Human-environment Systems Research Articles

Acheulean technology and emergent sociality: what material engagement means for the evolution of human-environment systems

Acheulean technology and emergent sociality: what material engagement means for the evolution of human-environment systems

Sustainability Nexus AID: landslides and land subsidence

Landslides and land subsidence pose significant threats that are both existing and growing in nature. These complex phenomena should not be considered in isolation but rather as interconnected challenges. To effectively understand and mitigate them, a data-driven nexus approach is necessary. Recognizing the importance of addressing this issue comprehensively, the United Nations University has launched the Sustainability Nexus Analytics, Informatics and Data Programme, a comprehensive initiative that intends to enable the nexus approach to problem solving in coupled human–environment systems. This paper provides a detailed background on the Programme’s “Landslides and Land Subsidence Module”, underscoring the crucial need for a nexus approach. Additionally, it highlights some of the tools and strategies that can be employed to tackle the challenges at hand. The success of this initiative hinges on active participation from various stakeholders. By embracing a holistic approach and fostering collaboration, we can strive towards better preparedness and long-term resilience against landslides and land subsidence.

Evaluating mangrove community forestry outcomes: a mixed synthetic control and field-based approach

Abstract Contemporary evaluations of outcomes in human-managed systems have been constrained by a lack of counterfactual analysis. Community forestry (CF), a widely adopted strategy to achieve both conservation and management in coupled human-environment systems, is no exception, and counterfactual analysis would greatly enhance CF research. We used a mixed method approach incorporating quantification of deforestation and forest regrowth rates, synthetic control analysis, and focus groups discussions to evaluate mangrove CF outcomes in the Ayeyarwady Delta, Myanmar, from to 1990–2021. CF resulted in an overall increase in net forest gain and reduction in net forest loss across sites. More than two-thirds of CF sites had superior outcomes relative to synthetic controls for at least one metric (deforestation or forest regrowth); however, CF tended to perform better for only one outcome while avoiding underperformance in the other. The annual rate of forest regrowth in CFs accelerated beginning three years prior to certification and peaked two years after certification, likely related to pre-certification engagement with the Forest Department or non-government organizations. Moreover, control sites near CFs experienced more rapid forest regrowth than controls further from CFs, suggesting spillover effects. The predominant challenge facing successful CF management was illegal extraction and overharvesting, and poor performing CFs experienced a complex array of challenges facing forest regrowth, likely related to the private nature of individual land claims within the CFs. Most supporting factors for CF were related to community management capacity, strongly indicating a need for extended close engagement with competent government and non-government actors to develop long-term management and governance capacities, which are sustainably funded. Our mixed-method approach can be replicated in other human-managed systems to evaluate the biophysical impacts of policies and gain insights into the underlying drivers of outcomes.

Optimizing sustainable development in arid river basins: A multi-objective approach to balancing water, energy, economy, carbon and ecology nexus

The ongoing water crisis poses significant threats to the socioeconomic sustainability and ecological security of arid and semi-arid river basins. Achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) within a complex socio-ecological nexus requires effective and balanced resource management. However, due to the intricate interactions between human societies and environmental systems, the tradeoffs and synergies of different SDGs remain unclear, posing a substantial challenge for collaborative management of natural resources. Here we introduce a gray fractional multi-objective optimization (GFMOP) model to balance multi-dimensional SDGs through a novel water–energy–economy–carbon–ecology nexus perspective. The model was applied to a typical arid river basin in Northwest China, where thirty-two scenarios were explored, considering factors such as shared socioeconomic pathways, carbon removal rates, water conveyance efficiencies, and ecological requirements. The results reveal a strong tradeoff between marginal benefit and carbon emission intensity, indicating that improving the economic efficiency of water use can simultaneously reduce emissions and protect the environment. Given the immense power generation potential, wind power development should be prioritized in the future, with its share in the energy structure projected to increase to 23.3% by 2060. Furthermore, promoting carbon capture technologies and expanding grassland coverage are recommended to achieve regional carbon neutrality, contributing 39.5% and 49.1% to carbon absorption during 2021–2060, respectively. Compared with traditional single-objective models, GFMOP demonstrates a superiority in uncovering interrelationships among multiple SDGs and identifying compromised alternatives within the compound socio-ecological nexus. The model also provides detailed strategies for resource allocation and pollutant control, offering valuable guidance to policymakers and stakeholders in pursuing sustainable and harmonious watershed management.

