Study on the Post-evaluation of Environmental Planning Based on Logical Framework Approach

[Objective] The aim was to conduct post-evaluation on environmental planning by means of logical framework approach. [Method] Taking environmental planning during '11th Five-year Plan' in a certain province for example, by means of logical framework approach (LFA), the post-evaluation on environmental planning was carried out from the aspects of evaluation content, index system, implementation steps, evaluation feedback and input-output analysis of environmental planning. [Result] The post-evaluation on environmental planning by means of LFA achieved expected purpose and various indexes at different stages of environmental planning was assessed, and then corresponding countermeasures were put forward according to the problems which were found by problem tree of environmental planning project. [Conclusion] The study could provide theoretical references for the post-evaluation on environmental planning in future.

Urban Green Spaces and an Integrative Approach to Sustainable Environment

This paper explains the benefits and challenges of urban green spaces based on the critical discussion of study results from different studies in different cities. The important roles played by green spaces are social, economic, cultural and environmental aspects of sustainable development. Urban green spaces can be a comprehensive tool for long term protection of environmental sustainability through improving the quality of life and air quality, increasing property value due to their amenity and aesthetic characteristics, and reducing the energy costs of cooling buildings. Urban green spaces also can provide ecosystem services in which the recreation and relaxation facilities are especially available to urban dwellers and tourists too. To confirm the multiple roles played by green spaces, certain level of qualitative improvements and distribution of green spaces within the urban area should be considered and incorporated effectively into the environmental sustainability agenda. To do this, an integrated approach regarding the planning, monitoring, designing and maintaining of urban green spaces is required for improving the environmental sustainability in cities in different countries.

Management of Environmental Protection and Sustainability in the Islamic Revolution

Conservation of environmental resources and divine merits does not mean the absence of exploitation or the minimal use of it, but to use it optimally and seamlessly. Therefore, awareness and education in the field of environmental ethics can have a spiritual guarantee in the light of faith and piety;considering the religious teachings and the experiences of the executives and officials of the Islamic Revolution that become more colorful topics such as environmental justice, environmental ethics, environmental degradation, health and optimal consumption. The expansion of morality is considered to be in the context of human-environmental relations as a revolutionary opportunity and an environmental imperative. In fact, the interests of man are in balance with the interests of other beings;as a result, there are solutions to protect the inhumane community against human harm. In this project, we used of library methods, review and integration on the basis of articles and environmental studies. The results of this study indicate that there is a relationship between religious beliefs and revolutionary approaches to the environment and environmental ethics. The mentioned verses and narratives, the leadership’s recommendations all emphasize on environmental protection;and authorities have done this knowledge and information in the best way to raise the level of education. The results of the research show the upward trend in the environment after the Islamic Revolution in the process of approving and drafting laws.

Depositional Environments of Bedded Chens in Western Yunnan Segment of Paleo－Tethys， China： a Geochemical Approach

Differences in rare earth elements and other trace elements in bedded chens reflect the deposihonal settings of the sediments. Based on cerium anomaly (Ce/Ce ), total REE (ΣREE) and other trace element abundance variahons preserved in the bedded cherts in the Paleo-Tethys, Western Yunnan, three deposihonal regimes can be recotwzed: spreading ridge proximal, ocean-basin floor and conhnental margin. This geochemical method of discriminating deposihonal environments for thine marine sedimentary rocks which are physically indistinct provides a powerful new tool for paleotectonic and paleogeographic recondruchons.

Static and Dynamic Analysis on the Environmental Efficiency of 267 Cities in China during 2004-2012

This study mainly investigates the environmental efficiency of 267 Chinese cities from 2004 to 2012 through a metafrontier,directional and super-efficiency approach. First,we explore the regional and time heterogeneity of environmental efficiency. Then,we compare the technological gap ratio in different regions and years. Lastly,we analyze the technological and management potential in different regions. We determine that the gap between environmental efficiency under group frontier and metafrontier widened from 2009 to 2012,indicating that environmental efficiency varies in different regions in China. The technology gap ratio has decreased in the four regions. This result confirms that the regional heterogeneity of environmental efficiency has increased. Thus,strengthening environmental management is crucial. China must improve green innovation to decrease energy consumption and abate carbon emissions.

