In Ethiopia, bamboo thickets and woodlands play an important role in soil-water conservation and climate change mitigation in arid and semi-arid regions. However, bamboo mass flower-ing, rapid demographic changes and expansion of agricultural investments to bamboo domi-nated areas have led to deforestation and land degradation. In this study, we determined the effects of deforestation and subsequent cultivation on soil physical and chemical properties along a chronosequence of closely located agricultural lands with different ages (1, 3, 5 and 7 years) since converted from natural lowland bamboo forest. Hence, soil samples (n = 90) have been taken from both natural bamboo forests and adjacent agricultural lands at two soil depths (0-20 cm and 20-40 cm). Our result showed that CEC, K+, Ca+, Mg+ and available P were varied significantly with respect to cultivation periods and soil depth, while soil pH and Na+ varied with soil depth (P < 0.001). Soil C and total N contents (g/kg) in 0-20 cm soil layer declined significantly and exponentially with increasing years under cultivation. Conversion of natural bamboo forest to cropland during the past seven-year period significantly increased soil pH with soil depths, while CEC was declined throughout the cultivation period and soil depth. In general, the result revealed that conversion of natural lowland bamboo and subsequent cultivation of soil had negative effects on measured soil physicochemical properties.

Physical processes play important roles in controlling eutrophication and oligotrophication. In stratified lakes, internal waves (IW) can cause vertical transport of heat and nutrients without breaking the stratification, through boundary mixing (BM) events. Such is the case in tropical Valle de Bravo (VB) lake, where strong diurnal winds drive IW, BM and hypolimnetic warming during stratification periods. We monitored VB during 18 years (2001-2018) when important water-level fluctuations (WLF) occurred, affecting mixing and nutrient flux. Mean hypolimnetic temperature increase (0.06–1.04°C month-1) occurred in all the stratifications monitored. We analyzed temperature distributions and modeled the hypolimnion heat budget to assess vertical mixing between layers (26,618–140,526 m-3h-1), vertical diffusivity coefficient KZ (6.2x10-7–3.3x10-6 m2s-1) and vertical nutrient entrainment to epilimnion on monthly scale. Stability also varied as a function of WLF. Nutrient flux to the epilimnion ranged 0.36–5.99 mg m-2d-1 for soluble reactive phosphorus (SRP) and 5.8–97.1 mg m-2d-1 for dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN). During low water-level years, vertical nutrient fluxes increase and can account for up to &gt;40% of the total external nutrients load to the lake. Vertical mixing changes with WLF affect nutrient recycling, their flux to sediments, metabolic balance and planktonic composition of VB.

Vertical farming (VF) is a potential solution for the production of high-quality, accessible, and climate-friendly nutrition for growing urban populations. However, to realize VF’s potential as a sustainable food source, innovative technologies are required to ensure that VF can be industrialized on a massive scale and extended beyond leafy greens and fruits into the production of food staples or row crops. A major obstacle to the economic and environmental sustainability of VF is the lighting energy consumed. While technological advances have improved the energy efficiency of VF lighting systems, there has been insufficient research into biostimulation as an approach to reduce energy needs. We conducted a controlled trial to investigate the application of a phycocyanin-rich Spirulina extract (PRSE) as a biostimulant in hydroponically grown, vertically farmed lettuce (Lactuca sativa and Salanova®). PRSE application reduced the time from seeding to harvest by 6 days, increased yield by 12.5%, and improved quality including color, taste, texture, antioxidant flavonoid levels and shelf life. Metagenomic analysis of the microbial community of the nutrient solution indicated that PRSE increased the overall bacterial diversity including raising the abundance of Actinobacteria and Firmicutes and reducing the abundance of potentially pathogenic bacteria. This preliminary study demonstrates that microalgae-derived biostimulants may play an important role in improving the economic and environmental sustainability of VF.

In recent years, urban planners and designers have paid attention to improve the creative factors in big and small cities in order to make the urban environment more attractive. It seems that improving desirable urban environmental qualities and walkability approaches such as flexibility, happiness, and vitality, provides the necessary background for creating creative urban spaces. The case study zone is urban walkways in Rasht that which has been completed four years ago. In this paper, after conceptualizing the nature of the creative city, as well as reviewing the views of the thinkers regarding the qualities of the environment, a conceptual model of creative urban space has been developed. Then, the indicators and criteria of creative urban space have been evaluated through the questionnaire and analysis through SPSS software and regression model, Pearson and Friedman. The result of the analyses of the five spatial, functional, social, perceptual, and environmental components and their relationship is expressed that factors such as paving streets, the development of local markets, the Suitability of urban walkways for physically and mentally handicapped people, the use of cultural elements, the use of diverse urban furniture and nightlife after building urban walkways play an important role in the realization of urban creative space in Rasht city.

This review documents an emerging body of evidence concerning the neurological effect of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) exposure, with regard to cognitive function and increased risk of neurodegeneration. Two electronic databases PubMed and Web of Science were systematically searched. The 37/428 studies selected included outcomes measuring cognitive function, neurobehavioral symptoms of impaired cognition, and pathologies associated with neurodegeneration from prenatal (21/37 studies), childhood (14/37 studies), and adult (8/37 studies) PAH exposure. Sufficient evidence surrounding prenatal exposure negatively impacting child intelligence, mental development, average overall development, verbal IQ, memory impairment, externalizing, internalizing, anxious, depressed behaviours, behavioural development and child attentiveness was found. Evidence concerning exposure during childhood and as an adult was scarce and highly heterogeneous, however presence of neurodegenerative biomarkers and increased concentrations of cryptic “self” antigens in serum and cerebrospinal fluid samples suggest a higher risk of neurodegenerative disease. Associations with lowered cognitive ability, and impaired attentiveness were found in children and memory disturbances, specifically auditory memory, verbal learning and general memory in adults. Although evidence is not yet conclusive and further research is needed the studies included supported the hypothesis that PAH exposure negatively impacts cognitive function and increases the risk of neurodegeneration in humans, and recommends considering the introduction of a variable “rural vs. urban” as covariate for adjusting analyses where the neurological functions affected (as result of our review) are outcome variables.

This work describes a method to carry out 2-D inversion of gravity data in terms of porosity and matrix density distribution using previous DC resistivity inversion results to constraint the fractional pore-water content in the rocks. The inversion is carried out using a controlled random search (CRS) algorithm for global optimization. The method was tested on synthetic data generated from a model representing a graben, and the results show that it can estimate accurate values of contrast-density and porosity. The method was also applied to gravity and dc experimental data collected in NE Portugal, showing results that agree quite well with the known geological information.

Tomography based on cosmic muon absorption is a rising technique because of its versatility and its consolidation as geophysics tool over the past decade. It allows to address major societal issues such as long-term stability of natural and man-made large infrastructures or sustainable underwater management. Traditionally, muon trackers consist of hodoscopes or multilayer detectors. For applications with challenging available volumes or wide field of view required, a thin time projection chamber (TPC) associated with a Micromegas readout plane can provide a good tradeoff between compactness and performance. This paper details the design of such a TPC aiming at maximizing primary signal and minimizing track reconstruction artifacts. The results of the measurements performed during a case study addressing the aforementioned applications are discussed. The current works lines and perspectives of the project are also presented.

The wracks of Posidonia oceanica leaves on the sandy beaches of Calabrian region could be one of the most important defence against erosion processes. The management of Posidonia oceanica leaf litter in Italy has been realized through the mechanical removal and the transport in dumping areas of the beach-cast material. This solution, apparently simple and fast, produces a net loss of sediments from the sandy beaches and, therefore, a deficit in the sedimentary budget of coastline leading the coastal system to possible shore erosions. Instead, it could be better to keep these vegetable deposits on the place so to warrant a positive sedimentary budget and the tourist value of the regional beaches improving coastal tourism in the seaside resorts with bathing vocation.

Lack of due attention to the orientation of streets and establishment of urban blocks without regard for climatic characteristics and conditions of the environment have an adverse effect on thermal comfort in open urban spaces. Construction of new settlements without taking into account climatic requirements undermines thermal comfort for pedestrians and other users, especially in cold regions. Considering the coldness of the region under study and the significance of the orientation of streets in absorbing radiation and providing heat to outdoor urban spaces, this study investigates the effect of the orientation of streets on microclimatic comfort in one of the residential towns of Hamadan City in Iran. For this purpose, microclimate simulation was performed using ENVI-met software. A residential block with four different orientations (the most common orientations of its surrounding buildings) were simulated in the coldest day of winter and the hottest day of summer. The results suggest that streets have different thermal behavior in different orientations. Orientation affects mean radiant temperature (Tmrt), the duration of exposure to direct sunlight, wind speed, and physiological equivalent temperature (PET), which are all important factors in thermal comfort. Based on these findings, north-south streets in Hamedan receive more radiant temperature during winter compared to other simulated orientations and provide more desirable thermal comfort. The average PET value on a winter day at a point on the north-south passage was 4.5-8 °C warmer than other orientations. In summer, streets with intercardinal orientations (i.e., northeast-southwest and northwest-southeast) provided the lowest PET (about 2 °C cooler than other orientations) and better thermal comfort

In this study, we explored the performance of the cumulus convection parameterization schemes of Regional Climate Modeling System (RegCM) towards the Indian summer monsoon (ISM) of a catastrophic year through various numerical experiments conducted with different convection schemes (Kuo, Grell amd MIT) in RegCM. The model is integrated at 60KM horizontal resolution over Indian region and forced with NCEP/NCAR reanalysis. The simulated temperature at 2m and the wind at 10m are validated against the forced data and the total precipitation is compared with the Global Precipitation Climatology Centre (GPCC) observations. We find that the simulation with MIT convection scheme is close to the GPCC data and NCEP/NCAR reanalysis. Our results with three convection schemes suggest that the RegCM with MIT convection scheme successfully simulated some characteristics of ISM of a catastrophic year and may be further examined with more number of convection schemes to customize which convection scheme is much better.

This paper discusses the tectonics of the St. Peter and St. Paul Archipelago (SPSPA) in the Equato-rial Atlantic Ocean, based on the joint-system geometry which show a North-South shorten-ing/transpressional uplift tectonism, is active leading to exhumation of the sub-oceanic mantle. These islets are the summits of a sigmoidal submarine ridge formed by mantle ultramafic rocks. The ridge is crossed by the principal transform deformation zone of the northern transform fault of the St. Paul Multifault System. The South flank ridge exposes serpentinized mantle perido-tites, while the North flank exposes strongly deformed/fractured ultramylonites, recording duc-tile and brittle deformation at lithospheric conditions. The SPSPA show multiple joint systems cutting mylonitic foliation of the exposed rocks, forming three main families: high-angle paral-lel joints of tectonic origin, serpentinization-related joints with random direction and load-release low-angle parallel joints. The tectonic joints show an average direction of N31°E and N28°W, forming a conjugate system with a N1ºW compression axes, coherent with a trans-pressive stress field. Accordingly, the earthquakes focal mechanism close to the islets also shows N-S compression. The previously reported active uplift with an average rate of 1.5 mm/year and the directions of the joint system here reported agreeing with a present-day active N-S compres-sive field at a high angle with the direction of the transform fault.

With the advent of submesoscale O(1km) permitting basin-scale ocean simulations, the seasonality in the mesoscale O(50km) eddies with kinetic energies peaking in summer has been commonly attributed to submesoscale eddies feeding back onto the mesoscale via an inverse energy cascade under the constraint of stratification and Earth’s rotation. In contrast, by running a 101-member, seasonally forced, three-layer quasi-geostrophic (QG) ensemble configured to represent an idealized double-gyre system of the subtropical and subpolar basin, we find that the mesoscale kinetic energy shows a seasonality consistent with the summer peak without resolving the submesoscales; by definition, a QG model only resolves small Rossby number dynamics (O(Ro)≪1) while as submesoscale dynamics are associated with O(Ro)∼1. Here, by quantifying the Lorenz cycle of the mean and eddy energy, defined as the ensemble mean and fluctuations about the mean respectively, we propose a different mechanism from the inverse energy cascade by which the stabilization and strengthening of the western-boundary current during summer due to increased stratification leads to a shedding of stronger mesoscale eddies from the separated jet. Conversely, the opposite occurs during the winter; the separated jet destablizes and results in overall lower mean and eddy kinetic energies despite the domain being more susceptible to baroclinic instability from weaker stratification.

This study investigates circulation types (CTs) in Africa, south of the equator, that are related to wet and dry conditions in Western Cape, the statistical relationship between the selected CTs and the Southern Annular Mode (SAM), and changes in the frequency of occurrence of the CTs related to the SAM under the ssp585 scenario. Obliquely rotated principal component analysis applied to sea level pressure was used to classify CTs in Africa, south of the equator. Three CTs were found to have a high probability to be associated with wet days in Western Cape, and four CTs were equally found to have a high probability to be associated with dry days in Western Cape. Generally, the dry/wet CTs feature the southward/northward track of the mid-latitude cyclone, adjacent to South Africa; anti-cyclonic/cyclonic relative vorticity, and poleward/equatorward track of westerlies, south of South Africa. One of the selected wet CTs is significantly related to variations of the SAM. Years with an above-average SAM index correlate with the below-average frequency of occurrence of the wet CT. The results suggest that through the dynamics of the CT, the SAM might control the rainfall variability of Western Cape. Under the ssp585 scenario, the analyzed climate models indicated a possibility in the decrease of the frequency of occurrence of the aforementioned wet CT associated with cyclonic activity at the mid-latitudes, and an increase in the frequency of occurrence of the CT associated with enhanced SLP in the mid-latitudes.

