Visualizing Relationships between Drivers of Environmental Change and Pressures on Land-Based Ecosystems

The pursuit of human needs and demands is placing more pressure on land resources than ever before. The challenge of feeding 7 billion people is increasingly competing with rising demands for materials and biofuels. Deforestation and land degradation are among the pressing outcomes of these trends. Drivers of environmental change—including population growth, economic activity, consumption, urbanization, trade, conflict, and governance—clearly play a role in aggravating or mitigating these pressures on land. Despite advances in understanding causality in complex systems, navigating the interactions between these drivers remains a major challenge. This paper analyzes and visualizes the relationships between multiple, interacting drivers of environmental change and specific pressures on land-based ecosystems. Drawing on experience from the development of the Drivers and Land chapters of the UN Environment Programme’s Fifth Global Environment Outlook report (GEO-5), we use a series of Kiviat diagrams to illustrate the relative influence of key drivers on selected pressures on land. When individual diagrams are overlaid, patterns of influence emerge that can provide insight into where policy responses might best be targeted. We propose that, subject to some limitations, the Kiviat exercise can provide an accessible and potentially valuable “knowledge-intermediary” tool to help link science-based information to policy action.

Building Resilience Through Disaster Waste Management——UN Environment's Experiences and Approaches

Integrating disaster waste issue is a critical component of making humanitarian action fit for the future,anticipating global risks and challenges such as increased vulnerability due to climate change and environmental degradation.This requires a fundamental shift towards a model that not only strengthens the response to crises but also learns and adapts in order to anticipate and act before such waste garnered.This article conducted analyses on the characteristics of disasters in the past two decades.Uncertainties confound disaster waste management,including the timing and magnitude of each disaster,and the amounts and types of waste that will be generated.For these reasons alone,disaster waste management must be an integral part of development planning and processes.Making 10 years since the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake,this article highlights that disaster waste management is not only debris clearance or waste management following a disaster,but also includes prevention and pre-disaster preparedness aspects in terms of enhancing resilience of local communities.Such"mainstreaming,"ensures that disaster waste management(DWM)will be treated as a priority issue,on an ongoing basis.Based on UN Environment's experiences and approaches,this paper emphasises that preparedness is the key,and that priority should be accorded to integrating disaster contingency planning in national and city level waste management strategies as well as mainstreaming waste management issues within broader disaster preparedness and response plans and actions.It is envisaged that the issues presented and the gaps identified in this paper will provide a basis for future comprehensive and cohesive research on disaster waste management.In turn,this research can lead to better preparedness and response on disaster waste management.

Global Dryland Ecosystem Programme(G-DEP):Africa consultative meeting report

In order to enhance and restore the ecosystems of natural capital in African arid regions,the Global Dryland Ecosystem Programme(G-DEP)consultative meeting was hosted in Dakar,Senegal,from 23 to 25 September 2019.This paper details the first African meeting of the G-DEP.Consultative meeting reviewed preceding dryland ecosystems case studies,identified vulnerable arid and semi-arid regions,and proposed sustainable solutions to problems.It also identified the successes and failures of previous attempts to improve vulnerable ecosystems and ultimately formed an action plan to improve these attempts.Climate,ecosystems,and livelihoods for Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs),Great Green Wall Initiative(GGWI)for Sahara and Sahel,and China-Africa cooperation on science,technology,and innovation are three extra main sections concerned of the meeting.Separately,more specific topics as the complicated relationship between these natural processes and human activity,including pastoralism,soil restoration,and vegetation regenerate techniques,were fully discussed.Consultative meeting also identified the positive effects international collaboration can have on dryland regions,specifically in the capacity of sharing information,technology,and innovation on purpose to develop a joint proposal for long-term research programs in African arid and semi-arid areas.Moreover,meetings that review the progress made on ecosystem management for the sustainable livelihoods in Africa,identification of priority areas,and the development and implementation of ecosystem programs for proper research and collaboration in African arid and semi-arid zones,have been proposed as strategic recommendations to enhance the global partnership for sustainable development.Furthermore,as the outcomes of the workshop,there are three steps proposed to handle African dryland climate changes,several aspects suggested to solve current dilemmas of the GGWI,and a series of actions recommended for G-DEP related activities in Africa.

