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Freeze–thaw (FT) erosion intensity may exhibit a future increasing trend with climate warming, humidification, and permafrost degradation in the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau (QTP). The present study provides a reference for the prevention and control of FT erosion in the QTP, as well as for the protection and restoration of the regional ecological environment. FT erosion is the third major type of soil erosion after water and wind erosion. Although FT erosion is one of the major soil erosion types in cold regions, it has been studied relatively little in the past because of the complexity of several influencing factors and the involvement of shallow surface layers at certain depths. The QTP is an important ecological barrier area in China. However, this area is characterized by harsh climatic and fragile environmental conditions, as well as by frequent FT erosion events, making it necessary to conduct research on FT erosion. In this paper, a total of 11 meteorological, vegetation, topographic, geomorphological, and geological factors were selected and assigned analytic hierarchy process (AHP)-based weights to evaluate the FT erosion intensity in the QTP using a comprehensive evaluation index method. In addition, the single effects of the selected influencing factors on the FT erosion intensity were further evaluated in this study. According to the obtained results, the total FT erosion area covered 1.61 × 106 km2, accounting for 61.33% of the total area of the QTP. The moderate and strong FT erosion intensity classes covered 6.19 × 105 km2, accounting for 38.37% of the total FT erosion area in the QTP. The results revealed substantial variations in the spatial distribution of the FT erosion intensity in the QTP. Indeed, the moderate and strong erosion areas were mainly located in the high mountain areas and the hilly part of the Hoh Xil frozen soil region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The evaluation of drinking water source security in the area of large-scale urbanization is conducive to maintaining urban security and human health. A comprehensive quantitative evaluation method has been established based on TOPSIS. Twelve indicators from three aspects, water quantity, water quality, risk warning and emergency response capability, are included in the evaluation index system. The weight of these indicators are calculated by AHP. TOPSIS is used to obtain the security index in different periods, and GIS method is used to draw the spatial distribution map of security grade. The evaluation method is applied to the security evaluation of urban drinking water sources in Henan Province, China. The results show that the overall safety of drinking water sources has improved, but it is still at the "basic safety" level. The security level of each city is closely related to watershed characteristics, water resources allocation and industrial layout. The paper puts forward some suggestions to enhance the safety of urban drinking water source. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the research results and practical engineering experience pertaining to the protection and reinforcement of the cliff of the Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang, China, this paper presents a method that is mainly based on the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) to evaluate the preservation state and risk of the Mogao cliff, a means that numerical simulation was conducted to quantitatively evaluate the stability and effectiveness of protective measures for the Mogao cliff, a set of reinforcement methods which integrate the key protection techniques based on propping, anchoring, grouting, and anti-weathering and the quality control measures based on assessing their effectiveness for surrounding rocks of the grottoes, and a set of methods for monitoring and warning based on risk theory throughout the entire reinforcement process. The four above-mentioned techniques complement and support with each other, and every stage is based on research. Additionally, the protection and reinforcement concepts implemented at the Mogao cliff are summarized in this paper. Finally, preventive protection and reinforcement techniques for sandy conglomerate grottoes were established based on the research, evaluation, calculation, and monitoring. The techniques presented in this paper can be used as a theoretical foundation and provide technical guidance for the protection and reinforcement of similar cultural heritage sites all over the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • A comprehensive assessment method of cropland abandonment risk based on AHP and PCA was proposed. • The verification results show that the risk assessment method proposed in our article is objective. • The high risk area is mainly distributed in the Lancang and Honghe River Basin. • Suggestions for preventing cropland abandonment are based on dominant factors of abandonment. Assessing the risk of cropland abandonment in mountainous area is essential for ensuring food security. However, the current evaluation indicator system is incomplete, and the reliability analysis of the results is lacking. This paper proposes a spatially comprehensive assessment method of cropland abandonment risk based on AHP and PCA using multi-source data of land use, abandoned cropland, administrative area, population density, GDP, cropland soil information, and climate, and applies