The La Oroya metallurgical complex reveals a process of structural or power pathology, where economic and environmental social policies lead to a citizenry without systemic freedom, characterized by environmental contamination (PAMA executed on average 67%, some processes with 0%) and sanitary (plumbosis 8.39 to 10.28 μg / dL), the economic dependence of this industry is also observed, which caused the weakening of the communities to maintain autonomy over their own destinies.The Doe Run Peru, operated the metallurgical complex, creating added value to the extractive-export chain of mineral concentrate, but also took advantage of the legal loopholes, the little coordination between the State institutions and the little authority of the supervisory institutions to get the most out of it, complying with the law in some cases, but without moral quality in some others, such as health in the oroinos.Government institutions must have strong links that provide a normative framework with prospects with sustainable development, where the beneficiary is society and not only certain interest groups. The economic benefits of the metallurgical complex operation are multiple, which begin with labor, the purchase and sale of materials and services, the collection of taxes and energy.

Abstract: The promotion of sustainable packaging is part of the European Green Deal and plays a key role in the EU’s social and political strategy. One option is the use of renewable resources and biomass waste as raw materials for polymer production. Lignocellulose biomass from annual and perennial industrial crops and agricultural residues are a major source of polysaccharides, proteins, and lignin, and can also be used to obtain plant-based extracts and essential oils. Therefore, these biomasses are considered as potential substitute for fossil-based resources. Here, the status quo of bio-based polymers is discussed and evaluated in terms of properties related to packaging applications such as gas and water vapor permeability as well as mechanical properties. So far, their practical use is still restricted due to lower performance in fundamental packaging functions that directly influence food quality and safety, the length of shelf life and thus the amount of food waste. Besides bio-based polymers, this review focuses on plant extracts as active packaging agents. Incorporating extracts of herbs, flowers, trees, and their fruits is inevitable to achieve desired material properties that are capable to prolong the food shelf life. Finally, the adoption potential of packaging based on polymers from renewable resources is discussed from a bioeconomy perspective.

The article studies the Venetsiansky (Hydropark) Island (the Dnipro River, Kyiv, Ukraine) landscape structure applying the genetic landscape science method and the European landscape classification (LANMAP) approach. The aim of the article is to determine the best way to study the river islands landscapes analyzing the Venetsiansky Island landscape structure by the both methods. Methodology. The genetic landscape science method consists in the next steps: 1) the island’s territory information collecting; 2) the preliminary landscape map creating; 3) field study; 4) the final landscape map creating. The LANMAP method consists on: 1) the climate study; 2) the altitude study; 3) the parent material study; 4) the land cover study. The results. The genetic landscape science method demonstrates that the Venetsiansky Island is not a landscape, but a structural part of the landscape – the tract. The LANMAP study reveals that the Venetsiansky Island is naturally homogeneous, but land cover differs. The conclusion. The both methods’ study shows that the river island cannot be the entire landscape by the natural criteria, but only the part of it. The genetic landscape science explores the landscape forming while the LANMAP reveals the current state of the landscape.

Formaldehyde (HCHO) is one of the most important carcinogenic air contaminants. However, the lack of global surface concentration of HCHO monitoring is currently hindering researches on outdoor HCHO pollution. Traditional methods are either too naïve or data-demanding for a global scale research. To alleviate this issue, we trained two fully-connected neural networks respectively for deriving point and interval estimation of surface HCHO concentration in 2019, where vertical column density data from TROPOMI, in-situ data from HAPs (harmful air pollutants) monitoring network and ATom mission are utilized. Our result shows that the global surface HCHO average concentration is 2.30 μg/m3. Furthermore, in terms of regions, the concentration in Amazon Basin, North China, South-east Asia, Bay of Bengal, Central and Western Africa are among the highest. Our study makes up for the global shortage of surface HCHO monitoring and helps people have a clearer understanding of surface concentration distribution of HCHO. In addition, with the help of quality-driven algorithm, interval estimation of surface HCHO concentration is believed to bring confidence to our results. As an early work adopting interval estimation in AI-driven atmospheric pollutant research and the first to map global HCHO surface distribution, our paper will pave way for rigorous study on global ambient HCHO health risk and economic loss, thus providing basis for pollutant controlling policies worldwide.

Equilibrium climate sensitivity (ECS) is the change in global mean temperature expected to result from doubling atmospheric CO2 concentration from pre-industrial levels. Extensive research during the past 40 years has not reduced the uncertainty associated with ECS. Sherwood et al. [1] applied Bayesian statistics to evidence from climate-process physics, historical observations and earlier proxies to reduce the range of ECS from 1.5 – 4.5 K to 2.6 – 4.1 K. This paper examines their methods and many of the assumptions they made. It also evaluates two additional periods in the Holocene to show that factors other than CO2 drove recent climate change. It identifies potential systematic errors resulting from adding non-equilibrium short-term adjustments to the radiative forcing of greenhouse gases and from underestimating the effects of solar irradiance, ocean currents and aerosols. These factors have resulted in estimates of the forcing by CO2 that far exceed the apparent effects in paleoclimate data.

Precipitation plays vital role in the economy of agricultural country like Pakistan. Baluchistan being the largest province of Pakistan in term of land is facing reoccurring droughts as well as flashflood due unprecedent torrential precipitation pattern.

Mesoscale eddies, the weather system of the oceans, although being on the scales of O(20-100km), have a disproportionate role in shaping the mean jets such as the separated Gulf Stream in the North Atlantic Ocean, which is on the scale of O(1000km) in the along-jet direction. With the increase in computational power, we are now able to partially resolve the eddies in basin-scale and global ocean simulations, a model resolution often referred to as mesoscale permitting. It is well known, however, that due to grid-scale numerical viscosity, mesoscale permitting simulations have less energetic eddies and consequently weaker eddy feedback onto the mean flow. In this study, we run a quasi-geostrophic model at mesoscale resolving resolution in a double gyre configuration and formulate a deterministic parametrization for the eddy rectification term of potential vorticity (PV), namely, the eddy PV flux divergence. We have moderate success in reproducing the spatial patterns and magnitude of eddy kinetic and potential energy diagnosed from the model. One novel point about our approach is that we account for non-local eddy feedbacks onto the mean flow by solving the eddy PV equation prognostically in addition to the mean flow. In return, we are able to parametrize the variability in total (mean+eddy) PV at each time step instead of solely the mean PV. A closure for the total PV is beneficial as we are able to account for both the mean state and extreme events.

Fogo (Fogo island, Cape Verde Republic) is the youngest and most active volcano of the archipelago. The last eruption occurred in 2014–2015. Aiming at studying dust emissions and transport during the eruption period and assessing their impact on air quality and human health, a mineralogical and chemical characterization was undertaken in outdoor dust from all over the island, as well as in the lava resulting from this event. Air quality monitors were used to obtain concentrations of atmospheric particulate matter (PM) and gaseous pollutants. The mineralogical constitution of the samples was analysed by X-ray diffraction and Electron Microprobe, while the chemical characterization was performed through X-ray Fluorescence Spectrometry and ICP-MS. The volcanic rock was found to be tephritic to basanitic, with high potassium content. Several minerals were identified, such as titanian augite with ilmenite, basaltic hornblendes, pyrrhotites, apatites, pyroxenes, basaltic hornblendes and hematites. Concentrations of the particulate matter inhalable fraction (PM10) exceeded the 24-hour mean of 50 µg/m3 recommended by the World Health Organization. Nevertheless, total volatile organic compounds (TVOCs) showed levels lower than the worrying range. The highest levels of CO2 were recorded in more populated villages and farthest from the volcano. The Pollution Load Index (PLI) for outdoor dust collected on rooftops was always above 1, suggesting enrichment, with higher values in the dust size fraction < 63 µm. In the same way, the Contamination Factor pointed to high enrichment of As, Ni and Pb, and very high enrichment of Cd in the same size fraction. The Non-carcinogenic Hazard Quotient and Hazard Index estimated for Children suggest that health problems may arise. The Carcinogenic Risk, for all size fractions, was above the target risk. The element that most contributed to the global risk was As, followed by Pb and Co. Ingestion was the main exposure route for all size fractions. The dust size fraction that represented the highest risk was < 63 µm, mostly due to the As concentration.

Flash floods repeatedly threaten Barcelona, damaging the city infrastructure and endangering the safety of the population. The city’s urban planning and socioeconomic distribution, associated with the topography and other geographic factors, means that these flood events do not affect the entire city in the same way. This is a key point for surveillance and emergency tasks, which need some patterns and models to improve response capacity. This work aims to gain a better understanding of such events, to add valuable information on how to predict and manage these situations. For this purpose, both radar and ground observational data have been combined to identify the most important precipitation episodes in Barcelona between 2013 and 2018. To make the analysis easier, a new algorithm has been developed to determine the thunderstorm hotspots. Episodes with a higher impact have been analysed in depth. The final objective is to improve the actions taken by the organisation responsible for managing urban floods, which have seen Barcelona recognised as a model city for flood resilience by the United Nations.

The severe disease outbreak COVID-19 pandemic impacted public health and safety and the educational systems worldwide. For fear of the further spread of diseases, most educational institutions, including Bangladesh, have postponed their face-to-face teaching. Therefore, this study explores public university student's perceptions towards online classes during the COVID-19 pandemic in Bangladesh. Data were collected among students of Islamic University, Kushtia, Bangladesh, through an online survey. The study followed both a qualitative and quantitative approach, where the survey technique was used as an instrument of data collection. Results showed that most students were facing difficulty participating in virtual classes and could not communicate with their friends correctly during online classes. They faced challenges in online schooling, and the majority of the students preferred conventional types of learning to virtual classes and did not understand the content of virtual classes easily. The study also explored that most students did not feel comfortable in online classes. Still, considering the present pandemic situation, they decided to participate in online classes to continue schooling. Besides, the study discovered that female students showed better real perceptions than male students regarding online classes, and urban students have more optimistic appreciation than rural students. Moreover, laptop or personal computer users showed more positive perceptions towards online education than mobile users. Furthermore, Broadband/ Wi-Fi users have more positive perceptions than mobile network users. These findings would be an essential guideline for governments, policymakers, technology developers, and university authorities for making better policy choices in the future.

Aiming the characterization of road dusts on the surrounding villages of an active mine and to assess metal(loids) bioaccessible fractions, a dust samples survey was undertaken. To achieve these objectives, pseudototal element concentration, mineralogical composition, Enrichment factor and in vitro extraction UBM assay for both gastric (G) and gastrointestinal (GI) phases, were determined. Results obtained revealed that arsenic represents the higher risk to humans, with mean pseudototal values higher than the maximum reference value range. Enrichment factor points to As significant to very high enrichment in all villages. Particles enriched in As, Ca, Fe, Cu, Al, Ti were identified by SEM-EDS in weathered agglomerates, linked to mine wastes and long-distance transport, both by wind and/or traffic. Arsenic bioaccessibility fraction (%BAF) presents low values in the studied samples, possibly due to low Fe complexes solubility with adsorbed As, limiting arsenic release and reducing its bioaccessibility. Concentrations of Cd bioaccessible G and GI phases are within the reference values range, while for Cu are above and for Pb are lower, than reference value range. Results show that the pseudototal fraction risk is overestimated when comparing to BAF (bioaccessible fraction), nevertheless, total G and GI risk are above the carcinogenic target risk (1.00E-06) in most samples. Carcinogenic risk of the bioaccessible contaminants shows that As is the element that represents higher risk for developing cancer over a lifetime, being ingestion the main risk route.

The contextual and risk perception of climate change plays a critical role in an individual’s decision-making process. It could also help people to respond appropriately to the consequences of global climate change and eventually take necessary adaptation actions. However, the perceptions of climate change are often gendered and vary among men and women. Therefore, this study explores different perceptions of climate change and its local adaptation options among ultra-poor vulnerable women, particularly in highly vulnerable flood-prone regions of Bangladesh. The research followed an empirical research methodology to collect primary and secondary information using qualitative and quantitative research tools. The study findings reveal that climate change perceptions at the individual level are relatively low (63%). Still, they have been observing significant changes in various climatic variables over the past 30 years. Moreover, this study identified some major adaptation options such as plinth raising (100%), livestock rearing (100%), homestead gardening (82%), seasonal migration (82%), and using indigenous knowledge (69%), and so on to tackle the adverse impacts of climate change-induced extreme events including flooding at the local level. For implementing these adaptation measures, the respondents spent a significant amount of financial resources from individual sources in the study area. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) is used in addition to the statistical analyses to understand any connections between the climate change perceptions and other variables associated with the community under study. The SEM result shows that climate change will be a long–term problem, which offers a strong predictor in this model, considering standardized regression weight β= 0.56. It means, despite inadequate knowledge on climate change of the respondent’s, climate change is occurring and becoming the worst factor limiting cultural, economic, and environmental development in the study area.

Marine species are declining at an unprecedented rate, catalyzing many nations to adopt conservation and management targets within their jurisdictions. However, marine species and the biophysical processes that sustain them are naive to international borders. An understanding of the prevalence of cross-border species distributions is important for informing high-level conservation strategies, such as bilateral or regional agreements. Here, we examined 28,252 distribution maps to determine the number and locations of transboundary marine plants and animals. Over 90% of species have ranges spanning at least two jurisdictions, with 58% covering more than ten jurisdictions. All jurisdictions have at least one transboundary species, with the highest concentrations of transboundary species in the USA, Australia, Indonesia, and the Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction. Distributions of mapped biodiversity indicate that overcoming the challenges of multinational governance is critical for a much wider suite of species than migratory megavertebrates and commercially exploited fish stocks—the groups that have received the vast majority of multinational management attention. To effectively protect marine biodiversity, international governance mechanisms (particularly those related to the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Convention on Migratory Species, and Regional Seas Organizations) must be expanded to promote multinational conservation planning, and complimented by a holistic governance framework for biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction.

