Search Results (2,029)

Rapid urbanization, climate change, and biodiversity loss are intensifying environmental pressures on arid coastal cities through extreme heat, water scarcity, salinity intrusion, and increasing flood risks. Despite substantial investment in urban green spaces across the Gulf region, many public parks provide limited ecological functionality and climate adaptation benefits. This study evaluated the ecological performance of three coastal parks in Muscat, Oman Sarooj Beach Park (23,080 m²), Ghubrah Beach Park (34,818 m²), and Al Athaiba Beach Park (17,370 m²), to identify opportunities for more resilient landscape design. The assessment revealed that although green space occupied 76.8–82% of park areas, tree canopy cover remained low (8–12%), limiting thermal comfort, habitat provision, and ecological performance. Based on these findings, a Functional and Climate-Responsive Planting Strategy (FCRPS) was developed by integrating the 10–20–30 biodiversity guideline with performance-based planting criteria tailored to arid and saline environments. The framework was applied to the proposed Majis Beach Ecological Park in Sohar, Oman, to demonstrate the implementation of ecological urbanism and nature-based solutions in a hyper-arid coastal environment. The resulting design incorporates biodiversity-enhancing planting, blue–green infrastructure, wetland restoration, and climate-responsive spatial planning. The study demonstrates how multifunctional landscapes can enhance biodiversity, improve thermal comfort, strengthen stormwater management, and support community well-being while providing a transferable framework for resilient public park design in arid coastal cities. Full article

Cities are currently facing increasing challenges related to climate change, demographic pressure, and urban expansion. In this context, urban resilience has emerged as a strategic approach to anticipate, withstand, and adapt to environmental and social disturbances. The city of Salamanca, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, has implemented several green infrastructure strategies and climate adaptation initiatives, including the Integrated Sustainable Urban Development Strategy (EDUSI Tormes+), the Special Plan for the Protection of Green Infrastructure and Biodiversity (PEPIVB), and the programs SAVIA Red Verde Salamanca and LIFE Vía de la Plata. This study assesses the contribution of these initiatives to urban governance focused on response capacity by examining their level of implementation and the coherence among different municipal planning instruments. The analysis reveals that the municipal green infrastructure framework is explicitly planned and strategically designed with the objective to mitigate the urban heat island effect, regenerate the urban fabric, and establish structural pathways targeted to foster local biodiversity pathways. Overall, the results provide evidence that nature-based territorial management instruments can strengthen the adaptive capacity of heritage cities to climate change, offering a replicable model for other territories with similar characteristics. Full article

Multiple factors such as global climate warming and environmental degradation have increased natural disaster frequencies, threatening the safety of citizens’ lives and properties seriously. Existing literature primarily focuses on livelihood diversification, resilience, and vulnerability in flood-prone areas, with limited research systematically examining farmers’ livelihood risks and management strategies across multiple dimensions. To address this gap, this study advances the understanding of multidimensional livelihood risks by systematically identifying the key risk perceptions and management strategy choices of farmers, thereby providing empirical evidence essential for designing targeted interventions and sustainable adaptation policies in flood-prone regions. Specifically, this study employs an unordered multinomial logistic model to examine farmers’ risk management strategy choices, drawing on a field survey of 540 farmers from floodplain areas in Sichuan Province, China. The analysis systematically covers four livelihood risk dimensions (health, environmental, financial, social) and five management strategies (expansion, adjustment-oriented, contraction, aid-oriented, dependency-based). The results indicate that: (1) The most significant livelihood risk is environmental, and the most commonly selected risk management strategy is adjustment-oriented management; (2) When farmers face health risks, they tend to adopt dependency-based management strategy; in dealing with financial and social risks, farmers perceive no significant difference in the selection of the five management strategies. Accordingly, targeted strategies are proposed: insurance and information for environmental risks, medical security for health, employment training for social, and income diversification for financial risks. Full article

