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In order to cope with severe environmental crises such as pollution and climate, the Chinese government has put forward the strategic goal of "double carbon" and vigorously developed green emerging industries such as cultural industry. Based on the super efficiency model and the input oriented Malmquist index model, this paper comprehensively measures the innovation efficiency of cultural industry, and selects the panel data of the Yangtze River economic belt from 2015 to 2021 for empirical analysis. In addition, the spatial econometric model is introduced to explore the driving factors affecting the innovation efficiency of cultural industry from the perspective of time and space. The results show that: (1) the overall innovation efficiency of the cultural industry in the Yangtze River economic belt is high, but there is significant spatial heterogeneity. (2) The average Malmquist index of the innovation efficiency of the cultural industry in the Yangtze River economic belt is 1.123, which reflects the continuous improvement of the level of industrial innovation. Environmental factors such as sulfur dioxide emissions in waste gas, investment in industrial pollution control, and per capita GDP have a significant impact on the innovation efficiency of cultural industry in the Yangtze River economic belt. Finally, the paper puts forward policy suggestions to promote the high-quality development of cultural industry from the perspective of technology, policy and environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adaptive farming behavior is a key strategy for farmers to cope with climate change. This paper aims to explore the potential impacts of climate change information sources on farmers’ adaptive farming behavior. This paper clarifies the internal mechanism of three typical information sources, namely government departments, scientific research institutions and neighborhood communication, affecting farmers' adaptive farming behavior. Based on the sample data of 1200 farmers in the main wheat producing areas of Shaanxi Province, the theoretical conjecture is empirically tested. The results showed that the climate change information from government departments and scientific research institutions has a significant positive impact on farmers' adaptive farming behavior, but in the case of considering the three sources of information at the same time, the information source of scientific research institutions has the strongest positive impact on farmers' adaptive farming behavior. After farmers have access to climate change information exchanged by government departments, scientific research institutions and neighbors, their differences in climate change adaptive farming behavior mainly depend on their climate change cognition rather than subject trust factors. Formally organized climate change information represented by government departments and scientific research institutions has a more significant positive impact on farmers' adaptive farming behavior, but this impact depends largely on whether the information obtained by farmers can improve their climate change awareness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reducing food waste is an important initiative to ensure food security and mitigate climate change. Previous studies have largely ignored the influence of reference points on food waste behavior and the role of human-to-human relational interactions, failing to capture their role in guiding residents' food waste behavior (RFWBs). To address this gap, this study proposes a model that examines the role of reference dependence, normative internalization, and symbolic expectations in RFWBs, while introducing network embeddedness as a moderating variable. Using data collected from 981 respondents online, ordinary least squares were used to test the hypotheses. The results showed that reference dependence and normative internalization had a positive effect on reducing RFWBs with regression coefficients of 0.178 and 0.293 respectively, while symbolic expectations also had a positive effect on RFWBs with a regression coefficient of 0.227. Additionally, Network embeddedness played a significant moderating role in reference dependence, normative internalization, and symbolic expectations with RFWBs. This paper is theoretically innovative and the relevant findings fill the current research gap in the field of food waste, providing guidance and reference for government departments to formulate policies and promote residents to implement food waste reduction behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the global climate change, water resources have been withdrawn and the pollutant loads have become concentrated, thus causing the taste and odor components of the waters to be felt globally, leading to an increase in research in this area. The goal of this study was to analyze the trends in research from 1980 to 2022 that concentrated on both the formation and removal of taste and odor components in surface water resources throughout the world. 