An Application of ＇Willingness to Pay＇ Method as a Quantifier for Environmental Impact Assessment

The preservation/restoration of natural environment is frequently entailing excessive cost （paid by people through taxation） while it is a source of additional income for both, the State and the people, due to tourism. Since the evaluation of this good cannot be in market terms, it is applied here in a modified version of the CVM （Contingent Valuation Method）, which is used in experimental economics in order to investigate the significance that people put on this good and how much they might be WTP （Willing to Pay） for supporting activities concerning the preservation/restoration of Lake Kastoria. The WTP dependence on （i） external diseconomies; （ii） the expectations for property values＇ rise as a result of the restoration; （iii） the proximity of interviewees＇ residence to the lake; （iv） the opinion of the interviewee on the time and money spent to visit the lake; （v） the time and money the interviewees spent to visit the lake, as well as other dependencies （all taken as independent variables） are estimated by means oflogit, probit, logistic and linear regression models. The optimal concentration Copt of a pollutant in the environment can be determined as an equilibrium point in the tradeoff between （i） environmental cost, due to impact on man/ecosystem/economy; and （ii） economic cost for environmental protection, as it can be expressed by Pigouvian tax. These two conflict variables are internalized within the same techno-economic objective function of total cost, which is minimized. In this work, the first conflict variable is represented by a WTP index. A methodology is developed for the estimation of this index by using fuzzy sets to count for uncertainty. Implementation of this methodology is presented, concerning odor pollution of air round an olive pomace oil mill.

Negotiated Complexity: Framing Multi-Criteria Decision Support in Environmental Health Practice

The complexity we take into account when dealing with complex issues and the way we deal with that complexity is not given or self-evident, it is framed and negotiated. Based on two environmental health decision support case studies we address a set of key methodological choices, crucial in shaping the multi-criteria decision support and illuminate how they followed from transdisciplinary collaboration and negotiation: diversity tolerance, dealing with uncertainty and difference of opinion, weight of information and the epistemological divide between traditional closed and alternative open paradigms. The case studies exemplify the growing conviction amongst methodologists that, especially regarding complex issues, best methods do not exist as such: methods are chosen and tailored in practice and the quality to a large extent is dependent on the process in which methodological development is embedded. We hope to contribute to making explicit the importance of methodological decision making regarding environmental health complexity.

Examination of the poverty-environmental degradation nexus in Sub-Saharan Africa

The relationship between environmental degradation and poverty has increasingly become the focus of national strategic decision-making in recent years.However,despite several theoretical explorations on the nexus,a dearth of empirical literature on the poverty-environmental degradation nexus,specifically on Sub-Saharan Africa(SSA),still exists.In this study,we investigated the poverty-environmental degradation nexus in SSA.We hypothesized that poverty is both a cause and effect of environmental degradation,and this relationship is explained as a vicious cycle.Unlike previous studies,we employed several alternative indicators of environmental degradation to examine the poverty-environmental degradation nexus in this study.We used data from 41 countries of SSA between 1996 and 2019 and employed the generalized method of moments(GMM)approach.The findings suggest a cyclical relationship between poverty and environmental degradation in SSA,which confirms that an increase in poverty leads to an increase in environmental degradation,especially in deforestation and PM2.5 emissions.Similarly,the increase in environmental degradation positively affects poverty in SSA.We also confirmed that exogenous conditioning factors such as population growth rate,education,industrialization,and income inequality,institutional quality indicators such as governance effectiveness,control of corruption,freedom ad civil liberty,and democracy,and endogenous factors including fossil fuel energy use,fuelwood energy use,household health expenditure,infant mortality rate,and agriculture productivity influence the nexus between poverty and environmental degradation.The findings on the relationship between poverty and environmental degradation in SSA are a testimonial evidence that both poverty and environmental degradation are significant issues in SSA.Hence,poverty alleviation policies in SSA should not lead to PM2.5 emissions and deforestation,which may as well force people into a poverty-environmental degradation trap.Instead,poverty reduction policies should simultaneously achieve environmental conservation.

Eco-Efficiency： Environmental Performance vs Economic Performance

The second half of the 20th century was characterized by an increasing interest in the pace of economic growth and its impact on the environment. As a result, the concept of eco-efficiency as a philosophy of management has arisen, which combines the excellence of the environment and business. This paper uses the distribution-free approach to provide empirical evidence in relation to the eco-efficiency paradigm by studying the relation between environmental performance （measured by the level of emissions of air-contaminating substances） and economic performance （approximated by economic efficiency）, in 199 companies from mineral manufacturing industry in Spain between 2004 and 2007. The empirical analysis shows that the results are consistent with the paradigm of eco-efficiency and therefore it can be concluded that being responsible for the environment is positively related to economic efficiency.

