Search Results (1,785)

Urban regeneration has become a central focus in global urban studies, increasingly linked to the dual imperatives of sustainability and urban resilience. According to Christopher Alexander’s theories of living structure and pattern language, traditional built environments emerge through progressive adaptation rather than top-down design. Moreover, historic urban fabrics evolve through continuous refinement of spatial solutions that simultaneously respond to environmental, functional, and social needs. Therefore, this study situates urban regeneration within a theoretical framework that recognizes traditional settlements as complex adaptive systems rather than static heritage. Chinese urban villages (Chengzhongcun) and Spanish Suelo Urbano no Consolidado (SUNC, Unconsolidated Urban Land) areas represent two contrasting forms of urban socio-spatial systems engulfed by urban expansion, both characterized by dense, historically rooted morphologies and incomplete infrastructure. As Chinese urban villages shift from a demolition–reconstruction model toward more sustainable regeneration approaches, this study compares Beijing’s Cuigezhuang and Málaga’s El Perchel through spatial analysis and stakeholder surveys. Alexander would argue that the demolition–reconstruction model disrupts the evolutionary processes that generate coherent urban fabrics. The research evaluates how differing planning systems foster or constrain sustainable development and social-spatial resilience in regeneration processes. Urban resilience is explicitly defined here as the capacity of urban communities and spatial structures to adapt to change, withstand pressures, and maintain social cohesion, accessibility, and local identity, while ecological and economic resilience are not measured in this study. Findings demonstrate that Spain’s incremental, participatory approach—anchored in Planes Especiales de Reforma Interior (PERI, special plans for inner urban renewal) and land readjustment (equitable distribution of costs and benefits) mechanisms—significantly outperforms China’s state-led demolition-based model in supporting long-term sustainability, heritage integrity, community cohesion, and spatial continuity. Spain’s legally embedded participation and in situ rehabilitation strategies offer transferable lessons for China’s evolving sustainable and resilience-oriented regeneration paradigm. Full article

This study examines how students aged 10–20 conceptualize Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), focusing on their ability to think multiperspectively and justify decisions multidimensionally. In a classroom-based teaching experiment, 131 high school students from Lower Saxony completed a drawing task visualizing sustainable village transformations, followed by interviews with twelve participants. Their negotiation processes, verbal responses, and drawings were analyzed using qualitative content analysis. The visualization of village transformations functions as a biology-didactic ESD activity, where students apply decision-making and problem-solving strategies to address biological system levels (e.g., individuals, populations, ecosystems) and their interconnections (trophic levels, food webs, biodiversity). Results indicate age-related differences: students in grades 5–7 primarily emphasized social and ecological aspects, designing idealized living spaces for themselves. Upper-secondary students (grades 11–13) incorporated societal, political, and economic considerations, prioritizing economic development. However, no consistent relationship between multiperspectivity and multidimensional reasoning was identified. Based on these findings and related research, the study advocates integrating systems thinking with a comprehension-oriented approach, combining the Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT) and the Model of Educational Reconstruction (MER). This aims to address the complexity of ESD more effectively, avoiding oversimplified, monocausal narratives that undermine the multidimensional nature of sustainable development. Full article

Fire regimes are changing globally, yet dominant fire governance remains centred on emergency response and suppression, often neglecting fire’s ecological functions and cultural significance. Although community-based burning practices persist across many fire-dependent landscapes, particularly in Africa, they rarely receive institutional recognition or appropriate governance. Integrated Fire Management and Community-Based Fire Management frameworks have called for bottom-up approaches that integrate biological, environmental, and social dimensions while prioritising local governance and customary fire practices. However, practical mechanisms for eliciting socio-cultural values, operationalising participation, and addressing power asymmetries in fire decision-making remain limited. This article documents the application of Legislative Theatre as a participatory approach to co-develop an Integrated Fire Management plan in eastern Angola. Through 37 stories based on lived experiences and collective, performance-based exercises exploring fire-related problems across seven villages, communities articulated diverse fire uses, values, and shared norms for improving local fire governance. Our findings show that theatre-based methods enabled the expression of embodied, emotional, and experiential knowledge often overlooked by conventional engagement approaches, while supporting knowledge co-production and participant agency. We argue that Legislative Theatre and storytelling provide practical tools for strengthening the socio-cultural dimensions of Integrated Fire Management, provided they are carefully facilitated, culturally adapted, and supported through long-term engagement. Full article

