Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Social and Behavioral Sciences
Governing high-integrity ecosystem markets
Published: 2023-04-07
Subjects: Social and Behavioral Sciences
There is growing global interest in the potential for ecosystem markets to facilitate climate and nature recovery. Yet, poorly designed and operated markets are prone to corporate “greenwashing” and negative consequences for nature and local communities. With the rapid emergence of ecosystem markets around the world, there is a need to systematically analyse ecosystem market governance [...]
Has Tropical Cyclone Disaster Risk Increased in Bangladesh: Retrospective Analysis of Storm Information, Disaster Statistics, and Mitigation Measures
Published: 2023-03-31
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Risk Analysis, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Tropical cyclone (TC) disaster risk has likely increased in Bangladesh since the beginning of the 21st century. It is primarily due to the cumulative impact of rising coastal exposures such as population, insufficient funding to address disaster risks, and ineffective utilization of century-old early warning signals for TC. From 2000 to 2020, the average number of people affected by a Category [...]
Understanding and Assessing Demographic (In)Equity Resulting from Extreme Heat Exposure due to Lack of Tree Canopies in Norfolk, VA using Agent-Based Modeling
Published: 2023-03-31
Subjects: Biodiversity, Environmental Public Health, Environmental Studies, Human Geography, Public Health, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Statistics and Probability
Prolonged exposure to extreme heat can result in illness and death. In urban areas of dense concentrations of pavement, buildings, and other surfaces that absorb and retain heat, extreme heat conditions can arise regularly and create harmful environmental exposures for residents daily during certain parts of the year. Tree canopies provide shade and help to cool the environment, making mature [...]
A scoping review of seismic risk communication in Europe
Published: 2023-03-15
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Although earthquakes are a threat in many countries and considerable resources have been invested in safety regulations, communities at risk often lack awareness and preparedness. Risk communication is a key tool for building resilient communities, raising awareness, and increasing preparedness. Over the past 2 decades, seismic risk communication has evolved significantly. This has led to a [...]
Aquifer depletion exacerbates agricultural drought losses in the US High Plains
Published: 2023-03-10
Subjects: Environmental Studies, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Aquifer depletion poses a major threat to the ability of farmers, food supply chains, and rural economies globally to use groundwater as a means of adapting to climate variability and change. Empirical research has demonstrated the large differences in drought risk exposure that exist between rainfed and irrigated croplands, but previous work commonly assumes water supply for the latter is [...]
Did hydroclimate conditions contribute to the political dynamics of Majapahit? A preliminary analysis
Published: 2023-02-21
Subjects: Atmospheric Sciences, Climate, Earth Sciences, Environmental Studies, Geography, Human Geography, Nature and Society Relations, Physical and Environmental Geography, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Majapahit was the largest Hindu-Buddhist empire that ruled the Indonesian archipelago from the late 13th to mid-16th centuries CE. Only now there is still a lot of history surrounding the Majapahit era that has yet to be revealed. One is about how environmental factors influenced the political dynamics at that time. This study tries to discuss the influence of hydroclimate regimes using the Paleo [...]
THE DYNAMICS OF SUSTAINABILITY TRANSITIONS: AN ARCHETYPE FOR TRANSFORMATION
Published: 2023-02-05
Subjects: Engineering, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Significant global sustainability challenges include among others, energy, climate, and sanitation. Previous Sustainability Transition research has attempted to understand transformation complexity and interdependence, primarily through single-case methodological studies or large-scale analytical frameworks such as the Multi-Level Perspective. This leaves a knowledge gap on common dynamics [...]
Drought impacts on the electricity system, emissions, and air quality in the western US
Published: 2023-01-10
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Social and Behavioral Sciences
The western United States has experienced severe drought in recent decades, and climate models project increased drought risk in the future. This increased drying could have important implications for the region's interconnected, hydropower-dependent electricity systems. Using power-plant level generation and emissions data from 2001-2021, we quantify the impacts of drought on the operation of [...]
Oracle bone script records explain the impact of climate extremes in ancient China
Published: 2023-01-06
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Extreme climatic and weather events have raised increasing concerns in the context of climate change for causing severe disasters worldwide. As for ancient civilizations, however, possible causes of extreme events and their corresponding cultural responses have remained unclear. By quantitatively analyzing the weather information in ~55000 oracle bone script pieces, we constructed three ~200-year [...]
Who are the hyper prolific authors in environmental sciences?
Published: 2023-01-01
Subjects: Environmental Studies, Library and Information Science, Research Methods in Life Sciences, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Hyper prolific scientists are individuals who produce an exceptionally large number of scientific papers, often at a rate that is much higher than their peers. While productivity is generally a positive attribute in the scientific community, hyper prolific scientists may raise concerns about the quality and impact of their research. It is important to carefully evaluate the work of hyper prolific [...]
Reconciling farmers’ expectations with the demands of the emerging UK agricultural soil carbon market
Published: 2022-12-13
Subjects: Social and Behavioral Sciences
This paper explores farmers’ and land managers’ perceptions of the emerging agricultural soil carbon market in the UK and examines their willingness to adopt soil health management practices to enhance and/or maintain soil carbon stocks and enthusiasm for and interest in participation in soil carbon sequestration schemes. Data were collected through online questionnaires administered to 100 [...]
Systemic Vulnerabilities in Hispanic and Latinx Immigrant Communities Led to the Reliance on an Informal Warning System in the December 10–11, 2021 Tornado Outbreak
Published: 2022-12-09
Subjects: Environmental Sciences, Environmental Studies, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Social and Behavioral Sciences
On December 10–11, 2021, the deadliest December tornado outbreak on record produced a family of EF4 tornadoes that severely impacted communities in Arkansas, Kentucky, Missouri, and Tennessee. Although the National Weather Service anticipated the outbreak three days earlier, not all communities received life-saving information before, during, or after the disaster. To examine systemic [...]
Persistent effect of El Niño on global economic growth
Published: 2022-12-01
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Social and Behavioral Sciences
El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) shapes extreme weather globally, causing myriad socioeconomic impacts, but whether economies recover from ENSO events and how anthropogenic changes to ENSO will affect the global economy are unknown. Here we show that El Niño persistently reduces country-level economic growth, attributing $4.1T and $5.7T in global income losses to the 1982-83 and 1997-98 [...]
A systematic review of the state of knowledge on environment and the Belt and Road Initiative
Published: 2022-11-21
Subjects: Social and Behavioral Sciences
The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is a China-led global initiative that was officially launched in 2013. The wealth of research available on the BRI has been subject to few comprehensive reviews to date, reviews including both English and Chinese language research are even rarer still. In addition, many of the projects associated with the BRI involve infrastructure development, power generation [...]
Drivers of fire regimes in the Brazilian Amazon from 2011-2020
Published: 2022-10-18
Subjects: Environmental Studies, Forest Sciences, Life Sciences, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Over the last decade, carbon emissions due to forest degradation in the Brazilian Amazon, linked mainly to logging and wildfires, became larger than carbon emissions due to deforestation. Climatic and ecological processes affect the landscape’s flammability, while socio-economic processes influence the use of fire for deforestation and agricultural land management. However, a comprehensive [...]