Data & Analytics play a vital role in the realization of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). SDG 17 (Partnerships for the Goals) specifically emphasizes the need to enhance the availability of high-quality, timely, and reliable data. Accurate data and insightful analytics are essential for assessing progress, identifying gaps, making informed decisions, and creating effective policies related to each of the SDGs. For instance, they can help enhance education systems (SDG 4), optimize health services (SDG 3), reduce poverty (SDG 1), and mitigate climate change impacts (SDG 13). Moreover, advances in data collection methods, including mobile technology and remote sensing, can provide valuable insights for achieving sustainability. Therefore, robust data and analytics are integral to monitoring and accomplishing the SDGs.
The presence of small plastic particles in the environment, reported for the first time in the 1970's, has only recently been recognized as a global issue. Although environmental awareness continues to grow, so does its consumption and associated risks. The number of studies reporting the presence of microplastics, has grown exponentially as did the concern over plastic degradation into smaller particles like nanoplastics, a potentially more pernicious form of plastic pollution.
In May 2019, GIZ partnered with the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data and the Governments of Kenya and Ghana to organize a joint peer learning workshop for partners engaged in SDG implementation and monitoring from both countries. The aim of the workshop was to share and learn from each others experiences in the area of SDG monitoring and engage in a technical cross-country exchange, furthering SDG 17.
Microplastics are emerging pollutants in aquatic and terrestrial environments. In the last years, several case studies and reviews have been published about microplastics in freshwater and marine environments. However, no standardized methods are available for sampling and sample preparation. Based on literature research, this review presents different techniques and methods for sampling as well as the preparation of microplastic samples from water, sediment and biota of freshwater and marine environments.
Although the study of the effects of microplastics increased in the last years, terrestrial ecosystems remain less studied. In fact, the effects of microplastics in insects, the most abundant group of animals and major providers of key Ecosystem Services, are not well known despite the potential cascading negative effects on the ecosystems functioning in the habitats where they occur.
Microplastic (MP) studies in freshwater environments are gaining attention due to the huge quantities of plastic particles reported from lakes and rivers and the potential for negative impacts in these environments. Different units have been used to report MP densities, which makes it difficult to compare data and can result in reports of extremely high concentrations that do not reflect the original sample size. We recommended that the density of MPs from bulk samples be reported as number L −1 , while density from net samples should be reported as number m −3 .
#SmartME has been one of the first initiatives in Italy to realize a Smart City through the use of open technologies. Thanks to the use of low cost sensor-powered devices scattered over the city area, different “smart” services have been deployed having the Stack4Things framework as the common underlying middleware. In this paper, we present the results obtained after 2 years of project highlighting the vertical solutions that have been proposed in different areas ranging from environmental monitoring to parking management.
High amounts of macro and microplastic have been reported in rivers, lakes and seas. However, links between the observed pollution and their sources remain unclear. This study aims to clarify these links in the Lake Geneva basin by analysing each step of the local plastic life cycle. Two distinct approaches have been compared: (i) a top-down approach based on modelling socio-economic activities, plastic losses and releases into the lake, and, (ii) a bottom-up approach based on extrapolating plastic flows into the lake based on field measurements from 6 different pathways.
Plastics are an integral but largely inconspicuous part of human daily routines. Associated with a high production and single use nature of several products, small plastic particles became ubiquitous. Due to processes like water currents and winds, plastics may occur far from their place of origin and affect biota at different environmental compartments. In the environment plastics can degrade into increasingly smaller particles, reaching a nanometer size which increases their potential to be incorporated by organisms.
Nanoplastic is an emerging topic of relevance in environmental science. The analytical methods for microplastic have a particle size limit of a few micrometers so that new methods have to be developed to cover the nanometer range. This contribution reviews the progress in environmental nanoplastic analysis and critically evaluates which techniques from nanomaterial analysis may potentially be adapted to close the methodological gap. A roadmap is brought forward for the whole analytical process from sample treatment to particle characterization.
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is considered a polygenic disorder. This view is clouded, however, by lingering uncertainty over how to treat the quasi “monogenic” role of apolipoprotein E (APOE). The APOE4 allele is not only the strongest genetic risk factor for AD, it also affects risk for cardiovascular disease, stroke, and other neurodegenerative disorders. This review, based mostly on data from human studies, ranges across a variety of APOE-related pathologies, touching on evolutionary genetics and risk mitigation by ethnicity and sex.