Modelling co-evolution of resource feedback and social network dynamics in human-environmental systems

Games with environmental feedback have become a crucial area of study across various scientific domains, modelling the dynamic interplay between human decisions and environmental changes, and highlighting the consequences of our choices on natural resources and biodiversity. In this work, we propose a co-evolutionary model for human-environment systems that incorporates the effects of knowledge feedback and social interaction on the sustainability of common pool resources (CPRs). The model represents consumers as agents who adjust their resource extraction based on the resource’s state. These agents are connected through social networks, where links symbolize either affinity or aversion among them. The interplay between social dynamics and resource dynamics is explored, with the system’s evolution analyzed across various network topologies and initial conditions. We find that knowledge feedback can independently sustain CPRs. However, the impact of social interactions on sustainability is dual-faceted: it can either support or impede sustainability, influenced by the network’s connectivity and heterogeneity. A notable finding is the identification of a critical network mean degree, beyond which a depletion/repletion transition parallels an absorbing/active state transition in social dynamics, i.e. individual agents and their connections are/are not prone to being frozen in their social states. Furthermore, the study examines the evolution of the social network, revealing the emergence of two polarized groups where agents within each community have the same affinity. Finally, we observe an inverse relationship between system complexity and sustainability. Comparative analyses using Monte–Carlo simulations and rate equations are employed, along with analytical arguments, to reinforce the study’s findings. The model successfully captures key aspects of the human-environment system, offering valuable insights to understand how both the spread of information and social dynamics may impact the sustainability of CPRs.

Tipping points in coupled human–environment system models: a review

Abstract. Mathematical models that couple human behavior to environmental processes can offer valuable insights into how human behavior affects various types of ecological, climate, and epidemiological systems. This review focuses on human drivers of tipping events in coupled human–environment systems where changes to the human system can abruptly lead to desirable or undesirable new human–environment states. We use snowball sampling from relevant search terms to review the modeling of social processes – such as social norms and rates of social change – that are shown to drive tipping events, finding that many affect the coupled system depending on the system type and initial conditions. For example, tipping points can manifest very differently in human extraction versus human emission systems. Some potential interventions, such as reducing costs associated with sustainable behavior, have intuitive results. However, their beneficial outcomes via less obvious tipping events are highlighted. Of the models reviewed, we found that greater structural complexity can be associated with increased potential for tipping events. We review generic and state-of-the-art techniques in early warning signals of tipping events and identify significant opportunities to utilize digital social data to look for such signals. We conclude with an outline of challenges and promising future directions specific to furthering our understanding and informing policy that promotes sustainability within coupled human–environment systems. Non-technical summary. Mathematical models that include interactions between humans and the environment can provide valuable information to further our understanding of tipping points. Many social processes such as social norms and rates of social change can affect these tipping points in ways that are often specific to the system being modeled. Higher complexity of social structure can increase the likelihood of these transitions. We discuss how data are used to predict tipping events across many coupled systems.

Research on Coupling Effect Measurement and Coupling Risk Simulation of Green Building Construction Safety Risk Factors

The construction of green buildings is an important direction for the transformation and development of the construction industry, but it is beset with problems such as a lack of construction experience, immature new technologies, and unstable material properties; these issues bring risks to the construction stage of green buildings, and the coupling of uncertain risk factors in the construction process of green buildings may lead to unfavorable results. The purpose of this study is to explore the coupling degree of green building construction safety risk factors and the changing trend in their coupling combinations at the system risk level. First, the risk factor index system was defined by reading the literature and gathering expert opinions, and the coupling degree between risk factors was measured using an improved coupling degree model. Then, a system dynamics model was established to simulate and analyze the coupling effects among the risk factors and determine the combinations with the greatest influence. The results show that the risk probability is proportional to the risk coupling value, the human–environment coupling value is the largest, and the material equipment–management coupling value is the smallest. The human–environment system simulation shows that reducing the coupling value of system factors will promote a decrease in the total level of system risk. According to the research conclusions, measures to prevent risk coupling are proposed, which offer theoretical references for green building practitioners carrying out risk management; these measures hold a certain guiding significance for the risk control and future development of green buildings.

