Four themes identified as contributors to diseases of despair in Pennsylvania

PENN STATE

Research News

IMAGE: FINANCIAL INSTABILITY, LACK OF INFRASTRUCTURE, A DETERIORATING SENSE OF COMMUNITY AND FAMILY FRAGMENTATION ARE KEY CONTRIBUTORS TO DISEASES OF DESPAIR IN PENNSYLVANIA COMMUNITIES, ACCORDING TO PENN STATE COLLEGE OF MEDICINE... view more 

CREDIT: PENN STATE

Hershey, Pa. -- Financial instability, lack of infrastructure, a deteriorating sense of community and family fragmentation are key contributors to diseases of despair in Pennsylvania communities, according to Penn State College of Medicine and Highmark Health researchers. The researchers conducted four focus groups in Pennsylvania communities identified as having high rates of despair-related illnesses.

Diseases of despair are medical diagnoses involving alcohol-related disorders, substance-related disorders and suicidal thoughts and behavior. Princeton economists Anne Case and Angus Deaton proposed the concept of deaths of despair in 2015 after observing a decline in life expectancy of middle-aged white men and women between 1999 and 2015 -- the first such decline since the flu pandemic of 1918. They theorized that this decline is associated with the social and economic downturn in rural communities and small towns over the last several decades, leading to feelings of despair and loss of hope for the future.

"The crisis in recent years has broadened past this initial demographic that Case and Deaton established, and we are now seeing rising excess mortality in other groups of working-class Americans, including people of color," Daniel George, associate professor of humanities and public health sciences, Penn State College of Medicine, said. George is a researcher with a Penn State Clinical and Translational Science Institute project looking at diseases of despair in Pennsylvania.

The first phase of this project analyzed Highmark Health insurance claims and found that the rate of diagnoses related to diseases of despair -- alcohol-related disorders, substance-related disorders and suicidal thoughts and behaviors -- increased significantly in the past decade.

"Nearly one in 20 people in the study sample of 12 million people were diagnosed with a disease of despair in our earlier research," Emily Brignone, Highmark Health, said. "Following Case and Deaton's findings, we saw the most substantial percentage increase in disease of despair diagnoses among men ages 35 to 74, followed by women ages 55 to 74 and 18 to 34. The issue is one of great importance that we are proud to be addressing with Penn State."

Using the data from the first study, the researchers then identified hotspots in Pennsylvania with a high rate of diagnoses related to diseases of despair for the second phase of the project. A disease of despair rate was determined by dividing the number of unique members with a qualifying diagnosis during that year by the total number of members. Researchers selected communities in Dauphin and Lebanon counties and conducted focus groups through existing community partnerships. Researchers report their results in the journal JAMA Network Open.

"Most of the research on deaths and diseases of despair have been at the epidemiological level; in other words, looking at large data sets and trying to identify patterns over time," George said. "There has been less done qualitatively - basically exploring the perceptions and beliefs of people who are affected by diseases of despair, trying to understand what is happening on the ground."

Four focus groups included a total of 60 participants. Focus group members were both residents and community health workers who interact with those affected by diseases of despair. The research team analyzed transcripts of the focus groups to identify themes.

The first theme researchers identified was the role of financial instability and how United States domestic policy contributes to self-harming behavior.

"One of the main findings was that financial distress is at the heart of it," George said. "It is something that has been driving instability in people's lives and increases the risk for drug abuse and escape through drugs and drink. People identified jobs with full benefits and a living wage not being as available as they used to be and people having to choose groceries over medical care and their anti-anxiety medications."

The second theme that researchers identified was a lack of infrastructure, especially in rural communities.

"Focus group participants noted a lack of public transportation that could help people get to their jobs or to their health care appointments, and the role that played in compounding distress in people's lives," George said. "They also identified failures in our school systems that were resulting in schools not preparing kids to have trades or skills to make them competitive in a 21st-century economy."

