ALBERT

Description: Transient pressure analysis is a crucial tool to forecast the production performance during the exploration and production process in gas reservoirs. Usually, a regular shaped outer boundary is assumed in previous studies for well-testing analysis, which is just a simplification of practical cases and cannot reflect the actual boundaries of reservoirs. In this paper, a mathematical model is established to analyze the transient pressure behaviors of a horizontal well in an arbitrarily shaped gas reservoir. Dimensionless treatment, Laplace transformation, and boundary element method are applied in solving the model, which is verified by comparing with the results from the source function method. Based on the Stehfest numerical inversion method, the models of single-porosity media and dual-porosity media are solved respectively. Then, the time-domain curves of pseudo pressure and its derivative are obtained, and the flow regimes are identified. Finally, the impacts of some critical parameters on pressure transient behaviors are analyzed, including storativity ratio, interporosity coefficient, well length, and well orientation. This paper presents an effective way to handle complex external boundary problems in gas reservoirs.

Description: Previous research suggests that meditation, a mindfulness exercise, could result in increased connectedness to nature and pro-environmental behavior. Exposure to nature also is associated with these outcomes. It was hypothesized that meditation alongside stimuli reminiscent of the natural environment would produce enhanced effects. Participants ( N = 97) were randomly assigned to complete a 4-week online meditation program consisting of a guided meditation paired with either nature sounds (“nature group”) or spa-like sounds (“control group”). Mindfulness, connectedness to nature, and pro-environmental behavior were assessed before and after the program. Meditation, in general, produced increases in mindfulness, connectedness to nature, and pro-environmental behavior. Additionally, the nature group had a greater rate of change in connectedness to nature when compared to the control group. The results extend previous cross-sectional research by demonstrating the beneficial effects of meditation on pro-environmental behavior and its theorized mechanisms, which may be informative for future research and interventions.

Description: William Whyte originally hypothesized that the presence of people in a public space would attract more people. Contemporary planners now refer to “sticky streets” as places where pedestrians are compelled to linger and enjoy vibrant public life. We test the hypothesis that adding users to a public space will attract more people using an experimental design with confederates to add pedestrian movement and staying activity in a residential street for 45 randomly selected hours. We observed staying behavior by gender with and without our intervention. We find that the addition of public users reduced the total number of people staying in our study area, especially among women. We find that women’s right to the city may be constrained by the mere presence of other individuals, even in safe spaces and during daylight hours. Our findings suggest that Whyte’s claim is not universal, but depends on the conditions of a particular site.

Description: This study analyzes the feasibility of satisfying the demand of three Football Stadiums for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, using the wind’s kinetic energy. For all three selected locations (Lusail, Al Rayyan, and Al Wakrah), the wind potentiality is calculated through an environmental parameters study, from which the wind power density is obtained. Furthermore, a commercial wind turbine with proper characteristics is selected, and the same case study for each location is presented, to quantify the capacity that wind energy offers for satisfying the maximum energy demand of each associated stadium. In addition, the environmental benefits and the time required by each wind farm to satisfy the energy demand are computed. The results reveal that the conditions enable the use of wind energy for this purpose, based on a 5.06 m/s, 4.63 m/s, and 5.18 m/s velocity mean for Lusail, Al Rayyan, and Al Wakrah, respectively; from which values of 187.49 W/m2, 150.96 W/m2, and 187.29 W/m2 of wind power density are obtained. Also, the proposed wind farms could produce 69,952.56 MWh/year, 59,550.19 MWh/year, and 75,333.70 MWh/year, respectively. Moreover, the wind farms should produce energy for a period of 5.64 h, 4.41 h, and 5.23 h, to satisfy the maximum demand by a football match in its associated location. Additionally, to avoid the implementation of a storage system, the electricity obtained from the wind is connected to the power grid, decreasing the quota of fossil fuel power plants. In consequence, Qatar will eliminate the emissions of approximately 23.376 tons of CO2 in total per trio of matches held in these stadiums. Finally, a post 2022 FIFA World Cup scenario is analyzed, obtaining a positive outcome from both environmental and economic perspectives, in which an average of 14,675 tons of CO2 and 6.03 Million US$ can be saved annually.

Description: The mining area is the main place for the development and utilization of Coalbed Methane (CBM), and there are a series of systems for the development and utilization of CBM. However, owing to lack of a clear understanding of demand-side gas consumption rules and a reasonable resource allocation system, a large amount of CBM resources in the mining area are wasted. In order to predict the demand for CBM dynamically, the Seasonal Auto Regressive Integrated Moving Average (SARIMA) model, Additive Holt-Winters (AHW) model and Multiplicative Holt-Winters (MHW) model based on time series are used to predict the monthly demand for CBM in Yangquan Mine Area in 2020, respectively. Then the predicted results are evaluated by using the prediction model parameters combined with the characteristics of actual demand for CBM. Finally, a resource allocation system under different supply and demand conditions is built to reduce the waste of resources. In this paper, it is found that the information of the actual data is not sufficiently extracted in the MHW model while the SARIMA model can reflect the cyclical trend of monthly demand for CBM under ideal conditions. Furthermore, the AHW model can reasonably predict the demand for CBM under the influence of COVID-19, with a mean relative error of 0.099. The supply and demand distribution system built based on the proposed models can solve the problem of seasonal unevenness of CBM demand in mining areas and ensure the economic benefits of mining areas.

Description: The reservoir architecture analysis of braided rivers, especially falling-silt seam forms, has played a key role in predicting remaining oil distributions. However, no studies have used architecture analyses that document braided river outcrops and researched the tapping of the few remaining oil distributions based on outcrops in the Songliao basin, northeast China. In this paper, the architecture characteristics and remaining oil distribution of braided river reservoirs are studied using a combination of an outcrop, modern deposition and subsurface well data. The new 8–13 m thick Lower Cretaceous Quantou Formation outcrop of the Songliao basin is a braided fluvial succession arranged in one large fining-upward cycle. Eight facies (Gt, St, Sm, Sh, Sp, Sw, Fl and Fm), four architecture elements (CH, DA, LV, and FF), and three orders of bounding surfaces (third-, fourth-, and fifth-order) are recognized. A new distribution pattern of falling-silt seams and a braided river architecture model are presented according to the analysis of the outcrop. In the mid-channel bar, the falling-silt seams thin from the mid-bar to the bar tail following the flow direction. Each falling-silt seam is oriented tangentially to the basal surface of the mid-channel bar, and the upper falling-silt seam extends farther than the lower one. In a Daqing Oilfield exploitation block in the Songliao basin, while channels and bars are the main reservoir units, they have different remaining oil distribution patterns. For bars, water injection wells located at the mid-bar, zonal injection technology, the drilling of horizontal wells, and proper well patterns are proposed. Fourth-order bounding surfaces, single braided channels, stacking patterns, and the lateral blocking of levees and floodplains are the key factors affecting the remaining oil distribution in channels.

Description: Channel bars are common, striking fluvio-geomorphic depositional features of alluvial rivers. The study of this article has aimed to investigate the formation, migration, and morphodynamic alteration of channel bars (n = 50) in gravel braided alluvial rivers in Darjeeling Himalayan Piedmont zone. Dynamics of micro to meso bar deposition is mainly accomplished by the channel gradient, huge upstream landslide, and variation of discharge. Multi-criteria analysis method has been used to explain the variation of principal component analysis (PCA1, PCA2, and PCA3), both monsoon to post-monsoon. Bridge scouring, empirical aggradation, and degradation values are 0.1 to 1.05 m and [Formula: see text]. Migration, re-generation, and degradation of the micro bars with their optimum morphology show changes during the rainy season. In the upper ([Formula: see text]), middle ([Formula: see text]), and lower ([Formula: see text]) piedmont region, the bar dynamic area are 0.12 to 0.71, 0.12 to 2.83, and 0.10 to 5.43 km2, respectively. In total, 58% to 72% stability of the channel bars is observed in the upper piedmont region. The coefficient of determination ( R²) of channel bar area and width shows positive (0.63) relation.

Description: Restoring and enhancing riparian vegetation on private and communal lands in Mexico is important for biodiversity conservation given the ecological significance of these areas and the scarcity of public protected areas. To enhance riparian vegetation and wildlife habitats and train local people in restoration techniques, we implemented restoration and outreach efforts on private and communal lands in the Sky Islands region of northwest Mexico. We fenced 475 ha of riparian zones from livestock, erected erosion-control structures, planted trees, and developed management agreements for cool-season grazing with landowners on 10 ranches across 3 sites in 2012-2013, then repaired fences and renegotiated agreements in 2017-2019. To foster evaluation, we used a before-after/control-impact design to measure attributes of vegetation structure and bird communities and compared baselines from 2012 with post-treatment estimates from 2019. As predicted, understory vegetation volume generally increased in treatments relative to controls ( P = .09), especially when one treatment area with the lowest pre-treatment grazing impacts was censored ( P = .01). Although canopy cover also increased, there was little differential change in treatments relative to controls ( P ⩾ .23) due likely to longer time periods needed to realize responses. Densities of most focal bird populations varied across time periods in directions that typically matched observed changes in vegetation structure, but fewer species showed signs of differential positive change linked to treatments relative to controls. Densities of Yellow-breasted Chat, a key understory obligate and important focal species, increased in treatments relative to controls across sites, as did densities of Sinaloa Wren, which also use dense underbrush ( P ⩽ .05). Positive changes by other understory obligates (eg, Common Yellowthroat, Song Sparrow) were more local but sometimes of high magnitude (〉8-fold) also suggesting positive impacts of treatments. Despite mixed results over a limited time period, these patterns suggest restoration efforts drove localized recovery of understory vegetation and associated bird populations, but benefits varied widely with environmental and social factors linked to management. Greater ecological benefits to riparian areas on private and communal lands in this region can be fostered by further incentivizing construction, maintenance, and proper use of restoration infrastructure, through education, and by building relationships based on trust and credibility with landowners.

Description: Water scarcity has increased in the last century due to the effects of climate change and the over-exploitation of anthropic activities that deteriorate strategic ecosystems in watersheds. This study quantified the water consumption of anthropic activities according to the water footprint (WF) and the water supply available (WSA) using the GR2M hydrological simulation model in the Quenane-Quenanito basin in Colombia. The objective of this study was to analyze the dynamic supply–demand of water and identify potential conflicts associated with the use of water. The results of this study show that the WF of the basin was 17.01 million m3/year, 79.97% of which was the green WF and 20.03% of which was the blue WF, and that the WSA of the basin was 272.1 million m3/year. In addition, potential conflicts over the use of water were identified due to water scarcity in 11 sub-basins during the months of January to March. In conclusion, analyzing the demand and supply of water in basins and taking into account their spatiotemporal distribution allows us to measure the impacts of anthropic activities on water resources, which can prevent potential conflicts associated with the use of water between sectors or the involvement of ecological dynamics.

Description: Investment in conservation and ecological restoration depends on various socioeconomic factors and the social license for these activities. Our study demonstrates a method for targeting management of ecosystem services based on social values, identified by respondents through a collection of social survey data. We applied the Social Values for Ecosystem Services (SolVES) geographic information systems (GIS)-based tool in the Sonoita Creek watershed, Arizona, to map social values across the watershed. The survey focused on how respondents engage with the landscape, including through their ranking of 12 social values (eg, recreational, economic, or aesthetic value) and their placement of points on a map to identify their associations with the landscape. Additional information was elicited regarding how respondents engaged with water and various land uses, as well as their familiarity with restoration terminology. Results show how respondents perceive benefits from the natural environment. Specifically, maps of social values on the landscape show high social value along streamlines. Life-sustaining services, biological diversity, and aesthetics were the respondents’ highest rated social values. Land surrounding National Forest and private lands had lower values than conservation-based and state-owned areas, which we associate with landscape features. Results can inform watershed management by allowing managers to consider social values when prioritizing restoration or conservation investments.

