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• The level of synergy of territorial spatial functions (PLEFs) in the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB) to a high level of development. • There was significant spatial variation in the role of factors influencing PLEFs. • Classified into three main functional dominant zones and six sub-type zones. • Proposed a differentiated optimization strategy for the YREB. The high-quality development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB) is a major strategy related to China's overall national development. Based on the synergy/trade-offs of production, living, and ecological functions (PLEFs) in the YREB from 2000 to 2020, this paper puts forward suggestions for the optimization of territorial space to promote the high-quality development of the YREB. The mechanistic equilibrium model was applied to determine the synergy/trade-off relationship of PLEFs, and the key factors affecting the coordination degree were analyzed with the help of a geographical detector and a geographically weighted regression (GWR) model to further identify the trade-off zones and propose differential optimization strategies. The results showed that the average degree of synergy of PLEFs decreased from 0.18 to 0.08 in YREB during the study period, and the coordination developed to a higher level, forming a local patchwork of coordination "highlands" in space, with a gradient divergence of coordination from west to east. The land-use degree, landscape, slope, traffic, and nightlight index were the dominant factors influencing PLEFs, and their q-values were 0.30, 0.27, 0.20, 0.18 and 0.14 in order, with significant spatial differences in the effects of each factor's role. Based on the deviation of the coordination degree of PLEFs, three major function-dominated zones were divided, and it was found that the YREB showed an evolutionary trend of ecological function domination (2000) to production function domination (2010) to ecological function domination (2020). The trade-off zones in antagonistic and dysregulated states were further identified, and the study proposed targeted optimization strategies. The findings provide theoretical reference to promote the sustainable use of territorial resources and high-quality regional development in the YREB and the rest of the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Created a refined water resource allocation model. • Combining grid idea and remote sensing technology. • It reflects the change of water supply and demand in space and numerical value. • PSO algorithm is introduced to reduce the difficulty in solving the model. • It changes the extensive consideration in water supply nodes and water use nodes. The traditional optimal allocation of water resources mostly focuses on the allocation of different water supply sources to various types of water users in life, production, and ecology, and cannot reflect the differences in time and space of a certain type of water users. Therefore, this paper constructs a refined model for the optimal allocation of water resources, and further explores the optimal allocation of water resources with multiple water sources, multiple users, and multiple objectives. The main steps of the model construction are: (1) Regional gridding. The planting structure map and land use type map of the same resolution in the study area are selected and superimposed on them, the application attributes of each cell can be directly obtained. (2) Water demand gridding. On the basis of gridding in the study area, according to the application attributes of each cell, the quota method is used to predict the water demand of each cell. Then the water demand forecast result for the entire research area is obtained. (3) Water supply gridding. It is possible to reflect the types of water supply sources that a certain or a certain type of cell can accept, as well as the types of water supply sources that can be supplied by a certain type of water supply sources, by determining the types of water supply sources in the research area. The supply ranges that various water supply sources can reach, followed by the completion of the water supply grid. (4) According to the results of water demand gridding and water supply gridding, the water demand of each cell and the corresponding water supply source and water supply topological relationship are established, and the objective function is to minimize water shortage and maximize economic benefits to build a refined model for the optimal allocation of water resources.(5) The particle swarm algorithm is introduced to solve it, and the Pareto optimal solutions is obtained to determine the optimal water distribution for each cell. (6) Taking Guantao County, China as an example, the model was applied. In terms of minimum water shortage, the total water demand in Guantao County is predicted to be 118.8719 million m3 in the planning year (P = 50 %), while the total water supply is 125.2818 million m3. The water supply can meet the demand for water. In terms of financial advantages, the planned level of water Annual economic benefits will amount to 4.0865 million yuan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The GSE-EBM model is used to measure GIE. • Spatial character and distributional evolution of China's urban GIE is analyzed. • The spatial heterogeneity of China's urban GIE's influencing factors is investigated by the GWR model. • A variety of valuable and targeted policy implications are presented. Based on employing the global super efficiency