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Achieving carbon emission peak by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060 is China's long-term climate change strategy for the 21st century in accordance with the provisions of the Paris Agreement. Achieving carbon emission peak and carbon neutrality have caused a profound change in the society, which not only requires energy conservation and carbon emission reduction of all walks of life, but also profoundly affects people's lifestyles. In the current carbon emission reduction research, low-carbon lifestyle tends to focus on the relationship between human behavior and energy conservation. This paper starts from a new perspective, low-carbon lifestyle and health, focuses on the community fitness activity environment in the construction of complete residential communities, seizes the combination of physical-medical therapy national policy, improves people's health on the basis of advocating fitness activities and reducing medical travel, closely links low-carbon, health and community construction and endows the low-carbon community with a health function. Studies have shown that regular exercise can effectively prevent and manage many urban chronic diseases. By carefully selecting the prevalent chronic diseases and population disability adjustment years, this paper presents the characteristics of chronic diseases in major China provinces. Taking into account popular fitness activities, this paper innovatively puts forward the 'urban chronic disease community physical activity management model'. At the same time, it proposes the community fitness and activity infrastructure design and builds strategies to manage urban chronic diseases. At the end of the article, it gives an actual project case of fitness and activity environment and puts forward the suggestion of establishing 'living laboratory for community fitness and activity' as the test bed to collect big data for follow-up study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To promote the integration of the information industry, chain is of great significance for enterprises to improve quality, efficiency cost reduction and high-quality industry development. In this paper, based on the data envelopment analysis method, the efficiency measurement models of series structure, parallel structure and hybrid structure industrial chain are constructed under two different scenarios of central decision-making mechanism and decentralized decision-making mechanism. By quantifying the input and output resources that is in each link of the information industry chain integration process, measuring the input and output efficiency under different industrial chain integration structure; comparing and analyzing the integration efficiency of different regions, different links, discussing the cause of the differences in the integration efficiency of industry chain; thus, providing policy recommendations for the efficiency of industrial chain integration. In addition, taking the actual situation of two industrial parks with the main characteristics of carbon emission in a city of China as an example, the paper analyzes the difference of the integration efficiency of the information industry chain between the two parks. The empirical analysis shows that the information industry chain integration efficiency measurement model based on data envelope analysis theory is feasible and effective. It can not only measure the industry chain efficiency as a whole but also compare and analyze the integration efficiency of enterprises in different links of the industry chain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The solar power tower (SPT) receiver design should be able to stand with fatigue damage caused by the passage of clouds, start-up and shut-down. In this paper, to investigate the impacts of incident heat flux distribution and SPT site weather data on the thermal stress, fatigue life and allowable flux density (AFD) of the molten salt receiver, the relationship between the fatigue life and AFD of the tube wall is developed based on the coupled thermal–structural analysis and Miner linear damage theory. The results show that the cosine effect of the circumferential heat flux distribution considered has a significant influence on the location and magnitude of the maximum thermal stress of the tube wall, which lead to the difference in the tube wall fatigue damage. The AFD are, respectively, 829 kW/m2 and 1037 kW/m2 under uniform and cosine circumferential heat flux distributions for the site of Barstow, USA, when the design lifetime of the tube is 30 years. Compared with the SPT site of Barstow, USA, the fatigue damage of the tube wall in Sevilla, Spain, and Delingha, China, are lower under the same conditions due to lower insolation hours of direct normal irradiation in the range of 750–1100 W/m2. The AFD are, respectively, 829 kW/m2, 973 kW/m2 and 997 kW/m2 for the site of Barstow, USA, Sevilla, Spain, and Delingha, China, with 30 years design life. These findings give guidelines for the operation reliability of the SPT molten salt receiver tube. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following the promulgation and implementation of China's 'carbon peak' and 'carbon neutrality' policies, the evaluation of the carbon footprint of the domestic catering industry is particularly important. Currently, comparative studies on the life-cycle carbon footprint of different common dining styles, such as home cooking, restaurant dining and takeaway, are scarce. Focused on three dining methods, this paper involved in-depth research on carbon footprint of the whole life cycle from the perspectives of whole industry and specific dish. The carbon footprint contribution of each stage of three different dining ways is obtained from the four stages, namely, the stage of upstream raw materials and manufactures, the stage of platform empowerment, the stage of consumer dining and the stage of waste treatment. The study found that the carbon emissions of the three dining ways in the overall industry analysis were canteen (2.9564 kgCO2e/per person) > takeaway (2.4821 kgCO2e/per person) > home cooking (2.2778 kgCO2e/per person); and the carbon emissions of honey sauce fork-fired were canteen (6.5843 kgCO2e/per person) > home cooking (6.4721 kgCO2e/per person) > takeaway (5.6718 kgCO2e/per person). The production of raw materials and products is the largest stage of carbon emissions among the three dining ways. Besides the carbon emissions of raw materials, the