Energy-water-climate governance from interdisciplinary perspectives.

Integration of energy, water, and environment systems is essential for sustainable development, a highly multidisciplinary field of research that has been extensively studied during the last two decades. Access to clean water and energy is critical to economic growth and sustainable development. Providing water and energy services is making an impact on the environment as well. Understanding the linkages among water, energy, and environment — the water-energy-environment nexus — is essential for all levels of government in the development and implementation of policies to enhance human welfare.

This special issue discusses some of the latest progress in three main areas of sustainability themes, i.e., energy, water, and environment, that emerged from the International Symposium on Water Resource and Environmental Management held in 2021 (WREM 2021).

After a meticulous peer-review process, seven (7) papers with high scientific value have been accepted for publication. They mainly concern sustainable development of energy, water, and environment systems.

The first paper is entitled “Settleability and dewaterability of sewage sludge with modified diatomite” (Wang et al. 2022a) that aims to investigate the role of modified diatomite particles in the dewatering performance of an activated sludge system. A typical polymer (CPAM) and surfactant (CTAB) were used to modify diatomite, respectively. The sedimentation and dewatering efficiency of the sludge was evaluated by taking the dosage of these two types of modified diatomite and pH as control factors, from the sedimentation volume (SV), specific resistance to filtration (SRF), cake moisture content, and EPS concentration. This research proves the potential of CPAM/CTAB-modified diatomite for sewage sludge pretreatment in mechanical dewatering. This could provide reference debugging information for the sludge dewatering process and promote the development of efficient and environmentally friendly sludge dewatering technology.

The second paper is entitled “Understanding the effect of calcium containing compounds on ash deposition during boiler operation: experiment study and dynamics calculation” (Kou et al. 2022). In this work, the influence of calcium-containing compounds on ash deposition was studied to reveal the microscopic mechanism of the serious ash deposition burning Zhundong high-calcium coal. The authors used the method of combining experiment with molecular dynamics and kinetic Monte Carlo simulations. It showed that compared with CaO and CaSiO3, CaSO4 is easier to deposit on the surface of the oxide film under the whole temperature. Three calcium-containing minerals can promote each other during the deposition process and accelerate the formation of ash deposits. This provides a theoretical basis for alleviating the abnormal operation of the boiler and further controlling pollutant emissions.

The third paper is entitled “From waste tire to high-value-added chemicals: an analytical Py-GC/TOF-MS study” (Wang et al. 2022b). It mainly focuses on the anlysis of the decomposition behavior of waste tire using a Pyroprobe 5000 pyrolyzer connected to a gas chromatography-time-of-flight mass spectrometry (Py-GC-TOF-MS). Effects of several typical parameters such as heating rate, atmosphere, reaction temperature, retention time, and zeolites on molecular composition and relative contents of the liquid products were investigated. L-limonene was the dominant fraction (> 85%) of the limonene. Among the zeolites tested, Hβ was the most beneficial catalyst to the production of aromatic hydrocarbons as the MAHs reached the highest value of 53.09%. The N, S-compound mainly consisted of benzothiazole and 2-methyl-benzothiazoles-important rubber accelerators. The O, S-compound mainly consisted of sulfones or sulfoxides.

The fourth paper is entitled “Impact of China's environmental decentralization on carbon emissions from energy consumption: An empirical study based on the dynamic spatial econometric model” (Liu and Yang 2022). It mainly focuses on the growing problems of carbon emission. The scientific and reasonable division of environmental management power between governments is the premise and institutional foundation for realizing China’s carbon emission reduction target in 2030. In this article, the authors directly assessed the degree of environmental decentralization according to the allocation of environmental managers among different levels of government. This work provides theoretical support for China to construct a differentiated carbon emission environmental management system from two aspects of regional differences and environmental management power categories.

The fifth paper is entitled “How to improve the problem of hotel manpower shortage in the COVID-19 epidemic environment? Exploring the effectiveness of the hotel practice training system” (Xue et al. 2022). It is found that the hotel can enhance the publicity of corporate culture, improve the promotion system, increase employee benefits, and adjust the working environment and equipment provided to employees. These will improve employee attitudes toward hotel management, improve work efficiency, increase retention, and solve the problem of personnel shortage during the post-pandemic period.

The sixth paper is entitled “How Can Sports Entrepreneurs Achieve Their Corporate Sustainable Development Goals Under the COVID-19 Epidemic?” (Ting et al. 2021). It is found that sports entrepreneurs can follow epidemic prevention decisions, make good use of Internet technology, plan the complete process, and use accurate detection equipment to grasp the movements of competitors. They will win public recognition to maintain professional sports companies and events in COVID-19 and normal operation under the epidemic and create a sustainable environment for professional sports companies and events.

The seventh paper “Environmental regulation, foreign direct investment, and export sophistication of China: an empirical study based on dynamic system GMM and threshold model” (Wang et al. 2021) focuses on the mechanism of how environmental regulations affect export sophistication. The results were as follows: (1) Environmental regulations (ERs) lead the influx of foreign capital to China, as a “pollution shelter” of developed countries, but excessive ERs have negative effects on foreign direct investment (FDI), resulting in an inverted U-shaped relationship between ERs and FDI. (2) The upgrading of the export sophistication (ES) was affected by FDI, with the trend following a U-shaped curve. (3) The ERs have significant direct effects on the upgrading of the ES in the form of a U-shaped relationship, which was determined by the combined “innovation compensation” and “cost offset” effects. Finally, the environmental regulations had indirect influences on the upgrading of the export sophistication through the linkage effect of FDI in the form of an N-shaped relationship. Based on the aforementioned achievements, some policy recommendations were proposed to promote the upgrading of the ES in the future.

The guest editors of this special issue are thankful to the Editor-in-Chief of Environmental Science and Pollution Research, Professor Garrigues, and the publishing editor Alexandrine Cheronet for providing an opportunity to publish selected peer-reviewed papers that were presented at WREM. Thanks are also due to Ms. Fanny Creusot and Ms. Florence Delavaud, Editorial Assistant, and the entire production team of the journal for their valuable support in bringing out this issue successfully. Last but not the least, our sincere appreciation to all the reviewers for their invaluable and critical review comments on manuscripts that were submitted for this special issue.