The third theme that researchers identified was a deteriorating sense of community. Participants discussed fragmentation over the last several decades that has led to rising isolation and distrust, and a lack of neighborly support. These trends have been worsened, in part, by social media.

"There was a really interesting perception that there has just been a general decline in the community," George said. "There is more loneliness, more alienation, a loss of trust among people, less neighborly interactions. People talked about just feeling an absence of actual human connection online with technology and electronic devices, and that it has taken the place of tangible, real human connection-- and that that compounds loneliness."

The final theme researchers identified was the fragmentation of the family.

"There is more pressure on two-earner families, and that was leading to kids being less bio-psychosocially developed and leaving home at greater risk for despair-related behaviors," George said.

Researchers will next consider potential solutions, including the role of health care facilities in identifying despair-related risk factors, partnerships with community organizations that work with those most at risk and the use of big data analysis and machine learning to identify at-risk communities and guide state-level policy changes. Focus group attendees shared their beliefs that more needed to be done at the local and state levels to address the causes of despair, including non-profit initiatives, peer support, infrastructure building, economic development and rebuilding a sense of community as well as social safety nets.

"A key message is really that we do not want to blame the victims here," George said. "Despair is something that is an indictment of the way that we have organized our society rather than a personal failing or an individuated sense of despair that somebody may feel. People are responding to objectively worsening material circumstances in their lives. What we are trying to do with the diseases of despair construct is essentially create a parameter whereby we can measure it, study it, try to understand what is going on and then address root causes."

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A podcast with George about this research is available at pennstatectsi.libsyn.com.

National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences through Penn State Clinical and Translational Science Institute (grant numbers UL1TR002014; UL1TR002014-03S1) funded this research. Community groups Better Together: Lebanon County, Dauphin County Human Services and Faith and Family Coalition of Harrisburg contributed to this research.

Other researchers on this project were Dr. Lawrence Sinoway, Charity Sauder, Andrea Murray and Dr. Jennifer Kraschnewski, Penn State Clinical and Translational Science Institute; Bethany Snyder and Dr. Lauren Van Scoy, Penn State College of Medicine; Emily Brignone and Robert Gladden, Highmark Health; Alana Ernharth, Shayann Ramedani, Neha Gupta, Savreen Saran, all medical students, Penn State College of Medicine.

 

Child mental health services lacking in high-income countries: SFU study finds

Researchers found that less than half of the number of children with a mental health disorder have received services to address their needs

SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY

Research News

Most children with a mental health disorder are not receiving services to address their needs--according to a new study from researchers at Simon Fraser University's Children's Health Policy Centre. Their research was published this week in the journal Evidence-Based Mental Health.

Researchers found that of the one in eight children (12.7 per cent) who experience a mental disorder, less than half (44.2 per cent) receive any services for these conditions.

"We have illuminated an invisible crisis in children's mental health and unacceptable service shortfalls in high-income countries -- including in Canada -- to a degree that violates children's rights," says study author Charlotte Waddell, an SFU health sciences professor and centre director.

"Many countries will need to substantially increase, and protect, their children's mental health budgets. This is particularly urgent given documented increases in children's mental health needs since COVID-19--needs which are predicted to continue."

Using systematic review methods, the researchers examined 14 prevalence surveys conducted in 11 high-income countries that included a total of 61,545 children aged four to 18 years. Eight of the 14 studies also assessed service contacts. The 14 surveys were conducted between 2003 and 2020 in Canada as well as the US, Australia, Chile, Denmark, Great Britain, Israel, Lithuania, Norway, South Korea and Taiwan.

Researchers note that mental health service provision lags behind services available to treat physical conditions in most of these countries. "We would not find it acceptable to treat only 44 per cent of children who had cancer or diabetes or infectious diseases," says Waddell.

The costs of not providing adequate childhood mental healthcare are also high. Mental health disorders typically begin in childhood and adolescence and if not prevented or treated early, they significantly interfere with wellbeing and development--with the impact extending across the lifespan.

