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• The extent of flooding in China is greater than in any other country. • Nearly 66% of China's landmass is submerged by flooding. • Financial toll of flooding accounts for approximately 1.42% of the annual GDP. • Various forms of climatic change contribute to flooding. The extent of flooding in China is more significant than in any other country. Our research reveals that approximately 66 % of China's landmass is submerged by flooding, affecting about 50 % of the population. Furthermore, the financial toll of flooding now accounts for approximately 1.42 % of the annual gross domestic product (GDP), which is almost 40 times higher than the corresponding figure for the United States. We have observed that Zhengzhou city in Henan province, which faced a devastating flood in 2021, received a significant amount of rainfall, specifically a total of 552.5 mm within a 24-hour period. The floods in Henan province in 2021 caused considerable damage, including impacting nearly 15 million people, resulting in almost 400 deaths, damaging over 10,000 square kilometers of agricultural land, causing almost $19 billion in economic losses, and leading to the collapse of over 35,000 households and damage to various properties. In a similar manner, the significant flooding that occurred in southern China in 2020 impacted approximately 7.1 million individuals across eight provinces and resulted in 54 fatalities, the collapse of 6,700 houses, and incurred a direct economic loss of US$3.33 billion. We found that rainstorms have significantly increased to 10 % in the last 60 years in China. In this paper, we delved into exploring the existing published articles, reports, and government and authoritative legal texts to analyze the causes and impacts of flooding in China's flood-prone regions and potential mitigation strategies to reduce the repercussions of distressing flood events. We believe this study will help policymakers by providing new insights while formulating policy to reduce the loss caused by high-level flooding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• This paper explains the key concept of marine ecological-economic accounting. • The framework of marine ecological-economic accounting is constructed. • This study distinguishes the inputs of marine ecosystems and humans to GOP. • This paper presents a classification of the marine ecological economy. In recent years, the Chinese government has attached greater importance to marine ecological protection. To contribute to scientific understanding of the importance of marine ecosystems to human well-being, this paper analyzes marine ecosystem service and its accounting, and introduces the concept of "quaternary industry" on the basis of current marine economic accounting framework. Marine ecosystem accounting, marine economic accounting and marine ecological-economic accounting of coastal areas in China during the time series of 2005–2017 are calculated. The results show that compared with Gross Ocean Product (GOP), the average annual growth rate of Gross Marine Ecological-Economic Product (GMEEP) stays stable. The proportion of the added value of quaternary industry in marine ecological economy is relatively large, which is between 46% and 51%. And the ratio of GMEEP and GOP is around 1.9, suggesting a quite close association between GMEEP and GOP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The EE of three urban agglomerations considering environmental benefits is calculated. • The EE of BTH, YRD, and PRD urban agglomerations exists significant differences. • The economic development and EE of BTH urban agglomeration is "inverted U-shaped". • Urbanization and energy structure have significant negative effects on EE. China's three major urban agglomerations, Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH), Yangtze River Delta (YRD), and Pearl River Delta (PRD), are expected the key areas of energy saving and emission reduction. Based on the connotation of energy saving and emission reduction, we constructed the input–output index system considering environmental benefits, and then used the SBM-Undesirable (Slack-based Measure Considering Undesirable-outputs) model to evaluate the energy saving and emission reduction efficiency (EE) of 49 cities in China's three major urban agglomerations during 2006–2018. Finally, the paper applied the spatial econometric model to explore the influencing factors of EE. The research results indicate that the overall EE across cities is relatively low, only 7 cities have been on the production frontier. The EE of China's three urban agglomerations is significant, presenting the development state of "PRD > YRD > BTH". The spatial autocorrelation of BTH urban agglomeration changed from positive to negative, the YRD urban agglomeration kept relatively stable positive spatial autocorrelation, while the spatial autocorrelation of PRD urban agglomeration was negative during the study period. The results of the spatial econometric analysis show that the relationship between economic development and EE is an "inverted U-shaped" in BTH urban agglomeration, while an "S-shaped" in YRD and PRD urban agglomerations. The urbanization and energy structure have significant negative effects on EE in three major urban agglomerations, and the effect of urbanization on EE is much greater than that of energy structure. Besides, the industrial structure has a significant negative impact on the EE of BTH urban agglomeration. The opening-up degree can significantly inhibit the improvement of EE in YRD urban agglomeration. The impact of resource endowment on the EE of three urban agglomerations is not significant. According to the empirical results, some policy commendations are proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]