Search Results (15)

The energy transition of district heating systems in Poland requires the simultaneous consideration of energy efficiency, operating costs, technical feasibility, and local environmental constraints. This study addresses an identified gap in the literature by combining real operational time series from a municipal district heating system with time-resolved market signals and site-specific resource constraints in a single OPEX-based operational screening framework. A case study is conducted for the city of Ustka using a configuration-based comparison of hybrid supply systems that include a gas-fired combined heat and power (CHP) unit, air-source and ground-source heat pumps, thermal energy storage, and a peak-load boiler. The optimisation model was implemented in MS Excel using the GRG Nonlinear algorithm (Solver) and was driven by the district heating operational data for 2021–2022 together with electricity and natural gas prices from the Polish Power Exchange day-ahead market (TGE RDN), evaluated under both hourly and daily settlement assumptions. The results indicate an optimal capacity split of 1.2 MWel/1.3 MWth for the CHP unit and 1.5 MWel/3.0 MWth for the heat pump system, supported by a required peak boiler capacity of 8.23 MWth. Within the adopted OPEX-based assessment, the lowest value of the unit heat generation indicator was obtained for the CHP-led configuration with combined ground-source and air-source heat pumps (38.45–38.55 PLN/GJ). A distinctive element of the study is the explicit verification of whether an operationally favourable configuration remains practically feasible when local resource constraints are considered. The site assessment indicates limited practical feasibility of the borehole heat exchanger at the analysed location in Ustka, showing that the lowest OPEX result should not be interpreted as a final investment recommendation. The study provides a replicable approach for the Polish district heating operators to screen hybrid transition pathways under real market conditions and to avoid technology choices that are favourable in dispatch models but constrained in practice. From a sustainability perspective, the proposed framework supports more energy-efficient, resilient, and locally feasible district heating transition planning in municipal heat systems. Full article

For the environment and the daily life of urban settlements, in the context of contemporary challenges, severe meteorological events rank second worldwide. Therefore, these events tend to become a real threat to human society and to specific economic activities. The main objective of this study is to analyze the spatio-temporal evolution of severe meteorological events in urban environments and to assess their relationship with atmospheric circulation regimes and urban thermal conditions. The analysis focuses on five types of severe events (significant atmospheric precipitation, hail, strong winds, tornadic structures, and cloud-to-ground lightning) recorded in 11 cities located in the historical region of Muntenia, Romania, over the period 2014–2024. The methodological framework is based on three complementary components. First, a new database was developed by integrating information from multiple sources, including the National Meteorological Administration (ANM), the European Severe Storms Laboratory (ESSL), international databases, and validated media reports, with spatio-temporal filtering and aggregation into synoptic episodes. Second, atmospheric circulation regimes were identified using ECMWF ERA5 reanalysis data, based on geopotential height anomalies at the 500 hPa level, allowing the classification of large-scale synoptic patterns. Third, urban thermal conditions were assessed using the ECMWF CERRA regional reanalysis dataset, which provides high-resolution air temperature data, enabling the analysis of urban–peri-urban thermal contrasts and the estimation of the urban heat island effect. The results highlight a total of 997 severe meteorological events, of which 253 (25.6%) were recorded in the analyzed urban areas, 85 (15.9%) in other towns, and 583 (58.5%) in rural areas. The analysis reveals pronounced interannual and intraseasonal variability, as well as distinct spatial clustering patterns, particularly in urban and peri-urban zones. Among the circulation regimes, the Zonal Regime exhibits the highest event rate, suggesting increased favorability for severe weather occurrence, while other regimes show weaker or even inhibitory effects. In addition, most severe events were associated with positive urban–peri-urban temperature contrasts, indicating an active contribution of the urban heat island effect. By combining observational data, synoptic-scale analysis, and urban-scale thermal assessment, this study provides an integrated regional perspective on severe meteorological events and contributes to the enrichment of data sources in the region, while improving the understanding of their dynamics in urban environments affected by data limitations. Full article