Small-scale fisheries management is a critical challenge for global fisheries sustainability. This study diagnoses the institutional failures behind overexploitation and regulatory non-compliance in Mexico’s shark-cazón fishery (predominantly Rhizoprionodon terraenovae). Using the Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) Framework and Ostrom’s Social-Ecological Systems (SES) approach, we assessed the catch series (1976–2014) and institutional robustness. Results show a 77% surplus over the Maximum Sustainable Yield (MSY), with an average catch of 51,417 tonnes per year against a biological limit of 29,040 tonnes. The diagnosis reveals undefined access limits, exclusively state-run monitoring, sanctions provided for in law but not applied participatorily, and the absence of local conflict-resolution mechanisms. These findings suggest that overexploitation is not an inevitable biological failure but the outcome of a command-and-control design that inhibits collective action and erodes rule legitimacy. This study contributes to the common-pool resource governance literature by extending Ostrom’s framework and Hønneland’s compliance model to a previously underrepresented Latin American elasmobranch context. Based on this diagnosis, we recommend transitioning toward polycentric governance—with nested community monitoring, effectively enforced graduated sanctions, and local conflict-resolution mechanisms—as a strategy for improving regulatory compliance in data-limited fisheries. Full article

Climate change is increasingly reshaping agricultural systems across Central Europe through rising temperatures, altered precipitation regimes, droughts, heatwaves, and expanding biological risks. These pressures threaten the stability of conventional cropping systems while simultaneously affecting food safety, storage systems, processing infrastructure, and regional food security. This review explores the role of adaptive crop diversification as a key strategy for enhancing agricultural resilience in the face of future climate uncertainty. Drawing on IPCC AR6 scenarios, CMIP6 simulations, and EURO-CORDEX projections, we analyze major climatic stressors affecting Central European agriculture, including heat stress, hydrological instability, soil degradation, invasive pests, fungal pathogens, and mycotoxin contamination. Particular attention is given to shifts in crop suitability and the growing relevance of climate-resilient crops such as sorghum, millet, quinoa, chickpea, lentil, soybean, camelina, hemp, and miscanthus. Beyond field-level adaptation, the review highlights the critical role of post-harvest systems, storage infrastructure, processing adaptability, and food safety within climate-resilient food systems. We additionally evaluate socioeconomic barriers, policy frameworks, and emerging technological approaches, including digital agriculture and artificial intelligence. A central contribution of this review is the integration of crop diversification, food safety, post-harvest adaptation, and governance challenges within a unified climate-resilience framework for Central European agriculture. We conclude that long-term agricultural resilience in the region will require a systemic transformation that integrates ecological, technological, economic, institutional, and social dimensions of adaptation. Full article

The global ‘Blue Transition’ presents a critical policy dilemma for marine fisheries: how to achieve ecological sustainability and carbon neutrality while maintaining socio-economic vitality. This study addresses this challenge by analyzing the complex interplay between the ecological, social, and economic systems within China’s marine fisheries. Our research purpose is to identify effective governance pathways for a coordinated and sustainable transition. We developed a system dynamics model, informed by panel data from 2010–2022, to simulate the long-term outcomes of different policy scenarios. This approach allows us to move beyond static analysis and understand the dynamic feedback mechanisms that shape the fishery sector. Our analysis of historical data reveals that the overall system coordination improved initially but has since stagnated at a basic level. The most significant outcome of our simulations is the identification of the social system—encompassing technological innovation, governance, and human capital—as the central lever for progress. Our findings demonstrate that policies focused narrowly on either economic growth or ecological restoration are suboptimal. The optimal path to high-quality, sustainable development is an integrated strategy that prioritizes investment in the social system to mediate the conflict between economic and ecological goals. This provides a crucial insight for marine policy, suggesting that effective governance frameworks are the key enablers of a successful Blue Transition. Full article

