Effects of urbanization on food-energy-water systems in mega-urban regions: a case study of the Bohai MUR, China

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caiyun Deng ◽  
Hongrui Wang ◽  
Shuxin Gong ◽  
Jie Zhang ◽  
Bo Yang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Urban Areas ◽  
Water System ◽  
Energy System ◽  
Water Systems ◽  
Stress Index ◽  
Food Energy ◽  
Urban Regions ◽  
System Pressure ◽  
Impact Of Urbanization ◽  
The Impact

<p>The security of food-energy-water systems (FEW systems) is an issue of worldwide concern, especially in mega-urban regions (MURs) with high-density populations, industries and carbon emissions. To better understand the hidden linkages between urbanization and FEW systems, the pressure on FEW systems is quantified in a typical rapid urbanizing region—the Bohai MUR. The correlation between urbanization indicators and the pressure on FEW systems is analyzed and the mechanism of the impact of urbanization on FEW systems is further investigated. Results show that approximately 23% of croplands is lost, 61% of which is converted to construction lands and the urban areas expand by 132.2% in the Bohai MUR during 1980-2015. The pressure on FEW systems has an upward trend with the stress index of the pressure on FEW systems (FEW_SI) exhibiting ranging from 80.49 to 134.82% and dominant pressure consisting of that has converted from water system pressure to energy system pressure since 2004. The FEW_SI in the Bohai MUR is enhanced with cropland loss and the increase in urbanization indicators. Additionally, land use, populations, incomes, policies and innovation are the main ways urbanization impacted FEW systems in MURs. This study enhances our understanding of the pressure variation on FEW systems in MURs and the effects of urbanization on FEW systems, which helps stakeholders to enhance the resilience of FEW systems and promote sustainable regional development.</p><p><strong>Keywords:</strong> urbanization, food-energy-water system pressure, linkages, MURs</p>

scholarly journals The impact of urbanization expansion on agricultural land in Ethiopia: A review

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 73-80
Author(s):  
Assefa Ayele ◽  
Kassa Tarekegn
Keyword(s):  
Urban Areas ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Urban Expansion ◽  
Rural Livelihoods ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Rapid Urbanization ◽  
Economic Resource ◽  
House Construction ◽  
Impact Of Urbanization ◽  
The Impact

AbstractIn a country like Ethiopia where the vast majority of the populations are employed in agriculture, land is an important economic resource for the development of rural livelihoods. Agricultural land in peri-urban areas is, however, transformed into built-up regions through horizontal urban expansion that has an effect on land use value. In recent years Ethiopia has been experiencing rapid urbanization, which has led to an ever-increasing demand for land in peri-urban areas for housing and other nonagricultural activities that pervades agricultural land. There is a high demand for informal and illegal peri-urban land which has been held by peri-urban farmers, and this plays a vital role in the unauthorized and sub-standard house construction on agricultural land. This urbanization has not been extensively reviewed and documented. In this review an attempt has been made to assess the impacts of rapid urbanization on agricultural activities. Urban expansion has reduced the areas available for agriculture, which has seriously impacted upon peri-urban farmers that are often left with little or no land to cultivate and which has increased their vulnerability. Housing encroachments have been observed to be uncontrolled due to a weak government response to the trend of unplanned city expansion. This has left peri-urban farmers exposed to the negative shocks of urbanization because significant urbanization-related agricultural land loss has a positive correlation with grain production decrease. Appropriate governing bodies should control urban development in order to control the illegal and informal spread of urbanization on agricultural land that threatens food production.

scholarly journals Effects of urbanization on food-energy-water systems in mega-urban regions: a case study of the Bohai MUR, China

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 044014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caiyun Deng ◽  
Hongrui Wang ◽  
Shuxin Gong ◽  
Jie Zhang ◽  
Bo Yang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Water Systems ◽  
Food Energy ◽  
Urban Regions

scholarly journals Genetic inheritance and environment determine endocrine plasticity to urban living

