Globally, the main strategies for biodiversity conservation are protected areas. In Mexico, these include participatory efforts called Voluntary Conservation Areas. Mammal communities provide valuable diagnostics on functional integrity and camera traps are widely used technique for their monitoring. When monitoring is implemented in indigenous territories, local communities often participate because they harbored traditional ecological knowledge (TEK). However, the contribution of TEK to mammal monitoring with camera traps (MMCT) is poorly documented. This study documented the recognition of TEK into MMCT by Mexican researchers and analyzed the operationalization of TEK for member of community monitoring brigades (CMB) in the Chinantec region, Oaxaca, southern Mexico. Surveys were conducted with 31 Mexican researchers who carried out MMCT and official information from the MMCT program was consulted, as well as the results of a regional workshop with members of nine CMB. Also, 12 interviews were conducted with members of four CBM, and participant observation was carried out. Our results exhibited that TEK was a fundamental component of MMCT in the studied region, because local people know their territory and mammals. Most researchers acknowledged that TEK helps them determine the location of camera traps. Local monitors, provided detailed descriptions of how they operationalized their TEK within the MMCT. TEK plus technical training could be crucial for mammal detection in the region; therefore, we suggest it integrating in the national MMCT program. Making the participatory MMCT protocols more inclusive and promoting their operation as a community learning setting, which could be useful for Mexico and beyond.
China’s coastal provinces generate an estimated 15 to 22% of provincial GDP from marine-dependent sectors including capture fisheries, mariculture, coastal tourism, and seaborne trade. These sectors are exposed to persistent and intensifying climate variability, particularly to El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) cycles, Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) shifts, and sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies, all of which depress marine productivity and raise the default risk of blue financial instruments. Understanding whether blue bonds, blue loans, and marine sustainability-linked securities possess intrinsic or structurally engineered stabilization advantages over conventional instruments is a question of first-order importance for blue economy finance design. This study constructs a panel dataset covering eight coastal provinces of China (Guangdong, Fujian, Zhejiang, Shandong, Liaoning, Hainan, Jiangsu, and Hebei) over the period 2010 to 2023 (n = 1,344 instrument-year observations). A Marine Productivity Index (MPI) is constructed from catch volume, aquaculture yield, and coastal tourism revenue data. Five econometric specifications—pooled ordinary least squares (OLS), province fixed effects (FE), random effects (RE), instrumental variable FE (IV-FE), and panel-corrected standard errors (PCSE)—are used to estimate the causal effect of MPI fluctuations and climate variability indices on blue bond credit spreads. Four stabilization mechanisms are evaluated: covenant-revenue linkage, green key performance indicator (KPI) klinkering, regulatory capital buffer requirements, and market-making facility provision.A one-unit decline in MPI raises credit spreads by 1.97 to 2.19 basis points (bps) in FE specifications (p < 0.001). A one-standard-deviation ENSO shock widens spreads by 12.5 to 14.7 bps. Blue instruments with covenant-revenue linkage show spread reductions of 18.6 ± 1.4 bps relative to covenant-free peers, controlling for issuer creditworthiness and sector exposure. Under compound climate event scenarios, blue instrument default rates (6.8%) are 40% lower than comparable conventional instrument rates (11.4%). Province-level heterogeneity is substantial: Liaoning and Shandong, which depend more heavily on capture fisheries, face the highest climate-driven spread volatility, while Fujian and Zhejiang, with more diversified marine revenue bases, show greater inherent stabilization. These findings provide the first econometrically identified evidence of the stabilization function of blue financial instrument design features under real-world climate variability conditions in China.
