Abstract: Mozambique possesses significant natural gas resources. Yet, a vast majority of its population relies on solid biomass for cooking, resulting in detrimental effects on health, livelihoods, and productivity, as well as devastating environmental impacts. Domestic use of these resources could boost energy productivity, security and support sustainable development. We conducted a mixed-methods study involving interviews, descriptive statistics, and a multinomial logistic regression model. For this study, data was gathered from a random survey of 434 households in natural gas-rich peripheries within Northern Inhambane and Maputo City aiming to identify determinants of household energy choice for cooking. The results showed that as the income increases, the odds of choosing electricity, LPG, and biomass increase. Notably, in energy-rich peripheries, the odds of choosing biomass as an alternative fuel to natural gas are reduced by 96.2% when compared to non-energy-rich regions. The urban and more educated dwellers were more likely to switch to electricity and LPG. Energy infrastructure and system-related incidents were key reasons for switching away from natural gas to biomass. Based on these findings and given natural gas’s preference as a transition cooking fuel in energy-rich peripheries, the government should prioritize investment in energy systems, allocate more domestic gas, and promote its use. This effort aims to enhance access to clean cooking and raise public awareness of its health and environmental benefits.

Abstract: Contemporary urban governance faces structural obsolescence in municipal solid waste management, particularly in the Global South. This study analyzes the implementation of the Zero Waste Cities Platform, a digital public infrastructure (DPI) designed to facilitate the transition from linear to circular economies, within the context of the first public pro-curement for innovation in Florianópolis, Brazil. Using an embedded case study and a mixed-methods approach, including a questionnaire administered to 125 citizens, the re-search evaluates the platform through four analytical lenses: institutional, political, terri-torial, and ecological. The implementation results demonstrate a 31% reduction in collec-tion route time and a 17% decrease in operational costs. Furthermore, cluster analysis of the questionnaire responses citizen a high latent potential for digital engagement, with 94% of respondents expressing willingness to use applications integrated into the nation-al governmental platform (Gov.br) to participate in recycling initiatives. The study con-cludes that “citizen digitalization,” when anchored in open DPIs and social innovation, acts as a systemic transition vector that reconfigures the roles of the state, cooperatives, and citizens. These findings provide empirically grounded insights for local governments seeking to combine emerging technologies, such as IoT and data intelligence, with demo-cratic experimentalism to accelerate ecological transitions and urban sustainability.

Abstract: Industrial transformation in resource-based regions (RBRs) is a global challenge. Shanxi is a typical resource-based province in China. The long-term exploitation of coal resources has posed huge challenges to its ecological protection and high-quality development. Breaking away from the single-city perspective, this study focuses on the regional scale and comparative analysis, and attempts to construct a novel three-dimensional analytical framework, namely “industrial characteristics, industrial layout, and industrial policies”, to explore the industrial transformation path of typical RBRs. The results indicate as follows: (1) Shanxi Province does not have obvious advantages in terms of resource endowment, with a severely heavy industrial structure and strategic emerging industries still in the initial stage of development. At the national strategic level, it is still necessary to strengthen the application of the “pioneer and pilot” policies and mechanism innovation. (2) Under the background of high-quality development, Shanxi needs to clarify the orientation and transformation direction of industrial development: for agricultural development, it should highlight characteristic and efficient development; for industrial development, it should focus on the upgrading of advantageous industries and the cultivation of emerging industries; for tertiary industry development, it should form a pattern of “new producer services + characteristic tourism”. It is also necessary to form a macro pattern of “four provincial clusters and four inter-provincial plates” in regional development layout to promote inter-regional coordinated development. (3) In the new period, Shanxi should accelerate the construction of a comprehensive transportation system as the backbone network to improve the convenience of inter-regional cooperation; increase investment in education and scientific research to enhance the overall social innovation capacity; and strengthen the supply of differentiated regional development policies to promote high-quality industrial development. Focusing on the regional scale, the new logical analysis paradigm can provide theoretical references for RBRs to clarify the direction of industrial transformation and formulate transformation policies.