Elisabeth Mann Borgese: Reflections from the Past for the Future of Earth Systems Governance

Abstract In a time of global ecological crisis, some legal scholars are calling for the convergence of law and Earth Systems Governance as a pathway for moving forward. Specifically, the Earth Systems Governance Framework is understood as an approach to steering the co-evolution of human-environment systems. However, as I argue, this path forward may not necessarily be new. Elisabeth Mann Borgese (1918–2002), Nobel Peace Prize nominee and founder of the International Oceans Institute, spent the better part of the past century theorizing, as well as seeking to implement, such ecological relational thinking. In this Reflection, I briefly introduce some of Mann Borgese’s contributions to global ocean governance and the ways in which her thinking speaks to ongoing research in the areas of Earth Systems Governance and Earth Systems Law.

Characterizing the multisectoral impacts of future global hydrologic variability

There is significant uncertainty in how global water supply will evolve in the future, due to uncertain climate, socioeconomic, and land use change drivers and variability of hydrologic processes. It is critical to characterize the potential impacts of uncertainty in future water supply given its importance for food and energy production. In this work, we introduce a framework that integrates stochastic hydrology and human-environmental systems to characterize uncertainty in future water supply and its multisector impacts. We develop a global stochastic watershed model and demonstrate that this model can generate a large ensemble of realizations of basin-scale runoff with global coverage that preserves the mean, variance, and spatial correlation of a historical benchmark. We couple this model with a well-known human-environmental systems model to explore the impacts of runoff variability on the water and agricultural sectors across spatial scales. We find that the impacts of future hydrologic variability vary across sectors and regions. Impacts are felt most strongly in the water and agricultural sectors for basins that are expected to have unsustainable water use in the future, such as the Indus River basin. For this basin, we find that the variability in future irrigation water withdrawals and irrigated cropland increase over time due to uncertainty in renewable water supply. We also use the Indus basin to show how our stochastic ensemble can be leveraged to explore the global multisector consequences of local extreme runoff conditions. This work introduces a novel technique to explore the propagation of future hydrologic variability across human and natural systems and spatial scales.

Evaluating alternatives to improve drinking water supply within a complex and uncertain human-environment system: case of the Port-au-Prince Metropolitan Region

ABSTRACT Improving decision making in urban water supply systems under a wide range of changing human-environmental scenarios represents a challenging issue, especially when there is a high level of uncertainty and the available information is limited or scarce. To address this concern, the present study applied a decision aiding process to evaluate long-term planning solutions for the Port-au Prince Metropolitan Region’s water supply in Haiti, which is recognized for having a low coverage of water services and great lack of monitoring data. The methodological framework assessed pre-specified alternatives to face uncertain future conditions, with the main emphasis of being aware of how these uncertainties can be framed in the water management practices. To discover the most robust management solutions, a tradeoff analysis and multi-objective optimization allowed to explore the performance of alternatives across many future states of the world and multiple criteria. The results highlighted that human factors associated with the increase of per-capita water use and population growth posed a greater risk on water supply coverage than climatic factors. In addition, the decision support can offer a comprehensive representation of potential supply/demand futures, and provides decision-makers with the opportunity to discuss a posteriori the most appropriate water supply solution under an extensive variety of information with severe uncertainty.

Research on Soundscape Design Strategies for Public Spaces in Dong Village, Dali

Soundscape reflects the ecological, cultural and social characteristics of regions and ethnic groups and is an important part of the public environment. Because in the past environmental design, the breadth and depth of the design that considers the human settlement environment system as a large framework should be included and involved. Therefore, this article analyzes the existing public space and landscape nodes of the public environment of Dali Dong Village, and uses the knowledge of environmental science, sociology, landscape science and other related disciplines to explore the Dong village public environment as the design practice object. It hopes to provide a useful reference for the research on sound landscape design of traditional ethnic minority settlements in my country.