Consumers’experiences and preferences for plant-based meat food:Evidence from a choice experiment in four cities of China

This paper examined consumers’experiences in and preferences for plant-based meat(PBM)food and their respective correlates,based on data from an online survey of 579 consumers in four major cities in China in early 2021.We first described consumers’experiences in consuming and purchasing PBM food and their correlates,and then analyzed consumer preferences using hypothetical choice experiment.The experiment offered consumers various options to purchase burgers made from PBM or animal-based meat(ABM),combined with different countries of origin(COO),taste labels,and prices.Our data showed that respondents hold overall positive attitudes toward PBM food;85 and 82%of respondents reported experience in eating and purchasing PBM food,respectively.More than half of them ate PBM food because they wanted to try new food(58%),or were interested in healthy food(56%).Income,religion,and dietary restrictions were significantly correlated with consumers’experiences in PBM food consumption.Results from the Random Parameter Logit Model based on the hypothetical choice experiment data showed that 79%of respondents chose PBM burgers and were willing to pay an average of 88 CNY for a PBM burger.We also found that 99.8 and 83%of respondents are willing to buy burgers made in China and those with a taste label,with a willingness to pay(WTP)of 208 and 120 CNY,respectively.The heterogeneity test revealed that females and those with at least a bachelor’s degree,higher income,religious beliefs,and dietary restrictions are more likely to buy PBM burgers than their counterparts.

Evaluating and correcting short-term clock drift in data from temporary seismic deployments

Temporary seismic network deployments often suffer from incorrect timing records and thus pose a challenge to fully utilize the valuable data.To inspect and fix such time problems,the ambient noise cross-correlation function(NCCF)has been widely adopted by using daily waveforms.However,it is still challenging to detect the shortterm clock drift and overcome the influence of local noise on NCCF.To address these challenges,we conduct a study on two temporary datasets,including an ocean-bottom-seismometer(OBS)dataset from the southern Mariana subduction zone and a dataset from a temporary dense network from the Weiyuan shale gas field,Sichuan,China.We first inspect the teleseismic and local event waveforms to evaluate the overall clock drift and data quality for both datasets.For the OBS dataset,NCCF using different time segments(3,6,and 12-h)beside daily waveforms data is computed to select the data length with optimal detection capability.Eventually,the 6-h segment is the preferred choice with high detection efficiency and low noise level.For the land dataset,higher drift detection is achieved by NCCF using the daily long waveforms.Meanwhile,we find that NCCF symmetry on the dense array is highly influenced by localized intense noise for large interstation distances(>1 km)but is well preserved for short interstation distances.The results have shown that the use of different segments of daily waveform data in the OBS dataset,and the careful selection of interstation distances in the land dataset substantially improved the NCCF results.All the clock drifts in both datasets are successfully corrected and verified with waveforms and NCCF.The newly developed strategies using short-segment NCCF help to overcome the existing issues to correct the clock drift of seismic data.

Litter buffet:On the use of trash bins by birds in six boreal urban settlements

Unintentional food resources in urban areas(street litter,food leftovers,overflowing trash bins)are dietary components of some urban-exploiter bird species.In this study,we report on 13 bird species in six southern Finnish cities using urban trash bins and describe differences in their activity when provided with food resources(i.e.,bait)in different bin types.We used generalized linear models(GLM)and classification and regression trees(CART)to test for associations between environmental variables and bird activity at the binscapes.Bird activity at the binscapes significantly differed among all cities and among types of bins and was significantly higher after placing bait in all cases.Bins with the largest opening had more activity as opposed to those with smaller openings or lids.Corvids and gulls had the highest activity,with corvids usually being present before the bait was placed and gulls increasing their activity thereafter.These differences show that trash bin foraging is highly malleable and thus susceptible to management preventing its occurrence.Suitable waste management measures could aid in reducing the number of species close to bins and their surroundings,benefiting both bird and human health.

Evaluating the addition of radar with optical data for vegetation mapping in a montane region in Sri Lanka

The use of freely-available multi-source imagery for mapping vegetation in montane terrain is important for many developing countries that do not have the funding for high-resolution data capture.Radar images are also now freely available and include Sentinel-1 in dual polarisation,and PALSAR-2.These images can penetrate cloud cover and provide the advantage of acquiring data in a cloudy tropical region.This research evaluated whether the addition of radar with optical and topographic data improves classification accuracy in a montane region in Sri Lanka.Six classification experiments were designed based on different combinations of image data to test whether radar data improved land cover classification accuracy compared with optical data alone.Random forest classifier in the Google Earth Engine has been utilised to classify the tropical montane vegetation.The results indicate that radar or optical data alone cannot obtain satisfactory results.However,when combining radar with optical data the overall accuracy increased by approximately 5%,and by an additional 2%when topography data were added.The highest accuracy(92%)was achieved with multiple imagery,and adding the vegetation indices improved the model slightly by 0.3%.In addition,feature importance analysis showed that radar data makes a significant contribution to the classification.These positive outcomes demonstrate that freely-accessible multi-source remotely-sensed data have impressive capability for vegetation mapping,and support the monitoring and managing of forest ecological resources in tropical montane regions.

