scholarly journals Vulnerability Comparison between Karst and Non-Karst Nature Reserves—With a Special Reference to Guizhou Province, China

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 2442
Author(s):  
Yue Chen ◽  
Kangning Xiong ◽  
Xiaodong Ren ◽  
Cai Cheng
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Vulnerability Index ◽  
Nature Reserves ◽  
Evaluation Framework ◽  
Guizhou Province ◽  
Soil Thickness ◽  
Development Scenarios ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Karst Areas ◽  
National Nature Reserves

Studying vulnerability has become one of the hot issues of ecological research under global change and sustainable development scenarios. However, there are few studies focusing on the vulnerability of karst areas, especially on the comparison between karst and non-karst areas. This study integrated climate factors, soil and vegetation factors, and social factors within a vulnerability evaluation framework that combined the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) technique to evaluate and compare the ecological environments of 10 karst nature reserves and five non-karst nature reserves in Guizhou Province, China. The evaluation results were divided into five categories: potential, light, moderate, severe, and extremely severe vulnerability. The results indicated that the general vulnerability of national nature reserves in Guizhou Province showed moderate vulnerability. The vulnerability index of karst nature reserves was significantly higher than that of non-karst nature reserves. The general vulnerability of karst nature reserves showed moderate vulnerability, while that of non-karst nature reserves showed light vulnerability. Average soil thickness, arable area, and the length of roads may be the factors contributing to the significant difference in the vulnerability between karst and non-karst nature reserves. Overall, this study is conducive to a comprehensive understanding of the ecological environment status of national nature reserves in Guizhou Province, and is of great significance to maintaining ecological security and sustainable development in karst areas.

Role of Teachers in Building the Concept of Sustainable Development: Success or Failure

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ayaz Muhammad Khan ◽  
Amber Jamshaid ◽  
Tayyibah Roohi ◽  
Amna Ramzan
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Primary School ◽  
Sampling Technique ◽  
School Teachers ◽  
Primary School Teachers ◽  
Primary Level ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Role Of Teachers ◽  
Major Factors

Sustainable Development (SD) is a rich, challenging and thought-provoking construct in social sciences. The main purpose of this paper was to identify and explore the role played by primary school teachers in building up the idea of sustainable development (SD) among students. This paper was intended to identify that how a teacher can successfully execute the concept of SD by influencing students’ minds at the primary level. Quantitative survey technique were utilized for data collection. All the primary school teachers of Lahore division comprised the population of the study. Through multistage sampling technique, 352 primary school teachers were selected as participants of the study. A self-developed SD questionnaire incorporating four major factors (teachers’ awareness, pedagogy, curricular and co-curricular activities) with Cronbach’s alpha value = .93 was used to measure the role of teachers in building the sustainability concept among students at primary level. The results indicated a significant mean score difference among SD scores of teachers, sector wise (private and public). Furthermore, the results also reconnoitered the significant difference (p=.04) between the mean scores of female and male teachers in building up the SD concept in students’ minds.

HISTÓRICO DO COMPRIMENTO TOTAL DE TAMBAQUI (Colossoma macropomum, CHARACIFORMES: CHARACIDAE, CUVIER, 1818) DESEMBARCADO NO MERCADO DE TEFÉ, AMAZONAS, BRASIL, COM NOVE RECOMENDAÇÕES PARA O MANEJO PESQUEIRO DA ESPÉCIE

2008 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jorge Iván Sánchez-Botero ◽  
Danielle Sequeira Garcez ◽  
Wesllen Chaves Cortezão
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Standard Deviation ◽  
Environmental Protection ◽  
Fisheries Management ◽  
Historical Data ◽  
Colossoma Macropomum ◽  
Pressure Diffusion ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Efficient Mechanisms ◽  
Solimões River

