Pesticides have been widely used in agriculture, resulting in significant pollution that affects both the environment and human health. This pollution is particularly prevalent in nearby agricultural areas, where sensitive resources are contaminated through spray drift exposure and surface runoff. Spray drift is a critical concern when it comes to environmental hazards. It poses health risks not only to farmers and pesticide applicators, but also to individuals living in nearby farm areas. To address this issue, developing reliable models and techniques for estimating spray drift and reducing its impact has become a crucial and efficient research topic. The current research has three primary objectives: firstly, to estimate the average pesticide application rates, trend analysis, and concentration distribution; secondly, to estimate the temporal variations of pesticide concentrations and identify the areas most likely to be affected by pesticide spray drift close to agricultural fields; and lastly, to develop a model for field spray drift and deposition integration between the OpenAir package for the R programming environment and the AgDRIFT atmospheric model. The drift model, along with precise supervised classifications, allowed for a more accurate estimation of potential drift in agricultural areas at a spatial resolution of 15 m. Additionally, multiple scenarios were conducted to evaluate the potential risks of pesticide drift outside of the target areas. This novel method effectively estimated organophosphate pesticide spray drift over two case studies in Macon County using a combination of OpenAir and AgDRIFT models and remotely sensed data. This method allowed for field simulations within completely defined exposure areas with little prior knowledge of pesticide quantities. This study concluded that 6% of total cropland is in danger of pesticide spray drift, with around 8% of crop areas exposed to potential strong drift on land use. Furthermore, 11% of cropped land is vulnerable to moderate drift, whereas around 75% of land use land cover is not vulnerable to pesticide drift. Through this research, an accurate and efficient approach has been developed to estimate spray drift and reduce its impact in agricultural areas, contributing to a safer and healthier environment for all.

According to estimates from the World Health Organization (WHO), organophosphate pesticides are responsible for approximately 300,000 deaths worldwide. In the United States, documented cases of organophosphate pesticide exposure number around 8000, with a small number of fatalities occurring annually. The health risks associated with these pesticides affect those living in agricultural areas, as well as farmers and pesticide applicators. Despite the intervention of government agencies in Illinois to regulate pesticide application, studies have shown that these pesticides remain present in the soil, crops, water, and air. Urban-agricultural interface communities around Sangamon County exhibit significant levels of air pollution due to pesticide spray drift, although the lack of reliable pesticide data poses a challenge in estimating the extent of the problem. Therefore, developing novel strategies to reduce the impact of pesticides on environmental health is a critical and effective research area. Currently, new, dependable models and methods are being developed to calculate spray drift and mitigate its effects. The primary objective of this study was to investigate whether and to what extent organophosphate pesticide spray drifts into urban-agricultural interface communities in Sangamon County, Illinois. To achieve this, the current study employed an integrated approach that combined the capabilities of the HYSPLIT and AgDRIFT models to evaluate organophosphate pesticide spray drifting at both the field- and county-level scales. In the absence of precise pesticide quantity data, this novel approach allowed for field simulations within identified exposure drift zones. The preliminary findings indicate that all residential areas close to agricultural areas are at risk of pesticide drift, as buffer zones do not exceed 25 m. Furthermore, of the 34 water bodies (rivers, lakes, streams, and drains) in the 30,200-acre study region, 12 are within the high-drift zone for pesticide spray drift from corn and soybean fields. Finally, the potential for organophosphate pesticide drift was present in approximately 106 buildings, covering an area of 10,300 km².

