Search Results (512)

Ataúro Island, located in the inner Banda Arc, provides a natural laboratory to investigate the interplay between magmatic evolution, hydrothermal circulation, and near-surface weathering in an active arc–continent collision setting. This study presents the first systematic island-wide geochemical baseline for Ataúro Island, based on multi-element analyses of stream sediments integrated with updated geological, structural, and hydromorphological information. Compositional Data Analysis (CoDA–CLR–PCA), combined with anomaly mapping and spatial overlays, defines a coherent three-tier geochemical framework comprising: (i) a lithogenic component dominated by Fe–Ti–Mg–Ni–Co–Cr, reflecting the geochemical signature of basaltic to andesitic volcanic rocks; (ii) a hydrothermal component characterized by Ag–As–Sb–S–Au associations spatially linked to structurally controlled zones; and (iii) an oxidative–supergene component marked by Fe–V–Zn redistribution along drainage convergence areas. These domains are defined strictly on geochemical criteria and represent geochemical process domains rather than proven metallogenic provinces. Rare earth element (REE) systematics further constrain the geotectonic setting and indicate that the primary geochemical patterns are largely controlled by lithological and magmatic differentiation processes. Spatial integration of geochemical patterns with fault architecture highlights the importance of NW–SE and NE–SW structural corridors in focusing hydrothermal fluid circulation and associated metal dispersion. The identified Ag–As–Sb–Au associations are interpreted as epithermal-style hydrothermal geochemical enrichment and exploration-relevant geochemical footprints, rather than as evidence of confirmed or economic mineralization. Overall, Ataúro Island emerges as a compact natural analogue of post-arc geochemical system evolution in the eastern Banda Arc, where lithogenic background, hydrothermal fluid–rock interaction, and early supergene processes are superimposed. The integrated geochemical framework presented here provides a robust baseline for future targeted investigations aimed at distinguishing lithogenic from hydrothermal contributions and evaluating the potential significance of the identified geochemical enrichments. Full article

Driven by the globalization tide, urbanization and cross-border economic cooperation have intensified challenges to ecological conservation, with border regions increasingly confronting irreversible habitat degradation risks. As a globally recognized biodiversity hotspot, Xishuangbanna acts as a strategic hub for cross-border ecological security between China and Southeast Asia, having long been confronted with dual pressures from economic development and ecological conservation. By analyzing the spatiotemporal evolution of the Remote Sensing Ecological Index (RSEI) during 2003–2023, this study simulates its multi-scenario dynamics, develops the “RSEI-ESP-PLUS” framework, presents a novel assessment mechanism for ecological security patterns (ESP), and provides a scientific basis for regional sustainable development. Results indicate that integrating RSEI improves the accuracy of ecological source identification. Over the past two decades, regional Ecological Environmental Quality has exhibited an overall improvement trend, yet persistent ecological pressures remain—including vegetation degradation and climate warming. Concurrently, high-quality ecological areas have contracted while moderate-quality ones have expanded. In the 2033 simulation, the ecological conservation scenario delivered the most favorable ecological network assessment outcomes, identifying 16 stable and 15 potential ecological sources. Accordingly, this study establishes an ecological security pattern centered on the core structure of the “One Axis, Two Corridors, and Three Zones”, which provides a spatial planning scheme for regional sustainable development. Full article

The rapid economic and urban development in the Yellow River Delta Efficient Ecological Economic Zone (YRDEEZ) has intensified land use changes and aggravated ecological patch fragmentation. Constructing ecological networks (ENs) can reconnect fragmented patches and enhance ecosystem services. This study simulated land use patterns for 2040 under three scenarios: Natural Development (NDS), Ecological Protection (EPS), and Urban Development (UDS). Results indicated a consistent decline in agricultural land and an expansion of urban land across all scenarios, with the most pronounced urban growth under UDS (6.79%) and the largest ecological land area under EPS (5178.96 km²). Since 2000, the number of EN sources and corridors had decreased, with sources mainly concentrated along coastal areas. The source and corridor under UDS exhibited the highest area ratio (20.08%), while NDS showed the lowest (18.72%), with UDS demonstrating the strongest resilience. Through community detection, the UDS EN was divided into five ecological clusters, encompassing 127 intra-cluster corridors (2285.95 km) and 34 inter-cluster corridors (1171.32 km), among which the cluster near the Yellow River estuary was determined to be the most critical (Level 1). These findings will provide valuable insights for managing landscape fragmentation and biological habitat protection in YRDEEZ. Meanwhile, the multi-scenario simulations of ENs could play an important role in constructing ecological security patterns and protecting ecosystems. Full article

