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The integration of intelligent transportation systems (ITS) in urban infrastructure has increased significantly, and one of the most notable examples is the development of autonomous vehicles (AVs). AVs have become a solution to various driving problems, such as performing complete overtaking maneuvers (OM). These maneuvers are considered one of the most difficult to carry out. Although there are many papers on OM maneuvers with AVs, not all of these studies focus on the performance of complete OM. Therefore, a comprehensive and scientific exploration of the analysis of complete OM with AVs is lacking. This study aims to address this gap through a systematic review following the PRISMA protocol as methodology, examining 51 articles published between 2008 and 2024 in the Science Direct, Scopus, and Web of Science (WOS) databases. The results showed that methodologies such as Model Predictive Control (MPC), Fuzzy Control (FC), and sigmoidal functions are used most to perform complete OM with AVs. MPC is the most relevant methodology due to its capability to be combined with other control systems and its predictive ability. FC and sigmoidal functions are also appropriate for dealing with inaccuracies and non-linear features associated with overtaking maneuvers. However, there are still complications related to computational complexity and sensor limitations. Future studies should consider and integrate the development of comprehensive systems that combine multiple real-time control methodologies and offer a robust combination of sensors. This review contributes to teaching studies that reveal promising opportunities for complete OM with AVs research and provide access to methodologies that could be optimized based on technological advances and emerging needs of the ITS sector. Addressing these knowledge gaps is essential to achieving safer and more efficient overtaking maneuvers by AVs.

This article intervenes in the persistent hierarchy of epistemological worth that produces scientific knowledge as meaningful, and knowledge from arts or humanities as marginal, or illustrative. The specific trans-disciplinary project we discuss brings together environmental social sciences with performance-based Forum Theatre methods to explore 'value' as understood in communities in Tabasco and Chiapas, Mexico in relation to Payment for Ecosystem Services. Trans-disciplinary collaborations that seek to incorporate 'novel' methods to engage participants differently might better reflect the dynamic, emergent, and often shifting nature of beliefs, attitudes and values.

Abstract We show how the dire state of the Earth's rivers entangles intimately with ‘thingifying’ processes at the heart of colonial modernity. Known in many precolonial and Indigenous contexts as person‐like kin, we describe how rivers the world over have been re‐done primarily as thing—amoral, controllable, a potential commodity like anything else. We develop and work with a provisory concept of kin as those constituents of environments that reciprocally nurture, and contribute to the substance of, one another's life and wellbeing. We show how kinship with rivers figures centrally in primarily Indigenous‐led struggles in various regions of the globe for the recognition and enforcement of river personhood and rights. This is partly because people are motivated to fight passionately for their kin. With some careful caveats, we argue that associating river kinship exclusively with Indigenous worlds undermines its potential for global impact. Thus, as an apposite case study, the latter part of the paper focuses on some of the social–ecological trends which we suggest are opening up the possibility for the re‐establishment of ‘riverkinship’ in the United Kingdom. We reflect on the potential for riverkinship to help cultivate political constellations fitting to the challenges of the Anthropocene. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

A third of the world’s ecosystems are considered degraded, and there is an urgent need for protection and restoration to make the planet healthier. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) target 15.3 aims at protecting and restoring the terrestrial ecosystem to achieve a land degradation-neutral world by 2030. Land restoration through inclusive and productive growth is indispensable to promote sustainable development by fostering climate change-resistant, poverty-alleviating, and environmentally protective economic growth. The SDG Indicator 15.3.1 is used to measure progress towards a land degradation-neutral world. Earth observation datasets are the primary data sources for deriving the three sub-indicators of indicator 15.3.1. It requires selecting, querying, and processing a substantial historical archive of data. To reduce the complexities, make the calculation user-friendly, and adapt it to in-country applications, a module on the FAO’s SEPAL platform has been developed in compliance with the UNCCD Good Practice Guidance (GPG v2) to derive the necessary statistics and maps for monitoring and reporting land degradation. The module uses satellite data from Landsat, Sentinel 2, and MODIS sensors for primary productivity assessment, along with other datasets enabling high-resolution to large-scale assessment of land degradation. The use of an in-country land cover transition matrix along with in-country land cover data enables a more accurate assessment of land cover changes over time. Four different case studies from Bangladesh, Nigeria, Uruguay, and Angola are presented to highlight the prospect and challenges of monitoring land degradation using various datasets, including LCML-based national land cover legend and land cover data.

Global health equity is at a historically tenuous nexus complicated by economic inequality, climate change, mass migration, racialized violence, and global pandemics. Social medicine, collective health, and structural competency are interdisciplinary fields with their own histories and fragmentary implementation in health equity movements situated both locally and globally. In this paper, we review these three fields’ historical backgrounds, theoretical underpinnings, and contemporary contributions to global health equity. We believe that intentional dialogue between these fields could promote a generative discourse rooted in a shared understanding of their historical antecedents and theoretical frameworks. We also propose pedagogical tools grounded within our own critical and transformative pedagogies that offer the prospect of bringing these traditions into greater dialogue for the purpose of actualizing the human right to health.

