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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Topic Review
Smart City Governance Evaluation in Jiangsu
Based on literature review, expert consensus, and the fuzzy analytic hierarchy process, researchers developed an innovative smart city evaluation framework. In the framework, an index comprising three dimensions, i.e., smart economy, smart society, and smart environmental protection, as well as several attributes for these dimensions for smart city evaluation were established.
  • 1.0K
  • 25 Jan 2022
Topic Review
Activation Persulfate by Various Iron-Based Catalysts
Advanced oxidation technology of persulfate is a new method to degrade wastewater. As the economy progresses and technology develops, increasingly more pollutants produced by the paper industry, printing and dyeing, and the chemical industry are discharged into water, causing irreversible damage to water. Methods and research directions of activation persulfate for wastewater degradation by a variety of iron-based catalysts are reviewed. This entry describes the merits and demerits of advanced oxidation techniques for activated persulfate by iron-based catalysts. In order to promote the development of related research work, the problems existing in the current application are analyzed.
  • 1.6K
  • 24 Jan 2022
Topic Review
Biodegradable Waste and Degraded Soil
Soil degradation is the modification of its physical, chemical and biological properties that worsen the biological activity of the environment, with particular emphasis on food production, water quality, ecosystem services, flooding, eutrophication, biodiversity and carbon stock shrinkage. Soil degradation has many forms and genesis: (i) geotechnical soil degradation caused by deformation of the relief resulting from the activities of opencast and underground mining as well as construction (including road, rail and water). This form of soil degradation covers the entire territory, but the greatest damage should be noted in the areas of high concentration of the mining industry and in large urban agglomerations.
  • 2.5K
  • 25 Jan 2022
Topic Review
Climate Change Impacts on Sunflower Plants
Elevated concentrations of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) and increased temperatures, carbon and nitrogen metabolism will  affect the plant’s oxidative state in sunflower (Helianthus annus L.) plants
  • 3.0K
  • 24 Jan 2022
Topic Review
Appraising Agroecological Urbanism
By the mid-century, urban areas are expected to house two-thirds of the world’s population of approximately 10 billion people. The key challenge will be to provide food for all with fewer farmers in rural areas and limited options for expanding cultivated fields in urban areas, with sustainable soil management being a fundamental criterion for achieving sustainability goals.
  • 861
  • 24 Jan 2022
Topic Review
Microalgal Biomass-polymer Blends
Since the invention of plastics and the development of mass production, plastic demand has increased exponentially annually. Despite their easy processability and economically viable merits, the management of plastic waste has always been a contentious issue due to their non-biodegradable properties, resulting in significant damage to the environment. Although the share of bioplastics in the plastic market remains low, eco-friendly and abundant amounts of bioplastics are considered to be sufficient alternatives to replace preexisting plastics. Chlorella and Spirulina are the primary sources for bioplastics from microalgae due to their easy processability. Although the replacement of artificially synthesized existing plastics with 100% microalgal bioplastics could be ideal when it comes to environmentally friendly plastics, the physical and mechanical properties, such as tensile strength, glass transition temperature, and elongation at break, of 100% bioplastics are inferior to those of commercially available plastics. Another option to tackle these issues is to blend microalgae with polymers, namely microalgal biomass-polymer composites. These blended composites are hybrid-type plastics that have both properties of each component. The general properties of these blends depend on the ratio between the amount of microalgae biomass and those of the polymer. In general, a higher polymer content in biomass-polymer composites results in better performance, especially in terms of tensile strength and elongation at break. The required level of biomass contents in authorized bioplastics depends on individual national regulations. Korean government suggest that the percent of biomass in biomass-polymer composites should be over 30 wt% to be considered as an eco-friendly bioplastic. According to our investigation, the contents of microalgae in most composites remain less than 30 wt%, implying that further studies to increase the proportion of microalgae in the composites should be conducted to boost the commercialization of microalgae-based biocomposites.
  • 1.2K
  • 24 Jan 2022
Topic Review
Nomenclature for Hydrogeological Instability Risks
The nomenclature for hydrogeological instability risks includes four main risks, which are distinguished according to the risk causes : 1) hydrogeological risk, that is slowly caused by natural factors (e.g. collapse landslides in a calcareous cliff in uninhabited areas and erosion along a marly-calcareous slope) in environments where human activities are minimal, i.e. woods, forests and mountain pastures; 2) hydraulic-pedological farming risk, that implies the occurrence of landslides in every winter and is caused by incorrect crop selection, not suitable for the soil and climate parameters (e.g. on a hilly slope with a clay vertisol type with a landslide having different fronts, when the arable land is cultivated with a cereal-legume crop rotation), or the presence of springs with missing drainage in clay soils with a high gradient;3) hydraulic-infrastructural risk, that is caused by the building up of infrastructures not suitable for the surrounding environment, as they change the downflow of shallow water; 4) hydraulic-infrastructural-pedological-management risk, that is caused by crop operations not suitable for soil and crop parameters, where the selected cultivated plant species are suitable for the environment and field improvements change water downflow (e.g. in soils along hilly calcarenite slopes cultivated with olive orchards, where up-down soil tillage causes shallow water erosion).
  • 1.6K
  • 25 Jan 2022
Topic Review
Factors Affecting Carbonate Crystallization in EICP Treatment
Urea hydrolysis involves the breakdown of urea in water. The result of this reaction forms calcite in the presence of a calcium source. The reaction can be 10 to the power of 14 times faster than the chemical (un-catalysed) urea hydrolysis in the presence of a catalyst (urease enzyme). The improvement in EICP treatment is based on the precipitation of calcium carbonate within the treated soil matrix. It is thus important to shed light on the crystallographic patterns, such as size, shape, and distribution of precipitates since they play a significant role in defining the mechanical properties of EICP bio-cemented soils. The main factors that affect crystallization are the temperature, urease activity, pH level of the cementing solution, and concentration of cementation solution. These factors are discussed in some detail below.
  • 1.2K
  • 24 Jan 2022
Topic Review
Electric Vehicles for Vehicle-to-Grid Services
With every passing second, we witness the effect of the global environmental impact of fossil fuels and carbon emissions, to which nations across the globe respond by coming up with ambitious goals to become carbon-free and energy-efficient. At the same time, electric vehicles (EVs) are developed as a possible solution to reach this ambitious goal of making a cleaner environment and facilitating smarter transportation modes. This excellent idea of shifting towards an entirely EV-based mobility industry and economy results in a range of issues that need to be addressed. The issues range from ramping up the electricity generation for the projected increase in consumption to developing an infrastructure that is large enough to support the higher demand for electricity that arises due to the market penetration of EVs. Vehicle to grid (V2G) is a concept that is largely in a testing phase in the current scenario. However, it appears to offer a solution to the issues created by a mobility sector that the constantly growing EV fleet will dominate. Furthermore, the integration of EVs with the grid seems to offer various cost-wise and environment-wise benefits while assisting the grid by tapping into the idle energy of parked EVs during peak hours
  • 3.2K
  • 17 Apr 2024
Topic Review
Economic Complexity
Economic complexity, which links the productive structure of a country with its knowledge, labour, and sophistication, seems to raise new challenges for the environment’s preservation and quality. The relationship between economic complexity and the environment is multi-faced and creates unimagined challenges for humanity in its path toward social and economic progress. 
  • 4.7K
  • 22 Jan 2022
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