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The rapid urbanization growth has not only improved the living standards of people but also raised concerns for environmental sustainability over the globe. In this regard, the issue of excessive urban concentration or over-agglomeration in metropolitan areas is nowadays the prime concern for urban planning and building energy-efficient and eco-friendly infrastructures. In response to rising interest in the dynamic linkage between urban concentration and environment, the current research empirically examines the crucial nexus between urban agglomerations and environmental degradation in top ten urban agglomerated countries in the world from 1960Q1 to 2014Q4. The current research is the pioneer empirical work in the area of urbanization by applying recently developed and innovative methods of quantile-on-quantile (QQ) approach and quantile Granger causality in relatively less explored area of urban agglomeration at the cross-country level. Our mainstream findings indicate that urban agglomeration has a strong positive effect on CO 2 emissions in most of our sample countries, and this effect is more pronounced in higher quantiles of respective variables. These results imply that excessive levels of urban concentration in big cities cause environmental degradation, which could be attributed to extreme population density, overcrowding, traffic congestion and extensive demand for energy consumption. However, some countries such as Israel, Paraguay and Columbia exhibit overall declining and negative trends about the relationship between urban agglomerations and CO 2 emissions. Moreover, quantile Granger causality results confirm the previous findings of QQ regression and verify the existence of bidirectional causal nexus between urban agglomerations and CO 2 emissions in the majority of the lower, middle and upper quantiles in our selected top ten countries except for Kuwait. However, the unidirectional causal relationship also exists for several countries for extreme lower, middle and extremely higher quantiles. Our findings extend the previous work on agglomeration-environment nexus by determining the asymmetric magnitude of linkage between these two variables demanding cautious and individual-focused policies for urban planning and environmental sustainability.

By using panel data over the 1980–2017 period and two alternative indicators of environmental pollution (carbon dioxide (CO2) and sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions), this paper investigates the validity of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region. Using three alternative econometric estimation techniques, we find strong evidence of a long-run inverted U-shaped relationship between real GDP per capita and both environmental indicators in the GCC region. Country-level short-run analysis indicates that the EKC hypothesis holds for Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) when CO2 emissions are used as a measure of environmental pollution. However, when SO2 emissions are used as a measure of environmental pollution, the EKC hypothesis holds for Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE. The results of a recently developed panel causality test reveal one-way causality from real GDP per capita to CO2 emissions and from real GDP per capita to SO2 emissions.

Interests and concerns on environmental issues have attracted much attention over the past few decades. This is in harmony with the growing understanding of environmental impacts associated with human activities and their role in degrading ecosystems. In line with these concerns, considerable advances in science and technology to assess, mitigate, or lessen these adverse impacts have emerged (i.e., environmental impact assessment (EIA) methodologies). The involvement of EIA in sustainable development has become a prevalent topic in research in either developed and developing countries. The present work investigated the research status, development trends, and hotspots of EIA in a region with massive environmental challenges; the Arab world. Bibliometric analysis and visualization mapping were utilized with an objective of revealing and evaluating the developments in knowledge on EIA from the Arab world. A sum of 595 documents was the productivity of the Arab world on EIA (2.1% of total global productivity). Most of the studies were performed by scholars in Egypt (143 documents; 24.0%), followed by Saudi Arabia (96 documents; 16.1%), and Tunisia (68 documents; 11.4%). France, the USA, and the UK were, respectively, the most collaborated countries with the Arab world on EIA. Most of the publications on EIA were in prestigious journals in relation to environmental sciences. King Abdulaziz University , Saudi Arabia and University of Kuwait were the most productive institutions (24 documents/institution). Topics in relation to assessing different environmental impacts on the quality and quantity of water will continue to be vital themes of research. While, the utilization of remote sensing, geographic information systems, risk assessment, life cycle assessment, bioaccumulation, and biomarkers techniques in assessing environmental impacts will continue to be dominant as efficient tools in conducting EIA related research. The outcomes displayed, in general, a rapidly and steadily rising interests on EIA. However, the development of regional experience, increasing of funds and advancing of competencies will further promote research activities on EIA.

