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Simple Summary: Biofloc technology reduces the environmental effects and reliance on fishmeal in the aquaculture business, which is experiencing growth. This technique removes organic nitrogen from aquaculture effluent, improves water quality, and generates microbial protein for use as a feed supplement for aquatic animals. Moreover, this method decreases the feed conversion ratio and manufacturing costs. Aquatic animals may obtain nutrients, fatty acids, and minerals from biofloc throughout the day. Biofloc, when combined with designed meals, offers a full food chain for aquatic animals, resulting in improved growth performance. In this review, we discussed the history and types of biofloc technology. We also reviewed microbial communities and factors related to BFT. Lastly, we described the advantages, applications, sustainability, and future aspects of biofloc technology. Given the scarcity of water and land resources, coupled with the competitive nature of aquaculture, the long-term viability of this industry will depend on strategies for vertical development. This involves enhancing production environments, increasing productivity, and advancing aquaculture technologies. The use of biofloc technology offers a potential solution to mitigate the adverse environmental impacts and the heavy reliance on fishmeal in the aquaculture sector. This method is designed to effectively assimilate inorganic nitrogen found in aquaculture wastewater, thereby enhancing water quality. Additionally, this process produces microbial protein, which can serve as a viable supplemental feed for aquatic animals. Furthermore, this technique has the potential to reduce the feed conversion ratio, thereby lowering overall production costs. This article provides an overview of the evolving field of biofloc system technology within aquaculture. In this study, we will examine the historical development and various types of biofloc systems, as well as the factors that influence their effectiveness. Finally, we will explore the economic potential of implementing biofloc systems in aquaculture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With climate change and urbanization expansion, wetlands, which are some of the largest carbon stocks in the world, are facing threats such as shrinking areas and declining carbon sequestration capacities. Wetland carbon stocks are at risk of being transformed into carbon sources, especially those of wetlands with strong land use–natural resource conservation conflict. Moreover, there is a lack of well-established indicators for evaluating the health of wetland carbon stocks. To address this issue, we proposed a novel framework for the safety assessment of wetland carbon stocks using the Super Slack-Based Measure (Super-SBM), and we then conducted an empirical study on the Quanzhou Bay Estuary Wetland (QBEW). This framework integrates the unexpected output indicator (i.e., carbon emissions), the expected output indicators, including the GDP per capita and carbon stock estimates calculated via machine learning (ML)-based remote sensing inversion, and the input indicators, such as environmental governance investigations, climate conditions, socio-economic activities, and resource utilization. The results show that the annual average safety assessment for carbon pools in the QBEW was a meager 0.29 in 2015, signaling a very poor state, likely due to inadequate inputs or excessive unexpected outputs. However, there has been a substantial improvement since then, as evidenced by the fact that all the safety assessments have exceeded the threshold of 1 from 2018 onwards, reflecting a transition to a "weakly effective" status within a safe and acceptable range. Moreover, our investigation employing the Super-SBM model to calculate the "slack variables" yielded valuable insights into optimization strategies. This research advances the field by establishing a safety measurement framework for wetland carbon pools that leverages efficiency assessment methods, thereby offering a quantitative safeguard mechanism that supports the achievement of the "3060" dual-carbon target. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Amid rising energy demands in rural areas, thorough resource assessments for initiatives such as wind power are crucial. This study involves a land resource assessment for wind power generation on the rustic Sibuyan Island in the Philippines, which is currently experiencing an electricity shortage. A comprehensive overview of the island's suitability for wind energy projects is performed via evaluation and analysis using geospatial data and multi-criteria decision making (MCDM). The research results indicate that 50.44% (220.68 km2) of the island's land area is categorized as 'poorly suitable' since it considers protected areas where developments are not allowed. Only 0.08% (0.35 km2) of the island can be classified as 'marginally suitable', while 9.15% (40.73 km2), 36.64% (176.39 km2), and 0.69% (3.05 km2) are labeled as 'moderately suitable', 'suitable', and 'highly suitable', respectively. This confirms the potential for wind energy exploration on the island. Delineating the suitability levels provides a foundational framework for stakeholders that enables them to identify optimal sites for wind power, sustain the island's resources, and contribute to the renewable energy landscape of this rural location. Overall, this study, underpinned by data analysis, offers invaluable insights for decision making in wind power development, with the presented framework adaptable to other areas of interest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Phosphogypsum (PG), a byproduct during the phosphoric acid production process, also known as the wet process, contains complex and diverse impurities, resulting in low utilization and considerable accumulation. This leads to a massive waste of land resources and a series of environmental pollution problems. Given the current urgent ecological and environmental situation, developing impurity removal processes with low energy consumption and high efficiency, exploring valuable resource recovery, preparing high value-added PG products, and broadening the comprehensive utilization ways of PG are significant strategies to promote the sustainable consumption of PG and sustainable development of the phosphorus chemical industry. This review comprehensively summarizes the advantages and disadvantages of existing PG impurity removal and utilization technologies and probes into the future development direction, which provides references and ideas for subsequent PG research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For poor women in rural areas, land is the most critical economic resource. It is essential to have policies that facilitate access to and effective control of land and other natural resources to achieve inclusive growth and eradicate poverty. It is the weaker variants of inequalities that stifle tenure security, reduce land use, and threaten food security for those who depend on the land. Women's access to land and land resources has been a contested right and is still a serious concern in many countries. A mixedmethod case study methodology involving questionnaires, key informant interviews, and focus group discussions was used to collect data. The study find that women were not allowed to take part in any land-related decision-making process, women's access to land resources was determined by other structural mechanisms and factors such as capital, labour and social relations not solely related to their relationships with their male counterparts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The land use changes driven by human activities press a incredible menace to zonal ecological security. As the most active urban cluster, the uncontrolled expansion of cities in the bay area exerts enormous pressure on the ecosystem. Therefore, from the perspective of ecological conservation, exploring future land use optimization patterns and spatial structure is extremely essential for the long-term thriving of the bay area. On this basis, this research integrated the System Dynamics model (SD) as the quantity forecast model and the PLUS model as the spatial emulation model and established the Land Use/Cover Change (LUCC) Simulation Framework by setting the constraints of Ecological Security Multi-Scenario Patterns (ESMP). By setting four scenarios in future, that is, Business As Usual (BAU), Priority of Ecological Protection (PEP), Balanced Development Scenario (BD), and Priority of Urban development (PUD), this research predicts LUCC in the Zhejiang Greater Bay Area (ZGBA) in 2035 and explored land use optimization patterns. The results indicate that by 2035, under the scenarios of BAU, BD, and PUD, the construction land will observably grow by 38.86%, 19.63%, and 83.90%, respectively, distributed mainly around the Hangzhou Bay Area, Taizhou Bay Area, and Wenzhou Bay Area, primarily achieved by sacrificing ecologically sensitive lands such as forests to achieve regional high economic growth. Under PEP, the growth of construction land retards, and forest experiences net growth (11.27%), with better landscape connectivity and more cohesive patches compared to other scenarios. Combining regional planning and analysis at the city scale, Hangzhou Bay area (Hangzhou, Huzhou, Jiaxing, Shaoxing, Ningbo) can adopt the BD development scenario, while Zhoushan, Taizhou, Wenzhou and Fuyang County of Hangzhou can adopt the PEP development scenario. This research furnishes