Human-environment Systems Research Articles

Organizational sustainability: the role of environmentally focused practices in enhancing environmental performance—an emerging market perspective

This study aims to examine the impact of environmental transformational leadership through green human resource management (GHRM) and environmental management system on environmental performance (EP) in textile manufacturing firms. In this cross-sectional study, PLS-SEM method was used to analyze 244 responses collected from managers using purposive sampling. Our findings showed that environmental transformational leadership has a significant relationship with GHRM, environmental management system, and EP. Likewise, environmental management system has a significant relationship with EP. However, GHRM has an insignificant relationship with EP. Moreover, the environmental management system complementary mediates the relationship between environmental transformational leadership and EP. Meanwhile, GHRM insignificantly mediates the relationship between environmental transformational leadership and EP. Our study provides novel contribution by examining environmentally focused practices and organizational sustainability within an under-researched, emerging market context. We offer insights into how environmental transformational leadership and environmental management system addressing environmental challenges as outlined by the SDGs. Managers are suggested to regularly identify environmental issues relevant to the firm, communicate environmental requirements to suppliers, and implement environmental life cycle assessments to redesign products or manufacturing processes.

Global urban activity changes from COVID-19 physical distancing restrictions

During the COVID-19 pandemic changes in human activity became widespread through official policies and organically in response to the virus’s transmission, which in turn, impacted the environment and the economy. The pandemic has been described as a natural experiment that tested how social and economic disruptions impacted different components of the global Earth System. To move this beyond hypotheses, locally-resolved, globally-available measures of how, where, and when human activity changed are critically needed. Here we use satellite-derived nighttime lights to quantify and map daily changes in human activity that are atypical for each urban area globally for two years after the onset of the pandemic using machine learning anomaly detectors. Metrics characterizing changes in lights from pre-COVID baseline in human settlements and quality assurance measures are reported. This dataset, TRacking Anomalous COVID-19 induced changEs in NTL (TRACE-NTL), is the first to resolve COVID-19 disruptions for all metropolitan regions globally, daily. It is suitable to support a variety of post-pandemic studies that assess how changes in human activity impact environmental systems.

Water–energy–carbon nexus among different functional areas of campus: pattern, flow, and efficiency

Water, energy, and carbon, integral to human activities on Earth, directly influence ecosystems and social development through interactions and utilization efficiency. Campuses, as special societal communities, boast diverse functional areas and dense populations with substantial water–energy consumption and carbon emissions. Taking campus as special case allows effective exploration of water–energy–carbon (WEC) nexus at the micro–community scale, which can promote sustainable development on a wider scale. This study calculated the WEC footprints of a campus to reveal the underlying patterns and flows among different functional areas. The efficiency of WEC utilization was evaluated and key areas of the campus suitable for carbon reduction were identified. Results indicated that the water, energy, and carbon footprints of the campus in 2021 were 2.7925 million t, 582.8 thousand GJ, and 56,315.77 t, respectively. The WEC system exhibited intricate nexuses, and the correlations increased annually with direct nexuses proving stronger. The correlations for the WEC, energy–carbon, and energy–water systems were 0.7462, 0.9227, and 0.6436, respectively. Residential areas exhibited higher totals/intensities and the lower utilization efficiency of WEC. The findings provide a new perspective for optimizing regional human–environment systems with multielement nexuses that could transform campuses into efficient, water–saving, energy–conserving, low–carbon communities adapted to and supporting mitigation of the effects of climate change.

Microplastic and Extracellular Vesicle Interactions: Recent Studies on Human Health and Environment Risks

Microplastics (MPs) are widespread environmental pollutants that have drawn significant attention due to their possible health risks to humans and animals, as well as their extensive presence in ecosystems. Recent growing evidence highlights a remarkable relationship between MPs and extracellular vesicles (EVs), nanoscale particles involved in intercellular communication. The purpose of this review was to investigate how the relationships between MPs and EVs can affect cellular functions and how this interaction could impact environmental conditions leading to broader ecological risks. The interaction patterns and bioactivity of both MPs and EVs are strongly influenced by biophysical characteristics such as hydrophobicity, surface charge, and particle size, which have received particular attention from the scientific community. Recent studies indicate that MPs affect EV distribution and their capacity to function appropriately in biological systems. Additionally, MPs can modify the molecular cargo of EVs, which may result in alterations of cell signaling pathways. Understanding the interactions between MPs and EVs could provide important opportunities to comprehend their potential effects on human health and environmental systems, especially when it comes to cancer development, endocrine, metabolic, and inflammatory disorders, and ecological disruptions. This review emphasizes the necessity of multidisciplinary research to clarify the molecular and biophysical mechanisms regulating the interaction between MPs and EVs.

