Mitigating global warming is the responsibility of all countries. Moreso, the role of forests in sequestrating carbon is very crucial. Most environmental organizations are active in protecting the environment according to their objectives. This paper investigates the relationship between institutional freedom and forest carbon sinks by using a panel threshold model with 139 countries to verify the U-shaped relationship between forest carbon sinks and economic development. The U-shaped curve between forest carbon sinks and economic development is the same as the environmental Kuznets curve.

This paper provides a systematic study of the location choice of new polluting firms driven by the 11th Five-Year Plan's water pollution reduction mandates in China. We explore a unique dataset of environmental statistics, which contains 31380 polluting manufacturing firms newly established in the period 2006–2010.

We assess the success of natural reforestation in China's TNSP using satellite data. We use microwaves and SIF to measure water and photosynthesis in dryland vegetation. A strong correlation is found between reforestation and remote sensing data. Natural reforestation is successful at increasing vegetation activity in arid areas

Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) indicator 15.1.1 proposes to quantify “Forest area as a proportion of total land area” in order to achieve SDG target 15.1. While area under forest cover can provide useful information regarding discrete changes in forest cover, it does not provide any insight on subtle changes within the broad vegetation class, e.g. forest degradation. Continental or national-level studies, mostly utilizing coarse-scale satellite data, are likely to fail in capturing these changes due to the fine spatial and long temporal characteristics of forest degradation.

Blood donation saves lives, and the communication between blood centers and donors plays a vital role in this. Smart apps are now considered an important communication tool, and could be best utilized in blood donation if they are designed to fit the users’ needs and preferences.

Diabetic Retinopathy (DR) is one of the leading causes of preventable blindness in the working-age diabetic population in India and across the world. It may lead to permanent blindness if not detected in the early stages. The prevalence of DR among diabetics in India was 10% and 16.9% in 2014 and 2019, respectively. In 2019, the International Diabetes Federation estimated that Diabetic Mellitus will affect 101 million people in India in 2030; the largest number in any nation in the world.

Background: With the rapid demographic shift towards an ageing society, it is a concerted effort to facilitate elderly's access to healthcare in order to maintain and improve their quality of life. In China, hospital care services dominate the healthcare market, which requires a better understanding of accessibility to hospitals in order to rationally allocate resources in spatial and land use planning. However, little attention has been paid to analysing the geographical accessibility to hospitals specific to the elderly population.

This book chapter advances SDGs 3 and 10 by explaining that is is generally believed that Wilson's Disease is more common in Chinese populations than the average worldwide prevalence of 1:30,000, but it has been reported among ethnic minorities in mainland China.

Background: Access to safe sanitation and the elimination of open defecation are pre-conditions for improved child health and nutrition and wider achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). While Indonesia has a solid policy framework, the country ranks third globally in terms of numbers of people practicing open defecation. Objectives: Our aim was to assess the effectiveness of a five-year strategy to reduce open defecation through accelerating implementation of the national sanitation program across districts receiving variable levels of external support.

This chapter advances SDG 6 and 11 by reporting on the various laws and policy governing water supply in South Africa as well as the current state of water and wastewater infrastructure in South Africa.