Due to intensive anthropogenic usage, a complex mixture of inorganic and organic contaminants entered and still enters freshwater systems, released by various activities and emission sources. However, because of the highly dynamic nature of rivers, the individual occurrence, fate, and behavior, especially of organic contaminants, are highly complex and not fully understood. Here, a GC/MS non-target screening was applied to identify and determine the chemical diversity in the aqueous phase of the meso-scaled Rur river and to categorize indicative and relevant contaminants according to their load profiles for a distinct emission characteristic. Besides very well-known or widespread lipophilic to semi-polar contaminants, also so far unknown or only sporadically identified substances have been detected. In particular, wastewater treatment plants and the paper industry have been identified as major emission sources. Additionally, temporal variations in organic contamination were investigated over three sampling campaigns (2004, 2015, and 2020). Within this timespan, the overall composition of the contamination in the Rur has changed slightly, but nevertheless, the high chemical diversity remained. A detailed consideration such as that undertaken in this study is necessary as the occurrence of substances in a river system depends on many different factors. For a holistic assessment of environmental behavior, not only the sampling locations and associated development of emission profiles must be considered but also temporal variations and mitigation measures. Such a multi-parameter scenario provides an important basis for the mitigation and reduction of organic pollutants in our environment.

In this study, the outcome serves to establish a measurement model to calculate the value of ecosystem services in Lhasa River Basin, China. Following on the principle of resource scarcity, a study paradigm is established according to the influence of natural and socio-economic location differences on the value of ecosystem services. Results show that the total value of ecosystem services in Lhasa River Basin is 104.503 billion yuan. The unit ecosystem service value of natural grassland in the lower reaches is 5.6 times and 1.07 times larger than that in the upper and middle reaches, respectively. The value of ecosystem services is clearly affected by the scarcity of ecosystem services and dependence of economic and social development on the ecosystem. The value of ecosystem services in the upper, middle, and lower reaches were 4.17%, 21.48%, and 74.35%, respectively. It is found that the value of ecosystem services in this particular region differs significantly in the upper, middle, and lower reaches of the basin. The scarcity of ecological resources has increased the value of ecosystem services, which is reflected in the highest value of ecosystem services in the middle of Lhasa River Valley and both sides of the river where population, economy, and ecological demand are relatively concentrated. According to the estimated results, this study proposes a variety of methods to improve the ecosystem service value and analysis of the ecological compensation mechanism, derived from the contribution made by ecological services.

Severe droughts and mismanagement of water resources during the last decades have propelled authorities in the Kurdistan Region to be concerned about better management of precipitation which is considered the primary source of recharging surface and groundwater in the area of interest. The drought cycles in the last decades have stimulated water stakeholders to drill more wells and store uncontrolled runoff in suitable structures during rainy times to fulfill the increased water demands. The optimum sites for rainwater harvesting sites in the Qaradaqh basin, which is considered a water-scarce area, were determined using the analytical hierarchy process (AHP), sum average weighted method (SAWM), and fuzzy-based index (FBI) techniques. The essential thematic layers within the natural and artificial factors were rated, weighted, and integrated via GIS and multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) approaches. As a consequence of the model results, three farm ponds and four small dams were proposed as future prospective sites for implementing rainwater harvesting structures. The current work shows that the unsuitable ratio over the study area in all methods AHP, SAWM, and FBI occupied 12.6%, 12.7%, and 14.2% respectively. The area under the curve (AUC) and receiver operating characteristics were used to validate the model outcomes. The AUC values range from 0.5 to 1, meaning that all MCDM results are good or are correctly selected. Based on the prediction rate curve for the suitability index map, the prediction accuracy was 72%, 57%, and 59% for AHP, SAWM, and fuzzy overlay, respectively. The final map shows that the potential sites for rainwater harvesting or suitable sites are clustered mainly in the northern and around the basin’s boundary, while unsuitable areas cover northeastern and some scatter zones in the middle due to restrictions of geology, distance to stream with the villages, and slope criteria. The total harvested runoff was 377,260 m³ from all the suggested structures. The proposed sites may provide a scientific and reasonable basis for utilizing this natural resource and minimize the impacts of future drought cycles.