965 papers were examined a systematic review and bibliometric analysis. The findings revealed a growth in research on taste and odor compounds as well as the popularity and applicability of novel purification techniques in addition to more traditional ways for removing these substances. Water Research was the journal with the highest impact in this area. The United States, China, Canada, Australia, and South Korea were the top 5 most productive nations. Studies on the speciation of taste and odor components are in the minority but demands for innovative treatment techniques such as advanced oxidation processes have been considered, and these compounds are an area of research with significant potential. This study can assist research with its worldwide findings on taste and odor compounds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The imbalanced, maladjusted, and uncontrolled phenomenon in the regional water resources system is caused by the combined disturbances of climate change and human activities. The socio-economic and ecological systems are restricted, and the combined carrying capacity also changes accordingly. In order to explore the above changes, based on the influence mechanism of climate change, socio-economic system and ecosystem on water resources system, this paper systematically reviews the relevant research progress in water resources carrying capacity (WRCC), from the basic theory of water resources carrying capacity, the construction of evaluation index system, the classification criteria and evaluation methods, etc. This review provides basic theoretical and technical support for the study of generalized water resources carrying capacity considering the interlinked climate-ecology-society system, which is conducive to the promotion of water resources carrying capacity and the synergistic development of socio-economic and ecological environment under a changing climate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The balance between agricultural development and maintenance of agro-ecological environment becomes a huge challenge because of global climate changes. Existing literature on the low-carbon pilot policy proposed by the government of China and whether the problems of agricultural development and agricultural environmental protection can be solved or not have not been reviewed. This paper analyzes the impact of low-carbon pilot policies on agricultural eco-efficiency by using SARAR model based on the data of 281 cities in China. Results show the spatial spillover effects between low-carbon pilot policies and agricultural eco-efficiency. The implementation of low-carbon pilot policy can improve agricultural eco-efficiency. Although restrained by agricultural economic development, this policy has disequilibrium effect on agricultural eco-efficiency, has a relatively large impact on agricultural eco-efficiency in western China and other poor areas, and promotes the reduction of agricultural carbon emission. The effect of the implementation of low-carbon pilot policy is affected by the initial agricultural economic development and urban economic conditions. This research aims to improve the agricultural eco-efficiency and enforce the green development of the agricultural economy via the perspective of the low-carbon pilot policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The implementation of the "Belt and Road" strategy not only promotes the coordinated development of China's regional economy but also generates a large amount of greenhouse gas emissions. The research and policy recommendations on agricultural carbon emissions are of great significance for China toward engendering sustainable agricultural development and appreciably contributing to the alleviation of global climate change. In this paper, agricultural carbon emissions in the Belt and Road region of China from 2003-2018 are calculated, and its spatial-temporal characteristics are analyzed. Then, we modified the logarithmic mean Divisia index model from the original four factors to six to analyze the drivers of agricultural carbon emissions. The research results obtained are as follows: (1) Total carbon emission reached a peak of 26.6326 million tons in 2016, representing a 54.53% increase from the 17.2342 million tons in 2003. Moreover, it indicated a downward trend in 2017 and dropped by approximately 4% to 25.5685 million tons in 2018. (2) Spatially, agricultural carbon emission varies greatly, with the highest value recorded in Heilongjiang and the lowest in Tibet, thereby exhibiting the characteristics of "northwest>northeast>southwest>southeast." (3) Overall, the economic factor was the most important driving factor, whereas the subsidy factor was the strongest inhibiting factor for the growth of agricultural carbon emissions. Notably, the foreign trade factor had both promoting and inhibiting effects on it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of the double impacts of climate change and strong human intervention on the water resources system, showing the system's evolution process and predicting the future is necessary, which plays an important role in evaluating the implemented water resources management measures, proposing future measures, and promoting the sustainability of water resources. This paper explored to apply synergetic theory and entropy theory in the study of the evolution of water resources. Considering water resources as a dissipative system comprising a resource subsystem, social subsystem, economic subsystem, ecological subsystem, and environmental subsystem, this paper proposed a new method called system evolution entropy through optimization selection of order parameters and order degree calculation. Using Beijing as a case study, we quantitatively showed the evolution process of a water resources system from 2000 to 2013 and predicted the evolution direction in recent years. The results indicate that Beijing's water resources system oscillated slightly with a non-persistent direction in 2000-07, but evolved toward order continuously after the 2008 Summer Olympic Games. Good consistency between the changes of system evolution entropy and the actual changes of Beijing's water resources system, and socio-economic and ecological environments through comparative analysis demonstrated that the study results fit the actuality well, i.e. the changes of system evolution entropy reveal the evolution process well, thereby indicating that this method exhibits good feasibility, adaptability, and effectiveness. Additionally, Beijing's water resources system will continue evolving toward order over the next few years by the prediction according to this method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The vegetation of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP) is fragile