World Economy today depends on business investments that are propelled by Green technology, innovations and entrepreneurial activities. In recent years, developing economies in Asia, Africa and Latin America have embarked on easy capital access to Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to facilitate their economic growth. Kenya is among the Middle Level Income Countries that have gained global recognition through entrepreneurial innovations. In this study we assess the role of entrepreneurship towards poverty alleviation in Kenya. The objectives of the study were: to evaluate the role of entrepreneurship in poverty alleviation in Kenya; to identify entrepreneurship innovations and their economic contribution in Kenya and to determine the significance of entrepreneurship to Kenyan economy. Methodology of study took a parametric approach through pure desktop studies on entrepreneurship cases in Kenya. Success case studies of entrepreneurial innovations like M-pesa, M-soko and Uwezo Fund initiatives were assessed. The paper notes that activities undertaken in each of these case studies have made great contributions to poverty alleviation and economic development in both urban and rural areas of Kenya.

Although carbon (C) efflux from soils treated with organic wastes was widely covered in temperate and cold regions, still such data is not sufficient from arid and semi-arid regions. Saudi Arabia produces more than 335,000 tons/year of cow manure (CM), this CM either left as raw manure or being composted. The application of high C/N amendments is expected to increase soil organic carbon and reduce CO₂ fluxes. A 90-day incubation experiment was conducted to study CO₂ efflux, organic C microbial biomass C, available NH₄+and NO₃-when added to agricultural soil. Six manure types were added: cow manure, cow manure compost, cow manure biochar, cow manure stripped ammonia at pH 12 with a temperature of 95oC, cow manure stripped ammonia at pH 9 with a temperature of 95oC and control. The application of CM resulted in a considerable increase in soil available nitrogen, CO₂ efflux compared to other treatments. Cow manure biochar showed the lowest CO₂ efflux. Cumulative CO₂ effluxes of cow manure effluents were lower than CM this possibly due to the relatively high C:N ratio of manure effluent. The content of, P, Fe, Cu, Zn and Mn were decreased as incubation time increased. microbial biomass C of cow manure stripped ammonia at pH 12 with a temperature of 95oC were increased at 7 and 60 days illustrating to temperature effect on the decomposing of manure materials.

Climate change causes weather extremes to rise in frequency and severity, which could have detrimental effects on human life, property and livelihood activity. There is significant uncertainty about the influences of anthropogenic climate change on the occurrence and severity of small-scale, sudden onset weather phenomena such as hailstorms and subsequent loss and damage. Yet, several studies indicate that there is an apparent stable connection between hailstorm activity and hailstorm damage. Severe hailstorm events are observed in Bangladesh in recent years, which are, in fact, rapid-onset disasters but low exposure in terms of giving government response and media consideration. Hence this study examines potential impacts and management strategies for loss and damage resulting from hailstorm events among smallholder farmers in Kurigram District's Phulbari Upazila of Bangladesh. Firstly, the direct and long term economic and non-economic loss and damage caused by the hailstorm on human well-beings and livelihoods were assessed. Then, the study evaluated the current adaptation, coping, management and response strategies at the institutional and community level in the context of such extreme events. Finally, a regulatory framework and implementation approaches had suggested achieving the country's resilience against disaster and climate change-induced loss and damage. Participatory Vulnerability Analysis, Key Informant Interviews and Sample Surveys accumulated the primary data for the study. In addition, secondary data were collected through analysis of literature, published and unpublished scientific articles and media reports, etc. This research outcome will help countries develop a guideline to address climate change and disaster-related loss and damage.

In recent years in Bangladesh, there has been regular cyclonic event, flooding and erratic pre-monsoons precipitation that has hampered production greatly and forced Bangladesh to import salt from abroad to manage market deficiency. There is much uncertainty about the effects of climate change on the frequency and intensity of small-scale, sudden onset weather phenomena such as heavy rainfall and subsequent loss and damage (L&D). But, several studies indicate that an obvious strong relationship exists between irregular rainfall and associated L&D. Nowadays, severe changing rainfall patterns are observed in Bangladesh, which is rapid-onset in nature, but low exposed in terms of response. The current study explored a ‘double-exposed’ burden combined of both climatic (e.g., uneven rainfall) and non-climatic governance factors (e.g., imperfect trade policy, the absence of risk transfer mechanisms) which are hindering salt production and pushing the country from the aspiration of salt exporting to the net buyer. This chapter mainly assesses the impacts of L&D due to climatic events that are causing overwhelming effects on the well-being of marginal salt farmers at Kutubdia Upazila of Bangladesh. Data were mainly collected through Participatory Vulnerability Analysis (PVA), Key informant interviews (KII), and Sample Surveys (SS). This study would provide insights for improved disaster management policy and an appropriate adaptive measure to address such extreme events as well as to initiate a further study for understanding the nexus of ‘nature and market’ in building resilience among the marginal salt farmers.

Abstract: Estimating regional soils Nitrogen and phosphorus balance in cropland is essential to improve management practices, reduce environmental risks and develop sustainable agriculture. In this study,spatial and temporal variations in crop layout, the impact on soil N and P nutrient balance were assessed from 2000 to 2015 in the West Liaohe River Basin between 2000 and 2015. The result shows that the area of cropland is on the rise, and the spatial distribution of arable land is consistent with the distribution of the main tributaries of the West Liaohe River basin. The change in planting layout for maize and soybeans has a significant impact on the nutrient balance of farmland, which plays a critical role in modifying surplus nutrients. Nutrient surpluses on farmland were mostly concentrated in areas where maize planting layout changed between 2000 and 2015. The N nutrient surplus rate decreased by 39.3%, N utilization efficiency, increased by 70.7%; P nutrient surplus rate decreased by 3.8%, and P utilization efficiency increased by 49.3%. The average utilization efficiencies of N and P nutrients were 27.8% and 9.1%, respectively, and the utilization efficiency was low. Chemical manure is the main source of nutrients. The risk of phosphorus pollution was higher than the risk of nitrogen pollution in the West Liaohe River Basin. The lower Liaohe River Basin (below the Sujiapu) was the region with the most violent changes in nitrogen and phosphorus nutrient balance. It is recommended that reduce the amount of chemical fertilizer application, especially, reduce the amount of P application, improve the ef-ficiency of nutrient use, and focus on strengthening pollution control in key areas such as the West Liaohe River lower reaches basin (below Sujiabao), reducing the risk of agricultural nonpoint source pollution.

Recent studies on seafloor mapping have presented different modelling methods for the automatic classification of seafloor sediments. However, most of these studies have applied these models to seafloor data with appropriate number of ground-truth samples, which raises the question whether these methods are applicable to studies with smaller numbers of ground-truth data. In this study, we aim to address this issue by conducting sediment class-specific predictions using ensemble modelling to map areas with limited or without ground-truth data and combined with hydro-acoustic datasets. The resulting class-specific maps were then assembled into one map, where the most probable class was assigned to the appropriate location. Our approach was able to predict sediment classes without bias to the class with more ground-truth data and produced reliable seafloor sediment distributions maps that can be used for seafloor monitoring. Sediment shifts of a heterogenous seafloor in the Sylt Outer Reef, German North Sea were also assessed to understand the sediment dynamics in the area. The analyses of sediment shifts showed that the western area of the Sylt Outer Reef is highly active, and the results of the analyses assisted in providing recommendations on future seafloor monitoring activities.

The goal of this study was to analyze the forest degradation in the Reserve for San Rafael National Park, Paraguay, during the period 2005-2019. This Reserve is one of the most important forest remnants of the Upper Paraná Atlantic Forest Ecoregion. A multitemporal analysis of degradation was carried out due to the occurrence of three disturbances: forest fires, a twister and illicit crops, using the Continuous Degradation Detection (CODED) algorithm, for which 3 factors were considered: variations due to pixel in the NDFI index values before, during and after every disturbance registered. In this context, the phenomenon with the greatest impact in terms of magnitude of degradation were the forest fires of 2005, being that year at the same time, the one that reported the highest degradation values. Secondly, there are the illicit crops established until the first semester of 2019, and lastly, the twister that occurred in 2017. Our findings demonstrate that CODED algorithm can detect multi-temporal degradation events in a Subtropical Broadleaf Forest, and the post-disturbance regeneration process after every disturbance tends to occur immediately. The response in terms of degradation-regeneration is highly variable, depending of the nature and severity of each disturbance and the vegetation recovery dynamics.

Community-level wastewater monitoring for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) RNA has demonstrated useful correlation with both coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) case numbers and clinical testing positivity. Wastewater monitoring on college campuses has demonstrated promising predictive capacity for the presence and absence of COVID-19 cases. However, to date, such monitoring has largely relied upon composite or grab samples and reverse transcription quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) techniques, which limits the accessibility and scalability of wastewater monitoring. In this study, we piloted a workflow that uses tampons as passive swabs for collection and reverse transcription loop-mediated isothermal amplification (RT-LAMP) to detect SARS-CoV-2 RNA in wastewater. Results for the developed workflow were available same day, with a time to result following tampon swab collection of approximately three hours. The RT-LAMP 95% limit of detection (76 gene copies reaction-1) was greater than RT-droplet digital PCR (ddPCR; 3.3 gene copies reaction-1). Nonetheless, during a building-level wastewater monitoring campaign conducted in the midst of weekly clinical testing of all students, the workflow demonstrated a same-day positive predictive value (PPV) of 33% and negative predictive value (NPV) of 80% for incident COVID-19 cases. The NPV is comparable to that reported by wastewater monitoring using RT-qPCR. These observations suggest that even with lower analytical sensitivity the tampon swab and RT-LAMP workflow offers a cost-effective and rapid approach that could be leveraged for scalable same-day building-level wastewater monitoring for COVID-19.

As the number of legal and illegal mining sites increase, integrative methods to evaluate the effects of mining pollution on Andes-Amazonia freshwater ecosystems are paramount. Here, we sampled water and sediments in 11 sites potentially affected by mining activities in the Napo province (Ecuador). The environmental impacts were evaluated using four lines of evidence (LOEs): water physico-chemical parameters; metal exposure concentrations; macroinvertebrate community response (AAMBI); and toxicity by conducting bioassays with Lactuca sativa and Daphnia magna. Overall, dissolved oxygen and total suspended solids were, under (&lt;80%) and above (&gt;130 mg/Ls) quality standards. Ag, Al, As, Cd, Cu, Fe, Mn, Pb and Zn in water and V, B and Cr in sediments were detected above quality standards. Nine out of eleven sites were classified as having bad environmental quality based on the AAMBI. Ranges of L. sativa seed germination in both water (37% to 70%) and sediment (0% to 65%), indicate significant toxicity. In 5 sites, neonates of D. magna showed a 25% reduction in survival compared to the control. Our integrated LOEs index ranked sites regarding their environmental degradation. Given the importance of the Andes-Amazon region, we recommend environmental impact monitoring of the mining expansion using multiple LOEs.

With global warming and accelerated degradation of permafrost, the engineering problems caused by the formation of weak zones between the shallow and permafrost layers of soil–rock mixture (S-RM) slopes in permafrost regions have become increasingly prominent. To explore the influence of rock content on the shear strength of the S-RM freezing–thawing interface, the variation in the shear strength for different rock content is studied herein using direct shear tests. In addition, a 3D laser scanner is used for obtaining the topography of the shear failure surface. Combined with the analysis results of the shear band-particle calculation model, the influence of the rock content on the shear strength of the interface is explored. It was found that the impact threshold of the rock content on the interface strength and failure mode is approximately 30%, when the rock content (R) is &gt; 30% and that the shear strength increases rapidly with increasing rock content. When R ≤ 30%, the actual shear plane is similar to waves; when R &gt; 30%, the shear plane appears as gnawing failure. The shear strength of S-RM freezing–thawing interface mainly comes from the bite force and friction between particles. The main reason for the increase in shear strength with increasing rock content is the increase in bite force between particles, which makes the ratio of bite force to friction force approximately 1:1.

Millions of people worldwide have an inadequate intake of selenium (Se) and zinc (Zn), and agronomic biofortification may minimise these problems. To evaluate the efficacy of combined foliar Se and Zn fertilisation in bread making wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), foliar Se (as NaSeO4) and soil and foliar Zn applications (as ZnSO4·7H2O) were tested individually and in all combinations. A 2-year field experiment was established in southern Spain under semiarid Mediterranean conditions, by following a split-split-plot design. The study year (2017/2018, 2018/2019) was considered as the main-plot factor, soil Zn application (50 kg Zn ha-1, nil Zn) as a subplot factor, and foliar application (nil, 10 g Se ha-1, 8 kg Zn ha-1, 10 g Se ha-1 + 8 kg Zn ha-1) as a sub-subplot factor. The best treatment to increase both Zn and Se concentration in both straw, 12.3- and 2.7-fold respectively, and grain, 1.2- and 4.1-fold respectively was the combined foliar application of Zn and Se. This combined Zn and Se application also increased on average the yield of grain, main product of this crop, by almost 26%. Therefore, bread-making wheat seems to be a very suitable crop to be used in biofortification programs with Zn and Se to alleviate their deficiency in both, people when using its grain and livestock when using its straw.

