Search Results (1,215)

Contemporary post-war cities increasingly require adaptive urban systems capable of addressing climate vulnerability, infrastructural instability, environmental degradation, and human well-being simultaneously. This study develops an interdisciplinary framework for adaptive biophilic infrastructure and resource governance within the context of sustainable post-war reconstruction in Ukraine. The research combines literature analysis, comparative urban assessment, and experimental evaluation of eco-modified construction materials. Particular attention is given to vertical greening systems, adaptive underground infrastructure, daylight-integrated public environments, multifunctional urban systems, and environmentally responsive concrete composites incorporating porous minerals and plant-based biomass. Comparative examples from Montreal, New York, Seoul, and Singapore are examined alongside differentiated Ukrainian urban contexts, including Kyiv, Kharkiv, Dnipro, Odesa, Kherson, Lviv, and Uzhhorod. The findings demonstrate that adaptive biophilic infrastructure may improve urban microclimates, strengthen thermal and acoustic regulation, enhance infrastructural adaptability, and support psycho-emotional comfort within dense and post-conflict urban environments. The study further indicates that underground and layered urban systems increasingly function as multifunctional socio-ecological infrastructures integrating mobility continuity, environmental regulation, public accessibility, emergency protection, and human-centered spatial resilience. The experimental assessment demonstrates that eco-modified materials contribute to moisture stabilization, thermal buffering, acoustic moderation, and passive environmental regulation within adaptive urban systems. The incorporation of porous mineral additives and plant biomass improved the environmental responsiveness of the investigated composites while supporting more resource-efficient construction approaches. The study concludes that sustainable post-war reconstruction requires a transition from fragmented technological interventions toward integrated socio-ecological urban frameworks capable of combining environmental regulation, infrastructural resilience, resource efficiency, adaptive governance, and human-centered spatial design within long-term urban sustainability strategies. Full article

The construction sector needs to transform to address increasing sustainability and resilience challenges driven by climate change and increasing demands from stakeholders such as governments and customers. While previous research has examined individual aspects of sustainable construction, there remains an important need for an integrated, performance-oriented framework to guide organisational capability development. This research study develops a novel Sustainability Performance-Led Progression Framework (SPL-PF) to support the systematic assessment of and improvement in sustainability and resilience performance within the construction sector. A structured literature review of global academic and industry sources (2020–2025) was conducted to identify key challenges and evidence-based strategies and solutions. Through systematic synthesis, ten challenge areas and forty-one success strategies were identified and consolidated into a staged maturity framework. The SPL-PF defines five progressive levels (compliance, integration, optimisation, collaboration, and innovative leadership) supported by performance criteria, measurement indicators, and an operational scoring approach. This framework enables organisations to benchmark current capability, prioritise interventions, and monitor continuous improvement across sustainability and resilience dimensions. Full article

Urban heat stress is intensifying under climate change, particularly in outdoor public spaces where conventional mechanical cooling is impractical. This study develops a climate-driven, system-level numerical framework to evaluate the pre-deployment feasibility of modular, solar-powered spray cooling canopies across 110 cities in Türkiye. Hourly Typical Meteorological Year (TMYx) weather files, representing a single typical year constructed from 2009 to 2023 source data, are used to estimate photovoltaic (PV) energy yield, electrical load, feasible misting duration, water demand, and PV-to-load autonomy under summer daytime conditions. The misting operation is governed by a rule-based adaptive control strategy based on air temperature, relative humidity, and plane-of-array irradiance. To support transferable comparison, the cities are classified into six summer climate-archetype zones using k-means clustering of standardized climate variables, including temperature, humidity, irradiance, wind speed, and summer precipitation. Results show that evaporative cooling feasibility is governed primarily by humidity rather than temperature alone. Hot–Dry Inland cities exhibit the longest mean misting duration (501.90 h) and highest water demand (30,152 L per module), but the lowest PV-to-load autonomy ratio (1.55) because of high pump-driven electrical demand. In contrast, Humid Black Sea cities show minimal misting duration (11.43 h) and water use (465 L per module), but the highest autonomy ratio (39.68) due to very limited system activation. Thus, high autonomy does not necessarily indicate high cooling usefulness. The proposed framework provides a reproducible screening tool for identifying where PV-powered spray cooling canopies are climatically suitable, where water and PV sizing become limiting, and where alternative outdoor heat-mitigation strategies may be more appropriate. Full article

The need for aligned policy responses to coordinate among governmental agencies is challenged by the “administrative silos” prevalent in government bureaucracy. How do collaboration risks influence the abilities of cities to effectively coordinate their efforts to address complex issues such as economic development, climate mitigation, and climate related disaster adaptation? Although coordination problems in the face of administrative silos are widely acknowledged, systematic examination of what accounts for variation in the extent to which local governments are able to successfully coordinate their functions to address complex problems are conspicuously absent from the literature. This research applies functional institutional collective action (ICA) theory to fill this lacuna. Problem uncertainty, actor’s political incentives, and institutions were hypothesized to influence successful coordination. Pooled GLM Probits were estimated with data from 1124 U.S. cities. Uncertainty inherent in specific types of problems, the characteristics of affected actors, and local and regional institutions influenced whether successful coordination among municipal departments was achieved. We conclude by identifying implications for collective action theory and for organizing and standard setting for sustainability policy. Full article

