Abstract This research aimed to examine the relationship between financial inclusion (FNI), technological innovation (TIN), and natural resources (NRS) and their impact on environmental degradation in the 45‐belt and road initiative (BRI) region from 2001 to 2018. The study utilized advanced econometric techniques, including the generalized method of moments–panel vector autoregressive, as well as traditional methods such as ordinary least squares and dynamic ordinary least squares, to examine the relationship between these factors and environmental degradation, measured by carbon footprint (CFP) and ecological footprint (EFP). The long‐run estimate confirms that NRS and FNI appear to have led to higher regional CFPs and EFP pressure. Meanwhile, the relationship with TIN, economic governance institutions (government effectiveness and regularity quality), and human capital contribute to overcoming environmental degradation and increasing environmental sustainability. The findings of this study have important implications for policymakers and central authorities in the BRI region to address environmental degradation and promote sustainable development.

Abstract Assessing the health and security of natural ecosystems is unavoidable to regulate and manage deterioration and prioritize management and conservation activities. As a result, the current study was conducted to assess the health and ecological security of the Galazchai Watershed in Oshnavieh Township, West Azerbaijan Province, Iran, utilizing criteria linked to various hydrologic, anthropogenic, and climatic aspects. In the conceptual pressure–state–response (PSR) method, 26 criteria with acceptable variance inflation factor and Durbin–Watson statistics were chosen. The Galazchai Watershed's ecology's health and security status and spatial differences were also chosen and analyzed at 17 subwatersheds. The contributions of the pressure (P), status (S), and reaction (R) indices to the watershed health index were 38.3, 30.1, and 31.6%, respectively, according to the findings. The health index for the watershed ranged from 0.388 to 0.688. Almost 64% of the watershed's area was in relatively healthy conditions. Additionally, the maximum and the minimum values of the ecological security index were 0.608 and 0.236, allocating 58% of the area to moderate ecological security. The northern part of the watershed had healthier and moderately desirable ecological security than the southern part, with unhealthy and relatively undesirable conditions. In this sense, the main problems of the study area were primarily related to anthropogenic factors followed by hydrologic ones. The procedure used in the current study based on health and ecological security status can be applied as a practical guideline by local managers for efficient and adaptive watershed management.

Abstract Decision problems may be subject to objectives or constraints that make the formal model intractable. We propose an adaptive and pragmatic approach to address such nonstandard objectives or constraints, where these are first circumvented for feasibility, then accounted for through heuristics. One example is managing risk and resilience in a natural system facing uncertainty. Our procedure is exemplified in a predator‐prey fisheries system where a reference policy that maximizes expected profits implies a risk of prey stock collapse. The reference policy includes a no‐fishing section for the prey and harvest beyond myopic catch for the predator in parts of state space. We construct heuristic recovery plans, based on the reference policy, to reduce the risk of collapse by partly backing in the auxiliary objective. Under the heuristic policies, system resilience is enhanced with limited economic losses. Via Monte Carlo simulations, we calculate viability probabilities as measures of improved resilience and employ dynamic programming to assess value losses.

