Summary

Environmental science emerged from the fields of natural history and medicine during the Enlightenment. Today, it provides an integrated, quantitative, and interdisciplinary approach to the study of environmental systems. Environmental studies are incorporating more of the social sciences in order to understand human relationships, perceptions and policies towards the environment. This entry collection features information about design and technology for improving environmental quality in every aspect.

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Entries
Topic Review
Indoor Environmental Quality Assessment and Occupant Satisfaction
As occupants spend almost 90% of their day indoors, especially in the workplaces, Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) plays a primary role in health and wellbeing, productivity, and building energy consumption. Adopting the IEQ and Post-Occupancy Evaluation (POE), data has been gathered from nine multilevel open offices within a university building located in Al Ain, in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for three winter months. Physical parameters were monitored using data loggers to record the main IEQ factors.
  • 673
  • 29 Jul 2022
Topic Review
Sensible and Latent Heat Thermal Energy Storage
Sharing renewable energies, reducing energy consumption and optimizing energy management in an attempt to limit environmental problems (air pollution, global warming, acid rain, etc.) has today become a genuine concern of scientific engineering research. Furthermore, with the drastic growth of requirements in building and industrial worldwide sectors, the need for proper techniques that allow enhancement in the thermal performance of systems is increasingly being addressed. It is worth noting that using sensible and latent heat storage materials (SHSMs and phase change materials (PCMs)) for thermal energy storage mechanisms can meet requirements such as thermal comfort in buildings when selected correctly.
  • 12.1K
  • 29 Jul 2022
Topic Review
STEPLand Framework
This contribution assesses a new term that is proposed to be established within Land Change Science: Spatio-TEmporal Patterns of Land (‘STEPLand’). It refers to a specific workflow for analyzing land-use/land cover (LUC) patterns, identifying and modeling driving forces of LUC changes, assessing socio-environmental consequences, and contributing to defining future scenarios of land transformations. Researchers define this framework based on a comprehensive metaanalysis of 250 selected articles published in international scientific journals from 2000 to 2019. The empirical results demonstrate that STEPLand is a consolidated protocol applied globally, and the large diversity of journals, disciplines, and countries involved shows that it is becoming ubiquitous. The main characteristics of STEPLand are provided and discussed, demonstrating that the operational procedure can facilitate the interaction among researchers from different fields, and communication between researchers and policy makers.
  • 434
  • 29 Jul 2022
Topic Review
Renewable Energy Decision Criteria on Green Consumer Values
Renewable energy consumption is the call by United Nation Sustainable Development Goals, and sustainable consumption is the only solution for the future. An awareness towards the environment for the sustainable development is reaching implementation at various levels through channels with government promotions. RESs are accepted on a global scale, with common consensus being the requirement for future generations. The current generation is more aware and equipped with technological advancements, which can reach the vision of sustainability.
  • 529
  • 28 Jul 2022
Topic Review
Definition and Mechanistic Description of Urban-Rural Integration Development
Urban-rural integration has been found to be an inevitable trend in the development of urban-rural relations and a vital measure to tackle the unbalanced and uncoordinated development between urban and rural areas. The urban–rural relationship is a vital issue in human social development and has aroused wide attention from scholars worldwide. Urban-rural integration is an advanced stage in the development of urban-rural relations and reflects the evolution of urban-rural relations, which can be traced back to the urban-rural development concept of the ideal socialists.
  • 1.2K
  • 27 Jul 2022
Topic Review
Achieving Environmental Sustainability in Africa
The concept of sustainability requires that the production of goods and services fulfills present demands without jeopardizing the potential to satisfy the needs of future generations. The environment is a finite resource; a healthy environment benefits the ecosystem and all life. Therefore, to sustain the planet, the ecosystem, and all life on it, it is critical that environmental resources be appropriately managed and preserved. Fighting environmental degradation has been a key priority for advanced and emerging countries. Environmental degradation has posed a danger to the economic well-being of the entire world, as it is linked to the success of various macroeconomic factors.
  • 810
  • 27 Jul 2022
Topic Review
Degradation of Antibiotics
Antibiotics are the therapeutic option for countless infections treatment; unfortunately, they are the second most common group of drugs in wastewaters worldwide due to failures in industrial waste treatments and their irrational use in humans and animals. Several techniques have been assayed for the degradation and mineralisation of antibiotics to reduce the environmental impact; strategies focused on physical, chemical, biological, and combined process design for degradation.
  • 2.4K
  • 25 Jul 2022
Topic Review
Floating Wind Energy Market
The floating technology enables the extraction of wind resources from previously expensive or complex areas to fixed-bottom turbine installation. These floating concepts have revived many countries’ interests in offshore wind energy. Europe has set ambitious renewable energy goals to reduce its environmental impact. The vast untapped offshore wind resources will play an important role in fulfilling the energy demands to achieve the renewable energy targets of the European Union (EU). Floating wind energy heavily depends on political support, especially in the beginning. The support of the national governments is highly unclear under some financial uncertainty. However, the European Union is actively engaged in realizing offshore wind projects through initiatives such as the Interreg and H2020 funds. Furthermore, the EU has a vast economy to support such projects and is attractive to developers because of its high national electricity prices.
  • 479
  • 25 Jul 2022
Topic Review
UAV-Based Forest Health Monitoring
Technological advances have led to the increasing use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for forestry applications. One emerging field for drone application is forest health monitoring (FHM). Common approaches for FHM involve small-scale resource-extensive fieldwork combined with traditional remote sensing platforms. UAVs have shown that they can meet the demands of flexible operation and high spatial resolution. This is also reflected in a rapidly growing number of publications using drones to study forest health. 
  • 823
  • 27 Jul 2022
Topic Review
Applications of Thermal Plasma Waste Treatment
Non-thermal as well as thermal plasmas are used for the processing of materials and waste. Thermal (hot) plasmas are characterized by their high energy density and by the equal temperatures of the electrons and the heavy particles, i.e., thermal plasmas are in local thermodynamic equilibrium. Non-thermal plasmas (also called cold plasmas), on the other hand, are non-equilibrium ionized gases, which are characterized by lower energy densities and by the large difference between the electron temperature and the temperature of the heavy particles.
  • 847
  • 25 Jul 2022
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