Digital environmental platforms are important for promoting public participation in environmental governance. However, many platforms face a key challenge: some can quickly attract participants but struggle to sustain long-term engagement, while others maintain stable participation but are difficult to scale. This study addresses this challenge by examining how different governance arrangements shape the dynamics and outcomes of public participation in "Internet plus tree-planting" platforms in China. This study develops a system dynamics model to compare the government-led mode (GLM) and the enterprise-led mode (ELM), and introduces the government-enterprise integration mode (GEIM) as a counterfactual hybrid governance scenario. The results reveal a trade-off between scale and sustainability. ELM achieves rapid early growth but declining long-term engagement, while GLM maintains more stable and ecologically grounded participation but expands more slowly. GEIM helps reduce the trade-off between scale and sustainability by combining platform-based mobilization with institutional coordination. Under the assumed parameter settings, the GEIM scenario suggests the potential for improved ecological outcomes and more sustained participation. The findings highlight the role of institutional design in public participation and suggest that hybrid governance may improve the effectiveness and sustainability of digital environmental platforms.
Urban watersheds in rapidly expanding deltaic regions face accelerating ecological decline that is often attributed to land-use change and hydrological stress. However, the institutional arrangements that govern these systems remain insufficiently examined. This study assesses the Bagjola Canal watershed in Kolkata to demonstrate how governance fragmentation determines the feasibility of nature-based solutions (NbS). A mixed-methods framework integrates Regional Condition Assessment (RCA), land-use and water-quality analysis, groundwater trends, and stakeholder interviews to evaluate ecological condition, infrastructural performance, and institutional coherence across the watershed. Results show pronounced variation in NbS feasibility tied to governance configuration. Conservation and passive recreation zones retain comparatively strong ecological baselines, yet persistent coordination gaps between Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) and the Irrigation & Waterways Department (IRWWD) limit restoration potential. Residential and industrial zones record the lowest RCA scores due to severe encroachment, poor water quality, and weak maintenance regimes. Groundwater over-extraction emerges as a governance-driven response to contaminated surface water, creating a reinforcing cycle of subsidence and canal degradation. A spatial prioritisation identifies three intervention zones: an Upper Zone where NbS is currently unviable due to fragmented authority and tenure conflict; a Middle Zone suitable for hybrid community–state interventions; and a Lower Zone with the strongest ecological and institutional conditions for conventional NbS. The study advances a governance-sequenced approach to NbS planning, demonstrating that institutional readiness is a prerequisite for environmental restoration in hybrid urban territories. The framework offers a diagnostic tool for designing phased, context-appropriate interventions in rapidly urbanising regions.
This study applies the Forgotten Effects Theory (FET), a fuzzy-logic-based modelling framework, to analyse how construction life cycle processes generate direct and indirect pressures on multiple planetary boundaries. The approach captures multistage and nonlinear causal relationships derived from expert-based incidence matrices. Results show that mineral extraction, material distribution, and waste disposal strongly influence ocean acidification; construction operations and building use affect biosphere integrity; material production drives land-use change; and demolition contributes to climate change. The analysis revealed substantial hidden effects: the influence of mineral extraction on ocean acidification increased from 0.4 to 0.9 when material production was included as a mediator; the relationship between building use and biosphere integrity increased from 0 to 0.8 through indirect pathways; and the influence of demolition on climate change increased from 0 to 0.8 through waste-disposal mediation. A ±10% sensitivity analysis confirmed the stability of the main incidence hierarchy, with changes below 0.05 for the most relevant coefficients. These findings demonstrate that indirect (“forgotten”) effects can be as influential as direct impacts, significantly intensifying pressures across planetary boundaries. The construction sector is therefore characterised as a cumulative and interconnected system in which impacts propagate and reinforce each other across life cycle stages. These results highlight the limitations of silo-based environmental assessments and underscore the need for integrated, life cycle-oriented sustainability strategies. Policies prioritising upstream interventions, material efficiency and reduced demolition can generate broader systemic benefits. The study demonstrates the potential of FET as a transparent and reproducible modelling approach for linking local construction decisions with global environmental processes, supporting more integrated circular economy strategies and contributing to the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals 11, 12 and 13.