The Western Liao River Basin is one of the cradles of Chinese civilization and is recognized as China’s third mother river, following the Yellow River and the Yangtze River. This study focuses on traditional settlements in the Western Liao River Basin and evaluates their spatial perception elements using the IPA (Importance–Satisfaction Analysis) method. By enriching research on the spatial perception evaluation of traditional settlements, this work provides guidance for the protection and inheritance of traditional settlements in the Western Liao River Basin. Based on a field survey of the current spatial conditions of these traditional settlements, an evaluation system for spatial perception elements is proposed. Using SPSS software, the importance and satisfaction scores of each evaluated element are determined. Using the IPA method, this study classified 18 spatial perception factors of traditional settlements in the West Liao River Basin into four categories: strengths, potential overkill, low priority, and urgent improvement. Differentiated conservation and optimization strategies were proposed based on these findings. The study also reveals that local residents’ spatial perception is an active construction process rooted in daily life and cultural practices, exhibiting characteristics of “place dependence” and “path orientation.” Elements rated as high in importance but low in satisfaction reflect residents’ cultural anxiety and sense of spatial loss. The study emphasizes that the conservation of traditional settlements should shift from expert-led approaches to local collaboration, fully incorporating residents’ cognitive patterns to construct a dynamic pathway for heritage transmission grounded in daily practices and cultural memory. Full article

Urbanization and climate change are exerting significant pressure on the living environments of traditional rural settlements. In western Sichuan, the persistently cold and humid winter further intensifies the risks for local residents. Linpan, a distinctive agricultural settlement form that has evolved over centuries, embodies climate-responsive construction wisdom shaped by long-term human–environment interaction. Within Linpan, residential units—composed of outdoor and indoor spaces—serve as the primary activity spaces for inhabitants. Their spatial configuration and construction practices directly regulate the thermal environment and consequently influence daily life. However, whether the winter thermal environment satisfies contemporary thermal comfort requirements, and which landscape and construction determinants can effectively enhance thermal adaptation, remains insufficiently understood. To address this gap, this study integrated meteorological field measurements, thermal comfort questionnaire surveys, and coupled numerical simulations to systematically investigate winter thermal conditions in both outdoor and indoor spaces of Linpan residential units. The optimization performance of key landscape determinants (vegetation configurations and ground materials) and construction determinants (building layouts and envelope materials) was evaluated. The results reveal climate-responsive passive design strategies based on actual inhabitants’ thermal adaptation, establishing a sustainable design framework for improving winter thermal comfort in traditional agricultural settlements. The findings provide scientific support for rural revitalization and contribute theoretical insights into climate-resilient preservation of vernacular dwellings under changing environmental conditions. Full article

Rapid, objective, and accurate crop damage assessment is essential to minimizing farmers’ financial loss and enabling early settlement of crop insurance. The present study proposes a framework for assessing the impact of heavy rainfall-induced flood on Kharif rice over West Bengal under a satellite-based crop insurance program. Daily actual and normal rainfall data from India Meteorological Department (IMD) were used to study the pattern and magnitude of rainfall to confirm the heavy rainfall incidence over affected districts of West Bengal. The Sentinel-1-derived temporal VH backscatter validated using ground observations was utilized to identify the rice crop areas. The backscatter difference images between pre-and post-peril periods, along with threshold and histogram approaches, were adopted to discriminate the inundated areas from non-inundated areas. The information on the inundated rice crop was derived by intersecting the rice layer with the inundated area. The behavior of temporal backscatter profiles, i.e., pre- and post-peril periods, was analyzed to ascertain the impacts of flood-induced inundation on rice crop health. Further, the phenological information during floods was identified from transplanting periods in backscatter profiles, and damage severity was assessed by integrating inundation, the affected area, and rice crop stage information. The outcomes, validated with ~1500 crop loss surveys (CLSs), show that the framework is effective and useful for crop insurance. Full article

