Search Results (42)

Vapour pressure deficit (VPD) is frequently used to assess the impact of climate change on wildfires, vegetation, and other phenomena dependent on atmospheric moisture. A common aim of projection studies is to sample the full range of changes projected by climate models. Although characterization of model spread in projected temperature and rainfall is common, similar analyses are lacking for VPD. Here, we analyze the range of change in projected VPD from a 15-member CMIP6 model ensemble using the SSP-370 scenario. Projected changes are calculated for 2015–2100 relative to the historical period 1850–2014, and the resulting changes are analyzed on a seasonal and regional basis, the latter using continents based on IPCC reference regions. We find substantial regional differences including higher increases in VPD in areas towards the equatorial regions, indicating increased vulnerability to climate change in these areas. Seasonal assessments reveal that regions in the Northern Hemisphere experience peak VPD changes in summer (JJA), correlating with higher temperatures and lower relative humidity, while Southern Hemisphere areas like South America see notable increases in all seasons. We find that the mean projected change in seasonal VPD ranges from 0.02–0.23 kPa in Europe, 0.04–0.19 kPa in Asia, 0.02–0.16 kPa in North America, 0.15–0.33 kPa in South America, 0.10–0.18 kPa in Oceania, and 0.21–0.31 kPa in Africa. Our analysis suggests that for most regions, no two models span the range of projected change in VPD for all seasons. The overall projected change space for VPD identified here can be used to interpret existing studies and support model selection for future climate change impact assessments that seek to span this range. Full article

The affected family members (AFM) of relatives with substance use problems (RSU) play an important role in supporting their relatives to enter substance use treatment. This study investigated the help-seeking behaviours for their relatives by AFM in Brazil, including the characteristics of those who sought help and the risk factors for delaying it. A secondary analysis from a national cross-sectional study of 3030 AFM was performed. Participants were recruited from a range of services focused on AFM across each of the five Brazilian regions (North, Northeast, Central-West, Southeast, South). While 92.7% sought help, 66.0% delayed for an average of 37.2 (SD 70.71) months. Help seeking was associated with higher socioeconomic status and being from the Southeastern region. Barriers included the relative refusing help (31.5%) and the belief that help was not needed (20.6%). Longer delays were associated with female AFM, residents in the Central-West region, non-parents, older RSU, alcohol use, and withdrawal coping strategies. The findings show disparities in help-seeking behaviour across socioeconomic groups, regions, and substance types, highlighting the need for better healthcare workforce distribution and targeted interventions to educate AFMs on the importance of engagement with healthcare services. Full article

As climate change continues to manifest its effects globally, the built environment faces escalating challenges in maintaining functionality and resilience against extreme weather events. This study analyses the interaction between functional service life and building resilience amidst climate change impacts, focusing on contrasting regions within Chile: the north and extreme south. Through a series of 158 case studies, this research examines how buildings in these regions adapt and endure under changing climatic conditions. Employing a qualitative and quantitative approach, data collection involved on-site inspections, interviews with stakeholders, and analysis of historical records. The findings underscore the importance of localized solutions tailored to the specific climatic challenges faced by each region. Furthermore, the research highlights the significance of proactive measures such as robust design, materials selection, and maintenance protocols in enhancing building resilience. By synthesizing insights from diverse climatic contexts, this study contributes to a broader understanding of the complex dynamics shaping the functional service life and resilience of buildings in Chile. Finally, the findings offer some guidance for different stakeholders seeking to enhance the built environment against the escalating impacts of climate change. Full article

