Search Results (1,142)

Cultural ecosystem services (CESs) represent a critical link between ecosystems and human well-being and constitute a core foundation for regional sustainable development. The balance between CES supply and demand directly affects the coordination efficiency between ecological conservation and socio-economic development, making it a key prerequisite for ecosystem management, conservation planning, and policy formulation. This study focuses on the circum-Taihu region and integrates multi-source data to assess public perceived demand and spatial supply capacity of CESs. Supply–demand matching relationships are examined across three dimensions, namely, scenic beauty, cultural heritage, and recreation, through the construction of a region-specific CES quantitative indicator system. The impacts of multiple environmental factors on CES supply–demand dynamics are further explored to provide scientific support for coordinated ecological, cultural, and economic sustainability at the regional scale. The findings demonstrate the following: (1) the proposed methodology effectively quantifies CES perception and supply capacity in the circum-Taihu region. Scenic beauty exhibits the highest perception levels, whereas cultural heritage and recreation show lower perception. Cultural heritage displays the strongest supply capacity, whereas scenic beauty and recreation exhibit weaker supply. (2) Significant spatial imbalances exist between CES perception levels and supply capacity across the circum-Taihu region. Areas exhibiting mismatches constitute the largest proportion for cultural heritage CESs, followed by scenic beauty, with recreation displaying the smallest amounts of imbalance. (3) Environmental drivers exert differentiated effects on CES supply–demand relationships. Slope, road network density, and elevation have significant positive effects, whereas the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), distance to water bodies, and distance to roads exhibit significant negative effects. Distance to roads imposes the strongest inhibitory influence on CES perception, whereas elevation emerges as the most influential driver of public perceived CES levels. Full article

This study examines the socio-demographic characteristics, rice production practices, and breeding preferences of farmers across three major rice-growing regions of Vietnam: the Mekong Delta, Central Vietnam, and North Vietnam. A survey of 109 rice farmers captured information on cultivation status, livelihood activities, and preferred breeding traits for rice improvement. The results reveal clear regional differentiation in farm structure, production objectives, and varietal preferences. Rice farming in the Mekong Delta is predominantly commercially oriented, characterized by larger landholdings and greater male participation, whereas rice production in Central and Northern Vietnam is more subsistence-oriented, with higher female involvement. Farmers across regions consistently valued locally adapted rice varieties, but articulated region-specific trait priorities shaped by agro-ecological conditions. In the Mekong Delta, preferences emphasized soft grain quality and salinity tolerance, reflecting coastal production constraints. In Central Vietnam, farmers prioritized heat tolerance and resistance to pests and diseases, while in Northern Vietnam, cold tolerance and grain quality attributes, including aroma and harder texture, were most important. Major biotic stresses, particularly blast and bacterial blight, also showed significant regional variation in reported incidence. By linking these region-specific preferences to clearly defined Target Populations of Environments (TPEs), this study provides a practical framework for aligning breeding targets with real-world production conditions. The findings offer actionable guidance for participatory breeding and decentralized varietal evaluation under the Biodiversity for Opportunities, Livelihoods, and Development (BOLD) initiative, as well as other rice improvement programs. To our knowledge, this represents the first multi-region evidence from Vietnam that systematically integrates agro-ecological variation with a TPE-based breeding approach, supporting the development of climate-resilient, farmer-preferred rice varieties and more sustainable rice production systems. Full article

Global water management faces a critical challenge: whilst scholarly consensus recognises that multiple, interacting drivers fundamentally shape water availability and management capacity, operational governance frameworks fail to systematically incorporate this understanding. This disconnect is particularly acute in public good contexts where incomplete knowledge, diverse stakeholder values, and statutory planning mandates create distinct challenges. Using Australia’s Murray–Darling Basin as a pilot case, this research develops and demonstrates a rapid, policy-relevant heuristic for identifying, prioritising, and incorporating drivers of change in complex socio-ecological water systems. Through structured participatory deliberation with 70 experts spanning research, policy, industry, and community sectors across three sequential workshops and 15 semi-structured interviews, we systematically identified key drivers across environmental, governance, economic, social, and legacy dimensions. A risk and sensitivity assessment framework enabled prioritisation based on impact, vulnerability, and urgency. Climate change, drought, water quality events, and cumulative impacts emerged as the highest-priority future drivers, with climate change acting as a threat multiplier, whilst governance drivers show declining relative significance. Using these methodological innovations, we synthesise the I-PLAN heuristic: five interdependent dimensions (Integrative Knowledge, Prioritisation for Management, Linkages between Drivers, Adaptive Agendas, and Normative Collaboration) that provide water planners with a transferable, operational tool for driver identification and bridging to planning and management in data-sparse contexts. Full article

