Middle Eastern arid mangroves persist near the physiological and geomorphic limits of the biome, where extreme heat, hypersalinity, restricted tidal exchange, sediment disturbance, pollution and episodic coastal hazards interact. Monitoring these systems requires more than repeated mapping because ecological condition, exposure and response occur over different spatial and temporal scales. We screened 125 Scopus records published during 2025–2026 and prioritised 35 studies for full-text assessment, supplemented by selected regional ecological studies and foundational methodological sources. Evidence was classified as direct Middle Eastern applications, transferable mangrove evidence, or broader coastal and computational analogues. Recent advances demonstrate that Earth observation (EO) and machine learning (ML) can support extent mapping, ecological-stress screening and degradation assessment; Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and multisensor methods can assist restoration and biomass estimation; and autonomous sensors, process-guided models and graph learning can provide components of higher-frequency monitoring and forecasting. However, reported performance remains strongly dependent on local reference data, validation design, tidal conditions and geographic domain. Cross-region transfer, uncertainty propagation, long-term sensor reliability and ecologically calibrated thresholds remain insufficiently tested. No study identified in the reviewed mangrove literature integrates continuous observation, forecasting, uncertainty, verification, communication and institutional response within a complete operational early-warning system. We propose a staged pathway from regional baselines and field calibration to targeted sensing, threshold testing, institutional response and controlled scaling.
Wastewater management in mountainous regions is constrained by low temperatures, rugged terrain, and limited infrastructure. In high-altitude tourist destinations, inadequate and unsustainable wastewater practices pose significant risks to fragile aquatic ecosystems. In addition to tourism, expanding commercial agriculture, urbanization, and farmland marginalization further intensify wastewater generation and accelerate water quality degradation. Without integrated and sustainable management strategies that address both tourism and agricultural demands while safeguarding ecological integrity, these pressures will continue to compromise mountain environments. Effective wastewater treatment systems for such regions must be climate-resilient, adaptable to complex terrain, supported by skilled operation and maintenance, and capable of handling seasonal fluctuations in wastewater quantity and characteristics. This study critically evaluates the challenges associated with high-altitude wastewater management and proposes pathways to develop sustainable, resource-efficient treatment solutions.
This review takes stock of recent research on coordination to address cross-boundary climate risks. Institutional actors operating in complex and evolving governance settings increasingly rely on coordination to address climate risks that span various types of boundaries. Across wide-ranging empirical settings, our review finds that processes and outcomes of institutional coordination were consistently influenced by contextual factors, including resource availability and political stability, which can configure the scope of coordination that is possible. Coordination was also influenced by structural factors, such as legal clarity, institutional integration, and scale congruence, along with relational factors, including trust, shared problem framing, and leadership. Our review also reveals a shift toward networked, adaptive, and bottom-up arrangements, particularly in settings characterized by declines in capacity and engagement of higher-level authorities. We further assess approaches to the evaluation of coordination, noting a continued emphasis on process over outcomes. We conclude by identifying directions for future research to inform more effective institutional arrangements for responding to boundary-spanning climate risks.
Adaptation planning is increasingly challenged under conditions of complex climate change risks, which are characterized by the dynamic interactions between compounding hazards, cascading impacts, governance failures, and multiple drivers of vulnerabilities, producing non-linear impacts and frequently irreversible outcomes. Pathways approaches have seen growing application over the past decade and a half to support adaptation planning by structuring sequences of adaptation options that can be adjusted depending on how the future unfolds as risk conditions evolve. While valuable for managing uncertainty and avoiding lock-in, more limited attention has been given to how pathways can support adaptation to cascading impacts, cross-sectoral interdependencies, and rapidly evolving non-linear risk conditions associated with complex climate change risks. In this article, we identify opportunities for pathways approaches to support adaptation to complex climate change risks. By synthesizing recent advances, emerging challenges, and future research directions across three domains of research, namely collaborative learning, overshoot, and transformational recovery after loss and damage, we position how the iterative learning, flexibility, and governance orientation of pathways approaches can be extended to address the distinctive adaptation demands that complex climate change risks generate. These demands include epistemic complexity and contested decision-making, non-linear risk conditions and irreversible system change under overshoot conditions, and recovery lock-in under escalating loss and damage. By integrating these literatures, we articulate ways forward and a research agenda for extending pathways approaches as governance mechanisms to support more inclusive, flexible, and resilient adaptation to complex climate change risks in the decades ahead.