Abstract Arid and semiarid areas generally face problems of natural resource degradation. In this paper, two indicators are proposed to characterize the utilization of rainwater: rainwater resource utilization quantity (RRU, mm) and rainwater resource utilization rate (RRUR, dimensionless ratio). A spatiotemporal assessment model (rainwater utilization assessment [RUA] model) for the RRUR and its influencing factors is constructed. The RUA model is based on Soil and Water Assessment Tool and Geographically Temporal Weighted Regression. The Zuli River Basin, located on the Loess Plateau in China, was selected as the study basin. The results show that the annual averages of the RRU and RRUR are 164 mm and 0.44, respectively, in the study basin. The RRU ranged from 71.4 to 243.2 mm, and the RRUR ranged from 0.32 to 0.53 during the evaluation period. Eight explanatory variables were selected, of which the leaf area index (LAI) and rainfall had a significant positive effect on RRUR, but there was spatial and temporal variability in the effects. The forest rehabilitation and crop rotations that can increase the LAI can effectively increase the RRUR, which increased by 0.10 and 0.11, respectively, and the increase in RRU was at least 36.42 mm, with a water volume of 3.85 × 108 m3. The impact of grassland rehabilitation and parallel terracing on the RRUR was small. We found that there is an interval effect and a threshold effect on rainfall utilization in the basin. The interval effect causes the RRUR to fluctuate within a certain range for rainfall intervals of 300–400 or 400–500 mm (Zuli River Basin). Threshold effects can guide the determination of the potential for rainwater utilization in different areas to ensure that the RRUR can be effectively enhanced with management measures.Recommendations for Resource Managers We have constructed an assessment model of rainwater resource utilization (RRU) and influencing factors. We have proposed two evaluation indices based on water balance, namely, the RRU quantity and rainwater resource utilization rate (RRUR). The leaf area index of vegetation is the most important influence on rainwater utilization, and the more severe the drought is, the more effective the regulation of water cycle processes by vegetation. The interval effect causes uncertainty in the RRUR for a certain interval of rainfall, with the RRUR fluctuating within a defined range. The threshold effect can guide us in determining the potential for rainwater utilization, and areas where the current RRUR is below the threshold can take management measures to ensure that the RRUR can be effectively increased.

Abstract We selected the Tanchong River in Hefei as the site to test the efficacy of graphene visible‐light photocatalysis (GVLP), a new water treatment technology to improve water quality in black‐odorous rivers in urban landscapes. A model coupling the hydrodynamic force and water quality of the Tanchong River was constructed using the MIKE11 model. The numerical simulation method was used to model the concentrations of the main pollutants—chemical oxygen demand (COD), ammonia nitrogen (NH3–N) and total phosphorus (TP) concentrations. The simulation of water quality in the river section treated by GVLP was verified by the Tanchong River water quality improvement project experiment. The results showed that the MIKE11 model can effectively simulate the effect of GVLP technology on water quality improvement. The removal rates of the main pollutants'—COD, NH3–N, and TP by GVLP were 43.9%, 82.1%, and 76.8%, respectively, thus proving GVLP's viability as a treatment for controlling water pollution in similar black‐odorous rivers.

Abstract Historical patterns of the Eastern Baltic cod stock recruitment show a shift from a regime with high reproductive potential before the early 1980s to a regime with low reproductive potential since then. This shift can be attributed to increasingly unfavorable environmental conditions for cod reproduction at that time: critical salinity and oxygen levels, needed for successful egg and larval development, deteriorated. Yet, significant inflows of salt‐ and oxygen‐rich water from the North Sea or improved eutrophication management might trigger a shift back to a more productive regime. Coupling a statistical recruitment model to a state‐of‐the‐art, age‐structured bio‐economic model of the Eastern Baltic cod fishery, we study how optimal management depends on the uncertainty about the future productivity regime. We extend the predominantly theoretical literature on optimal management of a natural resource with a potential regime shift by analyzing an empirical model of age‐structured population dynamics and by allowing for the possibility of a back‐shift from a “bad” into a “good” regime. We find that with a higher probability of a shift back to the more productive regime the optimal management of the fishery becomes more conservative in the short run. We conclude that these benefits for the fishery warrant strong action reducing eutrophication to increase the probability of a regime shift back to high reproductive potential of the Eastern Baltic cod fishery.

