scholarly journals Developing a Method for Assessing Environmental Sustainability Based on the Google Earth Engine Platform

Author(s):  
Xianwang Xia ◽  
Chentai Jiao ◽  
Shixiong Song ◽  
Ling Zhang ◽  
Xingyun Feng ◽  
...  

Abstract Environmental sustainability is the foundation and of great significance for the sustainable development of urban agglomerations. Taking the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei urban agglomeration as an example, we developed a method to effectively assess long-term regional environmental sustainability based on the Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform. We used the GEE to obtain 5206 Landsat remote sensing images in the region from 1983 to 2016 and developed the comprehensive environmental index (CEI) to assess regional environmental sustainability based on the theme-oriented framework proposed by the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development. We found that the environmental sustainability of the urban agglomeration showed a trend of first rising, then falling, and then rising again in the past 30 years. The average CEI increased from 0.621 to 0.631 from 1985 to 1990, dropped to the lowest value of 0.618 in 2000, and then rose to the highest value of 0.672 in 2015. In particular, the extent of areas in which environmental sustainability improved (56% of the region) was greater than the extent of areas in which environmental deterioration occurred. The environmental sustainability of Hengshui, Xingtai and Cangzhou in the southeast of the region has been significantly improved. The method proposed in this study provides an automatic, rapid and extensible way to assess regional environmental sustainability and provides a scientific reference for improving the sustainability of the regional ecological environment.

Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 138
Author(s):  
Zijie Jiang ◽  
Weiguo Jiang ◽  
Ziyan Ling ◽  
Xiaoya Wang ◽  
Kaifeng Peng ◽  
...  

Surface water is an essential element that supports natural ecosystem health and human life, and its losses or gains are closely related to national or local sustainable development. Monitoring the spatial-temporal changes in surface water can directly support the reporting of progress towards the sustainable development goals (SDGs) outlined by the government, especially for measuring SDG 6.6.1 indicators. In our study, we focused on Baiyangdian Lake, an important lake in North China, and explored its spatiotemporal extent changes from 2014 to 2020. Using long-term Sentinel-1 SAR images and the OTSU algorithm, our study developed an automatic water extraction framework to monitor surface water changes in Baiyangdian Lake at a 10 m resolution from 2014 to 2020 on the Google Earth Engine cloud platform. The results showed that (1) the water extraction accuracy in our study was considered good, showing high consistency with the existing dataset. In addition, it was found that the classification accuracy in spring, summer, and fall was better than that in winter. (2) From 2014 to 2020, the surface water area of Baiyangdian Lake exhibited a slowly rising trend, with an average water area of 97.03 km2. In terms of seasonal variation, the seasonal water area changed significantly. The water areas in spring and winter were larger than those in summer and fall. (3) Spatially, most of the water was distributed in the eastern part of Baiyangdian Lake, which accounted for roughly 57% of the total water area. The permanent water area, temporary water area, and non-water area covered 49.69 km2, 97.77 km2, and 171.55 km2, respectively. Our study monitored changes in the spatial extent of the surface water of Baiyangdian Lake, provides useful information for the sustainable development of the Xiong’an New Area and directly reports the status of SDG 6.6.1 indicators over time.


2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (9) ◽  
pp. 1488 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roberta Ravanelli ◽  
Andrea Nascetti ◽  
Raffaella Cirigliano ◽  
Clarissa Di Rico ◽  
Giovanni Leuzzi ◽  
...  

All over the world, the rapid urbanization process is challenging the sustainable development of our cities. In 2015, the United Nation highlighted in Goal 11 of the SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) the importance to “Make cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable”. In order to monitor progress regarding SDG 11, there is a need for proper indicators, representing different aspects of city conditions, obviously including the Land Cover (LC) changes and the urban climate with its most distinct feature, the Urban Heat Island (UHI). One of the aspects of UHI is the Surface Urban Heat Island (SUHI), which has been investigated through airborne and satellite remote sensing over many years. The purpose of this work is to show the present potential of Google Earth Engine (GEE) to process the huge and continuously increasing free satellite Earth Observation (EO) Big Data for long-term and wide spatio-temporal monitoring of SUHI and its connection with LC changes. A large-scale spatio-temporal procedure was implemented under GEE, also benefiting from the already established Climate Engine (CE) tool to extract the Land Surface Temperature (LST) from Landsat imagery and the simple indicator Detrended Rate Matrix was introduced to globally represent the net effect of LC changes on SUHI. The implemented procedure was successfully applied to six metropolitan areas in the U.S., and a general increasing of SUHI due to urban growth was clearly highlighted. As a matter of fact, GEE indeed allowed us to process more than 6000 Landsat images acquired over the period 1992–2011, performing a long-term and wide spatio-temporal study on SUHI vs. LC change monitoring. The present feasibility of the proposed procedure and the encouraging obtained results, although preliminary and requiring further investigations (calibration problems related to LST determination from Landsat imagery were evidenced), pave the way for a possible global service on SUHI monitoring, able to supply valuable indications to address an increasingly sustainable urban planning of our cities.


2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 579-590
Author(s):  
Nourhan Aly Fawzy ◽  
Sammy Amin Ammer ◽  
Ebtehal Ahmed Abd Elmouety

Egypt has many new areas, most of which are found outside the boundaries of urbanization in the valley and delta. Such areas contain capabilities and ingredients with special natural and environmental features that differ from the built-up areas. As development areas have been recently created by the development policies and strategies which were put forward by the country to accommodate sustainable development processes. There is an Availability of suitable areas for development according to resources and without limitations, which amount to 24% of the total area. There are, also, suitable areas for development according to resources with the presence of some limitations, which amount to an area of 16% of the total area. Sustainable development captures the world's attention during the past 15 years, at the level of the global economic, social and environmental field. Thus, development sustainability has become a global school of thought that spreads in most of the countries of the world, All UN member states adopted the Sustainable Development Goals in 2015 as the main umbrella for balancing social, economic, and environmental sustainability by 2030. And also the plans put forward in Egypt The research discusses what are the Requirements for reaching the sustainable goals of development to plan new areas in Arab Republic of Egypt. By using qualitative methods Because these areas have a shortage of statistical data. To can reach, foundations and indicators for sustainable development, adopting a national sustainable development strategy that includes all entities, institutions, members of society and those affected by its results in the short and long term.


