Abstract The Water-Energy-Food-Ecosystem (WEFE) Nexus is a pretty novel cross-thinking concept, meaning that answers to current environmental hazards must follow a multisectoral approach rather than a traditional unidirectional vision[1]. Since water supply, energy flows, and food security—and its connection with the surrounding ecosystems—are intimately linked together, every impact in one of such areas will have undoubtedly impacts on the others. The most important signifi-cance of the WEFE Nexus approach is that further exploitation of clean water supplies, agricultural soils, and energy resources should not de-stabilize nor weaken the provision of these ecoservices to the current and future societies. ...

Abstract The trends in the development of hydrocarbons of the Caspian shelf in the water area of the Russian Federation by domestic and foreign companies are analyzed. In accordance with these trends, the national-political priorities for the formation of an oil and gas chemical cluster in the national subjects of the Russian zone of the Pre-Caspian are substantiated. 

Abstract Climate changes are affecting the fate of Posidonia oceanica meadows. Actually, the Mediterranean Sea is threatened by abiotic, biotic and climate changes coupled with human pressures regarding coastal regions. In this way, Posidonia oceanica is able to counteract the effects of climate changes through the high thermotolerance of the species, range shift processes of the meadows and variations in the community composition of this valuable marine ecosystem. Anyway, the power of acclimatization to temperature shifts and the adaptative capacity of Posidonia oceanica meadows against human pressures let to suggest a positive trend in the long evolutionary pathway of the species.

Abstract Energy recovery from waste can provide a safe technologically advanced means of waste disposal that reduces greenhouse gases and generates clean energy. The study describes the characteristics of urban solid waste (USW) produced in five urban areas of the Solan district of Himachal Pradesh as well as its potential for energy recovery and power generation. Physical characterization of the USW generated at the study locations showed high percentages of organic/food waste. The results revealed that the organic fractions were 52.12%, 50.68%, 50.51%, 50.34%, and 49.41% for Arki, Nalagarh, Baddi, Parwanoo and Solan respectively. The energy content of solid waste produced in various urban locations ranged from 11,532.432 to 14,850.416 kJ·kg–1, and the waste is appropriate for energy generation when the heating value of the garbage is at least 6,000 to 7,000 kJ·kg–1. The values of energy recovery potential through biochemical conversion were 959.988 kWh, 933.395 kWh, 930.269 kWh, 927.111 kWh, and 910.036 kWh per annum for Arki, Nalagarh, Baddi, Parwanoo and Solan. The power generation potential of different urban areas ranged from 37.918 to 39.999 kW. It is anticipated that these findings would be informative and enhance collaboration among the various parties involved in the intermunicipal arrangements. Future studies about innovative consortia approaches that take energy recovery into account in their projects should be stimulated by the characterization and calculation of energy recovery and power generating potential.

Abstract Building development has been causing adverse environmental effects with emissions of greenhouse gas in the range of about 40% and consumed energy of about 35% in 2018 in developing countries. Expediting green management practices in an environmental, economic, and social manner becomes crucial in the building industry. Guiding from the systematic literature review, a whole building life cycle engagement of Green Marketing Strategy (GMS) and Green Technology Development (GTD) as green management practices to achieve organizational performance success in terms of Green Performance Success (GPS) & Finance Performance Success (FPS) lacks scholars’ studies. From a theoretical point of view, the pre- and post-building phases’ critical factors should be further explored and investigated. Few research studies can be identified for the conventional construction projects in selecting critical organizational performance success factors in their pre- and post-project stages. This research aims to provide an understanding into the effects of the green management practices on organizational performance success through a questionnaire survey follows by post-survey interviews, case studies, and green expert interviews so as to incentivize the promotion of the green management practices to combat global warming and greenhouse gas emissions. The results of a moderated hierarchical regression analysis revealed that green management practices in terms of green marketing strategy and green technologies development have a significant impact on firm performance in terms of green performance success and financial performance success. Further investigations of how the supplier cooperation and green building uncertainty moderate green management practices on organizational performance are studied. The experts’ interviews directed that the government take a leading role in asserting green management practices implementation, particularly in making green building development mandatory. Advanced construction information technology (e.g., building information modeling) should be used to inspire the building process to generate and manage building data to improve the green building technological design incorporation to recycle the building elements with waste reduction. Above all, the instituting of a robust and operational market platform for the green materials and products with a performance index would enhance the vision and mission of green marketing strategy to reduce the materials costs progressively. Commitment and cooperation of suppliers to deliver suitable green performance materials and products is also beneficial to the building industry. As the study indicated, the higher level of technological and logistical integration with the suppliers’ base will lead to higher levels of environmental collaboration and building firms’ performance.

