Siyu Chen , Qiang Zou , Bin Wang , Wentao Zhou , Hu Jiang , Bin Zhou , Tao Yang
{"title":"Advancing community disaster resilience: A data-knowledge driven paradigm for integrating environmental science and policy decision-making","authors":"Siyu Chen , Qiang Zou , Bin Wang , Wentao Zhou , Hu Jiang , Bin Zhou , Tao Yang","doi":"10.1016/j.envsci.2025.104180","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.envsci.2025.104180","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Researching disaster resilience communities involves complex, interdisciplinary efforts. Integrating various disciplines in disaster resilience research remains challenging, particularly in quantifying community resilience and reaching consensus on implementation strategies. Despite the widespread adoption of resilience research methodologies, data and information are often fragmented, impeding effective decision-making processes for enhancing community resilience. To advance the achievement of SDG 11 and implement more robust practical actions, it is essential to critically evaluate the work done thus far and identify the obstacles impeding progress toward the targets. This study critically reviews the current landscape of disaster resilience research, identifying key obstacles and proposing a data-knowledge-driven framework to enhance interdisciplinary integration and inform policy decisions. This framework supports more effective environment decision-making throughout the disaster cycle by consolidating fragmented data and optimizing resilience assessment systems. Through scientometric and critical reviews, we provide insights into resilience research dynamics and offer recommendations for advancing sustainable and resilient communities in the post-SDG era.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":313,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Science & Policy","volume":"171 ","pages":"Article 104180"},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2025-07-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144721512","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Adriana Ressiore C. , Giulia De Fusco , David Ludwig , Charbel N. El-Hani , Esther Turnhout
{"title":"Caring policy-relevant knowledge? The case of the Brazilian Platform for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services","authors":"Adriana Ressiore C. , Giulia De Fusco , David Ludwig , Charbel N. El-Hani , Esther Turnhout","doi":"10.1016/j.envsci.2025.104170","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.envsci.2025.104170","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Science-policy interfaces like the Brazilian Platform for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (BPBES) aim to provide policy-relevant knowledge that guides decision-makers in addressing the current biodiversity crisis. At the same time, dominant approaches to policy-relevant knowledge have been widely challenged for relying on a misguided linear model that treats science and policy as separate domains, presenting the former through depoliticized ideals of neutrality and objectivity while prioritizing efficiency, standardization, and measurable outputs over transdisciplinary collaboration, inclusivity, and plurality of knowledge systems. This article focuses on “care” as an embodied, situated, and relational practice that could open pathways to policy-relevant knowledge that is inclusive and responsive to diverse human and non-human needs. Through semi-structured interviews and analysis of Summaries for Decision-Makers (SDMs) in BPBES, we investigate how different forms of care shape the content, creation process, and impact of SDMs. Our findings reveal that care is present across all of these dimensions but also that systemic barriers limit its practices. In particular, we argue that the legacy of the linear model often creates tensions with care perspectives as they can often be seen as too subjective and as threatening the credibility of BPBES. We, therefore, conclude that there remain substantial challenges to articulating a vision and practice of “caring policy-relevant knowledge” that embraces care as central to shaping relations between science and policy.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":313,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Science & Policy","volume":"171 ","pages":"Article 104170"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2025-07-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144713709","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Elise Van Eynde , Gerard H. Ros , Felipe Yunta , Anna Muntwyler , Philippe Hinsinger , Arthur N. Fendrich , Panos Panagos
{"title":"Opportunities for optimizing phosphorus inputs in EU agricultural soils","authors":"Elise Van Eynde , Gerard H. Ros , Felipe Yunta , Anna Muntwyler , Philippe Hinsinger , Arthur N. Fendrich , Panos Panagos","doi":"10.1016/j.envsci.2025.104168","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.envsci.2025.104168","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Excessive phosphorus (P) fertilization has resulted in elevated soil P concentrations in some regions in the EU. Legacy soil P imposes a risk for soil functioning and may lead to P losses into the aquatic environment. Recent proposed EU policies aim to optimize P inputs and mitigate excessive soil P concentrations. We present a framework to estimate how much and where P inputs in EU agricultural (cropland and grassland) soils can be optimized. The framework, with assumptions on optimal soil P concentrations and modelled soil P balances, allows calculating how much of the EU agricultural area experiences a build-up or maintenance of soil P concentrations despite having high soil P concentrations. Next, we calculated how much P inputs can be reduced to reach maintenance situation (inputs equal outputs) or to reach optimal soil P concentrations. Assuming optimal soil P concentrations (Olsen) being 20 – 40 mg kg<sup>−1</sup>, we calculated that current P inputs across the EU can be reduced by 21 % without adverse impacts on crop production, in line with EU policy objectives. The most appropriate strategy strongly depended on the farming system properties and varied across the European regions. The results are discussed in view of current or desired policies limiting P application rates. The framework, with suggested future improvements on uncertainties in data and models, can guide policy makers and land managers to set targets on P application rates, thereby reconciling agronomic and environmental objectives.