Environmental Management最新文献

Biological invasions are driven by both direct and indirect factors. However, the effects of indirect drivers, such as social and cultural factors, remain underexplored in many regions worldwide, including the Neotropics. Here, we characterize the knowledge and perceptions that local communities have regarding invasive plant species, aiming to explore how sociocultural factors might influence, either positively or negatively, the biological invasions in the high-mountain ecosystems of central Colombia. We conducted a semi-structured survey, which included an open-ended question analyzed using sentiment analysis, and implemented a board game to assess both perceptions and knowledge of invasive plants already established in the Colombian high mountains. The results revealed that although half of the respondents viewed biological invasions negatively, their perceptions of 18 invasive plant species already established in the region were generally neutral or positive. This shift in perception may be linked to their knowledge level, as the results showed an accuracy rate of approximately 60% for identifying native and invasive high-mountain plant species. The average correct identification rate for invasive plants (22%) was nearly three times lower than that for native plants (70%). Notably, invasive plants with cultural or economic value are generally classified as native. Collectively, these findings suggest that neutral perceptions, alongside a lack of awareness of invasive species and the value placed on a large portion of them, may significantly contribute to the transportation, introduction, and establishment of invasive plants in the Colombian high mountain regions. Thus, incorporating the effects of sociocultural drivers into invasion management strategies may be crucial for effectively preventing their establishment and spread at both the local and regional levels.

The Colombian-Peruvian Amazon’s global socio-ecological relevance attracts multiple organizations and technologies related to cooperation and environmental governance, configuring a complex network of interactions, relationships, and relational structures. This case study seeks to provide clarity on the complex functioning of the cooperation network in the Amazon biome, composed of institutional and technological nodes. It identified 17 thematic environmental narratives, their patterns of concordance by node (entities/institutions operating within the network), and how they influence inter-network links. Studying cooperating networks in dynamic contexts is made complex by progressive and diverse environmental threats, economic challenges, and barriers to accessing information. The article proposes a methodological approach to untangling these complexities, leveraging (a) social network analysis; (b) web scraping for data collection; (c) text mining to categorize narrative themes by node; and (d) network modeling using Exponential Random Graph Models. We propose and evaluate hypotheses on the influence of narrative concordance, contribution, homophily, and environmental-governance internal structural patterns that are important in creating network links. Study results indicate three dominating narratives: Research & Education, Communities, and Policy, revealing a higher distribution, average contribution, and significance for these discourses. Additionally, international nodes contribute predominantly to Research and Technology topics, surpassing Colombian-Peruvian nodes, suggesting a pattern of influence over these network themes. Lastly, we identify opportunities for improving system interventions for slowing the Amazon biome’s degradation, composed of a diversified, well-integrated cooperation network, and underscoring the need for environmental-policy frameworks that actively integrate local perspectives and capacities, while leveraging international networks to bridge regional limitations.

Given global threats to biodiversity, implementing effective biodiversity offset policies is increasingly recognised as being essential for delivering sustainable development. As research and practice on offsets has developed, so have international expectations of best practice principles, which set the benchmark for national systems in their efforts to protect biodiversity. This research aims to synthesise best practice principles for biodiversity offsets from the international literature, developing a benchmark to assess the extent to which national policies align with international standards. Chile is selected as a suitable case study due to its biodiversity richness and emerging biodiversity offsets policy, to test this analytical framework. The analysis indicates that the benchmark provides a useful basis for assessing national biodiversity offset policies and shows that Chilean policy demonstrates an initial alignment with international best practices, though several areas for improvement remain.

Climate denial is often misunderstood as ignorance, but evidence from neuroscience reveals it as identity protection. This perspective integrates insights from the neuroscience of belief, emotion, and decision-making into climate communication, arguing that resistance to climate action reflects how people process information, not how much they know. Scientific messages that conflict with people’s values or group identities often provoke reinterpretation or rejection of the facts. Climate change is also a uniquely abstract and psychologically distant threat and fear-based appeals often backfire unless paired with agency and clear solutions. More effective communication must be participatory, emotionally intelligent, and grounded in trust, aligning with audience values and reducing psychological threat. Approaches built on empathy, local context, and collaboration can make climate communication not only more persuasive but also transformative.

