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Topic Review
Subsistence Farming of Smallholder Agroforestry Systems in Indonesia
Subsistence farming is defined as self-sufficient farming in which farmers focus on cultivating sufficient quantities of food for their families. However, there are still many cases of poverty among farmers due to a lack of ability to adopt advanced technology. Small land tenure, low literacy rates, and lack of forest maintenance are the main causes of the subsistence of small agroforestry farmers. Another reason is that subsistence-oriented agroforestry practices are considered a strong form of smallholder resilience. To reduce the subsistence level of farmers, government intervention is needed, especially in providing managerial assistance packages, capital assistance, and the marketing of forest products. 
  • 2.5K
  • 20 Jul 2022
Topic Review
Environmental Scenario Analysis
Scenario analysis is a useful tool to facilitate discussions about the main trends of future change and to promote the understanding of global environmental changes implications on relevant aspects of sustainability.
  • 2.5K
  • 16 Sep 2020
Topic Review
Radioactive Wastewater Treatment Technologies
How to treat radioactive wastewater deeply and efficiently has become the most critical issue in the development of nuclear energy technology. The radioactive wastewater produced after using nuclear technology has the characteristics of many kinds, high concentration, and large quantity. Therefore, it is of great significance to study the treatment technology of radioactive wastewater in reprocessing plants.
  • 2.5K
  • 23 Feb 2023
Topic Review
Carbon Sequestration
Carbon sequestration or carbon dioxide removal (CDR) is the long-term removal, capture or sequestration of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to slow or reverse atmospheric CO2 pollution and to mitigate or reverse global warming. Carbon dioxide (CO2) is naturally captured from the atmosphere through biological, chemical, and physical processes. These changes can be accelerated through changes in land use and agricultural practices, such as converting crop and livestock grazing land into land for non-crop fast growing plants. Artificial processes have been devised to produce similar effects, including large-scale, artificial capture and sequestration of industrially produced CO2 using subsurface saline aquifers, reservoirs, ocean water, aging oil fields, or other carbon sinks, bio-energy with carbon capture and storage, biochar, ocean fertilization, enhanced weathering, and direct air capture when combined with storage. The likely need for CDR has been publicly expressed by a range of individuals and organizations involved with climate change issues, including IPCC chief Rajendra Pachauri, the UNFCCC executive secretary Christiana Figueres, and the World Watch Institute. Institutions with major programs focusing on CDR include the Lenfest Center for Sustainable Energy at the Earth Institute, Columbia University, and the Climate Decision Making Center, an international collaboration operated out of Carnegie-Mellon University's Department of Engineering and Public Policy.
  • 2.4K
  • 28 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Artificial Intelligence in Phytopathology
Plant diseases annually cause 10–16% yield losses in major crops, prompting urgent innovations. Artificial intelligence (AI) shows an aptitude for automated disease detection and diagnosis utilizing image recognition techniques, with reported accuracies exceeding 95% and surpassing human visual assessment. Forecasting models integrating weather, soil, and crop data enable preemptive interventions by predicting spatial-temporal outbreak risks weeks in advance at 81–95% precision, minimizing pesticide usage. Precision agriculture powered by AI optimizes data-driven, tailored crop protection strategies boosting resilience. Real-time monitoring leveraging AI discerns pre-symptomatic anomalies from plant and environmental data for early alerts. These applications highlight AI’s proficiency in illuminating opaque disease patterns within increasingly complex agricultural data. 
  • 2.4K
  • 28 Feb 2024
Topic Review
Zeolite/Pharmaceuticals System
Zeolites belong to aluminosilicate microporous solids, with strong and diverse catalytic activity, which makes them applicable in almost every kind of industrial process, particularly thanks to their eco-friendly profile. Another crucial characteristic of zeolites is their tremendous adsorption capability. Therefore, it is self-evident that the widespread use of zeolites is in environmental protection, based primarily on the adsorption capacity of substances potentially harmful to the environment, such as pharmaceuticals, pesticides, or other industry pollutants. On the other hand, zeolites are also recognized as drug delivery systems (DDS) carriers for numerous pharmacologically active agents. The enhanced bioactive ability of DDS zeolite as a drug carrying nanoplatform is confirmed, making this system more specific and efficient, compared to the drug itself. These two applications of zeolite, in fact, illustrate the importance of (ir)reversibility of the adsorption process. 
  • 2.4K
  • 11 Aug 2022
Topic Review
Food Waste Valorisation Techniques
Food waste valorisation techniques aim to convert food waste into value-added products that can be integrated into various stages of the food supply chain. Some sustainable techniques for food waste valorisation include composting, anaerobic digestion, bioconversion, and upcycling.
