Evaluating opportunity for distributed wind energy in rural and agricultural areas

The present study focused on identifying the current prevalence of diabetes mellitus (DM) in rural desert and rural agricultural areas of Egypt and comparing these findings to those of previous studies that reported lower prevalence rates of DM in rural desert versus rural agricultural areas. The study included a total of 15,000 participants aged 20years or older; 10,000 were from rural agricultural areas and 5000 were from rural desert areas in Egypt. The prevalence of DM and impaired fasting glucose for each group was recorded, participants were interviewed, medical history was obtained, physical examinations were performed, and fasting plasma glucose was used for diagnosis of DM and IFG using American Diabetes Association criteria. The prevalence of DM was 12.7% in agricultural areas and 4.7% in desert areas. The prevalence of newly diagnosed cases was 15.8% and 9.9% in agricultural and desert areas, respectively. The prevalence of IFG was 11.14% in agricultural and 8.04% in desert areas. These results suggest that living in a rural area makes patients at a higher risk of developing DM (OR = 2.968 CI (2.570-3.428) p < 0.001) and IFG (OR = 1.43, CI (1.272-1.616), p < 0.001). Logistic regression analysis revealed that increased age, living in agricultural areas, higher body mass index and positive family history of diabetes were the significant predictors affecting the prevalence of DM. The prevalence of DM, IFG, and overall dysglycemia (DM + IFG) in Egypt has generally increased in rural areas, with a lower prevalence in rural desert compared to rural agricultural areas.

Lack of treated water system in Sabah has increase human dependency to groundwater sources. The presence of contaminants such as nitrate in groundwater can pose severe health implications to human, such as methemoglobinemia and cancerous diseases. The objectives of this paper were to quantify the nitrate concentration in groundwater, to calculate potential human health risk exposure of nitrate in groundwater and to compare the potential human health risk exposure of nitrate between rural and agriculture areas. Six tube wells were selected at Inanam and Kota Belud district and involved one-hundred eighty respondents aged from 7 to 12 years old. The groundwater samples were analyzed using Cadmium Reduction method of HACH DR2800 Spectrophotometer and human health risk exposure were assessed using Chronic Daily Intake (CDI) and Hazard Index (HI) after set of information of respondents were obtained by questionnaires. Result obtained were showing mean ± S.D of nitrate levels in groundwater well and filtered water of agriculture (0.79 ± 0.33 mg/L; 0.33 ± 0.29 mg/L) and rural (0.50 ± 0.12mg/L; 0.53 ± 0.10 mg/L) areas were within the acceptable value limit set by National Drinking Water Quality Standard of Malaysia (10 mg/L). The statistical analysis of Kruskal-Wallis and one-way ANOVA test implied there were no significant differences of nitrate levels between two areas (p>0.05). Moreover, the mean ± S.D of CDI for agriculture and rural areas were 0.0064 ± 0.0056 mg/kg/day 0.0140 ± 0.0096 mg/kg/day respectively and HI were less than 1. The insignificant differences of potential human health risk were noted in terms of gender and age of respondents between two areas. This specified that the human health risk of respondents involved in this study was in acceptable range and not exposed to severe health risks.

Nationwide study of the triple landscape gradient across natural, agricultural and urban areas for the richness of flower-visiting insects

