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In the late stage of underground brine mining in salt lakes, the method of injecting fresh water is often used to extract the salt from the brine storage medium. This method of freshwater displacement breaks the original water–rock equilibrium and changes the evolution process of the original underground brine. To explore the mechanism of salt release in saline water-bearing media under conditions of relatively fresh lake water dissolution, this paper analyzes the changes in the chemical parameters of brine from 168 sampling points in the Mahai salt lake in the Qaidam Basin at three stages (before exploitation, during exploitation, and late exploitation) by correlation analysis, ion ratio analysis, and other methods and investigate the variations in porosity and the evolution laws of brine. The results show that the changes in the main ion content and brine mineralization during the exploitation process are small. The changes in Ca2+ content are significant due to the low solubility of calcium minerals, the precipitation of gypsum during the mixing process, and the adsorption of cations by alternating with Ca2+. Primary intergranular pore skeletons are easily corroded to form secondary pores, which increase the geological porosity. Na+ and Cl- are the dominant ions in the brine in the study area, but the concentration of Ca2 + decreased significantly under the influence of mining, by 41.7% in the middle period and 24.5% in the late period. The correlation between Ca2+ and salinity changes significantly in different mining stages, and the reason for the decrease of Ca2+ may be due to the influence of mineral dissolution, mixing, and anion-cation exchange. The porosity of the layer in the study area showed the opposite trend of Ca2+, and the porosity increased first and then decreased. The innovation of this paper lies in analyzing the reasons and mechanisms of the disturbance of artificial dissolution mining on stratum structure by comparing the hydrochemical characteristics and porosity of underground brine storage media in three different mining stages. The research in this paper provides a theoretical basis for the calculation of brine resource reserves and the sustainable development of underground brine in salt lake areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Basin Horizontal Ecological Compensation Mechanism (BHEC) is a significant institutional innovation in China's water environment management, aimed at achieving green, low-carbon, and high-quality development in the basin. This paper examines the current status of the spatial association network of green low-carbon development in Xin'an River basin, using social network analysis based on data from prefecture-level cities between 2006 and 2019. Using a dual difference model, the paper explores the important role of BHEC in promoting green low-carbon development from the perspectives of production and consumption and analyzes the path of BHEC's promotion of green low-carbon development in detail. The results indicate that (1) the green low-carbon development in the Xin'an River basin is universally connected in space, but this connection is uneven among the cities in the basin, presenting a network spatial structure with the central region as the core and the north and south regions approaching the core. (2) BHEC contributes to green low-carbon development, and the "two-wheel drive" of green technology progress and green technology efficiency is essential to improve green low-carbon development. (3) From the perspective of consumption affecting green low-carbon development, the positive impact of BHEC on green low-carbon development is inseparable from the synergistic guarantee of public participation. (4) From the production side of green low-carbon development, the ecological effect, structural effect, and technological effect are significant transmission factors of compensation policies affecting green low-carbon development. (5) The "blood transfusion" pilot policy is more helpful to improve green low-carbon development, and compensation policy has positive spillover effects. Finally, the paper argues that the trans-basin ecological compensation policy is expected to become a long-term mechanism to promote green low-carbon and high-quality development in the basin, providing a theoretical and practical basis for developing countries to achieve green low-carbon development through an ecological compensation system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Pearl River is one of China's large rivers, the second-largest river and the fourth-longest river in China. Its unique geography, landform, and climate conditions create unique fluvial geomorphological processes. Affected by human activities and climate change, the fluvial geomorphological processes in the Pearl River Basin have undergone significant changes in recent decades, seriously affecting the river's sustainable development. This paper critically reviews changes in fluvial geomorphological processes and analyzes influencing factors in the Pearl River Basin with a focus on possibilities for policy overhaul and strategic adjustments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the aggravation of environmental conflicts, exploring the green development path is an inevitable choice to alleviate land tension, guarantee the harmony of human–land relations, and promote coordinated regional development. The Yellow River Basin (YRB) is an important national ecological barrier area, but the impact of its environmental problems can no longer be ignored. Ecological security patterns (ESPs) provide remarkable means for the identification, configuration, and optimization of ecological spaces, which can help people identify the most central zone that needs to be protected. In this paper, we proposed environmental optimization strategies applicable to YRB as a case area. Firstly, the basic framework of ESPs was constructed based on the "three‐step" method, where ecological sources were delineated by importance/sensitivity, resistance surfaces were created by entropy weight method, and the distribution ranges of ecological corridors, nodes, and barriers were confirmed by circuit theory. Meanwhile, stepping stones were introduced to optimize the ESPs, which were obtained through hotspot analysis and buffer analysis. The results displayed that (1) ecological sources covered an area of 166,699.32 km2, occupying 21% of the basin area. They were widely distributed in the upper and middle junctions, southeast and east of the basin, and of the land types that make up them, cropland, woodland, and grassland account for 97.6%. (2) The spatial distribution of resistance values varied considerably with low values predominantly found along water systems and high values predominantly found in densely populated urban areas. (3) Through the Linkage Mapper tool, 344 ecological corridors were acquired, with dense and short corridors in the southeast and sparse and long corridors in the northwest; 146 ecological nodes were acquired, which were the priority areas for ecological protection; and 154 barriers were acquired, the improvement or removal of which can enhance the connectivity between sources. In addition, the application of stepping stones further enhanced the connectivity between landscapes. The ESPs assessment framework constructed in this paper can provide strong support for relevant departments to carry out ecological monitoring and formulate environmental protection strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Promoting the green development of resource-based cities is an essential way to achieve sustainable regional economic development. Based on 2009–2019 panel data of the Yellow River Basin cities, this study adopts the super-directional distance function model to measure the green development efficiency of these selected cities. Furthermore, based on the Malmquist-Luenberger index, this paper focuses on the dynamic change trend of green development efficiency and internal driving factors. Furthermore, the Tobit model is used to specifically explore the influencing factors affecting the green development of cities. The findings suggested that the green development efficiency of selected cities falls in the middle to high range and that the efficiency varies among all cities in the Yellow River Basin. Likewise, technical efficiency improvements and technological progress drive development efficiency, and the former contributes more to green development. However, financial development, energy structure adjustments, and environmental regulation can strongly contribute to the green development of cities, and each influencing factor has obvious temporal and regional differences. This paper proposes appropriate policy suggestions to promote the coordinated development of the economic development and environmental protection of the Yellow River Basin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High-quality development of socio-economic, ecological environment, tourism industry and natural resources in the Yellow River Basin is a major strategic task for national development. High-quality development in the Yellow River Basin still has a lot of room for improvement, so it is important for the coupled and coordinated development of water resources-socio-economic-ecological environment-tourism industry in the Yellow River Basin region. In this study, we focus on the major strategic issues of high quality development in the Yellow River Basin in the context of the above-mentioned background and the current forms and policies of sustainable development in China, and conduct research on the theory and methods of assessing the sustainable development of regional water resources-socio-economic-ecological environment-tourism industry. However, by analyzing the existing research literature on sustainable development assessment, we find that most of them focus on a single area or two combinations of modal development studies, and focus on exploring micro-coupling mechanisms, so the generality of macro policy support is rather mediocre, which we fill this gap through this study. The study relies on an innovative macroscopic research perspective that draws pioneeringly on the quality function deployment (QFD) theory in the field of product quality management in marketing, which, it is worth stating, allows for a framework of research perspectives from a systematic and holistic perspective. In this