Environment, Development and Sustainability最新文献

Green innovation is an important catalyst for achieving China’s sustainable transformation and “double carbon” goals. Taking distorted land price as the entry point, this article utilizes 273 cities and corporate-level data from 2005 to 2019 and employs a spatial econometric model system to investigate the influence of distorted land price on corporate green innovation and its underlying mechanisms. The findings suggest a significant negative impact of distorted land price on corporate green innovation, with substantial regional heterogeneity. Furthermore, distorted land price exhibits a spatial spillover effect, detrimentally influencing corporate green innovation. Mechanism tests indicate that distorted land price influences corporate green innovation through the supply–demand effect and price effect. Threshold effects tests show a non-linear influence of distorted land price on corporate green innovation in different policy contexts. A certain policy threshold can moderate the adverse effects of distorted land price on corporate green innovation. By dissecting the intrinsic mechanism between land price and corporate green innovation, this paper contributes valuable policy insights for China’s green economic transformation and the pursuit of “carbon peaking” and “carbon neutrality” in the context of global green development.

Sustainable tourism initiatives depend heavily on tourists' environmental behavior, with their willingness to adopt sustainable practices being crucial for the success of destination marketing campaigns. Grounded on the cognitive dissonance theory and the norm activation model, an integrated framework was built to investigate the influence of green guilt on the pro-environmental behavior (PEB) of forest park visitors, considering the mediating roles of social and personal norms. We also explored the moderating role of positive emotions, providing theoretical and practical implications for promoting sustainability in tourist destinations and encouraging positive human-nature interactions. Based on a sample of 293 visitors from a national forest park in Pakistan, the results showed that green guilt significantly enhanced personal norms, which in turn mediated the link between green guilt and PEB. Personal norms played a significant mediating role in this process. Moreover, positive emotions moderated on the link between green guilt and PEB. The study concludes with theoretical implications for sustainable tourism and practical recommendations for practitioners.

Exploring the strategic interactions of Chinese cities in improving total factor energy efficiency (TFEE) is crucial for promoting regional sustainable development. However, existing literature lacks a comprehensive analysis of the complex patterns and mechanisms of these interactions. Using city-level data from 2006 to 2017, this study contributes to the literature by employing single-regime and two-regime spatial Durbin models to investigate the spatial spillover effects and strategic interactions of cities’ TFEE improvement. The results reveal significant positive spatial autocorrelation and spillover effects of TFEE among cities. While factors like environmental regulation and fiscal decentralization influence TFEE, their spillover effects vary across different regional relationships. Furthermore, the two-regime model uncovers asymmetric strategic interactions: geographically adjacent cities tend to engage in “race to the bottom” competition, while economically similar cities exhibit both “race to the top” and “race to the bottom” behaviors. In short, local cities will adopt imitation or differentiation strategies according to the changes in the TFEE levels of neighboring cities, taking into account their own geographic location and level of economic development, and form different strategic interaction patterns, thus affecting the overall TFEE levels and sustainable development of the region.

Biodiversity plays a crucial role in supporting ecosystem functions and enhancing agroecosystem resilience to anthropogenic disturbances. The establishment of vineyards in natural areas with native vegetation is recognized as a significant driver of landscape fragmentation and biodiversity loss. This study was conducted in a vineyard surrounded by natural vegetation, including two riparian corridors serving as biological corridors, to assess the impact of vineyard management practices on biodiversity. Taxonomic and functional richness of dicotyledonous vegetation were evaluated across different zones: vineyard center, border, biological corridors, and surrounding natural areas. Vegetation surveys were conducted using fixed transects, and citizen science data were integrated to complement surveys and enhance species detection. The response of dicotyledonous species persisting within the vineyard to mowing practices was examined through phenology-related variables, focusing on six species from Asteraceae, Fabaceae, and Malvaceae families under mowed and non-mowed treatments. Results showed a significant decrease in taxonomic and functional richness toward the vineyard interior. Riparian corridors were identified as key contributors to species richness, positively influencing adjacent crop edges. Floral abundance and days in flower were notably reduced in mowed sectors, particularly affecting Malvaceae species. However, resilience to mowing was observed in species such as Thelesperma megapotamicum (Asteraceae) and Adesmia grandiflora (Fabaceae), indicating their potential for use as native cover crops. These findings highlight the necessity of maintaining or restoring areas with shrub and tree elements to enhance vertical heterogeneity and provide resources for biodiversity. Integrating these conservation measures with vineyard management can contribute to sustainable and ecologically responsible grape cultivation.