This study evaluates the total length of tambaqui (Colossoma macropomum ) captured in the middle Solimões river and traded during seven years (1993, 1997 and 2000 to 2005) in the Tefé market, Amazon, Brazil. The Mamirauá Institute of Sustainable Development obtained measurements of the total lengths from 42207 individuals. The length average was 45.23 ± 6.29 cm (minim um of 13 cm and maximum of 105.5 cm ) and the mode was 45 cm . From the total tambaquis, 92.86% were smaller than 55 cm and 7.14% measured 58.24 ± 5.41 cm on average. Medium and standard deviation of the lengths recorded in all years showed sizes below the established by the environmental federal agency. The Kruskal Wallis test showed that there is no significant difference between the abundances and medium sizes of the captures during all months of the year. The historical data of the tambaqui fisheries for the middle Solimões region indicate that individuals of this species have been constantly captured at sizes below the minim um length of reproduction. Nine recommendations for tambaquis fisheries management in the region related to more efficient mechanisms of inspection, auto-ecology studies of the species, environmental protection, reduction of fishery pressure, diffusion and educational cam paigns that aim to correct exploitation of this resource are presented in this manuscript.

scholarly journals Lidar-Based Morphometry of Conical Hills in Temperate Karst Areas in Slovenia

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (14) ◽  
pp. 2668
Author(s):  
Tamás Telbisz
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Distribution ◽  
Inverse Gaussian ◽  
Digital Terrain ◽  
Terrain Models ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Karst Areas ◽  
Hill Area ◽  
The Hill ◽  
Comprehensive Study

Conical hills, or residual hills, are frequently mentioned landforms in the context of humid tropical karsts as they are dominant surface elements there. Residual hills are also present in temperate karsts, but generally in a less remarkable way. These landforms have not been thoroughly addressed in the literature to date, therefore the present article is the first attempt to morphometrically characterize temperate zone residual karst hills. We use the methods already developed for doline morphometry, and we apply them to the “inverse” topography using LiDAR-based digital terrain models (DTMs) of three Slovenian sample areas. The characteristics of hills and depressions are analysed in parallel, taking into account the rank of the forms. A common feature of hills and dolines is that, for both types, the empirical distribution of planform areas has a strongly positive skew. After logarithmic transformation, these distributions can be approximated by Inverse Gaussian, Normal, and Weibull distributions. Along with the rank, the planform area and vertical extent of the hills and dolines increase similarly. High circularity is characteristic only of the first-rank forms for both dolines and hills. For the sample areas, the the hill area ratios and the doline area ratios have similar values, but the total extent of the hills is slightly larger in each case. A difference between dolines and hills is that the shapes of hills are more similar to one another than those of dolines. The reason for this is that the larger, closed depressions are created by lateral coalescence, while the hills are residual forms carved from large blocks. Another significant difference is that the density of dolines is much higher than that of hills. This article is intended as a methodological starting point for a new topic, aiming at the comprehensive study of residual karst hills across different climatic areas.

scholarly journals How Can We Realize Sustainable Development Goals in Rocky Desertified Regions by Enhancing Crop Yield with Reduction of Environmental Risks?

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. 1614
Author(s):  
Boyi Liang ◽  
Timothy A. Quine ◽  
Hongyan Liu ◽  
Elizabeth L. Cressey ◽  
Ian Bateman
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Crop Yield ◽  
Crop Production ◽  
Sustainable Development Goals ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Total Yield ◽  
Maximum Yield ◽  
Guizhou Province ◽  
Crop Species ◽  
Development Goals

To meet the sustainable development goals in rocky desertified regions like Guizhou Province in China, we should maximize the crop yield with minimal environmental costs. In this study, we first calculated the yield gap for 6 main crop species in Guizhou Province and evaluated the quantitative relationships between crop yield and influencing variables utilizing ensembled artificial neural networks. We also tested the influence of adjusting the quantity of local fertilization and irrigation on crop production in Guizhou Province. Results showed that the total yield of the selected crops had, on average, reached over 72.5% of the theoretical maximum yield. Increasing irrigation tended to be more consistently effective at increasing crop yield than additional fertilization. Conversely, appropriate reduction of fertilization may even benefit crop yield in some regions, simultaneously resulting in significantly higher fertilization efficiency with lower residuals in the environment. The total positive impact of continuous intensification of irrigation and fertilization on most crop species was limited. Therefore, local stakeholders are advised to consider other agricultural management measures to improve crop yield in this region.