Abstract: Agrotourism constitutes a key strategy to stimulate territorial development by enhancing endogenous resources in rural areas. However, conceptual and methodological gaps persist regarding the definition of farms with agrotourism potential (FPAT) and their articulation, which limits their effective development. The objective of this research was to conceptualize FPAT, their articulation among themselves and with the locality, and to operationalize this latter concept through georeferencing and the value chain approach, with the purpose of designing agrotourism routes and providing inputs for agrarian policies aimed at territorial development in Cuba. A mixed methodology was employed, integrating theoretical analysis, documentary review, and statistical tools, complemented with georeferencing techniques and value chain analysis. The results show that this approach enables the articulation of farms into agrotourism routes and proposes actions that strengthen local governance and community resilience.

Abstract: This study examines climate-related policies in Turkana County in ensuring youth inclusivity, relevance, and effectiveness amid chronic climate variability. Despite the existence of national and county-level policies, climate risks continue to pose challenges. With all policies in alignment with the Paris Agreement, Turkana’s vulnerable youth continue to suffer from extreme socio-economic miseries triggered by repeated droughts, floods, heat stress, and wind storms. Based on PESTEL analysis and vulnerability theory, the research identifies notable policy gaps, including poor youth representation, inadequate financial support, and few engagement mechanisms. Findings indicate that climate risks significantly affect livelihoods, exacerbating poverty, particularly among young people, and underscoring their limited participation and voice in climate governance and decision-making. In addition, findings reveal that current policies do not make specific provisions for the inclusion of youths in decision-making, innovation, and climate resilience initiatives, thereby restricting their transformative agency. Policy limitations include a lack of youth-specific policies and fewer financial tools to encourage youth-led climate action. Proposals emphasize mainstreaming youth capacity-building, enhancing digital and peer climate education, and fostering youth-led green action. This transforms young people from vulnerable groups into active forces inspiring climate resilience and enhancing socio-economic development and sustainability in Turkana County.

Abstract: The challenge of context-free validity arises from the common belief that rigorous methodology ensures research credibility in various contexts, despite variations in epistemic foundations, institutional capacity, cultural norms, and operational conditions. This assumption is clear in Global South contexts, where research tools and evaluation frameworks from other regions are applied without proper adaptation, highlighting the limitations of claims to universal validity. The challenge is especially evident in socioeconomic research, where tools and frameworks are often applied across contexts without accounting for institutional capacity, cultural norms, or resource limitations. This paper presents the Contextual Research Validity Index (CRVI), a framework for evaluating how well a research design fits the epistemic, institutional, cultural, and operational aspects of its intended context. The CRVI views contextual validity as a form of legitimacy, emphasising that a method’s credibility relies not only on technical precision but also on how well its assumptions align with the realities of the environment. The framework includes four dimensions—epistemic alignment, institutional fit, cultural resonance, and operational feasibility—combined into a composite index for systematic assessment. By focusing on contextual alignment, the CRVI addresses shortcomings in existing validity frameworks and provides researchers, evaluators, and practitioners with a tool to anticipate misfits, adapt designs, and enhance interpretive robustness. By redefining validity as a relational outcome and treating contextual coherence as a quantifiable aspect of rigour, the CRVI provides a systematic framework for assessing the legitimacy of research across diverse contexts.

Abstract: Social media increasingly shapes how younger publics encounter environmental issues, sustainability themes, and knowledge about responsible natural resource use. Despite this influence, many institutions still choose platforms impressionistically, even though differences in platform scale, audience concentration, and communication affordances affect the reach and educational fit of environmental messaging. This paper examines how major social media platforms can be interpreted as strategic communication environments for advancing youth-oriented environmental awareness and literacy. The study employs a comparative secondary-data design and treats platform indicators as planning evidence rather than as proof of platform effectiveness. It synthesizes current global and platform-specific reporting from DataReportal alongside official company and investor records where available. The analysis compares platform-scale indicators, youth-relevant audience structure, and recent trend signals to identify communication opportunity structures for youth outreach. The analysis shows that major platforms differ not only in reported scale but also in metric type, youth concentration, and likely communication function. Visually driven and socially networked platforms appear especially relevant to youth-facing dissemination, while broader-reach or search-oriented platforms remain useful for explanation, search visibility, and sustained follow-through. At the same time, the evidence does not demonstrate that platform scale alone produces environmental literacy or behavioral change. The study concludes that validated platform indicators can support bounded inference about where youth-oriented environmental communication is most plausibly positioned to achieve visibility, repetition, and strategic fit. It provides a source-validated, cross-platform framework for utilizing social media to enhance environmental awareness and literacy among youth, while maintaining clear boundaries on what public platform indicators can demonstrate.