framework, we will propose a G1-entropy value method for indicator importance (weight) assessment. It is worth stating that the G1 method used in this paper is different from the traditional G1 method in that we will introduce the identity information weights of experts to improve the reliability of the subjective assignment method. We will also construct an indicator system for studying the regional sustainable development issues in the Yellow River Basin on this basis, so as to complete the ranking and analysis of the nine provinces and the importance of indicators in the Yellow River Basin. This study will provide a comprehensive theoretical basis for Chinese government and related departments to formulate policies for the high-quality development of water resources, socio-economic, ecological environment and tourism industry in the Yellow River Basin, and also provide theoretical and empirical references for the analysis and assessment of similar international regional sustainability cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The implementation of the 10-year fishing ban compensation policy in the Yangtze River basin is the first practice of the river ecological compensation project in China, which has a milestone value to protect China's ecological sustainability and boost green development. Based on the survey data of 212 retired fishing households in Ma'anshan city, this paper constructs a livelihood capital evaluation system, coupled with coordination model and mobility matrix to analyze the policy effect on participants' livelihood from the changes of livelihood capital amounts on structure and mobility. The key results are threefold. (1) Policy implementation has significantly raised retired households' livelihood capital index; (2) The households livelihood capital coupling coordination degree has significantly improved, and the capital structure has transitioned from imbalanced to coordinated; and (3) Households' livelihood capital exhibits a high mobility, and the gap between rich and poor has been narrowed. This paper theoretically contributes to the research on ecological compensation by providing a more comprehensive perspective of policy effect analysis, and it can also provide a micro level empirical basis for policymakers to optimize the follow-up fishing ban policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper evaluates the effectiveness of principles used for sharing resources of the Lower Ankobra River Basin found in the Western Region of Ghana. The purpose is to find out whether the institutions in charge of the management of the Lower Ankobra Basin are using principles prescribed by the United Nations Development Programme and the Sustainable Human Development (1997) for equitable sharing of the resources of the Lower Ankobra River Basin. The study adopted the descriptive research design. By means of in-depth and semi-structured interview guides, information was solicited from 268 respondents who played diverse roles in the conservation of the basin's resources. The paper found that management institutions fail to follow the right principles, such as equity, accountability, and efficiency, when distributing resources in the basin. The final results showed evidence of misallocation and uneven distribution of the basin's resources. It is recommended that the management institutions should periodically provide accurate, accessible, and comprehensible information on how resources have been utilized, by using community bulletin boards and social gatherings on behalf of users of the basin. In addition, to promote equity, the Government of Ghana must first compensate and reclaim all the lands in the basin from individuals whose activities impact negatively on its resources and hand them over to the Water Resources Commission for redistribution to more efficient areas of production based on the powers enshrined in Section 12 and 13 of theWater Management Act, Act 522, of Ghana. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on China's new development philosophy, and following the idea of "assessing the overall levels firstly, then anchoring the subsystems contributions and finally identifying the obstacle factors", an evaluation system of high-quality development (HQD) levels is constructed from five subsystems of innovative development (ID), coordinated development (CD), green development (GD), open development (OD) and shared development (SD). In this paper, the entropy weight TOPSIS model is used to measure the HQD levels of 19 provincial units located in the Yellow River Basin (YRB) and the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB) in 2010–2019, and with the assistance of the Obstacle Degree Model, the obstacle factors affecting the HQD of both are depicted. The results show that: (1) between 2010 and 2019, the HQD indices in YRB and YREB have been on an increasing trend, and the subsystems indices all show a trend of "GD > CD > SD > ID > OD", but the overall levels of HQD in both is not high, and there is still much room for improvement. (2) YREB has a significantly higher HQD level than YRB. From 2010 to 2019, the average values of the HQD indices in YRB and YREB were 0.2886 and 0.4073, respectively, but the index in YRB improves at a faster pace than YREB, and the gap of HQD levels between the two show a trend of continuous reduction towards regional balance and coordination. (3) The analysis of obstacle factors shows that while OD and ID are the main obstacles to HQD in both basins, the impact of both on the resistance to HQD in both basins is on a decreasing trend. GD is another bottleneck for the HQD of YRB, and the pressure on GD in the middle and upper reaches of the provincial units in the basin is increasing, and the obstacles are on a rising trend. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Yellow River Basin (YRB) is China's substantial energy consumption base. The issue of carbon emission efficiency directly affects the ecological protection and high-quality development of the YRB. It is the key to achieving carbon peak in 2030 and carbon neutralization in 2060 ("30.60") double carbon emission reduction targets. Therefore, taking YRB as the research object, this paper first calculates the carbon emission and the decoupling state in the YRB. Secondly, the super-efficiency slacks-based measurement (SE-SBM) model is combined with the Malmquist index to analyze the temporal and spatial evolution characteristics of YRB's carbon emission efficiency from static and dynamic perspectives. Thirdly, the dynamic evolution characteristics of carbon emission efficiency are analyzed with the help of the Kernel density function. Finally, the Tobit model analyzes the influencing factors of YRB's and China's carbon emission efficiency. The results show that: (1) Among the nine provinces of YRB, the decoupling state between carbon emissions and economic growth in most provinces changes from weak decoupling to strong decoupling, and the decoupling elasticity index shows a fluctuating downward trend. (2) There are significant differences in carbon emission efficiency among provinces, but on the whole, it shows a stable growth trend. The high-value area of carbon emission efficiency is increasing, and the phenomenon of two-level differentiation is improving. The decline of the technological progress index causes the Malmquist index in Qinghai and Ningxia. On the contrary, the rise of the Malmquist index in the other seven provinces is caused by improving the technical efficiency index. (3) Industrial structure, economic development, and industrialization are the main positive factors affecting YRB's carbon emission efficiency. Urbanization level, green development level, and energy consumption level are the leading negative indicators hindering YRB's improvement of carbon emission efficiency. Therefore, targeted emission reduction suggestions should be formulated according to YRB's resource endowment and development stage characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water constitutes an important natural and strategic resource, crucial to sustainable development, as well as the social stability and  wellbeing of every economy. The coordinated development of water resource utilisation and economic growth  is currently the focus of attention of social scientists and other representatives of the scholarly community, being one of the key factors for the long‐term development of a country. Based on theories of sustainable development and water resource utilisation, this paper examines the ‘quantity’ and ‘quality’ of water resource utilisation in 19 provinces, municipalities directly under the Central Government, and autonomous regions in the Yangtze River basin from 2006 to 2021, and explores the internal interaction mechanism. First, the decoupling model is used to explore the decoupling relationship between water resource use and economic growth in the Yangtze River Basin, and the LMDI additive index model is used to analyse the corresponding four driving factors. After discovering the interaction between the ‘quantity’ of water resources and economic growth, the ‘quality’ of water resources in the Yangtze River basin was explored, and after measuring the utilisation rate of water resources in the Yangtze River basin, the Tobit model was applied to introduce the explanatory and control variables to deeply analyse the influencing factors of water resources, and the two regulating variables of the digital economy and water endowment are introduced to further analyse the regulating mechanism. The results demonstrate that there is a corresponding ‘weak decoupling‐strong decoupling‐strong decoupling’ stage of development between water resource use and economic growth in the Yangtze River basin, with the corresponding technology effect factor being the most important driver. There is also a corresponding positive regulation impact of the digital economy on the relationship between the two, while water resources endowment has a corresponding negative regulation mechanism, as well as the role of corresponding influencing factors. Relevant recommendations for water resources use have been suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How to raise the ecological compensation fund for the Yellow River Basin is one of the key difficulties for executing the ecological compensation mechanism and ensuring the high-quality development of the entire basin. This paper, which is based on systems theory, analyzes the