Search Results (23,162)

Urban gardens can be crucial for preserving the biodiversity in cities, but their construction often leads to shifts in local ant communities due to drastic habitat changes. Over time, ant communities can recover as species arrive from surrounding habitats. In this study, we explored ant community dynamics over ten years in four gardens of varying maturity on a university campus in South Spain. We examined: (1) ant community composition in the gardens and surrounding natural/seminatural areas; (2) changes in biodiversity over time; (3) indicator values of species in the campus; and (4) population dynamics of the most representative species. We found distinct ant community compositions in gardens and natural/seminatural habitats. The ant community in older gardens showed greater similarity to surrounding natural areas than in young gardens. In the youngest garden, biodiversity initially declined post-construction but later increased to levels comparable to older gardens. Exotic species were more abundant in the young garden, and the population of native species like the garden ant Lasius niger increased over the years. We found that disturbances promote the establishment of exotic species, regardless of habitat maturity. We emphasize the importance of a context-dependent interpretation of species bioindicator information to assess habitat ecological status accurately. Full article

There is a global veterinary workforce shortage, particularly in rural and regional areas. In response to this shortage in New South Wales (NSW), the State Parliament launched a Parliamentary Inquiry in 2023. The Inquiry received 205 publicly available written submissions, providing insights into the perceived challenges and barriers for veterinarians working in rural practice, and how the perceived impact of the feminisation of the workforce interacts with this. By analysing a subset of submissions written by veterinarians reporting lived experiences in rural practice (n = 63), we identified eight major themes. These were as follows: rural practices are not financially sustainable; rural veterinarians often have a more challenging and higher workload than their urban counterparts; working in rural practice increases challenges to health and wellbeing; it is difficult to recruit and retain people in rural practice; veterinary students are poorly selected and not well prepared for rural practice; clients have unrealistic expectations of rural veterinarians; rural practice is not compatible with family life; and veterinarians have mixed opinions regarding whether an increase in the proportion of female veterinarians is a key contributing factor in the shortage of veterinarians. These findings may assist in the development of recruitment and retention strategies for rural veterinary practice. Full article

Domestic animals can share viral pathogens with humans, acting mainly as a bridge host. The Orthopoxvirus genus hosts important zoonotic species that have emerged in urban areas worldwide. Nevertheless, the role of companion animals, such as dogs and cats, in the circulation of orthopoxviruses in urban areas remains poorly understood. Therefore, the objective of this study was to evaluate the presence of neutralizing anti-orthopoxvirus antibodies in serum samples from owned dogs from three municipalities in Minas Gerais, as well as the presence of the C11R and A56R orthopoxviruses genes. The presence of neutralizing antibodies was detected in 14.3% of the animals investigated. However, no sample was positive for the presence of the genes investigated. Further study of the population of dogs in urban areas may prove a valuable tool for understanding the spread of orthopoxviruses in urbanized areas of Brazil. Full article

This study explored the ecological and cultural significance of Thailand’s wetlands, particularly the Nong Bong Kai Non-Hunting Area and the Lower Songkhram River. These areas were essential for biodiversity, flood prevention, and supporting local livelihoods, serving as food sources, biofertilizers, and natural water purifiers. However, these wetlands faced mounting threats from pollution, habitat loss, and climate change, jeopardising their ecological health and biodiversity. Ethnobotanical surveys were conducted to assess regional and demographic patterns in using and recognising algae and aquatic plants. The collected data highlighted traditional ecological knowledge held primarily by older community members. Principal component analysis (PCA) was employed to analyse generational differences in knowledge and utilisation, focusing on the potential generational knowledge gap due to migration trends among younger individuals. The study revealed significant biodiversity differences between the wetland areas, with Nong Bong Kai exhibiting greater diversity in aquatic plant species. Older residents demonstrated higher recognition and use of algae and aquatic plants for sustainable practices, though a generational knowledge gap was evident. This gap suggested that local ecological knowledge may be at risk as younger residents migrate to urban areas. This research underscored the need for conservation and educational initiatives to bridge generational gaps and engage younger generations in resource management. By integrating local cultural practices and focusing on high-impact species like Lemna perpusilla Torr. and Hydrilla verticillate (L.f.) Royle, region-specific conservation efforts could enhance wetland sustainability, preserve biodiversity, and support ecosystem health in Thailand’s wetland regions. Full article

