scholarly journals A Regional Difference Analysis of Microplastic Pollution in Global Freshwater Bodies Based on a Regression Model

Water ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (7) ◽  
pp. 1889
Author(s):  
Hanwen Chen ◽  
Yinghuan Qin ◽  
Hao Huang ◽  
Weiyi Xu

Based on statistical data of the average abundance of microplastics from 37 global freshwater locations up to November 2019, we classified the freshwater bodies according to developments in their local countries and geographic positions. We highlighted the differences and causes of microplastic pollution in the waters of both developed and developing countries and urban and rural areas. The results showed that microplastic pollution was highest in Asia. The pollution in developed countries was significantly lower than in developing countries. The differences in freshwater pollution between urban and rural areas mainly depended on the extent of human activity. The present study found the following phenomena by comprehensively using simple and multiple regression models and a Pearson correlation analysis to solve the impacts of the features, natural factors, and social and economic factors on the distribution of microplastic pollution. The density of microplastics was higher, which promoted the aggregation of microplastics in sediments. Pursuant to that, microplastic pollution was also influenced by the space-time pollution of movable surface sources, such as the soil and air. A population increase and the average gross domestic product (GDP) could also worsen microplastic pollution.

2007 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 307-317 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. SEITZ

Modernization of agriculture, economic development and population increase after the end of the Thirty Years' War caused authorities in many parts of Germany to decree the eradication of so-called pest animals, including the House Sparrow. Farmers were given targets, and had to deliver the heads of sparrows in proportion to the size of their farms or pay fines. At the end of the eighteenth century German ornithologists argued against the eradication of the sparrows. During the mid-nineteenth century, C. L. Gloger, the pioneer of bird protection in Germany, emphasized the value of the House Sparrow in controlling insect plagues. Many decrees were abolished because either they had not been obeyed, or had resulted in people protecting sparrows so that they always had enough for their “deliveries”. Surprisingly, various ornithologists, including Ernst Hartert and the most famous German bird conservationist Freiherr Berlepsch, joined in the war against sparrows at the beginning of the twentieth century, because sparrows were regarded as competitors of more useful bird species. After the Second World War, sparrows were poisoned in large numbers. Persecution of sparrows ended in Germany in the 1970s. The long period of persecution had a significant but not long-lasting impact on House Sparrow populations, and therefore cannot be regarded as a factor in the recent decline of this species in urban and rural areas of western and central Europe.


1998 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 197-206
Author(s):  
Hank Fitzhugh

On a global basis, livestock products - meat, milk, eggs and fibre - account for 40% of the value of total marketed agricultural product. Animal products provide essential amino acids, vitamins and minerals to help ensure nutritionally balanced diets. In developing countries, livestock traction and manure also contribute to food production through improved cultivation and soil fertility which increase crop yields. On average, the proportional contribution of livestock product to dietary calories and protein in developed countries is double that for developing countries. Demand for livestock products is fuelled by the population increase, income growth and urbanisation in developing countries. Therefore, over the past decade, consumption of livestock product has sharply increased in developing countries, while slightly decreasing in developed countries where consumption is already relatively high on average. Increased demand in developing countries increases income for producers, but also stresses the environment through pollution, soil erosion, overgrazing and deforestation. Research involving global partnerships of scientists and institutes can help ensure that the increased demands for livestock product in developing countries will be met in economically feasible and environmentally sustainable ways.


2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 108-118
Author(s):  
Kumar Bhatta

Multi functionality of agriculture in the developed countries is employed as a means of rural revitalization and economic circulation. Although farm diversification in the developing countries is much more crucial, in most of the rural areas of the developing countries, it is not performed, and it is delayed. In this regard, the main objective of this study is to explore the possibilities of the multi functionality of agriculture for the sustainable rural development for the implementation of the sustainable development goals (SDGs) in the developing countries. The empirical study was conducted in two of the rural districts of Nepal called Nuwakot and Rasuwa. The author intentionally chose these districts because it is one separate area north of the capital city Kathmandu and bordering to China. Further, even though the location is nearby the capital city, and the rural villages have excessive potentials for tourism activities, the farmers are still focusing on subsistence farming without getting benefits from tourism. Based on the macro data of Nepal government and field visit, the author conducted a case study. This study explored that most of the household heads are working in the agricultural sector, which can be one of the opportunities to launch multi functionality of agriculture. However, due to their weak educational background, they are expecting external supports in terms of knowledge, technology, and more importantly, supportive policy. The federal and central government should give subsidy to the farmers so that they canstart multi functionality in their farms, which lead to sustainable rural development.