In the context of global climate change and rapid urbanization, urban outdoor thermal environment issues in summer have become increasingly severe. Shading has been widely recognized as an effective strategy for improving outdoor thermal comfort, yet existing evaluation methods still suffer from limitations in adaptability and accuracy. Taking Chongqing, a typical hot-humid city in China, as a case study, this paper proposes an evaluation method that accounts for human thermal adaptation, introducing three complementary indicators, namely Universal Thermal Climate Index Load (UTCIL), cumulative UTCIL (cUTCIL), and Heat Stress Duration (HSD). Focusing on four shading-related urban canyon morphological factors—orientation, aspect ratio (H/W), building asymmetry, and leaf area index (LAI) of street trees—a series of simulation scenarios was designed to quantitatively explore their impacts on summer outdoor thermal comfort. The applicability and reliability of the ENVI-met model for block-scale outdoor thermal environment simulation were validated by comparing field-measured microclimate data with simulation results. The findings demonstrate that all four morphological factors substantially influence the outdoor thermal environment. Canyon orientation considerably affects thermal comfort, with a 30° clockwise deviation from the north–south yielding optimal conditions, whereas the east–west (90°) orientation produces the poorest thermal environment, with a maximum UTCI of approximately 48.9 °C. For aspect ratio, thermal comfort improves continuously as H/W increases, with the benefit stabilizing beyond H/W = 3.5. Building asymmetry also plays a notable role: raising building height on one side can effectively reduce outdoor thermal stress, and canyons with taller west-side buildings show better thermal performance under the same asymmetry ratio. Furthermore, street tree shading and aspect ratio exhibit a synergistic cooling effect, where high LAI (e.g., 4.77) reduces UTCI_max by approximately 1.8 °C at H/W = 1, but this benefit diminishes as H/W increases. The optimal outdoor thermal environment is achieved through the combination of a high aspect ratio and high LAI. These findings provide a quantitative basis and design references for optimizing outdoor thermal comfort in Chongqing. In addition, the quantitative evaluation proposed method can offer a methodological reference for other hot-humid regions. Full article

Residential buildings must now be designed and retrofitted as adaptive climate–health–work systems rather than as static housing units. This structured literature review synthesises peer-reviewed journal and conference evidence on residential taxonomy, ventilation, indoor environmental quality, overheating, airborne infection resilience, post-pandemic occupancy changes and future performance benchmarks. The review shows that single-family and multifamily buildings remain the most practical first-order categories because they differ in envelope exposure, ventilation pathways, system ownership, governance, retrofit feasibility and occupant control. Single-family dwellings generally provide greater household autonomy, roof-based renewable potential and room-level intervention flexibility, but can also carry higher envelope losses, lower density and stronger dependence on occupant operation. Multifamily buildings benefit from compactness and shared infrastructure, yet face additional risks from common services, vertical shafts, stack effects, corridor pressurisation, inter-zonal airflow and collective maintenance. Ventilation evidence indicates that natural, exhaust-only, supply, balanced heat-recovery, hybrid, demand-controlled and filtration-based strategies cannot be ranked universally; their effectiveness depends on climate, airtightness, pollutant source, occupancy, maintenance and governance. This review further shows that overheating, cooling-demand growth, airborne infection preparedness and remote work are shifting residential performance from winter-centric energy efficiency toward year-round thermal resilience, clean-air delivery and prolonged-occupancy functionality. A future taxonomy is therefore proposed around adaptive performance attributes, including thermal resilience, clean-air capacity, ventilation controllability, energy flexibility, remote-work readiness, vulnerability and retrofit potential. The core contribution is a hypothesis-generating, decision-support and benchmark-development framework for aligning residential design, retrofit and policy with health, indoor environmental quality, energy efficiency and carbon performance. Full article

