Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Environmental Sciences
imc-precip-iso: Open monthly stable isotope data of precipitation over the Indonesian Maritime Continent
Published: 2023-08-12
Subjects: Climate, Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Fresh Water Studies, Hydrology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Water Resource Management
Stable isotopes, $\delta^2$H, $\delta^{18}$O, and d-excess, are valuable tools as natural tracers of diffusion processes and phase changes in the global hydroclimatological cycle. The Indonesian Maritime Continent (IMC) is an archipelago area surrounded by very warm waters which induce convective activities as the primary heat source driving global atmospheric circulation. Given the central role [...]
M-band discrete wavelet transform–based deep learning algorithm for identifying thermokarst lakes in the QinghaiTibetan Plateau
Published: 2023-08-12
Subjects: Environmental Sciences
Thermokarst lakes serve as key signs of permafrost thaw, and as point sources of CH4 in the present and near future. However, detailed information on the distribution of thermokarst lakes remains sparse across the entire permafrost region on the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau (QTP). In this research, we developed a new discrete wavelet transform (DWT)–based dual-input deep learning (DL) model using a [...]
Can nature-based solutions support economic recovery? A review of reviews on the economic outcomes of NbS
Published: 2023-08-10
Subjects: Environmental Sciences
Nature-based solutions (NbS) involve working with nature to address societal challenges, with benefits for both people and biodiversity. However, their potential role in recovery from economic crises, such as those arising from conflicts or pandemics, remains underexplored. We conducted a systematic review of reviews on the economic impact of nature-based interventions. From 46 relevant reviews, [...]
MEIC-global-CO2: a new global CO2 emission inventory with highly-resolved source category and sub-country information
Published: 2023-08-03
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
CO2 emission inventory provides fundamental data for climate research and emission mitigation. Currently, most global CO2 emission inventories were developed with energy statistics from International Energy Agency (IEA) and were available at country level with limited source categories. Here, as the first step toward a high-resolution and dynamic updated global CO2 emission database, we developed [...]
Plastics in the deep sea – a global estimate of the ocean floor reservoir
Published: 2023-07-22
Subjects: Environmental Sciences, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology
The exponential increase in plastic production coupled with variable global waste management system efficiencies has resulted in large amounts of plastic waste entering the ocean every year. Although we know millions of tonnes of plastic have entered the oceans, we do not yet understand the patterns of its accumulation across space nor the drivers of these patterns. The deep ocean is expected to [...]
Adaptation to climate damages is not inevitable
Published: 2023-07-21
Subjects: Environmental Sciences, Environmental Studies, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Understanding how climate change will affect human welfare must account for how humans will adapt to the changing environment. Adaptations are often local, unobserved, or will only emerge in the future, posing a challenge for attempts to empirically derive climate damage functions and leading to claims that such empirically based functions overestimate the future economic costs of warming. By [...]
Climate Resilience of small-town water utilities in Eastern Ethiopia
Published: 2023-07-15
Subjects: Environmental Sciences
Building a resilient water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) system is more important than ever since climate change threatens WASH, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. The Government of Ethiopia stresses climate-resilient WASH through its One WASH National Program, albeit it may be challenging to ascertain the resilience due to the absence of an easy-to-use monitoring tool. The “How [...]
Nutrient concentrations and nitrogen speciation in tropical watersheds of central Panama
Published: 2023-07-13
Subjects: Environmental Sciences
We present chemical analyses from rivers and streams in five partly to near-fully forested watersheds in the humid tropics of central Panama. Contrary to the situation observed for temperate watersheds in the Northern Hemisphere, the concentration of dissolved inorganic nitrogen in the Panamanian watersheds is low (mostly <2.6 µmol L-1), whereas concentrations of organic nitrogen are several [...]
Earth System Data Cubes: Avenues for advancing Earth system research
Published: 2023-07-11
Subjects: Computer Sciences, Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences
Recent advancements in Earth system science have been marked by the exponential increase in the availability of diverse, multivariate datasets characterised by moderate to high spatio-temporal resolutions. Earth System Data Cubes (ESDCs) have emerged as one suitable solution for transforming this flood of data into a simple yet robust data structure. ESDCs achieve this by organising data into an [...]
Spatio–temporal trends of air quality, Kampala City, Uganda, 2020–2022
Published: 2023-07-05
Subjects: Environmental Sciences
Fine particulate matter (PM2.5) is among the health damaging air pollutants that pose health risks to humans, with levels >15 µg/m3 being associated with adverse health effects. PM2.5 has been recommended as the best measure of air quality. Cities are more prone to poor air quality compared to non–urban areas. We assessed the spatio–temporal trends in air quality in Kampala City during January [...]
Mountains of plastic: Mismanaged plastic waste along the Carpathian watercourses
Published: 2023-07-05
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences
Plastic waste poses numerous risks to mountain river ecosystems due to their high biodiversity and specific physical characteristics. Here, we provide a baseline assessment for future evaluation of such risks in the Carpathians, one of the most biodiverse mountain ranges in East-Central Europe. We used high-resolution river network and mismanaged plastic waste (MPW) databases to map MPW along the [...]
OpenStreetMap for Multi-Faceted Climate Risk Assessments
Published: 2023-06-29
Subjects: Environmental Sciences, Geographic Information Sciences, Risk Analysis
Natural hazards pose significant risks to human lives, infrastructure, and ecosystems, necessitating a comprehensive understanding of climate risks for effective adaptation planning and risk management. However, climate risk assessments mostly focus on economic asset values and infrastructures such as roads and buildings, because publicly available data on more diverse exposures are scarce. The [...]
Global protection from tropical cyclones by coastal ecosystems - past, present, and under climate change
Published: 2023-06-27
Subjects: Environmental Sciences, Nature and Society Relations, Risk Analysis
Coastal ecosystems have the potential to contribute to disaster risk reduction and adaptation to climate change. While previous studies have estimated the value of current coastal ecosystems for reducing coastal risk, there have been relatively few studies that look at changes in ecosystem service provision, in the past and under climate change. We employ the probabilistic, event-based CLIMADA [...]
Decoding the Dynamics of Climate Change Impact: Temporal Patterns of Surface Warming and Melting on the Nivlisen Ice Shelf, Dronning Maud Land, East Antarctica
Published: 2023-06-23
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences
Surface melting in Antarctica can result in the formation of meltwater ponds and streams, which can encourage glacier basal sliding and ice flow; long-term severe surface melting can result in the formation of melt ponds and, eventually, supraglacial lakes (SGLs), raising the prospect of hydrofracturing. Measurements of these surface melting characteristics are useful for studying glacier and ice [...]
GIS-Based Modelling of Soil Erosion Risk categories County Antrim, Northern Ireland
Published: 2023-06-08
Subjects: Environmental Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Soil erosion is one of the major global concerns. Such a process can occur naturally, at different rates. However, under extreme conditions, soil erosion can accelerate and present a risk to ecosystems, loss of food supply (loss of agricultural lands), and lead to episodic landslides. The present study employs Geographic Information Systems and functions to predict possible risks connected to [...]