While there are enormous studies on climate change in stable countries, climate policy perspectives from conflict-prone regions including Somalia are limited. It is noteworthy that environmental degradation is an alarming issue that fuels the vulnerability of Somalia to climate change. To this end, this study investigates the asymmetric impact of energy and economic growth on environmental degradation in Somalia—by employing nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag model (NARDL) and causal techniques from 1985 to 2017. We find asymmetric long-term cointegration among the variables, whereas energy consumption and economic growth asymmetrically affect environmental degradation. Besides, the causal inferences reveal unidirectional causality from environmental pollution to positive change in energy consumption. Additionally, a bidirectional causality is observed between population growth and negative change in economic growth. A unidirectional causality is confirmed: from positive shock in economic growth to population growth—from a negative change in economic growth to negative shock in energy consumption—from positive change in economic growth to positive shock in energy consumption—and from a negative change in energy consumption to population growth. This calls for the implementation of clean energy investment and modern environmental strategies including good farming methods and improved grazing land policies. The adoption of these policies will improve both environmental quality and sustained economic development.

In situ revegetation is effective in improving water-stable aggregation, preserving structural stability, and decreasing groundwater pollution to reduce the environmental risks posed by alkaline bauxite residue (ABR). Pseudomonas simiae, a plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR), was used to promote Atriplex canescens growth challenged by ABR. The mechanism of P. simiae-induced plant growth promotion and tolerance against ABR stresses has been investigated. P. simiae was shown to alleviate ABR-induced stress in A. canescens by regulating photosynthesis and transpiration, inducing antioxidant defense, causing osmolyte accumulation, and altering plant morphology. Shoot dry weight, root dry weight, and root length of A. canescens were increased by 5.9%, 6.7%, and 11.5%, respectively, after inoculation with P. simiae for 60 days. Thus, it seems that P. simiae systemically regulated physiological processes in A. canescens favoring its growth under ABR treatments.

In environmental management, many studies have examined the energy consumption-emission nexus in detail. However, for the first time in the literature, this study considers how the Economic Complexity Index (ECI) and economic policy uncertainty (EPU) moderate the contribution of energy consumption to emissions for the four World Bank Income clusters. The system generalised methods of moments are applied to data for 109 countries from 1996 to 2016. Based on the main model (grouped clusters) estimations, the result revealed the existence of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis. Also, an increase in air transport and consumption of energy releases more carbon emissions to the climate. Interestingly, ECI decreases carbon emission significantly while EPU does not have a significant impact. Moreover, the study revealed that ECI moderated the impact of other variables on emission, but EPU is not a significant moderator. Furthermore, a comparative analysis among the four incomes suggests that the EKC hypothesis holds only in the high-income clusters; ECI is a significant predictor of carbon emission in the four clusters, but it only decreases the emission in high-income clusters. This corroborates the debate on climate change and the productive capacity of high-income countries. Given the foregoing, several policy measures were recommended.

The aim of study is to estimate the role of energy financing for energy retrofit in COVID-19, with the intervening role of green bond financing. For this, Kalman technique is applied to infer the empirical findings. It is found that energy financing is significantly dependent on green bonds, and green bonds have a significant role in energy retrofit in E-7 economies specifically. It is further found that E-7 economies gained significant rise in energy efficiency financing green bonds financing, that has supportively extended energy retrofit - before and during COVID-19 crises. It is further found significant that the E-7 nations have to put alot of money into hydro and nuclear energy for energy retrofit, with low carbon emissions. In the light of COVID-19 crises, this study offers policy recommendations for effective energy management. However, such policy recommendations are expected to finely serve the financial intermediaries and national governments of E-7 economies to better optimize energy financing through green bond financing. The novelty of the study exists in topical framework and research directions, talking about the way forwards for energy efficiency financing - which is one of the latest issue of the recent times. Hence, this research provides some empirical verifications about energy financing in COVID-19 crises for energy retrofit, and shares some suggestions for stakeholders.

