Climate engineering: a strategic approach to combat environmental potential risks associated with Pak-China Economic corridor (CPEC) Development

AbstractChina-Pak Economic Corridor (CPEC) has become a future economic potential for both countries. It will serve as a gateway to share trade and other industrial benefits with each other. On one hand it’s a blessing for both countries, the other way it is offering a potential threat to the environment i.e. due to wide construction of roads the major effect is threatening biodiversity and environmental sustainability. It will cause deforestation, floods, glacier melting, climate change, and global warming. “Climate engineering” is the newly emerging concept to resolve the problems related to the environment and biodiversity. Under the umbrella of concept “Climate engineering” we proposed attractive and environmentally friendly solutions that are helpful to mitigate the impact of anthropogenic activities on the environment of both countries. These proposed strategies include installation of CO2 scrubbers, construction of Algal ponds, and development of research stations across the roads and by introducing the concept of carbon canopy. It will also help the legislators and policymakers of both countries to incorporate these solutions for sustainable development on each side.

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Flash drought as a new normal in a warming climate

10.5194/egusphere-egu21-8555 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Xing Yuan ◽

Yumiao Wang ◽

Miao Zhang

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Climate Model ◽

Anthropogenic Activities ◽

Coupled Model ◽

Late Summer ◽

Rapid Onset ◽

New Normal ◽

Climate Anomalies ◽

Warming Climate ◽

The Impact

Conventional droughts are creeping climate anomalies that take months or years to fully develop, causing devastating impact silently. In contrast, flash droughts have been considered as a type of drought with more rapid onset, develop and terminate at a shorter time scale. There has been a hot debate on the definition of flash drought, and whether it is necessary to investigate the impact of flash drought given the duration is usually shorter than conventional drought. We clarify that flash drought is not a monster, while it has complete onset and recovery processes as conventional drought. Flash drought expands the conventional drought from seasonal-to-decadal scales to sub-seasonal scale, where synoptic land-atmospheric coupling might become critical for its onset. Focusing on a once-in-a-century flash drought in late summer of 2019, we analyze the latest Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6) climate model data and show that climate change caused by anthropogenic activities (e.g., emissions of greenhouse gases and aerosols, land use change, etc) has increased the likelihood of such drought onset speed by 42&#177;19%. A further analysis based on CMIP6 multi-model ensemble simulations over the global land areas shows that there was no significant trend in frequency during 1850-1970, but flash drought became more frequency in the recent 40 years. All these results suggest that climate change accelerates the drought development speed, and flash drought might become as a new normal in a warming climate. The eco-hydrological impact of this &#8220;new normal&#8221; will also be discussed by investigating FLUXNET in-situ observations and MODIS satellite retrievals.

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Assessment of climate change impacts on environmental sustainability in Afghanistan

E3S Web of Conferences ◽

10.1051/e3sconf/202020801001 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 208 ◽

pp. 01001

Author(s):

Ahmad Tamim Mehrad

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Developing Countries ◽

Environmental Sustainability ◽

Anthropogenic Activities ◽

Climate Change Impacts ◽

Negative Impacts ◽

Increasing Temperature ◽

The Impact ◽

Environmental Landscape ◽

Impacts Of Climate Change

Climate change is a global phenomenon that became one of the most predominant environmental challenges facing our world today. Natural events and anthropogenic activities are responsible for increasing the negative impacts and risks associated with climate change. Developing countries in Asia and Africa are bearing much of the climate change burden due to rapid population growth, crop failures, and lack of required technological and financial resources to mitigate the risks. Afghanistan, like other developing countries, is highly vulnerable to the severe impacts of climate change. In Afghanistan, climate change is related to various adverse effects on water resources, agriculture, forests, biodiversity, increasing temperature, and changing the environmental landscape. This paper analyses the impact of climate change on environmental sustainability in Afghanistan.

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Being Away from Purun: Women’s Experiences in Peatland Area of Hulu Sungai Utara, South Kalimantan

Jurnal Perempuan ◽

10.34309/jp.v25i1.405 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 25 (1) ◽

pp. 25

Author(s):

Enik Maslahah

Keyword(s):

Land Management ◽

Environmental Sustainability ◽

Environmental Damage ◽

Environmental Destruction ◽

Women’S Experiences ◽

Women's Experiences ◽

Almost All ◽

The Impact ◽

Area Management

Purun is a typical plant that grow in peatland area that has important functions for people living in peatland area. The availability of purun is now decreasing due to changes in land management and environmental destruction. Almost all of the plantation commodities in the peatlands area, management of peatlands in the forestry, agriculture, plantation and fisheries sectors apply exploitative and pragmatic methods, while ignoring environmental sustainability. Furthermore, environmental damage also occurs due to disasters such as forest and land fires that often occur in peatland areas in Indonesia. One of the damages happen to peatland area is the damage and scarcity of purun. As users and beneficiaries of purun, women become the affected group that face the impact of peatland destruction. This paper describes the experiences and efforts of women in peatland areas to restore land and restore the existence of purun in their villages.