a novel mechanism for optimizing land use pattern in ecological security perspective and offers scientific guidance for land resource management and spatial planning in ZGBA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cultivated land plays a fundamental role in the sustainable development of the world. Monitoring the non-agricultural changes is important for the development of land-use policies. A bitemporal image transformer (BIT) can achieve high accuracy for change detection (CD) tasks and also become a key scientific tool to support decision-making. Because of the diversity of high-resolution RSIs in series, the complexity of agricultural types, and the irregularity of hierarchical semantics in different types of changes, the accuracy of non-agricultural CD is far below the need for the management of the land and for resource planning. In this paper, we proposed a novel non-agricultural CD method to improve the accuracy of machine processing. First, multi-resource surveying data are collected to produce a well-tagged dataset with cultivated land and non-agricultural changes. Secondly, a hierarchical semantic aggregation mechanism and attention module (HSAA) bitemporal image transformer method named HSAA-CD is performed for non-agricultural CD in cultivated land. The proposed HSAA-CD added a hierarchical semantic aggregation mechanism for clustering the input data for U-Net as the backbone network and an attention module to improve the feature edge. Experiments were performed on the open-source LEVIR-CD and WHU Building-CD datasets as well as on the self-built RSI dataset. The F1-score, intersection over union (IoU), and overall accuracy (OA) of these three datasets were 88.56%, 84.29%, and 68.50%; 79.84%, 73.41%, and 59.29%; and 98.83%, 98.39%, and 93.56%, respectively. The results indicated that the proposed HSAA-CD method outperformed the BIT and some other state-of-the-art methods and proved to be suitable accuracy for non-agricultural CD in cultivated land. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Soil fertility is a significant natural property which decides the health and quality of land resources. Pulse productivity diminishes nowadays under rain fed condition due to improper nutrient management practices. Hence the present study was carried out to assess the soil fertility status under major pulses growing area by using advanced geo statistical tool with ArcGIS. Methods: Soil survey was taken in 14 revenue villages in Melur block, Madurai district. Soil samples were collected and analysed for its nutrient properties. The Parker's Nutrient Index and soil fertility maps were prepared by using ArcGIS. Result: Pulses growing soils were mostly neutral in pH and soluble salt content was low. The organic carbon and available nitrogen content was low to medium. The available phosphorus and potassium status were medium to high. Hence proper nutrient management practices are to be needed for augment pulse production in such area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The disposal of electroplating sludge (ES) is a major challenge for the sustainable development of the electroplating industry. ESs have a significant environmental impact, occupying valuable land resources and incurring high treatment costs, which increases operational expenses for companies. Additionally, the high concentration of hazardous substances in ES poses a serious threat to both the environment and human health. Despite extensive scholarly research on the harmless treatment and resource utilization of ES, current technology and processes are still unable to fully harness its potential. This results in inefficient resource utilization and potential environmental hazards. This article analyzes the physicochemical properties of ES, discusses its ecological hazards, summarizes research progress in its treatment, and elaborates on methods such as solidification/stabilization, heat treatment, wet metallurgy, pyrometallurgy, biotechnology, and material utilization. It provides a comparative summary of different treatment processes while also discussing the challenges and future development directions for technologies aimed at effectively utilizing ES resources. The objective of this text is to provide useful information on how to address the issue of ES treatment and promote sustainable development in the electroplating industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The GaoFen6 (GF-6) satellite, equipped with a wide full-swath (WFV) sensor, offers high spatial resolution and extensive coverage, making it widely utilized in agricultural and forestry classification, land resource monitoring, and other fields. Accurate on-orbit radiometric calibration of GF-6/WFV is crucial for these quantitative applications. Currently, the absolute radiometric calibration of GF-6/WFV relies primarily on vicarious calibration conducted by the China Center for Resources Satellite Data and Application (CRESDA). However, annual vicarious calibration may not adequately capture the radiometric performance of GF-6/WFV due to performance degradation. Therefore, increasing the frequency of on-orbit radiometric calibration throughout the lifetime of GF-6/WFV is essential. This study proposes a method for conducting long-term cross-radiometric calibrations of GF-6/WFV by taking the multispectral imager (MSI) onboard the Sentinel-2 satellite as a reliable reference sensor and the sites from RadCalNet as reference ground targets. Firstly, we conducted 62 on-orbit cross-radiometric calibrations of GF-6/WFV since its launch by tracking with the Sentinel-2/MSI sensor after correcting the discrepancy spectrum and solar zenith angle. Then, validation of cross-radiometric calibration results against RadCalNet products indicated an average absolute relative error between 3.55% and 4.64%. Cross-validation with additional reference sensors, including Landsat-8/OLI and MODIS, confirmed the reliability of calibration, demonstrating relative differences from GF-6/WFV of less than 5%. Furthermore, the overall uncertainty of the cross-radiometric calibration was estimated to be from 4.08% to 4.89%. Finally, trend analysis of the time-series radiometric performance was also conducted and revealed an annual degradation rate ranging from 0.57% to 2.31%. This degradation affects surface reflectance retrieval, introducing a bias of approximately 0.0073 to 0.0084. Our findings highlight the operational effectiveness of the proposed method in achieving long-time-series on-orbit radiometric calibration and degradation monitoring of GF-6/WFV. The study also demonstrates that the radiometric performance of GF-6/WFV is relatively stable and suitable for further quantitative applications, especially for long-term monitoring applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Asia is not only the primary region for global pig production but also the largest consumer of pork worldwide. Although the pig production in Asia has made great progress in the past, it still is confronted with numerous challenges. These challenges include: inadequate land and feed resources, a substantial number of small-scale pig farms, escalating pressure to ensure environmental conservation, control of devastating infectious diseases, as well as coping with high temperatures and high humidity. To solve these problems, important investments of human and financial capital are required to promote large-scale production systems, exploit alternative feed resources, implement precision feeding, and focus on preventive medicine and vaccines as alternatives to antibiotics, improve pig breeding, and increase manure recycling. Implementation of these techniques and management practices will facilitate development of more environmentally-friendly and economically sustainable pig production systems in Asia, ultimately providing consumers with healthy pork products around the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Land suitability analysis is method for obtaining optimum utilization of naturally accessible land resources. This study aims to identify the mustard cultivation suitability potential sites in rabi season using analytical hierarchy process (AHP) in the Imphal–Iril river catchment Manipur, India. Using the geospatial approach, the assessment was conducted by using climate, soil and topography data. The findings indicate that AHP method could potentially be used to classify suitable zones for mustard cultivation. Highly suitability zones for mustard were observed in the valley portion having mild slope while moderately suitable sites were primarily found near the foothill, which have a gentle sloping topography. Not suitable zone were found mostly in the hilly regions. This assessment will helpful for cropping management option to the regional growers and the policy makers to achieve high production of mustard in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context and background With the implementation of Economic liberalization policies in the 1980s and recognition of land markets in the 1990s there has been an increase in competition and Land Resource Conflicts (LRCs) over land in many parts of Tanzania. As a result, the implementation of reforms has been accompanied with statutory multiplicity in land allocation leading to severe LRCs especially in rural areas. Goal and objectives This article examines the nature of LRCs in Tanzania and potential solutions based on juxtaposition of LRCs related theories onto practices in land management in Tanzania. Methodology Workshops were conducted in three regions of mainland Tanzania reaching a total of 210 professionals in forest, environment, Academia and land sectors. Participants' contributions in these workshops were clustered based on concepts derived from resource LRC theories and narratives were interpreted to arrive at the results and conclusion of the study. Results It was noted that since many LRCs emanate from farmers or pastoralists intersection with either farmland or conservation areas i.e., forests, game parks or/and natural ecosystems, these spatial units need to be delineated with proper community participation. Haphazard attempt to exclude one resource user from the other have often turned futile due to corruption and violation detection inability by government authorities. Local communities seem to argue for reducing these conservation areas in favor of expanded agriculture and/or grazing land. It seems however, there is no recipe for LRCs resolution in Tanzania, the cost and benefit of the different approaches need to be evaluated before one can adopt any. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Offshore photovoltaic power stations (OPVPS) greatly help solve energy problems and land resource scarcity. A crucial phase of the OPVPS project lifecycle is site selection. To select the optimal location of OPVPS with many difficulties such as the uncertainty of the environment, the compensating relationships among criteria, and the different attributes of the alternatives, this paper proposed a fuzzy multi-criteria decision-making framework based on Pythagorean fuzzy Elimination et Choix Traduisant la Realité-III (ELECTRE-III) method. First, the comprehensive criteria system for siting OPVPS was constructed, which included veto and evaluation criteria. Second, the Pythagorean fuzzy set was used to express the uncertain evaluation of experts. Third, considering the actual situation that experts had different experiences and abilities, this paper proposed a novel expert weighting method. Fourth, entropy weighting method, best–worst method, and combination weighting of game theory were introduced to calculate the criteria weights. Fifth, considering the compensation between criteria, ELECTRE-III was used for ranking. Finally, to verify the applicability and robustness of the proposed framework, a China case study was conducted; the results showed that Haizhou Bay is the best alternative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global hydrological reanalyses are modelled datasets providing information on river discharge evolution everywhere in the world. With multi‐decadal daily timeseries, they provide long‐term context to identify extreme hydrological events such as floods and droughts. By covering the majority of the world's land masses, they can fill the many gaps in river discharge in‐situ observational data, especially in the global South. These gaps impede knowledge of both hydrological status and future evolution and hamper the development of reliable early warning systems for hydrological‐related disaster reduction. River discharge is a natural integrator of the water cycle over land. Global hydrological reanalysis datasets offer an understanding of its spatio‐temporal variability and are therefore critical for addressing the water–energy–food–environment nexus. This paper describes how global hydrological reanalyses can fill the lack of ground measurements by using earth system or hydrological models to provide river discharge time series. Following an inventory of alternative sources of river discharge datasets, reviewing their advantages and limitations, the paper introduces the Copernicus Emergency Management Service (CEMS) Global Flood Awareness System (GloFAS) modelling chain and its reanalysis dataset as an example of a global hydrological reanalysis dataset. It then reviews examples of downstream applications for global hydrological reanalyses, including monitoring of land water resources and ocean dynamics, understanding large‐scale hydrological extreme fluctuations, early warning systems, earth system model diagnostics and the calibration and training of models, with examples from three Copernicus Services (Emergency Management, Marine and Climate Change). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globally, surface water, groundwater, soil moisture, snow storage, canopy water, and wet biomass constituents make up water storage, which plays a significant role in the hydrological water balance. Evaluating the variations in water storage anomalies associated with climate forcing and human activities over river basins is crucial for assessing water scarcity and predicting potential pressures on water resources in the future. In this study, we assessed the impacts of climatic and anthropogenic drivers on the change in water storage in the river basins of Ethiopia by using the independent component analysis to examine Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment with the Global Land Data Assimilate System-based water storage and comparing the independent component analysis with hydro-meteorological data and statistical data related to human activities. It is of great significance for helping people better understand the evaluation of terrestrial water storage anomalies under the combined influence of climatic change and anthropogenic activities and providing information for better protection and utilization of water resources at river basin level. It is crucial to take effective measures to protect these precious land and water resources and prevent their further deterioration. The estimated result will be essential for sustainable water management and protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wolfberry (Lycium barbarum L.) production in arid and semi-arid areas is drastically affected by the low utilization rate of soil and water resources and the irrational application of water and nitrogen fertilizers. Thus, this study explored a high-yielding, high-quality, and efficient irrigation and nitrogen regulation model to promote the production efficiency of wolfberry and rational utilization of water and land resources in arid and semi-arid areas. We compared and analyzed the effects of different soil water treatments (the upper and lower limits of soil water were estimated as the percentage of soil water content to field water capacity (θf), with the following irrigation regimen: adequate irrigation (W0, 75–85% θf), mild water deficit (W1, 65–75% θf), moderate water deficit (W2, 55–65% θf), and severe water deficit (W3, 45–55% θf)) and nitrogen levels (no nitrogen (N0, 0 kg·ha−1), low nitrogen (N1, 150 kg·ha−1), moderate nitrogen (N2, 300 kg·ha−1), and high nitrogen (N3, 450 kg·ha−1)) on the growth, physiology, and production of wolfberry. The results showed that water regulation, nitrogen application level, and their interaction significantly affected plant height and stem diameter growth amount (p < 0.05). Additionally, the relative chlorophyll content of wolfberry leaves first increased and then decreased with increasing nitrogen levels and water deficit. The average net photosynthetic rate (Pn), stomatal conductance (gs), intercellular carbon dioxide concentration, and transpiration rate (Tr) reached the highest values in plants exposed to W0N2 (19.86 μmmol·m−2·s−1), W1N1 (182.65 mmol·m−2·s−1), W2N2 (218.86 μmol·mol−1), and W0N2 (6.44 mmol·m−2·s−1) treatments, respectively. Pn, gs, and Tr were highly correlated with photosynthetically active radiation and water vapor pressure difference (goodness-of-fit: 0.366–0.828). Furthermore, water regulation and nitrogen levels exhibited significant effects on the yield and water- (WUE), and nitrogen-use efficiency (NUE) (p < 0.01), and their interactions exhibited significant effects on the yield, WUE, and nitrogen partial productivity of wolfberry plants (p < 0.05). Moreover, the contents of total sugar, polysaccharides, fats, amino acids, and proteins were the highest in W1N2, W1N2, W1N2, W2N3, and W0N2 treatments, respectively, which were increased by 3.32–16.93%, 7.49–54.72%, 6.5–45.89%, 11.12–86.16%, and 7.15–71.67%, respectively. Under different water regulations (except for the W3 condition) and nitrogen level treatments, the net income and input–output ratio of wolfberry were in the order W1 > W0 > W2 > W3 and N2 > N3 > N1 > N0. The TOPSIS method also revealed that the yield, quality, WUE, NUE, and economic benefits of wolfberry improved under the W1N2 treatment, suggesting that WIN2 might be the most suitable irrigation and nitrogen regulation model for wolfberry production in regions with scarce land and water resources such as the Gansu Province and areas with similar climate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The bistatic Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) system can overcome the physical limitations imposed by the baseline of monostatic dual-antenna InSAR. It provides greater flexibility and can enhance elevation measurement accuracy through a well-designed baseline configuration. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) equipped with bistatic InSAR, having relatively low cost and high flexibility, are useful for mapping and land resource exploration. However, due to challenges including spatiotemporal synchronization and motion errors, there are limited reports on UAV-borne bistatic InSAR. This paper proposes a comprehensive method for processing data from small UAV-borne bistatic InSAR by integrating two-way synchronization chain signals. The proposed method includes compensation for time and phase synchronization errors, trajectory refinement with synchronized chain and Position and Orientation System (POS) data, high-precision bistatic InSAR imaging, and interferometric processing. Height inversion results based on the proposed method are also provided, which demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method in improving the accuracy of interferometric measurement at calibration points from 0.66 m to 0.42 m. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coal gangue is one of the most accumulated solid wastes in China, its accumulation occupies a large amount of land resources and the potential environmental risks posed by coal gangue continue to rise. In this study, sequential extraction was employed to analyze the fractionation behavior of trace elements (Cd, Cr, Cu, Mn, Ni, Pb, V and Zn), The contamination degree and potential ecological risk of trace elements were comprehensively evaluated by Geo-accumulation Index (Igeo), Potential ecological risk index and the Risk assessment code (RAC) method. The results of XRD shows that there are various minerals in coal gangue, with obvious diffraction peak characteristics, and the minerals with higher levels are quartz, kaolinite, dolomite and potassium feldspar. The trace elements are predominantly found in the residual state. The results of Igeo reveal that all trace elements are in a pollution-free state. The potential ecological risk level of Cd belongs to strong risk, while the level of the other elements is slight risk. The result of RAC indicates that the active forms of Mn may cause the greatest harm to the ecological environment, and which deserves further attention. The results can provide scientific basis for the stacking management and comprehensive utilization of coal gangue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Jianghuai-Huai Hilly Region (JHHR), being a crucial agricultural and forestry hub within the Yangtze River Economic Belt, holds immense significance in investigating land use dynamics under diverse scenarios. Such exploration not only facilitates the sustainable utilization of land resources but also contributes to ecological environmental preservation and the advancement of regional economic and social development. This study aims to analyze the spatial and temporal characteristics and driving forces of land use in JHHR over the past three decades (1990-2020) using 18 driving factors selected from both the natural environment and social economy. We have considered four different scenarios, including Natural Development (ND), Rapid Development (RD), Cultivated Land Protection (CLP), and Ecological Protection (EP). We used the PLUS model to simulate land use changes in JHHR until 2040, and we analyzed the spatial distribution pattern of land under different objectives. The results show that: (1) The main types of land use in the Jianghuai hilly area are arable land and woodland. In the past 30 years, the land use changes have been relatively stable, the area of arable land and woodland has continued to decrease, and the construction land has continued to grow; unused land and grassland have the highest dynamic degree, with the highest comprehensive dynamic degree from 2000 to 2005, at 0.42%; (2) In 2020, the simulation accuracy of land use in different time spans is high, with a Kappa coefficient higher than 0.85 and an overall accuracy higher than 92%, both higher than the standard. (3) The main driving factors for land expansion from 1990 to 2020 were natural factors such as DEM and slope, and the driving forces for construction land mainly came from socio-economic factors. (4) There are obvious gaps in land use changes under different scenarios. A comprehensive comparison of the growth of other types of land use to varying degrees under the ecological protection scenario and under the protection of ecological land use can be used as the optimal development scenario model. The scenario simulation can provide an effective reference for the rational planning and management of land in the Jianghuai hilly area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The problem of change detection in remote sensing image processing is both difficult and important. It is extensively used in a variety of sectors, including land resource planning, monitoring and forecasting of agricultural plant health, and monitoring and assessment of natural disasters. Remote sensing images provide a large amount of long-term and fully covered data for earth environmental monitoring. A lot of progress has been made thanks to deep learning's quick development. But the majority of deep learning-based change detection techniques currently in use rely on the well-known Convolutional neural network (CNN). However, considering the locality of convolutional operation, CNN unable to master the interplay between global and distant semantic information. Some researches has employ Vision Transformer as a backbone in remote sensing field. Inspired by these researches, in this paper, we propose a network named Siam-Swin-Unet, which is a Siamesed pure Transformer with U-shape construction for remote sensing image change detection. Swin Transformer is a hierarchical vision transformer with shifted windows that can extract global feature. To learn local and global semantic feature information, the dual-time image are fed into Siam-Swin-Unet which is composed of Swin Transformer, Unet Siamesenet and two feature fusion module. Considered the Unet and Siamesenet are effective for change detection, We applied it to the model. The feature fusion module is designed for fusion of dual-time image features, and is efficient and low-compute confirmed by our experiments. Our network achieved 94.67 F1 on the CDD dataset (season varying). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Marine managers commonly use ecological indicators in planning and evaluations; however, few programs monitor social and cultural impacts of management. Practical approaches to identifying and monitoring social and cultural aspects of communities' relationships with their environment could assist many agencies in understanding the impacts of their efforts to achieve conservation goals. The Hawai'i Department of Land and Natural Resources, Division of Aquatic Resources (DAR) launched the Holomua Marine Initiative to collaborate and engage with communities to strengthen co-management efforts, which included integrating socio-cultural aspects into the planning and assessment of marine management. Our team, which included resource managers, Western and indigenous scientists, community leaders, students, agency, and university staff engaged in collaborative management efforts in Hawai'i, developed an approach to monitor the social and cultural impacts of DAR's management actions. Through online collaborative workshops with community members and non-profit leaders engaged in marine conservation in Hawai'i, we co-developed socio-cultural principles and indicators based on their reciprocal relationships with the nearshore environment. During the workshops, we used small group activities, snow cards, sorting, and categorization to generate nine fundamental principles, with associated indicators, to guide marine management in Hawai'i. Many of the principles and indicators are comparable to those developed in other parts of the Pacific, revolving around themes including the perpetuation of local and indigenous knowledge across generations, and access to land and natural resources. Participants also suggested themes less prevalent in other research, such as the need to evaluate impacts of tourism on community relationships with coastal areas. We offer recommendations for the development of socio-cultural principles and indicators in other place-based contexts, and emphasize the importance of on-going community collaboration. Developing a socio-cultural monitoring framework with community members impacted by marine management decisions could enable others engaged in collaborative efforts, including government agencies, to holistically understand and address impacts of their policies and actions. Monitoring layered sociocultural impacts of marine management on local and indigenous communities has the potential to shift management goals, and enhance long-term effectiveness and support for initiatives to protect coastal resources worldwide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the coming century, climate change and sea-level rise are predicted to cause widespread change to coastal wetlands. Estuarine vegetated wetlands can adapt to sea-level rise through both vertical development (i.e., biophysical feedbacks and sedimentation) and upslope/horizontal migration. Quantifying changes to estuarine vegetated wetlands over time can help to inform current and future decisions regarding land management and resource stewardship. In this study, we show how coastal land cover maps readily available in the US can be used to assess and understand estuarine vegetated wetland changes. This assessment involves two steps: (1) identifying the net gain/loss of estuarine vegetated wetlands and (2) determining which land cover types contribute to the net gain/loss. From this information, we developed estuarine vegetated wetland change scenarios that evaluate whether estuarine vegetated wetland gain kept up with loss and whether the contribution was from: (1) estuarine vegetated wetland migration or tidal restoration; (2) land building (i.e., development); or (3) both. We assessed changes from 1996 to 2016 for: (1) the conterminous US; (2) each major US coastline; and (3) focal estuaries with the most change per coast. We