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Pines play a significant role in forest biodiversity globally and generate huge forest litter. Dry pine needles due to low ignition temperature and high frictional force with the ground catch fire quickly. Annual forest fires in the northern states of India greatly impact the Indian economy besides causing huge loss to biodiversity, livelihood, and environment. Pine needles are also considered unfit for fodder consumption due to presence of tannins. Although the presence of softwood lignin in pine needles makes it difficult to degrade easily, the presence of holocellulose (68.5%) containing 45-51% cellulose makes this biomass a potential substrate to be used in pulp-making industries for low-grade paper sheets. The good fiber length of pine needles (1.3-1.4 mm) with a diameter of 30-32 μm, maybe considered important property for paper making. The use of pine needles in the pharmaceutical and food industries are due to the presence of secondary metabolites (α-pinene, β-pinene, caryophyllene etc.). The various other potential applications of pine needles are for producing bio-ethanol (yield, 3.98%; purity, 94%), biogas (yield, 23.1 L kg -1 ), smokeless briquettes (calorific value, 18.77 MJ kg -1 ), biochar (calorific value, 25.6 MJ kg -1 ), bio-composites (tensile strength, 21-60 MPa), and bio-pesticides. This paper comprehensively reviews the current applications of pine needles along with its future prospective applications that can have the dual advantage of providing employment opportunities to the people along with environmental protection., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

There is a growing emphasis on fostering green growth and lowering carbon emissions in order to achieve sustainable economic development. This study uses the Tapio decoupling model and analyzes the factors influencing changes in carbon emissions from manufacturing in India utilizing the log mean Divisia index (LMDI) techniques. Furthermore, the nexus between carbon emission intensity, information and communication technology (ICT), total factor productivity (TFP), skill, and energy intensity has been analyzed using the system-GMM approach. It is based on the plant-level Annual Survey of Industries (ASI) datasets for the organized manufacturing sector of India from 2001 to 2002 to 2019 2020 for the major 21 Indian states/UT. The findings reflect the presence of weak decoupling in the manufacturing sector both at the aggregate level and in states. This indicates that both output and emissions are increasing; however, output growth surpasses emission growth, which signifies an effort to transition towards more environmentally friendly production methods and enhanced energy efficiency. The output and population effect are found to be leading factors in carbon emissions, while energy intensity is found to be reducing the effect. Further, the system-GMM estimates show that ICT and energy intensity positively affect total factor productivity, while with an increase in carbon emission intensity, productivity declines. The study confirms the existence of an inverted N-shaped Kuznets curve in the sector. This present study will contribute to formulating energy and environmental strategies to reduce emissions and promote adopting cleaner energy sources. These efforts will facilitate the attainment of carbon neutrality and enhance energy efficiency within the sector., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

The woody legume, Albizia lebbeck, is native to tropical Asia, Africa, and Northern Australia. Owing to its multi-utility, it is widely planted as block plantation and in boundary across community lands. A field study was conducted by measuring the biometric value of trees, viz., height and diameter at every 2-m height using a tree telescope. Besides biometric attributes, age was assessed in order to correlate the age-wise yield. The study was carried out in the western agro-climatic zone of Tamil Nadu in different age classes of trees, viz., 1-5 years, 6-10 years, 11-15 years, 16-20 years, 21-25 years, 26-30 years, and 31-35 years. The uniqueness of the present study is that the yield model construction for Albizia was done for standard stem timber (Volume at diameter 20 cm over bark) and standard stem small wood (Volume between diameter limits of 20 cm and 5 cm both measured over bark). After computing the data and subjecting for multiple linear regression analysis, the model was constructed, so as to develop yield table accurately for Albizia without the help of form factor. The study result developed two exclusive yield models; namely, the standard stem timber yield model for Albizia was Y = (-1.212) + (-0.012*age) + (6.506*diameter) and the standard model for stem small wood was Y = (-0.945) + (-0.045*age) + (2.769*diameter) + (0.262*no. of branches). The prominence of the present study is that yield table computation for Albizia is possible accurately without destructive analysis and the cumbersome process of developing form factor., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Asian countries are facing difficulties in attaining sustainable development goals (SDGs), and India is not an exception to it, with environmental degradation being one of the primary issues. Therefore, a policy-level reorientation may be required to address it. From this standpoint, fiscal policy instruments may come in handy towards fully integrating the SDGs into its agenda. The present investigation designs an SDG framework for India that could serve as an example for other Asian nations. This study introduces a new investigation exploring the relationship between fiscal policy instruments and environmental quality in India by examining the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis from 1990 to 2021. A nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag (NARDL) model is applied for empirical examination. The findings indicate that positive and negative shocks in fiscal policy instruments have significant impact on carbon emissions in both the long and short run. The study has also found evidence of an "inverted U-shape" EKC for India. These results are valuable from a policy perspective for India and other Asian countries to address environmental issues. The study has also outlined potential outcomes that may benefit India's fiscal policy in resolving environmental issues and attaining better economic growth. In the end, the study proposes a policy framework that supports SDG 7, SDG 8, SDG 12, SDG 13, and SDG 17 objectives., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

The European Council completed the legislative procedure to establish the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) on April 25, 2023, which will be launched in 2027. The iron and steel sector is the main target of the forthcoming CBAM due to the industry's energy-intensive consumption with high carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions. However, minimal existing research has been conducted in this regard. This study employs GTAP-e 11.0 and TOPSIS models to estimate the effects of CBAM implementation on the major nations around the world from 2027 to 2030, examining countries' GDP, social welfare, iron and steel production, trade balance, and CO 2 emissions to the global environment. This study concludes: (1) The GDP and social welfare of important iron and steel trade partners throughout the world will be significantly impacted by the application of CBAM. Most nations, including those in the EU, will experience negative GDP effects, with China undergoing the most pronounced social welfare declines followed by India. In contrast, the EU27 will benefit the most in terms of social welfare, followed by the US, Japan, and Russia. (2) Iron and steel production will decrease in all countries outside the EU, but it will have a positive impact on the trade balance of most countries. (3) The CO 2 emissions of all countries except for the EU and Japan will decrease, with a positive impact on preventing carbon leakage in the international iron and steel trade. (4) Comprehensive analysis demonstrates that the EU will benefit the most, and China will suffer the most from CBAM application. Based on the above conclusions, this study proposes corresponding policy recommendations., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Anthropogenic alterations have paramount impacts on the alpha and beta diversity of aquatic resources, and fishes are predominantly susceptible to such impacts. Mahanadi River, one of the major peninsular rivers of India, has abundant fish resources, which play a significant role in supporting the fishers' livelihoods. The exploratory study in the river conducted for three consecutive years recorded 148 species under 53 families. Cyprinids dominated the fish diversity with 41 species, followed by Bagrids (9) and Sciaenids (7). One hundred-one species under 29 families were reported from the freshwater stretch. With a total of 111 species reported under 48 families, the estuarine and tidal freshwater stretch was more speciose, due to marine migrant species which advent the estuarine and tidal freshwaters stretch for breeding and feeding purposes. Tikarpara, a conserved site within a sanctuary, was the most species-diverse as well as a species-even site. The study also recorded the extension of the distributional range of 3 fish species and also 4 exotic species from the river. The seasonal variations in diversity indicated that the deviations were not prominent in freshwater sites, whereas in tidal brackish water sites, species richness was relatively higher in post-monsoon, and species evenness was higher during monsoon. Taxonomic distinctness test showed that the average taxonomic distinctness was high for tidal estuarine locations as they harbour taxonomically distant fishes. The hierarchical clustering of sites showed the inordinate effect of river gradient and fragmentation on the fish community structure. Analyzing the key drivers of the assemblage structure of the entire river, salinity was the major deterministic factor, and within the freshwater stretch, the major influences were depth, transparency, and specific conductivity. The study concluded that, despite all of its ecological stresses, Mahanadi still supports rich fish diversity, yet there is a notable shift in the fish community structure. There is a need for integrating molecular and morphological tools for the taxonomic revision of many genera and species for proper in situ and ex situ conservation measures and to formulate future biodiversity management plans addressing to reduce the impacts of the ecological threats., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

