Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Environmental Studies
What triggers individual climate actions in different neighbourhoods? Individual, collective, cultural, and socio-structural factors
Published: 2024-04-25
Subjects: Environmental Studies
This paper takes a multi-perspective approach to understand drivers and barriers of climate action on the neighbourhood level in a selection of European neighbourhoods. The starting point for the analysis is the assumption that actions on the level of citizens to protect the climate are most motivating and promising, when conducted jointly within established social systems like neighbourhoods. [...]
Personal Values Inform Student Preference for Household Toilet Systems That Use Human ‘Waste’ as a Natural Resource
Published: 2024-04-24
Subjects: Environmental Studies
This study contributes to understanding pro-environmental behavior in toilet system adoption by examining the core values that inform decision-making processes. Undergraduates participated in an educational module on conventional and alternative wastewater systems, followed by composing essays envisioning their ideal toilet system for a future home. Qualitative analysis of responses established a [...]
Innovative Approaches to Bushfire Management and Recovery
Published: 2024-04-20
Subjects: Engineering, Environmental Studies, Social and Behavioral Sciences
In recent years, Australia has faced severe bushfires that have highlighted the need for innovative management and recovery strategies. The catastrophic 2019–2020 bushfire season, one of the most devastating on record, burned over 10.7 million hectares, destroyed approximately 3,000 homes, and resulted in the loss of at least 28 lives and over 500 million wildlife casualties. These events [...]
An agent-based modeling approach to household adaptation for flooding and coastal erosion at Channel-Port aux Basque
Published: 2024-04-18
Subjects: Environmental Studies
Climate change poses a significant threat to coastal communities, particularly those reliant on coastal infrastructure. Rising sea levels and increasingly severe weather events endanger coastlines across Canada, a nation with over 243,000 km of coastline. Indigenous communities, with their long history of coastal resource utilization, are especially vulnerable. This study investigates the social, [...]
Improved daily PM2.5 estimates in India reveal inequalities in recent enhancement of air quality
Published: 2024-04-01
Subjects: Environmental Studies
Poor ambient air quality represents a substantial threat to public health globally. However, accurate measurement of air quality remains challenging in many parts of the world, including in populous countries like India, where ground monitors are scarce yet exposure and health burdens are expected to be high. This lack of precise measurement impedes understanding of how pollution exposure changes [...]
Relational representation: speaking with and not about Nature
Published: 2024-03-21
Subjects: Environmental Studies
The transnational movement to recognise the rights of Nature continues to fuel experimentation by a growing number of jurisdictions in legal form, content, powers, and governance arrangements. In this paper, we focus on the mechanisms through which Nature is represented in various ways. There is enormous diversity in representational arrangements, but there is no clarity on precisely who should [...]
The Virtual Water Gallery: Art as a catalyst for transforming knowledge and behaviour in water and climate
Published: 2024-03-12
Subjects: Environmental Studies
Water is life. Water-related challenges, such as droughts, floods, water quality degradation, permafrost thaw and glacier melt, exacerbated by climate change, affect everyone. It is challenging, yet of critical importance, to communicate science on such difficult highly volatile topics. Art is a more approachable medium to traditional scientific outlets that has the potential to diversify voices [...]
Evaluating Local Climate Policy: Municipal Action Plans through the Lens of Resilience and Environmental Justice
Published: 2024-03-07
Subjects: Environmental Studies
In the US, local governments are increasingly crucial in driving climate action. Drawing upon Tang et al. (2010) and Baker et al. (2012), this study assesses nine local climate action plans in the state of Michigan. It introduces a comprehensive framework, integrating climate resilience and environmental justice (EJ) indicators to evaluate plan content. Despite recognizing global climate [...]
Spatiotemporal Shift and Heterogeneity of Rain-on-Snow Events
Published: 2024-02-17
Subjects: Environmental Studies
The rapid snowmelt that typically occurs after snow accumulates at low temperatures and precipitation develops at higher temperatures is a defining characteristic of rain-on-snow (ROS). In ROS events, the significance lies not only in the spatial variability of snow coverage but also in factors like snow depth, variations in rainfall over time and space, rates of snowmelt, topographic conditions, [...]
A Novel Methodology for Enhancing Flood Risk Communication: The Nines of Safety
Published: 2024-01-12
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Environmental Studies, Risk Analysis
Flood risk communication helps people plan for and recover from disasters, especially in flood-prone areas. The Nines of Safety (NoS) concept described in this study provides a new perspective for flood risk communication and assessment. The NoS method can help analyze flood risk comprehensively and support decision-makers and the public understand their vulnerability under various conditions. [...]
Temperature and precipitation changes in ten cities in Southeast Asia: an analysis based on CMIP6 climate projections
Published: 2024-01-12
Subjects: Environmental Studies
Climate change influences both average states and extremes in temperatures and precipitation. Southeast Asia, one of the most vulnerable regions worldwide to floods and heatwaves, indicates an escalation of the possibility of severe climate extremes. Extreme precipitation events can bring increasing floods, leading to considerable damage to property and human well-being. However, droughts also [...]
Designing and describing climate change impact attribution studies: a guide to common approaches
Published: 2024-01-06
Subjects: Climate, Earth Sciences, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Public Health, Environmental Studies, Human Geography, Physical and Environmental Geography, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Probability, Public Health, Spatial Science, Statistical Methodology, Statistical Models, Statistics and Probability
Impact attribution is an emerging transdisciplinary sub-discipline of detection and attribution, focused on the social, economic, and ecological impacts of climate change. Here, we provide an overview of common end-to-end frameworks in impact attribution, focusing on examples relating to the human health impacts of climate change. We propose a typology of study designs based on whether [...]
Comprehensive review of the annual haze episode in Northern Thailand
Published: 2023-12-09
Subjects: Environmental Sciences, Environmental Studies, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Public Health
The mountainous part of northern Thailand is subject to an intense haze episode occurring almost every year between January and May. In the last couple of decades, this atmospheric phenomenon has been extensively covered in the media and is now a main concern for the population living in this area. In this review, we synthesized the information available from hundreds of publications on air [...]
Energy Use and Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Selected Tea Factories in Kenya
Published: 2023-11-30
Subjects: Environmental Studies
Tea sector is a major contributor to Kenya’s economy through foreign exchange via export. However, extensive amount of energy is required to produce one kilogram of tea, making tea processing energy-intensive. Comparing greenhouse gas emissions from different types of energy consumed in tea factories is imperative to enable policymakers make informed intervention in emission reduction. Reducing [...]
Unintended consequences of nature-based solutions: Social equity and flood buyouts
Published: 2023-11-25
Subjects: Environmental Studies
Nature-based solutions (NbS) can serve as effective strategies to promote the resilience of both people and ecosystems in the face of climate change. However, these solutions can exacerbate existing social inequities if they fail to adequately consider the complex social contexts in which they are implemented. To better understand the equity implications of NbS, and how to design and deliver such [...]