Search Results (1,962)

Sustainable urban development increasingly depends on understanding how digital activity is distributed across space and time, yet the spatiotemporal dynamics of the urban digital landscape remain poorly mapped by conventional data sources. This study uses Beijing as an empirical testbed, applying a multi-dimensional analytical framework to massive mobile network traffic data to decode the metabolic rhythms, distributional laws, and functional organization of the urban digital landscape. The results reveal three findings. First, the urban digital landscape exhibits a sleepless trapezoidal temporal rhythm characterized by continuous saturation without a midday trough and a quantifiable weekend activation lag, indicating that digital metabolism is structurally decoupled from physical mobility patterns. Second, digital traffic follows a skew-normal distribution consistent with a 20/70 rule of spatial polarization, in which the top 20% of super-connector nodes sustain approximately 70% of total urban digital flow, yielding a Gini coefficient of 0.68 as a measurable indicator of infrastructure inequality and systemic vulnerability. Third, four distinct functional prototypes are identified—ranging from continuously active metropolitan cores to inverse-tidal ecological peripheries—empirically validating Beijing’s polycentric transformation through the lens of digital flows. These findings demonstrate that large-scale mobile network traffic data offers a replicable and structurally distinct lens for sustainable urban digital governance, supporting resilient network planning, equitable allocation of digital resources, and evidence-based monitoring of urban functional transformation in rapidly growing megacities. Full article

Low-concentration methane emissions from landfills, manure management, wastewater treatment, and ventilation streams are difficult to mitigate using conventional capture and oxidation because of high air-to-fuel ratios, variable flows, and unfavorable economics. Methanotrophic bioreactors provide an aerobic biological route to oxidize methane at ambient conditions and, in selected cases, enable valorization into biomass and bioproducts. This review synthesizes methanotrophic reactor technologies for dilute methane, emphasizing the design and operational constraints that control performance. We classify systems into (i) fixed-film gas–solid configurations (biofilters, biocovers, biotrickling filters, and bioscrubbers), (ii) suspended-growth gas–liquid reactors (stirred tanks, bubble columns, and loop/airlift designs), (iii) membrane-based and intensified contactors that decouple methane and oxygen delivery and enhance mass transfer, and (iv) hybrid and in situ approaches for diffuse sources. This review presents key metrics and discusses how mass transfer, moisture and temperature control, nutrient supply, and microbial ecology interact to define achievable removal. We further summarize recent techno-economic and life-cycle studies to identify dominant cost drivers, particularly air handling and gas–liquid transfer, and the concentration regimes where biological oxidation is competitive with catalytic or thermal alternatives. Full article

Sustainable river management depends on indices that balance human water demands with ecological flow requirements while accounting for hydrological variability. Existing water scarcity and withdrawal indices are largely based on monthly or annual aggregates, often neglecting daily variability and the effects of drought buffering. This study introduces the Extractable Water Index (EWI), a novel, dimensionless metric that quantifies the sustainable potential for water extraction using daily flow records. The EWI integrates mean available flow, flow variability, low-flow thresholds, and storage contributions into a single expression, thereby capturing both hydrological dynamics and ecological protections. Two scenarios were evaluated, (i) no-storage and (ii) with-storage, with the latter employing a semi-analytical approximation to represent a reservoir or pond. The EWI was applied to 20 daily river flow series for 16 river basins in Sri Lanka. Under no-storage conditions, thresholds were defined as follows: EWI < 0.45 indicates low extraction potential; 0.45 < EWI < 0.60 indicates moderate extraction potential; and EWI > 0.75 indicates high extraction potential. The results demonstrate that even modest storage can substantially enhance sustainable withdrawals. The EWI provides a transparent, reproducible decision-support tool that complements environmental flow standards and prioritizes rivers based on extractability. The EWI provides a valuable tool for estimating water extraction potential within the Sri Lankan context. This index can be applied across diverse hydroclimatic regimes and, when combined with threshold validation, can predict extraction requirements under varying seasonal flow conditions. Full article