This paper investigates the time-varying effects of fossil fuel consumption on CO2 emissions in India utilizing the time-varying cointegration test, allowing for multivariate long-run time-varying cointegration parameter developed by Bierens and Martins (2010) and the time-varying vector autoregressive (TVP-VAR) model developed by Primiceri (2005). The long-run time-varying coefficients reveal that GDP has a positive and increasing impact on CO2 emissions over time. Moreover, results confirm the polluting effects of all fossil fuels. Besides, the TVP-VAR model findings also demonstrate that changes in income and fossil fuel consumption have a positive and significant impact on environmental degradation. Coal is found to be the most polluting fuel, followed by oil consumption. Furthermore, the time-varying responses show that increased natural gas consumption has the least influence when compared to other fossil fuels on CO2 emissions., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Population in South Asia is increasing ever than a faster rate, subsequently; food security, climate change, and capital intensive agro farming techniques are the prevailing challenges in this region. This is a tri-country penal analysis, Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh, and the study covers the data throughout (1973-2020). This study has used modern farm input data besides demographic variables in the study. In this study, we use panel data set, ARDL (PMG) approach, autoregressive distributed lag model pooled mean group, which is an extensively dynamic modeling technique for heterogeneous data. The results of the study explore that transition in the demographic pattern in Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh is the real cause of low crop productivity and land intensification. Technology innovation is the only ray of hope to fulfill the food demand of the future ahead and climate agriculture practices can hamper the further deterioration of the small farmlands., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

The focus of sustainable development goals (SDGs) is to promote the use of renewable energy so that countries can achieve better environmental quality. However, the progression is plodding, and still, 80% of energy comes mainly from conventional sources in developing countries. The implementation of procedures depends on the political attitudes, political stability, and quality of institutions. India has a diverse political structure ranging from central government to state government to local governments. In the late '80 s, India witnessed a stiff rise in regional and national political parties, which leads more political competition. This paper tries to explain the possible relationship between political competition and CO 2 emission in India. With the application of the time series non-linear ARDL (NARDL) model, this study tries to find the asymmetric relationship between political competition and CO 2 emission. In our empirical model, we also include other important elements of environmental quality like innovation and fossil fuel consumption. Empirical results show that political competition is asymmetrically related to CO 2 emissions in the long run. Fossil fuel consumption and innovation also have a significant relationship with emissions. Based on the results, a few policy recommendations have been discussed., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Historically, industrialization has been a catalyst for built-up expansion generated by economic growth that transforms a landscape. In India, there is a paucity of exploration into how the economic shift transforms the cityscape. Therefore, the objective of current research work was to monitor built-up growth induced by industrialization using Landsat datasets and registered industry data. The k-means clustering technique was applied for assessing land use/land cover, Shannon entropy for sprawl, and Pearson for correlation between industrial growth and built-up expansion. The results manifest exponential trend in industrialization with 102-year registered industry record along with increase in built-up density from 0.30 in 1989 to 0.69 by 2019 and in the entire Delhi; it rose from 0.16 to 0.39. Furthermore, Shannon entropy confirmed the sprawl and the strong positive correlation was found among built-up of industrial areas and built-up of Delhi and registered industries. The striking chorological change in industrial as well as city's landscape was observed co-occurring with the dynamics of economic reforms. The outcome of current research could be utilized for the sustainable planning of industrial landscape in Delhi and cities with alike geographical conditions., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Energy-harnessing sources significantly influence a country's infrastructure and economic development. Though nuclear and hydel power sources are used for energy harnessing, thermal sources are still the primary power source in India and contribute to 75% of the demand. Thermal power plants exploit large volumes of coal reserves. The combustion of coal leads to 30%-40% of waste ash residues such as Fly ash and Bottom ash. Though Fly ash finds greater applicability, pond ash poses a severe environmental hazard due to its large occupancy of terrain in ash dykes and lagoons. Many research efforts are underway to utilize pond ash in various structural and geotechnical infrastructure projects; however, there are still limitations and apprehensions about its properties and determination. The present study provides a detailed review of the morphological and chemical properties. Further, the geotechnical attributes of pond ash, including strength characteristics, consolidation parameters, and durability aspects, are critically reviewed for the probable application as fill material for backfill and many other applications. Based on the earlier research on pond ash, it could be comprehended that pond ash has wide property variability and finds compatibility with many other pozzolanic admixtures and, in this way, finds broader applicability in geotechnical projects. The way forwards could be a significant step towards cleaner and greener technology., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

The groundwater physicochemical parameters were studied to understand their spatiotemporal variations and groundwater quality, using the statistical and entropy weights methods. Out of ten parameters that were considered, F - , TDS, and Cl - appear to be the major contributors influencing the quality of groundwater. The Principal Component Analysis (PC1, PC2) indicates that the majority of ions are derived from both natural and anthropogenic sources. Studies of saturation indices of gypsum, Halite, dolomite, and calcite indicate that dissolution of these salts also affects groundwater salinization. In coastal areas, a few of the water samples also appear to be contaminated by the mixing of seawater. The entropy weights, which are free from subjective biases were used to estimate the water quality index. The entropy-based water quality index (EWQI) varies from excellent to good quality for the year 2012-13, and appears to degrade after 2015 onwards. For the year 2018-19 and 2021-22, 71.42% and 68.42% of the study areas show excellent water quality, followed by 25.33% and 24.33% (good), 2.54% and 3.54% (average), 0.7% and 3.7% study area shows as poor quality respectively. The groundwater quality, particularly in the western, central, northern, and eastern parts of the region, appears to be average, poor, and very poor in several small patches, respectively. Industrial developments, mining activities, irrigation, changing land use patterns, agricultural activities, and increased anthropogenic activities may be contributing to the degradation of the water quality., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

For nearly two years, a persistent foam cover has been observed during the post-monsoon season in the Yamuna River beneath the barrage near Okhla in Delhi, India. This affair has been a matter of public concern now, after the gigantic appearance of foam in November 2021, as the visibility of foam has awakened people's environmental 'conscience' over the 'concealed' chemical pollution. The mechanisms of agents responsible for foaming in rivers, particularly surfactants and phosphates, have received wide attention in the dynamic community of river pollution. Many studies in the past, around the globe, have evidently provided different rationales behind the dense foam formation in rivers, yet the Concerned Govt. Authorities have highlighted the cause of foam formation in the river Yamuna is associated with the presence of detergents and phosphates as foaming agents. Despite this, an aperture with copious unaccounted factors or underlying agents still exists to rationalize the foam formation and persistence. In this article, we outline these unaccounted factors which might be responsible for the foam formation and stabilization and give indications for future research directives towards the emergence of studies regarding the dense foam formation in river Yamuna., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

