Search Results (265)

China’s rapid urbanization and industrialization have led to a severe shortage of water resources. China’s water scarcity problem is characterized by the mismatch between water resources, economic development, and the spatial distribution of production factors. Therefore, it is significant to study the complex dynamic relationship of water resource flow in space to alleviate regional water scarcity and realize sustainable development. In this study, the spatial effects and key influencing factors of the inter-provincial water-resource flow network in China were examined using water-resource consumption as a measure. The results show that the total water footprint showed an upward trend during the study period, and the water footprints of Xinjiang and Jiangsu were much higher than those of other regions. The hotspot areas of inter-provincial water footprint of inflow (WFI) were mainly concentrated in water-abundant areas, while the hotspot areas of water footprint of outflow (WFO) were concentrated in water-scarce areas, and the flow pattern lacked rationality. The local spatial structures of WFI and WFO were found to be relatively stable and showed a trend of synergistic change, with a higher degree of spatial agglomeration in WFO compared to WFI. Considering China’s future water resource security and sustainable development, economic development and scientific and technological inputs should play a more important role in alleviating pressure on the major water-resource-exporting provinces and optimizing the inter-provincial water-resource flow pattern. Full article

Rapid urbanization of the human population and the escalating threat of climate change are the main global crises of the 21st century. When cities densify to accommodate the growth, they face critical shortage of urban space and intense competition between gray infrastructure, ecological preservation, and the urgent need for renewable energy generation, calling for effective urban planning as well as management. Traditionally, urban planning operates in isolated departments without cooperation; they simply separate nature into parks, energy into peripheral power plants, and water into underground pipes, leading to more and more vigorous competition for space utilization. This perspective argues that such a fragmented approach is no longer viable, while a new paradigm of spatial synergy integrating blue–green infrastructure (BGI) and renewable energy sources (RES) possesses encouraging potential and is gaining increasing attention. After discussing the mechanics, the planning methodologies, and the operational frameworks of the spatial synergy, the critical challenges and specific barriers in the synergistic integration are summarized in the dimensions of spatial planning, operation and techniques, socio-economics and governance, and the interconnected pathways, spanning good planning, honest financing, and inclusive governance are proposed to provide a clear roadmap for achieving tangible sustainable urbanism. Full article

In recent years, power grids have grown increasingly complicated, and the rising penetration of new energy sources poses prominent risks to the secure and stable operation of power systems. As a critical technology for improving grid resilience and power supply reliability, mobile operation and maintenance bases are investigated in this paper, which proposes an optimal configuration method tailored to multi-scenario emergency power guarantee requirements of power systems. Monte Carlo sampling is adopted to simulate various fault scenarios, and a multi-index resilience evaluation system consisting of load loss rate, power shortage ratio and recovery indicators is established. On this basis, a pre-positioning optimization model is formulated to minimize the space–time scheduling cost of mobile operation and maintenance bases. To tackle the model complexity, nonlinear convergence factors and dynamic adaptive weight strategies are embedded into the conventional whale optimization algorithm, which improves the global search capability and convergence stability of the algorithm. Simulation results show that the proposed method outperforms the baseline case without mobile operation maintenance bases: system load curtailment drops from 1.27 MWh to 0.65 MWh, and the overall resilience index reaches 0.831, greatly boosting distribution network power recovery performance. In addition, the improved algorithm converges within 126 iterations. Compared with standard algorithms, it improves solving efficiency by 29.2% and cuts total scheduling cost by 15.8%, achieving a good trade-off between calculation precision and convergence speed. Full article

Old urban areas face severe spatial supply–demand contradictions as aboveground space nears saturation while public service demand grows. Developing underground public spaces offers a key solution, yet fragmented development limits overall benefits, necessitating coordinated aboveground–underground development to achieve urban renewal and sustainability. Taking Shanghai’s old urban areas as a case, this study constructs an evaluation system with 17 aboveground indicators across 5 dimensions and 9 underground indicators across 3 dimensions. Using the combination of AHP–entropy weight method for weighting, the coupling coordination degree model, and the obstacle degree model, this study identifies the temporal evolution trends in the development levels of the two systems, the characteristics of their coupling coordination stages, and the main constraining factors from 1995 to 2025. The results show: (1) Both systems have shown continuous growth, with underground public space accelerating its development after 2010, and by 2015, it had nearly caught up with the aboveground system in the time-series projection results; (2) The D value of coupling coordination has increased from 0.2431 to 0.9532, experiencing three stages of low coupling coordination, general coupling coordination, and high coupling coordination; (3) The obstacle factors have shown a dynamic evolution path from scale shortage to morphological complexity, and then to the synergy of the aboveground and underground morphologies. In the higher coupling coordination stage, the length of the aboveground bus lines and the landscape shape index of the underground became the dominant obstacles. This study provides a quantitative basis for coordinated planning and decision-making in the renewal of old urban areas. Full article

