Journal of Environmental & Earth Sciences

Seismic Advance Detection During Roadway Excavation in Underground Coal Mines: Method and Field Applications

Chuanjiu Zhang — 2026-07-27

Safe and efficient roadway excavation is critical to intelligent coal mine development, while advance geological detection remains challenging under continuous excavation conditions. This study proposes a seismic advance detection method conducted concurrently with excavation, utilizing vibrations generated by roadheaders as seismic sources to achieve real-time geological forecasting without interrupting production. A complete processing workflow including time-window selection, band-pass filtering, first-arrival picking, cross-correlation signal extraction, and depth migration imaging was developed to extract effective reflection signals from random excavation-induced vibrations and to construct accurate subsurface images ahead of excavation faces. Field applications were conducted in Roadways 2110 and 2209 of Dongzhouyao Coal Mine under different geological conditions. Results demonstrate successful identification of faults, collapse columns, fractured zones, and lithological transitions ahead of excavation. Imaging results agree well with excavation exposure and drilling verification data, confirming the reliability and practical applicability of the method. The proposed technology enables continuous advance detection during excavation, improves operational safety, and enhances construction efficiency. It shows strong potential for practical application in intelligent roadway drivage and advance geological hazard prevention in underground coal mines.

Integrated Planning of New Energy Systems: Environmental Trade-Offs and Sustainability Pathways

Jiangtao Ma — 2026-07-16

The rapid transition toward low-carbon energy systems is creating increasingly complex and interconnected energy structures characterized by high shares of renewable energy, sector coupling, and advanced conversion and storage technologies. To manage these systems while achieving decarbonization, security, reliability, and sustainability goals simultaneously, integrated energy system planning has become essential. However, most existing planning studies primarily emphasize techno-economic optimization and greenhouse gas reduction, while long-term environmental impacts and sustainability considerations remain insufficiently addressed. This review provides a comprehensive assessment of integrated planning approaches for new energy systems, with a particular focus on environmental impacts, trade-offs, and sustainability pathways. It examines major planning frameworks, including optimization-based, simulation-based, and hybrid methods, and evaluates how environmental factors are incorporated into system design. Special attention is given to life-cycle assessment, multi-dimensional environmental evaluation, and the role of sector coupling in shaping system-wide environmental outcomes. By comparing environmental trade-offs across sectors, spatial scales, and time horizons, the review highlights inherent tensions between decarbonization objectives, resource consumption, and ecological impacts. Case studies from China, Pakistan, South Korea, and Malaysia illustrate how integrated planning is applied under diverse socio-economic and policy conditions. Finally, the review identifies key research gaps, emphasizing the need for deeper environmental integration, improved data and model connectivity, and pathway-based planning to support environmentally sustainable and resilient energy transitions.

Applying the Integration Method of Logistics Management for Post-Sale Waste Recycling of Enterprise Products of Six Special Municipalities in Taiwan

Junyuan Kuo — 2026-07-03

Logistics Management for Post-Sale Waste Recycling of Enterprise Products is very important in Taiwan. When recycling of waste resources of the six special municipalities cannot be managed effectively, ecological environment in supply chain will be harmed and body health of the public will be affected. Nowadays, enterprises attach great importance to ESG (Environment, Society and Governance). Hence, evaluating management situation of the six special municipalities over influence of major wastes resource recycling on ecological environment and the public's health will be helpful for regulators of Taiwan environment protection agencies to work out future strategies for the six special municipalities to manage influence of all waste resource recycling on ecological environment and health of the public. VlseKriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje (VIKOR) method, and link linear regression analysis method and grey prediction model, as well as dynamic waste recycling quantity management method were adopted to predict predictive value of Taiwan’s six special municipalities’ waste recycling quantity in advance and generate predicted results of management evaluation. Good effects were achieved in predicting and pre-warning evaluation in the research by applying VIKOR method and link linear regression analysis method and grey prediction model. The predicted ranking of the six special municipalities’ waste recycling quantity management is 100% consistent with the actual values of the management ranking situation of the six special municipalities. The reason for accurately predicting and knowing the resource recycling ranking of the six cities is that the state can know the resource recycling capacity of the six cities in advance and allocate recycling personnel and equipment to them.

