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• The drivers of the urban plant diversity were accessed in tropical Haikou city, China. • Urban plant species richness across 190 urban functional units within Haikou was investigated. • Number of patches mainly explain urban plant diversity in Haikou, China. • Cultivated plant species richness is mainly influenced by fertilizing frequency. Recent urbanization and human activities have led to the fragmentation of natural landscape patches and reduced the connectivity and degradation of urban ecosystems and biodiversity. Urban plant richness affects social functions and the well-being of urban residents and is driven by land use, local wealth, and urban green space management. Among these drivers, it remains unclear which factors play a more important role in driving the relative diversity of cultivated and spontaneous plant species richness in cities. Therefore, we investigated the spatial patterns and the drivers of cultivated and spontaneous plant species richness within 190 urban functional units (UFUs) in the tropical coastal city of Haikou, China, based on remote sensing data, fieldwork, and surveys of socioeconomic and greening management practices. Using multiple linear regression, we found that the most cultivated plants were located at colleges and universities, public affair service districts, and around hospitals, while the most spontaneous plants were found in transportation districts. The spatial organization of these plants was influenced by factors such as patchiness, connectivity, maintenance frequency and fertilizing frequency. Cultivated plants, conversely, were found to increase with patchiness and connectivity, and their presence was positively related to fertilizing and maintenance frequency. The richness of both spontaneous and cultivated plants was found to be influenced by various factors among different urban functional units (UFUs). The proximity to freshwater resources was found to increase the number of spontaneous plant species. Our findings underscore the significant impact of human activities on urban plant richness and highlight the importance of understanding these dynamics for urban planning and biodiversity conservation. Our work contributes to the scarce literature on the drivers of cultivated and spontaneous plant richness in recently developed tropical cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • An appropriate model was applied to the drinking water source area simulation. • The variation of permanganate index in different water periods was analyzed. • The spatial-temporal variation of permanganate index was analyzed. Abstract With the rapid development of the economy, the risk of pollution accidents occurring in urban drinking water source areas has increased, which has brought important impacts on people's living and social economy. From the emergency treatment of accidents such as chemical spills and explosions from all over the world. Some treatments have limited effectiveness due to lack of understanding for pollution scope and its development trend, leading to pollutant diffusion and more serious impacts. Therefore, it is meaningful to carry out researches on selecting a suitable model to simulate the time variations and spatial distributions of pollutant concentrations in different water periods under accident conditions. This study chose a method that can simulate the temporal and spatial variations of pollutant concentrations under accidents conditions in the drinking water source area. And parameter calibration and model validation were carried out. The method was applied to the Zigui drinking water source area. It is located in the Fenghuangshan area of Zigui County, Yichang City and it supplies water to Zigui County and has a water supply population of 40,000. In this paper, the permanganate index was selected as the characteristic index, The change of the permanganate index over time in the water intake of the drinking water source area, the change of the maximum permanganate index of the drinking water source area over time, and the temporal and spatial variation of the permanganate index of the whole drinking water source area were analyzed, and the change of permanganate index in different water periods of the drinking water source area were compared. Under the assumption of accident conditions, the permanganate index of the drinking water source area intake of drinking water reached the standard after 1.93 h of dry period, reached the standard after 1.74 h of falling period, reached the standard after 1.73 h of flood period and reached the standard after 1.72 h of impounding period. The permanganate index of the whole drinking water source area reached the standard after 4.39 h of dry period, 3.98 h of falling period, 2.48 h of flood period, and 2.47 h of impounding period. This new model can predict the spatial-temporal variation of pollutants and it can provide a reference and a tool for relevant researchers and managers to provide technical support for water resource management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Graphical abstract Highlights • We applied conjoint analysis a posteriori to evaluate landscape preferences. • We evaluated picture ratings in relation to landscape characteristics. • Landscape indicators were robust predictors of preferences at the individual level. • Nonlinearity occurred between some indicators and landscape preferences. • We found a relevant degree of heterogeneity between the individual preferences. Abstract Enjoyable landscapes are important resources for recreational activities and the socio-economic development of tourism destinations. A profound understanding of landscape preferences can support landscape management and planning. Despite the increasing integration of the socio-cultural perspective in landscape preferences research, little is known about the links between landscape characteristics and individual landscape preferences. In this study, we aimed to estimate landscape preferences at the individual level based on a set of landscape indicators, allowing us to measure the preferences of each person. We thereby evaluated the suitability of conjoint analysis to identify the relative importance of selected landscape indicators and the corresponding part-worth utilities of their characteristics. We further examined whether the preferences are homogeneous or if we can identify groups with largely different preferences. We related the picture ratings from a photo-based survey of landscapes in the Central Alps to a set of 11 landscape indicators, measuring the landscape pattern and features of each picture. Each indicator was divided into two or three levels and used to calculate importance scores and part-worth utilities by hierarchical Bayes analysis for individuals. In our study area, 11 indicators were sufficient to predict the individual choice between two landscapes for ∼90% of the respondents. Our results indicate non-linear relationships between some landscape indicators and landscape preferences and revealed considerable heterogeneity for the vectors of part-worth utilities, suggesting some methodological problems when applying aggregated linear prediction models. Our findings may therefore enhance predictive models and support landscape planning and management, but further research is necessary to understand the driving forces behind the observed differences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metropolitan systems