The evolving landscape of educational technology has not only affected the design of teaching learning contents but also the employment of methods of delivery. In Vietnam’s language education discipline, research indicates that the integration of educational technology has significantly expanded the range of delivery modalities available to educators. However, whether the existing modalities can effectively cater to the needs of diverse learning styles remains uncertain. To bridge the research gap, this study initially seeks to assess the effectiveness of commonly utilized delivery modalities in K-12 EFL education. Thirty volunteer EFL teachers from across Vietnam, representing the north, central, and south regions, participated in in-depth interviews. These teachers teach English at primary, secondary, and high schools. The main findings include their current ICT competence levels and preferences for instructional design regarding diverse modalities of delivery. Then, grounding on an in-depth analysis of their choices and perspectives, a trichronous model is proposed and innovated to accommodate diverse learning preferences and maximize learning potential. The research findings and proposal are significant for professional development trainers and teacher educators, providing valuable insights for decision-making regarding the increasing use of technology in current EFL research and practice. This study can contribute to shaping a forward-thinking approach to EFL education in an increasingly digitalized world by addressing challenges and identifying more practical practices in language teacher education. Full article

The rising demand for building cooling has led to increased energy consumption and environmental concerns. This study aims to examine the effectiveness of natural ventilation strategies as sustainable approaches in arid and semi-arid climates, focusing on Kabul City. Employing integrated simulation techniques, including annual energy simulation and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analysis, various ventilation approaches were evaluated, such as single-side ventilation, cross-ventilation, and windcatchers. Results indicate that cross-ventilation with opposing windows significantly outperformed other strategies in terms of natural ventilation rates, achieving a 62.5% improvement over single-sided ventilation and a 36% improvement over cross-ventilation with adjacent windows. However, the complex interplay between solar gain and natural ventilation in these climates can lead to increased cooling demand. To address this challenge, integrating south-(S)-facing orientations into both single-sided and cross-ventilated configurations was found to be a balanced and effective approach. These scenarios demonstrated significant total energy savings. Among single-sided ventilation, the S-facing scenario achieved an average of 58.3% energy savings. For opposing cross-ventilation, the north-south (NS) scenario yielded 65.6% energy savings. Finally, adjacent cross-ventilation in the east-south (ES) and south-west (SW) scenarios resulted in an average of 51% energy savings. Furthermore, windcatchers, when combined with single-sided ventilation, further enhanced natural ventilation and reduced cooling demand while maintaining nearly consistent heating demand. Optimized rooftop windcatchers improved natural ventilation rates by up to 26.9% and attached windcatchers achieved up to 56.8% improvement. Compared to a baseline, rooftop windcatchers reduced cooling demand by 6.2%, and attached windcatchers by up to 18.7%. The findings of this study highlight the potential of window-based and windcatcher natural ventilation strategies as energy-efficient and balanced approaches for reducing building energy consumption, particularly cooling loads, in arid and semi-arid climates. These insights provide valuable guidance for architects and policymakers seeking to promote sustainable and energy-efficient building practices. Full article

The utilization of dockless shared bikes for shopping purposes has become increasingly prevalent. This research seeks to optimize the configuration of facilities and transportation policies for shared bike travel by analyzing the spatiotemporal patterns of shopping trips from the perspectives of destination (D), origin (O), and O-D correlation in Nanjing’s main city area. As the second-largest commercial center in East China, Nanjing offers a significant context for this research. First, we introduce the “cycling intensity” indicator to analyze the patterns of shared bicycle trips with shopping facilities as destinations at both the subdistrict and road section scales. Second, we utilize spatial autocorrelation analysis and k-means clustering to explore the outflow patterns of shared bicycle trips originating from shopping facilities. Finally, we employ grey correlation analysis to investigate the dynamic flow correlations of shared bicycle O-D trips around various grades of shopping facilities at both subdistrict and road section levels. Concurrently, we endeavored to delineate the practical transformation and application of the research findings. Our results indicate the following: (1) There is a high concentration of cycling intensity around shopping facilities on east–west and north–south roads, with community shopping facilities primarily associated with north–south roads. (2) The outflow of shared bikes from shopping areas can be categorized into four distinct modes. (3) The inflow and outflow of shopping trips exhibit significant synchronicity, particularly on the branch routes. These findings can provide valuable insights for zoning planning, construction of bicycle infrastructure, and formulation of sustainable urban transportation policies. Full article

