Evaluation of groundwater sustainability based on groundwater age simulation in the Zhangye Basin of Heihe River watershed, northwestern China

Water resources, as the primary limiting factor, constrain the economic and social development in arid inland areas. The Zhangye Basin is a representative area of inland river basins, which is located in the middle parts of the Heihe River watershed, northwestern China. Facing with the huge water shortage, people exploited ground- water at a large scale in recent years. The reducing recharge from surface water and over-exploitation of ground- water led to the decline of groundwater levels and threatened the sustainability of water resources. This study con- structed a conceptual and numerical groundwater flow model and calibrated the model based on the observed wells A solute transport model was built using MT3DMS to calculate the groundwater age distribution in the Zhangye Basin. The simulated result shows that the youngest groundwater is distributed near the most upstream areas in the model domain, which is less than 1,000 a, older groundwater is distributed in deeper parts of the aquifer and near the discharge outlets, ranging from 6,000 a to over 20,000 a. Spatial variation of groundwater ages in the middle area indicates the recharge diversity between unconfined and confined aquifer. Groundwater age can serve as an indicator to evaluate groundwater＇s renewal capacity and sustainability. The formation of groundwater resources in the lower stream area would spend 10,000 a or even more than 20,000 a, so exploitation of groundwater in these areas should be restrained.

Study on Sustainable Utilization of Resources of the Damp-heat Karst Mountainous Areas in China

Damp-heat karst mountainous areas are unique areas in terms of socialeconomic development, resource endowment and eco-environment in China, where natural resources are abundant,unique and diverse. However, fragile eco-environment, undeveloped economy and culture, and conflict of human and environment should not be ignored. In the research, a framework of integration of resource-development and environment-protection in damp-heat karst was designed on basis of resource and environment integration, which was applied to Daxin County in Guangxi Province. Furthermore, some integration models were proposed, including integration of development of characteristic agricultural resources and protection of eco-environment, integration of development of manganese ore resources and protection of eco-environment, integration of development of tourism resources and protection of ecoenvironment and integration of development of clean energy and protection of eco-environment.

Measurement and assessment of water resources carrying capacity in Henan Province, China

As demands on limited water resources intensify, concerns are being raised about water resources carrying capacity（WRCC）, which is defined as the maximum sustainable socioeconomic scale that can be supported by available water resources and while maintaining defined environmental conditions. This paper proposes a distributed quantitative model for WRCC, based on the principles of optimization, and considering hydro-economic interaction, water supply, water quality, and socioeconomic development constraints. With the model, the WRCCs of 60 subregions in Henan Province were determined for different development periods. The results showed that the water resources carrying level of Henan Province was suitably loaded in 2010, but that the province would be mildly overloaded in 2030 with respect to the socioeconomic development planning goals. The restricting factors for WRCC included the available water resources, the increasing rate of GDP, the urbanization ratio, the irrigation water utilization coefficient, the industrial water recycling rate, and the wastewater reuse rate, of which the available water resources was the most crucial factor. Because these factors varied temporally and spatially, the trends in predicted WRCC were inconsistent across different subregions and periods.

Emergency Plan for Water Supply in Consecutive Droughts and Sustainable Water Resources Management in Beijing

Beijing, the capital city of China, has suffered from acute water shortage, with only 300 m3/a of water resources available per capita. In addition, Beijing has experienced a prolonged period of consecutive droughts from 1999 to 2010. Water crisis has constrained the socio-economic development of Beijing. Meanwhile, the national "South-to-North Water Transfer"（STNWT） project, which is expected to provide some relief to the water crisis in Beijing, is still under development. In order to ensure the security of water supply in Beijing before the completion of the STNWT project, several measures have been implemented to cope with droughts, including pumping groundwater from emergency well fields,water saving, recycling of water, rain and flood water harvesting, and the diversion of water from neighboring rivers and groundwater basins. Groundwater from four emergency well fields contributes the most to the public and domestic water supplies in Beijing, supplying a total volume of 1.8×10;m;.The water crisis is supposed to be mitigated by the completion of the STNWT project. After the completion of this project, more sustainable management of water resources will be implemented,including the use of aquifers as groundwater reservoirs and conjunctive use of surface water and groundwater resources.

