Geography and Sustainability最新文献

{"title":"(Re)assessing Climate-Smart Agriculture practices for sustainable food systems outcomes in sub-Saharan Africa: The case of Bono East Region, Ghana","authors":"Philip Tetteh Quarshie ,&nbsp;Seidu Abdulai ,&nbsp;Evan D.G. Fraser","doi":"10.1016/j.geosus.2023.02.002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geosus.2023.02.002","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>This research paper assesses the reality of Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) practices’ potential to promote the outcomes of sustainable food systems (SFS) within Ghana’s smallholding agriculture context. The study demonstrates that rural farmers generally perceive CSA’s contribution to ‘food and nutrition security’ and ‘economic performance’ as more important than CSA’s contribution to ‘social equity’ and ‘environmental stewardship’. From a narrow perspective, the study demonstrates that farmers perceive CSA’s potential to ‘prevent pest and disease outbreaks’ and ‘increase human capital information’ as the most important contribution of CSA to SFS outcomes. In contrast, CSA’s potential to promote environmental stewardship is perceived as the least important among Ghana’s rural farmers. This enormity of displacement of smallholders’ perceptions at large is motivated by demographic, socioeconomic and ecological factors. Moreso, the CSA for SFS outcomes narratives is driven by farmers’ self-apprise, social networks and other local information dissemination agents. Furthermore, research findings suggest farmers’ awareness of CSA practices and interventions is deficient owing to unmet training and information needs for approximately 82% of the CSA practices and interventions. This situation elucidates the dichotomy of CSA practices’ narratives as tools for attaining food, nutrition security and economic performance to the detriment of critical issues such as increasing awareness and building farmers’ capacity to engage with CSA practices while also managing socio-ecological trade-offs that emerge over time due to engagement with CSA. Critical (re)orientation is needed across the scale to drive CSA practices and interventions that confine climate adaptation and food production practices within safe planetary boundaries without undermining social, economic, food and nutrition security needs.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":52374,"journal":{"name":"Geography and Sustainability","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":9.7,"publicationDate":"2023-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49904187","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"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":"Natural climate solutions. The way forward","authors":"Caichun Yin ,&nbsp;Paulo Pereira ,&nbsp;Wenwu Zhao ,&nbsp;Damia Barcelo","doi":"10.1016/j.geosus.2023.03.005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geosus.2023.03.005","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Climate change is a global challenge that threatens global ecological security and sustainable development. Finding ways to mitigate their impacts is paramount through engineering carbon storage, low-carbon energy transition, or natural climate solutions (NCS). NCS involve a set of measures (e.g., afforestation, land restoration, biochar reuse or sustainable land use practices). Implementing NCS increases carbon sequestration and mitigates climate change at the lowest costs and greenest ways. In addition, NCS practices can improve multiple ecosystem services (ES) such as air quality, flood and erosion regulation, pest control, water purification, wild food biomass, recreation or landscape aesthetics. However, unsustainable implementation of NCS, such as over-afforestation of dense mono-forest, can lead to tradeoffs with water supply, wildfire risk, and decreased grasslands and croplands. Therefore, to optimise the NCS implementation, reducing the tradeoffs associated and transforming the “expand ecosystem area” to “improve ecosystem management efficiency” is vital. Although NCS can contribute significantly to mitigating climate change, systematic climate actions must be accompanied by a transformation in the global society and investment in new technologies. This will be key to addressing global challenges such as the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), such as SDG 13 (Climate Action), SDG 15 (Life on Land), SDG 2 (Zero Hunger), SDG 3 (Good Health and Wellbeing), SDG 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation), and SDG 14 (Life Bellow Water).</p></div>","PeriodicalId":52374,"journal":{"name":"Geography and Sustainability","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":9.7,"publicationDate":"2023-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49904193","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"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":"Spatial spillover effects of official development assistance on environmental pressure in sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries","authors":"Qiang Wang ,&nbsp;Jiaqi Guo ,&nbsp;Rongrong Li","doi":"10.1016/j.geosus.2023.03.004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geosus.2023.03.004","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Impoverished sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is under increasing environmental pressure from global environmental changes. It is now generally accepted in academic circles that economic development in SSA countries can cause environmental pressure in other countries. However, there is research gap on the impact of economic assistance on environmental pressure in SSA countries and whether economic assistance causes spatial spillovers of environmental pressure