Article
Ecology
Cian White, Marcus J. Collier, Jane C. Stout
Summary: There is a growing interest in Nature-based Solutions, but the lack of a clear definition hinders practical implementation. A proposed integrated framework and measurement method aim to assist environmental managers in identifying the applicability of Nature-based Solutions.
ECOSYSTEM SERVICES
(2021)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Majid Pourkerman, Nick Marriner, Sedigheh Amjadi, Razyeh Lak, Mohammadali Hamzeh, Gholamreza Mohammadpor, Hamid Lahijani, Morteza Tavakoli, Christophe Morhange, Majid Shah-Hosseini
Summary: The number of tropical cyclone events in the Arabian Sea has dramatically increased in the last two decades, leading to severe human and economic damage in Oman, Iran, and Pakistan. Previous studies have primarily focused on atmospheric and sea surface temperature impacts on cyclone generation, while the role of oceanographic currents and ocean-atmospheric interactions are poorly understood. This study sheds new light on the relationship between atmospheric forcing, ocean currents, and cyclone intensification in the Arabian Sea. The findings highlight the increasing risk of intense cyclones and the need for international education programs to mitigate the impact.
MARINE POLLUTION BULLETIN
(2023)
Article
Water Resources
Zhenhua Yang, Tony Zhao, Yu Tian, Yongyong Zhang, Xiaohong Chen
Summary: This study assesses the risk of tropical cyclones in China using detailed geographic data and socio-economic conditions, and incorporates mitigation capacity into the assessment framework. The results show that coastal areas are generally at high risk, while inland areas also suffer significant losses due to secondary disasters. The additive/subtractive formula better captures the density of direct economic losses and casualties, and different factors play different roles in risk assessment in different regions. The consideration of mitigation capacity improves the consistency between calculated risks and actual losses.
HYDROLOGY RESEARCH
(2022)
Article
Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences
Minhee Chang, Chang-Hoi Ho, Junho Ho, Eun-Jeong Cha
Summary: Through analyzing the data of typhoons and surface-observed precipitation that have affected ten stations in Korea over the past 117 years (1904-2020), it has been found that the precipitation induced by tropical cyclones has undergone significant multidecadal changes on the Korean Peninsula. These findings validate the accuracy of typhoon records in Korea and confirm a significant increase in typhoon hazards over the past decades.
WEATHER AND CLIMATE EXTREMES
(2023)
Article
Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences
Jian Yang, Zhongdong Duan, Yibin Chen, Jinping Ou
Summary: A physics-based parametric model for tropical cyclone (TC) rainfall is developed and extensively tested through various examinations. The model investigates the correlation between rainfall and vertical winds, the contribution of moisture fluxes to rainfall, and the sensitivity to important parameters. It also simulates historical TC rainfall scenarios and compares them with observations, as well as generates TC rainfall statistics for the China coastal region. The study identifies limitations in the parametric rainfall models and discusses future improvements.
ATMOSPHERIC RESEARCH
(2023)
Article
Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences
Jonathan Lin, Raphael Rousseau-Rizzi, Chia-Ying Lee, Adam Sobel
Summary: An open-source, physics-based tropical cyclone downscaling model is developed to generate a large climatology of TCs. The model can reproduce observed TC climatology, including seasonal cycle, inter-annual variability, and hazard. The model is driven by large-scale environment and captures the variability in TC count and power-dissipation. It can also assess the regional TC hazard and its changes over time. The advantages and disadvantages of this model compared to other downscaling models are discussed.
JOURNAL OF ADVANCES IN MODELING EARTH SYSTEMS
(2023)
Article
Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences
Jonathan Lin, Raphael Rousseau-Rizzi, Chia-Ying Lee, Adam Sobel
Summary: An open-source, physics-based tropical cyclone downscaling model is developed to generate a large climatology of TCs. The model can reproduce observed TC climatology and capture inter-annual variability in TC count and power-dissipation. TC hazard is also analyzed using return period maps and curves. Advantages and disadvantages of this model, compared to other downscaling models, are also discussed.