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":313,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Science & Policy","volume":"171 ","pages":"Article 104168"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2025-07-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144695249","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Hayrol Azril Mohamed Shaffril , Walter Leal Filho , Asnarulkhadi Abu Samah , Syafila Kamarudin
{"title":"A systematic literature review on the interconnection between climate change impacts and conflicts","authors":"Hayrol Azril Mohamed Shaffril , Walter Leal Filho , Asnarulkhadi Abu Samah , Syafila Kamarudin","doi":"10.1016/j.envsci.2025.104169","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.envsci.2025.104169","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The study attempts to systematically review the available evidence on the impacts of climate change on conflicts. It simultaneously explores how conflict can hinder people from practicing their best adaptation strategies. The systematic literature review was guided by ROSES (RepOrting standards for Systematic Evidence Syntheses in Environmental Research) and based on searching processes in Scopus, Science Direct, Dimensions.ai, and Google Scholar databases. The final number of articles for the review is 35. Based on the thematic analysis performed, four main themes were discussed in the review, namely 1) climate change exacerbates internal conflicts; 2) Climate change, military disputes and diplomatic tensions between countries over natural resources; 3) Climate change, migration, and conflict; and 4) Conflicts obstruct the community from practicing the best adaptation strategies toward climate change impacts. Multifaceted conflicts often impede communities from adopting their most effective climate adaptation strategies. Humans' economic habits are disrupted by social disturbance, which limits their capacity and motivation to seek workable ways to mitigate the consequences of climate change. In addition to weakening social ties, the dispute has made it more difficult for community members to access resources and allocate limited funds in the community's best interests, thereby detracting from the adoption of crucial actions to mitigate the consequences of climate change. The capacity of people to organise, plan, and carry out efficient methods to safeguard community interests in the context of climate change can be enhanced by effective communication at the organisational or community level, as well as by the absence of conflict-related community capacity building. Conflict also prevents outside assistance and support that may aid the community's preparation.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":313,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Science & Policy","volume":"171 ","pages":"Article 104169"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2025-07-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144695151","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"When climate assemblies call for stringent climate mitigation policies: Unlocking public acceptance or fighting a losing battle?","authors":"Emilien Paulis , Jean-Benoit Pilet , Davide Vittori , Sebastien Rojon","doi":"10.1016/j.envsci.2025.104159","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.envsci.2025.104159","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In a context where traditional political institutions struggle to build consensus on urgent climate action, this study investigates the role of deliberative instruments in climate policymaking. Specifically, it examines how Climate Assemblies (CAs) influence public acceptance of implementing stringent climate policies. Using public reactions to the recommendations of Luxembourg’s <em>Klima Biergerrot</em> (KBR) as a case study—which, like other European CAs, called for more ambitious climate mitigation measures—our findings indicate the importance of outcome favorability: agreement with the content of the KBR policy proposals (i.e., winning from the process) was the strongest predictor of acceptance for their effective implementation. However, we also found that, while policy losers were prominent, their acceptance of implementing proposals they disagree with increased the more they perceived CAs as legitimate and fair decision-making processes. This evidence suggests that CAs’ can foster ‘loser consent’ and help bridge divides with climate policy opponents. In this way, CAs have the potential to help overcome climate policy gridlock by building broader public acceptance for necessary, though often unpopular, climate actions.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":313,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Science & Policy","volume":"171 ","pages":"Article 104159"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2025-07-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144679144","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Measuring soil, making territory: Developing eDNA and other soil biodiversity indicators in Finland as a struggle over scales of governance","authors":"Jelena Salmi , Anna Krzywoszynska","doi":"10.1016/j.envsci.2025.104173","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.envsci.2025.104173","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>As a key instrument of governance, indicators are world-making; and yet, the processes by which indicators are made are rarely critically examined or opened to public scrutiny. Monitoring a soil biodiversity, as part of monitoring soil health, is