During the last decades, time-series interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) has emerged as a powerful technique to measure various surface deformation phenomena of the earth. Early generations of time-series InSAR methodologies, i.e. Persistent Scatterer Interferometry (PSI), focused on point targets, which are mainly man-made features with a high density in urban areas and associated infrastructure. Later, methodologies were introduced aiming to extract information from other targets known as distributed scatterers (DS), which are associated with ground resolution cells occurring mainly in rural areas. Unfortunately, the underlying properties and assumptions behind various DS-phase estimation methodologies are sometimes subjective and incomparable, which hampers the objective application of the different methods. Moreover, for some terrain types, such as agricultural terrain or pastures, the feasibility of DS-methodologies is not straightforward. In view of these challenges, the two main objectives of this study are (i) to formulate and implement the estimation methodology of DS-pixels in a standard geodetic framework and to compare it with other existing methods, and (ii) to assess the feasibility of exploiting distributed scatterers for deformation monitoring over agricultural and pasture areas. We review state-of-the-art time-series InSAR methodologies with special attention to processing aspects related to distributed scatterers. From an estimation theory perspective, the key processing step to extract information from DS-pixels is the equivalent single-master (ESM) phase estimation. To situate this estimation in a geodetic framework, a mathematical model is proposed in the form of a Gauss-Markov model. To evaluate the stochastic part of the model, a numerical Monte-Carlo methodology as well as an analytical approach are introduced. Regarding the functional part, the ESM-phase estimation is formulated in the form of a hybrid linear system of observation-equations with both real-value and integer unknowns. The solution of the proposed model is given by the integer least-squares (ILS) estimator. The properties of such an estimator for ESM-phase estimation are described and demonstrated using synthetic and real datasets. Furthermore, to provide a theoretical comparison between the proposed ILS estimator and other existing ESM-phase estimators, a unified mathematical model in the form of a system of observation equations is proposed. Evaluating all the existing DS-methods shows that, although they all provide specific solutions, their fundamental difference is in how they assign weights to the interferometric observations. The feasibility of exploiting PS, DS, and their combination over agricultural and rural landscapes is assessed via a case study on a subsidence area near city of Veendam, the Netherlands, based on the coherence behavior of different types of land use. It is shown that, under the condition of using the entire time-series, agricultural and pasture areas show only limited improvement in point density compared to the results of PSonly processing. This is due to the seasonal behavior of the temporal coherence, which causes an almost complete drop in coherence during summer periods, mainly as a result of tillage, crop growth and harvesting. To model this periodicity, a new analytical model is introduced. In this model, the hypothetical movements of elementary scatterers within DS resolution cells are modeled as a stochastic process with non-stationary but periodic increments. The parameters of this model are estimated for pasture areas, and are subsequently used to assess the feasibility of exploiting DS-pixels in agricultural areas by different satellite missions. The results confirm that, assuming a three-year stack of data, the information content in DS-pixels from current C-band and X-band missions is not enough for the successful utilization of their entire time-series. However by using intermittent series, e.g., by processing individual coherent periods, the results indicate that DS-pixels can be exploited: based on the proposed decorrelation model, the short repeat times of Sentinel-1 (6 or 12 days) results in a sufficient number of coherent interferograms over each winter period, enabling DS exploitation even over agricultural and pasture areas.

Aedes albopictus, also known as the Asian tiger mosquito, is an aggressive invasive mosquito species that transmits parasites that cause several major human diseases such as dengue, Chikungunya, and Zika. Its recent establishment in many European countries and the reported autochthonous cases of Aedes-transmitted arboviral diseases highlight the importance of effective surveillance programs to plan and implement efficient mosquito-control interventions. Aedes albopictus invaded the Greek island of Crete in 2014 and rapidly spread throughout; however, there are no comprehensive population-related data yet available. Our study focused on spatial and temporal dynamics of Ae. albopictus populations in rural and agricultural areas in Chania (western part of the Crete Island). An oviposition surveillance network, consisting of 51 ovitraps, was established in 2017 and systematically inspected for 2 years. Thirty ovitraps were established in rural areas and 21 in the surrounding agricultural areas. Eggs were collected weekly and transferred to the laboratory for counting and assessment of hatching rates. The spatial and temporal egg distribution was assessed by using geographical information systems and spatial statistical analysis tools. Kernel density and hot spot analysis were employed to identify clusters of high populations of eggs. Oviposition activity (eggs in traps) was recorded during April–May and December (of both years), while the maximum egg-laying rates were observed during September–October. The proportion of traps with eggs was similar between rural and agricultural areas, while the higher number of eggs was recorded in rural compared to agricultural areas during 2017. Egg hatch rates were high (&amp;gt;90%) until the end of September. The proportion of diapausing non-hatched eggs rapidly increased at the end of November. All hatched larvae were identified as Ae. Albopictus, indicating a negative effect of the invasion on the population of the local species Ae. cretinus. This was a systematic attempt to monitor the seasonal and spatial patterns of the Asian tiger mosquito in the island of Crete, the southernmost area of Europe, and a study in Europe that assessed temporal and spatial dynamics of Ae. albopictus soon after its invasion and establishment in an area.