Fine-scale site selection of urban parks serves as a core measure to guarantee spatial equity of public service spaces for residents and advance the sustainable development of urban ecological spaces. Among relevant tasks, balancing the supply and demand of green spaces stands out as an essential foundation for maintaining long-term stability of urban human well-being and ecosystems. Green-space supply is defined as the stock of various existing urban parks within the city, while green-space demand is quantified via grids generated based on residential communities in Changsha. Existing research on urban park site selection lacks a full-process coupled framework, fails to accommodate differentiated layout demands for multi-level parks, and struggles to reconcile the sustainable operation and long-term ecological empowerment of urban green-space systems. Taking the main urban area of Changsha as the research scope, this study divides the study area into grid units to analyze the spatial differentiation of green-space accessibility and identify service blind zones. The XGBoost model is adopted to predict areas suitable for green-space construction, and the NSGA-III algorithm is applied to realize collaborative multi-objective optimization covering service efficiency, ecological benefits, and land development costs. The results reveal that the 15-min walking coverage of community parks in central Changsha only reaches 57.29%. Respectively, 34.52% and 41.04% of residential communities record accessibility levels below the municipal average of urban parks and forest parks, with prominent shortages of green-space supply in peripheral urban areas. This study optimizes and screens twenty-eight candidate sites for community parks, twelve candidate sites for urban parks, and eight candidate sites for forest parks. The proposed scheme effectively narrows the gap in green-space accessibility across the whole city and coordinates ecological conservation with land development costs. Compared with research relying on a single model or two-stage coupling frameworks, this paper constructs a systematic workflow spanning supply–demand status assessment to multi-objective layout decision-making, enabling differentiated optimized layout of multi-tiered parks. The integrated framework effectively enhances the spatial resilience and resource utilization efficiency of urban green-space systems, facilitates high-quality and sustainable upgrading of urban living environments, and provides a referable innovative approach for multi-level urban park arrangement and refined multi-objective planning. Full article

Urban green space (UGS) service mismatch is a key public space issue that needs to be addressed in the renewal of built-up urban areas. Existing studies have mostly evaluated UGS service levels from the perspective of green space supply or accessibility, but have paid insufficient attention to the mismatch among population demand, UGS supply, and UGS accessibility, as well as the built environment contexts associated with different mismatch types. Taking the urban core of Shenyang as a case study, this study constructs a UGS service mismatch typology and combines non-UGS built environment indicators, XGBoost, and SHAP to identify the spatial characteristics and nonlinear model-based associations of different mismatch types. The results indicate the following: (1) UGS service problems in the urban core of Shenyang can be divided into five types. Priority Improvement Area, Potential Activation Area, and Resource-rich Area together account for 56.05% of the study area, indicating that the mismatch among demand, resources, and accessibility has a high spatial coverage. (2) Different mismatch types correspond to differentiated built environment profiles. Priority Improvement Area co-occurs with service shortage, weak functional concentration, low development intensity, and weak transit support. Potential Activation Area has relatively good functional and transport foundations, but its UGS service transformation remains insufficient. (3) SHAP results show that public transit proximity, functional concentration, and building form are key indicators associated with model-based type differentiation. The contributions of mean building floor and POI density to Priority Improvement Area decline after exceeding their breakpoints, indicating that, within the model, this type is more likely to occur in areas with insufficient development intensity and functional concentration. By integrating the demand–supply–accessibility relationship, UGS service mismatch typology, and built environment characterization, this study provides a more spatially targeted analytical framework for UGS service diagnosis in built-up urban areas, and supports the shift from uniform green space provision to type-specific service optimization. Full article