SUSTAINABLE USE OF LAND RESOURCE AND ITS EVALUATION IN COUNTY AREA—A Case of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China

Sustainable use of natural resources is different from sustainable development. As the most important natural resource, sustainable use of land resource is the essential guarantee of sustainable development. The nature of sustainable use of land resource is to retain the quantity and productivity of land resource from generation to generation.The evaluation of sustainable use of land resource is an important method to ensure land use to get onto the sustainable track. Furthermore, building index system is the key of the evaluation. In view of tendency of the evaluation indexes chosen so widely, the evaluation indexes should include only three kinds in the researches on the evaluation of sustainable use of land resource. The first is the stock and structure index of land resource, viz. Areas quantity structure of land resources. In China, it is especially paid attention to the per person index of land quantity and rate between cultivated land and farmland. The second is the productive index of land, which includes the productivity, potentiality, stability and renewal situation of land. The third is the sustained index of land environment. On the evaluation research of area level, we should lay particular emphasis on statistic indexes. With a case of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in China, the evaluation index system of sustainable land use in county area has been built in this thesis. Using the weighted average method to calculate the means of sustainable land use in each county, according to the land using situation, all counties in the autonomous region have been divided into three types. (1) Sustainable Pattern contains 18 counties, which have higher land resource productivity, stronger sustained abilities of land environment .The economic benefits of land using in these counties are obviously higher. These counties have gotten highly intensive farming, and they are all in the good circumstance. (2) Basically Sustained Pattern contains 48 counties, which productivity of land resource is of middle level. In part of counties and cities, the stock of land resource inclines to lower level, but their land using potentialities are still greater. Through changing land using pattern, these counties can rapidly enter in a good circumstance. (3) Critically Sustained Pattern contains 14 counties, which are mostly in the karst mountain areas. They have less stock of land resource, lower productivity and more extensive cultivation. The productivity of land renewing has been hindered, so it urgently need to be renovated. At last, the writers have explored the basic ways of sustainable use of land resource in Guangxi, China — (1) Retain the stock of land resource and strictly manage farmland uses. (2) Strengthen the value accounting of land resource, and control the farmland occupation of non agricultural construction. (3) Depend on technology advanced, optimize the land using structure, and promote the productive level. (4) Carry out land management all round, and improve the ecological environment of land resource. (5) Enhance evaluation researche and land monitoring, and promote the sustainable utilization level of land resource.

Enhancing Sustainability in Forestry Using Material Flow Cost Accounting

Forestry is an applied science related to the sustainable management of natural resources. Many scientific disciplines influence forest science including ecology, economics and other social sciences. In this paper, it is proposed to promote the sustainable management of forest resources using a method coming from the Environmental Management Accounting discipline. The method is Material Flow Cost Accounting, which assists managers to recognize material and energy inefficiencies in production processes and create cost savings for the organization. Through a study of the methodology and using forestry examples, it is shown that Material Flow Cost Accounting can be a useful tool for forest managers, either in Public Forest Service, or other forestry organizations.

Economic principles and fundamental model of the sustainable utilization of ecological resources

By analyzing the basic rules and measurement principles of the sustainable utilization of ecological. resources and constructing its mathematical model this paper points out that the sustainable utilization of ecological resources is in nature to use the double-period model thousands of times for the dynamic distribution of ecological resources effectively. And it points out that in order to realize the sustainable utilization of ecological resources we must follow the basw principle-non-decreasing ecological capital and put forward corresponding standards, measures, policies and proposals.

A BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO THE EAST CHINA CENTER FOR RESOURCE ENVIRONMENT & SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT STUDIES (RESDS) East China Center of Resources Environment and Sustainable Development Studies

The Center for RESDS is an R&D body for comprehensive study under the joint sponsorship of the CAS Nanjing Branch,Nanjing University and Hehai University, all being research and educational institutions in the vicinity of Nanjing. The Center’s headquarters are the CAS Nanjing Branch. The Center’s objective is to answer the challenge posed by the 21st century and serve the economic reconstruction across the land by marrying campuses with research institutes so that the center might grow into

The Study on the Sustainable Development Strategy of Resources＇ Enterprises

The sustainable development strategy of resources＇ enterprises should include these contents： strategic mission, strategic goal, strategic emphasis, strategic process and strategic measure, etc.

Assessment of the agricultural sustainability of Shaanxi Province,China

It is significant for the study on the sustainable development of regional agriculture to monitor and measurethe trend of agricultural development with an effective method. The sustainable development of regional agricultureshould accord with regional population, rural economic development, social progress, resource and environmentalsupport. This paper establishes the evaluating indicators system of sustainable development of regional agriculture,evaluates the agricultural sustainable development in Shaanxi Province with a comprehensive multi-indicator method,analyzes the support of resource and environment for regional agriculture by the resource-development index and theenvironment-development index, and gets the conclusion that the indicators, such as education level, the income gapbetween urban and rural residents, the per capita area under cultivation and the consumption of pesticides and chemicalfertilizers per hectare, are the main factors to restrict agricultural sustainability, and that the pressure of the developmentof subsystems of population, economy and society on the subsystems of resource and environment turns out to bestronger and stronger. Agricultural environment gets better, but resource becomes one of the important factors to restrictthe development of regional agriculture. In a word, this paper highlights the potentials and limitations of sustainableagriculture of Shaanxi and helps identify the development direction in the future.

Implications of Declining Ground Water and Water Quality in the US Southeastern Coastal Plain Ecoregion and Areawide Environmental Impact Statement Required for Mining in the Greater Okefenokee Swamp Basin—Part 1

Karst aquifers occur worldwide and exhibit groundwater flow responses that differ considerably from aquifers lacking fractures, bedding planes, and other karst conduits where significant and rapid groundwater flow can occur. The regional, karst Floridan aquifer system underlies the United States (US) Southeastern Coastal Plain Physiographic Region and exhibits hydrologic interconnections with overlying surficial aquifers and throughout other zones of the aquifer system, as is characteristic of other karst aquifer systems. Anthropogenic groundwater declines in this regional karst aquifer system have been documented in published literature for decades, but the impacts of those declines in this coastal plain region and the embedded ecosystems that provide essential and critical habitat for native, endemic, and federally endangered and threatened species have not been considered previously. Those anthropogenic groundwater declines reduce surfacewater levels and flows due to the capture of both groundwater and overland flow of surfacewater, resulting in induced recharge through semi-confining zones and interbasin flow through fractures and other karst conduits. This case study identifies examples from the Greater Okefenokee Swamp Basin study area and comparison areas of how those declines result in loss of historic base flow to surface waters and other capture of surface waters, ultimately increasing saltwater intrusion. Those results alter and degrade the physical, chemical, and biological integrity of the nation’s waters, in violation of the US Clean Water Act (CWA) of 1972. Historic groundwater declines from mining and other anthropogenic groundwater withdrawals from this regional karst aquifer system already threaten the survival and recovery of federally endangered and threatened species, as well as existing and proposed critical habitat for those species within this regional extent, in violation of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) of 1973. This case study and its companion publication (Part 2) appear to be the first to provide scientific support for this regional karst aquifer system as the unifying factor in habitat responses to irreversible groundwater impacts on aquatic and marine ecosystems. These adverse impacts strongly suggest that the extent of the regional Floridan aquifer system should be designated as the Southeastern Coastal Plain Ecoregion for the purpose of managing natural resources. Mining activities continue to expand in our study area, which is the Greater Okefenokee Swamp Basin. Despite that fact, no comprehensive Areawide Environmental Impact Statement (AEIS), similar to the AEIS required for phosphate mining within the Central Florida Phosphate District (CFPD) approximately a decade ago has been conducted for any of the numerous mining projects that are occurring and are proposed within the Greater Okefenokee Swamp Basin. This case study also provides examples of why a comprehensive AEIS is essential to consider all of the adverse direct, indirect, and cumulative impacts of those mining activities to the CWA, the ESA, and the irreversible losses to local economies, because federal agencies responsible for considering those adverse impacts rely on public comments to identify those adverse impacts. The mining activities authorized throughout the regional Floridan aquifer system under Category 44 Nationwide Permits (NWP) result in the same type of adverse impacts as the mining activities evaluated under Individual Permits in that region. Therefore, those Category 44 NWP mining activities also should be required to obtain Individual Permits and be evaluated under an AEIS in the Greater Okefenokee Swamp Basin. This case study also describes how Florida’s assumption of the CWA Section 404 regulatory authority in 2020 severs four sub-basins within the Greater Okefenokee Swamp Basin study area at the state line between Florida and Georgia.