Using the 2017 Portuguese wildfires as empirical evidence from a Mediterranean climate country, this paper assesses the economy-wide and employment effects of wildfire-related capital and labor shocks through a static computable general equilibrium (CGE) model with an extended labor-market framework. The analysis focuses on how wildfire shocks interact with labor markets, affect aggregate welfare, and condition the effectiveness of public policy responses. The results show that labor-market disruptions amplify economic losses beyond direct physical damage. Among the policy scenarios examined, comprehensive responses combining infrastructure investment, sector-specific support, and household transfers provide the strongest mitigation of aggregate losses. Recovery and mitigation policies generate the strongest positive effects on GDP, while the fire suppression-cost scenario alone has limited effectiveness. Employment impacts are concentrated in the primary and tourism-related sectors, particularly forestry, agriculture, transport, and accommodation. The findings highlight the importance of maintaining labor-force participation during climate disasters and of combining capital restoration with household support. By quantifying the economy-wide trade-offs between wildfire damage, labor-market disruption, and public-response channels, the paper provides evidence relevant to wildfire-prone Mediterranean economies and to broader environmental-development debates.
Understanding how people interact with natural environments is essential for evidence-based environmental planning and development. Recent advances in sensor-based technologies and computer vision have enabled new ways to monitor human behaviors in natural settings; however, a systematic synthesis of how these approaches have been applied, what behavioral dimensions they capture, and how they inform management decisions remains limited. This scoping review synthesizes 246 peer-reviewed studies published between 2000 and 2024, following the PRISMA-ScR guidelines, that employed sensor-based, vision-based, or hybrid technologies to empirically monitor human behaviors in outdoor natural environments, including urban green spaces and protected areas. We show that different monitoring technologies systematically shape which dimensions of human behavior become observable. Across the reviewed literature, human–nature interactions can be consistently understood through three primary behavioral dimensions: presence, movement, and activity and interaction. Sensor-based approaches predominantly capture presence and movement patterns, providing broad spatial and temporal coverage, whereas vision-based approaches enable detailed identification of activities and contextual interactions. Hybrid approaches increasingly integrate these complementary strengths. Rather than functioning as a separate behavioral category, spatial distribution of activities emerges as a cross-cutting analytical perspective, present in the majority of studies and frequently co-occurring with all three behavioral dimensions. By reframing the literature around behavioral dimensions rather than technological categories, this review highlights how methodological choices shape the visibility and interpretation of human behavior. The findings provide practical guidance for researchers, planners, and environmental managers in selecting appropriate monitoring approaches to support evidence-based decision-making and adaptive management of natural environments.
Freshwater resources in the Himalayan region are increasingly under stress from recent climatic perturbations, land-use transformation, population migration, and raising concerns about the sustainability of mountain hydro-social systems. This study examines socio-hydrological changes in the spring-fed Khulgad watershed of Uttarakhand, India, using household surveys, focus group discussions, land-use and land-cover (LULC) analysis, and hydrological observations collected over the past three decades. Results show that women manage more than 90% of ecosystem-related work, yet their contribution to socio-economic development is often undervalued. Lack of safe drinking water is a driver of migration (31.2% overall, 58.1% in Group 4 (barren LULC)), exasperated by high water crisis perceptions (84%) and long water fetching durations (53% exceed one hour). In Group 4, severe water stress (55.8% spend over two hours fetching water and 67.4% face summer pipeline shortages) aligns with dominant migration factors, poor agricultural productivity (60.5%), and natural calamities (41.9%). Results indicate that water scarcity directly undermines livelihoods, pushing 67.4% of households in Group 4 to seek employment outside the region. The findings reveal strong interlinkages among gender, water insecurity, and livelihood pressures, underscoring the need for participatory, gender-inclusive approaches to springshed management. Integrating social-hydrology with community perceptions provides a practical framework to understand and address springshed vulnerabilities, strengthen watershed management, and advance the Sustainable Development Goals across the Hindu Kush Himalaya. Socio-hydrological research or watershed management practices can only advance when they are directly connected with the sustainable economic benefits for the local villagers. Proposed Value Addition to Watershed Management (VA2WM) framework integrates hydrological observations with socio-economic and gender-based analyses within a transdisciplinary socio-hydrological approach for the spring rejuvenation in the Himalayan regions.