This study found that the most common childhood mental disorders were anxiety (5.2 per cent), attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) (3.7 per cent), oppositional defiant disorder (e.g., argumentative behaviour) (3.3 per cent), substance use disorder (e.g., problematic use of alcohol or cannabis) (2.3 per cent), conduct disorder (1.3 per cent) and depression (1.3 per cent).

Crucially, Waddell says effective treatments are well known for all of these disorders, as are effective prevention programs, "so we know how to help children."

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The study was funded by the British Columbia Ministry for Children and Family Development, Child and Youth Mental Health Branch.

 

High school student presents on oral-health impact profile 5: analyzing a private practice adult population's distribution

INTERNATIONAL & AMERICAN ASSOCIATIONS FOR DENTAL RESEARCH

Research News

Alexandria, Va., USA - Hiba Nasir, Wayzata High School, Plymouth, Minn., presented the poster "Oral-Health Impact Profile 5: Analyzing A Private Practice Adult Population's Distribution" at the virtual 99th General Session & Exhibition of the International Association for Dental Research (IADR), held in conjunction with the 50th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Dental Research (AADR) and the 45th Annual Meeting of the Canadian Association for Dental Research (CADR), on July 21-24, 2021.

Nasir, a high school student, along with Sheila Riggs, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, USA, performed an observational study to understand the distribution of the Oral-Health Impact Profile (OHIP5) scores in a general adult population that seeks care in a private, suburban dental clinic. Participants were adult patients seeking care in a clinic who were administered the OHIP5 survey upon arrival. This survey was filled out as a paper copy and additionally included demographic questions (race, ethnicity, gender and age) for additional analysis.

A chi-square test for homogeneity was performed and determined that there was not a difference between the score distributions between females and males. Understanding the distribution of OHIP5 scores between men and women of an adult population seeking care in a private, suburban dental clinic allows for dental practitioners to further improve the care that they provide and allows for them to enhance their treatment plans.

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View this poster presentation in the IADR General Session Virtual Experience Platform.

View a PDF of this press release.

International Association for Dental Research

The International Association for Dental Research (IADR) is a nonprofit organization with over 10,000 individual members worldwide, with a mission to drive dental, oral and craniofacial research for health and well-being worldwide. To learn more, visit http://www.iadr.org.

 

Researchers uncover fatal flaw in green pigmented concrete

Certain green pigments could weaken the strength of architectural concrete

XI'AN JIAOTONG-LIVERPOOL UNIVERSITY

Research News

As Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University researchers completed their research on coloured architectural concrete, they found a surprising result--green pigmented cement had impurities that produced porous, poor quality concrete. Meanwhile, red and blue pigments had little effect.

The research was conducted by Mehreen Heerah, a graduate of XJTLU's Department of Civil Engineering, Dr Graham Dawson of XJTLU's Department of Chemistry, and Isaac Galobardes of Mohammed VI Polytechnic University.

Pigmented architectural concrete is used as a visually appealing alternative to grey concrete, such as in Barcelona's Ciutat de la Justícia, explains Dr Dawson. As the demand for pigmented architectural concrete grows, so does the importance of this research.

Not easy being green

"The characteristics of red and blue pigments used in the study were established in the existing research literature. However, the characteristics of the green pigment was not usual," says Dawson.

"The results for the red and blue pigments were quite close to our expectation," Heerah says. "On the other hand, we did not expect the drastic effect of green pigment on the properties of the mortar. In fact, we expected that a greater increment in strength with the green pigment compared to the other two."

That's because green pigment in products is based upon chromium oxide, which increases the strength of the mix when hydrated.

So why was green concrete found to be substandard?

The answer lies in how it was produced with damaging impurities, says Dr Dawson.

"Chemical products are used to produce pigments," he explains. "Sometimes, pigments present simple chemical components and other combinations of them to obtain different colours."

The offending impurity that weakened the green concrete was muscovite; a mineral used to produce green pigment for other industrial uses. When hydrated with cement, muscovite generated significant quantities of a component that causes excessive porousness, which results in a reduction in strength and longevity.