2019 ◽  
Vol 286 (1908) ◽  
pp. 20191215 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jenny Q. Ouyang ◽  
Davide Baldan ◽  
Crystal Munguia ◽  
Scott Davies
Keyword(s):  
Urban Areas ◽  
Natural Populations ◽  
Genetic Component ◽  
Future Generations ◽  
Free Living ◽  
House Wren ◽  
Endocrine Stress Response ◽  
Baseline Corticosterone ◽  
Impact Of Urbanization ◽  
The Impact

As urban areas continue to expand globally, understanding how and why species respond to novel habitats becomes increasingly important. Knowledge of the mechanisms behind observed phenotypic changes in urban animals will enable us to better evaluate the impact of urbanization on current and future generations of wildlife. Physiological changes, such as those involved in the endocrine stress response, may allow individuals to inhabit and thrive in urbanized areas, but it is currently unknown how these changes arise in natural populations. In this study, we performed a four-way cross-foster experiment in free-living house wren chicks, Troglodytes aedon , to disentangle whether differences in baseline corticosterone between urban and rural individuals are a result of genetic and/or plastic mechanisms during development. We found that urban chicks already had higher corticosterone levels than their rural counterparts on the day they hatched, which suggests a possible genetic component to the corticosterone phenotype. However, rural offspring that were moved to an urban environment significantly increased their corticosterone levels, mimicking those of urban offspring. Our findings suggest that, although differences in baseline corticosterone concentrations between urban and rural individuals may have a genetic component, plasticity plays a pivotal role and can modify the corticosterone phenotype in response to the environment experienced in the first two weeks of life.

scholarly journals Thematic Maps of the Impact of Urbanization and Socioeconomic Factors on the Distribution of the Incidence of Cutaneous Leishmaniasis Cases in Sefrou Province, Central North of Morocco (2007–2011)

2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Fatima Zahra Talbi ◽  
Nordine Nouayti ◽  
Hajar El Omari ◽  
Mohamed Najy ◽  
Khadija Lahouiti ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Statistical Analysis ◽  
Socioeconomic Factors ◽  
Cutaneous Leishmaniasis ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Pearson Correlation ◽  
Correlation Study ◽  
Poverty Rate ◽  
Impact Of Urbanization ◽  
The Impact

Background. Leishmaniases are vector-borne diseases with health risks. They cause a big health problem. These parasitic diseases are transmitted by the parasite of the genus Leishmania through sandflies. Objective. The aim of this work is to study the distribution of the incidence of cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) cases and the impact of urbanization and socioeconomic factors and their effects as leishmaniasis risk factors. Methods. We conducted a retrospective study of CL cases collected at the level of Sefrou Province during the period from 2007 to 2011. The data was collected from registers of the Medical Delegation of Sefrou Province. The socioeconomic data, namely, the poverty rate, the popular density, and the type of environment (urban/rural) of Sefrou Province, were obtained from the High Commission for Planning. Statistical analysis was performed by SPSS software (version 20). The data were registered in a Microsoft Excel 2010 file. Statistical analysis was based on one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), and then a correlation study was carried out (Pearson correlation). The results were considered significant when p was less than 0.05. The database was analyzed by QGIS 2.18, which is open source software. Results. A total of 349 cases of CL were collected at Sefrou Province from 2007 to 2011. A percentage of 49% of the cases come from urban areas, while 51% of the cases come from rural areas. In the statistical analysis, the division of the incidence of CL cases was found to be significantly associated only with urbanization. For the other factors, the number of people or the poverty rate is not taken into account in the incidence dynamics. Conclusion. This study may be useful for the implementation of future adequate measures and controls. Getting rid of leishmaniasis requires a comprehensive approach by acting on the sources of contamination through good continuous surveillance, appropriate management, effective vector control, and awareness-raising strategies.

scholarly journals A New Framework to Evaluate Urban Design Using Urban Microclimatic Modelling in Future Climatic Conditions

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dasaraden Mauree ◽  
Silvia Coccolo ◽  
Dasun Perera ◽  
Vahid Nik ◽  
Jean-Louis Scartezzini ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Energy Consumption ◽  
Urban Design ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Energy System ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Local Climate ◽  
Heating And Cooling ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Impact