One Health in human-environment systems: Linking health and the sustainable use of natural resources

Abstract Social-ecological system (SES) approaches have been used for strategic analyses of sustainable use of natural resources like rangelands, fishing grounds, livestock or forests. Elinor Ostrom’s concept of “governing the commons” contradicts the so called “tragedy of the commons” that assumes that common pool resources are inevitably overused and irreversibly destroyed. We expand the SES to One Health in Social-Ecological Systems (OHSES) by including humans as a resource system that contributes to the human capital of a nation’s gross domestic product (GDP). Ill health leads to a reduction of health and wellbeing benefits through premature death, disability or temporary reduction of work capacity. The OHSES analysis framework uses game theory and mathematical modelling for strategy evaluation and comparison. It enables us to analyse the system’s current situation and find possible Nash equilibria, Pareto-optimal solutions, and best resource management strategies while maintaining sustainable ecosystem services. A first example on the elimination of dog rabies in Africa shows that when compared to human post-exposure vaccination, coordinated mass dog vaccination is the best strategy for all countries, leading to human capital benefits of US$10 billion over a period of 30 years with the possible elimination of the disease. Inaction and all other strategies have lower welfare benefits and could not lead to the elimination of dog rabies. Further case studies relating human and animal health and sustainable natural resource use are proposed. Epistemological assumptions and ethical issues of a OHSES approach are discussed in the light of pressing needs to combine human and animal health with the sustainable use of natural resources to address the broader impact of the contemporary threats such as antimicrobial resistance, biodiversity loss and climate change. One Health statement This article is a theoretical and methodological contribution to One Health science. It extends the social ecological systems approach of “governing the commons” by Elinor Ostrom through the inclusion of human resources as part of resource system and resource units as One Health in Social-Ecological Systems (OHSES). The concepts of “governing the commons” and “One Health” overlap through the participatory transdisciplinary processes or interactions embedded in both approaches that lead to outcomes or added value for managing shared natural resources and promoting human and animal health. A first case study on the elimination of rabies in Africa is summarized, demonstrating the power of a game theoretical strategy analysis for addressing complex problems of both health and natural resource management. We emphasize system thinking, participatory transdisciplinarity, collective action, equity and gender and the added-value as the main principles of One Health implementation to be evaluated. Several holistic and interdisciplinary approaches exist to safeguard health. Three of the most influential concepts are One Health, EcoHealth, and Planetary Health with actually important differences between them (Lerner and Berg, 2017 ; Zinsstag et al ., 2023a ). Here we add a quantifiable framework to the qualitative concept of Health in Social-Ecological Systems (HSES), coined in 2011 (Zinsstag et al ., 2011 ). OHSES encompasses not only human and animal health but also biodiversity, ecology, climate change, agricultural systems, and various social sciences as an integrated systemic mixed quantitative and qualitative approach to relate environmental sustainability and the health of all species.

A systematic view of phosphorus loss and its retention: Pathways, mechanisms, and measures

Persistent phosphorus losses (PLs) are exacerbated by a complex interplay of human-induced factors. To mitigate the inexorable PLs, a systematic approach is needed to identify the underlying determinants among various factors affecting PLs. We analyzed the key drivers of phosphorus losses based on the phosphorus flows and human behaviors in human-environment systems. We then developed a framework to characterize and categorize the determinants of PLs and their associated pathways, systematically categorizing PLs into a hierarchical scheme consisting of three primary categories and a total of thirteen distinct subcategories, to facilitate the development of sustainable phosphorus management strategies to slow down PLs. Each subcategory possesses distinct attributes in mechanism, media, scope, and behavior, which can be leveraged to devise effective and practicable phosphorus retention measures. This systematic scheme lays a foundation for understanding the relationship between PLs and the corresponding phosphorus retention strategies.