found that the change scenario (1, 2, or 3) varied across coastlines. Moving forward, national coastal land cover programs can be informed by utilizing methodologies that leverage contemporary information for delineating the estuarine zone from upslope/adjacent wetlands. We highlight approaches that could be used to address this challenge and provide complementary information related to wetland condition changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bioenergy with carbon capture and geological storage (BECCS) is considered one of the top options for both offsetting CO2 emissions and removing atmospheric CO2. BECCS requires using limited land resources efficiently while ensuring minimal adverse impacts on the delicate food‐energy‐water nexus. Perennial C4 biomass crops are productive on marginal land under low‐input conditions avoiding conflict with food and feed crops. The eastern half of the contiguous U.S. contains a large amount of marginal land, which is not economically viable for food production and liable to wind and water erosion under annual cultivation. However, this land is suitable for geological CO2 storage and perennial crop growth. Given the climate variation across the region, three perennials are major contenders for planting. The yield potential and stability of Miscanthus, switchgrass, and energycane across the region were compared to select which would perform best under the recent (2000–2014) and future (2036–2050) climates. Miscanthus performed best in the Midwest, switchgrass in the Northeast and energycane in the Southeast. On average, Miscanthus yield decreased from present 19.1 t/ha to future 16.8 t/ha; switchgrass yield from 3.5 to 2.4 t/ha; and energycane yield increased from 14 to 15 t/ha. Future yield stability decreased in the region with higher predicted drought stress. Combined, these crops could produce 0.6–0.62 billion tonnes biomass per year for the present and future. Using the biomass for power generation with CCS would capture 703–726 million tonnes of atmospheric CO2 per year, which would offset about 11% of current total U.S. emission. Further, this biomass approximates the net primary CO2 productivity of two times the current baseline productivity of existing vegetation, suggesting a huge potential for BECCS. Beyond BECCS, C4 perennial grasses could also increase soil carbon and provide biomass for emerging industries developing replacements for non‐renewable products including plastics and building materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban high‐speed railway construction is complex due to limited land resources, high population density, and potential construction risks, especially when new tracks are parallelly aligned to operational railways. Addressing a gap in current literature on fine optimization of manual alignment in such scenarios, this paper introduces a biobjective approximate fine‐grained optimization model for railway alignments (BA‐FORA). Utilizing an approximate dynamic programming (ADP) method, BA‐FORA effectively searches the feasible region to approach a global optimum, overcoming the dimensionality challenges inherent in standard dynamic programming (DP). This paper presents a biobjective optimization framework that takes into account both construction cost and construction risk adjacent to existing operating railways (CRAEOR), offering a method for the fine‐grained design of new railways adjacent to existing railways. Finally, the proposed BA‐FORA framework is applied to practical cases, demonstrating its superior optimization performance. The findings indicate that the BA‐FORA model can autonomously investigate and enhance railway alignment. It generates cost‐effective and low‐risk solutions exceeding manual efforts, ensuring alignment constraint compliance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dredged fills have been widely used as a filling material to meet the demand for land resources during land reclamation in coastal areas. When the conventional vacuum preloading (CVP) method is used to reinforce dredged fill foundations, clogging and accumulation of a dense silt layer significantly reduce the lateral soil permeability of the soil surrounding prefabricated vertical drains (PVDs), leading to a poor reinforcement effect. To address these issues, this paper presents a laboratory model study to evaluate the reinforcement effect of a new method, the stepped-alternating vacuum preloading method (SAVP), in comparison to the CVP method. A series of laboratory model tests were conducted to compare the results of the new SAVP method and the CVP method. The model tests used water discharge, discharge rate, and surface settlement to compare both methods. Additionally, vane shear strength and moisture content were measured after reinforcement. This study evaluates the performance of the SAVP method and proposes an optimal preloading pattern that demonstrates best performance in delaying clogging formation and alleviating the accumulation of a dense silt layer on the surface of the PVDs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vegetation constitutes the primary component of terrestrial ecosystems and plays a crucial role in examining global climate change and its impacts. Assessing vegetation dynamics over significant periods of time can provide critical information on changes in vegetation cover and regional climate. Satellite-based remote sensing products offer a unique opportunity to analyze these changes at a country scale. South Korea has a unique history of forest regeneration, and studying this relationship provides an opportunity to examine its impact. To achieve this, we employ the vegetation–precipitation relationship using time series segmentation on residual trends (TSS-RESTREND), a statistical method that calculates the correlation between the annual maximum vegetation index and cumulative rainfall. This method helps identify time-step changes related to structural changes in the ecosystem. Using the enhanced vegetation index (EVI) and rainfall, this study aims to uncover the underlying dynamics and driving forces behind observed ecosystem changes, facilitating a deeper comprehension of the intricate interactions between vegetation and precipitation through the application of TSS-RESTREND. The findings increase knowledge of the complex relationship between vegetation growth and rainfall, given the country's commendable forest regeneration program, even in the face of rapid urbanization. Moreover, the integration of finer resolution land cover images derived from in situ data not only provides a nuanced understanding of vegetation dynamics across diverse regions, but also underscores the critical need for continued collection of in situ data to provide more accurate and comprehensive analyses. The findings underline the pivotal role played by land resource management practices and underscores the significance of implementing adaptive conservation strategies, thereby contributing to the preservation of a stable and sustainable vegetation cover. The findings serve as a call for the ecosystem monitoring and strategic adaptation required to examine the environmental and ecosystem structural changes in the region. This study sheds light on the critical relationship between land management practices, environmental sustainability, and the resilience of the region's vegetation amidst an ever-changing landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the implications of the conformation of formal burial areas in the southernmost limit of agricultural dispersion in South America. Previous research proposed the development of cemeteries or formal burial areas due to specialization in using specific habitats and the development of territorial ownership. From a paleoecological background, we hypothesize that hunter‐gatherers intensified resource exploitation and develop territoriality in population growth and pressure over resources. The expectation is that formal burial areas emerged in this context to legitimize the ties with the territory and ensure exclusive access to the land and its resources. To evaluate this hypothesis, we analyzed a mortuary context from southern Mendoza (Central Western Argentina), named Ojo de Agua, by describing the site's characteristics, burial modality, presence of grave goods, age at death profile, and evidence of violence. This site has two main conditions for handling our hypothesis: (1) the chronology and spatial localization coincide with the temporal and geographic dispersion of pre‐Hispanic cultigens; (2) systematic procedures during fieldwork led us to access a significant amount of information not available in other mortuary contexts of the area. Our results point to Ojo de Agua as a cemetery that emerged in the frame of increasing territoriality and conflict with neighboring groups and permitted us to improve our knowledge about the dynamic relationship between human population, environment, and cultural responses in the context of intensification and contact with food production. These results deepen recent studies in the same line but with a greater resolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study describes spatial and temporal patterns in fire across the US Western Great Plains over the last 40 years. Although pyrogeographic studies have explored the nexus of fire patterns in relation to the bio-physical environment and socio-ecological trends, most of this research has focused on forested ecosystems and regions long known for conflict between wildfires and human development, especially at the