The Fuzzy Cognitive Map (FCM) framework provides a useful tool for representing the complex interdependencies involved in wastewater treatment selection, particularly when social, ecological, climatic, and economic criteria are considered simultaneously. In this study, the FCM approach was applied to compare two wastewater treatment approaches in Ahvaz, Iran: constructed wetlands (CWs) as a nature-based solution and energy-based wastewater treatment plants. The developed model included 30 components and 127 causal links, and was used to examine four scenarios representing CWs, energy-based treatment, a hybrid approach, and direct wastewater discharge. The results showed that both CWs and energy-based solutions had similar effects on public health, while the hybrid scenario produced the greatest improvement. CWs had a positive effect on ecosystem restoration and showed better performance in heavy metal removal, whereas energy-based solutions had a greater negative influence on environmental conditions and climate-related components. In addition, the economic results indicated that CWs were more favorable in terms of capital cost, energy consumption, and operational cost. Sensitivity analysis using ±10% variations in causal weights showed that the main scenario-response patterns remained generally unchanged. Overall, the findings suggest that CWs and energy-based systems each have specific advantages and limitations, while the hybrid approach offers the most balanced performance across the evaluated criteria. This study demonstrates the usefulness of the FCM approach for supporting wastewater management decisions and for identifying trade-offs among treatment alternatives in sustainable water resource planning. Full article

Urban informality in amphibious territories represents a critical yet understudied dimension of contemporary urbanisation in the Global South. This article analyses the interrelations between spatial transformation, social equity, and environmental change in Las Flores, an informal settlement located between the Mallorquín Lagoon and the Magdalena River in Barranquilla, Colombia. Drawing on a mixed-methods approach combining GIS interpretation, participatory mapping, and in-depth interviews, the study examines how processes of informal territorialisation have reshaped both the physical landscape and the social fabric of this amphibious environment. Results indicate that the settlement has expanded progressively over the past two decades, occupying areas of the wetland previously covered by mangroves and natural vegetation. This expansion has been accompanied by environmental degradation, soil infilling, and declining water quality. Residents face persistent infrastructural deficits, limited access to education and healthcare, and increasing social fragmentation between the formal and informal sectors. Yet, the community also exhibits strong organisational capacity, adaptive livelihoods, and a deep sense of place that sustains local identity and resilience. These dynamics exemplify the paradox of amphibious life: coexistence with water as both a resource and a source of vulnerability. Building on these findings, the study develops an urban socio-ecological conceptualisation of Amphibious Justice, a framework for interpreting equity, recognition, and governance in hybrid territories where urbanisation and land–water dynamics intersect. The article proposes a framework of equitable amphibious urbanism that integrates environmental restoration, social inclusion, and participatory governance. The findings suggest that sustainability in such territories cannot be achieved through technocratic restoration or forced resettlement, but through co-produced strategies that recognise local knowledge, tenure security, and ecological stewardship. Ultimately, the case of Las Flores offers insights into how cities in the Global South can pursue just and adaptive coexistence with water amid growing climate and urban pressures. Full article

Background: Pakistan is one of only two countries where wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) continues to persist. Vaccine refusals challenge efforts to end the virus, especially in high-risk communities. Methods: A qualitative exploratory study took place from September to November 2025 in three High-Risk Union Councils (HRUCs) of Karachi, Pakistan. The study examined reasons for refusing the polio vaccine and identified specific communication and operational strategies to improve vaccine acceptance. A total of 23 in-depth interviews and 10 focus group discussions were conducted with 71 participants, including parents who refuse the vaccine, polio program staff, physicians, and government stakeholders. Data were analyzed using a sequential inductive and deductive thematic approach, mapping findings onto the Socio-Ecological Model (SEM) with NVivo 15 (Lumivero, Denver, CO, USA). Results: Factors influencing polio vaccine refusals were interconnected and spanned multiple levels. At the intrapersonal level, campaign fatigue, a lack of knowledge about poliomyelitis, concerns about side effects, and rumors about infertility were common. Community-level factors included household gatekeepers, local influencers, and digital misinformation. Institutional barriers included weak communication from the frontline, inadequate supervision, workforce shortages, poor tracking of refusals, and limited involvement of physicians. At the policy level, refusals were linked to distrust in governance, poor municipal services, and dissatisfaction with vertical campaign methods. Recommended strategies included integrating polio services with routine immunization and primary healthcare, strengthening counseling by physicians, engaging trusted local influencers and community leaders, expanding targeted social media campaigns to counter misinformation, implementing quick responses to rumors, enhancing workforce capacity, and using data-driven microplanning, including targeted SNIDs and focused interventions in areas with chronic refusals. Conclusions: Polio vaccine refusals are shaped by social, communication, operational, and structural factors. Improving communication and operational guidelines by reducing the number of campaigns, increasing active engagement at the frontline, integrating polio activities into routine health services, and addressing misinformation with a dynamic communication strategy may enhance vaccine acceptance and support polio eradication efforts. Full article