Abstract: Natural noises, especially the sounds of birds, have been found to be beneficial in lowering tension, anxiety, and agitation as well as promoting emotional healing. Recent laboratory research has mainly examined how public responses to birdsongs differ from those to other biological, artificial, or mechanical sounds, finding that birdsong promotes more effective physiological and psychological recovery. Our study continued this experiment with a questionnaire survey (N=202) in a non-lab on site outdoor setting in a larger Viennese recreational area, accompanied by soundscape analysis. Main findings show an overall effect on perceived mental health, with strongest effects in the field of emotional restoration (reduction of worries) than to cognitive clarity (clarification of thoughts). More in-depth analysis confirms low relevance of demographic variables age and gender but outlines the interesting relevance of the belief in the presence of animals in the recreational area. random forests, GAMMs, mediation, conditional inference trees, Bayesian models — suggest that it is not the acoustic composition per se that drives restoration, but rather how visitors perceive and interpret the soundscape. Interventions should therefore not focus solely on improving NDSI values but also on facilitating visitors’ awareness of the natural sounds already present.

Abstract: Underground and underwater geographies have garnered much traction lately in environmental and human geography, given that resource exploitations often occur in these deep spaces. Whilst such scholarly work has contributed to knowledge, such as insight concerning dangerous labour and chemical pollution, current human geographers have rarely theorised the inextricable multiple seafloor entanglement. This lacuna exists partly because no concept can help express multiple humans, aquatic life, and seafloor relations. In response to this issue, bringing together island studies, queer ecology studies, marine science studies, and science and technologies studies (STS) in oceanic geography literature, this paper introduces benthic geography to remediate the entrenched binary logic separating the seafloor from other spaces and bodies. This paper contributes to current environmental and human geography by expanding the use of the benthic concept from predominantly marine science (i.e., benthic ecology) toward environmental geography. Ultimately, this article invites readers to reflect on our unexpected entanglement with the seafloor and other spaces through how the materiality of the seafloor oozes within and beyond multiple spatial boundaries. Therefore, this article also encourages scholars to create seabed knowledge that puts offshore extractive industries under public scrutiny.

Abstract: Mississippi wetlands provide flood storage, water-quality regulation, habitat, shoreline protection, and climate resilience, yet long-term loss and degradation continue despite an extensive body of federal and state law. This paper examines persistence as an environmental governance problem rather than as a purely doctrinal legal question. It uses a qualitative analysis of legal, policy, and agency documents relevant to Mississippi wetlands, organized around jurisdiction, institutional fragmentation, permitting, enforcement capacity, and monitoring and participation. The analysis centers on 16 core federal and Mississippi laws and policies. It supplements them with agency guidance, public permitting materials, and selected scholarly sources to assess how formal legal protections operate in practice across the state. The findings show that Mississippi has a substantial formal framework for wetland protection, but that framework remains uneven in scope, geography, and implementation. State authority is most visible in coastal wetlands, whereas many inland wetlands depend more heavily on federal jurisdiction, interagency coordination, and administrative follow-through. The review further shows that legal accumulation has not produced consistent conservation outcomes because fragmented authority, variable enforcement, limited monitoring capacity, and land-use pressures weaken implementation. Recent jurisdictional narrowing after Sackett v. Environmental Protection Agency intensifies that asymmetry and increases uncertainty for inland wetland protection. The paper argues that improving outcomes will require governance reform as much as legal reform. More effective protection depends on clearer jurisdictional triggers, stronger interagency coordination, more transparent permit administration, improved monitoring and compliance systems, and closer integration of regulation, restoration, and land-use planning. The study contributes to wetland governance scholarship by showing that legal accumulation alone does not secure conservation outcomes when fragmented authority, uneven implementation, and weak institutional integration persist.