social-economic-ecological compound system of the Yellow River Basin. It makes the point that the goals of human-water harmony, ecological compensation efficiency improvement, and coordinated regional development should be achieved in raising ecological compensation funds. Guided by the raising targets, a two-layer fundraising model based on efficiency and fairness is constructed for ecological compensation. The upper-level model is built to calculate the ecological compensation efficiency of each compensation subject from an input–output perspective. The initial fundraising scheme was further determined to implement the efficiency principle. Within the framework of sustainable development theory, the lower-level model adheres to the fairness principle based on efficiency. The social-economic development level of the compensation subject is considered to discriminate and optimize the initial scheme. Additionally, the two-layer model was utilized to conduct an empirical analysis with the data of the Yellow River Basin from 2013 to 2020. The results show that the optimized fundraising scheme is in line with the actual development level of the Yellow River Basin. This study can provide a reference for the fundraising of horizontal ecological compensation and promote the sustainable development of the whole basin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reducing agricultural emissions and promoting carbon sequestration are vital for China to achieve its dual carbon goals. Achieving the green transformation of agricultural watersheds requires a thorough understanding of the internal transmission relationships within the watersheds and the underlying spatial correlation structures. This paper used the SBM-3E model to calculate the agricultural ecological efficiency of 17 prefecture-level cities in the Hanjiang River Basin (HRB) from 2010 to 2020, taking agricultural carbon emissions and a comprehensive non-point source pollution index as the unexpected output. The Gravity model and social network analysis methods were used to analyze the evolution characteristics of the network structure of agricultural ecological efficiency, and the secondary assignment procedure method was used to identify the driving factors from the planting structure, water use structure, and resource endowment. First, from 2010 to 2020, the overall agricultural ecological efficiency in the HRB demonstrates a declining trend, with efficiency values of 12.15, 9.40, and 6.67 in the upper, middle, and lower reaches, respectively. Second, the spatial correlation network density of agricultural ecological efficiency in the HRB is 0.17, with a network efficiency of 0.89. The correlation among units within the basin is relatively low, but stability is high. Moreover, the individual network spillover absorption capacity exhibits heterogeneity, and the status of each subject within the watershed follows a "core-edge" structure. Third, total water consumption and corn cultivation have a positive impact on the agricultural ecological efficiency network in the HRB, whereas agricultural water use and rice cultivation negatively influence the network. We propose policy recommendations to facilitate the advancement of green development in China's agricultural watersheds and the achievement of the dual carbon goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Yilong Lake is the southernmost plateau freshwater lake in China. The health of its watershed ecosystem is of special strategic significance to maintain the ecological security and ensure the sustainable development of regional economy and society. This paper analyzed the characteristics of landscape type in Yilong Lake Basin of 1990, 1995, 2000, 2005, 2010, 2015 and 2018 and discussed the impact of landscape pattern type changes and its effect on ecosystem services values (ESV). The results showed that: (1) The landscape types of Yilong Lake are mainly forest land and the largest dynamic degree of comprehensive 1andscape type in the six stages is 2010–2015 and the smallest is 2015–2018. (2) Spatially, the most frequent conversion was arbor forest land, which turned to shrub forest land and garden land. The rapid expansion of construction land and transportation land were turned by cultivated land area. (3) Temporally, from 1990 to 2018, the total ESV also increases year by year, and the regional distribution of high ESV is consistent with the distribution of water areas and gardens. The comprehensive analysis shows that the implementation of governance projects such as ecological protection and governance of Yilong Lake surface mountain are conducive to increase the landscape types and the total ESV. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is not an understatement to say that a thriving and healthy river system for the Mesopotamian region means a thriving economy for all with a productive agriculture and a sustainable manufacturing base that needs reliable water supply and cheap power. When looked at from a 30,000 feet from the ground, the Mesopotamian region began experiencing a steady decline in the health of its rivers from the 1980s with a series of unfortunate man‐made events ranging from wars to uncoordinated dam development. While there have been many analyses and historical dissection of the current water situation, one question that we all need to ask now is How can we restore the Mesopotamian rivers? Plain Language Summary: We believe we need to think in radical ways and drive our multi‐year and multi‐disciplinary research agenda with the goal of driving sustainable economic development. Research just for research sake and publication of research papers is now an outdated concept that benefits a few in this region in the near term. We call on the key players of the region, such as the national governments, water ministries, US Department of State, and European Government agencies to push for win‐win solutions. It is in their best economic and sovereign interest too to see Mesopotamian rivers restore sooner rather than later. Because, if the Mesopotamian rivers fail, then we as a world fail. Key Points: Mesopotamian rivers have declined steadily over the past 40 years with a reduced flood pulse due to dams by Turkey Iraq and SyriaSuch decline has lead to an unsustainable state of affairs and livelihood for downstream nationsThere are practical solutions to restore the rivers by seeking answer to how much water is really available [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Macta River basin in Algeria is under pressure. A water accounting of the basin demonstrates the severity of the crisis, with a net water depletion rate estimated at 93–142%, depending on the assumptions made. This reflects the overexploitation of the aquifers whose annual depletion is estimated at between 86 and 126 Mm3. This paper first discusses the causes of basin overbuilding and the over-allocation of water, and then analyses the economic, social and environmental consequences. It calls for a stricter water accounting of river basins in Algeria as the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its SDG 6 are implemented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ability to retrospectively evaluate the vulnerability of a watershed can identify potential risks influencing sustainable water development over time. More importantly, the effect of watershed management policies can be evaluated to help government assess and improve current policies. In order to identify vulnerability factors and evaluate the vulnerability state of a watershed, this paper proposes a time-series-based vulnerability analysis framework that integrates several approaches and methods, including: (1) a combined driving force-pressure-state-impact-response (DPSIR) and hydrology-environment-life (HEL) framework for the selection and classification of evaluation parameters; (2) the coefficient of variation method to determine the weights of the evaluation parameters; and (3) the space geometry model to determine the vulnerability level. In addition, the paper describes a robustness analysis that was performed to evaluate the impact of changing the evaluation parameters on the results. A case study of the Xiang Jiang watershed in China is presented; empirical analysis showed that hydrologic vulnerability experienced large interannual variations. The environmental vulnerability of the Xiang Jiang watershed is subject to a high level of risk, whereas the living vulnerability is subject to a low level of risk. Despite many challenges, Xiang Jiang watershed water development is sustainable; this was determined based on the decreasing trend of total vulnerability. The findings demonstrated the effectiveness of the local government's policies for watershed management. Moreover, the results of the robustness analysis showed that the proposed vulnerability analysis framework was adaptable to using slightly different evaluation parameters in cases in which data for the proposed parameters are not readily available. The proposed framework can be used by local governments and decision makers to effectively manage the sustainable development of watersheds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although Lebanon has the highest mean annual rainfall of all Middle Eastern countries, it is affected by water stress, negatively impacting agricultural food production, energy generation, and undermine ecosystem functions. The Bekaa area, where the upper Litani River Basin (LRB) is located, suffers serious water quality and quantity problems, which threaten agricultural productivity and public health. Most of the domestic and industrial water in the basin is left untreated. This study investigates prevailing water management issues in the basin. The analysis provides a critical reflection on the water quality and quantity indicators using Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG 6), to 'ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all'. Results based on the author's observations and evidence from published reports and papers, since the early nineties, showed the existing management approaches fall short to mitigate the negative impact of the environmental problems in the LRB, particularly low water quality (indicator 6.3) and inefficient water use (indicator 6.4). Progress on achieving integrated water management (indicator 6.5) in the LRB is limited. Persistent environmental challenges remain due to weak governance, insufficient capacity, and law