The rational allocation of urban public open spaces (UPOS) is critical for creating a livable urban environment. Traditional Two-Step Floating Catchment Area (2SFCA) models often lack sufficient quantitative analysis regarding the supply of urban public service facilities and population demand. This study, taking the area within Chengdu’s Second Ring Road as an example, proposes a 2SFCA model that integrates both supply and demand improvements to evaluate UPOS accessibility. The accessibility results are further analyzed using hotspot analysis, and blind zone detection. In terms of supply improvements, the model incorporates additional indicators beyond the spatial area of UPOS, including service quality and the diversity of surrounding environmental service functions, to better evaluate the overall attractiveness of UPOS to residents. On the demand side, besides population size, the model incorporates the spatial distribution of residents and differences in social characteristics affecting UPOS demand. Results indicate that the improved 2SFCA model, which considers both the attractiveness of UPOS and residents’ demand, significantly enhances the accuracy of accessibility assessments. There are substantial differences in service quality among UPOS, while the diversity of surrounding environmental service functions remains generally high. UPOS demand follows a “high in the northeast—low in the southwest” spatial pattern. The spatial distribution of UPOS accessibility shows a “high in the west—low in the east” pattern, opposite to the demand distribution, indicating a supply–demand mismatch. UPOS accessibility identifies one hotspot cluster and four cold spot clusters, with large areas showing no significant characteristics. Additionally, 10.58% of the study area remains blind zones, requiring urgent attention. This study offers a more scientific method and framework for research on the spatial layout and supply–demand matching of UPOS. Full article

An unavoidable adverse consequence of industrial development is the contamination of urban atmospheres. Deterioration of air quality leads to a decrease in the quality of life of the population, creates a lot of risks of serious diseases, and threatens to increase life expectancy. This phenomenon is particularly evident in many large Russian cities, where historically a powerful industry has developed. In recent decades, the Russian government has acknowledged environmental remediation as a pivotal priority for the National Development Goals. The dedicated funding from the National ‘Ecology’ Project in 2018–2024 allowed for large-scale public and private investments to address the problem of improving the air quality of urban areas in Russia. What is the effectiveness of this spending? In this article, we answer this question by analyzing the effectiveness of the Federal ‘Clean Air’ Project, part of the National ‘Ecology’ Project, which aimed to improve air quality in 12 of the most polluted Russian cities. We show that the project’s key performance indicators (KPIs) underwent significant changes over the 2018–2024 period. The emissions reduction target was lowered from 22% to 20%, the methodology for measuring pollution was revised, and new targets were set. One of the main reasons for this was the suboptimal quality of the data on which the initial plan was based. As a result, the revised emissions estimates produced by the project were found to exceed not only the target benchmarks but also the baseline. The planned targets are largely on track, and it is likely that the target of a 20% reduction in emissions from the 2017 baseline will be met. However, the link between the KPIs and the improvement in urban air quality is questionable. The initial phase of the ‘Clean Air’ Project was a valuable first step, particularly in establishing an air quality monitoring network and conducting detailed pollution assessments in 12 cities. However, to further improve project performance, it is essential to base project KPIs on estimates of air pollution-related health damage and economic losses. Full article

