Low cost adsorbents for the removal of organic pollutants from wastewater.

The pollution of rivers and lakes is of concern because of the threat to public water supplied and because of the damage caused to natural ecosystems. Waterborne diseases remain rife in the Third World, while in developed countries there has been a decline in the quality of water. It has also become apparent that pollutants may destroy ecosystems hundreds of miles from their source. Some of these toxic materials such as lead and PCBs also pose threats to public health. This text describes the sources of various types of pollutants, their effects on aquatic organisms, ecosystems and man, using case histories where appropriate. Ways of mitigating the effects of pollutants by control and ecosystem manipulation are described. Techniques for assessing the effects of pollution, both in field and laboratory, are introduced. The role of the biologist in pollution assessment and control and in the wider sphere of mangement of acquatic resources is also examined.

Biology of Freshwater Pollution.

In the effort to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) related to food, health, water, and climate, an increase in pressure on land is highly likely. To avoid further land degradation and promote land restoration, multifunctional use of land is needed within the boundaries of the soil-water system. In addition, awareness-raising, a change in stakeholders’ attitudes, and a change in economics are essential. The attainment of a balance between the economy, society, and the biosphere calls for a holistic approach. In this paper, we introduce four concepts that we consider to be conducive to realizing LDN in a more integrated way: systems thinking, connectivity, nature-based solutions, and regenerative economics. We illustrate the application of these concepts through three examples in agricultural settings. Systems thinking lies at the base of the three others, stressing feedback loops but also delayed responses. Their simultaneous use will result in more robust solutions, which are sustainable from an environmental, societal, and economic point of view. Solutions also need to take into account the level of scale (global, national, regional, local), stakeholders’ interests and culture, and the availability and boundaries of financial and natural capital. Furthermore, sustainable solutions need to embed short-term management in long-term landscape planning. In conclusion, paradigm shifts are needed. First, it is necessary to move from excessive exploitation in combination with environmental protection, to sustainable use and management of the soil-water system. To accomplish this, new business models in robust economic systems are needed based on environmental systems thinking; an approach that integrates environmental, social, and economic interests. Second, it is necessary to shift from a “system follows function” approach towards a “function follows system” one. Only by making the transition towards integrated solutions based on a socio-economical-ecological systems analysis, using concepts such as nature-based solutions, do we stand a chance to achieve Land Degradation Neutrality by 2030. To make these paradigm shifts, awareness-raising in relation to a different type of governance, economy and landscape and land-use planning and management is needed.

Soil-related sustainable development goals: Four concepts to make land degradation neutrality and restoration work

The topic of rainfall thresholds for landslide occurrence was thoroughly investigated, producing abundance of case studies at different scales of analysis and several technical and scientific advances. We reviewed the most recent papers published in scientific journals, highlighting significant advances and critical issues. We collected and grouped all the information on rainfall thresholds into four categories: publication details, geographical distribution and uses, dataset features, threshold definition. In each category, we selected descriptive information to characterize each one of the 115 rainfall threshold published in the last 9 years. The main improvements that stood out from the review are the definition of standard procedures for the identification of rainfall events and for the objective definition of the thresholds. Numerous advances were achieved in the cataloguing of landslides too, which can be defined as one of the most important variables, together with rainfall data, for drawing reliable thresholds. Another focal point of the reviewed articles was the increased definition of thresholds with different exceedance probabilities to be employed for the definition of warning levels in landslide early warning systems. Nevertheless, drawbacks and criticisms can be identified in most part of the recent literature on rainfall thresholds. The main issues concern the validation process, which is seldom carried out, and the very frequent lack of explanations for the rain gauge selection procedure. The paper may be used as a guide to find adequate literature on the most used or the most advanced approaches followed in every step of the procedure for defining reliable rainfall thresholds. Therefore, it constitutes a guideline for future studies and applications, in particular in early warning systems. The paper also aims at addressing the gaps that need to be filled to further enhance the quality of the research products in this field. The contribution of this manuscript could be seen not only as a review of the state of the art, but also an effective method to disseminate the best practices among scientists and stakeholders involved in landslide hazard management.

