Forthcoming and Online First Articles

International Journal of Environment and Pollution

International Journal of Environment and Pollution (IJEP)

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International Journal of Environment and Pollution (15 papers in press)

Regular Issues

  • Research on immobilisation of heavy metals in karst soil in Guizhou Province under the effect of carbonate   Order a copy of this article
    by Shaoxia Lin, Mingyang Cui, Zhiqiang Xiao, Changhu Lin 
    Abstract: Yellow soil and limestone soil are two dominant types of agricultural cultivated soil in carbonatite outcropped regions in Guizhou Province. Heavy metals in these soils are characteristic of high background value and low activity. To explore the relationship between high carbonate content and heavy metal activity in soils, this study simulated immobilisation of heavy metals in yellow soil and limestone soil under the existence of different concentrations of carbonates through laboratory experiments. Results showed that CaCO3 can increase the pH of yellow soil up to 7.08 and the limestone soil up to 8.25. CaCO3 is conducive to immobilisation of heavy metals in yellow soils within a certain range. It can relieve bio-availability of heavy metals in soil. In limestone soils, CaCO3 controls activity of heavy metals by adjusting soil pH and thereby influences solubility product constant of metallic compound precipitation. The adsorption kinetics model revealed that adsorption of heavy metals by yellow soil and limestone soil is not a physical adsorption, but a chemical adsorption based on chemical bonds. The rate of adsorption is controlled by heavy metal diffusion in soil particles and liquid film diffusion. High-concentration carbonates in karst soils in Guizhou Province can inhibit activity of heavy metals. Although the background value of heavy metals in soils in Guizhou Province is high, it hasnt shown serious health risks to crops or human beings.
    Keywords: calcium carbonate; heavy metal; yellow soil; adsorption kinetics;.

  • Geographic information system simulation and assessment for environmental impact of overall urban planning   Order a copy of this article
    by Chuhong Li, Bo Zhou 
    Abstract: In order to achieve the rationality of urban positioning and development direction and the suitability of ecological shadow environment, the environmental impact of overall urban planning based on Geographic Information System (GIS) evaluation method is evaluated. Firstly, a GIS evaluation index system for the environmental impact of urban planning is established, and the regional boundary layer model and the atmospheric motion equation are used to analyze the feasibility of the GIS model. Then, the construction of GIS evaluation model for the environmental impact of overall urban planning is introduced, and spatial division of the planning scheme is carried out. The atmospheric environment and noise environment models of urban planning are established using the land regression method, and the water environment use model is established using the continuous water tank method. Finally, taking X city as an example, the environmental impact of the overall urban planning is evaluated using the GIS evaluation model. The results show that the assessment of environmental impact of urban master planning based on GIS is feasible. In terms of the water quality environment, the GIS model can be used to find out the reasons affecting the water quality environment and provide good guidance for the site selection and planning of factories in cities. In the aspect of atmospheric environment, the congested routes can be found out to provide guidance for urban road planning. In terms of noise environment, the construction site can be selected away from the concentrated residential buildings. The GIS evaluation of urban master plan quantitatively evaluates the atmospheric environment, noise environment, and water environment, which can provide scientific basis for urban master plan. The study provides a good guiding ideology for the overall planning of the city.
    Keywords: environmental impact; overall urban planning; geographic information system; evaluation model.

  • Effects of phosphorus fertiliser type and application rate on leaf traits of sickle lucerne (Medicago falcate L) in a semi-arid environment in Northern China   Order a copy of this article
    by Bo Xu, Huimin Jiang, Baoyin Taogetao 
    Abstract: By observing the micro-structure of sickle alfalfa (Medicago falcate L.) treated with different phosphorus fertilisers, the adaptive mechanism of sickle alfalfa to structures in different phosphorus application rates can be explained, and a theoretical basis for phosphorus environment adapted by alfalfa can be provided. Six micro-morphological structure indicators from 2012 to 2014, including leaf thickness, palisade tissue thickness, spongy tissue thickness, palisade/spongy ratio, CTR and SR, were measured for sickle alfalfa treated with different phosphorus fertilisers. The results show: (1) with increase of phosphorus application rate, leaf thickness firstly increased and then decreased: it was thickest under moderate phosphorous rate; (2) different phosphorus fertiliser types had less effect on leaf thickness.
    Keywords: phosphorus fertiliser; leaf micro-structural mechanism; allometry.