Environmental complaint insights through text mining based on the driver,pressure,state,impact,and response(DPSIR)framework:Evidence from an Italian environmental agency

Individuals,local communities,environmental associations,private organizations,and public representatives and bodies may all be aggrieved by environmental problems concerning poor air quality,illegal waste disposal,water contamination,and general pollution.Environmental complaints represent the expressions of dissatisfaction with these issues.As the timeconsuming of managing a large number of complaints,text mining may be useful for automatically extracting information on stakeholder priorities and concerns.The paper used text mining and semantic network analysis to crawl relevant keywords about environmental complaints from two online complaint submission systems:online claim submission system of Regional Agency for Prevention,Environment and Energy(Arpae)(“Contact Arpae”);and Arpae's internal platform for environmental pollution(“Environmental incident reporting portal”)in the Emilia-Romagna Region,Italy.We evaluated the total of 2477 records and classified this information based on the claim topic(air pollution,water pollution,noise pollution,waste,odor,soil,weather-climate,sea-coast,and electromagnetic radiation)and geographical distribution.Then,this paper used natural language processing to extract keywords from the dataset,and classified keywords ranking higher in Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency(TF-IDF)based on the driver,pressure,state,impact,and response(DPSIR)framework.This study provided a systemic approach to understanding the interaction between people and environment in different geographical contexts and builds sustainable and healthy communities.The results showed that most complaints are from the public and associated with air pollution and odor.Factories(particularly foundries and ceramic industries)and farms are identified as the drivers of environmental issues.Citizen believed that environmental issues mainly affect human well-being.Moreover,the keywords of“odor”,“report”,“request”,“presence”,“municipality”,and“hours”were the most influential and meaningful concepts,as demonstrated by their high degree and betweenness centrality values.Keywords connecting odor(classified as impacts)and air pollution(classified as state)were the most important(such as“odor-burnt plastic”and“odor-acrid”).Complainants perceived odor annoyance as a primary environmental concern,possibly related to two main drivers:“odor-factory”and“odorsfarms”.The proposed approach has several theoretical and practical implications:text mining may quickly and efficiently address citizen needs,providing the basis toward automating(even partially)the complaint process;and the DPSIR framework might support the planning and organization of information and the identification of stakeholder concerns and priorities,as well as metrics and indicators for their assessment.Therefore,integration of the DPSIR framework with the text mining of environmental complaints might generate a comprehensive environmental knowledge base as a prerequisite for a wider exploitation of analysis to support decision-making processes and environmental management activities.

Research on the Integral Practical and Aesthetic Design Teaching of Architecture and Site Environment -Taking Kindergarten Architecture and Site Logic Model Teaching Approach as an Example

The integral practical and aesthetic design teaching of architecture and site environment is expected to deal with the junior-grade design teaching in architecture major with a current situation that the insufficient consideration of the site environment and the chaotic city image, which caused by long-term emphasis on single function and personality performance of architecture. The key to the integral practicability and aesthetics is the emphasis on the integrality of spatial logical order of those two factors, which contains the integral harmony of function attributes, scale, logics, and modal relationships and so on. Combine with the teaching of kindergarten architecture design, using architecture and site logic model teaching methodology, through the extraction cognitive teaching approach of the site environment order logics, the cognitive teaching approach of kindergarten architecture spatial logics, the strategic teaching approach of the congruent design of the integral order of architecture and site environment logics, module and model congruent counterpoint design teaching approach of architecture and large site environment order logics, organization and construction integrated design teaching approach of architecture and small site environment spatial logics, and result design teaching approach of architectures integrated into the landscape of large site environment and their surrounding small site environment and other teaching procedures to complete die teaching tasks of the integral practical and aesthetic design of kindergarten architecture and site environment.

Intercultural Education in a Technology-Enhanced Foreign Language Learning Environment Implementing the TPACK Approach:Challenges and Possibilities

In the plurilingual and multicultural contemporary international setting,the educational systems opt for successfully meeting as well as adapting to the rapid social,economic,and technological changes.Based on the premise that intercultural communicative competence holds a significant potential for foreign language instruction,focus should throw into combining teachers’intercultural knowledge with pedagogy and technology.The prospect of introducing intercultural material within the context of teaching scenarios in the curricula of a technology-enhanced foreign language learning environment where the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge(TPACK)approach is implemented,can positively contribute to the teaching process.Under this perspective,cultural and digitally competent teachers can create a framework which will enable learners to fully develop their interactive and linguistic skills and to effectively communicate in a foreign language promoting its social and multicultural dimension whatever the intercultural context.

