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The Social-Ecological Systems (SES) framework serves as a valuable framework to explore and understand social and ecological interactions, and pathways in water governance. Yet, it lacks a robust understanding of change. We argue an analytical and methodological approach to engaging global changes in SES is critical to strengthening the scope and relevance of the SES framework. Relying on SES and resilience thinking, we propose an institutional and cognitive model of change that institutions and natural resources systems co-evolve to provide a dynamic understanding of SES that stands on three causal mechanisms: institutional complexity trap, rigidity trap, and learning processes. We illustrate how Data Cube technology could overcome current limitations and offer reliable avenues to test hypothesis about the dynamics of social-ecological systems and water security by offering to combine spatial and time data with no major technical requirements for users.

China’s research on and specific implementation of energy saving for buildings are mainly concentrated in urban areas, but according to 2016 statistics, the rural population accounts for 42.65% of the total population, so rural housing has considerable energy-saving potential. However, the degree of attention to the energy consumption of rural houses needs to be improved. Regarding the research on and implementation of passive energy-saving strategies for residences, compared with centralized urban high-rise residences, rural residences mainly have independent courtyards, with a flexible layout and easier transformation. In this study, a system that uses the common cold lanes in traditional villages and buildings’ exterior walls was constructed, and the indoor spaces of courtyard buildings in southern Shaanxi were completely passively cooled in summer. This system can be completely separated from the supply of artificial energy by relying on the accumulation and buoyancy effects of air in patios and cold lanes and the hot-pressure ventilation in buildings to cool the buildings and greatly improve indoor ventilation efficiency. As the building is ventilated and cooled, the air wall formed in the system can effectively prevent direct contact between the outdoor and indoor temperatures and reduce the impact of thermal wall radiation on the interior. In previous studies on the passive design of courtyard houses, scholars considered the effect of thermal wall radiation on indoor temperature in simulations. Therefore, in this study, we also separately calculated whether to consider the difference between the situation with and without wall heat radiation (WHR) when simulating thermal conversion. The final results show that when the cooling system was adopted, the annual cooling load of the whole building was 4786.494 kW·h without WHR. However, with WHR, the cooling load reduction was 2989.128 kW·h, a difference of 1797.336 kW·h.

Transitioning to the Enhanced Transparency Framework (ETF) under the Paris Agreement (PA) from the current measurement, reporting and verification (MRV) arrangements under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) requires developing countries to enhance their national reporting systems in a sustainable way. There are various challenges that developing countries face in preparing national reporting under the existing MRV framework. The objective of this paper is to identify practical solutions as good practices in the short and long term to address the common challenges facing many developing countries as they prepare their national climate reporting. We collected information on practical solutions implemented by developing countries to overcome common challenges during preparation of their national reporting. There were some limitations regarding data collection using a country survey since we received responses from only six countries and two organizations, resulting in a small sample. Good practices for addressing common challenges include developing a national legal framework for transparency-related work, assigning a main coordinating institution, collaborating with domestic institutions for methodology development on emission reduction, and establishing university curricula on transparency. Replicating these solutions as good practices on how to deal with the challenges would be one way for developing countries to enhance their respective reporting systems in a sustainable manner. Furthermore, the paper highlights three underlying factors (efficiency, accountability, and sustainability) behind those practical solutions. These underlying factors should be considered important as guiding principles for building sustainable reporting systems in order to be able to successfully implement the ETF.

Sustainable nitrogen (N) management in agriculture is one of the most important issues affecting the environmental performance of modern agriculture. It is actually well perceived that coordinated efforts and holistic approaches are required to regulate N use by farmers. The purpose of this study was to provide an initial examination of stakeholders’ views in Japan regarding N use in agriculture and challenges to increase its sustainability. The analysis was based on a questionnaire study of five types of stakeholders (farmers, advisors, researchers, suppliers, policy makers). By means of multivariate analysis techniques it was revealed that consensus was lacking either in the acknowledgment of the causes and effects of unsustainable N management or in the challenges that need to be addressed. N losses from farms and the effects of N use were perceived but not conceived equally by all stakeholders. Organic farming and mandatory measures were the most controversial challenges, while those involving awareness, training and advisory were the most popular. This study cannot provide safe conclusions that can be generalized in the Japanese context, but it indicates domains where further research is required and orientations for future policy design towards more sustainable N use.

Accurate health prognostics of lithium-ion battery packs play a crucial role in timely maintenance and avoiding potential safety accidents in energy storage. To rapidly evaluate the health of newly developed battery packs, a method for predicting the future health of the battery pack using the aging data of the battery cells for their entire lifecycles and with the early cycling data of the battery pack is proposed. Firstly, health indicators (HIs) are extracted from the experimental data, and high correlations between the extracted HIs and the capacity are verified by the Pearson correlation analysis method. To predict the future health of the battery pack based on the HIs, degradation models of HIs are constructed by using an exponential function, long short-term memory network, and their weighted fusion. The future HIs of the battery pack are predicted according to the fusion degradation model. Then, based on the Gaussian process regression algorithm and battery pack data, a data-driven model is constructed to predict the health of the battery pack. Finally, the proposed method is validated with a series-connected battery pack with fifteen 100 Ah lithium iron phosphate battery cells. The mean absolute error and root mean square error of the health prediction of the battery pack are 7.17% and 7.81%, respectively, indicating that the proposed method has satisfactory accuracy.

