Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Environmental Studies
Investigating the suitability of dichotomous responses for the Water Insecurity Experience (WISE) Scales using nationally representative data from 39 countries
Published: 2025-01-10
Subjects: Environmental Studies
Background The Water Insecurity Experiences (WISE) Scales have been validated to comparably measure water insecurity globally. The scales consist of 12 items that can be administered in approximately 3 minutes. There is interest in developing more rapid WISE Scale versions, for use when time is limited. One alternative is to use a subset of 4 items, which has been validated, but has some [...]
Can neighbourhood interventions strengthen collective climate action?
Published: 2025-01-09
Subjects: Environmental Studies
This paper builds on a model of individual and collective climate action on the neighbourhood level recently presented by Klöckner et al. [1]. In this model, types of local climate action were empirically categorized (diet, travel, protest, other climate actions) and it was found that both individual and collective intentions contribute to self-reported climate actions in these categories and [...]
A Proposal to Create a Single Global Cap-and-Trade Scheme to Ensure a Ceiling on Gross CO2 Emissions below a Pre-set Allowable Carbon Budget
Published: 2025-01-02
Subjects: Environmental Studies
It is time for faithful and trustworthy world leaders to lead in establishing a “Global Cap-and-Trade regulatory framework” to change our course promptly. This framework aims to establish an institutional mechanism that ensures steadily decreasing global emission limits. The Scheme regulates upstream entities that import or produce fossil fuels, with the initiation of countries that share the [...]
Approach to setting the attribution of CO2 reductions for CCU fuels — Toward a system counting fuel selection as an emission reduction effort
Published: 2024-12-25
Subjects: Environmental Studies
As the global economy transitions towards carbon neutrality, innovative secondary energy sources are becoming increasingly pivotal. Hydrogen derived from zero-carbon power and synthetic fuels produced by bonding carbon dioxide (CO2) with hydrogen—hereafter referred to as Carbon Capture and Utilisation (CCU) fuels in this article—are expected to complement electricity as critical components in [...]
A Conversational Intelligent Assistant for Enhanced Operational Support in Floodplain Management with Multimodal Data
Published: 2024-12-19
Subjects: Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Computer Sciences, Databases and Information Systems, Earth Sciences, Environmental Engineering, Environmental Sciences, Environmental Studies, Hydraulic Engineering, Hydrology, Water Resource Management
Floodplain management is crucial for mitigating flood risks and enhancing community resilience, yet floodplain managers often face significant challenges, including the complexity of data analysis, regulatory compliance, and effective communication with diverse stakeholders. This study introduces Floodplain Manager AI, an innovative artificial intelligence (AI) based virtual assistant designed to [...]
Situating place-based, community-engaged watershed research at Xwulqw'selu Sta'lo'
Published: 2024-12-12
Subjects: Environmental Engineering, Environmental Studies
Xwulqw'selu Sta'lo' is a culturally significant and salmon-bearing river facing significant challenges which Cowichan Tribes and the British Columbia Provincial Government are addressing with a first-of-its-kind watershed plan. Our research is deeply situated at Xwulqw'selu Sta'lo' and is grounded in interdisciplinary academic spheres of place-based research, water monitoring and modeling, [...]
Groundwater connected art: practicing arts-based research to enrich how hydrogeology engages people, place and other disciplines
Published: 2024-12-12
Subjects: Environmental Studies, Hydrology, Other Geography
Groundwater depletion, contamination, and governance challenges persist despite decades of groundwater research. Scientific methods are crucial yet seem insufficient to inspire the deep emotional and cultural connections needed for real change – groundwater challenges and opportunities are not reaching enough hearts and minds. This article calls for a bold shift: integrating arts-based research [...]
Doing conferences differently: a decentralised multi-hub approach for ecological and social sustainability
Published: 2024-12-11
Subjects: Environmental Studies
Conferences are invaluable for career progression, offering unique opportunities for networking, collaboration, and learning. However, there are challenges associated with the traditional in-person conference format. For example, there is a significant ecological impact from attendees’ travel behaviour, and there are social inequities in conference attendance, with historically marginalised [...]
Growing wildfire-derived PM2.5 across the contiguous U.S. and implications for air quality regulation
Published: 2024-12-09
Subjects: Environmental Sciences, Environmental Studies
Growing wildfire activity across North America produces significant smoke, undermining efforts to regulate surface air quality and protect public health. Using surface measurements, satellites, and machine learning, we provide granular, daily estimates of smoke PM2.5 concentrations in the contiguous U.S. from 2006 to 2023, and use them to assess the implications of smoke for surface air pollution [...]
Easing population to 4 billion by 2200 would help people and nature
Published: 2024-12-06
Subjects: Environmental Studies
The past century of increases in human population and resource consumption has produced some undesirable effects, ranging from environmental degradation to climate change to political unrest. We are accustomed to seeing these dependent variables charted with time on the x-axis. But this study presents metrics of biodiversity, consumption, and pollution and their extremely strong correlations when [...]
WITHDRAWN: Green-Oriented Transition of the Manufacturing in the Digital Economy: A System Dynamics Perspective
Published: 2024-12-04
Subjects: Environmental Studies
withdrawn.
The State of Global Catastrophic Risk Research: A Bibliometric Review
Published: 2024-11-29
Subjects: Agriculture, Biodiversity, Environmental Sciences, Environmental Studies, Food Science, Geography, Other Life Sciences
The global catastrophic risk (GCR) and existential risk (ER) literature focuses on analysing and preventing potential major global catastrophes including a human extinction event. Over the past two decades, the field of GCR/ER research has grown considerably. However, there has been little meta-research on the field itself. How large has this body of literature become? What topics does it cover? [...]
Carbon dioxide removal could perpetuate community-scale inequalities of U.S. air pollution in net-zero scenarios
Published: 2024-11-27
Subjects: Environmental Public Health, Environmental Sciences, Environmental Studies
Pathways to net-zero reduce GHG emissions and improve air quality, but the magnitude and distribution of these improvements will depend on specific mitigation decisions, such as the amount of carbon dioxide removals (CDR). Here, we combine a series of models and datasets to analyze community-scale PM2.5 impacts across the contiguous U.S. of net-zero scenarios with different levels of CDR. Both [...]
Exposure to compound climate hazards transmitted via global agricultural trade networks
Published: 2024-11-15
Subjects: Agriculture, Climate, Environmental Studies, Risk Analysis
Compound climate hazards, such as co-occurring temperature and precipitation extremes, substantially impact people and ecosystems. Internal climate variability combines with the forced global warming response to determine both the magnitude and spatial distribution of these events, and their consequences can propagate from one country to another via many pathways. We examine how exposure to [...]
Unravelling sustainable development at the sub-national scale in India
Published: 2024-11-06
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Studies, Life Sciences, Nature and Society Relations
India's diverse socioeconomic landscape and environmental challenges make it a complex case for implementing the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Despite India's federal structure, comprehensive research on subnational SDG progress is lacking. This study analysed progress, challenges, interlinkages, and spatial disparities in individual and grouped SDGs (environmental, social, and [...]