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In the context of global environmental change, radical policy change is often called for. Experts are frequently involved and can act as policy entrepreneurs to make such change happen. This paper presents an analysis of a historical case where radical policy change took place at large scale, namely the development of the Water Framework Directive (WFD). In this endeavor, experts were deeply embedded in the designing of radical new policies. First, we demonstrate for the first time how experts can act as policy entrepreneurs alongside the EU Commission, and insist on the importance of not neglecting the agency of experts in EU radical policy change. Second, we elaborate on the complexity of the interactions between the policy and politics streams of Kingdon's Multiple Streams Framework. In his framework, Kingdon describes the policy process as three parallel streams (a problem, a policy and politics) where policy entrepreneurs are the ones ''making the coupling of the streams" (Kingdon, 1984, p188). However, we argue that there is more to understand from the actual processes that make the streams entangled and allow for policy change to become a reality. We propose the concept of transcoding from the STS literature to illustrate the action of policy entrepreneurs in bridging the policy and politics streams. With this concept, we intend to show the processes that translate scientifically endorsed approaches and understandings into policy decisions, and to open new research possibilities in complement to the Multiple Stream Framework. • The European Commission is not the only policy entrepreneur in environmental change. • Experts have an active role in both EU policy and politics as policy entrepreneurs. • The concept of ''transcoding" can complement Kingdon's Multiple Stream Framework. • Transcoding shows how policy entrepreneurs can bridge policy and politics streams. • The Water Framework Directive had a window of opportunity in radical policy change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• SEA can learn from adaptive management to address its inherent limitations. • Learning loops and adaptive cycles help detecting SEA problems and addressing them. • A Limits-Oriented framework suggests when to recognise and to deal with SEA issues. • SEA in diversified contexts can improve adopting a Limits-Oriented framework. In the face of global environmental change, decision-makers need effective environmental assessments to shape policies and plans aiming at sustainable human development. In this paper, we propose a new approach to address the needs of Strategic Environmental Assessment. We develop a Limits-Oriented Adaptive framework that is useful not only to recognize and address existing SEA problems (its limits), but also to incorporate elements of social and institutional uncertainty. This framework conceptualizes the need to first identify existing SEA limitations (e.g. procedural, legislative) through learning loops, and then to address them with incremental or transformative change through adaptive cycles. The first part of this paper presents existing frameworks of adaptive policy-making, adaptive management and loops of learning that can contribute shaping better environmental assessments. In the second part, we present our framework and we illustrate how the contributions from different disciplines relate to the procedural and technical sides of Strategic Environmental Assessment. Last, we present the results of the experimental application of our method in an Australian and an Italian case study. We then discuss our findings, outlining how SEA can learn from adaptive management to overcome its limitations and to embrace incremental and transformational change. We tie these lessons to the needs of different groups of SEA professionals, developers, legislators, and the broad public. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on major outcomes of the ERA-PLANET (The European network for observing our changing planet) project, which was funded under Horizon 2020 ERA-net co-funding scheme. ERA-PLANET strengthened the European Research Area in the domain of Earth Observation (EO) in coherence with the European participation to Group on Earth Observation and the Copernicus European Union's Earth Observation programme. ERA-PLANET was implemented through four projects focused on smart cities and resilient societies (SMURBS), resource efficiency and environmental management (GEOEssential), global changes and environmental treaties (iGOSP) and polar areas and natural resources (iCUPE). These projects developed specific science-policy workflows and interfaces to address selected environmental policy issues and design cost-effective strategies aiming to achieve targeted objectives. Key Enabling Technologies were implemented to enhancing 'data to knowledge' transition for supporting environmental policy making. Data cube technologies, the Virtual Earth Laboratory, Earth Observation ontologies and Knowledge Platforms were developed and used for such applications. SMURBS brought a substantial contribution to resilient cities and human settlements topics that were adopted by GEO as its 4th engagement priority, bringing the urban resilience topic in the GEO agenda on par with climate change, sustainable development and disaster risk reduction linked to environmental policies. GEOEssential is contributing to the development of Essential Variables (EVs) concept, which is encouraging and should allow the EO community to complete the description of the Earth System with EVs in a close future. This will clearly improve our capacity to address intertwined environmental and development policies as a Nexus. iGOSP supports the implementation of the GEO Flagship on Mercury (GOS4M) and the GEO Initiative on POPs (GOS4POPs) by developing a new integrated approach for global real-time monitoring of environmental quality with respect to air, water and human matrices contamination by toxic substances, like mercury and persistent organic pollutants. iGOSP developed end-user-oriented Knowledge Hubs that provide data repository systems integrated with data management consoles and knowledge information systems. The main outcomes from iCUPE are the novel and comprehensive data sets and a modelling activity that contributed to delivering science-based insights for the Arctic region. Applications enable defining and monitoring of Arctic Essential Variables and sets up processes towards UN2030 SDGs that include health (SDG 3), clean water resources and sanitation (SDGs 6 and 14). • Earth Observation can support an efficient science-policy interaction by trusted information. • Policy targets are inherently multidisciplinary, posing challenges on integrating knowledge from different scientific domains. • Specific science-policy workflows and implemented applications were demonstrated through ERA-PLANET. • A comprehensive approach to generate and delivery knowledge from EO and Earth Sciences to policy-makers was developed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Large Marine Ecosystems (LMEs) are relatively large areas of ocean space, adjacent to the continents in coastal waters where primary productivity is generally high. Their natural characteristics allow for the application of governance practices based on the ecosystem approach. The Yellow Sea Large Marine Ecosystem is a shallow semi-enclosed sea, located between the Chinese continent and Korean Peninsula. Three nations, the People's Republic of China (PRC), the Republic of Korea (ROK) and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), are located along the coast of Yellow Sea. Anthropogenic activity and global environmental changes are causing stress on the resources of the Yellow Sea Large Marine Ecosystem (YSLME). To address the transboundary challenges these impose, the Ecosystem-based Governance approach is being applied as the best method to sustain the goods and services of YSLME, which needs strong collaboration by all the YSLME nations. This paper summarizes the current status and threats of YSLME, as well as the present cooperative management systems being developed in the PRC and the ROK. Progress in implementing a collaboration mechanism, activities, and projects are also reviewed in the paper. The Yellow Sea Commission, a new intergovernmental collaborative organization, is expected to be established by YSLME nations (including the DPRK) to support Ecosystem-based Governance. The paper emphasizes the objectives and activities of a collaborative YSLME project for provisioning services, regulating services, cultural services, and supporting services of the YSLME under a new intergovernmental collaboration mechanism (YSLME Commission), which will push forward Ecosystem-based Governance and sustainable development of the YSLME as described in SDG 14, the United Nations 2015 Sustainable Development Goal and targets for the oceans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 21st century has been hailed as the urban century and one in which ICT-led transformations will shape urban responses to global environmental change. The Smart City encapsulates all the desires and prospects on the transformative and disruptive role technology will have in solving urban issues both in Global North and Global South cities. Critical scholarship has pointed out that private capital, with the blessing of technocratic elites, has found a techno-environmental fix to both reshuffle economic growth and prevent other alternative politico-ecological transitions to take root in urban systems. Against this bleak outlook, the paper argues that these technological assemblages might be compatible with alternative post-capitalist urban transformations aligned with Degrowth. Through a cross-reading of research on Smart Cities with theoretical perspectives drawn from the literature on Degrowth, I suggest that Degrowth should not refrain from engaging with urban technological imaginaries in a critical and selective way. As the paper shows through alternative uses of Smart technologies and digital open-source fabrication, the question is not so much around technology per se but around the wider politico-economic context into which these technological assemblages are embedded. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global environmental changes, including landscape fragmentation, are threatening the integrity of ecosystems and reducing their capacity to deliver ecosystem services. Spatial configuration of a green network supports ecological functions and services, that depend on living organisms and material movements across the landscape. It is important to study the structure of green infrastructure networks and to develop robust methodologies that can inform future planning. In this paper we describe a framework for connectivity analysis and enhancement within the green infrastructure networks. We review and combine methods to map and analyse the current spatial network configuration of green elements, in order to identify the key nodes and links that can maintain connectivity and consequently support the benefits provided across the landscape. The study explores the creation of network scenarios and the improvement or reduction of connectivity by adding, preserving, or removing corridors and core areas. Methods include morphological spatial pattern analysis, landscape connectivity metrics and graph theory elements. The analysis has been applied in the Northern Italian Plain, considering green riparian zones and the protected areas as elements of the network. The results show that this method can be used to analyse the status of green infrastructure networks and to identify the main needs for maintaining and improving network connectivity. This is important in the current context of change, as it may support decision-makers in developing tailored adaptation strategies that exploit nature-based solutions to reduce the risks caused by the major drivers of change. [Display omitted] • Green infrastructure network tackle ecosystems fragmentation and services provision. • Spatial configuration and connectivity influence ecosystem services and functions. • We review and combine methods to analyse green infrastructure network connectivity. • The framework allows to identify key nodes and links to maintain ecological connectivity. • Landscape planning and management should consider green infrastructure connections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Arguments for the importance of diversity within scenario sets are developed. • The diversity of six global scenario sets is assessed. • Results show relatively good performance with regards to scenario set diversity. • There is a trade-off between covering the scenario space and redundancy. Scenario development and analysis is an important methodological approach in the assessment of global environmental change. Scenarios are used to assess climate change and its impacts on societies, economies, and ecosystems, and identify, test, and improve policy responses to manage the negative consequences of a changing environment. Evaluation of scenarios, especially global scenarios widely used in the climate research and policy community, is therefore urgently needed. While the quality and usefulness of individual scenarios have been extensively examined through a wide array of criteria, standards for systematic evaluation of scenario sets are only emerging. Scenario diversity (i.e., diversity between individual scenarios in a set) has been advanced as a measure to assess the quality of global scenario sets. In this paper, we use scenario diversity analysis, a systematic and transparent quantitative method, to examine six major global scenario sets with regards to scenario set diversity. Results show that the assessed scenario sets show relatively good performance with regards to scenario set diversity. However, the use of classic methods for building scenario architectures and the number of scenarios included in a set raise important questions about the potential trade-offs between covering a bigger space of futures possibilities and adding redundancy to the scenario set. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the Canadian Arctic as a case study this paper explores how Internet-based research can be used to advance area studies in an era of rapid global change. Regions of the world are rapidly changing due to social, technological, and environmental processes, and traditionally marginalized groups are increasingly using digital tools to help shape new geographical imaginations of these regions. Digital research is uniquely capable of analyzing these political uses of digital technologies, to produce a better understanding of how many different stakeholders are shaping emerging geographical imaginations. The Canadian Arctic offers a particularly powerful case study to understand these processes both because it represents a geographic region that is complex, multi-scalar, and rapidly evolving, and also because it is a region in which traditionally marginalized indigenous groups are using the Internet to increase the visibility of their perspectives. This paper develops an innovative methodology, combining computational analysis of ‘big data’ along with traditional forms of qualitative analysis, to analyze representations of the Arctic across the websites of five different organizations. These organizational websites were chosen because each of the organizations has a different relationship to the Arctic, operates at a different geographic scale, has some relevance to areas of the Canadian Arctic in which Inuit live, and has a large website. The analysis successfully reveals how these different organizations use the web to shape different types of geographic imaginations of the Arctic, as well as the types of discursive politics being used by the organizations to push forward their own political goals. The result is a powerful form of area studies capable of highlighting the geographic imaginations and re-imaginations of a complex set of actors operating at many different scales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adaptation of environmental policies to often unexpected crises is an important function of sustainable governance arrangements. However the relationship between environmental change and policy is complicated. Much research has focused on understanding institutional dynamics or the role of specific participants in the policy process. This paper draws attention to interest groups and the mechanism through which they influence policy change. Existing research offers conflicting evidence in regards to the different ways in which interest groups may affect change. This paper provides an in-depth study of the 2013 European Union Common Fisheries Policy reform − a policy change characterized by active interest group participation. It traces the activity of interest group coalitions to understand how they achieved influence under a changing policy context. The study involves interviews with interest group representatives, policy experts and decision-makers, document analysis of interest group statements and EU legislative documents. Findings identify the important role of coalition-building and informational lobbying for environmental interest group success in exploiting favorable sociopolitical conditions and influencing reform outcomes. An insight on interest group influence and its conditions contributes to our understanding of the complex dynamics of the environmental policy process as well as its implications for policy adaptation to environmental change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contributes to recent studies exploring the longue durée of human impacts on island landscapes, the impacts of climate and other environmental changes on human communities, and the interaction of human societies and their environments at different spatial and temporal scales. In particular, the paper addresses Iceland during the medieval period (with a secondary, comparative focus on Norse Greenland) and discusses episodes where environmental and climatic changes have appeared to cross key thresholds for agricultural productivity. The paper draws upon international, interdisciplinary research in the North Atlantic region led by the North Atlantic Biocultural Organization (NABO) and the Nordic Network for Interdisciplinary Environmental Studies (NIES) in the Circumpolar Networks program of the Integrated History and Future of People on Earth (IHOPE). By interlinking analyses of historically grounded literature with archaeological studies and environmental science, valuable new perspectives can emerge on how these past societies may have understood and coped with such impacts. As climate and other environmental changes do not operate in isolation, vulnerabilities created by socioeconomic factors also beg consideration. The paper illustrates the benefits of an integrated environmental-studies approach that draws on data, methodologies and analytical tools of environmental humanities, social sciences, and geosciences to better understand long-term human ecodynamics and changing human-landscape-environment interactions through time. One key goal is to apply previously unused data and concerted expertise to illuminate human responses to past changes; a secondary aim is to consider how lessons derived from these cases may be applicable to environmental threats and socioecological risks in the future, especially as understood in light of the New Human Condition, the concept transposed from Hannah Arendt's influential framing of the human condition that is foregrounded in the present special issue. This conception admits human agency's role in altering the conditions for life on earth, in large measure negatively, while acknowledging the potential of this self-same agency, if effectively harnessed and properly directed, to sustain essential planetary conditions through a salutary transformation of human perception, understanding and remedial action. The paper concludes that more long-term historical analyses of cultures and environments need to be undertaken at various scales. Past cases do not offer perfect analogues for the future, but they can contribute to a better understanding of how resilience and vulnerability occur, as well as how they may be compromised or mitigated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are many dynamic multi-objective optimization problems (DMOPs) in real-life engineering applications whose objectives change over time. After an environmental change occurs, prediction strategies are commonly used in dynamic multi-objective optimization algorithms to find the new Pareto optimal set (POS). Being able to make more accurate prediction means the algorithm requires fewer computational resources to make the population approximate to the Pareto optimal front (POF). This paper proposes a hybrid diversity maintenance method to improve prediction accuracy. The method consists of three steps, which are implemented after an environmental change. The first step, based on the moving direction of the center points, uses the prediction to relocate a number of solutions close to the new Pareto front. On the basis of self-defined minimum and maximum points of the POS in this paper, the second step applies the gradual search to produce some well-distributed solutions in the decision space so as to compensate for the inaccuracy of the first step, simultaneously and further enhancing the convergence and diversity of the population. In the third step, some diverse individuals are randomly generated within the region of next probable POS, which prompts the diversity of the population. Eventually the prediction becomes more accurate as the solutions with good convergence and diversity are selected after the non-dominated sort [1] on the combined solutions generated by the three steps. Compared with three other prediction methods on a series of test instances, our method is very competitive in convergence and diversity as well as the speed at which it responds to environmental changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The late Pliocene is considered the key period of transition to the Quaternary glaciations. In this paper, we present pollen records from the PL02 borehole of the Yinchuan Basin, which is located in Northwest China and has a favourable sedimentary environment for the 3.04–2.88 Ma period, to explore changes in palaeovegetation and palaeoclimate. The results showed