Climate change has been disturbing the present species distribution ranges, resulting in the shifting of cultivation areas and decreases in production and quality. Tea (Camellia sinensis L.), which seeks optimum climatic resources, is a key cash crop economically in Kenya. In this study, the shifting of tea suitability was projected with the MaxEnt model under the SSP (SSP1-2.6, SSP2-4.5, SSP3-7.0, and SSP5-8.5) climate scenarios for the 2050s and 2090s relative to the 1970–2000 distribution. Analysis under the current climatic condition showed that the proportions of optimal and medium- and marginal-suitable areas were 2%, 3%, and 24% of the total area, respectively, and located in south-western (SW), central, and north-eastern (NE) Kenya and, to some extent, in the Rift Valley. It was projected that the potential suitable tea-growing areas would migrate from the western areas to the central, eastern, and north-eastern highlands in Kenya. It was detected that the precipitation of the driest period (July), precipitation of the wettest quarter (April, May, and June), and annual temperature range could be the main climatic factors determining the shift in tea distribution. Compared to the current distribution (29%), the climatically suitable areas for tea production could reach 32.58% of Kenya’s land area under the SSP1-2.6 scenarios in the 2050s and 35.08% in the 2090s under the SSP5-8.5 scenario. On the contrary, it was found that the optimal climate-suitable habitats were projected to shrink by 2% and 1% in the 2050s and 2090s under all scenarios on the west side of the Great Rift Valley compared to the current distribution. In comparison, the sizes of medium- and marginal-suitable habitats would increase by 1% and 3%, respectively. The findings indicated that unless adaptive climate actions are taken, climate change could reduce the tea planting areas in western Kenya. Meanwhile, climate suitability was projected to expand upward on the east side of the Rift Valley, enhancing the potential distribution of tea. The developed climate information could be used to design and implement adaptation interventions in the lower elevation areas. Finally, we highlight that the available scientific literature on the climate suitability of tea in Kenya should be broadened by adding non-climatic factors. Full article

The Madeira River, a major tributary of the Amazon River, often undergoes severe flood and drought conditions. This study seeks to investigate the climate processes associated with the opposing extreme precipitation events in the Madeira River basin and to relate them to river discharge variability based on a flood awareness dataset. Despite the uncertainty in the observational datasets, the annual precipitation cycle exhibits a rainy season from November to March. A significant result is the high correlation between the rainy season variability in the Madeira River basin and the sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies in the tropical North Atlantic Ocean and the southwestern South Atlantic Ocean. This result indicates that improving the Atlantic SST representation in climate modeling allows for capturing extreme precipitation events in the region. In addition to this impact, certain Madeira River tributaries present significant climate trends. The river discharge variability reveals an increase in hydrological extremes in recent years in the upper sector, but more significantly, in the lower basin, where it has reduced by more than 400 m³/s per decade. These findings highlight the need to improve in situ data and climate and hydrological modeling, with a focus on describing the intense climate variability and trends in river discharges. Full article

Quantitative measurement of urban green spaces (UGSs) plays a fundamental role in enhancing their ecological functions and services. Current studies have not adequately analyzed the multifunctional characteristics and the diverse benefits of urban green spaces at the national scale. This study developed a multidimensional indicator system in terms of scale, pattern, and services to measure green spaces in 285 prefecture-level cities in China. The influences of different geographic zones and urban development on UGS characteristics were also investigated. The results showed that per capita area of urban green spaces were significantly different between the two sides of the “Botai Line”, and the UGS structure was mainly dominated by woodlands. Urban green spaces in the central and east had higher fragmentation, lower landscape diversity, and weaker connectivity. The spatial accessibility of green spaces exhibited a “low–high–medium” pattern from north to south in China, with central-eastern China experiencing the worst equity in green space supply. Overall, cities with higher integrated benefits of green spaces were mainly located in Northeast and North China. Type I large cities had higher ratings for UGS characteristics compared with the other types of cities. These findings can serve as solid guidance for cities seeking to build green space systems with highly integrated socio–ecological benefits. Full article