2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 ◽  
pp. 1-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Huda Farhana Mohamad Muslim ◽  
Tetsuro Hosaka ◽  
Shinya Numata ◽  
Noor Azlin Yahya

Direct experiences with nature in childhood are essential for enhancing psychological and physical development in children. However, researches on childhood nature-related experiences and their effects are largely biased toward more developed Western countries. In this study, we created a questionnaire on childhood experiences with nature and surveyed 357 adults (>20 years old) around Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia, to determine whether younger generations had fewer nature-based experiences than older generations and whether people who grew up in urban areas had fewer experiences than those who grew up in rural areas. We found that playing in rivers or waterfalls and collecting and eating tropical fruits were the most common nature-related activities experienced in childhood. There was a minimal decline in nature-related experiences among generations. However, people who grew up in rural areas had more nature-related experiences than those who grew up in urban areas. The loss of nature areas and increase in population density may accelerate the decline in nature-related experiences in urban areas. Therefore, efforts to create urban parks and other public spaces for reconnecting urban children to nature will become increasingly important for urban planning and environmental education in tropical developing countries such as Malaysia.


2018 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-96 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary S. Mangai ◽  
Michiel S. De Vries

Purpose While there is an urgent need for clean water in Ghana and Nigeria, governments lack the financial means to do much to address this need. This does not mean that improving access to clean water is impossible. On the contrary, this paper argued that engaging citizens through co-production, as is already being done in developed countries in the fields of care-giving, waste management, healthcare and community policing, could provide a successful strategy. The purpose of this paper is to examine how public water facilities are being managed to improve and sustain access to clean water for domestic use in rural areas in Ghana and Nigeria. Design/methodology/approach A survey interview with households and in-depth interviews with water professionals were conducted in Ghana and Nigeria to help the authors understand the practicalities of the co-production of clean water and how this is improving and maintaining access to clean water sources. The paper draws on a philosophical framework of “deep” citizen engagement to describe the merits of co-production and how it works in practice in developing countries. Findings Based on the interviews with officials and surveys among the population of rural areas in the two countries studied, the authors found that the two countries vary significantly in their approach to water management decisions and the extent to which citizens are involved. Ghana’s approach seems much more successful than Nigeria when it comes to maintaining boreholes for water supply with the help of the population. In Nigeria, three-quarters of the public water facilities are non-functional, while in Ghana, community involvement in maintaining public water facilities has resulted in the sustained use of boreholes and eliminated the lack of access to clean water in many communities. Originality/value This paper contributes to the practical understanding of co-production in developing countries and the potential of such co-production in improving clean water access. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no previous scientific research has studied how co-production can improve and sustain access specifically to clean water sources in developing countries, and this paper aimed to fill this gap.


2014 ◽  
Vol 1044-1045 ◽  
pp. 1533-1537 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jing Chao Wang ◽  
Ning Wang

The urban-rural integration is a new stage of urbanization,which is the process of the development of productive forces and promoting the production of urban and rural residents, is the process that has the characteristics of resources between urban and rural areas of mutual integration, mutual resources, mutual market, mutual service, and which will gradually reach rural coordination between the development process. Rural tourism is derived from the developed countries of advanced concepts, with the tourism planning and designing tools of Laiyuan Huangtuling, we put the native village of the existing land, ancient architecture, historical and cultural resources together. and using the designing tools to make travel, leisure, culture, food , and other node element for redesigning, excavating the existing resources within the village, both to highlight the local characteristics, and good protection of the natural environment, and embodies the essence of the role of urban-rural integration.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandra Cassivi ◽  
Elizabeth Tilley ◽  
E.O.D. Waygood ◽  
Caetano Dorea