and vulnerable to global and regional climate change. This paper analyzed the temporal and spatial variability of NDVI and response to temperature and precipitation in the QTP from 1982 to 2015. The results showed that: (1) there was a nonsignificant increase temporally, while there was a significant spatial increase that accounted for 63.26% of the total area and was distributed in the north, west, and south of the QTP. A significant decrease was concentrated southeast of the QTP. (2) Average NDVI values for the main vegetation types in the QTP were broadleaf forest>coniferous forest>shrub>meadow>alpine vegetation>grassland>desert. NDVI values of grassland, alpine vegetation, and desert vegetation had a significant linear increase, while NDVI for shrub, coniferous, and broadleaf forest decreased non-significantly. (3) The correlation coefficients between NDVI and temperature were spatially distributed in a north-south direction with latitudinal zonal characteristics. The correlation coefficients between NDVI and precipitation were distributed in an east-west direction with dry-humidity zonal characteristics. The study concluded that with the lack of hydrothermal conditions in the northern part of the QTP, NDVI increased significantly, while there was a significant decrease in areas with sufficient hydrothermal conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent times, increasing economic losses due to unexpected extreme environmental conditions have been noticed. The occurrence of these extreme environmental events requires us to have a clearer understanding of climatic influence on our lives. This paper utilizes the case of Singapore to investigate the influence of climate extremes on a country. The environmental elements of Singapore whose extremes are most likely to change in the future are identified. The impacts of these extremes on an entire nation's economy and public health are discussed. Additionally, climate-induced statistical uncertainties in the modeling of extreme values are investigated. Based on the available knowledge of climate uncertainty information, the change of statistical structure in the extreme value model is discussed. The impact of various types of climate uncertainty in the extreme value modeling for a physical environmental variable is summarized at the end of this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This in-depth paper studies the issue of energy-related CO2 emissions of China using sample data from 1980 to 2015. Due to the lack of official data, CO2 emissions are first calculated by the recommended IPCC method. It shows that CO2 emissions in China present an "S" type in shape. Then the Tapio decoupling index is applied to investigate the relationship between CO2 emissions and economic growth. This suggests that weak decoupling is the main state during the study period and the decoupling trend is M-shaped. Moreover, the study years are divided into decoupling years and re-link years according to the decoupling relationship, and the ReliefF algorithm is proposed to verify the feasibility of the classification and judge the influencing weights of different driving factors. The ascending order is: actual GDP, urbanization rate, industrial structure, population, energy structure, and electricity consumption. Finally, a hybrid model of grey neural network model (GNNM) based on grey model (GM) and BP neural network (BPNN) is established to forecast CO2 emissions. This demonstrates that the GNNM model has a better capacity for forecasting CO2 emissions and capturing the non-linear and non-stationary characteristics of CO2 emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Having in mind that the growing body of research and case studies have predefined environmental education and its objectives in non-traditional education that rely on relevant modern teaching models such as project-based learning, this paper will focus on the scientific research of organized academic environmental activities in a climate-change oriented project in order to achieve learning objectives of higher environmental and climate change knowledge of students. This is particularly important considering the importance of climate change issues as the integral part of the present day student body, as well as a part of their social and personal lives. For the purpose of our research we surveyed the students of the University of Belgrade - Faculty of Organizational Science, the Republic of Serbia, who participated in this project not only regarding their attitudes referred to gaining environmental and climate change knowledge in this particular way, but also on their achievement levels in faculty environmental studies program. An analysis of the results was carried out using the SPSS 24 software package. Based on the obtained results we concluded that students were significantly motivated to improve their environmental and climate change knowledge, as well as that they showed greater motivation and willingness to participate again in similar environmental activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change continuously threatens sustainable development. As the largest energy consumer and carbon emitter in the world, China is facing increasing pressure to cut carbon emissions. Based on Moran's index I and geographically weighted regression, this paper investigates the spatiotemporal characteristics and the dominating factors of China's province-level carbon intensity in the construction industry from 2005 to 2014, which is aimed at providing a scientific basis for government while implementing a regional-oriented carbon emissions reduction strategy. The empirical results are shown as follows. Firstly, carbon intensity in the construction industry of each province has been decreasing in the past 10 years. Secondly, provincial carbon intensity in this sector shows significant positive spatial autocorrelation characteristics and the degree of spatial