epsilon-based measure (GSE-EBM) model to evaluation the green innovation efficiency (GIE) of 285 prefecture-level or above cities in China during the period 2004–2018, this paper combines the approaches of kernel density estimation, cold hot spot analysis and standard deviation ellipse to intuitively describe GIE's spatiotemporal pattern evolution features, and then utilizes the geographical weighted regression (GWR) model to explore the spatial heterogeneity of GIE's affecting factors. The results show that: (1) China's urban GIE displayed a fluctuating increasing trend, revealing clearly regional disparities, and gradually decreased from the Eastern coastal region to the Central, the Western and the Northeast region. (2) The spatial difference of China's urban GIE exhibited the characteristics of expansion, polarization, and spatial agglomeration with the center of gravity gradually shifting to the Southeast region. (3) In the analysis of socio-economic factors of China's urban GIE, the GWR model effectively identified the spatial heterogeneity, and improved the explanatory ability compared to ordinary least squares (OLS) model. (4) The GWR model analysis indicate that population density, economic development, transportation infrastructure, openness and industrial structure played significant impacts on China's urban GIE, and there exists significant spatial heterogeneity in the impact of each influencing factor. The findings of this study can provide valuable references for urban green transformation and high-quality development in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • The vegetation cover status of 9 provinces in the Yellow River basin was analyzed. • The water poverty status of 9 provinces in the Yellow River basin is analyzed. • There is a U-shaped relationship between vegetation cover and water poverty. • There were differences in the effects of vegetation cover on WPI components. Vegetation plays an important role in improving the water resource environment. Faced with the serious water poverty problem in various regions of China, whether vegetation restoration can further alleviate water poverty needs to be studied urgently. Taking 9 provinces in the Yellow River basin in China as an example, this paper first uses the framework of the existing water poverty index (WPI) to calculate the WPI of each province over the years from 1999 to 2019 and evaluate the water poverty status of each province. Later, the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) was used to analyze the vegetation restoration status of each area. Finally, using provincial panel data for the study area from 1999 to 2019, a comprehensive feasible generalized least squares (FGLS) model was used to analyze the impact of vegetation cover on water poverty. It was found that there was no pure linear relationship between vegetation cover and water poverty; instead, there was a significant U-shaped relationship. Moreover, the influence of vegetation cover on each component of the WPI has certain differences. This research advances knowledge on the relationship between vegetation cover and water poverty and provides ideas for effectively alleviating regional water poverty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • "Small-world" network characteristics of human-influenced river networks are found. • A dynamic connectivity index based on flow and probability density is proposed. • The hydrological connectivity response under the change of river networks is analyzed. • "Small-world" features of river networks lead to reduced hydrological connectivity. • Spatiotemporal heterogeneity of connectivity is related to the systemic function. River network connectivity is a key factor affecting watershed ecosystems and an important criterion for evaluating the health of river. The river network structure of the basin has changed dramatically in recent years due to human activity, but the response of connectivity to changes in physical structure is still poorly understood. In this paper, a dynamic index (connectivity index) based on daily-scale flow and probability density function is proposed to characterize the connectivity capacity of river networks. The Haihe River basin in China is selected as the study area, and a graphic model is constructed to assess the evolutionary structure of the river network. The 54 sections were classified into Low human impact (LHI) and High human impact (HHI), and the trends and causes of connectivity changes of the sections with the evolution of the network were analyzed. The results reveal that the river network degree and clustering coefficient keep increasing, the path length decreases and becomes more dense downstream, and the river network gradually evolves into a "small-world" network. The "small-world" characteristics improve the potential efficiency and specific functionality of the river network, but make the physical structure mismatch with the hydraulic gradient, and the network flow disperses severely, leading to a significant decrease in connectivity (HHI connectivity index is lower than LHI 52.1%). Moreover, the structural changes enhance the spatial and temporal differences in hydrological connectivity, which further restricts the function of the river system. "Small-world" and connectivity indicators (duration, start time, and intermittency) show strong correlations. Therefore, physical structure is an important factor influencing connectivity capacity of river networks. The planning and management of the watershed should consider the changes in hydrological