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Abstract An assessment of the human impact on the global water cycle requires estimating the volume of water withdrawn for irrigated agriculture. A key parameter in this calculation is the irrigation efficiency, which corrects for the fraction of water lost between irrigation withdrawals and the crop due to management, distribution or conveyance losses. Here we show that the irrigation efficiency used in global irrigation models is flawed for it overlooks key ambiguities in partial efficiencies, irrigation technologies, the definition of ‘large-scale’ irrigated areas or managerial factors. Once accounted for, these uncertainties can make irrigation withdrawal estimates fluctuate by more than one order of magnitude at the country level. Such variability is larger and leads to more extreme values than that caused by the uncertainties related with climate change. Our results highlight the need to embrace deep uncertainties in irrigation efficiency to prevent the design of shortsighted policies at the river basin-water-agricultural interface.

Abstract A central challenge of today's ecological research is predicting how ecosystems will develop under future global change. Accurate predictions are complicated by (a) simultaneous effects of different drivers, such as climate change, nitrogen deposition and management changes; and (b) legacy effects from previous land use. We tested whether herb layer biodiversity (i.e. richness, Shannon diversity and evenness) and functional (i.e. herb cover, specific leaf area [SLA] and plant height) responses to environmental change drivers depended on land‐use history. We used resurvey data from 192 plots across nineteen European temperate forest regions, with large spatial variability in environmental change factors. We tested for interactions between land‐use history, distinguishing ancient and recent (i.e. post‐agricultural) forests and four drivers: temperature, nitrogen deposition, and aridity at the regional scale and light dynamics at the plot‐scale. Land‐use history significantly modulated global change effects on the functional signature of the herb layer (i.e. cover, SLA and plant height). Light availability was the main environmental driver of change interacting with land‐use history. We found greater herb cover and plant height decreases and SLA increases with decreasing light availability in ancient than in recent forests. Furthermore, we found greater decreases in herb cover with increased nitrogen deposition in ancient forests, whereas warming had the strongest decreasing effect on the herb cover in recent forests. Interactive effects between land‐use history and global change on biodiversity were not found, but species evenness increased more in ancient than in recent forests. Synthesis. Our results demonstrate that land‐use history should not be overlooked when predicting forest herb layer responses to global change. Moreover, we found that herb layer composition in semi‐natural deciduous forests is mainly controlled by local canopy characteristics, regulating light levels at the forest floor, and much less by environmental changes at the regional scale (here: warming, nitrogen deposition and aridity). The observed disconnect between biodiversity and functional herb layer responses to environmental changes demonstrates the importance of assessing both types of responses to increase our understanding of the possible impact of global change on the herb layer.

In the present article, the thermodynamic potential of a sustainable plasma-assisted nitrogen fixation process for co-production of ammonia and hydrogen is investigated. The developed process takes advantage of chemical looping system by using a liquid metal such as gallium to drive nitrogen fixation reaction using three reactors including reactor R1 to produce gallium nitride from gallium and nitrogen, reactor R2 to produce ammonia and hydrogen from gallium nitride, and plasma reactor R3 to convert gallium oxide to pure gallium. The results of the thermodynamic assessments showed that the proposed reactions are spontaneous and feasible to occur in the reactors. Likewise, the first two reactions are exothermic with ΔH=-230[Formula presented] and ΔH=-239[Formula presented] in the reactors R1 and R2, respectively with an equilibrium chemical conversion of 100%. The plasma reactor requires thermal energy to drive an endothermic reaction of gallium oxide dissociation withΔH=+870[Formula presented]. Thermochemical equilibrium analysis showed that the molar ratio of steam to GaN, as well as the operating pressure and temperature of reactor R2 are the main operating parameters identifying the product composition in the reactor such that by increasing the temperature, the molar ratio of hydrogen to ammonia increases. However, by increasing the molar ratio of steam/GaN (φ value) from 0.1 to 1, the hydrogen content of the reactor increases from 45% to 70% at 400 °C. For φ > 1.0, the hydrogen content decreases while more hydrogen participate in the formation of NH3 thereby increasing the mole fraction of ammonia in the reactor. The equilibrium chemical conversion of all three reactors is expected to reach the completion point (χ = 100%) due to the highly negative Gibbs free energy of the liquid metal-based reactions together with a large thermal driving force supported by thermal plasma reactor. Finally, a scalability study points at a possible use of the new disruptive process design at small scale, and possible industrial transformation scenarios for a distributed production at a local site of consumption are depicted.