North Africa, including the Sahara Desert, was historically forested, but over the past 10,000 years, the region has undergone significant desertification due to climate change and human activity. The use of wood for heating and grazing destroyed grass cover, which was replaced by shrubby vegetation. The slow-growing nature of the forest flora, often taking thousands of years to mature, has hindered natural regeneration, accelerating desert expansion. Today, desert encroachment is a critical issue, exacerbated by intensive farming and deforestation, which have caused severe soil erosion and the loss of the humus layer, diminishing the soil’s ability to retain water and nutrients. A project led by the Estonian University of Life Sciences and Ecole Nationale Supérieure Agronomique (Algiers) under the EU Climate Action program aims to develop effective methods for reforesting arid areas and restoring the soil’s humus layer. This approach is also suitable for establishing urban greenery in arid and semi-arid climates. The method involves planting tree seedlings equipped with individual water reservoirs in holes lined with water-impermeable biodegradable pipes. These holes are filled with a hardening composite that stores water, sustaining the plants until their roots reach deeper water sources. The composite is primarily made from locally sourced organic waste and ashes. The Djelfa region in central Algeria has been selected as the test site for this method, following comprehensive studies of the area’s soil, climate, and ecosystems. Due to COVID-19 pandemic, the work was transferred to Kenyatta University in Kenya where the preliminary tests show excellent results. The conditions in Nairobi during the dry season are comparable to Djelfa area. The results reveal a significant increase in plant biomass without watering during a dry period. This is extremely important for a desert region where watering is not feasible. Full article

There will be a significant increase in anthropogenic load on the soils of the Prinevskaya lowland in the nearest decade due to the fact that a significant territory is occupied by St. Petersburg. The main objective is a study of the sanitary-hygienic state and soil diversity of the Prinevskaya lowland in case of a high degree of agricultural soil development there and the significant role of the lithological factor. Soils were studied at the following land use and land cover: agricultural and fallow soils of agrolandscapes; forest soils; and soils of industrial areas. Studies were carried out using morphological descriptions and analyses of chemical, physical, and biological properties. The most vulnerable land use are forest and agricultural and fallow zones, where active accumulation of priority toxicants of anthropogenic origin can occur. Geochemical peculiarities of studied soils are deficit of Mn, Cu, Mo, and Zn in soil-forming rock materials and accumulation of strontium and lead in arable horizons. The soils examined show minimal contamination with trace elements, as verified by a range of individual and combined ecotoxicological indicators. Urban development planning, particularly in St. Petersburg, should prioritize the preservation of biodiversity and soil resources. Full article

Addressing global warming and adapting to the impacts of climate change is a primary focus of climate change adaptation strategies at both European and national levels. Land surface temperature (LST) is a widely used proxy for investigating climate-change-induced phenomena, providing insights into the surface radiative properties of different land cover types and the impact of urbanization on local climate characteristics. Accurate and continuous estimation across large spatial regions is crucial for the implementation of LST as an essential parameter in climate change mitigation strategies. Here, we propose a deep-learning-based methodology for LST estimation using multi-source data including Sentinel-2 imagery, land cover, and meteorological data. Our approach addresses common challenges in satellite-derived LST data, such as gaps caused by cloud cover, image border limitations, grid-pattern sensor artifacts, and temporal discontinuities due to infrequent sensor overpasses. We develop a regression-based convolutional neural network model, trained on ECOSTRESS (ECOsystem Spaceborne Thermal Radiometer Experiment on Space Station) mission data, which performs pixelwise LST predictions using 5 × 5 image patches, capturing contextual information around each pixel. This method not only preserves ECOSTRESS’s native resolution but also fills data gaps and enhances spatial and temporal coverage. In non-gap areas validated against ground truth ECOSTRESS data, the model achieves LST predictions with at least 80% of all pixel errors falling within a ±3 °C range. Unlike traditional satellite-based techniques, our model leverages high-temporal-resolution meteorological data to capture diurnal variations, allowing for more robust LST predictions across different regions and time periods. The model’s performance demonstrates the potential for integrating LST into urban planning, climate resilience strategies, and near-real-time heat stress monitoring, providing a valuable resource to assess and visualize the impact of urban development and land use and land cover changes. Full article