Abstract Allelochemicals produced by plants may be ingested by herbivorous insects and transferred to higher trophic levels with potentially deleterious effects. We develop a system of differential equations to investigate the effect of the transfer of allelochemicals, such as nicotine, on the population dynamics of a system of hosts, parasitoids, and two competing hyperparasitoids that attack different life stages of the parasitoids. We find both somewhat deleterious effects of nicotine on the larvae‐attacking hyperparasitoids and increased attack rates for the pupae‐attacking hyperparasitoids can promote coexistence. We also use an evolutionary game‐theoretic approach to determine the optimal distribution of hyperparasitoid attacks among nicotine‐producing and nicotine‐free plants. With strong deleterious effects of nicotine and increased attack rates for the pupae‐attacking hyperparasitoid, we find both species attack parasitoids on the nicotine‐free plant but only pupae‐attacking hyperparasitoids attack parasitoids on the nicotine‐producing plant.Recommendations for Resource Managers: In the absence of nicotine and with equal attack rates, the larvae‐attacking hyperparasitoids will exclude pupae‐attacking hyperparasitoids due to the advantage of attacking an earlier life‐stage of the parasitoid. Coexistence of larvae‐ and pupae‐attacking hyperparasitoid species can occur when the pupae‐attacking species has the advantage of a higher oviposition rate and/or when the larvae‐attacking species suffers increased mortality due to nicotine. If mortality rates of larvae‐attacking hyperparasitoids due to nicotine become too large, they are unable to persist. The population dynamics of systems incorporating multiple trophic levels are complex and intertwined. The presence of allelochemicals such as nicotine in the first trophic level may impact the observed diversity of hyperparasitoid species in the fourth trophic level.

Abstract Air pollution, especially the particulate matter (PM2.5) remains to be a severe problem for the environmental managers and researchers because it causes many respiratory diseases even casualties and huge economic losses. Therefore, it is significant to study the distribution characteristics of regional PM2.5 and analyze the mutual influence relationship between it and some influencing factors including air humidity, wind speed, and atmospheric boundary conditions. Some scholars have studied the relationship between PM2.5 and the atmospheric planetary boundary layer or relative humidity. However, the relationships between air pollution and meteorological conditions in China has been extensively studied in recent years. Therefore, the association between the pollution and precipitation water vapor and wind speed in the northeast of China (e.g., Jilin and Heilongjiang province) could be strengthened. Considering all components in the atmosphere affecting each other and the ability of Weather Research and Forecast (WRF) and WRF‐Chemistry (WRF‐Chem) simulating all of the atmospheric parameters, we utilized the WRF and WRF‐Chem to simulate the precipitable water vapor, wind speed, and PM2.5. Then first, the PM2.5 concentration values predicted from WRF‐Chem are validated with those at the ground stations to evaluate the accuracy of WRF‐Chem model. Second, the relationship analysis between the PM2.5 and wind speed or PWV was done. And the results demonstrate that the wind is helpful to decrease the severe air pollution in winter while the precipitable water vapor plays a small effect on the elimination of the particulate matter. WRF‐Chem is a potential and effective tool for the study of air pollution.

When the article (Rahimzadeh et al., 2019) was first published online, in the abstract, line six, the unit of the number is wrong.It is appearing as 90 cm.It should be 90 m 3 /s.We apologize for this error.

Abstract Contingency firelines can be used to back up primary lines to increase probability of fire containment, decrease fire losses, and improve firefighter safety. In this study, we classify firelines into primary, contingency, and response lines. We design a modeling process to iteratively implement a mixed integer programming model to evaluate contingency strategies under randomly generated fireline breaching scenarios. Our objectives include: (1) gaining conceptual understanding of the effectiveness of using contingency containers in a fireline network, and (2) suggesting future data collection and model improvement directions to support contingency strategy planning. We evaluate the effectiveness of several model generated containment strategies: only responding to observed primary line breaches, being proactive by implementing a system‐level contingency plan, or constructing contingency lines to back up a proportion of a primary container. Data from the Ferguson Fire in California are used to derive a set of hypothetical test cases with different fireline breaching risks to support sensitivity analysis. For comparison, we also test a contingency plan inspired by the Ferguson Fire operation. Analyses suggest that a contingency plan will provide the greatest benefit when fireline breaching risk is high. This study also suggests there are significant data and knowledge gaps that must be addressed to make the model suitable for operational use.Recommendations for Resource ManagersSystems analysis can help evaluate contingency containment plans.A contingency plan will provide the greatest benefit when fireline breaching risk is high.It is often efficient to strategically locate contingency lines to back up primary lines with high breaching probabilities.A good contingency plan may help lower fire loss and save suppression effort under many fireline breaching scenarios.Data collection and synchronization are important in supporting future advances in fire containment decisions.