Socio-ecological systems in basin regions characterized by diverse cultural traditions and hierarchical village spatial structure are undergoing profound transformation driven by multifunctional demands and spatial restructuring. This study develops an analytical framework encompassing economic production, socio-cultural functions, and ecological potential to examine the spatial differentiation and socio-ecological coupling mechanisms within the Yilong Lake Basin, Yunnan Province. Through the entropy weighting method and a coupling coordination model, the framework evaluates the “lake–mountain–village” gradient of spatial differentiation. The results indicate that: (1) the overall coordination level of multifunctional systems in the region remains relatively low, exhibiting a decreasing trend from lakeshore to the mountain periphery; (2) village-level dependencies of spatial functions can be summarized into three coupling categories—associated with institutional embedding, self-organization, and value mismatch—revealing distinct socio-ecological interaction patterns; and (3) three coupling categories correspond to three differentiated governance pathways, namely coupling optimization, functional transition, and conflict mitigation. The study advances theoretical and methodological insights into the spatial differentiation and evolution of complex village systems, highlighting the nonlinear coexistence of interdependence and constraint among economic, social, and ecological functions. It further provides practical guidance for coordinated governance and sustainable spatial planning in similar rural and basin environments worldwide. Full article

The global energy transition (ET) is widely portrayed as a technological shift toward low-carbon systems; however, it also entails profound geopolitical and socio-environmental transformations. While energy justice (EJ) has become a key framework for assessing fairness in energy systems, it seldom incorporates the geopolitical restructuring of material, energy, and economic flows that underpin contemporary transitions. This article develops a geopolitically informed approach to EJ, trying to capture how the new flows of energy, matter, and power shape—and are shaped by—enduring centre–periphery inequalities. Using a guided literature synthesis that combines EJ, political ecology, decolonial critiques, and green extractivism, the study enhances classical EJ tenets by incorporating transboundary flows, ecological unequal exchange, ontological plurality, and local self-determination. An illustrative application to copper extraction in Chile and Peru demonstrates how critical-mineral supply chains reproduce new sacrifice zones within emerging geopolitical configurations. By connecting local socio-environmental conflicts to global energy dynamics, the framework advances a more comprehensive, multidimensional approach to justice in the ET. The findings offer conceptual and practical insights for designing more equitable and geopolitically aware sustainability policies. Full article

The concept of sustainable development has emerged as a global consensus, forged in response to environmental constraints and critical reflection on conventional growth-oriented paradigms. It now serves as the overarching framework for addressing climate, ecological, and socio-economic crises. In the period after the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2016, there was an observable trend of increased integration of these objectives into the strategic frameworks of national and subnational entities. However, global assessments have indicated a divergence between the progress achieved and the trajectory delineated by the SDGs. The Earth system is demonstrating signs of decreased resilience, with widening inequalities and the emergence of multiple crises, thereby hindering the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. As the 2030 deadline approaches, a fundamental question arises for global development governance: what should be the future of the SDGs beyond 2030? While insufficient progress has prompted debates over the adequacy of the SDG framework, fundamentally revising or replacing the SDGs would risk undermining a hard-won international consensus forged through decades of negotiation and institutional investment. Based on a comprehensive review of the historical evolution of the sustainable development concept, this study argues that the SDGs represent a rare and fragile achievement in global governance. While insufficient progress has sparked debates about their effectiveness, fundamentally revising or replacing the SDGs would jeopardize the hard-won international consensus forged through decades of negotiations and institutional investments. This study further analyzes the latest progress on the SDGs and identifies emerging risks, aiming to explore how to accelerate and optimize sustainable development pathways within the existing SDG framework rather than propose a new global goal system. Based on both global experience and practice in China, four interconnected strategic priorities—namely, economic reform, social equity, environmental justice, and technology sharing—are proposed as a comprehensive framework to accelerate SDG implementation and guide the transformation of development pathways towards a more just, low-carbon, and resilient future. Full article

