Sustainable food system development is the cornerstone of global human survival and development. This research briefly analyzes the challenges facing the current food system, summarizes the directions of food system transformation, expounds the role of geography in the transformation of food system, and discusses the future paths to promote the sustainable development of food system. The main conclusions are as follows: 1) The interaction of factors such as regional conflicts, climate change, slowdown in development, raging epidemics, and resource and environmental constraints pose multiple challenges to the global food system. 2) The food system should be high-quality, efficient, nutritious and healthy, green and low-carbon, inclusive and inclusive transformation. 3) Geography can provide solutions for the transformation of food systems. 4) The transformation paths of the food system includes: establishing a global food system with benefit sharing, cleaner production, and fair participation, improving the innovation capability of the food system, and establishing an effective organizational guarantee system.

Pedestrianization is an urban revitalization strategy to enhance sustainability and livability in car-oriented cities. Despite many studies in this research field, the effects of pedestrianization on the economy of cities in developing countries still need further investigation. Additionally, the impact of this strategy on the tenant mix of commercial and historical areas in Middle East countries is nebulous. To address these inadequacies, we considered Chaharbagh Abbasi street, located in the heart of Isfahan, Iran, and investigated the impact of a pedestrianization project with particular emphasis on how it affects the economic sustainability of existent commercial fabric. Pre- and post-project data along with field observations and quantifications used to assess structural replacements in trade, were analyzed with SPSS and ArcGIS software. The results revealed unexpected outcomes, such as the closure of some traditional businesses (27.5%), a stagnation in sales (69%) and a decrease in job offers (84%) leading the local economy to a fragile situation. Conversely, it was found that the footfall volume increased by 64% and 73% from the retailers’ and pedestrians’ viewpoints. This evolution along with a wide opening of food and beverage stores (approximately 60%) makes the post-pedestrianization results more promising than earlier predictions. In conclusion, these findings reinforce the importance of pedestrian streets in revitalizing economic activities in historical and commercial areas from the perspective of economic sustainability. Due to the lack of similar investigations in Middle East countries, these findings can support decision-makers and urban planners to take preventive measures in preserving the diversity of individual small shops for upcoming urban rehabilitation projects in terms of pedestrianization.

The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) is contemplating expanding its list of environmental goods (EG) for trade liberalization to fight climate change. In support of doing so, this study proposes that a long list that retains controversies is better for carbon emission reduction than a short common list. This study examines four mechanisms of longer lists: enlarging market scales, enriching product mixes, enhancing product sophistication, and enriching trade patterns. Using China’s emerging EG trade during the 2001–2015 period as a case study, this study compares four EG lists with different EG. The results show that: (1) a longer list reduces carbon emissions from both imports and exports, making domestic regions with different advantages have better chances of improving carbon efficiencies. (2) Product sophistication reduces the emission gap between trading partners, regardless of the length of EG lists. (3) China’s EG exports contribute to carbon reduction in leading regions, while EG imports provide laggard regions with better chances of reducing carbon emissions. These findings provide three implications for future list-making: it is important to (1) seek a long and inclusive list rather than a short common list, (2) shift the focus from environmental end-use to the technological contents of products, and (3) balance the demand of laggard regions to import and the capacity of leading regions to export.

Profound understanding on the diversity of local residents’ willingness to pay (WTP) for ecosystem services (ESs) may aid evaluation of policy impacts by uncovering trade-offs and synergies for achieving sustainable environmental resource management. However, the reasons for the spatial preference heterogeneity of WTP are still unclear. In this study, an extensive survey with 4,580 residents in the Yangtze River Middle Reaches Megalopolis (YRMRM), central China, was carried out to investigate the public’s WTP to maintain and improve ESs. We identified key influencing factors and explored how they shaped the preference heterogeneity in WTP by random forest model and surface fitting method. Our results showed that 81.4% of residents reported WTP for ESs greater than zero. Water supply, waste treatment, food supply and raw material supply were the preferred ESs for residents. Living environment factors (i.e., extent of farmland, water and forest near the residence) were found as the key drivers of WTP. Proximity to farmland, water and forests resulted in high WTP values for a series of specific ESs. The reasons for the heterogeneity of WTP are (1) the difference in proximity to farmland, water and forest (i.e., the contributor to ESs), (2) the divergence of local residents’ preferences for ESs. This study disclosed the heterogeneity and causes of public preferences in YRMRM, which could help policy and decision makers to develop eco-compensation initiatives towards conservative and sustainable use of the environmental resources.

Numerous studies deal with spatial analysis of green innovation (GI). However, researchers have paid limited attention to analyzing the multi-scale evolution patterns and predicting trends of GI in China. This paper seeks to address this research gap by examining the multi-scale distribution and evolutionary characteristics of GI activities based on the data from 337 cities in China during 2000–2019. We used scale variance and the two-stage nested Theil decomposition method to examine the spatial distribution and inequalities of GI in China at multiple scales, including regional, provincial, and prefectural. Additionally, we utilized the Markov chain and spatial Markov chain to explore the dynamic evolution of GI in China and predict its long-term development. The findings indicate that GI in China has a multi-scale effect and is highly sensitive to changes in spatial scale, with significant spatial differences of GI decreasing in each scale. Furthermore, the spatiotemporal evolution of GI is influenced by both geospatial patterns and spatial scales, exhibiting the “club convergence” effect and a tendency to transfer to higher levels of proximity. This effect is more pronounced on a larger scale, but it is increasingly challenging to transfer to higher levels. The study also indicates a steady and sustained growth of GI in China, which concentrates on higher levels over time. These results contribute to a more precise understanding of the scale at which GI develops and provide a scientific basis and policy suggestions for optimizing the spatial structure of GI and promoting its development in China.

