Impacts of Drought and Human Activity on Vegetation Growth in the Grain for Green Program Region,China

The Chinese government adopted six ecological restoration programs to improve its natural environments. Although these programs have proven successful in improving local environments, some studies have questioned their performance when regions suffer from drought. Whether we should consider the effects of drought on vegetation change in assessments of the benefits of ecological restoration programs is unclear. Therefore, taking the Grain for Green Program(GGP) region as a study area, we estimated vegetation growth in the region from 2000–2010 to clarify the trends in vegetation and their driving forces. Results showed that: 1) vegetation growth increased in the GGP region during 2000–2010, with 59.4% of the area showing an increase in the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index(NDVI). This confirmed the benefits of the ecological restoration program. 2) Drought can affect the vegetation change trend, but human activity plays a significant role in altering vegetation growth, and the slight downward trend in the NDVI was not consistent with the severity of the drought. Positive human activity led to increased NDVI in 89.13% of areas. Of these, 22.52% suffered drought, but positive human activity offset the damage in part. 3) Results of this research suggest that appropriate human activity can maximize the benefits of ecological restoration programs and minimize the effects of extreme weather. We therefore recommend incorporating eco-risk assessment and scientific management mechanisms in the design and management of ecosystem restoration programs.

The Research on System for Green Manufacturing Assessment

In the 20th century, manufacturing industries created a great amount of wealth for mankind, but they also caused the serious environmental pollution. Therefore, the implementation of green manufacturing will be imperative for manufacturing industries in the 21st century. The philosophy of sustainable development is necessarily and importantly used in the enterprise survival and progress. So, the green manufacturing prevails in the whole world, which appeals to the research from lots of experts and governments. However, how we can assess the green degree of the product becomes a significant problem to us. From the sustainable development view, it is pointed out in this paper how an enterprise can properly assess the green degree of the green products, which uses different indexes to measure the different influence.

An Approach to the Construction of Green Infrastructure and Green Spatial Governance for a City

There is a substantial significance to construct city green spaces for improvement of the city environment and ecological function. The conservation of city green space includes a sound plan of green space and the non-statutory parks and green open space, which are open spaces of both public and private land to be greened, they both become the basis for constructing an ecological green network of great city environment. To manipulate cross-sectoral integration, the city greening practice performs effective implementation. The main objective of an approach is to perform the governance indices of green spaces by expert questionnaire and then draft the greening strategies for Taipei city to improve the green landscape and the quality of city environment. The research draws on the green infrastructure and green ecological network system, analyzes the green ecological resources and the characteristic and structure of city spaces in Taipei city, in the meanwhile, learns the domestic and international experiences of greening development. By means of city green space of activation transformation and program of action under greening performance, Taipei city promotes the green image and the quality of city environment and green city landscape.

Calculation and Analysis of the Industrial Green Development Index in Hunan Province

In order to realize the purpose of human sustainable development,green development has become a dominant trend in contemporary society. ＂ Green Hunan＂ is the primary slogan of Hunan＇s four cards. Thus,in recent years,what is the practice result of Hunan＇s green development？ Based on the concept of industrial green development index,we selected the related panel data from 14 different cities of Hunan Province in 2012. The energy consumption and carbon emissions were also selected as input indexes,and GDP of secondary industry was used as the output index to build the industrial green development index. The CRS model of DEA was used to calculate and sequence the industrial green development indexes of 14 cities in Hunan Province.

Green UHPLC Method for Simultaneous Determination of Febuxostat and Diclofenac in Pharmaceutical Dosage Form and Human Plasma

Eco-friendly Ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography (UHPLC) with green aqueous-organic mobile phase was applied for the simultaneous determination of febuxostat (FEB) and diclofenac (DIC) with the composition of water:ethanol (85:15 v/v) utilizing phenomenex Kinetex C18 column (4.6 × 100 mm 2.6 μm), flow rate 1 ml/min and UV detection at 280 nm with linear ranges of 0.4 - 4.0 μg/mL and 0.5 - 5.0 μg/mL for FEB and DIC, respectively. The proposed method was also successfully applied to analyze the two drugs in pharmaceutical dosage form and human plasma. The results obtained were validated and statistically analyzed and found to be in accordance with those given by reported methods. Moreover, the greenness of the developed method is assessed using suitable analytical Eco-Scale and GAPI tools and comparison with the previously published methods have been carried out to indicate the priority of the proposed method. UHPLC is considered eco-friendly method regarding uses of safe solvents, simple, accurate and short time of analysis.