Facing severe depopulation and aging, rural Japanese communities—particularly marginal settlements (genkai shūraku)—increasingly require revitalization strategies that integrate local culture and elder well-being. This study examines the Ōsawa Engawa Café, a community-led initiative in a mountainous tea-growing village, as a site of ikigai-zukuri—the active creation of life purpose among elderly residents. With the use of a mixed-methods approach, including spatial analysis, household surveys, and interviews, Chi-square Automatic Interaction Detection (CHAID) decision tree analysis was applied to identify factors shaping distinct household café operational states: Operating, Discontinued, and Never Operated. Qualitative findings reveal that support from local leaders, experts, and the government enabled the Ōsawa Engawa café’s launch. Broad household participation, often guided by elderly women, sustained the initiative by sharing local culture—such as engawa (verandas), Zairai tea (native variety), and omotenashi (hospitality)—thereby nurturing residents’ ikigai through daily engagement. Complementing these insights, the CHAID analysis revealed a hierarchy of influential factors: high-frequency support from out-migrated family members was the strongest predictor of continued operation; in the absence of such support, co-resident family cooperation proved essential; where both were lacking, agricultural engagement distinguished households that discontinued from those that never operated. Practically, the Ōsawa model offers a replicable, bottom-up strategy that activates the Rural Cultural Landscape (landscapes shaped by traditional rural life and culture, RCL) through community engagement grounded in cultural practices and elderly ikigai-zukuri, contributing to sustainable rural livelihoods. Theoretically, this study reframes ikigai-zukuri as a key socio-cultural pillar of community resilience in aging rural areas. Fostering such culturally embedded, purpose-driven initiatives is essential for building vibrant, adaptive rural communities in the face of demographic decline. However, the study acknowledges that the Ōsawa model’s success is rooted in its specific socio-cultural context, and its replication in other cultural settings may be limited without contextual adaptation. Full article

The increasingly frequent pluvial flood of West African urban settlements indicates the need to investigate the drivers of local rainfall changes. However, meteorological stations are few, unevenly distributed, and work irregularly. Daily satellite rainfall datasets can be used. Nevertheless, these products often need to be more accurate due to sensor errors and limitations in retrieval algorithms. The problem is, therefore, how to characterize rainfall where there is a need for ground-based rainfall records or incomplete series. This study aims to characterize urban rainfall using two satellite datasets. The analysis was carried out in the Sirba river catchment, Burkina Faso, using the Climate Hazards Group InfraRed Precipitation with Station data (CHIRPS) and the Tropical Applications of Meteorology using SATellite and ground-based data (TAMSAT) datasets. Ten indices from the Expert Team on Climate Change Detection and Indices (ETCCDI) of precipitation were calculated, and their statistical trends were evaluated from 1983 to 2023. The study introduces two key innovations: a comparative analysis of precipitation trends using two satellite datasets and applying this analysis to towns within a previously understudied 39,138 km² catchment area that is frequently flooded. Both datasets agree on the increase of (i) annual cumulative rainfall over all towns, (ii) five-day maximum rainfall over the town of Manni, (iii) rainfall due to very wet days in Gayéri, (iv) days of heavy rainfall in Bogandé, Manni and Yalgho, and (v) days of very heavy rainfall in Yalgho. These findings suggest the need for targeted pluvial flood prevention measures in towns with increasing trends in heavy rainfall. Full article