  • Phyto-remediator effect of Phragmites australis specie (region of Algeria) to the total organic load of wastewater   Order a copy of this article
    by Abdelhakim Sellal, Rima Belattar 
    Abstract: The aim of this work is to study the pollution degree in total organic matter of Oued K'sob (region of Bordj Bou Arreridj Algeria) waters using the dosage of the organic matter and their auto-purifying capacity using chemical oxygen demand parameter for one year at five stations distance. Phragmites australis (Pa) proposed as a solution by studying their phyto-purifying capacities to reduce the organic load. The results obtained show an important organic load in the Oued, especially in hot periods where values that greatly exceed the Algerian standard for surface water intended for irrigation and the limit value for discharges of industrial liquid effluents and also exceed the Algerian limit value for organic matter in surface waters which leads us to classify these waters as bad quality. In parallel, the results also show that Pa has a strong COD reducing capacity of 89.97%.
    Keywords: organic pollution; commun reed; Phragmites australis; bioremediation; phytoremediation; Algeria.
    DOI: 10.1504/IJEWM.2023.10059437
     
  • Integration of green energy equity and fossil energy markets in different time scales: evidence from the USA, Europe and China   Order a copy of this article
    by Yan Chen, Yuanying Jiang 
    Abstract: Concerns about climate change and environmental degradation in recent years have spurred significant interest in green stocks. This paper integrates the lead-lag relationship, co-movement, and bidirectional spillovers between green energy stock markets and fossil energy markets in the U.S., Europe, and China across the time-frequency domain using wavelet methods and Time-varying parameter vector autoregression (TVP-VAR) connectedness approach. The results show that oil has a stronger correlation with the green stock market, with the strongest time-varying dependence on the green stock market in the USA and European regions. The USA green stock market plays a leading role in the short and long term, while becoming a net receiver of systemic risk in the medium term. Spillovers across markets are mainly driven by long-term shocks, which are exacerbated in the event of extreme global events. The findings of this paper can provide recommendations for investors and policy makers with different time horizons.
    Keywords: air pollution; environmental security; energy transition; green stock market; fossil energy market; regional analysis; wavelet analysis; TVP-VAR connectedness analysis; heavy polluting industries.
    DOI: 10.1504/IJEP.2023.10060227
     
  • A comparative analysis of cyanide content in common C3 and C4 plants ash   Order a copy of this article
    by LuLu Yu, YingJie Ma, Tiantian Zhang, Feifei Li, Fei Xu 
    Abstract: Cyanide is well known as a highly toxic substance and is widely present in nature. In this study, C3 and C4 plants were used as materials, and the effects of burned plant ash and its cyanide extract on tomato seed germination were further investigated. The results showed that the germination of tomato seeds was affected by different plant ash with great differences, among which soybean (C3 strain) and corn (C4 strain) straw ash had the best promoting effect. In addition, all cyanide extracts from C3 and C4 straws were shown to promote tomato seed germination at lower concentrations, whereas the opposite effects were observed at higher concentrations. Notably, the content of cyanide in C4 plant ash was generally higher than that of C3 plants. The findings in this study provide new insights into further analysis of the function of cyanide in C3 and C4 plants in the future.
    Keywords: cyanide; plant ash; C3 plants; C4 plants.
    DOI: 10.1504/IJEP.2023.10060452
     
  • Studies of environmental coastal impacts in small islands: a review.   Order a copy of this article
    by Lorenzo Carlos Quesada Ruiz, Carolina Peña-Alnso 
    Abstract: Fragile or closed maritime-terrestrial ecosystems of small islands, where the intromission of entropies can damage the ecosystem’s stability, have been harmed by human intervention. This systematic review examines studies concentrating on on anthropogenic impacts on the coastal environments of small islands. Based on a keyword search, a total of 507 articles were found for the period 1985-2021. The North Atlantic and North Pacific islands were the most studied. Studies assessing the typologies of human impacts and ecosystem services were the most numerous. Climate change, environmental policy, and tourism and recreation, together with biological transformations, were the most studied sources of environmental problems in marine-terrestrial environments. Others studied to a lesser extent include industry, basic activities such as agriculture, fishing or mariculture, certain coastal infrastructures, marine litter, human settlements, maritime trade, extractive activities or the protected status of natural areas and the resulting conflicts with local agents. The study of ecosystems as a central element affected by environmental problems accounted for 42% of the studies, with a particular emphasis on the analysis of impacts on marine fauna and flora.
    Keywords: small islands; coast; near-shore; environmental problems; human impacts; anthropogenic pressures.
    DOI: 10.1504/IJEP.2023.10061414
     