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ASSESSMENT OF GRAY FOREST SOIL ENZYMATIC ACTIVITY IN AGRICULTURAL SYSTEMS

АГРАРНЫЙ ВЕСТНИК ВЕРХНЕВОЛЖЬЯ ◽

10.35523/2307-5872-19-27-2-5-11 ◽

2019 ◽

Keyword(s):

Enzymatic Activity ◽

Environmental Sustainability ◽

Hydrolytic Enzymes ◽

Invertase Activity ◽

Phosphorus Cycle ◽

Soil Enzymatic Activity ◽

Urease Enzyme ◽

Natural Analogues ◽

Activity Of Enzymes ◽

The Impact

On the grey forest medium-loamy soil of Vladimir Opolye region we have studied the impact of various methods of basic cultivation and fertilizer systems on the activity of redox and hydrolytic enzymes: ure-ase (nitrogen cycle), invertase (carbon cycle), phosphatase (phosphorus cycle), and catalase, involved in the cycle of carbon in the soil. The second humus horizon with capacity of 19-24cm was found at the depth of 20 - 21 cm on the experimental field. We have studied three modes of basic soil cultivation: an-nual shallow flat plowing (6-8 cm), annual deep flat plowing (20-22 cm), and annual moldboard plowing (20-22 cm) with normal and intensive application of fertilizers. The most enzymatically active layer is 0-20 cm. No relevant difference has been found in the level of enzymes activity between variants of basic soil treatment. Activity of enzymes increases with application of fertilizers on the intensive background. In agrogenic soils, soil enzymatic activity is lower on average by 16-22% compared to the soil of the res-ervoir. The biggest negative transformation of activity has been observed at the urease enzyme (up to 50%). With annual moldboard plowing on the intensive backgroung, enzyme activity has been close to the natural level – 98.4%. Catalise and invertase activity in this case were found to be higher (105 and 116% respectively) than that of natural analogues. Activity of enzymes increases with intensive application of fertilizers as compared with normal background. This is particularly evident with 6-8cm deep beardless plowing and 20-22cm deep moldboard plowing. In general, the obtained biochemical indicators charac-terize the highest environmental sustainability of this variation within our research.

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Chemical Composition and Metal Speciation in Porewaters from the Upper Qu’Appelle River Basin, Saskatchewan

Water Quality Research Journal ◽

10.2166/wqrj.1993.005 ◽

1993 ◽

Vol 28 (1) ◽

pp. 83-110 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Richard E. Farrell ◽

Jae E. Yang ◽

P. Ming Huang ◽

Wen K. Liaw

Keyword(s):

Amino Acids ◽

Trace Metal ◽

River Basin ◽

Drainage Basin ◽

Metal Speciation ◽

Anthropogenic Activities ◽

High Concentration ◽

Metal Concentrations ◽

Carbonate Equilibria ◽

The Impact

Abstract Porewater samples from the upper Qu’Appelle River basin in Saskatchewan, Canada, were analyzed to obtain metal, inorganic ligand and amino add profiles. These data were used to compute the aqueous speciation of the metals in each porewater using the computer program GEOCHEM-PC. The porewaters were classified as slightly to moderately saline. Metal concentrations reflected both the geology of the drainage basin and the impact of anthropogenic activities. Whereas K and Na were present almost entirely as the free aquo ions, carbonate equilibria dominated the speciation of Ca. Mg and Mn (the predominant metal ligand species were of the type MCO3 (s). MCO30. and MHCO3+). Trace metal concentrations were generally within the ranges reported for non-polluted freshwater systems. Whereas the speciation of the trace metals Cr(III) and Co(II) was dominated by carbonate equilibria, Hg(II)-, Zn(II)- and Fe(II)-speciation was dominated by hydroxy-metal complexes of the type M(OH)+ and M(OH)2°. The speciation of Fe(III) was dominated by Fe(OH)3 (s). In porewaters with high chloride concentrations (> 2 mM), however, significant amounts of Hg(II) were bound as HgCl20 and HgClOH0. The aqueous speciation of Al was dominated by Al(OH)4− and Al2Si2O4(OH)6 (s). Total concentrations of dissolved free amino acids varied from 15.21 to 25.17 umole L−1. The most important metal scavenging amino acids were histidine (due to high stability constants for the metal-histidine complexes) and tryptophan (due to its relatively high concentration in the porewaters. i.e., 5.96 to 7.73 umole L−1). Secondary concentrations of various trace metal-amino add complexes were computed for all the porewaters, but metal-amino acid complexes dominated the speciation of Cu(II) in all the porewaters and Ni(II) in two of the porewaters.

