Current Research in Environmental Sustainability最新文献

Rapid urbanization has emerged as a defining global phenomenon, reshaping landscapes, economies, and societies. Understanding the implications of urbanization trends and effectively managing associated risks has become critical imperatives for sustainable development. In this study, we investigate the dynamic nature of land use changes in urban areas and their profound implications for policy applications and flood risk management strategies. To accurately estimate hydrologic parameters and project future trends, the study places a strong emphasis on the need to base assessments on historical and current development states. Furthermore, the study acknowledges that localized land use intensity can surpass generalized comprehensive plans, potentially leading to underestimated hydrological variables and flood risk. To address these challenges, the study introduces an innovative methodology. It utilizes a geospatial raster-based algorithm that incorporates existing land use trends and comprehensive plan zoning districts. This approach enhances the accuracy of runoff curve numbers for the ultimate development conditions. The algorithm is applied to assess hydrology and hydraulics in 30 designated watersheds within Fairfax County, Virginia, revealing substantial changes. Notably, there is an average increase in runoff volume, ranging from 14% for the 1-year storm event to 5% for the 100-year design storms. Additionally, the study applies this methodology to investigate structure flooding within the Pimmit Run watershed, effectively addressing the issue of underestimated flooded structures. By acknowledging the diverse aspects of urbanization, this study not only contributes to the field of hydrology but also provides valuable insights for urban policy development, land use planning, and flood risk management.

Landscape management practices (LMP) support addressing the vulnerability of small-scale producers (SSPs) through providing a means of sustaining and strengthening community livelihoods and building their resilience and the environment. However, addressing the vulnerability of SSPs through the implementation of LMP requires meaningful community engagement and assessing the benefits and costs from the perspective of local communities. This study was conducted in two watersheds, Maybar-Felana and Gelana, in the Awash River basin, Ethiopia. The study assessed the links between natural resource degradation and the vulnerability of SSPs, local communities' opinion on the benefits and costs of LMP and the implications of implementing LMP for addressing vulnerability. It gathered and analyzed data through key informant interviews (KII), focus group discussions (FGDs) and GIS and remote sensing techniques. Diverse LMP such as afforestation/reforestation, exclosures, terrace and bunds and crop- and soil-based soil amendments were adopted in the studied watersheds. These practices contributed to the improvement of natural resources such as forests and the services they provide. Over the last 21 years (2000−2021), forest cover increased by 11.5 and 42.5% in Maybar-Felana and Gelana watersheds, respectively, while shrublands increased by 41.1% in Maybar-Felana. In line with this, the SSPs identified multiple benefits of LMP including the restoration of degraded vegetation, reducing runoff and soil loss, improving access to water for multiple uses and increasing agricultural productivity. The adopted LMP contributed to reducing livelihood vulnerability through reducing incidents of weather extremes such as flood and drought, improving food and water security, enhancing resource availability, and building livelihood assets. The SSPs also identified multiple economic and social costs of LMP, suggesting that addressing the economic and social costs through balancing short-term economic losses with long-term environmental benefits of interventions is crucial to sustaining the LMP and the benefits they provide.

As our societies and natural systems are becoming ever more interconnected, it is critical that sustainable management can adapt to new knowledge from both the ecological and the social domains, and act on it in a timely and effective manner. This need is amplifying in the Anthropocene as we are approaching the limit for humanity's safe operating space, leading to irreversible change to ecosystem function. This urgently requires increased attention and concern regarding the information feedbacks between the silos of science, policy and society. A web of policies is in place to protect the health of people and the planet, but to ensure that they are effective we need frameworks to make sense of real-world complexities and interlinkages between multiple factors. The Drivers-Pressures-State-Impacts-Response (DPSIR) framework was created for this purpose, however, its' implicit focus on 1) analytical and 2) procedural aspects must be made explicit, to enable coordination across silos and studies. Continued creation of new DPSIR derivatives may limit its impact, while more explicit coordination between these two aspects can improve the effectiveness of DPSIR while retaining its flexibility. We thus propose five elements to support sustainable policy development and implementation using DPSIR: 1) iteration; 2) risk, uncertainty and analytical bias; 3) flexible integration; 4) use of quantitative methods, and; 5) clear and standard definitions for DPSIR. We illustrate these elements in four cases: Three highlight missing feedbacks when DPSIR elements are not made explicit and a fourth case – on per-and-polyfluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS) – showing a potential roadmap to successful policy implementation using DPSIR.

