European countries have defined >1000 national river types and >400 national lake types to implement the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD). In addition, common river and lake types have been defined ...within regions of Europe for intercalibrating the national classification systems for ecological status of water bodies. However, only a low proportion of national types correspond to these common intercalibration types. This causes uncertainty concerning whether the classification of ecological status is consistent across countries. Therefore, through an extensive dialogue with and data provision from all EU countries, we have developed a generic typology for European rivers and lakes. This new broad typology reflects the natural variability in the most commonly used environmental type descriptors: altitude, size and geology, as well as mean depth for lakes. These broad types capture 60–70% of all national WFD types including almost 80% of all European river and lake water bodies in almost all EU countries and can also be linked to all the common intercalibration types. The typology provides a new framework for large-scale assessments across country borders, as demonstrated with an assessment of ecological status and pressures based on European data from the 2nd set of river basin management plans. The typology can also be used for a variety of other large-scale assessments, such as reviewing and linking the water body types to habitat types under the Habitats Directive and the European Nature Information System (EUNIS), as well as comparing type-specific limit values for nutrients and other supporting quality elements across countries. Thus, the broad typology can build the basis for all scientific outputs of managerial relevance related to water body types.
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•A large number of national types prevent cross country comparison of rivers and lakes.•Data on type descriptors was compiled to allow similarity analysis of national types.•Clusters of similar national types provided 20 broad river types and 15 broad lake types.•The ecological status is best in highland types and worst in lowland calcareous types.•Broad types facilitate nutrient targets comparison and revision of EUNIS freshwater habitats.
•Solution-Oriented Global Environmental Assessments require legitimacy in order to be effective.•Legitimacy is a social concept, accorded by states to international science panels.•Legitimacy ...criteria rest on inputs, processes, and outcomes.•Most criteria are satisfied for Solution Oriented Global Environmental Assessments, but several conflicts will occur regarding participation on such panels and the means of deliberation.
The effectiveness and influence of solutions oriented global environmental assessments (SOAs) rests on their legitimacy. Based on the GEA literature this piece reviews the legitimacy of GEAs and discusses its implications, and challenges and for the legitimacy of SOAs. This article is part of a special issue on solution-oriented GEAs.
Solar photovoltaic thermal (PV/T) with phase change material (PCM) technology is one of the incentive research areas in renewable energy application aspect, which attracts increasingly attention in ...the globalized market to tackle climate change. The PV/T tube configuration and working fluid are investigated in this study to enable this technology become a superior candidate in energy systems, various interior tubes (such as micro-channel tube, winglets tape tube, wave tape tube, twisted tap tube, conical leaf tube and adding metal fins) and novel PCMs (including composite PCM, nano-PCM and their combination) are reviewed. The thermal regulation strategies, optimization methods and advanced nocturnal radiative cooling systems are inspected as well. Moreover, the PV/T system exergy, economic and environmental assessments are conducted. Furthermore, the perspectives, suggestions and future developments of the PV/T system with PCM module are explored to conquer the challenges and obstacles for the practical application. It is concluded that electrical efficiency of the PV/T system with PCM module could be increased about 3–5%, whereas the system thermal efficiency is improved around 20–30%, and the system cost could be reduced in the range of 15–20% resulting in less 6-year of payback period compared with those of the conventional PV/T system.
•Energy, exergy economic, and environmental assessments of PV/T system with PCM are summarized.•Electrical efficiency of the PV/T system with PCM could be increased by about 3–5%.•Thermal efficiency of the PV/T system with PCM could be improved by around 20–30%.•The system cost could be reduced in the range of 15–20%.•The system payback period is less than 6 years.
•Exponential publication growth threatens IPCC meeting its own mandate.•Conducting climate change assessments has become a big literature challenge.•Big data tools are required for conducting IPCC ...assessments.•Organization of social science research hinders knowledge accumulation on solutions.•Systematic review practices must be firmly established in IPCC and social sciences.
