Proceedings of 5th International Conference on Resources and Environmental Research—ICRER 2023

Terrestrial ecosystems serve as vital habitats for diverse flora and fauna species globally. Toxic elements pose severe threats to terrestrial biota, including humans, due to their toxic properties and potential to be transferred to different trophic levels via food webs and chains. Although some previous studies have sparingly discussed the effects of toxic elements on the environment, insights about their translocation mechanisms in terrestrial ecosystems are scanty. This study focuses on the effects of toxic elements in terrestrial ecosystems, particularly on terrestrial biota, sources, and translocation mechanisms. Toxic elements such as chromium (Cr), lead (Pb), copper (Cu), nickel (Ni), arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), and mercury (Hg) are carcinogenic, mutagenic and persistent in the environment. These elements adversely affect plants and microbial species distribution, abundance, and diversity. Toxic elements pose enormous adverse effects such as cell destruction, mitochondrial oxidative stress, deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) alteration, inhibition of seed germination and plant growth, inhibition of photosynthetic activities, and generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). This study provides synthesized details on the effects of toxic elements on biota in terrestrial ecosystems.

Taking northwestern Sichuan as the research object, ecological sensitivity evaluation is conducted through six factors including elevation, slope, land use, vegetation coverage (NDVI), river buffer, and geological disaster buffer. The results show that the area in the northwest of Sichuan is 6417.09 km², accounting for 2.76%; the low-sensitive area is 8705.54 km², accounting for 3.74%; it was 70,673.30 km², accounting for 30.36%; the area of extremely high-sensitive areas was 646.75 km², accounting for 0.28%; more than 90% of the research zone are in the middle and high sensitivity.

Industrial pollution is a detrimental byproduct of urban industrialization that has persisted over the past few decades, significantly impeding the sustainable development of cities. While previous research has confirmed the adverse effects of pollutants on human health, a comprehensive understanding of how pollutants impact urban populations still needs to be provided. Therefore, this study focuses on a critically affected urban center, Beijing, China, and conducts a high-precision research investigation. We employ a grid-based approach, dividing Beijing into 1 km × 1 km grids, to examine changes in various types of pollution gases (independent variables) and urban socio-economic factors (control variables) from 2015 to 2020. Utilizing these data, we construct a Geographic Weighted Regression (GWR) model to decipher the influence of these factors on population change rates. The findings reveal that the population distribution in Beijing from 2015 to 2020 was relatively stable, and the direction of population flow showed a significant correlation with urban circles and terrain, forming a spatial pattern of stable population in the central metropolitan area and population growth in the peripheral suburbs. According to the GWR model, O₃ and NO₃ are important pollution variables that affect population distribution. The correlation between these two variables and the population change rate has shown a positive impact on a large area in Beijing but also a negative effect on some areas. The concentrations of CO₂ and SO₂ tend to stabilize, with low correlation with population distribution, and spatial effects are also more dispersed. In addition, the correlation between OLD and population density is strong, while the relationship between GDP and population distribution is weak.

With the process of industrialization, urbanization and modernization accelerating, climate warming caused by CO₂ produced by lots of fossil fuels consumption has been more and more serious, so developing low-carbon economy has become an essential economic model. Based on historical data and the background of low-carbon economy, this paper expounded the status of China’s low-carbon economy and summed up the four existing problems: according to the actual situation and gives a basic model of developing low-carbon economy in China, and proposed some suggests: (1) accelerating the formulation of national strategies and corresponding legal guarantees, (2) utilizing market mechanisms to establish more carbon trading market with financial transaction characteristics and (3) vigorously developing clean energies and continuously increasing the capacity of forest carbon sinks. Finally, the study established an index system including 28 indicators to evaluate the comprehensive level of low-carbon economy according to the status of China’s low carbon economy development.