In recent years, environmental issues have become controversial, and policymakers are discovering new predictors of carbon emissions. Some economists/researchers have advocated for fiscal decentralization to improve the quality of the environment by offering more financial authority to provincial/local and sub-national governments. Therefore, this work aims to inspect the effect of fiscal decentralization on economic growth and environmental quality in India by taking data from 1996 to 2021. This work applies both ARDL and NARDL econometric models for empirical examination. The findings of this study suggest that expenditure decentralization has asymmetric long-term and short-term consequences on economic growth, and carbon emission in India. The result of the asymmetric ARDL model also indicates that positive and negative shock in expenditure decentralization contrarily affects economic growth and carbon emission. Moreover, the positive and negative shock in revenue decentralization helps in reducing carbon emissions both in the long run and short run in India. These outcomes are useful for policy analysis from the Indian economic policy perspective. The study also laid out potential outcomes that may benefit India's local governments and central government in resolving the issues of economic growth and environmental degradation., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

A key strategy for social development and sustainable urban expansion is building sustainable and affordable transport systems. In this study, we aim to test the validity of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis and reveal the impact of infrastructure investment in transportation systems in China, Turkey, India, and Japan over the period 1995-2020 on environmental degradation. According to dynamic ordinary least squares (DOLS) method analysis, per capita GDP and per capita GDP 3 have a significant positive impact on per capita CO 2 emission, while per capita GDP 2 has a significant adverse impact on per capita CO 2 emission. These results confirm the validity of the N-shaped EKC assumption, while inconsistent with the results of the FMOLS technique, showing that per capita GDP is significantly positive, while per capita GDP 2 and per capita GDP 3 have a significant negative impact on per capita carbon emissions. Moreover, as clarified by the fully modified ordinary least squares (FMOLS) and DOLS methods, road infrastructure investment (RO), aviation infrastructure investment, trade openness, and foreign direct investment (FDI) have significant positive effects, while railway infrastructure investment (RA) has a significant negative effect on per capita carbon emission. Country-level estimates of per capita carbon emission-based DOLS strategies in the model show that only China and Japan have N-shaped EKC hypothesis. Road infrastructure investment, aviation infrastructure investment, and trade openness have significant positive effects, while railway infrastructure investment has a significant negative effect on per capita CO 2 emission in selected central and east Asian countries. The latest electrified rail systems are well thought out and less polluting, so the contribution of rail infrastructure investment to the transport mix can support sustainable and safe transport systems at city center and intercity levels and reduce environmental pollution in central and east Asian countries. Moreover, the implementation of the basic environmental settings of trade agreements should be strengthened to condense the growing impact of free trade on environmental pollution., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Developing nations aim to industrialize and grow sustainably often ignoring the environmental consequences. However, few empirical studies have looked at the influence of industrialization-driven economic transition on carbon footprint in developing nations using a non-parametric approach. In this milieu, on the ground of Kaya's identity and the novel multivariate quantile-on-quantile regression (QQR) (extension of Sim and Zhou's (2015) bivariate QQR model), the present research studies the impact of industrial value-added (IGVA), population, energy intensity, and carbon intensity on CO 2 emissions in India. This study is one of the first in the literature to evaluate the industrialization-carbonization nexus in the context of Kaya's identity for the Indian economy utilizing an innovative multivariate QQR approach, which makes a methodological and empirical addition to the literature. The outcomes of the multivariate QQR technique demonstrate that economic and environmental development requires continual long-run strategies. The empirical findings revealed that there is no authentication that India's carbon emissions increased due to its industrialization, which exhibited that IGVA has a negative and significant connection with CO 2 emissions. In some quantiles, population size positively impacts CO 2 emissions. On the other hand, carbonization in the Indian economy is asymmetrically affected by GDP per capita and energy and carbon intensity. The quantile Granger causality study further supported the aforementioned results. The current analysis also offers policy suggestions for environmentally friendly sustainable economic growth and to achieve the sustainable development goals (SDGs) of India., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

The current research is focused on detecting a river basin suitable for agriculture and priority for management using a new clustering tool of groundwater quality with fuzzy logic technique in R and Geographical Information System. A new fuzzy clustering-soft computing technique has been executed to determine the different hydrochemical zones considering 13 essential parameters such as electrical conductivity, hardness, chloride, sodium adsorption ratio, residual sodium carbonate, soluble sodium percent, magnesium hazard, permeability index, potential salinity, residual sodium bicarbonate, Kelly's ratio, synthetic harmful coefficient, and exchangeable sodium percentage. The derived fuzzy C-mean clustering (FCM) outperformed other available hard computing techniques like hierarchical clustering, K-means clustering, and agglomerative clustering. It divided the sampling sites into 2 clustering groups (FCM I and FCM II) which has been validated using fuzzy silhouette index (0.85), the partition coefficient (0.76), the partial entropy (0.68), and the modified partition coefficient (0.52). The hydrogeochemical analysis confirmed that the rock-water interaction, chemical weathering, and ion exchange process are predominant in the aquifer system of the study area. According to the correlation plots, the studied groundwater samples largely evolved from [Formula: see text], mixed [Formula: see text] types, and [Formula: see text] types. The spatial distribution map and the hydrochemical analysis also gives a clear depiction of the fluoride (> 1.0 mg/l) and high iron (> 0.3 mg/l) contamination in groundwater quality, making it unsuitable for both drinking and irrigation. A fuzzy EDAS priority map has been prepared based on all the irrigation suitability parameters which concludes that the groundwater at the upstream and downstream section of the basin requires the most attention. Based on the highest priority for management, five zones have been delineated: very high (5.98%), high (22.31%), medium (16.39%), low (32.30%), and very low (23.02). The findings of this study will be beneficial to planners and policymakers as they can develop schemes to solve similar problems across the country., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

This research investigated the association between financial inclusion, energy poverty alleviation, and economic development in South Asian countries and found significant connections. In order to make multilateral conclusions, we have created a panel of data for nations in South Asia and estimated not only the dynamic panel estimation but also the panel unit root, Kao (1999) estimates, and the ARDL tests for each country. A significant association between financial inclusion and economic development and poverty reduction is discovered by using dynamic panel estimates. Economic development has also been shown to have a favorable influence on energy poverty alleviation. According to the findings of the ARDL analysis, financial inclusion has a beneficial influence on economic development. Financial inclusion and economic growth have reciprocal causalities in energy poverty alleviation, as shown by the study's testing of this association. As a result, it is acceptable to infer that financial inclusion favors economic development and poverty reduction in South Asia. The study also suggests the policy implications for stakeholders., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Green growth refers to the economic growth strategy, which is less detrimental to natural assets, predominantly the environment. Therefore, the main motive of investment and innovation activities should be to attain economic growth while sustainably utilizing natural assets. In this regard, we aim to explore whether ICT diffusion and financial development matter for attaining green economic growth in BRICS economies. The long-run autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) results show that internet development exerts a positive influence on green growth in four BRICS economies excluding India. However, the long-run estimates of mobile cellular subscriptions are positive only in Russia and China. On the other side, the increase in bank credit and insurance premium also contributes to the long-run green economic growth in almost all BRICS economies. Policymakers should focus on the increased use of ICT in the economy that would replace the physical resources in the economy with information resources. Besides, financial services should be provided to individuals and small and medium enterprises involved in green consumption and production activities., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