"However, other studies have found that there is no adverse effect when using green pigment consisting solely of chromium (III) oxide, with no muscovite," says Heerah.

Mix it up

The cement samples were produced with three different pigments--blue cobaltous aluminate, green chromium oxide and red iron oxide pigment--at three different levels: 1, 5 and 10%. The researchers tested two types of cement to understand how these admixtures and by-products affect the properties of the resulting concrete.

The four-part experiment first tested water absorption to evaluate the change in physical properties, and then determined the hydration properties of the samples.

Next, the kinetics of hydration were studied through the evolution of the temperature of each mix. Finally, the researchers examined the flexural and compressive strength to understand the effect of pigment on mechanical strength.

The research established that the morphology of hydration products and kinetics was related to the samples' compressive strength.

The poor performance of the green pigment stood out compared to the minimal effects of the red and blue.

The research also discovered that the cobaltous aluminate oxide (blue) and iron (III) oxide (red) pigments could be used with both Portland and Portland Composite cement without weakening the concrete's strength.

Less impact

Researchers also improved upon an existing equation used for estimating the real-time compressive strength of the pigmented mortar, Heerah says.

Dr Galobardes explains: "Using this equation avoids making the destructive tests used to estimate the mechanical properties of concrete.

"This eliminates waste and lowers carbon dioxide emissions and costs related to the production of the samples used in the tests."

While pigments themselves do not reduce carbon emissions produced by concrete, the research indicates that they are safe to use with eco-cements.

Cement mixes such as Portland Composite Cement, which includes ground granulated blast-furnace slag (GGBS) and fly ash are expected to achieve reduced carbon emissions in coming years.

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How the brain paints the beauty of a landscape

Researchers investigate how our brains proceed from merely seeing a landscape to feeling its aesthetic impact

MAX-PLANCK-GESELLSCHAFT

Research News

 

IMAGE: A RESEARCH TEAM FROM THE MAX PLANCK INSTITUTE FOR EMPIRICAL AESTHETICS INVESTIGATED HOW OUR BRAINS PROCEED FROM MERELY SEEING A LANDSCAPE TO FEELING ITS AESTHETIC IMPACT. view more 

CREDIT: MPI FOR EMPIRICAL AESTHETICS

How does a view of nature gain its gloss of beauty? We know that the sight of beautiful landscapes engages the brain's reward systems. But how does the brain transform visual signals into aesthetic ones? Why do we perceive a mountain vista or passing clouds as beautiful? A research team from the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics has taken up this question and investigated how our brains proceed from merely seeing a landscape to feeling its aesthetic impact.

In their study, the research team presented artistic landscape videos to 24 participants. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), they measured the participants' brain activity as they viewed and rated the videos. Their findings have just been published in the open-access journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience. First author A. Ilkay Isik encapsulates:

"We would have expected the aesthetic signals to be limited to the brain's reward systems, but surprisingly, we found them already present in visual areas of the brain while the participants were watching the videos. The activations occurred right next to brain regions deployed in recognizing physical features in movies, such as the layout of a scene or the presence of motion."

Senior author Edward Vessel suggests that these signals may reflect an early, elemental form of beauty perception:

"When we see something beyond our expectations, local patches of brain tissue generate small 'atoms' of positive affect. The combination of many such surprise signals across the visual system adds up to make for an aesthetically appealing experience."

With this new knowledge, the study not only contributes to our understanding of beauty, but may also help clarify how interactions with the natural environment can affect our sense of well-being. The results might have potential applications in a variety of fields where the link between perception and emotion is important, such as clinical health care and artificial intelligence.

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Original Publication:

Isik, A.I. and Vessel, E.A. (2021). From Visual Perception to Aesthetic Appeal: Brain Responses to Aesthetically Appealing Natural Landscape Movies.

Front. Hum., 21 July 2021 Neurosci. 15:676032.