Environmental markets are becoming a significant tool globally to address environmental degradation and biodiversity loss. Defensible, equitable and standardized approaches to measuring and assessing nature are foundational for robust and effective environmental markets so that private and public investments can be appropriately directed and evaluated and claims regarding conservation outcomes suitably verified. Well-designed nature assessment frameworks are also critical for avoiding perverse outcomes or misuse of environmental markets such as gaming or greenwashing. In designing nature assessment approaches, there is a key tension between credibility and robustness on one hand and more pragmatic considerations on the other, e.g. cost-effectiveness, data availability and ease of use. Nature assessment is also an inherently value-laden exercise, drawing on both science and normative judgements that are, in turn, shaped by many cultural, socio-economic and historic factors. Here, we contribute to the growing literature on environmental markets by identifying major choices involved in designing relevant nature assessment approaches, highlighting associated normative aspects and their implications. Drawing on our experience as current and past members of a small group of independent experts brought together by the Australian government to advise on the design of nature assessment approaches for Australia’s newly established Nature Repair Market, we discuss these choices in relation to four key steps of designing nature assessment frameworks: 1. defining assessment units, 2. describing assessment units, 3. grading assessment units, and 4. detecting and attributing change. We aim to provide a clear foundation for decision-makers evaluating existing approaches and tools or designing new nature assessment frameworks for market settings.
Understanding the evolution of metropolis-wilderness transitional landscape in the context of the Anthropocene remains a major challenge. This study constructs an Urban–Rural–Natural (U–R–N) landscape gradient using the Human Activity Intensity Index (HAII) from 2010 to 2020 to identify and classify multiple types of transitional zones (TZs) across Southwest China. Results indicate that while the total area of TZs slightly declined from 22.20 × 104 to 21.73 × 104 km2, the Transition Significance (TS) increased, signaling intensified internal restructuring. A clear gradient-based evolutionary trajectory emerged: urban and natural zones expanded while rural areas contracted. TZs mirrored these trends—areas adjacent to urban centers expanded, whereas those associated with traditional rural settlements declined. This yield fragmented and functionally differentiated spaces titled towards urban and natural landscape. These asymmetric dynamics drive social-ecological system spatial restructuring, shaped by the uneven diffusion of human expansion and limited ecological restoration. Despite variations in explanatory power, road, HAII, and POI consistently emerge as dominant drivers of TS change. Based on these factors, the most critical transitional zones are identified, whose total area declined from 1.34 × 104 km2 to 0.86 × 104 km2 showing a shift from widespread low-intensity to fragmented high-intensity transitional landscapes. By identifying the typology and drivers of TZs evolution, this study lays a scientific basic for optimizing sustainable landscape management and planning.