that the vegetation in the basin was dominated by typical steppe from 3.04 to 3.01 Ma, indicating that the climate was warm and humid; from 3.01 to 2.93 Ma, the vegetation was dominated by desert steppe, and the climate gradually became drier; after 2.97 Ma, the degree of drought intensified; and from 2.93 to 2.88 Ma, the vegetation was dominated by typical steppe, and the climate became relatively humid. At approximately 2.93 Ma, the percentage and concentration of pollen from broadleaved trees and the Artemisia to Chenopodiaceae (A/C) ratio increased rapidly, indicating that the climate had suddenly become humid, which may have been related to the strengthening of the East Asian summer monsoon (EASM) caused by the final closure of the Panama Seaway. At approximately 2.90 Ma, broadleaved pollen decreased rapidly, suggesting that the climate rapidly became cold, which may indicate the onset and expansion of the Northern Hemisphere ice sheets. We suggest that climate change in the Yinchuan Basin is closely related to global environmental changes and has global characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The incorporation of local and traditional knowledges into environmental governance regimes is increasingly recognised as a critical component of effective and equitable conservation efforts. However, there remain significant barriers to integration of community-based knowledge within mainstream environmental governance. This paper explores community-based knowledge in the context of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), a widely-used governance tool designed to predict and manage the impacts of development. Drawing on a social survey and interviews, the paper documents local community knowledge of environmental changes associated with dredging and the construction of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) plants in a large industrial harbour located in the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area, and compares this knowledge with public consultation opportunities offered throughout the project lifecycle, including during assessment and after project approval. The findings highlight a misalignment between community knowledge of environmental change, which is acquired largely after impacts become apparent, and the public participation opportunities afforded through EIA, which generally occur before construction or dredging is undertaken. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Because the instrumental record is short and does not extend to periods before the initiation of significant human impacts, full understanding of the processes and dynamics involved in the modern phase of very rapid global change depends on the interpretation of high resolution and precisely dated proxy archives. The identification of very long-lived species of bivalve mollusc in the extratropical marine environment has been a crucial recent advance. These molluscs form patterns of periodic (usually annual) banding in their shells that are synchronous within populations, so that long (centennial and millennial) stacked chronologies can be built by crossdating from live collected to fossil shells. The variable growth rates and precisely dated geochemical data from the shell material provide long term real world data that can in principle be used to constrain climate models and to define long baselines for environmental monitoring. However, the signals in these data usually result from the complex interaction of multiple influences, and the deconvolution and understanding of these influences is a major target of the scientific field of sclerochronology. This special issue presents some of the latest research into the sclerochronology of mollusc shells. It includes contributions to our understanding of shell growth, including the identification of endogenous (non-environmental) growth rhythms that persist throughout ontogeny, and analysis in two papers of variability through ontogeny in the season of growth and the implications of such variability for temperature reconstruction. One paper presents a new network of bivalve chronologies for UK waters, with a 200-year seawater temperature reconstruction. Three papers cover trace element geochemistry, including a novel approach to sampling for LA-ICP-MS that enables giant clam shells to be sampled at daily resolution, an attempt to identify an independent temperature proxy for coastal waters using limpet shells, and a detailed study of the drivers of variability in Sr/Ca and Ba/Ca ratios. One study looks at shell microstructure as a temperature proxy, finding a coherent temperature response in the shape of the prisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ghost gear - abandoned, lost, or otherwise discarded fishing gear - has been recognised as a global environmental challenge since the mid-1980s, and yet little social science attention has fallen on the phenomenon. This paper explores how the burden of global fisheries, materialised through its gear, is experienced and managed. How is ghost gear encountered? How is it understood? What influence does it have, and what responses does it provoke? To consider these questions, the paper begins with detailing of an encounter with ghost gear and Aboriginal rangers on the eastern coast of the Gulf of Carpentaria, northern Australia. Understanding encounters as tangles of interlaced threads, rather than isolated intimacies, the paper also follows ghost gear beyond the experience of beach clean-up. How ghost gear journeys to this beach, and the mobilities and meetings that occur during its travels is explored, as well as the policy responses to ghost gear that figure it primarily as marine debris to be managed through territorial control as isolated 'waste'. These more-than-human stories offer insights into the distributed agencies, complex relations, and differential responsibilities involved in the phenomenon of ghost gear, and efforts to deal with it as part of land-sea assemblies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Floods are a crucial agent of geomorphic change in the channels and valley floors of mountains watercourses. At the same time, they can be highly damaging to property, infrastructure, and life. Because of their high energy, mountain watercourses are highly vulnerable to environmental changes affecting their catchments and channels. Many factors have modified and frequently still tend to modify the environmental conditions in mountain areas, with impacts on geomorphic processes and the frequency, magnitude, and timing of floods in mountain watercourses. The ongoing climate changes vary between regions but may affect floods in mountain areas in many ways. In many mountain regions of Europe, widespread afforestation took place over the twentieth century, considerably increasing the amounts of large wood delivered to the channels and the likelihood of jamming bridges. At the same time, deforestation continues in other mountain areas, accelerating runoff and amplifying the magnitude and frequency of floods in foreland areas. In many countries, in-channel gravel mining has been a common practice during recent decades; the resultant deficit of bed material in the affected channels may suddenly manifest during flood events, resulting in the failure of scoured bridges or catastrophic channel widening. During the past century many rivers in mountain and foreland areas incised deeply; the resultant loss of floodplain water storage has decreased attenuation of flood waves, hence increasing flood hazard to downstream river reaches. On the other hand, a large amount of recent river restoration activities worldwide may provide examples of beneficial changes to flood risk, attained as a result of increased channel storage or reestablished floodplain water storage. Relations between geomorphic processes and floods operate in both directions, which means that changes in flood probability or the character of floods (e.g., increased wood load) may significantly modify the morphology of mountain rivers, but morphological changes of rivers can also affect hydrological properties of floods and the associated risk for societies. This paper provides a review of research in the field of floods in mountain environments and puts the papers of this special issue dedicated to the same topic into context. It also provides insight into innovative studies, methods, or emerging aspects of the relations between environmental changes, geomorphic processes, and the occurrence of floods in mountain rivers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Large-scale land acquisitions (LSLAs) have become a major concern for land use sustainability at a global scale. A considerable body of case studies has shown that the livelihood outcomes of LSLAs vary, but the understanding of factors and processes that generate these livelihood outcomes remains controversial and fragmented in terms of cases, contexts, and normative orientations. Therefore, this study presents a meta-analysis of case studies and applies the archetypes approach developed in global change research to analyse the configurations of factors and processes that generate different livelihood outcomes in LSLA situations. The analysis is based on 44 systematically selected studies covering 66 cases in 21 countries in Africa, Latin America, Southeast Asia, and Eastern Europe. The results show that LSLAs affect rural livelihoods through a small set of archetypical configurations. Adverse livelihood outcomes arise most frequently from processes of (1) enclosure of livelihood assets, (2) elite capture, (3) selective marginalisation of people already living in difficult conditions, and (4) polarisation of development discourses, and less frequently from (5) competitive exclusion, (6) agribusiness failure, and (7) transient jobs. The processes are activated in specific configurations of social-ecological factors. Moving beyond diagnosis, the paper identifies archetypical potentials for safeguarding or enhancing sustainable livelihoods in LSLA target regions at multiple levels of decision-making. Finally, we analyse how contextual factors modify these general insights. This paper helps to advance the archetypes methodology for use in global change research that aims at integral analysis of recurrent patterns expressed in local manifestations. The results can be used to better link local case studies with regional and global inventories of the global land rush. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The UK Environmental Change Network (ECN), the UK's Long-Term Ecosystem Research (LTER) network, has now been operating for over twenty years. It was established in 1992 as a set of terrestrial sites at which sustained observations relevant to a range of ecological indicators and environmental parameters could be made. An additional ECN freshwater network was launched in 1994. In this paper we provide a brief history of the network, and describe its current structure and role within a complementary wider range of UK environmental monitoring and observation programmes that are either more focussed on specific parameters or habitats, or operate at different temporal and spatial scales. We then provide a review of the other papers within this Special Issue, which exemplifies the broad range of environmental concerns that ECN data and sites are helping to address. These include network-wide summaries of environmental and biological trends over the first two decades of monitoring, more site-specific assessment of the ecological impacts of local pressures resulting from changes in management, biological and ecosystem service indicator development, and the testing of new monitoring technologies. We go on to consider: (i) future directions of network development and adaptation in light of recently emerging environmental concerns, dwindling financial resources and the consequent need for greater efficiency; (ii) the desire for tighter integration with other monitoring and observation programmes both nationally internationally; (iii) opportunities raised by recent technological developments; and (iv) the need to process and make available data more rapidly to increase the capacity of ECN sites as early warning systems. In its first two decades of operation the ECN has accumulated a robust set of baseline data that describe environmental and biological variability across a range of habitats in unprecedented detail. With appropriate, informed development, these should prove invaluable in discerning the causes and consequences of environmental change for decades to come. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Development of a clearer understanding of the causes and consequences of environmental change is an important issue globally. The consequent demand for objective, reliable and up-to-date environmental information has led to the establishment of long-term integrated environmental monitoring programmes, including the UK's Environmental Change Network (ECN). Databases form the core information resource for such programmes. The UK Environmental Change Network Data Centre manages data on behalf of ECN (as well as other related UK integrated environmental monitoring networks) and provides a robust and integrated system of information management. This paper describes how data are captured – through standardised protocols and data entry systems – as well more recent approaches such as wireless sensors. Data are managed centrally through a database and GIS. Quality control is built in at all levels of the system. Data are then made accessible through a variety of data access methods – through bespoke web interfaces, as well as third-party data portals. This paper describes the informatics approach of the ECN Data Centre which aims to develop a seamless system of data capture, management and data access interfaces to support research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of complex and unprecedented issues of global change, calls for new modes of knowledge production that are better equipped to address urgent challenges of global sustainability are increasingly frequent. This paper presents a case study of the new major research programme “Future Earth”, which aims to bring ‘research for global sustainability’ to the mainstream of global change research. A core principle of Future Earth is the co-production of knowledge with extra-scientific actors. In studying how the principle of co-production becomes institutionalised in the emerging structure of Future Earth, this paper points to the existence of three distinct rationales (logics) on the purpose and practice of co-production. Co-production is understood as a way to enhance scientific accountability to society (‘logic of accountability’), to ensure the implementation of scientific knowledge in society (‘logic of impact’), and to include the knowledge, perspectives and experiences of extra-scientific actors in scientific knowledge production (‘logic of humility’). This heterogeneous conception of knowledge co-production provides helpful ambiguity allowing actors with different perspectives on science and its role in society to engage in Future Earth. However, in the process of designing an institutional structure for Future Earth tensions between the different logics of co-production become apparent. This research shows how logics of accountability and impact are prominent in shaping the development of Future Earth. The paper concludes by pointing to an essential tension between being inclusive and transformative when it comes to institutionalising new modes of knowledge production in large research programmes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the relationship between megaproject construction and change in water management institutions. Due to the wide geographical distribution of their costs and benefits, which often spans national and provincial borders, water supply megaprojects frequently prompt intentional or evolutionary institutional change. China’s South-North Water Transfer Project (Middle Route), the world’s largest interbasin transfer project, was completed in December 2014 and is now in operation. Based on extensive fieldwork and analysis of Chinese documents, this paper introduces the government actors involved in, and impacted by, the planning and construction of the project. By detailing the interests of these actors, and the way those interests have been affected by the political, economic and environmental changes wrought by the megaproject, it shows that the Middle Route project has already contributed to change in one major financial institution – water pricing – and is exerting pressure on at least two others—infrastructure financing and compensation. Despite the regulatory efforts of the Chinese central government, incomplete institutional change processes threaten the long-term viability of the megaproject. Megaprojects demand institutional change and this must be factored into policymaking processes; business as usual will not suffice if the real benefits of the South-North Water Transfer are to be fairly distributed and its negative social, economic and environmental effects mitigated and appropriately compensated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces the reader to a special issue of articles that explores links and processes behind societal change, climate change and environmental change in a Holocene perspective in the Mediterranean region. All papers are, by purpose, co-authored by scientists representing different disciplines. The cross-cutting theme has been to reach beyond simple explanations of potential climate-society relationships and advance our understanding on how to improve research methods and theories in the field. The thirteen papers in this issue address these questions in three different ways, by i) conceptual/methodological approaches; ii) review papers; and iii) case studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The anthropogenic use of phosphorus has emerged as a one of the major drivers of global environmental change. The finite supply of the nutrient, geographical concentration of the remaining supply, and continuing occurrences of eutrophication and harmful algal blooms (caused, in part, by excessive phosphorus outflows into the environment) are causes for immediate concern. As a response, there is increasing recognition that phosphorus entering waste streams should be recovered as a resource rather than disposed of as a pollutant. While phosphorus recovery technology and strategies have been outlined in some detail in the existing literature, none have explicitly addressed the reasons for why these processes have not been implemented at scale. In addition, the potential for urban systems to play a role in creating a holistic management system for phosphorus has received little recognition. This paper addresses these knowledge gaps by offering a tool for analyzing the context, drivers, barriers, and implementation of phosphorus recovery technologies in urban areas. The framework tool consists of five guiding questions. The process of answering the questions presents an opportunity for researchers, decision makers, and community stakeholders to explicitly identify what and how changes to the current system can be made. This paper provides an approach for producing the knowledge necessary for facilitating the transition to an urban phosphorus recovery regime that is relevant for both practitioners and academics. The approach may also be adapted to understanding other resource cycles in the future, such as nitrogen, water, and energy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increase in global environmental concerns as well as the advancement of computational tools and methods have had significant impacts on the way in which buildings are being designed. Building professionals are increasingly expected to improve energy performance of their design. To achieve a high level of energy performance, multidisciplinary simulation-based optimization can be utilized to help designers in exploring more design alternatives and making informed decisions. Because of the high complexity in setting up a building model for multi-objective design optimization, there is a great demand of utilizing and integrating the advanced modeling and simulation technologies, including BIM, parametric modeling, cloud-based simulation, and optimization algorithms, as well as a new user interface that facilitates the setup of building parameters (decision variables) and performance fitness functions (design objectives) for automatically generating, evaluating, and optimizing multiple design options. This paper presents an integrated framework for building information modeling (BIM)-based performance optimization, BPOpt. This framework enables designers to explore design alternatives using an open-source, visual programming user interface on the top of a widely used BIM platform, to generate models of building design options, assess the environmental performance of the models through cloud-based simulation, and search for the most appropriate design alternatives. This paper details the process of the development of BPOpt and also provides a case study to show its application. The case study demonstrates the use of BPOpt in minimizing the energy consumption while maximizing the appropriate daylighting level for a residential building. Finally, strengths, limitations, current adoption by academia and industry, and future improvements of BPOpt for high-performance building design are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heatwaves impose disastrous impacts over human, natural and industrial systems across the globe. Over a relatively short period of time, there has been considerable advancement in the scientific understanding of heatwaves. Such advancements include how heatwaves are measured, their driving mechanisms, observed and projected changes, and quantifying the anthropogenic influence behind these changes. This paper reviews these developments. There are however gaps in the scientific literature that should be filled in order to gain a more complete understanding of the changing nature of heatwaves. The conclusions of this paper propose that the global community should work toward a unified framework in which to measure heatwaves, reduce spatial and temporal gaps by increasing the global observation network, further research on how physical mechanisms interact for heatwave manifestation, and continual work and expansion of methods used for