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Topic Review
Water Footprint of Food Production
Blue water footprint - the volume of fresh surface and groundwater that has been evaporated or incorporated into a product. Green water footprint - the rainwater that is stored in the root zone of the soil and evapotranspired or incorporated into the product. Unsustainable blue water footprint - when it exceeds the available renewable blue water, thereby violating the environmental flow standard and depleting groundwater Water footprint - an indicator of the direct and indirect water use to produce the goods and services we use.
  • 929
  • 26 Oct 2020
Topic Review
Water Resilience
Analyze from a holistic and comprehensive perspective the water resource in the water cycle context and its relationships in the various environments for the strategic approach to resilience as a way to sustainability.
  • 929
  • 03 Feb 2022
Topic Review
Vehicle Exhaust Particle Number Regulations
In vehicle solid particle number (SPN) regulations, solid (nonvolatile) particles are defined as particles surviving thermal pre-treatment at 300-400 °C and large enough to be detected with a particle counter having approximately 50% counting efficiency at approximately 23 nm or 10 nm (depending on the regulation).
  • 928
  • 23 Dec 2021
Topic Review
Effect of Sunscreen Ingredients in an Aquatic Environment
Sunscreens have become a product based on increasingly complex formulations that include, among many ingredients, a mixture of UV filters to provide optimal sun ultraviolet radiation protection. A significant group of scientific works deals with the impact of UV filters in aquatic media. However, the knowledge of the mechanism and kinetics of the compound’s direct release, fate, and its transformation and interaction with living organisms is necessary to assess its environmental occurrence and behavior and to predict potential and real impacts on the aquatic environment. The physical‐chemical properties, photodegradation, and release kinetics of particles and chemicals into the water are studied by hydrodynamic and kinetic models. Direct photolysis of chemicals is modeled as pseudofirst‐order kinetics, while the indirect pathway by the reaction of sunscreen with reactive oxygen species is described as second‐order kinetics. The interaction of UV filters with marine biota is studied mainly by toxicokinetic models, which predict their bio‐accumulation in the organisms’ tissues. These models consider the chemicals’ uptake and excretion, as well as their transfer between different internal animal organs, as a first‐order kinetic process.
  • 926
  • 06 Sep 2022
Topic Review
Individual and Political Action on Climate Change
Individual and political action on climate change can take many forms. Many actions aim to build social and political support to limit, and subsequently reduce, the concentration of greenhouse gases (GHGs) in the atmosphere, with the goal of mitigating climate change. Other actions seek to address the ethical and moral aspects of climate justice, especially with regard to the anticipated unequal impacts of climate change adaptation.
  • 925
  • 31 Oct 2022
Topic Review
First United Nations Report on Problems of Human-Environment
The 1969 UN Report “Problems of the Human Environment” was a seminal work that first highlighted environmental problems at a global scale. This report underpinned a series of subsequent international summits and conventions of the 1992 Rio Earth Summit and the subsequent three global conventions on Biodiversity, Climate Change and Desertification. Many issues of that day have declined in importance or been superseded, and several major environmental problems (including climate change and plastic pollution) were not foreseen. Most of the report’s predictions proved to be much more conservative than proved by reality (a criticism that has also been levelled at contemporary IPCC reports).
  • 924
  • 06 Sep 2022
Topic Review
State of the Art in Textile Waste Management
Textile waste constitutes a significant fraction of municipal solid waste sent to landfill or incinerated. Its innovative management is important to enhance sustainability and circularity.
  • 923
  • 29 Dec 2023
Topic Review
Traditional Management of Cancer
Cancer, a generic term for a large group of diseases, may affect any part of the body. It is one of the world’s most horrifying diseases triggered by uncontrolled cellular proliferation. The development and progression of cancer are caused by an oncogene, the tumor suppressor gene (TSG), and alterations of the microRNA gene.
  • 922
  • 10 Aug 2021
Topic Review
Global Warming and Dairy Cattle
Concerns about greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from livestock and dairy farms, as well as their connection to global warming and climate change, have grown among the general public worldwide in recent years. Enteric methane (CH4) and other greenhouse gas emissions from ruminants can be mitigated in numerous ways.
  • 922
  • 10 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Hydrothermal Carbonization of Food Waste for Char Production
Managing the increasing volume of food waste worldwide has become a major challenge. In addition, the energy crisis in developing nations of the world is increasing at an alarming rate and the need to proffer solutions is not only expedient but must be of high priority. Hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) refers to a conversion of biomass into an energy-densified or carbon-rich char product. It involves hydrolysis, dehydration, polymerization, and carbonization reactions taking place within moderate temperature (between 180 and 260 °C) and pressure (between 35 and 55 bar) ranges.