A new monitoring index for ecological vulnerability and its application in the Yellow River Basin,China from 2000 to 2022

The ecological environment of the Yellow River Basin has become more fragile under the combined action of natural and manmade activities.However,the change mechanisms of ecological vulnerability in different sub-regions and periods vary,and the reasons for this variability are yet to be explained.Thus,in this study,we proposed a new remote sensing ecological vulnerability index by considering moisture,heat,greenness,dryness,land degradation,and social economy indicators and then analyzed and disclosed the spatial and temporal change patterns of ecological vulnerability of the Yellow River Basin,China from 2000 to 2022 and its driving mechanisms.The results showed that the newly proposed remote sensing ecological vulnerability index had a high accuracy,at 86.36%,which indicated a higher applicability in the Yellow River Basin.From 2000 to 2022,the average remote sensing ecological vulnerability index of the Yellow River Basin was 1.03,denoting moderate vulnerability level.The intensive vulnerability area was the most widely distributed,which was mostly located in the northern part of Shaanxi Province and the eastern part of Shanxi Province.From 2000 to 2022,the ecological vulnerability in the Yellow showed an overall stable trend,while that of the central and eastern regions showed an obvious trend of improvement.The gravity center of ecological vulnerability migrated southwest,indicating that the aggravation of ecological vulnerability in the southwestern regions was more severe than in the northeastern regions of the basin.The dominant single factor of changes in ecological vulnerability shifted from normalized difference vegetation index(NDVI)to temperature from 2000 to 2022,and the interaction factors shifted from temperature∩NDVI to temperature∩precipitation,which indicated that the global climate change exerted a more significant impact on regional ecosystems.The above results could provide decision support for the ecological protection and restoration of the Yellow River Basin.

Recent Advances in Design Strategies and Multifunctionality of Flexible Electromagnetic Interference Shielding Materials

With rapid development of 5G communication technologies,electromagnetic interference(EMI)shielding for electronic devices has become an urgent demand in recent years,where the development of corresponding EMI shielding materials against detrimental electromagnetic radiation plays an essential role.Meanwhile,the EMI shielding materials with high flexibility and functional integrity are highly demanded for emerging shielding applications.Hitherto,a variety of flexible EMI shielding materials with lightweight and multifunctionalities have been developed.In this review,we not only introduce the recent development of flexible EMI shielding materials,but also elaborate the EMI shielding mechanisms and the index for"green EMI shielding"performance.In addition,the construction strategies for sophisticated multifunctionalities of flexible shielding materials are summarized.Finally,we propose several possible research directions for flexible EMI shielding materials in near future,which could be inspirational to the fast-growing next-generation flexible electronic devices with reliable and multipurpose protections as offered by EMI shielding materials.

Effect of Water Level Fluctuations on Wintering Goose Abundance in Poyang Lake Wetlands of China

The Poyang Lake is a Ramsar site and is the important over-wintering site for migratory waterbirds along the East Asian-Australasian Fly way. Examining the effects of water level fluctuations on waterbird abundance and analyzing the influencing mechanism is critical to waterbird protection in the context of hydrological alteration. In this study, the effect of water level regime on wintering goose abundance was examined and the influencing mechanism was interpreted. Synchronous waterbirds survey data, hydro- logical data, Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer-Normalized Difference Vegetation Index （MODIS-NDVI） data and habi- tat data derived from Landsat TNUETM data and HJ/CCD data were combined. The satellite-derived Green Wave Index （GWI） based on MODIS-NDVI dataset was applied to detect changes in goose food resources. It was found that habitat size and vegetation conditions are key factors determining goose abundance. Geese numbers were positively correlated with habitat area, while intermediate range of vegetation productivity might benefit the goose abundance. Water level affects goose abundance by changing available habitat areas and vegetation conditions. We suggested that matching hydrological regime and exposed meadows time to wintering geese dynamics was crucial in the Poyang Lake wetlands. Our study could provide sound scientific information for hydrological management in the context of waterbird conservation.