Revitalising the Earth: Cross-International Solution Communication for Promoting Healthy Environmental Development

Jia Chu — 2026-07-03

With rising international environmental issues, there is a need to ensure effective communication of solutions across international boundaries to enhance sustainable development and environment sustainability. International solution communication entails the process of transmitting and localizing environmental innovations, technologies and policy-based or social, among nations and regions. This article discusses the actors, channels, and strategies that are significant to the transfer of environmental solutions with regard to identifying the obstacles that inhibit their universal adoption, and also the ethical concerns that would require consideration. Although there are viable solutions, the successful execution of these solutions is usually hampered by issues of governance mismatch, capacity gaps, political resistance, and cultural differences in different settings. This review offers an understanding of how trust, evidence-based communication, and local adaptation can improve solution transfer by the analysis of the mechanisms of delivering solutions and adopting them. Ethical issues, including data equity and environmental justice, are also addressed, and inclusive and open communication is essential. The article suggests an integrative model that connects the context, the mechanism of communication, and the outcome to provide a holistic model of maximizing cross-national solution communication. This framework will promote a situation in which environmental solutions result in measurable and sustainable enhancement of environmental health in the world by promoting collaboration and resolving barriers to communication.

From Prevention to Intervention: Technological Strategies for Pipeline Integrity and Immediate Pollutant Control

Lei Cao — 2026-07-09

The synthesis of technological strategies used in this review links the traditional pipeline integrity prevention methods with the rapidity of intervention of immediate pollutant control. Although inherent gains of materials, coating, cathodic protection, in-line inspection, and risk-based integrity programs have diminished the likelihood of failures, loss-of-containment events are still being experienced because of interacting degradation mechanisms, exogenous interference, geohazards, and transitory operative conditions. The scale of environmental and safety impacts is thus more and more controlled by system performance once prevention is violated, especially time-to-detect, time-to-localize, and time-to-isolate. We review leak and rupture detection systems involved with computational pipeline monitoring and negative pressure wave or acoustic, distributed fiber-optic sensing, and remote sensing with a strong focus on event classification, false alarm reduction, and uncertainty-sensitive localization and release quantification. The next step is to look at intervention technologies that restrict the avenues of released mass and exposure, such as automated and remotely controlled valves, risk-based segmentation, liquid, vapor, and gas release containment and recovery apparatus, robots/ remote response instruments, as well as real-time environment probing to inform adaptive reaction. This cumulation across these layers concludes with the biggest risk-reduction value, which relates to integration: the standardization of data architectures, resiliency in edges to clouds, verified analytics, and schemas ensuring a skilled combination of automation and human judgment. This review has revealed the continued gaps in field validation, standard performance measures relating detection to reduction of consequences, and cyber-physical resilience. We bring our findings to the recent pathways to deployment and investigate priorities so that end-to-end, consequence-centered integrity management becomes possible.

Harnessing Nature’s Power: Effective Strategies for Water Ecosystem Recovery and Management

Hao Chen — 2026-07-14

Water ecosystems play an essential role in supporting biodiversity, climate control, and water quality. These ecosystems, however, are under serious degradation by pollution, destruction of their habitats, climate change, and over-extraction. This paper focuses on the most efficient methods of recovery and management of water ecosystems, the advantages of which are the combination of nature-based solutions (NbS) and technological advances. Nature-based projects like wetland restoration, rehabilitation of riparian zones, and reforestation provide cost-effective and sustainable ways of enhancing the health and resilience of the ecosystem. Such strategies not only improve the quality of water and biodiversity, but also reduce the effects of climate change. Additional technological means, such as hydrological and ecological models, technologies of water habitat restoration, and improved water management methods, are used to complement and streamline the process of recovery. Using international case studies in areas like the Kissimmee River (USA), the Loess Plateau (China), and the Thames River (UK), the article shows how successful and difficult it is to use these strategies in different situations. The conclusions demonstrate that an interdisciplinary solution based on a mixture of ecological restoration and technological innovation, as well as interagency governance, is both necessary. With this escalating pressure on water ecosystems, these strategies are a pathway to recovering and long-term sustainability of ecosystems, which will be part of ecological resilience as well as socio-economic resilience.

Innovative Strategies for Sustainable Resource Management: Balancing Ecosystem Integrity and Human Development

Qi Liu — 2026-07-20

With the increased pressure on natural resources in the world, sustainable management of resources that resonates with both the integrity of ecosystem maintenance with the development of humankind has been a burning issue of concern. This review discusses new approaches, including the ecological protection in the framework of the developmental aims, when systemic approaches are used, instead of an individual intervention. The paper discusses some of the major directions towards sustainability, such as technological solutions (e.g., precision agriculture, digital monitoring), nature-based solutions (e.g., restoration, agroecology), circular economy, financial mechanisms (e.g., payments to ecosystem services, green bonds), and governance innovations (e.g., adaptive management, polycentric governance). It highlights the importance of multi-sectoral approaches that realize both ecological and social aspects of sustainability, and specifically equity and inclusiveness. The review also gives much attention to the role of measurements and monitoring, which is very critical and identifies the necessity to monitor not only the results of ecological integrity but also the results of human development. It also talks about the issue of balancing trade-offs between trade and conservation and provides advice on the reduction of risks of the leakage effect, rebound effects, and unfair allocation of benefits. Finally, the article also introduces the need to replace the concept of balancing with the co-optimizing of human development and ecosystem health, and its future agenda of research, policies, and practices will be to construct a resilient, just, and sustainable future of both people and nature.