Like several countries with industrial history and heritage, the risks associated with contaminated land (CL) are a widespread challenge in the United Kingdom (UK). Contaminated land and their risks are managed by local authorities, although consultancy is often sought from non-governmental organisations. There is a legal requirement for the relevant local authority to hold data on the status of any contaminated land and associated risks within their geographical remit. However, minimal legislation exists regarding the standardisation of documentation, including records of contaminated site management and the associated administrative procedures. Another fundamental challenge is that the data concerning contaminated land is non-integrated. This is because hundreds of different local authorities up and down the country manage sites in a non-uniform manner. The same is the case in England and Wales, which is the geographical remit of this study. For instance, there are variations in format, type of data, presentation of data, procedures to access the data (e.g., by environmental consultants), quality of data, and even quantity of data. To overcome such issues presented by the lack of integration, there is a substantial need for unification and standardisation at all scales. This study not only presents an account of aforesaid issues and their adverse implications but also outlines innovative models that can enhance the integration, unification, simplification, and standardisation of data/information management from local authorities through to a national level. These conceptual models involve the application of information matrices and GIS. Such models, when fully developed in future, can enhance the environmental communication and coordination between the diverse stakeholders involved in each contaminated site scenario, particularly including environmental regulators e.g., the Environment Agency or Natural Resources Wales, environmental consultants, and local authorities; similarly other associated stakeholders such as developers, the construction industry and land reclamation specialists.

The development of renewable energy, such as hydropower, often leads to the loss and fragmentation of terrestrial habitats, with significant effects on biodiversity. However, these impacts are often overlooked or underestimated in Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs). In this study, we proposed a framework that explicitly integrates forest habitat connectivity into EIAs and environmental planning, addressing both impact assessment and recommendations for offset. The framework included (i) an evaluation of forest habitat connectivity loss by comparing before- and after-construction scenarios and (ii) a spatial analysis to prioritise reforestation activities aimed at restoring connectivity for wildlife species with varying movement abilities. We applied this framework to a proposed hydropower project in Nepal and found a major loss of forest habitat connectivity within the project footprint and up to 15 km away, indicating substantial loss of forest connectivity and a landscape-scale impact. In total, 94.1 km² of deforested areas were identified, and potential reforestation sites were ranked using the Integral Index of Connectivity across three dispersal distances (500 m, 1 km and 2 km). Priority reforestation sites were identified both at landscape-level and within riparian zones, with 15% and 36% of the sites, respectively, emerging as top priorities for reforestation across all the dispersal distances. Our findings highlight the importance of explicitly addressing habitat connectivity in EIAs and environmental planning and show how connectivity-based prioritisation can guide effective reforestation offsets, promoting a better balance between energy development and biodiversity conservation.

Tropical wetlands provide critical services, including carbon sequestration and biodiversity conservation. This study assesses the community composition, species diversity, and carbon stock potential of aquatic vegetation across three distinct wetland types in Barak Valley, Assam, Northeast India, namely an oxbow lake (OL), a floodplain wetland (FPW), and a perennial wetland (PW). Field surveys were conducted during the wet and dry seasons, with vegetation sampled across both aquatic and riparian zones using a randomized quadrat approach. Data on species composition, density, and biomass were collected, and phytosociological analyses was done to evaluate community structure and diversity of the wetland vegetation. Carbon stock was estimated from dry biomass, using a conversion factor to quantify carbon content. The study identified 53 plant species across the wetlands, with PW exhibiting the highest species richness (42 species) and OL the highest carbon stock (2.76 Mg ha⁻¹). Invasive plants contributed approximately 50-60% to the total carbon stock, suggesting a significant but ecologically complex role in carbon sequestration. A moderately strong positive association (R² = 0.65) was observed between plant diversity and carbon stocks although invasive dominance weakened evenness and possibly the community resilience. While invasive species significantly enhance carbon storage, their ecological impacts on native biodiversity and resource allocation raise concerns about ecosystem health and resilience. These findings highlight the need for adaptive wetland management strategies that balance carbon sequestration with biodiversity conservation, particularly through the control of invasive species.