This article presents the results of the automatic monitoring of the concentrations of gaseous impurities of sulfur and nitrogen oxides in the ground-level atmosphere of the urban and rural areas in the Southern Baikal region (East Siberia, Russia). The study was conducted from 2020 to 2023 at the urban Irkutsk station and the rural Listvyanka station located at a distance of 70 km from each other. We calculated the main statistical characteristics of the variations in the concentrations of nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide in the ground-level atmosphere and determined a nature of variability in their concentrations on various time scales: annual, weekly, and daily. Annual variabilities of gaseous pollutants in the ground-level atmosphere above the Irkutsk city and the Listvyanka settlement were similar and showed the highest values in winter and the lowest in summer. The daily and weekly dynamics of the nitrogen oxide concentrations in the urban area clearly depended on the increase in the road traffic during rush hours (morning and evening). In the rural area, there was no such dependence. In this area, the daily and weekly variability in the concentrations of nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide mainly depended on natural meteorological processes. The work systematizes the meteorological parameters at which the largest amount of anthropogenic impurities enters the air basin of Lake Baikal. The maximum values of acid-forming gas concentrations were observed when the air masses were transferred from the northwest direction, which corresponds to the location of sources in the territory of the Irkutsk–Cheremkhovo industrial hub—the largest concentration of anthropogenic objects in the Irkutsk region. Full article

As China’s urbanization progresses, thermal environmental problems such as the overheating effect experienced by cities are becoming more and more obvious in the daily lives of residents. Urban waterfront spaces not only create pleasant landscape environments and regulate microclimates, but also help to maintain ecological diversity. However, the current high-density urban construction model has led to poor air mobility and weakened water regulation functions in cities. Therefore, the rationalization of the spatial form of settlements has become particularly important in recent times. In this study, the Nan Lake area of Wuhan City was taken as the research object, and it was simulated using ENVI-met (5.5.1) software. Further, the orthogonal experimental design method was combined with the extremum difference analysis method. This study focused on the effects of the layout form (LF), floor area ratio (FAR), green form (GF), and offshore distance (OD) on the temperature (T), relative humidity (RH), and thermal comfort in waterfront settlements in summer. This study found that (1) among the various factors, the effect of the GFs and LFs on the overall microclimate of the study region was the most significant, while the volume ratio had the least significant effect on each indicator. (2) The parallel layout form was found to have better ventilation effects compared to the other three layout forms, with its cooling and humidifying effects being superior. (3) Among the four types of greening combinations, the combination of “grass + shrubs” had the best cooling effect at the height of pedestrians, while trees were able to reduce the heat transfer of solar radiation to the ground due to the shading and evaporation effects provided by their canopies. (4) The cooling and humidifying effects provided by the water body of Nan Lake gradually diminished as the distance from its shore increased; therefore, waterfront settlements maintaining a reasonable proximity to their water bodies will help bring into play the microclimate adjustment effect of such bodies. This study provides a valuable reference for the construction and renewal of urban waterfront settlements in the hot summer and cold winter zones of China (HSCW). Full article

Jiaozuo, located in the northwest of Henan Province, is one of the six major anthracite production bases in China. It is susceptible to land subsidence due to over a hundred years of mining history, continuous urbanization, frequent human activities, etc., which poses a great threat to urban infrastructure construction and people’s production and lives. However, traditional leveling techniques are not sufficient for monitoring large areas of land subsidence due to the time-consuming, labor-intensive, and expensive nature of the process. Furthermore, the results of conventional methods may not be timely, rendering them ineffective for monitoring purposes. With the continuous advancement of urbanization, land subsidence caused by groundwater extraction, ground load, and other factors in daily life poses a great threat to urban infrastructure construction and people’s production and lives. In order to monitor the land subsidence in the area of Jiaozuo city, this article uses the Sentienl-1A satellite data covering the city from March 2017 to March 2021 to obtain the accumulated land subsidence and the average land subsidence rate based on the Small Baselines Subset InSAR (SBAS-InSAR) technology. The results indicate that the surface of Jiaozuo area is generally stable, and there has been no large-scale settlement. The settlement rate is roughly between −1 mm/a and 2.2 mm/a, and the areas with obvious land subsidence are mainly located in the southeast and east of Jiaozuo city center. After field investigation, it was found that the land subsidence is mainly caused by two reasons: groundwater excessive mining and excessive surface load. In the northeast of Jiaozuo city, there is a certain uplift area. After on-site investigation, it was found that the area is connected to a tailings pond of an aluminum mine, constantly accumulating abandoned rock masses and sediment, causing an annual uplift rate of +6~+ 24 mm/a. The large-scale extraction of groundwater from farmland in the urban–rural integration area for irrigation of wheat has led to the settlement of buildings in the area with a rate of −11–−74 mm/a. Full article