the method to Yunnan Province in China. Firstly, 14 indicators were selected from four aspects, including social factors, farming conditions, cropland quality, and climate factors, to construct a three-layer indicator system of "target-criteria-indicator". Fuzzy membership was used to calculate the indicator layer, and then the PCA method was applied to calculate the first principal component for the criterion layer. Finally, the AHP method was used to calculate the weighted superposition of the criterion layer. The proposed method showed good reliability in the study areas. In Yunnan Province, 33.03% of cropland is at high risk of abandonment, 37.52% is at medium risk, and 29.45% is at low risk. The high risk area is mainly distributed in the Lancang River Basin and Honghe River Basin. Social factors were found to play the greatest role in the risk of cropland abandonment in Yunnan Province. Factors such as low population density, large shape coefficient of cropland, and low annual average precipitation were identified as the main drivers of cropland abandonment in this region. The research results of this paper can provide decision-making reference for preventing and controlling cropland abandonment in mountainous areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ocean carriage has become a major tool for cross-border e-commerce logistics transport. The surge of the cross-border trades has made the shipping industry spring up. There are many factors affecting the marine logistics transport. How to determine the principal one among them and improve the marine transport efficiency has become the focus of the study. Based on the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), this paper establishes a complete shipping efficiency evaluation system for cross-border e-commerce logistics and applies it to the Qingdao Port of China for a solid evidence. The findings show that it is subjected to some factors including port loading and unloading and maritime ship efficiencies. The evaluation indicators chosen in this paper all well fit the bill for consistency test. From the analysis of the marine transport efficiency of cross-border e-commerce logistics in the Qingdao Port, it is known that the marine transport efficiency is increasing year by year, but not high on the whole. This paper provides the evidences for the application of AHP in the marine transport efficiency evaluation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research was based on a rare case involving an explosion accident of liquefied natural gas (LNG) bus that occurred in the second week of December 2019 in China. The author of this paper participated in the whole accident investigation process as expert. Through the nonlinear elastoplastic analysis of the bursting tank by finite element simulation, this explosion accident was caused by the rapid phase transition of residual LNG during the deicing of the frozen pipeline by water, and the human factor was the direct cause of the accident. To understand the accident causation in depth, human factors involving safety issues in the LNG vehicle maintenance operation were identified using a modified human factors analysis and classification system and the analytic hierarchy process method. Furthermore, the lessons learned, and recommendations were revealed to prevent such accidents in the field of liquefied natural gas vehicle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New Town construction is gaining popularity in China owing to the rapid development of urbanization. However, it is a long-term and systematic project with multiple risks, plagued by shortage of funds and narrow financing channels. Public–private partnerships (PPPs) are considered an effective mode to solve the problem of insufficient government funds and experience, and are increasingly being applied to implement infrastructure projects worldwide. Although new town construction in PPPs can relieve the government's debt pressure, private sectors still lack confidence in this approach. Therefore, from the perspective of private sectors, this study identifies 23 investment risk indicators from six aspects through a comprehensive literature review, field research, and risk assessment meeting. These six investment risk aspects include policy and legal, market, financing and design, natural, construction, and standard and contract. Then, this paper uses the project grading tool to design and score problems for 23 evaluation indicators. The analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method is applied to determine the weight of each risk aspect. At the end, the mixed center-point triangular whitenization weight function is used to determine the investment risk evaluation grade. The results are expected to serve as a reference and provide inspiration for the private sectors of New Town construction in PPPs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Centralized vs. decentralized sewage treatment is one of the key issues in the planning of rural sewage treatment (RST) in China due to the country's diverse regional characteristics. There are very limited comprehensive evaluation models for selecting regionally suitable schemes and facilities, particularly for national or provisional scale planning. As a scenario-based multi-attribute decision-making (MADM) issue, this paper develops a novel RST suitability evaluation model by integrating the multi-attribute analytic hierarchy process (AHP) with the technique for order preference