Analysis on the Approach of College Students’Innovation and Entre-preneurship Education under the New Media Environment

With the steady rise of China’s economy,new media technology is gradually applied in various industries,giving enterprises more possibilities and opportunities.Compared with other entrepreneurs,college students with broad knowledge and novel ideas can better adapt to the changing market environment.In order to bring new vitality to all walks of life and deal with the dilemma of college students’employment,colleges and universities must pay attention to the improvement and cultivation of students’ability to innovate and start their own businesses.This paper will analyze the current situation of innovation and entrepreneurship education in colleges and universities under the background of new media,and look for effective innovative ways and methods.

Change in the Number of Tropical Cyclone Landfall and Approach over Mozambique from 1980 to 2020

In this study, the variability of tropical cyclone (TC) landfall and approach over Mozambique as well as the environmental factors influencing were investigated. The frequencies of tropical cyclone landfall and approach as well as environmental factors were compared between the two periods (1980 to 1999 and 2000 to 2020). This study found that, according to International Best Track Archive for Climate Stewardship (IBTrACS) tropical cyclone data, the number of tropical cyclones making landfall over Mozambique increased by about 66% in the second period (2000-2020), compared to 34% in the first period (1980-1999). While the number of tropical cyclone approaches reduced from 59% in the first period to 41% in the second period. An assessment of the environmental conditions showed that warmer sea surface temperature (SST) and low vertical wind shear (VWS) were favorable to more TC genesis and, consequently, an increase in landfalls and a reduction in TC confined to the approach.

Impact of improper municipal solid waste management on fostering One Health approach in Ethiopia—challenges and opportunities:a systematic review

Improper disposal of solid waste,predominantly illegal dumping,can lead to severe air and water pollution,land degradation,climate change,and health hazards due to the persistence of hazardous materials.As a result,it is threatening public and animal health,environmental sustainability,and economic development.The One Health approach,which acknowledges the interconnectedness of human,animal,and environmental health,offers a comprehensive solution.This systematic review examines the impact of improper municipal solid waste on fostering One Health approaches at the national level of Ethiopia by identifying key challenges and opportunities.Publications were retrieved from peer-reviewed,indexed journal publications,government documents(policies,proclamations,regulations,and guidelines),and credible non-governmental organization publications from selected electronic databases(Google scholar,PubMed,EMBASE,Global Health,Web of Science,etc.),and governmental offices.Despite efforts to advance the One Health approach in Ethiopia through the formation of the National One Health Steering Committee and technical working groups,implementation is hindered by challenges such as poor sectoral integration,insufficient advocacy,financial constraints,and limited research.These challenges contribute to worsening zoonotic and infectious diseases and environmental issues due to inadequate solid waste management.Nonetheless,opportunities exist through One Health integration via holistic programs,interdisciplinary collaboration,community engagement,policy enhancement,institutional capacity building,and public-private partnerships.Therefore,enhancing sectoral integration and increasing advocacy efforts and securing financial support is necessary to back waste management initiatives and related research.Further research is crucial to understand the impact of solid waste management and the potential benefits of the One Health approach in Ethiopia.

Mapping Soil Salinity Using a Similarity-based Prediction Approach:A Case Study in Huanghe River Delta,China

Spatial distribution of soil salinity can be estimated based on its environmental factors because soil salinity is strongly affected and indicated by environmental factors. Different with other properties such as soil texture, soil salinity varies with short-term time. Thus, how to choose powerful environmental predictors is especially important for soil salinity. This paper presents a similarity-based prediction approach to map soil salinity and detects powerful environmental predictors for the Huanghe(Yellow) River Delta area in China. The similarity-based approach predicts the soil salinities of unsampled locations based on the environmental similarity between unsampled and sampled locations. A dataset of 92 points with salt data at depth of 30–40 cm was divided into two subsets for prediction and validation. Topographical parameters, soil textures, distances to irrigation channels and to the coastline, land surface temperature from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer(MODIS), Normalized Difference Vegetation Indices(NDVIs) and land surface reflectance data from Landsat Thematic Mapper(TM) imagery were generated. The similarity-based prediction approach was applied on several combinations of different environmental factors. Based on three evaluation indices including the correlation coefficient(CC) between observed and predicted values, the mean absolute error and the root mean squared error we found that elevation, distance to irrigation channels, soil texture, night land surface temperature, NDVI, and land surface reflectance Band 5 are the optimal combination for mapping soil salinity at the 30–40 cm depth in the study area(with a CC value of 0.69 and a root mean squared error value of 0.38). Our results indicated that the similarity-based prediction approach could be a vital alternative to other methods for mapping soil salinity, especially for area with limited observation data and could be used to monitor soil salinity distributions in the future.