Farmers utilize pesticides extensively on their farms to control weeds and insects, as well as increase crop productivity. Despite these advantages, their excessive use poses a serious threat, particularly to the population living at the nexus of urban and rural areas. Exposure to pesticide drift can be investigated using geospatial tools. Remote sensing technology and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) techniques have been used intensively and constitute trusted tools in different sectors, especially in agriculture. Remote sensing depends on processing the electromagnetic radiation reflected and emitted from the ground target and can be used to identify the main units of Land Use Land Cover (LULC), in addition to measuring crop areas exposed to pesticides. GIS has powerful tools for building a spatial geo-database of pesticide exposure drift. Therefore, the major objective of the research was to explore the effectiveness of using remote sensing and GIS techniques to estimate the exposure organophosphate pesticides drift over Macon County, Alabama. To achieve this objective, the Cropland Data Layer (CDL) dataset, the available pesticide usage data, and gridded population data were used to estimate the potential pesticide drift on the Macon County level. In addition, the AgDRIFT model was used to estimate the potential drift of pesticides from their intended targets at the field level. The results indicated that 6.6% of Macon County’s residents are considered potentially severely exposed, and the potentially affected population resides primarily in rural areas. In comparison, 23% of residents of the urban-rural interface are considered to have potentially medium to high exposure. In addition, 38% of residents living in suburban areas are considered to have potentially low-to-medium exposure. The results indicated that both GIS and remote sensing could play an effective role in estimating pesticide exposure drift at the State or County level. In addition, the AgDRIFT model was more appropriate for estimating pesticide drift at the field level.

More than half of the global population lives in urban areas, which can cause the phenomenon known as Urban Heat Island (UHI). UHI is a phenomenon where urban areas experience higher temperatures compared to their rural surroundings. The occurrence of UHI in large cities is primarily due to urbanization and increased vehicular emissions. Factors such as wind speed and direction, solar flux, and the thermodynamic properties of surface materials determine the intensity of UHI. It can cause thermal air circulation, leading to high concentrations of urban air pollutants such as fine particulate matter (PM2.5). These pollutants can remain suspended in the air and cause asthma and allergies. It is essential to understand the characteristics of UHI intensity and its effect on air quality. This study aims to analyze the spatiotemporal variations of UHI and their correlation with PM2.5 concentration in three Alabama cities, namely Birmingham, Montgomery, and Mobile, during the summer seasons of 2002, 2012, and 2022. The study also compares UHI in these cities with nearby rural areas to determine the effect of urbanization by calculating the Normalized Difference Building Index (NDBI). To achieve these objectives, the Land Surface Temperature (LST), UHI intensity, and NDBI Datasets were analyzed. The results showed that PM2.5 concentrations in the cities have been decreasing annually since 2002, leading to an improvement in air quality. There was a negative linear correlation between UHI intensity and PM2.5 concentration. However, LST remained consistently high throughout the study period. The correlation between UHI intensity and NDBI was positive. The findings of this study can help us better understand the dynamics and driving mechanisms of the urban heat environment. Furthermore, they can assist urban metropolitan planners in developing more efficient mitigation strategies that reduce the negative impacts of UHI and PM2.5 concentrations on the environment.

The civilization and tangible cultural heritage of the Kharga Oasis has a historical precedence over that of the old Nile Valley civilization. Approximately 12,000 years ago, a significant prehistoric migration occurred from the Kharga Oasis to the Nile Valley. This event was motivated by climate change and the southward shift of the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ), which caused a shift in Egypt’s savannah forests from abundant vegetation to an extremely dry desert. The present study investigates the progressive deterioration of the tangible cultural and civilized legacy of the Kharga Oasis over the course of several millennia, positing that this phenomenon can be attributed to the area’s vulnerability to paleoclimatic fluctuations. The evaluation of the Kharga Oasis’ susceptibility to climate change was predicated on the scrutiny of petroglyphs that were unearthed at different sites within the Oasis. This analysis was reinforced by paleoclimate information and radiocarbon dating (C14). The utilization of an interdisciplinary approach yielded significant insights into the dynamic climate patterns and their effects on the Kharga Oasis across temporal scales. The results illustrated a noteworthy alteration in climate, which caused the conversion of the Oasis terrain from being heavily wooded to becoming arid, mainly due to extended periods of drought. The present research postulates a novel and alternate hypothesis concerning the archaeological chronology of human habitation in the Kharga Oasis from ancient eras, predicated on the analysis of pictorial depictions on rock surfaces. The findings of this study made a noteworthy contribution to the current corpus of knowledge regarding the vulnerability of the ancient Egyptian society to the impacts of climate variability. Moreover, the petroglyphs’ depictions provided a distinctive viewpoint on the climatic fluctuations that occurred in the Sahara and North Africa throughout the Holocene epoch, as well as the fundamental causative factors.