Water-related conflict and cooperation events worldwide: A new dataset on historical and change trends with potential drivers.

Despite strong interest and conflict research spanning multiple disciplines, connections between water flows and conflicts remain unclear, due to incomplete datasets on water-related conflict-cooperation events and poor understanding of socioeconomic and biophysical causes of such conflicts. The dataset on water-related conflict-cooperation events compiled in this study extends to 2019, updating previous datasets that covered only up to 2008, yielding important new insights on cooperation-conflict trends. Global and regional trends were analyzed using the new events dataset, together with changes in hydroclimatic variables and population density.

Mechanistic insight into the degradation of ciprofloxacin in water by hydroxyl radicals.

Ciprofloxacin (CIP), an effective antibacterial drug, is widely used to treat bacterial infections in humans and animals. However, drug pollution from residues and the development of resistant genes may pose serious ecological risks. Among the known methods of CIP degradation, advanced oxidation technology initiated by hydroxyl radicals exhibits great potential.

Long-term performance, microbial evolution and spatial microstructural characteristics of anammox granules in an upflow blanket filter (UBF) treating high-strength nitrogen wastewater.

Granule formation, microstructure and microbial spatial distribution are crucial to granule stability and nitrogen removal. Here, an upflow blanket filter (UBF) reactor with porous fixed cylinder carriers was fabricated and operated for 234 days to investigate overall performance and the formation mechanism of anammox granules. Results showed that the UBF performed the highest nitrogen removal efficiency of 93.

Efficient photocatalytic remediation of typical antibiotics in water via MnO decorated carbon nitride nanotube.

Antibiotic abuse will seriously affect the ecology and environment. Photocatalytic oxidation technology based on carbon nitride (g-CN) has been widely adopted to treat wastewater containing antibiotics. Here, a novel composite photocatalyst MCNT was prepared by loading manganese oxide (MnO) on the surface of g-CN nanotubes (CNT).

Variation characteristics and the impact of urbanization of extreme precipitation in Shanghai.

With the rapid development of urbanization, the characteristics of extreme precipitation in urban areas have changed significantly. Revealing the spatial and temporal distribution of extreme precipitation under changing environment is the basis of scientific response to the urban flood. Trends of extreme precipitation at 95% and 99% thresholds in Shanghai and the influence of urbanization on them were analyzed.

Assessing Changes in the Ecosystem Services Value in Response to Land-Use/Land-Cover Dynamics in Shanghai from 2000 to 2020.

Land resources are foundational for human survival and development. In contrast, land use/land cover (LULC) dynamics drive considerable changes in ecosystem services. Recently, China witnessed a new stage of rapid urbanization.

Spatial-temporal evolution characteristics of land use and habitat quality in Shandong Province, China.

To explore the sustainable mechanism of land use and habitat quality, the present study examined the land cover data of Shandong Province from 1980 to 2020 to understand the spatial-temporal evolution characteristics of land use. The "Integrated Valuation of Environmental Services and Trade-off" (InVEST-HQ) model and spatial auto-correlation model were further employed to evaluate the habitat quality and analyze the relationship between its spatial distribution pattern and land use type. Our results suggested that cultivated land was the dominant land use type in Shandong Province from 1980 to 2020.

Environmental and Resource Impacts from an Aggressive Regionalized Carbon Peak Policy.

When and how to achieve a carbon peak is a concern for provincial regions within China under the context of achieving carbon neutrality in 2060. This study investigates the overall carbon peak environmental and resource impacts under current national targets and Shanghai's latest more aggressive carbon peak policy by using a dynamic multiple-region computable general equilibrium (CGE) model for the year 2030. Results show that (1) the national carbon peak and the more aggressive regional policy in Shanghai will result in energy consumption and carbon emissions decreases when compared to the business-as-usual scenario in most provinces; (2) although some cobenefits in water use reduction may occur in most provinces under the carbon policy scenarios, the results show positive and negative variations; (3) provincial level environmental and resources in transport, electricity, metal smelting and pressing, and agricultural production sectors are most influenced by Shanghai's aggressive carbon peak policy; and (4) the outsourced environmental and resource impacts from Shanghai to other provinces are very significant under Shanghai's aggressive carbon policy.

Atomic Hydrogen in Electrocatalytic Systems: Generation, Identification, and Environmental Applications.

Electrochemical reduction has emerged as a viable technology for the removal of a variety of organic contaminants from water. Atomic hydrogen (H*) is the primary species generated in electrochemical reduction processes. In this work, identification and quantification for H* are reviewed with a focus on methods used to generate H* at different positions.

Application of persulfate-based oxidation processes to address diverse sustainability challenges: A critical review.

Over the past years, persulfate (PS) is widely applied due to their high versatility and efficacy in decontamination and sterilization. While treatment of organic chemicals, remediation of soil and groundwater, sludge treatment, disinfection on pathogen microorganisms have been covered by most published reviews, there are no comprehensive and specific reviews on its application to address diverse sustainability challenges, including solid waste treatment, resources recovery and regeneration of ecomaterials. PS applications mainly rely on direct oxidation by PS itself or the reactive sulfate radical (SO) or hydroxyl radical (OH) from the activation of peroxodisulfate (PDS, SO) or peroxymonosulfate (PMS, HSO) in SO-based advanced oxidation processes (SO-AOPs).

Magnetic reed biochar materials as adsorbents for aqueous copper and phenol removal.

Organics and heavy metals are common pollutants in many wastewaters and water bodies. Adsorption processes by magnetic materials can rapidly remove these pollutants from water and effectively recycle adsorbent. In this study, magnetic analyzer, X-ray diffraction, Flourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and granulometry were used to characterize the synthesized magnetic reed biochar materials (ZnFeO/biochar).