This paper traces the evolution of selected global environmental agreements from 1971 to 2025 and asks why the increasing density of international environmental governance has not been matched by commensurate improvement in planetary conditions. Using qualitative comparative document analysis of exemplar instruments across climate, biodiversity, and pollution, the study codes obligation form, implementation and compliance arrangements, coordination mechanisms, finance, and justice provisions, and interprets those features against authoritative system-level assessments. The paper does not treat the entire collection of environmental agreements as a single global regime complex. Instead, it draws on regime-complex and fragmentation scholarship to examine interactions among distinct issue-specific regimes and regime complexes within the wider governance architecture. Three deliberately bounded diagnostic dimensions organize the comparison: implementation and compliance at the regime and domestic levels; fragmentation and coordination at the architectural level; and distributive and procedural justice as conditions affecting legitimacy and implementation capacity. These dimensions are not presented as exhaustive causal determinants, and treaty proliferation is not assumed to be inherently harmful. The analysis finds that implementation continues to lag negotiated ambition; fragmentation varies across issue areas and can enable experimentation but generate costs where coordination is weak; and persistent disputes over finance, technology, participation, and burden-sharing constrain implementation. The severity of the outcome gap is evident in continued growth of greenhouse-gas emissions, the failure to fully achieve any of the twenty Aichi Biodiversity Targets, continuing biodiversity decline, and approximately nine million pollution-attributable deaths annually. The paper concludes that additional agreements are unlikely to improve outcomes when they are not paired with implementation capacity, coherent coordination, predictable finance, and fair compliance arrangements. It proposes implementation-centered Conferences of the Parties, proportionate facilitation-plus compliance, deliberate inter-regime coordination, and justice-oriented reforms in finance and participation.
Urban drought is an emerging challenge in rapidly growing cities, particularly under increasing climate variability and rising water demand. This study investigates urban drought dynamics across three secondary Indian cities namely Kozhikode, Bhuj, and Bhopal representing humid tropical, arid, and semi-arid climatic regions, respectively. Research delves into the analysis of drought using essential drought indices, including the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI), Reconnaissance Drought Index (RDI), Departure Analysis of Rainfall (DAR), and Rainfall Anomaly Index (RAI) using DrinC software. Analysing 37 years of data, from 1984 to 2020, has provided invaluable insights into the trends and alterations in drought occurrences and rainfall patterns across these regions. Distinct disparities were revealed among these areas, notably the SPI values showing wet and dry periods. For instance, while Kozhikode experienced mild wetness during 2018-2019, Bhuj and Bhopal faced severe and extreme wetness, respectively, during similar time frames. Long-term rainfall pattern analysis unveiled fluctuations in precipitation concentration. The RDI values, spanning a considerable time frame from 1984 to 2020, indicate fluctuations in drought intensity over the years. The findings underscore that urban drought is not merely a hydrometeorological challenge but a multi-dimensional governance issue requiring systemic, cross-sectoral interventions. Beyond drought characterization, the study integrates drought diagnostics with Water-Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) principles to explore governance pathways for improving urban drought resilience. The study also proposes a transitional framework that promotes decentralized water management, aquifer recharge, green-blue infrastructure, and participatory planning to strengthen long-term urban water resilience.
This study examines the role of environmental and socioeconomic factors in shaping migration intentions among citizens in six Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries using Arab Barometer data (2021–2024; N ≈ 25,000). While existing research has emphasized political and economic drivers, this study focuses on the water–energy-food (WEF) nexus and individual–level perceptions of climate change. Using multilevel logistic regression models, the results show that climate-driven scarcities, such as food insecurity (OR ≈ 1.30, p < 0.01, ME ~ 5 percentage point), electricity outages (OR ≈ 1.17, p < 0.01, ME ~ 3 percentage point), and water scarcity (OR ≈ 1.12, p < 0.01, ME ~ 2 percentage point) are significantly associated with higher migration intentions. Once material constraints are considered, climate concern does not show a statistically significant association with migration intention. The interaction and country-specific models further complicate this pattern. Resource-related stressors vary across demographic groups and geopolitical conditions, with food insecurity emerging as the most consistent WEF-related correlate across countries, while electricity and water outages remain more context-specific. These findings suggest that migration intentions are driven less by environmental perceptions and more by the lived experience of resource insecurity. Overall, this research contributes by integrating climate perceptions and WEF-related conditions within a unified individual-level framework, highlighting how environmental stress interacts with socioeconomic vulnerability to shape migration decision-making in the MENA region.