JOURNAL OF ADVANCES IN MODELING EARTH SYSTEMS
(2023)
Article
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
Yuhui Li, Shengming Tang, Yongping Li, Rong Zhu, Hui Yu
Summary: This study simulates the historical tropical cyclone wind fields and proposes four extreme tropical cyclone hazard factors for the Donghaitang wind farm in China. Based on an analytic hierarchy process, a comprehensive hazard assessment model is established to evaluate the risk to the wind farm. The results show an increasing trend in the number and intensity of tropical cyclones, leading to a gradual increase in the composite tropical cyclone risk level of the wind farm.
FRONTIERS IN EARTH SCIENCE
(2023)
Review
Biodiversity Conservation
Cheng Zhang, Jing Li, Zixiang Zhou
Summary: The ecosystem service cascade (ESC) links ecosystem services to social value and bridges the gap between natural science and social science, enabling decision-makers to integrate the concept of ecosystem services into decision-making. By adjusting the structure and scope of the ESC, researchers can better understand the concept of ecosystem services and promote interdisciplinary communication. The ESC is widely used in ecosystem service mapping and regional policy regulation.
ECOLOGICAL INDICATORS
(2022)
Article
Construction & Building Technology
Phuong T. M. Tran, Mano Kalairasan, Peter F. R. Beshay, Yihan Qi, Lai Fern Ow, Vivek Govindasamy, Mohamed Lokman Mohd Yusof, Subhadip Ghosh, Rajasekhar Balasubramanian
Summary: This study investigated the effectiveness of different types of vegetation barriers planted along roadsides in a highly urbanized tropical Asian city-state to mitigate pedestrians' exposure to traffic-originated airborne particles. The findings showed that the three-layered hedges had the highest reduction in black carbon and ultrafine particles, with an average reduction of 60%, providing better health protection for pedestrians.
SUSTAINABLE CITIES AND SOCIETY
(2022)
Review
Biodiversity Conservation
Marcello Hernandez-Blanco, Robert Costanza, Haojie Chen, Dolf deGroot, Diane Jarvis, Ida Kubiszewski, Javier Montoya, Kamaljit Sangha, Natalie Stoeckl, Kerry Turner, Vince van't Hoff
Summary: This study reviews the relationship between ecosystem health and ecosystem services and presents a logical framework to explain their interaction. Through analyzing case studies and relevant data, it was found that there is a lack of records on ecosystem health. Finally, the United Nations' System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA) and its incorporation of ecosystem health are described, along with recommendations for improvement.
GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
Cameron Do, Yuriy Kuleshov
Summary: This study presents the results of a risk assessment and mapping of tropical cyclones in Queensland, Australia, highlighting regions that are most at risk. The developed risk maps can be used to proactively manage TC risk at a subnational scale.
Article
Water Resources
Yihan Li, Daniel B. Wright, Brian P. Bledsoe
Summary: This study analyzes the spatial and temporal variability of at-a-station hydraulic geometry (AHG) in Puerto Rico and builds regression models to predict AHG parameters. The study found that major tropical cyclones cause changes in all AHG parameters and that characteristics such as watershed land cover are reliable predictors. River reaches with steeper slopes and watersheds with a higher percentage of forested area show larger changes in AHG parameters.
JOURNAL OF HYDROLOGY-REGIONAL STUDIES
(2022)
Article
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
Weihua Fang, Haixia Zhang
Summary: Zonation involves clustering objects based on attribute similarity with location information. The study focused on tropical cyclone hazards for zonation and scaling, revealing a decreasing TC hazard intensity scale from the southeast coast to the northwest inland of China. The proposed methods and steps can be applied to other types of disasters as well.