were constituted by spatial components with different specialization 'niches' based on characteristic attributes (demography, economic structure and performances, socio-spatial patterns, urban morphology, topography, land-use and spatial planning). The present study investigates the multiple dimensions of urban complexity in the light of the 'ecological niche' theory, assessing the spatial structure of a vast ensemble of socioeconomic and territorial indicators that reflect processes of growth and change in contemporary cities. To assess jointly patterns and processes of urban expansion and their impact on recent socioeconomic transformations at the local scale, Athens, the capital of Greece, was taken as a prototype of metropolitan systems with a socioeconomic context evolving under specific form-function relationships. An exploratory framework based on principal component analysis, hierarchical clustering and spatial autocorrelation indexes was used to identify and characterize 8 dimensions that reflect different specialization 'niches' at local scale. Clusters of municipalities were identified according to the dominant socioeconomic dimensions and urban specialization niches. A composite index of urban complexity was finally proposed with the aim to outline latent spatial gradients associated with settlement morphology, social diversification, local development and economic performances. The empirical results of this study contribute to a better understanding of complex urban systems, providing the necessary knowledge base to support implementation of policies for sustainable development of metropolitan regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, a Mamdani fuzzy inference approach (MFIA) is developed for assessing ecological security of urban agglomeration. MFIA integrates pressure-state-response (PSR) model into a fuzzy logic framework, which can (1) effectively reflect the interrelationship between natural ecosystem and socio-economic systems under complex condition, and (2) capture the knowledge-based experts’ judgments and tackle the imprecise and/or vague information in the urban agglomeration ecosystem. MFIA is then applied to assessing ecological security of the Pearl River Delta urban agglomeration. Among all cities, Zhaoqing owns the highest ecological security level due to its low population pressure and rich resources (e.g., forest and arable land). The ecological security level of Foshan is the lowest due to its high population pressure, limited resources, and low response level. In order to facilitate sustainable development of the urban agglomeration, various strategies for improving ecological security level should be implemented. Foshan should both control population growth and adjust industrial structure; Shenzhen and Dongguan should promote their ecological security levels through increasing forest and green areas and controlling population; for three cities of Zhaoqing, Huizhou and Jiangmen, it is essential to enhance their infrastructures for mitigating pollutant discharges and reducing the environmental pressures. The findings could help identify ecological condition of the urban agglomeration and provide useful information for supporting regional ecological planning and management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Effective evaluation on the coordination between socio-economy (V) and carbon emission (W) is essential for sustainable urban planning, and this study introduces an improved coupling coordination degree (CCD) model for conducting such evaluation. The limitation of the traditional CCD model has been examined. The effectiveness of the improved CCD model is demonstrated with its application in 30 case provinces of China by using the data collected for the period 1995–2015. The results show that: (1) The subjectivity embodied in the traditional CCD model in analyzing the coordination between V and W significantly distorts the true coordination between the two systems. (2) The improved CCD model is effective as its application can reflect the reality of the sample cases. (3) The average coordination degrees of the 30 case provinces for the surveyed period show an upward evolution, and the coordination statuses of these provinces have been transforming from low-grade symbiosis to high-grade symbiosis. (4) The spatial distribution of coupling coordination degree in China is characterized by a higher degree of coordination in the Eastern provinces. The results of applying the improved coupling coordination degree model can help decision makers formulate effective sustainable measures to balance socio-economic development with carbon emission reduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Livelihood in Iran’s rural areas, as elsewhere in the developing world, is highly intertwined with the harvesting of environmental resources, leading to severe environmental degradation. To shed light on possible solutions, this study employs the conceptual framework of sustainable livelihood and the multinomial logit model. This reveals the intra-household determinants of each livelihood strategy that significantly contribute to designing better livelihoods and socio-economic development programs. Such factors alleviate environmental resource demand, and thus degradation. By employing a two-step cluster analysis with seven indicators related to households’ livelihood activity, three distinctive livelihood strategies were identified, including commercial, mixed, and fishery/livestock strategies. Livelihood assets that encompass human, physical, social, natural, and financial assets are considered as dependent variables, while household livelihood strategies are independent variables. Data was collected through both qualitative and quantitative methods, including household surveys, direct observation, and unstructured interviews with local informants and administrators. The results show that enhancing financial, social, and human assets have facilitated adopting commercial and mixed strategies, while physical assets have enhanced the propensity toward the fishery/livestock strategy. Moreover, although financial assets are the most significant assets in facilitating adoption of non-environmental strategies, enhancing environmental pursuer’s access to financial resources alone, without improving their human and social assets, may lead to higher harvesting efforts. Therefore, the study concludes that interventions aimed at enhancing both conservation and livelihoods should improve the human, social, and financial assets of resource users, to facilitate the adoption of less environmentally reliant and profitable strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many empirical studies have analyzed the relationship between human activity and the environment. Some of these have focused on the potentially negative impacts of human activity on the environment while others have tried to identify the socio-political variables that could be at play in this relationship. Herein, we used well-adapted statistical methods to study the relationship between human activity and biodiversity in Europe at the country level. We worked with classical biodiversity indicators (two state indicators, two pressure indicators and one response indicator) on the one hand, and socio-economic variables on the other hand. We found strong relationships between economic variables and both pressure indicators (related to soil sealing) and state indicators (related to the proportion of