scholarly journals Personal Assessment of Reasons for the Loss of Global Biodiversity—an Empirical Analysis

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (10) ◽  
pp. 4277
Author(s):  
Matthias Winfried Kleespies ◽  
Paul Wilhelm Dierkes
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
High School Students ◽  
Biodiversity Loss ◽  
Connection To Nature ◽  
School Students ◽  
Teacher Trainees ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Global Biodiversity ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Personal Assessment

The UN's sustainable development goals (SDGs), which aim to solve important economic, social, and environmental problems of humanity, are to be supported by education for sustainable development (ESD). Empirical studies on the success of the implementation of the SDGs in the field of education are still pending. For this reason, using the loss of global biodiversity as an example, this study examined the extent to which high school students, teacher trainees in biology, and biology bachelor students can identify the causes of the global biodiversity loss. A new questioning tool was developed and tested on 889 participants. In addition, the relationship between connection to nature and the personal assessment about biodiversity threats was examined. The factor analysis of the scale used showed that 11 out of 16 items were assigned to the intended factor. The comparison between high school students, teacher trainees in biology, and biology bachelor students showed no significant difference in overall assessment of the reasons for global biodiversity loss. When comparing the three risk levels in which the risk factors for biodiversity could be divided, across the three student groups, only minor differences were found. Therefore, a specific education of prospective teachers is necessary, as they have to pass on the competence as multipliers to their students. No significant difference could be found when examining the relationship between connection to nature and the overall scores of the assessment scale for the reasons of biodiversity loss. However, it was found that people who felt more connected to nature were more capable of assessing the main causes of risk for global biodiversity, while people who felt less connected to nature achieved better scores for the medium factors.

scholarly journals Evaluating Sustainable Development by Composite Index: Evidence from French Departments

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 761
Author(s):  
Jean Bonnet ◽  
Eva Coll-Martínez ◽  
Patricia Renou-Maissant
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
Composite Index ◽  
Energy Transition ◽  
Evaluation Framework ◽  
Sustainable Mobility ◽  
The Sustainable Development ◽  
Sustainable Performance ◽  
Composite Indices ◽  
Hierarchical Ascending Classification

Since the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals by the United Nations, sustainability has been a key priority for European governments. While previous studies have investigated the associations between indicators of sustainable development, few have directly considered a multidimensional approach to assess and compare the performance of regions in terms of sustainable development. As such, a comprehensive assessment of regional sustainable performance is thus still needed. In this paper, the concept of sustainability relies on the construction of six composite indices (environment and natural resources, energy transition, sustainable mobility, economic dynamism, social cohesion and solidarity, and governance and citizenship) with the aim to provide an evaluation framework for empirically comparing the performance of the 96 metropolitan French Departments. Each dimension is explored by spatial autocorrelation analysis and Hierarchical Ascending Classification (HAC) to classify French Departments providing five different regional profiles of sustainable development. The findings make it possible to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the departments in the implementation of sustainable development. This approach provides the bases for a systematic monitoring of sustainable development policies at the regional scale.

scholarly journals Comparison and Evaluation of Different Pit-Filling Methods for Generating High Resolution Canopy Height Model Using UAV Laser Scanning Data

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (12) ◽  
pp. 2239
Author(s):  
Ying Quan ◽  
Mingze Li ◽  
Yuanshuo Hao ◽  
Bin Wang
Keyword(s):  
High Resolution ◽  
Laser Scanning ◽  
Evaluation Framework ◽  
Canopy Height ◽  
Filter Method ◽  
Individual Tree ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Point Interpolation ◽  
Canopy Height Model ◽  
Height Model