How can urban policies and planning approaches help in achieving a safer mobility and carbon reduction in the transport sector? The attention of planners and policy makers towards the promotion of sustainability and reduction of environmental impacts has grown in recent years. This paper investigates the role that Urban Planning plays in the long term towards a safer and climate friendlier mobility, highlighting the need for integrated approaches gathering spatial planning and mobility management. After a review of several urban policies and planning strategies, initiatives, and approaches, mainly based on the urban scale, the paper presents an urban regeneration case study leading to an increase of pedestrian accessibility at the neighborhood level. This can be seen as a support tool to foster sustainable, safe, and climate friendly mobility in cities. The results of the performed analysis show a dependency of accessibility from two different factors: the distribution of services and the capillarity of the soft mobility network, which can contribute to creating a more walkable space.

The Moroccan agricultural cooperative sector is a key player in self-employment and income generation through territorial anchoring. The government’s “MOURAFAKA” program offers support for newly created cooperatives, including strategic diagnosis and training. This paper analyzes the impact of the MOURAFAKA program on the sustainability of agricultural cooperatives in Morocco. Using original data from a survey of 232 cooperatives and a second database of 1131 cooperatives, the study employs a methodology based on survival function analysis and Cox regression. The results show that the MOURAFAKA program improves the sustainability of agricultural cooperatives by strengthening their management, governance, and market access capabilities. The study also highlights the importance of internal factors such as management skills, leadership style, and cooperative size, as well as external factors such as strategic adaptability, in determining the sustainability of agricultural cooperatives. The policy implications of these findings suggest that upstream literacy programs and capacity-building initiatives for cooperative leaders, as well as downstream access to financing, marketing, and practical training, are crucial for ensuring the sustainability of cooperatives.

Due to climate change and current efforts to reduce emissions in the construction sector, this study evaluates and discusses the results of a comparative cradle-to-grave Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), with a main focus on Global Warming Potential for functionally equivalent carbon-reinforced concrete (CRC) and steel-reinforced concrete (SRC) façade panels for the first time. The novelty of this study is the focus on construction waste and, in particular, the worst-case application of non-recycled construction waste. The use of CRC requires a lower concrete thickness than SRC because the carbon fiber reinforcement does not corrode, in contrast to steel reinforcement. Façade panels of the same geometrical dimensions and structural performance were defined as functional units (FU). Assuming an End-of-Life (EoL) scenario of 50% landfill and 50% recycling, the Global Warming Potential (GWP, given in CO2 equivalent (CO2e)) of the CRC façade (411–496 kg CO2e) is shown to perform better than or equal to the SRC façade (492 kg CO2e). Changing the assumption of CRC to a worst-case scenario, going fully to landfill and not being recycled (single life cycle), turns the GWP results in favor of the SRC façade. Assuming a 50-year service life for the SRC façade panel and relativizing the emissions to the years, the more durable CRC façade performs much better. Finally, depending on the system boundary, the assumed EoL and lifetime, CRC can represent a lower-emission alternative to a functionally equivalent component made of SRC. The most important and “novel” result in this study, which also leads to future research opportunities, is that delicate adjustments (especially concerning EoL scenarios and expected service life) can lead to completely different recommendations for decision-makers. Only by combining the knowledge of LCA experts, structural engineers, and builders optimal decisions can be made regarding sustainable materials and building components.

The Urban Heat Island (UHI) is the phenomenon of altered increased temperatures in urban areas compared to their rural surroundings. UHIs grow and intensify under extreme hot periods, such as during heat waves, which can affect human health and also increase the demand for energy for cooling. This study applies remote sensing and land use/land cover (LULC) data to assess the cooling effect of varying urban vegetation cover, especially during extreme warm periods, in the city of Munich, Germany. To compute the relationship between Land Surface Temperature (LST) and Land Use Land Cover (LULC), MODIS eight-day interval LST data for the months of June, July and August from 2002 to 2012 and the Corine Land Cover (CLC) database were used. Due to similarities in the behavior of surface temperature of different CLCs, some classes were reclassified and combined to form two major, rather simplified, homogenized classes: one of built-up area and one of urban vegetation. The homogenized map was merged with the MODIS eight-day interval LST data to compute the relationship between them. The results revealed that (i) the cooling effect accrued from urban vegetation tended to be non-linear; and (ii) a remarkable and stronger cooling effect in terms of LST was identified in regions where the proportion of vegetation cover was between seventy and almost eighty percent per square kilometer. The results also demonstrated that LST within urban vegetation was affected by the temperature of the surrounding built-up and that during the well-known European 2003 heat wave, suburb areas were cooler from the core of the urbanized region. This study concluded that the optimum green space for obtaining the lowest temperature is a non-linear trend. This could support urban planning strategies to facilitate appropriate applications to mitigate heat-stress in urban area.