Coastal vegetated ecosystems such as mangroves and salt marshes are established blue carbon sinks. In contrast, animal-based marine ecosystems, particularly coral reefs, are often excluded from carbon mitigation frameworks and remain the subject of ongoing debate. Here, we present a proof-of-concept for a Floating Reef Device (FRD), a modular mid-water coral-based structure designed to evaluate the carbon accumulation and storage in open-sea environments. Using empirical measurements from a 100 m2 prototype FRD deployed in the oligotrophic waters of the northern Red Sea, and seeded with nubbins of the model Stylophora pistillata, we quantified approximately 351.38 kg of organic and 195.7 kg of inorganic carbon pools associated with the FRD after one year. Of the organic carbon pool, around 345 kg (98%) was associated with transient fish biomass representing a short-term ecosystem-associated carbon pool, whereas approximately 6.4 kg was directly attributed to corals and sessile benthic organisms that constitute longer-lived structural carbon pools. Coral photosynthesis and skeletal growth were the primary drivers of carbon accumulation, with additional contributions from associated biota. Our findings provide empirical evidence that FRDs can support measurable carbon accumulation, expanding discussions of blue carbon perspectives beyond vegetated habitat while highlighting the need to distinguish among carbon pools with different residence times. This proof-of-concept establishes a quantitative groundwork for future evaluations of the ecological and socio-economic importance of animal-based marine ecosystems.
Eco-schemes are a new voluntary component of the EU's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) for 2023–2027, designed to support environmentally beneficial farming practices. Among them, the carbon farming (CF) package stands out for its simplicity, making it potentially applicable to small-scale farms in non-EU countries. This study employs a hybrid choice model to examine the preferences of Serbian cereal farmers for a hypothetical agri-environmental policy contract inspired by the CAP eco-scheme framework. The primary aim was to identify which policy attributes are most valued and to assess how self-interested environmental awareness influences farmers' evaluations. Findings reveal a general reluctance toward most proposed agri-environmental practices, with the notable exception of standard crop rotation. Farmers responded positively to subsidy payments and administrative support, while longer contract durations were viewed unfavourably. Interestingly, a higher level of self-interested environmental awareness correlated with increased scepticism toward CF practices and a stronger demand for public support. This suggests that, among the smallholders studied, environmental egoism may not serve as an effective motivator for adopting CF measures. The results underscore the need for tailored policy designs that balance simplicity, support mechanisms, and farmers' socio-economic realities to foster sustainable agricultural transitions.
Identifying critical habitats of whale sharks (Rhincodon typus) is fundamental for effective marine spatial planning in tropical coastal systems. This study assessed environmental drivers, aggregation patterns, and conservation priorities for whale sharks in Saleh Bay, Indonesia. Sightings were spatially clustered in the central–eastern sector of the bay, where elevated chlorophyll-a concentrations and sea surface temperatures between 30.3°C and 31.6°C indicate enhanced productivity and favorable thermal conditions. The spatial overlap between high productivity, optimal temperature, and repeated sightings suggests that this area functions as a key feeding and aggregation hotspot. Anthropogenic features, including settlements, ports, and fishing grounds, were primarily distributed along coastal margins but extended toward ecologically important habitats, indicating potential interaction zones. To address conservation gaps, a Marxan-based spatial prioritization analysis was conducted by integrating ecological variables with socioeconomic cost layers. The model identified a 31,610-ha priority conservation area that maximizes habitat representation while minimizing conflict with human activities. The resulting zoning framework proposes a strictly protected core area supported by regulated buffer and sustainable use zones. Although based on seasonal observations, this study provides a quantitative and reproducible foundation for adaptive conservation planning of highly mobile marine megafauna in semi-enclosed tropical ecosystems.