The land use change pattern from disturbed tropical dry forests has significant impact on vegetation and soil physico-chemical properties, leading to alterations in vegetation structure and diversity. Thus, aim of this study was to better understand how disturbances affect forest vegetation and soil physico-chemical attributes under varied land uses in the deciduous forest region of Vindhyan highlands, India. Soil samples and vegetation analyses were conducted across three distinct disturbed forest sites on three land use types using the quadrate method. The study documented 45 species in the tree layer, with 37 in least disturbed, 33 in moderate disturbed, and 28 in highly disturbed stands. Shannon, Simpson, Evenness, Margalef and β-diversity indices exhibited pronounced variations among the three disturbed stands. A two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed significant difference in soil physico-chemical properties (p < 0.001, p < 0.01 and p < 0.05) due to various disturbed forest stands and land use types. Micronutrients such as zinc, copper, and nickel showed significant variation, with higher concentrations in least disturbed stands. Pearson’s correlation analysis indicated strong relationships between vegetation characteristics and soil physico-chemical attributes, consistent across disturbances. Additionally, the principal component analysis indicated that the first four principal components accounted for 77.7% of the total variation in the data. The comprehensive research will add forest managers in developing long-term eco-restoration plans that will result in reduced soil loss and degradation. This study contributes to more effective forest management and conservation efforts by providing essential insights into the interactions between disturbances, vegetation, and soil properties.

Food wastage contributes to approximately 8% of global greenhouse emissions, posing a major sustainability challenge with significant losses in both the pre-retail and household sectors. The drawbacks of traditional preservation methods have sparked interest in active sustainable packaging. Active sustainable packaging has the ability to enhance the shelf life of food products and reduce environmental impacts, which is crucial for consumer acceptance and market penetration. The consumer acceptability and quality of packaged food in sustainable active packaging with time have been assessed using sensory criteria and multicriteria decision-making techniques. Sensory evaluation is done with consumers, and assessment is shown as a spider graph based on six sensory criteria. The effect of time and type of packaging on consumer preference based on individual sensory criteria has been assessed using the 3D surface graph. Relative weightage of sensory criteria such as appearance, colour, texture, touch, aroma, and overall has been obtained by implementing the analytical hierarchy process (AHP). The AHP model results reveal that active packaging-based alternatives (A1D7, A2D15, A3D30) are the most acceptable packaging alternatives with time compared to synthetic and open packaging based on selected sensory criteria. Moreover, the technique for order preference by similarity to the ideal solution (TOPSIS) method is implemented to find the ranking of all nine packaging alternatives. The ranking of the packaging alternatives based on sensory criteria also supports the ranking obtained from the AHP analysis. This study provides crucial insights for food manufacturers to enhance packaging strategies, optimizing product appeal and consumer satisfaction.

The ecological environment forms the essential basis for human society's survival and progress. However, the growing pressure exerted on it by human economic activities also hinders scientific advancement and energy efficiency. To examine the influence of ecological environment pressure (EEP) on renewable energy technology innovation (RETI), this study developed an EEP indicator system encompassing the pressure, status, and response dimensions across 108 cities within China’s Yangtze River Economic Belt (YEB). Spatial autocorrelation was introduced to analyze the spatiotemporal evolution characteristics of EEP and RETI from 2011 to 2021. Geographical detector and multi-scale geographically weighted regression model were utilized to reveal the mechanisms by which EEP impacts RETI. The study found that: (1) between 2011 and 2021, there was a notable decline in the average EEP, dropping from 0.2996 to 0.2162. This reduction was characterized by higher pressures in the western YEB than in the eastern YEB, with a strengthening trend in the spatial correlation of these pressures. Concurrently, the average RETI indicator demonstrated an escalating tendency, increasing from 27.80 to 45.03. This growth is evidenced by a significant enhancement in the innovation performance of the eastern YEB compared to that of the western YEB, with a weakening trend in the spatial correlation of innovation levels. (2) The influence of EEP on RETI, as measured by explanatory power, diminished over the decade, decreasing from 0.3169 in 2011 to 0.2568 in 2021. Interactions between EEP and other factors can increase this explanatory power. The spatial heterogeneity of EEP's impact on RETI remains largely stable, showing a positive impact in the eastern regions while exhibiting a negative effect in the western regions.

