C in summer. The highest temperature difference at a somatosensory height of 2 meters ∆ T 2 is up to 2.0°C in winter and 3.0°C in summer, which can improve the surrounding environment. Under light wind conditions, water patches will have a positive spillover effect within 5.5 km of the downwind direction. Based on the data, an optimization strategy for the spatial pattern of urban ecological patches is proposed: the best distribution of water patches that are beneficial to the climate adjustment of Wuhan in winter and summer is in the north or northeast of the city, followed by the south or southwest. The north and northeast of the city should keep the woodland patches and reduce the setting of vegetation/arable land and wetland patches. This research is an interdisciplinary study of urban spatial planning that adapts to climate change, to supplement the deficiencies of urban planning theory, and to provide guidance for the promotion of green and ecological city construction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the most important and continuously growing research areas in marine ecology is assessing the sustainability of ecosystems. The concept is traditionally approached by quantifying different anthropogenic pressures, such as top-down effects, overexploitation, invasive species, overfishing, and pollution. However, this perspective has been criticized for its inability to capture the complex interactions between natural factors (such as climate change), human factors, and sociopolitical factors that shape ecosystems. In this paper, we present a new structural model for assessing the sustainability of marine ecosystems, PCA-DEA-based model, as an extension to current models that incorporates these key interfaces into dynamic system modeling by including trade-offs on horizontal scales (e.g., decision making). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The most significant global challenge is global climate change; carbon emission reduction and carbon neutralization are the last way to solve global climate change. Achieving carbon neutrality will significantly impact the global economy and the national economy. The "dual carbon goals" proposed by China will also substantially impact the global economy and regional economic development. Focusing on regional economic development, achieving carbon neutrality is not only an opportunity for regional economic development but also a challenge. To achieve the goal of carbon neutrality, there must be institutional innovation and management innovation, which will provide new opportunities for balanced development among regions. With the development of inclusive finance, financial services for many disadvantaged groups and small and medium-sized enterprises have been further developed, thereby promoting economic development. With the development of Internet finance, big data, cloud computing, and other technologies, the development of inclusive finance, etc., the concept has also emerged. However, due to the short time of digital financial inclusion, the imperfect regulatory system, and the low degree of public participation, it is worth investigating whether the development of digital financial inclusion has a catalytic effect on the improvement of economic growth. Using the data of 31 provinces to build a panel regression model, this paper studies the market development, the development degree of digital financial inclusion, and the impact of digital financial inclusion on the relationship between factor markets and product markets and regions from the perspective of factor markets and product markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alpine wetlands in western Sichuan plateau (WSCP) are located on the eastern edge of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP), where the ecological environment is very sensitive to global climate change. Being naturally driven coupled with unreasonable human development activities, alpine wetlands have experienced serious ecological and environmental issues such as drought, inversion, and desertification. However, due to the limitations of data sources and calculation models, it is impossible for us to deeply understand the change mechanism and spatial difference of the ecological environment of the alpine wetland (EEAW) in previous studies. In view of this, an innovative approach for monitoring the EEAW change has been proposed in this paper. We employ the approach to perform the EEAW change trend analysis, and some meaningful characteristics were founded. Specifically, it includes the fol1owing aspects. The air temperature increase is relatively significant, while the precipitation change has obvious spatial differentiation, and even some region's precipitation experienced a decrease especially in plot1. In Haizishan, Lugu Lake, and Bari Lake, we explored an interesting phenomenon that the precipitation increases first and then decrease, and the turning point occurred around 1999. Increases in air temperature and evaporation have aggravated the drought in high-latitude areas. The drought situation has been alleviated in high-altitude areas due to the acceleration of snow melt water. Wetland vegetation and biomass presented an overall increasing trend, but the degradation also occurs in some area, including Zoige and Lugu Lake area. The human activity disturbances of wetland degradation mainly include the settlements expansion, agricultural development, and the ecotourism prosperity. Among them, targeted poverty alleviation projects have accelerated the urbanization in WSCP, and the development of agriculture and tourism has increased the interference of wetlands. Additionally, we have used Landsat images and national wetland survey data (1999, 2013, and 2020 year) from the past two decades to verify the EEAW trend and confirm the reliability of the analysis results using this approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper shows the effects of changes in the spatial-temporal behavior and phase shift of climate variables on rainfed agriculture in the Lerma-Chapala-Santiago Basin in central Mexico. Specifically, changes in rainfall (R), maximum temperature (Tmax), and minimum temperature (Tmin) were analyzed over two 25-year periods (1960 to 1985 and 1986 to 2010). Climate surfaces were generated by interpolation using the thin-plate smoothing spline algorithm in the software ANUSPLIN. Climate data were Fourier-transformed and fitted to a sinusoidal curve model, and changes in amplitude (increase) and phase were analyzed. The temporal behavior (1960–2010) indicated that rainfall was the most stable variable at the monthly level and presented no significant changes. However, Tmax increased by 2°C in the final period, and Tmin increased by 0.7°C at the end of the final period. The basin was discretized into ten rainfed crop areas (RCAs) according to the extent of changes in the amplitude and phase of the climate variables. The central and southern portions (55% of the area) presented more significant changes in amplitude, mainly in Tmin and Tmax. The remaining RCAs were smaller (14.6%) but presented greater variation: the amplitude of the Tmin decreased in addition to showing a phase shift, whereas Tmax increased in addition to showing a phase shift. These results translate into a delay in the characteristic temperatures of the spring and summer seasons, which can impact the rainfed crop cycle. Additionally, rainfall showed an annual decrease of approximately 50 mm in all RCAs, which can affect the phenological development of crops during critical stages (emergence through flowering). These changes represent a significant threat to the regional economy and food security of Mexico. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climatic conditions play a major role in wine production. Given the increasing impacts and risks posed by climate change, it is important to understand the effects it will have on the wine sector and different wine-producing regions worldwide. This study provides an in-depth examination of the scientific discourse on wine and climate change from 2000 to 2022 by conducting a bibliometric analysis of the literature published on the Web of Science database, which included 1,314 publications. The use of quantitative and qualitative methods allows us to investigate how research has evolved over the years. Our analysis uncovers the most productive countries, institutions, and journals leading the research in this domain, while emphasising the multifaceted approach to studying wine and climate change. Nevertheless, numerous research areas are yet to be adequately explored. Through co-citation analysis and bibliographic coupling, we identify dominant thematic clusters in previous and current scientific literature and reveal emerging research trajectories in this field. The main thematic clusters found include the assessment of climate change effects on viticultural regions worldwide, climate change's impact on grape composition, and the impact on grape phenology. Our results can be useful not only to understand the main themes studied until now but also to orientate researchers towards less explored aspects and disciplines in scientific research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: The performance of the Photovoltaic (PV) system is highly affected by fluctuating climatic conditions. Due to these changing climatic conditions, the irradiance diminishes, and it results in the non‐linearity in voltage‐power (P‐V) curves of the PV system. Therefore, it is one of the reasons