  • Nucleic acids accumulation in environmental waste release; a scientific map of particulate nucleic acid yet unattended and a potential outbreak helix-spring   Order a copy of this article
    by Bright E. Igere, Hope Onohuean, Emmanuel E.O. Odjadjare 
    Abstract: Various wastes containing nucleic acids released into the environment have been associated with diverse natural phenomena and health-related concerns. This has made environmental health practitioners, and other associated environmental health sectors, to continuously stress the need for adroit application/implementation of environmental health-related policy (e g water reuse policy/act, especially in continents applying water reuse act) and environmental wellness act. Although some scientific progress exists to date, there is yet a non-negligible release of nucleic acid particulates in some localities, while in other continents, it has remained unattended. The current study determines nucleic acid accumulation in environment release: a scientific map of particulate nucleic acid yet unattended and a potential outbreak helix-spring to appraise studies on environmental wellness and nucleic acid in environmental waste release. The PRISMA procedure was applied to collate data from Web of Science (WOS) and Scopus from January 1975 to December 2023.Our analysis revealed environmental nucleic acid bloom.
    Keywords: wastewater; nucleic acids in environmental release; cell-free nucleic acid; extra-chromosomal DNA; environmental health risk.
    DOI: 10.1504/IJEP.2024.10062258
     
  • Research on the synergistic degree assessment methods and its applications of air pollution collaborative governance in Yangtze River Delta Urban Agglomeration   Order a copy of this article
    by Peng Wang, Yannan Luo, Xiuyan Han 
    Abstract: This paper selects 26 specific indicators in five categories: policy synergy, action synergy, timeliness synergy, investment synergy, and ecological synergy to construct a system of indicators. The rebuilt complex system order degree model, in combination with government statistics and expert survey results on synergy status, assesses collaborative control in 27 urban agglomeration cities, validating the order degree model's effectiveness. This paper finds that the subsystem order degree model can assess atmosphere pollution collaborative control synergy in the Yangtze River Delta Urban Agglomeration (YRDUA). The assessment results for atmosphere pollution control synergy were 0.2928 in 2013, 0.7582 in 2018, and 0.8394 in 2021. These comprehensive results reflect synergy levels but not the effect of collaborative atmosphere pollution control in the YRDUA.
    Keywords: atmosphere pollution collaborative control; synergistic degree; synergy degree assessment; YRDUA; order degree model.
    DOI: 10.1504/IJEP.2024.10062373
     
  • Emission of CO2 and air pollutants from cement industry in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (20182020) and its reduction forecast   Order a copy of this article
    by Wenling Dang, Ziyi Jing, Wenjing Zong, Yueling Zhang 
    Abstract: The emission factor method is utilized to establish an emission inventory of CO2 and air pollutants (PM2.5, PM10, SO2, NOx, CO, VOC, NH3) for the cement industry in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) region from 2018 to 2020. CO2 and CO are prominent of the eight atmospheric emissions that CO2 emission is rather high up to 55.06 Mt, 45.40 Mt, and 66.87 Mt, followed by emissions of 123.74 kt, 99.42 kt, and 147.02 kt in 2018-2020, respectively. Furthermore, the emissions from Tangshan and Shijiazhuang account for nearly 50% of the total emissions in the region, based on the design capacity of cement enterprises in different cities. Finally, considering emission reduction technologies and the impact of cement production, the potential for CO2 and major air pollutant emissions reduction in 2030 and 2050 is predicted. According to the scenarios, the emission reduction of CO2, PM2.5, SO2, and NOx will all exceed half in 2030.
    Keywords: cement; Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei; CO2 and air pollutants; emission inventory; reduction forecast.
    DOI: 10.1504/IJEP.2024.10062756
     
  • The impact of environmental information disclosure and its extent on haze pollution: case studies from 285 cities in China   Order a copy of this article
    by An Pan, Yaoyao Qin, Huating Liu, Zhangqi Zhong 
    Abstract: As an effective way to improve environmental governance in the new era, the impact of environmental information disclosure (EID) and its extent on haze pollution remain to be further investigated. Given that, taking 285 cities in China from 2005 to 2018 for example, this paper applied the propensity score matching method combined with the difference-in-differences (DID) and spatial difference-in-differences (SDID) models to investigate the impact of the EID and its extent on haze pollution at the urban regional scale. A finding from this paper is that the EID could significantly reduce regional haze pollution, and the greater the extent of the EID, the more pronounced the reduction effect of haze pollution. Another important finding is that, for the key environmental protection cities, the resource-based cities, and the heating cities, the impact of the EID on lessening the concentration of haze pollution would be more significant. Moreover, the increase of environmental governance investment (EGI) could strengthen the impact of the EID on curtailing regional haze pollution.
    Keywords: environmental information disclosure; DID model; haze pollution; environmental governance investment.
    DOI: 10.1504/IJEP.2023.10062837
     