Background: This study was initiated to predict future developments in the maritime field and to understand marine design and maritime sensibility. We aim to derive necessary implications for the maritime sector by comparing the maritime sensibility of our population with that of other countries. This research investigates whether modern maritime sensibility is related to the Ocean Prohibition Policy that was enforced for over 500 years throughout the Joseon Dynasty in Korea. Methods: To achieve the purpose of the study, we collected and analyzed qualitative data through the analysis of prior research and expert interviews. Additionally, we conducted a qualitative research analysis through a phenomenological research approach. We found that ocean-related literature has mainly focused on land-centered thinking, agrarian-centered thinking, Yangban-centered thinking, and ocean exclusion. The current study used text mining for sentiment analysis to determine whether these concepts persist today. We set agriculture, fishing, returning to farming, and fishing as the main comparison keywords for text mining. Results: The analysis revealed that the Korean people still maintain a land-oriented and agricultural-oriented sensibility, and are passive about the sea. Furthermore, the findings suggested that people perceive the sea as dangerous and hold a tendency to reject it. Conclusion: This study reveals that the maritime prohibition policy of the Joseon Dynasty had a significant negative impact on today's maritime sensibility and is deeply interconnected. It is our hope that this research will provide useful guidelines and contribute to the future development of the maritime field and various related studies.

In response to contemporary needs, the construction sector is directing its attention towards sustainable alternatives to traditional concrete. Lightweight concrete is gaining prominence as a practical choice to fulfill structural, economic, and environmental criteria. The primary objective of this study was to manufacture pontoons (Dimensions: 300 mm × 300 mm × 50 mm) utilizing recycled materials, including lightweight expanded clay aggregate (LECA) balls (0, 5, 10, 15, and 20%), with the capacity to float on water. Additionally, the research sought to determine the optimal concrete material mixing ratio, focusing on both strength characteristics and buoyancy performance. In this study, 30 samples for the cube test and an additional 5 for the ultra-lightweight foam concrete (ULFC) pontoon analysis to fulfill the study’s objectives. Testing of lightweight concrete cube specimens took place on the 7th and 28th days following the curing period. Furthermore, the buoyancy test for the pontoon concrete was conducted on the 28th day. The test results reveal that the concrete mix with the highest average compressive strength is ULFC-L0, yielding 3.75 N/mm². From the result, the ULWFC-L20 mixture exhibited a favorable result by substantially enhancing its load capacity to withstand the highest buoyancy force, reaching a value of 21.2 N. Hence, the primary discovery of this study is that the integration of environmentally friendly LECA aggregate has enhanced the buoyancy capacity of ULFC. This development offers a promising alternative for advanced applications in the coastal and offshore marine structures sector.

Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) can be harnessed as a source of energy, depending on its handling. MSW can be directly fed to incinerator as fuel in Waste to Energy (WTE) plant or in the form of Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF). Loading of waste from Hopper to Furnace in WTE is carried out by RAM feeders. Unlike fossil fuels, the calorific value of MSW is not constant, which presents challenge for improving waste combustion. This paper presents the work carried out at largest WTE plant situated at Delhi, India, wherein its performance was improved by devising a method of stepped cyclic operation of RAM feeders with reduced travel length to achieve higher combustion efficiency. Further the improved RAM feeder operation with reduced travel distance successfully resolved the maintenance issue related to RAM tables getting stuck during the MSW feeding operation. An overall increase of steam flow by 4.12% was attained by the newly devised Stepped Cyclic Operation of RAM feeder.

The study focuses on the energy efficiency of the MK3 kiln through the cogeneration system, as a solution to reduce the use of natural resources that are currently used in the artisanal kiln to generate combustion in the production of artisanal bricks. The results in the brick firing process were obtained in the first 30 min, with a temperature of 410.8 °C, marking the beginning of the firing process, at 150 min, it reached 771.2 °C, generating efficient thermal insulation. At 240 min, the kiln reached 975.4 °C, evidencing the completion of the firing of the brick. The MK3 kiln stands out for its exceptional energy by using an innovative cogeneration system that is equivalent to a temperature of 486.5 °C, obtaining an energy efficiency of 50% in the continuous brick firing system, generating a positive impact on sustainable development, thus reducing fuel consumption in the brick firing process. Likewise, the result of the compression brick resistance is 60 kg/cm², exceeding the minimum resistance of 35 kg/cm², established by the masonry technical standard E0.70, indicating a better quality of the brick and a greater production in the brick industry. Finally, the results obtained in the MK3 kiln highlight the relevance of energy efficiency in the production of artisanal bricks, establishing a notable milestone in environmental sustainability, thus contributing to climate change.