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Development of a Rapid Risk and Impact Assessment Tool to Enhance Response to Environmental Emergencies in the Early Stages of a Disaster: A Tool Developed by the European Multiple Environmental Threats Emergency NETwork (EMETNET) Project

International Journal of Disaster Risk Science ◽

10.1007/s13753-021-00352-8 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Emma-Jane Goode ◽

Eirian Thomas ◽

Owen Landeg ◽

Raquel Duarte-Davidson ◽

Lisbeth Hall ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

Impact Assessment ◽

Assessment Tool ◽

The European Union ◽

Protection Mechanism ◽

Environmental Threats ◽

Environmental Disasters ◽

Early Stages ◽

Potential Risks ◽

The Impact

AbstractEvery year, numerous environmental disasters and emergencies occur across the globe with far-reaching impacts on human health and the environment. The ability to rapidly assess an environmental emergency to mitigate potential risks and impacts is paramount. However, collating the necessary evidence in the early stages of an emergency to conduct a robust risk assessment is a major challenge. This article presents a methodology developed to help assess the risks and impacts during the early stages of such incidents, primarily to support the European Union Civil Protection Mechanism but also the wider global community in the response to environmental emergencies. An online rapid risk and impact assessment tool has also been developed to promote enhanced collaboration between experts who are working remotely, considering the impact of a disaster on the environment and public health in the short, medium, and long terms. The methodology developed can support the appropriate selection of experts and assets to be deployed to affected regions to ensure that potential public health and environmental risks and impacts are mitigated whenever possible. This methodology will aid defensible decision making, communication, planning, and risk management, and presents a harmonized understanding of the associated impacts of an environmental emergency.

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Ground-Based MAX-DOAS Observations of Tropospheric NO2 and HCHO During COVID-19 Lockdown and Spring Festival Over Shanghai, China

Remote Sensing ◽

10.3390/rs13030488 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (3) ◽

pp. 488

Author(s):

Aimon Tanvir ◽

Zeeshan Javed ◽

Zhu Jian ◽

Sanbao Zhang ◽

Muhammad Bilal ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Air Quality ◽

Anthropogenic Activities ◽

Anthropogenic Activity ◽

Hysplit Model ◽

Vertical Column ◽

Weekly Cycle ◽

Spring Festival ◽

Level 1 ◽

Reduced Mobility ◽

The Impact

Reduced mobility and less anthropogenic activity under special case circumstances over various parts of the world have pronounced effects on air quality. The objective of this study is to investigate the impact of reduced anthropogenic activity on air quality in the mega city of Shanghai, China. Observations from the highly sophisticated multi-axis differential optical absorption spectroscope (MAX-DOAS) instrument were used for nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and formaldehyde (HCHO) column densities. In situ measurements for NO2, ozone (O3), particulate matter (PM2.5) and the air quality index (AQI) were also used. The concentration of trace gases in the atmosphere reduces significantly during annual Spring Festival holidays, whereby mobility is reduced and anthropogenic activities come to a halt. The COVID-19 lockdown during 2020 resulted in a considerable drop in vertical column densities (VCDs) of HCHO and NO2 during lockdown Level-1, which refers to strict lockdown, i.e., strict measures taken to reduce mobility (43% for NO2; 24% for HCHO), and lockdown Level-2, which refers to relaxed lockdown, i.e., when the mobility restrictions were relaxed somehow (20% for NO2; 22% for HCHO), compared with pre-lockdown days, as measured by the MAX-DOAS instrument. However, for 2019, a reduction in VCDs was found only during Level-1 (24% for NO2; 6.62% for HCHO), when the Spring Festival happened. The weekly cycle for NO2 and HCHO depicts no significant effect of weekends on the lockdown. After the start of the Spring Festival, the VCDs of NO2 and HCHO showed a decline for 2019 as well as 2020. Backward trajectories calculated using the Hybrid Single-Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory (HYSPLIT) model indicated more air masses coming from the sea after the Spring Festival for 2019 and 2020, implying that a low pollutant load was carried by them. No impact of anthropogenic activity was found on O3 concentration. The results indicate that the ratio of HCHO to NO2 (RFN) fell in the volatile organic compound (VOC)-limited regime.