by similarity to an ideal solution (TOPSIS). The suitability evaluation model sets up 3 small-centralized and 4 decentralized RST facilities as candidates and includes 12 evaluation indicators that cover economic cost, life cycle environmental impacts, technical features and operations management. Eight generic scenarios are classified for Chinese rural areas based on differences in three major characteristic factors, i.e., population density (PD), the economic development level (EDL), and topographic slope (TS). The universal evaluation results show that a centralized sewage treatment scheme is more suitable for areas with a high PD/high EDL/low TS, while a decentralized scheme is more suitable for areas with a low PD/low EDL/high TS. Sensitivity analysis shows that in regions with a high PD/low EDL, the indicator weight of the construction investment cost in the model has a great influence on the facility suitability ranking. However, in regions with a high PD/high EDL, the ranking is the most sensitive to the indicator weights of the global warming potential and sewage treatment effect. Furthermore, as a spatial decision issue, an RST suitability map of Hunan Province in China is produced at the county level of resolution, and the map is generally consistent with our field knowledge of several counties in Hunan Province. The presented evaluation framework can be integrated into environmental decision support systems in the future to help local and central governments, water utilities, design institutes and other stakeholders scientifically plan RST projects. [Display omitted] • A new suitability evaluation framework of rural sewage treatment (RST) facilities. • Considering life-cycle environmental impacts and regional differences on a large scale. • Optimal RST facilities for each 8 types of regions in China were selected. • A suitability zoning map of optimal RST facility was produced for Hunan Province. • It can help to develop an environmental decision support system for RST planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The new urbanization construction is an important initiative to promote and speed up the healthy and sustainable development of Chinese economy. It is also an important means of realizing the moderately prosperous society, socialist modernization and the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. Moreover, it is also an important means of solving issues related to “agriculture, farmer and rural area”. Therefore, objectively evaluating the sustainable development of each region’s urbanization, determining their developmental situations and finding out their advantages and disadvantages bring convenience for each region to formulate relevant policy guidance and point out the direction for new urbanization construction. Combining the AHP and DEA methods, this paper uses the qualitative and quantitative methods to set up the system of evaluating new urbanization’s sustainable development from the situations of economic development, the social development and the resource environment. It sets up the evaluation model, thereby forming a feasible evaluation method. This paper also carries out an empirical analysis of the data related to 16 prefecture-level cities in Anhui Province and proves this evaluation method is reasonable and valid, thereby providing a scientific basis for formulating relevant polices to promote the new urbanization’s sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the in-depth implementation of China's "National Intellectual Property Strategy" and the continuous increase of the stock of technology-based intellectual property, assets assessment will play a greater role in the technology-based intellectual property rights. Aiming at the problems in the evaluation of this kind of rights in practice, this paper introduces the application background of the evaluation method, puts forward the basic concepts of analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and its basic steps of solving problems, and uses the multi-level fuzzy comprehensive evaluation technique to construct a typical hierarchical structure model. In addition, the article designs the mathematical model of AHP, sets up the selection hierarchy of assessment method of technology-based intellectual property, which is applied to the choice of its evaluation methods, it studies the problems in evaluation result of assets assessment from the aspect of added value in the evaluation report of technology-based intellectual property, and through the experimental statistical analysis, it's found that the results of the assessment by different methods are in large gap, and the AHP can make the choice of the appraisal method of the technology-type intellectual property scientific, objective, and rational. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water quality evaluation and health risk assessment are not only the basis of environmental protection work, but also of great significance to water environment supervision and management. In this paper, the fuzzy comprehensive evaluation for water quality was improved by using the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and Entropy, and a health risk assessment model based on triangular fuzzy theory was developed. The evaluation results show 5 water categories: Class-1 (n = 1, 2%), Class-2 (n = 14, 32%), Class-3 (n = 15, 34%), Class-4 (n = 8, 18%) and Class-5 (n = 6, 14%), manifesting about 67% of the phreatic water can be used for drinking purposes in the research area. The Chadha diagram provides hydrochemical facies of the phreatic water are mainly NaCl type (n = 16, 36%) and Ca–Mg–Na type (n = 15, 34%). Fluorine as non-carcinogenic factor in health risk assessment, showing moderate correlation with SO 4 2– (r = 0.54) and low correlation with Na+ (r = 0.38) in Pearson correlation analysis. The order of non-carcinogenic risk per year is as follow: Class-2, Class-3, All, Class-4 and Class-5 with the mean of 0.29, 0.51, 0.67, 0.86 and 1.55 × 10–8 for adults, 0.54, 0.95, 1.27, 1.58 and 2.89 × 10–8 for children. Compare with adults, children undertake higher health risk, in research area. Particularly, the region accepting Class-5 water supplement encounter high non-carcinogenic risk, where risk level is 2.24 and 2.28 times to the average risk level for adults and children, respectively. This paper provides insights into solving uncertainties in groundwater management and environmental protection, as well as into fuzzy logic techniques addressing pollution. • Fuzzy comprehensive evaluation for water quality was improved using AHP and Entropy. • Health risk assessment is performed with triangular fuzzy theory. • Hydrochemical processes are interpreted considering different mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• We consider some indicators that have not been considered in previous studies, such as the impact of historical and social factors, which are very important and necessary in measuring national space exploration capabilities. • We introduce a more reasonable quantity (Equity Evaluation Index) to measure global equity, which is more objective for both stronger and weaker countries in space exploration. • The optimization model takes different aspects of the space industry into consideration (e.g., funding, technology, scientific research), providing suggestions for countries at different developing levels to take advantage of its strengths and cover its weaknesses. In this paper we introduce an equity evaluation index (EEI) to measure the global equity on asteroid mining, and present a global equity evaluation model by applying the analytic hierarchy process (AHP), entropy weight method and the technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS). Based on multi-objective optimization, we provide a global cooperative decision model to allocate the inputs and outputs among countries based on their strengths and demands. Furthermore, we analyze the the trends of EEI of each country under the influence of the outbreak events by using the autoregressive integrated moving average model. Our results show that among all countries with foundations in aerospace, China has the highest EEI while Russia ranks the lowest. Humans mining minerals in a cooperative manner will achieve a win-win situation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The selection of a mining method is one of the most important decisions made by mining engineers. An appropriate fully mechanized mining method is of great importance to mining design and capacity planning for thin coal seams. Therefore, the comprehensive evaluation of alternative mining methods is an important part of mining design. Several parameters should be considered in that evaluation, and the evaluation is therefore complex and must be compliant with a set of criteria. In this paper, a comprehensive method that combines two multi-criteria decision-making methods, the analytic hierarchy process and the technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution, was adopted for the evaluation. The most appropriate mining method, which involved a shearer, was then selected for panel 43101 in the Liangshuijing coal mine in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The problem of urban decay in Hong Kong is getting worse recently; therefore, the importance of urban renewal in improving the physical environment conditions and the living standards of the citizens is widely recognized in the territory. However, it is not an easy task for the Hong Kong Government to prepare welcome urban renewal proposals because the citizens, professionals and other concerned parties have their own expectations which are difficult to be addressed all at the same time. Although it is impossible to satisfy all stakeholders concerning urban renewal, it is preferable to have proposals conforming to the interests of the majority and beneficial to the present and future generations. This paper adopts the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) to work out the most sustainable design proposal for an area undergoing urban renewal. AHP is a robust multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) method for solving social, governmental and corporate decision problems. Since there is a lack of published papers demonstrating a systematic and effective way for urban renewal proposal assessment, this paper attempts to fill this gap with the help of AHP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With rapid development and thorough application of service outsourcing industry, in high-tech innovative enterprises, business types and country category concerning undertaking of service outsourcing projects have also appeared with booming trend, the attendant risks were diverse and multiple trend, make China’s outsourcing enterprises foreign service faces new opportunities and challenges. In order to reduce the international service outsourcing project risk, this paper based on the perspective of the