connectivity caused by the structural modifications of the river network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • A new repeatable batch processing method is developed for regional SUHI assessment. • A framework is proposed to explain the formation of SUHI effect. • The impacts of most driving factors on SUHI effect are spatial heterogeneous. • More attention should be paid to small cities. The urban heat island (UHI) effect has become a hot topic worldwide because of the double stress of global climate change and rapid urbanization. However, the deficiencies of existing methods hinder the monitoring and assessment of the surface urban heat island (SUHI) effect at the regional scale. This paper presented a new method to assess SUHI intensity, and then applied it in China. The results indicated that: (1) compared with other methods, this new method has some merits like higher accuracy, fewer operational steps, and higher portability. It enables accurate, semi-automated assessment of SUHI intensity at the regional scale. (2) SUHI effect exists in 81.02% of the cities in China. These cities were mainly concentrated in southeastern China, which presented the significant characteristic of spatial agglomeration. (3) Urban-rural differences in relative humidity, vegetation coverage, evapotranspiration, waterbody coverage, and the number of industrial enterprises are the main driving factors for the SUHI effect in China. Furthermore, there are significant interactions among these driving factors. (4) The spatial heterogeneity of the influence directions and intensities of many driving factors is obvious. Therefore, traditional regression models should be utilized more cautiously because they cannot capture the spatial heterogeneity of variables. (5) The hypothesis of "the larger the city size, the higher the SUHI intensity" is not valid, so more attention should be paid to small cities in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The differences of sensitivity zones with different levels were described in detail. • The classification criteria of the sensitivity levels of each factor were built. • The Criteria Importance Through Intercriteria Correlation was applied. • The interaction between influencing factors was clarified. • The giant panda trace density sensitivity was proposed. The Giant Panda National Park (GPNP) is one of the first national parks established in China, and the consideration of its ecological sensitivity is an important part of the construction of ecological civilization. Taking GPNP as a case, the ecological sensitivity evaluation model of the national park was constructed on the basis of the sensitivity evaluation results of regional terrain, climate, vegetation, animal trace, landscape resource, water resource and human activity. The CRiteria Importance Through Intercriteria Correlation (CRITIC) method was introduced to obtain the comprehensive spatial distribution characteristics of ecological sensitivity, and the spatial autocorrelation analysis and explanatory factor analysis were carried out in order to provide specific suggestions for the ecological development and protection of the national park. The results showed that the ecological sensitivity gradually increases from the regional edge to the center, and the area is 12.36%, 28.24%, 31.94%, 21.56%, and 4.76%, respectively. The Moran's I of ecological sensitivity is 0.914, showing a high spatial autocorrelation in the region. The sensitive cold spots are distributed in the north, and the hot spots are distributed in the middle and south. In the case of ecological governance, priority can be given to these high value cluster areas. Human activities are the main explanatory factors for ecological sensitivity, and the sensitivity of a certain region can be influenced by positive human behavior. The interaction of most factors in pairs will enhance the explanatory power of a single factor on ecological sensitivity, which means that multiple methods of ecological protection will achieve better results. The research results of this paper provide a scientific basis for guiding the management and protection of ecologically sensitive zones in the study area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Basin ecosystem services value was constructed using the modified equivalent factor method. • The progress and ecological effect of the first basin ecological compensation pilot in China was evaluated. • The ecological compensation measures have significantly increased the value of hydrological regulation function. • Driven by the policy of ecological compensation, the value of ecosystem services in the Xin'an River basin presents an obvious spatial distribution pattern. • The marginal diminishing effect of ecological compensation on promoting the growth of regional ecosystem service value is proposed. Ecological compensation is an effective way to harmonize the conflict between exploitation and protection of ecosystem. Xin 'an River Basin, as the first pilot project in China to carry out horizontal ecological compensation for upstream and downstream river basins, has been continuously exploring the compensation path and mode in the past ten years. The significance of this study is to systematically evaluate the effectiveness of ecological compensation from the perspective of ecosystem service value. It is helpful to explore more effective refined implementation methods. It provides reference for further adjustment and development of ecological compensation. In this paper, we used the equivalence factor