This article seeks to provide an improved and more comprehensive understanding of the concept and theories on wasteland. It achieves this by focusing on the Indian context, allowing us to unpack the importance of including multiple perspectives of wasteland narratives; this means including more positive narratives of the potential of wasteland to inform and improve prospects for land policies in the Global South. Wasteland is commonly recognized as an underutilized category of land that may transform into a valuable resource base with proper management measures. The term waste has multiple angles that carry different notions ranging from fallow to agroforestry land in the Global South and brownfield to green space in the Global North. We conduct a narrative review approach to qualitatively analyze the concept of wastelands, which has been studied in the pre-existing literature from 1970 to the present. This unsystematic literature review approach incorporates multiple elements of wasteland discourse, like understanding the meaning of the term on a global scale, setting out the meaning of the term waste into multiple perspectives explicitly in the Indian context, along with different classes and management approaches to wasteland from a national perspective. The multiple perspectives of wasteland not only generate misconceptions of land resources but spawn difficulties in land-use policy, particularly for the Indian scenario. For sustainable land-use policy, reclaiming wasteland would be the best possible way for India and other countries in the Global South, which requires a comprehensive methodological overview on wasteland narrative. Full article

Focusing on the trend of continuously seeking high-precision tree species classification results in small areas from the perspectives of sensors and classification algorithms. This study aimed to explore the effects of data sources, classifiers, and seasons on classification accuracy in regions with significant environmental variation, examining patterns of tree species classification to enhance the transferability of classification. Considering two typical forest distribution regions in the north and south of China, this study utilized the revisitation cycle and open-source advantages of Sentinel-2 and Landsat-8. Leveraging the Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform, this study captured spectral features, vegetation indices, and texture features for single seasonal and seasonal combination images. With the assistance of Sentinel-1A and SRTM (Shuttle Radar Topography Mission) DEM (Digital Elevation Model), backscattering coefficient features and topographical features were extracted and input with features captured from Sentinel-2 and Landsat-8 into three types of classifiers: random forest (RF), support vector machine (SVM), and gradient tree boosting (GTB) for major tree species classification. In this research, we discovered that the best classification for single season in the northern study area was spring, whereas, for the southern study area, it was winter. Seasonal combination images effectively improved the classification accuracy of single seasonal images, with Sentinel-2 imagery displaying better classification performance compared to Landsat-8, and the optimal classifier differing between the north and the south. The inclusion of topographical or backscattering coefficient features in the four-season combination imagery contributed to improvements in classification accuracy, with topographical features significantly enhancing the classification performance in the topographically varied southern study area. The evaluation of feature importance indicated that elevation was the most critical feature for classification, while spectral features and vegetation indices were also significant. In the southern study area with large topographical discrepancies, subdividing into different terrain units led to improved tree species classification accuracy in medium-altitude, gentle slope areas. These findings provide insights into the regularity of enhancing tree species classification accuracy in environmentally diverse areas through the use of multi-source remote sensing data and multi-seasonal imagery. Consequently, the results offer a reference for the identification of tree species across large areas and the creation of spatial distribution maps. Full article