Climate change risks can aggregate, compound, and amplify one another, and cascade across socio-ecological systems. Few studies have explicitly considered how human adaptation responses can contribute to these complex risks. This short literature review surveys scholarship on complex climate risks and considers how climate maladaptation can contribute to them. A selection of publications drawn, in large part, from the adaptation literature serves as examples. Aggregated, compounding, amplified, or cascading climate risks were documented or inferred from adaptations characterized, in whole or in part, as maladaptive and from adaptations more generally described to have negative effects. These examples indicate how maladaptation can contribute to climate and weather-related risks indirectly, over time, and across sectors and scales. Researchers should document how maladaptive actions can aggregate, amplify, compound, or cascade climate risks. Evidence-based accounts could support risk managers across sectors and scales in coordinating action to reduce climate- and weather-related risks.
The Himalayan mountain ecosystems are fragile, where complex geological conditions, along with natural and anthropogenic pressure, pose serious challenges to mountain sustainability. These disturbances disrupt nutrient dynamics, soil structure, and associated ecosystem functioning. Conventional soil fertility indicators (Soil texture, bulk density, porosity, water holding capacity, pH, SOC, N, P, K, etc.) are insufficient for mountain ecosystems and do not adequately reflect the functioning, resilience, and recovery potential of the soil. Moreover, they often fail to reflect rapid biological changes occurring in the mountains, where steep slopes, varied microclimates, and diverse vegetation produce extremely dynamic soil conditions. In contrast, soil microbial biomass (SMB) offers a more sensitive and ecologically meaningful indicator, as it directly reflects the living component of soil organic matter that actively regulates decomposition, nutrient mineralization, and energy flow in the ecosystem. Its rapid response to environmental changes and management practices makes it a promising tool for assessing soil health and ecosystem functioning in mountain regions. SMB comprises all soil organisms other than root meso- and macroflora. It constitutes about 1%–3% of the total soil C and more than 5% of the total soil N. Its role in carbon sequestration helps mitigate the impact of climate change and promotes long-term soil health, thereby making it a key component of mountain resilience. Despite its well-established significance, advancing our understanding of its dynamics remains fundamental. This paper aims to review recent research and advancements in the field of SMB with specific reference to the mountain ecosystem.
Urban water systems are increasingly pressured by rapid urbanization, climate variability, and aging infrastructure, compounded by institutional fragmentation and governance deficits. Circular economy (CE) approaches offer a pathway to more resilient and resource-efficient systems by closing loops on water reuse, resource recovery, and ecosystem regeneration. This paper synthesizes developments in CE-based urban water governance using a mixed-methods review that combines bibliometric analysis with Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses-guided screening. It conceptualizes ‘governance of the urban water circular economy’ around three interlinked components: technological and nature-based solutions as implementation domains, financial and institutional mechanisms as enabling conditions, and governance processes that coordinate actors, rules, and decision-making across scales. The review identifies rapid growth in decentralized reuse, nutrient and energy recovery, digital water tools, and nature-based solutions, alongside emerging instruments such as green bonds, performance-linked finance, and reuse credits. However, implementation remains constrained by fragmented mandates, regulatory inertia, financing gaps, and persistent power asymmetries. The findings highlight the importance of polycentric and adaptive governance, equity-oriented financial and institutional architectures, and inclusive stakeholder engagement to move from pilot projects to system-wide transitions. By linking these three components, the study outlines key levers for aligning urban water CE governance with global sustainability goals, particularly sustainable development goals 6, 11, and 13, and offers guidance for cities seeking more resilient and inclusive water futures.