A review of the recent literature on rainfall thresholds for landslide occurrence

The ongoing emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs) is triggering changes in many climate hazards that can impact humanity. We found traceable evidence for 467 pathways by which human health, water, food, economy, infrastructure and security have been recently impacted by climate hazards such as warming, heatwaves, precipitation, drought, floods, fires, storms, sea-level rise and changes in natural land cover and ocean chemistry. By 2100, the world’s population will be exposed concurrently to the equivalent of the largest magnitude in one of these hazards if emmisions are aggressively reduced, or three if they are not, with some tropical coastal areas facing up to six simultaneous hazards. These findings highlight the fact that GHG emissions pose a broad threat to humanity by intensifying multiple hazards to which humanity is vulnerable.

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Broad threat to humanity from cumulative climate hazards intensified by greenhouse gas emissions

The Leman-Baikal project is an international Swiss-Russian research initiative in the fields of physical limnology, geochemistry and hydrology of aquatic geosystems. The main methodological principle of the project is constituted by simultaneous collection of airborne wide-area Hyperspectral Imaging (HSI) and ground point-based data. In this study we used supervised classification of hyperspectral images to interpret three types of aquatic species: small yellow pond lily, reed and pondweeds with watermilfoil. For turbidity mapping we used mosaic hyperspectral image (band 534 nm) to derive Total Suspended Matter (TSM). A good level of correlation between reflectance values and TSM concentrations were observed.

Investigation of heavy metals distribution in suspended matter and macrophytes of the Selenga river delta using airborne hyperspectral remote sensing

The role of environmental factors is considered for the lower reaches of rivers and creeks originating from the slopes of volcanoes of the Semlyachikskaya group (East Kamchatka volcanic region). The hydrological and environmental conditions of rivers and creeks flowing into the Semlyachikskii Liman are described for the first time. The specific hydrological and geomorphological characteristics of the lower reaches of those streams and the relationship between abiotic characteristics and the specific features of the structure and abundance of fish communities are studied. The spawning intensity (density) of salmon Salmonidae and the complexity (balance) of the structure of young fish and resident fish communities depend on the stream size. The habitation density and the uniformity of young fish distribution are determined by channel slope and the morphology of channel relief forms. The temperature regime determines fish growth rate, and water chemistry determines the phonetic features of resident fish population.

Geological factors governing ichthyofauna formation in rivers of Semlyachikskii volcanic region (Eastern Kamchatka)

The aim of this study is to create the hydrological model for Western Dvina (Russian part) catchment based on open-source global spatial and climatic data to calculate water balance components and estimate the amount of dissolved and suspended matter flow through the Russian Federation border. This investigation is a part of the MANTRA Rivers project between Russia, Ukraine, and EU.

Water Balance Assessment Using Swat Model. Case Study on Russian Subcatchment of Western Dvina River

Linking Catchments to Rivers: Flood-driven Sediment and Contaminant Loads in the Selenga River

Precipitation products with high resolution for urban areas remain an important and challenging issue. The main purposes of this study are to evaluate the accuracy of the China Meteorological Forcing Data Set (CMFD) in the Shanghai megacity and to improve the accuracy of the CMFD precipitation. With the rain gauge observations for the 2013–2018 period, we evaluate the error and detection ability of CMFD at the sub‐daily, daily, and monthly scales, and examine the spatial variation of CMFD performance over the region. The Geographic Differential Analysis (GDA) method is used to calibrate the CMFD precipitation data set. The results show that the performance of CMFD precipitation varies from sub‐daily to monthly time scales with better accuracy at the monthly scale in the study region. The CMFD can capture the spatial variability over the region with less error in the north and outliers in the center. The GDA‐based calibration framework can significantly improve the capability of CMFD products, especially at the sub‐daily and daily scales. The calibrated CMFD can provide reliable precipitation estimates and capture more extreme precipitation events. The improved CMFD products can provide a key basis for applications related to hydrological and meteorological hazard monitoring and assessment in the Shanghai area. The overall framework is scalable and could be readily generalized to other regions, and the calibrated product can be used in the research of urban natural disaster risks and other studies.

Sergey Chalov

Papers

Investigation of heavy metals distribution in suspended matter and macrophytes of the Selenga river delta using airborne hyperspectral remote sensing

Geological factors governing ichthyofauna formation in rivers of Semlyachikskii volcanic region (Eastern Kamchatka)

Water Balance Assessment Using Swat Model. Case Study on Russian Subcatchment of Western Dvina River

Linking Catchments to Rivers: Flood-driven Sediment and Contaminant Loads in the Selenga River

Performance Evaluation and Improvement of CMFD's Precipitation Products Over Shanghai City, China