Abstract: This paper traces the evolution of global environmental agreements from 1971 to 2025 and explains why a dense treaty architecture has not delivered commensurate improvements in planetary conditions. Using qualitative comparative document analysis of major multilateral environmental agreements across climate, biodiversity, and pollution, the paper codes objectives, institutional designs, and observed performance. It integrates regime complex theory, planetary boundaries, and environmental justice to interpret recurrent weaknesses in this regime complex. The analysis identifies three consistent empirical patterns. First, implementation and enforcement gaps persist across issue areas, as global indicators for biodiversity, greenhouse gas emissions, and pollution-related mortality continue to diverge from agreed goals and targets. Second, states respond to the triple planetary crisis through a fragmented institutional landscape that multiplies mandates and reporting obligations while achieving limited coordination or policy integration. Third, distributive and procedural injustices endure because populations that contribute least to environmental degradation bear disproportionate harm and confront chronic shortfalls in finance, technology transfer, and voice in decision-making. These three patterns reinforce one another and create a structurally underpowered regime complex when evaluated against planetary boundaries and justice claims. The paper argues that incremental treaty proliferation cannot close these gaps. Instead, global environmental governance must shift toward implementation-centered Conferences of the Parties, stronger but fair compliance mechanisms, deliberate inter-regime coordination, and justice-oriented reforms in finance and rights. This diagnosis provides a foundation for future empirical evaluations of treaty impact and for normative debates on how to realize a safe and just operating space for humanity.

Abstract: This study aims to comparatively analyze the satisfaction levels of rural disaster victims in post-disaster resettlement areas and to identify sustainability-oriented factors influenc-ing these levels. The research was conducted in rural housing areas developed after the 24 January 2020 Sivrice (Elazığ) earthquake using an exploratory sequential mixed-methods approach. In the qualitative phase, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 32 disaster-affected individuals from 9 villages, and the data were analyzed through content analysis to generate an initial pool of 32 items. In the quantitative phase, data were col-lected from two independent samples totaling 648 participants. Exploratory factor analy-sis (EFA) revealed a six-factor structure with 21 items, including sustainable livelihood activities, economic structure, socio-cultural integration, climate resilience, cultural memory, and housing quality. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) demonstrated excellent model fit (χ²/df = 1.42; CFI = .99; RMSEA = .037). The overall reliability of the scale was high (Cronbach’s α = .85). The findings indicate that housing design, sustainable produc-tion opportunities, social cohesion, and place attachment play a critical role in shaping satisfaction and long-term community resilience. This study provides a robust and multi-dimensional measurement framework for evaluating post-disaster resettlement processes within the context of disaster risk reduction and sustainable rural development.

Abstract: Cities are increasingly expected to reorganize governance, planning, infrastructure, and everyday life in response to climate change, biodiversity loss, pollution, and widening inequality. However, much scholarship on climate urbanism still treats these processes primarily through the lens of sustainability transition, emphasizing policy uptake, resilience, and institutional innovation. This paper argues that such approaches are incomplete because climate urbanism is not only a technical or policy response to environmental change; it is also a struggle over urban order. Climate change reorgan-izes what cities value, what they build, whose vulnerabilities become visible, and how protection, risk, and legitimacy are distributed across urban life. To capture this, the paper introduces the concept of urban climate order, understood as the material and normative organization of urban life around climate-related priorities, including mit-igation, adaptation, energy transition, and justice. The Arab region provides the basis for developing this argument. Across its 22 countries, climate change unfolds within conditions shaped by authoritarian governance, displacement, infrastructural fragility, rapid urbanization, deep inequality, and recurrent conflict. Under these conditions, climate urbanism does not simply appear as a delayed sustainability transition; it takes distinctive, uneven, and politically embedded forms. The paper therefore develops a provisional typology of three forms of urban climate order in the Arab region: con-flict-displaced order, branded-technocratic order, and defensive-pragmatic order. These forms reveal the limits of transition-centered accounts and show that climate urbanism in the region is fragmented, selective, and inseparable from broader struggles over power, survival, and justice. The paper argues that the Arab region should be treated not as a peripheral case in climate urbanism, but as a critical site from which urban sustainability theory itself can be rethought.