As a common form of light detection and ranging (LiDAR) in forestry applications, the canopy height model (CHM) provides the elevation distribution of aboveground vegetation. A CHM is traditionally generated by interpolating all the first LiDAR echoes. However, the first echo cannot accurately represent the canopy surface, and the resulting large amount of noise (data pits) also reduce the CHM quality. Although previous studies concentrate on many pit-filling methods, the applicability of these methods in high-resolution unmanned aerial vehicle laser scanning (UAVLS)-derived CHMs has not been revealed. This study selected eight widely used, recently developed, representative pit-filling methods, namely first-echo interpolation, smooth filtering (mean, medium and Gaussian), highest point interpolation, pit-free algorithm, spike-free algorithm and graph-based progressive morphological filtering (GPMF). A comprehensive evaluation framework was implemented, including a quantitative evaluation using simulation data and an additional application evaluation using UAVLS data. The results indicated that the spike-free algorithm and GPMF had excellent visual performances and were closest to the real canopy surface (root mean square error (RMSE) of simulated data were 0.1578 m and 0.1093 m, respectively; RMSE of UAVLS data were 0.3179 m and 0.4379 m, respectively). Compared with the first-echo method, the accuracies of the spike-free algorithm and GPMF improved by approximately 23% and 22%, respectively. The pit-free algorithm and highest point interpolation method also have advantages in high-resolution CHM generation. The global smooth filter method based on the first-echo CHM reduced the average canopy height by approximately 7.73%. Coniferous forests require more pit-filling than broad-leaved forests and mixed forests. Although the results of individual tree applications indicated that there was no significant difference between these methods except the median filter method, pit-filling is still of great significance for generating high-resolution CHMs. This study provides guidance for using high-resolution UAVLS in forestry applications.

scholarly journals Impact of Land Use Change on Water Conservation: A Case Study of Zhangjiakou in Yongding River

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 22
Author(s):  
Tianshi Pan ◽  
Lijun Zuo ◽  
Zengxiang Zhang ◽  
Xiaoli Zhao ◽  
Feifei Sun ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Water Conservation ◽  
Land Use Changes ◽  
Water Yield ◽  
Special Focus ◽  
Hydrological Process ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Yongding River

The implementation of ecological projects can largely change regional land use patterns, in turn altering the local hydrological process. Articulating these changes and their effects on ecosystem services, such as water conservation, is critical to understanding the impacts of land use activities and in directing future land planning toward regional sustainable development. Taking Zhangjiakou City of the Yongding River as the study area—a region with implementation of various ecological projects—the impact of land use changes on various hydrological components and water conservation capacity from 2000 to 2015 was simulated based on a soil and water assessment tool model (SWAT). An empirical regression model based on partial least squares was established to explore the contribution of different land use changes on water conservation. With special focus on the forest having the most complex effects on the hydrological process, the impacts of forest type and age on the water conservation capacity are discussed on different scales. Results show that between 2000 and 2015, the area of forest, grassland and cultivated land decreased by 0.05%, 0.98% and 1.64%, respectively, which reduces the regional evapotranspiration (0.48%) and soil water content (0.72%). The increase in settlement area (42.23%) is the main reason for the increase in water yield (14.52%). Most land use covered by vegetation has strong water conservation capacity, and the water conservation capacity of the forest is particularly outstanding. Farmland and settlements tend to have a negative effect on water conservation. The water conservation capacity of forest at all scales decreased significantly with the growth of forest (p < 0.05), while the water conservation capacity of different tree species had no significant difference. For the study area, increasing the forest area will be an effective way to improve the water conservation function, planting evergreen conifers can rapidly improve the regional water conservation capacity, while planting deciduous conifers is of great benefit to long-term sustainable development.

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