Despite intensifying environmental hazards in southwestern coastal regions of Bangladesh, many communities remain in hazard-exposed areas. This study examines the influence of socio-ecological systems (SES) on intergenerational non-migration decisions in coastal Bangladesh. We collected data from 939 households using a systematic random sampling method in four coastal areas: Khulna, Satkhira, Bagerhat, and Barguna. Using Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and binary logistic regression, we found three main reasons why people do not move away. These are: protecting the environment (35.6% influence), relying on local resources (20.7%), and cultural or religious connections to nature (7.3%). Higher levels of environmental awareness increased the probability of intergenerational residence by 10.8%, whereas heightened resource dependency decreased this probability by 20.1%. Notably, households that employed occupational shifts as adaptations were more likely to sustain intergenerational residence than those that engaged only in conventional livelihoods. These findings suggest that policies should prioritize livelihood diversification programs that reduce ecosystem dependency while sustaining intergenerational rootedness in climate-exposed communities. Concurrently, governance frameworks should institutionalize community-based natural resource management integrating traditional ecological knowledge to strengthen pro-environmental awareness and reduce involuntary displacement. This study advances the understanding of environmental non-migration by illustrating how pro-environmental knowledge and behavior, resource accessibility, and adaptive capacity collectively shape decisions to remain in vulnerable coastal regions, offering evidence-based pathways for climate-resilient policy in hazard-prone areas.
E-waste is one of the fastest-growing waste streams globally, yet many emerging economies continue to rely on informal collection and recycling pathways that create environmental, occupational health, and traceability risks. India has progressively strengthened its e-waste governance framework, including the shift toward target-based Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) under the E-Waste (Management) Rules, 2022. However, informal-sector dominance, weak channelisation, limited Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification (MRV), and uneven technology readiness continue to constrain circular-economy outcomes. This paper addresses the limited integration of policy design, informal-sector realities, technology feasibility, and implementation infrastructure in existing assessments of India's e-waste transition. It examines how India can move from formal EPR compliance toward implementation-ready circular-economy pathways. Using structured evidence synthesis, policy tracing from 2011 to 2022, comparative benchmarking against governance models in the European Union, China, and Japan, and feasibilityoriented assessment of technology and Eco-Park options, the study identifies key policy and implementation constraints. The findings show that the 2022 rules strengthen registration, digital compliance, and certificate-based EPR, but do not by themselves resolve collection gaps, informal-sector dependence, traceability weaknesses, or safe domestic processing constraints. The paper's novelty lies in positioning Eco-Parks as implementation platforms linking EPR incentives, MRV systems, informal-worker integration, safeguards, and staged technology deployment for a more inclusive circular-economy transition.
The pursuit of China's “dual carbon” targets has catalyzed a surge in specialized local legislation for green building (GB) development. However, achieving the multidimensional objectives defined by national standards requires a synergistic alignment between policy tools and goals, which remain under-explored at the sub-national level. This study evaluates 21 provincial-level GB regulations in China through a two-dimensional “Policy Tool-Policy Goal” framework. Utilizing an LLM-assisted text mining approach integrated with manual verification, 987 policy units were coded and analyzed. Policy tools were categorized into compulsory, mixed, and voluntary types (across 17 sub-categories), while goals were mapped across six dimensions: safety & durability, health & comfort, living convenience, resource conservation, environmental livability, and promotion & innovation. The results reveal several critical systemic imbalances: (1) an overwhelming reliance on compulsory tools (>75%) at the expense of market-based and voluntary mechanisms; (2) institutional fragmentation, manifested as inconsistent rating standards and penalty regimes across regions; (3) a “design-heavy, operation-light” bias, with significant regulatory gaps in the post-construction life cycle; and (4) human-centric goals such as health & comfort are marginalized compared to resource conservation, reflecting a decoupling between technical efficiency and occupant well-being. To optimize the legal framework, this paper proposes establishing a unified national GB law, institutionalizing performance-based operational oversight, and enhancing the granularity of incentive-based tools. These findings offer a theoretical foundation and a strategic roadmap for fostering high-quality, sustainable GB development under carbon neutrality constraints.