Indigenous communities of Northeast India uphold diverse cultural heritage and traditional ecological knowledge that play a vital role in safeguarding the ecosystem services amidst the global crisis. The present study underscores the role of traditional agroforestry systems in providing livelihood security and ecological resilience to indigenous societies. The age-old practices, prevalent with the traditional societies residing in the floodplains and rugged terrains of the Northeastern hills, support diverse services that are indispensable not only for the livelihood of the ethnic communities, but also are a time-tested, robust support system during adversity. However, the global recognition of these practices remains limited due to the primary involvement of smallholders and marginal farmers as key stakeholders; thus, there is a substantial scope for strengthening and upgrading these traditional agroforestry systems. The current study presents a socioecological framework for the service-based organization of traditional agroforestry systems with a greater aim of poverty alleviation and livelihood upgradation, through traditional practices, social systems, and their shared interactions. The framework emphasizes how diverse factors collectively shape ecosystem service delivery, underscoring resourcefulness at the grassroots level as a key research and development priority. The complexity and uncertainties integral to the remoteness, ruggedness, and climate crisis in the Himalayan region of Northeast India necessitate innovative approaches within stakeholder organizations and the development of strategies that promote sustainable practices and align ecological integrity with the societal prerequisites.
Increasing flood risk, exacerbated by climate change and rapid urbanisation, has revealed the significant limitations of traditional ‘predict-and-control’ frameworks for flood resilience planning. Despite global policy discussions promoting flood resilience, implementation often conflates it with conventional flood protection. In practice, this results in static engineering investments that focus narrowly on resisting immediate hazard impacts, while neglecting the recovery and adaptive capacities that distinguish flood resilience from conventional flood protection and are essential for reducing vulnerability and injustice over time. Synthesising recent evidence (2015–2025), this paper explains why engineering-centred approaches still persist in flood resilience planning, highlighting reinforcing mechanisms in institutions, professional practice, finance, and governance. Building on socioecological and sociotechnical resilience scholarship, it then proposes a systems-based collaborative planning approach that operationalises resilience as a systemic capacity rather than an attribute of individual assets. The framework integrates the theory of complexity (also referred to as Systems thinking) with collective action to map feedback loops between technical infrastructure, power relations and social learning, and explicitly repositions engineering expertise as a technical resource within a collaborative planning cycle. The paper concludes that genuine flood resilience requires justice-informed and uncertainty-aware planning that deliberately strengthens communities’ capacities to absorb, recover, and adapt to floods, and is co-produced with affected communities rather than delivered solely through engineered physical reinforcements.
Eco-engineered constructed wetlands are low-cost, nature-based solutions with low energy requirements, capable of treating diverse effluents. The most recent innovations regarding their design include i) multi-stage hybridization, ii) artificial aeration, iii) bioelectrochemical systems, and iv) advanced treatment units that enable the simultaneous removal of contaminants and favor energy generation, whereas the integration of materials, like biochar, functionalized media, and recycled waste, has resulted in improved pollutant removal through increased sorption capacity and the presence of the microbial activity. Modern CWs can effectively cope with a broad spectrum of contaminants, from organic matter and nutrients to heavy metals, and even address emerging contaminants. The present review aims to provide a targeted overview of eco-engineered wetlands and their crucial role in sustainable and effective effluent treatment by presenting recent innovations in eco-engineered wetlands and linking multi-stage and intensified configurations with advanced substrates and nature-based design principles.
Calls for transformative change have renewed attention to the role of values in sustainability. Yet existing approaches often treat values as individual preferences or attitudes, overlooking how they are socially constructed and sustained. This paper integrates the philosophical notion of constitutive value with the sociological concept of norm circles to develop an understanding of environmental values as parts of people’s identities, practices and moral worlds. With traditional lobster fishing in Wagu, Japan, as our case study, we illustrate how cooperative norms and shared practices nurture ethics of care, restraint and stewardship that, over time, become constitutive of community identity and moral life. Recognising these processes clarifies how moral and institutional orders that support biodiversity governance are continually created, maintained and transformed through everyday practice, thereby laying the groundwork for a constitutive economics of biodiversity.