attribution studies on observed heatwaves and their trends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Efforts to halt the loss of biodiversity and degradation of ecosystem services are difficult to evaluate because of the lack of reliable measures of the state of local, national, regional, and global biodiversity. This special issue contains 11 papers that review and advance the field of biodiversity measurement, including thematic gaps and global priorities, making full use of all data sources and opportunities, the importance of indices and metrics, linkages to management, and reporting biodiversity change. This body of work is an important contribution to the ongoing efforts to take the measurement of biodiversity from an uncoordinated and disparate situation to a harmonised framework that is scalable, flexible, pragmatic, and ready to inform management. These papers describe advances in this field but they also highlight the important challenges that remain, including consensus on the most important measures, the filling of thematic gaps, and communicating biodiversity change to wider audiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Conceptualises the link between two crisis pathways and governance conditions. • Develops a framework for comparing reactive and proactive institutional responses. • Empirical cases provide governance insights into the distinct roles of crisis. • Reveals the mechanisms by which crisis leads to maladaptation or transformation. Crisis as a result of global environmental change, such as extreme floods, droughts, bushfires, and planetary health issues such as pandemic, is becoming more common, seriously diminishing infrastructure integrity and undermining resilience across many urban areas. The literature conceptualises crisis in terms of a special event of exogenous origin punctuating the evolutionary dynamics of prevailing socio-technical or socio-ecological systems. Crisis has been examined in terms of its opposing functions, i.e. perpetuating the status quo, or, triggering systemic transformation. Each pathway has been studied in isolation, representing a critical gap in theorising the link between governance conditions and the different crisis pathways. In this paper, we extend this debate by developing an analytical framework that brings together the two perspectives while enriching them with institutional and practice theories. Our aim is to guide comparative studies of ongoing practices within urban governance systems that shape the two crisis pathways. Our framework is applied in two empirical case studies of Melbourne's response to the Millennium Drought and Surabaya's response to waste crisis. The framework helps clarify how a specific set of reactive responses shaped path dependency in the Melbourne's crisis, whilst in the case of Surabaya a different set of proactive responses helped trigger transformative adaptation. In linking crisis to specific institutional practices, including policy and regulatory settings, resource allocation, cognitive culture, and social mobilisation, our research shows that proactive responses for transformative adaptation require preparation and long-term commitment to be in place ahead of the onset of crisis. Understanding the conditions under which such proactive pathway may be fostered and reactive pathway kept in check is an important research agenda for advancing knowledge at the intersection between urban governance and sustainability transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Successful adaptation to environmental change and variability is closely connected with social groups’ ability to act collectively, but many social-ecological challenges exceed local adaptive capacity which necessitate assistance from governmental institutions. Few studies have investigated how local collective action can be used to enrol external support for adaptation. This paper reduces this research gap by analysing a locally driven adaptation process in response to coastal erosion in Monkey River Village, Belize. Drawing on literature on adaptation and political ecology, we examine the different strategies the local residents have used over time to influence government authorities to support them in curbing the coastal erosion. Our findings show that the local mobilisation generated government support for a temporary sea defence and that collective strategies emerge as a response to threats to a place specific way of life. Our case illustrates that it was essential that the villagers could ally with journalists, researchers and local NGOs to make their claims for protection heard by the government. The paper contributes to adaptation research by arguing that local collective action, seen as contestation over rights to protection from environmental change, can be a means for places and communities not prioritised by formal policies to enrol external support for adaptation. Our study supports and adds to the perspective that attention to formal arrangements such as adaptation policy alone has limited explanatory power to understand collective responses to change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental economists are increasingly interested in better understanding how people cognitively organise their beliefs and attitudes towards environmental change in order to identify key motives and barriers that stimulate or prevent action. In this paper, we explore the utility of a commonly used psychometric scale, the awareness of consequences (AC) scale, in order to better understand stated choices. The main contribution of the paper is that it provides a novel approach to incorporate attitudinal information into discrete choice models for environmental valuation: firstly, environmental attitudes are incorporated using a reinterpretation of the classical AC scale recently proposed by Ryan and Spash (2012); and, secondly, attitudinal data is incorporated as latent variables under a hybrid choice modelling framework. This novel approach is applied to data from a survey conducted in the Basque Country (Spain) in 2008 aimed at valuing land-use policies in a Natura 2000 Network site. The results are relevant to policy-making because choice models that are able to accommodate underlying environmental attitudes may help in designing more effective environmental policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has the second largest area of pastoral land in the world, and these lands and their peoples play a very beneficial role in the global environment. Because of China's huge population, rate of social reform, and economic development, the pastoral ecosystems are at a critical turning point. There is a conflict between national benefit and the land users (mainly herders) benefit. This paper introduces the scale of pastoral land, the history of its management institutions, past and current projects and programs, as well as the current framework of policy and law as relevant to land management. The challenges for pastoral management in terms of institutions, administration, technology and their shifting role in regional economies of scale are also analyzed. Opportunities for sustainable development in China's pastoral lands are presented. Finally, this paper highlights the available approaches for enhancing livelihoods and conserving pastoral land, including establishment of law and policy framework at the national level, redefining use rights for community management, promoting Integrated Ecosystem Management (IEM) as a basis for natural resource utilization, preserving and respecting cultural aspects of pastoral peoples, and shifting the focus from GDP generation to environmental protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing environmental variability associated with global climate change is expected to produce social instability and human displacement in future decades. As such, there remains a pressing need to understand the implications of environmental changes for human populations and their adaptive capacities. This paper analyzes governmental and intra-community responses to environmental variability through a case study from the Okavango Delta, Botswana. We report findings from fieldwork conducted during May–June 2011 and October 2012–May 2013 in the village of Etsha 13. Following an increase in annual flooding in 2009, 2010, and 2011, the Government of Botswana permanently relocated hundreds of residents to a nearby dryland area, asserting that this new settlement was necessary to reduce future risks from flooding variability. While some residents accepted this position, others elected to return to the floodplain or to illegally divert the flow of the water to protect their homes. This paper explores the micro-politics of these relocation efforts and competing responses in order to examine differential adaptive responses to increased flooding levels. We situate these findings within the burgeoning literature on transformative adaptation and suggest that micro-political dynamics are critical in shaping the limitations to, and possibilities for, effective adaptive responses to global environmental change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Multiple strategies used to build resilience of coral reefs and reef dependent communities. • Intended and realised social and ecological implications of strategies explored. • Disaggregated understanding of ecological and social resilience is needed. • Policy must encourage strategies contributing across the social-ecological spectrum. • Clear opportunity to strengthen knowledge networks and sharing. Global environmental change and other site specific pressures (e.g. over fishing and pollution) are threating coral reefs and the livelihoods of dependent coastal communities. Multiple strategies are used to build the resilience of both coral reefs and reef dependent communities but the effectiveness of these strategies is largely unknown. Using the Western Indian Ocean (WIO) as a case study, this paper combines published literature and expert opinion elicited through a multi-stakeholder workshop to assess the intended and realised social and ecological implications of strategies commonly applied in the region. Findings suggest that all strategies can contribute to building social and ecological resilience, but this varies with context and the overall strategy objectives. The ability of strategies to be successful in the future is questioned. To support effective resilience policy development more nuanced lesson learning requires effective monitoring and evaluation as well as a disaggregated understanding of resilience in terms of gender, agency and the interaction between ecological and social resilience. Opportunities for further lesson sharing between experts in the region are needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coastal ecosystems and their marine populations are increasingly threatened by global environmental changes. Bivalves have emerged as crucial bioindicators within these ecosystems, offering valuable insights into biodiversity and overall ecosystem health. In particular, bivalves serve as hosts to trematode parasites, making them a focal point of study. Trematodes, with their life cycles intricately linked to external factors, provide excellent indicators