2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
S. Karly Kehoe ◽  
Chris Dalglish

Evidence of how history and culture have been or should be harnessed to promote sustainability in remote and rural communities is mounting. To be sustainable, development must come from within, it must serve future generations as well as those in the present and it must attend to the vitality of culture, society, the economy and the environment. Historical research has an important contribution to make to sustainability, especially if undertaken collaboratively, by challenging and transcending the boundaries between disciplines and between the professional researchers, communities and organisations which serve and work with them. The Sustainable Development Goals’ motto is ‘leaving no one behind’, and for the 17 Goals to be met, there must be a dramatic reshaping of the ways in which we interact with each other and with the environment. Enquiry into the past is a crucial part of enabling communities, in all their shapes and sizes, to develop in sustainable ways. This article considers the rural world and posits that historical enquiry has the potential to deliver insights into the world in which we live in ways that allow us to overcome the negative legacies of the past and to inform the planning of more positive and progressive futures. It draws upon the work undertaken with the Landscapes and Lifescapes project, a large partnership exploring the historic links between the Scottish Highlands and the Caribbean, to demonstrate how better understandings of the character and consequences of previous development might inform future development in ways that seek to tackle injustices and change unsustainable ways of living. What we show is how taking charge of and reinterpreting the past is intrinsic to allowing the truth (or truths) of the present situation to be brought to the surface and understood, and of providing a more solid platform for overcoming persistent injustices.


Think India ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 972-978
Author(s):  
Manisha Jetly ◽  
Dr. Nandita Singh

Education for sustainable development (ESD) enjoys a huge momentum worldwide in which the role of teachers for making sustainable development goals a reality has been recognized significantly. Teachers through their knowledge, attitudes and skills can bring the learning about these concepts to the curriculum and class room interaction and are in a position to influence their students. Therefore it is pertinent, that teachers are sensitised towards these issues, so that they prepare and nurture their students for making appropriate and responsible choices which contribute to a sustainable future. At this juncture it becomes crucial to understand their priorities and awareness level in context of the sustainable development. The present research paper aims to analyse the perception of forty post graduate pre-service teachers of the Chandigarh region, towards ESD through the dimensions of economic sustainability, environmental sustainability, social sustainability and cultural sustainability. For this researchers have adopted qualitative content analysis methodology for an in-depth study of the subjective responses through an open ended question. The findings suggest that most of the respondents associated the perception of ESD strongly with environmental sustainability. It is noted that the pre-service teachers lack a holistic approach towards ESD. On the basis of the findings it is recommended that there is an urgent need of integrating the concept of ESD consciously and conscientiously in India’s teacher education programmes.


2018 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
pp. 133-136
Author(s):  
R. N. Ibragimov

The article examines the impact of internal and external risks on the stability of the financial system of the Altai Territory. Classification of internal and external risks of decline, affecting the sustainable development of the financial system, is presented. A risk management strategy is proposed that will allow monitoring of risks, thereby these measures will help reduce the loss of financial stability and ensure the long-term development of the economy of the region.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (15) ◽  
pp. 8316
Author(s):  
Camelia Mirela Baba ◽  
Constantin Duguleană ◽  
Marius Sorin Dincă ◽  
Liliana Duguleană ◽  
Gheorghița Dincă

The Covid-19 induced economic crisis has significantly affected almost all businesses from nearly every sector, causing severe financial problems, lack of cash assets, and decrease of revenues. In this context, the economic entities were forced to look for adjustment and rescue solutions of their activities. One possible solution for the recovery and reorganization of economic entities’ activities is demerger. This paper evaluates the impact of demerger upon the sustainable development of economic entities in terms of economic efficiency and financial performances. To achieve this goal, a statistical analysis of profitability ratios before and after the demerger, as well as a structural analysis of 268 demerger projects for the April 2012–April 2021 period, were performed. The results attest there are no significant differences between the ex-ante and ex-post financial performances. However, demerger seems to have a positive effect upon analyzed companies helping them to overcome economic hardships, rethink their business strategies, and continue their activity in the medium and long-term time horizon.


2013 ◽  
Vol 869-870 ◽  
pp. 786-790
Author(s):  
Chen Chen Zhang

The strategies for sustainable development have been included in the medium and long term plan of 2010 for national economic and social development. Protecting the environment is the most important prerequisite and safeguards for the sustainable development strategy. In the study, we described the history of the environmental problems in the world, the proposal and implications of sustainable development, and outlined the dialectical relationship of development with the environment. The environmental protection measures for sustainable development were proposed here, according to the environmental situation severely affecting its biophysical environment.


2012 ◽  
Vol 524-527 ◽  
pp. 3264-3268 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhao Feng Lei ◽  
Bang Yan Li ◽  
Xu Li Lei ◽  
Lun He

Yulin City, which is rich in energy, is one of the national energy and chemical bases. But with the process of exploitation of resources, it causes serious ecological damage and has grim living environment situation in the local environment. It is in long-term about the sustainable development of city very urgent. This paper analyzes the reputation, ruin and its treatment of the development of energy resources in Yulin City, trying to explore the sustainable development mode which is suit in resource-dependent of area.


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