Against the backdrop of rapid urbanization and land development, the degradation of regional ecosystem services and the intensification of ecological risks have become prominent challenges. This study takes the Pinglu Canal Economic Belt—a region characterized by the triple pressures of “large-scale engineering disturbance, karst ecological vulnerability, and port economic agglomeration”—as a case study. Based on remote sensing image data from 2000 to 2020, a landscape ecological risk index was constructed, and regional landscape ecological risk levels were assessed using ArcGIS spatial analysis tools. On this basis, ecological sources were identified by combining the InVEST model with morphological spatial pattern analysis (MSPA),and an ecological resistance surface was constructed by integrating factors such as land use type, elevation, slope, distance to roads, distance to water bodies, and NDVI. Furthermore, the circuit theory method was applied to identify ecological corridors, ecological pinch points, and barrier points, ultimately constructing the ecological security pattern of the Pinglu Canal Economic Belt. The main findings are as follows: (1) Ecological risks were primarily at low to medium levels, with high-risk areas concentrated in the southern coastal region. Over the past two decades, an overall optimization trend was observed, shifting from high risk to lower risk levels. (2) A total of 15 ecological sources (total area 1313.71 km²), 31 ecological corridors (total length 1632.42 km), 39 ecological pinch points, and 15 ecological barrier points were identified, clarifying the key spatial components of the ecological network. (3) Based on spatial analysis results, a zoning governance plan encompassing “ecological protected areas, improvement areas, restoration areas, and critical areas” along with targeted strategies was proposed, providing a scientific basis for ecological risk management and pattern optimization in the Pinglu Canal Economic Belt. Full article

This paper investigates the planning problem of AC-integrated wind–photovoltaic–hydro–storage (WPHS) bundled transmission systems. To effectively capture the uncertainty and interdependence in renewable power outputs, a Copula-enhanced distributionally robust optimization (DRO) framework is developed, enabling a unified treatment of stochastic and correlated renewable generation within the system planning process. First, a location and capacity planning model based on DRO for WPHS generation bases is formulated, in which a composite-norm ambiguity set is constructed to describe the uncertainty of renewable resources. Second, the Copula function is employed to characterize the nonlinear dependence structure between wind and photovoltaic (PV) power outputs, providing representative scenarios and initial probability distribution (PD) support for the construction of a bivariate ambiguity set that embeds coupling information. The resulting optimization problem is solved using the column and constraint generation (C&CG) algorithm. In addition, an evaluation metric termed the transmission corridor utilization rate (TCUR) is proposed to quantitatively assess the efficiency of external AC transmission planning schemes, offering a new perspective for the evaluation of regional power transmission strategies. Finally, simulation results validate that the proposed model achieves superior performance in terms of system economic efficiency and TCUR. Full article

Coastal shipping plays a critical role in meeting maritime decarbonization targets under the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) Carbon Intensity Indicator (CII) and the European Union Emissions Trading System (EU ETS); however, operators currently lack robust tools to forecast route-specific carbon intensity and evaluate the causal benefits of fuel switching. This study developed a distribution-free causal forecasting framework for voyage-level Carbon Dioxide (CO₂) intensity using an enriched panel of 1440 real-world voyages across four Nigerian coastal routes (2022–2024). We employed a physics-informed monotonic Light Gradient Boosting Machine (LightGBM) model trained under a strict leave-one-route-out (LORO) protocol, integrated with split-conformal prediction for uncertainty quantification and Causal Forests for estimating heterogeneous treatment effects. The model predicted emission intensity on completely unseen corridors with a Mean Absolute Error (MAE) of 40.7 kg CO₂/nm, while 90% conformal prediction intervals achieved 100% empirical coverage. While the global average effect of switching from heavy fuel oil to diesel was negligible (≈−0.07 kg CO₂/nm), Causal Forests revealed significant heterogeneity, with effects ranging from −74 g to +29 g CO₂/nm depending on route conditions. Economically, targeted diesel use becomes viable only when carbon prices exceed ~100 USD/tCO₂. These findings demonstrate that effective coastal decarbonization requires moving beyond static baselines to uncertainty-aware planning and targeted, route-specific fuel strategies rather than uniform fleet-wide policies. Full article