Research on Improvement of Carbon-Free Self Heating Smelting Technology in Copper Smelting and Synergistic Reduction of Carbon Emissions along with Flue Gas Pollutants

Xiaolin Yu — 2026-07-23

Carbon-free self-heating (autothermal) smelting has emerged as a promising route to decarbonize primary copper pyrometallurgy while improving control of flue-gas pollutants. In this review, recent advances in exploring technology routes and system integrations to permit a stable autothermal regime with minimal routine fossil-carbon feeds in various stages of preparing concentrate, smelting, converting, and anode/fire-refining interfaces are synthesized. The heat-balance aspects needed to allow the self-heating of a carbon-free furnace are discussed in the context of sulfide oxidation heat release, moisture and gangue penalties, matte slag equilibria, and under conditions of variability in feed controllability. With further elaboration of these principles, the review categorizes the following oxygen-enriched and oxygen-blown intensification methods, families of flash and bath smelting, and integrated smelting-converting ideas, with greater emphasis on the fact that oxygen potential and thermal profile are key to process stability, refractory durability, slag family, and energy efficiency. The main emphasis is on the so-called synergistic co-reduction process of CO₂ with decreased off-gassing volume and composition, which influence SO₂ capture, NO_x pathways, particle formation, and the distribution of semi-volatile/toxic species (e.g., As and Hg) into dust, acid, or residues. The review indicates that the net emissions are sensitive to boundaries because of electricity and oxygen production, and this identifies significant obstacles that include heat-balance resilience, corrosion, and dust deposition in the heat recovery systems, impurity recycle loops, and cross-media burden shifting. Lastly, coupled modeling, long-duration demonstration with harmonized key performance indicators (KPIs), integrated impurity management, and robust measurement, reporting, and verification are suggested as the priority research requirements to enable scale-up.

Intelligent Perception Systems for Vehicles: A Review of Observation Technologies in Environmental Risk Mitigation and Resource Optimization

Min Li — 2026-07-08

Vehicles that have intelligent perception systems are the first in the new wave of innovation that is geared towards enhancing transportation safety, sustainability, and efficiency. Such systems are a collection of sensors, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and real-time data processing to allow vehicles to sense and understand their surroundings with a great level of accuracy. In this review, we discuss the use of intelligent perception technologies in reducing environmental hazards and leveraging resources to the fullest. It discusses important sensor technologies, such as cameras, Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR), radar, and ultrasonic sensors, as well as AI-based decision-making systems that enable vehicles to respond to changing driving conditions. Intelligent perception systems can help reduce vehicle emissions and minimize the environmental effects of cars by optimizing driving behaviors and consuming less fuel. The significance of optimizing resources is also addressed in the review, with references to the applications of intelligent routing, eco-driving, and autonomous vehicle systems. Although these technologies are promising, there are challenges such as the integration of the technologies, issues related to sensor fusion, data privacy, and infrastructure upgrade that are required. Also, new technologies like 5G connectivity, edge computing, and sensor technology will develop further to add additional features to the intelligent perception systems. The article ends by highlighting that such technologies can be transformative in the pursuit of sustainable, efficient, and safe forms of transportation.

The Effects of Sudden Storm Events on Outdoor Sporting and Leisure Activities: Risk Assessment and Adaptation Strategies

Rixiang Chen — 2026-07-22

The acute and complex risks of outdoor sporting and leisure activities are caused by the rapid development of hazardous conditions, in most situations, little lead time for warning, and compound effects (e.g., lightning, extreme wind, hail, heavy rain, flash flooding, and water-based squalls). The interdisciplinary evidence in this review is synthesized by a storm-to-impact chain model of relating meteorological hazards to outcomes via intermediate processes of information, decision authority, and protective action and compliance. We come up with a typology of storm scenarios and exposure situations between fixed venues, linear path events, and distributed recreation and define critical determinants of vulnerability and adaptive capacity, such as the microgeography, shelter performance, and flow capacity, the maturity of governance, redundancy of communication, behavioral response, and equity-related constraints. The strategies of adaptation are overlaid onto the mechanisms that enhance the connections between the links in the chain, and it is important to note that corresponding individual interventions (e.g., improved nowcasting) cannot be done when other links are weak. Coherent portfolios will result in effective risk reduction through situational awareness, time-to-shelter hazard-aware triggers, and the combination of hazard-compatible shelter and movement planning with situational-aware and inclusive action-based messaging and institutionalized learning through after-action review and near-miss reporting. We suggest principles of implementation and metrics of evaluation that emphasize the performance of processes (time-to-decision, time-to-shelter, message reach and comprehension, and movement bottlenecks) as opposed to infrequent endpoint results. Missing links such as comparative efficiency of interventions, standardized reporting on disruptions and near-misses, and equity-oriented research on access to warnings, shelter viability, and adherence will remain unresolved.