for the occurrence of the multiple peaks on P‐V curves instead of a single peak. Therefore, it is challenging to track the global maximum power point tracking (MPPT) under these circumstances with traditional MPPT techniques viz. perturb and observe (P&O) and fuzzy logic control (FLC). Concerning global MPP tracking, this paper proposes a novel MPPT method based on a Rao‐1 optimization algorithm. The proposed algorithm is used to overcome the drawbacks of the classical P&O, FLC, and PSO based MPPT techniques under partical shading conditions (PSCs) and rapidly changing atmospheric conditions viz. slow convergence speed and oscillation around the MPP. The proposed MPPT tracks the global MPP under any abnormal conditions like PSCs. To show the efficiency of the proposed MPPT a comparative assessment is performed with well‐established MPPT methods in the literature. The simulation results witnessed that the proposed MPPT is more superior in improving the PV system performance under normal as well as under PSCs. The proposed MPPT over the PSO technique decreases the tracking time by 72.7% for pattern 1, 29.8% for pattern 2, 66.7% for pattern 3, 61.9% for pattern 5, 27.8% for pattern 6, and improves the tracking efficiency in all shading patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: This present paper considers a novel strategy for energy management and intelligent power control of a stand‐alone electric generation system (EGS). The considered system consists of a wind energy conversion system, which contains a wind turbine with permanent magnet synchronous generator associated with a battery storage system and a direct current (DC) load. According to different climatic changes, load variations, and battery state of charge, the considered EGS is studied as a switched and uncertain nonlinear system. The main control objectives are, first, to regulate the wind power generation to satisfy the required power and second, to maintain the battery state of charge within a certain limits to extend its life cycle. Thus, a strategy of energy management is proposed based on different modes of system operation. Furthermore, a neural network‐based integral sliding mode controller (NN‐ISMC) is developed, as a robust and intelligent control method, to satisfy the reference power of each operation areas and to improve the robustness and the stability of such stand‐alone system under high perturbations and external disturbances. The analytical stability of the proposed approach is demonstrated and assured using Lyapunov function method. In addition, the simulation results, realized using Matlab software, show that the suggested NN‐ISMC control strategy ensures faster transient response and smaller steady‐state error performances, compared to the other presented methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While winegrowers usually want to achieve consistent yield targets, there is a high degree of yield and price (and hence gross revenue) variability in winegrape production. The aim of this study was to determine whether there are differences in yield and revenue variability across climates, varieties, and regions in Australia. This was performed by estimating statistical models of the impact of these three variables on the coefficient of variation of yield and gross revenue per hectare. The results suggest that hotter and drier regions exhibit lower interannual yield variability, something that in the past may have been largely explained by the use of irrigation, but which may change in the future with climate change and higher water prices. The results also showed that there are sometimes differences in yield and revenue variability, not only across regions, but also between varieties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction. According to the Global Climate Risk Index, Pakistan is ranked as the fifth-most vulnerable country to climate change. Most recently, during June-August 2022, heavy torrential rains coupled with riverine, urban, and flash flooding led to an unprecedented disaster in Pakistan. Around thirty-three million people were affected by the floods. More than 2 million houses were damaged, leaving approximately 8 million displaced and approximately 600,000 people in relief camps. Among those, 8.2 million women and 16 million children are the worst affected, with many requiring urgent medical and reproductive healthcare. To plan an efficient healthcare program and a climate-resilient health system, it is crucial to understand the issues that the affected people face during floods. Methodology. This rapid assessment included the population in the most severely affected districts across the four provinces of Pakistan. A mixed methods approach using qualitative and quantitative techniques was utilized. A total of 52 qualitative, in-depth interviews were conducted with community-level healthcare providers, national and provincial government departments, and development partners involved in relief activities. Using a structured questionnaire, the quantitative cross-sectional survey was conducted with a final sample of 422 women, married and unmarried (15-49 years old), residing in the relief camps in the flood-affected areas. The outcome variable of the survey was the access to sexual and reproductive health services faced by the women in the flood-affected districts. Data collection took place four months postfloods during Nov-Dec 2022, while the data analysis was conducted between Dec 2022 and Jan 2023. The quantitative data was analyzed using SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) version 20, and qualitative data was analyzed using NVivo 12. Ethical consent was sought from all the participants. Ethical approval was also sought from the ethics committee of the Health Services Academy, Government of Pakistan. Results. The findings indicated that, overall, all the provinces were unprepared for a calamity of such a large magnitude. Access to services and health data reporting from the flood-affected areas was challenging mainly due to a shortage of trained health workforce because of the displacement of a large volume of the health workforce. Overall, equipment, medicines, supplies, and food were scarce. Women residing in the camps were markedly affected, and 84% (375) were not satisfied with the flood relief services provided to them. The floods impacted their monthly income as 30% (132) of respondents started depending on charity postfloods. Almost 77% (344) reported limited access to sexual and reproductive health services and had yet to receive sanitary, hygiene, and delivery kits, while 69% (107 out of 154) of girls stopped schooling postfloods. Almost 77% (112) of the married women reported having a child less than one year of age. Yet, only 30% (44 out of 144 currently married women) were using any form of family planning method—damage to the health facilities affected access to overall maternal care services. Conclusion. The findings concluded that there was no planning for sexual and reproductive health services in the flood-affected areas. Several barriers were identified. The government and development partners needed to prepare to cater to women's needs during the floods. The findings highlight the need for collaborative efforts between the government, civil society, and development partners to address the challenges faced in disaster management and strengthen disaster management capacity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The urban blue-green space landscape ecology is an important component that supports the urban landscape ecosystem. In this study, a combination model of the grey system theory (GST), analytic hierarchy process (AHP), and technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) was used to construct criteria layers from the following four aspects: green space vegetation coverage, ecosystem diversity, air and water quality, social participation, and health. The GST method was employed to screen evaluation indicators, the AHP method was used to calculate the weight of each indicator, and finally, TOPSIS was applied for weighted ranking to verify the scientific and rationality of the evaluation system. The results indicated the following: (1) out of 36 indicator factors, 10 were not selected through the GST method; (2) the weight ranking of the criteria layer was as follows, from highest to lowest: D 2 ecosystem diversity 0.4816 > D 1 green space vegetation coverage 0.2608 > D 3 air and water quality 0.1864 > D 4 social participation and health 0.0713; and (3) the relative closeness and ranking of different regions in Jinan city were as follows: Da Ming Hu area > Shan Da Lu area > Gu Cheng area > Shang Bu area. This study can help avoid decision-making errors caused by subjective factors and provide new approaches for the assessment of the ecological health of urban blue-green space landscapes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has been two decades since the cold seeps were firstly found in the Okinawa Trough (OT). The scientific cruises and the geological surveys since then have unveiled the currently active submarine methane seeps and significantly improved the understanding of methane seeps in the back-arc basin of the OT. In this paper, we review the up-to-date progress of the research of methane seepages then put forward the promising, yet challenging, outlook by listing the unsolved questions of the cold seeps in the OT. Multiple approaches and techniques, including seismic and echo-sounder recording, dredging, gravity-piston