The 2030 United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 13 agenda hinges on attaining a sustainable environment with the need to "take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts". Hence, this study empirically revisits the debate on the effect of nonrenewable energy and globalization on carbon emissions within the framework of the Kuznets hypothesis using an unbalanced panel data from seven South Asian countries (Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka) covering 1980-2019. The variables of interest are carbon emissions measured in metric tons per capita, energy use measured as kg of oil equivalent per capita, and globalization index. To address five main objectives, we deploy four techniques: panel-corrected standard errors (PCSE), feasible generalized least squares (FGLS), quantile regression (QR), and fully modified ordinary least squares (FMOLS). For the most part, the findings reveal that the (1) inverted U-shaped energy-Kuznets curve holds; (2) U-shaped globalization-Kuznets curve is evident; (3) inverted U-shaped turning points for nonrenewable energy are 496.03 and 640.84, while for globalization are 38.83 and 39.04, respectively; (4) globalization-emission relationship indicates a U-shaped relationship at the median and 75th quantile; and (5) inverted U-shaped energy-Kuznets holds in Pakistan but a U-shaped nexus prevails in Nepal and Sri Lanka; inverted U-shaped globalization-Kuznets holds in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, but U-shaped nexus is evident in Bhutan, Maldives, and Nepal. Deductively, our results show that South Asia countries (at early stage of development) are faced with the hazardous substance that deteriorates human health. Moreover, the non-linear square term of the nonrenewable energy-emissions relationship is negative, which validates the inverted U-shaped EKC theory. Overall, the effect of energy and globalization on carbon emissions is opposite while the consistency at the 75th quantile result indicates that countries with intense globalization are prone to environmental degradation., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

Agriculture, meteorological, and hydrological drought is a natural hazard which affects ecosystems in the central India of Maharashtra state. Due to limited historical data for drought monitoring and forecasting available in the central India of Maharashtra state, implementing machine learning (ML) algorithms could allow for the prediction of future drought events. In this paper, we have focused on the prediction accuracy of meteorological drought in the semi-arid region based on the standardized precipitation index (SPI) using the random forest (RF), random tree (RT), and Gaussian process regression (GPR-PUK kernel) models. A different combination of machine learning models and variables has been performed for the forecasting of metrological drought based on the SPI-6 and 12 months. Models were developed using monthly rainfall data for the period of 2000-2019 at two meteorological stations, namely, Karanjali and Gangawdi, each representing a geographical region of Upper Godavari river basin area in the central India of Maharashtra state which frequently experiences droughts. Historical data from the SPI from 2000 to 2013 was processed to train the model into machine learning model, and the rest of the 2014 to 2019-year data were used for testing to forecast the SPI and metrological drought. The mean square error (MSE), root mean square error (RMSE), adjusted R 2 , Mallows' (Cp), Akaike's (AIC), Schwarz's (SBC), and Amemiya's PC were used to identify the best combination input model and best subregression analysis for both stations of SPI-6 and 12. The correlation coefficient ([Formula: see text]), mean absolute error (MAE), root mean square error (RMSE), relative absolute error (RAE), and root relative squared error (RRSE) were used to perform evaluation for SPI-6 and 12 months of both stations with RF, RT, and GPR-PUK kernel models during the training and testing scenarios. The results during testing phase revealed that the RF was found as the best model in forecasting droughts with values of [Formula: see text], MAE, RMSE, RAE (%), and RRSE (%) being 0.856, 0.551, 0.718, 74.778, and 54.019, respectively, for SPI-6 while 0.961, 0.361, 0.538, 34.926, and 28.262, respectively, for SPI-12 scales at Gangawdi station. Further, the respective values of evaluators at Karanjali station were 0.913 and 0.966, 0.541 and 0.386, 0.604 and 0.589, 52.592 and 36.959, and 42.315 and 31.394 for PUK kernel and RT models, respectively, during SPI-6 and SPI-12. Machine learning models are potential drought warning techniques because they take less time, have fewer inputs, and are less sophisticated than dynamic or scientific models., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Climate action got attention from the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Although a large number of studies are investigating the said phenomenon, however, the literature on the top five responsible countries is unable to evaluate the role of environment-related technologies (ERTs) and institutional quality (IQ). The top five consumption-based carbon dioxide (CBCO 2 ) emitting economies, i.e., China, India, Japan, Russia, and the USA, are considerable stakeholders in this challenge. To fill this void, with the latest data available from 1992 to 2017, short- and long-run relationships are estimated with dynamic common correlated effects estimator and augmented mean group in the framework of EKC hypothesis. Reported results indicate the negative effect of ERTs and IQ towards CBCO 2 , which means that adoption of ERTs and better IQ is supportive in controlling environmental degradation. Findings are also robust to the policy implications for the UN's SDGs., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

The main objective of this paper is to look at how environmental degradation in the form of climate change and air pollution affect international tourism for five countries such as Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa (BRICS) over the years 1990-2019. Other independent variables include information and communication technology (ICT) and democracy. We also look at the role of environmental regulation to see the validity of porter hypothesis in the tourism sector. To achieve this objective, we apply a novel method of moments quantile regression approach as well as a robust causality technique. The result shows that at lower and medium quantile, CO 2 emission has positive impact on tourism while at higher quantile, CO 2 emission has negative but insignificant effect on tourism in BRICS countries. The result for PM2.5 is uniform across all the quantiles, showing the negative effect on tourism. ICT and human capital positively affect the tourism while democracy has negative impact on the tourism sector of the BRICS nations. The result also validated the Porter hypothesis for tourism sector. We conclude that tourism industry stakeholders and the environmental policymakers must work together to integrate tourism policies with BRICS countries' environmental conservation policies as part of the transition to sustainable tourism industry., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Groundwater quality in Yalamlam basin, Saudi Arabia, was appraised for drinking, irrigation, livestock and poultry applications by international standards, drinking water quality index (DWQI), irrigation water quality (IWQ) parameters, and irrigation water quality index (IWQI) calculations. Potential non-carcinogenic health risks due to high NO 3 - and F - water were assessed for various age groups using the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) models. Groundwater samples (n = 40) were analyzed for pH, electrical conductivity (EC), and major and minor constituents. The average total dissolved solids (TDS), EC, and total hardness (TH) in the groundwater are 3478 µS/cm, 1739 mg/l, and 1240 mg/l, respectively. High salinity, TH, NO 3 - , and F - in this aquifer restrict the usage of groundwater for drinking. DWQI values suggest that only 47.5% of samples are potable. According to USEPA recommendation, 72.5%, 80%, and 100% of samples for NO 3 - and 22.5%, 32.5%, and 40% of samples for F - surpassed the limit (HQ oral  > 1) for adults, children, and infants, respectively, which creates non-carcinogenic health hazards to the respective age groups. The total hazard index is greater than one in 75%, 87.5%, and 100% of samples computed for adults, children, and infants, respectively. Due to high salinity, 53% of samples are not pertinent for irrigation. USSL classification reveals that groundwater samples in the study site are recommended only for salt-tolerant crops and coarse-textured high permeability soil. In this study, IWQI is reclassified using salinity, which suggests that 68% of samples are moderately suitable for irrigation. Based on EC alone, 83% are desirable for livestock and poultry uses whereas integration of multiple parameters with EC indicates that only 53% are acceptable for all kinds of livestock and poultry uses in the study site. Spatial distribution of major and minor ions, DWQI, HQ oral , and IWQI imply that groundwater quality is degraded from upstream to downstream. High salinity groundwater in the downstream wells is unsuitable for any application, which needs a proper treatment before use. Spatial maps created for various parameters are useful for identifying the good quality groundwater zone for groundwater development potential for various stakeholders., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), a partnership tool founded under the Kyoto Protocol, grants potential opportunities to help developing countries achieve sustainable development. The present research examines the CDM projects in Eastern Europe (Moldova, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, and Albania). Although there were far fewer projects in this region than, for instance, China or India, it has some specific features that make it worth studying. Major findings are that most CDM projects in Eastern Europe involved a changing combination of two or more sources of financing, and the distribution of projects in the region was uneven. Moreover, although there was a small number of projects overall, they were all cost-effective, long-term and large-scale. The findings of the research call for improvements to be made to the governance of the CDM, by strengthening the international and national regulation of projects and by aggregating the scales of decision-making and actions so that real multi-scalar transnational governance - from the global level down to the local level - is implemented in a coherent manner. It is also recommended to carry out ex-post project evaluations, following which readjustments could be made., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