Article
Ecology
Zhuangzhuang Wang, Bojie Fu, Liwei Zhang, Xutong Wu, Yingjie Li
Summary: This study presents a concise and operational framework for ecosystem service (ES) cascade, categorizing related studies into three categories: supply-demand, supply-flow-demand, and spatial ES flow. The research results show the increasing interest in ES mapping and assessments over the past decade, with heterogeneous distribution of publications across geographic regions.
ECOSYSTEM SERVICES
(2022)
Article
Ecology
Shuying Yu, Xuesong Kong, Qi Wang, Zhiwei Yang, Jian Peng
Summary: This study quantitatively assessed flood resilience in the Dongting Lake Basin using a process-based evaluation framework. The results showed that the overall resilience of the basin was high, but the flood resilience in the Dongting Lake Eco-economic Zone was poor. The synergy of robustness and resistance dominated flood resilience, providing a new process perspective for improving it.
LANDSCAPE AND URBAN PLANNING
(2023)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Chunyi Wang, Mingyue Zhao, Yinlong Xu, Yuncheng Zhao, Xiao Zhang
Summary: The effect of ecosystem service trade-offs/synergies on tea production in ecological tea gardens in Fuzhou city, China, was explored. The results showed that the construction of ecological tea gardens is beneficial for both the tea industry and ecological environment protection, and most traditional tea gardens have been transformed into ecological tea gardens.
Article
Construction & Building Technology
Xueyan Cheng, Yanxu Liu, Jianquan Dong, Jonathan Corcoran, Jian Peng
Summary: This study focuses on the cooling efficiency (CE) of urban green spaces in major African cities. The CE, quantified as the negative ratio of land surface temperature (LST) changes to vegetation cover fraction (Fc) changes, was analyzed along with meteorological variables. The research found that the CE is influenced by temperature, dew point difference, and wind speed. Additionally, the CE shows significant changes when Fc reaches a specific threshold.
SUSTAINABLE CITIES AND SOCIETY
(2023)
Article
Agronomy
Mingbao He, Yingchun Li, Shixiang Zong, Kuo Li, Xue Han, Mingyue Zhao
Summary: China is a major producer of green tea, especially from small farmers. This study analyzed the carbon footprint of green tea produced by smallholder farmers in Shaanxi Province, using the life-cycle assessment method. The results revealed high carbon emission intensities during processing and cultivation stages, mainly due to coal use, complex processing procedures, and older equipment in processing, and fertilizer production and application in cultivation. The study suggests the importance of establishing a scientific fertilization system, optimizing processing equipment and energy utilization, and promoting the concept of low-carbon consumption for reducing carbon emissions by smallholder farmers. Furthermore, it emphasizes the need to focus on carbon emissions from the production processes of small farmers.
Article
Geography
Yanni Zhao, Man Wang, Tianhan Lan, Zihan Xu, Jiansheng Wu, Qianyuan Liu, Jian Peng
Summary: This study simulated the grain production and water purification of the Dongting Lake Basin under different land use scenarios in 2035, and explored the impact of land use policies on ecosystem services (ESs) and their trade-offs. The results showed that returning farmland to forest land was the main factor, leading to a decrease in grain production and an increase in water purification. Urbanization had a less but spatially heterogeneous impact on ESs. The study provides a scenario approach to distinguish the impact of land use policies on ESs trade-offs.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Lijuan Li, Yanzheng Yang, Tengyu Cui, Ruonan Li, Hua Zheng
Summary: The hydrologic-related ecosystem services in upstream ecological conservation zones play an important role in regulating water scarcity and conflicts downstream. However, the combined effects of socioeconomic, land use, and climate factors on these services have not been well analyzed, leading to a lack of understanding about their spatial heterogeneity and drivers. In this study, the InVEST model and multivariate analysis were used to assess the interactions of these factors on hydrologic-related ecosystem services in the Beijing Ecological Conservation Development Zone. The results show significant temporal and spatial heterogeneity in water yield and purification services, with land use having the largest impact followed by climate and socioeconomic factors.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Dongsheng Li, Jinfeng Ma, Kaifeng Rao, Xiaoyan Wang, Ruonan Li, Yanzheng Yang, Hua Zheng
Summary: This study proposed a hybrid model (DSP) that combines the advantages of discrete wavelet transform (DWT), support vector regression (SVR), and Prophet to forecast rainfall data. The DSP model provides excellent prediction, with RMSE, MAE, and R-2 values of 6.17, 3.3, and 0.75, respectively. It yields higher prediction accuracy than the three baseline models considered and demonstrates good results when applied to rainfall data from various climate types.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Jian Peng, Tao Hu, Sijing Qiu, Yi'na Hu, Jianquan Dong, Yifan Lin
Summary: In this study, the spatial pattern of forest conservation and restoration in South China karst from 2000 to 2020 was explored using land use data, forest cover loss data, and satellite imagery. The contribution of forest conservation and restoration to vegetation greening was quantitatively calculated. The results showed that forest conservation and restoration areas accounted for a significant percentage of vegetation greening, and there was a nonlinear relationship between these two components.