and ROV coring, seafloor drilling, and isotopic and microarray-based genomic analysis, have been used to reveal the geological processes responsible for the seeping activities and the biogeochemical processes related to them. The geophysical signature associated with gas seeps mainly includes the acoustic turbidity in the subsurface, the anomaly of the backscattering intensity at the seabed, and the gas plumes observed in the water column. Pore water and methane-derived authigenic carbonate archive the intensification of methane seepage and the paleoenvironment changes at different time scales. The methane feeding of the seeps in the OT was generated mostly via the microbially mediated process and has an origin mixed by thermogenic hydrocarbon gas in the middle OT. Sulfate-driven and Fe-driven anaerobic oxidations of methane are suggested to be the key biogeochemical processes, which would shape the material cycling in the seeping environment. The future research on the cold seeps in the OT is worth looking forward to due to its geographic and potential geologic links with the nearby hydrothermal activities. Multidisciplinary studies are expected to concentrate on their link with the undiscovered gas hydrates, the amount of methane transferring into the oceans and its impact on the climatic change, and the evolution of the seeping activities accompanied by the biogeochemical processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Optical remote sensing imagery is at the core of many Earth observation activities. Many applications take use of the satellite data's regular, consistent, and global‐scale characteristics, such as farmland monitoring, climate change assessment, land‐cover, and land‐use categorization, and catastrophe assessment. Optical remote sensing images, on the other hand, are frequently impacted by clouds during the collection process, resulting in reduced image clarity, which impairs feature assessment and future usage, and heavy cloud blockage renders the surface information below totally useless. In this paper, We propose a soft attention recurrent neural module based on an encoder‐decoder network, which can solve the cloud occlusion problem. We also propose an adaptive padding convolution at the end of the decoder by taking into account the spatial information, which results in better declouding predictions, and our network achieves good results on the RICE1 and RICE2 data sets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research aimed to evaluate the effects of climate change on the hydrology and water quality in the Akaki catchment, which provides water to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. This was performed using the soil and water assessment tool (SWAT) model and an ensemble of four global climate models under two Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSP) emission scenarios from Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6). The climate data were downscaled and bias-corrected using the CMhyd tool and calibrated and validated using the SWAT-CUP software package. Change points and patterns in annual rainfall and temperature were determined using the homogeneity test and Mann–Kendell trend test. Water quality data were obtained from Addis Ababa Water and Sewerage Authority (AAWSA), and more samples were taken and analyzed in accordance with APHA recommended procedures. The SWAT model output was then used to assess the impacts of climate change on hydrological components and water quality. Rainfall increased by 19.39 mm/year under SSP2-4.5 and 12.8 mm/year under SSP8.5. Maximum temperature increased by 0.03°C/yr for SSP2-4.5 and 0.04°C/yr for SSP5-8.5. Minimum temperature increased by 0.03°C/yr under SSP2-4.5 and 0.07°C/yr under SSP5-8.5. This warming will augment the evapotranspiration rate which in turn will have a negative impact on the freshwater availability. Streamflow will increase by 5% under SSP2-4.5 and 9.49% under SSP5-85 which may increase sporadic flooding events. Climate change is expected to contribute to the deterioration of water quality shown by 61%, 36%, 79%, 115%, and 70% increased ammonia, chlorophyll-a, nitrite, nitrate, and phosphorus loadings, respectively, from 2022. The increase in temperature results in increases in nutrient loading and a decrease in dissolved oxygen. Overall, this research demonstrated the vulnerability of the catchment to climate change. The findings of this research can offer vital knowledge to policymakers on possible strategies for the sustainable management of water. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although vertical shoot positioned (VSP) training systems, either cane- or spur-pruned, are adopted in the great majority of the vineyards worldwide, the lianas nature of the grapevine and the presence of long and flexible canes confer high plasticity and render structural and pruning changes quite easy. The focus of this review is if, in light of the most consistent features triggered by global warming (e.g., longer growing season, earlier phenology, faster ripening, higher incidence of overheating stress and sunburn, higher frequency of extreme weather events), the type and management of training systems should also be reconsidered. We surveyed the main methods to assess training system efficiency and the current attempts and outlook toward exploiting the training system as an adaptation tool to climate change. For the latter, we considered 12 main trellis types and scored them based on climate-related features and general traits such as vigor, yield control, susceptibility to fungal diseases, and suitability according to wine types (still or sparkling). The resulting balance of positive and negative recommendations leads to a re-evaluation of either old, nonmechanizable trellis types (e.g., Raggi-Bellussi and pergola types), divided canopy systems (e.g., GDC and Scott Henry) or, among the single canopy types, of the single high wire (SHW) trellis. However, historical systems traditionally used by best regions and producers (e.g., goblet and VSP either cane- or spur-pruned) overall show less adherence to the chosen evaluation criteria. To direct future evolution of training systems, regardless of the broadly shared need for suitability to partial or full mechanization, the scenario looks different depending on cool and temperate (warm) areas. The former experiences an outburst of interest as warming is broadening growing areas and affordable genotypes. Under such circumstances, training systems should help accelerate or favor the ripening process through vigor control and lower yield, better cluster exposure, and nonlimiting leaf area-to-fruit ratio. Whereas, in warm areas that are now becoming sub-tropical areas in the worst cases, the SHW gains credit as compared to goblet and traditional VSP. The latter requires an increasing number of canopy manipulations and a rethinking of some planting choices to accommodate the needs of slower and more delayed ripening, more cluster shading, and higher cordons, the latter reducing the probability of incurring significant frost damage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on the combined impact of watershed attributes on streamflow is crucial in water resources planning and management, particularly due to the strong link between landscape modification and watershed attributes. However, identifying critical watershed attributes remains a challenge. This study focuses on investigating the impact of watershed attributes on streamflow in the Hare catchment of Ethiopia's rift valley lakes basin. The Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) rainfall–runoff model was used, calibrated, and validated against observed discharge data to identify remedial measures for streamflow generation. The model's performance was evaluated using criteria such as R2, NSE, PBIAS, and RSR, which yielded satisfactory values. The study found significant changes in land cover, with forest and shrub land declining and agricultural land expanding. Comparing mean annual streamflow between 1998, 2009, and 2021, streamflow at 2021 land use and land cover increased by 13.03% compared to 2009, which had already increased by 16.05% compared to 1998. The study also examined the impact of climate variations by manipulating meteorological data length and average slope. Overall, this study provides valuable insights into the relationship between watershed attributes and streamflow, emphasizing the importance of considering land cover changes and climate variations for effective water resource management in the Hare catchment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate projections under the high-emission representative concentration pathway "RCP-8.5" scenario are used to show the effects of global warming on the energy production of two similar concentrated solar tower power plants in Spain and Chile from 2025 to 2060. Results show a reduction of the annual energy production of almost 1.8% for Chile and an increase of almost 6% in the Spanish plant, but an increase of 10% water consumption due to both the increase in dry- and wet-bulb temperatures and changes in the direct normal irradiation caused by climate change. When the effect of water restrictions is included in the model caused by the foreseen reduction in water availability in Spain, the increase of the annual energy production is only 2%. Finally, the levelized cost of energy (LCOE) calculated during the whole power plant lifetime (35 years) with respect to the LCOE obtained at the beginning of the project