As global demand for sand reaches an estimated 50 billion tonnes annually, the pressure on fluvial and coastal ecosystems has created a significant sustainability crisis. This study examines the environmental and socioeconomic impacts of sand mining in Bangladesh, a deltaic country where rapid urbanization has transformed sand into a multi-billion-dollar industry. Combining Social-Ecological Systems (SES) and Environmental Justice (EJ) frameworks, the research uses a qualitative case study approach across three ecologically distinct sites: Chandpur (river confluence), Sandwip (estuarine island), and Cox's Bazar (mainland coast). Data from 39 semi-structured interviews and field observations show that unregulated extraction is reported and observed as coinciding with a self-reinforcing (positive) feedback loop of increased riverbank erosion and habitat loss that respondents associate with harm to the livelihoods of marginalized fishers and farmers. The results reveal a triple failure of justice: distributive (unequal erosion burdens), procedural (exclusion from leasing decisions), and recognitional (marginalization of local ecological knowledge). Additionally, an analysis of the Balumohal and Soil Management Act (2010) uncovers critical institutional issues, including political patronage and poor coordination between the Department of Environment and local authorities. By highlighting community stories of adaptation and displacement, this study contends that sustainable resource management must shift from top-down, revenue-focused models to participatory, justice-driven frameworks that safeguard the resilience of rural social-ecological systems.
As the Paris Agreement completes its 10th year in effect, it becomes duty to reflect on the impact it has had thus far. While many praises are to be sung for our well-sung hero, the agreement still leaves much to be desired, and consequently has been subject to harsh criticism. Yet in the growing body of literature inspecting the agreement with a scrutinous eye, few studies seem to adequately question the underlying assumption of sustained cooperation under the Paris Agreement, especially through the lens of ‘energy constraints’. Even research which assesses cooperation in international environmental agreements (IEAs) seems to largely ignore this fundamental limitation. The paper adopts a critical review approach to address this gap and, at the same time, develops a new conceptual framework to assess the Paris Agreement as an “energy constraint two-level repeated game”, incorporating biophysical economics with the study of cooperation in IEAs. As per our proposed framework, binding energy constraints can potentially undermine cooperation under the Paris Agreement, as inability to adequately meet domestic energy needs can trigger downstream effects on political will to continue cooperation under the agreement. As such, the Paris Agreement, or any other agreement must first ensure compatibility with energy constraints to make the notion of cooperation credible.
Rapid urban growth in tropical megacities is putting serious pressure on critical ecosystem services, thereby complicating the implementation of sustainable urban planning frameworks. To better understand and address these challenges, we used artificial intelligence (AI) and satellite data to map and predict land-use changes in Chittagong City Corporation (CCC), Bangladesh, from 2000 to 2048. We combined Random Forest (RF) classification with a Cellular Automata–Artificial Neural Network (CA–ANN) model. The Random Forest method classified four land-cover types: vegetation, built-up areas, barren land, and open water bodies, with over 97
Chemically ordered quaternary MAX phases offer a route to tailor stiffness, anisotropy, and transport in layered carbides. Using all-electron FP-LAPW DFT (GGA-PBE), we investigate V2ZrSiC2 and Ti2ZrSiC2 in alpha- and beta-stacking variants. EOS fits show strong stacking sensitivity: alpha polytypes are stiffer (bulk moduli similar to 216 GPa for V2ZrSiC2 and similar to 192 GPa for Ti2ZrSiC2) than beta polytypes (similar to 178 and similar to 157 GPa). Elastic constants satisfy the Born criteria, and VRH averages indicate higher shear/tensile rigidity and hardness for Ti2ZrSiC2 (G approximate to 136 GPa, E approximate to 328 GPa, and HV approximate to 21 GPa) than that for V2ZrSiC2 (G approximate to 121 GPa, E approximate to 305 GPa, and HV approximate to 14 GPa), while V2ZrSiC2 retains higher incompressibility (B approximate to 214 GPa). Both phases are metallic with transition-metal d states dominating near EF, and phonon dispersions show no imaginary modes along the sampled path. Quasi-harmonic Debye-Gr & uuml;neisen results yield Theta D similar to 669 K (V2ZrSiC2) and similar to 726 K (Ti2ZrSiC2); Slack-type estimates give kph similar to 10-11 W m-1 K-1 at 300 K with an approximate 1/T decrease. The computed linear CTE at 1300 K (alpha L approximate to 0.95 and 1.06 & times; 10-5 K-1) lies between those of representative alpha-Al2O3 and YSZ, suggesting screening-level thermo-expansion compatibility for coating-stack layers. Energies above the convex hull are Delta Ehull similar to 0.10-0.19 eV per atom, indicating metastability at T = 0 K with respect to competing phases and motivating further synthesis-focused thermodynamic analysis alongside oxidation and interface-stability assessment.
Mangrove habitats in Myanmar’s Irrawaddy Delta are increasingly exposed to climatic variability and intensifying land-use pressure, yet long-term vegetation greenness dynamics at the delta scale remain insufficiently characterized. In this study, we have integrated Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer–derived Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) with Land-Use and Land-Cover (LULC) datasets to quantify three decades (1994–2024) of vegetation change and its environmental drivers. LULC maps were generated using a Random Forest classifier (overall accuracy: 88