extinct and threatened species). However, there was no relationship between economic variables and the response indicator (related to the proportion of protected area). We did find significant relationships between biodiversity and some sociological variables: in particular, interpersonal trust, which is known to favor economic prosperity, improved biodiversity levels. However, the best models all included economic variables. Our results cast a new light on an old issue: first, they reveal that the spatial density of human activity – either through economic growth or population levels – is a key variable that is positively related to land sealing levels and to both past and current biodiversity erosion; they also show that the impact of the spatial density of human activity on biodiversity state indicators tends to decelerate – but not to decrease – as the spatial density of human activity increases. Our results clearly indicate that the spatial density of human activity should be part of any political analyses related to biodiversity – including systems of biodiversity indicators. Our results also reveal the need for further studies involving these metrics. They also emphasize the tension between policy objectives related to economic growth and biodiversity preservation. Yet, they indicate that increasing social trust, which seems to favor both economic growth and biodiversity levels, might provide a solution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In ethnic areas, plant utilization is an essential component of traditional ecological knowledge and an important intersection between biodiversity and cultural diversity. Multipurpose plants play an important role in diversity of plant utilization and can be used as an indicator of regional biocultural diversity. Different uses of the same multipurpose plant correspond to different gathering methods and have different impacts on plant resources. Although important in both daily life and scientific studies, multipurpose plants are rarely specifically studied. In this study, multipurpose plant utilization by Miao and Buyi people in Guizhou, China, was investigated using semi-structured interviews. Plant uses were classified into eight categories: food, medicine, timber, fuel, technological, recreation, ornamental and symbolic. Three indices, Joint Plant and Use (JPU), Joint Uses (JU), and Joint Index (JI), were proposed to analyze overall utilization for multipurpose plants and the relationships among their different uses. A total of 58 species of non-cultivated multipurpose plants and 140 corresponding JPUs were recorded. With the decrease in use number, the corresponding species number of multipurpose plants increased. Two-use plants were most common among multipurpose plants, and food–medicinal plants were most frequent among two-use plants. Moreover, medicinal use and food use have the highest JI value, representing the close relationship between these two uses. Multipurpose plants are essentially determined from the attributes of plants themselves. Trees tend to have more uses than herbaceous plants. Different uses of the same plant represent different cultural or economic values, which determine the importance of a specific use. Socio-economic conditions and policies also have impacts on multipurpose plant utilization. While socio-economic conditions, policies, and plant resources vary, people might choose among different uses; hence, some key multipurpose plants and their JPUs will reflect the variations. The JPU used in this study can be regarded as a basic biocultural diversity unit. Using JPU, JU or JI allows multipurpose plants and their uses to be analyzed quantitatively. Multipurpose plants should be valued in research and management and, for further research, it is important to establish a standard plant use categorization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study constructed a multidimensional indicator system to evaluate low carbon development of the whole country and 30 provinces in China from 2003 to 2013, based on the maximum flux principle, which reflects the dynamic evolutionary process of low carbon development. Then k-means cluster analysis was used to classify 30 provinces into three grades (highest, medium and lowest) according to their average low carbon development level. Finally, Moran’s I was used to investigate the spatial correlation of low carbon development in China. The simulation results show that the national low carbon development level increased with fluctuations from 2008 as the nation paid high attention to low carbon development, and the provincial low carbon development is unbalanced, which is closely related to the socioeconomic conditions, resources endowment and geographical locations. For each province, the development level of different evaluative dimension grows unequally. For each grade, the provinces of highest grade have good performance in energy and environmental dimensions and the provinces of medium grade have good performance in society or the economic dimension, but the provinces of lowest grade have a lower development level in all dimensions. There is significant positive spatial dependence and cluster characteristics in low carbon development in China. In general, high-level provinces are distributed in southern China while low-level provinces are mainly located in northern China. The high-level provinces should perform their demonstrating functions and promote low carbon development in their surrounding areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Featured with a unique geographic position and climate conditions, Qinghai is abundant with natural resources, making significant contribution to China's or even the world's ecological security. In order to evaluate its current sustainability and provide useful policy suggestions to improve its sustainable development, a systematic study on Qinghai's socio-economic system was conducted by applying emergy synthesis. Results show that the total emergy use for supporting Qinghai's economy was 5.13 × 10 24  sej in 2015. The values of emergy to money, emergy density, and emergy used per person are 2.12 × 10 13  sej/RMB, 7.11 × 10 12  sej/m 2 , and 8.72 × 10 17  sej/person, respectively. The holistic picture of Qinghai's socio-economic system is also uncovered based on the temporal analysis of emergy-based indicators. Results show that emergy yield ratio increased from 52.21 in 2002 to 164.10 in 2015. Similarly, the environmental loading ratio increased from 4.64 in 2002 to 57.99 in 2015. Correspondingly, the value of emergy-based sustainability index decreased from 11.25 in 2002 to 2.83 in 2015. These results indicate that Qinghai was highly dependent on local resources and its sustainability experienced a declining trend. In addition, the high absolute value of emergy to money ratio indicates that Qinghai was a net loser for its domestic and international trade. Sensitivity analysis was also conducted to test the reliability of these results. Finally, policy recommendations based on such a systematic evaluation and local realities were proposed to improve its sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent trend of shifting focus from hazard centric drivers of vulnerability towards the social and economic drivers of vulnerability has led to a number of conceptual frameworks for social vulnerability assessment. Contributing towards this growing trend of social vulnerability assessment, this study proposes a framework