Abstract: This study investigates the relationship between economic growth, technological innovation, renewable energy consumption, and CO₂ emissions in Vietnam from 1988 to 2021, using a Vector Error Correction Model. Three key findings emerged. First, economic growth remains strongly coupled with carbon emissions in the long run, indicating a fossil fuel-dependent economic structure. Second, technological innovation yields positive but limited short-term effects, requiring extended periods to achieve a full impact. Third, renewable energy exerts strong positive short-term effects, but negative long-term effects, reflecting structural economic shifts. This study proposes five policy recommendations: commercializing patent innovations, rapidly expanding renewable energy for immediate growth, decoupling growth from emissions, combining clean energy with technological advancement, and implementing policy reforms immediately rather than relying on long-term strategies alone.

Abstract: Urban shrinkage, driven by demographic and socioeconomic change, has become a pressing issue across Europe, particularly in small peripheral towns and semi-urban settlements that have historically relied on a single industry or company. This study investigates the demographic and socioeconomic factors contributing to the decline in Latvian mono-towns, thereby filling a void in empirical research on urban development in post-socialist contexts. Principal component analysis (PCA) was applied to a set of key demographic and socioeconomic indicators derived from census and administrative data to identify the principal dimensions driving urban shrinkage. The analysis reveals three principal components explaining 87% of the variance: socioeconomic vitality (57.1%), population change and peripherality (17.2%), and aging society dynamics (12.6%). The results contribute to a nuanced understanding of how mono-functional urban contexts shape the intensity and character of shrinkage. These results establish a basis for specific policy measures designed to promote resilience in small-settlement settings and contribute to the understanding of spatial planning and regional development approaches in the post-socialist urban transition context. The research underscores the need for context-specific approaches to address the multifaceted challenges of urban shrinkage.

Abstract: Rapid urbanization has aggravated the challenges in sustaining the peri-urban rice farming sector. The challenges arising from rapid urbanization are threatening rice farmers in peri-urban areas due to increasing economic and land pressures. This has caused a significant marginalization among rice farmers. In Indonesia, despite contributing 13.28% of the national GDP in 2021, the agricultural sector is dominated by marginal farmers who struggle with poverty and lack of land ownership. This study aims to identify different pathways for marginalization of rice farmers by integrating spatiotemporal land use and land cover (LULC) change analysis, landscape fragmentation metrics, and system dynamics through causal loop diagrams (CLD). Furthermore, the redefinition of the term marginal rice farmers is done by considering the total cultivated rice field and broader factors that contribute to the self-reinforcing loop of marginalization. This study shows that rice farmer marginalization in peri-urban areas is caused by small land size or poverty, and reinforcing feedback between ecosystem service degradation, productivity decline, economic pressure, and land conversion that interact differently across landscape configuration. Moreover, this study enhances the understanding of peri-urban agricultural transformation and provides landscape-sensitive policy insights to support inclusive and resilient agricultural systems by reconceptualizing marginalization of rice farmers as a dynamic socio-spatial process.