Cement is a fundamental building and construction material for societies around the world. However, its manufacturing process is exceptionally energy intensive and has a substantial contribution to the man-made global warming potential which calls for immediate reduction. In this context, the implementation of green production practices and technologies in the Indian cement sector is of particular interest and global impact given that the country is the second biggest producer worldwide. Furthermore, the literature reveals that although the implementation of green practices in the cement manufacturing sector faces barriers across a variety of aspects, there is only limited research focussing on developing countries. This research covers this gap by concentrating on the barriers encountered by the cement sector of India and proposes strategies for their alleviation based on input from five experts and the use of the multi-criteria decision making method (MCDM) best-worst method (BWM). The results show that the lack of conducive corporate environment is the most important barrier, inadequate skills and attitudes are the second, while capital-related limitations come third. The experts highlight the need for mechanisms promoting cost effective environmental research and training as well as appropriate funding instruments and procurement rules from the government. Furthermore, a clear vision and plan from the management's part are fundamental for the effective incorporation of green practices in the organisational identity and the required employee engagement., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

It is need of the hour to investigate the impacts of climate parameters on agricultural production in a developing region of South Asia. Therefore, this work attempts to explore the climatic indicators on agricultural production for selected South Asian countries over the annual data of 1961-2016. This study estimates the impacts of rainfall, temperature, rural population, land under cereal production, and CO 2 emissions (ECO 2 ) on agricultural production. For empirical analysis, we applied second-generation unit root tests. After examining the order of integration of time series, we check for the co-integration among the variables. Before the co-integration test, we check for cross-section dependence among the variables. CD and LM tests confirm the existence of cross-section dependence. Afterward, we apply the Westerlund co-integration test to confirm the strong association among the variables. Further, we applied two methods for long-run coefficients of independent variables. Dynamic ordinary least square (DOLS) and fully modified ordinary least square (FMOLS) tests were applied to cross-check the findings. Our findings show that rural population and rainfall are negatively associated with agricultural production. Moreover, temperature, land area under cereal production, and ECO 2 are positively associated with agricultural production. Our findings shed light on some important policy implications for South Asian countries., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Bangladesh government is in the final stage of setting up one nuclear power plant with two units at Rooppur, Ishwardi, each having 1200 MW capacity, to be launched in 2023 to meet the energy shortage urgently. The financial cost of the project is the US $12.65 billion. The primary purpose of this paper is to calculate the economic cost of setting up this plant by using the estimation method developed by Du and Parsons (2009), MIT (2003; 2009; 2018), and Singh et al.  (2018). It has been found that the economic cost is amounted to 9.36 cents/kWh for the capacity of 2400 MW. In contrast, for a similar plant in Kudankulam, Tamil Nadu, India, the corresponding cost figure is 5.36 cents/kWh for 2000 MW. Even though it seems costlier than India, the study suggests that policymakers should prefer nuclear power, as it is cost-competitive, considering the production cost of other electricity facilities. The main advantage of nuclear power is cost-competitive baseload power generation with zero carbon emission. This nuclear power plant (NPP) project is expected to boost the energy sector of Bangladesh by transforming the country from an energy deficit country into an energy surplus country., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Recent advancements in environmental monitoring and analysis have created public and institutional awareness on the social and health impacts of air pollution at public places of tourists' attraction. Monuments stand as the celebrated remnants of bygone representations in the social and cultural tradition of any civilised state. India, being one of the oldest and live civilisations, owns numerous places of historical evidences in the form of both constructed museums and living monuments such as temples and palaces. Continuous exposure to the emission of gaseous and particulate pollutants has made remarkable evidences of damage to the artefacts and monumental structures located in major cities of the world. The aim of this study is to present an overview of the scientific attempts pertaining to the evaluation of impacts of air pollution and other meteorological changes on the historical monuments in India in the context of the global scenario. It is observed that seasonal fluctuations in the outdoor climate and increased human activities in the vicinity of the museums have plausible impacts on the immediate changes in the indoor air quality. The variations in the outdoor air quality are greatly affected by the traffic emissions and industrial emissions, while the indoor air quality is mostly affected by the improper ventilation and lack of proper control measures. The study provides strategies for developing air quality standards for museum environment and proposes a few technical and administrative solutions to improve the air quality for indoor museums as well as outdoor monuments., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

This work reports the preparation of a metal-free nitrogen and sulphur functionalized graphitic carbon sheets from a unique and less expensive precursor Lantana camara, which is a common hazardous weed in India. The synthesized material NS-CN-180 was successfully tested for the adsorption and removal of fluoroquinolone antibiotics ciprofloxacin. The surface morphology and elemental composition of NS-CN-180 were investigated through FESEM and XPS analyses. The SEM data reveals the graphitic sheets stacked onto each other with cavities in between them. The presence of various functional groups was identified through FT-IR spectroscopy and the degree of graphitization was calculated from XRD pattern. The probable mechanism of interaction for ciprofloxacin molecule with NS-CN-180 was also investigated with the help of FT-IR and zeta potential analyses. The fabricated material was found to be excellent for ciprofloxacin detection with a limit of detection value 16.08 nM. Also, the prepared material efficiently removes the 66.2% ciprofloxacin drug in 1 h. Adsorption and desorption experiments were performed to demonstrate the reusability of the material., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Environmental sustainability concerns are growing worldwide. Many recent studies have focused on key indicators of CO2 emissions, but less consideration has been given to human capital. This study examines the impact of human capital on CO2 emissions in Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa (BRICS) economies from 1991 to 2019 using a nonlinear panel autoregressive distributed lag approach. Findings show that positive change in education has reduced CO2 emissions, while a negative change in education has increased CO2 emissions in the long run in a group of BRICS. Regarding economy-wise analysis, a positive change in education reduces CO2 emissions in Russia, China, and South Africa in the long run, but a negative change in education has an increasing impact on CO2 emissions in Brazil and China. The results of robustness are also maintained in group and economy-wise empirical analysis. Policymakers should develop the education sector infrastructure in order to support the decrease of CO2 emissions., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