between SSA countries. To better understand the impact of economic assistance on environmental pressures in SSA, a dynamic spatial Dubin panel model was developed. It helped us explore the spatial spillover effects of economic assistance on environmental pressures in recipient countries based on the panel data from 34 SSA countries. The results show that economic assistance had a positive stimulating effect on environmental pressures of recipient countries, which means that the degree of human disturbance to the environment has deepened. Due to the regional correlation effect, neighboring countries were saddled with environmental pressures from the target country. Moreover, environmental pressures have time inertia, which can easily produce a snowball effect. The decomposition of effects shows that the impact of economic assistance on environmental pressures is relatively minor. Environmental pressures have spillover effects, so to deal with diffuse risks, joint regional prevention and control policies should be developed.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":52374,"journal":{"name":"Geography and Sustainability","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":9.7,"publicationDate":"2023-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49904194","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"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":"Identifying the uneven distribution of health and education services in China using open geospatial data","authors":"Shan Hu ,&nbsp;Rongtian Zhao ,&nbsp;Yuxue Cui ,&nbsp;Die Zhang ,&nbsp;Yong Ge","doi":"10.1016/j.geosus.2023.01.002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geosus.2023.01.002","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Growing attention has been directed to the use of satellite imagery and open geospatial data to understand large-scale sustainable development outcomes. Health and education are critical domains of the Unites Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), yet existing research on the accessibility of corresponding services focused mainly on detailed but small-scale studies. This means that such studies lack accessibility metrics for large-scale quantitative evaluations. To address this deficiency, we evaluated the accessibility of health and education services in mainland China in 2021 using point-of-interest data, OpenStreetMap road data, land cover data, and WorldPop spatial demographic data. The accessibility metrics used were the least time costs of reaching hospital and school services and population coverage with a time cost of less than 1 h. On the basis of the road network and land cover information, the overall average time costs of reaching hospital and school were 20 and 22 min, respectively. In terms of population coverage, 94.7% and 92.5% of the population in China has a time cost of less than 1 h in obtaining hospital and school services, respectively. Counties with low accessibility to hospitals and schools were highly coupled with poor areas and ecological function regions, with the time cost incurred in these areas being more than twice that experienced in non-poor and non-ecological areas. Furthermore, the cumulative time cost incurred by the bottom 20% of counties (by GDP) from access to hospital and school services reached approximately 80% of the national total. Low-GDP counties were compelled to suffer disproportionately increased time costs to acquire health and education services compared with high-GDP counties. The accessibility metrics proposed in this study are highly related to SDGs 3 and 4, and they can serve as auxiliary data that can be used to enhance the evaluation of SDG outcomes. The analysis of the uneven distribution of health and education services in China can help identify areas with backward public services and may contribute to targeted and efficient policy interventions.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":52374,"journal":{"name":"Geography and Sustainability","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":9.7,"publicationDate":"2023-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49904192","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"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":"Acoustic contamination assessment during the transition between the COVID-19 restrictions and reactivation: A exploratory analysis in Guayaquil","authors":"Andrés Velastegui-Montoya ,&nbsp;Geancarlo Guerrero-Cabrera ,&nbsp;Sandra Gonzalez-Camba ,&nbsp;Yadira Jaramillo-Lindao ,&nbsp;Ricardo Murillo-Portillo ,&nbsp;J. Hidalgo-Crespo ,&nbsp;Luis Encalada-Abarca","doi":"10.1016/j.geosus.2023.02.001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geosus.2023.02.001","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Noise pollution is becoming a critical health risk for city life. In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic forced many cities to implement several mobility restrictions. These restrictions changed human activity patterns and decreased the noise levels and noise pollution that often affect urban settings. As the number of infections decreased, so did the outdoor activities, influencing the population’s perception of noise. This paper aims to evaluate the changes in noise levels associated with mobility restrictions between 2020 and 2021 in Guayaquil, Ecuador. This study used crowdsourcing with the help of smartphones and mobile applications to collect geo-referenced environmental noise data. The data was used to generate noise maps in different time frames. Finally, noise level maps were created using GIS-based tools to identify the urban areas that experienced the highest noise level variation during the study period. The results show that the most significant noise increase occurred at night. Furthermore, when analyzing noise level changes in different urban areas, the western area of Guayaquil was the one that experienced the most significant noise level variation. Findings inform the perception of noise pollution and could potentially serve as a reference for decision-makers during the proposal of public policies that ensure a better quality of life for its citizens.