The proposed algorithm for identifying agricultural problem areas for the needs of their reasonable management under land consolidation works

When making foraging decisions, animals evaluate the risk of being preyed upon or hunted. This applies particularly to large-bodied, long-lived species with a long evolutionary history of human persecution, such as wild boars (Sus scrofa). Wild boar populations are rapidly expanding throughout natural, agricultural, and urban areas worldwide, thus escalating human–wild boar conflicts. Most of these conflicts are associated with crop and garden damages by foraging wild boars. To study the foraging behavior of wild boars across a gradient of human risk, we evaluated the combined effects of hunting, land use type, and wild boar group size and structure on boar use of feeding devices. We installed corn-supplemented feeding devices in four land-use types and hunting combinations: urban areas with and without hunting, rural areas (namely, agricultural areas with hunting), and nature reserves without hunting. Our results show that rural areas and urban areas were the most important predictors of the wild boars’ decision to eat or not and the time it took them to start eating from the moment they arrived at the feeding device (TBE—Time Before Eating). In addition, our study suggests that the TBEs of urban boars were significantly lower compared to boars from nature reserves. We further found that TBEs of urban boars were significantly lower than TBEs of boars in nature reserves. Our results suggest that the foraging behavior of wild boars varies spatially, corresponding to the different land-use types. We propose that the readiness of boars to forage in urban areas results from their habituation to human presence and lower perception of risk.

The study has investigated the annual variation of the dry and wet depositions of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs) among different kinds of areas. A commercial suburban area, an industrial urban area, a coastal rural area and an agricultural rural area were chosen to measure the PCDD/F depositions in each season. The mean TEQ concentration, dry deposition flux and wet deposition in the industrial urban area all had the highest values, at 0.0958 pg ITEQ/Nm 3 , 29.1 pg I-TEQ/m 2 -d and 47.8 pg/L, respectively. Additionally, the annual total deposition flux of PCDD/Fs in the commercial, industrial, coastal and agricultural areas was 168, 310, 135 and 115 ng/m 2 -year, respectively. The seasonal change of PCDD/Fs in air could be affected by heating and temperature inversion in winter or photodegradation and OH radical reaction in summer. The various homologue profiles of PCDD/Fs probably affect the distribution in environmental sinks, such as sediments or the living organisms in rivers or seas. Additionally, the results of statistical analysis indicated that PCDD I-TEQ dry deposition flux (ng I-TEQ/m 2 -month) was negatively correlated with the ambient temperature (r = – 0.843) for the agricultural rural area, possibly due to vapor pressure (temperature-dependent) effect on the gas/particle PCDD/F partitioning. Furthermore, the PCDD/F concentration of wet deposition flux (ng I-TEQ/m 2 -month) was positively correlated with the monthly rainfall (r = 0.826–0.988) at the four sampling areas.

In addition to the usual concerns that governments face, managing agriculture and agricultural areas is a significant issue. As a result, a country's agricultural production is highly dependent on its land potential. The transformation of agricultural areas into construction sites will be more attractive for the proprietors if they are not valued at their actual worth. This study applies and compares two different valuation methods, income and nominal land value approaches, to evaluate land in rural area, Cankiri Province, Catalelma Village, Central Turkey. In Turkey, income valuation method is typically applied for dealing with financial matters related to agricultural areas. On the other hand, one of the statistical methods, nominal valuation, was also used in the study area by applying the spatial analysis functions of geographical information system (GIS). In this study, four sample parcels representing three different land use capability classes (two irrigable, one medium, and one barren) were selected for comparison of two valuation methods. The results obtained during this research demonstrate that the nominal valuation approach produced more accurate results than the income method, and it may be used in the country's local administrative units due to available data.

The article presents a comprehensive review of research advancing in 2014 on nonpoint source pollution (NPS). The topics presented relate to nonpoint source pollution (NPS) within agricultural and urban areas. NPS pollution from agricultural areas is the main focus in this review. Management of NPS in agricultural, urban and rural areas is presented. Modeling of NPS pollution in different watersheds with various modeling tools is reviewed.

