Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Environmental Health and Protection
Quantifying causal effects of green–blue–gray landscape change on urban thermal outcomes: A spatiotemporal causal machine learning analysis across city scales
Published: 2026-08-03
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Health and Protection, Environmental Sciences, Sustainability
Optimizing urban green–blue–gray (UGBG) landscapes has become increasingly important for mitigating surface urban heat island (SUHI) intensity under rapid urbanization. However, the causal effects of landscape pattern changes on SUHI remain poorly quantified, particularly regarding their heterogeneity among spatial configuration, urban scales, and temporal periods. This knowledge gap limits the [...]
Competing Health Impacts of Smoke from Wildfires, Agricultural Burning, and Prescribed Fires in California
Published: 2026-07-30
Subjects: Environmental Health and Protection, Environmental Public Health, Environmental Sciences
Wildfire smoke is a dominant threat to air quality and public health in North America, but smoke from other fire sources can also affect health during wildfire seasons. In California, smoke from agricultural burning and prescribed fire co-occurs with wildfire smoke, yet the competing health impacts of these sources remain poorly quantified. To investigate these differential impacts, we estimate [...]
Beyond the elite athlete: coupled climate-related health burdens in trail ultramarathon running
Published: 2026-07-22
Subjects: Biodiversity, Environmental Health and Protection, Environmental Public Health, Other Life Sciences
Climate change is simultaneously threatening the physical safety and psychological wellbeing of people who recreate outdoors, and degrading the ecological integrity of the natural environments in which they do so. Understanding who bears the greatest burden, which benefits are lost, and how adaptation strategies may shift rather than resolve risk is one of the defining challenges of planetary [...]
Characterization of Microplastics in Wastewater Treatment Plants and Filtration Using a Sand-Char Model
Published: 2026-05-22
Subjects: Environmental Health and Protection
The current study focused on detecting and removing microplastics (MPs) from wastewater using a low-cost filter. Microplastics are very small plastic pieces that pollute water and can harm both animals and people. For this study, water samples were collected from three treatment plants in Srinagar: Hariparbat STP, Laam STP, and Nishat WTP. The presence of microplastics was studied under stereo [...]
Simulation of Groundwater Flow To Evaluate Hydrogeologic Controls on a PFAS Plume, Coakley Landfill Superfund Site, Rockingham County, New Hampshire
Published: 2026-04-09
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Health and Protection, Environmental Sciences, Geology, Hydrology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Water Resource Management
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), including perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS), have been detected at combined concentrations above 2,000 nanograms per liter (ng/L) at groundwater seep locations near the Coakley Landfill Superfund site, in North Hampton, New Hampshire. The landfill was active from 1972 to 1985. An impermeable cap was placed on the [...]
High-resolution agent-based modelling of non-exhaust emissions reveals the limits of urban fleet electrification
Published: 2026-02-26
Subjects: Environmental Health and Protection
As exhaust emissions decline, non-exhaust emissions (NEEs) from brake and tyre wear are emerging as the dominant source of traffic-related particulate matter. This transition is complicated by the increasing mass of electric vehicles and the push toward high-capacity public transport. We introduce a high-resolution, moving-observer agent-based model calibrated against hyperlocal Google Air View [...]
The Impact of Climate Change on Human Health and Pharmaceuticals
Published: 2026-02-16
Subjects: Environmental Health and Protection, Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Public Health, Environmental Sciences, Medical Sciences, Medicine and Health Sciences, Pharmacology, Toxicology and Environmental Health, Public Health, Sustainability, Toxicology
Climate change and air pollution affect nearly every major organ system, altering both the presentation of disease and patient responses to pharmaceutical treatments. However, existing knowledge on how patients, healthcare professionals, and governments should prepare for these challenges is fragmented. Climate change contributes to premature mortality, increased morbidity, and exacerbation of [...]
