Social polarization is an increasingly important phenomenon in the context of sustainable land-use changes. A spatial component is often assumed: an urban-rural polarization with “urban" and "rural" being stereotyped as dichotomous categories. Some arguments from the literature contradict this dichotomy: intermediate urban centers are located in rural areas, inhabitants may have different backgrounds, and interconnectedness and commonalities defy a strict urban-rural divide. This study is using the understanding of the agriculturally shaped environment as an indicator for urban-rural conflicts and to detect social polarization. By examining regional patterns in understanding clusters, the study reflects on rural heterogeneity beyond the traditional urban–rural divide. It contributes to capturing the complexity of rural areas and challenges simplistic urban–rural distinctions. The study is based on a large-scale population survey conducted in Western Pomerania, a predominantly rural region with smaller urban centers in northeastern Germany characterized by several land use conflicts. Based on multinomial logistic regression, significant associations between regional characteristics and understanding clusters are found, while controlling for socio-demographic variables. Some results support, while others contradict the hypothesis that understanding of the agricultural environment is not dichotomously distributed along an urban-rural gradient, but is much more heterogeneous. Furthermore, there is a need for action, especially in "urban" areas, to counteract alienation from the agriculturally shaped environment and especially from agriculture, as well as to increase knowledge about sustainability. The authors suggest a more nuanced approach to examining regional differences to accurately address the need for action and counteract social polarization. • Assumed urban-rural polarization can impede sustainable development. • Understanding is essential for constructive (land use) conflict resolution. • Significant associations between regional characteristics and understanding clusters. • Depending on variables, much more heterogeneity than just urban-rural dichotomy. • Special need for action in "urban" areas regarding environmental understanding.

Fine-scale mapping of Oncomelania hupensis habitats in eastern China using multi-season Sentinel-2 imagery and semi-supervised deep learning.

Predicting coastal subsidence and sea-level scenarios in the Sundarbans Delta using InSAR and artificial intelligence for sustainable coastal management.

Predicting ecological security patterns and network resilience under land-use change: Hexi Inland River Basin, China

The conversion of natural grassland to cropland drives thermodynamic destabilization of subsoil DOM over decades

Improving spatial land-use and land-cover change simulations with machine learning: A Python adaptation of the CLUMondo model

Land-use change to eucalypt plantations decreases taxonomic and functional diversity of bird communities

Land-use change shapes arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi diversity and soil health in the Caldenal semi-arid ecosystem

This study employs a coupled 3D hydrodynamic–biogeochemical modeling framework to investigate the spatiotemporal evolution of seasonal hypoxia in the semi-enclosed Beloslav Lake–Varna Lake–Varna Bay system, located along the western Black Sea coast. Using realistic meteorological forcing and four nutrient-loading scenarios, we quantify the roles of stratification, internal organic cycling, and external nutrient inputs in shaping oxygen dynamics. The model successfully reproduces seasonal stratification and captures a distinct surface–bottom decoupling in the distributions of nutrients and organic matter. Under baseline conditions, hypoxia is largely confined to Beloslav Lake in late summer. However, under elevated nutrient loads from both river discharge and a wastewater treatment plant, hypoxic and anoxic zones expand significantly, affecting up to 75% of the bottom area in Beloslav Lake and over 50% of Varna Bay. Vertical oxygen depletion also intensifies, with suboxic conditions extending 10–15 meters into the water column. Daily variability, driven by wind forcing and internal waves, leads to rapid spatial shifts in hypoxia, highlighting the importance of temporally resolved monitoring. The model underscores the cumulative and dynamic nature of bottom-water oxygen depletion in shallow, stratified systems and provides volumetric, spatial, and temporal metrics for ecological risk assessment. The results demonstrate the system’s vulnerability to even moderate increases in nutrient loading and offer actionable insights for regional management in line with the EU Water Framework Directive. The modeling framework also shows strong potential for assessing future climate or land-use change scenarios and for guiding mitigation strategies in complex estuarine and coastal environments. • A 3D coupled model simulates hypoxia in a stratified Black Sea coastal system. • Internal cycling alone causes seasonal hypoxia under moderate nutrient loads. • High loading expands hypoxia to ¿75% of Beloslav Lake and ¿50% of Varna Bay. • Hypoxia shows strong vertical expansion and short-term spatial variability. • Results support EU policy goals by identifying spatial–temporal risk thresholds.