&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Water quantity and quality of headwater catchments can react very sensitive to human impacts. While many studies focus on the influence of bigger cities on urban streams, the influence of rural villages and their associated infrastructure onto stream discharge and water quality dynamics is not often part of research.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;We installed discharge measurements, UV-Vis probes Nitrate (NO&amp;lt;sub&amp;gt;3&amp;lt;/sub&amp;gt;&amp;lt;sup&amp;gt;-&amp;lt;/sup&amp;gt;) monitoring and conductivity probes on two neighboured headwater catchments, the Kelze (2.64 km&amp;amp;#178;) and the Nesselbach (3.23&amp;amp;#160;km&amp;amp;#178;) catchment. All probes sample with a high temporal resolution of five minutes. We additionally equipped the sites with automatic samplers for also monitoring Nitrite (NO&amp;lt;sub&amp;gt;2&amp;lt;/sub&amp;gt;&amp;lt;sup&amp;gt;-&amp;lt;/sup&amp;gt;), Ammonium (NH&amp;lt;sub&amp;gt;4&amp;lt;/sub&amp;gt;&amp;lt;sup&amp;gt;+&amp;lt;/sup&amp;gt;), ortho-Phosphate (PO&amp;lt;sub&amp;gt;4&amp;lt;/sub&amp;gt;&amp;lt;sup&amp;gt;3-&amp;amp;#160;&amp;lt;/sup&amp;gt;) and total Phosphate (&amp;lt;sub&amp;gt;tot&amp;lt;/sub&amp;gt;P). All over the catchments are characterized by agriculture and forests, while the Kelze catchment is also influenced by a village. A part of the village is drained by a stormwater sewer while most of the area is drained by mixed sewer. A small wastewater treatment plant (WWTP), which is very common in rural areas, treats solely the wastewater of this village. The WWTP consists of four ponds in a series. Water flows solely driven by gravity and it is not possible to manually control the discharge of the WWTP.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;First measurements show that during low flow conditions Nitrate concentrations are generally higher in the Nesselbach, which is more influenced by agricultural areas. While the outflow of the WWTP dilutes the NO&amp;lt;sub&amp;gt;3&amp;lt;/sub&amp;gt;&amp;lt;sup&amp;gt;-&amp;lt;/sup&amp;gt; concentration in the Kelze, it causes increased levels of NO&amp;lt;sub&amp;gt;2&amp;lt;/sub&amp;gt;&amp;lt;sup&amp;gt;-&amp;lt;/sup&amp;gt;, NH&amp;lt;sub&amp;gt;4&amp;lt;/sub&amp;gt;&amp;lt;sup&amp;gt;+&amp;lt;/sup&amp;gt; and PO&amp;lt;sub&amp;gt;4&amp;lt;/sub&amp;gt;&amp;lt;sup&amp;gt;3-&amp;lt;/sup&amp;gt; concentrations. Even though the village is comparatively small, the sealed area, which is connected to the sewer system, as well as private drainages lead to a fast runoff during rainfall events. The rainwater is directly transported to the WWTP. Due to the limited storage capacity of such WWTP high discharge peaks can be observed shortly after the event. Depending on the water storage in the WWTP, even small events can produce a discharge wave, leading to short time rise of water levels in the Kelze stream, while the Nesselbach catchment shows smaller peak flows and thus bigger storage effects for the same events.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Overall, the first measurements show, that understanding the interplay between agricultural and urban areas is crucial to understand the coupling of different hydrologic and biogeochemical processes and could lead to a better understanding of catchment processes.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;

Glyphosate-based herbicides can be harmful to the environment and human health. Especially in developing countries, these herbicides are often used indiscriminately in agricultural and urban areas. Here, we optimized a simple and efficient flow injection-based spectrophotometric method to monitor environmentally relevant glyphosate concentrations in surface waters. The method was then used to assess the environmental mobility of glyphosate in Southeast Brazil by monitoring surface runoff from experimental agricultural soil plots that received glyphosate applications in 2015. Further, water samples from low-order streams were collected in five agricultural, urban, and natural areas, as well as from the 5th-order Rio das Mortes during the rainy season. Finally, 20 drinking water sources were sampled in urban, rural, and agricultural areas. Runoff from reference plots without glyphosate application showed concentrations below the method's detection limit of 0.49mg.L-1, whereas runoff from plots with standard glyphosate application had concentrations between 1.24 and 6.1mg.L-1. Similarly, concentrations in natural stream water were below the detection limit, whereas agricultural streams had concentrations of up to 3.7mg.L-1 (average: 0.97mg.L-1). In an agricultural stream monitored weekly, concentration peaks were observed after glyphosate applications by farmers, and concentrations were correlated to stream discharge. Urban streams had concentrations of up to 5.8mg.L-1 (average: 2.6mg.L-1), but samples from the catchment's major river were mostly below detection limits, illustrating the dilution of urban and agricultural runoff in high-order rivers. In the sampled drinking water resources, glyphosate pollution occurred mainly in the rainy season, with detectable concentrations between 0.5 and 8.7mg.L-1 in 80% of the sampled drinking water sources. In conclusion, our results suggest considerable environmental mobility of glyphosate in the studied Southeast Brazilian catchment. Substantial pollution, well above national and international limits, was detected in surface runoff, stream water, and drinking water resources.