AbstractBillions of people globally gained access to improved drinking water sources and sanitation in the last decades, following effort towards the Millennium Development Goals. Global progress remains a general indicator as it is unclear if access is equitable across groups of the population. Agenda 2030 calling for “leaving no one behind”, there is a need to focus on the variations of access in different groups of the population, especially in the context of least developed countries including Malawi. We analyzed data from Demographic Health Survey (DHS) and Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) to describe emerging trends on progress and inequalities in water supply and sanitation services over a 25-year period (1992 - 2017) and to identify the most vulnerable population in Malawi. Data were disaggregated with geographic and socio-economic characteristics including regions, urban and rural areas, wealth and education level. Analysis of available data revealed progress in access to water and sanitation among all groups of the population. The largest progress is generally observed in the groups that were further behind at the baseline year, which likely reflects good targeting in interventions/improvements to reduce the gap in the population. Overall, results demonstrated that some segments of the population - foremost poorest Southern rural populations - still have limited access to water and are forced to practise open defecation. Finally, we suggest to include standardized indicators that address safely managed drinking water and sanitation services in future surveys and studies to increase accuracy of national estimates.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (5) ◽  
pp. 397-403
Author(s):  
Irin Ephrem ◽  
Ateendra Jha ◽  
A. R Shabaraya

Antenatal care is the ‘care before birth’ to promote the well-being of mother and fetus, and it is essential to reduce maternal morbidity and mortality, low-weight births and perinatal mortality. The care for the mother during pregnancy, during delivery, and after delivery is important for the wellbeing of the mother and the child. Maternal health-care vary within developing countries, which shows differences between affluent and poor women, and between women living in urban and rural areas. Health care service provision in India is very diverse, with rural services achieving considerably less coverage than their urban counterparts. It was found that following factors affects the antenatal care utilization maternal education, husband’s education, marital status, availability, cost, household income, women’s employment, media exposure and having a history of obstetric complications. If a woman visited health centre three or more than three times, her chances were 31 percent higher to deliver in an institution. Poorer women may prefer home-based delivery care. Lack of affordability might explain the large poor–rich inequalities in professional delivery attendance within urban and rural areas. Traditional beliefs and ideas about pregnancy also influence on antenatal care use. Older women would have accumulated knowledge on maternal health care and therefore would likely have more self-confidence on pregnancy and childbirth and thus, may give less importance to obtaining institutional care. Incomplete access and underutilization of modern healthcare services are major causes for poor health in the developing countries. There is a need of enhancing community awareness about the importance for educating women about early detection of complications during pregnancy and promptly seeking care, and about the importance of giving birth in a health facility. Keywords: Antenatal Care, Developing Countries.


2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacques Bou Abdo ◽  
Sherali Zeadally

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to design a sustainable development platform for water and energy peer-to-peer trading that is financially and economically feasible. Water and other resources are becoming scarcer every day, and developing countries are the neediest for an immediate intervention. Water, as a national need, is considered to be one of the most precious commodities, but it is also one of the main causes for conflicts in the 21st century. Rainwater harvesting and peer-to-peer trading of the harvested water is one of the most convenient, scalable and sustainable solutions but faces organization challenges such as the absence of suitable business models motivating normal users to sell their generated resources (such as water and energy), currency and financial settlement complexities and single utility markets. Design/methodology/approach This paper proposes a multi-utility trading platform based on the blockchain technology which can address the challenges faced by peer-to-peer trading for resources such as energy and water. Findings This paper presents a peer-to-peer multi-utility trading platform that solves the shortcomings of existing utility frameworks reported in the current literature. Originality/value This proposed platform meets the needs of developing countries as well as rural areas of developed countries. The open nature of the proposed design makes it suitable for adoption and use by various stakeholders.


2019 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 27-34
Author(s):  
Sushil Sharma

Maternal health is a crucial health problem in developing countries, especially in low resource settings, rural and poor communities. The main aim of this paper is to critically evaluate and explore the situation of maternal health care in Nepal. After reviewing the literature, I found that there are several direct and indirect causes as well as affecting factors in regarding maternal death in developing and least developed countries. In developing countries, women have been facing different problems during pregnancy and delivery period. Knowledge of maternal health and assessable health facilities are most essential in rural areas to save mothers from preventable maternal death.


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