  • 2.4K
  • 14 Aug 2023
Topic Review
Climate of the Alps
The climate of the Alps is the climate, or average weather conditions over a long period of time, of the exact middle Alpine region of Europe. As air rises from sea level to the upper regions of the atmosphere the temperature decreases. The effect of mountain topography on prevailing winds is to force warm air from the lower region into an upper zone where it expands in volume at the cost of a proportionate loss of heat, often accompanied by the precipitation of moisture in the form of snow, rain or hail. The position of the Alps in the central European continent profoundly affects the climate of all the surrounding regions. The accumulation of vast masses of snow, which have gradually been converted into permanent glaciers, maintains a gradation of very different climates within the narrow space that intervenes between the foot of the mountains and their upper ridges; it cools breezes that waft to the plains on either side, but its most important function is to regulate the water supply of the large region which is traversed by the streams of the Alps. Nearly all the moisture that is precipitated during fall, winter, and spring is stored in the form of snow and gradually diffused in the course of the succeeding summer; even in the hottest and driest seasons the reserves accumulated during a long preceding period of years in the form of glaciers are available to maintain the regular flow of the greater streams. Nor is this all; the lakes that fill several of the main valleys on the southern side of the Alps are somewhat above the level of the plains of Lombardy and Venetia, and afford an inexhaustible supply of water, which, from a remote period, has been used for that system of irrigation to which they owe their proverbial fertility. Six regions or zones, which are best distinguished by their characteristic vegetation, are found in the Alps. It is an error to suppose that these are indicated by absolute height above sea level. Local conditions of exposure to the Sun, protection from cold winds, or the reverse, are of primary importance in determining the climate and the corresponding vegetation.
  • 2.4K
  • 28 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Education for Sustainable Development
Education can serve the purpose of trying to mitigate catastrophes, from the climate change education perspective. Therefore, understanding how teachers are engaging with sustainability issues can help to reveal how they cope with it. In a school context, teachers can have a role in enacting an interconnection between critical thinking (CT) as a potentially useful tool and education for sustainable development (ESD), in terms of educating and communicating the importance of sustainability to future generations.
  • 2.4K
  • 14 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Nanotechnological Approaches for Removal of Persistent Organic Pollutants
Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are a group of hazardous chemical compounds that originate from anthropogenic activities during production, utilization, and disposal. They can impact living beings and the environment adversely because of their ease of transportation by wind and water. The level of hazardous persistent organic pollutants is increasing every day in the environment.
  • 2.4K
  • 02 Aug 2022
Topic Review
Piezo-Photocatalysis
Piezocatalysis is a technique that relies on the conversion of mechanical energy to trigger chemical reactions that can be utilized to catalyze the degradation of pollutants in water. By combining piezoelectric materials with photocatalytic materials, the built-in electric field generated by the piezoelectric effect promotes the separation and migration of photogenerated carriers, thereby enhancing the efficiency, selectivity, and stability of photocatalytic reactions.
  • 2.4K
  • 07 Oct 2023
Topic Review
Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment
Waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE), or e-waste, faces significant sustainability challenges. Characterised by high economic elasticity, i.e. a close correlation between WEEE generation and Gross Domestic Product (GDP), WEEE is one of the fastest growing waste streams worldwide. Hazardous components require attention, while at the same time the potential to implement circular economy schemes with recuperation of valuable components is particularly high for e-waste. An overview on key aspects related to sound management of e-waste is provided in the following.
  • 2.4K
  • 05 Nov 2020
Topic Review
Trends in Bioenergy Production
A wide range of studies have been performed in the field of the usage of biomass for energy production, in order to contribute to the green transition from fossil fuels to renewable energies. Over the past 20 years (from 2000 to 2019), approximately 10,000 articles have been published in the “Agricultural and Biological Sciences” field on this theme, covering all stages of production—from the harvesting of crops to the particular type of energy produced. Articles were obtained from the SCOPUS database and examined with a text mining tool in order to analyze publication trends over the last two decades. Publications per year in the bioenergy theme have grown from 91 in 2000 to 773 in 2019. In particular the analyses showed how environmental aspects have increased their importance (from 7.3% to 11.8%), along with studies related to crop conditions (from 10.4% to 18.6%). Regarding the use of energy produced, growing trends were recognized for the impact of biofuels (mentions moved from 0.14 times per article in 2000 to 0.38 in 2019) and biogases (from 0.14 to 0.42 mentions).
  • 2.4K
  • 28 Aug 2020
Topic Review
Barriers to Industrial Symbiosis
Industrial symbiosis (IS) can contribute to achieving a win-win situation between industry and environment for local and regional circular economies. Many authors have recognized that a variety of barriers can hinder the implementation of industrial symbiosis (IS). It is imperative to understand and prioritize the barriers which will provide guidance for the realization of IS projects and assist practitioners and stakeholders with more effective implementation. This, in turn, will contribute to development of circular economies. 