The sand-dust horizontal flux is an important parameter for the study on aeolian sand transport, as well as an important foundation. In this study, a field experiment was developed to measure the data of aeolian transport and microclimate during different dust events with an auto sand sampler, a piezoelectric saltation sensor (H11-Sensit) and a 10 m high meteorological tower in Ta Zhong, the hinterland of the Taklimakan Desert from July to August in 2010. Then, the sampling efficiency of auto sand sampler and horizontal dust flux of near surface were analyzed based on observed data. The results were as follows: sand collector skip turnover increased with the increase of the intensity of dust weather frequency increases, the power function relationship y=2.115 x0.9841, R2 = 0.9206, flip frequency per minute increased from 0.2794 times to 1.3041 times, change is obvious; With the strength of the weather, time to flip the average sediment is shrinking. Sandstorm weather, skip to flip a volume of 3.7160 g, grade I flying sand weather flip a volume of 4.0275 g, the amount of class II flying sand weather turns over a 5. 0035g.The horizontal dust flux of different dust events that calculated with the equation Q=256M; the maximum of one dust event was about 190.335 kg, and the minimum was 1.2 kg. Overall, the sand transportation rate increased with wind speed. However, the changes of sand transportation rate did not quite fit in with wind speed during some dust events, and in this case the corresponding surface temperature was significantly higher. The experimental data obtained can provide theoretical basis for regional sand control and enacting effective engineering measures.

The understanding of weather and climate extremes provides academics, decision makers, international development agencies, nongovernmental organizations and civil society the necessary information for monitoring and giving early warning to prevent or minimize the risks associated with weather related hazards. Different researches were carried out to provide vital information that will further enhance the assessment of vulnerability and its impacts. Lack of proper understanding of weather and climate extremes was realized to be responsible for the huge and devastating losses that could have being averted or minimized over the past decades. Different countries and institutions have put in place a number of ways to increase sensitization and awareness of weather extremes. This became necessary in order to reduce the losses associated with these extremes both on local and regional scales.

The state of epidemic emergency in force in our country since March and the related requirement to implement various sanitary procedures constitute problems for the operation of all companies. However, the unique operation of underground mining companies increases their scale considerably. However, despite initial turbulent moments related to the occurrence of an unknown threat, it was possible to stabilise the situation in all such companies as a result of implementing various anti-threat actions. Following the initial introduction to basic properties of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, the paper presents the results of the study (a case study) on actions taken in individual mining companies. There was an attempt to formulate the so-called good work practices recommended to be applied.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had devastating consequences for health, social, and economic domains, but what has received far less focus is the effect on people’s relationship to vital ecological supports, including access to greenspace. We assessed patterns of greenspace use in relation to individual and environmental factors and their relationship with experiencing psychological symptoms under the pandemic. We conducted an online survey recruiting participants from social media for adults in Korea for September–December 2020. The survey collected data on demographics, patterns of using greenspace during the pandemic, and major depression (MD) and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) symptoms. The Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) and the Generalized Anxiety Disorder 2-item (GAD-2) were applied to identify probable cases of MD and GAD. A logistic regression model assessed the association decreased visits to greenspace after the outbreak compared to 2019 and probable MD and GAD. Among the 322 survey participants, prevalence of probable MD and GAD were 19.3% and 14.9%, respectively. High rates of probable MD (23.3%) and GAD (19.4%) were found among persons currently having job-related and financial issues. Of the total participants, 64.9% reported decreased visits to greenspace after the COVID-19 outbreak. Persons with decreased visits to greenspace had 2.06 higher odds (95% CI: 0.91, 4.67) of probable MD at the time of the survey than persons whose visits to greenspace increased or did not change. Findings suggest that barriers to greenspace use could deprive people of mental health benefits and affect mental health during pandemic; an alternative explanation is that those experiencing poor mental health may be less likely to visit greenspaces during pandemic. This implies the need of adequate interventions on greenspace uses under an outbreak especially focusing on how low-income populations may be more adversely affected by a pandemic and its policy responses.

This study investigates the vertical structure of the dynamical properties of a warm-core ring in the Gulf of Mexico (Loop Current ring) using glider observations. We introduce a new method to correct the glider’s along-track coordinate which is, in general, biased by the unsteady relative movements of the glider and the eddy, yielding large errors on horizontal derivatives. Here, we take advantage of the synopticity of satellite along-track altimetry to apply corrections on the glider’s position, by matching in situ steric height with satellite-measured sea surface height. This relocation method allows to recover the eddy’s azimuthal symmetry, to precisely estimate the rotation axis position, and to compute reliable horizontal derivatives. It is shown to be particularly appropriate to compute the eddy’s cyclo-geostrophic velocity, relative vorticity, and shear strain, which are otherwise out of reach when using the glider’s raw traveled distance as an horizontal coordinate. The Ertel potential vorticity (PV) structure of the warm core ring is studied in details, and we show that the PV anomaly is entirely controlled by vortex stretching. Sign reversal of the PV gradient across the water column suggests that the ring might be baroclinically unstable. The PV gradient is also largely controlled by gradients of the vortex stretching term. We also show that the ring’s total energy partition is strongly skewed, with available potential energy being 3 times larger than kinetic energy. The possible impact of this energy distribution on the Loop Current rings longevity is also discussed.

Diagnostics and decomposition of atmospheric disturbances in a planar flow are considered and applied to numerical modeling results with the direct possibility to use in atmosphere monitoring especially in such strong events which follow magnetic storms. The study examines a situation in which the stationary equilibrium temperature of a gas may depend on a vertical coordinate, that seriously complicates the problem solution. The relations connecting perturbations for acoustic and entropy modes are analytically established and led to the solvable diagnostic equations. These perturbation structures, found as the equation solutions specify acoustic and entropy modes in an arbitrary stratified gas under the condition of stability. These time-independent diagnostic relations link gas perturbation variables of the acoustic and the entropy modes. Hence, they provide the ability to decompose the total vector of perturbations into acoustic and non-acoustic (entropy) parts uniquely at any instant within the all accessible heights range. As a prospective model, we consider the diagnostics at the height interval [120;180] km, where the equilibrium temperature of a gas depends linearly on the vertical coordinate. For such a heights range it is possible to proceed with analytical expressions for pressure and entropy perturbations of gas variables. Individual profiles of acoustic and entropy parts for some data, obtained by numerical experiment, are illustrated by the plots for the pure numerical data against ones obtained by the model. The total energy of a flow is determined for both approaches and its height profiles are compared.

A long-standing problem in the understanding of deep-water turbidite reservoirs relates to how the three-dimensional evolution of deep-water channel systems evolve in response to channel filling on spatio-temporal scales, and how depositional environments affect channel architecture. The 3-D structure and temporal evolution of late Miocene deep-water channel complexes in the southern Taranaki Basin, New Zealand is investigated, and the geometry, distribution and stacking patterns of the channel complexes are analyzed. Two recently acquired 3-D seismic datasets, the Pipeline-3D (proximal) and Hector-3D (distal) are analyzed. These surveys provide detailed imaging of late Miocene deep-water channel systems, allowing for the assessment of the intricate geometry and seismic geomorphology of the systems. Seismic attributes resolve the channel bodies and the associated architectural elements. Spectral decomposition, amplitude curvature, and coherence attributes reveal NW-trending straight to low-sinuosity channels and less prominent NE-trending high-sinuosity feeder channels. Stratal slices across the seismic datasets better characterize the architectural elements. The mapped turbidite systems transition from low-sinuosity to meandering high-sinuosity patterns, likely caused by a change in the shelf-slope gradient due to localized structural relief. Stacking facies patterns within the channel systems reveal the temporal variation from a depositional environment characterized by sediment bypass to vertically aggrading channel systems.

Purpose - Soil aggregates are of great significance to soil and water conservation and ecological environment construction in arid area of northwest district．Methods - Exploring the effects of different vegetation includes types and land use methods on the stability of soil aggregates in the Loess Plateau, and provide reference for the rational use and management of land, also the improvement of soil structure in the region. Select 9 types of samples of 0-30 cm of typical soil plots as the research objects, compare and analyze the particle size index, stability differences and anti-erodibility of soil aggregates under various vegetation cover. Results - The results show that P value, MWD value, GMD value, D value, and AI value of the 0-10cm surface soil all show the maximum value. As the depth increases, the size distribution of the above index values of each soil sample in the 10-20cm and 20-30cm layers is different; P value in the 0-30cm depth layer is linearly positively correlated with the AI value and MWD value, and linearly negatively correlated with the D value. The correlation coefficient R between each variable is in the range of 0.78-0.97, and the D value reflects the Loess Plateau area stability and erosion resistance of soil aggregates better. GMD and MWD value show an exponential relationship, the correlation coefficient R value of 10-20cm height layer is 0.46; AI and MWD value in 0-10cm, 20-30cm height layer have a power function relationship, 10-20cm height layer has a polynomial function, the correlation coefficient R value is 0.97. The scour coefficient of different soil samples has a high degree of dispersion, the maximum CV value is 1.92, and the minimum value is 0.49. Conclusions - The results of this study can provide a theoretical basis for the ecological and hydrological benefit evaluation of slope erosion control and vegetation restoration on the Loess Plateau.

The design flood concept (DF) provides for an essential tool in designing the hydraulic works, in defining the reservoir operation programs and for a reliable flood hazard identification. Under a simplified approach, the maximum discharge and the floods volume are statistically processed to reasonably define the DF. Yet, the integral hydrograph provides additional key temporal and quantitative details of important significance for flood management and particularly for the res-ervoirs operation and associated risks of failures. The procedure presented in this paper (as applied on a set of compatibly shaped hydrographs) involves the following key stages: (i) normalize the floods, (ii) define similar flood shape classes and (iii) evaluate the average dimensionless flood (ADF) for each class. The ADFs are finally transformed into a set of (DF)s. Many statistical distributions approximate acceptably the frequent values of the maximum discharges or the flood volumes, yet displaying a significant spread for medium or rare probabilities of exceedance (PE). This scattering, which can be explained by the epistemic uncertainty, defines an area of uncertainty both for measured and extrapolated values. In considering upper and lower values of the uncertainty in-tervals as limits for maximum discharges and flood volumes, then by combining them compatibly, a set of DFs - as completely defined hydrographs, with different shapes - results for each PE. The herein proposed procedure defines both one peak DF and multi-peaks DF. Subsequently, such DFs do assist water managers in examining and establishing tailored approaches for a variety of input hydrographs. Among the DFs that would correspond to a same PE, the most compact floods arise a special interest, for they are basic in defining the set of safe operation rules for hydraulic structures.

Fossil fuels are non-renewable sources of energy, used particularly in developing countries. There are insufficient fossil fuels and their availability is gradually declining. This leads to a steady increase in prices. Renewable energy is clean, cost-effective and limitless. The considerable population growth and industrial growth have made the construction of solar power plants essential in developing countries. The study used Boolean logical-AHP techniques to select a suitable site for solar power in Duhok Governorate. The result indicated that 68.5% of the area in the governorate of Duhok is available for solar power station construction, especially the most appropriate zone which has 132.2 sq. km and can provide more than 8000 megawatts of solar energy. Most of the appropriate areas are in the south and southwest regions of the governorate, located mostly in the districts of Bardarash, Shekhan and Semel, situated between the major cities of Mosul, Erbil and Duhok. These locations can supply a significant amount of clean, renewable energy for these areas.

Currently, a large part of the wells for agricultural use located in the state of Sonora are overexploited, which generates a high degree of saline intrusion and abandonment by nearby communities. In this paper the temperature effect on the final concentration of permeate water was evaluated through voltage and intel concentration variations in a batch electrodialysis reversal process (EDR), in order to identify optimal operating conditions with emphasis on the reduction of energy consumption and cost of desalinated water. Thirty-six samples were prepared: eighteen 2,000 mg/L total dissolved solids (TDS) samples and eighteen 5,000 mg/L TDS samples; brackish well water of 639 mg/L TDS and synthetic salt were mixed to obtain those concentrations. 3 different temperatures (25, 30, 35 °C) and 2 different voltages (10 and 20 V) were tested for each sample. The best salt removal occurred in the 20 V arrays, with 18.34% higher removal for 2,000 mg/L TDS experiments and 25.05% for 5,000 mg/L experiments (average between the 25 to 35 °C tests). Temperature positively affected EDR, especially in the experiments at 10 V voltage, where increasing 10 °C increased its efficiency by 10.83% and 24.69% for 2,000 and 5,000 mg/L TDS, respectively. Energy consumption was lower with increasing temperature (35 °C), as it decreased by 1.405% and 1.613% for 2,000 and 5,000 mg/L TDS concentrations, respectively (average between 10 and 20 V tests), decreasing the cost per m3 of water.

Under the “Korean emission trading system in the forestry sector (KETSF)” initiative, the South Korean government has developed several greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction programs that include forestry activities as the cornerstones of the initiative. Forest management is deemed to be a major strategy to implement KETSF; this has been confirmed by most participants in the program, who have shown their preference for forest management projects as the most effective and encouraging strategy to participate in the KETSF program. For a successful implementation of KETSF projects is essential to explore methods that optimize the positive impacts of such strategies, thereby maximizing the economic returns and carbon stocks that result from the implementation of forest management activities. Thus, this study investigated several value-added KETSF projects in South Korea, which included simulated scenarios under two main forest management strategies: one based on an extension of the rotation age, and a second one based on reforestation with new species. Five forest management scenarios were examined and evaluated in their ability to maximize carbon stocks and economic returns. Based on the results, Scenarios 2 and 4 were identified as the best KETSF projects in terms of carbon stock increments. Additionally, the results indicated that projects including reforestation with new species added more economic value than projects that considered an extension of the rotation age. The study also revealed that KETSF projects generated revenue in both scenarios, by either extending the rotation age or by implementing reforestation with new species.