A massive bird dropping (BD) deposition on the common rectangular flat plate (RFP) of photovoltaic (PV) module is a matter of great concern in Western Rajasthan (WR) that diminish the overall energy production capacity of the system remarkably. In this research article, a prototype novel flat plate (NFP) design of a front glass cover of PV module is proposed to prevent the impact of BD settlement by the restriction of bird's sitting/movement on the front glass cover. In this regard, the performance analysis of PV module with common RFP and newly designed NFP glass covers has been assessed at the different inclination β° (0-90). The BD accumulation onto the both glass covers was explored by the optical transmittance profiles at the different tilt angles, i.e., explained by bird movement on each flat glass surfaces. Consequently, a significant amount of output electric energy has been gained in NFP design rather than RFP corresponding to particular tilt regions TR I (0° ≤ β ≤ 25°), TR II (25° ≤ β ≤ 60°), and TR III (60° ≤ β ≤ 90°). According to the results achieved, an excellent level of improvement in average power loss, ~ 97.85%, corresponding to optimal TR (III) has been detected by employing NFP glass collector., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

The driving pattern of three-wheeled auto-rickshaws is governed by commuter's demands on certain fixed roads that offer flexible mobility solutions in a mid-size city. This flexibility creates unique driving patterns, frequent stop-and-go conditions, frequent acceleration, braking, and excessive idling, which affect emission rates. Existing emission testing regulation based on the driving cycle does not represent real-world conditions. In this paper, the real-world driving cycle of three-wheeled auto-rickshaw has been developed to provide realistic CO, HC, and NO X pollutants and see the effect of introducing modal shift of electric auto-rickshaw to reduce emission for India. Two policy scenarios were evaluated (1) with a 5% modal shift to electric auto-rickshaw, and (2) without modal shift. The results indicate that with a 5% shift to electric auto-rickshaw, by 2030, emissions will decrease by 6.30% compared to the baseline scenario. Further, by 2030, the projected CO emission would be 1,696,670 ton/year, and HC and NO X emissions would be 2,067,371 ton/year. Results can be useful for policy interventions towards cleaner fuel and the aggressive adoption for reducing pollution from auto-rickshaw., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

This paper presents the progress made by India and China in the field of waste management and its disposal since l996 to 2020. To access it, bibliometric analysis has been carried out using SCOPUS linked SCImago electronic database. Different bibliometric indicators such as documents, citable documents, external and self-citations, and external and self-citations per document along with their annual corresponding growth (ACG) have been calculated in order to explore the progresses made in both the countries. China has contributed 16.3% and India 4.3% to the total documents produced worldwide during 1996-2020 in waste management with the average ACG of 26.42% and 15.37%, respectively, during the same time span. Also, the average ACG for self-citations of published research documents is more than that of external citations for both the countries. In addition to that, the average self-citation magnitude reported for China (28,475) is more than that of India (5223), whereas this trend reverses in the case of average external citation per document with values 16.9 and 28.94, respectively. Moreover, the waste management practices being followed in both countries have also been compared and also presented so that it could be beneficial for the country which is relatively not good in the same., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

In recent years, South Asian economies have observed rapid urbanization along with expanding informal economy that poses a serious threat to environmental quality. This study examines the impact of urbanization and informal economy on the ecological footprint of selected South Asian countries. Results indicate that urbanization and informal economy increase the environmental degradation in South Asia and the estimates are statistically significant in the long run. In the short run, urbanization positively affects the ecological footprint in Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Nepal except India, while the informal economy also enhances environmental degradation for all the selected countries except Bangladesh. Most surprisingly, the interaction term of urbanization and informal economy has a negative impact on ecological footprint, and the coefficient is statistically significant as well. To combat the environmental issues in South Asia, detailed policy recommendations have been suggested at the end., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Fertilizer, though one of the most essential inputs for increasing agricultural production, is a leading cause of nitrous oxide emissions from agriculture, contributing significantly to global warming. Therefore, understanding factors affecting farmers' use of fertilizers is crucial to develop strategies to improve its efficient use and to minimize its negative impacts. Using data from 2528 households across the Indo-Gangetic Plains in India, Nepal, and Bangladesh, this study examines the factors affecting farmers' use of organic and inorganic fertilizers for the two most important cereal crops - rice and wheat. Together, these crops provide the bulk of calories consumed in the region. As nitrogen (N) fertilizer is the major source of global warming and other environmental effects, we also examine the factors contributing to its overuse. We applied multiple regression models to understand the factors influencing the use of inorganic fertilizer, Heckman models to understand the likelihood and intensity of organic fertilizer (manure) use, and a probit model to examine the over-use of N fertilizer. Our results indicate that various socio-economic and geographical factors influence the use of organic and inorganic fertilizers in rice and wheat. Across the study sites, N fertilizer over-use is the highest in Haryana (India) and the lowest in Nepal. Across all locations, farmers reported a decline in manure application, concomitant with a lack of awareness of the principles of appropriate fertilizer management that can limit environmental externalities. Educational programs highlighting measures to improving nutrient-use-efficiency and reducing the negative externalities of N fertilizer over-use are proposed to address these problems., (© 2021. The Author(s).)

This study analyzes the relationship between globalization, energy consumption, and economic growth among selected South Asian countries to promote the green economy and environment. This study also finds causal association between energy growth and nexus of CO 2 emissions and employed the premises of the EKC framework. The study used annual time series analysis, starting from 1985 to 2019. The data set has been collected from the World Development Indicator (WDI). The result of a fully modified ordinary least square (FMOLS) method describes a significantly worse quality environment in the South Asian region. The individual country as Bangladesh shows a positively significant impact on the CO 2 emissions and destroys the level of environment regarding non-renewable energy and globalization index. However, negative and positive growth levels (GDP) and square of GDP confirm the EKC hypothesis in this region. This study has identified the causality between GDP growth and carbon emission and found bidirectional causality between economic growth and energy use., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Poverty eradication and environmental degradation are the two crucial challenges, and they are highly interlinked in the modern era. However, countries are still more emphasized in attaining poverty alleviation and alleviating environmental pollution which require enormous attention. Our study is a novel attempt to scrutinize the effect of poverty on carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions for India and China over the sample period 1987-2019. Findings attained from the ARDL model suggest that a rise in poverty contributes to growing CO 2 emissions in India only in short run. Further, findings show that poverty is the principal source of pollution in the long term in India and China. Empirical results proposed focal policy implications in the light of sustainable development goals for India and China., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

