Topic Review
Urban Trees in Mitigating Climate Impacts
Urban tree cadastres, essential for climate adaptation and urban planning, face challenges in maintaining accuracy and completeness. Existing urban vegetation has a large cooling potential. However, it is important to note that all tree species emit varying concentrations of biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs) (e.g. isoprene and terpenes), which can act as precursors for the formation of ground-level ozone.
  • 83
  • 16 Jan 2024
Topic Review
Environmental Risks and Safer Medical Destinations
Environmental catastrophes have an effect on people and the environment and can have long-term effects, including the immediate disruption of human, animal, and plant life as well as all economic activity. The worldwide tourism sector has seen a dramatic shift in passengers’ interests. Tourists are increasingly considering safety and sustainability when picking their travel locations as climate change, natural catastrophes, and pollution continue to threaten diverse regions across the world. This shift in mentality has far-reaching consequences for both the tourism sector and the environment.
  • 118
  • 15 Nov 2023
Topic Review
Measurement of Urban Sprawl
In the context of rapid urbanization, inefficient, disorderly, and low-density urban sprawl often leads to resource waste and ecological damage. Over the decades, many studies on the measurement, analysis, and governance of urban sprawl have emerged. 
  • 184
  • 25 Sep 2023
Topic Review
Net-Zero-Carbon Cities
The Net-Zero-Carbon Cities concept has not been unified in terms of its definition since its development. However, in terms of their objectives, net-zero-carbon buildings are cheaper to operate, healthier, and more resilient than typical buildings and can bring considerable environmental, social, and economic benefits to cities and communities with rapid and cost-effective reductions in emissions and energy consumption.
  • 112
  • 11 Sep 2023
Topic Review
Sustainable Coastal Design
Mediterranean coastal cities are mostly urban environments with a long history, hence the idea that the different aspects that form the identity and perception of the cities can be interconnected in a framework that can be useful for further understanding and improvement. There is a need to consider multiple scales, national boundaries, the intersection of land and water and different stakeholders, policies and sectors. The coastal zone is an interface between land and sea, composed of a continuum of coastal land, intertidal areas, aquatic systems including the network of rivers and estuaries, islands, transitional and intertidal areas, salt marshes, wetlands and beaches. Natural coastal systems and areas where human activities involve the use of coastal resources may, therefore, extend well beyond the limit of territorial waters, and several kilometers inland.
  • 289
  • 29 Jun 2023
Topic Review
Green Infrastructure in Spatial Planning
Adaptation to climate change is becoming one of the main paradigms for how cities function and develop. The significant role of green infrastructure (GI) as a tool for cities to adapt to climate change is increasingly emphasized among practitioners of spatial planning and in the research literature. Green infrastructure should be understood as "a strategically planned network of natural and semi-natural areas with other environmental features designed and managed to deliver a wide range of ecosystem services. It incorporates green spaces (or blue if aquatic ecosystems are concerned) and other physical features in terrestrial (including coastal) and marine areas".
  • 538
  • 12 Jun 2023
Topic Review
The Utility of Joint SECAP Plans
The “Joint Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plans” (Joint SECAPs) introduced by the Covenant of Mayors (CoM) are voluntary tools that favour a joint approach to energy planning and climate change mitigation/adaptation among municipalities in the same territorial area.
  • 260
  • 12 Jun 2023
Topic Review
Agroforestry: Opportunities and Challenges in Timor-Leste
Agro forestry is a land management system that integrates trees, agriculture crops, and animal farming in order to provide a diverse range of ecosystem services. Timor-Leste, the newest country and one of the least developed countries, has faced multidimensional challenges on land use management, including deforestation, land degradation, and poverty. The agroforestry system is recognized as one of the viable options for balancing the socio-economic needs and ecological functions of the lands in Timor-Leste.
  • 460
  • 23 May 2023
Topic Review
Spatial-Temporal Distribution Patterns of Major Mine Debris Flows in China
From 1954 to 2019, the number of major mine debris flow disasters first increased and then decreased. The proportion of mine debris flow disasters to the total number of debris flow disasters also showed a trend of first increasing and then decreasing, with the southwestern region being the area of high occurrence of mine debris flow, and the geoenvironmental areas of middle and low hills and middle and high mountains being the topographic areas of high occurrence of mine debris flow. More than 90% of the major mine debris flow disasters occurred from May to September, with the largest number of disasters occurring in July.
  • 218
  • 27 Apr 2023
Topic Review
Ecosystem Service Trade-Offs/Synergies of Karst Desertification Control
Ecosystem services, as the term of a scientific period, began in 1970 with the publication of the UN University’s report on “Human Impact on the Global Environment”. Since then, Costanza has proposed that ecosystem services are benefits derived directly or indirectly by human beings from the ecosystem, which are used to maintain the natural environmental conditions and utilities on which human beings depend for survival and development. Trade-offs, as a fundamental concept, first appeared in economics and were defined as opportunity costs. Where resources are scarce, an individual or group must give up a certain amount of additional scarce resources to obtain more of the scarce resources. Karst desertification refers to the land degradation phenomenon caused by the disturbance and destruction of unreasonable human social and economic activities under the fragile karst environment in the subtropical zone, which is manifested by soil erosion, gradual rock exposure, land productivity degradation, and a desert-like landscape on the surface. The results of management over the years show that forests, as the main provider of ecosystem services, have the functions of water conservation, soil and water conservation, carbon sequestration, and climate change mitigation. In particular, they play an irreplaceable role in managing karst desertification.
  • 445
  • 13 Mar 2023
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