wildland–urban interface. But evidence suggests large wildfire activity is increasing in the US Great Plains, and the Western Great Plains—a Land Resource Region comprised of four ecoregions, Northwestern Plains, High Plains, Nebraska Sandhills, and Southwestern Tablelands—not only contains some of the largest areas of rangeland in the US but also the highest concentration of public land in the Great Plains. As such, the Western Great Plains provides an opportunity to explore fire activity in primarily rural landscapes with a combination of public and private ownership, all dominated by rangeland vegetation. We combined several publicly-available datasets containing fire records between 1992 and 2020 to create two databases, one with georeferenced point data on 60,575 wildfire events in the region, and another with georeferenced perimeter data for 2665 fires. Ignition by humans was the dominant cause of fires. No ecoregion showed a statistically significant trend towards either increasing or decreasing the annual burned area. The Northwestern Plains had the most burned area and the greatest number of incidents—consistently around or above 1000 incidents per year since 1992—with the majority in July. The High Plains showed the greatest increase in annual fire incidence, never reaching more than 200–300 per year 1992–2009, and averaging above 1000 incidents per year since 2010. Few long-term trends in human population, weather, or fuel metrics appear strongly associated with fire patterns in any ecoregion, although the years 2006, 2012, and 2017 stood out for their levels of fire activity, and these years often frequently logged extreme values in wildland fuel metrics. These relationships merit much closer examination in the Western Great Plains, because like other rangeland-dominated landscapes, the fine fuels that comprise these wildland fuelbeds are much more responsive to fine-scale changes in moisture conditions. Rural Western Great Plains landscapes are a mosaic of public and private land ownership, and an increasing impact of wildfires on public grazing lands—which are often situated within other jurisdictions or ownership—will likely have an impact on rural livelihoods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the growing opposition to wind and solar energy projects, both domestically and globally. Concerns raised by opposition groups include the impact on local communities, such as noise, vibration, and changes to landscapes. Indigenous groups and rural communities in the Global South have also clashed with wind project developers, accusing them of land theft and bribery. The article highlights the arrest of climate activist Greta Thunberg for protesting a wind farm on indigenous land in Norway. It raises questions about the feasibility of a high renewables strategy and the need for an honest debate about energy options. The article also discusses the challenges of meeting climate targets and the significant land area required for wind and solar installations. It concludes by mentioning the growing movement to prohibit solar energy systems on farmland in the Midwest, with several townships and counties adopting restrictive ordinances. The article emphasizes the importance of taking the concerns raised by opposition groups seriously and adopting a principled approach to address the opposition to renewable energy. [Extracted from the article]

At present, the new energy industry represented by photovoltaics has become the main force to realize the optimization of China's energy structure and the goal of "double carbon"; with the absence of land resources, the waterborne bifacial photovoltaic has ushered in a new opportunity. Therefore, in order to address the problem that the maximum power point tracking (MPPT) of photovoltaics (PV) could not take into account, the dynamic economic performance in the control process, an economic model predictive control (EMPC), is proposed in this work to realize the MPPT of the waterborne bifacial PV power generation system. Firstly, the model of the bifacial PV module is constructed by combining the ray-tracing irradiance model and considering the effect of water surface albedo on the irradiance absorbed by the module. Secondly, the EMPC controller is designed based on the state-space model of the system to maximize the power generation as the economic performance index, and to solve the optimal input variables time by time to achieve a rolling optimization with the operational requirements of the system itself as the constraints. Thirdly, the MATLAB/Simulink (R2022a) simulation experimental results verify that the EMPC strategy could be utilized to achieve MPPT of the waterborne bifacial PV power generation system, according to the changes of environment. Finally, it is also demonstrated that the bifacial PV power generation system that employed the EMPC strategy outperformed the traditional MPPT algorithm, with respect to both output power tracking velocity and accuracy, and the power generation could be improved by about 6% to 14.5%, which significantly enhances the system's dynamic process economics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rural–urban fringe areas serve as crucial transitional zones within urban structures, and their spatiotemporal evolution holds significant reference value for scientifically planning urban configurations. The existing research predominantly focuses on large cities, overlooking the spatiotemporal evolution mechanisms of small- to medium-sized cities. This study employs nighttime light data as the data source to ensure continuous and consistent data, overcoming administrative boundaries. Taking Taizhou City as a case study, a combination of the threshold method and an improved Mann–Kendall algorithm is employed to reveal the evolution process of fringe areas. And a gravity model is utilized to unearth the interaction relationships among regions. The results indicate that from 2010 to 2020, the urban area expanded from 1097 km2 to 2791 km2, with fringe areas experiencing initial contraction followed by gradual expansion. The central urban areas of Jiaojiang, Luqiao, and Huangyan gradually merged, forming a concentrated region. Linhai maintained a high level of attraction, while spatial gravity weakened in other areas. This study quantitatively analyzes the expansion trends of fringe areas in small- to medium-sized cities, elucidating the attractive effects of time–cost distance and land resources on development and providing valuable support for subsequent spatial planning and governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Engineered biomaterials play a crucial role in the construction industry. The study and development of engineered biomaterials with high-strength are necessary to fulfill the construction requirements for medium and highrise buildings and long-span bridges. Further promoting the localization of high-strength engineered biomaterials is crucial in terms of reducing CO2 emissions, effectively utilizing land resources, and taking into account the unique structure of forest resources in China. The goal of this modification is to satisfy the rising demand for eco-friendly living spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Change detection is a crucial task in remote sensing that finds broad application in land resource planning, forest resource monitoring, natural disaster monitoring, and evaluation. In this paper, we propose a change detection model for cross-domain recognition, which we call CrossCDNet. Our model significantly improves the modeling ability of the change detection on one dataset and demonstrates good generalization on another dataset without any additional operations. To achieve this, we employ a Siamese neural network for change detection and design an IBNM (Instance Normalization and Batch Normalization Module) that utilizes instance normalization and batch normalization in order to serve as the encoder backbone in the Siamese neural network. The IBNM extracts feature maps for each layer, and the Siamese neural network fuses the feature maps of the two branches using a unique operation. Finally, a simple MLP decoder is used for end-to-end change detection. We train our model on the LEVIR-CD dataset and achieve competitive performance on the test set. In cross-domain dataset testing, CrossCDNet outperforms all the other compared models. Specifically, our model achieves an F1-score of 91.69% on the LEVIR-CD dataset and an F1-score of 77.09% on the WHU-CD dataset, where the training set was LEVIR-CD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the current context of global urbanization and climate change, balancing ecological protection and economic development is a particular challenge in the optimal allocation of regional land use. Here, we propose a research framework for the optimal allocation of land use that considers the regional ecological security pattern (ESP) and allocates space for land-use activities to areas with low ecological risk. Taking Baicheng, China as our study area, ecological sources were first identified by integrating their ecological importance and landscape connectivity, and ecological corridors and functional zones were extracted using the minimum cumulative resistance difference and circuit theory. The ecological source areas were then taken as limiting factors, and four future scenarios were established for 2030 using the parcel-level land-use simulator (PLUS) model. The ecological corridors and functional zones served as areas having restricted ecological conditions, and the four future