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Pharmaceutical and personal care products (PPCPs) are discharged into receiving water bodies mainly from sewage treatment plants. Due to the inefficient removal in conventional wastewater treatment facilities, PPCPs have become a major concern to aquatic ecosystems, water quality, and public health worldwide since they cause harmful effects on aquatic life and human even at low doses. Among the PPCPs, carbamazepine (CBZ) is one of the most commonly prescribed anticonvulsant drugs and consumed more than 1,000 tons per year. Due to its structural complexity, CBZ is known as recalcitrant compound highly stable during wastewater treatment. Consequently, it has become one of the most frequently detected pharmaceuticals in waste water, surface water, and even drinking water. In this study, Korean indigenous microalgae strains were tested as eco-friendly and cost-effective solutions for CBZ removal. Based on the preliminary biological CBZ degradation tests, Tetradesmus obliquus KNUA061 demonstrating the best CBZ removal rate was selected for further experiments. In order to increase strain KNUA061's CBZ removal efficiency, NaOCl, which is widely accepted in the water purification process, was used as an additional stimulus to induce stress conditions. At around 20 μg L−1 CBZ, addition of 1.0 mg NaOCl resulted in approximately 20% of removal rate increase without suppressing cells growth. Roughly 90% of CBZ remained its original form and the composition of the transformed secondary metabolites was less than 10% during the biodegradation process by the microalga. Based on the results of the antioxidant enzyme activities, degree of lipid oxidation, and amino acid contents, it was concluded that the redox-defence system in microalgal cells may have been activated by the NaOCl treatment. Biomass analysis results showed that higher heating value (HHV) of strain KNUA061 biomass was higher than those of lignocellulosic energy crops suggesting that it could be utilized as a possible renewable energy source. Even though its biodiesel properties were slightly below the international standards due to the high PUFA contents, the biodiesel produced from T. obliquus KNUA061 could be used as a blending resource for transportation fuels. It was also determined that the microalgal biomass has acceptable feasibility as a sustainable dietary supplement feedstock due to its high essential amino acid contents.

100 Positive Energy Districts (PEDs) are to be created in Europe by 2025, with a stated goal of urban decarbonization. These are highly energy efficient residential urban areas, powered entirely through renewables. PED creation is to be guided by principles of quality of life, sustainability, and inclusiveness (specifically focusing on affordability and energy poverty prevention). Although there is research into the decarbonization aspects of PEDs, there has been little focus on the guiding principles, and their potential to reduce energy vulnerability. Using energy vulnerability factors and an energy justice framework, this article examines how the topic of energy vulnerability mitigation is perceived by professional PED stakeholders. Stakeholders from multiple countries were interviewed in order to determine how and to what extent they approached the topic of inclusivity and energy vulnerability. The contribution of this paper to academic research is in helping to frame energy vulnerability in European smart city urban areas, focusing on the perceptions of key stakeholders. This contributes to research on the identification and evaluation of innovations such as PEDs which offer a potential model for an inclusive transition. Furthermore, this article offers a contribution for policymakers, informing PED replication policies with a focus on the synergistic aims of decarbonization and energy vulnerability mitigation.

Air pollution is a major issue all over the world because of its impacts on the environment and human beings. The present review discussed the sources and impacts of pollutants on environmental and human health and the current research status on environmental pollution forecasting techniques in detail; this study presents a detailed discussion of the Artificial Intelligence methodologies and Machine learning (ML) algorithms used in environmental pollution forecasting and early-warning systems; moreover, the present work emphasizes more on Artificial Intelligence techniques (particularly Hybrid models) used for forecasting various major pollutants (e.g., PM2.5, PM10, O3, CO, SO2, NO2, CO2) in detail; moreover, focus is given to AI and ML techniques in predicting chronic airway diseases and the prediction of climate changes and heat waves. The hybrid model has better performance than single AI models and it has greater accuracy in prediction and warning systems. The performance evaluation error indexes like R2, RMSE, MAE and MAPE were highlighted in this study based on the performance of various AI models.