Land Use Land Cover (LULC) changes analysis is one of the most useful methodologies to understand how the land was used in the past years, what types of detections are to be expected in the future, as well as the driving forces and processes behind these changes. In Ethiopia, the rapidly changing of LULC is mainly due to population pressure, resettlement programs, climate change, and other human and nature-induced driving forces. Anthropogenic activities are the most significant factors adversely changing the natural status of the landscape and resources, which exerts unfavourable and adverse impacts on the environment and livelihood. The main goal of the present work is to review previous studies, discussing the spatio-temporal LULC changes in Ethiopian basins, to find out common points and gaps that exist in the current literature, to be eventually addressed in the future. Seventeen articles, published from 2011 to 2020, were selected and reviewed, focusing on LULC classification using ArcGIS and ERDAS imagine software by unsupervised and maximum likelihood supervised classification methods. Key informant interview (KII), focal group discussions (FGDs) and collection of ground truth data using ground positioning systems (GPS) for data validation were the major approaches discussed in most of the studies. All the analysed research showed that, during the last decades, Ethiopian lands changed to agricultural land use, waterbody, commercial farmland and built-up/settlement. Some parts of forest land, grazing land, swamp/wetland, shrubland, rangeland and bare/ rock out cropland cover class were changed to other LULC class types, mainly as a consequence of increasing anthropogenic pressure. In summary, these articles confirmed that LULC changes are a direct result of both natural and human influences. However, most of the study provided details of LULC for the past decades within a specific spatial location, while they did not address the challenge of forecasting future LULC changes at the basin scale.

This study aligns with the 2030 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals- 3 which aim to “ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages”. It contributes to the nascent literature stream on energy-health dynamics by introducing a holistic theoretical model to empirically examine the mediation effect of carbon emissions on the relationship between nonrenewable energy and infant mortality rates. Using an unbalanced panel data on 42 Asia and the Pacific countries from 2005 to 2015 and deploying the structural equation modeling approach, the empirical results are surmised as follows: (i) in regard to the full sample of countries, nonrenewable energy indirectly increases infant mortality rates through increasing carbon emissions. In other words, carbon emissions play a partial mediation role between nonrenewable energy and infant mortality rates; and (ii) for the different income groups, carbon emissions show varying mediation effects. For example, the mediation effects of carbon emissions in lower-middle and upper-middle income countries are found to be similar to those of the full sample of countries. Therefore, based on these findings, we conclude that nonrenewable energy is an essential determinant of infant mortality rates. Policy recommendations are put forward.

Surface temperature influences human health directly and alters the biodiversity and productivity of the environment. While previous research has identified that the composition of urban landscapes influences the physical properties of the environment such as surface temperature, a generalizable and flexible framework is needed that can be used to compare cities across time and space. This study employs the Structure of Urban Landscapes (STURLA) classification combined with remote sensing of New York City’s (NYC) surface temperature. These are then linked using machine learning and statistical modeling to identify how greenspace and the built environment influence urban surface temperature. It was observed that areas with urban units composed of largely the built environment hosted the hottest temperatures while those with vegetation and water were coolest. Likewise, this is reinforced by borough-level spatial differences in both urban structure and heat. Comparison of these relationships over the period between2008 and 2017 identified changes in surface temperature that are likely due to the changes in prevalence in water, lowrise buildings, and pavement across the city. This research reinforces how human alteration of the environment changes ecosystem function and offers units of analysis that can be used for research and urban planning.

Background: Indonesia is one of the multicultural countries in the world. The diversity that exists in Indonesia is reflected in differences in race, ethnicity, culture, and religion. It is not surprising that Indonesia will face the threat of national disintegration due to differences. Therefore, Indonesia needs a concept in fostering diversity to create national resilience. Purpose: This study aims to explore how the role of archipelago insights in shaping national geostrategy resilience. Method: The method used in this research is literature review. The search for journals was carried out using the google scholar database with the keywords "archipelago insight" and "geostrategy" and "national resilience". Feasibility studies are assessed based on title, abstract, full text, and research methodology. Data analysis using narrative analysis based on research findings. Result: insight into the archipelago can be used as a basis in shaping a national geostrategy. The perspective in the concept of archipelago insight by fostering the diversity in Indonesia can create unity and integrity to form national geostrategic resilience. Conclusion: The concepts that exist in the archipelago perspective and national geostrategy can foster the diversity that exists in Indonesia. The creation of existing unity and integrity, understanding the perception of seeing differences, is not a threat to realizing national resilience in the Indonesian nation.

Despite the use of commercial forest carbon protocols (CFCPs) for more than two decades, claiming ~566 MMtCO2e and a market value of ~USD $15.7 billion, comparative analysis of CFCP methodology and offset results is limited. In this study, five widely used biometric-based CFCPs were characterized, and common characteristics and differences were identified. CFCP claims of net forest carbon sequestration are compared with results of directly measured CO2 by eddy covariance, a meteorological method integrating gross vertical fluxes of forest and soil carbon, and the only alternative non-biometric source of net forest carbon sequestration data available. We show here that CFCPs share a structural feature delimiting forest carbon values by zero-threshold carbon accounting (gC m-2 ≤ 0), a pattern opposite to natural emissions of forest CO2 exchange based on direct measurement and a fundamental biological constraint on net forest carbon storage (i.e., soil efflux, ecosystem respiration). Exclusion of forest CO2 sources to the atmosphere precludes net carbon accounting, resulting in unavoidable over-crediting of CFCP offsets. CFCP carbon results are significantly different from global forest CO2 net ecosystem exchange population results (FluxNet2015 gC m-2) at the 95% to 99.99% confidence levels, inferring an annual median error of ~247% (gC m-2), also consistent with over-crediting. Direct CO2 measurement provides an alternative method for commercial forest carbon products, has the potential to harmonize global markets, and catalyze the role of forests in managing climate change through nature-based solutions.

The impact of climate extremes on the society has been of great concern to environmental scientist and policy makers. The destructive consequence attributed to natural hazards associated with climates extremes has been estimated to billions of dollars across the globe. To carry out a robust and effective researches that help to minimize or prevent the loss, detailed datasets of the past, present and future are needed. This will help to give an accurate prediction and early warning which is necessary for the policy making.

Cyprus plans to drastically increase the share of renewable energy sources from 13.9% in 2020 to 22.9% in 2030. Solar energy can play a key role in the effort to fulfil this goal. The potential for production of solar energy over the island is much higher than most of European territory because of the low latitude of the island and the nearly cloudless summers. In this study, high quality and fine resolution satellite retrievals of aerosols and dust, from the newly developed MIDAS climatology, as well as information for clouds from CMSAF are used in order to quantify the effects of aerosols, dust, and clouds on the levels of surface solar radiation (SSR) and the corresponding financial loss for different types of installations for production of solar energy. An SSR climatology has been also developed based on the above information. Ground-based measurements were also incorporated to study the contribution of different species to the aerosol mixture and the effects of day-to-day variability of aerosols on SSR. Aerosols attenuate 5 – 10% of annual GHI and 15 – 35% of annual DNI, while clouds attenuate ~25 – 30% and 35 – 50% respectively. Dust is responsible for 30 – 50% of the overall attenuation by aerosols.

In response to droughts, various media campaigns and water saving instructions are released, often however, with only temporary water conservation effects. A promising development is this regard are Digital Water Meters (DWM) that provide near real-time water-use feedback. Despite extensive DWM experience in some water-stressed regions, a profound understanding of the initial attitude towards DWM and message tailoring opportunities are rarely empirically explored. Therefore, we aim to obtain insights into the attitude towards the introduction of DWM and explore opportunities for message tailoring, a topic of extra relevance as we may be on the threshold of a large-scale implementation in many world regions. Messages tailored to (i) normative beliefs and attitudes on drinking water, (ii) water-use activity and (iii) phase of decision-making, seem particularly compatible with DWM. Through a survey (n=1037) in the Netherlands, we observe that 93% of respondents have no objections utility investments in DWM and that 78% would accept a free DWM because of improved leakage detection, lower costs and environmental considerations. Finally, instead of sociodemographic factors, we observed that an attitude-based customer segmentation approach proved an especially useful predictor of respondent’s motivation to endorse DWM and forms a promising basis for water conservation message-tailoring strategies.

Usually, in ground-penetrating radar (GPR) datasets the user defines the limits between the useful signal and the noise through standard filtering to isolate the effective signal as much as possible. However, there are true reflections that mask the coherent reflectors that can be considered noise. In archaeological sites these clutter reflections are caused by scattering with origin in subsurface elements (e.g., isolated masonry, ceramic objects and archaeological collapses). Its elimination is difficult because the wavelet parameters similar to coherent reflections and there is a risk of creating artifacts. In this study a procedure to filtering the clutter reflection noise (CRN) from GPR datasets is presented. The CRN filter is a singular value decomposition-based method (SVD), applied in the 2D spectral domain. This CRN filtering was tested in a dataset obtained from a controlled laboratory environment, to establish a mathematical control of this algorithm. Also, it has been applied in a 3D-GPR dataset acquired in the Roman villa of Horta da Torre (Fronteira, Portugal), which is an uncontrolled environment. The results show an increase in the quality of archaeological-GPR planimetry that were verified via archaeological excavation.

The monitoring of surface-water quality followed by water-quality modeling and analysis is essential for generating effective strategies in water-resource management. However, worldwide, particularly in developing countries, water-quality studies are limited due to the lack of a complete and reliable dataset of surface-water-quality variables. In this context, several statistical and machine-learning models were assessed for imputing water-quality data at six monitoring stations located in the Santa Lucía Chico river (Uruguay), a mixed lotic and lentic river system. The challenge of this study is represented by the high percentage of missing data (between 50% and 70%) and the high temporal and spatial variability that characterizes the water-quality variables. The competing algorithms implemented belonged to both univariate and multivariate imputation methods (inverse distance weighting (IDW), Random Forest Regressor (RFR), Ridge (R), Bayesian Ridge (BR), AdaBoost (AB), Hubber Regressor (HR), Support Vector Regressor (SVR), and K-nearest neighbors Regressor (KNNR)). According to the results, more than 76% of the imputation outcomes are considered satisfactory (NSE > 0.45). The imputation performance shows better results at the monitoring stations located inside the reservoir than the ones positioned along the mainstream. IDW was the most chosen model for data imputation.

This study presents a world review as well as new additional data in form of submerged speleothems that are used for paleo sea level reconstructions. Speleothems significantly contributed to the understanding of the global and regional sea level variations during the Middle and Late Quaternary. The studied speleothems cover the last 1.4 Myr and are focused mainly on Marine Isotope Stages (MIS) 1, 2, 3, 5.1, 5.3, 5.5, 7.1, 7.2, 7.3 and 7.5. Results reveal that submerged speleothems represent extraordinary archives providing detailed information on former sea level changes. We present also new results from stalactites collected in central Mediterranean sea, at Favignana and Ustica islands (Sicily, Italy), both characterized by continental, phreatic or marine layers. The study and analysis of the latter speleothems provide results of great interest for relative sea level changes over the last 1000 years.

In response to the complex social, environmental and economic situation caused by the "Terra dei Fuochi" phenomenon, the IZSM collaborated closely with the Terra dei Fuochi working group, carrying out additional monitoring surveys both on food (QR Code Campania project[30]), and on the environment (Campania Trasparente project[31]). This model was developed in the context of the experience accumulated in the field of environmental and food monitoring, and represents an innovative tool aimed at increasing knowledge of the environmental context of the Campania Region through an objective, integrated and organic synthesis of complex environmental phe-nomena and territorial dynamics. The model proposed here is useful for the global and synthetic assessment of environmental pressure on a municipal basis. As shown, it can also be applied to aggregations of municipalities. Furthermore, it can be used in the context of institutional actions for the planning and monitoring of improvements on a local or regional scale. Finally, the pro-posed municipality-based environmental pressure index represents the basis for geo-stratification of the sample in the context of population biomonitoring studies on a regional scale, as in the described biomonitoring study design applicable to the Campania Region.

Understanding the relationships between land cover/urban structure patterns and air pollutants is key to sustainable urban planning and development. In this study, we employ a mobile monitoring method to collect PM_2.5 and BC data in the city of Philadelphia, PA during the summer of 2019 and apply the Structure of Urban Landscapes (STURLA) methodology to examine relationships between urban structure and atmospheric pollution. We find that, while PM_2.5 and BC vary by STURLA class, many of the differences in pollutant concentrations between classes are not significant. However, we also find that the proportions in which STURLA components are present throughout the urban landscape can be used to predict urban air pollution. Among frequently sampled STURLA classes, gpl hosted the highest PM_2.5 concentrations on average (16.60 _± 4.29 µg/m³), while tgbwp hosted the highest BC concentrations (2.31 _± 1.94 µg/m³). Furthermore, STURLA combined with machine learning modeling was able to correlate PM_2.5 (R²= 0.68, RMSE 2.82 µg/m³) and BC (R² = 0.64, RMSE 0.75 µg/m³) concentrations with the urban landscape and spatially interpolate concentrations where sampling did not take place. These results demonstrate the efficacy of the STURLA methodology in modeling relationships between air pollution and land cover/urban structure patterns.