to measure inherent vulnerability, which is centered on hazard generic and livelihood oriented socioeconomic factors of vulnerability. Inherent vulnerability is defined as the predisposition of a household to suffer harm. The study focuses on the mountainous communities in Kimsar region, located in Uttarakhand state, India. The communities in the region suffer from multiple stressors including extreme precipitation, drought, landslides, cloudbursts and flash floods. Vulnerability indicators with mixed scaling are used, to capture household’s perception and other socio-economic attributes, which contribute towards its inherent vulnerability. Data was collected by conducting household surveys in nine villages of Kimsar region. In order to process the indicators with mixed scaling, and obtain an empirical summary of the data set, the method of Non-Linear Principal Component Analysis was used for computing a household level Inherent Vulnerability Index. Results obtained revealed that principal components explaining a major variance in the data set were — access to employment opportunities, effectiveness of local government, access to food, occupational diversity, access to resources, educational attainment and access to water. It was observed that the villages of Dharkot, Kandakhal and Bhumiyakisar have the highest percentage of households, which were relatively less vulnerable to environmental stressors. Higher vulnerability was observed in majority of households in the village Kimsar, Ramjeewala and Malla Banas. A majority of households in Talla Banas, Jogiyana and Kasan were moderately vulnerable. Inherent vulnerability assessment has the potential to predict the future harm a household might suffer due to hazard events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present manuscript surveys the validity of economic performance per capita – Carbon Dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions equivalent relationship covering the sector of agriculture for three Mediterranean countries, (France, Portugal and Spain). The value added generated by agriculture as index for economic performance, along with an index of environmental degradation (carbon emissions equivalent/1000 ha of utilized agricultural area) are the data on which the methodology of Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bounds testing is employed. According to our findings the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis is validated in the case of all sample countries, while conflict results are taken for the short run. The conflict results derived may well be attributed to different socio – economic conditions confronted by domestic farmers including the greenhouse gas emissions mitigation cost. Therefore, the policy measures already implemented in the sample countries may lead to limitation of carbon emissions generated by agriculture but still a lot have to be done in order the objectives set by Kyoto protocol to be fulfilled. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Governing climate change in cities entails a good understanding of urban vulnerabilities. This research presents an Indicator-based Vulnerability Assessment for 571 European cities. Basing on panel data from Urban Audit database and a set of newly developed indicators, we assessed urban vulnerabilities for the following impact chains : (i) heatwaves on human health; (ii) drought on water planning, and; (iii) flooding (sub-divided into pluvial, fluvial and coastal) on the socio-economic tissue and the urban fabric. Results shed light on the key challenges that specific groups of European cities face in order to better deal with the expected impacts of climate change. This knowledge is a necessary step to advance in the understanding of urban risks to climate change and the development of effective EU policies for urban adaptation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Human Development Index (HDI) based on life expectancy, education and per-capita income, is one of the most used indicators of human development. However, undeniable problems in data collection limit between-countries comparisons reducing the practical applicability of the HDI in official statistics. Elvidge et al. (2012) proposed an alternative index of human development (the so called Night Light Development Index, NLDI) derived from nighttime satellite imagery and population density, with improved comparability over time and space. The NLDI assesses inequality in the spatial distribution of night light among resident inhabitants and has proven to correlate with the HDI at the country scale. However, the NLDI presents some drawbacks, since similar NLDI values may indicate very different levels of human development. A modified NLDI overcoming such a drawback is proposed and applied to assessment of human development at 3 spatial scales (the entire country, 5 geographical divisions and 20 administrative regions) in Italy, a country with relevant territorial disparities in various socioeconomic dimensions. The original and modified NLDI were correlated with 5 independent indicators of economic growth, sustainable development and environmental quality. The spatial distribution of the original and modified NLDI is not coherent with the level of human development in Italy being indeed associated with various indexes of environmental quality. Further investigation is required to identify in which socioeconomic context (and at which spatial scale) the NDLI approach correctly estimates the level of human development in affluent countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heterogeneous definitions of urban areas and poorly homogenized forest data at the country scale have hampered the comparative assessment of peri-urban forest structure in developed countries. The present study investigates selected landscape characteristics of peri-urban forests in 283 metropolitan areas in Europe controlling for the role of the local context and regional suburbanization trends. Using landscape metrics derived from Urban Atlas maps (a Copernicus/GMES initiative providing a comprehensive land-use assessment of European cities >100,000 inhabitants), significant differences in peri-urban forest structure were detected under five European regions. Specific class metrics (percent forest area, mean patch size, perimeter-to-area ratio) were correlated with urban morphology, landscape and territorial indicators. On average, forest cover is larger in northern and southern European metropolitan areas. Forest patch size increases from western to eastern Europe, with more regular patch shapes in central and eastern regions and less regular shapes in the rest of Europe. Forest class area increases with the area of discontinuous, medium-density settlements. Forest patch size increases with the average patch size of discontinuous dense urban fabric. Our evidence outlines a ‘sprawl model' shaping fringe landscapes characterized by discontinuous urban settlements mixed with fragmented – but possibly well protected – forest patches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present an assessment of the spatial pattern of ecosystem services (ES) associations across Europe based on models of eleven ES and one dis-service, mapped at the extent of twenty-seven Member States of the European Union (EU27) on a 1 km 2 grid. We isolated three clusters of cells sharing common features in multi-ES supply associated with the main land-use-land-cover types such as forests and agricultural