Focusing on how environmental stressors intersect with socioeconomic vulnerabilities to shape migratory patterns, this study examines the relationship between climate change and youth (im)mobility in Ethiopia. It examines how climate shocks—including droughts, unpredictable rainfall, and land degradation—heighten household insecurity and shape young people’s migration decisions. Using mixed-methods data, including surveys and interviews conducted in Chencha, Dugna Fango, and Kebribeyah, the research shows that youth mobility serves both as a proactive adaptation and a reactive coping mechanism. Some young people migrate to pursue education, employment, and independence, while others move to meet immediate livelihood needs. Mobility pathways such as stepwise, return, seasonal, and rural-urban migration are shaped by social networks, local ecological conditions, and perceived opportunities. Kebribeyah emerges as the most vulnerable location according to the Household Susceptibility Index (HVI), highlighting regional disparities. By demonstrating that migration reflects both agency and structural constraints, the study challenges simplified push–pull models and advocates for policies that address spatial variations in vulnerability, support youth aspirations, and recognize migration as a legitimate adaptation strategy. It also offers insights for designing inclusive, context-sensitive interventions that bolster resilience and expand opportunities amid climate uncertainty, promoting a more nuanced understanding of climate-related mobility rooted in adolescent experiences. Full article

Accurately tracking the spatial and temporal variations of water vapor is indispensable for weather forecasting and climate adaptation, yet remains challenging due to the sparse coverage and discontinuity of ground-based observations. Satellite remote sensing, particularly from geostationary satellites like Meteosat Third Generation Imager-1 (MTG-I1), offers continuous, high-resolution data. To the best of our knowledge, MTG-I1 is the first geostationary satellite equipped with a near-infrared (NIR) spectral band specifically designed for detecting water vapor. To address the lack of precipitable water vapor (PWV) data derived from the Flexible Combined Imager (FCI) onboard MTG-I1, a novel semi-empirical (SE) algorithm optimized for PWV retrieval is proposed. Validation against ground-based PWV measurements using an initial test set and a temporally independent test set yielded relative errors of no more than 0.10, indicating stable retrieval performance outside the model-development period. The FCI-derived PWV retrievals were also more accurate than the corresponding MODIS PWV data. Compared to the traditional radiative transfer model (RTM)-based retrieval method, the SE method shows greater adaptability to systematic differences between the observed and RTM-simulated FCI reflectance. After correcting for radiometric degradation, the RTM-based algorithm achieves a 41% reduction in absolute error and a 47% reduction in relative error, bringing its accuracy in line with the SE algorithm. Overall, the proposed SE algorithm demonstrates superior robustness and adaptability, and can provide more reliable remote sensing PWV data to support weather forecasting and climate research. Full article

Coastal urban environments are increasingly exposed to natural hazards, including storm surges, tsunamis, coastal erosion, and flooding, which threaten lives, livelihoods, and infrastructure. Despite their widespread use, conventional hard and soft engineering measures have often proved insufficient to address the escalating risks posed by climate change and rapid urbanisation. This study explores the potential of Nature-Inspired Solutions (NiS) as a complementary pathway to advance resilience in architecture, urban design, and planning. Unlike Nature-Based Solutions that utilise existing ecosystems directly, NiS draw design principles from both biotic and abiotic natural systems, offering innovative models for resilient settlements, coastal infrastructure, and adaptive urban planning. Using a mixed-methods approach that includes systematic and narrative reviews, semi-structured expert interviews, analysis of urban development plans, a panel discussion, and expert brainstorming, this research examines how natural coastal systems inform design interventions. Sri Lanka was selected as the primary case study context due to its exceptional coastal vulnerability, significant climate adaptation policy gaps, and status as a small island developing state representative of the coastal challenges faced by similar contexts globally. Furthermore, Sri Lanka was selected as the case study in accordance with the original research proposal submitted to the University of Huddersfield, which identified the country as a suitable context due to its significant vulnerability to coastal hazards, as outlined above. Field investigations in the Lunawa coastal area documented community-based adaptive practices emerging from multi-generational environmental observation. Analysis reveals how dune morphologies, root structures, living shorelines, and rock pool formations translate into architectural and engineering applications. Findings identify critical implementation challenges, including context-specific requirements, technical knowledge gaps, insufficient policy frameworks, limited practitioner awareness, and uncertainties about economic feasibility, as well as key enablers such as demonstrated ecological effectiveness and the potential of multifunctional infrastructure. The study demonstrates that embedding NiS into risk-informed planning and resilient urban design contributes to climate change adaptation, ecological sustainability, and inclusive governance, while highlighting persistent barriers that require strategic intervention. By bridging ecological wisdom and architectural innovation, NiS offers transformative opportunities to reimagine resilient coastal cities and communities facing escalating climate-induced hazards. Full article