There has been much debate about the assessment process of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Yet two of the most fundamental challenges that directly threaten the ability of the IPCC to fulfill its mandate have been largely neglected so far. Firstly, the magnitude and rapid expansion of the climate change literature makes it increasingly impossible for the IPCC to conduct comprehensive and transparent assessments without major innovations in assessment practices and tools. Secondly, the structure, organization and scientific practices across the social sciences and humanities prohibit systematic learning on climate change solutions and increasingly limit the policy-relevance of IPCC assessments. We highlight the need for responses along three avenues to prepare the IPCC for continued success in the future: 1) IPCC assessments must make better use of big-data methods and available computational power to assess the growing body of literature and ensure comprehensiveness; 2) systematic review practices need to be enshrined into IPCC procedures to ensure adequate focus and transparency in its assessments; 3) a synthetic research culture needs to be established in the social sciences and humanities in order to foster knowledge accumulation and learning on climate solutions in the future. As policymakers become more interested in understanding solutions, the future prospects of global environmental assessment enterprises will depend heavily on a successful transformation within the social sciences and humanities towards systematic knowledge generation. This article is part of a special issue on solution-oriented Global Environmental Assessments.
This study assessed the ecological health of waters within the Saudi Arabian Exclusive Economic Zone, by utilizing benthic biotic indices with a marine monitoring dataset covering the years 2013 to ...2018. This comprehensive evaluation covered a vast expanse, encompassing 67 distinctive sampling locations characterized by a wide range of depth and salinity gradients. The study examined spatial fluctuations in the benthic community and assessed potential correlations with environmental variables, including salinity, depth, sediment texture, total organic carbon, and other relevant factors. The macrobenthic density varied across the study sites, with an average density of 566 ± 120 ind.m−2. The Shannon diversity index ranged from 3.21 and 5.90, with an average of 4.70 ± 0.52. Based on the average AMBI values, all the locations were categorized as either slightly disturbed or undisturbed. Additionally, the M-AMBI analysis indicated that 95.5 % sites were in good or high ecological status.
•Studied 67 locations in the Arabian Gulf from 2013 to 2018, varying in depth and salinity, to assess benthic community changes.•Average macrobenthic density in the Arabian Gulf from 2013 to 2018 was 566 ± 120 ind.m², with a Shannon index of 4.70 ± 0.52.•AMBI values suggest slight disturbance or undisturbed conditions observed during the study period from 2013 to 2018.•M-AMBI analysis shows 95.5% of sites in the study areas are in good or high ecological status based on data from 2013 to 2018.•Continuous benthic monitoring is crucial due to the 'Shifting Baseline' trend, ensuring effective ecosystem management.
After decades of inadequate responses to scientists' warnings about global environmental threats, leading analysts of the science-policy interface are seeking an important shift of research focus. ...This switch is from continued modeling and diagnoses of biogeochemical conditions in favor of enhanced efforts to understand the many socio-political obstacles to achieving just transformations towards sustainability, and how to overcome them. We discuss why this shift continues to prove elusive. We argue that rarely analyzed mutually reinforcing power structures, interests, needs, and norms within the institutions of global environmental change science obstruct rethinking and reform. The blockage created by these countervailing forces are shielded from scrutiny and change through retreats behind shields of neutrality and objectivity, stoked and legitimated by fears of losing scientific authority. These responses are maladaptive, however, since transparency and reflexivity are essential for rethinking and reform, even in contexts marked by anti-environmentalism. We therefore urge greater openness, self-critique, and power-sharing across research communities, to create spaces and support for conversations, diverse knowledges, and decisions conducive to sustainability transformations.
This article discusses the Piikani Nation's attempts to challenge the Oldman River Dam, as this struggle highlights the challenges Indigenous communities can face in attempting to articulate water ...and land relationships through the languages and structures of settler colonial law. Completed in 1991, the dam faced multiple forms of opposition by Piikani members, including lawsuits and an attempt by community activists representing the Lonefighters Society to divert the river around an existing irrigation weir. For this article, I focus on how Piikani Nation members attempted to assert their geographic relationships with the Oldman River through participation in the Canadian Environmental Assessment Review process. Within this process, Piikani elders, activists, and community advocates mobilized various conceptions of law, such as treaty rights and Piikani and Blackfoot legal traditions. This article therefore seeks to answer this question: How do Indigenous forms of jurisdiction articulate with Canadian legal and regulatory fora, such as the Environmental Assessment Review process? To answer these questions, I draw from both critical political economy and Indigenous geographies, as I argue that in struggles against the capitalist reterritorialization of Indigenous places, it is through the assertions of competing legal jurisdictions that these struggles tend to find their most profound expression. Specifically, I use the concept of articulation from Marxian political economy, suggesting this theory, in conversation with legal pluralism scholarship, provides a generative framework for critically interrogating how Indigenous legal orders interact with Canadian law.