Planning a Park-and-Ride (P&R) system in an urban area of a city depends on a group of transportation planning professionals with different areas of expertise in mobility, agreeing on which criteria or set of criteria are the most important. In addition to analysing the criteria established as mobility policies in the Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan (SUMP), when establishing a set of facilities belonging to the P&R system. To find out which criterion is the most important one when combining the mobility criteria established in the SUMP with the criteria of transportation planners with different expertise, this paper applies the multi-criteria method known as the Grey Analytic Hierarchy Process (G-AHP). In this method, at first the main and secondary criteria are determined at two levels that allow building a hierarchical structure, then transportation professionals are surveyed, and finally, the formulation of the multi-criteria method is designed. The result of the study illustrates the effectiveness and usefulness of the proposed multi-criteria method to determine the hierarchy of criteria from most to least important to solve the problem of locating a P&R system. Also, the results are compared with two different multicriteria methods (FAHP and BWM) to see how they are alike and how they are different. The finding suggests that the planning of a P&R system and the criterion for the accessibility of public transport go hand in hand, regardless of the multi-criteria method employed.

Abstract Nature degradation, poverty and social discrimination are some of the consequences of unfair decision‐making over environmental resources within rural communities in the Global South. Barriers to achieving fair environmental decisions are entrenched power differences and the lack of representation of the diversity of local values in environmental decision‐making. Using intersectionality and value pluralism as a conceptual base, this is the first paper to examine the potential of Forum Theatre, a performance arts‐based method, to discuss ‘solutions’ regarding power differences and values towards nature in environmental decision‐making. We implemented Forum Theatre in two rural villages in Chiapas, Mexico, framed around conflicts and power differences in eco‐tourism development. Participants felt empathy with the Forum Theatre characters and dissatisfaction over the conflicts, and this motivated them to engage and participate in collective reflections on their own personal experiences with power differences in environmental decision‐making. From these reflections, participants performed diverse ‘solutions’ to the conflicts, bringing to the fore plural interconnected and dynamic values towards nature in these narratives. Despite this, Forum Theatre does not look to ‘solve’ conflicts; it is a safe space to explore how power differences and values towards nature play out in environmental decision‐making. Results offer a promising picture of the potential of Forum Theatre as an opening where participants could discuss power differences and values towards nature. However, establishing its potential as a tool in environmental decision‐making would require engaging those involved in implementing environmental decisions that affect the communities but who operate from other levels of the governance structure, such as policy‐makers and large NGOs. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

River networks are among Earth’s most threatened hot-spots of biodiversity and provide key ecosystem services (e.g., supply drinking water and food, climate regulation) essential to sustaining human well-being. Climate change and increased human water use are causing more rivers and streams to dry, with devastating impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem services. Currently, more than a half of the global river networks consist of drying channels, and these are expanding dramatically. However, drying river networks (DRNs) have received little attention from scientists and policy makers, and the public is unaware of their importance. Consequently, there is no effective integrated biodiversity conservation or ecosystem management strategy of DRNs.A multidisciplinary team of 25 experts from 11 countries in Europe, South America, China and the USA will build on EU efforts to assess the cascading effects of climate change on biodiversity, ecosystem functions and ecosystem services of DRNs through changes in flow regimes and water use. DRYvER (DRYing riVER networks) will gather and upscale empirical and modelling data from nine focal DRNs (case studies) in Europe (EU) and Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) to develop a meta-system framework applicable to Europe and worldwide. It will also generate crucial knowledge-based strategies, tools and guidelines for economically-efficient adaptive management of DRNs. Working closely with stakeholders and end-users, DRYvER will co-develop strategies to mitigate and adapt to climate change impacts in DRNs, integrating hydrological, ecological (including nature-based solutions), socio-economic and policy perspectives. The end results of DRYvER will contribute to reaching the objectives of the Paris Agreement and placing Europe at the forefront of research on climate change.

Valuing water is receiving increasing attention within the global water policy agenda as a new water management paradigm. However, it is not yet clear how it can be operationalized in local water management contexts. We apply the Value Landscapes Approach as a conceptual framework to show how water-related preferences are informed by underlying assigned/water values and governance-related values and how these values may explain three different visions for water management among professional respondents in a Northern Kenyan case study. Through making shared and conflicting values explicit, these insights may serve as a foundation for addressing water conflicts in practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A third of the world's ecosystems are considered degraded, and there is an urgent need for protection and restoration to make the planet healthier. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) target 15.3 aims at protecting and restoring the terrestrial ecosystem to achieve a land degradation-neutral world by 2030. Land restoration through inclusive and productive growth is indispensable to promote sustainable development by fostering climate change-resistant, poverty-alleviating, and environmentally protective economic growth. The SDG Indicator 15.3.1 is used to measure progress towards a land degradation-neutral world. Earth observation datasets are the primary data sources for deriving the three sub-indicators of indicator 15.3.1. It requires selecting, querying, and processing a substantial historical archive of data. To reduce the complexities, make the calculation user-friendly, and adapt it to in-country applications, a module on the FAO's SEPAL platform has been developed in compliance with the UNCCD Good Practice Guidance (GPG v2) to derive the necessary statistics and maps for monitoring and reporting land degradation. The module uses satellite data from Landsat, Sentinel 2, and MODIS sensors for primary productivity assessment, along with other datasets enabling high-resolution to large-scale assessment of land degradation. The use of an in-country land cover transition matrix along with in-country land cover data enables a more accurate assessment of land cover changes over time. Four different case studies from Bangladesh, Nigeria, Uruguay, and Angola are presented to highlight the prospect and challenges of monitoring land degradation using various datasets, including LCML-based national land cover legend and land cover data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]