With an increasing awareness of climate change and its effects on the built environment, climate change adaptation is changing traditional building design practices. Future weather data are essential for building energy simulation (BES) that informs a resilient and energy-efficient building design under climate change. While general circulation models (GCMs) provide future climate predictions, their outputs often require downscaling to improve spatial and temporal resolution and further methodological processing to generate weather data suitable for building-scale analysis. This study aims to examine the methods for generating and utilizing future weather data for BES, with a particular focus on bias correction and uncertainty quantification in GCM predictions. This study summarizes the prevailing methods for bias correction of GCM outputs and the generation of representative future weather data. The characterization of GCM uncertainty and its implications for BES results are discussed. It is shown that GCM outputs can be effectively used for BES to evaluate long-term effects of climate change under various climate scenarios, and the most cost-effective approach often involves a combination of statistical downscaling and adjustment of grid cell size, which balances the need for high-resolution, site-specific weather data with the demand for computational resources. In addition, key challenges are identified, including the selection of appropriate GCMs and climate scenarios, the trade-off between computational cost and representativeness, and the need to include both extreme and typical weather conditions. Furthermore, future research prospects are proposed. Through a synthesis of current advancements in future weather data generation methods, this study contributes to the robustness of climate-responsive building design. Full article

Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) have gained increasing attention as institutional mechanisms for improving the resilience of smallholder farming systems under changing climatic conditions. This study examines the role of FPOs in promoting the adoption of Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) practices, improved irrigation strategies, and sustainable land management in the arid region of Pali district, Rajasthan, India. A comparative assessment was conducted between FPO-associated member and non-member farmers to evaluate differences in climate change perception, adoption behaviour, and adaptive capacity. The study employed a mixed-methods research design using primary data collected from 408 farm households through structured interviews, focus group discussions, and key informant consultations. Descriptive statistics, mean comparison tests and regression analysis were used to examine adoption patterns and identify the major factors influencing farmers’ responses to climate risks. The findings indicate that delayed rainfall, rising temperatures, and increasing drought frequency are widely perceived by farmers as major threats to agricultural production. FPO membership was associated with higher levels of climate-risk awareness and greater reported adoption of CSA practices; however, these findings should be interpreted as associations rather than causal effects. Farmers linked with FPOs reported stronger uptake of improved and stress-tolerant crop varieties, crop diversification, mixed farming systems, agroforestry, soil moisture conservation, rainwater harvesting, improved irrigation methods, and integrated pest management practices. Education, farm size, access to extension services, market linkages, and climate information were also found to significantly influence adoption decisions. The study highlights the important contribution of FPOs in reducing transaction costs, improving access to inputs, technical knowledge, credit and markets, and encouraging collective responses to climate stress. Strengthening FPO governance, expanding extension support, and targeting vulnerable farmer groups can substantially enhance climate resilience and support sustainable agricultural transitions in arid regions. The findings demonstrate that farmer organizations can serve as effective intermediary institutions linking household-level adaptation strategies with broader goals of irrigation efficiency, land management, and rural sustainability. Full article