increasingly relevant to policy. Healthy soils are cast as a ‘nature-based solution’ to socio-ecological challenges such as sustainable food production, land degradation, human health, and climate change. In this paper, we shed light on the unexamined politics of soil biodiversity indicators, with Finland as a case study. Our discourse analysis of 103 governance and grey literature documents finds that tensions around indicators can clearly be seen as struggles over the scale of governance. Soil biodiversity indicators are part of the EU’s project of territorialization: an attempt to create governable territories for EU-scale ecosystem services optimization. We find that in Finland eDNA emerges as the preferred scientific basis for soil biodiversity governance due to an alignment of interests between scientific and policy groups concerned with cost efficiency and competitive prestige. However, critical voices, especially from within land workers’ organisations, argue that basing soil policies on eDNA methods risks obscuring local specificity, and creating environmental and social injustice. Instead, alternative indicators are called for and proposed, which are more relevant at local scales of action: accessible, and epistemically just. Without heeding these critical voices, we argue, soil biodiversity science and governance risks further alienating land management groups - who are indispentible in achieving soil health. We call, therefore, for soil biodiversity indicators and knowledge infrastructures centered on strengthening the capacities of the very people tasked with delivering soil biodiversity improvements: land workers.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":313,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Science & Policy","volume":"171 ","pages":"Article 104173"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2025-07-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144679143","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
A.E.C. Duker , T.G. Embaye , E.Y. Hagos , M. Smigaj , D.W. Walker , H. Yusuf
{"title":"Balancing water and sand demands: a research agenda to support more sustainable sand harvesting from sand rivers in sub-Saharan Africa","authors":"A.E.C. Duker , T.G. Embaye , E.Y. Hagos , M. Smigaj , D.W. Walker , H. Yusuf","doi":"10.1016/j.envsci.2025.104162","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.envsci.2025.104162","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Sand river systems, a type of ephemeral river with shallow groundwater stored in its sandy riverbed, are increasingly gaining recognition for being nature-based water storage systems that play a pivotal role for ecosystems and rural livelihoods. However, these unique water systems are not only appreciated for their water storage and transmission; the sand is also extracted to serve the growing urban construction demands. As a result, there is increasing competition, tension and conflict about the different, often mutually-exclusive, uses of these rivers. In this paper, we call for research action as we see an urgent need to recognise the challenges and conflicts that occur and have a detrimental impact on the ecosystems and people depending on these rivers. We identify challenges and knowledge gaps, based on three case studies from sub-Saharan Africa, each with different sand harvesting histories and approaches to address these challenges. We conclude that current knowledge about the scope, intensity and impacts of sand harvesting from these shallow aquifers is minimal. Despite the regulation attempts in a few countries, monitoring and governance to establish sustainable sand harvesting and sand river conservation remain below par in all countries studied. Therefore, we call for conjunctive action to address the identified research needs, based on different actors from riparian communities, governments, academia, NGOs and the private sector. We conclude that addressing these needs is pivotal in coping with current and future challenges in different contexts to protect and benefit from these valuable river systems in the semi-arid and arid lands of sub-Saharan Africa.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":313,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Science & Policy","volume":"171 ","pages":"Article 104162"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2025-07-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144679145","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"To speak truth as, with, and through power: Co-producing knowledge politics of a just transition with Swedish citizens and trade unions","authors":"Tatiana Sokolova","doi":"10.1016/j.envsci.2025.104166","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.envsci.2025.104166","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Just transitions necessitate democratic interfaces where knowledge and action are co-produced by researchers and societal actors. However, the risk of delegitimisation due to being seen as politically involved makes co-production of research with non-academic actors an Augean undertaking for researchers. Co-production efforts have been critiqued for inattention to relational and power dynamics and reproduction of simplistic linear models of connecting knowledge to action – ‘speaking truth to power’. Such critique necessitates nuancing the understandings of co-production and the relationship of truth and power it generates. To this end, this paper investigates how two understandings of co-production, as a collaborative process and a sociopolitical phenomenon, are connected in praxis through a layer of normative ideals and theories of societal change held by researchers and societal actors. This connection is explored through the analysis of two knowledge-action interfaces: the climate citizens’ assembly and the training programme for trade union executives run by a Swedish policy-relevant research programme. The two interfaces explicate the complexity of knowledge politics aimed at democratically embedding scientific research in a political conjuncture which is not conducive to ambitious climate policy. The challenges facing the researchers are the clashing ideas of justice, sectoral and political heterogeneity of trade unions, polarisation, and climate backlash. They try to overcome these through designing processes where the ideas of truth are complexly connected to various forms of power: speaking truth as, with, and through power. The paper opens the black box of co-production, showing how research shapes and is shaped by norms, values, and theories of societal change of the different actors involved in the process, and how co-production is structured and legitimised in response to its sociopolitical context.