method to construct the ecosystem service equivalent factors applicable to the Xin'an River basin against the background of land use change from 2010 to 2020, evaluated the ecosystem service value(ESV) of the Xin'an River basin in 10 years, and analyzed the spatial and temporal distribution characteristics. It was found that (1) ESV showed an overall growth trend over the decade, increasing by 1.25 billion, with an increase of 2.84 %. The increase in the value of the hydrological regulation function was the most significant driver. The diminishing marginal effects are also shown on the time scale. This suggests that existing ecological conservation actions are becoming less effective in increasing ESV over time, and that there is a need for appropriate expansion of existing environmental actions, as well as more fine-grained policy implementation. (2) The trend of ESV showed obvious differences in spatial distribution. Four districts and counties in the west-central part of the study area showed increasing trends in ESV, while four districts and counties in the east-central part showed negative trends. The most significant increase was in the Huangshan District (+160,370.32 million yuan), mainly due to the significant increase in the watershed area in this region, which led to an increase in the value of the hydrological regulating function. The increase in the value of hydrological regulation function in the study area mainly came from Huangshan District. This is closely related to the water pollution control, water conservation and protection, and water ecology restoration in the Xin'an River Basin promoted by ecological compensation. (3) Ecological compensation in the Xin'an River Basin has effectively promoted the growth of ESVs in the region, especially watershed-related ecosystem services. It has played an obvious positive role in promoting the construction of ecological civilization and the coordinated ecological-social-economic development.. However, the growth of ESV is not comprehensive, and the ESV of some regions and ecosystem service types are in a declining trend, without achieving a synergistic and balanced development. We give relevant suggestions for this situation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • A vegetation–water–soil–environment ecological restoration evaluation system. • Optimized models were used to evaluate the four-dimensional ecological functions. • The 4D ESF may increase in the grassland in the future, but may not in the forest. • In general, the ecological restoration in the BTSSCP have improved significantly. The Beijing–Tianjin Sandstorm Source Control Project (BTSSCP) has been implemented for more than 20 years (2001–2022), and a scientific, accurate, and complete evaluation of its implementation effect is of great significance for the study of ecosystem evolution. In this study, we present a vegetation–water–soil–environment system comprising the net ecosystem productivity (NEP), water conservation (WC), soil erosion (SE), and habitat quality (HQ) to evaluate the spatiotemporal changes and future trends. The results showed that: (1) In areas with high vegetation coverage, only WC was significantly and negatively correlated with SE (−0.68, p less than 0.01). In areas with low vegetation coverage, NEP, WC, and HQ were all significantly negatively correlated with SE. This indicates that SE is a basic function that affects the performance of other ecological services. (2) From 2000 to 2020, the annual maximum average vegetation coverage increased by about 10 %; the annual average NEP increased by about 60 g C/km2, and the annual average SE decreased by about 500 t/km2. Compared with Phase I (2000–2010), the vegetation condition (coverage, NEP) in summer (July–August) was improved by about 10 %, and SE in winter (December–January) decreased by 3 t/km2 per month in Phase II (2010–2020). (3) In terms of future trends, NEP may continue to increase in the grassland area, especially in the Mu Us Sandland, but it may not change significantly in the forest area. Similarly, SE may continue to decrease in grassland-covered areas, but not in forest-covered areas. Most areas of WC could continue to increase, but the HQ will not change significantly. In general, the ecological restoration effects of the BTSSCP have improved significantly. This paper is intended to provide some key information for the management of ecological projects and regional ecological security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Urban environmental degradation hinders the choice of migrants to settle in cities. • There is a structural characteristic underlying the environmental effect on migration intentions. • Environmental degradation causes a wave effect on migrants' settlement intentions. • Cities should improve their environmental quality to attract migrants in the future. In the existing literature, it has been indicated that there is a negative link between air pollution and the settlement intentions of migrants. However, the underlying mechanism is still sleeps in the unopened black box. Based on China Migrants Dynamic Survey data, this paper applies a two-step conditional maximum likelihood method and quantile regression method to analyze the mechanism underlying environmental migration. The results confirm a nonlinear relationship between air quality and migrants' settlement intentions. Different conditions of air quality differences between cities will lead to structural changes in the settlement intentions of migrants. Specifically, the real curve falls first decreases, increases and then decreases again. Under specific urban environment dimensions, the paper provides a new policy path for urban decision-makers on how to coordinate the human capital of migrants and sustainable urban development. [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]