The rural area is an extremely varied area, agricultural area, the area occupied by forests and grazing the surface of non-agricultural lands (Riviera sea, etc.) and rural agglomerations is a separate entity from the urban areas characterized by a high demographic concentration and vertical and horizontal structures. Being often under the impact of old production systems, characterized by accelerated development and irrational of industry, the countryside has been subject to economic transformation, social and environmental, which mostly resulted in exodus and impoverishment of the rural population. Given this situation, are downright remarkable efforts of developed countries and not only to balance rural-urban ratio, reconciliation and revival of rural areas is kept of unique material and spiritual values. Rural areas are the result of interactions between man and nature, between interdependencies relations, who are specific to diversity of social actions and their natural environment, between the material and spiritual civilization, which for centuries coexist and evolve in a particular national territory. Image of rural area is emphasized by its size, which is the synthetic expression of social activities that are conducted using specific processes and phenomena of nature. All specific features of rural areas (natural, human, material and spiritual), which define the dimension of rural areas, are highlighted by the following components of the system: territorial administrative, demographic, economic and infrastructural. European rural area was and is the subject of extensive restructuring processes that were the result of a complex interaction of social phenomena, economic, sectoral and regional transfers. In circumstances where over half of the 27 Member States of the European Union lives in rural areas, and it occupies over 80% of the total territory, rural areas have considerable potential for growth, with a vital social role. Rural population and surface area occupied and the importance of rural life for a country, make the problem of rural development to gain a national and international importance. In this article the authors presents rural areas as an important part of a country with all its components. The authors elaborated a comparative analysis of rural areas from Poland and Romania from demographic perspective. The analysis was elaborated using indicators like population density, population structure by gender and age, migrations of population, relying on data from national and european statistics.

: The public value of agriculture and rural areas is closely associated with the concept of multifunctionality of agriculture and rural areas, which in turn signifies economic values other than the production function of agriculture and rural areas. Based on the survey results, virtual scenarios were set up and the contingent valuation method (CVM) was used to estimate the amount consumers are willing to pay (WTP) for the public functions of agriculture and rural areas. This study selected five domains of the public value (environment conservation, maintenance of landscape and cultural tradition, enhancement of national prestige, local community maintenance and socio-economic functions, and food security) and 21 value items as components of the public value. An economic assessment of the public value of agriculture and rural areas was conducted using a binomial logistic regression model. The estimation results showed that the public value consumers are willing to pay ranges from a minimum of 6,346.8 billion won to a maximum of 9,327.2 billion won.

New quality productivity in agriculture and rural areas serves as a critical foundation for addressing the development needs of the times, advancing the comprehensive revitalization of rural regions, and overcoming the urban–rural dual structure. This paper studies the spatial changes and evolutionary trends of new quality productivity in agriculture and rural areas in 31 provinces of mainland China. The main conclusions are as follows: (1) At the provincial level, the development of China’s new quality productivity exhibits a spatial gradient, with a decreasing trend from east to west. (2) At the national scale, while significant spatial autocorrelation exists in the new quality productivity of agriculture and rural areas, internal disparities are gradually narrowing. (3) The eastern region demonstrates significant advantages, the central region is making steady progress, the western region is rapidly catching up, and the northeastern region faces increasingly significant development pressures. This paper extends the research boundary of new quality productivity to the field of agriculture and rural areas, and we introduce a variety of spatial analysis methods to depict its distribution characteristics.