Companies have reported some voluntary initiatives such as obtaining an ISO 14001 certification to solve environmental problems and to achieve United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals. While ISO 14001 adoption has been studied extensively on the case of parent companies, there is not much prior research related to the parent-subsidiary relationship. This paper attempts to answer the question why Japanese subsidiaries in Thailand obtain ISO 14001 certification by focusing on corporate governance characteristics of Japanese parent companies such as board diversity and on the share of voting rights in their subsidiaries. We perform a logistic analysis using panel data from 117 subsidiaries in three industrial sectors (rubber products, machinery, and precise machinery) in 2017–2020. We find that characteristics such as direct voting rights in the subsidiaries and long business history of the parent companies have a strong positive correlation with ISO 14001 adoption by their subsidiaries in Thailand. The proportion of independent directors on the parent companies' boards exhibits only a slightly positive correlation. By contrast, our findings show no correlation with the proportion of female directors on the parent companies' boards due to the gender inequality gap in Japan. Our findings contribute to the empirical literature about voluntary environmental management in developing countries with regard to the parent-subsidiary relationship.

Extreme weather events can act as “focusing events” that open windows of opportunity in the policy process for increasing resilience and transforming existing systems to be more sustainable and just. However, due to the multiple and contested meanings of resilience, it is uncertain to what extent a focusing event will foster transformational policy change as opposed to re-entrenching existing systems and structures. We conducted quantitative content and qualitative narrative analyses of Puerto Rican climate and energy policy before and after Hurricane Maria to assess the effect of a climate-induced disaster on the framings of resilience and transformation. We find that these terms are used predominantly in service of changes needed to promote the stability of the existing energy system. This suggests that after Hurricane Maria, achieving stability has been the dominant goal for resilience and transformation. As long as those responsible for the Puerto Rican energy system emphasize stability without actively working to enable longer-term transformational change, Puerto Ricans are unlikely to experience a rapid transition toward a sustainable, inclusive energy system.

One of the largest consumed and grown cereals in Ghana is maize. However, there is a dearth of research on the response of maize yield to rainfall and temperature variability in Ghana. Precisely, prior studies conducted in Ghana have employed only quantitative approaches to explore the effect of climate variability on the yield of food crops including maize. However, this study combined both quantitative and qualitative approaches to investigate the effect of rainfall and temperature variability on maize yield in the Asante Akim North District of the Ashanti Region, Ghana. Since research will help the decision-making process of the policymakers at several cadres of managerial leadership of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) all around the world where the goals are intended, this study will have significant implications on the attainment of the SDGs particularly Goals 1 (no poverty), 2 (zero hunger), and 13 (climate action). Pragmatic research philosophy was utilized with the aid of questionnaire surveys involving 150 maize farmers and three focus group discussions in three purposively chosen communities (Ananekrom, Juansa, and Agogo). The Mann-Kendall trend test was used to evaluate the trends of rainfall, temperature, and maize yield data for the period 2012 to 2021 in the study district. Multiple regression was used to assess the effect of rainfall and temperature variability on maize yield. Results showed that the surveyed maize farmers perceived rising temperatures and erratic rainfall patterns. Similarly, the Mann-Kendall trend test results revealed a significant temperature rise (p < 0.05) and an increasing rainfall pattern (p > 0.05). The increasing annual rainfall and rising temperature trends increased maize yield significantly (p < 0.05) in the district from 2012 to 2021 contributing about 70% of the yield variation. The surveyed maize farmers implemented key on-farm and off-farm practices including planting drought-resistant maize varieties, crop rotation, changing diets, and selling assets to adapt to the rainfall and temperature variability. The increasing annual rainfall and temperature patterns significantly affect maize yield positively in the Asante Akim North district stressing the need for continued implementation of adaptation practices such as planting high-yielding and drought-resistant maize varieties to enhance household food security. Furthermore, the results demonstrate the urgent need for policy formulation by policymakers to make maize production resilient to the adverse impacts of the changing rainfall and rising temperature trends in Ghana.