Wild Food Plants (WFPs) are edible species that grow without cultivation in forests, grasslands, field margins, and other natural and semi-natural spaces. They play a central role in the traditional food systems of Indigenous Peoples and local communities (IP&LCs) and have significant nutritional and nutraceutical value. Despite the importance of Indigenous knowledge and local practices in the stewardship of WFPs, IP&LCs have largely been under-represented in institutional structures and policies pertaining to their governance. Dominant policy agreements, tools, and guidance (e.g. International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture) have historically valorized WFPs for their commercial potential as sources of plant genetic traits for crop improvement, and protection activities have focused primarily on the collection and ex-situ storage of plant germplasm in gene banks, often located far from Indigenous territory where these species originate. As commercial interest in WFPs continues to grow, IP&LC rights, knowledge, and governance risk are being marginalized. This paper reviews the role of IP&LCs in the conservation and management of WFPs and proposes a framework to integrate their knowledge, stewardship practices, and governance into decision-making processes.
The long-term viability of much of the current investment in nature restoration and protection as ‘nature-based solutions’ (NbS) to a host of societal challenges hinges on assumptions and hope that people will see value in often latent or indirectly ‘beneficial’ functions. However, we contend that for NbS to truly make sense to people — and to engage communities more actively in long-term maintenance — NbS need to be activated and imbued with meanings and practices more directly connected to contemporary and traditional life frames and habits. Once socio-culturally activated, continued care and biocultural management practices may help fill the still problematic gap in terms of long-term maintenance of NbS.Adopted and adapted biocultural practices, especially as they pertain to Indigenous perspectives and local ecological knowledge, may help tackle this dual challenge and make the current push for urban NbS deliver an infrastructure embedded in traditions and practices that invite stewardship and meaningful engagement, as well as support processes of recovery and restoration.
This paper shows how insights from normative political theory can advance debates about how biodiversity economics addresses values and preferences. It suggests that policymakers must be prepared to be morally discriminating when using existing values and preferences to guide biodiversity conservation. The Values Assessment suggests that the values and preferences of the least advantaged might need to be weighted more heavily, to ensure that conservation outcomes are just. This paper shows that we must go further than this. Rather than weighting them more heavily, policymakers must prioritise them over competing values and preferences. They must also refuse to give any weight to values and preferences that are clearly incompatible with justice. Doing so moves biodiversity conservation closer to wider projects of social and global justice.
Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are transitioning into water resource recovery facilities (WRRFs), where the recovery of resources from wastewater streams is increasingly prioritized. CH4, CO2, and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) represent a promising resource for generating value-added products. This study presents a comparative techno-economic review of gas valorization pathways in the transition from conventional WWTPs to WRRFs, synthesizing technical evidence and literature-reported production costs. While several biological, catalytic, electrochemical, and membrane-based routes demonstrate strong technical potential, their economic viability remains uncertain. Cost analysis shows that added-value products obtained from CH4 and CO2 have production costs broadly comparable to market prices, suggesting potential competitiveness, whereas those derived from VOC lack reliable cost data. The findings underscore the need for comprehensive economic evaluations that include non-market externalities and carbon benefits.
Seagrass meadows sustain biodiversity, fisheries, and human well-being, yet remain undervalued and often overlooked in marine governance. This review examines the central role of Indigenous Peoples’ stewardship in maintaining and restoring seagrass ecosystems, grounded in relational worldviews that recognize humans, seagrass, and associated marine life as kin. Drawing on scientific literature, Indigenous scholarship, and evidence derived from community-led monitoring and restoration plans, we bring together a wide spectrum of stewardship practices that have long supported seagrass health. These include sustainable harvesting protocols, place-based taboos, sacred sites, seasonal closures, protection of large grazers, and ongoing Indigenous-led initiatives in cultural mapping, monitoring, and restoration. With examples from Australia and North America, we highlight revitalization initiatives that weave Indigenous knowledge with Western scientific methods, delivering positive ecological outcomes while restoring cultural relationships disrupted by colonial and postcolonial processes and accelerating environmental change. We argue that realizing just and resilient seagrass futures requires transformative change in ocean governance: legal recognition of Indigenous marine tenure, sustained support for Indigenous-led stewardship, and Indigenous law and knowledge in marine decision-making. Embedding Indigenous models of care grounded in reciprocity and kinship offers pathways that sustain both seagrass ecosystems and the cultures that steward them.