of environmental changes and exhibit a unique ability to accumulate pollutants beyond ambient levels. Thus, they act as living sentinels, reflecting the ecological condition of their habitats. This paper presents a comprehensive review of recent research on the use of bivalve species as hosts for trematodes, examining the interactions between these organisms. The study also investigates the combined impact of trematode infections and other pollutants on bivalve molluscs. Trematode infections have multifaceted consequences for bivalve species, influencing various aspects of their physiology and behavior, including population-wide mortality. Furthermore, the coexistence of trematode infections and other sources of pollution compromises host resistance, disrupts parasite transmission, and reduces the abundance of intermediate hosts for complex-living parasites. The accumulation process of these parasites is influenced not only by external factors but also by host physiology. Consequently, the implications of climate change and environmental factors, such as temperature, salinity, and ocean acidification, are critical considerations. In summary, the intricate relationship between bivalves, trematode parasites, and their surrounding environment provides valuable insights into the health and sustainability of coastal ecosystems. A comprehensive understanding of these interactions, along with the influence of climate change and environmental parameters, is essential for effective management and conservation strategies aimed at preserving these delicate ecosystems and the diverse array of species that rely on them. [Display omitted] • The interactive effects of climate change and pollutants on bivalve-trematode interactions were discussed. • Climate change disrupts trematode ecology and bivalve physiology. • Pollution negatively impacts parasite transmission and host resistance. • Trematodes parasites are good indicators of contamination and climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rapidly increasing catastrophic environmental incidents and changes in global climate have compelled researchers to take proactive measures for climate change mitigation. Consequently, reducing greenhouse gas emissions has become one of the most significant global targets. The transportation sector has a massive carbon footprint accounting for 22% of the total carbon dioxide emissions. In this regard, road transport contributes the largest fraction of the total emissions within the transportation sector. Conversely, the railway which is the cleanest form of transportation contributes slightly more than 1% of the total emissions. Moreover, since most of the rail systems are operated by government or private companies, it is relatively convenient to implement policies and replace conventional technology with environmentally friendly ones. This could be achieved by taking certain measures from technical and operational viewpoints for conserving energy to lower the carbon intensity of all transport modalities. Hence, this review paper focuses on investigating the railway sector to encourage a modal shift to the least carbon-intensive option. This study provides a critical review of the past and present rail technologies in terms of the environmental, economic, social, and technical perspectives. Moreover, a comparative assessment of the various locomotive types has been performed. The results reveal that battery-hydrogen hybrid locomotives are the best choice to be considered as a future locomotive technology. Hydrogen locomotives have the potential to be a promising alternative to diesel railway locomotives. However, certain technical barriers need to be overcome to enhance the overall system's performance and reliability to further improve the viability of its deployment in the railway sector. [Display omitted] • A critical review of the various rail technologies is provided through different viewpoints. • The assessment constitutes environmental, economic, social, and technical perspectives. • A decision-support tool for comparison of four rail technologies is also developed. • Battery-hydrogen hybrid locomotive results in the highest score of 1.47. • Standalone hydrogen locomotive results in the second highest score of 1.38. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• INLA-SPDE obtained higher mapping accuracies than RF. • The remote sensing based soil moisture indices (NSDSIs) improved SOM mapping accuracies. • Adding NSDSIs and Fourier transforms decomposed variables with natural variables generated the highest accuracies. Generating accurate spatial information on soil organic matter (SOM) is increasingly important in the context of global environmental change. Both prediction models and environmental covariates influence the mapping results and accuracy, making them important factors in SOM mapping. The Bayesian spatial model INLA-SPDE is an emerging model, that has shown potential in digital soil mapping (DSM), but its application is still limited. Soil moisture, which affects soil water status and the decomposition of SOM, can be a potential predictor for mapping SOM. However, the difficulty of obtaining soil moisture measurements over a large area using ground-based methods hinders its application. Recently, high spatial resolution remote sensing (RS) has provided a possible way to generate soil moisture indices over a large area. However, the effectiveness of RS-based soil moisture indices on SOM mapping is unknown. Fourier transforms decomposed (FTD) variables based on vegetation indices have been proven effective in detecting time-series patterns of crop growth, thereby improving the mapping accuracy of farmland. Yet, the effectiveness of FTD variables has not been verified in other vegetation-covered areas. This paper examines the use of INLA-SPDE with three RS-based soil moisture indices (NSDSIs) and six FTD variables for SOM mapping compared to Random Forest (RF), in a study area with diverse vegetation cover in Anhui Province, China. The finding indicates that with the optimal combination of environmental covariates, INLA-SPDE yields a higher prediction accuracy than RF, with an increase of 18% in R2. Either the RS-based soil moisture indices covariates or the FTD variables are effective in mapping SOM. When compared to using only natural environmental covariates, the best combination including RS-based soil moisture indices and FTD variables improved the mapping accuracy by 25% in terms of R2, 21% of LCCC, and 11% of RMSE. Furthermore, quantitative prediction uncertainty maps are derived based on the INLA-SPDE. This study demonstrates the effectiveness of INLA-SPDE model with the RS-based soil moisture indices and Fourier transforms decomposed variables for SOM mapping. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Initiatives led by grassroots actors achieve better social-ecological outcomes. • Multi-specialization of activities promotes positive sustainability transformations. • Initiatives with cross-sectoral and -scalar partnerships are more successful. • Place-based initiatives promote sustainable pathways and transformative change. • Grassroots empowerment is key for external actors seeking to promote sustainability. The Amazon has a diverse array of social and environmental initiatives that adopt forest-based land-use practices to promote rural development and support local livelihoods. However, they are often insufficiently recognized as transformative pathways to sustainability and the factors that explain their success remain understudied. To address this gap, this paper proposes that local initiatives that pursue three particular pathways are more likely to generate improvements in social-ecological outcomes: (1) maintaining close connections with local grassroots, (2) pursuing diversity in productive activities performed and partnership choices, and (3) developing cross-scale collaborations. To test these ideas we collected and analyzed observations of 157 initiatives in Brazil and Peru, applying a combination of quantitative and qualitative analyses. Our results show that initiatives maintaining groundedness in representing the interests and concerns of local actors while partnering with other organizations at multiple scales are more likely to develop joint solutions to social-ecological problems. Partnerships and support from external organizations may strengthen and enhance local capabilities, providing a platform for negotiating interests and finding common ground. Such diversified pathways demonstrate the power of local actors to transcend their own territories and have broader impacts in sustainability objectives. Our findings highlight the need to make governmental and non-governmental support (e.g., financial, technical, political) available according to local needs to enable local initiatives' own ways of addressing global environmental change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inland aquatic ecosystems, such as streams, rivers, ponds and lakes, play an important role in maintaining global aquatic biodiversity and ecosystem services. They have been increasingly influenced by environmental change such as global warming, dam construction, habitat fragmentation, eutrophication and urbanization. However, our understanding of the impact of global change on aquatic biodiversity and ecosystem functions remains elusive. The aim of this special issue is to highlight the ecological indicators of aquatic biodiversity and ecosystem functions under global change. The special issue comprises 18 papers including both review and research articles. These papers cover a wide range of research topics, including testing ecological theory, environmental indicator development, biodiversity monitoring and bioassessment. By covering a broad taxonomic range from bacteria and phytoplankton to fish and spanning large spatial (much of Eurasia) and temporal scales (from one season to 25-years observations and 100-years paleo-reconstruction), these articles provide an overview of ecological phenomena from population and community perspectives. Several important implications emerged from these studies: (1) The studies of the long-term succession of biotic community provide important insights into the impacts of human activities and climatic changes on conservation and management of aquatic ecosystems; (2) Anthropogenic activities strongly affect aquatic biodiversity via modifying aquatic habitats and reducing habitat heterogeneity; (3) Biotic assemblages are valuable to for assessing the ecological status of freshwater ecosystems; (4) Aquatic ecosystems have unique characteristics different from other ecosystems, as the underlying drivers and assembly mechanisms of community structure in these ecosystems are highly distinct. Together, the selection of studies reinforces the importance of long-term monitoring, ecological indicator development, and applications of ecological theory in helping us to understand the response of aquatic biodiversity and ecosystem functioning to global change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mountain lakes are often situated in protected natural areas, a feature that leads to their role as sentinels of global environmental change. Despite variations in latitude, mountain