Nitrogen removal and microbial mechanisms in a novel tubular bioreactor-enhanced floating treatment wetland for the treatment of high nitrate river water.

A novel tubular bioreactor-enhanced floating treatment wetland (TB-EFTW) was developed for the in situ treatment of high nitrate river water. When compared with the enhanced floating treatment wetland (EFTW), the TB-EFTW system achieved 30% higher total nitrogen removal efficiency. Further, the average TN level of the TB-EFTW effluent was below the Grade IV requirement (1.

Occurrence of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the seafood from an important fishing area in the East China Sea and a comparison between seafood from different origins.

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) were analyzed in a variety of coastal marine seafood from the Wentai fishing area, which is in proximity to highly urbanized areas and provides a significant portion of the marine aquatic products in Eastern China. Specifically, total PAHs ranged from 320 to 2500 ng/g d.w.

Preliminary risk assessment of regional industrial enterprise sites based on big data.

An accurate and inexpensive preliminary risk assessment of industrial enterprise sites at a regional scale is critical for environmental management. In this study, we propose a novel framework for the preliminary risk assessment of industrial enterprise sites in the Yangtze River Delta, which is one of the fastest economic development and most prominent contaminated regions in China. Based on source-pathway-receptors, this framework integrated text and spatial analyses and machine learning, and its feasibility was validated with 8848 positive and negative samples with a calibration and validation set ratio of 8:2.

A fine spatial resolution modeling of urban carbon emissions: a case study of Shanghai, China.

Quantification of fossil fuel carbon dioxide emissions (CEs) at fine space and time resolution is a critical need in climate change research and carbon cycle. Quantifying changes in spatiotemporal patterns of urban CEs is important to understand carbon cycle and development carbon reduction strategies. The existing spatial data of CEs have low resolution and cannot distinguish the distribution characteristics of CEs of different emission sectors.

Environmental footprints of soybean production in China.

As a significant protein source for humans and animals, soybean () has experienced a fast growth with the rapid development of population and economy. Despite broad interest in energy consumption and CO emissions generated by soybean production, there are few impact-oriented water footprint assessments of soybean production. This study evaluates the fossil energy, carbon, and water footprints of China's soybean production so that key environmental impacts can be identified.

Estimation of Unintended Treated Wastewater Contributions to Streams in the Yangtze River Basin and the Potential Human Health and Ecological Risk Analysis.

"Clean water and sanitation" is one of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. One primary objective of wastewater treatment is to remove contaminants such as pathogens, nutrient, and organic matter from wastewater, while not all contaminants could be removed effectively. Wastewater treatment plants would inevitably represent concentrated point sources of residual contaminant loadings into surface waters.

Watershed scale spatiotemporal nitrogen transport and source tracing using dual isotopes among surface water, sediments and groundwater in the Yiluo River Watershed, Middle of China.

Nitrogen pollution has been shown to have strong potential threaten to the human drinking water and agriculture. However, identifying the nitrogen and spatial-temporal variation and nitrogen pollution sources among surface water, sediments and groundwater at the watershed scale is still of insufficient understanding. In this study, multi-methods (dual isotopes, hydraulic, hydrogeochemical methods) have been used and 400 samplings (40 sediments, 20 shallow groundwater and 40 surface waters in four periods in dry and wet seasons) were collected from 2018 to 2020.

Quantifying the Impact of Urban Form and Socio-Economic Development on China's Carbon Emissions.

Carbon emissions (CEs) are one of the most important factors causing global warming. The development of social economy and the acceleration of the urbanization process leads to increasing CEs, especially in China. Therefore, it has become an international community consensus to control the growth of CEs and mitigate global warming.

Spatio-Temporal Evolution, Prediction and Optimization of LUCC Based on CA-Markov and InVEST Models: A Case Study of Mentougou District, Beijing.

With the rapid advancement of urbanization and industrialization, the contradiction between the social economy and resources and the environment has become increasingly prominent. On the basis of limited land resources, the way to promote multi-objective comprehensive development such as economic, social development and ecological and environmental protection through structure and layout regulation, so as to maximize regional comprehensive benefits, is an important task of current land spatial planning. Our aim is to obtain land-use-change data in the study area using remote-sensing data inversion and multiple-model simulation.

Spatio-Temporal Characteristics of Landscape Ecological Risks in the Ecological Functional Zone of the Upper Yellow River, China.

The Ecological Functional Zone of the Upper Yellow River (EFZUYR) is a critical water-catching area in the Yellow River Basin, the ecological security of which affects the sound development of the ecosystem in the entire basin. Recently, significant land use changes have aggravated regional ecological risks and seriously affected the sustainable development of EFZUYR. In this context, this paper provides an in-depth study of the ecological risks caused by land use landscape changes.

A Camel Nose-Inspired Highly Durable Neuromorphic Humidity Sensor with Water Source Locating Capability.

Numerous emerging applications in modern society require humidity sensors that are not only sensitive and specific but also durable and intelligent. However, conventional humidity sensors do not have all of these simultaneously because they require very different or even contradictory design principles. Here, inspired by camel noses, we develop a porous zwitterionic capacitive humidity sensor.

Technologies and perspectives for achieving carbon neutrality.

Global development has been heavily reliant on the overexploitation of natural resources since the Industrial Revolution. With the extensive use of fossil fuels, deforestation, and other forms of land-use change, anthropogenic activities have contributed to the ever-increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases (GHGs) in the atmosphere, causing global climate change. In response to the worsening global climate change, achieving carbon neutrality by 2050 is the most pressing task on the planet.