Freshwater lakes play a critical role in the global carbon cycle by storing and transforming organic matter (OM) from both terrestrial and aquatic sources. Small lakes in northern temperate regions, despite their limited surface area, disproportionately influence regional carbon budgets. Buried sediments integrate OM inputs over time and archive ecosystem responses to natural and anthropogenic disturbances. However, the direction and magnitude of recent environmental changes on sediment carbon (C) dynamics remain poorly understood. A 23-centimeter core was collected from a small temperate lake in northeastern USA to evaluate sediment OM content and composition over timescales relevant to historical land-use change, damming, and recovery from acid deposition. Patterns in OM burial and source contributions were revealed via elemental and isotopic analyses of bulk OM and UV–Vis spectrophotometry of water-extractable organic matter (WEOM). The optical metrics expanded observations of likely OM sources beyond the information gained from bulk carbon metrics (total carbon, δ 13 C). The aromaticity of WEOM increased downcore, which is consistent with a shift from increased terrestrial inputs during early logging and damming activity (pre ∼1920) to more microbial-derived OM in recent surficial sediments. Future applications of WEOM optical properties as complements to traditional geochemical metrics can enhance interpretations of lake ecosystem responses recorded in lake sediments to environmental perturbations in temperate lakes. • Highlights (85 character max per point including spaces) • Water-extractable organic matter from lake sediments reveals environmental history • WEOM optical metrics vary more across sediment depth than bulk geochemical metrics • WEOM metrics show promise for broader geochemical applications in lake sediments

The National Land Use Inventory (IUTI), implemented by the Ministry for Environment, Land and Sea Protection (now Ministry of Environment and Energy Security), is the main information source of the National Registry for forest Carbon Sinks. Over time, it has proven to be a valuable tool for investigating land use dynamics, even in its 1% subsample, statistically valid for many applications. This paper presents the evolution of the IUTI sampling system and analyzes land-use changes in Italy over the past 30 years, from 1990 to the 2022 update, carried out as part of the GeoSciencesIR Project. The emerging trends are consistent with those highlighted in the 1990-2008 land-use analysis and with the dynamics observed in European and Mediterranean contexts. The main trends highlighted: (i) a significant reduction in Arable land and other herbaceous crops, from 11.4 to 9.6 million ha, with a smaller contraction than in the first period. This land-use class was dominant in Italy until a few years ago; as of 2022, it has been surpassed in extent by woodland. The main cause of reduction is linked to the expansion of urbanized areas in the plains and the progressive recolonization of abandoned farmland by forest in hilly and mountainous areas. (ii) A significant reduction in Grasslands, pastures, and uncultivated land, from 2.1 to 1.7 million ha, mainly due to natural recolonization by woodland. This dynamic could lead to the progressive reduction in semi-natural areas in the future, with all the ensuing environmental and landscape implications. (iii) A considerable expansion in woodland, particularly in hilly and mountainous areas, from 9.1 to 9.9 million ha, becoming the dominant land use class. This expansion, with a lower rate in the second period (2008-2022), is mainly due to the natural evolution of “other wooded lands” and the recolonization of abandoned farmland and disused pastures, largely driven by the ongoing depopulation of mountainous areas. (iv) The progressive expansion of urbanized areas, from 1.6 to 2.3 million ha, especially in the lowland belt, mainly driven by urban sprawl, which still shows steady growth in Italy. Despite the many benefits brought by forest expansion, this spontaneous recolonization is contributing to the loss of cultural landscapes linked to agro-pastoral practices, as well as to the progressive reduction of open spaces and to the homogenization of the land. All these issues raise important questions in the definition of land-use planning strategies. In this regard, IUTI has proven to be a reliable information source for the analysis of land use dynamics, providing a solid reference for surveys at different scales.