Platonia insignis Mart. (Clusiaceae) is a native fruit tree of great ecological and socioeconomic importance in the Brazilian Amazon and Cerrado. However, habitat loss is threatening its genetic variability. We investigated whether habitat fragmentation across the Amazon, Cerrado, and transition zones shapes the genetic diversity and population structure of five natural populations of P. insignis, using ISSR markers. Leaf samples from 13–15 individuals per population were collected, and DNA was extracted using the CTAB protocol. Twelve ISSR primers amplified 149 loci, used to estimate genetic parameters. AMOVA showed that 73.58% of genetic variation occurred within populations and 26.41% among populations (F_ST = 0.261). Amazonian populations exhibited the highest genetic diversity, while transition zone populations had the lowest values. The Cerrado population was genetically distinct and maintained moderate intrapopulation diversity. Bayesian clustering, PCoA, and UPGMA revealed three genetic groups corresponding to the sampled regions. Transitional populations showed high genetic admixture, indicating their role as potential corridors for gene flow. Our results highlight the need to preserve genetically diverse Amazonian populations, safeguard the Cerrado population as an evolutionarily significant unit, and maintain transitional populations to promote landscape connectivity. The study provides a genetic baseline to support conservation and management of P. insignis germplasm resources. Full article

The increasing demand for energy and the continued reliance on fossil fuels pose important environmental and social challenges, particularly for rural and isolated communities in developing countries that lack reliable access to the grid. Gravitational water vortex turbines (GWVT) are a run-of-river technology for low-head and moderate-flow sites that can provide decentralized electricity without the construction of large reservoirs. The expected environmental impacts are lower; nevertheless, to increase acceptance by the community, there is a necessity to identify and analyze the potential environmental impacts of GWVT in all its life-cycle phases (installation, operation, maintenance, and dismantling). The present study applies the Conesa cause–effect matrix to identify, classify, and analyze the potential environmental impacts associated with GWVT phases. Key identified impacts include removal of vegetation coverage and site disturbance (−32), sediment dynamics alterations (−39), formation of a depleted stretch (−45), accidental releases of hazardous maintenance products (−42), and remobilization of retained sediments (−46). These impacts can produce habitat alteration and fragmentation and loss of ecological connectivity. The relevant significance of energy generation that can have multiple benefits in the local communities was also identified. Primary mitigation measures include the incorporation of environmental flows in the design, sediment management, and strict protocols for hazardous materials. The findings underscore the necessity to conduct site-specific baseline surveys to preserve environmental, socio-economic, and cultural conditions in the local ecosystem and communities. Full article

Regulatory bodies have observed an increase in environmental issues due to firms’ interactions with the environment. Nonetheless, reconciliation actions are emerging, driven by the pursuit of sustainable development goals. This study investigated the impact of financial development and foreign direct investment on ecological footprints in sub-Saharan African nations, while examining the mediating role of regulatory quality and control for corruption. The research was motivated by the growing environmental degradation in the region amid growing capital inflows and financial market expansion. Using panel data of 18 sub-Saharan African countries between 1996 and 2023, sourced from the World Bank database and World Governance Indicators, we employed an Autoregressive Distributed Lag model to assess the short- and long-run relationships among ecological footprint, financial development, foreign direct investment, and key institutional factors. Results from the baseline model show that financial development significantly increases ecological footprints, while the effect of foreign direct investments is insignificant in the absence of institutional factors. However, when mediating variables are introduced, foreign direct investment significantly worsens ecological footprint, and regulatory quality and control for corruption show strong moderating effects, confirming the pollution haven hypothesis. Also, all control variables (trade openness, gross domestic product per capita, government expenditure, and population density) show significant outcomes with environmental sustainability. The findings underscore the importance of institutional factors in shaping sustainable foreign direct investment flows and financial systems. These research findings offer policy pathways for aligning investment strategies with sustainability goals in sub-Saharan Africa. Recommendations include strengthening the nation’s institutional framework, linking foreign direct investment to environmental compliance and promoting green finance policies across the region. Full article