is increased by 1.1% in the Chilean plant, whereas in the Spanish plant, it can be reduced more than 2.5% if there are no water restrictions, while a reduction of 0.4% is expected in a scenario with water restrictions. Results show that careful consideration of climate projections should be considered to properly estimate the economic viability of solar tower plants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The existence of modern humanity directly depends on environmental security. Human society, biodiversity, ecosystems, and climate safety are interdependent. The anthropogenic influence that causes irreversible climate change threatens both the ecosystem's existence and humans' survival. To maintain a balance between human well-being and a safe environment, it is important to have a diverse knowledge of the interrelations between the technological impact on the natural environment and climate change and an understanding of action strategies to mitigate climate change and ensure sustainable development. Applying a scientific approach, data analytics, and data science tools can effectively support climate change mitigation and prevent a climate disaster. Based on the components of the climate change performance index (CCPI) 2023 for 59 countries and the EU, a canonical discriminant model was built to identify the significant factors that influence the assessment of the effectiveness of climate protection in a particular country or region and the assessment of climate risks. It can be used to assess the level of climate protection effectiveness of countries that have not defined the CCPI 2023. Based on empirical data, we have determined the real weights of the relevant CCPI components in relation to the effectiveness of actions aimed at reducing global warming. We have established that there are additional factors important for assessing climate protection, but the CCPI rating does not consider them. We conducted a comparative analysis of the CCPI index and the sustainable development goals (SDG) index. The study establishes that the differences in environmental protection among the world's countries do not determine the assessment of the level of sustainable development of the world's countries. The obtained results can provide information to support decision-making in developing effective strategies and urgent actions to ensure climate protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the major challenges that global warming poses to viticulture is the maintenance of adequate acidity at maturity in white grapes for sparkling winemaking. This issue arises from three main occurrences: (i) with higher temperatures, degradation of malic acid is significantly enhanced; (ii) with a general advancement in grapevine phenology, grape maturity may occur under suboptimal climatic conditions; and (iii) harvesting grapes at "traditional" dates results in overripe fruits for sparkling destinations. In this biennial work, we compared the fruit and must composition of a local, widely grown white grape variety in the Colli Piacentini area (cv. Ortrugo, ORT) with those of a minor autochthonous variety, namely, Barbesino (BRB). Furthermore, we compared the composition, aromatic, and sensory profiles of wines obtained from ORT and BRB grapes picked on the same date and, in addition, of a second Barbesino wine from late harvest (BRB-LH). ORT and BRB had a similar sugar accumulation dynamic, whereas BRB exhibited a delayed loss of titratable acidity. In more details, BRB had lower malic acid degradation rates when malate concentration was <9 g/L. As a result, with comparable yield and total soluble solid content (TSS) (∼20°Brix), BRB had a higher berry titratable acidity and malic acid concentration at harvest than ORT. BRB wines showed the highest titratable acidity (TA), while ORT had the lowest TA and a higher pH, and as expected, BRB-LH had the highest pH and a lower TA than BRB although still higher than those of ORT wine. The aroma profiles of wines were mainly characterized by fermentative aromas, including esters, fatty acids, higher alcohols, and C6 compounds, and BRB-LH wines showed the highest concentration of higher alcohols, while the fermentative esters were higher in ORT wines. Panelists considered BRB significantly fresher and with bigger aroma intensity than ORT, confirming that the higher acidity detected in BRB musts is well preserved in final wines. Our work demonstrates that local minor varieties can be reconsidered in light of the new climate change-related issues impairing viticulture sustainability today. In particular, currently neglected cultivars could help preserve must acidity as compared to traditional varieties having early ripening, maintaining the links with terroir and local traditions at the same time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change is one of the drivers of wildlife-borne disease emergence, as it can affect species abundance and fitness, host immunocompetence, and interactions with pathogens. To detect emerging wildlife-borne diseases, countries may implement general wildlife-disease surveillance systems. Such surveillance exists in the Netherlands. However, it is unclear how well it covers host species vulnerable to climate change and consequently disease emergence in these species. Therefore, we performed a trait-based vulnerability assessment (TVA) to quantify species vulnerability to climate change for 59 Dutch terrestrial mammals. Species' vulnerability was estimated based on the magnitude of climatic change within the species' distribution (exposure), the species' potential to persist in situ (sensitivity), and the species' ability to adjust (adaptive capacity). Using these vulnerability categories, we identified priority species at risk for disease emergence due to climate change. Subsequently, we assessed the frequency of occurrence of these priority species compared to other mammal species examined in general wildlife disease surveillance during 2008-2022. We identified 25% of the mammal species to be highly exposed, 24% to be highly sensitive, and 22% to have a low adaptive capacity. The whiskered myotis and the garden dormouse were highly vulnerable (i.e., highly exposed, highly sensitive, and low adaptive capacity), but they are rare in the Netherlands. The Western barbastelle, the pond bat, and the Daubenton's myotis were potential adapters (highly exposed, highly sensitive, and high adaptive capacity). Species vulnerable to climate change were relatively poorly represented in current general surveillance. Our research shows a comprehensive approach that considers both exposures to climate change and ecological factors to assess vulnerability. TVAs, as presented in this study, can easily be adapted to include extra drivers and species, and we would therefore recommend surveillance institutes to consider integrating these types of assessments for evaluating and improving surveillance for wildlife-borne disease emergence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The severe heatwaves and hot spells in Vietnam were observed more frequently in intensity and duration due to global warming and climate change impacts. The hot days and extreme summer events make the weather harsh and significantly affect human health and the environment. This study presents the spatiotemporal distribution of the number of hot days (NHDs) in Vietnam. The variability of NHD in seven climate subregions is also examined in association with the large-scale drivers. The European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) reanalysis version 5 (ERA5) data for the period 1981–2020 are used. Principal component analysis is also applied to the observed monthly NHD to obtain spatial patterns and time series. The results show that the NHD in the Highland and South subregions from March to May is linked with the subtropical high associated with decreased 500hPa-level vertical velocity (VV500). From May to June, the North and Central subregions seem related to deepening the Asiatic low and enhancement of southwest flows across the Indochina Peninsula. Finally, both increased southwest flows and decreased VV500 can partly contribute to the intensification of NHD in the North and Central subregions during July and August. The long trends of NHD are also examined. The results reveal that the increasing trends in NHD occur in most subregions, except for the Central Highland, and changing trends of NHD in June greatly contribute to the annual trend of NHD. Finally, the examinations with the El Niño-Southern Oscillation events show that NHD is significantly higher in El Niño events than in La Niña events in March and April for the Northwest, South Central, Central Highlands, and South, in May and June for all subregions, and in July and August for only the Red River Delta subregion. This suggests that ENSO can provide the potential for improving seasonal climate forecasts and mitigating natural disaster risks for the community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Floods and droughts have been two of the most devastating consequences of the climate crisis affecting billions of people in the world. However, unlike the other natural hazards, flooding is manageable through appropriate flood management mechanisms. This study emphasizes on developing a flood hazard zone for the Upper Awash River Basin (UARB), Ethiopia. Six relevant climate, physiographic, and biophysical factors were considered. Then, a flood hazard map was developed employing the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method and further validated using sensitivity analysis and collected flood marks. The results revealed that drainage density, rainfall, and elevation have higher significance, while land use and soil permeability have a low impact in the process of flood generation. The map showed vulnerable areas at different levels and can serve as a valuable input for the decision makers to consider in the process of implementing emergency plans as well as long-term flood mitigation options. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global warming increases global average precipitation and evaporation, causing extreme climate and hydrological events to occur frequently. Future changes in temperature, precipitation, and runoff from 2021 to 2050 in the upper reaches of the Minjiang River were analyzed using a distributed hydrological model, the SWAT (Soil and Water Assessment Tool), under a future climate scenario. Simultaneously, future variation characteristics of extreme climate hydrological elements in the upper reaches of the Minjiang River were analyzed using extreme climate and runoff indicators. The research shows that the frequency and intensity of the extreme temperature warming index will increase, while those of the extreme temperature cooling index will increase and then weaken in the upper reaches of the Minjiang River under a future climate scenario. The duration of precipitation, the intensity of continuous heavy precipitation, and the frequency of heavy precipitation will increase, whereas the intensity of short-term heavy precipitation and the frequency of heavy precipitation will decrease. However, spatial distribution of flood in the upper reaches is different, and thus flood risk in the upstream source area will still tend to increase. Particular attention should be given to the increase in autumn flood risk in the upper reaches of the Minjiang River. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change is a terrible global concern and one of the greatest future threats to societal development as a whole. The accelerating pace of climate change is becoming a major challenge for agricultural production and food security everywhere. The present study uses the midcentury climate derived from the ensemble of 29 general circulation models (GCMs) on a spatial grid to quantify the anticipated climate change impacts on rice, maize, black gram, and red gram productivity over Tamil Nadu state in India under RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5 scenarios. The future climate projections show an unequivocal increase of annual maximum temperature varying from 0.9 to 2.2°C for RCP 4.5 and 1.4 to 2.7°C in RCP 8.5 scenario by midcentury, centered around 2055 compared to baseline (1981–2020). The projected rise in minimum temperature ranges from 1.0 to 2.2°C with RCP 4.5 and 1.8 to 2.7°C under RCP 8.5 scenario. Among the monsoons, the southwest monsoon (SWM) is expected to be warmer than the northeast monsoon (NEM). Annual rainfall is predicted to increase up to 20% under RCP 4.5 scenario in two-third of the area over Tamil Nadu. Similarly, RCP 8.5 scenario indicates the possibility of an increase in rainfall in the midcentury with higher magnitude than RCP 4.5. Both SWM and NEM seasons are expected to receive higher rainfall during midcentury under RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5 than the baseline. In the midcentury, climate change is likely to pose a negative impact on the productivity of rice, maize, black gram, and red gram with both RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5 scenarios in most places of Tamil Nadu. The magnitude of the decline in yield of all four crops would be more with RCP 8.5 over RCP 4.5 scenario in Tamil Nadu. Future climate projections made through multi-climate model ensemble could increase the plausibility of future climate change impact assessment on crop productivity. The adverse effects of climate change on cereal and legume crop productivity entail the potential adaptation options to ensure food security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As one of the most productive plantation producers in the world, Indonesia also faces rapid change in both social and environmental systems. These conditions are predicted to become more disruptive to the agricultural sector in the future. Therefore, understanding the impact of social and environmental disruption on smallholder plantations' resilience is vital to formulate a strategy for the sustainability of farmers' livelihoods in this country. Using survey data from 360 smallholding farmers in six villages from three districts in Bengkulu Province, Indonesia, the study deployed a multidimensional approach to assess smallholders' resilience to social and environmental disruption as well as towards economic dynamics. There are four dimensions of smallholder resilience, namely, the ability of adaptation, recoverability, anticipation, and farmers' innovation level. Social disruption was indicated by farmers' demography, epidemic/family health, social conflict, culture clash, and intention on land conversion. Meanwhile, environmental disruption was shown by natural catastrophe incidents, climate variations, environmentally unfriendly cultivation activities, and land fires. Since the resilience level was classified as binary, bivariate probit model was used in the analysis. The result shows that smallholder plantations in Bengkulu Indonesia are categorized as innovative, and recoverable, but less adaptive, and less anticipatory farmers. Overall, more than 50% of smallholder plantations are classified as less resilient smallholders. The statistical result empirically uncovers that the intentions of land conversion, climate change, and environmentally unfriendly farming activities statistically have a significant contribution to the reduction of smallholder plantations' resilience. Furthermore, the economic dynamisms such as lack of input availability, price volatility, demand uncertainty, and capital limitation have a significant negative impact on smallholder plantation resilience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Identification of spatial gradient in the vulnerability of white leg shrimp production to climate change is imperative in the formulation and implementation of suitable adaptive measures. A composite vulnerability index was computed by employing 36 variables pertaining to exposure (11), sensitivity (11) and adaptive capacity (14) dimensions to map the extent of vulnerability in white leg shrimp production across Indian states. Based on its magnitude, the vulnerability index was categorized into three groups, namely low, moderate and high. Results showed that the mean composite vulnerability index was 0.65 and ranged from 0.34 to 0.99 indicating that there was a strong spatial pattern. Among the nine states, Goa (0.99), Kerala (0.84) and Odisha (0.77) were highly vulnerable; Gujarat (0.75), Karnataka (0.57) and West Bengal (0.56) were moderately vulnerable; and Tamil Nadu (0.54), Andhra Pradesh (0.46) and Maharashtra (0.34) were less vulnerable to shrimp production. About one‐fourth of the production and culture area of white leg shrimp were in moderate and highly vulnerable regions. The impact of climate change on shrimp production is diverse but can be reduced by implementing adaptive measures—suitable policies and investment plans—which should be region‐specific. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Aims: Cross‐sectional models are useful for estimating the impact that climate and climate change have on grape prices due to changes in grape composition. The aim of this study is to estimate the impact of growing season temperature (GST) on grape prices in Australia using cross‐sectional data. Methods and Results: We use data on average price by cultivar and region for a 10 year period. We estimate a model using (area‐) weighted least squares and variables from a principal component analysis to control for 103 characteristics that relate to the production system used in each of 26 regions. Results suggest that a GST increase of 1°C leads to a decrease of 9% in the average price of grapes. A LASSO model that we use as a robustness check suggests similar results: a GST increase of 1°C leads to a decrease of 7.3% in the average price of grapes. Conclusions: Failing to control for characteristics that relate to the production system overestimates the impact of GST on grape prices, suggesting that changes to variables in a production system may mitigate deleterious changes to grape composition due to climate change. Significance of the Study: This study contributes to the understanding of the issue of omitted variable bias in cross‐sectional models, and how to deal with this issue when analysing the impact of climate and climate change in grape and wine research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The period 2020/2021 was an unprecedented and historic time for industrial, economic, and societal activities all over the world with great challenges to human health, the ecosystems, and other aspects of human endeavors owing to the COVID-19 or SARS-CoV-2 (CV-19) pandemic which is now a topical aspect of research interest. Despite the negative impacts of the CV-19 pandemic, there are also positive reports during the CV-19 pandemic such as the reduction of gas flare, reduction in the burning of fossil fuels from automobile exhaust and a reduction in the other ensuing factors of greenhouse gases emissions (which is one of the major drives