Description: The slaughtering of animals and processing of meats for human consumption generates enormous wastes which are not properly managed in most developing nations including Nigeria. Majority of people in Akwa Ibom state in southern Nigeria depend on meat as their major source of protein, and abattoir wastes are applied in farms as organic manure by some farmers. This study examined the role of abattoir-related waste products in the physicochemical properties, total metal, and metal speciation of the soil. The data obtained were also subjected to some treatments using some environmental models to establish the degree of contamination by the parameters determined, studied locations, and the associated human health problems. Samples were collected from 5 designated abattoirs in Akwa Ibom state. Thirty composite samples were used for the research. Results obtained showed higher levels of pH, electrical conductivity, organic matter, and cation exchange capacity in the abattoir waste–impacted soils than in the control plot. Levels of pseudo total heavy metals were also higher in the studied soils than in the control plot. The mean values of the metals are below 400, 85, 140, 36, 100, and 35 mg/kg of recommended limits for Fe, Pb, Zn, Cu, Cr, and Ni, respectively by the Federal Environmental Protection Agency (FEPA) in Nigerian soil. The results also revealed that Fe and Cr existed mainly in residual fraction. However, Zn, Cu, and Ni existed principally in the form bound to organic matter/sulfide. In addition, we detected that Pb existed mainly in the reducible fraction. Disparities were also observed in the speciation results of the metals between the studied soils and the control plot. Principal component analysis (PCA) indentified that both the geogenic and anthropogenic factors contributed to the accumulation of metals determined in the studied soils. Variable relationships were also observed for the heavy metals determined in the studied soils. Fe showed a high-risk potential, and children were more vulnerable due to its toxicity. We conclude this study was able to expose the consequences of indiscriminate dumping of abattoir wastes on the quality of soil and the associated human health problems.

Description: Pollution caused by fungal contamination on building materials contributes to poor indoor air quality. Fungi are known to cause several health-related problems, such as acute toxicity, hypersensitivity, invasive mycoses, and respiratory problems. Thus, this study aimed to determine the load and diversity of airborne culturable fungi in the dormitory rooms. An institution-based cross-sectional study was conducted from March to June 2019 at the University of Gondar students’ dormitory rooms. Statistical analyses were carried out using Stata/SE 14.0. Spearman ranks correlation was used to assess the correlation of fungal load with indoor physical parameters. The median fungal loads were 250 CFU/m3 and 157 CFU/m3 in the morning and afternoon, respectively. Most commonly identified fungal genera/species were Aspergillus, Penicillium, Alternaria, Fusarium, Candida, Trichophyton, Piedraia, Microsporum, Geotrichum, Saccharomyces, Rhodotorula, Rhizopus, Exophiala, Arthroderma, Cladosporium, Gliocladium, and Botrytis. Formaldehyde ( r = −0.2859, P = .0031), temperature ( r = −0.2153, P = .0274), and CO2 ( r = −0.3785, P = .0001) were negatively correlated with airborne indoor fungal load in the morning and CO2 ( r = 0.3183, P = .0009) and temperature ( r = 0.2046, P = .0363) positively correlated with airborne indoor fungal load in the afternoon. As a conclusion, the airborne fungal load in the dormitory room was intermediate according to the European standard of nonindustrial premises. Substantial action should be taken to reduce the fungal contamination of indoor environments.

Description: In this work, we have reported a low-cost and environmentally friendly Fe3O4-modified activated kaolin (AK-Fe3O4) composite for efficient Fenton-like degradation of 4-nitrophenol (4-NP) and optimization of the degradation variables. The AK-Fe3O4 composites were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, powder x-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM). X-ray diffraction confirms the syntheses of pure phases of Fe3O4 and AK-Fe3O4. The SEM image of the AK-Fe3O4 composite reveals the formation of a highly porous surface. The room temperature VSM analysis describes the superparamagnetic nature of AK-Fe3O4 composites with 25 emu/g magnetization values. Response surface methodology coupled with Box-Behnken design was used to optimize the 4-NP degradation (%) variables such as contact time (10-90 minutes), 4-NP concentration (10-30 mg/L), and pH (3-8). The high regression value ( R² = 0.9964 and adjusted R² = 0.9917) and analysis of variance ( P 

Description: Heavy metals are among the most critical environmental pollutants close to industrial areas. One example is the cultivated fields in the south of Alborz industrial city in Iran, which is irrigated by treated industrial wastewater. It is contaminated by heavy metals and irrigation with wastewater treatment plants effluent, which made it salty. In this study, the application of 2 amendments, biosolids and cow manure, in improving the heavy metal accumulation in the ornamental sunflower from these types of soils was investigated. A greenhouse experiment using a completely randomized design with 4 replications and applying cow manure and biosolids in 3 weight ratios (6%, 12%, 25%) was conducted to evaluate the efficiency of sunflower in removing Pb, Ni, and Zn from the soil. Adding the amendments increased the rate of germination by 50% to 176%. Although the simultaneous utilization of cow manure in high ratios with biosolids and cow manure with low biosolids decreased the sunflower survival, nonetheless, the simultaneous addition of these organic amendments could increase the survival rate in other treatments. Moreover, the plants’ biomass was increased by adding modifiers such as cow manure and biosolids. The results showed that in treatments with 2 modifiers, the remediation factor of Pb, Zn, and Ni has increased 83.7 to 95.5, 78.4 to 87.5, and 74.9 to 94.9, respectively, in comparison to the control one. Therefore, we conclude that adding biosolids and cow manure simultaneously could improve the ornamental sunflower ability to accumulate heavy metals.

Description: Soil and water loss in agricultural fields is a global problem. Although studies about soil erosion in croplands and vineyards exist, the direct comparison between these land uses is missing, especially under continental climates in Europe. Therefore, it is needed to find control measures to the impacts of these land-use management strategies on soil properties and hydrological response. The objective of this work is to estimate and compare the impacts of croplands and vineyards under conventional management croplands and vineyards on soil properties (water holding capacity—WHC; bulk density—BD; soil water content—SWC; water stable aggregates—WSA; mean weight diameter—MWD; soil organic matter—SOM; available phosphorus—AP; total nitrogen—TN) and hydrological response (runoff—Run; sediment content—SC; sediment loss—SL; carbon loss—C loss; phosphorus loss—P loss; nitrogen loss—N loss) in Eastern Croatia. To achieve these goals, a study was set up using rainfall simulation tests at 58 mm h−1 over 30 minutes on 2 locations (Zmajevac: 45°48′N; 18°46′E; Erdut: 45°30′N; 19°01′E). In total, 32 rainfall simulations were carried out, 8 repetitions in vineyards and 8 in cropland plots of 0.876 m2, per location. Bulk density was significantly higher in cropland plots compared with the vineyard. Soil water content was significantly higher in Zmajevac cropland compared with Erdut plots. Also, SWC was significantly lower in Zmajevac vineyard than in the cropland located in the same area. Water stable aggregates and MWD were significantly higher in vineyard plots than in the cropland. Also, SOM and TN were significantly lower in Zmajevac cropland compared with the vineyard located in the same area. Available phosphorus was significantly high in Zmajevac plots than in Erdut. The rainfall simulations showed that Run was significantly higher in Erdut vineyard (8.2 L m−2) compared with Zmajevac (3.8 L m−2). Also, the Run in Erdut Cropland was significantly lower than in the vineyard. Sediment content did not show significant differences among locations. In Erdut, vineyard plots had a significantly lower SL (28.0 g m−2) than the cropland ones (39.1 g m−2). C loss was significantly higher in Zmajevac cropland than in Erdut. Also, C loss was significantly lower in Zmajevac vineyard compared with the cropland. We did not observe significant differences in P loss, and N loss also did not show significant differences. The principal component analysis showed that SOM was associated with WSA, AP, and TN. These variables were negatively related to slope, SWC, and C loss (factor 1). Also, MWD was inversely related to SL, P, and N loss (factor 2). Bulk density and SC were negatively related to Run. Overall, we conclude that noninvertive tillage practices in vineyards preserve soil structure, enhance soil quality, and reduce the extent of soil degradation.

Description: Microplastics are a global ubiquitous problem, which is becoming a major issue of concern at scientific and political levels around the world. This study presents physical and chemical characterizations of microplastic debris and a comparison between the spatial distribution and anthropogenic activities in 4 Panamanian beaches located in both sides of the Isthmus. Two of them (Juan Diaz and San Carlos beaches) are located toward the Pacific Ocean, Panamá Province, whereas the others (Palenque and Punta Galeta beaches) are located at the Caribbean Sea, Colón Province. They were chosen to show different landscape management and environmental impacts: touristic and protected areas; coastal areas that receive pollutants and marine litter from urban rivers or are used for local fishing activities. Plastic debris samples were collected and visually analyzed following the protocol proposed by the Joint Group of Experts on the Scientific Aspects of Marine Environmental Protection (GESAMP). The physical characterization of the samples consisted in the determination of variables associated with the number of plastic particles, shape, color, and size. The characterization of the polymers was performed by the attenuated total reflectance-Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy technique. A high concentration of microplastics (353 items/m2) were found at the studied sites at the Caribbean coast, whereas a lesser concentration with a greater diversity of shapes and polymer categories were found at the Pacific Coast (187 items/m2). The results indicate that, in addition to anthropogenic activities, the proximity to Panama Canal installations, as well as seasonality, natural phenomena, winds, and ocean currents may be influencing the increase in microplastic contents and the types of polymers observed.

Description: Wind resource assessments are carried out for two sites in Tuvalu: Funafuti and Nukufetau. The wind speeds at 34 and 20 m above ground level were recorded for approximately 12 months and analyzed. The averages of each site are computed as the overall, daily, monthly, annual, and seasonal averages. The overall average wind speeds for Funafuti and Nukufetau at 34 m above ground level were estimated to be 6.19 and 5.36 m/s, respectively. The turbulence intensities at the two sites were also analyzed. The turbulence intensity is also computed for windy and low-wind days. Wind shear analysis was carried out and correlated with temperature variation. Ten different methods: median and quartiles method, the empirical method of Lysen, the empirical method of Justus, the moments method, the least squares method, the maximum likelihood method, the modified maximum likelihood method, the energy pattern factor method, method of multi-objective moments, and the wind atlas analysis and application program method were used to find the Weibull parameters. From these methods, the best method is used to determine the wind power density for the site. The wind power density for Funafuti is 228.18 W/m2 and for Nukufetau is 145.1 W/m2. The site maps were digitized and with the WAsP software, five potential locations were selected for each site from the wind resource map. The annual energy production for the sites was computed using wind atlas analysis and application program to be 2921.34 and 1848.49 MWh. The payback periods of installing the turbines for each site are calculated by performing an economic analysis, which showed payback periods of between 3.13 and 4.21 years for Funafuti and between 4.83 to 6.72 years for Nukufetau.