Building more energy efficient and sustainable urban areas that will both mitigate the effect of climate change and adapt for the future climate, requires the development new tools and methods that can help urban planners, architect and communities achieve this goal. In the current study, we designed a workflow that links different methodologies developed separately, to derive the energy consumption of a university school campus for the future. Three different scenarios for typical future years (2039, 2069, 2099) were run as well as a renovation scenario (Minergie-P). We analyse the impact of climate change on the heating and cooling demand of the buildings and determined the relevance of the accounting of the local climate in this particular context. The results from the simulations showed that in the future there will a constant decrease in the heating demand while for the cooling demand there will be a significant increase. It was further demonstrated that when the local climate was taken into account there was an even higher rise in the cooling demand but also that the proposed renovations were not sufficient to design resilient buildings. We then discuss the implication of this work on the simulation of building energy consumption at the neighbourhood scale and the impact of future local climate on energy system design. We finally give a few perspective regarding improved urban design and possible pathways for the future urban areas.

scholarly journals Changes in Mediterranean mesocarnivore communities along urban and ex-urban gradients

2015 ◽  
Vol 61 (5) ◽  
pp. 793-801 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mariano R. Recio ◽  
Carmen M. Arija ◽  
Sara Cabezas-Díaz ◽  
Emilio Virgós
Keyword(s):  
Urban Development ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Mediterranean Ecosystems ◽  
Control Area ◽  
Wildlife Habitat ◽  
Domestic Cat ◽  
Rapid Expansion ◽  
Domestic Species ◽  
Impact Of Urbanization ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Urbanization causes wildlife habitat loss, fragmentation, and the replacement of specialist species by generalists and/or exotic taxa. Because mesocarnivores are particularly vulnerable to habitat modifications, the rapid expansion of urban areas and the increasing trend for ex-urban development occurring in Mediterranean ecosystems may be major drivers of change in mesocarnivore communities. We combined camera trapping and sign surveys to quantify the richness and relative abundance of a set of wild and domestic mesocarnivores. We quantified these variables controlling for the gradient of urbanism, ex-urbanism, and other environmental variables in patches of natural vegetation in the region of Madrid (central Spain), and a non-urbanized control area ~220 km south of Madrid city. Using conditional autoregressive models (CAR) and model selection procedures, we found that urbanization influenced mesocarnivore community composition but this influence was not detrimental for all the species tested. Generalist carnivores such as the red fox Vulpes vulpes were more abundant in urban and ex-urban areas. Ex-urban development creates overlapping areas between wild and domestic species (such as the domestic cat Felis catus and the wildcat Felis silvestris) but contact between wild and domestic carnivores in natural areas is unlikely. Detection of species in the control area was very low. Therefore, the impact of urbanization in causing changes in mesocarnivore communities may be less than other factors such as illegal predator culling.

scholarly journals Modeling the Impact of Urbanization on Local Meteorological Conditions in Sofia

Atmosphere ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (7) ◽  
pp. 366 ◽  
Author(s):  
Reneta Dimitrova ◽  
Ventsislav Danchovski ◽  
Evgenia Egova ◽  
Evgeni Vladimirov ◽  
Ashish Sharma ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Land Cover ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Meteorological Conditions ◽  
High Density ◽  
Anthropogenic Heat ◽  
Additional Stress ◽  
Residential Areas ◽  
Hypothetical Scenario ◽  
Impact Of Urbanization ◽  
The Impact

Increasing urbanization impacts the local meteorology and the quality of life for residents. Urban surface characteristics and anthropogenic heat stress lead to urban heat island effects, changes in local circulations, precipitation alteration, and amendment of the local fluxes. These modifications have a direct effect on the life and health of residents. In this study, we assessed the impact of urbanization in Sofia (Bulgaria) using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model at 500 m resolution for the summer period of 2016. We utilized the CORINE (coordination of information on the environment) 2012 land cover database to represent the urban areas in four detailed land cover types, i.e., high-intensity residential areas, low-intensity residential areas, medium/industrial areas, and developed open spaces. We performed two experiments; in the first, we substituted an urban area with the most representative rural land cover to delineate the current impact of urbanization, while in the second, we replaced the existing built-up area (all four categories) with a hypothetical scenario of high-density residential land cover showing aggressive urban development. These experiments addressed the impact of land use changes as well as the extreme effects of ongoing high-density construction on the local meteorological conditions. The results showed that urban temperatures can increase by 5 °C and that moisture can decrease by 2 g/kg in the central part of Sofia in comparison to surrounding rural areas. The results also showed that building higher and dense urban areas can significantly increase heat flux and add additional stress to the environment.