enforcement, which must be targeted by a public-private partnership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past twenty years, government advisory bodies have placed increasing emphasis on the need for adaptive measures in response to the effects of human-induced climate change. Integrated Assessment Models (IAMs), which incorporate macroeconomic and climate variables, feature prominently in advisory content, though they rarely draw on data from outside strictly constrained hypothetical systems. This has led to assertions that they are not well-suited to approximate complex systemic human-environment processes. Modular, interdisciplinary approaches have offered a way to address this shortcoming; however, beyond climate records, prehistoric data continue to be under-utilised in developing such models. In this paper we highlight the contribution that archaeology and palaeoecology can make to the development of the next generation IAMs that are expected to enhance provision for more local and pro-active adaptations to future climate change. We present data from one of Southeast Asia's most heavily developed river deltas: the Red River (Song Hong) Delta, in Vietnam and localised analysis from the Tràng An Landscape Complex World Heritage Site, on the delta's southern margin. Comparison is made between Shared Socio-economic Pathways (SSP) 5–8.5 and SSP2–4.5 emission projection models and the Mid-Holocene inundation of the Red River Basin. We highlight the value to taking a scientific long view of coastal evolution through an illustrative set of eight research foci where palaeo-data can bring new and localised empirical data to bear on future risk management planning. We proceed to demonstrate the applicability of palaeoenvironmental, zooarchaeological and historical evidence to management and the development of sustainable conservation strategies using Tràng An as a case study. In so doing, we further highlight the importance of knowledge exchange between scientific, corporate, non-governmental, local, and state stakeholders to achieve tangible results on the ground. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the research background of the new economic norm and the construction of "non-waste city" in China, this paper studies the coordinated development between the industrial green development system and the regional "non-waste" system of the Yangtze River Economic Zone. First, using the data from 11 provinces from 2013 to 2017 as samples, the comprehensive evaluation index systems for the industrial green development system and the regional "non-waste" system are constructed, respectively. Then, considering the multi-source heterogeneous characteristics of the evaluation index data, the two-tuple linguistic entropy weight method, and gray relational analysis method are applied to filter the evaluation indexes and determine the index weights respectively. Third, combined with the dynamic TOPSIS idea, a new improved coupling coordination degree model is proposed to study the coordination development between the two systems. Finally, an empirical analysis is made, and the result shows that the overall degree of coupling coordination of the two systems shows a fluctuating upward trend. Moreover, the provinces are mainly low-level coupling coordination, and the factors that are hindered in various regions are different. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The water energy environment (WEE) nexus models have become indispensable for the integrated natural resources management under the growing regional and global risks and insecurities in pursuit of sustainable development. A new framework has been developed based on bottom-up energy system model and the related greenhouse gas emissions which aimed to predict and depict an apparent WEE nexus outlook for residential, electric power, industry, and agriculture sectors under various scenarios. Bottom-up nexus modeling has been done by Long Energy Alternative Planning software tool for the mentioned sectors from 2016 to 2040. The Urmia Lake basin covering 52,000 Km2 as a vulnerable region to climate change located in the northwest of Iran is selected as a case study in this paper. The UL basin's demographic and economic data were used as energy demand drivers. Discussion of the results based on the detailed energy and emission analysis under different scenarios showed the most energy saving and environmental pollutants abatement potential equal to 27.76 million barrels of oil equivalent and 11.3 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents under the Integrated Policy (IP) scenario up to 2040. Sensitivity analysis of total energy demand to socioeconomic changes shows mean increases of 3% and 2% to each unit increase in the population and gross domestic product. The cost–benefit analysis for the IP scenario indicates more net present values if the interest rate remains less than 8%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Guilin is a typical representative of karst landform in South China. Because of its unique geographical landform and hydrological environment, Lijiang River Basin has received a certain degree of attention in field of ecology and sustainable development. Explore and visualize the hotspots and frontiers of Guilin Lijiang River Basin Ecology and Sustainable Development (GLRBESD) by using bibliometrics, CiteSpace, and VOSviewer. Results showed that number of published papers was in a fluctuating upward trend from 1992 to 2022 and from 2011 to 2022, respectively. Work of scholars in this field has been continuously strengthened and deepened, and overall scientific research results show an increasing trend. Research objects and topics are mainly aimed at the water resources, climate, and environment of GLRB Landscape ecology and SDG index construction. Research of GLRBESD-published documents has the characteristics of multi-disciplinary and interdisciplinary integration. High-frequency keywords in research field focus on ecotourism, ecological restoration, and sustainable development, mainly based on the research of ecotourism development. Impact of environmental factor changes and human activities on land use change in different periods is an important research topic. Core research field of GLRBESD on macro-scale can be divided into ESV and function, ecological compensation and ecotourism, ecological environment and ecological restoration, ecological network and ecological risk assessment, and sustainable development. This research provides systematic scientific research basis for enhancing sustainable development ability and ecosystem functions and services of World Natural Heritage Site. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of promoting high-quality development in the Yellow River Basin (YRB) of China, urgent action is needed to achieve the “Dual Carbon” goal through energy savings, emission reductions, and industrial upgrading. This study measures carbon emissions from eight types of energy consumption across 43 industries from 2000 to 2019. Using the KayaLMDI model, factors affecting carbon emissions are analyzed, and the relationship between industrial structure and carbon emissions is explored through the coefficient of variation (CV). The findings reveal that coal consumption remains significantly higher than other energy sources, and the effect of energy structure adjustment on carbon emission reduction is limited compared to the impact of energy consumption increase on carbon emission growth. Moreover, the economic output effect is identified as the primary driving factor of carbon emissions, while energy utilization rate is crucial in achieving energy savings and emission reductions. Finally, the CV of carbon emissions across 43 industries is increasing. Based on these results, we suggest several policy recommendations, including prioritizing ecological concerns, developing comprehensive and scientifically sound plans, optimizing energy consumption structure, improving energy utilization efficiency, and adjusting industrial structure to promote sustainable development in the YRB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drought is a major factor affecting the sustainable development of society and the economy. Research on drought assessment is of great significance for formulating drought emergency policies and drought risk early warning and enhancing the ability to withstand drought risks. Taking the Yellow River Basin as the object, this paper utilizes data fusion, copula function, entropy theory, and deep learning, fuses the features of meteorological drought and hydrological drought into a drought assessment index, and establishes a long short-term memory (LSTM) network for drought assessment, based on deep learning theory. The results show that (1) after extracting the features of meteorological drought and hydrological drought, the drought convergence index (DCI) built on the fused features by copula function can accurately reflect the start and duration of the drought; (2) the drought assessment indices were effectively screened by judging the causality of the drought system, using the transfer entropy; (3) drawing on the idea of deep learning, LSTM for drought assessment, which was established on DCI and the drought assessment factors, can accurately assess the drought risks of the Yellow River Basin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rivers and their surrounding lands are focal points of human development in the landscape. However, activities associated with development can greatly affect river processes, causing significant and often unintended environmental and human impacts. Despite the profound and varied environmental impacts that development-related alterations cause through hydrological, geomorphic, and ecological processes, they are not widely acknowledged outside of river management and affect resource availability and hazard exposure to people. In this paper, we propose a novel, interdisciplinary conceptual framework of river–land process interactions to support sustainable management and development. We introduce the term 'land–river interface' (LRI) to describe areas of the landscape in which river processes affect land, vegetation, and/or fauna, including humans, directly or indirectly. The multiple links between LRI processes and factors at the river basin, valley, and river channel (i.e. reach) scale are synthesized and a conceptual zonation of the LRI based on the process is proposed to serve as a