storage and cooking of food products are the unit processes with large carbon emissions. According to the results of sensitivity analysis, traffic travel mode is an important factor affecting the carbon footprint of canteen food. The above research can provide effective basis and data support for policy formulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hot dry rock is an abundant, stable and low-carbon geothermal resource, which has a promising prospect for power generation in China. In this paper, a hot dry rock power generation system model based on conventional organic Rankine cycle was established. The performance of the system was evaluated by thermodynamic analysis, as well as energy and exergy analyses. Four types of organic working fluids were selected to investigate their effects on system energy efficiency. R114 had much higher energy efficiency (17.50%~ 19.00%) than other three organic working fluids (R245fa, R245ca and R601) when water flow rate ranged from 80 t/h to 260 t/h. When R245fa was used as working fluid and power output was set at 4 MW, energy and exergy efficiency of the system were 15.27% and 50.42%, respectively. According to the energy flow analysis, the major energy losses (15.67 MW) in the system were attributed to the discharge temperature of turbine exhaust. However, exergy flow analysis indicated that the energy loss from turbine exhausts was not as serious as expected, since the work potential of that energy was limited. The exergy destruction of each component in the system was calculated, and the results showed that heat exchanger and the vapor separator were the weakness components in the system, and they respectively contributed to 44.8% and 29.8% of the total exergy destruction. The results obtained in this study provide possible strategies to improve the overall performance of the hot dry rock power generation system based on conventional organic Rankine cycle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Windows are responsible for the largest amount of energy loss related to building envelope. Past studies on the energy consumption of windows have mainly focused on residential and commercial buildings, while few studies have explored the energy consumption of windows in educational buildings. The sizes and locations of classroom windows affect not only the building energy consumption but also the indoor environment quality, which is an issue that needs to be balanced. This paper takes a classroom in Guangzhou as the object. Under the premise of meeting the lighting standards of the classroom, two parameters—window height and sill height —were simulated in different corridors of north–south and east–west classrooms to analyse the impact of their changes on the indoor environment as well as energy consumption based on the parametric platform Grasshopper and its plug-ins Ladybug and Honeybee. The energy consumption of a number of fenestration combinations on both sides of the classroom was optimized automatically by genetic algorithm, and the sizes and positions of windows that benefitted energy savings were obtained. In the best case ~16.6% of energy consumed in a whole year can be saved compared with the worst case. This conclusion can provide a quick decision-making process for the design of window shapes for the purpose of energy savings in the early design stage of educational buildings in the Pearl River Delta such that energy savings can be quickly and clearly guaranteed in the subsequent window configuration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper, based on the panel data of 281 prefecture-level cities in China, applies the difference-in-differences (DID) approach and the propensity score matching DID (PSM-DID) approach to an empirical study on the impacts of the low-carbon pilot program on industrial structure. It concludes that the program has contributed significantly to more rational industrial structures of pilot areas. The study shows that pilot areas have more rational industrial structures than non-pilot areas, recording an increase of 0.058 units in average rational level. This conclusion holds under various robustness tests. Further heterogeneity analysis suggests that the low-carbon pilot program has notably boosted the rational levels of industrial structures of cities in central China and small cities, while less so for other parts of China or other larger cities. Mechanism test shows that low-carbon cities have realized industrial structure upgrading by facilitating urban innovation. In light of this, the low-carbon pilot program should be further put in place steadily with a focus on tailoring pilot policies to local conditions and enhancing their economic adaptability. The role of the program in optimizing industrial structure should be fully leveraged to effectively add to efforts in actively exploring green, low-carbon sustainable development of economy and pulling off the transformation of both economic structure and energy mix. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Landfilling is the most commonly used option for waste disposal in China but occupies massive land resources and solar landfills could be a win-win solution by installing photovoltaic (PV) systems on the closed landfills. This paper theoretically studies the feasibility of solar landfills and compares two possible PV technologies, which are polycrystalline silicon (p-Si) and thin film PVs, from the aspects of energy and financial performance. Based on the research, the capacity factors of p-Si and thin film PV are 19.706% and 17.825%, while the conversion efficiency of them are 12.52% and 10.05%, respectively. The financial analysis indicates that the discounted payback period of p-Si PV is 13.42 years while that of thin film PV is 18.56 years. From another aspect, the levelized cost of electricities of p-Si and thin film PV are 0.87 and 0.92 CNY. The conclusion that can be drawn from the above research is that solar landfills are feasible for the case in Qingyuan energetic and financially. Compared with the thin film PV, the p-Si PV is the optimal choice for solar landfills no matter from the aspects of performance or financial consideration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, the application of building information modeling (BIM) in building energy efficiency design programs has been emphasized in research. In China, faced with requirements in building energy efficiency design standards and specifications, researchers have been using BIM as a platform for breaking up