[Display omitted] • Define IE as an evolutionary process characterized by the dimensions of industry and ecology. • Industrial efficiency and eco-efficiency were analyzed from spatial-temporal perspectives. • Cities were classified as coordinated development mode and professional development mode. • Social network analysis was used to examine the spatial correlations of IE. • The IE interaction network was characterized by "scale-free" and "small world." Industrial ecology (IE) was defined as a dynamic evolution process characterized by the coupling coordination relationship between ecological efficiency and industrial efficiency. This paper used data envelopment analysis and technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution method to explore the spatiotemporal evolution of ecological efficiency and industrial efficiency in China's loess plateau region (LPR) from 2006 to 2017. Based on the definition, LPR's IE development and spatial correlations were studied separately using coupling evaluation model and social network analysis. Findings include: Although eco-efficiency and industrial efficiency were mutually promoted, and both have improved during the study period, LPR's human-earth relation was still facing uncertainties. There were significant disparities in industrial efficiency, ecological efficiency, and IE levels among cities. The evolutionary patterns of cities were classified as coordinated development mode and professional development mode. The IE interactive network was characterized by "scale-free" and "small world," where provincial capitals and big cities functioned as growth poles and intermediaries. The correlations of IE brought challenges as well as favorable conditions for setting up a cross-regional coordination mechanism. This paper provided a new perspective to understand IE and a "quantity and structure" driven development idea for policymakers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Construct the green development performance system of industrial enterprises from the micro perspective. • Simulated the green development performance index of industrial enterprises with the functional data analysis method. • Analysis the regional difference of the index. • Verify the stability and reference value of the index. This paper constructs an enterprise green development performance system by integrating green development concept and enterprise performance measurement. Based on the panel data of 458 industrial listed enterprises in China from 2011 to 2018, this paper simulates the green development performance index of industrial enterprises by using the functional data analysis method and functional entropy weight method. There are four main conclusions. First, the change in the green development performance index of industrial enterprises is U-shaped, which shows an upward trend overall. Within a range of [0.006–0.05], the minimum value is 0.006, and considering the strength and trend of future policies there is no maximum value. The higher the value is, the higher the level of green development of industrial enterprises. Second, according to the weight and fitting curves, we can find that the importance and development level of social performance are at the highest, and the importance level basically floats around 0.5, far higher than the average level. The importance of economic performance and the development level of innovation performance are at the lowest respectively, and there is a big gap with the average level. Third, the shape and trend of the index generated by the average weight and the subjective weight of social performance are basically consistent with the index generated by the objective weight. This shows that the index is not sensitive to the weight and has certain robustness and representativeness. Finally, according to the location of enterprises, they were divided into three categories: middle, east and west. The boost Trap method was used to conduct FANOVA (Functional ANOVA) with the P value of 0.314. The results showed that the index did not differ significantly between regions at the significance level of 0.05. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A method was proposed by coupling the ERI and the CLUE-S model. • Three different scenarios designed to explore ERI of LUCC in 2027. • Spatiotemporal characteristics of ERI were predicted under different scenarios. The Jinghe County of the Ebinur Lake Basin was chosen as the study area. Based on Landsat TM / OLI images obtained in 2007 and 2017, this paper attempts to use CLUE-S model to predict LUCC under three different scenarios (Natural Development scenario, Farmland Protection scenario, Water Resources Protection scenarios) in 2027. Landscape indices and ecological risk index were calculated and spatially interpolated for the whole region, and the results of ecological risk could be divided into five different zones: extremely low, low, moderate, high and extremely high. They were carried out for assessing the spatial–temporal changes in ecological risk for each landscape pattern. The results show that: (1) Among the three scenarios designed in this paper, the spatial distribution of LUCC in the Water Resource Protection scenario has the most obvious changes, followed by the Farmland