The problem of food being wasted in households has become an essential challenge in recent years. Food waste can be valorized in accordance with the principles of sustainable development, including as a source of energy. This study analyses the potential of anaerobic fermentation, pyrolysis, ethanol fermentation, incineration, and composting to treat food waste, focusing on its energy yield. This research considered two potential scenarios for generating food waste in Poland in both the near term (2030) and the long term (2050). Scenarios were proposed for regions with different levels of urbanization and demographic trends. The criteria for the selection of technologies for the energy-efficient processing of food waste from households in Poland were identified, taking into account the current state of these technologies, their prospective development, demographic changes, the nature of the regions, the trajectory of food waste generation, the spatial food waste generation rate, and the energy potential. Technologies like methane fermentation and thermochemical methods should be developed in densely populated areas with a high spatial food waste generation rate. Among the thermochemical processes, fast pyrolysis will provide the most significant energy benefits, followed by moderate pyrolysis and biocarbonization—at similar levels. Incineration is placed between carbonization and gasification. In less populated areas with lower spatial food waste generation rates, combining substrates with co-processing food waste and green waste should be considered. Biocarbonization systems can be integrated with composting in rural regions. Full article

In recent years, the surge in air-conditioning ownership and usage has led to significant heat rejection, impacting the surrounding atmosphere. Despite this, studies examining the spatiotemporal effects of air-conditioning heat rejection at a block scale remain limited. Additionally, comparative studies on the role of building areas with air-conditioning systems versus natural underlying surfaces in the urban thermal environment are relatively scarce. This study employs field measurements and ArcGIS technology to investigate the local thermal and humidity environments, as well as the spatiotemporal distribution of heat rejection from air-conditioning systems in Wuyi Square, Changsha. Results show that cooling tower exhausts in commercial buildings maintain relative humidity levels of 95.2% to 99.8% during the day, enhancing surrounding humidity. At night, the humidity aligns with atmospheric levels (from 50.3% to 62.5%). The cooling tower exhaust temperature is approximately 2.2 °C lower during the day and 2.4 °C higher at night compared to the surrounding temperatures. In contrast, exhausts from split-type air-conditioning units in residential buildings have an average relative humidity about 14.2% lower than the atmosphere humidity, with temperature averages being 5.2 °C higher during the day and 6.5 °C higher at night, raising surrounding temperatures. The study also finds that natural surface areas are up to 3.1 °C cooler and 9.6% more humid compared to built environment surfaces. Furthermore, residential areas have air temperatures about 0.3 °C higher than commercial zones, with a humidity distribution approximately 0.5% lower. These findings offer a theoretical foundation for enhancing urban thermal environments and informing urban planning and design. Full article

This study investigates the application of explainable AI (XAI) techniques to understand the deep learning models used for predicting urban conflict from satellite imagery. First, a ResNet18 convolutional neural network achieved 89% accuracy in distinguishing riot and non-riot urban areas. Using the Score-CAM technique, regions critical to the model’s predictions were identified, and masking these areas caused a 20.9% drop in the classification accuracy, highlighting their importance. However, Score-CAM’s ability to consistently localize key features was found to be limited, particularly in complex, multi-object urban environments. Analysis revealed minimal alignment between the model-identified features and traditional land use metrics, suggesting that deep learning captures unique patterns not represented in existing GIS datasets. These findings underscore the potential of deep learning to uncover previously unrecognized socio-spatial dynamics while revealing the need for improved interpretability methods. This work sets the stage for future research to enhance explainable AI techniques, bridging the gap between model performance and interpretability and advancing our understanding of urban conflict drivers. Full article