Article
Agronomy
Huilin Yan, Xueli Zhou, Kaifu Zheng, Songsong Gu, Hao Yu, Kun Ma, Yangan Zhao, Yingcheng Wang, Hua Zheng, Hanjiang Liu, Dejun Shi, Guangxin Lu, Ye Deng
Summary: The application of organic fertilizer has been found to change the microbial community and increase forage biomass in monoculture, but its effects on grass-legume mixtures remain unclear.
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Shilin Xie, Quan Pan, Hua Zheng, Nengwen Xiao, Junsheng Li
Summary: This study aimed to explore the relationship between residents and nature and its impact on psychological well-being. The results showed that bird watching activity was a key factor influencing residents' psychological well-being. Residents' preference for different aspects of biodiversity and their perception also played important roles. Personal attributes such as age, financial income, and health status also contributed to psychological well-being.
Article
Geography
Zihan Xu, Jian Peng, Yanxu Liu, Sijing Qiu, Hanbing Zhang, Jianquan Dong
Summary: This study compared the impact of ecosystem services and urbanization on the realization of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) using a geographical detector method. The results showed that the combination of ecosystem services and urbanization had the highest impact on social SDGs and economic SDGs, while the combination of ecosystem services had the highest impact on ecological SDGs.
Article
Environmental Studies
Xiao Zhang, Jun Wang, Mingyue Zhao, Yan Gao, Yanxu Liu
Summary: The balance between supply and demand of ecosystem services is crucial for the sustainability of ecological protection and restoration projects. However, research on the demand for ecosystem services in relation to ecological protection and restoration is lacking. This study used remote sensing data, public data, and the InVEST model to assess and map four typical ecosystem services in Fujian Province, China. The results showed trade-offs between different services, with the supply-demand ratio decreasing from mountainous regions to economically developed coastal areas. Ecological restoration projects improved the supply-demand relationship, but other areas had low-value clusters of supply-demand ratios, particularly for water yield and carbon sequestration services. Based on the findings, suggestions for ensuring the sustainability of ecological protection and restoration in similar regions were provided.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Larissa A. Naylor, Jennifer A. J. Dungait, Ying Zheng, Sarah Buckerfield, Sophie M. Green, David M. Oliver, Hongyan Liu, Jian Peng, Chenglong Tu, Gan-lin Zhang, Xinyu Zhang, Tim A. Quine, Susan Waldron, Paul D. Hallett
Summary: This article introduces the development of Critical Zone Science (CZS) in human-modified and natural systems, and proposes a new framework that incorporates human behavior into CZS research for a more comprehensive understanding of the evolution of the terrestrial ecosystem. Through the China-UK CZO program, it was found that human-environment interactions and their impact on the socio-economic livelihoods of local farmers can be identified, and opportunities for improving local livelihoods and environmental conditions can be explored. The importance of co-designing CZS to address human-induced degradation in the critical zone is highlighted.