The potential of recycling aluminium scrap in Austria has been modelled in a new study. A surplus of mixed aluminium scrap is expected by 2045 if no advanced sorting technologies are applied. Increased demand for wrought aluminium alloys could mean this surplus occurs sooner. New methods to intensively sort aluminium could prevent this excess and contribute towards REACH1 recycling and climate targets.

Scientists have tested the behaviour of biodegradable plastics in managed composting and anaerobic conditions, as well as under simulated environmental conditions, such as in seawater or soil. This study found that blending different types of biodegradable plastics may open up new opportunities in relation to their end-of-life treatment — notably the potential to make one of the world’s best-selling biodegradable plastics, polyactic acid (PLA), home-compostable by blending it with another polymer (polycaprolactone — PCL). However, the researchers were also concerned that most materials tested could still cause plastic pollution as they failed to biodegrade sufficiently — and, in some cases, not at all, in particular, in soil and the marine environment.

How best to integrate the ecosystem services concept into regional planning? A recent study provides a practical example for an area in Germany that is faced with an increased risk of soil erosion under climate change. Researchers used a decision-support system incorporating ecosystem services to show that measures to reduce soil losses could also support a number of other services.

India saw a 62 per cent decline in job hiring in the month of April, led by hotel/restaurant/travel/airlines industries that saw a massive -90 per cent less hiring activity that the same month last year.

Researchers have shown that graphene paper can be used to construct flexible and rechargeable batteries, which may even perform better than non-flexible batteries. These might be used in a range of portable, bendable and rollable devices and could also help develop new energy generation technology, such as flexible solar cells.

Satellite observations are valuable aids to detect and monitor fire activity. A recent study has investigated how satellite images of fire activity, together with information on vegetation cover and fire risk associated with long and short-term atmospheric conditions could be used to help authorities better manage the risk of wildfires in Mediterranean Europe.

A smartphone app has been designed to help shoppers choose more environmentally-friendly protein-rich products, namely meat, vegetarian alternatives, eggs and dairy products. The methods and data used to measure these products' lifecycle environmental impacts are presented in a recent study.

A new mobile phone application which can help monitor traffic-noise exposure is presented in a recent study. The app, ‘2Loud?’, can measure indoor night-time noise exposure and, given large-scale community participation, could provide valuable data to aid urban planning, the researchers say. In an Australian pilot study, nearly half of participants who used the app found that they were exposed to potentially unhealthy levels of night-time noise.

Power plants are a major source of CO2 emissions and contributor to global warming. This study reports on a portable technology to remove CO2 from their combustion exhaust gases. Pilot testing on a coal burning plant in Poland captured thousands of kilograms of CO2 per day. This could be a viable future means of mitigating CO2 emissions from the power generation sector.

In-depth soil information is increasingly required to achieve an array of environmental and economic goals. In particular, accurate estimates of soil carbon stocks are necessary to guide land-management practices and climate- related policymaking. To help meet this need, Australian scientists have developed a new sensing method to analyse cylindrical soil samples (soil cores), known as the Soil Condition ANalysis System (SCANS). By integrating a novel automated soil- core sensing system (CSS) with advanced statistical analytics and modelling, the SCANS provides a level of detail that is difficult to achieve with existing alternatives. SCANS is not only rapid, accurate and inexpensive1, but is likely to be a useful tool for farmers, land managers and policymakers, as the improved assessment of soil functions, structures and carbon stocks will facilitate more informed, sustainable decision-making.

Researchers use life-cycle assessment (LCA) as a tool to evaluate the environmental impact of products and technologies across their entire lifetime — from extraction of raw material to end-of-life (disposal or recycling). It is challenging to apply the conventional LCA method to new or emerging technologies, however, due to the sheer quantity of data needed for such studies. This study proposes a screening-to-LCA method that uses available data to systematically evaluate the performance of such technologies, and support the uptake of those that are most environmentally sustainable.

Digital initiatives that began pre lockdown are giving the carmarker confidence that it will emerge stronger when the dust settles.

A remote consultation app at Apollo is allowing safety for both the patients and the frontline doctors while using AI to improve diagnostics.

NASA's Aqua satellite provided a visible image of Super Typhoon Meranti as it continued to move toward Taiwan and the northern Philippines.

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Payments for ecosystem services (PES) are one of a number of policy options available to support the provision of ecosystem services. Based on the characteristics of ecosystem services, a recent study has developed a framework for deciding when payments are a suitable tool for delivering ecosystem services.

According to a recent viewpoint article, future agri-environmental schemes (AES) can more effectively pay for the provision of ecosystem services at a landscape level if they are prepared, designed and implemented in a collaborative and coordinated manner.

Wetland management needs to consider the role wetlands play in supporting livelihoods and wellbeing as well as more traditional conservation goals, according to UK researchers. Such a ‘human-centric’ approach, would link hydrological conservation to societal benefits, including clean water, food production, flood protection and improved human health.

Ecosystem services, such as coastal protection or water supply, form an integral part of ecosystem-based adaptation to climate change. However, preserving and restoring ecosystems and their services relies on the economic system that supports these efforts. Ecosystem services will not be best protected by the classic market framework, new research suggests.

Climate change will lead to an increased risk of flooding and huge economic losses if countries do not invest in appropriate adaptation measures, according to a new study. The research estimates the risks posed by flooding to cities around the world and the associated economic losses in 2005 and 2050, and suggests that flood protection must be increased to maintain the same level of risk to coastal cities.