scenarios were coupled into the corresponding functional zones to optimize the land-use structure in 2030. The results indicate that under the coupled ESP–PLUS scenario, the spatial distribution and structure of land use in Baicheng balance the needs of ecological source area protection and economic development, resulting in greater sustainability. By 2030, the cultivated land area will steadily increase, but attention will also be given to the protection of ecological land (e.g., woodland and marshland), aligning with current policy planning demands. An analysis of the landscape indices for each future scenario found all scenarios to be effective in reducing negative changes in landscape patterns. These findings provide a novel perspective for the rational allocation of future land resources and the optimization of land-use structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Change detection is a critical component in the field of remote sensing, with significant implications for resource management and land monitoring. Currently, most conventional methods for remote sensing change detection often rely on qualitative monitoring, which usually requires data collection from the entire scene over multiple time periods. In this paper, we propose a method that can be computationally intensive and lacks reusability, especially when dealing with large datasets. We use a novel methodology that leverages the texture features and geometric structure information derived from three‐dimensional (3D) real scenes. By establishing a two‐dimensional (2D)–3D geometric relationship between a single observational image and the corresponding 3D scene, we can obtain more accurate positional information for the image. This relationship allows us to transfer the depth information from the 3D model to the observational image, thereby facilitating precise geometric change measurements for specific planar targets. Experimental results indicate that our approach enables millimetre‐level change detection of minuscule targets based on a single image. Compared with conventional methods, our technique offers enhanced efficiency and reusability, making it a valuable tool for the fine‐grained change detection of small targets based on 3D real scene. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cultivated land quality is an essential measure of cultivated land production capability. Establishing a cultivated land quality inversion model based on high-resolution remote sensing data provides a scientific basis for regional cultivated land resource management and sustainable utilization. Utilizing field survey data, cultivated land quality evaluation data, and high-resolution remote sensing data, a spectral index-cultivated land quality model was constructed and optimized with the machine learning method, and cultivated land quality inversion and verification in Chuzhou City in 2021 were carried out. The results showed that the distribution of cultivated land quality in the study area depicted with the remote sensing inversion model based on random forest was consistent with the actual cultivated land quality. Although the accuracy of the SVT-CLQ inversion model established using four spectral indices is slightly lower than that of the MSVT-CLQ group established using 15 indices, it can still accurately reflect the distribution of cultivated land quality in the study area. Compared with the two models of the MSVT-CLQ and SVT-CLQ groups, the field survey data of sampling points is reduced, the time and energy of field sampling and analysis are correspondingly saved, the efficiency of cultivated land quality evaluation is improved, and the dynamic monitoring and rapid evaluation of cultivated land quality are realized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are implications to sustainable development from overconsumption of natural resources. Increasingly, economies are running out of resources to sustain or achieve desired growth rates and inclusive growth. As a result, momentum is building on exploring how the blue economy can be used as complimentary resource, particularly as a taping into it as an opportunity of ensuring that the marginalised groups in society are catered for. This is argued to address the ex-ante inequalities in other sectors of the economy, such as the green economy (land and resources on it), where participation by vulnerable groups like women and youth is limited owing to segregation policies of yesteryears, at least in former colonised countries like South Africa. The study used a systematic literature review, following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses for Protocols (PRISMA-P) approach to ascertain works on this topic and identify gaps that need to be addressed to adequately inform policy and practice. With regards to access and participation in the blue economy, most studies found that women do have access and participate in the blue economy, however, their participation is limited by barriers such lack of education and credit as well as patriarchal beliefs. Furthermore, women participation in both green and blue economies is determined by social norms, skills attainment, access to credit, age, technology. Most of the reviewed studies concluded that men derived more commercial benefits from green economy, while women derive more subsistence and recreational benefits from the blue economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Contested from the early period of Menelik territorial expansion into the hinterlands of Addis Ababa, areas in the vicinity of Suba Park continue to be a bone of political contention in the context of the struggle of Oromo people against the expansion of the central state. A flashpoint is the Oromo protests (2014–2018) against federal state territorial expansion into the Oromo ethnic territory through a new Addis Ababa Master Plan that led to the deposition of Haile Mariam Desalegn and the installation of Abiy Amhed. I investigate how the state environmental policy maintained for extraction and conservation in the Suba forest between the late 1890s and 2018 affected the Tulama modes of land use related to their worldviews and their use of material, social, spiritual and symbolic values of land in the struggle for land and resource rights. I used ethnographic methods that included in-depth and semi-structured interviews, participant observations and document analysis to investigate long-standing and complex land-based conflicts in and around Suba Park. I show how simplifying state narratives of environmental policy entrenched in centralized state administration and exclusionist resource management schemes have reinforced a wider concern about indigenous land and resource rights and decentralized environmental governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Arable land is the lifeblood of food production, it is of great significance to promote the protection of arable land and ensure national food security by accurately understanding the change law of cultivated land and its driving mechanism. This study takes the Weibei dry plateau region of China as an example, explores its spatial and temporal change characteristics through the center of gravity shift and land use shift matrix, and couples the geographic probe model to reveal the driving mechanisms affecting arable land change. The results show that in the past 25 years, the total arable land area in the Weibei Dry Plateau Region of China has decreased by 5.58%, and the stability of arable land resources in the whole region has weakened. The center of gravity of arable land shifts to the northeast, and the standard deviation ellipse of arable land mainly undergoes the change process of "increase (1995–2015)-decrease (2015–2020)", and the spatial distribution of arable land tends to be dispersed. In the LISA frequency mapping, the proportion of stable constant and low-frequency areas is as high as 89.58%, and the spatial pattern of cultivated land is relatively stable. Medium and high frequency areas. The transformation mode is mainly "low-low" aggregation, "low–high" aggregation is not significant, and the decline of cultivated land in the study area is more obvious. In the past 25 years, a total of 1017.26 km2 of arable land was converted to construction land. The explanatory power of the influencing factors varies in each period (0.299 to 0.731), with total agricultural machinery power has the strongest explanatory power of 0.694, 0.592, and 0.731, respectively. The interaction between slope and annual average temperature and other factors being the highest, both greater than 0.8. Through the construction of LISA frequency mapping, combined with the center of gravity model and standard deviation ellipse, the spatial evolution trend of regional arable land is more comprehensively and dynamically grasped. By using the geodetector model, the driving mechanism of the changes of arable land is revealed comprehensively, which provides a theoretical basis for the scientific management and effective protection of arable land resources and a basis for decision-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The demand for energy plants is foreseen to grow as worldwide energy and climate policies promote the use of bioenergy for climate change mitigation. To avoid competing with food production, it's critical to assess future changes in marginal land availability for energy plant development. Using a machine learning method, boosted regression tree, this study modeled potential marginal land resources suitable for cassava under current and different