bottlenecks in energy simulation and design software, and BIM is considered the key to improve the efficiency of building energy efficiency design. Firstly, based on the trade-off energy consumption judgment method proposed in the 'Public Building Energy Efficiency Design Standard (GB50189-2015)', this study combines the BIM platform with an orthogonal simulation design adopting an experimental building construction project in a cold region of China, to thereby study the influences of different envelope structural parameters on cooling and heating loads. Then, this study analyzes the continuity and consistency of data exchange between different BIM-related software, through the modeling software Revit and the sustainable analysis software Ecotect. Finally, through the experiment, the critical factors of the optimized design of the building envelope are investigated and applied for the optimized design of the building thermal system. In addition, this study uses BIM to complete an energy efficiency design for a laboratory heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) system. According to the experimental results, the following conclusions can be drawn: this study proposes a BIM-based optimized design method of building thermal system, which complies with various Chinese building energy efficiency standards and polices and can be used as a reference for Chinese designers. Also, the issues and challenges in building consumption simulation based on BIM technology and the application of BIM technology in the design of building thermal HVAC systems are discussed, and the development trends of BIM technology in China are analyzed. Building thermal system and HVAC system design are the key points of building efficiency design. The optimized design method proposed in this paper is of great significance to this system design. The optimized design method can improve the design efficiency of designers while complying with China's standards and policies. Therefore, it can save costs, improve the economic benefits of the projects and, at the same time, obtain an ideal building efficiency design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, the network data envelopment analysis (DEA) model was used to divide the transformation of scientific and technological achievements in colleges and universities into two stages, which makes up for the lack of process measurement in a single DEA model. Also, the relationship between the transformation efficiency of scientific and technological achievements in universities and the development of a low-carbon economy was quantitatively analyzed. The research results show that: (1) the transformation efficiency of scientific and technological achievements of universities in China is increasing year by year and which is significantly higher in the eastern region than that in the central and western regions. (2) The efficiency of the transformation of scientific and technological achievements of the university promotes the reduction of carbon emission intensity and the development of a low-carbon economy, indicating that the improvement of the transformation efficiency of scientific and technological achievements of the university has a good role in promoting the ecological environment protection. However, compared with the developed countries, the quantity and quality of science and technology supply and ecological environment protection in China's universities are still insufficient. In this regard, the development suggestions are put forward from the aspects of government policy guidance, professional talent cooperation and strengthening the docking between universities and industrial low-carbon economic development. The purpose of this paper is to promote the development of a low-carbon economy by improving the efficiency of scientific and technological achievements transformation in universities, to achieve the goal of ecological environment protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is inevitable to excavate slide slope and damage rock slope under the rapid development of expressway. To further remedy ecological environment, correct understanding of side slope stability is essential for the effective reinforcement and protection of rock–soil slope. In this paper, the reinforcement and protection technologies of cutting slopes were introduced firstly, and then the classifications of rock–soil slope reinforcement technologies in China and abroad were compared. Taking the Daqing–Guangzhou Highway as the research subject, three kinds of reinforcement and protection schemes were proposed and analyzed. Combing fuzzy comprehensive judgment with analytic hierarchy process, a supporting model of cutting slopes was established. The analytic hierarchy process was used to determine the weight and the degree of membership was calculated. Finally, the model was applied into the project to carry out evaluation. The results showed that the fuzzy comprehensive evaluation model used in this paper had a good reference value for the future development of cutting slopes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to present a case study of the latest practice on urban sustainability in China, focusing on the breakdown of city-wide overall indicators to a more controllable spatial level—i.e. individual land plots and individual buildings. We argue the importance of decomposing the indicators to smaller scales by understanding underlying principles such as indicators and their integration in the process of urban governance, i.e. enhancing multi-level policy coordination as an important and effective approach for developing eco-cities. This can provide a common ground of argument to monitor the progress at multiple spatial levels and form a collective effort to move a city towards sustainability. The novelty of this study is to highlight the role of eco-city development at multiple spatial levels and through urban governance. The local government needs to mobilize various stakeholders involved in the urban development process by providing sustainability targets in a transparent way. A collective effort from various stakeholder groups might be formed by linking them to a set of unified but spatial level-based targets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global climate change has become the greatest threat to mankind, endangering the ecological security of the earth and the long-term development of human society. Therefore, how to effectively reduce greenhouse gas emissions and curb the trend of global