The use of important ecosystem services, such as carbon storage or hunting, can be estimated through ecosystem accounting methods, a new study demonstrates. The researchers tested models that could help policymakers to understand the capacity of ecosystems to generate ecosystem services, and how these services are used over time.

Following extreme weather events, many countries are unable to afford the costs of providing relief to communities and repairing infrastructure, a new study suggests. The researchers estimate that providing relief on a global scale for events which recur every 10 to 50 years would cost US$3.3 billion (€2.37 billion) annually.

Grapes are sensitive to small changes in temperature, rain and sunlight, meaning climate change will have implications for wine producers worldwide. This study assessed local vulnerabilities and adaptation strategies in two wine-producing areas in France. The findings may help growers to develop suitable methods of adapting to long-term climate change.

An inventory of carbon footprints has been developed for 177 regions across 27 EU Member States. The map is the first to quantify greenhouse gas emissions associated with household consumption across the EU. It reveals significant regional differences based on income, household size and urban versus rural living.

US teens are more likely to vape for the flavourings found in e-cigarettes rather than nicotine, suggests research published online in the journal Tobacco Control.

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The expression dog is man's best friend might have more weight in the case of first-year university students suffering from homesickness, according to a new UBC study.

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Personal tracking tools -- technologies that meticulously count our daily steps, map our runs, account for each purchase - fall in and out of favor in users' lives.

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Dimension Data to help organisations on the enterprise mobility front through a dedicated Apple practice and managed mobility services for iOS

Onymos has transformed the art of mobile apps development, where open standards HTML, JavaScript and CSS technologies are made use of, which in turn, cuts down the development time from months to days.

Udupi-based Robosoft was started in 1996 with Apple as its first customer. It is now evolving beyond mobile app development to add advisory capabilities.

A mobile-centric approach and the emergence of new digital platforms fuelling greater adoption of e-commerce has driven reach and growth of MakeMyTrip, the online travel company said in a presentation to investors.

Industry executives say most plants will work at low capacity at least until the festive season

In the real-time economy, the demand for cloud services keeps growing with the hybrid cloud as the optimal architecture for handling the inevitable complexity of the agile company’s IT infrastructure.

New research on climate-driven reductions in Arctic sea ice has predicted that, by 2040 to 2059, new shipping routes will become passable across the Arctic, linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. An increase in traffic has implications for the ecosystems of this fragile area.

Two shared electric car schemes, in Berlin and Paris, have been examined by a recent study. Although both schemes are progressive, Berlin's takes an 'inter-modal' approach to encouraging sustainable mobility, because it integrates electric cars into the wider public transport system. The scheme in Paris, however, focuses on cars as the main form of transport.

In the automobile industry, the development and manufacture of increasingly complex technological components — catalytic converters, LEDs, electric motors, batteries — requires increasingly complex and diverse raw materials with specific qualities. The technological and economic importance of these materials, combined with their vulnerability to supply shortages and likelihood of supply interruptions, indicates their ‘criticality’. This study uses a new methodology to explore the criticality of 27 key metals used in the automotive industry and other sectors, and highlights six that are especially vulnerable: rhodium, dysprosium, neodymium, terbium, europium and praseodymium. The researchers found there was limited recycling and substitution of these metals and a high possibility of restrictions to their supply.

Khudoleĭ, K. M

Bats can adapt to certain changes in habitat that threaten their preferred roosting sites. A new study from Poland shows that bats will widen their criteria for selecting roosting sites if forest management practices limit their preferred sites. However, experts recommend that small patches of old growth forest suitable for bat roosting are maintained as the bats in this study did not adapt to young woodland.

Researchers have identified a possible way of reducing the survival rate of the pine processionary moth, a destructive pine forest pest. Including patches of broadleaf trees in pine woodland could trick the caterpillars into pupating in soil that is unsuitable for their survival.

Inhaling smoke from forest, grass and peat fires causes about 340,000 premature deaths worldwide every year, according to new research. Reducing the number and extent of human-induced landscape fires could significantly improve air quality, mitigate climate change and reduce the rate of biodiversity loss, say scientists.

Adapting to climate change is essential to the sustainable management of forestry but it needs to be grounded in current scientific knowledge. A recent US study has brought together scientific experts and forestry managers to ascertain some general adaptation strategies for the future.

Forests may need to be converted to more drought-tolerant mixtures of tree species to prevent significant die-off under climate change, predicts a new study which modelled German forests. The researchers indicate that climate change is likely to lead to significant forest damage, which could be reduced through adaptive management.

Forests play an important role in both mitigating and adapting to climate change, although current policies tend to isolate the two approaches. A recent study suggests that mitigation and adaptation are complementary and linked, and that forestry management that integrates the two can successfully provide both of these important services.

A study of two forest ecosystems in Spain has found that land-cover maps of watersheds, ecosystems hosting key interactions between vegetation, wildlife, and water, are made more accurate by the inclusion of LiDAR data — a type of remote sensing that pulses laser light at a target to measure vertical distances for use in 3D-mapping an environment. This has important implications for ecosystem monitoring, flood mitigation, and forest management, fields in which accurately characterising an environment is key.

Gaul, Gilbert M., author

To keep Europe’s ecosystems healthy, we need to protect biodiversity. How can the ecosystem service approach help? And how can we capture people’s more deeply held values beyond mere money? Watch the video produced by Science for Environment Policy about the different tools in the ecosystem services toolbox.