The erratic nature, increasing prevalence, and intensity of extreme meteorological phenomena are forcing researchers and farmers to urgently develop adaptation practices to enhance the resilience of agroecosystems to climate change. It is strategically crucial to identify farming systems that have successfully endured recent climatic disturbances and understand the agroecological attributes that enabled them to resist and/or recover from droughts and hurricanes. This paper describes a number of methodologies utilized by Latin American researchers to assess agroecosystem resilience by estimating the vulnerability and the response capacity of selected farming systems to cope with climatic threats. The methodologies utilize a set of socio-ecological indicators that can be easily evaluated in the field, allowing farmers to determine whether their farms can withstand a drought or a major storm and, based on this information, select agroecological practices able to enhance the resiliency of their farms in preparation for future events. The principles and practices of resilience identified on successful, climate-resistant farms can be shared with thousands of producers, facilitating the broader adoption and scaling up of agroecological adaptation strategies. Full article

Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SUDSs) are essential for stormwater management in urban areas, with varying hydrological, social, ecological, and economic benefits. Nevertheless, choosing the SUDS most appropriate for public spaces poses a challenge when balancing details/specifications against community decisions, primarily social implications and perceptions. Building on the SUDS design pillar of the amenity, this study outlines a three-phase methodological framework for selecting SUDS based on social facilitation. The first phase introduces the application of the Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) and Classificatory Expectation–Maximization (CEM) techniques by modeling complex social interdependencies to find critical components related to urban planning. A Likert scale survey was also conducted with 440 urban dwellers in Tunja (Colombia), which identified three dimensions: Residential Satisfaction (RS), Resilience and Adaptation to Climate Change (RACC), and Community Participation (CP). In the second phase, the factors identified above were transformed into eight operational criteria, which were weighted using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) with the collaboration of 35 international experts in SUDS planning and implementation. In the third phase, these weighted criteria were used to evaluate and classify 13 types of SUDSs based on the experts’ assessments of their sub-criteria. The results deliver a clear message: cities must concentrate on solutions that will guarantee that water is managed to the best of their ability, not just safely, and that also enhance climate resilience, energy efficiency, and the ways in which public space is used. Among those options considered, infiltration ponds, green roofs, rain gardens, wetlands, and the like were the best-performing options, providing real and concrete uses in promoting a more resilient and sustainable urban water system. The methodology was also used in a real case in Tunja, Colombia. In its results, this approach proved not only pragmatic but also useful for all concerned, showing that the socio-cultural dimensions can be truly integrated into planning SUDSs and ensuring success. Full article

Rural areas are currently facing a deepening “social-ecological divide,” where the fragmentation of natural, economic, and cultural data—often trapped in “data silos”—hinders effective systemic governance. To bridge this gap, in this study, the Rural Landscape Information Model (RLIM), an integrative framework designed to reconfigure rural connections through data fusion, process coordination, and performance feedback, is proposed. We validate the framework’s effectiveness through a comparative analysis of two distinct rural archetypes in China: the innovation-driven Yu Village and the heritage-conservation-oriented Hani Terraces. Our results reveal that digital technologies drive distinct empowerment pathways moderated by regional contexts: (1) In the data domain, heterogeneous resources were successfully integrated into the framework in both cases (achieving a Monitoring Coverage > 80%), yet served divergent strategic ends—comprehensive territorial management in Yu Village versus precision heritage monitoring in the Hani Terraces. (2) In the process domain, digital platforms restructured social interactions differently. Yu Village achieved high individual participation (Participation Rate ≈ 0.85) via mobile governance apps, whereas the Hani Terraces relied on cooperative-mediated engagement to bridge the digital divide for elderly farmers. (3) In the performance domain, the interventions yielded contrasting but positive economic-ecological outcomes. Yu Village realized a 25% growth in tourism revenue through “industrial transformation” (Ecology+), while the Hani Terraces achieved a 12% value enhancement by stabilizing traditional agricultural ecosystems (Culture+). This study contributes a verifiable theoretical model and a set of operational tools, demonstrating that digital technologies are not merely instrumental add-ons but catalysts for fostering resilient, collaborative, and context-specific rural socio-ecological systems, ultimately offering scalable governance strategies for sustainable rural revitalization in the digital era. Full article