With the settlement under the mountains, the Chinese Oroqen has started comprehensive interaction with other ethnic groups, and gradually adapted to the wider society. During this process, the shaman culture, which has accompanied the Oroqen’s daily life and social development for a long time, has changed accordingly. Through looking at the changes of shaman culture, the self-adjustment process of Oroqen people in the transition from traditional to modern society can be better understood. It is also an important entry point to understand the social and cultural transformation and community consciousness of Oroqen people, which helps to understand their cultural self-confidence and identity consciousness. Grounded in ethnographic observations, especially “the last shaman” Guan Kouni’s life story, this paper traces the shaman culture and its social significance in the traditional society for Oroqen people. With the help of the research paradigm of “embedding–disembedding–re-embedding”, the article compares the reshaping of the identity of Oroqen shamans under the combined effect of various socio-historical events since the settlement, smoothing out the changing process in the Oroqen shaman culture, and discussing the transformation of the social function of Oroqen shaman. This article offers a more comprehensive picture of the cultural changes of Oroqen shaman since the settlement under the mountains, in order to clarify the role and functions played by Oroqen shamans at contemporary society and provide a reference case for understanding the significant transformation of the original functions and status of the traditional elites of ethnic minorities in the theoretical sense. The study explores motivations for the deepening of cultural consciousness among ethnic groups in the context of modernity. Full article

Accurately and dynamically predicting ground settlements during the construction of foundation pits is pivotal to the understanding of the potential risk of foundation pits and, therefore, enables constructors to take timely and effective actions to ensure the construction safety of foundation pits. Existing settlement prediction methods mainly focus on the prediction of the maximum ground settlements based on static influence factors, such as soil properties and the geometry of foundation pits. However, these methods are unable to be applied to the prediction of daily ground settlements in a direct way because daily ground settlements can be affected by many time-dependent influence factors, and an accurate prediction of daily ground settlements should take into consideration such factors. To address this problem, this paper proposes an artificial neural network-based daily ground settlement prediction method, where both static and time-dependent influence factors, as well as previous settlement monitoring data, are considered in the optimum artificial neural network. The proposed method is validated using data collected from a real cut-and-cover highway tunnel project in western Hangzhou, China. The results demonstrate that time-dependent influence factors and previous settlement monitoring data play vital roles in establishing an optimum artificial neural network for the accurate prediction of daily ground settlement. Full article

Ground-level ozone has become the primary air pollutant in many urban areas of China. Oil vapor pollution from gasoline stations accelerates the generation of ground-level ozone, especially in densely populated urban areas with high demands for transportation. An accurate spatiotemporal distribution of ground-level ozone concentrations (GOCs) around gasoline stations is urgently needed. However, urban GOCs vary sharply over short distances, increasing the need for GOCs at a high-spatial resolution. Thus, a high-spatial resolution (i.e., 1 km) concentration retrieval model based on the GLM and BME method was developed to obtain the daily spatiotemporal characteristics of GOCs. The hourly ozone records provided by the national air quality monitoring stations and multiple geospatial datasets were used as input data. The model exhibited satisfactory performance (R² = 0.75, RMSE = 10.86 µg/m³). The derived GOCs show that the ozone levels at gasoline stations and their adjacent areas (1~3 km away from the gasoline stations) were significantly higher than the citywide average level, and this phenomenon gradually eased with the increasing distance from the gasoline stations. The findings indicate that special attention should be given to the prevention and control of ground-level ozone exposure risks in human settlements and activity areas near gasoline stations. Full article