lands. Confronting these spatial patterns with biophysical and socio-economic drivers revealed two strong gradients structuring European ES bundles, climate and land use intensity. Variations in the diversity of ES bundles provided across administrative units (NUTS 2), quantified by the Shannon diversity index, tend to be higher in forested regions (e.g. SE Romania) and in the mosaic landscapes in the central EU27 (from eastern France to Austria). Lower diversity prevails in areas of homogeneous terrain and land use in north-western Europe (e.g. Western France). Our findings illustrate that ES trade-offs and bundles cannot be reduced to land use conflicts but also depend on climate and, for a specific bundle, to biodiversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Effective water allocation among multiple jurisdictions is a key instrument to improve water use efficiency within the basin scale. To achieve equitable and reasonable water allocation, natural, socio-economic, and ecological conditions within a specific basin need to be systematically considered. Based on the main principles of equitable and reasonable water allocation that were defined by UN Watercourses Convention, an integrated multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) with bankruptcy rules (IMCDM-BR) under multiple hydrological constraints were proposed to allocate trans-jurisdiction water resources in Guanting reservoir basin (GRB), a shared basin between Zhangjiakou and Beijing in China. Projection pursuit (PP), as one of an effective MCDM approach, was employed to synthesize values of the related principles, which were ranked as weights for the corresponding water claims by relevant agents. Then, the weighted bankruptcy rules (BR) with multiple hydrological constraints were applied to allocate water among the related agents of the studying basin. The results of ordinary bankruptcy rules, bankruptcy rules with regular and hydrological constraints, and the proposed methods were compared and discussed. Among them, the proposed IMCDM-BR was recommended as an effective tool to support practical water allocation. Moreover, factors of equitable and reasonable water allocation were comprehensively considered. The results can thus be used for facilitating negotiation in trans-jurisdiction water allocation among agents within basins. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Selecting a river rehabilitation project is a complex decision which should address social, economic and landscape indicators. The rehabilitation project becomes even more complicated if the city qualifies for inscription on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Tangible and intangible factors must be assessed to take into account cultural and natural heritage, water flow, river naturalization, interaction of water stream, construction costs and operational and maintenance costs. The proposed method is a hybrid model combining Delphi, Analytical Hierarchy Process and VIKOR technique. This hybrid model has been applied to the historic walled town of Cuenca and the Huecar river. The objective of the selected rehabilitation project must be the optimal integration of the river in the townscape. The indicators most valued by the panelists have been cultural heritage and river naturalization with 28% and 25% respectively. As a result, the trapezoidal cross section has achieved an acceptable advantage and stability over the modified triangular cross section, valued as second. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The provision of ecosystem services from multifunctional landscapes has contributed to human well-being. However, a general tendency exists to consider only marketed ecosystem services and to ignore non-marketed services, which has become more common when evaluating multiple-ecosystem services at the local level. In this study, we present an integrative index of multiple-ecosystem services ( IMES ) that avoids this tendency. Our main objective is to evaluate how socioeconomic factors interact with the spatial differences between the supply of and demand for multiple-ecosystem services. GlobCover data and a modified ecosystem service “matrix” are used to quantify and map ecosystem service supply and demand at the municipality level in the Yangtze River Basin, China. We used multiple regression analysis to detect relationships between ecosystem services and socioeconomic factors in municipalities to identify the main drivers of change in the supply of and demand for multiple-ecosystem services at the local level, respectively. The results revealed that 111 municipalities in the Yangtze River Basin (84.7% of the area) had an oversupply of multiple-ecosystem services; these municipalities were primarily situated in the western part of the upper reach and the southeast parts of the middle reach. Undersupplied areas were mainly situated in densely populated municipalities in the northern part of the lower reach and in agricultural municipalities in the northeastern part of the middle reach. The driving factors of changes in multiple-ecosystem services are significantly different not only in terms of the supply, demand and balance between the two but also among the three reaches. These differences in the driving factors among the three reaches can produce incorrect conclusions if an entire basin is considered, particularly for large basins. This information may be of interest to policymakers. The first principal component for the supply of and demand for multiple-ecosystem services exhibits a good correlation with the IMES in the Yangtze River Basin. Additionally, the integrative index of multiple-ecosystem services (including IMES s and IMES d ) in the study area is relatively reliable according to the sensitivity analysis. Therefore, IMES is an effective tool for aggregating the value of multiple-ecosystem services at local scales. This tool can be used to identify the drivers of changes in multiple-ecosystem services based on the relationships between IMES and socioeconomic factors at the municipality scale. IMES should be useful for policymakers and stakeholders because it can provide important information for local decision-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper a cluster analysis is applied to an input-state-output indicator framework that represents the interconnection of the three aspects of sustainability, namely environmental, social and economic. This framework is a useful and comprehensive tool for assessing country performances over time and improving guidelines for the classification of countries under a sustainability perspective. The method enables identification of trends and traps that characterize the evolution of countries over time. The analysis is performed for 83 countries in 2000 and 2008 in order to observe system behaviour and development patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The importance of pursuing sustainable modes of development has received increased global recognition in recent years. Since the issue was first addressed in the United Nations’ 1987 Brundtland Report, many countries have developed their own sustainability strategies. In Panama, a UNESCO Chair entitled Dialogues on Sustainability was created in 2011 by four scholarly institutions with the objective of advancing a sustainability agenda through education, research and discussion. In line with conclusions from the United Nations’ Agenda 21 action plan, the UNESCO Chair identified the creation