Identification of sand and dust storm source areas in Iran

Sand and dust storms （SDS） are common phenomena in arid and semi-arid areas. In recent years, SDS frequencies and intensities have increased significantly in Iran. A research on SDS sources is important for understanding the mechanisms of dust generation and assessing its socio-economic and environmental impacts. In this paper, we developed a new approach to identify SDS source areas in Iran using a combination of nine related datasets, namely drought events, temperature, precipitation, location of sandy soils, SDS frequency, hu- man-induced soil degradation （HISD）, human influence index （HII）, rain use efficiency （RUE） and net primary pro- ductivity （NPP） loss. To identify SDS source areas, we firstly normalized these datasets under uniform criteria in- cluding layer reprojection using Lambert conformal conic projection, data conversion from shapefile to raster, Min-Max Normalization with data range from 0 to 1, and data interpolation by Kriging and images resampling （resolution of 1 km）. After that, a score map for the possibility of SDS sources was generated through overlaying multiple datasets under average weight allocation criterion, in which each item obtained weight equally. In the score map, the higher the score, the more possible a specific area could be regarded as SDS source area. Exceptions mostly came from large cities, like Tehran and Isfahan. As a result, final SDS source areas were mapped out, and Al-Howizeh/Al-Azim marshes and Sistan Basin were identified as main SDS source areas in Iran. The SDS source area in Al-Howizeh/Al-Azim marshes still keeps expanding. In addition, Al-Howizeh/Al-Azim marshes are now suf- fering rapid land degradation due to natural and human-induced factors and might totally vanish in the near future. Sistan Basin also demonstrates the impacts of soil degradation and wind erosion. With appropriate intensity, dura- tion, wind speed and altitude of the dust storms, sand particles uplifting from this area might have developed into extreme dust storms, especially during the summer.

Addressing the trade-climate change-energy nexus: China's explorations in a global governance landscape

We have arrived at a critical juncture when it comes to understanding the numerous ways in which trade interacts with climate change and energy(trade-climate-energy nexus).Trade remains crucial for the sustainable development of the world's greatest trading nation:China.After clarifying the linkages within the trade,climate change and energy nexus,this article delves into China's specific needs and interests related to trade,climate change and energy.Then it explores the ways in which trade can contribute to China's needs,to sustainable energy development and to the goals of the global climate agreement that is under negotiation.One main findings are China is a key participant in negotiations on trade liberalization of environmental technologies and services.These negotiations are in China's interests in terms of innovative industries,technological upgrading,employment and public health.China could stand up for the interests of other emerging and developing countries and serve as an example in terms of transitioning to a low-carbon economy.Beyond trade barriers issues of domestic(energy)regulation such as fossil-fuel subsidies as well as investment,competition-policy,tradefacilitation and transit issues related to clean energy need to be addressed.Building trust between relevant actors across sectors and national borders will be of the essence in order to foster long-term cooperation on technological innovation.As a way forward,different approaches towards the governance of trade and climate change will be highlighted.Besides discussing the specific aspects of Chinese participation in global trade and climate change governance,this paper aims at offering broader insights into the nexus between trade,energy and climate governance in China.

Effects of Quarry Activities on some Selected Communities in the Lower Manya Krobo District of the Eastern Region of Ghana

Extraction of Limestone is an economically important and widespread activity in Ghana and has existed since historical times. However, in spite of its remarkable contribution towards economic development, some adverse impacts have been noticed, especially where extraction is carried out without proper planning and use of modern technology and scientific methods. We have carried out an assessment on the environmental effects of limestone quarrying on some communities in the Lower Manya Krobo District in the Eastern region of Ghana. Dust emission is one of the major effects of the practice of limestone extraction and as such, dust (PM10) sampling was conducted at the affected communities. Mean dry season results recorded in these communities stand at 125.0 μg/m3 or Bueryonye, 116.0 μg/m3 at Odugblase and 109.3 μg/m3 at Klo-Begoro. Oterkpolu community which served as the control recorded an average of 50.5 μg/m3. Average rainy season values recorded for the communities were 83.3 μg/m3 for Bueryonye, 113.1 μg/m3 at Odugblase and 74.4 μg/m3 at Klo-Begoro. The control community, Oterkpolu, had 43.3 μg/m3. These values are above the EPA, Ghana daily guideline level of 70 μg/m3 over a time-weighted average per 24 hours. Questionnaires administration and health records obtained from the health facilities in the communities revealed notable deteriorations in the health of the people as a result of the quarrying activities in the area. Notable among these is the prevalence of malaria though not related to dust emissions, it results from mosquitoes breeding in the stagnant pools of water found in pits created as a result of the mining activity. Other common health cases recorded were acute respiratory tract infection, ear and eye infections, cough and pneumonia.