The 21st century has seen an acceleration of global change, including climate change, elevated carbon dioxide, nitrogen deposition, and land-use intensification, which poses a significant threat to ecosystem functioning. Nevertheless, studies on the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning (BEF) have consistently demonstrated that biodiversity enhances ecosystem functioning and its stability, even in variable environmental conditions. These findings potentially indicate the critical role of biodiversity in promoting sustainable provisioning of ecosystem functioning under global change. Our paper provides a comprehensive review of current BEF research and the response of BEF to multiple global change factors. We demonstrate that (1) assessing the effects of biodiversity on ecosystem functioning requires consideration of multiple dimensions of diversity, such as diversity across multiple trophic levels (plants, animals, and microbes), multiple facets (taxonomy, functional traits, and phylogeny), and multiple spatial scales (local, regional, and landscape scales). (2) The interaction of multiple global change factors may lead to a greater reduction in biodiversity and ecosystem functioning than a single global change factor. (3) Multidimensional biodiversity regulates the response of ecosystem functioning to global change factors, indicating that high levels of multidimensional biodiversity can mitigate the negative impacts of global change on ecosystem functioning. Overall, we emphasize that recognizing the importance of multidimensional biodiversity is critical for sustaining ecosystem functioning. Therefore, prioritizing conservation efforts to maintain and enhance all dimensions of biodiversity is essential to address the challenges of future global change.

The peri-urban area possesses mixed characteristics of rural and urban areas, i.e., agricultural, and built-up land. This review explains various themes and concepts of peri-urban areas and the importance of peri-urban agriculture (PUA) as an ecosystem service (ES) for their surrounding areas. The methodological approach is a systematic literature search and explanatory review of books and journal articles. The focus of the discussion is as follows: (1) quantification of review results, (2) urbanization pressures, peri-urban, and governance, (3) two different concepts about the peri-urban area, (4) protection of PUA and their resilience, and (5) role of PUA in providing ESs to other regions. The review shows that PUA is more crucial in urban areas than in rural areas in terms of food supply, ecology and biodiversity preservation, disaster mitigation, and recreation. One of the primary causes of PUA loss is massive urban expansion, which entails the conversion of agricultural land in peri-urban areas into built-up land. Hence, we suggest that every country should develop a peri-urban management policy. We argue that sociocultural biases in PUA have resulted in many institutional constraints on peri-urban management being incorporated within existing political and regulatory frameworks, including planning practices and longstanding laws and regulations.

Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) requires effective national initiatives and resource allocation. Yet, the simultaneous attainment of all goals is hindered by constraints such as limited budgets and resources, varied national priorities, and the intricate nature of the goals. As we approach 2030 and beyond, an urgent need for an effective, data-driven prioritisation system exists to optimise what can be accomplished. A considerable knowledge gap persists in identifying the priority areas that demand concentrated attention and how their improvement would propel overall sustainability goals. To bridge this gap, our study presents a prioritisation approach that identifies significant SDG indicators based on urgency and impact, utilising Benchmarking, Bivariate, and Network analysis. Furthermore, we introduce an innovative Impact Index (IMIN) to assess an indicator’s extensive effect on the SDG network. This system carries significant international relevance by establishing a robust framework to identify key, potent, and interconnected indicators. It supports decision-makers worldwide in comprehending their nation’s SDG performance and promotes efficient resource allocation. In the specific context of Australia, our analysis spotlights several impactful, yet underperforming SDG indicators. These include the protection of Freshwater, Terrestrial, and Mountain Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs), the share of renewable energy and energy intensity level of primary energy, targeted research and development, gender equality in national parliaments, and carbon-efficient manufacturing, amongst others.

Gully erosion is one of the most intense landscape degradation mechanisms in areas with varying environmental characteristics. Both natural and anthropogenic factors affect the gullying process. Reliable documentation of these processes in tropical African cities is scarce. This study assessed the gully erosion dynamic and the susceptibility factors in the urban watershed of Kimemi in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Data were obtained through a combination of fieldwork and digitization of very high spatial resolution images from Google Earth (from 2011 to 2021). The length, width, and area of large gullies (width ≥ 5 m) were measured for each year of the study. A logistic regression model (LRM) was also used to investigate the influence of both physical and anthropogenic factors on gully susceptibility. The results revealed that the number of gullies has increased from 36 to 61 during the last decade. The gully mean length of 63.9 ± 61.1 m, 129.3 ± 104.9 m, and 174.7 ± 153.8 m were obtained for the years 2011, 2015, and 2021 respectively. The average density of gully network for the study period was 0.12 km/km², while the degraded land was ∼1.3 and ∼1.1 ha/year for 2011–2015 and 2015–2021 for the entire watershed. The significant changes in morphometric parameters (length, width, area) were found only in the bare land and building land uses. A strong and positive relationship between the length (m) and the area (ha) was found. Furthermore, the susceptibility of gullying was significantly influenced by the slope, stream power index (SPI), distance to roads and rivers, land use and land cover (LULC), and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI). This means the areas located in the bare land and building or close to roads and/or streams are more likely to be gullied. The findings emphasize the impact of urbanization on gully erosion in the Kimemi watershed, highlighting the importance of informed land management decisions with a close attention to anthropogenic factors.