The transformation of the energy system towards climate neutrality poses countries in Central Europe with complex multidimensional challenges. Green hydrogen is seen as a key technology for enabling cross-sector coupling and decarbonising CO₂-intensive sectors such as industry and mobility. In this context, this study identifies and analyses relevant stakeholders in eight countries of the Danube region as part of a transnational cooperation. A systematic stakeholder analysis is used to identify 45 stakeholders in six stakeholder groups and evaluate them in terms of their perceived importance, influence and attitude towards the development of green hydrogen ecosystems. The stakeholder mapping shows country-specific differences and overarching patterns in the prioritisation of political, economic and civil society actors. Political institutions and key economic players such as energy suppliers and industrial companies are particularly influential. At the same time, stakeholders with a focus on fossil energies show ambivalent attitudes, pointing to possible transformation conflicts. Thus, the analysis provides empirically sound findings for the design of targeted participation strategies and governance-orientated policy design in European hydrogen policy.

Effective management of dry ecosystems requires an understanding of vegetation dynamics, especially in areas affected by dam-induced hydrological alteration. To provide valuable information on the delayed restoration of ecosystems in arid regions has been affected by dam-induced hydrological alteration, the current study looks at the lagged vegetation responses to hydroclimatic factors. Vegetation dynamics were analyzed using the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) in relation to precipitation, temperature, runoff, and total water storage (TWS) across four dam-impacted basins in southern Saudi Arabia (Hali, Baish, Qanuna, and Al-Ahsabah). A Vector Autoregression (VAR) model applied to remote sensing data (2003–2024) revealed that dam construction significantly increased the vegetation response lag, extending from 2–3 months in the pre-dam period (2003–2009) to 4–5 months post-dam (2010–2024). This shift highlights how dams disrupt the natural coupling between hydroclimatic inputs and vegetation growth, with important consequences for ecosystem recovery and water management in arid regions. These findings highlight the vegetation response and hydrological cycle alterations induced by dams, stressing the lagged vegetation recovery in dammed basins. This has significant implications for water resource management and ecosystem resilience in arid regions. Time-lag analysis can guide dam operations, improve irrigation planning, and support ecosystem monitoring.

Unsustainable mining practices have led to severe ecosystem degradation in mining areas. Ecological restoration plays a crucial role in reinstating the ecosystem service functions of these areas. A monetary evaluation of the ecosystem service value generated by ecological restoration can provide a clear understanding of its socioeconomic benefits, which are of considerable practical significance. While traditional choice experiment methods are widely used in ecosystem service valuation, they often overlook non-compensatory decision-making strategies employed by respondents, potentially resulting in biased estimates. To address this limitation, this study enhances the traditional choice experiment model by introducing attribute cutoffs and incorporates a generative artificial intelligence model to assist in questionnaire design. Using the Dexing Copper Mine as a case study, both the traditional and the modified choice experiment approaches were applied to assess the ecosystem service value resulting from ecological restoration efforts in the mining area. The results indicated that the modified choice experiment method outperforms the traditional choice experiment method in terms of goodness of fit and explanatory power. Based on the improved method, the socioeconomic benefits of ecological restoration in the Dexing copper mine area are projected to reach 53.45 million yuan in 2024. Additionally, the respondents’ average annual willingness to pay for ecosystem services ranked as follows: landscape esthetics, disaster prevention, air quality, water quality, soil quality, vegetation coverage, science education, and biodiversity. This study provides methodological innovation and empirical evidence for the valuation of ecosystem services resulting from ecological restoration in mining areas. It offers theoretical support and a decision-making foundation for ecological restoration planning and related policy formulation in mining regions.