Stormwater runoff represents a significant vector for the transport of organic pollutants and pathogens into aquatic ecosystems, posing serious environmental and public health risks. Although extensively employed for bank stabilization, traditional gabion structures demonstrate constrained efficacy in pollutant removal. In this study, an enhanced ecological gabion (EG) system was developed by integrating a stratified configuration of functional fillers (ceramsite, maifanite, and biochar) with vegetation (Iris germanica). This design leverages synergistic effects to enhance the concurrent removal of dissolved organic matter (DOM), particulate organic matter (POM), and fecal indicator bacteria (FIB) from simulated stormwater. The system was evaluated in continuous flow experiments through comparison with a traditional gravel gabion (TG). Results showed that, compared with the TG, the EG exhibited markedly enhanced removal performance, with chemical oxygen demand (COD), NH₄⁺–N, and TN removal efficiencies being approximately 2.48, 3.68, and 3.56 times those of the TG, respectively. In addition, the EG exhibited significantly higher removal efficiencies for both particulate organic carbon (POC) and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) than the TG, with increases of 329% and 137%, respectively. Fluorescence spectroscopy and particle size distribution analyses revealed that the EG effectively transformed and removed diverse DOM components and fine particulates. The stratified filler media synergistically enhanced pollutant retention, with biochar serving as the primary agent for nutrient and pathogen adsorption. These findings demonstrate the viability of the EG as an integrated, eco-friendly solution for enhanced stormwater purification in riparian zones, providing a compact and multifunctional alternative to conventional end-of-pipe systems. Full article

Land use and land cover change (LULCC) constitutes a major challenge to sustainability worldwide. This also applies to Japan, where urbanization in coastal lowlands is contrasted with widespread agricultural abandonment in rural landscapes. In this systematic review we synthesized the main LULCC trajectories, their driving forces, and specific effects in Japan from 1994 to 2024. Following PRISMA guidelines, 158 peer-reviewed articles were analyzed using quantitative co-occurrence analyses, Chi-squared tests, and Sankey diagrams to map land-use flows. Two dominant and opposing trajectories were confirmed: urban expansion and agricultural abandonment. The most significant land transition flow involved the conversion of agricultural land to forests/natural vegetation, while the conversion of agricultural land to built-up areas came in second place. These transitions were primarily driven by economic and demographic factors, but reforestation trends were strongly influenced by policy and institutional factors (35.70%), reflecting national regreening initiatives. Ecological and biodiversity impacts of LULCC were the most often documented effects (>40% of records). While the published literature describes trends in land-use transformations, the mechanistic understanding of LULCC remains limited. There is an urgent need to move toward process-based predictive modeling that integrates socio-economic variables. Future policies should balance urban density management with the strategic use of rural abandonment for ecosystem services provision and climate mitigation. Full article

Environmental transparency in food manufacturing requires efficient carbon footprint data collection, yet multi-departmental coordination often creates time-consuming, fragmented processes that impede adoption. This study applies lean office methodologies to optimize carbon footprint assessment processes in food manufacturing. Using a case study approach at a Thai food processing facility, we implemented flow process charts, value stream mapping, eight waste analysis, and ECRS methodology to evaluate the data collection process for strawberry jam production. The baseline assessment documented 142 activities across 12 departments, requiring 17,540 min. The lean interventions included establishing a centralized cross-functional team, developing standardized data collection templates, implementing a unified digital repository system, and consolidating redundant verification procedures. The improved process reduced activities from 142 to 63, decreased the required time from 17,540 to 11,190 min (36.2% reduction), and eliminated 95.8% of non-value-added activities while maintaining regulatory compliance. These efficiency gains enable more frequent environmental assessments and facilitate the broader adoption of carbon footprint measurement within resource-constrained manufacturing contexts. The study demonstrates that lean principles effectively optimize environmental assessment processes themselves, providing a replicable framework adaptable across diverse food manufacturing facilities and product lines while addressing critical adoption barriers including resource constraints and administrative complexity. Full article