Abstract Fungal diseases affect both the productivity and sustainability of wheat crop. The aim of present study was to document the fungal diseases of wheat crop and biological management of a most dominant fungal pathogen Alternaria solani  by using medicinal plant extracts. Fungal infected wheat plants were collected from different sites of District Bhimber, Azad Jammu and Kashmir (Sukasan, Kool, Gurha Liliyan, Gurha Matyal, Dheri Wattan, and Pothi) and these fungal infected wheat plants were examined under field and greenhouse conditions by using four different plant extracts to check the severity rate of fungal diseases. Three contagious species were isolated from regularly contaminated wheat leaves and other natural items demonstrating the indications of scourges and most dominant species recognized as A. solani.  The antifungal action of four plant’s leaf solutions including Nerium oleander  (Oleander), Allium sativum  (Garlic), Ocimum basilicum  (Sweat Basil) and Eucalyptus chamadulonsis  (Eucalyptus) have been attempted to control Alternaria solani in an artificial medium and in natural conditions. In an artificial medium, decoction of Allium sativum  bulb at 5% fixation caused the most noteworthy lessening in mycelial improvement of A. solani  (40.2%), while Ocimum basilicum  at 1% and 5% fixation and Nerium oleander  at 5% fixation the most decreases obstruct the mycelial advancement of the microorganism. In nursery analyzes, the most serious diminishing in contamination seriousness was brought about by the bulb extract of Allium sativum  on 5% fixation as well as Nerium oleander  on 1% and 5% fixations. The best decline in infection seriousness was accomplished with Allium sativum  on 5% fixation, but the slightest decrease was observed after treatment of wheat plants with Nerium oleander  on 1% and 5% application (22.3% and 30.2%, respectively). Allium sativum  at 5% application expanded natural product yield by 35.2% and 40.2% as opposed to contaminated control. It was concluded that all selected medicinal plants reduced the selected disease and furthermore upgraded grain yield as opposed to contaminated control in field crop diseases especially Alternaria solani  attack on wheat.

Abstract The article shows the most significant problems of functioning and development of the water economy of the Republic of Dagestan—the southernmost region of Russia. The results of a comprehensive analysis of the state of the waters of the Caspian Sea, the main pollutants of which are coastal cities and other settlements with their wastewater and other waste from human activities, are presented. Ecological problems of Dagestan rivers and reservoirs are considered. The necessity of restoring the natural state of the Terek River Delta, in particular the ecological rehabilitation of its estuarine streams and lakes, is emphasized. Special attention is paid to the task of stopping the uncontrolled economic development of reservoirs of mountain hydroelectric power plants—the main drinking water resources for the cities of Dagestan. The medical and hygienic condition of water supply sources is discussed with an emphasis on the serious problem of contamination of groundwater used for drinking purposes. The issues of water supply and sanitation (non-centralized, centralized, departmental and communal) are considered in detail. It is indicated that urban and district centralized water supply systems do not comply with sanitary and hygienic standards, and there is an extreme shortage of sewage treatment plants in almost all cities of the Republic. The progress of the implementation of a number of federal programs to improve the water supply systems of the population of the Republic is described.