Description: The controls that affect the degree of spatio-temporal change to foredunes following scarping are reviewed herein. As sea-levels rises and climate changes, dune scarping will become more common. Thus, it is critical to understand what factors contribute to the magnitude of scarping, and what effect this has on dune systems to better manage coastal erosion into the future. Scarping occurs when foredunes are partially eroded by waves, generally during periods of high water level. The controls on the degree and magnitude of scarping examined include water level, foredune vegetation cover and species present, plant root mass, height and volume of the foredune, the original foredune morphology, surfzone–beach type, and compaction of sediment. Water-level height and duration of high water is the most significant control as it determines the elevation at which wave action can erode the dune and, therefore, the extent of scarping and dune volumetric loss. Higher plant density, greater rooting depth, high root mass, and greater compaction aid in reducing the degree of scaping. The presence of large woody debris and wrack may also influence the degree of scarping. The effects scarping has on the morphology of a foredune after the initial erosion event can range from small changes (e.g. minor, small scarps and slight slumping), to moderate changes such as the foredune translating landwards, to large change such as the transition of an entire dune system into a new transgressive dunefield phase. A new model summarising the key controls and their relationship/significance to the magnitude and extent of scarping is presented.

Description: Humans kill and care for animals in a multitude of contexts. These themes – killing and caring – form the focus of this second report on animal geographies research. Most notably, killing and caring take place through conservation and the production and consumption of food. Other realms of recent research include killing through climate change, formal arrangements of care, how animals are made killable, and the significance of the individual and collective. Further to these two major themes, the review identifies other approaches to animal geographies research in recent years; namely, political and relational. Finally, the propensity for humans to kill and care for animals is highlighted by crisis. I open and close the review by considering connections between animals and two contemporary emergencies: the fires that burned south-eastern Australia over summer 2019–20 and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Description: Daily, a big extent of colored, partially treated textile effluents drained into the sanitation systems causing serious environmental concerns. Therefore, the decolorization treatment process of wastewater is crucial to improve effluent quality. In the present study, 3 different sorbent materials, nano zerovalent iron (nZVI), activated carbon (AC), and green-synthesized nano zerovalent iron (GT-nZVI), have been prepared for raw textile wastewater decolourization. The prepared nanomaterials were characterized via X-ray diffraction (XRD) spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis, and UV-Vis absorption spectroscopy. In addition, the effect of different operating parameters such as pH, contact time, and stirring rate on the color removal efficiency was extensively studied to identify the optimum removal conditions. The reaction temperature, adsorbent dose, and initial color concentration were fixed during the experiments at room temperature, 0.7 g/L, and 350 and 50 mg/L Pt/Co color unit, respectively. Moreover, adsorption and reaction kinetics were analyzed using different isotherms and models. For simulating the adsorption process, artificial neural network (ANN) data were compatible with the result of regression analysis derived from response surface methodology (RSM) optimization. Our results showed the higher ability of nZVI, AC, and GT-nZVI in textile wastewater color removal. At pH 5, contact time 50 minutes, and stirring rate 150 rpm, nZVI showed good color removal efficiency of about 71% and 99% for initial color concentrations of 350 and 50 mg/L Pt/Co color unit, respectively. While slightly higher color removal ability of about 72% and 100% was achieved by using AC at pH 8, contact time 70 minutes, and stirring rate 250 rpm. Finally, the largest ability of color removal about 85% and 100% was recorded for GT-nZVI at pH 7, contact time 40 minutes, and stirring rate 150 rpm. This work shows the enhanced color removal ability of GT-nZVI as a potential textile wastewater decolourization material, opening the way for many industrial and environmental applications.

Description: Although significant progress has been achieved in the field of environmental impact assessment in many engineering disciplines, the impact of wastewater treatment plants has not yet been well integrated. In light of this remarkable scientific progress, the outputs of the plants as treated water and clean sludge have become potential sources of irrigation and energy, not a waste. The aim of this study is to assess the environmental impacts of upgrading the wastewater treatment plants from primary to secondary treatment. The Lifecycle Assessment Framework (ISO 14040 and 14044) was applied using GaBi Software. Abu Rawash wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) has been taken as a case study. Two scenarios were studied, Scenario 1 is the current situation of the WWTP using the primary treatment units and Scenario 2 is upgrading the WWTP by adding secondary treatment units. The study highlighted the influence and cumulative impact of upgrading all the primary WWTPs in Egypt to secondary treatment. With the high amount of energy consumed in the aeration process, energy recovery methods were proposed to boost the circular economy concept in Abu Rawash WWTP in order to achieve optimal results from environmental and economic perspectives.

Description: The findings and recommendations of this article will redound to the benefit of society considering that climate change regulation plays an important role in the promotion of a sustainable environment. The greater demand for a clean and healthy environment justifies the need for more effective regulation of climate change, and this can be achieved through climate change impact assessments. In the High Court case of EarthLife Africa Johannesburg v Minister of Environmental Affairs and Others, the court considered what the impact of the Thabametsi Power Project on the global climate and the changing climate will be if it is operated to the expected year of 2060. This judgement highlights the significance, place, and principles of climate change impact assessments in South Africa’s environmental law that has its founding principles in the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996. The Thabametsi-case contributed to environmental litigation in the manner as to how equality and the rule of law have been addressed in the court. This paper will examine the advances for climate change regulation in a jurisdiction where the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Regulations currently refer to climate change explicitly.

Description: Water sources are currently facing great challenges from rapid population growth and industrial developments. Investigations into how to remove algal organic matter (AOM) are thus of great importance from an environmental point of view because most lakes and reservoirs in South Korea suffer from algae problems, especially in the summer. Many efforts have been made to remove AOM from the aquatic environment in South Korea. In this study, we focus on development of a new AOM removal system, utilizing waste oyster shells and ferrihydrite as the media of the filtration system. Using this system, the removal rate of AOM was investigated regarding the concentrations of chlorophyll a, total phosphorus, and alginate. It was found that about 92% of the total phosphorus was removed through this system when raw oyster shell powders were heated at 900°C to convert them into calcium oxide powders. The use of a continuous system also led to a reduction of 94.2% in total phosphorus, 78.8% in chlorophyll a, and 43.6% in alginate.

Description: Soil influences human health in a variety of ways, with human health being linked to the health of the soil. Historically, emphasis has been placed on the negative impacts that soils have on human health, including exposures to toxins and pathogenic organisms or the problems created by growing crops in nutrient-deficient soils. However, there are a number of positive ways that soils enhance human health, from food production and nutrient supply to the supply of medications and enhancement of the immune system. It is increasingly recognized that the soil is an ecosystem with a myriad of interconnected parts, each influencing the other, and when all necessary parts are present and functioning (ie, the soil is healthy), human health also benefits. Despite the advances that have been made, there are still many areas that need additional investigation. We do not have a good understanding of how chemical mixtures in the environment influence human health, and chemical mixtures in soil are the rule, not the exception. We also have sparse information on how most chemicals react within the chemically and biologically active soil ecosystem, and what those reactions mean for human health. There is a need to better integrate soil ecology and agronomic crop production with human health, food/nutrition science, and genetics to enhance bacterial and fungal sequencing capabilities, metagenomics, and the subsequent analysis and interpretation. While considerable work has focused on soil microbiology, the macroorganisms have received much less attention regarding links to human health and need considerable attention. Finally, there is a pressing need to effectively communicate soil and human health connections to our broader society, as people cannot act on information they do not have. Multidisciplinary teams of researchers, including scientists, social scientists, and others, will be essential to move all these issues forward.

Description: The PM10 contributed in the e-waste dismantling community at Banmaichaiyaphot District, Buriram Province, was investigated due to the e-waste dismantling houses randomly located neighboring non-e-waste dismantling houses. The sampling was performed at non- and e-wastes dismantling houses and compared with the reference house in Daengyai subdistrict. The 24-hour average outdoor PM10 concentrations (81.957 ± 18.724 μg/m3) at e-waste dismantling sites were higher than those of the non-e-waste dismantling houses (80.943 ± 32.740 μg/m3) and control house (36.717 ± 19.516 μg/m3). The 24-hour average indoors PM10 concentrations of the e-waste dismantling houses (116.171 ± 64.635 μg/m3) showed higher concentrations than those of the non-e-waste dismantling (113.637 ± 64.641 μg/m3) and reference house (70.907 ± 22.464 μg/m3), but there were no statistically significant differences ( P 〉 .05). Both indoor and outdoor PM10 concentrations between non- and e-waste dismantling houses did not have significant differences, whereas those of non- and e-waste dismantling houses were significantly higher than that of the reference house locating approximately 5 km away. The positive correlation between indoor and outdoor concentrations of non- and e-waste dismantling houses was satisfactory significant with the r of .613 and .825, respectively. The results indicate that the existing indoor PM10 of either non- or e-waste dismantling houses could result from neighborhood e-waste dismantling.

Description: The development of coalbed methane not only ensures the supply of natural gas but also reduces the risks of coal mine accidents. The micropore structure of coalbed methane reservoir affects the seepage of coalbed methane; improvement of pore structure is one of the effective methods to enhance the efficiency of coalbed methane exploitation. In this study, low-pressure nitrogen gas adsorption, specific surface area analysis, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, and centrifugation experiment were used to evaluate the effect of ethanol on coal microscopic pore structure and fluid distribution during hydraulic fracturing. Seven coal samples were collected from the No. 3 coal seam in Zhaozhuang Mine, Qinshui Basin. The samples are mainly composed of micropores, transition pores, and mesopores. The experimental results show that ethanol can significantly change the pore structure by increasing the pore diameter. The average specific surface area, pore volume, and pore diameter of rock samples before ethanol immersion are 1.1270 m2/g, 0.0104 cm3/g, and 14.20 nm, respectively. The three parameters of rock samples after ethanol immersion are 0.5865 m2/g, 0.0025 cm3/g, and 29.37 nm. Ethanol improves the connectivity between micropores and mesopores. The average irreducible fluid saturation of samples saturated with formation water after centrifugation is 86%, and the average irreducible fluid saturation of samples soaked in three concentrations of ethanol solution decreases. It is considered that an ethanol solution of 0.4% concentration has the best effect on improving the pore structure and fluid distribution.

Description: This paper argues for a sustained study of knowledge-intensive or liberal professions in geography. I review existing work in political geography and related fields to identify a gap in the study of knowledge-intensive professions, especially those that are popularly associated with elites. I draw from sociology, anthropology, and international relations to explain why we need to better understand such professions. By the geographical study of professions and their expertise I mean the examination of the places, spatial networks, and travels of ideas that shape these professions and the expertise created therein.

Description: The hydrogen energy system based on the multi-energy complementary of renewable energy can improve the consumption of renewable energy, reduce the adverse impact on the power grid system, and has the characteristics of green, low carbon, sustainable, etc., which is currently a global research hotspot. Based on the basic principles of hydrogen production technology, this paper introduces the current hydrogen energy system topology, and summarizes the technical advantages of renewable energy complementary hydrogen production and the complementary system energy coordination forms. The problems that have been solved or reached consensus are summarized, and the current status of hydrogen energy system research at home and abroad is introduced in detail. On this basis, the key technologies of multi-energy complementation of hydrogen energy system are elaborated, especially in-depth research and discussion on coordinated control strategies, energy storage and capacity allocation, energy management, and electrolysis water hydrogen production technology. The development trend of the multi-energy complementary system and the hydrogen energy industry chain is also presented, which provides a reference for the development of hydrogen production technology and hydrogen energy utilization of the renewable energy complementary system.

Description: Shale gas production after drill-in, completion, and hydraulic fracturing is strongly affected by formation damage. In order to determine the damage mechanisms for nonmarine shale reservoir, a series of assessments of sensitivity damage, water block damage, water-based drill-in fluids damage, and water damage to gas diffusion on 20 shale samples obtained from Chang 7 Formation were conducted and analyzed. Results indicate that, in the Chang 7 Formation shale, there is extremely strong stress sensitivity and moderately weak water sensitivity damage. Although the liquid phase invasion depth is shallow and the water block damage is limited, the liquid phase and solid particles would enter the microfractures in the reservoir.The P-1 water-based drill-in fluid is compatible with the Chang 7 Formation shale reservoir which can meet the requirement of Chang 7 Formation shale damage controlling, the effect of water-based drill-in fluid on wellbore stability should be paid more attention. The diffusion coefficient of the shale decreases with the presence of water.A systematic damage evaluation method of working fluid considering the multi-mechanism and multi-scale mass transfer process of shale gas is needed to establish.