lakes share many features, including their location in catchments with steep topographic gradients, cold temperatures, high incident solar and ultraviolet radiation (UVR), and prolonged ice and snow cover. These characteristics, in turn, affect mountain lake ecosystem structure, diversity, and productivity. The lakes themselves are mostly small, and up until recently, have been characterized as oligotrophic. This paper provides a review and update of the growing body of research that shows that sediments in remote mountain lakes archive regional and global environmental changes, including those linked to climate change, altered biogeochemical cycles, and changes in dust composition and deposition, atmospheric fertilization, and biological manipulations. These archives provide an important record of global environmental change that pre-dates typical monitoring windows. Paleolimnological research at strategically selected lakes has increased our knowledge of interactions among multiple stressors and their synergistic effects on lake systems. Lakes from transects across steep climate (i.e., temperature and effective moisture) gradients in mountain regions show how environmental change alters lakes in close proximity, but at differing climate starting points. Such research in particular highlights the impacts of melting glaciers on mountain lakes. The addition of new proxies, including DNA-based techniques and advanced stable isotopic analyses, provides a gateway to addressing novel research questions about global environmental change. Recent advances in remote sensing and continuous, high-frequency, limnological measurements will improve spatial and temporal resolution and help to add records to spatial gaps including tropical and southern latitudes. Mountain lake records provide a unique opportunity for global scale assessments that provide knowledge necessary to protect the Earth system. • Mountain lakes are sensitive recorders of global environmental change. • Paleolimnology has benefited from technological advances, with many applications to alpine environments. • Gaps in spatial coverage are evident in the tropics and Southern Hemisphere, where water resource issues are a concern. • Paleolimnology can be used to identify threats to the quantity and quality of mountain reservoirs. • We highlight the complexities of ecosystem responses to the many, interconnected stressors of global environmental change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Meat, an important source of protein and other nutrients in human diets, is one of the major drivers of global environmental change in terms of greenhouse gas emissions, land and water use, animal welfare, human health and directions of breeding. Novel alternatives, including novel meat proxies (cultured meat, plant-based meat alternatives), insects and novel protein sources (like algae) receive increasing attention. But plausible socio-technological pathways for their further development have not yet been compared in an integrative, interdisciplinary perspective. This paper applies an integrated conceptual framework – the Reflexive Integrative Comparative Heuristic (RICH) – to comparatively assess the nutritional implications, potential sustainability gains and required technological and social-institutional change of five meat alternatives. We formulate plausible pathways for each alternative and identify their pre-conditions and implications. High levels of transformation and processing limit the environmental sustainability gains of cultured meat, highly processed plant-based meat alternatives, algae- and insect-based food. At the same time, a high degree of societal coordination is needed to enable the potentially disruptive level of technological, organisational and institutional innovations needed to make these novel alternatives viable. Widespread expectations that solutions require break-through novelties or high-tech alternatives imply a neglect of existing and viable alternatives. Our integrative analysis suggests that the priority given to meat alternatives with limited sustainability potential does not just raise questions of technological optimisation of production systems, but is also a second-order problem of the framing of search directions. • Expected sustainability gains from meat alternatives differ widely. • Protein transformation and processing tends to limit the sustainability of high-tech options. • Complex societal coordination is needed to enable disruptive meat alternatives. • The priority given to high-tech meat alternatives is based on partial problem framing. • Meat alternatives with greater sustainability potential receive too little attention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The assessment of grassland grazing strategies and institutional arrangements is essential for ensuring the sustainable development of grassland grazing systems. By employing per-pixel grazing information derived from remote sensing data, this paper presents an agent-based model of grassland grazing (ABMGG) for Zeku, China that was designed as a framework for assessing the effects of different combinations of grazing strategies and institutional arrangements on grassland status. By calibrating the parameter values of the ABMGG to the system status values under a policy that has already been implemented, the ABMGG can help us to understand grassland degradation in response to management interventions for each patch of land. In the Zeku implementation, it was found that although different grazing policy scenarios could not significantly improve or decrease the overall grassland leaf area index, a rotational group grazing scenario with a land market tenure system did produce a smaller number of severely degraded grass patches than other policy scenarios (except regional continuous grazing). This provides a new perspective on the consequences of grassland management practices where past research has concentrated more on overall grassland productivity. The ABMGG can extend the ability of policy assessment tools to a high resolution level with pixel-specific real-time remote sensing data, making the assessment results more accurate and representative. Highlights • Design and build an ABM that accounts for the complexities of the grazing system. • The model was calibrated and validated with data derived from remote sensing. • Found that group rotational with land market reduces land degradation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • A collaborative mechanism is proposed to improve particle swarm optimization. • A worst-replacement scheme is proposed to update particles' positions. • The trajectory of the best particle during optimizing is stored to an external archive. • The stored solutions estimate a promising optimal region in a new environment. • The proposed algorithm shows a competitive power in dynamic optimization problems. Abstract Optimization problems widely exist in many expert and intelligent systems, e.g., greenhouse intelligent control systems in agriculture, energy management systems for hybrid electric vehicle, and job shop scheduling systems in manufacture. For the optimization problems in these systems, the objective functions may change over time. This kind of problem is usually called as dynamic optimization problems (DOPs) or optimizing in dynamic environments. The optimization algorithm plays an important role in designing an expert and intelligent system. In this paper, we present a novel particle swarm optimizer for optimization in dynamic environments. We introduce two schemes to improve performance of particle swarm optimization in dynamic environments. Firstly, the classical particle swarm optimization is enhanced by a collaborative mechanism, in which a target particle learns from another randomly selected particle and the global best one in the swarm. Instead of moving to the new position directly, a worst replacement operator is used to update the swarm, whereby the worst particle in the swarm moves to the better newly generated position. During optimizing, the best solution in each generation is stored. When an environmental change is detected, the historical solutions are retrieved to collaborate with some newly generated solutions to adapt to the new environment. The performance of the proposed algorithm is compared with several reported algorithms over the benchmark problems. Experimental results indicate that the proposed algorithm offers superior performance compared with the competitors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Social systems may be vulnerable to changes in ecosystem services provision. • An indicator of social vulnerability to environmental change is proposed. • Dependency on the ecosystem and adasssptation are dimensions of social vulnerability. • Vulnerability indicator is developed to be evaluated at local scale. • Participative techniques to obtain information at beneficiary level are proposed. Abstract Understanding the influence of social variables on a beneficiary´s vulnerability to environmental change might improves the design of policies of mitigation and adaptation to global, regional and local environmental change. In the context of socio-ecological systems, there is a wide variety of conceptual and methodological approaches for the assessment of social vulnerability in face of environmental change. However, there is a need for making these approaches more operational. Among the aspects that have been pointed out in previous literature as current research needs are (i) the identification of variables that are determinant for the construction of a vulnerability index, (ii) the analysis of the problems derived from the availability of information for the vulnerability evaluation, (iii) spatial representation of a vulnerability index and (iv) the design of strategies to identify the responses of different types of beneficiaries at local scale. This paper proposes an index of the social system´s vulnerability to changes in ecosystem services provision as well as a methodological proposal for its evaluation at local scales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Graphical abstract Highlights • An analysis of soil natural capital vulnerability at a regional scale is presented. • Land cover trajectories determine the inherent and dynamic properties of the soil. • Inherent and dynamic properties of soil natural capital determine its vulnerability. • Replication in other basins with similar soil and climate conditions are required. Abstract In recent decades, the literature on ecosystem services has pointed to the need to quantify and characterise Soil Natural Capital (SNC) under different types of land use and cover. This points to the need of understanding the SNC processes which define the provision of ecosystem services, as well as their changes through anthropogenic time. Tropical regions are subjected to a high rate of land use transformation which may change the properties of the soil, and consequently the potential provision of ecosystem services. This paper presents a proposal for the quantification and characterization of SNC through an index of vulnerability to changes in land cover vegetation and their influence on the provision of ecosystem services for the prevention of