Urban green space can effectively optimize the urban landscape and environment and provide residents with space for daily leisure and recreational activities. In order to realize the green development of Macau, this paper takes the Macau Special Administrative Region (SAR) as an example, uses the green open space occupancy rate (GOSOR) to measure the level of green open space in Macau, and researches the planning positioning of Macau City’s green development, the layout mode of urban public open space, and the integration and optimization of the space in Largo of high-density neighborhoods, so as to explore the planning paradigm of Macau’s green development. In addition, the research data show that the per capita green area of Macau Peninsula is on the low side and extremely unbalanced, and there is a disconnection between some of the large-scale green patches on Macau Outlying Island; therefore, this paper proposes that the planning layout mode of “green veins connecting green patches” is suitable for Macau Peninsula and that the planning layout mode of “greenways embedded in jade” is suitable for Macau Outlying Island. On the other hand, in order to improve the problem of poor living conditions in the high-density city of Macau, the study proposes to make use of the unutilized Macau Largo space and carry out the optimization and transformation of the Largo space from “gray to green”, so as to release a large amount of green open space and enhance the GOSOR value of the high-density street area of Macau Peninsula. Full article

With the acceleration of global aging, outdoor environments, especially urban green space’s planning and design, play a crucial role in not only promoting physical health but also significantly increasing the opportunities for social interactions for older adults. In recent years, the study of age-friendly outdoor environments has attracted increasing attention, with digital methods emerging as essential tools due to their precision and versatility. In this research, three parks in the Nankai District, Tianjin, are taken as the subject of a case study to explore the spatial factors that may exert influence on the behavior distribution of older adults in summery urban parks’ planning and design. With the behavior data of the older adults in the park collected using an Insta360 camera every hour (from 8 a.m. to 15 p.m.), the three parks are divided into a total of 49 areas for further analysis. Additionally, the visual indexes of the spatial syntax are analyzed with Depthmap 10, the sunlight conditions are analyzed with the Tangent model, and some other spatial factors, such as the green space ratio and the hard ground ratio, are calculated according to the semantic segmentation of the 360-degree panoramic view photo from the center of every area. SPSS and Gradient Boosting Decision Trees (GBDTs) are used to reveal not only the correlations between the sunlight conditions and the behavior distribution of behavior of the older adults, but also the importance ranking of spatial factors. Furthermore, some improvement strategies are proposed for spatial facility configuration, park furniture arrangement, rational hardscape planning, as well as greening and landscape design. By exploring how to improve the spatial planning and design of summery urban green space for older adults, this research provides guidance on the creation of urban green spaces in extremely hot weather that are not only visually appealing but also socially equitable and environmentally sustainable. Full article

This paper presents a holistic assessment framework for the impacts of water distribution pipe breaks to promote environmentally sustainable and socially resilient cities. This framework considers social, environmental, and economic vulnerabilities as well as probabilities associated with pipe failure. The integration of these features provides a comprehensive approach to understanding infrastructure risks. Taking the city of Vancouver as a case study, the social vulnerability index (SVI) is obtained following the application of a cross-correlation matrix and principal component analysis (PCA) to identify the most influential among 33 selected variables from the 2021 census of the Canadian population. The Environmental Vulnerability Index (EVI) is evaluated by considering the park and floodplain areas. The Economic Vulnerability Index (ECI) is derived from the replacement cost of pipes. These indices offer valuable insights into the spatial distribution of vulnerabilities (consequences) across urban areas. Subsequently, the Consequence of Failure (COF) is computed by aggregating the three vulnerabilities with equal weights. Pipe probability of failure (POF) is evaluated by a Weibull model calibrated on real break data as a function of pipe age. This approach enables a dynamic evaluation of pipe deterioration over time. Risk is finally assessed by combining COF and POF for prioritizing pipe replacement and rehabilitation, with the final objective of mitigating the adverse impacts of infrastructure failure. The findings show the significant impact of ethnicity, socioeconomic indices, and education on the social vulnerability index. Moreover, the areas close to English Bay and Fraser River are more environmentally vulnerable. The pipes with high economic vulnerability are primarily concrete pipes, due to their expensive replacement costs. Finally, the risk framework resulting from the vulnerabilities and pipe break probabilities is used to rank the Vancouver City water distribution network pipes. This ranking system highlights critical areas requiring different levels of attention for infrastructure improvements. All the pipes and corresponding risks are illustrated in Vancouver maps, highlighting that the pipes associated with a very high level of risk are mostly in the south and north of Vancouver. Full article