This article addresses a major challenge in circular economy accounting: assessing the social dimension, particularly social ties, which are often immaterial and difficult to capture. It examines a case study of how a local project managing organic waste and unsold goods fosters social ties in a priority urban neighborhood in France, and how these dynamics can be apprehended through an alternative qualitative accounting approach. The study draws on an ethnographic case of the MatOrGa project, combining participant observation, semi-structured interviews, discourse grounded analysis, and actor and flow mapping. Situated within counter-accounting and critical accounting, the research emphasizes social ties that extend beyond purely economic logic, spanning social, ecological, and economic dimensions. The new concept of counter-accounting utterances is introduced to describe empirical accounts that make visible practices, relationships, and social effects often overlooked in conventional accounting and sustainability reporting. The study shows how ethnography can function as a form of counter-accounting, producing qualitative representations of social impact that resist standardization. The findings advance social and sustainability accounting by offering a situated and reflexive approach to assessing the social impact of circular economy initiatives, while also opening the way for context-sensitive non-financial reporting. Full article

Balancing tourism development with ecological integrity remains a central challenge in the management of protected areas. This study proposes a spatial framework that integrates the Outdoor Recreation Suitability Index (ORSI) and the Landscape Ecological Risk Index (ERI) to identify and optimize low-impact recreation corridors within Giant Panda National Park, China. Recreation suitability and ecological risk were modeled using environmental variables and landscape metrics, respectively. The results reveal a clear spatial pattern: high-suitability zones are concentrated in the central and northeastern areas, characterized by gentle terrain and extensive forest cover, while ecological risk is elevated in fragmented, human-disturbed peripheral regions. Although ORSI and ERI exhibit an overall negative spatial correlation, bivariate analysis reveals localized mismatches—areas where high recreation potential coincides with ecological vulnerability—indicating potential conflict zones. These zones are typically located along transitional park boundaries where accessibility intersects with ecological sensitivity. To mitigate such conflicts, a least-cost path analysis was conducted based on a composite resistance surface combining ORSI and inverted ERI values. The resulting corridor network connects 40 core areas while effectively avoiding ecological hotspots. Corridor buffers are predominantly composed of forest and shrubland, suggesting high environmental compatibility, particularly in the Qinling region. By translating spatial trade-offs into practical corridor design, this study provides a replicable approach for harmonizing recreation planning with conservation objectives. The proposed framework offers actionable guidance for evidence-based zoning, visitor flow management, and adaptive tourism development in ecologically sensitive protected landscapes. Full article

Diflubenzuron (DFB), a benzoylurea insecticide widely used in fruits, vegetables, cereals, and edible fungi, is increasingly detected in food. It has been linked to endocrine disruption, hematological effects, developmental toxicity, DNA damage, and ecological risks in aquatic organisms. These concerns, together with strict maximum residue limits, highlight the need for rapid, field-deployable detection methods. Herein, we developed a quantitative colloidal gold lateral-flow immunoassay for rapid DFB detection within 10 min. The optimized assay achieved a limit of detection (LOD) of 0.02 ng mL⁻¹, a limit of quantification (LOQ) of 0.067 ng mL⁻¹, and a linear range of 0.07–100 ng mL⁻¹ (R² = 0.9998), with high selectivity. Validation in eight food matrices (milk, chicken, mushrooms, pear, Chinese cabbage, rice, dried chili, and peanut) showed recoveries of 97.6–110.0% with RSDs of 2.1–4.9%. Results were consistent with LC-MS analysis, demonstrating that this assay provides a sensitive, practical, and rapid tool for screening DFB residues. Full article