Brazil presents a distinctive convergence of continental-scale climatic diversity, extensive urbanization, large-scale biomass burning, rapid land-use change, persistent air-quality monitoring gaps, and deep social inequalities, producing highly heterogeneous and compound environmental health risks. In this context, treating air pollution and climate change as parallel environmental crises obscures their structural interconnections through shared emission sources, mutually reinforcing exposure pathways, and overlapping health and social consequences. In this narrative review, we critically synthesize scientific and institutional lines of evidence and argue that air pollution and climate risks can be more effectively addressed in Brazil through a single strategic agenda for science, public health, and governance. We first discuss why these challenges cannot be managed in isolation, emphasizing the effects of heat, drought, stagnation events, biomass burning, and extreme weather on pollutant formation, dispersion, and health burden. We then examine Brazil as a critical case where recent regulatory advances coexist with structural limitations in monitoring, data integration, and territorial coverage. Based on this diagnosis, we propose an integrated national agenda organized around five mutually reinforcing priorities: monitoring through hybrid networks; predictive science through climate-informed modeling and early warning; public health through the convergence of epidemiology, toxicology, and mechanistic research; equity-oriented research and action through the explicit incorporation of vulnerability, inequality, and climate justice; and policy appraisal through the assessment of disease burden, economic costs, mitigation co-benefits, and trade-offs. We further discuss the governance mechanisms needed to connect these priorities and translate evidence into coordinated action and adaptive public policies. We also argue that the Amazon should be approached not as an isolated ecological exception but as a central component of a broader Brazilian and Global South discussion on environmental health, land-use change, and climate justice. In this scenario, Brazil has the scientific capacity and regulatory momentum to become a reference in the integrated management of air pollution and climate risks, but this will depend on replacing fragmented approaches with a coordinated framework capable of linking exposure, mechanism, burden, inequality, and action. Full article

This article examines Slavoj Žižek’s critique of ecocentrism through the lens of Lacanian ideology theory, asking how the ecological crisis is symbolically organized in contemporary discourse. Rather than treating ecocentrism as a coherent ecological doctrine, it approaches it as an ideological formation that shapes how environmental breakdown is interpreted, moralized, and acted upon. The article argues that appeals to “nature” often construct it as a normative horizon of balance, limit, or lost order through which crisis becomes intelligible in specific ways. It then traces the conceptual, subjective, and social operations through which ecocentrism acquires force: ecological disruption is narrated through images of harmony and violation, responsibility is individualized through guilt and obligation, and ecological concern is absorbed into green capitalist practices such as ethical consumption and managed environmental responsibility. In this way, ecocentrism can function not only as a language of ecological critique but also as a framework that obscures the historically specific political–economic processes driving environmental destruction. The article does not deny the urgency of the ecological crisis. Rather, it argues for a more materially mediated account of ecological politics, one that is more attentive to capitalist accumulation, infrastructural systems, and unequal social relations in producing socioecological harm. Full article

Peripheral vestibulopathy (PV) is a common disorder that causes dizziness and balance impairment, substantially affecting patients’ quality of life. When symptoms persist, they frequently lead to anxiety, depression, and an increased risk of social isolation. Although central vestibular compensation (CVC) often promotes functional recovery, current pharmacological options remain limited and are primarily aimed at symptom control. Consequently, they should be considered adjuncts rather than alternatives to rehabilitation-based strategies. Vestibular rehabilitation (VR) remains the cornerstone of treatment for promoting functional recovery in patients with PV. Based on the complementary mechanisms of adaptation, substitution, and habituation, VR enhances the central nervous system’s ability to compensate for vestibular deficits by optimizing the integration of visual, proprioceptive, and residual vestibular inputs. Robust evidence from both clinical and preclinical studies has demonstrated its efficacy in improving postural stability, dynamic balance, gaze stabilization, and overall functional performance. Experimental studies using animal models have further highlighted the critical role of active sensorimotor training in ecologically relevant environments for enhancing vestibular compensation. Pharmacological interventions may further facilitate these adaptive processes by modulating the neurobiological mechanisms underlying vestibular compensation, thereby improving responsiveness to rehabilitation. Likewise, emerging neuromodulation approaches, including galvanic vestibular stimulation, have shown promising potential to enhance neural plasticity and augment the effects of rehabilitation. Consequently, combining VR with targeted pharmacological therapies and/or vestibular stimulation techniques may provide synergistic benefits and maximize functional recovery. In conclusion, vestibular rehabilitation should remain the foundation of PV management and be integrated with pharmacological and neuromodulatory approaches within a multidisciplinary therapeutic framework. Further research is needed to optimize rehabilitation protocols, identify the biological determinants of successful vestibular compensation, and develop personalized therapeutic strategies aimed at maximizing functional recovery and improving patients’ quality of life. Full article