This study employs remote sensing data on natural resources, environmental conditions, as well as socio-economic statistics to establish a landscape source-sink model for both ecology-oriented development axes and infrastructure-oriented development axes within China's Yangtze River Economic Belt region. Our findings reveal that: (1) Ecological sources exhibit a significantly larger scale compared to their counterparts in infrastructure development; they demonstrate stable spatial distributions for resistance zones while also displaying robust reconstruction capabilities for these zones; (2) An extensive presence of an ecologically oriented security framework characterizes central-western regions within this economic belt—marked by lush forests alongside intricate river systems—and contrasts sharply against an infrastructure-focused security framework prevalent across its eastern counterpart—defined by concentrated agricultural land use juxtaposed against densely populated urban centers; (3) A notable alignment exists between our identified ecologically secure zones vis-à-vis high-value domains associated with carbon sequestration potentiality alongside superior habitat preservation qualities coupled with effective soil–water conservation measures—a stark contrast emerges when examining corresponding features within our identified infrastructural secure zones which tend to be situated amidst lower carbon sequestration capacities combined with inferior habitat preservation attributes alongside suboptimal soil–water retention abilities resulting in diminished water yields; (4) Our delineated ecologically secure axis closely mirrors fluvial patterns along this economic belt whereas our infrastructural secure axis distinctly corresponds to agricultural landscapes intertwined seamlessly amongst key transportation arteries.

The Mediterranean region is highly vulnerable to climate risks such as prolonged and more intense heat waves with increased drought. İstanbul has the climate characteristics of the Mediterranean region and interacts with the surrounding climate regions. Also, the city is the largest among Türkiye’s major urban areas. The study aims to determine the vulnerability of İstanbul residents to heat extremes as well as their mortality risks according to region, age group, sex, and cause of death. The distributed lag non-linear model was used to analyze risk by establishing a statistical relationship between extreme temperatures and mortality rates. A separate model was defined for each sub-population group and the increase in mortality risks was estimated when daily maximum temperatures increased from minimum mortality temperature to the heat wave threshold. The highest increase in excess rate was observed in the low urbanization region (19.5%) followed by the medium urbanization region (18.0%). Mortality risk was also higher in people aged ≥ 65 years (20.9%), females (16.2%), people with cerebrovascular (53.4%) and respiratory diseases (40.7%). The vulnerability in less populated areas is likely to be due to the cumulative intensity of regional heat waves as well as inadequate access to health services, housing, and climatization conditions in these areas; in addition, as the population density of the elderly increases, regional vulnerability is considered to be higher. The findings of this multidisciplinary study can guide decision makers and be implemented in future local climate action plans, public health strategies, and people-friendly urban design in line with Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Utilization of carbonaceous waste material as precursors for production of activated carbon (AC) is desired. Hence, this study made use of date palm tree branches (DPB)—a major source of waste—in Saudi Arabia to produce AC that was used for treatment of air contaminated with H₂S and SO₂ gases. A dynamic adsorption setting was used to explore the uptake of H₂S and SO₂ onto DPB AC column with the aid of state-of-the-art bench-top gas analyzers. Several process parameters were varied to understand their effect on the breakthrough and exhaustion times of the gases under study. Response surface methodology (RSM) technique was used to further explore the relationship between the variables and machine learning (ML) techniques were used to create models for prediction of breakthrough and exhaustion times. Textural properties of DPB AC were explored using characterization techniques. AC produced from DPB had high BET specific surface area (800.87 m²/g) and a flaky morphology along with several oxygen-containing surface functional groups. The breakthrough profiles of both H₂S and SO₂ exhibited similar sigmoidal pattern. However, the broader breakthrough pattern of SO₂ indicated that DPB has more affinity for SO₂. The RSM study indicate that an increase in gas flow and gas initial concentration led to a shortening od both breakthrough and exhaustion time for both gases. However, when the column depth as increased, the breakthrough and exhaustion times lengthened for both gases. Furthermore, machine learning (ML) modeling results revealed that the artificial neural network (ANN) model was predicted H₂S/SO₂ breakthrough and exhaustion times with greater efficiency relative to other ML models. Our study revealed that AC produced from DPB can be used for treatment of air contaminated with H₂S and SO₂ gases and mechanistic modelling techniques can aid in exploring the adsorptive removal of harmful gases. It is recommended that a larger sample size should be utilized when conducting mechanistic modelling in future studies and that effective means for desorbing and regenerated contaminated AC should also be explored.