From Cobalt to Kaolin: Molecular Signatures and Resource Recovery Pathways in Blue Porcelain Manufacturing Wastewater

Lingyu Xu — 2026-07-01

Manufacturing blue porcelain produces wastewater containing more cobalt, kaolin, silicates, and organic additives, which is a threat to the environment, as well as a resource recovery opportunity. This review summarizes existing information on the molecular composition of said effluents with a particular focus on cobalt speciation, mineral particle properties, and their interaction with organic ligands. Methods such as ICP-MS, XRD, SEM/TEM, and spectroscopy types offer important information concerning the behavior of metals and clays that will be used in designing targeted recovery operations. The most important methods of resource recovery, such as chemical precipitation, adsorption, electrochemical extraction, and physical separation of kaolin, are critically assessed, and emphasis is placed on integrated multi-stage technologies that maximize efficiency and the quality of a material. The environmental considerations, regulatory issues, and life-cycle are elaborated in order to put recovery strategies in the framework of sustainable manufacturing. The review highlights the possibility of integrating molecular-level knowledge and practical recovery technologies in making blue porcelain wastewater into a source of high-value products. Connecting analytical characterization, treatment procedures, and industrial application, this work offers a baseline of practices of the circular economy in the production of ceramics and lays down the direction of further research into the creation of sustainable and resource-efficient processes.

Beyond Closure: Systems-Based Approaches to Long-Term Geological and Ecological Management of Abandoned Mines

Congnan Gu — 2026-07-13

Abandoned mines are timeless legacy landscapes in which the interactions of geological instability, hydrogeochemical contamination, ecological degradation, and government failure collide over a long period of time. Traditional mine closure models have enhanced post-operational rehabilitation, but in most cases, they still focus on endpoint compliance and are limited in the case of abandoned/orphaned mines, which grow decades after mining stops. It is a review that can shift towards a systems-based approach to the problem, in which the abandoned mines are not seen as individual technical threats, but as complex socio-ecological-geological systems. It is a synthesis of the long-term legacies of landform instability, subsidence, acid and metalliferous drainage, groundwater rebound, soil degradation, habitat fragmentation, and constrained ecological succession, and gives greater focus to the feedbacks between these processes. The review also discusses conceptual assumptions underlying stewardship-oriented management: systems thinking, resilience, vulnerability, adaptive capacity, and risk-based decision models. It then weighs the major long-term management approaches and tools and includes the site characterization, monitoring networks, remote sensing, predictive modeling, multi-criteria decision support, and threshold-based early warning systems. Based on this synthesis, the article suggests the integrated pathways of management, which integrate the source control, passive and active treatment, geomorphic design, restoration of the ecological, and active climate adjustment, and stable governance mechanisms. The main thesis is that the management of abandoned mines needs a shift in the approach towards closure to the approach towards stewardship that is long-term, adaptive, and interdisciplinary. This is a more realistic approach to mitigating the risks of legacies and is used to steer the resilient post-mining landscape futures.

Next-Generation Environmental Management: A Review of Artificial Intelligence for Ecosystem Monitoring and Sustainable Decision-Making

Zhenpeng Liu — 2026-07-10

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become one of the disruptive technologies in environmental management, providing new ways of monitoring the ecosystem, optimising resources, and making environmentally friendly decisions. This review examines how AI can potentially be used in different environmental areas, such as biodiversity monitoring, ecological change predictions, and how natural resources can be better distributed. Thanks to the incorporation of AI technologies like machine learning, remote sensing, and Internet of Things sensors, real-time data acquisition and analysis can now be conducted, which allows for more informed and timely decisions related to the environment. Predictive models based on AI offer useful information on the possible effects of climate change, loss of biodiversity, and habitat degradation to enable policymakers to engage in proactive environmental management. Nonetheless, the use of AI in environmental governance does not come without its problems. Challenges like data quality and availability, the complexity of ecosystems, ethics, and technological constraints need to be resolved to guarantee the effectiveness and equity of AI-based solutions. This paper addresses these issues and outlines future research opportunities, focusing on the importance of interdisciplinary cooperation and building a strong data infrastructure to maximize the potential of AI. With these obstacles resolved, AI has the potential to become a key factor in sustainability and resilience in ecosystems around the world.