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":313,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Science & Policy","volume":"171 ","pages":"Article 104166"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2025-07-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144656587","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abigail J. Lynch , Devin Bartley , T. Douglas Beard, Jr. , Gabriel Borba , Steven J. Cooke , Ian G. Cowx , Vittoria Elliott , Holly Embke , Edith Gondwe , Zeb Hogan , Jonathan G. Low , Jamie C. Madden , Sui Phang , Emma D. Rice , Nicholas Sievert , Gretchen L. Stokes , Leonard Akwany , Edward H. Allison , Robert Arlinghaus , Robert Arthur , Cassie M. VanWynen
{"title":"Opportunities to better integrate inland fish and fisheries in multilateral environmental agreements","authors":"Abigail J. Lynch , Devin Bartley , T. Douglas Beard, Jr. , Gabriel Borba , Steven J. Cooke , Ian G. Cowx , Vittoria Elliott , Holly Embke , Edith Gondwe , Zeb Hogan , Jonathan G. Low , Jamie C. Madden , Sui Phang , Emma D. Rice , Nicholas Sievert , Gretchen L. Stokes , Leonard Akwany , Edward H. Allison , Robert Arlinghaus , Robert Arthur , Cassie M. VanWynen","doi":"10.1016/j.envsci.2025.104089","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.envsci.2025.104089","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Inland fish and fisheries are globally important to environmental function and human services, yet their persistent lack of recognition in global agreements, especially multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs), may hinder progress towards biodiversity conservation and human well-being. The connection between inland fish, fisheries, and their ecosystems means that addressing the needs of fish directly offers opportunities to meet multiple global commitments and provide indicators of progress towards many global goals. In this perspective, we highlight opportunities to better integrate inland fish and fisheries into MEAs, specifically the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), Convention on Wetlands (commonly known as the Ramsar Convention), Convention on Conservation of Migratory Species (CMS), Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), and World Heritage Convention (WHC). Greater attention on inland fish and fisheries through MEAs could help ensure more holistic planning, investment, and conservation of these important fish and fisheries, their biodiversity, the essential resources they provision, and the environments they inhabit.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":313,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Science & Policy","volume":"171 ","pages":"Article 104089"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2025-07-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144656586","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Barbara Warner , Annette Piorr , Hans-Peter Grossart , Mike Müller-Petke , Jochen Schanze , Georg Schiller
{"title":"Urban-rural interdependencies from an Earth system’s view – Principles and perspectives leading to new integrative and transformative research","authors":"Barbara Warner , Annette Piorr , Hans-Peter Grossart , Mike Müller-Petke , Jochen Schanze , Georg Schiller","doi":"10.1016/j.envsci.2025.104165","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.envsci.2025.104165","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Recent advances in the Earth system sciences have enabled cross-scale analyses of the socio-ecological crisis of the Anthropocene. At the same time, research on the regional urban-rural interrelations has revealed mutual interdependencies, particularly referring to natural resource flows. While the Earth system sciences focus on the cumulative effects of human activities on the Earth system as well as the site-specific societal impacts of the Earth system change, there is little research on the specific potentials of utilizing urban-rural synergies for foster the sustainability of the Anthropocene. Based on the thematic examples of food, material, water and land use, the paper derives three fundamental principles: ‘circularity’, ‘spatial justice’ and ‘participation’. Two heuristic perspectives are considered particularly instructive to consistently address these three principles: ‘socio-ecological system thinking’ and ‘framing and governance’. In order to advance knowledge about these three principles and the two perspectives, an expansion of the existing research agendas is proposed. First, this covers the development of interdisciplinary frameworks that enable consistent description of the complex and dynamic urban-rural interdependencies and their interlinkages with the Earth system. Second, it involves the derivation of scientific references for regional targets embedded in the context of Earth boundaries and global societal goals. Third, transformative research needs to examine governance structures to enable common or shared frameworks. These should be used to design and monitor effective implementation.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":313,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Science & Policy","volume":"171 ","pages":"Article 104165"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2025-07-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144656588","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}