framework to understand the impacts of human activity. Three examples of development-related activities (urbanization, dams and aggregate mining) illustrate how alteration to the form and functioning of river basins, valleys, and channels cause a range of impacts to be propagated throughout the landscape, often spatially or temporally distant from the activity. The diversity and severity of these impacts on the environment and people underscore the need to incorporate river processes, as represented in the LRI concept, into broader environmental management to better anticipate and mitigate negative impacts and maximize positive outcomes to deliver the benefits of sustainable development across society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of sustainable economic development as the core promotes socio-economic progress and rapid economic development. Nevertheless, in the new era of China, the contradiction between socio-economic development and environmental sustainability is still prominent. In order to deal with the coordinated development relationship among regional economy, energy, and environment, this paper constructs an energy-economy-environment (3E) index system from the perspective of green development and ecological integrity. On this basis, the distance-based coupling coordinated degree (CCD) model and dynamically comprehensive coordination degree model were used to evaluate the coupling coordinated development levels of 11 provinces (cities) along the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB) from 2008 to 2017. Then, a spatial econometric model was used to explore the spatial effects of the regional 3E system of the YREB. The results indicated that (1) the overall coordination of the 3E system in the provinces (cities) along the YREB shows an increasing trend. However, change paths varied with the provinces (cities) due to the influence of regional policies; (2) the CCD of the 3E system in the YREB differed spatially significantly, showing a stepped distribution of "high in the east and low in the west"; (3) the 3E system in the YREB had a positive spatial correlation and showed the characteristics of aggregation, with Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces mainly showing "high-high" agglomeration and Sichuan showing "high-low" aggregation, while the rest of the provinces had the characteristics of random distribution in terms of spatial effects. The research process and results show that combining the ecological civilization concept and the CCD model can provide the vision and indicators for evaluating and researching the regional 3E system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coherence and coordination among interdependent policy sectors are considered key for the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Literature on policy coherence argues that a lack of coordination may lead to policy incoherence; however, literature on coordination also sometimes points to the reversed causality that incoherencies in policies or in governance functions (functional incoherence) may hinder coordinated policy outcomes; in fact, these assumptions have rarely been further theorized or tested empirically. In this paper, we hypothesize the higher functional or policy coherence, the higher coordination at process level and the higher the likelihood that coordination at process level is translated into coordination at outcome level. We test this hypothesis for cross-sectoral coordination challenges among different water using sectors in six different basins located in Germany, Iran, Mongolia, Spain, and South Africa. At first glance, four cases seem to confirm the first part of the hypothesis for functional coherence and three for policy coherence. It remains difficult to establish causality. Whether functional and policy coherence translate into coordination at process level seems to depend on a functioning coordination body. We further find that functional and policy incoherencies may either lead to coordination problems (in view of conflicts of interest) or even go along with a high level of coordination at the process level, possibly to compensate for incoherencies. Neither functional nor policy coherence change the relationship of coordination at process and outcome level. To explain coordination at the outcome level, other factors need to be considered. • The paper explores how (in)coherence in policies and responsibilities affects coordination at process and outcome level. • It presents a rigorous comparative study of cross-sectoral coordination in six river basins worldwide. • Coherence may be conducive towards coordination at process level, but it remains difficult to establish causality. • Incoherencies may both hinder or stimulate coordination at process level. • Coherence in policies and responsibilities does not change the relationship of coordination at process and outcome level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sanjiangyuan region is located in the hinterland of Qinghai-Tibet plateau, covering an area of 30.25 square kilometers, with the total population of 556000 people, including Tibetans, constituting more than 90%. Since it is the source of the Yangtze River, Yellow River, Lancang River catchment area, biodiversity concentration, and a beautiful environment, known as the "Chinese water tower," occupy an irreplaceable strategic position in national development. Although Sanjiangyuan region is blessed with unique natural landscape and rich tourism resources, its ecological environment has been seriously deteriorated due to long-term man-made destruction, backward economic development, and increasing poverty, which have seriously affected and restricted the survival and development of local ethnic groups. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, General Secretary Xi Jinping has repeatedly emphasized that "Lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets." China advocates harmonious coexistence between humans and nature and sticks to the path of green and sustainable development. At the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the rural revitalization strategy was clearly proposed, which includes not only industrial revitalization but also ecological revitalization. In this paper, the area belonging to Sanjiangyuan National Park is taken as the main research object. By constructing economic, tourism, and ecological environment (TEE) evaluation indexes, the coupling degree and coupling coordination degree models are established, and the data from 2000 to 2019 are measured. The relationship of the three indicators is analyzed, and corresponding proposals for its development are put forward, such as implementing ecological compensation mechanism to improve the level of ecosystem management; blending into ethnic cultural elements to create a unique tourist resort; paying attention to economic development quality, building energy conservation and emissions reduction green engine; Doing a good job in the top-level design of ecological economy, and promoting the coordinated development of various indicators, etc. We will focus on quality control of economic development and build green engines for energy conservation and emission reduction. We will do a good job in top-level ecological and economic design and promote coordinated development of various indicators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The traditional development model of high consumption and low efficiency approaches the threshold of resource and environmental carrying capacity, bringing a series of severe social and ecological environmental problems, and it is urgent to realize green development transformation. Based on a multidimensional perspective, this paper constructed a comprehensive evaluation system for urban green development along the Yellow River Basin (YRB). Entropy method, exploratory spatial data analysis (ESDA) model, and trend analysis were used to measure and characterize the spatiotemporal evolution of urban green development index (UGDI) along the YRB in 2008, 2013, and 2018, and geographically weighted regression (GWR) model was used to explore the influencing factors of urban green development. The results are as follows: (1) the UGDI along the YRB showed a slow upward trend, but the absolute value was relatively low, mainly concentrated in 0.2699–0.3799. (2) The UGDI had obvious regional differences, and cities such as Baotou and Zibo showed a "high-high" agglomeration, while most cities in the midstream showed a "low-low" agglomeration, and in terms of space, they were "high in the east and west, low in the middle" and "high in the north and low in the south." (3) Influencing factors had different degrees of impact on the UGDI. Economic, industrial, urbanization, and green infrastructure factors played a positive role in promoting the urban green development, while the relationship between governance, technological factors, and green development varies from city to city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a landscape planning and management method for river basins within the context of the European Landscape Convention (ELC) and European Water Framework Directive (WFD). This method has been applied to the Zir Valley in Ankara, Turkey. Landscape planning is identified by the ELC (European Treaty Series No. 176, ) as an important, forward-looking action to enhance, restore or create landscapes. The ELC also states that landscape management should promote sustainable development to ensure the non-degradation of landscapes and to help harmonize inevitable changes. The WFD (Directive 2000/60/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council, ) is a set of guidelines for managing large bodies of water. Its principle directive is to identify water bodies and the adjacent land areas that influence, and are influenced by, those water bodies. These are called River Basin Districts, and act as essential physiographic landscape units. While several regulations related to environmental planning, and used on a national as well as European basis, tend to utilize the same tools in practice, there are dissimilarities in how they are specifically applied and little effort is being made to promote a cooperative approach. In this paper, a National Approach for River Basin Management is proposed. This approach, which includes a landscape planning and management method based on landscape form and function, was developed to address the common purposes