of a set of national sustainability indicators as an important step toward this goal. This paper presents the work done by the Chair to develop a dashboard of national sustainability indicators for Panama. Indicators were selected using participatory methods, involving 42 individuals representing 16 different government agencies, NGOs, academic institutions, and private entities from Panama. Adhering to a three-pillar structure, the resulting dashboard of 20 indicators is shown to be a useful tool for understanding past trends, present issues, and future trajectories within Panama’s economic, environmental, and social spheres. As a further demonstration of the dashboard’s utility, this paper focuses on three example issues shown by the dashboard to be important: security, vehicles and vehicle emissions, and natural disasters. This paper also juxtaposes the Human Development Index and Ecological Footprint to compare Panama with other Latin American countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study illustrates an original approach to assess city hierarchy in metropolitan regions and to investigate urban gradients using local-scale socioeconomic data. By linking land-use to the diversification in the level of land imperviousness, we consider fragmentation and diversity in the use of land to distinguish urban from rural areas. We applied an entropy function to a map of land imperviousness in Athens' metropolitan region, Greece, with the aim to classify municipalities into urban and rural types based on Shannon diversity and Pielou evenness indexes. Urban areas are hypothesized to have higher diversification in the degree of imperviousness than rural areas. Principal Component Analysis and Canonical Correlation Analysis were used to verify the spatial coherency between land imperviousness and the distribution of urban land-use. Land imperviousness Pielou index increased linearly with both diversity in the use of land and ancillary variables assessing the urban gradient (population density and distance from the inner city). Our study identifies urban and rural municipalities respectively as the most and the less diversified in terms of land-use and imperviousness intensity, with suburban areas ranking in-between. Pielou evenness index applied to land imperviousness maps and the notion of land-use diversification are promising tools to monitoring city hierarchy along urban gradients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The disjunction of ecological and socioeconomic sciences is one of the main obstructions in current human–natural integrated systems research. Therefore, gridded GIS technology is introduced in an attempt to achieve the spatial flow analysis of water pollution in eco-natural systems. With this unified GIS platform, an input–output table and one-dimensional water quality model are chosen to manifest the spatial economic flows and spatial natural flows of water pollution separately. Finally, the comprehensive effect of the spatial circulation of water pollution in eco-natural systems is assessed. A case study of the framework is carried out in the Changzhou District of Taihu Lake, China, and the main results show the following: (1) COD (chemical oxygen demand) direct emissions represent the characteristics of high intensity and clustering in industrial regions; control unit 8 is the largest secondary emissions unit, representing up to 41.79% of the total, whereas the emissions of the primary industry tend to be low intensity and widespread. (2) The gray virtual water flow from the primary industry to other heavy industries (except the chemical industry) is the main flow type; the transfer amount adds up to 2512 t, and the inter-units with the largest occupation of water environment capacity (WEC) upstream to downstream are 8–9, nearly up to 1548 t. (3) Under the interaction of positive and negative functions of economic flows and natural flows, the final effect of pollution transfer may be offset, environmental degradation or environmental improvement. This study could provide a basis for ecological compensation, environmental exteriority and optimization of industrial structure layouts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Different tracking devices are currently used to record the activity of fishing vessels in space and time and to analyse the pattern of fishing effort with respect to sea substrates, resources, or socio-economics factors. Among these devices, the Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) and the Automatic Identification System (AIS) represent the most interesting and fertile data sources for fisheries investigations but an integration of these two sources was never explored. Two large VMS and AIS datasets, covering the activity of the Italian fishing vessels with length-over-all ≥15 m for the whole year 2012, were used to perform the first assessment of the features characterizing each data source, and ultimately the properties of the estimators of ecological indicators of fishing pressure obtained using these data. In this way, a dataset related to five vessels equipped by a third high frequency device (the Fishing Observing System) was used as reference for a comparative analysis of fishing activity as reconstructed by VMS and/or AIS. Moreover, the ecological indicator 5 of fishing pressure as spatial extent of fishing activity (defined within the Data Collection Framework for Fisheries—DCF) was used as a reference to test the separate and integrated usage of VMS and AIS data. Results evidenced important differences in spatial, temporal and fleet coverage between VMS and AIS. Namely, VMS is affected by a lower frequency with respect to AIS but covers a larger portion of the fleet. Furthermore, AIS mainly operates near the harbours, so that offshore activity is underrepresented. The integration of VMS and AIS data, however, allows valorising the strengths and minimizing the limits of each source. In fact, the assessment of the total spatial extent of fishing activities (as captured by the DCF indicator 5) is significantly improved by the integrated usage of VMS and AIS data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent studies reveal physical, economical, and socio-technical barriers when measuring performance of sustainable urban ration projects with existing assessment tools. This reality, enlarged in the Spanish context, has revealed the need of a friendly-user and holistic tool that can assist the agents involved in the decision-making process of urban regeneration projects. This paper presents the Guide of strategies for urban regeneration; a design-support tool developed by demand of the Government of the Valencian Community (Spain). Along this paper we describe how the Guide has been designed by integrating: in first place measures of exiting urban assessment tools, secondly lesson learned coming from the application of urban assessment tools to selected and rewarded urban best practices at European level, and thirdly the opinion of regional decision-makers and urban experts. As a result, this Guide offers strategies and recommendations on a self-questioning format that makes easy its implementation by any urban planner regardless of its expertise on the topic. It is based on an open-source philosophy with a nonprofit orientation, using transparent and easy-to-understand technical criteria. It can be applied to any kind of urban fabric and proposes equal representation of the thematic categories needed to be