for global warming and climate change as well as other environmental effluences). Hence, this brief perspective review study is centered on greenhouse gas (GHG) emission. The study employs a methodical approach to analyze some already available research studies from existing publications and databases on GHG emission using the perception during the CV-19 pandemic. The specific findings from this review show that, from the meteorological perspective, the global response to the catastrophe ensuing from the CV-19 pandemic has a great influence on the reduction of GHGs, the reduction in the burning of fossil fuels from automobiles and industrial devices, and the reduction in the other ensuing factors of GHG emission. Hence, it will not be far from the truth to conclude that there is a possible positive connection between the CV-19 pandemic and GHG emissions. The study has a direct impact on the environment owing to the negative and positive environmental consequences of the CV-19 pandemic. Suggestions and recommendations in the form of future prospects of GHG emission vis-à-vis global warming and climate change are also discussed. Furthermore, suggestions on how to improve food security and agriculture during a pandemic such as the CV-19 outbreak period are highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change adversely affected agricultural productivity in developing countries. This study aimed to explore the effects of this climate change, particularly on cereal crops production in Ethiopia. The study employed Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model approach to the co-integration with an error correction term. ARDL technique was selected due to its stationarity assumption and unbiased estimates of its long-run coefficients. The estimated model justifies the existence of a long-run relationship between cereal crops production, climate change variables (temperature and precipitation), and other explanatory variables. Precipitation has a positive and significant effect on cereal crops production both in the long and short runs, while temperature change has a significant negative effect. In the long run, cereal crops production was positively and significantly affected by arable land, fertilizer consumption, and carbon dioxide emissions, while in the short run, labor force participation has a positive and significant effect on cereal crops production. The study results confirmed that there is a long-run relationship between cereal crops production and climate change variables. In agriculture, research and development should focus on varieties of cereal crops that can tolerate high temperatures. Climate Resilient Green Economy should have to strengthen in the country. All countries should have to work hand-in-hand to mitigate the effect of climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study was conducted on Manoka Island (Littoral Region of Cameroon) with the aim of analyzing climate change vulnerability and local adaptation strategies based on the local community's perceptions and biophysical evidence. We used household surveys, focus group discussions, field observation, GIS, and remote sensing to collect data on variables of exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity. Historical changes in rainfall and temperature, mangrove cover, and the occurrence of extreme climatic events were used as indicators of exposure. Property losses and income structure were used as indicators of sensitivity, while human, natural, social, financial, and physical assets represented adaptive capacity. 89 households were interviewed in the nine settlements of the island. Results show that Manoka Island is experiencing irregular rainfall patterns (with average annual values deviating from the mean by -1.9 to +1.8 mm) and increasing temperature (with annual values deviating from the mean by -1.2 to +3.12). The dynamics of the coastline between 1975 and 2017 using EPR show average setbacks of more than ±3 m/year, with erosion levels varying depending on the period and location. The number of households perceiving extreme climatic events like seasonal variability, flood, and rain storm was higher. From respondents' perception, housing and health are the sectors most affected by climate change. The reported high dependence of households on fishing for income, their overall low livelihood diversification, and their poor access to climate information reported by 65% of respondents portray their poor adaptive capacity. Local response initiatives are ineffective and include among others constructing buildings on stilts and using car wheels to counter the advancement of seawater inland. The study concludes that households on Manoka Island are vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Income diversification, mangrove reforestation, the development of sustainable supply chains for wood fuel, and sustainable fish smoking devices are the main pathways for adaptation planning in this area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change will expose the food‐producing sector to a range of challenges. Inland aquaculture farms are particularly vulnerable, due to the difficulty in changing their location, and therefore require specific tools to predict the influence of direct and indirect effects on production, environment and economic feasibility. The objective of our study was to apply a simple set of models to produce a set of growth, risk and suitability maps for stakeholders within the common carp sector in Poland, to assist decision‐making under two different scenarios of climate change: a moderate situation (RCP 4.5) and an extreme situation (RCP 8.5). We used present (2000–2019) and future projections (2080–2099) for water surface temperature based on land surface temperature data from regionally downscaled climate models to draw maps to: (i) show optimal temperature conditions for carp growth, (ii) assess risk of disease outbreak caused by three important common carp pathogens: Cyprinid herpesvirus 3 (CyHV‐3), carp oedema virus (CEV) and spring viremia of carp (SVCV) and (iii) predict potential suitability changes of carp farming in Poland. The study identified areas with the most and least favourable temperature conditions for carp growth, as well as those areas with the highest/lowest number of days with suitable temperatures for virus infection. These suitability maps showed the combined effect of direct and indirect effects of climate change projections under RCP 8.5 and RCP 4.5 scenarios. The approach applied herein will be of use worldwide for analysing the risks of temperature increase to land‐based aquaculture, and the results presented are important for carp farmers in Poland and elsewhere, industry in general, and government stakeholders, to understand the direct and indirect effects of climate change on the triple bottom line of people, planet, and profit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change is a serious threat to humankind. As broad public participation is required in climate change mitigation efforts, it is critical to understand how the public talk about climate change on social media. This study sets out to increase the understanding of Chinese public awareness of climate change, as well as explore the potential and limitations of social media for public engagement on climate change issues. It examines the Chinese public's discussion about climate change on social media Weibo during the last six years through data mining and text analysis. The analyses include volume analysis, keyword extraction, topic modeling, and sentiment analysis. The results indicate three main aspects of public awareness and concern regarding climate change. First, public awareness of climate change is growing in China. Second, the sentiment analysis shows that the general sentiment toward climate change is becoming more positive over time. Third, based on keyword extraction and topic modeling, the discussion on climate change shows a top-down perspective, an optimistic economic perspective, and a preference for celebrity content. The study provides a comprehensive picture of Chinese social media users' views on climate change issues, based on large-scale research data. It contributes to a better understanding of what Chinese people think about climate change on social media generally. These findings may provide government and environmental organizations with valuable insights for better climate change campaigns on social media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change is amongst the most serious issues nowadays. Climate change has become a concern for the scientific community as it could affect human health. Researchers have found that climate change potentially impacts human mental health, especially among depressive patients. However, the relationship is still unclear and needs further investigation. The purpose of this systematic review is to systematically evaluate the evidence of the association between climate change effects on depressive patients, investigate the effects of environmental exposure related to climate change on mental health outcomes for depressive patients, analyze the current technique used to determine the relationship, and provide the guidance for future research. Articles were identified by searching specified keywords in six electronic databases (Google Scholar, PubMed, Scopus, Springer, ScienceDirect, and IEEE Digital Library) from 2012 until 2021. Initially, 1823 articles were assessed based on inclusion criteria. After being analyzed, only 15 