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The expansion of irrigated agriculture has increased global crop production but resulted in widespread stress to freshwater resources. Ensuring that increases in irrigated production only occur in places where water is relatively abundant is a key objective of sustainable agriculture, and knowledge of how irrigated land has evolved is important for measuring progress towards water sustainability. Yet a spatially detailed understanding of the evolution of global area equipped for irrigation (AEI) is missing. Here we utilize the latest sub-national irrigation statistics (covering 17298 administrative units) from various official sources to develop a gridded (5 arc-min resolution) global product of AEI for the years 2000, 2005, 2010, and 2015. We find that AEI increased by 11% from 2000 (297 Mha) to 2015 (330 Mha) with locations of both substantial expansion (e.g., northwest India, northeast China) and decline (e.g., Russia). Combining these outputs with information on green (i.e., rainfall) and blue (i.e., surface and ground) water stress, we also examine to what extent irrigation has expanded unsustainably (i.e., in places already experiencing water stress). We find that more than half (52%) of irrigation expansion has taken place in regions that were already water stressed, with India alone accounting for 36% of global unsustainable expansion. These findings provide new insights into the evolving patterns of global irrigation with important implications for global water sustainability and food security. Recommended citation: Mehta, P., Siebert, S., Kummu, M. et al. Half of twenty-first century global irrigation expansion has been in water-stressed regions. Nat Water (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44221-024-00206-9 Open-access peer reviewed publication available at https://www.nature.com/articles/s44221-024-00206-9 Files G_AEI_*.ASC were produced using the GMIA dataset[https://data.apps.fao.org/catalog/iso/f79213a0-88fd-11da-a88f-000d939bc5d8]. Files MEIER_G_AEI_*.ASC were produced using Meier et al. (2018) dataset [https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.884744].

Cylindrical graphite microbial fuel cell (MFC) configuration designed by eliminating distinct casing and membrane was evaluated for bioelectrogenesis and treatment of real-field wastewaters. Both petroleum refinery wastewater (PRW) and Labanah whey wastewater (LW) were used as substrates, and investigated for electricity generation and organic removal under batch mode operation. PRW showed higher bioelectricity generation (current and power generation of 3.35mA and 1.12mW at 100Ω) compared to LW (3.2mA and 1.02mW). On the contrary, higher substrate degradation efficiency was achieved using LW (72.76%) compared to PRW (45.06%). Superior function of MFC operation in terms of volumetric power density (PRW, 28.27W/m3; LW, 23.23W/m3) suggesting the feasibility of using these wastewaters for bioelectricity generation. Large sources of wastewater that generating in the Middle-East countries have potential to produce renewable energy from the treatment, which helps for the sustainable wastewater management and simultaneous renewable energy production.

The objective of this presentation is to promote the development of a book to help development agents in developing (and developed) countries to better understand what is involved in the management of complex adaptive systems. The problem relates to linked rural poverty and environmental sustainability, though this can be solved through adaptive management for small holder innovation by providing development agents with knowledge and understanding to assist small holder innovation for adaptive management of complex adaptive systems (CAS). The objective is to encourage policy makers and donors to support local innovation and adaptive management. ME (Management Entity)

ABSTRACT Three graduate-level short courses on ecological agriculture and food systems were held in 1995–1997 in Norway to introduce systems thinking, creative research methods, and innovative learning approaches. In 1999, a three-day evaluation and planning workshop was held to assess course impacts, to determine relative importance of content areas, to compare learning methods with special attention to case studies, and to vision and develop action plans for future education in the region. Students and faculty agreed that soft systems research methods and varied learning processes in the course were more valuable than specific technical content that can be learned in other venues. Nine priority education areas were identified for ecological agriculture: (1) systems thinking, (2) research methods, (3) farmer/stakeholder participation, (4) improving production methods, (5) relating agriculture to food systems, (6) learning about learning, (7) values and ethics, (8) faculty development and institutional ch...

High-temperature pretreatment of coal-based mineral matter in an oxidizing environment significantly enhances the leaching characteristics of rare earth elements (REEs). A research study has found that the temperatures used in fluidized bed combustion (FBC) of coal to produce electricity are near optimum for pretreating the associated mineral matter prior to leaching to maximize the recovery of critical materials. Tests were performed on representative samples collected from preparation plants treating West Kentucky No. 13, Illinois No. 6, and Fire Clay coal seam sources as well as fly ash and bed ash samples from two FBC power plants. Acid leaching tests using 1.2 M HCl at 75 °C were performed on both the coal and the FBC ash samples. Prior to leaching, the coal samples were pretreated at temperatures of 600, 750, and 900 °C in an oxidizing environment to study the effect on leaching characteristics. The results showed that pretreatment at 600 °C for 2 h resulted in a significant increase in REE recovery...

Biochemical production processes require water and nutrient resources for culture media preparation, but aqueous waste is generated after the target products are extracted. In this study, culture waste (including cells) produced from a lab-scale fermenter was fed into a microbial fuel cell-membrane bioreactor (MFC-MBR) system. Electrical energy was generated via the interaction between the microbial consortia and the solid electrode in the MFC. The treated wastewater was reclaimed in this process which was reused as a solvent and a nutrient source in subsequent fermentation. Polarization testing showed that the MFC produced a maximum current density of 37.53 A m(-3) with a maximum power density of 5.49 W m(-3). The MFC was able to generate 0.04 kWh of energy per cubic meter of culture waste treated. The lab-scale fermenters containing pure cultures of an engineered Pseudomonas spp. were used to generate 2-pyrone-4,6-dicarboxylic acid (PDC), a high value platform chemical. When the MFC-MBR-treated wastewater was used for the fermenter culture medium, a specific bacterial growth rate of 1.00 ± 0.05 h(-1) was obtained with a PDC production rate of 708.11 ± 64.70 mg PDC L(-1) h(-1). Comparable values for controls using pure water were 0.95 ± 0.06 h(-1) and 621.01 ± 22.09 mg PDC L(-1) h(-1) (P > 0.05), respectively. The results provide insight on a new approach for more sustainable bio-material production while at the same time generating energy, and suggest that the treated wastewater can be used as a solvent and a nutrient source for the fermentation production of high value platform chemicals.

Metadata only record This website offers several videos that provide in-depth information about different aspects of sustainable agriculture. Below is a list of the videos:

Abstract Building modeling and energy performance assessment models have become fundamental tools for both designers and researchers. Spanning the boundary of single building analysis, the purpose of this paper is to investigate how buildings energy performance is influenced by Inter-Building Effects (IBE). Previous research has examined IBE impact on cooling and heating energy performance predictions across buildings, however, the impact of IBE on lighting, which may be substantial, has not been examined. We investigated this impact through coupled numerical and experimental analysis. We built upon and further validated the Inter-Building Effect approach through modeling the contribution of lighting energy use on IBE and through the use of empirical data for model calibration. We demonstrated that the energy use performance prediction deviations resulting from lighting IBE are greater than those from heating or cooling in a case study building and we described this expanded IBE calculation and assessment as IBE II . To further confirm the reliability of the findings, we replicated the analysis for four different building orientations and observed non-negligible primary energy requirement modeling errors irrespective of orientation. This demonstrates the critical need to include lighting in IBE calculations to more accurately model primary energy requirement for buildings in urban contexts.