of the ELC and WFD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transboundary river basins are responsible for over half of the global river discharges and accommodate 40% of the global population. Ukraine is part of the four large transboundary rivers that flow through more than ten European countries and experience pollution problems because of human activities in up-and downstream areas. The Ukrainian government calls for actions to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG6) and integrate the European Union water legislation. This paper discusses five sustainable development perspectives for Ukraine to reduce pollution in transboundary rivers. These perspectives relate to (1) transitions from administrative river management (before 2017) to river basin management (after 2017) to enhance cooperation between countries, (2) interdisciplinary and (3) transdisciplinary research to better understand the causes and effects of river pollution and explore solutions, (4) innovation and modernization of water-related infrastructures and (5) the societal awareness. Future research could focus on the example of Ukraine and the adoption of these five perspectives to support the formulation of solutions to achieve SDG6 and support the sustainable basin management of transboundary rivers and the integration of European Union water legislation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The continuous supply of ecosystem services is the foundation of the sustainable development of human society. The identification of the supply--demand relationships and risks of ecosystem services is of considerable importance to the management of regional ecosystems and the effective allocation of resources. This paper took the Yihe River Basin as the research area and selected water yield, carbon sequestration, food production, and soil conservation to assess changes in the supply and demand of ecosystem services and their matching status from 2000 to 2018. Risk identification and management zoning were also conducted. Results show the following: (1) The spatial distribution of the four ecosystems service supply and demand in the Yihe River Basin was mismatched. The food production supply levels in the middle and lower reaches and the upstream water yield, carbon sequestration, and soil conservation supply levels were high. However, most of the areas with high demand for ecosystem services were concentrated downstream. (2) From 2000 to 2018, the supply of water yield and carbon sequestration in the Yihe River Basin decreased, while that of food production and soil conservation increased. The demand for the four ecosystem services also increased. (3)Water yield faced considerable supply--demand risks. Fifty percent of the sub-basins were at a high-risk level, and the risk areas were concentrated in the middle and lower reaches. The three remaining services were mainly at low-risk levels. The Yihe River Basin was divided into eight types of supply--demand risk spatial management zones based on the ecosystem service supply and demand levels, which will help promote refined regional ecosystem management and sustainable development. The supply and demand assessment of ecosystem services from a risk perspective can integrate the information of natural ecosystems and socio-economic systems and provide scientific support for watershed spatial management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Yellow River Basin (YRB) is an important ecological defense and economic zone in China and occupies a very important position in the economy and society of China. Premise condition of ecological protection and development of high quality in YRB is the greening of the industry. Based on the data of 35 cities in YRB in 2012, 2015, and 2018, this paper constructs an evaluation index system for the industrial green development (IGD) and explores spatial differentiation characteristics of the IGD by the exploratory spatial data analysis (ESDA) method. On this basis, this paper uses the geographical weighted regression (GWR) model to analyze the influencing factors. The results indicate the following: (1) in general, IGD in YRB shows an upward trend. (2) The Global Moran's I index of IGD shows a small increase; the distribution of local spatial correlation is basically unchanged. (3) There are obvious regional differences in the influencing factors of IGD. The degree of influence of each factor on IGD is openness > industrial upgrading index > urbanization rate > science and technology expenditures > reduction rate of energy consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The digital transformation is of great significance to green and high-quality development of logistics industry (L-GHD). This paper analyzes the theoretical mechanism of digitalization affecting the L-GHD. In the meantime, taking the urban data of China's Yellow River Basin as an example, a fixed effect model is established to empirically test the impact of digitalization on the L-GHD. The results show that: (1) digitalization can significantly promote the L-GHD. (2) Digitalization indirectly promotes the L-GHD through technological innovation input and output, optimized allocation of labor and capital elements. (3) The heterogeneity test of city types shows that the impact of digitalization on the L-GHD is more significant in non-resource-based cities. Urban location heterogeneity test shows that digitalization has a more significant impact on L-GHD in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River Basin. Finally, it puts forward suggestions to accelerate the healthy development of digitalization and help the L-GHD in the Yellow River Basin of China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ecosystem services (ESs) are crucial for sustainable development, as they impact human well-being. However, changes in land use/land cover (LULC) caused by climate change and social development can negatively affect ESs, particularly in arid river basins. This study focuses on current and future changes in LULC in the Kaxghar River Basin (KRB) in Xinjiang, China, to determine how these changes will affect the region's ESs. The integrated PLUS-InVEST model was used to investigate the spatiotemporal distribution and changing patterns of habitat quality (HQ) and carbon storage (CS) under the natural increase scenario (NIS), economic development scenario (EDS), and water protection scenario (WPS). Additionally, the Ecosystem Service Contribution Index (ESCI) was also calculated to evaluate the contribution of LULC changes to ESs. The results show the following: (1) from 2000 to 2020, the average value of HQ in the KRB gradually decreased from 0.54 to 0.49 and CS trended slightly upward, with a total increase of 0.07 × 106 t. Furthermore, the changes in CS were highly consistent with changes in LULC. (2) From 2020 to 2030, the area of low-grade (0–0.2) HQ saw a continuous increase, with the fastest growth occurring in 2030 under the EDS. Meanwhile, under the WPS, HQ significantly improved, expanding by 1238 km2 in area. Total CS under the three test scenarios tended to decline, with the NIS showing the smallest decrease. (3) The expansion of cropland and unused land had a negative impact on ESs, particularly on CS, whereas the conversion to grassland and forestland had a significant positive impact. In conclusion, these insights will enrich our understanding of ESs in the study area and contribute to balancing the relationship between ecological conservation and socioeconomic development in the Kaxghar River Basin, as well as in other parts of China's arid Northwest and similar regions around the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to achieve China's carbon peaking and carbon neutrality (double carbon) targets and to advance ecological conservation and high-quality development in the Yellow River Basin, it is essential that China reduces its energy intensity and increases its energy efficiency. This research developed an evaluation index system for energy efficiency and green development in the Yellow River Basin based on panel data collected from 64 of its prefecture-level cities and covering the period from 2011 to 2020. Each city's energy efficiency and green development level index was calculated, and was analyzed together with the characteristics of its spatial pattern progression. The STIRPAT model was then used to investigate the influence mechanism of energy efficiency on green development. The final step in the analysis was to assess the process by which technical innovation influences the rise in energy efficiency from a green development point of view. The findings of this study indicate that: (1) There was a marked improvement in energy efficiency and green development levels across the Yellow River Basin over the study period of 2011 to 2020, but there are notable disparities among prefecture-level cities, with higher levels found in capital cities and cities in the lower reaches of the basin. (2) The improvement in energy efficiency has had a positive impact on the transition to green development, with factors such as human capital, urbanization levels, and the upgrading of industrial structures contributing significantly, while the level of foreign direct investment has had a limited impact. (3) Technological innovation plays a partial role in mediating the relationship between energy efficiency and green development in the Yellow River Basin, and passes the single-threshold test. When technological innovation surpasses the threshold value, the effect of energy efficiency on green development is significantly strengthened. This study indicates that improving energy efficiency, stimulating emerging industries, and enhancing technological innovation capabilities can significantly promote transformative green and high quality development in the Yellow River Basin of China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper selects energy consumption data of 11 provinces in YRB and 19 provinces and cities in non-YRB from 2014 to 2016 and constructs a shared border Metafrontier non-radial directional short model, adding CO2 and AQI indicators as undesirable factors, in order to evaluate the total efficiency and the input and output efficiencies of these two regions. The results are as follows. (1) From the changes in the score and ranking of the two regions' total environmental efficiency, only two provinces in YRB show a slight decrease, while most of them show a stable or rising