studies fit the eligibility criteria. The result from included studies showed that there appears to be strong evidence of the association of environmental exposure related to climate change in depressive patients. Temperature and air pollution are consistently associated with increased hospital admission of depressive patients; age and gender became the most frequently considered vulnerability factors. However, the current evidence is limited, and the output finding between each study is still varied and does not achieve a reasonable and mature conclusion regarding the relationship between the variables. Therefore, more evidence is needed in this domain study. Some variables might have complex patterns, and hard to identify the relationship. Thus, technique used to analyze the relationship should be strengthened to identify the relevant relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Livestock feed mix or feed choice decision-making is encountered by farmers in their daily operations. Livestock feed choice and mixing is emerging as a key research area considering the impact of climate change and emergence of new technology. Smallholder dairy farmers are usually capital constrained and hence a need to investigate cost-effective feed choice that maximises profit. A study to investigate the cost-effective feed among forage and browse legumes was conducted among smallholder dairy farmers in Zimbabwe. An optimisation problem was formulated with the objective of maximising profit by selecting the most cost-effective feed among forage and browse legumes. Secondary data are used to solve the optimisation problem by implementing the Jaya optimisation algorithm. Results show that grain crop silage is the best feed choice resulting in a maximum profit of $ 66.00 per day per farmer. Further research can be directed towards investigating the effect of combining the next best feed, quality hay, and grain crop silage for profit contribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The production of cement results in the depletion of natural resources and consumption of huge energy and CO2 emissions to the environment that cause global warming and climate change. To alleviate the problem, there is a growing interest of researchers to find an alternative material to partially cement by industrial and agricultural wastes. This research was therefore aimed to examine the potential of using coffee husk ash (CHA) as partial replacement for ordinary Portland cement (OPC) in C-25 concrete production. Concrete mixtures were prepared by partially replacing cement with CHA in different proportions (0%, 5%, 10%, and 20%) by weight with a constant w/c of 0.5. The consistency, setting time, workability, compressive strength, water absorption, sulphate attack, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), and thermo gravimetric (TGA) tests were conducted on concrete samples. The test results revealed that the workability of mixtures showed a decreasing trend with an increase in the share of the CHA content in which the measured slump flow values ranged between 15 and 35 mm. Contrarily, the setting time of concrete mixtures showed an increasing trend with an increase in CHA content. The initial and final setting times were in the range of 67–126 minutes and 310–524 minutes, respectively, which is in the range of the standards. The compressive strength of concrete decreased with an increase in the share of the CHA, in which the results were measured in the range of 35.1–22.7 MPa for the 28th day sample with 5% and 20% of CHA, respectively. However, it increases as the curing days increase, whereas the water absorption of the concrete increases as the CHA increases but decreases as the curing days increase due to the porous nature of the CHA. From the study microstructure of concrete using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and thermogravimetric analysis, differential thermal analysis results show that the C-S-H gel would be from 950–1100 cm−1 wavenumber and at 500oC, and the CHA sample was decomposed and mass loss was observed at 500oC. In general, it was also observed that, from the compressive strength, the concrete satisfies its design strength up to 10% replacement level without compromising the performance of concrete. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The importance of agricultural crops in India has been understated in terms of production during the last two decades, owing to global warming and other factors. Policymakers and farmers would benefit from imagining crop yields well before harvest to help them make appropriate marketing and storage decisions. Crop yields will benefit from such estimates as well. Several systems for predicting and modelling agricultural yields have been developed in the past, with varying degrees of effectiveness, due to the fact that they do not objectively account for meteorological aspects and seasonal climate variations. The importance of agricultural crops in India has been understated in terms of production during the last two decades, owing to global warming and other factors. Policymakers and farmers would benefit from imagining crop yields well before harvest to help them make appropriate marketing and storage decisions. Crop yields will benefit from such estimates as well. Several systems for predicting and modelling agricultural yields have been developed in the past, with varying degrees of effectiveness, due to the fact that they do not objectively account for meteorological aspects and seasonal climate variations. The method makes use of climate data from Thanjavur, India's soils. To choose the optimal crop for a particular set of input and climate conditions, the system leverages real-time input of location-specific soil attributes. The model is been tested with various machine learning techniques such as NB, KNN, SVM, and decision tree. Among all these methods, the SVM gives the good results. The accuracy of the model was determined using LSTM, SVM, and Tabu search optimization. TSO with SVM has an 89% accuracy value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Aims: Global warming will threaten vineyard sustainability in warm and arid regions. Therefore, increasing water use efficiency (WUE) is essential for long‐term viticulture sustainability. Nevertheless, studies concerning the response of stomata and WUE to temperature are scarce. We evaluated the effect of sustained warming on WUE and its components in cultivars with contrasting stomatal behaviour. Methods and Results: We applied a 1.1°C increase in field‐grown, well‐watered plants, during the growing season and compared them to Control plants. We measured net assimilation (An), transpiration rate (E), stomatal conductance (gs), stomata density and length, intrinsic and yield WUE (WUEint and WUEyield). Gas exchange and WUEint in response to heating were cultivar‐dependent. Heated Grenache plants increased An, gs, E and stomatal length but decreased WUEint. In contrast, gas exchange and WUEint were similar between heated Syrah and Control plants. Both cultivars decreased WUEyield in response to heating. Conclusions: An increase in air temperature decreased WUEint in Grenache, whereas Syrah could tolerate heating without modifying leaf functioning. We proposed these strategies to cope with heating as 'avoiding' for Grenache and 'tolerant' for Syrah in well‐watered conditions. Significance of the Study: This research contributes to an understanding of the strategies to cope with high temperature of different cultivars, which should be considered to select better‐adapted genotypes for the expected warmer conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate changes significantly cause the precipitation deficiency and in turn reduce the inflow amount in reservoir affecting hydroelectric power generation. The primary objective of this study was to evaluate hydropower generation and reservoir operation under climate change from Kesem reservoir. Recent Representative Pathway (RCP) scenarios were used to evaluate the impact of climate change on power generation. Power transformation equation and variance scaling approach were amalgamated to adjust the bias correction of precipitation and temperature, respectively. Bias, root mean square error, and coefficient of variation were used to check the accuracy of projected rainfall. The base and future precipitation, temperature, and evaporation trend was analysed using the Mann–Kendall test. The flow calibration and validation were carried out by the Hydrologic Engineering Center-Hydrologic Modelling System (HEC-HMS), and hydropower generation was evaluated with reservoir simulation model (MODSIM 8.1) under climate scenarios. The performance of the model was found good with Nash–Sutcliffe coefficient (NSE) of 0.72 and coefficient of determination (R2) of 0.73 for calibration and NSE of 0.74 and R2 of 0.75 for validation. Projected future climate scenarios predicted increasing and decreasing trend of temperature and precipitation, respectively. For RCP4.5 climate scenario, the average energy generation is likely to decrease by 0.64% and 0.82% in both short-term (2021–2050) and long-term (2051–2080), respectively. In case of RCP8.5 climate scenario, the average energy generation will be decreased by 1.06% and 1.35% for short-term and long-term, respectively. Remarkable reduction of energy generation was revealed in RCP8.5 with relation to RCP4.5 scenario. This indicates that there will be high energy fluctuation and decreasing trend in the future energy generation. The research finding is crucial for decision-makers, power authorities, governmental and nongovernmental organizations, and watershed management agencies to take care for sustainability in the future hydropower generation in the Kesem reservoir. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research was done in Arsi-Bale Massif remnant vegetation of southeast Ethiopia to investigate vascular plant diversity and endemism in forest patch, riverine, and grazing land-use types. A total of 126 quadrats, each with 900 m2 (30 m × 30 m), were selected systematically along the altitudinal gradient. Shannon Weiner Diversity index and R Package 3.2 were applied to analyze species composition and diversity, whereas the similarity ratio among land use and other related vegetation was determined using Sorensen's index. From the study, 382 vascular plant species under 223 genera and 92 families were identified. The growth forms revealed that there were 118 woody (26 trees, 10 lianas, and 82 shrubs) and 239 herbaceous species of plant. Of these, 216, 165, and 154 species are shared by riverine, forest patch, and grazing land-use types, respectively. Asteraceae with 68 species was the most dominant family in the present study, followed by Poaceae, Lamiaceae, and Cyperaceae with 30, 21, and 13 species, respectively. Forty-four endemic species were documented in this study. According to the IUCN Red List, 22 species were not evaluated; 10 species were least concerned; 1 species was endangered; and 1 species was vulnerable, while 4 species have been categorized as not threatened. The highest similarity was observed between grazing and riverine land-use types; this may be due to the presence of many adjacent plots in both land use, associated mechanisms of adaptation, and requirements for species occurrence. Moreover, the floristic composition similarity of the study area in comparison with other vegetation types of Ethiopia shows variation (Ss = 0.223–0.526), maybe due to climatic variation, ecological distance, and disturbances. Generally, the total diversity and evenness of the studied remnant vegetation were 2.917 and 0.948, respectively. This lower diversity value clearly indicates that there are many human-induced factors deteriorating the plant species of the studied vegetation. Therefore, the concerned body of the government should work with local farmers to conserve the remaining plant species including many endemic species by developing appropriate conservation and management plans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study was carried out at the Gedeo zone aiming to investigate the vulnerability of agrobiodiversity and agroforestry settings to climate change in the district. Thus, the study was focused on evaluating crop diversity under different crop management practices and its distribution at the household level among different wealth classes and land use land cover change impact on agrobiodiversity and agroecosystems areas. Therefore, crop survey both from the home garden and crop field, the last 30 years' data from five meteorological stations located in the district and the past 30 years' Landsat satellite images at a 10-year interval within the same season was used. A total of 65 crop plant species with eleven major use categories have been recorded in the studied home gardens and crop fields. The crop plant species collected from both the home garden and crop field account for 57% and 38%, while the rest 5% were from the adjacent field. The land use and land cover map of the study area indicate that the largest part of the study area (108548.01 hectares) was covered by agroforestry, whereas the smallest portion of the district, about 975.15, 6457.41 and 12501.27 hectares of the area, was covered by bare land, cropland, and grassland, respectively. The remaining 20537.73 hectares (13.8%) of the district were covered with settlements. Crop species diversity is higher almost in the entire study site. However, crop species compositions were significantly variable among these study sites. The climatic data results indicated a reduction in average rainfall pattern in most of the stations and an increase in temperature within the employed time range. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From the thermodynamic perspective, the term temperature is clearly defined for ideal physical systems: A unique temperature can be assigned to each black body via its radiation spectrum, and the temperature of an ideal gas is given by the velocity distribution of the molecules. While the indoor environment is not an ideal system, fundamental physical and chemical processes, such as diffusion, partitioning equilibria, and chemical reactions, are predictably temperature‐dependent. For example, the logarithm of reaction rate and equilibria constants are proportional to the reciprocal of the absolute temperature. It is therefore possible to have non‐linear, very steep changes in chemical phenomena over a relatively small temperature range. On the contrary, transport processes are more influenced by spatial temperature, momentum, and pressure gradients as well as by the density, porosity, and composition of indoor materials. Consequently, emergent phenomena, such as emission rates or dynamic air concentrations, can be the result of complex temperature‐dependent relationships that require a more empirical approach. Indoor environmental conditions are further influenced by the thermal comfort needs of occupants. Not only do occupants have to create thermal conditions that serve to maintain their core body temperature, which is usually accomplished by wearing appropriate clothing, but also the surroundings must be adapted so that they feel comfortable. This includes the interaction of the living space with the ambient environment, which can vary greatly by region and season. Design of houses, apartments, commercial buildings, and schools is generally utility and comfort driven, requiring an appropriate energy balance, sometimes considering ventilation but rarely including the impact of temperature on indoor contaminant levels. In our article, we start with a review of fundamental thermodynamic variables and discuss their influence on typical indoor processes. Then, we describe the heat balance of people in their thermal environment. An extensive literature study is devoted to the thermal conditions in buildings, the temperature‐dependent release of indoor pollutants from materials and their distribution in the various interior compartments as well as aspects of indoor chemistry. Finally, we assess the need to consider temperature holistically with regard to the changes to be expected as a result of global emergencies such as climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to analyze the status of climate change and determinants of people's awareness of climate change in Sarlahi district, Nepal. A total of 102 respondents were selected randomly from the study area and interviewed using a semistructured questionnaire from May 12, 2021, to May 23, 2021. Along with the determinants, this survey emphasized finding climate-smart alternatives favoring not only the population or sectors like agriculture but also the climate itself. The chi-square test was conducted to measure the relationship between the operational variables, which revealed that there was no significant relationship between gender and knowledge of climate change, occupation and knowledge of climate change, land ownership and knowledge of climate change, guardian and knowledge of climate change, and decision role and knowledge on climate change. However, education, family size, and age had a significant effect on the knowledge of climate change. The binary logit model reported that age, years of schooling, training related to climate change, and involvement with cooperatives were found to have a significant effect on people's awareness of climate change. Thus, improving people's adoption of climate-smart agriculture in the education system of the study area and training the people in the study area should be a prime concern. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hydropower is sustainable and environmentally friendly source of energy worldwide. Driven by streamflow, it is vulnerable to climate change and land use change. The hydropower production from the two existing run-of-river hydropower projects on the Sondu Miriu River is vulnerable to rainfall variability and requires strategies for building resilience for the local communities. The objective of this study was to identify appropriate and sustainable strategies for integrating climate change adaptation into hydropower development within the Sondu Miriu River Basin. The methodology involved review of existing climate change adaptation strategies to identify appropriate strategies for integrating climate change adaptation in hydropower developments within the Sondu Miriu River Basin. The results indicate that no clear climate change adaptation strategies are being implemented within the basin. A framework is needed to implement appropriate climate change adaptation strategies within the basin. Climate Change act of 2016 created linkage with other existing policies for effective support of integration of climate change adaptation into hydropower development in Sondu Miriu River Basin. Strengthening community resilience to climate change impacts is one of the benefits to be derived from the hydropower projects by supporting appropriate adaptation strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]