Frontiers in Environmental Science | New and Recent Articles

Nature reserves constitute a key means of biodiversity conservation. Using matched data between nature reserves and listed companies in China, this study investigates how the capital market views the establishment of nature reserves and explores whether nature reserves are priced. The results indicate that the establishment of nature reserves significantly reduces the cost of equity capital, demo…

IntroductionThis study examines smallholder farmer readiness for sustainable land management (SLM) under the Global Environment Facility (GEF7) project in semi-arid Limpopo Province, South Africa.MethodsUsing a mixed-methods approach combining farmer profiling survey, key informant interviews, field observations, and community mapping, we assessed 48 farmers (79.2% female, 37.5% youth) across fou…

Highly modified distributary channels are shaped by interacting hydromorphological alteration, sediment redistribution, navigation-related pressures, and lateral connectivity, but their combined influence on benthic macroinvertebrate communities remains difficult to disentangle in deltaic systems. This study assessed how macrozoobenthic assemblages vary across the Sulina Canal navigation corridor…

The selection of an appropriate functional unit (FU) is a critical yet often overlooked aspect in the life cycle assessment (LCA) of activated carbon (AC) systems. Existing studies commonly rely on product-based FUs, such as impacts per kg of AC produced, or waste intake-based FUs, such as impacts per kg of precursor or waste feedstock processed. While useful for evaluating production efficiency …

The two-fold carbon ambitions of China of ensuring its emissions peak prior to 2030 and carbon-neutrality before 2060 presuppose sectoral decarbonization plans to suit heterogeneous technological and economic limitations. The paper is based on a coupled STIRPAT–LEAP model to model the sector-specific carbon emission paths in the industrial, building, and transportation sectors of Beijing up to 20…

IntroductionIndustrial output plays a central role in regional economic development, particularly in emerging economies undergoing structural transformation. This study examines the determinants, dynamic persistence, and future trajectory of industrial output in Henan Province, China, and evaluates the usefulness of dynamic panel models for forecasting regional industrial development.MethodsA cou…

Substantial economic growth in growing countries has increased climatic difficulties in recent decades, endangering sustainability and the environmental quality. As a result, renewable energy usage, technical innovation, natural resources, and carbon pricing schemes have become important instruments for reducing the environmental impact and promotion green economic expansion. The 2030 Sustainable…

IntroductionThis study investigates how temperature fluctuations affect energy consumption across countries. In the context of global warming and increasingly interconnected energy markets, temperature-related shocks may influence energy demand not only through direct heating and cooling needs, but also through oil price volatility, industrial structure adjustment, and cross-country spillover eff…

IntroductionAccurate simulation of near-surface CO2 concentrations in urban areas is essential for quantifying city-scale carbon emissions. However, the strong spatiotemporal variability of urban emissions and boundary-layer dynamics introduces large uncertainties into atmospheric transport simulations.MethodsTo address this issue, this study develops an observation-driven dynamic correction fram…

Deyang City, situated in a typical mountain-plain transition zone of Southwest China, faces high ecological fragility due to its steep topographic gradient, frequent seismic disturbances (e.g., the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake), and intensive anthropogenic pressures from rapid urbanization and agricultural production. Taking this representative area as a case study, this study utilized multi-source r…

IntroductionAchieving the Sustainable Development Goals requires policy instruments that can improve environmental quality without undermining economic development, particularly in rapidly urbanizing economies. This study examines whether China’s sci-tech finance pilot policy contributes to urban green transition.MethodsTreating the policy as a quasi-natural experiment, this study constructs a pa…

The fine chemical industry is a high-pollution and energy-intensive sector and a key target for environmental regulation (ER). However, evaluations of existing ER policies predominantly rely on data from publicly listed firms. Consequently, non-listed enterprises are often overlooked, even though they dominate the industrial base and differ from listed firms in financing access, disclosure requir…

Landslides are naturally occurring phenomena that pose significant threats to human livelihoods and may fully or partially damage the environment and infrastructure. With climate change and increasing extremes, landslide events have become more frequent, highlighting the need for advanced prediction, monitoring, and risk assessment approaches. This study presents a bibliometric analysis of the la…

Total dissolved solids (TDS) measurements are crucial for desalination processes, as they affect water quality, operational efficiency, and environmental sustainability. This paper presents a novel solution that uses a differential pressure (DP) transmitter to measure TDS in desalination plants. The proposed method uses a dual-leg setup, with one leg filled with distilled water as a reference and…

New-type urbanization reflects a development orientation toward low-carbon, green, and environmentally friendly growth; however, its relationship with the ecological environment remains insufficiently understood, particularly in ecologically fragile and underdeveloped regions. Taking the Southwest China’s ethnic minorities areas as the study area, this paper employs Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA…

Mangroves are globally important coastal wetland ecosystems that occupy the interface between freshwater, terrestrial, and marine environments, providing critical services including carbon sequestration, shoreline stabilization, water-quality regulation, and biodiversity support. Despite their importance, mangrove wetlands face increasing pressures from climate change, altered hydrological regime…

BackgroundWhether place-based circular-economy policy can strengthen urban ecological resilience remains an open question in environmental economics. China’s Zero-Waste City (ZWC) pilot, covering 11 cities and 5 special zones in 2019 and expanded to 113 prefectures in 2022, provides the largest such policy experiment to date, and a natural setting in which to test this question.MethodsUsing a pan…