South Korea’s 11th Long-term Plan for Transmission and Substation Equipment (LPTSE, 2024–2038) invests KRW 72.8 trillion (USD 52.3 billion) to integrate 91.9 GW renewables while securing supply for semiconductor/artificial intelligence demand concentrated in the Seoul Metropolitan Area. This study aims to quantify LPTSE’s national economic effects and spatial equity implications using input–output (IO) analysis. A demand-side IO model—calibrated to 2022 national tables with a novel transmission and substation investment sector—disaggregates investments across five key sectors and estimates production, value-added, wage, and employment multipliers, complemented by multiregional spatial analysis of high-voltage direct or alternating current corridors. The results project KRW 128.2 trillion (USD 92.2 billion) total production, KRW 54.1 trillion (USD 38.9 billion) value-added, KRW 30.9 trillion (USD 22.2 billion) wages, and 578,000 jobs over 2025–2038, with coastal generation regions bearing infrastructure burdens while benefits accrue nationally. The findings demonstrate transmission investments as macroeconomic catalysts, highlighting the need for regionally differentiated compensation addressing land-use conflicts along export or transit corridors. Full article

The decision-making process for the adaptive reuse of cultural heritage requires the evaluation of multiple criteria because of its multifaceted structure. The criteria determined through a literature review were weighted by experts and ranked according to their degree of importance via the DEMATEL method, which is a multicriteria decision-making technique. This study, conducted by integrating the importance levels of the criteria determined by the DEMATEL method with Geographic Information Systems (GIS) techniques, was applied to Yediocak Primary School, one of the significant buildings in Osmaniye, affected by the 2023 Kahramanmaraş Pazarcık Earthquake and heavily damaged during the event. The DEMATEL analysis demonstrated that economic value, regional potential, and compatibility with the new function are the primary cause-group criteria, whereas architectural, cultural, and social values are predominantly situated within the effect group. The spatial assessment yielded a low suitability score for the current primary school function (0.3954). The hybrid DEMATEL + GIS index (0.2598) confirmed that a building’s reuse as a high-occupancy school is constrained by seismic risk, its position on a heavily trafficked corridor, and relatively limited access to healthcare and emergency assembly areas. This study aimed to establish a new framework for the adaptive reuse of historic buildings. Full article

As a strategic core of the Western Land–Sea New Corridor, the Pinglu Canal Economic Belt (PCEB) is undergoing unprecedented landscape restructuring due to canal construction. This mega-project serves as a critical case for understanding how intense human intervention reshapes regional ecosystem service (ES) patterns. Integrating complex network analysis with Generalized Additive Models (GAMs), this study examines the spatiotemporal evolution of human activity intensity (HAI) and ES networks (2000–2020) and their nonlinear responses. Research findings: the PCEB’s ES network evolution reflects a “policy–terrain coupling” mechanism. While HQ remains the structural anchor for regulating services, FP drives key trade-offs. The network has transitioned from coexisting trade-offs and synergies to synergy dominance, driven by ecological engineering and spatial zoning. We identified HAI 0.10–0.15 as a critical threshold where moderate disturbance promotes service integration. However, excessive intensification leads to functional simplification. Future governance should move beyond rigid zoning, employing dynamic spatial policies and adaptive agroforestry to mitigate FP’s pressure and activate the ecological potential of transition zones. This study provides a framework for understanding nonlinear socio-ecological responses to human–policy–terrain feedback. This study provides a scientific basis for optimizing land-use management and enhancing ecosystem sustainability in the PCEB. Full article

The Yangtze River Economic Belt is a crucial driver of China’s economy, and its shoreline is a strategic, finite resource vital for ecological security, flood control, navigation, and socioeconomic development. However, intensive development has resulted in functional conflicts and ecological degradation, underscoring the need for accurate identification and suitability assessment of shoreline functions. Conventional methods, which predominantly rely on land use data and remote sensing imagery, are often limited in their ability to capture dynamic changes in large river systems. This study introduces an integrated framework combining macro-level “Three-Zone Space” (urban, agricultural, ecological) theory with micro-level Point of Interest (POI) data to rapidly identify shoreline functions along the Yichang section of the Yangtze River. We further developed a multi-criteria evaluation system incorporating ecological, production, developmental, and risk constraints, utilizing a combined AHP-Entropy weight method to assess suitability. The results reveal a clear upstream-downstream gradient: ecological functions dominate upstream, while agricultural and urban functions increase downstream. POI data enabled refined classification into five functional types, revealing that ecological conservation shorelines are extensively distributed upstream, port and urban development shorelines concentrate in downstream nodal zones, and agricultural production shorelines are widespread yet exhibit a spatial mismatch with suitability scores. The comprehensive evaluation identified high-suitability units, primarily in downstream urban cores with superior development conditions and lower risks, whereas low-suitability units are constrained by high geological hazards and poor infrastructure. These findings provide a scientific basis for differentiated shoreline management strategies. The proposed framework offers a transferable approach for the sustainable planning of major river corridors, offering insights applicable to similar contexts. Full article

