Mapping non-conventional atmospheric drinking-water harvesting opportunities in Central Eurasia: The case of Kazakhstan

Drinking water scarcity is becoming an urgent problem worldwide, and it affects developing and developed countries alike. Kazakhstan is not an exception and has its primary sources of drinking water (groundwater, rivers, and lakes) continuously depleted and polluted; moreover, the country will be close to its exploitation limits within the following decades. However, modern technologies allow us to harvest drinking water from unintegrated sources, like the atmosphere. Therefore, it is crucial to research which non-conventional technologies can be used to obtain drinking water from unintegrated sources for the country, considering the cost, viability of use through the year, and local climate conditions. Thus, the present assessment was performed for the 14 demographic regions in Kazakhstan and two city-states, and a map depicting the most feasible technology for each region is presented, including their levelized cost per liter. Seven mature technologies were found to be feasible in Kazakhstani year-round climates. However, Air AW₃ technology and Artificial Glaciers (AG) were the most cost-effective for family-size and village-size solutions, respectively. The water provided via utility pipelines proved to be the most cost-effective manner, when available, to supply drinking water at a family-size scale, but found a less expensive competitor in the AG technology for village-size solutions. Moreover, the lack of utility water pipelines in some Kazakhstani regions, principally countryside rural areas, makes it vital to deploy and implement these alternative water-harvesting technologies to guarantee the future water security of these regions.     

Modelling crayfish population dynamics using catch data: A size-structured model

In this study we explore a rather unique time series (1979–2002) of catch data of the crayfish Astacus astacus in Lake Steinsfjorden (SE Norway) in combination with temperature data and data on Canadian pondweed Elodea canadensis coverage. In 1977, E. canadensis was for the first time observed in the lake. Over the following years, the plant established dense covers over large parts of the shallow areas, excluding the crayfish from these areas and causing a sudden drop in population size. A size-structured model with bi-stability including a range of observed stage-specific life-cycle attributes (e.g. growth, fecundity, fertility, sex-ratio), population specific parameters and density-dependant (shelters, cannibalism, unspecified predators, competition between individuals, catch, number of traps) as well as density independent factors (temperature and Elodea coverage) were constructed to evaluate the various drivers for the population dynamics, and as a predictive tool for assessing the effects of future changes. Our model revealed that the decline primarily was due to density-dependant effect of the Elodea expansion with reduced number of hides and thus increased risk for predation and cannibalism, but also that temperature played an important role related to recruitment. The model should be relevant for crayfish stock management in general, and by demonstrating the major role of temperature, it is also relevant for predicting population responses under a changing climate. The model should also be applicable to other crustaceans and species with discrete growth and late maturation.     

The effect of information and communication technologies and total factor productivity on CO2 emissions in top 10 emerging market economies

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - The aim of this paper is to investigate the nexus among information and communication technologies (ICT), total factor productivity (TFP), and carbon...