It has recently been shown that pervious concrete is a promising, effective technology as a permeable reactive barrier system for treatment of acid mine drainage (AMD). However, pore clogging also occurs simultaneously during AMD treatment. In the present study, mixtures of pervious concrete were made and used in a column experiment during which pore clogging occurred in the samples. Pore volume, connectivity and other parameters of pervious concrete were evaluated using five (5) different methods comprising the volumetric method (VM), linear–traverse method (LTM), image analysis (IA), falling head permeability test and X-ray microcomputed tomography. It was found that pervious concrete effectively removed from AMD, about 90 to 99% of various heavy metals including Al, Fe, Zn, Mn and Mg. Cr concentration significantly increased in the treated effluent, owing to leaching from cementitious materials used in mixtures. The VM and LTM gave statistically similar pore volume results, while IA’s values were 20 to 30% higher than those of the conventional methods. The falling head permeability test and IA were found to be effective in quantifying pore clogging effects. Pervious concrete exhibited high pore connectivity of 95.0 to 99.7%, which underlies its efficacious hydraulic conductivity.

The most important welding processes used are the gas metal arc (GMA) welding, the tungsten inert gas (TIG) welding, and the manual metal arc (MMA) welding processes. The goal of our investigation was to monitor the distribution of iron (Fe), manganese (Mn), calcium (Ca), and magnesium (Mg) in the lung, spleen, liver, and kidney of mice after inhalation exposure of different welding methods using different steel base materials. The treatment groups were the following: MMA-mild steel, MMA-molybdenum-manganese (MoMn) alloy, TIG-mild steel, and TIG-stainless steel. The samples were taken 24 and 96 h after the treatments. Most importantly, it was found that the Mn concentration in the lung’ samples of the MMA-mild steel and the MMA-MoMn groups was increased extremely at both sampling times and in the spleen’ samples also. In the TIG groups, the rise of the Mn concentration was only considerable in the lungs and spleens at 24 h, and emerged concentration was found in the liver in 96 h samples. Histopathology demonstrated emerged siderin content in the spleens of the treated animals and in siderin filled macrophages in the lungs mostly in all treated groups. Traces of high-level glycogen retention was found in the MMA groups at both sampling times. Similar glycogen retention in TIG-Ms and TIG stainless group’s liver samples and emerged number of vacuoles, especially in the hepatocytes of the TIG-stainless steel 96 h group were also found. The mentioned results raise the consequence that there is a considerable difference in the kinetics of the Mn distribution between the MMA- and the TIG-fume–treated groups. Hence, the result suggests that manganese has a particle-size–dependent toxico-kinetics property. The anomaly of the glycogen metabolism indicates the systemic effect of the welding fumes. Also, the numerous vacuoles mentioned above show a possible liver-specific adverse effect of some components of the TIG-stainless steel welding fumes.

The discussion concerning whether and how economic complexity (ECI) affects ecological footprint (EFP) has gained researchers’ consideration, while there are slight empirical evidence to support the subject matter. In the support of theoretical argument, this study provides empirical evidence by investigating the impact of ECI on EFP along with the role of disaggregated energy consumptions by using a panel dataset of G-7 economies between 1996 and 2019. To this end, we applied panel techniques of Fully-Modify OLS and Dynamic-OLS models for cointegration analysis. The results obtained from Fully-Modify OLS and Dynamic-OLS models reveal that ECI deteriorates environmental quality by increasing EFP, while renewable energy reduces ecological pollution by decreasing EFP. In addition, the increasing demand for non-renewable energy and economic growth both degrades environmental quality in G-7 countries. More interestingly, the non-linear (ECI²) relationship between ECI and EFP confirms a U-shaped association (EKC hypothesis), which suggests that after achieving a certain threshold level, economic complexity mitigates environmental degradation in G-7 economies. The empirical results also suggest that other control variables such as population growth, inflation rate, foreign direct investment, and total trade intensity lead to environmental degradation by increasing ecological footprint. Based on empirical results, the following important policy implications are drawn; first, G-7 economies should speed up the level of economic complexity along with renewable energy consumption to protect environmental quality and maintain sustainable growth and development. Secondly, the governments of G-7 countries should introduce greener technologies and promote production that are environmental friendly for drastic reduction in environmental unsustainability.