Despite the potential of Eragrostis nigra in alleviating forage shortages and controlling soil erosion, there is little information about how nitrogen fertilization and row spacing affect its forage and seed production. Thus, a two-year field experiment was conducted to explore the effects of nitrogen (N) fertilization (0, 45, 90, 135 kg hectare⁻¹ (ha⁻¹)) and row spacing (20 cm, 40 cm) on its forage yield, nutritive value, seed yield and quality. Results showed that forage dry matter yield (DMY) and harvested seed yield (HSY) increased with higher N rates; however, no further enhancement was observed at 135 kg per ha⁻¹, making 90 kg ha⁻¹ optimum. This may be because excessive nitrogen disrupts the carbon–nitrogen metabolic balance. N fertilization increased the relative feed value by enhancing crude protein content and decreasing acid detergent fiber. Relative to the 20 cm spacing, the 40 cm spacing averagely raised PSY and HSY by 34.7% and 21.3%, respectively. The quadratic regression model yielded maximum predicted HSY values of 27.6 and 26.7 kg ha⁻¹, achieved at optimal N rates of 135 and 98.6 kg ha⁻¹ for the 20 cm and 40 cm spacings, respectively. Thousand-seed weight (TSW), germination index, and vigor index were significantly improved by row spacing and N application (p < 0.05). Seed yield enhancement from N was positively correlated with increases in number of fertile tillers (FT), number of spikelets per tiller and seed set (p < 0.05). Furthermore, FT and TSW had the strongest direct effects on seed yield, with standardized path coefficients of 0.362 and 0.390. Our findings highlight that an application rate of 90 kg ha⁻¹ N combined with 40 cm row spacing could be recommended as the efficient agronomic practice for maximizing forage yield, nutritive value, and seed yield in E. nigra. Importantly, this regime also enhances economic returns while reducing N leaching risks, thereby supporting more sustainable forage production systems. Full article

The growing deployment of European Data Spaces requires more than advanced technical infrastructures; it also demands specialised human competencies to ensure interoperability, governance, and trust. This paper redefines organisational readiness as a key indicator of the transition from experimental deployments to large-scale, governed data exchange. Although technical solutions provide the necessary foundation, training is essential to ensure that the digital transition is supported by professionals capable of operating these ecosystems effectively. To address the research question, “Which competencies are required to enable data reuse within Data Spaces?”, with a specific focus on spatial data and Urban Digital Twins, this study proposes a hybrid methodology. This approach combines a top-down analysis of reference architectures (e.g., EIF and DSSC Blueprint) with a bottom-up diagnosis based on an expert-based qualitative survey. Preliminary results suggest that, although 58% of organisations identify technical integration between BIM and GIS as the main obstacle, 47% identify the shortage of specialised skills as the primary bottleneck preventing operational maturity. The analysis reveals a Maturity Plateau that hinders the transition from technical connectivity (Data Space Maturity Model Level 2) to full operational maturity (Level 3). To overcome this barrier, the study presents a convergence matrix based on the DIS4SME initiative, mapping knowledge gaps to a competency roadmap. This framework identifies urgent training needs in the semantic and legal domains, and provides an operational guide for supporting organisational maturity across Data Spaces and strengthening professional expertise. Full article

Food delivery riders face a structural shortage of informal street rest spaces in urban public environments, yet existing facilities often fail to match their highly mobile labor processes. Taking the Hexi University Town commercial district in Changsha as a case study, this research examines how rest-space conditions are associated with riders’ occupational dignity and work environment satisfaction. Based on 365 valid questionnaires, field observations, and informal interviews, structural equation modeling, bootstrap mediation analysis, and grouped regression analysis were conducted within a spatial justice framework. The results show that spatial justice perceptions are associated with satisfaction through differentiated pathways. Spatial embeddedness is associated with work environment satisfaction, while facility suitability operates partly through occupational dignity and has the highest mediation proportion. Procedural justice is insignificant in formal spaces but has a strong effect in informal spaces, revealing a mismatch between institutional provision and practical accessibility. The findings indicate that riders’ rest-space dilemma stems not only from insufficient facilities but also from the disembedding of spatial rights from mobile labor processes. This study extends spatial justice research from resource distribution to labor-process embeddedness and proposes micro-renewal strategies that shift from facility provision to process embeddedness, offering implications for inclusive public-space planning, sustainable urban design, and urban governance. Full article