 

Research 'final nail in the coffin' of Paranthropus as hard object feeders

Long-held eating habits beliefs debunked

UNIVERSITY OF OTAGO

Research News

New research from the University of Otago debunks a long-held belief about our ancestors' eating habits.

For more than 60 years, researchers have believed Paranthropus, a close fossil relative of ours which lived about one to three million years ago, evolved massive back teeth to consume hard food items such as seeds and nuts, while our own direct ancestors, the genus Homo, is thought to have evolved smaller teeth due to eating softer food such as cooked food and meats.

However, after travelling to several large institutes and museums in South Africa, Japan and the United Kingdom and studying tooth fractures in more than 20,000 teeth of fossil and living primate species, Dr Ian Towle, an Otago biological anthropologist, working with Dr Carolina Loch, of the Faculty of Dentistry, says this "neat picture is far more complex than once thought".

"By individually studying each tooth and recording the position and size of any tooth fractures, we show tooth chipping does not support regular hard food eating in Paranthropus robustus, therefore potentially putting an end to the argument that this group as a whole were hard food eaters," he says.

Dr Towle says the findings challenge our understanding of dietary and behavioural changes during human evolution.

"The results are surprising, with human fossils so far studied - those in our own genus Homo - showing extremely high rates of tooth fractures, similar to living hard object eating primates, yet Paranthropus show extremely low levels of fracture, similar to primates that eat soft fruits or leaves.

"Although in recent years there has been a slow acceptance that another species of Paranthropus, Paranthropus boisei, found in East Africa, was unlikely to have regularly eaten hard foods, the notion that Paranthropus evolved their large dental apparatus to eat hard foods has persisted. Therefore, this research can be seen as the final nail in the coffin of Paranthropus as hard object feeders."

The fact that humans show such contrasting chipping patterns is equally significant and will have "knock on" effects for further research, particularly research on dietary changes during human evolution, and why the human dentition has evolved the way it has, he says.

"The regular tooth fractures in fossil humans may be caused by non-food items, such as grit or stone tools. However, regardless of the cause, these groups were subjected to substantial tooth wear and fractures. So, it raises questions to why our teeth reduced in size, especially compared to groups like Paranthropus."

Dr Towle's research will now focus on if our dentition evolved smaller due to other factors to allow other parts of the skull to expand, leading to evolution then favouring other tooth properties to protect it against wear and fracture, instead of increased tooth size.

"This is something we are investigating now, to see if tooth enamel may have evolved different characteristics among the great apes. Our research as a whole may also have implications for our understanding of oral health, since fossil human samples typically show immaculate dental health.

"Since extreme tooth wear and fractures were the norm, our ancestors likely evolved dental characteristics to not just cope with but actually utilise this dental tissue loss. For example, without substantial tooth wear our dentitions can face all sorts of issues, including impacted wisdom teeth, tooth crowding and even increased susceptibility to cavities."

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Paranthropus robustus tooth chipping patterns do not support regular hard food mastication, co-authored by Dr Towle and Dr Loch, was published in the Journal of Human Evolution.

Tooth chipping prevalence and pattern in extant primates, co-authored by Dr Towle and Dr Loch was published in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology.

Chipping and wear patterns in extant primate and fossil hominin molars: 'Functional' cusps are associated with extensive wear but low levels of fracture, co-authored by Dr Towle and Dr Loch was published in the Journal of Human Evolution.

Study shows environmental link to herbicide-resistant horseweed

CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS

Research News

IMAGE: UPRIGHT (LEFT) AND ROSETTE (RIGHT) TYPE HORSEWEED PLANTS EMERGING SIMULTANEOUSLY IN A FIELD IN MICHIGAN DURING MID-SUMMER. view more 

CREDIT: PHOTO BY JOHN A. SCHRAMSKI

WESTMINSTER, Colorado - July 23, 2021 - Horseweed is a serious threat to both agricultural crops and natural landscapes around the globe. In the U.S., the weed is prolific and able to emerge at any time of the year.