Development of Sustainable Wireless Resource model through Shrewd Neural Network

Due to an increasing number of wireless spectrums,the network components are tangling with multiple frequencies and the result create hindrance in resource management process.During resource management process,data leakage is one of the sensitive enigma that requires an astute consideration.Considering all these issues,a sustainable wireless resource management proposal(DSWR-SNN)has been developed by incorporating a shrewd Neural Network.The resources are managed by testing performance of each network component connected wirelessly through dataset testing which matches the results from the dataset corpus.The performance of the proposed DSWR-SNN method has been compared with state of the art studies Hopfield Neural Network(HNN),Radio Resource Management(RRM),and Deep Q-Network(DQN),and results are evaluated by conducting simulation using Python with TensorFlow based on Bandwidth Utilization,Duplicate Packet Handling,Data Leakage,and Energy Consumption.The result illustrates the marvelous performance of the proposed method and effective in addressing the challenges of resource allocation in wireless communication systems.

Energy-saving performance investigation on sustainable architecture design of open-plan housing in temperate region

With the increasing requirement of a higher living quality and the growing awareness of energy saving, how to improve the indoor comfort level and to reduce the expenditure of energy and slow down the rate of natural resource consumption is becoming increasingly important. The theory of open-plan housing is able to provide a more flexible and adaptive space for the users and bring sustainable and economic benefit in the way of making full use of construction materials. Sustainable architecture design, as a method to respond the phenomenon, is able to low down the building＇ s energy consumption and has enormous potentials in creation of sustainable living environment and a high-quality dwelling condition. The primary aim of this research is to create a new sustainable architecture design method for occupancy by integrating openplan housing theory and application of sustainable technologies. Numerical simulation by computer program is applied in order to investigate and evaluate the possibility of this method in teruas of improving indoor comfort level and energy-saving capacity.

IRP/DSM and Sustainable Development

This paper introduces the energy consumption status in China, elaborate the affects of the unreasonable energy consumption structure on energy environment and sustainable development of economy. Simultaneously, it points out the solution, i.e., to implement integrated resources planning (IRP)/demand side management (DSM), and gives some recommendations on the way of implementing IRP/DSM.

Research progress of socio-economic water cycle in China

China has made great progress in the study of socio-economic water cycle. She has completed national water resources appraisement and medium to long-term water supply planning. She has been engaging in study on water-deficient regions in North China and Northwest China for about half a century. For solving water shortage problem in northern China, she has put forward the famous South-to-North Water Transferring Projects, which has been set as one of the four biggest national projects in the Tenth Five-Year-Plan period although there are still debates. For promoting water use efficiency, China has been reforming her water management system, including water right system and water price system. There has already been a case of water right purchase. China has also done a lot of research on the interaction between human activity, water and ecosystem. For meeting the need of sustainability and coordinating water resources development and environmental protection, the study of ecological water requirement became very hot in recent years. There are three focuses of socio-economic water cycle study now in China: water transfer projects from the south to the north, water resources management and ecological water requirement.

