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
Land Take and Value Capture
Land use efficiency is a highly debated issue at an international level as several aspects can contribute to defining the concept of “efficiency”. However, if the term is contextualized in the field of urban development, this is closely linked to the concept of “public value”. The terms “land take” and “public value capture” (or often “land value capture”) as well as their use in different contexts have been discussed by scholars in the scientific literature in recent years. Marquard et al. (2020) argued towards bridging both notions of land consumption and LT. They proposed ways of addressing current ambiguities and suggested prioritizing the term “land take” in the EU context. Thus, the conceptual clarity around land consumption and LT has enhanced and a precondition for solidly informing respective policies and decisions provided. Barbosa et al. (2016) concluded that the implementation of the 2020 land take milestone will foster more efficient use of land and minimize negative impacts on non-artificial land uses. Colsaet et al. (2018) provided a systematic review on drivers of LT and urban land expansion. In this regard, they summarized the causal relationships between land take and different explanatory factors.Scholars concluded that “the effect of many factors however remains relatively undocumented or controversial in the reviewed literature, including widely used policy instruments”. Hendricks (2020) emphasized “public value capture” as one of the key factors of responsible land management and that smart instruments are needed for a successful implementation. He also characterized PVC as an essential phenomenon to improve the refinancing of public infrastructure and keep the necessary budget for other important duties such as social care.
  • 1.5K
  • 27 Jan 2022
Topic Review
Plant Nutrition under Climate Change
The climate is one of the key elements impacting several cycles connected to soil and plant systems, as well as plant production, soil quality, and environmental quality. Due to heightened human activity, the rate of CO2 is rising in the atmosphere. Changing climatic conditions (such as temperature, CO2, and precipitation) influence plant nutrition in a range of ways, comprising mineralization, decomposition, leaching, and losing nutrients in the soil.
  • 3.0K
  • 26 Jan 2022
Topic Review
Integrated Watershed Management
Human activities mostly impact the trend and direction of rainwater, groundwater, and other river basin resources in the watershed in Africa. These activities alter river flows and the quality of usable water supplies at both highlands and lowlands. A watershed is indeed a conserved area of land that collects rain, sleet and snow, and empties or penetrates groundwater sources.
  • 4.1K
  • 26 Jan 2022
Topic Review
Forensic Entomology and Space
The dynamics of forensic insects can operate at many spatial scales, manifest in different spatial patterns, and be attributed to multiple different causes. This highlights the importance for forensic entomology to consider spatial effects despite its neglect to date. Forensic entomology has much to benefit from the use of spatial statistics because many important questions, both at the fundamental and practical levels, require a spatial solution.
  • 1.3K
  • 25 Jan 2022
Topic Review
Light Stresses on Plants
This entry summarizes the last scientific findings concerning the use of UV and visible spectrum LED lighting, as ‘Green, sustainable, and low-cost Technologies’, to improve quality of sprouts, microgreens, and baby leaves, to enhance their health-promoting compounds focusing on their mode of action, while reducing costs and energy. These technologies applied either during growing and/or after harvesting have shown to be able to improve physiological, and morphological development of young plants in their first stages of development, while increasing their bioactive compounds content without compromising safety and other quality attributes. The novelty is to summarize the main findings published in a comprehensive review, including the mode of action, and remarking the possibility of its postharvest application where the literature is still scarce.
  • 1.0K
  • 25 Jan 2022
Topic Review
Environmental Governance in Urban Watersheds
Cities depend on several watersheds’ ecosystems as the main source of ecosystem services for urban populations; however, this connection is not visible to decision-makers and citizens. The current governance structures do not contemplate the integrated management of the urban-rural territory by watershed; they establish few spaces for citizen participation, and limit the transparency of information.
  • 1.1K
  • 25 Jan 2022
Topic Review
PCO2 in Inland Waters
The traditional field-based measurements of carbon dioxide (pCO2) for inland waters are a snapshot of the conditions on a particular site, which might not adequately represent the pCO2 variation of the entire lake. However, these field measurements can be used in the pCO2 remote sensing modeling and verification. By focusing on inland waters (including lakes, reservoirs, rivers, and streams), this paper reviews the temporal and spatial variability of pCO2 based on published data. The results indicate the significant daily and seasonal variations in pCO2 in lakes. 
  • 942
  • 31 Jan 2022
Topic Review
Mismanaged Plastics and Measures for Mitigation
The mismanagement of plastic materials has grown to become a mounting global pollution concern that is closely implicated in unsustainable production and consumption paradigms. The ecological, social, and economic impacts of plastic waste mismanagement are currently transboundary in nature and have necessitated numerous methods of government intervention in order to address and mitigate the globalized and multifaceted dilemmas posed by high rates and volumes of plastic waste generation.
  • 1.2K
  • 25 Jan 2022
Topic Review
Airborne Bacteria in Dairy Farms
The environmental quality of farms plays an important role in the food safety of the dairy industry because it may influence the microbial communities in milk. The microorganisms present in the different areas of a farm have an influence on this environmental quality, using the air as a vehicle of dissemination. However, the ability of this airborne microbial community to contaminate the milk, like the sources of origin of these microorganisms, has not been well studied in dairy farms until now. 
  • 1.1K
  • 25 Jan 2022
Topic Review
Addressing, Assessing and Improving Water Security
Water security is about managing too much, too little and/or too polluted water. Water security is about the increasing importance of sustainable management of water resources, drinking water and human well-being and protection of life and property from water-related disasters. Water security is about the health of ecosystems and economic development.  A groundwork of this broad and multi-faceted concept is presented to facilitate understanding, measuring and improving water security. 
  • 3.1K
  • 25 Jan 2022
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