contractors, risk early warning model is established by using analytic hierarchy process, and in a day of service outsourcing enterprises in China to carry out empirical research, using the factor comparison between building the hierarchical model, the layers of decomposition, obtained the actual results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As one of the major problems of geo-engineering, landslides often influence the safety of linear engineering projects that cross mountainous areas. Therefore, when selecting suitable routes for such projects, it is important to assess their susceptibility to landslides. In this paper, we used a natural gas pipeline in the northeast of the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau of China as a case study to analyze landslide susceptibility. Based on engineering geological analogy, the analytical hierarchy process, and the least-squares method, a regional landslide susceptibility assessment model was developed and was programmed using GIS ArcEngine components under the Visual Studio.NET environment. The landslide susceptibility along the Zhong-Wu natural gas pipeline from Zhongxian County to Wuhan was assessed based on this model and classified into five levels: very safe, safe, moderate, susceptible, and very susceptible. The high accuracy and prediction capability of the model were confirmed by comparing the model results with past landslide data and performing a prediction test. The results indicated that the assessment model used in this study is reliable and can be used for landslide susceptibility assessment and route selection in other areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, macro- and mesoresearches on urban morphology have started, but microscopic morphology of development zones is still a neglected area. In this paper, the GIS spatial analysis method is used to undertake empirical research to reveal the relationship between the morphological characteristics of development zones, land-use intensity, and industrial concentration. The aim is to provide a reference for development zone planning, construction, operation, and management. Results of this study reveal the following: (1) spatial distribution of industrial land in Shanghai is obviously clustered around the Big Hongqiao region; (2) although only one-third of development zones are above the average level of the whole city in land-use intensity, the disparity among development zones is still marked, especially between national-level and municipal-level development zones; (3) compactness and radial index have a strong positive correlation with the land development ratio, but local integration has a negative correlation with the index of land use intensity; (4) an incongruous trend exists between industrial concentration and the compact construction of development zones; and (5) transport accessibility is not a major factor impacting the industrial concentration of development zones in Shanghai, but a high degree of leading industrial concentration appears in those development zones with clear functional positioning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Floor water inrush represents a geohazard that can pose significant threat to safe operations for instance in coal mines in China and elsewhere. Its occurrence is controlled by many factors, and the processes are often not amenable to mathematical expressions. To evaluate the water inrush risk, the paper proposes the vulnerability index approach by coupling the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and geographic information system (GIS). The detailed procedures of using this innovative approach are shown in a case study in China (Donghuantuo Coal Mine). The powerful spatial data analysis functions of GIS was used to establish the thematic layer of each of the six factors that control the water inrush, and the contribution weights of each factor was determined with the AHP method. The established AHP evaluation model was used to determine the threshold value for each risk level with a histogram of the water inrush vulnerability index. As a result, the mine area was divided into five regions with different vulnerability levels which served as general guidelines for the mine operations. The prediction results were further corroborated with the actual mining data, and the evaluation result is satisfactory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In the previous studies, a method was developed to assess soil erosion based on land use information. In this paper, we present another approach that uses environmental data to assess soil erosion. A soil erosion characteristic index EI is proposed, and its value is derived using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) technique based on standardized environmental information stored in minimum polygons that tile the erodible area under consideration. The approach is applied to a case study of the Yellow River basin, north China, where serious erosion is occurring. To represent different grades of soil erosion, the range of EI is divided into six levels according to standard grades of soil erosion intensity. The application indicates that the method deals properly with data scarcity, with the results giving a satisfactory representation of the characteristics of soil erosion in the Yellow River basin. The spatial–temporal distribution of EI in the Yellow River basin is predicted, and the results interpreted to give the long-term trend and state of soil depletion. Comparisons are given between EI and surveyed soil erosion zoning maps for the Yellow River basin at the end of the 1980s and 1990s. The output reliability and the approach applicability in smaller spatial scales are investigated in a case study of Zhifanggou basin. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Food safety is an important issue affecting social development. Early warning analysis and risk control of food safety is of great significance in managing food safety risks, thereby ensuring food safety. In this paper, we propose an improved early warning approach for assessing and controlling food safety risk based on the agglomerative hierarchical clustering-radial basis function (AHC-RBF) neural network integrating an analytic hierarchy process approach and the entropy weight (AHP-EW). Different risk values of the detection data are fused by the AHP-EW to obtain the risk fusion value which is the output of the AHC-RBF. The detection data are set as the input of the AHC-RBF to build the early warning model. Moreover, prediction and control of food safety risk are analyzed. Finally, a case study of meat products detection data in China is carried out based on the proposed model. We compared our model with the back propagation (BP) and the RBF neural network, and the results verify the effectiveness of our proposed early warning model. The proposed early warning analysis is helpful for food safety supervision departments to control food safety risk. Image 1 • A novel AHC-RBF neural network is proposed. • The early warning model of food safety is established. • The validity and the practicability of the proposed method are verified. • The early warning analysis and risk control of the food safety is carried out. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Typhoon disaster information is characterized by multiple sources, complexity and diversity, and different users of this content have different individual concerns. The expression methods of typhoon disaster information considered in previous research have been relatively simple, which cannot meet the personalized service needs of different users. In this paper, according to the diverse content needs of different users in distinct stages of a typhoon disaster, a typhoon disaster information expression method with a multi-user, multi-stage, multi-channel and multi-element combined mode is investigated. First, the audience and disaster stages are divided via demand analysis, and the demand content is summarized according to the users, stages, and release channels. Similar information is then integrated into the same theme, and it is also determined how information is expressed. Then, the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) is used to filter out the important information in each theme. The theme template is then designed according to the characteristics of particular release channels. Finally, a prototype system is developed, and Typhoon Lekima, which impacted China in 2019, is considered as a real case for analysis. The results show that the proposed method can effectively support different users to obtain disaster characteristics at distinct stages of typhoon disasters, evaluate disaster conditions, assist scientific decision-making, and enhance public awareness of risk prevention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Zhang, Y.; Yuan, L., and Ye, T., 2020. Management innovation of marine cultural industry based on SWOT and AHP. In: Li, L. and Huang, X. (eds.), Sustainable Development in Coastal Regions: A Perspective of Environment, Economy, and Technology. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 112, pp. 199-202. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208. Marine cultural industry is a kind of marine civilization expenditure to meet the spiritual and material needs of the public. It is an industrialization means based on the development and utilization of marine cultural resources. Through the production of sea related cultural products, we can improve the development of sea related cultural service industry. However, there are still many problems in the development strategy of China's marine cultural industry, which will affect the output of the comprehensive strength of China's marine cultural industry. Therefore, we must innovate the management mode of marine culture industry, which requires the joint efforts of the government and enterprises. By making full use of marine resources, China's marine industry culture can actively respond to various disadvantages and threats on the basis of national strategic policies, which will drive the development mode of marine cultural industry resources. Through SWOT analysis and analytic hierarchy process, this paper analyzes the constraints of marine cultural industry, which will better to innovate the management of marine cultural industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A regional ecological carrying capacity (ECC) assessment system was established. • Multi-source ecological resilience and ecological pressure factors were extracted. • Fuzzy comprehensive evaluation was conducted using AHP-entropy weight method. • An obstacle degree model was adopted to analyse the ECC and related factors. With the rapid development of the economy, environmental issues have become increasingly prominent and pose a threat to the sustainable development of human society. Maintaining the integrity of ecosystems and limiting human activity are prerequisites for