Description: Exploring ancient socio-economic adaptation is a basic issue of human-environment interaction. Xinjiang in northwest China is a region of high geographic diversity. Past human adaptations to this arid marginal area is a current focus of research interest but still lacks in-depth study. This article presents data from the Wupu Cemetery, located in the extremely arid Hami Basin in the eastern Tianshan Mountains. Archaeobotanical analysis is used to reconstruct the local environment niche and the subsistence economy of inhabitants. Radiocarbon dating results indicate the cemetery was occupied between 3000 and 2400 cal BP, during the late Bronze Age and early Iron Age. In total 16 species of the plant remains are identified, including four cereal crops, foxtail millet ( Setaria italica), broomcorn millet ( Panicum miliaceum), naked barley ( Hordeum vulgare var. coeleste), wheat ( Triticum aestivum) and 12 wild types. The riparian plant Populus euphratica and aquatic plant Typha sp. indicate inhabitants lived in an oasis near the cemetery. Environmental interpretation of this data compares well with other seven sites in arid southern Xinjiang. In addition to faunal remains from the site, it is assumed that a flexible system of multi-crop farming and herding was the subsistence pattern around Wupu. This system was widespread across Inner Asia and appears to have played a central role in adapting to different marginal environments during the Bronze Age and Iron Age.

Description: Transcontinental exchange emerged and intensified in northern China since the late fifth millennium BP (Before present), especially in the arc, which was the core area of the eastern part of the trans-Eurasian exchange during the Late Neolithic and the Bronze Age. In the arc, the exchange profoundly affected the human subsistence strategy and human-environment relationship. Relative to the crop patterns and human diets during the Bronze Age in northern China, systematic investigations of zooarcheological data based on broad spatial and temporal framework to understand the influence of introduced livestock and indigenous livestock on human subsistence are lacking. To show the spatial-temporal variation in animal utilization patterns and its relation to prehistoric trans-Eurasian exchange, the zooarcheological data from 40 sites in northern China dated between 5000 and 2500 BP were analyzed. The strategy of animal utilization in northern China changed substantially from 5000 to 2500 BP, with notable spatial features in different chronological phases. From 5000 to 4300 BP, wild mammals and indigenous livestock (pig, dog) use dominated in the arc and the North China Plain (NCP). During 4300–3500 BP, the importance of introduced livestock (cattle, sheep/goat, horse) exceeded that of indigenous livestock in the arc, whereas indigenous livestock continued to dominate in the NCP. Indigenous livestock acted as the most important animal subsistence in northern China, although the exploitation of introduced livestock increased during 3500–2000 BP. These spatio-temporal differences in animal utilization appear to be closely associated with the prehistoric trans-Eurasian exchange, but were also affected by local environment, agriculture development, and climate change.

Description: We test a recent prediction that stable carbon isotope ratios from UK oaks will display age-trends of more than 4‰ per century by measuring 〉5400 carbon isotope ratios from the late-wood alpha-cellulose of individual rings from 18 modern oak trees and 50 building timbers spanning the 9th–21st centuries. After a very short (c.5 years) juvenile phase with slightly elevated values, the number of series that show rising and falling trends is almost equal (33:35) and the average trend is almost zero. These results are based upon measuring and averaging the trends in individual time-series; the ‘mean of the slopes’ approach. We demonstrate that the more conventional ‘slope of the mean’ approach can produce strong but spurious ‘age-trends’ even when the constituent series are flat, with zero slope and zero variance. We conclude that it is safe to compile stable carbon isotope chronologies from UK oaks without de-trending. The isotope chronologies produced in this way are not subject to the ‘segment length curse’, which applies to growth measurements, such as ring width or density, and have the potential to retain very long-term climate signals.

Description: In Australia, the drivers of precolonial fire regimes remain contentious, with some advocating an anthropogenic-dominated regime, and others highlighting the importance of climate, climatic variability or alternatively some nexus between climate and human activity. Here, we explore the inter-relationships between fire, humans and vegetation using macroscopic charcoal, archaeology and palynology over the last ~5430 cal. year BP from Broughton Island, a small, near-shore island located in eastern Australia. We find a clear link between fire and the reduction of arboreal pollen and rainforest indicators on the island, especially at ~4.0 ka and in the last ~1000 years. Similarities with comparable palaeoenvironmental records of fire in the region and a record of strong El Niño (dry, fire-prone) events supports the contention that climate was a significant influence on the fire regimes of Broughton Island. However, two periods of enhanced fire activity, at ~4000 years BP and ~

Description: This study examines the impact of financial development on carbon dioxide emissions in Nigeria over the period 1971–2014. Income per capita, energy consumption, exchange rate and urbanization are incorporated in the analysis. The empirical analysis based on linear and nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag techniques provides evidence of long-run relationship among the variables in Nigeria. The results in general show that financial development has significant asymmetric effects on carbon dioxide emissions in Nigeria. Both short-run and long-run analyses show that the impact of positive changes in financial development on carbon dioxide emissions is significantly different from that of negative changes. The results suggest that in Nigeria positive shocks in financial development have significant reducing effect on carbon dioxide emissions, while negative shocks in financial development have significant increasing effect on carbon dioxide emissions. The empirical results also show that the response of carbon dioxide emissions to negative shocks in financial development is stronger. Based on these findings, this study concludes that mitigation policies would need to incorporate strategies to strengthen the depth of financial intermediation in the Nigerian economy.

Description: Application of Weibull distribution in a generalized way to estimate wind potential cannot always be advisable. The novelty of this work is to estimate wind potential using Normal probability density function. A comparison of five probability distributions namely Normal, Gamma, Chi-Squared, Weibull, and Rayleigh was done using three performance evaluation criteria. Four years (2015–2018) hourly wind data at 50 m height at five stations near the coastline of Pakistan was used. It was found that normal distribution gives the best fit at each of these stations and against each evaluation criterion followed by Weibull distribution while Rayleigh distribution gives the poorest fit. Further energy generation by fifteen turbine models was calculated and GE 45.7 was found the best in terms of amount of energy generation and capacity factors while Vestas V42 shows the worst. However, GE/1.5 SL is the most economical while Vestas V63 is the least. Among five locations, Shahbandar is the best potential site while Manora is the least.

Description: Wildfire is a ubiquitous disturbance agent in subalpine forests in western North America. Lodgepole pine ( Pinus contorta var. latifolia), a dominant tree species in these forests, is largely resilient to high-severity fires, but this resilience may be compromised under future scenarios of altered climate and fire activity. We investigated fire occurrence and post-fire vegetation change in a lodgepole pine forest over the past 2500 years to understand ecosystem responses to variability in wildfire and climate. We reconstructed vegetation composition from pollen preserved in a sediment core from Chickaree Lake, Colorado, USA (1.5-ha lake), in Rocky Mountain National Park, and compared vegetation change to an existing fire history record. Pollen samples ( n = 52) were analyzed to characterize millennial-scale and short-term (decadal-scale) changes in vegetation associated with multiple high-severity fire events. Pollen assemblages were dominated by Pinus throughout the record, reflecting the persistence of lodgepole pine. Wildfires resulted in significant declines in Pinus pollen percentages, but pollen assemblages returned to pre-fire conditions after 18 fire events, within c.75 years. The primary broad-scale change was an increase in Picea, Artemisia, Rosaceae, and Arceuthobium pollen types, around 1155 calibrated years before present. The timing of this change is coincident with changes in regional pollen records, and a shift toward wetter winter conditions identified from regional paleoclimate records. Our results indicate the overall stability of vegetation in Rocky Mountain lodgepole pine forests during climate changes and repeated high-severity fires. Contemporary deviations from this pattern of resilience could indicate future recovery challenges in these ecosystems.

Description: The aim of this paper is to elucidate the dynamic interplay of visuality, space and power through an analysis of what we call scopic relational spaces (SRS). Our primary claim is that scopic relations are intrinsically spatial relations and scopic practices are spatial practices. We contend that such analysis facilitates the discernment of significant socio-spatial processes and events that are otherwise unrecognized. We suggest that attention to the socio-spatial phenomena under investigation can contribute to debates about the alleged incommensurability of territorial and relational spatial imaginaries.

Description: The Guizhou karst area is one of the largest continuous areas of karst in the humid climate zone and is representative of karst landforms in China. Large portions of the karst system are characterized by extremely shallow soils underlain by weathered bedrock and water deficits are common. Although the distribution of ecosystem productivity is largely related to variations in the temperature and precipitation, the influence of the substrate in karst areas requires further exploration. We explored the relative importance of the bedrock geochemistry (characterized by the concentrations of Ca, Mg and Si) and climatic factors (temperature and precipitation) to explain the spatial variability in gross primary productivity (GPP) with various degrees of water deficit during the time period 2001–2015. Our results show that the impact of bedrock geochemistry is an important parameter in changing the original relationship between climate and the GPP. The bedrock geochemistry functioned as a “regulator” of the relation between climate and the GPP, which strengthened with decreasing climate favourability. The variations in GPP and surface water storage were significantly different when different elements (Ca, Mg or Si) were dominant. The Mg-rich regions showed the greatest annual variations in the GPP, whereas the Si-rich regions had the strongest surface water storage potential to support vegetation growth. The results of our study are important for systematically evaluating the effects of climate on vegetation productivity and provide a benchmark for global vegetation modelling predictions.

Description: In this paper, we identify the ways in which the existing literature has examined financial technology (FinTech). Using the frame of the ‘FinTech Cube’, we examine how FinTech unfolds through the intersections of key actors, technologies and institutions. We demonstrate the relevance of FinTech for two areas of geographical enquiry: i) the reshaping of global production and financial networks, and ii) financial inclusion and poverty reduction in poorer countries. In doing so, we accord particular attention to the significance of FinTech for theoretical and empirical research in economic geography.

Description: The Late Antique Little Ice Age, spanning the period from 536 CE to roughly 560 CE, saw temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere drop by a degree C in less than a decade. This rapid cooling is thought to have caused widespread famine, epidemic disease, and social disruption. The relationship between cooling and social disruption is examined here using a set of high-resolution climate and historical data. A significant link between cooling and social disruption is demonstrated, but it is also demonstrated that the link is highly variable, with some societies experiencing dramatic cooling changing very little, and others experiencing only slight cooling changing dramatically. This points to variation in vulnerability, and serves to establish the Late Antique Little Ice Age as a context within which naturalistic quasi-experiments on vulnerability to climate change might be conducted.

Description: The first aim of this corrigendum is to point out and correct calculation errors on solar depression angle and azimuth angle in Bertolin and Domínguez-Castro (2020a, 2020b). The second aim is to recognize that these calculations are correct in Dalin (2020). The third aim is to analyze the chances of Antonio Colla to observe the noctilucent cloud (NLC) taking into account the correct calculations of the twilight sky arc determining the illuminated area of an NLC and the uncertainties in the Colla’s observation report.

Description: In this paper, we propose that there is a politics of encounters centered on the body at play in seeking asylum and refuge, and that it is critical to study how it unfolds from the point of view of both governing and agency. Building on existing work that looks at the role of embodiment in the political struggles of refugees, and leaning on Helmuth Plessner’s original thinking about social embodiment, we develop a theoretical understanding of this political dynamic, illustrating how it can help us make sense of power relations and forms of governance and (latent) resistance involved in it.