The Lower Danube region represents a long-standing zone of interaction between indigenous communities, mobile pastoral populations, and Mediterranean colonial networks. During the Late Iron Age, such contexts have frequently been interpreted through culture-historical frameworks that emphasise socio-economic differentiation among coexisting populations. This study examines whether communities traditionally described in culturally or economically differentiated terms can instead be understood as functionally diverse social entities responding to shared environmental conditions. Three Late Iron Age (4th–3rd centuries BC) settlements from Central Dobruja (Romania), Medgidia Hellenistic 1, 2, and 3, were investigated using an integrated bioarchaeological approach combining archaeozoological and phytolith analyses. The sites are situated along a major communication corridor linking the Danube with the western Black Sea coast, colonised by the Greeks at that time. Faunal assemblages are dominated by domestic mammals, particularly cattle, caprine, and horses, indicating a pastoral economy structured around livestock management, secondary product exploitation, and varying degrees of mobility. Phytolith assemblages reveal a strong cereal signal alongside evidence for grassland exploitation, woody resource use, and wetland vegetation, reflecting mixed agro-pastoral practices embedded within a heterogeneous landscape. Taken together, the results suggest that Getae and Scythian-associated populations did not represent temporally or hierarchically differentiated socio-economic stages, but rather coexisting communities characterised by complementary subsistence practices, shaped by mobility, seasonality, and regional connectivity. This study highlights the value of bioarchaeological evidence for refining interpretations of cultural interaction and adaptive strategies in Late Iron Age Europe. Full article

Coastal cities face escalating flood risk under sea-level rise, yet landscape-based adaptation strategies often remain speculative and weakly connected to the accessibility and economic constraints that shape sustainable urban development. This study developed a modeling-to-design framework that translates coupled climate and land-use projections into implementable landscape interventions, through planning-level spatial allocation, using Dalian, China as a case study under “middle of the road” (SSP2-4.5) climate conditions. The framework integrates the Land-use Evolution and Assessment Model (LEAM) with connected-bathtub flood modeling to evaluate whether strategic landscape design can redirect development away from flood-prone zones while accommodating projected growth and maintaining accessibility to employment and services. Interventions—protective wetland restoration (810 km²) and blue–green corridors (8 km²)—derived from a meta-synthesis of implemented coastal projects were operationalized as LEAM spatial constraints. Our results show that residential development can be redirected away from coastal risk with 100% demand satisfaction and elimination of moderate-risk allocations. Cropland demand was fully accommodated. In contrast, commercial development experienced 99.8% reduction under strict coastal protection, reflecting locational dependence on port-adjacent sites. This modeling-to-design framework offers a transferable approach to quantifying where landscape interventions succeed, where they face barriers, and where complementary measures are required, supporting decision-making that balances environmental protection, economic function, and social accessibility in sustainable coastal development. Full article

Europe’s energy transition beyond 2025 faces a resilience gap as reconfigured pipeline flows, stricter methane rules, and rising variable renewables increase the need for seasonal flexibility and system adequacy. This study examines how Ukraine’s gas transmission network and underground gas storage—among the largest in Europe—can serve as a “seasonal battery” for the EU. We integrate a policy and market review with quantitative scenarios for 2026–2030. Methods include security-of-supply indicators (the rule that the system must keep operating even if its largest single infrastructure element fails, peak-day coverage, and winter adequacy), estimates of market-accessible storage volumes and withdrawal rates for European market participants, and a techno-economic screening of hydrogen-readiness comparing repurposing with new-build options. Methane intensity constraints and compliance with monitoring, reporting, and verification and leak detection and repair requirements are applied. The results indicate that reallocating part of Europe’s seasonal balancing to Ukrainian underground gas storage can enhance resilience to extreme winter demand and liquefied natural gas price shocks, reduce price volatility and the curtailment of variable renewables, and enable phased, cost-effective hydrogen corridors via repurposable pipelines and compressors. We outline a policy roadmap specifying transparent access rules, interoperable gas quality and methane standards, and risk mitigation instruments needed to operationalise cross-border storage and hydrogen-ready investments without carbon lock-in. Full article