clustering of carbon intensity tended to weaken in this period. Third, according to the analysis of the geographically weighted regression (GWR) model, carbon intensity is positively affected by energy intensity while the labor input and production efficiency both have negative effect. Particularly the regression coefficient of labor input is almost twice as large as the other two factors. The results reveal that there is a significant spatial disparity of these three factors in different provinces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents comparative life cycle assessment (LCA) for biomass use in the torrefaction process. The analysis took into account the climate change category for a time horizon of 100 years. It considered subsequent stages of biomass life cycle, i.e., the stage of biomass preparation for the torrefaction process, starting from its transport until its processing (thermal treatment) on torrefaction installation. Palm kernel shell (PKS) and Polish woodchips were selected as the biomass to be analyzed. The functional unit was selected to be 1 Mg of torrefied biomass. The torrefaction process was carried out in an installation at the Institute for Chemical Processing of Coal (ICPC). The analysis showed that among the considered life stages of PKS and woodchips, the biggest environmental load indicates the torrefaction stage. The estimated environmental effect is several orders of magnitude larger in comparison with other stages of biomass life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to assess the influence of meteorological conditions on the variability of haze in Shanghai during 1981-2013. Based on the observational data of haze and air quality in Shanghai during this period and on the National Centers for Environmental Prediction final analysis data, the long-term variability and the spatial distribution of the haze was analyzed as well as with relationship between haze and atmospheric variables, including visibility, relative humidity, and air quality. Temporal evolution showed that the annual number of haze days in Shanghai represented a rapid decline in the last decade, which was caused by the direct effects of relative humidity and visibility. Global warming-induced changes, such as a warmer temperature, lower relative humidity, and wind speed in winter, were other important factors in the decline. Spatial distribution showed that the annual number of haze days in mid-western Shanghai was higher than those in the southeastern suburbs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the results of studies carried out in 2006-08 on the impact of sewage sludge on the utility values of grass sward. The study was conducted with different doses of sewage sludge (0, 70, 140, 210, and 280 Mg⋅ha-1) applied in spring, summer, or autumn, and mixtures of lawn grass designed in the Department of Grassland at the University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn, which were sown in spring, summer, or autumn. Winter survival, turfness, colour, perfection of leaf blades, and general appearance of grass sward on a nine-point scale were evaluated during vegetation seasons. It was demonstrated that incremental doses of sewage sludge positively impacted the examined characteristics, especially when fertilization was applied in spring. Spring sowing of lawn grass seeds was also found to be better. It was shown that both tested mixtures (fescue and bluegrass) are useful for sowing extensive lawns, although the fescue mixture had more favourable parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Seasonal and monthly changes of biogenic and oxygen indices in the water of two streams in 2007-10 are discussed in this paper. The streams have similar catchment areas that area managed and used in different ways. The Krzyworzeka stream catchment is covered by rural areas, whereas the Serafa stream flows through built-up and urbanized areas. Statistical testing using U Mann-Whitney's nonparametric test was conducted to determine the differences of oxygen and biogenic water quality index values between the growing season and outside the growing season. Statistically significant decreases in ammonium, nitrate, and total nitrogen concentrations, as well as oxygen dissolved in Krzyworzeka Stream, were registered during the growing season. In the Serafa water only the concentrations of dissolved oxygen and biological oxygen demand decreased significantly. On this basis it was established that in clean waters vegetation development considerably influences the content of biogenic compounds. Serious pollution of stream water causes vegetation and the intensity of biochemical processes in water to not cause any clear reduction in biogenic compound concentrations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We can observe new reasons for improving water protection policies: climate change calls for higher security for drinking water sources, increasing demand for improving water quality for swimming purposes in recreational areas, higher pressure on responsibility for water quality crossing national borders. Our paper presents an application of combinatorial auction theory to the problem of cleaning waters in streams where individual polluters can create various coalitions when submitting proposals for financial support to individual or common projects. The practical case has shown significant savings of social costs if the coalition solutions are realized. There is an information asymmetry between the polluters when elaborating common application for an investment subsidy for their projects. A series of economic laboratory experiments was carried out to pretest subjects' potential behaviour here. The results showed that 75% of the groups found the (theoretical) first best solution. Subsidies required tended to be relatively low, making the competition for subsidies very stiff. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The scientific evidence supporting the link between global climate change and human activities began to emerge in the mid-1980s and was an impetus for the establishment in 1988 of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which was designed to investigate these relationships. Four years later, i.e. on 9 May 1992, an important international climate agreement was reached. The agreement was the legal framework for global action to counter the adverse effects of climate change (together with its related parties), which was the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). In the preamble to the convention it was recognized that increases in greenhouse gases caused by human activity enhance the natural greenhouse effect with the result that the average temperature of the Earth's surface and the atmosphere would grow, which may have a negative effect on natural ecosystems and humankind. The presented paper summarizes important factors that argue for and against the dangers connected with the emission of one of the main greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide. The discussion included radiation absorption characteristic in the atmosphere depending on the temperature and concentration of carbon dioxide, changes in carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere, and the relationship between the temperature deviation and the average value of solar activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of our paper is to identify the main trends in changes in land use of select urban parks in Sosnowiec and Będzin towns during 1927-2009 in light of changes to the urban areas. Research included two urban parks: Sielecki in Sosnowiec and Góra Zamkowa in Będzin. The analysis was based on old maps (from 1927, 1960s/70s, and 1990s) and the latest available orthophotomaps of the study area (2009). The results obtained on the basis of geographical information systems (GIS) shows significant differences, both in terms of spatial and quality changes in the land use in all urban parks, conditioned by their location in the different types of landscapes. The identified changes are linked to the wider range of functions taken over by parks, and also of changes in urban planning strategies. The GIS methods were helpful in interpretation of identified changes. Increasing forest areas is observed in the last research period and has a connection with the flora of both parks. The role of urban parks is particularly noticeable in strongly urbanized and industrialized areas -in the urban-industrial agglomeration and conurbation. The urban parks in these areas are an interesting problem in terms of geographical, botanical, and landscape ecology research. The documentation, monitoring, and protection of the oldest and the most valuable parts of the urban parks (urban forests) are important in light of the fact that urban parks are linked with local history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The high-altitude laboratory of greenhouse gas measurement, KASLAB, was founded on the Polish mountain Kasprowy Wierch in 1994. In the direct neighborhood of the measuring point there are no significant sources of compounds measured at the station. However, the measuring point may be affected by periodic anthropogenic emissions from the nearby Podhale region, with Zakopane the most popular tourist resort (6 km to the north and 1 km below Kasprowy Wierch). Periodic air enrichment in CO content detected at the KASLAB station indicates a prior contact of air masses that reach Kasprowy Wierch with the lower layer of the troposphere and can be used for qualitative and quantitative evaluation of trace gas emissions (for example CO2) from regions with strong anthropopression. Data analysis performed for 2010 presented in this paper revealed that the anthropogenic component of carbon dioxide observed at Kasprowy Wierch usually does not exceed 2 ppm, occasionally reaching a value of 10 ppm. Respiration component of atmospheric CO2 concentration at Kasprowy Wierch can be as high as 35 ppm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our paper aims at identifying factors that determine seasonal changes in streamwater chemistry in three catchments with different land use (woodland, agricultural, mixed-use) in the Carpathian Foothills in southern Poland. The study involved weekly and biweekly water sampling in the 2003 and 2004 hydrological years and the analysis of specific conductivity (SC), pH, main ions, and nutrients. R-mode factor analysis was used to identify four factors: (I) streamflow, (ii) climate seasonality, (iii) water circulation, and (iv) nitrification processes. Despite the fact that the same environmental factors were identified in all three catchments, some factors produce a different type of ion response in different types of catchments. The streamflow factor produces the same changes in geologically controlled parameters (SC, main ions) in all catchments but different changes in nutrient concentrations in the woodland and agricultural catchments. In the woodland catchment, nutrients come primarily from diffuse sources (soil flushing), while in the agricultural catchment, nutrients come primarily from point sources (sewage) as result of unregulated wastewater management. The climate factor primarily controls the concentrations of nutrients. High temperatures during the vegetation season usually correlate with increases in nutrient concentrations, especially that of Due to image rights restrictions, multiple line equation(s) cannot be graphically displayed.. This atypical phenomenon is seldom reported in the literature, especially in relation to woodland catchments. The third factor is associated with water circulation in the catchment under different hydrological conditions -- during flood events and during low-flow periods. The fourth factor is most likely associated with nitrification processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]