A framework to link climate change, food security, and migration: unpacking the agricultural pathway

Researchers have long hypothesized linkages between climate change, food security, and migration in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). One such hypothesis is the “agricultural pathway,” which postulates that negative climate change impacts on food production harm livelihoods, which triggers rural out-migration, internally or abroad. Migration is thus an adaptation to cope with the impacts of climate change and bolster livelihoods. Recent evidence suggests that the agriculture pathway is a plausible mechanism to explain climate-related migration. But direct causal connections from climate impacts on food production to livelihood loss to rural out-migration have yet to be fully established. To guide future research on the climate-food-migration nexus, we present a conceptual framework that outlines the components and linkages underpinning the agricultural pathway in LMICs. We build on established environmental-migration conceptual frameworks that have informed empirical research and deepened our understanding of complex human-environmental systems. First, we provide an overview of the conceptual framework and its connection to the agricultural pathway hypothesis in the climate mobility literature. We then outline the primary components and linkages of the conceptual framework as they pertain to LMIC contexts, highlighting current research gaps and challenges relating to the agricultural pathway. Last, we discuss possible future research directions for the climate-food-migration nexus. By highlighting the complex, multiscale, interconnected linkages that underpin the agricultural pathway, our framework unpacks the multiple causal connections that currently lie hidden in the agricultural pathway hypothesis.

Quality control in manufacturing – review and challenges on robotic applications

ABSTRACT Quality control methods and techniques have been investigated in different fields of manufacturing during the last decades. The introduction of robots in manufacturing processes has created a rapid deployment of robotic applications, leading to an increased research interest in the aspect of quality control in such industrial environments. This paper summarizes and presents a review of recent research and progress on quality control technologies, focusing on robot-based production systems. The role of different parameters affecting the control of quality in robotic tasks is also discussed, incorporating the impact of operator support systems in human robot collaborative environments. Research gaps and implications of quality control in robotic applications are also described, and a future outlook of research in the particular field is provided.

A new framework for assessing ecosystem health with consideration of the sustainable supply of ecosystem services

ContextThe establishment of an ecosystem health assessment framework from a human–environment view is vital to landscape sustainability. Although several studies have improved the assessment framework by integrating ecosystem services (ESs) supply or demand, consideration of the sustainable supply of ESs is lacking.ObjectivesThe objective of this paper is to improve the current methodological framework by integrating ecological integrity and the sustainable supply of ESs to establish an ecosystem health assessment framework.MethodsAn improved assessment framework, including four indicators, vigor, organization, resilience, and ecosystem services supply rate, was established from the perspective of human–environment systems. Then, the performance of the improved assessment framework was demonstrated in a case study in China from 2000 to 2020.ResultsFrom 2000 to 2020, the overall spatial pattern of ecosystem health values in China was high in the southern and southeastern coastal regions, and low health values were mostly located in the western region, parts of Inner Mongolia, and metropolitan areas, with a descending trend from southeast to northwest. The imbalance between the potential and actual supply of ESs greatly contributed to the deterioration of regional ecosystem health. During the study period, the regional ecosystem in China was found to be in a more unhealthy state than in traditional Vigor-Organization-Resilience-Ecosystem services (VORES) evaluation.ConclusionsThe improved assessment framework that incorporates the ecological integrity and sustainable supply of ESs provides a new perspective for understanding the complex inherent characteristics of ecosystems and the regional human-nature connectedness in coupled human–environment systems. Our results could serve as a scientific reference for practical landscape governance in a changing world to achieve landscape sustainability.