Fall emerging horseweed overwinters as a rosette, while spring emerging horseweed skips the rosette stage and grows upright. In some instances, both rosette and upright plants emerge simultaneously in mid-summer. These unpredictable growth patterns create challenges for growers as they try to develop an appropriate weed management plan.

In a study featured in the journal Weed Science, a team from Michigan State University explored whether environmental cues could be used to predict horseweed growth type. They found that variations in temperature, photoperiod, competition, shading, and soil moisture resulted only in the rosette growth type. Upright plants emerged, though, when seeds were exposed to dry conditions, followed by a prolonged cooling.

Researchers also determined that upright horseweed plants from known glyphosate-resistant populations are three- to four-fold less sensitive to glyphosate than their rosette siblings, which makes them much harder to control.

"Our results suggest that when horseweed populations shift from winter to summer annual lifecycles, concurrent increases can be expected in glyphosate resistance," says researcher John Schramski of Michigan State University.

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To learn more, read the article "Environmental cues affecting horseweed (Conyza canadensis) growth type and their sensitivity to glyphosate" online, available Open Access.

About Weed Science

Weed Science is a journal of the Weed Science Society of America, a nonprofit scientific society focused on weeds and their impact on the environment. The publication presents peer-reviewed original research related to all aspects of weed science, including the biology, ecology, physiology, management and control of weeds. To learn more, visit http://www.wssa.net.

Disclaime

Scientists identify five new plant species in Bolivia

UNIVERSITY OF EXETER

Research News

IMAGE: JACQUEMONTIA BOLIVIANA. CREDIT: JOHN WOOD view more 

CREDIT: JOHN WOOD

Scientists have identified five new plant species in the Bolivian Andes.

The species are all part of the genus Jacquemontia, which are twining or trailing plants with pretty blue flowers.

With rapid biodiversity loss taking place across South America and worldwide, identifying plant species is a vital step towards protecting them.

The new study, which classifies and describes the 28 Jacquemontia species now known to live in Bolivia and Peru, was carried out by the universities of Exeter and Oxford, and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

"Many plant species have not been identified and classified, especially in the tropics," said Rosie Clegg, of the University of Exeter and Kew.

"If you don't know what a species is, you can't conserve it.

"Working with local collaborators in Bolivia, we have identified five new Jacquemontia species - and our work so far suggests most of them are relatively rare."

Jacquemontia plants often grow in open, bushy or grassy habitats, however, even widespread species are often scattered in their distribution and some species are highly specialised, growing even on bare rock with very little soil or water, while some require fire to stimulate seed germination. The researchers now want to discover more about these species, and where each can be found as - at present - some are only known to exist in a single location. Plants limited to a small area are highly vulnerable to threats such as the arrival of invasive species and habitat destruction for agriculture, mining and road and reservoir construction. Clegg's current work focusses on rock outcrops, where some Jacquemontia species are found, although the new species described in the paper are found on Andean slopes. "Rock outcrops come in many forms across South America, with different geologies and different plants living on them," she said. "As well as identifying plants, we want to learn more about these habitats and the role they play in wider ecosystems. "Jacquemontia and other plants on rock outcrops are able to survive in very harsh conditions, so through them we can learn more about how plants might respond and adapt to climate change."

John Wood, of the University of Oxford and Kew, said: "Collaboration between UK institutions working alongside colleagues in Bolivia is important for the identification and conservation of species and their habitats."

Clegg's research at the University of Exeter is funded by the NERC GW4+ Doctoral Training Programme.

The five newly described species are named: Jacquemontia boliviana, Jacquemontia cuspidata, Jacquemontia longipedunculata, Jacquemontia mairae and Jaquemontia chuquisacensis.

The paper, published in the journal Kew Bulletin, is entitled: "Jacquemontia (Convolvulaceae) in Bolivia and Peru."

CAPTION

Jacquemontia longipedunculata. Credit Alfredo Fuentes

CREDIT

Alfredo Fuentes

The University of Exeter has launched a 'Green Futures' campaign and website to drive action on the environment and climate emergency. To find out more please visit https://greenfutures.exeter.ac.uk.