Hybrid Physics–AI Ecosystem Simulations Improve Biogeochemical Predictions in Temperate Shelf Seas
Published: 2026-02-03
Subjects: Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, Biochemistry, Biogeochemistry, Environmental Health and Protection, Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment, Environmental Monitoring, Marine Biology, Numerical Analysis and Scientific Computing, Oceanography, Planetary Biogeochemistry, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Biogeochemical models form a core part of marine forecasting and climate projections, yet they suffer from persistent biases in predicting key ecosystem variables, creating challenges across regional and global scales. To address this, we developed an AI-augmented three-dimensional hybrid framework that integrates machine-learning corrections directly into a process-based model’s productivity [...]
Facilitating AI-Driven Sustainability: A Service-Oriented Ar-chitecture for Interoperable Environmental Data Access
Published: 2026-01-12
Subjects: Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, Environmental Health and Protection, Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment, Environmental Monitoring, Meteorology, Software Engineering, Sustainability
Advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI), particularly agentic AI, have created opportunities to enhance global sustainability by improving the efficiency and accuracy of environmental monitoring and response systems. Agentic AIs autonomously plan and execute towards specific goals with minimal or no human intervention; however, accessing environmental data is challenging and requires expertise, [...]
Assessing the riverine flood forecast skill of GloFAS and Google Flood Hub with impact data and discharge observations to support early actions in Mali
Published: 2026-01-07
Subjects: Environmental Health and Protection, Water Resource Management
Riverine floods are among the most destructive and frequent natural hazards in Mali. To reduce their impacts, the Mali Red Cross implemented an Early Action Protocol (EAP) to enable anticipatory actions through pre-defined triggers and forecast information. Currently, the protocol relies on upstream water levels from the National Directorate of Hydraulics (DNH) to predict downstream flooding. [...]
Coral reef commitments are largely absent from national biodiversity and climate frameworks
Published: 2025-11-21
Subjects: Biodiversity, Climate, Environmental Health and Protection, Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Marine Biology, Natural Resource Economics, Natural Resources and Conservation, Natural Resources Management and Policy, Oceanography, Other Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Sustainability
Global agreements under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) call for integrated action on biodiversity loss and climate change. Yet national implementation remains poorly understood, even for ecosystems highly vulnerable to warming, such as tropical coral reefs. Bleaching-level heat stress has affected over 85% of global reefs [...]
Nature’s role in national security
Published: 2025-10-31
Subjects: Aquaculture and Fisheries Life Sciences, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Health and Protection, Environmental Studies, Marine Biology, Natural Resources and Conservation, Natural Resources Management and Policy
The ability of a nation to protect its citizens, institutions, and interests from domestic and foreign threats is one of the foundational responsibilities of any government. However, the ability of sovereign nations to ensure national security for their citizens and institutions has been increasingly challenged by various forms of anthropogenic global change. While the link between climate change [...]
Mitigation of Ultraviolet Solar Radiation Involving Calcite (MUSIC)
Published: 2025-10-15
Subjects: Climate, Environmental Engineering, Environmental Health and Protection
This investigation explores the use of calcite (CaCO3) powder, the most common and radiation- resistant form of calcium carbonate, as an environmentally friendly mechanism for solar radiation management by measuring its ability to deflect ultraviolet radiation from the sun. The experiment took place on a high-altitude balloon (HAB) payload. Three sets of laminated calcite sheets with varying [...]
Machine learning approaches to Landsat change detection analysis
Published: 2025-10-14
Subjects: Environmental Health and Protection, Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Natural Resources and Conservation, Natural Resources Management and Policy, Other Environmental Sciences, Sustainability
The Landsat mission has captured images of the Earth’s surface for over 50 years, and the data have enabled researchers to investigate a vast array of different change phenomena using machine learning models. Landsat-based monitoring research has been influential in geography, forestry, hydrology, ecology, agriculture, geology, and public health. When monitoring Earth's surface change using [...]
Governing transboundary river barriers: adaptive management challenges in South and Southeast Asia
Published: 2025-08-30
Subjects: Environmental Health and Protection, Environmental Monitoring, Hydrology, Sustainability, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology, Water Resource Management