Rapid urbanization in China has intensified ecological degradation, loss of architectural and cultural heritage, and declining well-being in traditional villages. Existing conservation approaches often address ecological, economic, or physical heritage issues in isolation, while insufficiently incorporating residents’ quality of life (QoL) as a central criterion of sustainability. This study develops a human-centred traditional village preservation framework grounded in the ecovillage concept and a QoL-oriented sustainability paradigm, using Langde Miao Village in Guizhou Province as a representative ethnic heritage settlement. A mixed-methods approach combining systematic literature review, Delphi expert consultation, household surveys, and partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was employed to examine the interrelationships among ecological, cultural, social, and economic dimensions of sustainable built heritage. Based on valid responses, the empirical results indicate that the ecological dimension exerts the strongest direct effect on residents’ quality of life, followed by the cultural and economic dimensions, while the social dimension shows a comparatively weaker effect. The proposed framework provides a community-centred model for sustainable architectural heritage conservation and rural revitalization in traditional villages. Full article

This article reconsiders the relationship between religions and the environment from a historical and methodological perspective. It argues that the ecological orientation of a religious tradition cannot be deduced directly from its sacred texts, since texts become socially effective only through a range of mediating processes such as interpretation, preaching, ritual, education, institutional authority, devotional practice, and political use. This is especially evident in ancient and medieval societies, where most believers encountered Scripture through mediators rather than as individual readers. The article discusses the influential paradigm inaugurated by Lynn White, the critical contribution of ecofeminism, and recent theological genealogies linking Christian doctrines to ecological and colonial violence. While recognising the importance of these approaches, it stresses the need to avoid anachronism and overly linear explanations. Concepts such as “nature” and “environment” have changed over time, and the environmental question, as currently understood, belongs to the modern and contemporary world. The article also criticises the public tendency to rank religions according to their supposed ecological value. Religious environmentalism is interpreted as a contemporary process of reinterpretation, in which inherited symbols, doctrines, and practices are resemanticised in response to the ecological crisis. In doing so, it proposes mediation as a central category for studying religions and environmental thought historically. Full article

Tuberculosis (TB) remains one of the most burdensome infectious diseases in Indonesia. One contributing factor is the environment, particularly issues related to household ventilation and lighting. TB control efforts do not solely rely on medical interventions but also require a community-based approach that emphasizes active community involvement in preventing and controlling environmental risks to TB transmission. This study aims to analyze risk factors, distribution patterns, and their implications for environmentally based TB transmission risk control strategies. A mixed-methods design was conducted in two stages: first, risk factor analysis (with a case–control approach) and disease distribution pattern determination on environmental variables were performed, followed by a multidimensional scaling model (by using the Rapid Appraisal for Fisheries (RAPFISH) method) according to sustainability dimensions (ecological, economic, social, institutional, and technological) based on the resulting significant variables/indicators. This research was conducted in 2024, in four villages/nagari in West Sumatra of Indonesia. For quantitative analysis, data were collected through interviews, physical measurements of the environment, and determination of the coordinates of the residences of people with TB. Data were analyzed using bivariate and multivariate analyses. For the distribution pattern, Nearest Neighbor Analysis (NNA) in the ArcView program version 3.1 was used. Meanwhile, for qualitative data collection, focus group discussion (FGD) was performed. This study found that poor ventilation, minimal lighting, and a lack of stigma competency significantly increased the risk of TB transmission. Varied distribution patterns between regions demand adaptive and locally based strategies. The community-triggering approach is key to building community awareness and participation in creating a healthy and TB-free home environment. Full article