Climate change has emerged as one of the most critical global challenges of the twenty-first century, primarily driven by anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions resulting from fossil fuel combustion, industrial activities, and land-use changes. Reducing carbon footprints while ensuring sustainable development has therefore become a central objective of global climate policy and research. This paper critically examines key climate change mitigation strategies that contribute to emission reduction and promote long-term sustainability. Drawing upon recent peer-reviewed literature, international reports, and empirical studies, the research analyzes renewable energy transitions, energy efficiency improvements, carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS), nature-based solutions, and policy instruments such as carbon pricing and climate finance. The study highlights that large-scale deployment of renewable energy technologies, particularly solar and wind power, combined with improvements in energy efficiency across buildings, industry, and transport sectors, can significantly reduce global emissions. Complementary strategies such as CCUS and ecosystem-based approaches play a vital role in addressing residual and hard-to-abate emissions while offering co-benefits for biodiversity and livelihoods. The paper further explores the alignment of mitigation strategies with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), emphasizing the importance of equity, just transition, and inclusive growth. Despite technological progress, the research identifies major challenges, including scalability constraints, financial and technological gaps in developing countries, and weak policy implementation. The paper concludes that an integrated, multisectoral mitigation framework supported by strong governance, international cooperation, and equitable climate finance is essential to achieve net-zero emissions and advance sustainable development in line with the Paris Agreement goals.

Towards sustainable waste management: A systematic PRISMA review of environmentally responsible landfill siting.

To contribute to the development of holistic sustainability strategies, we present a computational sustainable design framework for techno-ecological systems that integrates ecosystem coservices into the pursuit of carbon neutrality and net-positive industries. Public-health impacts of land-based pollution mitigation strategies are explicitly modeled and implemented within an integrated optimization framework, enabling the simultaneous evaluation of climate mitigation and local health outcomes. This nature-positive and people-positive approach identifies where land-use changes (LUCs) can most effectively reduce pollutant exposure and health-related incidences, providing practical guidance for prioritizing locations for nature-based solutions. A power generation case study is presented to compare this health-based social benefit approach with conventional and prior techno-ecological approaches. Highlighting LUC spatial importance, our study shows that 97% of averted mortalities may be lost between best- and worst-case scenarios. Our results suggest that cost-benefit analyses of land-use changes focused solely on carbon uptake overlook substantial opportunities to simultaneously improve public health. This approach highlights increased economic value for ecological restoration and supports more informed decision-making and investment in nature-based strategies that address climate change while delivering local benefits to ecosystems and communities.

The Brahmaputra Valley in Northeast India belongs to the sub-tropical humid climatic condition with mean annual rainfall of 2500mm. Northeast India has a high forest cover and it accounts for about 21% of the total forest area in spite of covering only 8% of the nation's land area. It was estimated that the forest area is shrinking due to expansion of rice cultivation and tea and rubber plantation in this region. In this study, soil samples were collected from Nameri National Park near Tezpur, Assam, India, and surrounding commercial tea gardens and rice fields for evaluating the effect of changed land use on soil quality and sustainability. The land-use pattern has a considerable impact on the organic carbon pool in soil, and the carbon management index (CMI) in tea and rice was estimated at 82.09 and 38.70, respectively. The lability indices (LI) of tea and rice fields were 0.983 ± 0.114 and 0.675 ± 0.095, respectively, while LI of forest soil was 1.178 ± 0.183. The carbon degradation potential (CDP) of rice cultivation (0.765) was much higher than tea plantations (0.440). The carbon deterioration potential (CDP) of rice paddy soils was estimated at 0.765, and such a high CDP value was attributed to 650kgha-1yr-1 organic C loss for rice fields of this region. These data indicated that immediate adaptation of suitable soil management strategies is required for sustaining and then restoring the soil quality of rice fields in this region.