Intangible cultural heritage (ICH) is deeply embedded in everyday social life, yet its officially recognized spatial distribution reflects both the independent influences of cultural traditions, development trajectories, and governance practices, and the complex interactions among them. Focusing on 494 national-level ICH items across ten categories in Jiangsu(J), Zhejiang(Z), and Shanghai(H), this study adopts a social-geographical perspective to examine both the spatio-temporal evolution and the driving mechanisms of ICH recognition in one of China’s most developed regions. After rigorous verification of point-based ICH locations, we combine kernel density estimation and the average nearest neighbor index to trace changes across five batches of national designation, and then employ the univariate and interaction detectors of the Geodetector model to assess the effects of 28 natural, socioeconomic, and cultural-institutional variables. The results show, first, that ICH exhibits significant clustering along river corridors and historical cultural belts, with a persistent high-density core in the Shanghai–southern Jiangsu–northern Zhejiang zone and a clear shift over time from highly concentrated to more dispersed and territorially balanced recognition. Second, human-environment factors—especially factors such as urban and rural income and consumption; residents’ education and cultural expenditures; and public education and cultural facilities—have far greater explanatory power than natural conditions, while different ICH categories embed distinctively in urban and rural socio-economic contexts. Third, bivariate interactions reveal that natural and macroeconomic “background” variables are strongly amplified when combined with demographic and cultural factors, whereas interactions among strong human variables show bivariate enhancement with diminishing marginal returns. In summary, these findings enrich international debates on the geography of ICH by clarifying how recognition processes align with regional development and social equity agendas, and they provide a quantitative basis for category-sensitive, place-based strategies that coordinate income policies, public cultural services, and the joint safeguarding of tangible and intangible heritage in both urban renewal and rural revitalization planning. Full article

Water and nitrogen are the key factors restricting the productivity improvement of onion in the Hexi Oasis. Unreasonable water and fertilizer management not only increases input costs, but also causes environmental pollution of farmland soil, thereby affecting the sustainable development of agriculture. To explore the effects of the water–nitrogen interaction and optimized combination schemes on onion yield, water–nitrogen use efficiency, and economic benefits under mulched drip irrigation in the Hexi Oasis, a four-year (2020–2023) water–nitrogen coupling regulation experiment was conducted at the Yimin Irrigation Experimental Station in Minle County, Hexi Corridor. The onion was used as the test crop and three irrigation levels were established, based on reference crop evapotranspiration (ET_c): low water (W1, 70% ET_c), medium water (W2, 85% ET_c), and sufficient water (W3, 100% ET_c), as well as high nitrogen N3 (330 kg·ha⁻¹), medium nitrogen N2 (264 kg·ha⁻¹), and low nitrogen N1 (198 kg·ha⁻¹). Meanwhile, no nitrogen application N0 (0 kg·ha⁻¹) was set as the control at three irrigation levels. This study analyzed the effects of different water and nitrogen supply conditions on onion quality, yield, water–nitrogen use efficiency, and economic benefits. A water–nitrogen economic benefit coupling model was established to optimize water–nitrogen combination schemes targeting different economic objectives. The results revealed that medium-to-high water–nitrogen combinations were beneficial for improving onion quality, while excessive irrigation and nitrogen application inhibited bulb quality accumulation. Both yield and economic benefits increased with the increasing amount of irrigation, whereas excessive nitrogen application showed a diminishing yield-increasing effect, simultaneously increasing farm input costs and ultimately reducing the economic benefits. In the four-year experiment, the N3W3 treatment in 2020 achieved the highest yield, economic benefits, and net profit, reaching 136.93 t·ha⁻¹, 20,376.3 USD·ha⁻¹, and 14,320.8 USD·ha⁻¹, respectively, with no significant difference from the N2W3 treatment. From 2021 to 2023, the N2W3 treatment achieved the highest yield, economic benefits, and net profit, averaging 130.87 t·ha⁻¹, 28,449.5 USD·ha⁻¹, and 21,881.5 USD·ha⁻¹, respectively. Lower irrigation and nitrogen application rates mutually restricted the water and nitrogen utilization, resulting in low water use efficiency, irrigation water use efficiency, nitrogen partial factor productivity, and nitrogen agronomic use efficiency. The relationship between the irrigation amount, nitrogen application rate, and the economic benefits of onion fits a bivariate quadratic regression model. This model predicts that onion’s economic benefits are highly correlated with the actual economic benefits, with analysis revealing a parabolic trend in economic benefits as water and nitrogen inputs increase. By optimizing the model, it was determined that when the irrigation amount reached 100%, the ET_c and nitrogen application rate was 264 kg·ha⁻¹, and the economic benefits were close to the target range of 27,000–29,000 USD·ha⁻¹; this can be used as the optimal water and nitrogen management model and technical reference for onion in the Hexi Oasis irrigation area, which can not only ensure high yield and quality but also improve the use efficiency of water and nitrogen. Full article