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Self-Secondaries Formed by Cold Spot Craters on the Moon

Remote Sensing ◽

10.3390/rs13061087 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (6) ◽

pp. 1087

Author(s):

Yiren Chang ◽

Zhiyong Xiao ◽

Yang Liu ◽

Jun Cui

Keyword(s):

Systematic Investigation ◽

Impact Craters ◽

Spatial Density ◽

Cold Spot ◽

The Moon ◽

Potential Threat ◽

Frequency Distributions ◽

Crater Size ◽

The Impact ◽

Density Pattern

Self-secondaries are a population of background secondaries, and they have been observed on top of impact melt and ballistically emplaced ejecta deposits on various planetary bodies. Self-secondaries are formed by impacts of sub-vertically launched ejecta, but the launch mechanism is not confirmed. The potential threat of self-secondaries to the theoretical and applicable reliability of crater chronology has been noted, but not constrained. Hitherto discovered self-secondaries were located around complex impact craters, but their potential existence around simple craters has not been discovered. Here we report the first discovery of self-secondaries around lunar cold spot craters, which are an extremely young population of simple craters formed within the past ~1 million years on the Moon. Self-secondaries are widespread on layers of cascading flow-like ejecta deposits around cold spot craters. The spatial density of self-secondaries dwarfs that of potential primary craters. The spatial distribution of self-secondaries is highly heterogeneous across the ejecta deposits. With respect to the impactor trajectory that formed cold spot craters, self-secondaries formed at the downrange of the ejecta deposits have the largest spatial density, while those at the uprange have the smallest density. This density pattern holds for all cold spot craters that were formed by non-vertical impacts, but self-secondaries do not exhibit other systematic density variations at different radial distances or at other azimuths with respect to the impactor trajectory. Among known mechanics of ejecting materials to the exterior of impact craters, impact spallation is the most likely scenario to account for the required large ejection velocities and angles to form self-secondaries. The production population of self-secondaries is estimated based on the highly diverse crater size-frequency distributions across the ejecta deposits of cold spot craters. For a better understanding of the impact history on the Moon, a systematic investigation for the effect of self-secondaries on lunar crater chronology is required.

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Wellness Tourism—New Challenges and Opportunities for Tourism in Salou

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13158246 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (15) ◽

pp. 8246

Author(s):

Marta Gemma Nel-lo Andreu ◽

Alba Font-Barnet ◽

Marc Espasa Roca

Keyword(s):

Environmental Sustainability ◽

Seasonal Adjustment ◽

Competitive Advantages ◽

Strategic Renewal ◽

Challenges And Opportunities ◽

The Face ◽

History Of ◽

Wellness Tourism ◽

Fundamental Value ◽

The Impact

Following a long history of using various strategies and policies for diversification and seasonal adjustment in the face of the challenges of achieving economic, social, and environmental sustainability, sun and beach destinations should also consider targeting the wellness tourism market as a post pandemic opportunity and long-term solution. Salou is a mature sun and beach destination in the Mediterranean, but one which, for some time, has had an increasing commitment to family and sports tourism as a result of a strategic renewal process. Now, with the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, the destination management organization is considering the evolution of the model, the internalization of sustainability as a fundamental value, and the impact of different markets. In this study, we examined the challenges the Salou Tourist Board has faced during the development of a post pandemic model for sustainable tourism and what strategies it has adopted in response. We also considered the opportunities and competitive advantages that Salou has in the field of wellness tourism. The results obtained should encourage the continuation of work that promotes the environmental axis of sustainability and adds value to the natural resources on which it depends, including the sea and the landscape, while maintaining the environmental quality of the resources.

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Adoption of Satellite Offices in Response to a Pandemic: Sustainability and Infection Control

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13148008 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (14) ◽

pp. 8008

Author(s):

Seungbeom Kim ◽

Yooneun Lee ◽

Byungchul Choi

Keyword(s):

Infection Control ◽

Work Environment ◽

Fuel Consumption ◽

Environmental Sustainability ◽

Carbon Emission ◽

Work Environments ◽

Remote Work ◽

Simulation Experiments ◽

Office Environment ◽

Potential Risks

The office environment has changed rapidly due to the recent COVID-19 outbreak. Companies consider various types of remote work environments to contain the spread of the virus. Among them, a satellite office is a type of remote work environment where a number of employees are allocated to their nearest office. The benefits from satellite offices are twofold: The significant reduction of travel distance also reduces the amount of carbon emission and fuel consumption. In addition, dividing employees into smaller groups significantly reduces the potential risks of infection in the office. This paper addresses a satellite office allocation problem that considers social and environmental sustainability and infection control at work. In order to evaluate the effect of different satellite office allocation, quantitative measures are developed for the following three criteria: carbon emission, fuel consumption, and the probability of infection occurrence at work. Simulation experiments are conducted to investigate different scenarios of regional infection rate and modes of transportation. The results show that adopting satellite offices not only reduces carbon emission and fuel consumption, but also mitigates business disruption in the pandemic.

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