With rapid economic growth, BRICS is facing enormous burdens of carbon emission and severe issues of income inequality. However, behind this economic success, the BRICS economies also face few thoughtful challenges to improve environmental quality by catching up the sustainable development goals. Consequently, the existing empirical research is concerned with the dynamic links between income inequality and CO 2 emissions by using the novel nonlinear ARDL approach, but small attention has been paid to the BRICS in literature. Therefore, we observed that a negative and positive change in income inequality has positive effect on CO 2 emissions in Russia and South Africa in the long run, although a positive change in income inequality has positive effects on CO 2 emissions in Brazil, Russia, and China, while a negative change in income inequality has negative effect on CO 2 emissions in India, Brazil, and Russia in the short run. Hence, the findings value specific attention from policymakers in BRICS economies., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Vetiver is a traditional plant with versatile applications in medicine, aroma, commerce, environmental-protection, and agriculture. This review was designed to compile all the latest information on phytochemistry, pharmacology, and traditional uses of C. zizanioides. All the information related to this plant was gathered from several authentic sites, using keywords like Chrysopogon zizanioides, Vetiveria zizanioides, Khus, and Khas-Khas. The included resources were journaled articles, book chapters, books, Ayurvedic Pharmacopoeias, and Ayurvedic Formulary of India, from science direct, PubMed, research gate etc. All the necessary, relevant, authentic, and updated information were tried to inculcate in the manuscript. The literature was collected via online sites like Pub med, Scopus, and Science direct as well. During compilation, it observed that many traditional utilities of vetiver got their authentication when tested using different disease-based pharmacological models taking various extracts of roots, leaves, and root oil as test samples. However, systematic studies for isolation of active constituents and establishing their mechanism of action are still required to be validated. On the other hand, the development of novel and robust techniques needed for oil extraction can further enhance the exploration of biological utilities faster. Moreover, the cultivators and harvesters must address carefully to prevent the linked drawback of soil erosion., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Groundwater sources are drastically changing in their quantity and quality depending on local and regional level natural and anthropogenic factors, influencing their suitability for drinking and irrigation purposes. The objective of this study is to characterize the hydrochemistry and assess the groundwater quality in the fluvial deltaic plains of Cauvery river basin, Tamil Nadu, India. A total of 50 georeferenced groundwater samples were collected across Needamangalam block of Thiruvarur district and analyzed for major ions and hydrochemical processes. The results showed an ionic sequence of Cl - > Na + > HCO 3 - > Mg 2+ > Ca 2+ > CO 3 2- > SO 4 2- > K + based on their relative proportions. The scatter diagram indicated that groundwater chemistry was mostly influenced by weathering dominance followed by evaporation and silicate weathering. The dominant hydro-chemical facies were Na + -Cl - -HCO 3 - type, Na + -Mg 2+ -Cl - -HCO 3 - type, Na + -Cl - -HCO 3 - -CO 3 2- type and Na + -Mg 2+ -Cl - -HCO 3 - -CO 3 2- type influenced by the ion-exchange reaction. Most of the groundwater samples are suitable for drinking and irrigation except few with higher Na + and Cl - content caused by the mixing of salt from fluvio-marine sources or agriculture return flow. The high sodium content in irrigation water may affect the soil hydraulic and nutrient properties in the long run., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

This study assesses the viability of recycled plastic-based triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) for sustainable energy harvesting in India and Singapore, concurrently examining plastic waste management. Using material flow analysis and life cycle assessment, the findings revealed that in Singapore, waste-to-energy incineration has a lower environmental impact than landfilling and mechanical recycling, attributed to natural gas usage. In India, recycling offsets impacts from incineration and landfilling, contributing to a lower net environmental impact. Economic performance of a TENG module from PET recyclates showed a 20% carbon footprint reduction when scaling up from lab to industrial "freeze-drying" processes. Key challenges in TENG manufacturing processes are also assessed for future development. This research highlights the potential of recycled plastic-based TENGs in sustainable energy and waste management., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Parthenium hysterophorus L. has become a weed of global concern owing to its fast expansion and invasive character. In order to study the status of this noxious weed and its impact on floristic diversity in Dhauladhar foothills, the study was conducted during the year 2021-2022 in culturable wastelands of Dhauladhar ranges in Kangra district of Himachal Pradesh, India. The impact of Parthenium hysterophorus L. on associated species at different altitudes and aspects was observed. Our observations depicted that Parthenium hysterophorus L. has been growing more vigorously in the northern aspect than the southern aspect with the density of 37.78 m -2 and 21.62 m -2 , respectively. The highest density of this noxious weed was recorded in the altitudinal range of 600-1200 m (34.32 m -2 ) while it was not observed beyond 1805 m above sea level. The invasion of Parthenium hysterophorus L. significantly affected the plant density of other species. The descending order of the species as per dominance was observed as Cynodon dactylon, Trifolium repens, Oxalis latifolia, Parthenium hysterophorus L., and Ageratum houstonianum. The average number of species and species density were observed more in non-invaded sites (9.35 and 27.67 m -2 ) than in invaded sites (7.10 and 20.60 m -2 ). Species abundance and plant cover were observed more in non-invaded sites (28.73 and 657.90 m 2  ha -1 ) than in invaded sites (22.70 and 322.30 m 2  ha -1 ). Species diversity, richness, and evenness were reported to decline in invaded sites (1.56, 0.95, and 0.81, respectively) with respect to the non-invaded sites (1.94, 1.16, and 0.88, respectively). The study highlights the significant concerns associated with the invasive weed within the plant communities. Understanding its invasive status holds considerable implications for local afforestation initiatives, forest management strategies, and conservation policies. Furthermore, this investigation lays a foundational groundwork for implementing effective measures to get rid of this alien weed., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Drought is a natural and complex climatic hazard. It has both natural and social connotations. The purpose of this study is to use machine learning methods (MLAs) for drought vulnerability (DVM) in Uttar Pradesh, India. There were 18 factors used to determine drought vulnerability, separated into two groups: physical drought and meteorological drought. The study found that the eastern part of Uttar Pradesh is high to very highly prone to drought, which is approximately 31.38% of the area of Uttar Pradesh. The receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) was then used to evaluate the machine learning models (artificial neural networks). According to the findings, the ANN functioned with AUC values of 0.843. For policy actions to lessen drought sensitivity, DVMs may be valuable. Future exploration may involve refining machine learning algorithms, integrating real-time data sources, and assessing the socio-economic impacts to continually enhance the efficacy of drought resilience strategies in Uttar Pradesh., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Providing safe drinking water for the entire world's population is essential for ensuring sustainable development. The presence of harmful compounds in aquifers, majorly toxic elements, is a serious environmental concern around the globe. This research aimed to quantify for the initial period the amounts of toxic elements in freshwater in the Dehradun Industrial Region of Uttrakhand, India, as well as the associated health risks. The PTEs (potentially toxic elements) Fe, Cd, Mn, Cu, Cr and Pb, Zn, Ni is measured by AAS and compared to BIS and WHO requirements for drinking safety. The order of mean trace element values in all groundwater samples were determined as Fe > Zn > Cu > Ni > Co > Cd > Pb. HPI was discovered to be higher than high class during the research period (HPI > 30), but under the severe contamination criterion of 100. Iron's MI and PI values were consistently over the threshold limit during the research period, and certain toxic elements were discovered exceptionally near the threshold limit, indicating a severe future influence on groundwater quality. According to PCA (principal component analysis), CM (correlation matrix), and potential health hazard, maximum levels of toxic elements in groundwater in the Dehradun region are attributed to land use patterns, anthropogenic activity, industrial activity, fertilizer and pesticide leaching, and residential waste into the aquifer system. The findings of this study could aid local planners and policymakers in preventing health risks from contaminated aquifers through the deployment of suitable monitoring and mitigation measures., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

