Journal of Environmental Management最新文献

Australia has garnered significant recognition for its leadership in residential solar energy adoption, driven by incentive programs like the Feed-in Tariff and the Small-Scale Renewable Energy Scheme. Yet limited research has evaluated the policy's effects on residential solar photovoltaics in Australia. We thus examine how Feed-in tariff policies and different policy packages affect residential solar PV adoption using the quarterly data from July 2009 to June 2022. The benchmark results uncover that high Feed-in tariff rates, long-term contracts, and gross Feed-in tariff schemes substantially drive solar adoption in Australia. Still, the observed adverse relationship between cost and installed capacity highlights that upfront Small-Scale Renewable Energy Scheme subsidies effectively promote solar power. Our estimates may provide valuable implications for accelerating solar photovoltaic adoption and achieving renewable energy transitions in Australia.

Soil infiltration is essential in the hydrological cycle, fulfilling plant water requirements, particularly in semi-arid regions such as the Loess Plateau. However, comprehensive characterization of soil infiltration responses to different vegetation restoration types remains unclear. Therefore, this study aims to examine the effects of revegetation on soil infiltration by conducting field experiments with nine representative plant species across five vegetation restoration types. Specifically, we focused on how revegetation affects soil and root properties to determine key factors impacting soil infiltration. The results showed that artificial forestland and natural grassland exhibited the most substantial effects on soil properties. Natural grassland exhibited the highest soil aggregate stability and organic matter content. Root length density and root surface area increased after vegetation restoration, most notably in artificial forestland. Root characteristics were positively correlated with aggregate stability, soil organic matter, and porosity. An increase in root surface area significantly enhanced the steady infiltration rate and saturated hydraulic conductivity (P < 0.01). Except for economic forestland, all types of vegetation restoration improved soil infiltration properties, especially notable in Artemisia sacrorum and Platycladus orientalis. The soil infiltration properties in forestland surpassed those in natural grassland, artificial grassland, and shrubland. Random Forest Regression (RFR) suggested that soil particle size, porosity, and aggerate stability were key predictors of soil infiltration properties. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) indicated that soil infiltration rates were altered by root-mediated changes in soil porosity. Additionally, soil organic matter exerts an indirect positive effect on infiltration rates by influencing soil aggregate stability. These findings are crucial for evaluating hydrological processes and devising more effective ecological restoration and soil and water conservation strategies in the Loess Plateau.

The devastating impact of climate change has intensified discussions on balancing sustainable economic growth with environmental sustainability achievement. To contribute to the discourse, this study explores how environmental tax, foreign investment, natural resource (NRR), and technological innovation impact Sub-Saharan Africa's efforts towards a low-carbon future. Using data from 1995 to 2019 and advanced methodologies (Cross Sectional Augmented Autoregressive Distributed Lag, and Method of Moments Quantile Regression), the results showed that environmental taxes effectively minimize carbon emissions. FDI in the short run causes carbon emissions to rise slowly but causes a significant reduction in the long run. An increase in natural resources rent was found to cause damage to the environment significantly while technological innovation in the long run demonstrates a significant reduction in carbon emissions. The MMQR results confirm environmental tax significantly reduced CO₂ emissions in all the quantiles. FDI and Technology in the long run cause a reduction in CO₂ emissions while natural resource rent causes environmental destruction in all the quantiles. We recommend that policymakers introduce more carbon tax policies, establish sub-regional carbon offset markets, and prioritize the development of clean energy infrastructure.

Scientific assessments of the supply, demand and flow of ecosystem services and the formulation of ecological compensation policies are important for the promotion of sustainable regional development. Based on the supply-demand ratio model, breakpoint model, field strength model, geographic information system spatial analysis and statistical methods, we assessed the supply, demand and supply-demand relationships of carbon sequestration services on the Loess Plateau for 2000, 2010 and 2020. We also analyzed the interregional flow of carbon sequestration services at multiple scales and accounted for horizontal ecological compensation. The results revealed that from 2000 to 2020, both the supply and demand of carbon sequestration services increased, with a greater increase in demand. The high-supply areas were mostly in the central and northwestern parts of the Loess Plateau, and the high-demand areas were mostly in areas other than the central part. The supply-demand ratio for carbon sequestration services declined, with a large increase in the number of deficit counties and surplus counties, mostly in the central and western parts of the study area. The flow rates of carbon sequestration services within the Loess Plateau increased. The intercounty flow rates within the same city were the highest but decreased. Decreasing intercity flow rates appeared within the same province although they initially increased. Finally, interprovincial flow rates were the lowest, but they were increasing. The outflow of carbon sequestration services from the Loess Plateau to external regions was greater than the inflow from external regions, but the outflow decreased in 2020 compared with 2010, while the inflow from external regions increased. Most cities actually received or paid less ecological compensation than that accounted for based on the basis of flow rates after considering willingness to pay and ability to pay. Moreover, the number and total compensation of cities receiving ecological compensation were greater than the number and total compensation of payers in the 44 cities within the Loess Plateau. This study provides a theoretical basis for not only understanding the spatial transfer patterns of ecosystem services at multiple scales but also formulating ecological compensation policies, thereby promoting the realization of regional sustainable development.