Socio-economic security is a highly critical issue that is addressed by every country in the world. In order to counteract challenges and threats faced by Russia, the Economic Security Strategy of the Russian Federation has been formulated. The development of human capital was proclaimed as one of the key areas to be targeted by the state policy. In this regard, the primary task is to identify destabilizing factors of socio-economic security in the development of human capital, which determined the relevance of the article. The article analyzes the research approaches to defining the key features of socio-economic security and human capital. It highlights the main principles of the theory of human capital on the basis of which a systematic approach to the study of human capital is justified. The proposed approach aims to identify negative factors that weaken regional security. By adopting this approach to the data in hand, the socio-economic security of the Voronezh Region, the old-developed region of the Central Black Earth Region in Russia, has been assessed. The data used for the analysis were collected from the Federal State Statistics Service. The mapping of the results of socio-economic differentiation was carried out by methods of GIS-technology, in particular Quantum GIS 12. For the processing of the initial information, the of multivariate statistical and econometric analysis SPSS Statistic 20.0 was used. As a result, factors that will have a negative impact on the development of human capital in the foreseeable future have been identified, namely the deterioration of the demographic situation, in particular the aging of the population and its natural decline; the decline in the quality of education, imbalances in the labor market, declining living standards, and deteriorating public health. It is concluded that to overcome the critical situation in the sphere of human capital and to ensure socio-economic security, it is necessary to carry out preventive measures.

In China, most previous projections of heat-related mortality have been based on modeling studies using global climate models (GCMs), which can help to elucidate the risks of extreme heat events in a changing climate. However, spatiotemporal changes in the health effects of climate change considering specific regional characteristics remain poorly understood. We aimed to use credible climate and population projections to estimate future heatwave-attributable deaths under different emission scenarios and to explore the drivers underlying these patterns of changes.We derived climate data from a regional climate model driven by three CMIP5 GCM models and calculated future heatwaves in China under Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 2.6, RCP4.5, and RCP8.5. The future gridded population data were based on Shared Socioeconomic Pathway 2 assumption with different fertility rates. By applying climate zone-specific exposure-response functions to mortality during heatwave events, we projected the scale of heatwave-attributable deaths under each RCP scenario. We further analyzed the factors driving changes in heatwave-related deaths and main sources of uncertainty using a decomposition method. We compared differences in death burden under the 1.5°C target, which is closely related to achieving carbon neutrality by mid-century.The number of heatwave-related deaths will increase continuously to the mid-century even under RCP2.6 and RCP4.5 scenarios, and will continue increasing throughout the century under RCP8.5. There will be 20,303 deaths caused by heatwaves in 2090 under RCP2.6, 35,025 under RCP4.5, and 72,260 under RCP8.5, with half of all heatwave-related deaths in any scenario concentrated in east and central China. Climate effects are the main driver for the increase in attributable deaths in the near future till 2060, explaining 78% of the total change. Subsequent population decline cannot offset the losses caused by higher incidence of heatwaves and an aging population under RCP8.5. Although health loss under the 1.5°C warming scenario is 1.6-fold higher than the baseline period 1986-2005, limiting the temperature rise to 1.5°C can reduce the annual mortality burden in China by 3,534 deaths in 2090 compared with RCP2.6 scenarios.With accelerating climate change and population aging, the effects of future heatwaves on human health in China are likely to increase continuously even under a low emission scenario. Significant health benefits are expected if the optimistic 1.5°C goal is achieved, suggesting that carbon neutrality by mid-century is a critical target for China's sustainable development. Policymakers need to tighten climate mitigation policies tailored to local conditions while enhancing climate resilience technically and infrastructurally, especially for vulnerable elderly people.National Key R&D Program of China (2018YFA0606200), Wellcome Trust (209734/Z/17/Z), Natural Science Foundation of China (41790471), and Guangdong Major Project of Basic and Applied Basic Research (2020B0301030004).