The high penetration of renewable energy has exposed integrated energy systems (IES) to stronger source-load uncertainties. Traditional scheduling methods that primarily pursue economic optimality often fail to account for system regulation margins, which may lead to excessive charging and discharging of energy storage systems, frequent fluctuations in unit output, and insufficient supply–demand matching capability under uncertain operating scenarios. To address these issues, this paper proposes a Flex-TD3 optimal scheduling method for IESs with embedded flexibility rules. First, a regional IES model incorporating photovoltaic generation, wind power, micro-gas turbines, gas boilers, electric chillers, waste heat recovery units, heat exchangers, and battery energy storage systems is established to describe the coupling relationships among electricity, heat, cooling, and gas flows, as well as the operational constraints of key devices. Second, active regulation flexibility indicators are constructed from the perspectives of system upward regulation capability, downward regulation capability, energy storage state health, and electro-thermal decoupling regulation margin. A comprehensive flexibility score is then formulated to characterize the system’s capability to cope with renewable energy fluctuations and load disturbances under the current operating state. Third, the flexibility indicators are embedded into the state space and reward function of the Twin Delayed Deep Deterministic Policy Gradient (TD3) algorithm, and a rule-based physical feasibility mapping mechanism is introduced to modify the raw scheduling actions generated by the agent according to device operational constraints, thereby enhancing the physical consistency and operational safety of the scheduling strategy. Case study results show that, compared with traditional optimal scheduling methods, the proposed method achieves better overall performance in terms of training convergence speed, operational economy, and scheduling stability. It can effectively reduce system operating costs, improve renewable energy accommodation capability, and decrease renewable energy curtailment, supply shortages, and constraint violations. Under uncertain scenarios involving renewable energy prediction errors, load disturbances, and high renewable energy penetration, the proposed method still maintains favorable scheduling performance, demonstrating its effectiveness and robustness. Full article

Rapid urbanization highlights the increasing importance of urban green infrastructure in shaping urban spatial organization, quality of life, and environmental sustainability. This study examines spatial inequalities in the provision of urban parks in Sofia (Bulgaria) and Istanbul (Republic of Türkiye) from a comparative urban geography perspective. The two cities are selected as contrasting urban contexts in Southeastern Europe, characterized by different patterns of urban development, population density, and spatial structures. A GIS-based analytical framework is applied at the district administrative level, integrating indicators such as the share of urban parks, park area per capita, Local Moran’s I, and the Gini coefficient. The results reveal distinct spatial patterns: Sofia demonstrates relatively higher levels of park provision but pronounced inequalities, characterized by the concentration of large park areas in a limited number of central districts. In contrast, Istanbul exhibits a more even spatial distribution but significantly lower levels of park area per capita, indicating an overall shortage of urban park space. The findings demonstrate that Sofia and Istanbul experience different forms of spatial disparities in park provision due to distinct trajectories of urban development. Full article

Background: Healthcare systems globally continue to experience persistent workforce and system-level challenges as increased workloads, lasting wellbeing impacts, and retention issues remain following the pandemic. To inform strategies and interventions to address these issues, this paper explored the workplace experiences of Victorian (Australia) frontline healthcare workers with parenting responsibilities during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: A total of 39 frontline healthcare workers from a large metropolitan hospital were interviewed between October 2020 and February 2021. Reflexive thematic analysis was used to analyse transcripts. Results: Three superordinate themes and five subordinate themes were identified. Themes highlighted the significant pressure that rapid workplace changes placed on healthcare staff and leaders, affecting their physical, mental, and relational health. Support from peers and supervisors was protective, though this increased demands on supervisors themselves. While many staff reported pride in their work, some experienced reduced career satisfaction and concerns about lasting psychological impacts. Conclusions: This study identifies how workplace supports operate through communication transparency, leadership capacity, and protected peer-support space, translating to organisational priorities for the post-pandemic workforce. In the context of ongoing workforce shortages and heightened demands post-pandemic, these findings underscore the importance of strengthening leadership capacity, embedding sustainable workplace supports, and addressing the psychological needs of healthcare staff. Such system-level responses are essential for pandemic recovery, improving workforce retention and staff wellbeing in the modern healthcare environment. Full article