soil erosion in tropical soils. The proposed vulnerability index considers aspects of the SNC such as the changes produced in the dynamic properties of different soil types under different types of land-use. The proposed analysis was implemented in a basin measuring 1.280 km2 situated in the department of Antioquia (Colombia) in humid tropical conditions, where 93% of the soil presents andic properties. Understanding the consequences of the land cover changes for the provision of ecosystem services, as well as how to obtain the spatial representation of the vulnerability current from SNC, allow the identification of areas in which the provision of ecosystem services is at risk inasmuch as the definition of land use policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • We map different narratives of urban resilience in Manila, Nairobi, and Cape Town. • These narratives are associated with diverse forms of knowledge and expertise. • Science methods can empower the most vulnerable or reinforce existing inequalities. • The processes of developing resilience strategies are key to ensure their legitimacy. • Recognizing this diversity of narratives can facilitate inclusive resilience policy. Abstract In the context of global environmental change much hope is placed in the ability of resilience thinking to help address environment-related risks. Numerous initiatives aim at incorporating resilience into urban planning practices. The purpose of this paper is to open up a conversation on urban resilience by unpacking how diverse science methods contribute to the production of different narratives of urban resilience mobilizing different experts and forms of evidence. A number of scholars have cautioned against uncritical approaches to resilience and asked what resilience means and for whom, also pointing out the normative dimension of the concept. Building on this emerging scholarship we use insights from science and technology studies (STS) and critical social sciences to look at the knowledge infrastructures and networks of actors involved in the development of resilience strategies. Drawing on fieldwork in Manila, Nairobi, and Cape Town, we map different narratives of urban resilience identifying the ways in which science serves to legitimate or alienate particular perspectives on what should be done. We discuss the multiple roles that science methods have for resilience planning. Whereas urban resilience is often portrayed as consensual, we show that a range of narratives, with diverse socio-material implications, exist at the city level. In this way we unearth the conflict that lies beneath an apparent consensus for resilience policy and outline future research directions for urban sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Remote satellite monitoring of bridges offers benefits over conventional methods. • Case study on applying InSAR techniques to monitor bridges at risk of scour. • Signs of localised deformation and failure in bridges can be picked up using InSAR. • Outlier detection and early warning through understanding expected bridge behaviour. Abstract Scour is the removal of ground material in water bodies due to environmental changes in water flow. It particularly occurs at bridge piers and the holes formed can make bridges susceptible to collapse. The most common cause of bridge collapse is due to scour occurring during flooding, some failures causing loss of life and most resulting in significant transport disruption and economic loss. Consequently, failure of bridges due to scour is of great concern to bridge asset owners, and is currently very difficult to predict since conventional assessment methods foresee very resource-demanding monitoring efforts in situ. This paper presents evidence of how InSAR techniques can be used to monitor bridges at risk of scour, using Tadcaster Bridge, England, as a case study. Tadcaster Bridge suffered a partial collapse due to river scour on the evening of December 29th, 2015 following a period of severe rainfall and flooding. 48 TerraSAR-X scenes over the bridge from the two-year period prior to the collapse are analysed using the small baseline subset (SBAS) interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) approach. The study highlights a distinct movement in the region of the bridge where the collapse occurred prior to the actual event. This precursor to failure observed in the data over a month before actual collapse suggests the possible use of InSAR as a means of an early warning system in structural health monitoring of bridges at risk of scour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Motivation to act on climate adaptation exists in Malawi, Tanzania and Zambia. • External influence and workplace environment affect motivation and capacity to act. • Inadequate staffing and budget dispensation promote reliance on donor funds. Abstract Government ministries are increasingly mainstreaming climate change adaptation within policies and plans. However, government staff in key implementing ministries need to be empowered to ensure effective delivery of policy goals. Motivation to act on climate change, combined with the capacity to make decisions and apply resources to programmes, is crucial. Informed by theories of motivation and workplace environments from social psychology and organisational theory, this paper reports findings from a questionnaire of government staff (103 respondents) in Malawi, Tanzania and Zambia. The questionnaire was designed using self-determination theory to investigate the role of external influences, institutional structures and resources and how these, in turn, affect staff motivation and capacities to design and implement new policies and strategies. The study finds that whilst external influences and hierarchical structures are recognised, these do not have a strong direct influence on staff motivation, but they do appear to inhibit capacities to act. The results show that lack of staff and limited government-allocated budget reduce the ability of ministries to be self-determined and set their own agendas. Instead they are dependent on donor-determined projects which may be selective in the aspects of climate change adaptation plans and policies they support and even divert focus away from government priorities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ecosystems are highly nonlinear dissipative systems that often admit multiple alternative stable states, but seldom have the time span to converge to these states as they are repeatedly interfered by environmental changes and disturbances. Multiplicity of stable states in variable and disturbed environments is of high concern because of the possible occurrence of regime shifts, i.e. state transitions that involve large, abrupt decline in ecosystem function. State transitions induced by disturbances, however, need not be abrupt as the disturbances are often limited in their spatial extent. In that case they induce local state transitions that result in spatially confined alternative-state domains. The subsequent dynamics crucially depend on the dynamics of the transition zones or fronts that bound these domains. In this paper we study three aspects of front dynamics that affect the nature of regime shifts and their outcomes: single-front motion, front interactions and front instabilities. Using models of dryland vegetation as a case study we show that fronts can change their speed and invert their direction of motion as parameters change across a threshold value – the Maxwell point, that fronts may slow down or stop entirely when interacting with other fronts, and that disturbances may change one front type to another, each with its distinct speed. We further study the implications of these three aspects of front dynamics to gradual regime shifts. We show that such shifts can occur due to the propagation of a perturbation beyond its original extent, that such a transition does not necessarily culminate in the alternative state, i.e. it may remain incomplete, and that the time it takes for a regime shift to occur can be changed by front manipulations. Since gradual regime shifts can take place far from the typical tipping point considered, early warning signals of an approaching tipping point would fail in predicting gradual regime shifts. A more relevant approach for these regime shifts may be the development of detection and prevention methods, which can be applied during an ongoing gradual regime shift due to its slow dynamics. We conclude with a discussion of the need to develop such methods and of other ecological contexts that may benefit from them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wind power is a renewable source of great value for the sustainable development of society in the context of global environmental changes. This power source features many advantages such as accessibility, inexhaustibility and sustainability, and its harvest and conversion have experienced a rapid growth in both developed and developing countries. The present study aims to geographically analyze the distribution and intensity of onshore wind resources (assessed using the wind power density parameter) globally, continentally and nationally. Using the most recent and detailed global spatial data on wind power density, which were classified after NREL (National Renewable Energy Laboratory) in seven potential classes, our results showed that, globally, there are five major hotspots of abundant wind resources, delimited based on the large-scale presence of the most favourable potential classes, i.e. Excellent (500–600 W/m 2 ), Outstanding (600–800 W/m 2 ) and Superb (>800 W/m 2 ), also called in our paper EOS classes. These hotspots consist of the central-northern region of North America, southern South America, northern/north-western Europe, northern Asia and the central-south-eastern region of the Asian continent. These regions bring together most of the entire global area of EOS classes, which totals ∼4 mil km 2 or ∼3% of the world's land area. Continentally, the most extensive EOS areas are found in Asia (∼1.5 mil km 2 , 3.5% of the continent), followed by North and Central America (∼1 mil km 2 , 4.3%), South America (∼0.7 mil km 2 , 4.1%), Europe (∼0.5 mil km 2 , 5%), Africa (∼0.1 mil km 2 , 0.4%), and Australia and Oceania (∼0.1 mil km 2 , 1.3%). Nationally, it was found there are 8 epicentre-countries for wind potential (with absolute EOS areas that range between 0.1 and almost 1 mil km 2 across the countries), namely China (∼0.9 mil km 2 , 10% of the country), followed by Canada (∼0.6 mil km 2 , 6%), the United States (∼0.5 mil km 2 , 5%), Argentina (∼0.4 mil km 2 , 14%), Russia (∼0.4 mil km 2 in total, in Europe and Asia, 2%), Chile (0.2 mil km 2 , 28%), Norway (∼0.1 mil km 2 , 30%) and Afghanistan (∼0.1 mil km 2 , 16%). Results show these countries are the most suitable for large-scale wind power installations in the world. Also, our findings not only provide an overall image of wind resources availability worldwide, but they can also be a useful tool for the transition towards a carbon-free global economy, by helping world governments better understand – and subsequently use – their wind resources at regional or local levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]