Aquatic environments that support tourism, including coasts, lakes, reservoirs, and estuaries, are experiencing accelerating eutrophication worldwide. This trend increases the frequency and intensity of algal blooms. These blooms undermine ecosystem services and weaken the socio-economic performance of destination areas. Despite these challenges, existing research remains fragmented. Aquatic sciences mainly examine nutrient enrichment and bloom dynamics. In contrast, tourism studies often treat blooms as episodic disturbances and rarely integrate exposure pathways, risk communication, or feedback to destination governance. This review synthesizes evidence across freshwater and marine systems to develop a coupled tourism–water ecosystem perspective. We link eutrophication drivers and bloom typologies to three dimensions. These are the degradation of tourism-supporting ecosystem services, compound health stressors, and communication filters. The first includes losses of water clarity and aesthetic value. The second involves multi-route exposure through contact, inhalation, and seafood ingestion. The third shapes perceived safety, trust, and behavioral adaptation. We further connect perceived health risks to observable tourist behaviors, including cancellation, destination substitution, and activity avoidance. These micro-level responses can aggregate into market-level demand contractions and consumption reallocation. They can also trigger regional economic cascades, including public management costs, employment impacts, and long-term reputational damage. Crucially, tourism is not merely a victim of blooms. It can also act as a reinforcing anthropogenic driver through wastewater burdens, infrastructure expansion, and pulse pressures. These pressures lower ecological resilience, especially under warming and hydrological stabilization. Finally, we identify governance leverage points. These include early-warning systems, threshold-based graded interventions, transparent risk communication, and integrated social–ecological modeling. These strategies can reduce uncertainty-driven losses and support adaptive destination management. Overall, this review reframes algal blooms as systemic social–ecological risks. It provides a structured basis for future empirical attribution and policy design in tourism-dependent waters under climate stress. Full article

Collaborative business ecosystems (CBEs) face persistent disruptions, including pandemics, geopolitical instability, climate shocks, cyber threats, resource scarcity, and sustainability transition pressures. Building on prior CBE resilience–antifragility research and a mathematical framework that introduced plasticity as a viable below-baseline response trajectory, this integrative review aims to develop a sustainability-oriented framework explaining how CBEs can align response modes, strategies, capabilities, governance mechanisms, and enabling infrastructures under persistent disruption. The review synthesizes the 2019–2026 literature on sustainable business model innovation (SBMI), circular and regenerative perspectives, digital capability infrastructures, and ecosystem governance. Drawing on 99 sources, it proposes a six-layer Sustainable Resilience–Antifragility Framework for CBEs (SRA-CBE Framework), linking disruption sources, ecosystem vulnerabilities, viable response modes, strategy and capability portfolios, governance mechanisms, and sustainability-oriented outcomes. The synthesis shows that sustainable CBEs require aligned strategy bundles, adaptive and sustainability-oriented capabilities, governance arrangements that prevent collaboration and digitalization from becoming fragility sources, and enablers such as SBMI, circularity, scenario simulation, and governed digital infrastructures. The paper contributes by sharpening the link between disruption response and sustainability-oriented ecosystem design, repositioning viable response modes as design positions, and outlining managerial and research implications for sustainable collaborative ecosystems. Full article