Over the past decades, the combined effects of climate, in terms of thermo-pluviometric variability, and land-cover transformations have profoundly reshaped Mediterranean rural landscapes, altering their ecological balance and geomorphological stability. These pressures are particularly critical in badland environments, fragile erosional systems marked by steep slopes, limited vegetation, and dense networks of gullies and mass-wasting features, often associated with rural landscapes. This study investigates four decades (1984–2023) of vegetation dynamics within the Orcia River catchment in Tuscany (Italy), a UNESCO World Heritage Site containing representative sub-humid badlands, with the aim of explaining these dynamics in relation to climate variability and land-use changes. Monthly Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) time series derived from Landsat imagery were analyzed together with MODIS Land Surface Temperature (LST), Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) data, and ground-based meteorological records. Regional Land Use and Land Cover (LULC) maps were analyzed to evaluate land-cover transitions. Long-term vegetation and climate trends were assessed using the Mann–Kendall test and Sen's slope estimator on NDVI pixels filtered using the Pixel Quality Assessment (PQA) band and on climatic satellite and ground-based datasets (2004–2023). Results revealed a steady and statistically significant greening trend across the study area since 1984, with most pixels showing NDVI increases of about 0.005 units per year. Vegetation changes were mostly insignificant or slightly negative during 1984–2003, whereas a more pronounced increase occurred after 2004 (0.005–0.010 units yr−1, up to 0.015 along river corridors). Satellite and ground-based meteorological station data showed a warming trend, particularly in minimum temperatures, whereas precipitation remained generally stable. About 42% of the area underwent land-cover change, primarily due to forest expansion and a reduction in grazing and sparsely vegetated areas, mostly linked to the badlands surface. NDVI–LULC intersection analyses showed that most NDVI variations coincided with land-use transitions, while NDVI increases in stable areas suggest management-driven change in vegetation cover. This greening process seems to be enhanced by the registered warming trend, as suggested by the positive correlation between MODIS-NDVI and MODIS-LST values within the southern forested region. Our findings demonstrate the synergistic influence of climate warming and land-cover change on Mediterranean landscapes. The general greening process, which leads to a reduction of badland surfaces, appears to be driven by more favourable climate conditions, which enhance vegetation vigour, and by the abandonment of traditional agricultural practices, allowing natural vegetation recovery.

In the last ten years, the Kaladhungi area of Nainital district has undergone notable changes in land use influenced by socio-economic, environmental, and institutional elements. Historically focused on agriculture, the area is now experiencing a slow transition to non-agricultural pursuits, such as industrial growth and fruit tree farming. Diminishing interest from young people, shortages in labour, and heightened susceptibility to climate fluctuations have diminished the sustainability of conventional farming methods. As a result, numerous farmers are transforming farmland into orchards or selling it for commercial use, pursuing greater financial gains and less reliance on labour. Simultaneously, agricultural producers encounter various obstacles, including water shortages, conflicts with wildlife, soil deterioration, scattered land ownership, and restricted market opportunities, which all threaten the sustainability of farming. Policy measures, such as land reform rules and environmental safeguards, aim to manage land conversion and maintain ecological balance; nonetheless, gaps in implementation remain. Local governments, using a multi-level governance structure, are essential in overseeing land use changes, balancing progress with ecological preservation. The research underscores that the current transition from agriculture to other land uses signifies a wider rural change, raising worries about the sustainability of agriculture and livelihood security over time in the Himalayan area