Mongolia, situated in central Asia and bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south, experiences a semi-arid climate across most of its territory. Grasslands are pivotal in Mongolia’s agricultural sustainability and food security, facing rapid changes in the last two decades that underscore the ongoing need for innovative approaches to assess vegetation conditions. This study aims to evaluate grassland biomass measurement and prediction through the analysis of high-resolution satellite data. By conducting a time series assessment of grazing-induced changes in vegetation dynamics at the long-term monitoring sites of the Botanic Garden and Research Institute, Mongolian Academy of Sciences, we seek to refine our understanding. The investigation covers biomass estimation across various Mongolian grassland landscapes, encompassing desert, steppe, and mountain regions. Spanning the grassland growing season from May 2020 to October 2023, the research leveraged diverse ground data types, including surface reflectance measurements, geographic coordinates for satellite data correction, and aboveground dry biomass. These components were instrumental in developing a biomass estimation model reliant on establishing correlations between the satellite-derived Normalized Difference Vegetation Index and biomass. The predicted biomass facilitated the time series map analysis and dynamic analysis. The PlanetScope surface reflectance correlates strongly at 0.97 with field measurements, indicating robust relations. Biomass and the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index show correlations of 0.82 for dry grassland, 0.80 for mountain grassland, and 0.65 for desert grassland, with a combined correlation coefficient of 0.62, revealing distinct characteristics across these grasslands. Time series dynamic analysis reveals rising biomass differences between grazed and ungrazed areas, suggesting potential grassland degradation. Variations in the slope coefficient of biomass differences among grassland types indicate differing degradation patterns, emphasizing the need for effective grazing management practices to sustain and conserve Mongolian grasslands. This highlights the potential of remote sensing in monitoring and managing grassland ecosystems. Full article

This paper explores the different ways that relationships and the relational figure in the integrative approach, relational wellbeing (RWB). These are (1) conceptualising persons as relational subjects; (2) relationships as the means through which people seek to address a wide variety of needs; (3) inter-relations between the experience of wellbeing and the underlying factors within persons and their contexts that either promote or undermine wellbeing; (4) relationships serving as conduits of power and the making of identities; and (5) inter-relations between the concepts and methods of research with representations of (persons and) wellbeing. The main thrust of the paper is theoretical, but it is anchored in long-standing research into wellbeing in the global South and practical experience in applying RWB in the global North. Empirically, it draws, in particular, on a case study from Zambia of a ‘meshwork’ of relations between birth and foster parents and children moving between households. This places the relational, rather than the individual, at the centre of analysis. It shows how different dimensions of wellbeing may coincide, but there may also be trade-offs between them. Relationships are bearers of power, and it is the interactions of structure and agency that ultimately limit or engender opportunities for sustained individual and collective wellbeing. Full article

Recent studies on the global value chain (GVC) have highlighted the need to better integrate the value chains of developing countries of the global South with that of the global North regions, which are more highly developed. This is aimed at enhancing the economic and social sustainable upgrading of the value chains of the global South regions. The paper thus seeks to answer a critical question as to whether the existing GVC set-up pertaining to global North and South countries is equitable and whether it would yield the needed socio-economic and wider sustainable benefits, particularly to global South countries. a conceptual Global Value Chain (GVC) model is developed based on the economy-wide and system-based Multi-Regional Input–Output methodology to achieve this goal. Subsequently, this was empirically tested to measure embodied flows in capital and labour for sustainable development between global North and South regions. These are achieved using the GVC networks of the UK (from the global North) and some countries in sub-Saharan Africa (from the global South) to exemplify these developments. With implications for equitable, sustainable development, our study shows significant imbalances exist in the flows of value added activities from the global South to the global North, particularly in the primary industries, which produce low-value products in their raw state. Subsequently, this creates a disproportionate economic disadvantage for South countries. As such, if global South countries are to fully benefit from GVC, the study shows that these imbalances must be addressed, such as through structural changes in the economies of global South countries from their dependencies on the primary industries. Full article

The interplay between climate change and society requires the cultivation of deeper insights into the interdisciplinary connections between faith and development. This study seeks to undertake a grounded theory analysis of the Islamic narrative among policy makers about climate change and Islamic values. A focus group panel of key experts was conducted on the topic of sustainability and faith, using a climate policy canvas to gain insights into the role of faith in shaping perceptions and policies to mitigate climate change. The results showed that Islamic values can be in positive interaction with environmental responsibility and ecologically friendly behavior. Despite the divergent narratives between the Global South and North with regard to equity and liability, policy makers are mindful of the ecological imperatives and the need to mainstream ethical values in order to influence climate policy. This research reveals that Islamic values can influence the perceptions on and practice of climate action for both policy makers and the public. The study recommends supporting value-based initiatives for shaping a new discourse around climate policy. Full article