Abstract This study aims to investigate the impacts of economic growth, energy consumption, and financial development on carbon emissions within the framework of the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis for Tunisa from 1970 to 2018. The long-run relationship is examined by applying the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bounds testing procedure to cointegration and error correction analysis. The empirical findings show a positive monotonic relationship between real GDP and carbon dioxide emissions (CO2), which means that Tunisia has not yet reached the required level of per capita income to get an inverted U-shaped EKC. The results also reveal a positive impact on both the energy consumption and the financial development, suggesting that theses control variables lead to environmental damages by polluting the atmosphere in the long run. At the same time, the paper explores causal links between the variables by referring to the Toda and Yamamoto (1995) Causality Test, and it concludes that financial development and energy consumption play a vital role in the Tunisian economy to achieve sustainable environmental development. Therefore, policy makers should not only focus on economic development, but also undertake a solid green finance regulation to assume an active environmentally friendly processes, and the energy matrix should be transformed in favor of renewable energy to cope with environmental degradation and to ensure sustainable development in Tunisia.

Abstract Three main indicators, i.e., the   net greenhouse gas emissions, the net greenhouse gas emissions from land use and forestry, and the population covered by the Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy signatories have been suggested by Eurostat as indicators for the description of the climate action—the Sustainable Development Goal 13. The present study describes the ranking of the 27 European Union member states plus the combined EU based on a simultaneous inclusion of all three indicators. It turned out that the covenant indicator was the most important. Thus, subsequently, a ranking of the countries based on a) the covenant indicator and b) the greenhouse gas emission indicators was compared elucidating virtually no correspondence, i.e., signing a covenant with a lot of good intentions is not reflected in a decreased or reduced emission of greenhouse gases. The discrepancy between the political will and the actual action is unambiguous.

Abstract Presented in the given article regional geo-ecological prognoses are based on the construction of discrete empirical-statistical models of zonal and regional ecosystems. The analysis was carried out on the examples of the flat territories of the Volga River basin, as well as the northern macro-slope of the Main Caucasian ridge. Regional landscape-ecological calculations and mapping were carried out according to the global climatic models GISS-1988 and E GISS-2007 belong­ing to the family of models of general atmospheric circulation. The strategy of geo-ecological prognosis was as follows: first to identify the selected ecosystem objects (either zonal type of plant formations and regional kinds of landscape) to certain values of contemporary climatic conditions and then to estimate the most probable transformation of the revealed ecological niches of the given objects according to the expected climatic changes for the given prognostic date. The geo-ecological analysis has been performed using mainly two types of empirical models: (a) informational, describing the geo-component interrelations, serving as a basis for the regional bank of their ecological niches that characterizes their parametric space; (b) “fuzzy” set-theoretical models, describing the polysystem units of landscape-zonal organization by operations with the ecological niches as descriptive vectors. Predictions of ecosystem transformations include two stages of analysis: (1) evaluation of the probabilities of changes in the functional states of ecosystems and (2) calculations of the rates of ecosystem transformations. Quantitative predictive analysis is carried out by means of operations with the hydro-thermal niches of zonal-regional ecosystems. The ecological estimates of forthcoming global warming refer first of all to the functional but not structural-morphological prediction. The most probable directions and degree of conversion of the ecosystem are estimated by the maximum values of transformation. The algorithms of predictive calculations are described in detail for both stages of analysis. The results of the zonal-regional prognostic analysis are presented in both graphic-analytical models and small-scale maps.

Abstract Our planet has experienced several drastic changes in climate during its history. Nonetheless, human activity in the last two hundred years of industrialization has brought about a significant rise in greenhouse gases, which have led to inexorable global warming and climate change, a direct threat to our ecosystem. Global warming is precipitating the thawing of peri-glacial permafrost, which then releases additional greenhouse gasses, which can be toxic to our health, and alter fresh water supplies and crops. Melting permafrost also releases ancient and novel pathogens potentially harmful to human health. This paper outlines certain nature-based solutions that could bring about carbon-neutral energy generation, as well as immune protective interventions.