trend; seven provinces in non-YRB have a low rising rate. This means during the study period that YRB made more progress at energy conservation, emission reduction, and pollution control than other provinces and cities in non-YRB. (2) The efficiency scores of energy consumption, GDP, CO2, and AQI emissions are different in each province. Overall, the situation of YRB is better than that of non-YRB. Not only is the efficiency score of each index higher, but the efficiency difference between provinces and cities within the region is small, which is conducive to the linkage effect of the region and the realization of green coordinated development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This two-part paper considers the complementarity between adaptation and mitigation in managing the risks associated with the enhanced greenhouse effect. Part one reviews the application of risk management methods to climate change assessments. Formal investigations of the enhanced greenhouse effect have produced three generations of risk assessment. The first led to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), First Assessment Report and subsequent drafting of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The second investigated the impacts of unmitigated climate change in the Second and Third IPCC Assessment Reports. The third generation, currently underway, is investigating how risk management options can be prioritised and implemented. Mitigation and adaptation have two main areas of complementarity. Firstly, they each manage different components of future climate-related risk. Mitigation reduces the number and magnitude of potential climate hazards, reducing the most severe changes first. Adaptation increases the ability to cope with climate hazards by reducing system sensitivity or by reducing the consequent level of harm. Secondly, they manage risks at different extremes of the potential range of future climate change. Adaptation works best with changes of lesser magnitude at the lower end of the potential range. Where there is sufficient adaptive capacity, adaptation improves the ability of a system to cope with increasingly larger changes over time. By moving from uncontrolled emissions towards stabilisation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, mitigation limits the upper part of the range. Different activities have various blends of adaptive and mitigative capacity. In some cases, high sensitivity and low adaptive capacity may lead to large residual climate risks; in other cases, a large adaptive capacity may mean that residual risks are small or non-existent. Mitigative and adaptive capacity do not share the same scale: adaptive capacity is expressed locally, whereas mitigative capacity is different for each activity and location but needs to be aggregated at the global scale to properly assess its potential benefits in reducing climate hazards. This can be seen as a demand for mitigation, which can be exercised at the local scale through exercising mitigative capacity. Part two of the paper deals with the situation where regional bodies aim to maximise the benefits of managing climate risks by integrating adaptation and mitigation measures at their various scales of operation. In north central Victoria, Australia, adaptation and mitigation are being jointly managed by a greenhouse consortium and a catchment management authority. Several related studies investigating large-scale revegetation are used to show how climate change impacts and sequestration measures affect soil, salt and carbon fluxes in the landscape. These studies show that trade-offs between these interactions will have to be carefully managed to maximise their relative benefits. The paper concludes that when managing climate change risks, there are many instances where adaptation and mitigation can be integrated at the operational level. However, significant gaps between our understanding of the benefits of adaptation and mitigation between local and global scales remain. Some of these may be addressed by matching demands for mitigation (for activities and locations where adaptive capacity will be exceeded) with the ability to supply that demand through localised mitigative capacity by means of globally integrated mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the water crisis faced by the city of Guadalajara with the drying up of its main source of water, Lake Chapala. This drying up of Mexico's largest lake will cause far-reaching economic and ecological consequences for the extended region. The paper also examines the underlying causes, which are centred on the inadequate and unsustainable management of the Lerma-Chapala river basin (that extends over five states). It looks at the innovative, although as yet insufficient, institutional response towards integrated sustainable water management in Mexico, which centres on a shift from centralized water management at the federal level to a multi-stakeholder and participative system based in river basins, and reflects on the current challenges posed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Achieving the objectives of sustainable development in water and agri-food systems requires the utilisation of decision-support tools in stakeholder-driven processes to construct and simulate various scenarios and evaluate the outcomes of associated policy interventions. While it is common practice to involve stakeholders in participatory modelling processes, their comprehensive documentation and the lessons learned remain scarce. In this paper, we share our experience of engaging stakeholders throughout the entire system dynamics modelling process. We draw on two projects implemented in the Volta River Basin, West Africa, to understand the dynamics of water and agri-food systems under changing environmental and socioeconomic conditions. We outline eight key insights and lessons as practical guides derived from each stage of the participatory modelling process, including the pre-workshop stage, problem definition, model conceptualization, simulation model formulation, model testing and verification, and policy design and evaluation. Our findings demonstrate that stakeholders can actively contribute to all phases of the system dynamics modelling process, including parameter estimation, sensitivity analysis, and numerical simulation experiments. However, we encountered notable challenges, including the time-intensive nature of the process, the struggle to reach a consensus on the modelled problem, and the difficulty of translating the conceptual model into a simulation model using stock and flow diagrams – all of which were addressed through a structured facilitation process. While the projects were anchored in the specific context of West Africa, the key lessons and insights highlighted have broader significance, particularly for researchers employing PSDM in regions characterised by multifaceted human-environmental systems and where stakeholder involvement is crucial for holistic understanding and effective policy interventions. This paper contributes practical guidance for future efforts with participatory modelling, particularly in regions worldwide grappling with sustainable development challenges in water and agri-food systems, and where stakeholder involvement is crucial for holistic understanding of the multiple challenges and for designing effective policy interventions. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Estuarine crocodile, Crocodylus porosus is the most common crocodile found in Sarawak, Malaysia. Despite its importance in ecological services, socio-economy and cultural belief, crocodiles are still considered pests due to frequent human crocodile conflicts (HCC) resulting in either injuries or death. This study determined the density of crocodiles in three selected rivers within Samarahan River Basin (SRB) of Sarawak, using a standard night spotting technique over a three-year period (2019-2021). The average density of crocodiles in SRB is showing an increasing trend, although there is active removal of the animals from the rivers either by commercial hunting or by relocation of certain individuals as immediate response to HCC. This paper also describes conservation initiatives carried out in SRB aiming to use crocodile as a resource in bioeconomy, which supports the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional villages hold significant historical and cultural value as the precious heritage of China's agricultural civilization. Currently, against the backdrop of increasing urbanization and rapid expansion of urban construction land, the spatial patterns of traditional villages across various regions in China are being encroached upon and damaged, with protection pressures growing daily. As one of the important cradles of Chinese civilization, the Lower Yangtze River Basin (LYRB) has traditional villages closely linked with its water systems, forming a unique human-land relationship and spatial distribution pattern. However, influenced by the rapid urbanization process, the spatial patterns of traditional villages in this region also face a crisis, and the contradiction between protection and development is becoming increasingly prominent. How to balance this contradiction and ensure the reasonable protection and sustainable development of traditional villages has become an urgent issue to address. Therefore, this study focuses on the LYRB. Using ArcGIS tools and combined with mathematical analysis methods, the spatial distribution characteristics and essential influencing factors of traditional villages in this area were screened and analyzed. The objective was to examine the spatial structural relationship between traditional villages, four water system types, and nine sub-basin units, intending to reveal the unique interdependence between the water system and traditional villages in this area. This would provide scientific support for the formulation of scientific conservation strategies. The research results show that: (1) Traditional villages in The LYRB form two core clusters spatially and exhibit substantial spatial accumulation; (2) Water system characteristics are the main factors affecting the distribution of traditional villages; (3) In the LYRB, the spatial distribution of the nine sub-basins is closely related to the spatial distribution of traditional villages, resulting in typical regional spatial differentiation of traditional villages in this area. This study is based