This article provides a practical example of the development of cross-border tourism and its link to achieving sustainable development goals. Greenways (GWs) are successful and recognized initiatives in Western Europe, but have recently also shown development trends in Eastern Europe, notably, in the Baltic Sea Region and Russia. These initiatives improve the quality of life and provide opportunities for sustainable economic activities for the local communities, especially in rural areas, adding value to their natural, cultural, historical and human heritage. The authors studied examples of best practice in scientific literature and practice, encouraging the development of cross-border tourism and GWs in Europe and Russia, in order to further adapt it to other continents. Analyzing the environmental, economic, social and institutional factors in the region and their role in sustainable development, the need for institutional regulation that would allow the development of a wider development of GWs is identified. Research results reveal sustainable development dilemmas of positive socioeconomic effects of GWs and negative environmental effects of increased flows of tourists. Focus groups and expert interviews allowed us to assess the level of various factors contributing to sustainable development and clarify the directions of the future research.

For a long time, the majority of China, which has the world’s largest population, has been immobile and lived in rural areas. However, over recent decades, with the economic rise of China, rural labor has demonstrated a trend of moving to rapidly industrializing regions in search of higher income and better employment opportunities. Along with the labor cutback, out-migration introduces negatives to the sustainable development of rural areas, i.e., depopulation, the abandonment of rural settlements and agricultural lands, and the aging of the population, among others. Due to the threats of labor outflow to sustainability, studying the causes of China’s rural out-migration can reveal lessons on how state policies can be designed to reduce the negative impacts of out-migration on rural communities. The purpose of this paper is to identify the major causes of migration movements among the rural areas of northern China that are considered to be the best-performing among the provinces of the country in terms of rural development, agricultural production, and the wealth of rural dwellers. A two-stage survey of a panel of experts involved: (1) respondents representing government officials and universities of the Heilongjiang, Jilin, and Liaoning provinces and the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, and (2) regional and district levels of administration, and research and public establishments of Heilongjiang Province. In stage three, drawing on the authors’ own survey of 128 rural households in three counties of Heilongjiang Province, the major migration drivers have been identified, and the portfolio of a typical rural migrant has been developed. Some of the key findings are that migration intentions are fueled by the rural–urban income gap, poverty, a reduction of demand for labor in rural areas, underdeveloped infrastructure, the low quality of social services in rural settlements, and the low social standing of rural dwellers. The approach allows monitoring the dynamics of migration attitudes as responses to the policy interventions that are aimed at the sustainable development of rural areas.

This article aims to substantiate the factors by which the oil industry influences the sustainable development of OPEC++-participating countries under conditions of uncertainty. The impact of the price parameters of the world oil market and the tools of its regulation on the sustainability of OPEC++-participating countries was assessed using panel regression analysis. The sustainable development level of OPEC++-participating countries was analyzed by the integrated estimation method, focusing on crude oil market functioning features. Undoubtedly, we can testify that there is a direct correlation between the country’s level of socio-economic development and sustainable development. In resource economies, a reduction in oil production and exports cannot have the same effect on sustainable development as in countries that do not produce oil, or are characterized by a higher level of economic development. With an appropriate level of economic diversification and the effectiveness of the institutional framework for managing the oil market, sustainable development can be achieved. Based on the model of the integrated assessment of the sustainable development of oil-exporting countries, the impact of statistically significant financial investors’ panic factor on the imbalance of oil prices due to the uncertainty of economic development was determined. Key indicators that create a panic factor in the oil market were identified. These include the indicators of the number of countries enforcing lockdown and the pandemic’s duration. We argue for the need to develop an effective strategy for achieving the sustainable development goals (SDGs) in OPEC++-participating countries, based on the management of crude oil supply and demand forces and by considering the effect of financial investors’ panic factor on the oil market.