Industrial control of volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions from medium-density fibreboard (MDF) production remains constrained by a shortage of compound-resolved evidence from full-scale plants, where wood furnish, amino resin chemistry, heat transfer, gas flow, and wet gas cleaning act simultaneously. Here, we analysed more than 20,000 synchronized operating records from a full-scale single-stage flash-tube MDF dryer at an industrial SWISS KRONO production line and linked total VOC (TVOC) measurements from flame ionization detection with Fourier-transform infrared speciation on the cleaned stack. Five compounds—α-pinene, 3-carene, limonene, methanol, and formaldehyde—accounted for more than 80% of the resolved VOC signal. Process–state contrasts showed that higher digester residence time, discharge screw speed, adhesive amount, urea amount, dryer inlet temperature, and scrubber–water temperature increased one or more representative compounds, whereas higher hardwood share, additional flue-gas supply, and higher scrubber–water pH decreased them. Limonene, methanol, and formaldehyde were substantially more process-sensitive than α-pinene. An exploratory decorrelation step further showed that a drying/throughput domain explained about half of the variability of the screened process space. The study therefore identifies the small set of compounds and operating domains that most strongly govern the cleaned dryer-stack signature and provides a mechanistically grounded prioritization framework for follow-up causal experiments, source apportionment, and emission-mitigation design in industrial MDF manufacture. Unlike product or chamber emission studies, this work links the compound-resolved FTIR/FID chemistry of the final cleaned industrial stack with synchronized production variables; it therefore addresses a scale-integration gap by transforming routine compliance-type exhaust monitoring into a process-diagnostic framework for ranking emission sources, abatement-sensitive variables, and mitigation experiments. Full article

China’s agricultural development not only has the weakness of insufficient technological investment but also faces the constraint of a shortage of financial support. In this context, promoting the combination of technology with finance in agricultural production activities is very important for China’s agricultural modernization. Based on two batches of “the pilot policy for promoting the combination of science and technology with finance”, this paper investigates the policy effect and mechanism of sci-tech finance on agricultural production efficiency. The results show that sci-tech finance policy is able to promote the improvement of agricultural production efficiency significantly in pilot areas compared with non-pilot areas, and this treatment effect continues to expand over a long period after the implementation of the policy. In terms of space partition, the agricultural support effect of sci-tech finance not only shows regional heterogeneity but also performs better in cities with weaker technological innovation ability and a lower degree of financial deepening. The “offering fuel in snowy weather” effect on non-central cities is stronger than the “adding brilliance to its present splendor” effect on central cities. Lastly, the sci-tech finance policy successfully builds a long-term mechanism for policies to take effect at multiple points and continues to exert force from three aspects: accelerating the process of agricultural mechanization, promoting the development of modern rural industries and improving the human capital of farmers. The research conclusions provide policy recommendations for promoting science and technology finance from policy pilot to comprehensive promotion, and promoting and implementing the construction of agricultural power, for example, by “strengthening agricultural science and technology and equipment support” and “improving [the] rural financial service system” proposed by the report of the 20th National Congress. Full article

This study investigates the rapid, often uncontrolled urban expansion in Khenchela, a medium-sized city in Algeria’s eastern High Plains, and its profound environmental repercussions amid semi-arid fragility. Drawing on sustainable urban development and resilience frameworks, it dissects pressures such as green space reduction (from 45 ha in 1998 to 33 ha in 2023, dropping per capita from 6.1 m² to 3 m² below WHO standards), water scarcity with 35% leakage losses waste mismanagement, informal settlements on hazardous lands, air/soil pollution, and climate vulnerabilities like heat waves and flooding. Employing a mixed-methods approach documentary analysis of (MPLUUP, LUP and MDP) plans, GIS cartography of spatial evolution (2000–2025), statistical demographics, field observations, and institutional critiques, the research exposes governance gaps: fragmented coordination, weak ecological integration, and resource shortages. It reveals socio-spatial disparities across functional zones, underscoring the need for adaptive, participatory strategies that promote polycentric and compact urban forms, enhanced biodiversity, efficient infrastructure, and inclusive governance to strengthen urban resilience. Full article