Environmental degradation has attained much attention from researchers and policymakers at national and global levels. The ever-increasing energy use in production methods is considered one of the fundamental reasons for environmental degradation. The concept of environmental efficiency in the wake of sustainable growth evolved in the last three decades. The present study has been designed to estimate environmental efficiency using the Malmquist-Luenberger productivity index (MLI) using annual data from 43 Asian countries from 1990 to 2019. The MLI is an established econometric approach to estimate cases where input variables are used to get output variables in desirable and undesirable forms. Labor, capital, and energy consumption are input variables, while carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions (undesirable variable) and gross domestic product (undesirable variable) are taken as output variables. The results suggested that, on average, environmental efficiency has decreased by 0.3% over the period in selected Asian countries. Cambodia, Turkey, and Nepal have the highest total factor productivity (TFP) output growth rate on average among 43 Asian countries. These countries are excellent examples of sustainable development that balances environmental protection and efficiency. On the other hand, Kuwait, Mongolia, and Yemen showed the least TFP growth. The study also employed unconditional and convergence tests where the countries’ conditional convergence is based on foreign direct investment, population density, inflation, industrialization, and globalization. Some policy implications for Asian countries are also discussed at the end of the study.

Background The pursuit of sustainable development has become a global imperative, particularly for industrial and rich countries whose economies are heavily reliant on fossil fuels. Kuwait is a high-income nation reliant on fossil fuels and has one of the highest per capita CO₂ emissions reported globally. Kuwait has faced unique challenges in balancing economic growth with environmental sustainability. This study explores the nexus between economic growth, environmental quality, and sustainable development, emphasizing Kuwait’s efforts in decoupling its economic growth from ecological degradation. This paper integrates ecological indicators and social dimensions such as climate mitigation, renewable energy adoption, and progress toward sustainable development goals. Results A multivariate analytical framework was employed to assess the interconnections among eleven key indicators spanning economic growth, environmental quality, and sustainable development. Quantitative methods included correlation analysis and regression modeling using data from credible sources, such as the World Bank, OECD, SDG Index, World Development Indicators (WDI), and relevant journal articles and technical reports. In addition, qualitative assessments were conducted to evaluate the interconnectedness of economic growth, environmental quality, and sustainable development are evaluated qualitatively. Sensitivity analysis was used to ensure robustness and reliability of the findings. This study examined the interplay between economic growth, environmental quality, and sustainable development in Kuwait. Over the past two decades, Kuwait experienced a nearly 380% increase in GDP and an 80% rise in total CO₂ emissions; yet, per capita emissions declined by 41%. This reduction is largely attributed to significant progress in clean energy (SDG 7) and climate action (SDG 13). The results highlight a successful decoupling of economic growth from emissions, suggesting that sustainable development is achievable through targeted policies and investing in green technologies. Conclusions The statistical and qualitative analyses demonstrated that Kuwait has effectively decoupled economic growth from CO₂ emissions through consistent actions and strategic efforts. This achievement highlights that environmentally sustainable economic development is attainable through a combination of targeted policy measures, technological innovation, and strong institutional commitment. Notable progress in Sustainable Development Goals, particularly in clean energy (SDG 7) and climate action (SDG 13), has contributed to improved environmental outcomes. These findings emphasize the importance of customized national strategies that align economic objectives with the Sustainable Development Goals.

This paper examines the climate change impact on the spatiotemporal soil salinity dynamics during the last 30 years (1987–2017) in the arid landscape. The state of Kuwait, located at the northwest Arabian Peninsula, was selected as a pilot study area. To achieve this, a Landsat- Operational Land Imager (OLI) image acquired thereabouts simultaneously to a field survey was preprocessed and processed to derive a soil salinity map using a previously developed semi-empirical predictive model (SEPM). During the field survey, 100 geo-referenced soil samples were collected representing different soil salinity classes (non-saline, low, moderate, high, very high and extreme salinity). The laboratory analysis of soil samples was accomplished to measure the electrical conductivity (EC-Lab) to validate the selected and used SEPM. The results are statistically analyzed (p ˂ 0.05) to determine whether the differences are significant between the predicted salinity (EC-Predicted) and the measured ground truth (EC-Lab). Subsequently, the Landsat serial time’s datasets acquired over the study area with the Thematic Mapper (TM), Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) and OLI sensors during the last three decades over the intervals (1987, 1992, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2006, 2009, 2013, 2016 and 2017) were radiometrically calibrated. Likewise, the datasets were atmospherically and spectrally normalized by applying a semi-empirical line approach (SELA) based on the pseudo-invariant targets. Afterwards, a series of soil salinity maps were derived through the application of the SEPM on the images sequence. The trend of salinity changes was statistically tested according to climatic variables (temperatures and precipitations). The results revealed that the EC-Predicted validation display a best fits in comparison to the EC-Lab by indicating a good index of agreement (D = 0.84), an excellent correlation coefficient (R2 = 0.97) and low overall root mean square error (RMSE) (13%). This also demonstrates the validity of SEPM to be applicable to the other images acquired multi-temporally. For cross-calibration among the Landsat serial time’s datasets, the SELA performed significantly with an RMSE ≤ ± 5% between all homologous spectral reflectances bands of the considered sensors. This accuracy is considered suitable and fits well the calibration standards of TM, ETM+ and OLI sensors for multi-temporal studies. Moreover, remarkable changes of soil salinity were observed in response to changes in climate that have warmed by more than 1.1 °C with a drastic decrease in precipitations during the last 30 years over the study area. Thus, salinized soils have expanded continuously in space and time and significantly correlated to precipitation rates (R2 = 0.73 and D = 0.85).