Description: In this first report, I overview research on storytelling of the histories of GIS. I suggest that these efforts reveal important pathways for thinking the current moment and conditioning technoscience futures. I argue that these stories around technology illustrate various disciplinary crucibles around technical practices and knowledge work. To report on progress in GIScience is also to narrate the moments of change in the discipline, whether marked as quantitative, qualitative, radical, critical, black, feminist, Marxist, indigenous, environmental, postcolonial, queer, or minor, among others. I suggest ‘minor GISciences’ to encourage attentiveness to the historical conditions and social implications of geographic technologies.

Description: Territorial stigmatisation emerged over the past decade as the prevailing concept for understanding the phenomenon of disreputable places and the processes by which they are produced. Following the work of Loïc Wacquant, several studies have articulated its centrality to the neoliberal restructuring of capital and the state. Departing from Wacquant, several have also examined the various forms of resistance to territorial stigmatisation. In reviewing this literature, this paper argues and outlines how territory – paradoxically under-theorised in the literature to date – can clarify the production of territorial stigmatisation, the obfuscations and legitimations it performs, and resistance and contestation.

Description: This article identifies new geographies of commemoration. These draw on non-representational perspectives that foreground the experiential aspects of commemorative sites and events, drawing these together with methodologies alive to the subtle but excessive feelings that arise in such settings. It argues that one aim of commemoration – to reinforce the contours of national identity – is disrupted by a focus on the experiential world because of the unpredictable and excessive nature of sensory and affective feelings. New research in geographies of commemoration also draws together different temporalities, holding the potential to unsettle and complicate national narratives.

Description: Human beings face unprecedented Covid-19 pandemic outbreak since the beginning of 2020. This disease started to change economic, social, and individual conventional behaviors. Several economic activities have sharply declined, and demand for commodities is decreasing, such as oil. This commodity has also suffered from disagreement among Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)+ members to deal with the amount of cutting oil production. This situation adds a supply-side problem into declining demand due to Covid-19. Turkey, as an emerging economy, highly depends on imported oil and suffers from this pandemic disease. This study aims to analyze the compensating role of falling oil prices for impacts of Covid-19 on non-recoverable sectors in Turkey, e.g. tourism, travel, and transportation. The main argument in the study, that is falling prices in oil can contribute to compensation for losing revenue from tourism, travel, and transport. Throughout the study, ORANI-G as a multisectoral computable general equilibrium model is employed. Three scenarios, namely Scenario-1, 2A, and 2B, are set to analyze the effects of falling oil prices as compensation for Covid-19 in the selected sectors. Results show that Covid-19 decreases gross domestic product by 1.16 but falling oil prices as 25 and 50% compensate for this decrease by 0.72 and 1.56% gross domestic product increases, respectively. It is concluded that through the falling oil prices, Turkey’s dependence on crude oil imports might provide a new reparation to overcome non-recoverable impacts. This study is scoped with selected sectors and falling oil prices. Other economic and social sectors need to be investigated in terms of challenges of Covid-19 and opportunities for declining crude oil prices. Besides, competitiveness based on the scale of firms and the ability to access business finance should be analyzed within the changing business model in the post-coronavirus period.

Description: Research in environmental psychology has found a positive relationship between place bonds and behaviors related to care and maintenance of place. Although this relationship has been analyzed in natural environments, it has been less frequently studied in urban environments and has yielded contradictory results. The aim of this study is to analyze behavior related to care and conservation of neighborhood and its possible relationship to place bonds, as well as to other variables that we think may be important in explaining this behavior. The participants were 407 residents from eight different neighborhoods with different sociodemographic characteristics in one Spanish city. The results indicate that the relationship between attachment and behavior is significant only in residents with higher socioeconomic levels. These findings may help to explain the contradictory results found in the literature. Other variables which are significant in explaining neighborhood care are social norms, residential satisfaction, and support for protection policies. Place identity was not found to be significantly correlated with neighborhood care.

Description: Coalbed methane as one type of clean energy has become an important gas resource recently. High-pressure water injection in coal seams is an effective approach for improving gas extraction efficiency, which is determined by the gas displacement characteristic and pore structure of coal. To investigate the gas displacement characteristics in coal and its pore response and influential factors, gas adsorption and water injection experiments were conducted under different conditions. The results show that the gas displacement caused by the water injection undergoes three stages: rapid increase, slow increase, and almost constant. The wetting process in water injection includes three processes: wetting, soaking, and spreading, and the wettability of coking coal is best, followed by lean coal and anthracite. The amount of gas driven by the water increases with increasing water injection pressure, and it is more favorable to increase the injection pressure to improve the gas displacement effect under the relatively low injection pressure. The lower the coal rank, the better the gas displacement effect due to the higher porosity of the coal, and the longer the early gas displacement stage. The high adsorption equilibrium pressure can improve the gas displacement effect; for the relatively high adsorption equilibrium pressure, the gas displacement effect is better. After water injection in coal, the large fractures and pores dramatically increase in size, especially for the low metamorphic coals coking coal, contributing to the majority of the increase in porosity. The results of this study can provide a theoretical foundation for the wide application of water injection technology for efficient gas drainage in coal mines.

Description: This study employed the bottom-up life cycle assessment method, examining the life cycle carbon emissions of three dwellings constructed at different times with different techniques in Yinchuan City, China, i.e. traditional earth brick dwelling (Case 1), brick–straw bale dwelling (Case 2), wood–straw solar energy dwelling (Case 3). The study aimed to find the methods of reducing carbon emissions, so as to slow down the global warming. The results showed that (1) with excellent thermal insulation properties, straw bale was remarkably effective in reducing carbon emissions from heating at the use stage; (2) 15 kWp solar photovoltaic panels contributed to offsetting the carbon emission of the dwelling; (3) straw bales and logs could store the carbon in building envelope, which partly offset the carbon emissions. The findings of this study have proved that ecological building materials and solar photovoltaic system have great potential in reducing carbon emissions of buildings, and can provide a basis for the design and material selection of future dwellings in order to promote the development of green dwellings.

Description: Affecting an area of ca. 800 000 km2and killing up to 100 000 people, the Lisbon earthquake of 1755 is probably the greatest seismic disaster to have struck western Europe. The shock waves of the earthquake placed a temporary brake on the emerging rationalism of the European Enlightenment and attempts to explain the disaster in terms of human sinfulness coloured many contemporary accounts. Notwithstanding these difficulties, through careful archival research it has proved possible to obtain relatively value-free accounts of most aspects of the earthquake and to use these not only to model the physical characteristics of and damage caused by the earthquake, but also to consider the implications for present day hazard assessment and urban planning. This paper reviews the progress that has been made in: identifying source and faulting mechanisms; the processes involved in the generation and impact of tsunamis; damage caused to different types of building and the use being made of historical earthquakes of different sizes - of which the 1755 event is the largest - in defining future hazard scenarios for Lisbon and other areas of Iberia.

Description: Mediterrranean regions are characterized by high spatiotemporal heterogeneity of vegetation patterns. Understanding the dynamic nature of these environments requires detailed data for wide regions regarding changes in their phyto-ecology, biomass and productivity. This article assesses the current status of satellite remote sensing in this field of application. Mapping the five main life-forms (physiognomic classes) in Mediterranean regions (forests, woodlands, scrub, dwarf shrubs and herbaceous growth) has attracted major attention in recent years. Methodologies developed for this purpose are based on the spectral, temporal and spatial (textural) information domains provided by satellite data. Wide regional vegetation mapping was achieved using phenological classification of vegetation indices derived mainly from NOAA AVHRR images. More detailed mapping was conducted with multispectral techniques in local areas using mainly Landsat TM images. Assessments of multispectral and multi-temporal categories have shown limitations in their applicability over wide regions due mainly to the heterogeneity of Mediterranean regions. This heterogeneity cannot be regarded as a simple mixing of life-forms over large areas but, rather, the formation of transitional zones of varying mixtures resulting from disturbance and recovery cycles. Productivity and biomass monitoring has been found to be an active methodological development due to the introduction of new off-nadir viewing sensors in the visible and infrared spectral bands, and because of the development of methodologies for the retrieval of biophysical information from Synthetic Aperature Radar (SAR) data. Studies of ecosystem evolution using satellite data were conducted mainly in the fields of fire disturbance and desertification. Further progress in the remote sensing of Mediterranean vegetation ecology requires a better synergy of sensors, methods and ancillary data.

Description: Wherever people gain their livelihood in mountains and steeplands, the productive capacity of the soils they use is likely to be affected by mass movement erosion. The impacts of mass movement erosion on land productivity are significant but under-rated in the scientific literature. Impacts on cropping are here reported from 15 countries in south and southeast Asia, east Africa, the Caribbean and Melanesia, but accounts are generalized or anecdotal, and do not quantify crop loss or damage attributable to mass movement separately from that due to surface or fluvial erosion. Impacts on pastoral grazing have been studied in New Zealand, where production losses of up to 80% at field scale, and up to 20% at farm scale, have been measured. Studies in the Pacific Northwest coastal forests of North America show plantation forest wood volume declines by 35-50% on eroded sites. Mass movement impacts on production from tropical forests or agroforestry appear to be as yet undocumented.The reasons for lack of documentation are, first, that most soil erosion-productivity research has been done on gently sloping cropland, which is subject to surface rather than mass movement erosion. Secondly, geomorphological research in steeplands has dealt with mass movement as a hazard to human life, settlements and infrastructure -with limited identification of its contribution to sediment loads in rivers, and disregarding its impact on land productivity.We suggest there are many other countries where significant impacts are likely to occur, and that erosion-productivity studies should pay more attention to this type of erosion. Studies should not be restricted to cropland, but also extend to grazing land, plantation forestry, agro-forestry and traditional uses of natural forest as mass movement appears to affect all these forms of land-based production, particularly in densely populated steeplands whether tropical or temperate. Topics needing study are the documentation and costing of productivity losses, ways to reduce mass movement impacts on productivity, and ways to enhance recovery of soil on eroded areas (e.g., revegetation with fertility-building shrubs and legumes).

Description: The paradigm of landscape ecology describes a landscape as a mosaic of landscape elements including the matrix, patches and corridors. Corridors are described as linear disruptions to the matrix, produced by anthropogenic actions or by streams which produce riparian corridors. Snow avalanches and debris flows are other geomorphic processes that should be considered as geomorphic process corridors rather than as disturbance patches. They possess requisite linearity, and they accomplish the five functions of a corridor: habitat, conduit, filter, source and sink. The definition of corridor in landscape ecology should be modified to embrace the concept of geomorphic process corridors.

Description: Remote sensing has served as an efficient method of gathering data about glaciers since its emergence. The recent advent of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Global Positioning Systems (GPS) has created an effective means by which the acquired data are analysed for the effective monitoring and mapping of temporal dynamics of glaciers. A large number of researchers have taken advantage of remote sensing, GIS and GPS in their studies of glaciers. These applications are comprehensively reviewed in this paper. This review shows that glacial features identifiable from aerial photographs and satellite imagery include spatial extent, transient snowline, equilibrium line elevation, accumulation and ablation zones, and differentiation of ice/snow. Digital image processing (e.g., image enhancement, spectral ratioing and automatic classification) improves the ease and accuracy of mapping these parameters. The traditional visible light/infrared remote sensing of two-dimensional glacier distribution has been extended to three-dimensional volume estimation and dynamic monitoring using radar imagery and GPS. Longitudinal variations in glacial extent have been detected from multi-temporal images in GIS. However, the detected variations have neither been explored nor modelled from environmental and topographic variables. GPS has been utilized independent of remote sensing and GIS to determine glacier ice velocity and to obtain information about glacier surfaces. Therefore, the potential afforded by the integration of nonconventional remote sensing (e.g., SAR interferometry) with GIS and GPS still remains to be realized in glaciology. The emergence of new satellite images will make remote sensing of glaciology more predictive, more global and towards longer terms.