Purpose
Many environmental assessments of consumer products and household services rely on self-reported data. Life cycle assessments of domestic laundering are no exception. However, potential ...discrepancies between self-reported behaviour and actual everyday decisions are seldom investigated due to practical challenges in collecting relevant data. This means that environmental impacts relying on such self-reported data are much more uncertain than previously acknowledged.
Method
Laundering data was collected at the Chalmers’ HSB Living lab (CHSBLL), a combined multi-family house and research facility in Gothenburg. The collection was both done passively (through the washing machines) as well as actively (through surveys to the tenants). RFID-readers were also installed in the machines and a number of clothing items tagged, allowing for identification. The site-specific data was later supplemented with a large statistical representative study for domestic laundering of Swedish households. This unique data quality allowed the comparison of passively collected data with survey data from tenants in a real-life setup, while validating the results from a national perspective.
Result and conclusions
The results suggest that consumers have trouble remembering personal choices regarding domestic laundering, meaning that self-reported data are more uncertain than previously thought. In general, the participants overestimated the amount of laundry they washed and underestimated their frequency of washing. Additionally, many participants showed an interest in changing to alternative wash programs although this change failed to materialize when they were presented with this option in real-life. The findings have potential consequences for environmental assessments and implicate those previous estimations underestimate emissions per kg laundry washed.
External review is a fundamental component of Global Environmental Assessments, ensuring their processes are comprehensive, objective, open and transparent, and are perceived as such. Here, we focus ...on review of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Assessment Reports. The review process has received little scrutiny, although review comments and author responses are public. Here we analyse review documents from the Fourth and Fifth Assessments, focusing primarily on Working Group II. We address three questions: Is the review representative? Is it comprehensive? Is it insightful? Overall we found the review process to be fit for purpose, although there are outstanding issues. First, the overwhelming majority of reviewers are from developed countries, although evidence suggests participation by developing country reviewers increased between the Fourth and Fifth Assessments. Second, earlier sections of chapters are more densely reviewed than later ones. This is true even when executive summaries are removed from analysis. In consequence, some sections on specialised topics may escape in-depth review. Thirdly, those review comments which are received make a valid and valuable contribution to the scientific development of chapters. We suggest how outstanding issues could be addressed, including through enhanced reviewer recognition, a wider role for review editors, adherence to mandated page lengths from early in the process, reviewer training, and consistency in reporting to allow systematic evaluation. Making such changes will result in more transparent, consistent and representative processes delivering reviews which effectively contribute to the credibility and legitimacy of future Global Environmental Assessments and, ultimately, their recognition and contribution.
•Effective transparent review is essential to the reputation and relevance of IPCC reports.•IPCC reports reviewers are overwhelmingly from a small number of developed countries.•Some sections of IPCC chapters do not receive adequate attention from reviewers.•Submitted comments make a valid and valuable contribution to scientific development.•Proposed changes include enhanced reviewer recruitment, training and recognition.
Biochar is a by-product of thermochemical conversion of biomass or other carbonaceous materials. Recently, it has garnered extensive attention for its high application potential in microbial fuel ...cell (MFC) systems owing to its high conductivity and low cost. However, the effects of biochar on MFC system performance have not been comprehensively reviewed, thereby necessitating the evaluation of the efficacy of biochar application in MFCs. In this review, biochar characteristics were outlined based on recent publications. Subsequently, various applications of biochar in the MFC systems and their probable processes were summarized. Finally, proposals for future applications of biochar in MFCs were explored along with its perspectives and an environmental evaluation in the context of a circular economy. The purpose of this review is to gain comprehensive insights into the application of biochar in the MFC systems, offering important viewpoints on the effective and steady utilization of biochar in MFCs for practical application.
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