warming has become a common challenge facing all countries in the world. Fossil energy combustion is the fundamental cause of climate change. In this paper, the price return series of domestic energy and carbon markets are taken as the research objects. Firstly, the cross-correlation test is used to verify that there is an obvious cross-correlation between the return series of the energy and carbon markets. Based on this, the multifractal characteristics of energy market and carbon market cross-series are empirically studied. The empirical results show that there is an interactive correlation between energy and carbon markets and this relationship has multifractal characteristics; the interactive correlation between return series has multifractal characteristics. The long-range correlation between small fluctuations and large fluctuations and the fat tail distribution of return series are all reasons for the formation of multifractality. These conclusions will help to understand the non-linear dependence and potential dynamic mechanism between energy and carbon markets in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the depth increasing and the improvement of mining mechanization of the coal mine, heat hazard is becoming more and more serious, the ice cooling system is gradually promoted and applied in China for recent years, but the cooling capacity and energy efficiency ratio (EER) test and analysis for such system is seldom reported. The cooling capacity and EER of the refrigerating equipment of an ice cooling system of a coal mine are tested and analyzed in Shandong Province in this paper. The test result indicates that the refrigerating capacity and EER are lower and both the pre-cooling units and the ice making system have a large variable range. It points out that it should not evaluate the ice cooling system by the test data only in this mine but expect more test data and analysis of the ice cooling system in other coal mines to get a more scientific conclusion. And the test, analysis and comparison for different kinds of cooling system are also expected to explore suitable cooling system while a full consideration of the geological conditions and other factors of the mine are taken into consideration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the development of social economy, people's material needs have been greatly satisfied. But at the same time they have accumulated a lot of pressure. In order to relieve the pressure, people gradually turn their attention to ecotourism. Wetland is a kind of natural ecosystem, which can not only maintain ecological balance, but also has the value of ecological tourism. The paper uses SWTO analysis method to evaluate the sustainable development of ecotourism in Cuihu Wetland Park in Beijing. The results showed that Cuihu wetland has abundant and high-quality water resources, plant and animal diversity, and self-purification ability. However, it lacked plants of high ornamental value, uneven self-purification ability, unnatural death of submerged plants and single source of funds. At the same time, it faces opportunities and threats from outside. Opportunities include technological advancement, eco-tourism and government attention. Threats include the abuse of pesticides, high ornamental value plants and the competition in other scenic spots. To sum up, through the evaluation and analysis, the ecological tourism of Cuihu wetland is in a state of sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Double skin facades (DSFs) have overheating problems in warm seasons which may increase the cooling loads in buildings. A previous study has developed an integrated phase change material (PCM) blind system and proved its capacity of mitigating the overheating phenomenon in DSFs. This paper focuses on the effect of design parameters on the thermal performance of such systems by conducting a simulation study of a DSF integrated with a PCM blind with different material properties, positions in cavity, and tilt angles of blades. The results indicate that the performance of the integrated PCM blind system can be optimised with careful geometric design and proper thermophysical properties of the PCM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to ensure the cleanliness of operating room, clean air conditioners are installed in the clean operation departments in hospitals in China. Purification air conditioning system is an air conditioning system with a special function that ensures the cleanliness of the operating room and the required temperature and humidity in the operating room to avoid infection. This paper took the energy-saving design of the clean air-conditioning system of the clean operation department of the First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical College, Zhejiang, China, as an example to illustrate the energy-saving methods such as layout optimization, air-conditioning division, secondary return air setting and operation mode adjustment. The energy consumption of primary return air technology and secondary return air technology was calculated. The results showed that energy-saving design could save nearly one-third of energy, improve the level of air-conditioning operation and management, reduce costs, and improve resource utilization, which is of great significance to social development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the concept of green building is becoming popular in China. Architects and engineers have the opportunity to actually implement green building practices. This paper reveals the failure of a naturally ventilated LEED-certified townhouse development project in China mentioned in recent research. The house owners made great alterations for the purpose of decoration, which removed or minimized the effectiveness of natural ventilation elements in the original design. The research shows that the houses show 'International Style' because the natural ventilation design principles were not fully applied in the design and the localized natural ventilation strategies were not fully considered by means of computational simulation in the design stage. Also, the lack of communication between designers and the owners caused the removal of most natural ventilation elements of these houses during the occupancy period. The authors advocate three criteria to avoid failures of natural ventilation design: localized/ climate adaptive design, relationship among design elements and design intention awareness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]