Mountain forests provide not only wood as a raw material but also numerous ecosystem services, such as protection against natural hazards, recreation and carbon sequestration, and they are important hosts for biodiversity. To manage these forests efficiently and in a target-oriented manner, both forest management planning and efficient harvesting operations are required. However, in most cases these two aspects are handled independently from each other. To link planning with forest operations, it is essential to divide forests into smaller areas with characteristics that are as homogeneous as possible, so-called forest management units (FMUs). The goal is that each FMU has self-contained fine access (e.g. skid roads, cable roads), and that the FMUs can be managed and planned independently. The aim of this study was to develop a spatial optimisation model that automatically identifies FMUs. The optimisation has three goals: [I] FMUs should be as compact as possible (spatially contiguous as the best case); [II] forest management should be technically and operationally coordinated within an FMU; and [III] FMUs should be as homogeneous as possible, for example regarding site properties, ecosystem service provided, and administrative affiliation. Results showed that our presented spatial optimisation model is a capable method for automatically identifying FMUs. The approach used to set up the model based on a p-median problem formulation (mixed integer linear programming) led to clearly comprehensible solutions that can be achieved in a reasonable computation time. Three solving strategies for successful computation implementation are described. Although the raw results must be reviewed by experts, they facilitate the planning process. More scenarios can be evaluated compared with the classical manual planning approach, ultimately leading to higher-quality solutions.

Extensive efforts are being made globally to install units to remediate contaminants in groundwaters used for drinking, but are these units being installed in the optimum locations? Here, we explore this question for Bihar, an eastern Indian state with a high reliance on groundwater for drinking water. Bihar is impacted by groundwater quality issues, notably in relation to the geogenic contaminants arsenic (As), iron (Fe) and fluoride (F^-). We map the distribution of groundwater quality remediation units for As, Fe and F^-, and which were implemented from 2016 by the Government of Bihar under the aegis of the Public Health Engineering Department (PHED). The majority of the reported remediation units for As are within a distance of 10 km from the main branch of the River Ganges (Ganga), whereas the remediation units for Fe are exclusively present in the eastern and north-eastern districts of Bihar. All of the remediation units for F^- are located in districts south of the River Ganges. The distributions of the installed remediation units are compared with the distribution and concentration of the target contaminants based on a representative Bihar-wide groundwater sampling campaign reported previously by our group. Inconsistencies are identified in many cases between the distribution of implemented remediation units and areas where elevated levels of the contaminant have been found. Some possible reasons for the apparent mismatches are discussed and include: prioritizing installation on the basis of now out-of-date contaminant distribution maps based on strongly non-representative sampling strategies, and administrative and operational convenience. Our study highlights that there are likely extensive areas in Bihar with groundwater quality issues where necessary interventions are required, but not yet received, whilst there seems to be widespread installation of remediation units where the need is less indicated. Several recommendations are made, including the need for representative, broad-scale (e.g. state-wide) testing to underpin robust decision making for optimal site selection for remediation unit installation for improved drinking water.

Biomass wastes (BW) can be used to produce value-added products by multiple energy recovery technologies. However, the actual conversion results are unsatisfactory since heterogeneous feedstocks mixture with different characteristics are hard to optimally recovered in the same fine conversion process. This paper aimed to develop a new method to improve the energy conversion efficiencies, which focused on the rational matching of BW characteristics and demand for highly efficient energy recovery. Accordingly, this paper explored the correlation between BW representative characteristics and energy conversion efficiencies. The results showed that BW types with different characteristics had significant correlation with multiple utilization technologies (P value < 0.05). Existing BW sorting methods based on source/density showed limited promotion on downstream utilization since the large diversity of characteristics within groups. Furthermore, to assist efficient energy conversion of BW, a novel BW sorting mode, different from traditional manual and mechanical sorting methods, was established to achieve the matching between feedstocks and utilization technologies. The chemical properties, containing elemental composition and heating value, were selected as BW sorting criterion. According to new sorting categories, the fuel characteristics, reaction conditions and products performance in terms of its energy conversion process have more significant differences between groups than traditional sorting methods. The energy conversion efficiency can be improved by 10.71% than unsorted as least. The new BW sorting method towards efficient downstream energy recovery has feasibility in industrial applications. The future perspectives were also discussed. This work was helpful to improve the downstream energy utilization.