National monitoring of forests is essential for tracking progress towards various global environmental goals, including those of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and the Paris Agreement. Inconsistent national definitions of “forest”, however, can complicate the tracking of global progress towards achieving these goals. The FAO’s...
Charcoal is a fuelwood commonly used for domestic purposes on the household scale
in Africa and Southeast Asia. Earnings from charcoal production contribute to the income of local
inhabitants in rural areas. Unfortunately, airborne emissions from the traditional charcoal-making
process affect both human health and the ambient environment. A...
Approximately 140 countries have committed to achieving net zero emissions by the middle of the century under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. To attain this target, local governments can play a pivotal role in coordinating decarbonisation efforts across multiple sectors, in collaboration with citizens, companies, and...
Assessing heat-related health risks is important for sustainable urban development. Although fine-scale information (e.g., at the community/neighborhood or city block level) is ideal for identifying and mitigating these risks, previous studies have preferred to work at the administrative unit level. High-resolution Local Climate Zone (LCZ) maps, i...
In contrast to other natural disasters, droughts may develop gradually and last for extended periods of time. TheWorld Meteorological Organization advises using the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) for the early identification of drought and understanding of its characteristics over various geographical areas. In this study, we use long-term...
Open waste burning is a widespread practice that is provoked by a lack of systematic waste collection, the unavailability of other disposal options, and inadequate land for the final disposal of the collected waste, especially in low- and middle-income countries. From a global perspective, two billion people have no waste collection at all, and the...
One emerging issue in Padang City, Indonesia is waste management. In addition to a rise in population, modern lifestyles and tourism development have resulted in burgeoning waste generation, as well as more littering and burning of waste. This problem has exceeded the waste management capacity of the city. Consequently, the Batang Arau river, one...
Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) has been implemented over the past decade, and has led to a restructuring of forest governance systems in host countries. In the case of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, which is promoting REDD+, activities have been implemented at national, sub-national and project scales...
Accurate urban morphology provided by Local Climate Zones (LCZ), a universal surface classification scheme, offers opportunities for studies of urban heat risk, urban ventilation, and transport planning. In recent years, researchers have attempted to generate LCZ maps worldwide with the World Urban Database and Access Portal Tools (WUDAPT). However...