  • 2.4K
  • 01 Jul 2022
Topic Review
Exploring Coastal Access in South Africa
Coastal spaces have been highly contested terrains in South Africa, dating from the colonial period to the present time. Inclusive documentation of the history of coastal access in South Africa is inadequate. The alienation of the African majority from coastal access in South Africa has been systematically executed through various legislations. Although 1994 (democratic era) ushered in a political change, coastal spaces in South Africa still reflect historical racial divide, with former Caucasian areas well-endowed with facilities whilst others are still underdeveloped. The lack of access to coastal resources remains a challenge to many previously disadvantaged communities, owing to South Africa’s history of Apartheid. Apartheid spatial planning remains a factor that undermines equitable access to the coast.
  • 2.4K
  • 07 Apr 2022
Topic Review
Bioethanol Production of Distillery Stillage
Distillery stillage has a high energy potential (13.6 MJ/kg TS, 10.4 MJ/kg COD), which indicates that it can be processed via anaerobic digestion and is a suitable substrate for conversion into energy.
  • 2.3K
  • 16 Nov 2021
Topic Review
Ionic and Excited Species
Experimental and theoretical studies of either characterization and reactivity of ionic and excited species with atoms, molecules, and radicals of interest in the chemistry of plasmas and energy production. Single and ionized species with single or multiple charge (H+, He+, H3+, HCO+, H3O+, He22+, CO22+, etc.), excited atoms and molecules (e.g. O(1D), N(2D), H*(2s2S1/2), He*(21,3S0,1), N2*(A3Σu+), etc.) play a crucial role in various important chemical systems such as flames (i.e. chemi-ionizations), natural plasmas (i.e. planetary ionospheres, comet tails and interstellar clouds), and biological environments (e.g. damaged biological tissues via the interaction between ionizing radiation and living cells). Such processes are very interesting from a fundamental point of view in Physical Chemistry and attracted the attention of a wide scientific community, since many applications to important fields: radiation chemistry, plasma physics and chemistry, combustion processes, development of laser sources. In particular, the conversion of waste carbon dioxide via assisted plasma technology gained recently increasing interest due to the possibility of obtaining value-added products, like gaseous or liquid fuels. Such characteristics make this an encouraging strategy for the storage of electrical energy from renewable sources into chemical energy in a circular economy scheme.
  • 2.3K
  • 01 Nov 2020
Topic Review
Energy Efficiency
The importance and urgency of energy efficiency in sustainable development are increasing. Patterson [3] first proposed the concept of energy efficiency, considering that it means using fewer resources at the same output, and gave four indicators of energy efficiency measurement. According to this definition, the indicators that measure energy efficiency can be divided into economic energy efficiency and physical energy efficiency. In order to measure energy efficiency more accurately, many scholars have studied the measurement of energy efficiency. Among them, Hu and Wang [4] proposed the concept of total factor energy efficiency (TFEE), which was widely recognized.The TFEE index incorporates energy, labor, and capital into the input system to generate economic output. Energy efficiency is defined as the ratio of target energy input to actual energy input. As a total factor efficiency assessment method, DEA method can better deal with the efficiency evaluation of decision-making units under the complicated situation of multiple inputs–outputs, it has been widely used to study energy efficiency.
  • 2.3K
  • 28 Jan 2022
Topic Review
Phosphogypsum
Phosphogypsum is an almost unused by-product of phosphate fertilizer production, which includes several valuable components—calcium sulphates and rare-earth elements such as silicon, iron, titanium, magnesium, aluminum, and manganese, as well as toxic elements such as heavy metals and others.
  • 2.3K
  • 25 Feb 2021
Topic Review
Foams in Wastewater Treatment Plants
The formation of persistent foams can be a critical problem in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) as it could lead to a series of operational problems, especially the reduction of the overall system performance. To date, the effects of foaming in the WWTPs are a problem that is currently very common and shared, but which to date is treated mainly only at the management level and still too little studied through a globally shared scientific method: the complexity of the phenomenon and the systems have led to numerous partially contradictory descriptions and hypotheses over the years. The goal must be to suggest future research directions and indicate promising strategies to prevent or control the formation of foams in WWTPs. This study examines and investigates the problem of foams by a methodological approach of research through a review on the state of the art: the factors influencing the formation of foams are described first (such as surfactants and/or extracellular polymeric substances (EPSs)), then the known methods for the evaluation of foaming, both direct and indirect, are presented, with the aim of identifying the correct and best (from the management point of view) control and/or prevention strategies to be applied in the future in WWTPs.
  • 2.3K
  • 28 Oct 2020
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