climate change scenarios, based on cassava occurrence records and environmental covariates. The findings revealed that, currently, over 80% of the 1357.24 Mha of available marginal land for cassava cultivation is distributed in Africa and South America. Under three climate change scenarios, by 2030, worldwide suitable marginal land resources were predicted to grow by 39.71Mha, 66.21 Mha, and 39.31Mha for the RCP4.5, RCP6.0, and RCP8.5 scenarios, respectively; by 2050, the potential marginal land suitable for cassava will increase by 38.98Mha, 83.02 Mha, and 55.43Mha, respectively; by 2080, the global marginal land resources were estimated to rise by 40.82 Mha, 99.74 Mha, and 21.87 Mha from now, respectively. Our results highlight the impacts of climate change on potential marginal land resources of cassava across worldwide, which provide the basis for assessing bioenergy potential in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context and background Access to land and productive resources for women is low in many countries especially in the developing world where there are less secure property rights in general. Though there is no clear indication as to which groups should be considered vulnerable in Ethiopia, the groups mentioned under section two are practically considered vulnerable. These groups in Ethiopia include women, orphan children, HIV/AIDS victims, pastoralists, poor peasants, persons with disabilities and the urban and rural poor. Moreover, no proclamation in the country has listed who vulnerable groups are. Only a single proclamation i.e proclamation number 916/2016 tries to highlight the presence of some fabric of society who are considered as vulnerable without further expalanation under its article 34/13/c. The main causes which affect the lives of the women and other vulnerable groups emanate from policy, legal, customary, social and political loopholes in the country. Goal and Objectives: The overall objective of this study was to examine the land administration shortcomings that affect access to land for women in Ethiopia. Methodology: The researchers used a transcendental phenomenological approach to investigate the lived experiences of the women and other vulnerable groups in Ethiopia. By investigating literatures and approaching the participants in a manner where they should express the experiences they have been in and the systematic analysis of policy, legal and social realities with respect access to land. Results: Ethiopia include women, orphan children, HIV/AIDS victims, pastoralists, poor peasants, persons with disabilities and the urban and rural poor are Highly Affected ground. Moreover, no proclamation in the country has listed who vulnerable groups are. Elderly, HIV victims, disabled and unemployed are the groups of vulnerability. In adequate legal and institutional regime, customary practices, lack of political will and land administration shortcomings are among the causes of vulnerability in Ethiopia. Therefore, addressing such main causes of vulnerability requires nothing beyond alleviating problems related to the legal shortcomings, the inadequacy of legal and land experts, corruption and political reluctance, patriarchal customary practices and bad system of land administration. The government should, therefore, give a serious emphasis in these respects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the underpinnings of dispossession and social exclusion as the lens, this paper assesses how the government of Botswana (GoB) balances competing interests of conservation and tourism and how these have impacted the lives of indigenous communities. Relying on relevant literature, we analyse the intended and unintended consequences resulting from the government's stance on conservation and indigenous communities' rights to ancestral land and other resources. Results indicate that the rights of Basarwa to ancestral land and other resources within the CKGR have been negatively affected. However, the GoB believes the changes brought by conservation efforts that affected Basarwa's lifestyles was essential to allow for the management of wildlife and the promotion of tourism. Despite the resultant international backlash and court cases devised to contest the GoB position, Basarwa remains disadvantaged and marginalised through land dispossession and exclusion to participate in tourism businesses. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the wide application of the "Tender, Auction, and Listing" system for land in China, it is of paramount importance to establish a sound land auction mechanism so as to avoid unreasonable land allocation. However, existing studies only focus on developers who are merely concerned about land combinations and offline auctions with low efficiency and high land unsold rate. To further improve land auction mechanism, we modeled the problem of land allocation as an online combinatorial auction. On this basis, we defined a land correction coefficient and designed an optimal online combinatorial auction mechanism that enabled developers to submit multiple combinations of land. Our designed mechanism proved to satisfy both incentive compatibility (IC) and individual rationality (IR), which can prevent developers from lying in the auction while winning higher revenue, reducing land unsold rate, increasing developer turnover rate and promoting the stability of land resource allocation rate. Therefore, online combinatorial auction mechanism, both applicable and efficient, is a practical solution for improving land auctions in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of the work is the accumulation of knowledge regarding the characteristics of the natural environment and its zonal peculiarities, as elements that define the structure of the land fund and the state of soil quality, in order to establish the ecological specificity of land productivity and the possible pressures on them. The importance of the research theme derives from the fact that the properties of the land are extremely differentiated in the territory, due to the variation of environmental factors and conditions. Meadows are an essential element of sustainable agriculture systems represented by: providing fodder, animal welfare, soil quality and optimal use of poorly productive land, especially for the production of biomass, a renewable energy source. Due to the fact that meadows are located in very varied seasonal conditions occupying, as a rule, surfaces unsuitable for other crops, either due to the deficient physico-chemical properties of the soil, or due to the orography of the land or other causes, their productivity is closely related to both environmental conditions in which they are found, as well as human and animal activities. The knowledge of the natural conditions and especially of the ecological potential of the land for the main categories of use and crops is of particular importance in carrying out the qualitative evaluation of the land, based on the assessment notes and the analysis of the limiting factors, being able to constitute an effective tool for the choice the set of ameliorative measures that favor an efficient use of land resources within the researched space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the global water crisis and its impact on water security. It highlights the urgent need for sustainable water management strategies to address the challenges of water stress, extreme climate events, poor water quality, and loss of biodiversity. The article specifically focuses on China's unique case, including its spatially unmatched distribution of arable land and water resources, increasing water stress due to socio-economic development, and the impact of climate change. It also discusses China's water strategies and solutions, such as the implementation of the "Three Red Lines" policy and the development of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project. The article emphasizes the importance of science and technology in addressing the water crisis and calls for joint international efforts to achieve sustainable water resources management. [Extracted from the article]

The Floating Solar Photovoltaic System (FSPV) is emerging as a favorable technology to policymakers for economically harvesting renewable energy. The implementation of large-scale photovoltaic (PV) systems is often disrupted due to the unavailability of land. The FSPV systems, where the PV modules are floated in water bodies facilitate optimal utilization of water resources and land assets. The FSPV provides higher power output compared to land-based PV systems of the equal area because of improved energy conversion efficiency at a lower temperature. Another opportunity for the FSPV system is integration with hydropower stations, storage systems, and the electric grid. This paper explores the flood duration curve-based optimal sizing of the FSPV System with the objective of electrification of rural micro-grid. A comparison of energy output and module temperature rise has been made for the FSPV system and its equivalent land-based PV system of equal area. The system generates 18.08 GWh, which is 10.04% more than the land-based PV system. The DC Capacity factor is 17.2%. The Demand Supply Factor (DSF) for a particular day in winter, spring, summer, and monsoon is 37.55%, 41.7%, 45.9%, and 25% respectively. The results indicate that the FSPV system is a sustainable alternative to power renewable energy-based mini micro-grid and provide cost effective electricity to all. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]