Importance of a Well-distributed Frequency of Measurements in the Senescence Monitoring of Winter Wheat and Yield Estimates

Theoretical frequencies of green area index （GAI） measurements were assessed in order to bring out the optimum frequencies for the monitoring of the senescence of winter wheat as well as the relationships between metrics which could be derived and the final grain yield. Several profiles of GAI decreasing curves were elaborated based on field measurements. Two functions, usually employed in green leaf area decreasing curves fitting （i.e., modified Gompertz and logistic functions） were then used to characterize the senescence phase and to calculate their metrics. These analyses showed that the two curve fitting functions satisfactorily described the senescence phase on frequencies of four to six GAI measurements, well distributed throughout a period of 30-35 days. The regression-based modeling showed that those involving metrics from logistic function （i.e., maximum value of GAI, green area duration and senescent rate） were more suitable than that of the modified Gompertz function for wheat yield estimates. Such results could be useful for studies at larger scales （involving remote sensing airplane or satellite data） and focused on the senescence in terms of optimum number of measurements and frequencies for developing models for yield estimates.

Automatic Generation of Water Masks from RapidEye Images

Water is a very important natural resource and it supports all life forms on earth. It is used by humans in various ways including drinking, agriculture and for scientific research. The aim of this research was to develop a routine to automatically extract water masks from RapidEye images, which could be used for further investigation such as water quality monitoring and change detection. A Python-based algorithm was therefore developed for this particular purpose. The developed routine combines three spectral indices namely Simple Ratios (SRs), Normalized Green Index (NGI) and Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI). The two SRs are calculated between the NIR and green band, and between the NIR and red band. The NGI is calculated by rationing the green band to the sum of all bands in each image. The NDWI is calculated by differencing the green to the NIR and dividing by the sum of the green and NIR bands. The routine generates five intermediate water masks, which are spatially intersected to create a single intermediate water mask. In order to remove very small waterbodies and any remaining gaps in the intermediate water mask, morphological opening and closing were performed to generate the final water mask. This proposed algorithm was used to extract water masks from some RapidEye images. It yielded an Overall Accuracy of 95% and a mean Kappa Statistic of 0.889 using the confusion matrix approach.

EVALUATION OF BIM APPLICATION FOR WATER EFFICIENCY ASSESSMENT

Application of Building Information Modelling(BIM)in architecture,engineering,and construction industry is known for its productivity and efficiency.Green BIM is one of the recent applications that aids users in achieving sustainability and/or improved building performance objectives through design and analysis of digital semantic models.The focus is on the application of green BIM for water efficiency(WE)analysis in accordance with the Malaysian Green Building Index(GBI)as a sustainability assessment tool.Revit Green Project Template(RGPT)and Autodesk Green Building Studio(GBS)as two available BIM tools were selected to evaluate and compare the applicability of each method for GBI WE assessment.To resolve the limitations identified from each evaluated method,automated GBI assessment tool(AGBIA)was developed as an alternative.The AGBIA as a supporting tool was established with the use of Dynamo,a visual programming tool to compensate for the limitations faced in the investigated methods.The practicality of each method was explored using a hypothetical model in Revit to automate information correspondent to 10 water efficiency assessment points and generate reports and documents necessary for the GBI design stage certification.The final phase involves verification of results obtained from each method using the conventional GBI WE calculator.AGBIA is suitable for the green BIM users in Malaysia based on the flexibility and automation over defining and assigning green parameters that are in line with the local context,the direct link of green information to the model,as well as the detail of presented data.