CAPTION

Jacquemontia cuspidata. Credit Julia Gutierrez

CREDIT

Julia Gutierrez

Water resources: Defusing conflict, promoting cooperation

ETH ZURICH

Research News

IMAGE: MEGA-?DAM ON THE OMO RIVER: GIBE III (2016). view more 

CREDIT: MIMI ABEBAYEHU/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Rivers are lifelines for many countries. They create valuable ecosystems, provide drinking water for people and raw water for agriculture and industry. In the Global South in particular, there is strong competition for access to freshwater resources. The increasing use of hydropower has recently intensified this competition further.

Take Ethiopia, for example: when the country began filling the mega-?dam Gibe III on the Omo River in 2015, downstream users saw a drop in water volumes. Natural flooding declined, reducing the volume of fertile mud washed onto the floodplain. The level of Kenya's Lake Turkana, into which the Omo flows, fell temporarily by two metres, resulting in significant consequences for people and agriculture.

Addressing the nexus

The network of interactions between water, energy, food and ecosystems - referred to by experts as the "water-energy-food (WEF) nexus" - often leads to wide-ranging disputes in the catchment areas of transboundary rivers. Large-scale infrastructure construction projects such as dams and irrigation schemes have caused political tensions between neighbouring states at various points in the past.

An international research team led by ETH Zurich has now developed a strategic toolkit that can help to defuse such conflicts over water use, through an objective analysis of stakeholder's interests. In the EU's Horizon 2020 project DAFNE, 14 research partners from Europe and Africa worked together to find approaches to a more equitable management of water resources.

"We wanted to show how it is possible to sustainably manage the nexus between water, energy, food and ecosystems, even in large and transboundary river basins with a wide range of users," says Paolo Burlando, Professor of Hydrology and Water Resources Management at ETH Zurich.

Integrating and balancing different interests

While it is now recognised that watershed planning should take a holistic approach that respects the needs of all stakeholders, multidimensional decision-making problems with significant numbers of stakeholders make it difficult to negotiate generally accepted solutions.

"Conventional planning tools are usually overwhelmed with challenges such as these," explains Burlando, who has led the DAFNE consortium for the past four years. This is why the project team developed a novel method to map and quantify trade-offs in the WEF nexus.

The approach is based on the principles of the participatory and integrated planning and management of water resources, which focuses on the role and interests of stakeholders. The DAFNE methodology is designed to engage stakeholders and find compromises and synergies in a joint approach. "The key is to find solutions that benefit everyone, take the environment into account and also make economic sense," explains Burlando.

Enabling dialogue through models

DAFNE uses state-of-the-art modelling techniques and digital solutions to enable participatory planning. A strategic decision tool allows the social, economic and environmental consequences of interventions to be assessed in a quantitative approach, enabling users to identify viable development pathways. Stakeholder selected pathways are simulated in detail using a hydrological model driven by high-resolution climate scenarios, in order to accurately analyse the impact on the respective water resources. Additional sub-models can be used to model other aspects of the nexus. Finally, a visualisation tool helps to illustrate interrelationships and assess problems from various user perspectives.

"The models aim to facilitate continuous negotiation between stakeholders - which is a key element of the DAFNE approach," says Senior Scientist Scott Sinclair, who co-developed the modelling approach.

Case studies with local stakeholders

The DAFNE project focused on two large river basins in East, and Southern Africa - the Omo-Turkana and Zambezi - where the researchers tested their methodology in two case studies. In both case studies, real stakeholders were involved in the development of the DAFNE approaches, working with them to test alternative operating modes for the power plants and irrigation schemes, to design more sustainable use scenarios for their catchment areas. They exchanged their different perspectives in simulated negotiations to illustrate the process.