Gibson’s concept of optic flow established that perception is grounded in lawful structure generated by action. However, no formal mechanical framework has described the invariant structure of action-generated kinesthetic information during skilled manipulation. This study introduces haptic flow as a screw-theoretic invariant defined by the coupled rotational–translational organization of a body–object system. Motion capture data from a two-case comparison (one proficient and one novice golfer) were analyzed using instantaneous screw axes (ISA), pitch evolution, and cylindroid geometry derived from a linear line-complex formulation. The proficient golfer exhibited (1) progressive convergence of ISAs toward a coherent bundle, (2) stabilization of screw pitch through impact, and (3) co-cylindrical alignment of harmonic screws consistent with inertial–restoring conjugacy. In contrast, the novice golfer showed fragmented ISA organization and elevated pitch variability. These differences were descriptive rather than inferential and do not imply population-level generalization. The findings suggest that skilled manipulation is characterized by stabilization of symmetry-bearing screw invariants rather than by independent joint control. Interpreted ecologically, haptic flow is proposed as a mechanically specified candidate invariant generated by lawful body–object coupling. The present study establishes a geometric framework for quantifying such invariants while identifying the need for cross-task and perceptual validation. Full article

Agricultural transboundary water pollution induced by inter-regional trade poses a complex and pressing challenge for environmental governance. This study integrates an agricultural water pollutant emission inventory, multi-regional input–output model, responsibility-sharing framework, and ecological compensation scheme to establish the collaborative control of agriculture water pollution embodied in China’s inter-provincial trade. The findings reveal, firstly, that inter-provincial agricultural trade led to significant transfers of agricultural water pollution, predominantly flowing from economically developed provinces to less developed provinces, reflecting a mismatch between economic gains and environmental costs. Specifically, Gansu and Qinghai bear the largest agricultural water pollution impact (2.15 Kt and 3.25 Kt, respectively), while it is still a loss in terms of economic net benefits (0.21 trillion and 0.06 trillion yuan, respectively). Secondly, the economic benefit responsibility-sharing shows that for most provinces, responsibility lies between production- and consumption-based accounting and provides a feasible pathway for responsibility sharing. Third, economically developed provinces like Beijing, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang bear the largest compensation liabilities to others, with 1.60 Kt, 0.73 Kt, and 0.54 Kt, respectively. Conversely, provinces including Qinghai, Gansu, and Jiangxi require the greatest compensation inflows, at 2.55 Kt, 0.62 Kt, and 0.34 Kt, respectively. Finally, the maximum acceptable payment value for compensating provinces and the minimum acceptable compensation value for recipient provinces are identified. Our study elucidates the inter-provincial disparities in agricultural water pollution burdens and economic benefits, establishing a quantitative foundation for optimizing responsibility-sharing and compensation strategies in China, which is crucial for fostering regional cooperation in water pollution control. Full article

Water scarcity is increasingly shaped by interactions between environmental constraints and interconnected economic systems, evolving from a localized supply–demand issue into a systemic risk embedded in economic networks. This study develops an integrated framework that conceptualizes water scarcity as a multidimensional risk by jointly accounting for water quantity, water quality, and environmental flow requirements, and embeds it within a multiregional input–output (MRIO) model to examine its formation and transmission across China. Results show that multidimensional constraints substantially amplify water scarcity risk and reshape its spatial distribution, extending risk beyond traditionally water-stressed regions to major agricultural provinces and key ecological function zones. Water-intensive, pollution-intensive, and basic industries form the core of risk accumulation, while virtual water linkages drive cross-regional risk propagation, with developed coastal provinces acting as major receivers. Network analysis identifies a small number of provinces—particularly Henan and Jiangsu—as critical hubs for risk transmission and systemic amplification. These findings highlight the need for integrated, multidimensional, and network-oriented water governance to enhance water system resilience. Full article