AbstractLarge‐scale bioenergy plays a key role in climate change mitigation scenarios, but its efficacy is uncertain. This study aims to quantify that uncertainty by contrasting the results of three different types of models under the same mitigation scenario (RCP2.6‐SSP2), consistent with a 2°C temperature target. This analysis focuses on a single bioenergy feedstock, Miscanthus × giganteus, and contrasts projections for its yields and environmental effects from an integrated assessment model (IMAGE), a land surface and dynamic global vegetation model tailored to Miscanthus bioenergy (JULES) and a bioenergy crop model (MiscanFor). Under the present climate, JULES, IMAGE and MiscanFor capture the observed magnitude and variability in Miscanthus yields across Europe; yet in the tropics JULES and IMAGE predict high yields, whereas MiscanFor predicts widespread drought‐related diebacks. 2040–2049 projections show there is a rapid scale up of over 200 Mha bioenergy cropping area in the tropics. Resulting biomass yield ranges from 12 (MiscanFor) to 39 (JULES) Gt dry matter over that decade. Change in soil carbon ranges from +0.7 Pg C (MiscanFor) to −2.8 Pg C (JULES), depending on preceding land cover and soil carbon.2090–99 projections show large‐scale biomass energy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) is projected in Europe. The models agree that <2°C global warming will increase yields in the higher latitudes, but drought stress in the Mediterranean region could produce low yields (MiscanFor), and significant losses of soil carbon (JULES and IMAGE). These results highlight the uncertainty in rapidly scaling‐up biomass energy supply, especially in dry tropical climates and in regions where future climate change could result in drier conditions. This has important policy implications—because prominently used scenarios to limit warming to ‘well below 2°C’ (including the one explored here) depend upon its effectiveness.

This study used a cradle-to-cradle Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) approach to evaluate the environmental potentials of urban pavements. For this purpose, the urban road network of the City of Münster (Germany) was selected as the case study, and comprehensive data for several phases were collected. The entire road network is composed of flexible pavements designed according to specific traffic loads and consists of main roads (MRs), main access roads (MARs), and residential roads (RSDTs). Asphalt materials, pavement structures, and maintenance strategies are predefined for each type of road and are referred to as “traditional” herein. Some pavement structures have two possible maintenance strategies, denoted by “A” and “B”, with distinguished periods of intervention. To evaluate the impact of using recycled materials, we considered alternative pavement structures composed of asphalt materials containing a greater amount of reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP). The study was carried out considering analysis periods of 20, 50, 80, and 100 years and using two indicators: non-renewable cumulative energy demand (nr-CED) and global warming potential (GWP). The results show that the use of higher amounts of RAP can mitigate negative environmental impacts and that certain structures and maintenance strategies potentially enhance the environmental performance of road pavements. This article suggests initiatives that will facilitate the decision-making process of city administrators to achieve more sustainable road pavement constructions and provides an essential dataset inventory to support future environmental assessment studies, particularly for European cities.

Impacts in the form of innovation and commercialization are essential components of publicly funded research projects. PHUSICOS ("According to nature" in Greek), an EU Horizon 2020 program (H2020) Innovation Action project, aims to demonstrate the use of nature-based solutions (NBS) to mitigate hydrometeorological hazards in rural and mountainous areas. The work program is built around key innovation actions, and each Work Package (WP) leader is specifically responsible for nurturing innovation processes, maintaining market focus, and ensuring relevance for the intended recipients of the project results. Key success criteria for PHUSICOS include up-scaling and mainstream implementation of NBS to achieve broader market access. An innovation strategy and supporting tools for implementing this within PHUSICOS has been developed and key concepts forming the basis for this strategy are presented in this research note.

The INTENSSS PA project, funded by Horizon 2020, the Framework Programme for Research and Innovation of the European Union, aims to support the local authorities involved and their stakeholders to develop an innovative integrated sustainable energy planning concept through a participatory, interdisciplinary and multilevel process. By building individual and institutional capacity of the actors involved, using the Regional Living Lab approach, the concept will be applied in order to develop seven sustainable integrated energy plans. In this first article the project activities and the results achieved so far are preliminary described, anticipating a more extensive and detailed publication on the project planned for the December edition of UPLand – Journal of Urban Planning Landscape & Environmental Design. UPLanD - Journal of Urban Planning, Landscape & environmental Design, GREEN 2.0