This research evaluates the outdoor sports environments of 16 universities in Harbin, a cold region city, from five dimensions: Pleasurability (A), Security (B), Comfort (C), Convenience (D), and Accessibility (E). The evaluation indicators and weights are obtained by using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Factor Analysis (FA) methods, and the quality level of the outdoor sports environments is measured by using the Fuzzy Comprehensive Evaluation (FCE) method. The research has three steps: Firstly, a questionnaire survey collects the evaluation indicators and weights from the students’ perspective. Secondly, an evaluation model calculates the satisfaction scores of the outdoor sports environment for each university. Thirdly, the outdoor sports environments of different universities are ranked and analyzed based on the scores. The research proposes three optimization strategies: (1) Enhance comfort and convenience (2) Strengthen safety and accessibility and (3) Improve landscape quality and diversity.

Based on the tropical cyclone (TC) data from the United States Joint Typhoon Center, this paper analyzes the spatial variation characteristics and possible mechanism of the TC that landed in China during the 65 years from 1951 to 2015. The conclusions are as follows. (1) The TC transformation location moves to southeast in El Niño years, and shifts to northeast in La Niña years. (2) In El Niño years, the frequency of TC affecting the coast of Mainland China is relatively low, while the frequency of TCs affecting Japan is increasing. In La Niña years, the frequency of TCs affecting Japan and the surrounding waters, the Yellow Sea, the Bohai Sea and the South China Sea increased, while that of Taiwan province decreased. (3) The changes in the local circulation in the Northwest Pacific increased the sea temperature, increased convection, increased relative humidity in the middle layer, weakened vertical wind shear, increased low-level vorticity, and increased high-level divergence in the southeastern part of the Northwest Pacific during the El Niño year. The large-scale circulation adjustments provided favorable background conditions for the southeast movement of the TC generating position. The southeast movement of the spawning location makes the landing TC activities have a longer moving distance and thus increases the life history. In La Niña years, the subtropical high weakened and moved eastward. This environment is conducive to generating more TCs to land in China in the La Niña year.

Optimizing the natural ventilation design of buildings plays an important role in improving indoor air quality and reducing building energy consumption. Taking the additional sunlight room of typical rural houses in Northeast China as the research object, a new model of roof-covered sunlight room is proposed, and the performance potential is compared and analyzed from three aspects: the technical performance implementation, the space utilization rate, and the expressive power of the image. Simulate and optimize the ventilation performance of roof-covered sunlight rooms by using Fluent ventilation simulation software. Research has found that roof-covered sunlight rooms have great performance potential. By optimizing the depth of the sunlight room, reasonably controlling the width and height of the ventilation ducts in the sunlight room, and increasing the area of the ventilation ducts, the average wind speed in the sunlight room can be effectively improved, and the internal air quality can be improved. It provides theoretical and technical guidance for the rationalization of the construction of the additional sunlight room in the northeast countryside.

To estimate the service value of rivers for regional climate regulation, temperature, water vapor pressure difference, water air temperature difference and wind speed were selected as the main factors affecting river evaporation and the corresponding calculation model was proposed by Pearson correlation analysis with the Zhoukou section of Shaying River being taken as an example. It was 0.9013 that the calculation accuracy of Nash efficiency coefficient (NSE) for the model. The temperature and humidity index and comprehensive comfort index were used to define the boundary of positive and negative values of the model. According to the model, it was calculated to be 112.8 million yuan that ecological value of Zhoukou Channel for local climate regulation in 2021. The results of this study can provide reference for the study of river ecological base flow and ensure the healthy and sustainable utilization of river system.

The outdoor thermal comfort of university campuses is an important factor in encouraging students to engage in outdoor activities and. The cold climate conditions in severe cold areas have affected the degree of use and vitality of open campus spaces. This study took Harbin Institute of Technology as the research object. Through monitoring the space thermal environment, questionnaire survey, attendance and activity behavior observation, the influence of open space thermal comfort on the duration of winter participants and the frequency of space activity in cold regions was explored. The results indicate that: (1) Landscape types and components have a significant impact on the outdoor thermal environment and human thermal comfort. (2) The outdoor neutral temperature in Harbin during winter is 12.78 °C, with a neutral UTCI range of 3.7 °C to 21.8 °C. (3) The average activity duration of students reaches its maximum value (11 min) when the UTCI is -7 °C. When UTCI > −14 °C, the average duration of student activities will exceed 10 min. (4) TSV is proportional to frequency. The rich landscape environment and rest facilities can increase the frequency of activities. These results can provide reference for designing improved campus spaces to promote students’ outdoor activities, enhance spatial vitality, and ensure health.