Description: A widening variety of applications is diversifying geomorphometry ( digital terrain modelling), the quantitative study of topography. An amalgam of earth science, mathematics, engineering and computer science, the discipline has been revolutionized by the computer manipulation of gridded terrain heights, or digital elevation models (DEMs). Its rapid expansion continues. This article reviews the remarkable diversity of recent morphometric work in 15 selected topics and discusses their significance and prospects. The quantitative analysis of industrial microsurface topography is introduced to the earth science community. The 14 other topics are Internet access to geomorphometry; global DEMs; DEM modelling of channel networks; self-organized criticality; fractal and wavelet analysis; soil resources; landslide hazards; barchan dunes; harvesting wind energy; sea-ice surfaces; sea-floor abyssal hills; Japanese work in morphometry; and the emerging fields of landscape ecology and image understanding. Closing remarks note reasons for the diversity within geomorphometry, speculate on future trends and recommend creating a unified field of surface representation.

Description: This paper analyzes the strain stability during mining, which often causes a water inrush. Mining couses costant stress on the fault zone, which is a loading process on the system composed of fault material and surrounding medium. A cusp catastrophe model is presented and the necessary and sufficient conditions leading to fault systems are discussed. The fault zone is assumed to be planar and is a combination of two media: medium-1 is elastic-brittle or strain-hardening and medium-2 is strain-softening. The shear stress-strain constitutive model for the strain-softening medium is described by the Weibull’s distribution law. It was found that the instability of a fault system mainly relies on the ratio between the stiffness of medium1 to the post-peak stiffness of the strain-softening medium, and the homogeneity index of strain-softening medium and the bifurcation point, k ≤ 1, which is the turning point of the fault system from stability to potential instability. One can judge the occurrence of fault instability from this feature and regard the index D as a parameter, which reflects the precursory abnormality of a fault.

Description: The electricity production via these sources of energy, offers a bigger safety of supply to the consumers while respecting the environment. For that reason, the principal objective of this paper is to study and control the photovoltaic lighting energy storage system. We presented the study of the whole PV system such as solar panels, DC chopper, batteries with account of all conditions of the sites of installation (period of sunshine and temperature). This study analyzed the integration of a photovoltaic power plant, super capacitor energy storage system, and lightning system. Our approach of sizing is based on the modeling of various components describing the functioning of every part of the installation among others. We can mention the production, the consumption and the storage of energy through solar battery.

Description: Typical dolomite reservoirs exist in the upper assemblage of the Ordovician Majiagou Formation in the southeastern Sulige gas field, Ordos Basin, however, the current understanding of dolomite genesis needs to be clarified. This study confirms the dolomitization characteristics, diagenetic environment, and genesis of dolomite through the use of core observations, thin section identification, and geochemical data (carbon and oxygen stable isotopes, strontium isotopes, and major and trace element contents). The results showed that dolomite samples from the study area includes micritic dolomite, powder crystal dolomite, and micrite to powder crystal dolomite, in which the main reservoir space consisted of intergranular pores, intercrystalline pores and various dissolved pores. The δ13C value of the dolomite samples ranged from −7.26‰ to1.28‰ with an average of −0.45‰, which is equivalent to that of seawater during the Ordovician. The δ18O value ranged from −9.94‰ to −6.32‰ with an average of −7.86‰, which is clearly more negative than that of the Ordovician seawater. The 87Sr/86Sr ratio varied from 0.70867 to 0.71033 with an average of 0.70946, which is significantly more positive than that of Ordovician seawater. The Mg/Ca ratio was lower than that of the seawater and close to 1:1. Overall, all of the samples were characterized by high Fe and Mn contents, while low Sr and Na contents. These results clearly indicate that the dolomitized fluid was closely related to seawater or a sea-source fluid. Furthermore, the restored paleosalinity, paleotemperature, and paleodepth also indicate that the dolomite was formed in a marine reducing environment. Combined with the petrological characteristics and geochemical indicators, two dolomitization models (mixed water dolomitization and burial dolomitization) were established for the upper assemblage of the Ordovician Majiagou Formation in southeastern Sulige gas field. We infer that mixed water dolomitization was dominant before the Carboniferous, whereas burial dolomitization was dominant after the Early Permian.

Description: The physical properties of thick coal seams show strong vertical heterogeneity; thus, an accurate characterization of their pore structure is essential for coalbed methane (CBM) exploration and production. A total of 18 coal samples, collected from a thick coal seam in the Yili Basin of NW China, were tested by a series of laboratory experiments to investigate the peat mire evolution and pore structure characteristics. The results show that the No. 4 coal seam has undergone multiple stages of evolution in the peatification stage, and was divided into four water-transgression/water-regression cycles according to the regular cyclic changes of the vitrinite/inertinite ratio, structure preservation index, gelification index, vegetation index, trace element ratios, and stable carbon isotopes of organic matter. The changes of pore structure characteristics with the changes of coal deposition cycles are also analyzed. It is concluded that pore structure characteristics of the four cycles are quite different. In each water-transgression cycle, the vitrinite gradually increased and the inertinite gradually decreased, resulting in a decrease of the porosity, pore volume, specific surface area, and fractal dimension. While in each water-regression cycle, the vitrinite gradually decreased and the inertinite gradually increased, leading to an increase of the porosity, pore volume, specific surface area, and fractal dimension. A strong relationship exists between the porosity, pore volume, specific surface area, fractal dimension, and submacerals, with fusinite and semifusinite which contained more pores having a positive correlation, desmocollinite and corpovitrinite which contained few pores having a negative correlation.

Description: The study of benzothiophene hydrodesulfurization reaction path contribute to clarifying the mechanism of hydrodesulfurization (HDS) of heavy oil. In this work, experiments and simulations were combined to study the reaction pathway of benzothiophene hydrodesulfurization catalyzed by Ni2P. In experimental part, Ni2P catalyst was prepared and characterized. Then, the catalytic property of the catalyst for benzothiophene hydrodesulfurization was evaluated. The substance types and contents in the liquid phase products were detected to verify the accuracy of the simulation results. Dmol3 module of the Materials Studio (MS) simulation software was used to simulate the adsorption and hydrodesulfurization of benzothiophene on the surface of Ni2P catalyst and explore the most probable reaction path. The results showed that the most stable adsorption configuration of benzothiophene on the surface of Ni2P was Ni-hcp. In addition, indirect desulfurization of benzothiophene was more advantageous than direct desulfurization. The most possible path for indirect desulfurization was Benzothiophene (BT) – Dihydrobenzothiophene (DHBT) – C8H9S2 – 2-phenylethyl mercaptan (PET) – Ethylbenzene (EB), while that of direct desulfurization was Benzothiophene (BT) – C8H7S2 – Styrene thiol (CMT) – Styrene (ST) – Ethylbenzene (EB).

Description: Land-use change in the form of extensive Pinus plantations is currently altering the natural vegetation cover at the forest–steppe ecotone in northern Patagonia. Providing recommendations for conservation efforts, with respect to this recent and earlier land-use changes, requires a longer time perspective. Using pollen analysis, we investigated to what degree the colonization of the area by Euro-American settlers changed the forest composition and the vegetation cover, and to explore the spread of the European weed Rumex acetosella. This study is based on short sediment cores from six lakes in the Araucaria araucana forest region, across the vegetation gradient from the forest to the steppe. Results document that although Araucaria araucana has been extensively logged elsewhere, near the investigated sites, populations were rather stable and other elements of the vegetation changed little with the initiation of Euro-American settlements. A reduction of Nothofagus dombeyi-type pollen occurred at some sites presumably due to logging Nothofagus dombeyi trees, while toward the steppe, Nothofagus antarctica shrubs may have been removed for pasture. The appearance of Rumex acetosella pollen is consistent with the initiation of land use by Euro-American settlers in all cores, probably indicating the onset of animal farming. The rise of the Rumex acetosella pollen curve during the 1950s marks more recent land-use change. These observations indicate that the spread and local expansion of the weed requires disturbance. Overall, the study shows that the initial colonization of the area by Euro-American settlers had little effect on the natural vegetation structure, while developments since the 1950s are strongly altering the natural vegetation cover.

Description: Intelligent surveillance is an important management method for the construction and operation of power stations such as wind power and solar power. The identification and detection of equipment, facilities, personnel, and behaviors of personnel are the key technology for the ubiquitous electricity The Internet of Things. This paper proposes a video solution based on support vector machine and histogram of oriented gradient (HOG) methods for pedestrian safety problems that are common in night driving. First, a series of image preprocessing methods are used to optimize night images and detect lane lines. Second, an image is divided into intelligent regions to be adapted to different road environments. Finally, the HOG and support vector machine methods are used to optimize the pedestrian image on a Linux system, which reduces the number of false alarms in pedestrian detection and the workload of the pedestrian detection algorithm. The test results show that the system can successfully detect pedestrians at night. With image preprocessing optimization, the correct rate of nighttime pedestrian detection can be significantly improved, and the correct rate of detection can reach 92.4%. After the division area is optimized, the number of false alarms decreases significantly, and the average frame rate of the optimized video reaches 28 frames per second.

Description: Staged fracturing horizontal well technology is an important means of improving tight reservoir development efficiency. Taking a typical tight oil block in the Oilfield A as the studied area, the vertical well–horizontal well joint arrangement pattern is adopted in this study. The energy supplementary development effects of multiple permeability scales, different arrangement spacing, and different media (H2O, CO2) are discussed through the numerical simulation method. Combined with the principles of petroleum technology economics, the economic evaluation model for staged fracturing horizontal wells in tight oil reservoir development is proposed, thereby determining the technical boundary and economic boundary of supplementary energy development with different media. Studies indicate that the technical boundary and economic boundary of water-flooding development in the Oilfield A are 0.4 and 0.8 mD, respectively, and the technical boundary and economic boundary of CO2-flooding development are 0.1 and 0.4 mD, respectively. This study provides theoretical support for field operation of Oilfield A and guidance for selection of development mode for tight oil reservoirs.

Description: Intensification of anthropogenic activities and related processes have altered the morphology of modern deltaic systems. As a result, mapping of geomorphic features, such as paleochannels, using recently acquired digital elevation data has become increasingly difficult. Using the Nile River and delta as a test site, we developed and applied procedures to map the distribution of paleochannels that existed throughout the Holocene. A high-resolution digital elevation model (DEM) derived from an early, detailed topographic sheet collection was used to minimize the impact of recent man-made topographic artifacts. The DEM-inferred paleochannel distribution was verified using direct and indirect subsurface data. Using our adopted methodology, we identified 76 main and subsidiary paleochannels with a total length exceeding (by 〉500 km) previously mapped paleochannels. The overwhelming majority (〉80%) of the reported historical and archeological sites (29 sites) in the Nile Delta were found to be proximal (

Description: The Asian summer monsoon and the mid-latitude Westerlies are major atmospheric circulation systems which influence the climate of the Tibetan Plateau (TP), and hence the water resources, ecology, and socioeconomic well-being of the region. The interplay between the monsoon and the Westerlies has been investigated on glacial–interglacial, millennial, and decadal scales. However, due to the scarcity of high-resolution climate records from the TP, there is a lack of information on the centennial scale, which is more closely related to the development of civilization. Here we present a decadal-resolution precipitation record covering the past ~3600 years from Ngamring Co in the southern TP. The record suggests the gradual weakening of the Indian Summer Monsoon (ISM) with multiple centennial-scale fluctuations, which are synchronous with temperature changes. Precipitation was relatively high during the Medieval Warm Period (MWP) and low during the Little Ice Age (LIA). A wet Roman Warm Period (RWP) and an abrupt dry spell at 2.8 ka are also identified. Comparisons suggest that an intensified Westerlies penetrated the southern TP during dry intervals, such as during the 2.8 ka event, ~1700–1450 cal yr BP, and the LIA; whereas an intensified monsoon prevailed during warm periods such as the MWP. The centennial-scale oscillations of precipitation in the southern TP during the late Holocene suggest the role of the Westerlies in regulating ISM moisture delivery to the region, which likely resulted from variations in the surface temperature of the North Atlantic together with solar activity.