Underground space planning in Helsinki

This paper gives insight into the use of underground space in Helsinki,Finland.The city has an underground master plan(UMP) for its whole municipal area,not only for certain parts of the city.Further,the decision-making history of the UMP is described step-by-step.Some examples of underground space use in other cities are also given.The focus of this paper is on the sustainability issues related to urban underground space use,including its contribution to an environmentally sustainable and aesthetically acceptable landscape,anticipated structural longevity and maintaining the opportunity for urban development by future generations.Underground planning enhances overall safety and economy efficiency.The need for underground space use in city areas has grown rapidly since the 21 st century;at the same time,the necessity to control construction work has also increased.The UMP of Helsinki reserves designated space for public and private utilities in various underground areas of bedrock over the long term.The plan also provides the framework for managing and controlling the city’s underground construction work and allows suitable locations to be allocated for underground facilities.Tampere,the third most populated city in Finland and the biggest inland city in the Nordic countries,is also a good example of a city that is taking steps to utilise underground resources.Oulu,the capital city of northern Finland,has also started to ‘go underground’.An example of the possibility to combine two cities by an 80-km subsea tunnel is also discussed.A new fixed link would generate huge potential for the capital areas of Finland and Estonia to become a real Helsinki-Tallinn twin city.

Fresh Water Demand Minimization in Residential Urban Buildings

In the last decades, there is a lot of discussion in many scientific fields, about the high importance of water as a basic element for the existence and the maintenance of life, aiming to the right and proper usage of water in our everyday basic water-needs due to its limited resources and the growing demand. This research deals with simple ways and technological systems applicable in urban residential buildings for the better management of domestic fresh water, as far as its maintenance and sustainability. Main aim of the survey is the effective minimization of urban daily water usage. All measurements of water quantities have estimated in the imperial gallon （1 gallon = 4.546 liter）, and in liter （1 liter = 0.2 gallon）.

Protect the Environment and Speed up the Sustainable Development of Chinese Agriculture

Strengthening the environmental protection, deepening rural reform, increasing agricultural input, and promoting a more stable and higher-speed growth of peasants＇ income, all of these are playing a very important role in the sustainable development of agriculture. The environment problems are not only economic problems, but also important political problems. And they constitute an urgent and arduous task that we meet, and need a long time to be conquered. Under the present new historical circumstances, we should establish a scientific development philosophy, strengthen the environment protection, and build up a harmonious society in which urban and rural areas are progressing coordinately.

An Overview of Sustainable Agricultural Waste Practices of West Texas

This article returns to the topic of sustainability. West Texas, mainly known for its cotton and cattle production, is facing problems related to the dispensation of agricultural waste produced by these operations. The article looks at the ways of handling agricultural waste and the opportunities of dispensing it in West Texas. Since between 30 - 40 percent of food produced in the US is not consumed, reduction of food waste is another sustainability problem that, when solved, would lead to the reduction of agricultural production and, in turn, the reduction of agricultural waste. Waste reduction management practices of large food chain stores in West Texas are discussed, with a final goal of bringing waste to a zero level. Public sources of sustainable agricultural and non-agricultural waste handling are also mentioned. This research adds to the previous knowledge on sustainability by discussing agricultural waste practices of a specific local area, i.e. West Texas.

Towards sustainable agriculture:Harnessing AI for global food security

The issue of food security continues to be a prominent global concern,affecting a significant number of individ-uals who experience the adverse effects of hunger and malnutrition.The finding of a solution of this intricate issue necessitates the implementation of novel and paradigm-shifting methodologies in agriculture and food sec-tor.In recent times,the domain of artificial intelligence(AI)has emerged as a potent tool capable of instigating a profound influence on the agriculture and food sectors.AI technologies provide significant advantages by opti-mizing crop cultivation practices,enabling the use of predictive modelling and precision agriculture techniques,and aiding efficient crop monitoring and disease identification.Additionally,AI has the potential to optimize sup-ply chain operations,storage management,transportation systems,and quality assurance processes.It also tackles the problem of food loss and waste through post-harvest loss reduction,predictive analytics,and smart inventory management.This study highlights that how by utilizing the power of AI,we could transform the way we produce,distribute,and manage food,ultimately creating a more secure and sustainable future for all.