In the Omo-Turkana basin, the scientists also used their methodology in a retrospective analysis of the controversial two-year filling phase of the Gibe III mega-dam in Ethiopia. "We observed that the negative impact on downstream neighbours was exacerbated by a prolonged drought," reports Burlando. The DAFNE consortium partner from Politecnico di Milano were able to show in a study published in Nature Communications together with Burlando and Sinclair, that such problems can be reduced by combining DAFNE tools with seasonal drought forecasts and flexibly adapting the filling regime to hydroclimatic conditions.

Dams on the advance worldwide

The results of the study are highly topical: Ethiopia is currently building another mega-dam in the Omo-Turkana catchment area, and filling the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the Blue Nile. Worldwide, around 500 dam projects are being planned in regions affected by climate feedbacks through teleconnections. Growing populations and increasing prosperity will continue to boost demand for energy, food and water. The researchers hope that the DAFNE methodology will one day become a reference.

"We designed the modelling tools to be transferable to other regions with competing water needs," says Burlando. Follow-up projects are already under way to apply and further develop the technology in several river basins worldwide.

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Reference

Zaniolo M, Giuliani M, Sinclair S, Burlando P, Castelletti A. When timing matters - misdesigned dam filling impacts hydropower sustainability. Nat Commun 12, 3056 (2021), doi: 10.1038/s41467-021-23323-5

 

China's carbon-monitoring satellite reports global carbon net of six gigatons

INSTITUTE OF ATMOSPHERIC PHYSICS, CHINESE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES

Research News

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IMAGE: THE FIRST GLOBAL CARBON FLUX MAP DERIVED BY TANSAT OBSERVATION. view more 

CREDIT: DONGXU YANG

About six gigatons -- roughly 12 times the mass of all living humans -- of carbon appears to be emitted over land every year, according to data from the Chinese Global Carbon Dioxide Monitoring Scientific Experimental Satellite (TanSat).

Using data on how carbon mixes with dry air collected from May 2017 to April 2018, researchers developed the first global carbon flux dataset and map. They published their results in Advances in Atmospheric Sciences.

The map was developed by applying TanSat's satellite observations to models of how greenhouse gasses are exchanged among Earth's atmosphere, land, water and living organisms. During this process, more than a hundred of gigatons of carbon are exchanged, but the increase in carbon emissions has resulted in net carbon added to the atmosphere -- now at about six gigatons a year -- which is a serious issue that contributes to climate change, according to Dongxu Yang, first author and a researcher in the Institute of Atmospheric Physics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (IAP CAS).

"In this paper, we introduce the first implementation of TanSat carbon dioxide data on carbon flux estimations," Yang said. "We also demonstrate that China's first carbon-monitoring satellite can investigate the distribution of carbon flux across the globe."

While satellite measurements are not as accurate as ground-based measurements, said co-author Jing Wang, a researcher in IAP CAS, satellite measurements provide continuous global observation coverage that provides additional information not available from limited or varied surface monitoring stations. For example, a monitoring station in a city may report very different observations compared to a station in a remote village, especially if they are in drastically different climates.

"The sparseness and spatial inhomogeneity of the existing ground-based network limits our ability to infer consistent global- and regional-scale carbon sources and sinks," said co-author Liang Feng, researcher with the National Centre for Earth Observation at the University of Edinburgh. "To improve observation coverage, tailor-made satellites, for example TanSat, have been developed to provide accurate atmospheric greenhouse gas measurements."

The data from these satellites, which includes TanSat, Japan's GOSAT and the United States' OCO-2, and future missions, will be used to independently verify national emission inventories across the globe. According to the Yang, this process will be overseen by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and begin in 2023, in support of the Paris Agreement. TanSat's measurements generally match with data from the other satellites.

"This verification method will be helpful to better understand carbon emissions in real time, and to help ensure transparency across the inventories," said co-author Yi Liu, researcher in IAP CAS.

The process will be bolstered by the next generation of satellites, known as TanSat-2, which is currently in the design phase. The goal, Yang said, will be to obtain measurements that help elucidate the carbon budget from the global scale down to individual cities.

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TanSat, funded by the Ministry of Science and Technology of China and the China Meteorological Administration, was launched in December 2016.