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":52374,"journal":{"name":"Geography and Sustainability","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":9.7,"publicationDate":"2023-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49904185","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"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":"Exploring the drivers of urban expansion in a medium-class urban agglomeration in India using the remote sensing techniques and geographically weighted models","authors":"Tirthankar Basu ,&nbsp;Arijit Das ,&nbsp;Paulo Pereira","doi":"10.1016/j.geosus.2023.03.002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geosus.2023.03.002","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Rapid urbanization urges the immediate attention of policymakers to ensure sustainable city development. Understanding the urban growth drivers is essential to address effective strategies for urbanization-related challenges. This work aims to study Raiganj’s urban development and the factors associated with this expansion. This study employed global logistic regression (LR) and geographical weighted logistic regression (GWLR) to explore the role of different factors. The results showed that the role of the central business district (covariate &gt;-1), commercial market (covariate &gt;-3), and police station (covariate &gt;-4) were significant to the development of new built-up areas. In the second period, major roads (covariate &gt;-2) and new infrastructures (covariate &gt;-4) became more relevant, particularly in the eastern and southern areas. GWLR was more accurate in assessing the different factors’ impact than LR. The results obtained are essential to understanding urban expansion in India’s medium-class cities, which is critical to effective policies for sustainable urbanization.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":52374,"journal":{"name":"Geography and Sustainability","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":9.7,"publicationDate":"2023-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49904196","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"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":"Assessing the dynamics of human activity intensity and its natural and socioeconomic determinants in Qinghai–Tibet Plateau","authors":"Hanchu Liu ,&nbsp;Jie Fan ,&nbsp;Kan Zhou ,&nbsp;Xin Xu ,&nbsp;Haipeng Zhang ,&nbsp;Rui Guo ,&nbsp;Shaofeng Chen","doi":"10.1016/j.geosus.2023.05.003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geosus.2023.05.003","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Investigating the spatiotemporal variation of human activity intensity and its determinants is a crucial basis for further revealing the mechanism of human-environment interaction and optimizing the human development mode. In this study, the human activity intensity on the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau (QTP) from 1990 to 2020 was measured based on the quantitative model of land use data and the actual regional background, and the underlying natural and socioeconomic determinants were investigated using spatial econometric methods. The results demonstrate that (1) the human activity intensity in QTP has increased by 11.96%, and there are differences in different spatial scales; the areas with high human activity intensity are distributed in the Hehuang Valley where Xining City and its surrounding areas are located, as well as the One-River and Two-River Area where Lhasa City and surrounding areas are located. (2) Human activity intensity has significant positive spatial spillover, suggesting that local changes will cause changes in the same direction in adjacent areas. (3) The human activity intensity in QTP is affected by various determinants. Concerning socioeconomic factors, the economic level has no significant impact on the human activity intensity in QTP, which differs from the general regional law. Both urbanization and traffic conditions have a significant positive effect, and the impact intensity continues to increase. Concerning natural factors, topographic relief has a significant positive effect; the impacts of temperature and vegetation coverage have changed from insignificant to a significant positive effect; the impacts of precipitation and river network density have not been verified; there is no linear relationship between altitude and human activity intensity in the entire QTP, while it exists in local regions. Finally, this study proposes three policy implications for the realization of a more harmonious human-environment relationship in QTP.