on a watershed perspective, and the results highlight the importance of the water system network in the development of traditional villages, revealing a unique spatial dependency relationship between traditional villages and the water network in the LYRB. In order to ensure the comprehensive protection of the traditional village system in this region, it is essential to adhere to the fundamental principles that govern its spatial configuration. A tripartite collaborative protection system based on the watershed should be formulated from the perspective of the overall distribution relationship between the water network and the traditional villages. This system would serve to protect the overall landscape, the water network pattern, and the traditional villages. Establishing an overall pattern view of integrating the water system network and the traditional villages is essential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The lower course of the Yellow River is a "hanging river" across the hinterland of China, and the safety of its flood control measures/systems is closely tied to the stability of the nation. Ensuring high-quality, sustainable development of the lower Yellow River floodplain while maintaining flood safety is crucial for the entire Yellow River Basin. Previous studies have primarily focused on the overall development of the Yellow River Basin or the economic–ecological coupling development of cities along the river, often neglecting the flood safety development of the floodplain. This study optimizes the socio-economic–flood-safety–ecological (SFE) system of the typical downstream Landong floodplain within the Yellow River Basin. The system dynamics model (SDM) can simulate the dynamic behavior of SFE systems by constructing mathematical models that incorporate feedback loops and time delays. The primary components include causal loop modules and stock-flow modules. Then, a coupling coordination degree model for the Landong floodplain is established using a comprehensive subjective and objective weighting method, assessing the SFE system's coordination under five scenarios: inertial development, economic development, environmental protection, flood safety, and sustainable development. The results of historical and validity tests indicate that the SDM can effectively simulate the coupling coordination degree of the SFE system. The study results suggest that the coupling coordination degree increases the most under the sustainable development scenario, indicating that the development of the Landong floodplain should not only focus on socio-economic growth, but should also consider flood safety and ecological concerns. In addition, comprehensive regulation from socio-economic, flood safety, and ecological environment indicators are necessary to achieve high-quality, coordinated development. This study has significant implications for policy formulation and management to achieve high-quality and sustainable development in the downstream floodplain of the Yellow River. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To understand the current status of water resource utilization and explore the coordination degree of the coupled human–water–ecosystem in the Tarim River Basin, we used the water shortage rates and index of WUE to analyze the dynamic changes in water shortage and water use efficiency. We also applied the Gini coefficient to study the evolutionary trend of the degree of matching between water consumption and GDP in each sector. Based on the above analysis, we developed a human–water–ecosystem coupling coordination degree model incorporating various indicators relevant to the three subsystems to quantitatively assess the coupled and coordinated development status of the three subsystems of the human–water–ecosystem in the basin from 2004 to 2020. The main findings are as follows: (1) The Tarim River Basin suffers from water shortage in dry years, with a prominent supply–demand contradiction. In the severe drought years of 2009 and 2014, the water shortage rates reached 10.20% and 10.93%, respectively. (2) From 2004 to 2020, the Tarim River Basin's water use efficiency (WUE), and its five prefectures showed a clear upward trend. On a multi-year average, Bayingol Mongolian Autonomous Prefecture had the highest WUE, while the Hotan region had the lowest. (3) The multi-year average value of the match between water consumption and GDP for the entire basin is 0.28. By industry, the primary industry's match between water consumption and GDP is higher, while the secondary and tertiary industries have lower matches. (4) From 2004 to 2020, the coordination degree of coupled human–water–ecosystem in the five prefectures showed different degrees of upward trend, generally developing towards better coordination. In terms of multi-year averages, Bayingol Mongolian Autonomous Prefecture, located in the east, has the highest degree of coupled coordination. Meanwhile, Hotan, in the south, lags significantly behind the remaining four regions. Therefore, the Tarim River Basin should further improve and optimize the development model of sustainable water resource use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Investigating the spatiotemporal dynamics of vegetation net primary productivity (NPP) and its influencing factors are crucial for green and low-carbon development and facilitate human well-being in the Yellow River Basin (YRB). Although the research on NPP has advanced rapidly, in view of the regional particularity of the YRB, the persistence of its NPP change trend needs to be further discussed and more comprehensive impact factors need to be included in the analysis. Meanwhile, the spatial non-stationarity and scale effects of the impact on NPP when multiple factors are involved remain uncertain. Here, we selected a total of twelve natural and anthropogenic factors and used multi-scale geographically weighted regression (MGWR) to disentangle the spatial non-stationary relationship between vegetation NPP and related factors and identify the impact scale difference in the YRB. Additionally, we analyze the spatiotemporal variation trend and persistence of NPP during 2000–2020. The results revealed the following: (1) The annual NPP showed a fluctuating increasing trend, and the vegetation NPP in most regions will exhibit a future trend of increasing to decreasing. (2) The effects of different factors show significant spatial non-stationarity. Among them, the intensity of the impact of most natural factors shows a clear strip-shaped distribution in the east-west direction. It is closely related to the spatial distribution characteristics of natural factors in the YRB. In contrast, the regularity of anthropogenic influences is less obvious. (3) The impact scales of different factors on vegetation NPP were significantly different, and this scale changed with time. The factors with small impact scales could better explain the change in vegetation NPP. Interestingly, the impact size and scale of relative humidity on NPP in the YRB are both larger. This may be due to the arid and semi-arid characteristics of the YRB. Our findings could provide policy makers with specific and quantitative insights for protecting the ecological environment in the YRB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The high-quality economic and social development of the Yellow River Basin is a combined system comprising the coordinated development of "economy–resources–environment–society", with resources and the ecological environment bearing capacity as the constraints, and green innovative development as the driving force. Based on the systematic analysis of the structural dimensions of the composite system, this paper uses the balanced indicators and their coordinated development effectiveness to describe the development quality of the macro-composite system. In order to reveal the mechanism of the evolutionary path of the macro system, the resource- and environment-bearing capacity, regional high-quality development potential, regional innovation capacity, and high-quality development guarantee capacity are adopted as the main attributes and decision-making basis of the autonomous agents. The simulation results show that, under the existing development model, the economic development of all of the provinces in the Yellow River Basin will be constrained by resources and the environment. However, different policy scenarios significantly affect the evolutionary trends of economic development, resource consumption, and the environmental pollution situation. The mechanisms to overcome the bottleneck of the resource and ecological constraints are different for these policies, and the effects of the same policy in different provinces are also not the same. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the New Zealand landscape, the mahika kai sites (resource gathering areas) are marked through place names, which act as central reference points (whai take) for a wider ecosystem catchment area and indicate changes over time. The traditional ecological knowledge, awakened through place names, informs and influences the way Māori realise cultural, social, environmental, and economic aspirations and practices (past and present). This paper will draw from a research project in Te Wai Pounamu (South Island), New Zealand that utilises traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) surrounding the place name, Matainaka, which indicate places where Kāi Tahu (South Island Māori tribal group) gathered whitebait (īnaka, Galaxias maculatus): an important fresh water species. A major focus of the research project is the knowledge around socio-cultural tipping points that will impact directly on the future cultural, social and economic sustainability within a specific catchment location, the Waikōuaiti River. The river has spawning and fishing sites for the īnaka mahika kai and comes under the mana whenua (recognised traditional authority) of the Māori tribal group, Kāti Huirapa Rūnaka ki Puketeraki. Traditional ecological knowledge kōrero (speech) explains the importance of Matainaka and its contribution to the surrounding catchment area, and - in contemporary times - works alongside that of scientific knowledge. The project merged TEK and science to find ways to improve future planning and adaptation for habitat restoration and modification, and to lessen impacts on īnaka spawning sites from the expected impacts of climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]