sustainable economic development. Therefore, fully understanding the regional ecological conditions and related influential factors is important for promoting regional sustainable development. It is of great practical significance to study the ecological carrying capacity (ECC) from multiple perspectives. In this paper, Shannon entropy theory, a fuzzy comprehensive method and an analytic hierarchy process (AHP) are used to provide reasonable weights for ECC evaluation modelling by combining subjective and objective weights. Furthermore, based on ecological resilience and ecological pressure, a comprehensive system of evaluation factors is established for ECC assessments. For this study in Yunyang County in the Three Gorges Reservoir area of China, the following fifteen factors were selected: slope, land use, the land stress index, the habitat quality index, the water network density index, vegetation coverage, the geological hazard index, annual total rainfall, annual total temperature, the population density index, the proportion of construction land, the economic development index, the road network density index, the steep slope reclamation rate and the proportion of agricultural land. Additionally, an obstacle degree model was used to explore the response relationship between the regional ecological quality and the corresponding influential factors and to extract the major factors that affect the quality of the ecological environment. The results show that the area with a very low comprehensive evaluation rating is 119.54 km2, accounting for 3.30% of the study area, including Bayang Town, Shuangjiang Street and Qinglong Street, and the area with a low comprehensive evaluation rating is 519.29 km2, accounting for 14.34% of the study area. The main factor that influences the environmental quality of the study area is the economic development index, and the obstacle degree frequency is higher than 80%. Additionally, the steep slope reclamation rate, land stress index and proportion of agricultural land also have considerable impacts on the ECC of Yunyang County, with obstacle degree frequencies of 61.90%, 61.90% and 52.38%, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cities located in the transitional zone between Taihang Mountains and North China plain run high flood risk in recent years, especially urban waterlogging risk. In this paper, we take Shijiazhuang, which is located in this transitional zone, as the study area and proposed a new flood risk assessment model for this specific geographical environment. Flood risk assessment indicator factors are established by using the digital elevation model (DEM), along with land cover, economic, population, and precipitation data. A min-max normalization method is used to normalize the indices. An analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method is used to determine the weight of each normalized index and the geographic information system (GIS) spatial analysis tool is adopted for calculating the risk map of flood disaster in Shijiazhuang. This risk map is consistent with the reports released by Hebei Provincial Water Conservancy Bureau and can provide reference for flood risk management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, coal-fired power plants contribute the biggest part of power generation in China. Challenges of energy conservation and emission reduction of the coal-fired power plant encountering with a rapid growth due to the rising proportion of renewable energy generation in total power generation. Energy saving power generation dispatch (ESPGD) based on power units sorting technology is a promising approach to meet the challenge. Therefore, it is crucial to establish a reasonable and feasible multi-index comprehensive evaluation (MICE) framework for assessing the performance of coal-fired power units accessed by the power grid. In this paper, a hierarchical multiple criteria evaluation system was established. Except for the typical economic and environmental indices, the evaluation system considering operational flexibility and power quality indices either. A hybrid comprehensive evaluation model was proposed to assess the unit operational performance. The model is an integration of grey relational analysis (GRA) with analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and a novel entropy-based method (abbreviate as BECC) which integrates bootstrap method and correlation coefficient (CC) into entropy principle to get the objective weight of indices. Then a case study on seven typical 600 megawatts coal-fired power units was carried out to illustrate the proposed evaluation model, and a weight sensitivity analysis was developed in addition. The results of the case study shows that unit 4 has the power generating priority over the rest ones, and unit 2 ranks last, with the lowest grey relational degree. The weight sensitivity analysis shows that the environmental factor has the biggest sensitivity coefficient. And the validation analysis of the developed BECC weight method shows that it is feasible for the MICE model, and it is stable with an ignorable uncertainty caused by the stochastic factor in the bootstrapping process. The elaborate analysis of the result reveals that it is feasible to rank power units with the proposed evaluation model. Furthermore, it is beneficial to synthesize the updated multiple criteria in optimizing the power generating priority of coal-fired power units. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]