Building African Ecosystem Research Network for Sustaining Local Ecosystem Goods and Services

A new form of producing and sharing knowledge has emerged as an international(United States of America,Asia,and Europe) research collaboration,known as the Long-Term Ecological Research(LTER) Network.Although Africa boasts rich biodiversity,including endemic species,it lacks the long-term initiatives to underpin sustainable biodiversity managements.At present,climate change may exacerbate hunger and poverty concerns in addition to resulting in ecosystem degradation,land use change,and other threats in Africa.Therefore,ecosystem monitoring was suggested to understanding the effects of climate change and setting strategies to mitigate these changes.This paper aimed to investigate ecosystem monitoring ground sites and address their coverage gaps in Africa to provide a foundation for optimizing the African Ecosystem Research Network(AERN) ground sites.The geographic coordinates and characteristics of ground sites-based ecosystem monitoring were collected from various networks aligned with the LTER implementation in Africa.Additionally,climatic data and biodiversity distribution maps were retrieved from various sources.These data were used to assess the size of existing ground sites and the gaps in description,ecosystems and biomes.The results reveal that there were 1089 sites established by various networks.Among these sites,30.5%,27.5%,and 28.8% had no information of area,year of establishment,current status,respectively.However,68.0% of them had an area equal to or greater than 1 km2.Sites were created progressively over the course of the years,with 68.9% being created from 2000 to 2005.To date,only 41.5% of the sites were operational.The sites were scattered across Africa,but they were concentrated in Eastern and Southern Africa.The unbalanced distribution pattern of the sites left Central and Northern Africa hardly covered,and many unique ecosystems in Central Africa were not included.To sustain these sites,the AERN should be based on operational sites,seeking secure funding by establishing multiple partnerships.

为实现持续发展而奋斗

本世纪中叶以来,世界人口倍增、全球经济产量成5倍增长以及收入分配的差距日益扩大等三种趋势,已对现今地球自然系统承受的过度压力产生最直接的影响。社会经济系统已大大增加了现有55亿人口对环境的影响。这类系统大大有助于凌驾于公平和消除贫困之上的发展;未给妇女带来平等权利、教育和经济机会;对水资源消耗熟视无睹;不区分环境无害化生产方式和无害化非环境生产方式;很少注意无计划的城市化带来的日趋明显的问题。 1994年9月。

Saturation states of carbonate minerals in a freshwater-seawater mixing zone of small tropical island’s aquifer

Groundwater is a crucial resource on the Manukan Island as it is the only source of freshwater available on the island. The aquifer has deteriorated to a high degree, during the last decade. Nine domestic wells were sampled from March 2006 to January 2007 to probe the hydrochemical components that influence the water quality. Geochemical data on dissolved major constituents in groundwater samples from the Manukan Island revealed the main processes responsible for their geochemical evolution. The results using statistical analyses, graphical method and numerical model output (PHREEQC) showed that the groundwater was chemically highly enriched in Na and Cl, indicative of seawater intrusion into the aquifer as also supported from the Na-Cl signature on the Piper diagram. From the PHREEQC simulation model, calcite, dolomite and aragonite solubility showed positive values of the saturation indices (SI), indicating supersaturation which led to mineral precipitation condition of water by these minerals.

Effects of selective logging on tree diversity and some soil characteristics in a tropical forest in southwest Ghana

We investigated the effects of selective logging disturbances on tree diversity and soil characteristics in the Bia Conservation Area in southwest Ghana. The study was conducted in unlogged, 29-35 years post-logged and swamp forests using ten 25 m× 25 m plots. In total, we identified 310 individual trees belonging to 87 species. Mean Shannon-Weiner index was highest in the post-logged forest but there were no significant differences in tree density, dominance, or DBH size class distributions between these forests. Soil physical properties such as pH and bulk density up to 30 cm depth were similar in the two of forests In terms of soil nutrient status, available P, exchangeable K and total N contents were all similar in the unlogged and post-logged forests. Our findings suggest that the effects of logging on tree diversity are compara-tively long-term, in contrast to its short-term effects on some top soil physical and chemical characteristics.