Exploring the Impact of Future Land Uses on Flood Risks and Ecosystem Services, With Limited Data: Coupling a Cellular Automata Markov (CAM) Model, With Hydraulic and Spatial Valuation Models

Land use changes can majorly affect many parameters that are directly or indirectly interlinked to various human-environmental systems, including hydrological processes and flood risks. The knowledge of future land cover changes is crucial for better managing human-environmental interactions and addressing potential environmental challenges, such as floods. In this work, the impact of future land cover changes in flood inundation is assessed, using a case study in northeast Indiana, US. A Cellular Automata Markov (CAM) model is applied, combining Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Python, to predict land changes and provide future land cover maps, along with statistical validation measures. The land use map outputs are then used in a HEC-RAS hydraulic model, to test the different flooding impacts under a design storm, using the rain-on-grid routine. The results indicate that even slightly more urbanized and deforested areas can increase the potential flood extent. Furthermore, the impacts of these forecasted land cover changes are quantified in monetary terms, based on a spatial Ecosystem Services Valuation (ESV) model. The findings indicate that as certain land uses (mainly wetlands, followed by forests) give their place to build-up areas, barren land, or even agricultural lands, the ‘lost’ value due can reach 1.5 million USD in 2051. The novelty of this study lies in int integrated character, combining for the first time to our knowledge land cover forecast with hydrologic-hydraulic modelling and spatial ESV, showing thus the future changes, risks, and potential economic losses, respectively. This application uses the minimum necessary input data to perform the analyses, and all data and codes are publicly available, contributing thus to the transferability and reproducibility of the approach.

Modelling Adaptive and Anticipatory Human Decision-Making in Complex Human-Environment Systems

Modelling Adaptive and Anticipatory Human Decision-Making in Complex Human-Environment Systems

Generation of Green Carbon Nanomaterials from Biomass Pyrolysis for the Production of Biofuel and Bioenergy

The need to find a Renewable Energy Resource (RER) with significant potential has been brought to light by the fact that petroleum and natural gas are being used up to their full capacity, reducing the amount of energy produced globally. The issues relating to the preparation, hydrolysis with enzymes, and biomass culture processes that must be completed before bioenergy may be produced are still being addressed via ongoing initiatives. Because nanotechnology offers unique active areas for multiple responses and operations, it can overcome the difficulties posed by these biomass sources. Pyrolysis may be used to produce chemicals and RER from biomass sustainably. However, the process's high production expenses prevent it from being widely used. This approach's long-term reliability and financial viability may be greatly increased by fabricating high-quality, active carbon nanoparticles using waste heat and renewable progenitors. This paper suggests using Biomass Pyrolysis to Generate Green Carbon Nanomaterials (BP-GGCN) for biofuel and bioenergy production. The suggested method makes the most of biomass pyrolysis's financial gains and sustainability by producing superior Three-Dimensional Graphene Bubbles (3DGBs) using residual pyrolysis gases and thermal waste. The resultant 3DGBs work well in energy storage and ecologically sensitive applications. According to a life-cycle study, the current approach has less overall effect than the traditional Chemical Vapour Deposition (CVD) technique on human well-being, environmental systems, and resources. The specific qualities of this GGCN help biofuels, biodiesel, enzymes, and microbial fuel cells work better.

Multi‐scalar interactions between mismanaged plastic waste and urban flooding in an era of climate change and rapid urbanization

AbstractMismanaged plastic waste (MPW) and urban flooding are typically considered distinct environmental challenges. However, there are notable links between growing quantities of MPW and the rising incidence of floods in cities. A majority of people now live in cities, especially along coastlines and in estuaries where residents are both vulnerable to flooding and significant sources of plastic waste. Predicted increases in the frequency and severity of heavy rainfall associated with anthropogenic climate change coincide with rising global quantities of MPW, much of which is discharged into water bodies and the sea. Given the urgent and expanding nature of these issues, understanding impacts of urban floods on solid waste management and vice versa is crucial. Social‐ecological systems (SES) thinking calls for a holistic approach to the relationships and interactions between human actors and environmental systems which can result in dynamic and emergent outcomes. In this review paper, we make a first step towards better understanding of the interactions between urban flooding and MPW by synthesizing emerging quantitative and qualitative research on particular aspects of such interactions. More research is needed which explicitly focuses on and elaborates the nature of these interactions, and also to consider potential relations across scales (from global to local) and over both long and short timeframes. We conclude that an SES approach can make visible novel possibilities for interventions which are context specific and sensitive to the interactions between urban floods and MPW.This article is categorized under: Science of Water > Water and Environmental Change Human Water > Water Governance Engineering Water > Planning Water