Due to climate change, droughts have been occurring more frequently in Germany in recent years. More frequent and prolonged drought affects the health of trees and increases the risk of forest fires. A large-scale forest fire broke out near Treuenbrietzen, Brandenburg, in the summer of 2018 in pine monospecific forests. In addition to evaluating the damage caused, future reforestation is discussed, which is related mainly to the expectations of the forest owners. A telephone survey of seven affected forest owners was conducted using a semi-structured guided interview. The results from our interview demonstrated the support of private forest owners for mixed forests over monospecific pine forests. Most forest owners do not prioritize economic benefit with the forest land as forestry was not the primary source of income. Instead, the ownership of the forest tends to be linked to idealistic, cultural, and family values. The motives for reforestation vary but are often externally influenced. Different goals of forest owners lead to the challenge of finding consensus among them. We conclude that forestry advice by the federal and state governments is essential, especially on how climate change can affect local forests, to sensitize private forest owners to this problem.

This article presents and discusses analytical data on the scientific publication record from 1910 to 2020 on two topics: "climate" and "climate change/global warming/climate emergency". The goal is to visualize how the publication record on these two topics has evolved over time, from different classification perspectives (year, country, source and organization). Three hypotheses are tested using data collected from Web of Science and various graphical representations of the data. It is found that research output related to the Earth’s contemporary changing climate overtook that of general climate research in 2011, and the publication ratio has been expanding in the last decade. There are significant differences in the publication countries and sources between the two topics, and conversely less significant differences in terms of organizations publishing these works. Differentiation factors that affect the level of research output and engagement on the climate challenge include: island versus landlocked nations, specialized versus general scientific journals, academic versus institutional organizations. The future of the publication records is discussed, such as the emergence of new terms to refer to the climate challenge, such as “climate emergency”.

The distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) has great potential for monitoring natural-resource reservoirs as well as borehole well-beings. However, the DAS wavefields of these applications are complicated and the noise levels are often high due to unknown coupling conditions. Therefore, we seek for an advanced array processing technique that takes advantages of the high spatial receiver density of DAS. In this study, we apply seismic interferometry based on deconvolution to DAS borehole data observed at the Brady geothermal field in Nevada to extract coherent and interpretable waves. The data is from the PoroTomo project at the Brady geothermal field in Nevada. With the deconvolution, we extract strong reverberating signals between 0-165 m depth due to the resonance of the borehole casing. We investigate the propagating velocity of the extracted waves and the velocity variation compared to depth, observation time, temperature, and pressure. With analytical and numerical modeling, we discover that a simple string model with multiple sources can explain the observed data well. The key to explain our observation is the sources coherency, and reflection coefficients at the boundaries. The amplitude spectra show clear normal modes of such reverberations, which are useful for dispersion analysis of the waves. For DASV below 200 m depth, we only obtain signals during the active seismic operation time due to poor coupling. Deconvolution interferometry is a powerful tool for analyzing the large volume of data observed by DAS and monitoring time-lapse changes of the propagation media and external sources.

Monitoring the health of coral reefs is essential to understand the damaging impacts of anthropo-genic climate change. Non-invasive methods to survey coral reefs are the most desirable and op-tics-based surveys, ranging from simple photography to multispectral satellite imaging are well es-tablished. Herein, we review these techniques, focusing on their value for coral monitoring and health diagnosis. A new, low-cost hyperspectral imaging technique using linear variable filters is also described. This system is capable of simultaneously producing hyperspectral and photogrammetric outputs, which provides integrated information of reef structure and physiology.

The accuracy of wind field simulation and prediction is one of the most significant parameters in the field of atmospheric science and wind energy. Limited by the observation data, there are few researches on wind energy development. A 3D Doppler wind lidar (DWL) providing the high-vertical-resolution wind data over the urban complex underlying surface in February 2018 was employed to evaluated the accuracy of vertical wind field simulation systematically for the first time. 11 PBL schemes of the Weather Research and Forecasting Model (WRF) were employed in simulation. The model results were evaluated in groups separated by weather (sunny days, haze days and windy days), observation height layers, and various observation wind speeds. The test results presented that the vertical layer altitude of the observation point position was the most important factor. The simulation is fairly well at a height of 1000-2000m, as most of the relative mean bias of wind speed and wind direction are less than 20% and 6% respectively. Below 1000 m, the wind speed and direction biases are about 30%-150% m.s-1 and 6%-30% respectively. Moreover, when the observed wind speed was lower than 5 m.s-1, the bias were usually large, and the wind speed relative mean bias is up to 50-300%. In addition, the accuracy of simulated wind profile is better in 10-15m.s-1 than other speed ranges, and is better up 1000m than below 1000m in the boundary layer. We see that the WRF boundary layer schemes have different applicability to different weather conditions. The WRF boundary layer schemes have significant differences in wind field simulation with larger error under the complex topography. A PBL scheme is not likely to maintain its advantages in the long term under different conditions including altitude and weather conditions.

Evidence is growing that mankind must learn from nature, a self-sufficient and self-organized system that adopts all the opportunities to develop life and ingeniously makes the most of whatever energy source. Attempting to satisfy the requirements of our energy-consuming world, we cannot afford to disregard any available source of energy, mainly those characterized by zero-CO₂ emissions. In this context an alternative scenario could be opened by the use of the nuclear radiations emitted from naturally occurring or artificially produced radionuclides. Abandoned mines of U, Th and Rare Earths , as well as storage areas of artificially produced isotopes all over the globe are available and affordable sources of radiations that can be converted in electrical power. The transition from laboratory-scale nuclear batteries to large-area converting modules would allow to safely re-use a big amount of already existing radionuclides, converting a trouble into a resource.

The reality of people’s lives has shifted from rural to urban areas, where an ever-increasing proportion of the world’s population lives. Providing infrastructure to serve these areas, especially in the Global South, is a key task of sustainable development. A deep understanding of the spatial arrangement and scales of these urban structures and their temporal evolution can help to develop innovative solutions to issues of energy, water, or transportation infrastructures. For this purpose, in this work we study the temporal evolution of urban built-up structures (Global Artificial Impervious Area) and population distributions (Global Human Settlement Population) in four regions of the Global South (Argentina, India, Egypt, and Nigeria). We qualitatively analyze regularity through the pair correlation function and subsequently identify typical scales within the different interurban systems. In doing so, we identify that especially the large settlement objects arrange themselves in a regular way and thus typical scales exist in urban systems. Thus, settlement objects are usually located about 20 to 40 km apart from each other. This information can be used to develop sustainable infrastructure concepts, for example for passenger transport between settlements.

Followed by the aspect of respect for rights 20, the social and environmental issue has a score of 19.9, the dialogue issue is 19. In short, the proximity plan indicates that the policies used regarding the issue of generating employment and economic growth (Empresa Mantaro Perú SAC), continue to be the strategic variables in the first instance, but they are far from the social actors (rural communities of Aco, Vico, Cruz Pampa and others) and environmental (Junín environmental dialogue table) and Ombudsman's Office (rights) that are currently closer together. The actor from the Archbishop of Huancayo referred to communication is one of the driving variables of power. The proximity plan shows us that the policies used regarding the issue of generating employment and economic growth (Empresa Mantaro Perú SAC), continue to be the strategic variables in the first instance, but that they are far from the social actors (Rural Communities of Aco , Vico, Cruz Pampa and others) and environmental (Junín Environmental Dialogue Table) and Ombudsman's Office (rights) that are currently closer together. The actor from the Archbishop of Huancayo referred to communication is one of the driving variables of power. The proximity plan shows us that the policies used regarding the issue of generating employment and economic growth (Empresa Mantaro Perú SAC), continue to be the strategic variables in the first instance, but that they are far from the social actors (Rural Communities of Aco , Vico, Cruz Pampa and others) and environmental (Junín Environmental Dialogue Table) and Ombudsman's Office (rights) that are currently closer together. The actor from the Archbishop of Huancayo referred to communication is one of the driving variables of power. but they are far from the social actors (rural communities of Aco, Vico, Cruz Pampa and others) and environmental (Junín Environmental Dialogue Table) and the Ombudsman's Office (rights) that are closer together today. The actor from the Archbishopric of Huancayo referred to communication, is within the driving variables of power. but they are far from the social actors (rural communities of Aco, Vico, Cruz Pampa and others) and environmental (Junín Environmental Dialogue Table) and the Ombudsman's Office (rights) that are currently closer together. The actor of the Archbishopric of Huancayo referred to communication, is within the driving variables of power.

The use of different primary energy sources in human society has led to two major polluting emissions in the environment: energy (mostly heat), and chemical substances (mostly carbon dioxide). In this paper, the total global anthropogenic emissions of heat to the atmosphere during the industrial era (years 1850-2018) were determined and their effect on the change of global atmospheric temperature was calculated. The concept of a theoretical three-phase Earth reactor was introduced to estimate global atmospheric temperature increase caused by anthro-pogenic heat emissions. The resulting calculations closely approximated the actual atmospheric temperature change recorded during the last 170-year period. These results suggest that the temperature change of the atmosphere (global warming) is entirely due to anthropogenic heat emissions.

Mountain systems within the Mediterranean region, e.g. the Pyrenees, are very sensitive to climate change. In the present study, we quantified the magnitude of extreme precipitation events and the number of days with torrential precipitation (daily precipitation ≥ 100 mm) in all the rain gauges available in the Pyrenees for the 1981-2015 period, analyzing the contribution of the synoptic scale in this type of events. The easternmost (under the Mediterranean influence) and north-westernmost (under Atlantic influence) areas of the Pyrenees registered the highest number of torrential events. The heaviest events are expected in the eastern part, i.e. 400 mm day-1 for a return period of 200 years. Northerly advections over the Iberian Peninsula, which present a low zonal index, i.e. im-plying a stronger meridional component, give rise to torrential events over the western Pyrenees; and easterly advections favour extreme precipitation over the eastern Pyrenees. The air mass travels a long way, from the east coast of North America, bringing heavy rainfall to the western Pyrenees. In the case of the torrential events over the eastern Pyrenees, the air mass causing the events in these areas is very short and originates in the Mediterranean Basin. The NAO index has no influence upon the occurrence of torrential events in the Pyrenees, but these events are closely related to certain Mediterranean teleconnections such as the WeMO

People living in areas of significant seismic risk seldom undertake sufficient preparations to safeguard their family. This is most problematic in remote communities such as those along the Dead Sea Fault, Israel, where self-reliance is a key factor in coping with disasters. To facilitate individual and familial involvement in earthquake preparedness in remote areas, we designed a tool for self-assessment of risk and preparedness. The personalized risk assessment is based on national hazard and building standards, and on personal input regarding structure characteristics. The risk and preparedness evaluations enhance awareness and provide immediate feedback to help users improve familial preparedness. Spatial analysis of the data collected is used to form high-resolution maps that expose specific challenges for emergency response. A study conducted in the town of Mitzpe Ramon exposed neighborhoods with relatively high risk of damage and low preparedness. Integrating these results with seasonal stress-factors such as peak tourism and extreme weather, provides new and important insights on the ability of the local community and emergency forces to cope with multi-hazard situations. Analysis of the heterogeneous distribution of expected hardship within a community should be implemented world-wide to improve risk mitigation.

Climate change is expected to influence cooling and heating energy demand of residential buildings and affect overall thermal comfort. Towards this end, the heating degree-day (HDD), the cooling degree-day (CDD) and the HDD+CDD were computed from an ensemble of 7 high-resolution bias-corrected simulations attained from EURO-CORDEX under RCP4.5 and RCP8.5. These three indicators were analyzed for 1971-2000 (from E-OBS) and 2011-2040 and 2041-2070, under both RCPs. Results show that the overall spatial distribution of HDD trends for the 3 time-periods points out an increase of energy demand to heat internal environments in Portugal's northern-eastern regions, most significant under RCP8.5. It is projected an increase of CDD values for both scenarios; however, statistically significant linear trends were only found for 2041-2070 under RCP4.5. The need for cooling is almost negligible for the remaining periods, though linear trend values are still considerably higher for 2041-2070 under RCP8.5. By the end of 2070, higher amplitudes for all indicators are depicted for southern Algarve and Alentejo regions, mainly under RCP8.5. For 2041-2070 the Centre and Alentejo (North and Centre) regions present major positive differences for HDD(CDD) under RCP4.5(RCP8.5), within the 5 NUTS II regions predicting higher heating(cooling) requirements for some locations.

Slope failures pose a substantial threat to mining activity due to their destructive potential and high probability of occurrence on steep slopes close to limit equilibrium conditions, often found both in open pits and in waste and tailing disposal facilities. The development of slope monitoring and modeling programs usually entails the exploitation of in situ and remote sensing data together with the application of numerical modeling, and it plays an important role in the definition of prevention and mitigation measures aimed at minimizing the impact of slope failures in mining areas. Here we present a new methodology combining satellite radar interferometry and 2D finite element modeling for slope stability analysis at a regional scale, applied within slope unit polygons. We studied a former mining area in southeast Spain, and the method proved useful in detecting and characterizing a considerably large number of unstable slopes. Out of 1,959 slope units used for the spatial analysis of the radar interferometry data, 43 were unstable, with varying values of safety factor and landslide size. Out of the 43 active slope units, 21 exhibited line of sight velocities greater than the maximum error obtained through the validation analysis (2.5 cm/year). Eventually, this work discusses the possibility of using the results of the proposed approach to devise a proxy for landslide hazard. The proposed methodology can help to provide non-expert final users with intelligible, clear and easily comparable information to analyze slope instabilities in different settings, not limited to mining areas.