Human migration is a prevalent and widely used strategy to deal with emerging risks from climate and environmental change. Yet the reality of migration and its consequences are underrepresented in policies and interventions for adaptation. We outline a framework that proposes relevant normative dimensions to support evaluation of migration-as-adaptation in terms of what makes it successful, for whom, and in what circumstances. We review evidence from adaptation science, migration, gender and development studies, and urban sustainability that shows how migration-as-adaptation draws on available resources, social networks, and forms of capital to navigate structural inequalities and shifting risks. Interventions to enable migration as an adaptive response, therefore, need to account for the lived experiences and social reproductions of precarity, adaptive capacity, and well-being.
Over the past 15 years, the planetary boundaries (PB) framework has advanced as a scientific approach to define limits for Earth’s system processes, including boundaries for nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P). These boundaries have been conceptualized and quantified using various approaches, leading to varying estimates and interpretations. In this paper, we review existing control variables and methods used to define and quantify ‘safe’ N and P boundaries for environmental impacts and ‘just’ N and P boundaries for food production. Based on our analysis, we propose that ‘N losses’ (N delivery to surface water, N leaching to groundwater, and NH 3 emissions to air) and ‘P delivery to surface water’ are the most suitable control variables for defining ‘safe’ boundaries for biogeochemical flows of these elements. We present quantitative estimates for both ‘safe’ planetary N and P boundaries, for N based on previous studies and for P based on new calculations. We then assess the contribution of the food system (including agricultural production, aquaculture, and human wastewater streams) to N and P losses. We propose to define ‘just’ boundaries for N and P based on the required input of these nutrients to meet the dietary needs of the population. We indicate possible values for such ‘just’ N and P boundaries and provide options to attain those boundaries while staying with ‘safe’ N and P boundaries.
Water governance faces compounding pressures from climate variability, ageing infrastructure, and rising demand for environmental performance. The knowledge base that informs governance responses, the body of expertise that policy instruments mobilise, has not been mapped systematically across decades. The object of analysis here is precisely that knowledge base, not policy capacity itself: we characterise the body of scientific and engineering expertise on which governance choices can draw. We analyse 11 186 peer-reviewed articles indexed in Web of Science (1980–2024) drawn from six structured queries covering treatment, recharge, contaminant control, biological reactors, resource recovery, and sensing methods. Latent Dirichlet Allocation identifies six thematic streams; Hirschman-Herfindahl and Revealed Technological Advantage indices trace concentration over time and national specialisation. Treatment-process engineering remains the mainstream, but the field has diversified since 2018, with contaminant control and sensing-and-detection methods growing fastest, while resource-recovery knowledge, the core of the circular-economy transition, grows slowest and loses share. National portfolios track regulatory context and hydrological exposure. The paper provides a full field-level cartography that complements extant frameworks and shows that the knowledge base for circular water governance is broadening, while the institutional toolkit for steering the transition remains incomplete.
Nature-based Solutions (NbS) offer great potential to enhance ecosystem resilience in mountain regions facing climate challenges such as glacial melt, landslides, water scarcity, and biodiversity loss. NbS can simultaneously support water security, disaster risk reduction, biodiversity conservation, and climate adaptation. This study examines the potential of NbS - including wetlands restoration, agroforestry, and green-blue infrastructure to improve resilience in mountain ecosystems. Empirical evidence shows that wetland restoration in the European Alps increased water-holding capacity by 30%, while Himalayan agroforestry enhanced carbon sequestration by 3.5 t ha⁻¹ yr⁻¹. Similarly, Páramo grassland restoration in the Andes and reforestation in the Rockies improved water availability and watershed stability. The study analyzes factors such as technological compatibility, socio-geographical conditions, spatial needs, and integration with gray infrastructure. Findings highlight the effectiveness, scalability, and long-term sustainability of NbS, offering insights for integrating these green approaches into mountain region climate policies.