considered during an urban regeneration project design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the factors driving the variation in urban green space and plant communities in heterogeneous urban landscapes is crucial for maintaining biodiversity and important ecosystem services. In this study, we used a combination of field surveys, remote sensing, census data and spatial analysis to investigate the interrelationships among geographical and social-economic variables across 328 different urban structural units (USUs) and how they may influence the distributions of urban forest cover, plant diversity and abundance, within the central urban area of Beijing, China. We found that the urban green space coverage varied substantially across different types of USUs, with higher in agricultural lands ( N = 15), parks ( N = 46) and lowest in utility zones ( N = 36). The amount of urban green space within USUs declines exponentially with the distance to urban center. Our study suggested that geographical, social and economic factors were closely related with each other in urban ecological systems, and have important impacts on urban forest coverage and abundance. The percentage of forest as well as high and low density urban areas were mainly responsible for variations in the data across all USUs and all land use/land cover types, and thus are important constituents and ecological indicators for understanding and modeling urban environment. Herb richness is more strongly correlated with tree and shrub density than with tree and shrub richness ( r = −0.472, p < 0.05). However, other geographic and socioeconomic factors showed no significant relationships with urban plant diversity or abundance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainability assessment of biodiesel production is a topic of increasing importance due to the interest of governments to define sovereignty strategies and diversification of their energy matrix, and to set up the impact of biofuels production. In this context, this work aims to propose a hierarchical structure of sustainability assessment that integrates dimensions of sustainable development with principles, criteria and indicators (PC&I). The method employed to define the hierarchical structure was a comprehensive literature review, based on information search strategy and classification. About 400 documents were reviewed and 103 documents were ultimately selected, including laws, policy documents, certificates, directives and other normative documents and papers published in peer-reviewed journals. The first result of the analysis was the need to strengthen identification of the sustainable development assessment, adding the political and technological dimensions to the three traditional dimensions, social, economic and environmental, studied in this kind of evaluation. The second result was the proposal of a hierarchical framework for the sustainability assessment of biodiesel production, organized in four levels: the first level comprises the five dimensions associated with sustainable development evaluation, the second includes 13 principles, the third contains 40 criteria and the fourth level corresponds to a set of indicators that describes each criterion. Outcomes of this work provide a foundation for further discussion of sustainability assessments for biodiesel production and its potential application in specific contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental inequalities are based on the proximity of socio-economically disadvantaged populations to sources of environmental and public health risks, and have recently been extended to environmental contamination. We evaluated such inequalities using a novel approach, at the scale of neighbourhoods in the industrial area of Dunkerque, France, by associating an index of social disadvantage with environmental biomonitoring measurements. A Localised Disadvantage Index (LDI), which characterises the socio-economic status of populations at a neighbourhood level, was developed using an eco-sociological approach. The burdens of 18 trace elements (TE) were recently determined using samples of epiphytic lichens, collected within the study zone. A mean value of TE burden was modelled for each neighbourhood and an integrated index (Mean Impregnation Ratio, MIR) was generated to assess the level of multi-metallic contamination. LDI mapping reveals socio-economic disparities. The neighbourhoods situated near to factories are the most disadvantaged. Environmental maps reveal high contaminations in the vicinity of the industrial zones. The LDI is significantly correlated with the MIR, and with 16 of 18 TE. Significant differences in the level of contamination are observed between high- and low-deprived neighbourhoods. Our results uncover the presence of environmental inequalities. The most disadvantaged populations live in a strongly contaminated environment. We have pioneered the use of biomonitoring data and an integrated index of contamination for the prospection of environmental inequalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a factor associated with urban management and planning, urban development intensity (UDI) could in fact form the basis for a new rationale in coordinating urban sustainable development and reducing CO 2 emissions. However, existing literature engaging in the task of quantifying the impacts of urban development intensity on CO 2 emissions is limited. Therefore, the goal of this study is to quantify the relationship between urban development intensity and CO 2 emissions for a panel made up of the five major cities in China (Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Chongqing and Guangzhou) using time series data from 1995 to 2011. Firstly, this study calculated CO 2 emissions for the five selected cities and presented a comprehensive index system for the assessment of the level of urban development intensity based on six aspects (land-use intensity, economic intensity, population intensity, infrastructure intensity, public service intensity and eco-environmental intensity) using locally important socioeconomic variables. Panel data analysis was subsequently utilised in order to quantify the relationships between urban development intensity and CO 2 emissions. The empirical results of the study indicate that factors such as land-use intensity, economic intensity, population intensity, infrastructure intensity and public service intensity exert a positive influence on CO 2 emissions. Further, the estimated coefficients suggest that land-use intensity is the most important factor in relation to CO 2 emissions. Conversely, eco-environmental intensity was identified as having a major inhibitory effect on CO 2 emission levels. The findings of this study hold important implications for both academics and practitioners, indicating that, on the path towards developing low-carbon cities in China, the effects of urban development intensity must be taken into consideration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The choice of context-generic or -specific themes and subthemes (goals and objectives) for sustainability assessment implies a number of tradeoffs; for instance, benchmarking and resource efficiency vs. coverage and engagement. Analyses of the potentials and limitations of generic assessment themes and sub-themes within specific contexts may help to develop frameworks that minimise the tradeoffs between generic and specific assessment approaches. The aim of