IntroductionThe use of protective masks, especially medical masks, increased dramatically during the COVID-19 crisis. Medical masks are made of synthetic materials, mainly polypropylene, and a majority of them are produced in China and imported to the European market. The urgency of the need has so far prevailed over environmental considerations.ObjectiveAssess the environmental impact of different strategies for the use of facemaskMethod Different strategies for the use of medical and community masks are being investigated for their environmental impact in this study. 8 scenarios, differentiating the typologies of masks and the modes of reuse are compared using several environmental impact indicators, mainly the Global Warming Potential (GWP100), and the plastic leakage (PL). This study attempts to provide clear recommendations that consider both the environmental impact and the protective effectiveness of face masks used in the community.Results The environmental impact of single-use masks is the most unfavorable, with a GWP of 0.4 -1.3 kgCO₂ eq., depending on the transport scenario, and a PL of 1.8 g, for a one month protection against COVID-19. The use of home-made cotton masks and prolonged use of medical masks through wait-and-reuse are the scenarios with the lowest impact.ConclusionThe use of medical masks with a wait and reuse strategy seems to be the most appropriate when considering both environmental impact and effectiveness. Our results also highlight the need to develop procedures and the legal/operational framework to extend the use of protective equipment during a pandemic.

Landscapes evolve due to climatic conditions, tectonic activity, geological features, biological activity, and sedimentary dynamics. These processes link geological processes at depth to surface features. Consequently, the study of landscapes can reveal essential information about the geochemical footprint of ore deposits at depth. Advances in satellite imaging and computing power have enabled the creation of large geospatial datasets, the sheer size of which necessitates automated processing. We describe a methodology to enable the automated mapping of landscape pattern domains using machine learning (ML) algorithms. From a freely available Digital Elevation Model, derived data, and sample landclass boundaries provided by domain experts, our algorithm produces a dense map of the model region in Western Australia. Both random forest and support vector machine classification achieve about 98\% classification accuracy with reasonable runtime of 48 minutes on a single core. We discuss computational resources and study the effect of grid resolution. Larger tiles result in a more contiguous map, while smaller tiles result in a more detailed, and at some point, noisy map. Diversity and distribution of landscapes mapped in this study support previous results. In addition, our results are consistent with the geological trends and main basement features in the region.

It is important to understand the statistical-physical structure of the rain in the vertical so that observations aloft can be translated meaningfully into what will occur at the surface. In order to achieve this understanding, it is necessary to gather high temporal and spatial resolution observations of rain in the vertical. This can only be accomplished using radars. It can be achieved by translating radar Doppler spectra into drop size distributions which can then be integrated to calculate variables such as the rain fall rate. A long-standing difficulty in using such measurements, however, is the problem of vertical air motion which can shift the Doppler spectra, and, therefore, significantly alter the deduced drop size distributions and integrated variables. In this work, we illustrate the improvement in measured rain structures using a new approach for removing the effect of mean vertical air motion. It is demonstrated that the new approach proposed here not only produces what appear to be better estimates of the rainfall rates, but, also as a consequence, provides estimates of the temporal and spatial regionally coherent updraft and downdrafts occurring in the precipitation. Furthermore, the technique is readily applicable to other radars especially those operating at non-attenuating frequencies.

The runtime environment is an important concern for self-adaptive systems (SASs). Although researchers have proposed many approaches for developing SASs that address the issue of uncertain runtime environments, the understanding of these environments varies depending on the objectives, perspectives, and assumptions of the research. Thus, the current understanding of the environment in SAS development is ambiguous and abstract. To make this understanding more concrete, we describe the landscape in this area through a systematic literature review (SLR). We examined 128 primary studies and 14 unique environment models. We investigated concepts of the environment depicted in the primary studies and the proposed environment models based on their ability to aid in understanding. This illustrates the characteristics of the SAS environment, the associated emerging environmental uncertainties, and what is expressed in the existing environment models. This paper makes explicit the implicit understanding about the environment made by the SAS research community and organizes and visualizes them.

Optical remote sensing can contribute to biodiversity monitoring and species composition mapping in tropical forests. Inferring ecological information from canopy reflectance is complex and data availability suitable to such a task is limiting, which makes simulation tools particularly important in this context. We explored the capability of the 3D radiative transfer model DART to simulate top of canopy reflectance acquired with airborne imaging spectroscopy in complex tropical forest, and to reproduce spectral dissimilarity within and among species, as well as species discrimination based on spectral information. We focused on two factors contributing to these canopy reflectance properties: the horizontal variability in leaf optical properties (LOP) and the fraction of non-photosynthetic vegetation (NPVf). The variability in LOP was induced by changes in leaf pigment content, and defined for each pixel based on a hybrid approach combining radiative transfer modeling and spectral indices. The influence of LOP variability on simulated reflectance was tested by considering variability at species, individual tree crown and pixel level. We incorporated NPVf into simulations following two approaches, either considering NPVf as a part of wood area density in each voxel or using leaf brown pigments. We validated the different scenarios by comparing simulated scenes with experimental airborne imaging spectroscopy using statistical metrics, spectral dissimilarity (within crowns, within species, and among species dissimilarity) and supervised classification for species discrimination. The simulation of NPVf based on leaf brown pigments resulted in the closest match between measured and simulated canopy reflectance. The definition of LOP at pixel level resulted in conservation of the spectral dissimilarity and expected performances for species discrimination. Our simulation framework could contribute to better understand performances for species discrimination and relationship between spectral variations and taxonomic and functional dimensions of biodiversity.

Considering the negative impacts of climate changes along with the rapid increase in population in Islamic dominated states, e.g., the Middle East, water tension among upstream and downstream states is increasing. Despite the importance of water management in Islamic culture, the role of religion has been under-valued and under-emphasized by the scholars. The paper has sought to compare and contrast Islamic water management principles (IWMP) with international water law principles (IWLP). The findings from this analysis show not only that IWMP are in conformity with IWLP, but that in many cases, IWMP can be more effective. For instance, where international water accords between riparian states of a shared river basin are poorly developed and lack enforcement mechanisms under IWLP, those upstream states can abuse their geographical locations depriving those downstream-ers. In contrast, IWMPs stress the equitable and reasonable use of water resources among upstream and downstream users of a shared watercourse. Moreover, although IWLPs emphasize the conservation and preservation of ecosystems and the environment at the basin level, the inter-basin states especially those upstream can pose significant harm to the ecosystems. On the other side, Islam as the religion of peace, has placed much emphasis on the preservation of nature. For example, the verse, “.... And waste not by excess, for Allah loves not the wasters” [Quran, 7:31], illustrates the importance of the sustainable use of water and the environment. It is argued that if Islamic Water Management Principles are incorporated into the management instrument of Islamic States, the issue of equitable and sustainable use of water among Muslim-dominated riparian states (e.g., Iran, Afghanistan, etc.) will be solved.

La minería es una industria intensiva en energía que requiere una fuente estable de electricidad. Con el aumento de la demanda de minerales y la disminución de las leyes, se espera que la demanda de energía aumente en un 36% para el 2035. Este aumento de la demanda depende del uso de combustibles fósiles ya que la electricidad producida y comprada en las empresas mineras se basan principalmente en el caso de los combustibles fósiles, los costos de los sistemas de almacenamiento de energía solar y eólica han caído a una escala sin precedentes, lo que alienta a las empresas mineras a probar estas tecnologías.Entre los factores que influyen en el uso de energía renovable, se encuentra el beneficio a la comunidad en la etapa de operación y cierre o post-cierre de un proyecto minero, el siguiente factor es el perfil de consumo eléctrico o demanda es importante para el cálculo de su almacenamiento o no, de las energías renovables a utilizar. Como tercer factor está el cálculo del consumo en los procesos. Los rangos de penetración determinarán si es posible su almacenamiento de energía, y si es posible utilizar control híbrido (solar - eólico), para ello es importante el uso de herramientas digitales como el programa Holmer, es una herramienta importante que técnica y económica.El gobierno debe tener una perspectiva que ayude en los temas regulatorios necesarios para impulsar proyectos de energía renovable con diferentes incentivos e intereses según el contexto minero.

Shales are well known for their strong anisotrophic properties. The classical Athy’s model on the exponential porosity reduction with the depth commonly uses based on localities only. Shale compaction curve affects the results of the basin modeling as it is important input data, thus the standard compaction curve of shales needs to be established. This study provided a new data and complies available data of Thailand shales to propose the new empirical relationship among porosity, burial depth, and geological age. The numerical data of the geological time were estimated by the application from the relationship of velocity and depth in each geological ages. The variation of the Thailand shale data due to the different geological ages was found in this study. Finally, the standard curve of shale compaction proposed by Puttiwongrak et al. [9] was examined and confirmed by this research findings.

Understanding the relationships between land cover/urban structure patterns and air pollutants is key to sustainable urban planning and development. In this study, we employ a mobile monitoring method to collect PM_2.5 and BC data in the city of Philadelphia, PA during the summer of 2019 and apply the Structure of Urban Landscapes (STURLA) methodology to examine relationships between urban structure and atmospheric pollution. We find that, while PM_2.5 and BC vary by STURLA class, many of the differences in pollutant concentrations between classes are not significant. However, we also find that the proportions in which STURLA components are present throughout the urban landscape can be used to predict urban air pollution. Among frequently sampled STURLA classes, gpl hosted the highest PM_2.5 concentrations on average (16.60 _± 4.29 µg/m³), while tgbwp hosted the highest BC concentrations (2.31 _± 1.94 µg/m³). Furthermore, STURLA combined with machine learning modeling was able to correlate PM_2.5 (R²= 0.68, RMSE 2.82 µg/m³) and BC (R² = 0.64, RMSE 0.75 µg/m³) concentrations with the urban landscape and spatially interpolate concentrations where sampling did not take place. These results demonstrate the efficacy of the STURLA methodology in modeling relationships between air pollution and land cover/urban structure patterns.

This work focuses on the analysis of the performance of satellite-based precipitation products for monitoring extreme rainfall events. Five precipitation products are inter-compared and evaluated in capturing indices of extreme rainfall events during 1998-2019 considering four indices of extreme rainfall. Satellite products show a variable performance, which in general indicates that the occurrence and amount of rainfall of extreme events can be both underestimated or overestimated by the datasets in a systematic way throughout the country. Also, products that consider the use of ground truth data have the best performance.

The novel coronavirus has presented specimen-access challenges to geoscientific researchers, including paleobiologists interested in fossil ammonoids. Ammonoid sutures are geometric patterns formed by the intersection of the septa and the shell wall, and have long been a diagnostic tool for ammonite researchers for such applications as species identification, taxonomic relationships, ontogenetic change, functional and evolutionary morphology, and other aspects of ammonoid paleobiology. Without access to specimens in museum and institutional collections, researchers must rely on previously published illustrations and photographs of ammonoid sutures. However, many of these illustrations were published decades ago without an index of scale. Suture tracings lacking a scale bar are not usable by researchers interested in applying the quantitativeness of fractal geometry to the interpretation of septal complexity. Additonally, distortion of the marginal elements of suture geometry occurs due to shell curvature near the venter and umbilicus. The revised approach described here eliminates the problem of missing scale information in fractal analysis of ammonite sutures, making use of just the lateral lobe and adjacent saddle. Our revised method’s non-requirement of a full hemisuture also facilitates comparisons among sutures within an ontogenetic sequence, or sutures from multiple ammonite taxa.

Glacial ripping is a newly recognized process sequence in which subglacial erosion is triggered by groundwater overpressure. Investigations in gneiss terrain in lowland Sweden indicate that ripping involves three stages of (i) hydraulic jacking, (ii) rock disruption under subglacial traction and (iii) glacial transport of rock blocks. Evidence for each stage includes, respectively, dilated fractures with sediment fills, disintegrated roches moutonnées and boulder spreads. Here we ask: can glacial ripping also occur in sedimentary rocks, and, if so, what are its effects? The case study area is in hard, thinly bedded, gently dipping Cambrian quartz-arenites at Loch Eriboll, NW Scotland. Field surveys reveal dilated, sediment filled, bedding-parallel fractures, open joints and brecciated zones, interpreted as markers for pervasive, shallow penetration of the quartz-arenite by water at over-pressure. Other features, including disintegrated rock surfaces, boulder spreads and monomict rubble tills, indicate glacial disruption and short distance subglacial transport. The field results, together with published cosmogenic isotope ages, indicate that glacial ripping operated with high impact close to the former ice margin at Loch Eriboll at 17.6-16.5 ka. Glacial ripping thus can operate effectively in bedded, hard sedimentary rocks and the accompanying brecciation is significant – if not dominant - in till formation. Candidate markers for glacial ripping are identified in other sedimentary terrains in former glaciated areas of the Northern Hemisphere.

The WASP-Index is computed over Iberia for three monthly timescales in 1961-2020, based on an observational gridded precipitation dataset (E-OBS), and in 2021-2070, based on bias-corrected precipitation generated by a six-member climate model ensemble from EURO-CORDEX, under RCP4.5 and RCP8.5. The WASP performance in identifying extremely dry or wet events, reported by the EM-DAT disaster database, is assessed for 1961–2020. An overall good agreement between the WASP spatial patterns and the EM-DAT records is found. The areolar mean values revealed an upward trend in the frequency of occurrence of intermediate-to-severe dry events over Iberia, which will be strengthened in the future, particularly for the 12m-WASP intermediate dry events under RCP8.5. Besides, the number of 3m-WASP intermediate-to-severe wet events is projected to increase, mostly the severest events under RCP4.5, but no evidence was found for an increase in the number of more persistent (12m-WASP) wet events under both RCPs. Despite important spatial heterogeneities, an increase(decrease) of the intensity, duration, and frequency of occurrence of the 12m-WASP intermediate-to-severe dry(wet) events is found under both scenarios, mainly in the southernmost regions of Iberia, thus becoming more exposed to prolonged and severe droughts in the future, corroborating the results from previous studies.