scholarly journals Numerical Evaluation of the Impact of Urbanization on Summertime Precipitation in Osaka, Japan

2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 ◽  
pp. 1-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hikari Shimadera ◽  
Akira Kondo ◽  
Kundan Lal Shrestha ◽  
Ken Kitaoka ◽  
Yoshio Inoue
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Heat Flux ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Sensible Heat Flux ◽  
Wrf Model ◽  
Temporal Distribution ◽  
Urban Land Use ◽  
Sensible Heat ◽  
Impact Of Urbanization ◽  
The Impact

This study utilized the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model version 3.5.1 to evaluate the impact of urbanization on summertime precipitation in Osaka, Japan. The evaluation was conducted by comparing the WRF simulations with the present land use and no-urban land use (replacing “Urban” with “Paddy”) for August from 2006 to 2010. The urbanization increased mean air temperature by 2.1°C in urban areas because of increased sensible heat flux and decreased mean humidity by 0.8 g kg−1because of decreased latent heat flux. In addition, the urbanization increased duration of the southwesterly sea breeze. The urbanization increased precipitation in urban areas and decreased in the surrounding areas. The mean precipitation in urban areas was increased by 20 mm month−1(27% of the total amount without the synoptic-scale precipitation). The precipitation increase was generally due to the enhancement of the formation and development of convective clouds by the increase in sensible heat flux during afternoon and evening time periods. The urbanization in Osaka changes spatial and temporal distribution patterns of precipitation and evaporation, and consequently it substantially affects the water cycle in and around the urban areas of Osaka.

scholarly journals A Comparative Study of the Optimal Sizing and Management of Off-Grid Solar/Wind/Diesel and Battery Energy Systems for Remote Areas

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Thirunavukkarasu ◽  
Yashwant Sawle
Keyword(s):  
Solar Wind ◽  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Tamil Nadu ◽  
Energy Systems ◽  
Energy System ◽  
Renewable Energy Systems ◽  
Cost Of Electricity ◽  
The Impact

Electrification in rural areas is relatively costly compared to urban areas. Therefore, the aim of this research is to identify the best combination of hybrid renewable energy systems (HRESs) to satisfy the load demand in a sustainable and cost-efficient way. The techno-economic study of stand-alone hybrid photovoltaic–wind turbine–diesel–battery-converter energy systems based on the hybrid optimization model for electric renewable (HOMER) simulation has been analyzed for various locations in the Tamil Nadu state, India. Various combinations of the systems have been compared and analyzed based on the performance of their technical parameters, costs, the electrical power production of each source, and unmet load. The findings indicated that the off-grid solar–wind–diesel–battery configuration is the most economical for all the sites among other system configurations. Comparing with conventional diesel generators among all the locations, a combination of solar/wind/diesel/battery is the economically best design for Thoothukudi, with the least and most reliable solution in terms of net present cost and cost of energy. Also, the impact of intermittent variables becomes significant, so sensitivity analysis for the various parameters has been carried out. The study finds that the least cost of electricity and the net present cost of electricity for Thoothukudi are achieved at 0.266 $/kWh and 138,197 $, respectively. This is economical compared to a stand-alone diesel system where the obtained COE is $1.88 and the NPC is $977523. In the stand-alone diesel operating mode, 41854 kg of CO2 is produced, which is higher than CO2 emissions associated with any other renewable energy systems. According to the results, the Kanyakumari location outperforms in terms of producing environmental pollutants with emission of 1,020 kg/y CO2 at their best. Moreover, the results of the proposed study imply that the proposed renewable energy system in remote sites could be a more economical measure.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document