Description: This paper discusses the volcanic influence on the mineralogical and elemental geochemistry of No. 6 coal from Nanyangpo Mine in the Datong coalfield, north China. Sixteen samples (14 coal and 2 partings) were analyzed by different geochemical methods. The results revealed that the No. 6 coal is a medium–high volatility, highly calorific, bituminous coal with a low-ash and medium-sulfur content. The minerals mainly consisted of kaolinite, calcite, dolomite, and pyrite. In addition, traces of apatite, sphalerite, and anatase were also found. Calcite, dolomite, and pyrite in the coal samples were mainly derived from epigenetic hydrothermal solutions, whereas kaolinite and apatite originated from volcanic ash. Harmful trace elements including Pb, Cu, Mo, Tl, and Hg in the No. 6 coal samples were higher than those of common global coals. These harmful elements mainly occurred in sulfide minerals, which were probably influenced by hydrothermal inputs.

Description: Polychlorinated biphenyls, organic pollutants of anthropogenic origin, were widely used in many industrial applications worldwide roughly from the 1930s to the 1970s. Both the use and disposal of polychlorinated biphenyls contributed to their ubiquity in different environmental compartments, and they show extremely high persistence because of their high physical and chemical stability. Concentrations of polychlorinated biphenyls in environmental archives located in different parts of the world usually show an initial increase in the 1940s–1950s and maxima in the 1960s–1970s followed by a sharp decline following the ban in their use. Thus, the increase in polychlorinated biphenyl concentrations would appear to be suitable as a chronostratigraphic marker in Anthropocene strata. This manuscript discusses the polychlorinated biphenyls record in different environmental archives in the context of temporal and spatial trends in production and application of these compounds as well as the advantages and disadvantages of the use of polychlorinated biphenyls in the chemostratigraphy of the Anthropocene series.

Description: In this article, we examined the indicative value of a relationship between two non-pollen palynomorphs (NPPs), fungal HdV-10, related to the presence of Calluna vulgaris, and HdV-31A, which is testate amoeba – Archerella flavum. Both are frequently present on slides designated for pollen analysis, prepared from Sphagnum peat. We analysed three profiles from three extensive ombrotrophic peatlands in northern Poland, in which the content of testate amoebae (TA) was examined and TA-inferred depth to the water table (DWT) was reconstructed. The new analysis of palynological samples regarding NPPs revealed that strong increases in HdV-10 content were mostly simultaneous to HdV-31A declines. However, the relations between both types were not statistically significant. The rapid increases in HdV-10, despite the fact that this type of conidiospores is related to drier habitats on peatlands, were tentatively interpreted as an indicator of rapid rises in the water table level which, in consequence, might have stimulated the production of these spores by fungi. In addition, a negative correlation between HdV-31A and Arcella discoides and positive one, but weaker, in case of HdV-10 (attributed by some authors to species Trichocladium opacum (Corda) S Hughes) and A. discoides show a link between mutual fluctuations of both NPPs and hydrological instabilities on peatland. The Bagno Kusowo bog, the westernmost peatland subjected to the study, displayed an intriguing agreement between the presence of peat sections with strong increases in HdV-10 and cold climate events affecting Europe. Our study reveals that counting even a limited number of NPP types during the standard pollen analysis of Sphagnum peat may support the interpretation of results, especially, in cases when the investigation lacks testate amoeba analysis. When the reconstruction of TA-inferred DWT is provided, it may introduce additional information about the patterns of hydrological dynamics.

Description: This article is a brief introduction to the Special Issue on Holocene Dust Dynamics, which brings together recent research on a key aspect of the Earth’s changing climate through its effects on radiative balance, cloud cover and biogeochemical cycles. The aim of the Special Issue is to contribute to a better understanding of the role of dust aerosols by analysing the evolution and climatic impact of atmospheric dust over long and short timescales within the Holocene. Here, we introduce the rationale behind the Special Issue and the eight research papers, which include long-term records of dust deposition from different types of natural archive (e.g. peatlands, ice, loess and lake sediments) as well as present-day multi-annual dust trap records and process studies from various climatic regimes that have global implications.

Description: Natural disturbance processes such as volcanic eruptions, fire and human activities are important vegetation drivers in north Patagonia. Here, we tested the impact of volcanic ash fall and fire on vegetation composition analysing two sediment records, Lake Avutarda and Lake Bruja, located in the forest-steppe transition at 40°S. In addition, our analysis provides the first account on the history of Nothofagus alpina at its eastern distribution limits. Our results comprise the last 3000 years, indicating the persistence of the vegetation despite evident volcanic activity documented by numerous tephra layers in both records. Eleven fire episodes were identified, while redundancy analysis indicates a non-significant influence of fire activity on the vegetation. The population increase of Nothofagus alpina represents the most important change in vegetation composition in the last three millennia. We speculate that the presumed change in climate, which led to the expansion of Austrocedrus chilensis south of the study area, also caused the increase of Nothofagus alpina populations in the region.

Description: The scientific discovery of our universe’s immense cosmological history and Earth’s vast geologic history has radically altered common perceptions of time, prompting us to think in terms of millions and billions of years rather than hundreds and thousands. Meanwhile human societies impact the Earth System at accelerating rates and more comprehensively than ever before, leading scientists to propose the new geological epoch of the Anthropocene. These two contrasting temporal transformations have mostly been considered separately: the expanding awareness of cosmological and geologic duration, on the one hand, and the acute sense of swift technological change, on the other. However, their contrast and coexistence are important to recognize. The challenge of understanding the Anthropocene’s complex timescales is partly due to the inability of human institutions to reconcile this twofold disruption whereby time has both expanded (into deep time) and compressed (in techno-social acceleration). After theorizing this transformation, I evaluate the current cosmic stories helping human beings reconceptualize the new timescape.

Description: Without significant adaptation and response to climate change and environmental destruction, human behaviour has the capacity to lead to our eventual demise. However, in our fast-paced media world, conservation messages and warnings are often ignored by the public, politicians and commercial concerns. This article proposes that long-form nonfiction narratives are an important communication tool for the dissemination of conservation science in the Anthropocene. Furthermore, it suggests that future-focused nature biographies have the capacity to present science in a way that is accessible to a non-specialist audience, evoking the necessary responsibilities and stewardship outside of scientific circles. This article compares biographical exemplars with the author’s practice-led research exploring the life of Malaysian biologist and tropical ecologist, Dr Wong Siew Te.

Description: Carpenter’s Gap 1 is a large rockshelter located within the Kimberley region of northwestern Australia. The site provides valuable archives of late Quaternary palaeoecological information within an area known for a lack of deposits preserving long-term continuous botanical records. Previous studies of the macrobotanic, phytolith and wood charcoal records from Carpenter’s Gap 1 are in general agreement about changes in broad vegetation patterns over time but differ in the time scales used, in the representation of some species, and in the interpretation of changes – particularly on the degree to which the variations in the record represent cultural activities. An examination of palynology (the transport, deposition and preservation of pollen within the rockshelter environment) provides more detail to the vegetation patterns identified in these previous studies. In addition, because the pollen most likely reflects the vegetation of the site’s surrounds over time rather than plants introduced into the shelter by people, interpretation can be more confidently linked to environmental change, and by inference climatic conditions. The pollen data reveal pre-glacial mixed wooded vegetation. From the beginning of the Holocene, tree loss occurred in a transition from monsoonal forest to thicket and eucalypt forest to woodland. Vegetation transition around the mid Holocene suggests a shift in climate, becoming drier and more variable towards and into the late Holocene. The role of fire in the establishment of vegetation communities remains under investigation.

Description: Increase in rainfall during the early Holocene has been reported from different regions of Indian subcontinent, although the magnitude shows spatial variability with lower change in higher rainfall regions and vice versa. While the early-Holocene rainfall records are available from lowland areas of the Indian sub-continent, the record is poorly documented from the high-altitude Central Himalayan region where orography plays an important role in the spatial variability in the rainfall pattern. For the first time, δDC29, δ13CC29 values of alkane and δ13C values of organic matter from a relict lake of Benital area in the Central Himalaya have been used to reconstruct monsoonal rainfall and contemporary vegetation for last 10.5 ka with an emphasis on the early Holocene. The δDC29 values suggest that the early Holocene was characterized by a wet phase at ca. 9 ka with 25% higher rainfall compared to present while the middle-late-Holocene was relatively arid. The estimated increase in monsoonal rainfall for the early Holocene is the highest compared to the previous report from elsewhere. The magnitude of early-Holocene rainfall estimated in this study suggests that in addition to erosion of the bed-rocks at the head-water region, increased stream power reworked the older floodplain and resulted in 2.3 times higher sediment discharged into the Ganges-Brahmaputra (GB) delta compared to the present discharge. The δ13CC29 values of the lake sediments suggest a transition from woody to non-woody plant assemblages occurred at 7 ka. The poor correlation between δDC29 and δ13CC29 values suggests at higher rainfall, the δ13CC29 values of catchment vegetation were less responsive.

Description: Recent archeobotanical work has shed light on prehistoric food globalization across the Eurasian landmass; however, much less research has focused on the foodways of the historical cities and settlements found throughout Central Asia on various portions of the ‘Silk Road’. Here, we present archeobotanical and isotopic results from recent excavations at Shichengzi, a Han dynasty (202 BC–AD 220) military garrison. Our archeobotanical results recovered from 11 samples reveal that four types of cereals, naked barley, wheat, common millet, and foxtail millet, were the most common crops at the site. Naked barley, a drought and cold resistant crop, comprised 79% of the crop assemblage recovered from Shichengzi, and the rest of the assemblage is composed of wheat and millet. The reliance on drought resistant crops indicates that people at Shichengzi oriented their agricultural strategy toward mitigating environmental risks. In addition, our isotopic analyses (δ13C and δ15N) of charred cereal grains ( n = 22), animal and human remains ( n = 12) recovered from excavations at Shichengzi suggests that the δ15N values of cereals were enriched by human or livestock dung. Moreover, the calculated Δ13C values from Shichengzi suggest that farmers preferentially planted their crops in wide areas that would have received a large amount of water available on the northern piedmont of the Tianshan mountains. Our research contributes to the growing understanding of the diversity of agricultural strategies used along the Silk Road.

Description: Self-organizing maps provide a powerful, non-linear technique of dimensionality reduction that can be used to identify clusters with similar attributes. Here, they were constructed from a 1000-year-long gridded palaeoclimatic dataset, namely the Old World Drought Atlas, to detect regions of homogeneous hydroclimatic variability across the European continent. A classification scheme of 10 regions was found to describe most efficiently the spatial properties of Europe’s hydroclimate. These regions were mainly divided into a northern and a southern subset, linked together with a northwest-to-southeast orientation. Further analysis of the classification scheme with complex networks confirmed the divergence between the northern and southern components of European hydroclimate, also revealing that is not strongly correlated to the Iberian Peninsula. On the contrary, the region covering the British Isles, France and Germany appeared to be linked to both branches, implying links of hydroclimate with atmospheric/oceanic circulation.