Globally, major cities are experiencing fast settlement growth, which threatens the equilibrium of socio-ecosystems. In Pakistan, Abbottabad city in particular is experiencing fast urban growth. The main source of daily water usage for the population in these types of cities is groundwater (tube–wells). Excessive pumping and the high need for ground water for the local community are affecting the subsurface sustainability. In this study, the persistent scatterer interferometry synthetic aperture radar (PSInSAR) technique with synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images acquired from the Sentinel-1 were used to monitor ground subsidence in Abbottabad City, Northern Pakistan. To estimate the ground subsidence in Abbottabad City, SARPROZ software was employed to process a series of Sentinel-1 images, acquired from March 2017 to September 2019, along both descending and ascending orbit tracks. The subsidence observed in the results shows a significant increase from 2017 to 2019. The subsidence map shows that, during 2017, the subsidence was −30 mm/year and about −85 mm/year in 2018. While during 2019, the subsidence reached −150 mm/year. Thus, it has seen that, in the study area, the subsidence during these years increased with mean subsidence 60 mm/year. The overall trend of subsidence showed considerably high values in the center of the city, while areas away from the center of the city experienced low subsidence. Overall, the adopted methodology can be used successfully for detecting, mapping, and monitoring land surfaces vulnerable to subsidence. This will facilitate efficient planning, designing of surface infrastructure, and mitigation management of subsidence-induced hazards. Full article

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) systems, sensors, and photogrammetric processing techniques have enabled timely and highly detailed three-dimensional surface reconstructions at a scale that bridges the gap between conventional remote-sensing and field-scale observations. In this work 29 rotary and fixed-wing UAV surveys were conducted during multiple field campaigns, totaling 47 flights and over 14.3 km², to document permafrost thaw subsidence impacts on or close to road infrastructure in the Northwest Territories, Canada. This paper provides four case studies: (1) terrain models and orthomosaic time series revealed the morphology and daily to annual dynamics of thaw-driven mass wasting phenomenon (retrogressive thaw slumps; RTS). Scar zone cut volume estimates ranged between 3.2 × 10³ and 5.9 × 10⁶ m³. The annual net erosion of RTS surveyed ranged between 0.35 × 10³ and 0.39 × 10⁶ m³. The largest RTS produced a long debris tongue with an estimated volume of 1.9 × 10⁶ m³. Downslope transport of scar zone and embankment fill materials was visualized using flow vectors, while thermal imaging revealed areas of exposed ground ice and mobile lobes of saturated, thawed materials. (2) Stratigraphic models were developed for RTS headwalls, delineating ground-ice bodies and stratigraphic unconformities. (3) In poorly drained areas along road embankments, UAV surveys detected seasonal terrain uplift and settlement of up to 0.5 m (>1700 m² in extent) as a result of injection ice development. (4) Time series of terrain models highlighted the thaw-driven evolution of a borrow pit (6.4 × 10⁵ m³ cut volume) constructed in permafrost terrain, whereby fluvial and thaw-driven sediment transfer (1.1 and 3.9 × 10³ m³ a⁻¹ respectively) was observed and annual slope profile reconfiguration was monitored to gain management insights concerning site stabilization. Elevation model vertical accuracies were also assessed as part of the case studies and ranged between 0.02 and 0.13 m Root Mean Square Error. Photogrammetric models processed with Post-processed Kinematic image solutions achieved similar accuracies without ground control points over much larger and complex areas than previously reported. The high resolution of UAV surveys, and the capacity to derive quantitative time series provides novel insights into permafrost processes that are otherwise challenging to study. The timely emergence of these tools bridges field-based research and applied studies with broad-scale remote-sensing approaches during a period when climate change is transforming permafrost environments. Full article