A data pedigree system to support geospatial analyses of human-environment interactions in data poor contexts

Geospatial analyses of human-environment interactions are challenged by the multi-scale, multi-dimensional nature of human-environment systems. Research in such contexts must often rely on integrating multiple, independently produced data sources, which presents heterogenous data qualities and interoperability challenges. Understanding data quality and transparency becomes increasingly important in these contexts, and multi‐granularity and context specific spatial data quality indicators are needed. We develop a data pedigree system that accounts for multiple data quality aspects, geospatial ambiguities that may hinder interoperability, and the fitness-for-use of each data source for indicating causal linkages between human activities and environmental change. We demonstrate its application to a particularly challenging and data sparse case study of identifying the location and timing of transnational cocaine trafficking, or ‘narco-trafficking’, in Central America with five spatial and temporal data quality indicators: geographic clarity, geographic interpretation, provenance, temporal specificity, and narco-trafficking certainty. The proposed data pedigree system provides a systematic and coherent analytical framework for interoperability, comparison, and corroboration of fragmented and incomplete data, which are needed to support advanced geospatial analyses, such as causal inference techniques. The study demonstrates the transferability and operationalization of the data pedigree system for examining complex human-environment interactions, especially those influenced by illicit economies.

Kārwān’s talking forest: Materiality, poetic imagination, and the metaphysics of war violence

ABSTRACT Pir Muhammad Karwan’s 2000 poetry collection Da Xāperey Werghowey traces a history of materiality, emotion, and imagination across human-environmental systems as they are militarized over twenty years in Afghanistan. At the same as it is a unique narration of the wars, this project is a cosmopolitical one. In dialog with other essays in this issue that point to the life of the immaterial in present-day traditions, I show how Kārwān’s bottom-up psycho-history draws on Persianate-classical, Pashto-popular, and embodied knowledges to critique both imperial and Islamist modernity on ontological grounds. It aims to undermine the borders of self and other that geopolitical violence embeds everywhere: barriers between human and other beings, humans and other humans, imagination and material.

Spatial-temporal patterns and driving mechanism of rural vulnerability at county level：A case study of 117 counties in Heilongjiang Province, China

Rural vulnerability is used to understand the potential multi-hazard threats and describe the fragile state of rural areas, which engage decision-makers in developing policies and strategies to reduce vulnerability. Existing studies about rural vulnerability focused on the single exogenous disturbance but paid inadequate attention to the multi-disturbances of rural coupled human-environment system. In addition, current studies mainly analyzed the spatial differentiation of vulnerability degree, ignoring the temporal evolution and the internal elements’ relationships of rural systems. In this study, we structured the cognition of rural vulnerability with a framework for understanding coupled human-environment system, evaluated rural vulnerability with the dimensions of exposure, sensitivity and adaptability, and analyzed the driving mechanism based on spatial-temporal heterogeneity. Taking 117 county units in Heilongjiang Province as study cases, we found that (1) rural vulnerability was indeed significant, as the area of county units with extreme or high vulnerability levels accounts for 50.4% of the total area, indicating a trend of high vulnerability in the counties on the north and south sides and low vulnerability in the center. (2) The spatial-temporal heterogeneity of rural vulnerability presented a clustering trend, shifting from a relatively balanced spatial distribution from 2010 to 2013 to a state of vulnerability aggregation at all levels from 2016 to 2019. (3) Rural vulnerability was mainly affected by changes in the principal factors of sensitivity and adaptability, and driving sources mainly generated by human activities, which was largely derived from rural construction activities and government policy guidance on rural regulation. Based on the results, we classified county units into different rural vulnerability types, put forward a rural resilience planning mode of “General + Special” with planning strategies for each type, which can be used as a reference for rural planning positioning of county and township level land spatial planning in the national territory spatial planning.

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.

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.

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.

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.