  • Study on urban combined sewer overflows and self-purification capacity load of river   Order a copy of this article
    by Haipan Jin, Hua Zhen, Ming-Xun Zhu, Min Wei, WenWen Liu 
    Abstract: China's economy has transitioned from rapid growth to a phase emphasizing high-quality development with a concurrent focus on environmental quality. Notably, the water environment conditions, which are related to urban residents, have garnered significant attention. To address urban river contamination by combined sewer overflows (CSO) during rainy periods, this study developed a measurement model based on the underlying causes, processes, and influential factors of overflow pollution. A correlation model between the two was established by combining a load measurement model for water self-purification capacity. The relationship between overflow influential factors and river water self-purification capacity load was explored using empirical data from an urban agglomeration in the Yangtze River Delta. The results indicate that increasing the collection rate of the pipe network and interception factors, extending the surface retention time of precipitation, and implementing sponge city initiatives can mitigate the impact of CSO-induced pollution on the water self-purification capacity load. However, each factor exerted a varying degree of impact. Therefore, it is imperative to select the most appropriate approach based on a specific situation.
    Keywords: combined sewer overflows; sponge city facility; self-purification capacity load of river; Yangtze River Delta urban agglomerations.
    DOI: 10.1504/IJEP.2024.10062886
     
  • The current status, opportunities, and path selection of cultural industries facilitating China's economic transformation from the perspective of 'Dual Carbon'   Order a copy of this article
    by Jinbei Wen, Feng Yun, QiYuan Hu 
    Abstract: Accelerating carbon peak and carbon neutrality has become a long-term goal of high-quality economic development in China, thus leading to bring about new opportunities and challenges to the development of the cultural industry Based on the current status of the cultural industry development, this paper puts forward the opportunities and path selection, so as to promote China's economic transformation under the background of the "dual carbon" strategy Overall, our results find that the scale of cultural industry continued to expand since 2012, but there are still issues such as imbalanced regional development, inadequate competitiveness of cultural products, and insufficient international influence Thus, under the "dual carbon" background, looking at the development opportunities, our results reveal that the emerging cultural tourism model will inject new vitality into the development of the cultural industry, and the booming development of new infrastructure construction provides technical support for the digitalization of the cultural industry.
    Keywords: dual carbon; cultural industry; economic transformation; realisation path.

  • Evaluation method of sustainable utilisation level of agricultural land resources based on double difference method   Order a copy of this article
    by Jie Tang 
    Abstract: The sustainable utilization level of agricultural land resources is closely related to people's lives. In this study, an evaluation method based on double difference method is proposed to analyse the factors affecting the sustainable utilization level of agricultural land resources. Taking Sichuan Province as the research area, the problems in the process of ecological resources information and land use were analyzed. A basic model including explanatory variables, core explanatory variables and control variables is constructed by using double difference method, and the sustainable utilisation level under different indicators is evaluated. The results show that the sustainable utilization level of agricultural land resources in the experimental group considering comprehensive evaluation index is improved by about 1.2% compared with the control group considering only a single evaluation index. At the same time, parallel trend test and PSM-DID grouping matching test show that this method has strong robustness.
    Keywords: double difference method; agricultural land resources; sustainable utilisation; evaluation model; explanatory variables; control variable.

  • Multi index comprehensive evaluation of sustainable development level of agricultural economy under the economic new normal   Order a copy of this article
    by Liqun Li 
    Abstract: Aiming at the problems of low coupling degree of evaluation indicators and insufficient coordination degree of evaluation results in the existing evaluation methods of economic development level, this paper proposes a new evaluation method of sustainable development level of agricultural economy based on the research background of the new normal of economy. Firstly, construct an evaluation index system. Then, construct a judgment matrix for sustainable development of agricultural economy and calculate the weight of indicators; Finally, the Data envelopment analysis method is used to fuse the preset evaluation indicators and build a comprehensive evaluation model to achieve a multi indicator comprehensive evaluation of the sustainable development level of agricultural economy under the economic new normal. The experimental results show that the highest coupling degree of evaluation data for this method can reach 0.70,and the coordination degree of evaluation results is close to 1.0,indicating that this method effectively achieves the design expectations
    Keywords: economic new normal; sustainable development; agricultural economy; data envelopment analysis; analytic hierarchy process.