With ever-improving social and medical awareness about menstrual hygiene in India, the demand for sanitary napkins has increased significantly. The utilization of high-quality and environment-friendly raw materials to produce these pads is further supporting the growth of the market. However, with improving demand and usage, the need for proper disposal techniques becomes more relevant, since all of these pads get contaminated with human blood which makes them a biohazard and can cause significant damage to human health and the environment. One sanitary pad takes around 800 years to degrade naturally and the plastic and super absorbent polymers (SAPs) in sanitary pads are non-biodegradable and can take multiple decades to degrade. Waste management technologies such as pyrolysis, gasification, and resource recovery can be adopted to manage tons of sanitary waste. Currently, sanitary waste treatment mainly focuses on landfilling, incineration, and composting, where biohazard wastes are mixed with tons of solid waste. Disposable sanitary pads have a high carbon footprint of about 5.3 kg CO 2 equivalent every year. Innovative solutions for sanitary pad disposal are discussed in the manuscript which includes repurposing of derived waste cellulose and plastic fraction into value-added products. Future aspects of disinfection strategies and value addition to waste cellulose recovered from napkins were systematically discussed to promote a circular economy., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

This study intends to explore India's comparative advantage in the pollution-intensive product export with temporal and spatial analysis by applying an alternative measure of revealed comparative advantage index. The emission-intensive manufacturing commodities are mainly chosen as per the list published by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) of India to draw some inferences on India's pollution haven characteristics. For the spatial analysis, the 'dirty' comparative advantage is calculated for all the BRICS countries for the year 2017, and for the temporal analysis, the index value is calculated for 42 product groups at 3 digit SITC level from 2009 to 2017 to examine the structure of 'dirty' specialisation in India and its change over time. India is found at the top among the BRICS members for a maximum of 16 in 25 products. Among these 25 sectors, Brazil, Russia, China and South Africa are found having a comparative advantage in 4, 12, 11 and 10 products, respectively. In these comparatively advantageous products, Brazil ranked one in 75% and three in 25% of products. Russia ranked one in 33% and two in 67% of products. India among the BRICS members stood 1st at 62.5, 2nd and 3rd both at 18.75% cases, respectively. Findings reveal that pollution-intensive trade-exposed sectors successfully absorbed the stringent environmental regulation-shocks which brought in an additional burden of compliance cost upon trade competitiveness. The results of this study are more insightful for evaluating India's recent initiatives for stricter environmental regulations.

We assessed groundwater pollution index (GPI) and groundwater quality of coastal aquifers from Tiruchendur in South India for drinking and irrigation by evaluating the physico-chemical parameters of 35 samples of mainly Na-Cl type in an area of 470 km 2 with respect to the World Health Organization (WHO) standard as well as by estimating different indices such as total hardness (TH), sodium percentage (Na%), magnesium ratio (MR), Kelley's ratio index (KR), potential salinity (PS), Langelier saturation index (LSI), residual sodium carbonate (RSC), sodium adsorption rate (SAR), permeability index (PI), and the irrigation water quality index (IWQI). Minimal influence of aquifer lithology and the dominant influence of evaporation on groundwater chemistry reflected the semi-arid climate of the study area. Electrical conductivity (EC) of about 89% of the samples across 418 km 2 exceeded the permissible limit and Ca values of 74% of samples, however, remained within the allowable limit for drinking. More chloride was caused by influx of seawater and salt leaching and higher K was due to excessive fertilizer usage for agriculture. The spatial distribution map created using inverse distance weighting (IDW) method shows that the suitable groundwater is present close to the river basin. GPI values between 0.40 and 4.7, with an average of 1.5, classify insignificant pollution in 43% of the study region and the groundwater suitable for drinking purposes. In addition, 17% of the groundwater samples are also marginally suitable for drinking. The irrigation water quality indices provided contradictory assessments. Indices of TH, Na%, MR, PS, and LSI suggested 32-95% of the samples as unsuitable for irrigation, whereas the indices of RSC, SAR, and PI grouped 72-100% samples as permissible for irrigation. The IWQI map, however, indicated that the groundwater from more than half of the study area are not apt for irrigation and the groundwater of about one-third of the area could only be applied to salt-resistant plants.

The objective of this paper is to analyze structural characteristics and the evolution of "international trade-carbon emissions" network in the equipment manufacturing industry. To do so, we construct four kinds of networks, namely export trade network (E network), export implied carbon emission network (EC network), foreign value-added network (FVA network), and foreign value-added implied carbon emission network (FVAC network) for the said industry. The data obtained from world-input-output table and social network analysis method was used for empirical analysis. The results indicate that (1) the four types of networks show a trend of denseness, which also has the characteristics of trade clustering effect and small-world network. As the equipment manufacturing industry in various countries is increasingly embedded in the global value chain, the value chain is extended globally, which leads to the complexity of the international carbon transfer network. (2) The four types of networks' pattern are basically stable. Germany plays an important intermediary role. Whereas China is deeply involved in the division of global value chain and has achieved the shift from the edge to the core in all four types of networks, but there is still a big gap compared with Germany. (3) The E network and EC network have the obvious core-edge feature, and the two kinds of networks can be divided into developed countries block represented by Germany, Japan, the USA; developing countries block represented by China and India; and European Union block represented by Spain and France. The developing world receives carbon emission transfer from the developed world. Finally, (4) the division of FVA network and FVAC network segment shows that the global value chain under the current international division of labor is characterized by multi-regionalization. Therefore, actively embedding in the regional value chain has become an important way for China's equipment manufacturing industry to upgrade to low carbon.

Since developing countries experience economic and environmental sustainability challenges, it is desirable digging into the linkages between economic and environmental parameters. The purpose of this work is to evaluate the existence of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) theory (i.e., the inverse U-shape connection between real GDP per capita and per capita carbon dioxide emissions) in the sample of 11 developing countries. By using balanced annual panel data in the period between 1992 and 2014 and two alternative estimation techniques, we explored the potential inverted U-shaped linkage between carbon dioxide emissions and real GDP per capita in the sample of interest. For analysis purposes, Pedroni and Westerlund co-integration techniques are employed. Then, fully modified ordinary least squares, pooled mean group methods are applied for long-run parameter estimations. And, the Dumitrescu-Hurlin causality approach is employed for causal directions. Firstly, this work's findings provide the supportive evidence to the inverse U-shaped linkage in the long-run, indicating that an increase in real GDP per capita and electricity consumption tends to mitigate long-run carbon dioxide emissions in the developing countries, for the whole sample. Secondly, the country-specific findings suggested the presence of EKC theory for Brazil, China, India, Malaysia, the Russian Federation, Thailand, and Turkey. It implicated that these countries are on the path of attaining environmental sustainability in the long-run. However, Mexico, Philippines, Indonesia, and South Africa failed to lend credence to the EKC theory. It manifested that these countries need to design strategies directed to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from economic activity and electricity generation through efficiency improvement or promotion of renewables. Finally, bidirectional causal links are observed among all the variables of interest. The findings suggest that country-specific targeted action plans should be implemented to ensure the environmental sustainability in the developing world.