The One Health framework highlights the interconnectedness of human, animal, and environmental health, requiring interdisciplinary and multisectoral collaboration to address complex global health challenges. This scoping review protocol aims to guide the systematic mapping on how studies and policy initiatives have incorporated socioecological interconnections within the One Health paradigm, following the Joanna Briggs Institute guidance and the PRISMA Scr checklist. The experimental design includes searches in PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, LILACS, Health Systems Evidence, Social Systems Evidence, and Google Scholar for the period from 2004 to 2025. The strategy, developed with librarian support and peer reviewed, includes terms in English, Portuguese, and Spanish. Pilot searches retrieved 5333 PubMed and 470 LILACS records. Eligible documents must explicitly present two or more of the six One Health dimensions: policies to strengthen health systems; antimicrobial resistance; food safety; environmental health; emerging and re-emerging zoonotic epidemics and pandemics; endemic zoonotic, neglected tropical and vector-borne diseases. A standardized tool was developed for data extraction, synthesizing in narrative, tabular, and graphical formats. The protocol’s utilization will provide comprehensive mapping of practices and policies, identifying achievements, barriers, and knowledge gaps to inform future strategies and strengthen global health governance. Full article

As the impacts of climate change intensify, water resource conflicts are escalating globally, particularly in regions with uneven water distribution, such as Central Asia. Long-standing disputes over water allocation persist between Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. This paper aims to examine the conflicts and challenges in water allocation between the two countries and explore the potential of Decision Support Systems (DSSs) as a viable solution. The paper begins by reviewing the historical evolution of water allocation in Central Asia, analyzing upstream–downstream disputes and notable cooperation efforts, with a focus on key water agreements. It then outlines the definitions, development, and classifications of DSSs in the context of water allocation and presents two illustrative case studies—the Tarim River Basin in Xinjiang, China, and the Nile River Basin in Africa. These cases demonstrate the applicability of DSSs in water-scarce regions with similar socio-ecological dynamics and complex multi-country, cross-sectoral water demands. Building on these insights, the paper analyzes the key challenges to implementing DSSs for transboundary water allocation in Central Asia, including limited data availability and sharing, insufficient technical capacity, chronic funding shortages, socio-political complexities, climate change impacts, and the inherent difficulty of modeling complex systems. In response, a set of targeted pragmatic recommendations is proposed. While acknowledging its limitations, the paper argues that establishing a structured, system-based decision-making framework—namely DSSs—can help stakeholders enhance climate-informed strategic planning and foster cooperation, ultimately contributing to more equitable and sustainable water resource allocation in the region. Full article

Against the backdrop of intensifying global climate change and expanding human encroachment into mountainous regions, landslides have increased markedly in both frequency and destructiveness, emerging as a key risk to socio-ecological security and development in mountain areas. Rigorous assessment and forward-looking prediction of landslide disaster vulnerability (LDV) are essential for targeted disaster risk reduction and regional sustainability. However, existing studies largely center on landslide susceptibility or risk, often overlooking the dynamic evolution of adaptive capacity within affected systems and its nonlinear responses across temporal and spatial scales, thereby obscuring the complex mechanisms underpinning LDV. To address this gap, we examine Yunnan Province, a landslide-prone region of China where intensified extreme rainfall and the expansion of human activities in recent years have exacerbated landslide risk. Drawing on the vulnerability scoping diagram (VSD), we construct an exposure–sensitivity–adaptive capacity assessment framework to characterize the spatiotemporal distribution of LDV during 2000–2020. We further develop a multi-model, multi-scale integrated prediction framework, benchmarking the predictive performance of four machine learning algorithms—backpropagation neural network (BPNN), support vector machine (SVM), random forest (RF), and XGBoost—across sample sizes ranging from 2500 to 360,000 to identify the optimal model–scale combination. From 2000 to 2020, LDV in Yunnan declined overall, exhibiting a spatial pattern of “higher in the northwest and lower in the southeast.” High-LDV areas decreased markedly, and sustained enhancement of adaptive capacity was the primary driver of the decline. At approximately the 90,000-cell grid scale, XGBoost performed best, robustly reproducing the observed spatiotemporal evolution and projecting continued declines in LDV during 2030–2050, albeit with decelerating improvement; low-LDV zones show phased fluctuations of “expansion followed by contraction”, whereas high-LDV zones continue to contract northwestward. The proposed multi-model, multi-scale fusion framework enhances the accuracy and robustness of LDV prediction, provides a scientific basis for precise disaster risk reduction strategies and resource optimization in Yunnan, and offers a quantitative reference for resilience building and policy design in analogous regions worldwide. Full article