Abstract: Feeding and Eating Disorders (FEDs) require integrated and recovery-oriented care models that extend beyond clinical treatment and incorporate supportive environments capable of enhancing psychosocial wellbeing. In this perspective, nature-based and socio-agricultural practices represent promising yet underexplored therapeutic resources, particularly when embedded within a spatial planning framework. This study develops and tests a Geographic Information Systems (GIS)-based Decision Support System (DSS) that matches the specific needs of individuals undergoing treatment for FEDs with the territorial distribution and characteristics of green and agricultural environments. The research is based on a case study of the FED care center “Il Pellicano A.P.S.” in Perugia (Italy). Demand data were collected through questionnaires administered to patients, while supply data were gathered from 65 agricultural and social farms and gardens. The spatial matching process was implemented in a GIS environment using a multi-criteria approach integrating thematic activities, accessibility, organizational models, attendance levels, spatial capacity, and distance. Results reveal a significant mismatch between demand and supply, with the current system able to satisfy only 37% of expressed needs. The main gaps concern the lack of medium-sized, low-attendance, and freely accessible environments. Beyond the local case study, the proposed DSS serves as a transferable planning support tool for designing personalized therapeutic pathways and integrating green infrastructure, social farming, and healthcare services. The study highlights the strategic role of spatial planning in promoting health equity, social inclusion, and community wellbeing.

Abstract: Property valuation is central to determining compensation for expropriation, yet concerns persist regarding fairness, adequacy, and reliance on market-based approaches, particularly in contexts with weak land markets and informal tenure systems. This study presents a bibliometric and thematic analysis of Scopus-indexed literature on property valuation for expropriation published between 1979 and 2026. Based on 32 publications, the analysis examines publication trends, influential journals and countries, conceptual structures, thematic evolution, and methodological approaches. The results reveal a rapidly expanding but fragmented field dominated by technical valuation and legal-institutional perspectives, with socio-economic, cultural, and environmental dimensions remaining underexplored. Thematic analysis identifies dominant research orientations, interconnections between established and emerging themes, and persistent gaps between legal frameworks and valuation practice. Methodological review highlights limited integration of qualitative, quantitative, and spatial approaches, as well as scarce longitudinal and comparative studies. The study underscores the need for more integrative, context-sensitive approaches to expropriation valuation that account for socio-economic, cultural, and governance considerations.

Abstract: The complexity of the Water – Energy – Food (WEF) Nexus demands a comprehensive framework for its implementation, particularly concerning place-based governance and sustainable transitions. An integrated methodology encompassing literature review, qualitative analysis, conceptual mapping, and co-creation was outlined, and tested cross selected case study basins in Africa within the ONEPlanET Horizon Europe Project. This novel approach was conceptualized through the lens of Socio-Technical Systems Transition Theory and its interconnections with geo-ecological system components, enabling the recognition of the WEF Nexus as a place-based meta-system. The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were introduced as landscape drivers of the WEF Nexus, as they acknowledge the crucial role of society, technology and ecological systems in its interconnected domains. The X-curve framework assisted in the discussion and visual presentation of the status quo and the identified possibilities for transition within the selected hydrological basins, as representative geographies of the whole continent. The methodology resulted suitable for supporting a concrete exploration of pathways for change towards a Sustainable WEF Nexus, facilitated through multi-stakeholder engagement and the development of multi-level action plans.

Abstract:

Artisanal fishing along the Amazonian coast is a core activity for traditional fishing communities, including in border areas where different interests and ways of using natural resources overlap. On the oceanic coast of Amapá, located on Brazil’s northern border, artisanal fishing takes place in a setting shaped by conflicts with medium and large-scale vessels, the subordinate integration of small-scale fishers into production chains, and the expansion of capitalist strategies aimed at exploiting marine resources. This article seeks to characterize artisanal fishing in the region and to examine the challenges faced by traditional fishers amid declining autonomy and growing threats to the sustainability of marine fauna. The study adopts a participatory ethnographic approach, based on long-term fieldwork that included participant observation, systematic field notes, and direct engagement with fishers both at sea and in their daily activities in the municipalities of Oiapoque and Calçoene, in northern Amapá. The findings reveal an increasing dependence of artisanal fishers on private financing arrangements, linked to the control of key inputs and fish marketing, which reinforces unequal power relations within the fishing chain. In addition, rising pressure on marine species was identified, particularly on the yellow croaker (Cynoscion acoupa), driven by the high value of its swim bladder on the international market, posing significant risks to environmental sustainability and to the continuity of traditional artisanal fishing in the region.