  • 922
  • 30 Dec 2022
Topic Review
Urban Built and Mixed Spaces
Natural areas are now broadly recognised as important resources to restore the cognitive and emotional resources of urban dwellers, but everyday urban environments are rarely studied for their salutogenic properties. This review collects emerging evidence of instances in which built and mixed urban environments were found to be more restorative than natural ones for the urban population. Generally, historical, recreational and panoramic places have been found to have the most restorative potential of all mixed and built urban environments. This particularly applies to teenagers and older people who value social interactions for their well-being. Vegetation and natural elements were still found to play an important role in the assessment of this restorative potential.
  • 917
  • 27 Oct 2020
Topic Review
Sustainable Development and Environmental Kuznets Curve
Under the Kyoto Protocol which is international law since 2005, 15 EU member countries (the "EU-15") committed to reducing their collective emissions of a set of six greenhouse gases in the 2008-2012 period to 8% below the 1990 level. The EU established the first cap-and-trade system for carbon dioxide emissions in the world in 2005. This entry uses the effect of the European Union Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) on carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions for the European Union using a cross-country panel data set consisting of 12 countries extracted from the EU-15 from 1980 to 2009. 
  • 917
  • 18 Dec 2022
Topic Review
Water Treatment Residues and Methanogenic Activity in Wastewater-Sludge
The effect of adding alum water treatment residues (WTR) on the methanogenic activity in the digestion of primary domestic wastewater sludge was evaluated through laboratory experiments in sedimentation columns, using total suspended solids (TSS) concentrations from 0.37 to 1.23 g/L. The addition of WTR to primary clarifiers can benefit its effluent water quality in terms of colour, turbidity, chemical oxygen demand (COD), and TSS. However, the presence of WTR can negatively influence the production of methane gas during organic sludge digestion in primary clarifiers, for concentrations of TSS between 14.43 and 25.23 g/L and of VSS between 10.2 and 11.85 g/L. The activity of the Methanothrix sp., curved bacilli, methanococci, and Methanosarcina sp. decreases considerably after 16 days of anaerobic digestion, and methane production seems to only be associated with fluorescent methanogenic bacilli.
  • 913
  • 17 Mar 2022
Topic Review
Land Cover Change Detection
Land cover patterns in sub-Saharan Africa are rapidly changing. This study aims to quantify the land cover change and to identify its major determinants by using the Drivers, Pressures, State, Impact, Responses (DPSIR) framework in the Ethiopian Gozamin District over a period of 32 years (1986 to 2018). Satellite images of Landsat 5 (1986), Landsat 7 (2003), and Sentinel-2 (2018) and a supervised image classification methodology were used to assess the dynamics of land cover change. Land cover maps of the three dates, focus group discussions (FGDs), interviews, and farmers’ lived experiences through a household survey were applied to identify the factors for changes based on the DPSIR framework. Results of the investigations revealed that during the last three decades the study area has undergone an extensive land cover change, primarily a shift from cropland and grassland into forests and built-up areas. Thus, quantitative land cover change detection between 1986 and 2018 revealed that cropland, grassland, and bare areas declined by 10.53%, 5.7%, and 2.49%. Forest, built-up, shrub/scattered vegetation, and water bodies expanded by 13.47%, 4.02%, 0.98%, and 0.25%. Household surveys and focus group discussions (FGDs) identified the population growth, the rural land tenure system, the overuse of land, the climate change, and the scarcity of grazing land as drivers of these land cover changes. Major impacts were rural to urban migration, population size change, scarcity of land, and decline in land productivity. The outputs from this study could be used to assure sustainability in resource utilization, proper land use planning, and proper decision-making by the concerned government authorities.
  • 909
  • 27 Oct 2020
Topic Review
European Green Deal
The European Green Deal, approved 2020, is a set of policy initiatives by the European Commission with the overarching aim of making the European Union (EU) climate neutral in 2050. An impact assessed plan will also be presented to increase the EU's greenhouse gas emission reductions target for 2030 to at least 50% and towards 55% compared with 1990 levels. The plan is to review each existing law on its climate merits, and also introduce new legislation on the circular economy, building renovation, biodiversity, farming and innovation. The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, stated that the European Green Deal would be Europe's "man on the moon moment". Von der Leyen appointed Frans Timmermans as Executive Vice President of the European Commission for the European Green Deal. On 13 December 2019, the European Council decided to press ahead with the plan, with an opt-out for Poland . On 15 January 2020, the European Parliament voted to support the deal as well, with requests for higher ambition. The European Commission's climate change strategy, launched in 2020, is focused on a promise to make Europe a net-zero emitter of greenhouse gases by 2050 and to demonstrate that economies will develop without increasing resource usage. However, the Green Deal has measures to ensure that nations that are already reliant on fossil fuels are not left behind in the transition to renewable energy.