Setting up a Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) for the ROSELT/OSS Network

Environmental monitoring and evaluation (M&E) systems are indispensable tools for sustainable land management, especially in dry and fragile ecosystems. The reporting and dissemination of its products and indicators are the key roles to perform their missions. Furthermore, the overall success of such multilateral projects and networks depends on well-organized infrastructures for spatial data management. A spatial data infrastructure (SDI) is an efficient framework to centralize the management of spatial data and information related to multilateral projects for the best sharing and exchange between partners and stakeholders in order to ensure that they are interactively connected to use the data efficiently and in a flexible manner. This paper outlines the work undertaken in partnership between the Geography and GIS Department of the Faculty of Arts, King Abdulaziz University, Saudi Arabia Kingdom, the Geomatics, Earth and Land Settlement Branch of the Department of Geology, Faculty of Sciences of Tunis, Tunis El Manar University, Tunisia, and the Sahara and Sahel Observatory OSS which is an intergovernmental organization, in order to build a Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) for the ROSELT/OSS program (Long-Term Environmental Monitoring Observatories Network in the Circum-Sahara of the Sahara and Sahel Observatory). This SDI is entirely developed using Open Source technologies and the extensive suite of OGC (Open Geospatial Consortium) standards and specifications, to enable interoperability among and between its different components.

Building a Beautiful China:A Definitive Exploration on Sustainable Economy

FINALLY,the world is witnessing what may well turn out to be the definitive how-to guide on building a sustainable economy that works in complete harmony with the environment:China’s transformation under the banner of an"ecological civilization."It’s been a long time coming.For well over a century,

民航与环境

国际民航组织（ＩＣＡＯ）理事会的航空环境保护委员会（ＣＡＥＰ）提出了与民航有关的主要的环境问题：飞机噪音和来自飞机发动机的排放．在源头减少飞机的噪音是ＣＡＥＰ的工作重点，但是消除噪声和土地利用计划也受到相当大的注意．有关排放的工作可分为三类：技术和标准、管理措施和基于市场的机制．国际民航组织通过技术合作和培训计划给一些国家提供与环境有关的帮助．

气候变化--对钢铁工业的最大挑战

钢铁是长期以来对社会和发展起主要作用的基础材料.基础结构、运输、集装箱、电力生产和输送、商品制作甚至金融系统都以不同形式在使用着钢铁产品.近数十年已有几个预言,指出钢铁作为社会的主要材料已快结束.替代材料,如合成材料、塑料、陶瓷和玻璃,已发展有新的性能,在许多应用方面可以取代钢铁.但同一时间,优秀的钢铁产品设计扩大了其应用范围,涉及钢铁产品应用开发的投资在继续扩大.因此,尽管有相反的预言,但在近期的将来,没有理由去期待钢铁应用会衰落下去. ……

民航与环境

国际民航组织(ICAO)理事会的航空环境保护委员会(cAEP)提出了与民航有关的主要的环境问题:飞机噪音和来自飞机发动机的排放.在源头减少飞机的噪音是CAEP的工作重点,但是消除噪声和土地利用计划也受到相当大的注意.有关排放的工作可分为三类:技术和标准、管理措施和基于市场的机制.国际民航组织通过技术合作和培训计划给一些国家提供与环境有关的帮助.

Improving photochemical indicators for attributing ozone sensitivities in source apportionment analysis

Comprehensive Air Quality Model with extensions(CAMx)-Decoupled Direct Method(DDM)simulations of first-order ozone(O_(3))sensitivity to nitrogen oxides(NO_(x))and volatile organic compounds(VOCs)emissions were performed and combined with modelled P_(H_(2)O_(2))/P_(HNO_(3))ratios to obtain a range of thresholds for determining O_(3)-sensitivity regimes for different areas of China.Utilising the new threshold ranges for photochemical indicators,the method for determining O_(3)formation in the Ozone Source Apportionment Technology(OSAT)module within CAMx was improved by a dynamically varied threshold of P_(H_(2)O_(2))/P_(HNO_(3))ratio.The O_(3)concentration contributions in the newly added transition regime were apportioned to NO_(x)and VOCs emissions in proportion to the relationship between the P_(H_(2)O_(2))/P_(HNO_(3))ratio and first-order O_(3)sensitivity.The source contributions of O_(3)concentrations from different emission sectors from June to September 2019 were compared using the original and improved CAMx-OSAT.The results showed that the O_(3)concentration contributions changed significantly in the NO_(x)-limited regime,with a maximum decrease of 21.89%,while the contributions increased by up to 7.57%in the VOC-limited regime,and were within 15μg/m^(3)in the transition regime.The modified OSAT module enabled a more sophisticated attribution of O_(3)to precursor emissions and may have far-reaching implications for informing O_(3)pollution control policy.