Climate change is intensifying flood risks globally, yet preparedness behaviors vary dramatically across governance contexts. While past disaster research suggests that institutional trust enables individual preparedness, this relationship remains unexplored in high-capacity governance systems where citizens hold exceptionally strong confidence in government response. We examined this dynamic in the United Arab Emirates, where several surveys have found extremely high levels of public confidence in the local government institutions. In our survey of 900 respondents in the emirates of Dubai and Sharjah we also found that 97% of the respondents had confidence in local government institutions. However, interestingly we also found that while 77% of residents reported past experience with floods, household flood preparedness was markedly low. Using covariance-based structural equation modeling, we tested whether government trust mediates relationships between flood experience, risk perception, and household preparedness. The results revealed that government trust exhibited a strong negative association with flood preparedness, suggesting that institutional confidence may suppress rather than enable household protective action. Notably, flood experience was associated with reduced government trust, likely reflecting the impact of disappointment with service restoration times that exceeded individual expectations. This erosion of trust created positive mediation, indicating that flood experience was associated with increased preparedness. Conversely, higher risk perception was associated with increased trust, which was associated with reduced preparedness through negative mediation. Direct relationships between flood experience and preparedness were statistically non-significant, indicating complete mediation through the trust pathway. Socioeconomic status was positively associated with flood preparedness, with wealthier residents displaying higher protective behaviors. While these findings seem to challenge conventional disaster preparedness theory, the results align with the moral hazard and dependency arguments. Our results show that state-led disaster management in high-capacity governance systems may inadvertently create dependency that increases systemic vulnerability crowding out endogenous adaptive behavior. Building resilience in such contexts requires reframing institutional trust to emphasize shared responsibility rather than externalized protection. Full article

Disentangling the coupled, nonlinear impacts of climate change and anthropogenic activities on vegetation dynamics is critical yet challenging for global change research. The Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau (QTP), a highly climate-sensitive and ecologically strategic region, serves as a vital arena for examining such complex socio-ecological attributions. Based on multi-source environmental datasets from 2000 to 2020, this study developed an integrated, spatially explicit framework coupling residual trend analysis (RESTREND) and GeoDetector to quantify individual drivers and nonlinear climate–human interactions. The QTP exhibited a significant, widespread greening trend during 2000–2020, featuring prominent spatial clustering with “High–High” clusters in the southeast and “Low–Low” clusters in the northwest. Attribution modeling revealed that vegetation dynamics were governed not by isolated variables, but by multifaceted, nonlinear synergies among precipitation, temperature, topography, vegetation type, and land-use change. Key interactive pairs, particularly elevation–temperature and slope–precipitation, dramatically increased explanatory power over single-factor models. Crucially, climate–human synergies explained substantially more variance than climate variables alone, bounded by a distinct elevational threshold: human activities dominated vegetation dynamics at mid-elevations (2500–3500 m), while climate factors took over as the primary controller at high altitudes (above 3500 m). Quantitatively, human activities induced vegetation improvement across 38.6% of the plateau, maintained stability in 35.8%, and caused degradation in 25.6%. By successfully merging trend decomposition with spatial stratified heterogeneity analysis, this study provides a transferable approach to uncoupling complex environmental interactions. These insights highlight the intensifying human footprint on alpine ecosystems and advocate for zone-specific adaptive management: mitigating human disturbances at mid-elevations and fostering climate adaptation in higher zones to preserve plateau resilience. 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

Small-scale island communities whose livelihoods depend on aquaculture are increasingly vulnerable under interacting climatic and non-climatic stressors. Conventional indicator-based assessments are useful for describing the level of vulnerability, but many empirical assessments remain less able to explain how multiple stressors are mediated through local social–ecological structures and feedback processes to produce different vulnerability patterns. This study aims to explain how vulnerability is formed in island aquaculture communities by linking social–ecological system structures with vulnerability processes and by examining empirically informed feedback pathways. Drawing on evidence from three island aquaculture communities in southeastern China, household survey data were first used to classify community types through hierarchical clustering. Semi-structured interviews, field observations, and documentary materials were then qualitatively coded to develop empirically informed conceptual causal loop diagrams (CLDs) for each type. Key variables and recurring feedback pathways were identified through loop-based structural analysis and cross-case comparison. The analysis indicates that vulnerability formation in island aquaculture communities is associated with recurring reinforcing feedbacks within local social–ecological system structures, through which multiple climatic, ecological and socio-economic stressors are translated into differentiated vulnerability outcomes. Across the case communities, resource overexploitation and marine pollution reinforce an ecology–livelihood degradation loop, while labor outmigration erodes social capital, disrupts intergenerational knowledge transmission, and weakens collective action and adaptive capacity, exacerbating socio-ecological vulnerability. At the same time, dominant stressors, key drivers, and feedback configurations vary across community types, generating divergent vulnerability trajectories and highlighting the context-dependent nature of vulnerability dynamics. These results suggest that governance interventions targeting isolated stressors or relying on static vulnerability analyses are insufficient where reinforcing feedbacks dominate. Effective adaptation strategies should explicitly target critical feedback pathways and strengthen stabilizing processes. By integrating social–ecological systems thinking with vulnerability analysis, this study provides a feedback-oriented approach for diagnosing vulnerability formation and supports more feedback and context-sensitive governance in small-scale island aquaculture communities. 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