This study addresses the causal links between external factors and the main hydro-climatic variables. There is a gap in the literature on the description of a complete chain in addressing the structures of direct causal links of solar activity on the terrestrial variables. This is why, the present study uses the extensive facilities of the application of information theory in view of recent advances in different fields. Also, by other methods (e.g. neural networks) first are tested the existence non-linear links of solar-terrestrial influences on hydro-climate system. The results are promising related to the solar impact on terrestrial phenomena which is discriminant in space-time domain. The implications prove robust for determining the causal measure of climate variables under direct solar impact which makes it easier to consider solar activity in climate models, by appropriate parametrizations. This study found that hydro-climatic variables are sensitive to solar impact only for certain frequencies (periods) and these have a coherence with the Solar-Flux only for some lags of the Solar-Flux (in advance).

Microplastics (MPs) are small pieces of plastics. They are ubiquitous in the environment and can enter the freshwater environment from surface run-off and wastewater effluent (treated and untreated), industrial effluent, degraded plastic waste, and atmospheric deposition. They are not usually destroyed but convert into one phase to another. They are a source of air pollution, occurring in dust and airborne fibrous particles. Mostly MPs are non-biodegradable while some MPs are biodegradable, which can be decomposed in the presence of ultraviolet (UV) light or by the action of microorganisms. Popular methods: chemical, spectroscopic, and thermo-analytical are available for the determination of the chemical composition and size of plastic particles. This chapter discusses the uses, health hazards, sources, and transport of MPs particles.

Both academic literature and global organizations have emphasized the need for responsible water consumption, as stated in the Sustainable Development Goal 12. However, individuals’ water-saving behaviors in their current state are not enough. This situation entails a resistance to change (RC) in consumer habits and a lack of perceived risk of scarcity. The novelty of this study lies in examining the influence of RC (through its emotional, cognitive, and confidence components) and perceived risk on water-saving intention. Interviews (n = 384) were conducted in the southeast Mediterranean area of Spain by interviewers using a paper-and-pencil questionnaire. The results of the structural equation modeling show that the perceived risk and the components of cognitive rigidity and negative emotions exert a direct influence on water-saving habits and an indirect influence on water-saving intention. None of the components of RC directly influence intention, and a lack of confidence in the outcomes of water saving does not influence water-saving habits or water-saving intention. In addition to the results obtained, the novelty of the work lies in the idea that in order to influence the perception of the risk of water scarcity through awareness campaigns, it is better to use an emotional message rather than showing facts or information, because this does not drive water saving behavior.

The land-surface developments of the European Centre for Medium-range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) are based on the Carbon-Hydrology Tiled Scheme for Surface Exchanges over Land (CHTESSEL) and form an integral part of the Integrated Forecasting System (IFS), supporting a wide range of global weather, climate and environmental applications. In order to structure, coordinate and focus future developments and benefit from international collaboration in new areas, a flexible system named ECLand which would facilitates modular extensions to support numerical weather prediction (NWP) and society-relevant operational services, e.g. Copernicus, is presented . This paper introduces recent examples of novel ECLand developments on (i) vegetation, (ii) snow, (iii) soil, (iv) open water/lake (v) river/inundation, and (vi) urban areas. The developments are evaluated separately with long-range, atmosphere-forced surface offline simulations, and coupled land-atmosphere-ocean experiments. This illustrates the benchmark criteria for assessing both, process fidelity with regards to land surface fluxes and reservoirs of the water-energy-carbon exchange on the one hand, and on the other hand the requirements of ECMWF’s NWP, climate and atmospheric composition monitoring services using an Earth system assimilation prediction framework.

Wastewater surveillance for pathogens using the reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) is an effective, resource-efficient tool for gathering additional community-level public health information, including the incidence and/or prevalence and trends of coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19). Surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater may provide an early-warning signal of COVID-19 infections in a community. The capacity of the world’s environmental microbiology and virology laboratories for SARS-CoV-2 RNA characterization in wastewater is rapidly increasing. However, there are no standardized protocols nor harmonized quality assurance and quality control (QA/QC) procedures for SARS-CoV-2 wastewater surveillance. This paper is a technical review of factors that can lead to false-positive and -negative errors in the surveillance of SARS-CoV-2, culminating in recommendations and strategies that can be implemented to identify and mitigate these errors. Recommendations include, stringent QA/QC measures, representative sampling approaches, effective virus concentration and efficient RNA extraction, amplification inhibition assessment, inclusion of sample processing controls, and considerations for RT-PCR assay selection and data interpretation. Clear data interpretation guidelines (e.g., determination of positive and negative samples) are critical, particularly during a low incidence of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater. Corrective and confirmatory actions must be in place for inconclusive and/or potentially significant results (e.g., initial onset or reemergence of COVID-19 in a community). It will also be prudent to perform inter-laboratory comparisons to ensure results are reliable and interpretable for ongoing and retrospective analyses. The strategies that are recommended in this review aim to improve SARS-CoV-2 characterization for wastewater surveillance applications. A silver lining of the COVID-19 pandemic is that the efficacy of wastewater surveillance was demonstrated during this global crisis. In the future, wastewater will play an important role in the surveillance of a range of other communicable diseases.

It is important to understand the statistical-physical structure of the rain in the vertical so that observations aloft can be translated meaningfully into what will occur at the surface. In order to achieve this understanding, it is necessary to gather high temporal and spatial resolution observations of rain in the vertical. This can only be accomplished using radars. It can be achieved by translating radar Doppler spectra into drop size distributions which can then be integrated to calculate variables such as the rain fall rate. A long-standing difficulty in using such measurements, however, is the problem of vertical air motion which can shift the Doppler spectra, and, therefore, significantly alter the deduced drop size distributions and integrated variables. In this work, we illustrate the improvement in measured rain structures using a new approach for removing the effect of mean vertical air motion. It is demonstrated that the new approach proposed here not only produces what appear to be better estimates of the rainfall rates, but, also as a consequence, provides estimates of the temporal and spatial regionally coherent updraft and downdrafts occurring in the precipitation. Furthermore, the technique is readily applicable to other radars especially those operating at non-attenuating frequencies.

Achieving eco-efficiency in agriculture production at low environmental costs is key to sustainable agriculture. Using the DEA-SBM model, this study evaluated the agricultural eco-efficiency of the 77 counties and districts in China’s Jiangsu province from 1999 to 2018 and analyzed its spatio-temporal evolution pattern and influencing factors. The mains conclusions were as follows: (1) The overall agricultural eco-efficiency and its decomposition terms, pure technology efficiency and scale efficiency, exhibited a fluctuating downward trend. The regional inequality in agricultural eco-efficiency had been widening and exhibited a strong positive spatial association. (2) The agricultural eco-efficiency in Jiangsu province presented a “high south and low north” spatial pattern. High-level agricultural eco-efficiency areas were in the Taihu Plain in Sunan, while low-level agricultural eco-efficiency zones are distributed across Subei City. The High-High-type spatial association pattern is concentrated in the Suzhou-Wuxi-Changzhou region, while the Low-Low areas are mainly in the coastal regions of Subei and Suzhong. (3) The spatial pattern of PTE and SE generally exhibited a “high south and low north” distribution. Areas with positive growth in agricultural eco-efficiency, PTE, and SE, were situated in Xuzhou, Nanjing city, and the bordering regions between Yangzhou and Huai’an, and Changzhou and Wuxi. (4) The excessive redundant use and application of pesticides, chemical fertilizer, agricultural diesel, labor, land, and agricultural carbon emission have been the primary factor affecting Jiangsu's agricultural eco-efficiency. Irrigation had also signficantly impacted agricultural eco-efficiency, while mechanical power and agricultural film had minimal effect. The majority of counties and districts in Subei, Suzhong, and Ningzhen Yang Hilly region have issues regarding their excessive usage of chemical fertilizer, pesticide, chemical fertilizer, agricultural diesel, labor, and land. The findings of this study can contribute towards a better understanding of agricultural eco-efficiency and spatial association effect and can help policymakers increase agricultural eco-efficiency.

We confirm that energy dissipation weighting provides the most accurate approach to determining the effective hydraulic conductivity (Keff) of a binary K grid. A deep learning algorithm (UNET) can infer Keff with extremely high accuracy (R2 > 0.99). The UNET architecture could be trained to infer the energy dissipation weighting pattern from an image of the K distribution with high fidelity, although it was less accurate for cases with highly localized structures that controlled flow. Furthermore, the UNET architecture learned to infer the energy dissipation weighting even if it was not trained on this information directly. However, the weights were represented within the UNET in a way that was not immediately interpretable by a human user. This reiterates the idea that even if ML/DL algorithms are trained to make some hydrologic predictions accurately, they must be designed and trained to provide each user-required output if their results are to be used to improve our understanding of hydrologic systems most effectively.

The paper proposes a novel methodology for the stabilization of shallow foundations, with a simplified model combined with 3D Electrical resistivity tomography (ERT-3D) and conso- lidation injections. To determine its usefulness, the method has been applied in a case located in Estepona (southern Spain). The chosen tomography model is the dipole-dipole configuration, with an optimized distance between electrodes of 0.80 m for a better visualization of the foundation subsoil; with this parameterization, a total of 72 electrodes were installed in the analyzed case. In this work, the depth of the anomaly in the building's supporting subsoil was detected ranging from 2.00 m to 3.90 m deep. The study also delineates areas of high resistivity variations (50-1,000 Ω m) in the middle and eastern end of the field. These data have been validated and corroborated with a field campaign. The results of the ERT-3D monitoring are presented, once the investment data has been processed with the RES3DINV software, from the beginning to the end of the stabilization intervention. The novelty occurs with the interaction between the tomography and the foundation consolidation injections, until the final stabilization; very useful methodology in case of emergency consolidation, where there is a need to minimize damage to the building. Thus, people using this combined system; will be able to practically solve the initial anomalies of the subsoil that caused the damages, in a non-invasive way, considerably lowering the value of the resistivities.

In this study, we have first studied the trend in meteorological data from the Harmaleh, Vanai and Farsesh stations in the 50-year period in the Dez catchment area. The meteorological data will be then forecasted using SWAT and Mann-Kendall. Forecasting the results in the Mann-Kendall and SWAT model has been done using the code written in MATLAB software and RCP (4.5, 8.5) scenarios, respectively. Studying the results of the trend in the data of meteorological stations in this catchment area indicated that these two parametric and non-parametric methods have been used to determine trends in meteorological data. The results of the parametric method are positive in all meteorological parameters. Non-parametric method over a period of 50 years shows the presence of trends in the data. The comparison on the forecasting results at maximum temperature suggested that during summer, we will see an increase in temperature compared to the ground state in all three forecasts. The results of the minimum temperature forecast show a decrease in the minimum increase during the winter and the precipitation forecast indicates that at the end of autumn (Nov) precipitation decreased by 20 mm in the Mann-Kendall and 4.5 RCP while RCP8.5 suggests the increase in precipitation compared to the ground state. Studying the runoff forecast results using SWOT show that at the end of winter (Feb) and almost all spring (Mar, Apr) a decrease of about 40%, 15% and 14% will be seen, respectively

This paper aims to investigate the usage of waste from Absorbent Hygienic Products (AHP) as a fuel for gasification or pyrolysis, two attractive routes to obtain valuable products and dispose of this kind of waste. The study experimentally investigated the devolatilization of coarsely shred-ded materials from diapers, in a laboratory-scale bubbling fluidized bed made of sand, as a rep-resentative preparatory step of above-mentioned thermochemical conversions. Two versions of shredded materials were considered: as-manufactured diapers (AHPam, as a reference), and the cellulosic fraction of sterilized used diapers (AHPus). Results were presented, obtained from physic-chemical characterization of AHPam and AHPus (TGA, CHNS/O, proximate and ultimate analysis, XRF, ICP-AES, SEM-EDS) and their devolatilizations at 500-600-700-800°C, under two different atmospheres (air plus nitrogen, or pure nitrogen as a reference). Generally, temperature had most influenced syngas composition, with better performances under pure nitrogen. At 700-800 °C under pure nitrogen, the highest syngas quality and yield were obtained. For AHPam and AHPus, respectively: (i) H2 richness equaled 29.5 vol% and 23.7 vol%, while hydrocarbons poorness equaled 14.8 vol% and 7.4 vol% on dry, dilution-free basis; (ii) 53.7 Nl 100 gfuel-1 and 46.0 Nl 100 gfuel-1 were produced. Overall, AHP emerged as an interesting fuel for thermochemical conversions.

Sustainability transition theories analyse a systematic shift towards sustainability at micro (niche), meso (regime) and macro (landscape) level. The assessment of technological systems and structures at the firm level in sustainability transition literature is scant. The present study, taking the technological assessment perspective at the firm level, finds answers to questions like (a) how do established corporations move towards sustainable practices? (b) what role does technological innovation play in the firm’s transition towards sustainability? (c) what technological modes are adopted for sustainability transition? We find answers to these questions through an in-depth case analysis of two multi-national companies in the consumer goods industry. Internally developed and externally acquired technologies by firms in the last 15 years are plotted using qualitative and quantitative indicators on pre-designed templates. Technologies for all three sustainability dimensions, namely, environmental, social and economic, are mapped and the impact assessed. The analysis finds a sustainability transition landscape that shows the use of protected (patents, trademarks, designs) and unprotected technologies (open innovation) to generate impacts like production efficiency, consumption reduction, emission reduction, reduce-recycle-reuse among others. Companies implementing sustainable technologies do observe positive impacts. Implementation of reduce-reuse-recycle (3R)-based technologies enhance the achievement of sustainable development targets. Furthermore, the use of trademarks seems common in differentiating their technologies and identities. These and other results are detailed and used to comment on the role of managing intellectual property and harnessing the effect of technological innovations in sustainability transition.