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The steady increase of geothermal systems using groundwater is compromising the renewability of the geothermal resources in shallow urban aquifers. To ensure sustainability, scientifically-based criteria are required to prevent potential thermal interferences between geothermal systems. In this work, a management indicator (balanced sustainability index, BSI) applicable to groundwater heat pump systems is defined to assign a quantitative value of sustainability to each system, based on their intrinsic potential to produce thermal interference. The BSI indicator relies on the net heat balance transferred to the terrain throughout the year and the maximum seasonal thermal load associated. To define this indicator, 75 heating-cooling scenarios based in 23 real systems were established to cover all possible different operational conditions. The scenarios were simulated in a standard numerical model, adopted as a reference framework, and thermal impacts were evaluated. Two polynomial regression models were used for the interpolation of thermal impacts, thus allowing the direct calculation of the sustainability indicator developed as a function of heating-cooling ratios and maximum seasonal thermal loads. The BSI indicator could provide authorities and technicians with scientifically-based criteria to establish geothermal monitoring programs, which are critical to maintain the implementation rates and renewability of these systems in the cities. © 2018 Elsevier Ltd This work was performed by the Geological Survey of Spain (IGME) under the Cooperation Agreement framework between IGME and the Ebro Hydrographic Confederation (CHE) for the specific arrangement entitled “The application of a groundwater flow and heat transport numerical model for the simulation of management strategies of geothermal installations in the city of Zaragoza”. Alejandro García-Gil gratefully acknowledges MIKE by DHI for the sponsored FEFLOW license. Peer reviewed

Correction to: Scientific Reports https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-29701-x, published online 14 February 2023 The Supplementary Information published with this Article contained an error. In “Appendix C”, Figures C1 and C2, the label of the Y-axis “Concentration (ng/L)” was incorrectly given as “Concentration mg/l”. Peer reviewed

The European small ruminants (i.e. sheep and goats) farming sector (ESRS) provides economic, social and environmental benefits to society, but is also one of the most vulnerable livestock sectors in Europe. This sector has diverse livestock species, breeds, production systems and products, which makes difficult to have a clear vision of its challenges through using conventional analyses. A multi-stakeholder and multi-step approach, including 90 surveys, was used to identify and assess the main challenges for the sustainability of the ESRS to prioritize actions. These challenges and actions were identified by ESRS experts including farmers, cooperatives, breeding associations, advisers and researchers of six EU countries and Turkey. From the 30 identified challenges, the most relevant were economy-related challenges such as 'uncertainty of meat and milk prices', 'volatility of commodity prices', 'low farm income', 'high subsidy dependency' and 'uncertainty in future changes in subsidies' resulting in 'a sector not attractive to young farmers'. Most of these challenges were beyond the farmer's control and perceived as difficult to address. Challenges were prioritized using an index, calculated by multiplying the relevance and the feasibility to address measures. The identified challenges had a similar priority index across the whole sector with small differences across livestock species (sheep vs goats), type of products (meat vs dairy) and intensification levels (intensive vs semi-intensive vs extensive). The priorities were different, however, between socio-geographical regions (Southern vs Central Europe). Some of the top prioritized challenges were linked to aspects related to the production systems ('low promotion of local breeds' and 'slow adaptability of high producing breeds') and market practices ('unfair trade/lack of traceability'). The majority of the priority challenges, however, were associated with a deficient knowledge or training at farm level ('poor business management training', 'lack of professionalization', 'slow adoption of innovations'), academia ('researchers do not address real problems') and society as a whole ('low consumer education in local products', 'low social knowledge about farming', 'poor recognition of farming public services'). Thus, improved collaboration among the different stakeholders across the food chain with special implication of farmers, associations of producers, academia and governments is needed to facilitate knowledge exchange and capacity building. These actions can contribute to make ESRS economically more sustainable and to adapt the production systems and policy to the current and future societal needs in a more region-contextualized framework.

Over the past decade, long-term socio-ecological research (LTSER) has been established to better integrate social science research and societal concerns into the goals and objectives of the International Long-Term Ecological Research (ILTER) network, an established global network of long-term ecologicalmonitoring sites. TheHorizon 2020 eLTER project, currently underway, includes as one of its key objectives to evaluate the performance of LTSER platforms.This article reflects part of this evaluation: six LTSER platformswere assessed through site visits of the lead author, coupledwith reflections and insights of the platform managers, whoare also co-authors.We provide background for the mission and goals of LTSER, then assess the six international LTSERplatforms—Baltimore Ecosystem Study LTER, USA; Braila Island LTSER, Romania; Cairngorms LTSER, UK;Doñana LTSER, Spain;OmoraEthnobotanical Park CapeHorn LTER,Chile; and Sierra Nevada LTSER, Spain. While based on a strong theoretical foundation in socio-ecological research, there has been a steep learning curve for scientists applying the concept in practice at LTSERplatforms.We show positive impacts that have been achieved, including contributions to policy, land-use planning, and natural resourcemanagement.Weexplain key aspects of LTSERplatforms that have proven challenging, includingmanagement, interdisciplinary integration, and stakeholder collaboration.Wecharacterize the tensions between top-down desires for network harmonization, bottom-up demands such as local policy relevance, and platform-level constraints such as time and budget. Finally,we discuss challenges, such as local context dominating the character of LTSERplatforms, and the fact that scientists are often disincentivized from engaging in transdisciplinary science. Overall, we conclude that while the internationalnetwork offers important advantages to itsmembers, a more productive balance between local and global goals could be achieved, and membersmay need to temper their expectations of what the network can and cannot offer at the local level. Peer reviewed

<p><span lang="EN-US">Reactive atmospheric halogens destroy tropospheric ozone (O<sub>3</sub>), an air pollutant and greenhouse gas. The primary source of natural halogens is emissions from marine phytoplankton and algae, as well as abiotic sources from ocean and tropospheric chemistry, but how their fluxes will change under climate warming –and the resulting impacts on O<sub>3</sub>– are not well known. Here we use an Earth system model to estimate that natural halogens deplete approximately 13 % of tropospheric O<sub>3</sub> in the present-day climate. Despite increased levels of natural halogens through the twenty-first century, this fraction remains stable due to compensation from hemispheric, regional, and vertical heterogeneity in tropospheric O<sub>3</sub>loss. Notably, this halogen-driven O<sub>3</sub> buffering is projected to be greatest over polluted and populated regions, mainly due to iodine chemistry, with important implications for air quality.</span></p>

En climas cálidos húmedos como es el caso de grandes regiones de Venezuela, las envolventes deben reducir la influencia de la radiación solar y, por lo tanto, deben recibir atención especial. Venezuela es también el país con más alto consumo energético per capita en Iberoamérica, generado en su mayor parte por el uso de sistemas de aire acondicionado en las edificaciones residenciales. En Maracaibo y en los alrededores del Lago de Maracaibo se registran los valores más altos de temperatura y humedad en Venezuela, lo que incrementa, aún más, el consumo energético de las viviendas de estas regiones. La minimización del impacto de la radiación solar para lograr la reducción del consumo energético con un mayor bienestar térmico ha sido precisamente uno de los objetivos perseguidos con el desarrollo de una nueva vivienda bioclimática para la región del lago de Maracaibo. Esta incorpora principios de las tres viviendas bioclimáticas previas existentes en esa región: el palafito o vivienda tradicional indígena, la vivienda colonial republicana y la vivienda petrolera. Es por ello que esta vivienda ha sido llamada la Cuarta Vivienda.