This study investigates the design and performance of lime mortars incorporating multi-phase change material (multi-PCM) systems as thermally responsive rendering materials for building-envelope applications under variable conditions. Moving beyond conventional single-PCM lime mortar approaches, this work proposes a controlled multi-PCM design framework in which a fixed total PCM dosage is distributed across selected phase-transition windows. Mortars combining PCMs with different transition temperatures (5–25 °C and 18–25 °C) were produced using two PCM types: silica-supported form-stable systems and polymeric-shell microencapsulated systems supplied as powders or aqueous slurries. All formulations contained 20% PCM and were optimized with polymeric additives, including a polycarboxylate ether-based superplasticiser and a starch-derived adhesion enhancer, to ensure suitable workability and applicability as rendering materials. Microstructural analyses showed that form-stable PCMs generated more heterogeneous pore structures, whereas polymeric-shell microencapsulated systems maintained pore structures similar to PCM-free mortars. Mortars containing metakaolin exhibited enhanced mechanical performance and durability, in some cases outperforming reference mortars, highlighting the importance of matrix refinement in the successful incorporation of multi-PCM systems. Thermal characterization revealed that form-stable systems produced broader phase transitions due to component interactions, while polymeric-shell microencapsulation preserved distinct transitions and enabled a wider, more controllable activation range. Under dynamic thermal conditions (−10 to 50 °C), all multi-PCM mortars demonstrated effective temperature buffering, achieving reductions of up to 1.5 °C during heating and 1.1 °C during cooling. Environmental and economic analyses highlighted that the benefits of PCM incorporation depend on matching PCM transition temperatures to specific climatic and application requirements. These findings position multi-PCM lime mortars as a promising route towards climate-adapted, thermally responsive renders with distributed and tailorable activation profiles. Full article

The removal of heavy oil under low-temperature conditions is a significant global challenge. This study aimed to assess the long-term whole-cell biocatalytic degradation of heavy oil in water and soil by bacteria isolated from contaminated soil in Muroran, Japan, under cold conditions. Enrichment cultures using heavy oil as the sole carbon source yielded 15 potent heavy oil-degrading isolates. However, only the C1 strain retained its activity under low-temperature conditions and was identified as Pseudomonas aeruginosa C1 using 16S rDNA sequencing. Gas chromatography analysis revealed that at 30 °C (water medium), strain C1 degraded 57% of heavy oil within 7 days. At 15 °C, the degradation efficiency of C1 declined due to a temperature-dependent metabolic lag phase (1 day); however, at 15 °C, 70% degradation was observed in seven days. In long-term experiments at 5 °C and 10 °C, 35% and 40% degradation were recorded for C1 after 98 days. In artificially contaminated soil at 5 °C, C1 achieved 60% biodegradation. These results demonstrate cold-adapted whole-cell activity against heavy oil and motivate the design of controlled, contained ex situ reactors (e.g., enzyme-based or cell-free systems) for safe remediation in cold climates. Full article

The climate crisis, housing precarity, and the loss of everyday architectural heritage are converging challenges in Mediterranean cities. This article investigates the adaptive reuse of early twentieth-century adobe refugee dwellings in Nea Ionia and Kaisariani, neighborhoods of Attica, Greece, as an integrated social, environmental, and cultural strategy. Historical documentation, urban-morphological analysis, field observations, building survey data, material assessment, and design-based microclimatic analysis were combined to evaluate compatible restoration and bioclimatic upgrades as alternatives to demolition and conventional energy retrofit practices, with the main aim of preserving an important part of Greek history and architecture. The study develops a replicable qualitative assessment framework that identifies how existing adobe envelopes, compact layouts, courtyards, thresholds, vegetated pergolas, and low-water evaporative cooling may support low-carbon housing reuse. The results clarify the current preservation conditions and reuse potential of the selected case-study fragments, showing that adobe dwellings can preserve embodied material value, retain thermal mass and hygroscopic regulation, and support social housing when repaired with compatible, low-impact techniques. The article argues that the reuse of adobe refugee dwellings can function as a distributed urban strategy for housing provision, heritage continuity, and microclimatic adaptation. Its main contribution is a transferable analytical framework for assessing overlooked earthen housing stocks in dense Mediterranean contexts. The study argues that adaptive reuse can serve simultaneously as a means of social housing, a mechanism for optimizing the microclimate, and a means of preserving the tangible and intangible heritage of Greek adobe buildings that have been standing for over 100 years. This position extends circular construction debates by prioritizing non-demolition and direct reuse while preserving an important period of history. Full article