The land degradation in Kuwait presents into two main forms, namely, soil compaction and loss to native plants. These two forms of land degradation are highly related to off-road vehicle tracks and grazing points. Therefore, the off-road vehicle tracks and grazing points were delineated for the first time within all Kuwait using Worldview and Rapid Eye images 2017 and ArcGIS. There is 871,811 grazing livestock (sheep, goats, and camels) spread into 2473 grazing points was detected in Kuwait open desert in 2017. There are around 354 as average livestock in each grazing point. The total length for off-road vehicle tracks is 14,774.7 km spread over Kuwait which is equivalent to 1.16 times more than the length of the planet earth mean diameter. The off-road vehicle tracks and grazing points are a leading cause for land degradation and soil compaction in Kuwait. Aeolian activities were monitored for 1 year at downwind of an off-road vehicle track at 10 m, 50 m, and 200 m. The results show more quantities of mobile sand, and dust was trapped at 10 and 50 m compared with the 200 m distance from off-road vehicle track. Consequently, the total area affected by soil compaction due to off-road vehicle tracks and grazing points in Kuwait is 1390.23 km 2 representing 7.8% of the total area of Kuwait. It is concluded that grazing points and off-road vehicle tracks are highly related to each other, and both are jumped to higher densities around the urban area and watering points. As a result, it is strongly recommended to develop a national action plan to control off-road vehicle tracks and grazing points by putting into practice a proper rangeland management plan in Kuwait. Steps of the action plan were outlined for this study.

Field measurements in complex estuarine systems are not always adequate to characterise the hydrodynamic behaviour of these systems and the degree to which they are affected by seawater intrusion. The model MIKE21 was used to examine the hydrodynamic regime and degree of seawater intrusion in the Shatt Al-Arab estuary under three scenarios. The model was calibrated using field measurements of vertical salinity distribution and flow that were obtained in 2013, 2014 and 2016 from a boat at six stations along the main channel. These parameters were utilised to simulate the relationship between freshwater discharge and saltwater intrusion. Results show that river flows and tidal energy are the two main factors that influence the Shatt Al-Arab estuary in terms of stratification extent and circulation pattern. Tidal range fluctuations, particularly the semidiurnal tide, are another influencing factor on the saltwater spatial patterns along the Shatt Al-Arab channel. Nowadays, seawater intrusion extends 86 km upstream from the channel mouth. Within two decades, hydrodynamic behaviour is predicted to increase salinity for more than 100 km upstream from Faw city. The modelling clarified the minimum freshwater discharge required at the Abu Flus channel measurement station to maintain an acceptable salinity level along the channel. Understanding the relationship between freshwater discharge and salinity allows informed decisions to be made regarding water usage and flows in the region for sustainable water governance that limits environmental degradation. Such an approach is applicable worldwide within similar coastal conditions.

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries experience a harsh environment with low precipitation and high evaporation rates. This presents a significant challenge of water scarcity and water quality degradation which is exacerbated by land use practices. Agriculture, urbanization, and industrialization are impacting the management of water resources. This paper examines the state of water resources in the GCC countries and presents the impact of land use practices. A detailed analysis of the relationship between land use and groundwater is conducted with a focus on the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), the Sultanate of Oman, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The results indicate a drop in agricultural activities, an increase in bare land and urban areas, depletion of groundwater, and water quality degradation. These changes were attributed to excessive agricultural and industrial uses, climate change, and rapid urbanization. The findings show the need for sustainable land use practices and water resources management. Further research addressing the impact of land use on water in Kuwait, Qatar, and Bahrain, and evaluating the effectiveness of policy, is essential.