The conservation and sustainable management of natural resources have become a vital part of development programmes globally. Nutrient and sediment losses from watersheds are strongly influenced by morphometry, land use, and hydrological characteristics. This study evaluates spatial patterns of water quality and nutrient transport across different reaches of the Sillahalla watershed. The watershed was stratified into three elevation-based reaches viz., lower (<2200 m), middle (2200–2400 m) and upper (2400–2630 m), and integrated grab samples were collected thrice during the monsoon period (June–August 2016). A total of 14 physicochemical parameters, including major ions and nutrient indicators, were analysed using standard laboratory procedures. Analysis of 14 physicochemical parameters revealed that most water quality indicators, including pH, electrical conductivity, total dissolved solids, and major ions, were within permissible limits for irrigation use. However, nitrate concentrations showed a progressive increase from upper (23.5 mg L⁻¹) to lower reaches (55.5 mg L⁻¹), with the lower reach exceeding the recommended limit, indicating potential risks for water quality. Elevated Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD) in the lower reach further suggested contamination from organic and anthropogenic sources. The (Nutrient Pollution Index) NPI for Nitrogen in the lower reach is 1.23 and exceeds the NPI limit of 1 indicating the potential water pollution, and the NPI for P indicates no pollution. However, the combined NPI also indicates the nutrient pollution in Lower reaches. Further, Agricultural Non-Point Source (AGNPS) model was employed to simulate nutrient losses under different management scenarios, including existing farmer practices, 25% and 50% reductions in fertilizer application, and a land-use change scenario involving partial conversion to tea plantations. Based on this result, ready reckoner for fertilizer recommendation was developed for potato and carrot with the STCR equations. This can be readily utilized by the Sillahalla watershed farmers. The study underscores the need for integrated approaches involving farmers, researchers, and policymakers to prioritise soil erosion control and sustainable land management practices. Adoption of site-specific, cost-effective, and climate-resilient soil and water conservation measures, supported by appropriate incentives, can significantly enhance on-field implementation. Overall, the research advocates for a participatory and sustainable watershed management framework to minimise nutrient losses, protect water resources, and ensure long-term agricultural sustainability in hilly regions.

Analyzing the dominant drivers of the Food-Water-Land-Ecosystem (FWLE) nexus in the future is important for improving sustainable development in dryland ecosystems. However, the future trajectories of food–water–land–ecosystem interactions in typical drought-prone regions remain poorly understood. To address this gap, this study coupled the Gray Multi-Objective Programming with Patch-generating Land Use Simulation (GMOP-PLUS) model and applied spatial analysis methods (including longitudinal and zonal statistical analysis, trade-off synergy analysis, and redundancy analysis) to examine the spatiotemporal differentiation patterns of the FWLE nexus in Xinjiang under different development scenarios. Over the past two decades, water yield in Xinjiang’s agricultural landscapes has declined by 57.4%, primarily due to land-use and land-cover changes. Under the 2030 sustainable development scenario, a custom optimization developed via the GMOP model that balances economic and ecological objectives, crop production and habitat quality are projected to increase by 47.9% and 55.1%, respectively. Moreover, redundancy analysis results indicate that the driving contribution of precipitation on the FWLE nexus is expected to reach 76.9% by 2030. These findings provide a clear delineation of priority spatial units for improvement within Xinjiang agro-ecosystem and offer a strategic pathway for balancing ecological conservation and economic development.

ABSTRACT Soil aggregates are critical for maintaining soil structure, nutrient cycling, and microbial habitats, but their dynamics under land-use change remain unclear in cold-region ecosystems. This study aimed to examine soil aggregates, physical and chemical properties, enzyme activities, and bacterial communities across three aggregate size classes (mega-, macro-, and micro-aggregates) in wetland and farmland soils in northeastern China. Wetland soils contained larger proportions of coarse aggregates, higher mean weight diameter (MWD), and greater carbon and nitrogen contents than farmland soils, indicating stronger structural stability and nutrient retention. Microbial α- and β-diversity differed by aggregate size, with larger aggregates harboring more diverse bacterial communities. Soil organic carbon, TN, and SWC were the main drivers of microbial composition, especially in larger aggregates. Bacterial taxa also shifted with land use, with Nitrospinota and Desulfobacterota enriched in wetlands, while Actinobacteriota and Gemmatimonadota were more abundant in farmland. These results highlight the role of aggregate stability in shaping microbial diversity and soil functions during wetland-to-upland transitions.