Description: To study the influence of coal mining on the porosity of shallow sandy loam under conditions of shallow seam mining in thick, loose layers in north-west China, a typical surface sandy loam stratum in Shaanxi Province was taken as the study area, and experiments were performed to test the variation of soil porosity at different depths of 0–10 m in strata before, during and after mining therein. The experimental results demonstrate that the overall average porosities in the disc-shaped edge area, the disc-shaped edge area to the disc-shaped basin bottom area and the disc-shaped subsidence centre area of shallow sandy loam in mining increased by (23.51, 18.07 and 22.61%) respectively compared with that before mining. Mining meant that the soil porosity in the period of stable subsidence after mining changed significantly in the disc-shaped edge area and the disc-shaped edge to the disc-shaped basin bottom area. The disc-shaped edge area shows a trend of slowly rising porosity with the increase of depth, and the disc-shaped edge area to the disc-shaped basin bottom area shows a trend of gradually increasing first and then gradually becoming stable. Although the porosity in the central area of disc-shaped subsidence increased before mining, its trend was similar to that before mining. Although the change in soil porosity in the period of post-mining settlement stability is greater than that before mining, it is best fitted by a quintic polynomial. In general, the rate of change of soil porosity in the study area shows similar trends with depth. It showed a U-shaped variation that first decreased, stabilised for a distance and then gradually increased. This study provides theoretical support for surface soil remediation and ecological environment restoration in coal mining areas.

Description: This article introduces a virtual theme issue dedicated to the intersection of feminist and political geographies. Through a tracing of feminist thought in human geography across the 25 year period of 1993 to 2018, via the debates in Progress in Human Geography, what comes into view is a treatment of politics and the political that yields an alternative genealogy of political geography. Feminist work has advanced a fundamental critique of what has come to count as politics in human geography. Drawing on Judith Butler’s concept of the ‘merely cultural’, I suggest that a continued annexing of the ‘merely feminist’ has rendered alternative vocabularies of the political and different scales of politics as supplements to that which is registered as politics within political geography.

Description: The stability of underground water-sealed oil storage caverns is of great importance for safe excavation and operation. To analyze the scope of the failure zone and underground cavern stability accurately, a new method was developed that integrates the rock tunneling quality index Q-system and stability graph method with 3D laser scanning and numerical simulation. The point cloud data were obtained by 3D laser scanning, and the cavern model was built by using DIMINE software, which directly shows the 3D shape of the cavern. The rock mass physical and mechanical parameters and the corresponding stability coefficients were obtained based on Q-system and stability graph method. The plastic zone distribution and deformation characteristics of surrounding rock were analyzed through numerical simulation. Then, the corresponding relationship between caving zone and plastic zone was determined by comparing the numerical simulation results with the 3D laser scanning contour. The new method provides a reliable way to analyze the stability of the underground water-sealed oil storage cavern and also will helpful to design or optimize the subsequent support.

Description: We present the first systematic evaluation of the relationship between the archaeological and palaeoclimatic record from north-western India during the past millennium, from the urban site of Chandravati. The rarity of Medieval sites, systematic excavations and multi-disciplinary work in the subcontinent obscure the impact of two distinct climate anomalies − the ‘Medieval Warm Period’ (‘MWP’, 740 − 1150 CE), followed by the ‘Little Ice Age’ (‘LIA’, 1350 − 1850 CE). The finds from the archaeological site indicate the presence of winter and summer crops, suggesting the region was likely warm and mild humid during pre-Medieval period (ca. 600 − 800 CE). During Medieval times (between ca. 800 − 1300 CE), a diversification of the crop assemblage suggests that the region was under a warm and humid climate, corresponding to the ‘MWP’, driving increased monsoon precipitation. During the post-Medieval period (ca. 1350 − 1800 CE), drought-resistant millets and other summer pulse crops indicate the region probably experienced weak SW monsoon precipitation coinciding with globally recognised ‘LIA’. These interpretations are supported through phytolith data from the archaeological deposit broadly indicating two phases, the first being a period of diversified agricultural/anthropogenic activity (ca. 600 − 1350 CE), followed by a period dominated by drought-resistant crops (ca. 1350 − 1800 CE). Pollen data from a proximal lake corroborate the warm and humid phase ca. 800 − 1400 CE, with strong representation of warm−humid favouring tropical forest taxa, followed by non-arboreal indicators of a drier more open landscape ca. 1500 − 1800 CE. These environmental changes may have combined with other historic and institutional factors that led to the ultimate abandonment of the city. These changing cropping patterns, vegetation and cultural developments provide insight into past human response to climate change as well as important lessons for modern societies in exploring sustainable agricultural strategies to future climate change.

Description: With the continuous production of oil wells, the reservoir properties, such as permeability and porosity, are changing accordingly, and the reservoir heterogeneity is also enhanced. This development is vulnerable to the problem of the one-way advance of injected water and low efficiency of water flooding. The interwell connectivity between injection and production wells controls the flow capacity of the subsurface fluid. Therefore, the analysis of interwell connectivity helps to identify the flow direction of injected water, which is of great significance for guiding the profile control and water plugging in the later stage of the oilfield. In this study, based on the principle of mass conservation, a capacitance model considering the bottom-hole flowing pressure was established and solved by using the production dynamic data of injection–production wells. Then, the validity of the capacitance model was verified by numerical simulation, and the influences of well spacing, compression coefficient, frequent switching wells, injection speed, and bottom-hole flowing pressure on interwell connectivity were eliminated. Finally, a practical mine technique for inversion of connectivity between wells using dynamic data was developed. The advantage of this model is that the production dynamic data used in the modeling process are easy to obtain. It overcomes the shortcomings of previous models and has a wider range of applications. It can provide a theoretical basis for the formulation of profile control and water-plugging schemes in the high-water-cut period.

Description: Abandoned underground mines remain insufficiently investigated landforms, which leads to underestimating their importance within world landscapes. Even though they stand as distinct and widespread geomorphic forms, research devoted to them is underpublished in comparison with natural caves. Because many mines with disturbed entrances remain hidden, various methods of their detection are reviewed, which are essential to prevent loss of life and damage due to their eventual collapse. The most prominent manifestations of the presence of abandoned underground mines are dynamic deformations along with slower subsidence. Even small related movements of the rock mass are detectable. Interest in monitoring and modelling the motions of such processes is growing. In response to the increasing number of documented mines worldwide, their reclamation, remediation or rehabilitation are being initiated as part of efforts to restore land devastated by mining activities; complex reclamation problems can be addressed by multidisciplinary expert teams. However, it is important to note that abandoned underground mines and their particular geomorphic forms are considered to be a source of great geodiversity and hence also biodiversity. The various possibilities of future research connected with abandoned underground mines as geomorphic forms are outlined.

Description: Studies on gentrification in Latin America currently face two main obstacles. On the one hand, there appears to be a refusal by the academy in Latin America to use the term, regarding it as an expression of cultural imperialism. On the other hand, there has been an excessively flexible and ambiguous use of the term, obscuring political and scholarly debates on the issue. Both obstacles are partly a consequence of the lack of dialogue between the different authors in the field. This article generates a critical dialogue with the most relevant works and researchers on gentrification in Latin America, as well as with those scholars reluctant to use the term. Specifically, the author advocates for a more restrictive and clarifying definition of the phenomena and defends the utility of the concept as a tool to promote the critical analysis of the specific processes in many Latin American cities, as well as in cities outside the region. The paper concludes that, even though it should not be the main political concern for urban researchers in the region, gentrification is a relevant ongoing process in some Latin American cities and its study would contribute to a better comprehension of recent processes of urban restructuring.

Description: This paper presents an original palaeoparasitological study performed on samples from a sedimentary core in a peat bog (Asi Gonia, White Mountains, Crete, Greece). The aim of the study is to test the preservation and concentration of parasitic remains in peat sediments, to discuss animal presence around the site throughout the record, and to compare the results with other biomarkers of environmental history. In this aim, 22 sediment samples distributed between the Roman period and the present were processed and the residues were observed under light microscopy in search of parasitic markers (microscopic eggs or oocysts). The majority of the samples (86.4%) tested positive for the presence of helminth eggs. Several taxa were observed throughout the studied period, including Trichuris sp., Ascaris sp., Capillaria sp., Fasciola sp., Paramphistomum sp. and Macracanthorhynchus sp. The assemblage of parasite markers changes throughout the record and the variations show close correlations with previously published grazing indicators (fungal spores) and vegetation changes (pollen grains). This study sheds lights on animal associations and changing environments in the watershed over the past 2000 years. Indeed, we detected three main phases consisting of: Roman animal herding with pigs in an evergreen oak forest, then a more irregular but almost constant presence of ruminants during a second Byzantine and modern phase in a heather maquis landscape and, finally, present-day grazing in a phrygana/steppe landscape. These results highlight how palaeoparasitology can contribute to multi-proxy approaches in peat bog sedimentary sequences.

Description: Coalbed methane wells in the Shizhuangnan Block exhibit significant productivity differences. The reasons were determined based on the impact analysis of geological factors and drainage strategies on production capacity at 82 wells. Grey relational analysis was further utilized to quantitatively analyze the correlation degree of geological parameters to production characteristics. It is found that the main reason for wells with high water production is the ingress of external water, i.e. connecting adjacent aquifer by natural faults or artificial fractures. And aquifer characteristics, especially thickness of aquifer has the greatest influence on the water production, followed by pore connectivity, porosity, and shale content. For the wells that have not been affected by external water, the gas productivity differences are mainly affected by reservoir conditions and drainage strategies. Finally, an analytical process was proposed to provide theoretical support for rational production of coalbed methane wells.

Description: The triumph of the Gaia hypothesis was to spot the extraordinary influence of Life on the Earth. ‘Life’ is the clade including all extant living beings, as distinct from ‘life’ the class of properties common to all living beings. ‘Gaia’ is Life plus its effects on habitability. Life’s influence on the Earth was hard to spot for several reasons: biologists missed it because they focused on life not Life; climatologists missed it because Life is hard to see in the Earth’s energy balance; Earth system scientists opted instead for abiotic or human-centred approaches to the Earth system; Scientists in general were repelled by teleological arguments that Life acts to maintain habitable conditions. Instead, we reason from organisms’ metabolisms outwards, showing how Life’s coupling to its environment has led to profound effects on Earth’s habitability. Recognising Life’s impact on Earth and learning from it could be critical to understanding and successfully navigating the Anthropocene.

Description: To achieve zero-energy building target, both China and the US have planned pathway by formulating guidelines and standards. China has published National China technical standard for nearly zero energy building (CTS-NZEB), which defines detailed principles of zero-energy building. The US LEED zero energy evaluation system has been released based on LEED rating system. Defined target and scope have been introduced in this evaluation system; however, there are no technical and detailed approaches in the rating system. To support future projects achieving the LEED Zero Energy certification in China, accessible applications have been analyzed in perspectives of technology and economy in this article. The comparison and analysis results show that the strategies and technical index of CTS-NZEB can be adopted comprehensively in LEED Zero Energy rating system for Chinese buildings except for renewable energy resources because air source or ground source heat pump system, which are extensively used in China but not acceptable in LEED Zero Energy rating system. High-performance strategies, including low U-value envelope, exterior shading devices, high air tightness envelope, high-efficiency heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning system, and low thermal bridge impact, can be applied to pursue LEED Zero Energy rating system. The incremental costs of NZEBs in China are also supported by government through market and financial policies. This would make significant impacts on Chinese buildings to achieve the LEED Zero Energy target.