this study was to analyse the effectiveness of generic themes and sub-themes of existing frameworks for covering the key sustainability issues of a specific case study – the case of Danish maize for German biogas. The results indicate that generic frameworks can effectively cover context-specific issues related to the environmental dimension of sustainability. Conversely, generic frameworks can be unable to identify context-specific issues related to social and economic dimensions. This study suggests that the coverage gap of generic themes is mainly an issue of framework incompleteness that can be advanced with additional research. A one-size-fits-all specificity-level for sustainability assessment is not applicable, and the specificity-level should be tailored to the assessment purpose. A certain degree of stakeholder participation is recommended not only in the assessment process, but also during the framework design to support stakeholders' sustainability education and action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Overpopulation and deficient management of the worlds coastlines have seriously degraded beaches and coastal dunes, which are environments that provide valuable ecosystem services to society. The need to restore these ecosystems is increasingly urgent; however, this is a complex task since variables that differ widely (i.e. ecological, geomorphological and socio-economic) must all be taken into consideration. The present study proposes an index in the form of a weighted checklist named the “ReDune” Index (Restoration of coastal Dunes). This index allows decision makers and non-specialized professionals with some level of understanding of coastal dynamics to decide whether coastal dunes (foredunes) require and can be restored. Furthermore, in cases where more than one coastal dune system is to be evaluated, the index can distinguish which are in the most urgent need of restoration. The index consists of four sections: the first evaluates the degree of perturbation. The second determines the presence of endogenous and exogenous stress factors that may compromise the long-term stability of the restoration. The third section is focused on highlighting the abiotic and biotic elements that may facilitate restoration. Finally, the fourth section contributes to the identification of interests related to the conservation of the site and the provision of ecosystem services. The index was tested on 31 locations along the Gulf of Mexico, with differing sedimentary, ecological and human pressure characteristics and clearly distinguished between locations where restoration is urgent from those where it is not. This index can be applied on any foredune. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The seawater intrusion is a widespread environmental problem of coastal aquifers where more than two third of the world’s population lives. The indiscriminate and unplanned groundwater withdrawal for fulfilling the growing freshwater needs of coastal regions causes this problem. Computer-based models are useful tools for achieving the optimal solution of seawater intrusion management problems. Various simulation and optimization modeling approaches have been used to solve the problems. Optimization approaches have been shown to be of great importance when combined with simulation models. A review on the combined applications of simulation and optimization modeling for the seawater intrusion management of the coastal aquifers are done and is presented in this paper. The reviews revealed that the simulation–optimization modeling approach is very suitable for achieving an optimal solution of seawater intrusion management problems even with a large number of variables. It is recommended that the future research should be directed toward improving the long-term hydraulic assessment by collecting and analyzing widespread spatial data, which can be done by increasing the observation and monitoring networks. The coupling of socioeconomic aspects in the seawater intrusion modeling would be another aspect which could be included in the future studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coastal management is driven by the values and priorities of society as expressed through social, political, and economic systems. Diverse resource management goals reflect what society wants from its surrounding environments as presented in enabling legislation and other resource laws. Today, coastal management encompasses decisions of what to regulate, what enterprises and initiatives to promote, and which ecosystem services are most important to citizens and businesses. Data based on the natural or physical sciences are important, but are just one input into this socially driven, value-based process. This paper offers an insight into why an ecosystem service approach using human dimensions as the major driver is becoming an increasing focus of coastal resource management [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Spatio-temporal ecological vulnerabilities across the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. • An automatic and objective framework for ecological vulnerability assessment. • The vulnerability in Tibet significantly increased and that in Qinghai decreased. • Green vegetation is the dominant driver for ecological vulnerability. • Environmental protection projects are helpful in reducing ecological vulnerability. The Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (QTP) has the most fragile ecosystems in the world. Over the past decades, QTP is suffering from increasing external pressures of climate change, human activities, and natural hazards, thus ecological vulnerability assessment is crucial for its sustainable development. This study proposes an objective and automatic framework to assess the ecological vulnerability in the QTP under the threats of mountain hazards, ecosystem degradation and human economic activities and then analyze its spatio-temporal patterns from 2000 to 2015. An ecological vulnerability index (EVI) is established by integrating natural and anthropic factors based on sub-systems of land resources, hydro-meteorology, topography, and social economics. Seventeen indicators are selected to reflect ecological conditions and their weights are determined by principle component analysis and entropy weighting methods. Then, the EVI values are automatically categorized into five vulnerability levels of potential, light, moderate, heavy, and very heavy to illustrate their spatio-temporal patterns across the QTP. Results indicated that spatial distributions of EVI across the QTP exhibited similar patterns during the study period at an overall heavy level. Among all the indicators, vegetation was the dominant driver for ecological vulnerability. Based on trend analyses during the study period, approximately 10.43% of the QTP, mainly distributed in Tibet Autonomous Region, experienced significant increase in ecological vulnerability, while 7.38%, mainly distributed in Qinghai Province, experienced significant ecological vulnerability declination. However, more detailed analyses showed that after the implementation of several ecological protection programs, the increasing trend of ecological vulnerability was eased and more regions experienced significantly decreasing vulnerability. This indicated the ecological restoration projects conducted by the government were efficient in reducing ecological vulnerability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]