This study explores the challenges and opportunities for embedding the Natural Capital Approach (NCA) in policy processes, especially in the framing of the Environmental Improvement Plan (EIP), which is England’s strategic framework for improving the natural environment, including cleaner air and water, healthy soil, thriving wildlife and climate-adapted landscapes. Semi-structured interviews were undertaken with policymakers working in Defra (Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) and its Arm’s Length Bodies (ALBs) organisations to investigate their views on the barriers and enablers to the adoption of the NCA. It has been widely recognised that the NCA provides unifying concepts that are able to connect economists and ecologists, and it can help to embed nature across government departments and supports to make the business case for nature improvement. On the other hand, there are perceived challenges in mainstreaming the NCA in environmental policy processes. There is some lack of agreement on the usefulness of the approach, problems with the oversuse of monetary valuation in policy appraisal, isolation of work, policy processes and government departments and difficulties in the communication of the benefits of the NCA. Recommendations to overcome the barriers include cross-departmental work placements of natural capital scientists, establishing cross-agency natural capital working goups to work on the use of the NCA to frame environment improvement policies, and prioritising the adoption of deliberative approaches to better understand local values on nature that are difficult or even impossible to monetise. Full article

Enhancing ecological resilience is essential for safeguarding ecological security in high-latitude cold regions under the combined pressures of climate change and intensive human disturbance. Focusing on Heilongjiang Province, China, this study develops a multi-scale analytical framework based on the resistance-adaptability-recovery (RAR) perspective and covering 11 indicators to reveal the spatial differentiation, internal coordination, and dominant constraints of ecological resilience (ER). Quantifications were conducted using 2024 multi-source spatial data at a 1 km × 1 km grid scale, with results aggregated to 120 counties at the county scale and further identified by applying Global Moran’s I, hot spot analysis, the coupling coordination degree model, and the obstacle degree model. The results reveal spatial heterogeneity in ER and its components. Resistance is generally weak, adaptability is strong, and recovery is polarized. ER components exhibit positive spatial autocorrelation. Medium coordination predominates (47.5% of counties), followed by low coordination (33.33%) and high coordination (19.17%). Low-coordination is constrained by weak resistance and recovery. Identifying soil conservation and habitat quality as primary constraints, which jointly constrain 88.4% of counties. These findings provide a mechanism-oriented basis for differentiated ecological governance in cold-region ecological security barriers. 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

The concept of virtual water is currently one of the most important issues in water resource management, especially in a context marked by structural water scarcity. Beyond the analysis of virtual water flows, which has been widely studied in the literature, this study aims to better understand the relationship between virtual water exports and economic growth. This paper analyzes the dynamic relationship between Morocco’s economic growth and agricultural virtual water exports to the European Union over the period of 1986–2023. An ARDL model was used based on annual data to test cointegration and estimate short- and long-term effects, controlling for gross fixed capital formation and agricultural value added. The bounds test confirms the existence of a stable long-term relationship between the variables. The results suggest that export specialization may be associated with foreign earnings and agricultural activity while also coinciding with greater pressure on resources and potential adaptation costs, especially for blue water resources. However, estimates indicate that in the long term, investment is positively and significantly associated with growth, while virtual water exports are associated with a negative effect on GDP, suggesting that export gains may be offset by increasing water constraints and sectoral trade-offs, and that agricultural value added mainly influences short-term dynamics. The results highlight the importance of integrating water footprint and virtual water trade concepts, as well as climate constraints, into agricultural and trade strategy planning while strengthening policies on water efficiency, innovation, and governance. 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

Global warming has become a core challenge for human society. This study adopted the global surface temperature anomaly dataset from 1891 to 2023 released by the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA). Multiple quantitative methods, including Sen’s slope estimation, Modified Mann–Kendall (MMK) test with pre-whitening, Pettitt test and GIS spatial analysis, were comprehensively applied to investigate the long-term climate change trends and regional response characteristics across the globe and China. The results indicated that the global warming rate reached 0.0802 °C per decade, while the warming rate of China was 0.1139 °C per decade, which is 42.0% higher than the global average level. Both global and Chinese temperature changes experienced three evolutionary stages, namely slow growth period, stagnation period and accelerated warming period, with an abrupt turning point occurring during 1979–1980, which was closely linked to the phase transition of Pacific Decadal Oscillation and atmospheric circulation adjustment. Obvious spatial differentiation characteristics of climate warming were identified in China, with a more rapid warming trend in northern and inland regions and a relatively slow warming rate in southern and coastal areas. Since 1980, regional accelerated warming has been driven by both anthropogenic activities and natural climate variability. The research findings can provide solid scientific support for formulating regional climate adaptation strategies and promoting collaborative global climate governance. Full article