The uncoordinated water–sediment relationship, fragile eco-environment and unbalanced economic development in the Wei River Basin (WRB) pose serious challenges to its high-quality development. Most existing studies focus on static structures or single elements, making it difficult to systematically reveal the complex interrelationships among ecosystem services (ESs) supply, transmission and demand. To address this issue, this paper innovatively combines the “system perspective” with the “flow network model”. From the perspective of flood-sediment transport, eco-environmental and socio-economic (FES) subsystems, we take the WRB as its research object and systematically analyzes the supply–demand relationship of ESs, the pathways of the ESs flows and ecological compensation (EC) strategies at multiple scales. By constructing a supply–demand assessment model for six types of ESs combined with the water-related flows model, the enhanced two-step floating catchment area method and the gravity model, this paper simulates the ESs flows driven by different transmission media (water, road and atmosphere). The results showed the following: (1) a significant spatial mismatch was observed between the high-supply areas at the northern foothills of the Qinling Mountains and the high-demand areas in the Guanzhong Plains. Furthermore, the degree of this mismatch increased with decreasing scale. (2) The pathways of different ESs flows were influenced by their respective transmission media. The water-related flows passed through areas along the Wei River and the Jing River. The carbon sequestration flows were identified in the upper reaches of the Luo River and between the core urban agglomerations of the Guanzhong Plains. The crop production flows were significantly influenced by the scale of urban crop demand, radiating outward from Xi’an City. (3) At the county and watershed scales, The EC fund pools of 7.5 billion yuan and 2.6 billion yuan were formed, respectively. These EC funds covered over 90% of the areas. These findings verify the applicability of the “FES subsystems” framework for multi-scale EC and provide a theoretical basis for developing an integrated EC mechanism across the entire basin. Full article

This article analyses contemporary transhumance in Gran Canaria as a singular case of insular pastoralism and biocultural heritage within the Mediterranean and Atlantic contexts. While transhumance has been widely recognised for its ecological, cultural and socio-economic relevance, in Gran Canaria it persists in an especially fragile form, maintained by a small, ageing group of herders. Drawing on an interdisciplinary methodology that combines 36 semi-structured interviews, ethnographic fieldwork and GIS-based spatial analysis of routes and grazing areas, the study characterises the socio-ecological functioning of the system, its environmental and cultural contributions, and the threats it faces. The results highlight the role of transhumance in sustaining agrobiodiversity, fire prevention, ecological connectivity and traditional ecological knowledge, as well as in shaping a distinctive pastoral soundscape, toponymy and material culture. At the same time, the system is undermined by demographic ageing, land fragmentation, urban and tourism pressure, bureaucratic burdens and climate uncertainty. The article examines emerging initiatives in cultural and experiential tourism linked to cheese production, wool and participatory transhumant journeys, arguing that tourism can support, but not substitute, the protection of pastoral livelihoods. It concludes by outlining policy implications for island territories, emphasising the need for integrated governance that recognizes transhumance as living heritage and a strategic tool for cultural landscape management. Full article

This paper investigates land-use as the cornerstone of spatial planning in rapidly urbanising contexts, focusing on the critical gaps at the mesoscale between centralised vision and local implementation. By exploring Java’s complex desakota landscapes, this study employs an innovative GIS-based land-use cluster analysis using multidimensional parameters—including slope, population density, agricultural land, forest cover, and surface water—to categorise land-use patterns. The resulting mesoscale clusters reveal cohesive functional territories that transcend traditional political boundaries, articulating distinctive ‘mixtures’ of urbanity within Java’s rural-urban continuum. This approach not only captures socio-environmental dynamics across administrative silos but also establishes a new strategic framework for regional planning challenges. By advancing boundary-making beyond mere political convention to reflect on-the-ground ecological and functional coherence, this framework responds to the urgent global challenge of reconciling accelerating suburban and regional development pressures with the preservation of local communities, agricultural systems, and natural landscapes. Full article