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":52374,"journal":{"name":"Geography and Sustainability","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":9.7,"publicationDate":"2023-05-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49841286","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"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":"Impacts of land use/cover change on water balance by using the SWAT model in a typical loess hilly watershed of China","authors":"Zeman Liu ,&nbsp;Li Rong ,&nbsp;Wei Wei","doi":"10.1016/j.geosus.2022.11.006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geosus.2022.11.006","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Land use/cover change (LUCC) plays a key role in altering surface hydrology and water balance, finally affecting the security and availability of water resources. However, mechanisms underlying LUCC determination of water-balance processes at the basin scale remain unclear. In this study, the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model and partial least squares regression were used to detect the effects of LUCC on hydrology and water components in the Zuli River Basin (ZRB), a typical watershed of the Yellow River Basin. In general, three recommended coefficients (<em>R</em>² and <em>E</em>_ns greater than 0.5, and <em>P</em>_bias less than 20%) indicated that the output results of the SWAT model were reliable and that the model was effective for the ZRB. Then, several key findings were obtained. First, LUCC in the ZRB was characterized by a significant increase in forest (21.61%) and settlement (23.52%) and a slight reduction in cropland (–1.35%), resulting in a 4.93% increase in evapotranspiration and a clear decline in surface runoff and water yield by 15.68% and 2.95% at the whole basin scale, respectively. Second, at the sub-basin scale, surface runoff and water yield increased by 14.26%–36.15% and 5.13%–15.55%, respectively, mainly due to settlement increases. Last, partial least squares regression indicated that urbanization was the most significant contributor to runoff change, and evapotranspiration change was mainly driven by forest expansion. These conclusions are significant for understanding the relationship between LUCC and water balance, which can provide meaningful information for managing water resources and the long-term sustainability of such watersheds.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":52374,"journal":{"name":"Geography and Sustainability","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":9.7,"publicationDate":"2023-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49892135","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"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":"Anthropogenic footprints are invading global habitats of Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins","authors":"Yongquan Lu ,&nbsp;Guilin Liu ,&nbsp;William W.L. Cheung ,&nbsp;Yuyang Xian ,&nbsp;Weijia Chen ,&nbsp;Dandan Yu","doi":"10.1016/j.geosus.2022.12.001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geosus.2022.12.001","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>As ecologically fragile areas, coastal zones are affected by both anthropogenic activities and climate change. However, the impacts of these factors on large nearshore mammals, such as Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins (IPHDs, <em>Sousa chinensis</em>), are poorly understood. Here, modeling revealed that the suitable habitats of IPHDs are affected mainly by the sea surface temperature (SST), and the habitat suitability decreases as the distance to the nearest coastline increases. In addition, anthropogenic activities involving demersal fishing, contamination and shipping have narrowed IPHD habitats and reduced the habitat suitability. We found that climate change will further narrow suitable habitats located farther than 7 km from coastlines and trigger habitat losses in the eastern Taiwan Strait by 2090–2100 under the Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 8.5 scenario. The projected decreases in habitat suitability and area emphasize the urgency of establishing connected marine protected areas (MPAs) while considering climate change, intergovernmental cooperation, and public involvement.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":52374,"journal":{"name":"Geography and Sustainability","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":9.7,"publicationDate":"2023-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49906983","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"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":"Development Geography for exploring solutions to promote regional development","authors":"Xiangzheng Deng ,&nbsp;Yifei Wang ,&nbsp;Malin Song","doi":"10.1016/j.geosus.2022.12.003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geosus.2022.12.003","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Development Geography is a branch of geography which studies the socioeconomic development of different countries and regions worldwide. Its related research provides informative ideas for promoting regionally coordinated development. This study introduces the basic connotation and theory of Development Geography research, and clarifies its primary indicators and core approaches to provide solutions for regional development. Finally, the application in regional development research under globalization is proposed. It is considered that the systematically integrated geography paradigm highlights the advantages of Development Geography in regional development research. As a result of its “differentiation characteristics-diffusion state-convergence mode”, an important theoretical basis and methodological paradigm are provided to explore the features of regional development. Since the development gaps among regions exist long throughout the world, Development Geography research ought to focus on new characteristics and challenges of regional development, to provide a theoretical basis for synergy management of sustainable development goals and international cooperation. This contributes to high-quality regional development.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":52374,"journal":{"name":"Geography and Sustainability","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":9.7,"publicationDate":"2023-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49906985","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"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}