  • 909
  • 21 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Urban Solid Waste Management
Urban solid waste management is one of the most important local services, and its effective economic regulation can be a driver for the sector toward innovation, sustainability, and efficiency. Prominent economic topics include, among others, the analysis of the market structure, the regulatory frameworks, charging models of waste management services, economic efficiency, and environmental goals.
  • 908
  • 06 Jul 2021
Topic Review
Groundwater Temperature Measurements
Groundwater temperature (GWT) can be influenced by anthropogenic factors such as surface sealing or geothermal use. These thermal influences can lead to geochemical changes in groundwater, which can affect groundwater quality. Therefore, it is important to measure and monitor GWT. For this purpose, screened monitoring wells (MWs) are usually used. However, temperature measurements can be disturbed by vertical currents within MWs as a result of convection.
  • 906
  • 05 May 2022
Topic Review
Source Analysis of Heavy Metal Pollution in Soils
Eight types of heavy metals in the soil on the banks of Shuimo River in Urumqi were analysed via X-ray fluorescence spectrometry and national standard detection methods. The UNMIX and positive matrix factorisation (PMF) models were comprehensively used to analyse the sources and contribution rates of potential pollutants. The soil samples were collected from three layers: 0–20, 20–40, and 40–60 cm. Each sample point in each layer was located 5 m, 1 km, and 2 km from the riverbank. The results showed that only the average concentration of Mn in each layer of soil was lower than the background value, and the average concentrations of other heavy metals were higher than their background values. Among them, Ni concentration highly exceeded the background value in the 40–60 cm soil layer, reaching 1.92 times. The similarities and differences between the sources and contributions estimated by the UNMIX and PMF models were also clarified. The similarities of the two common sources (natural source and artificial source) for each soil layer were relatively large, and the analysis results of the two models were within model reliability range. By comparing the Pearson correlation coefficients and distribution maps of heavy metal concentrations in surface soil, Zn, Pb, Cr, and Cu were from human sources, and Mn, Ni, and V were from natural sources. In future studies, multiple models should be comprehensively used to determine the potential pollutant sources and estimate contribution rates.
  • 905
  • 23 Sep 2022
Topic Review
Land Change in Ethiopian Basins
Land Use Land Cover (LULC) changes analysis is one of the most useful methodologies to understand how the land was used in the past years, what types of detections are to be expected in the future, as well as the driving forces and processes behind these changes. In Ethiopia, Africa, the rapid variations of LULC observed in the last decades are mainly due to population pressure, resettlement programs, climate change, and other human- and nature-induced driving forces. Anthropogenic activities are the most significant factors adversely changing the natural status of the landscape and resources, which exerts unfavourable and adverse impacts on the environment and livelihood. The main goal of the present work is to review previous studies, discussing the spatiotemporal LULC changes in Ethiopian basins, to find out common points and gaps that exist in the current literature, to be eventually addressed in the future. A total of 25 articles, published from 2011 to 2020, were selected and reviewed, focusing on LULC classification using ArcGIS and ERDAS imagine software by unsupervised and maximum likelihood supervised classification methods. Key informant interview, focal group discussions, and collection of ground truth information using ground positioning systems for data validation were the major approaches applied in most of the studies. All the analysed research showed that, during the last decades, Ethiopian lands changed from natural to agricultural land use, waterbody, commercial farmland, and built-up/settlement. Some parts of forest land, grazing land, swamp/wetland, shrubland, rangeland, and bare/ rock out cropland cover class changed to other LULC class types, mainly as a consequence of the increasing anthropogenic pressure. 
  • 902
  • 15 Jun 2021
Topic Review
Ecological Footprint for the Algerian Fisheries Management
According to the estimated ecological footprint (EF) of fishery production (EFf), Algiers fishing is in the status of ecological surplus, as the demand for fisheries production averages 15,338.49 gha compared to more than 108 thousand gha of biologically productive fishing area. In addition to this overall output, this metric indicates each species’ primary production requirement (PPR), which could help to restructure the fishing effort based on the stock’s condition. For the energy component, the fuel consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions expressed in metric tons of CO2 were used to estimate the required area for carbon sequestration, valued roughly at 500 gha. The latter is a reference state and remains approximate because it was derived from unofficial data provided by the fishers.
  • 902
  • 31 Jan 2022
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