Quantification of urban greenery using hemisphere-view panoramas with a green cover index

Urban greenery has positive impacts on the well-being of residents and provides vital ecosystem services.A quantitative evaluation of full-view green coverage at the human scale can guide green space planning and management.We developed a still camera to collect hemisphere-view panoramas(HVPs)to obtain in situ heterogeneous scenes and established a panoramic green cover index(PGCI)model to measure human-scale green coverage.A case study was conducted in Xicheng District,Beijing,to analyze the quantitative relationships of PGCI with the normalized difference vegetation index(NDVI)and land surface temperature(LST)in different land use scenarios.The results show that the HVP is a useful quantization tool:(1)the method adaptively distinguishes the green cover characteristics of the four functional areas,and the PGCI values are ranked as follows:recreational area(29.6)>residential area(19.0)>traffic area(15.9)>commercial area(12.5);(2)PGCI strongly explains NDVI and LST,and for each unit(1%)increase in PGCI,NDVI tends to increase by 0.007,and(3)LST tends to decrease by 0.21 degrees Celsius.This research provides government managers and urban planners with tools to evaluate green coverage in complex urban environments and assistance in optimizing human-scale greenery and microclimate.

An effective Building Neighborhood Green Index model for measuring urban green space

Urban green space forms an integral part of urban ecosystems.Quantifying urban green space is of substantial importance for urban planning and development.Considering the drawbacks of previous urban green space index models,which established either through a grid method or green distribution,and the difficulty of the validation process of earlier urban green space index models,this study exploits the advantages of multisource high-resolution remote sensing data to establish a Building Neighborhood Green Index(BNGI)model.The model which analyzes the spatial configuration of built-up areas and the vegetation is based on the building-oriented method and considers four parameters–Green Index(GI),proximity to green,building sparsity,and building height.Comparing BNGI with GI in different types of characteristic building regions,it was found that BNGI evaluates urban green space more sensitively.It was also found that high-rise low-sparsity area has a lower mean value of BNGI(0.56)as compared with that of low-rise low-sparsity neighborhood(0.62),whereas mean GI(0.24)is equal for both neighborhoods.Taking characteristics of urban building and green types into consideration,BNGI model can be effectively used in many fields such as land suitability analysis and urban planning.

Dataset of the mountain green cover index(SDG15.4.2)over the economic corridors of the Belt and Road Initiative for 2010-2019

Mountains are undergoing widespread changes caused by human activities and climate change.Given the importance of mountains,the protection and sustainable development of mountain ecosys-tems have been listed as the goals of the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda.As one of the indicators,the Mountain Green Cover Index(MGCI)datasets can provide consis-tent and comparable status of green vegetation in mountainous areas,which can support the mapping of heterogeneous mountain ecosystem health and monitoring changes over time.The produc-tion of explicitly high-spatial-resolution MGCI datasets is therefore urgently needed to support the protection measures at subnational and multitemporal scales.In this paper,the MGCI datasets with 500-meter spatial resolutions,covering the economic corridors of the Belt and Road Initiative(BRI),were developed for 2010 to 2019 based on all available Landsat-8 data and the Google Earth Engine cloud computing platform.The validation of green vegeta-tion cover with the ground-truth samples indicated that the data-sets can achieve an overall accuracy of 94.06%,with well-detailed spatial and temporal variations.The archived datasets include the MGCI of each BRI economic corridor,matched to a geospatial layer denoting the economic corridor boundaries.The essential informa-tion of the datasets and their limitations,along with the production flow,were described in this paper.

The Current Status, Problems and Prospects of Researches on the Carrying Capacities of Ecological Environment in China

Determining the carrying capacity of ecological resources is the key to finding contradictions between human activities and the environment,as well as the links between economic growth,environmental protection and social development.In recent years,the carrying capacity of the ecological environment has been extensively studied at home and abroad.Through extensive literature research and analysis,this paper discusses the current status and main problems of recent research on the carrying capacity of the ecological environment in China.For example,two of the main problems are that:1)the concepts and connotations are not clear enough,and 2)the research content is not systematic enough.This is followed by a summary of the evaluation index system and main calculation methods.Finally,according to the research status and development trends at home and abroad,the possible direction for the development of this research field in the future is proposed.