Study on Sustainable Water Resource Conservation—Toward Deepening of Homo Environmentics

To unlearn the meaning of a sustainable water resource conservation is now an essential issue in using of sustained, sound, and high-quality water in the world. In this paper, a water quality purification by the Schumann frequencies was first considered through the murmuring sound of upper reach at the mountain stream (Kyoto Pref., Japan) regarding the conservation of water resources. Second, water is changing freely and easily accepting the wavelength of all the sounds. We therefore referred to a flow and dynamic equilibrium to realize and understand the water quality purification process. Finally, a “consciousness only Buddhist philosophy” of water quality as an analogical approach was introduced to realize and understand the water purification process. As a result, we have confirmed the water purification capability by Schmann frequencies in an experiment on water quality. And through the experiment, we have realized the importance/significance to find the meaning for a person’s primary meaningless such as 1) meaning connection among life, environment, and economics as a condition of human life, 2) energy, entropy and fluctuation under law of thermodynamics, 3) a metaphor between water quality and mutual possession of the ten worlds based on conscious-only theory, and 4) sense of wonder through the water purification process.

Numerical analysis on mechanical difference of sandstone under in-situ stress,pore pressure preserved environment at depth

Deep in-situ rock mechanics considers the influence of the in-situ environment on mechanical properties,differentiating it from traditional rock mechanics.To investigate the effect of in-situ stress,pore pressure preserved environment on the mechanical difference of sandstone,four tests are numerically modeled by COMSOL:conventional triaxial test,conventional pore pressure test,in-situ stress restoration and reconstruction test,and in-situ pore pressure-preserved test(not yet realized in the laboratory).The in-situ stress restoration parameter is introduced to characterize the recovery effect of in-situ stress on elastic modulus and heterogeneous distribution of sandstone at different depths.A random function and nonuniform pore pressure coefficient are employed to describe the non-uniform distribution of pore pressure in the in-situ environment.Numerical results are compared with existing experimental data to validate the models and calibrate the numerical parameters.By extracting mechanical parameters from numerical cores,the stress-strain curves of the four tests under different depths,in-situ stress and pore pressure are compared.The influence of non-uniform pore pressure coefficient and depth on the peak strength of sandstone is analyzed.The results show a strong linear relationship between the in-situ stress restoration parameter and depth,effectively characterizing the enhanced effect of stress restoration and reconstruction methods on the elastic modulus of conventional cores at different depths.The in-situ pore pressurepreserved test exhibits lower peak stress and peak strain compared to the other three tests,and sandstone subjected to non-uniform pore pressure is more prone to plastic damage and failure.Moreover,the influence of non-uniform pore pressure on peak strength gradually diminished with increasing depth.

Nanomaterials Driven Magnetic Nuclear Fusion Confinement Approaches(A Technical Memorandum)

Nuclear energy driven magnetic confinement via donut shape device known as Tokamak,a toroidal apparatus,for producing controlled fusion reactions in hot plasma,was originally suggested as a basic yet more promising fusion reactor.Today the more innovative version of this apparatus that is known as an ITER(international thermonuclear experimental reactor)shows a way toward MCF(magnetic confinement fusion)of hot plasma goal by satisfying Lawson’s Criteria to some degree of achievement.However,since this fusion driven reactor of hot plasma needs to operate at almost 150 million Celsius,the internal material of this reactor is a matter of concern for scientists that are involved with its fabrication.Uniqueness of nanomaterials from the point of view of physical and chemical properties is suggested as a possible potential application for this special and innovative reactor for a nuclear fusion device.Convergence of nanotechnology in study of new generation of materials of this kind can shape the path for various technological developments and a large variety of disciplines,including MCF driven plasma of hot fusion as well.This short TM(technical memorandum)written by these two authors will cover this aspect of technology in a holistic way and the more granular level is left to the reader of this TM to investigate further.