Protection scenario and the Natural Development scenario becomes the third. In the water resources protection scenario, the scale of the desert decreases, but the forest and grass part increases, which is conducive to ecological improvement. (2) the distribution area of high ecological risk areas was the largest of three different scenarios, especially the farmland protection scenario. The area of low-risk level is the largest under the water conservation scenario. The ecological risk of LUCC under the water resources protection scenario is lower, which is better for ecological environment. (3) Water bodies mainly concentrate upon low ecological risk degree, accounting for approximately 62.8%, 82.2%, and 73.1% of low ecological risk; Farmland mainly lies in the low-risk areas, accounting for 59.1%, 63.5% and 68.8% of the lower ecological risk levels; In 2027, the unused land and other land types are the main land types of the higher ecological risk areas under three different scenarios, whose proportions are 67.40%, 68.24% and 65.90%, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • This paper expands the EKC theory from the perspective of urbanization. • The UEKC means eco-environmental quality following a "U" trend with urbanization. • The UEKC of urban agglomerations is a logarithm-quadratic compound function. • The turning point of UEKC was found at an urbanization rate of 47%. Urbanization is one of the most consequential human activities on earth. The contradictions between urbanization and the eco-environment are particularly prominent in urban agglomerations with high industrial concentrations. Based on the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) theory, we propose the hypothesis of the Urbanization-EKC (UEKC), which states that in the process of urbanization, eco-environmental quality first deteriorates and then improves, following a "U" trend. Taking 19 Chinese urban agglomerations as empirical cases, this paper analyzed the multi-dimensional coupling curves between urbanization and the eco-environment. The results show that the coupling curves between urbanization and the eco-environment are heterogeneous, as a result of differences among urban agglomerations and various eco-environmental indicators. In five mega-urban agglomerations, we found that the coupled curve of urbanization and eco-environmental quality index (EQI) is a compound function containing logarithm and quadratic terms, following the "U" curve shape of "quick down, slow up"; the turning point of EQI improvement was found at an urbanization rate of 47%. The empirical results validate that the UEKC hypothesis is tenable for developed urban agglomerations. This study provides a methodological reference for researching the evolutionary relationship between urbanization and the eco-environment and provides decision support for a more harmonious development of humans and nature in China's urban agglomerations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper presented a multi-objective indicator system for the performance evaluation of crop production system based on emergy method. Eight emergy indicators were selected to analyze the crop production system in the 31 provinces of mainland China to compare intensive use, scale management, investment density, environmental pressure, output benefit, output density, output per capita, and economic benefit. This paper conducted a comparison of each indicator in different provinces, and divided the 31 provinces into 10 groups by cluster analysis. The results show that: the crop production system among provinces has a significant difference and it is summarized into 10 development modes; with the development of modern agriculture, Chinese crop production system still complies with the input–output balance; the majority of provinces cannot achieve win-win between economic investment and environmental health; most of the underdeveloped provinces with high productivity may not be able to obtain good economic benefit; there is a significant positive correlation between the scale management degree and emergy output per capita in the crop production system; 10 development modes and policy suggestions are deduced. It is concluded that emergy-based multi-objective indicators can serve as an effective method in the evaluation of crop production system. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Based on energy and CO 2 emission efficiencies, this paper proposes a definition of the elasticity of the potential of emission reduction to energy saving ( E peres ), and measures the elasticity in China’s 30 provincial regions. Although E peres is a relative definition, it can be used (1) to measure the amount of reduced CO 2 emissions per unit fossil energy saving, (2) to reflect the effectiveness of fossil energy saving for CO 2 emission reduction in different regions, and (3) to provide decision-making criteria for selecting pathways for emission reductions in different regions. The results show that compared with energy saving, emission reduction is a more serious issue in China. This indicates that energy saving policies have been highly effective since their implementation during the 11th “Five-Year Plan”. With respect to provincial disparities, the emission reductions caused by fossil energy saving are not significant in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangdong. Fujian province has significant E peres , indicating that emission reduction causing by fossil energy saving is effective. E peres has been increasing over time in Hunan and Hubei. Hainan’s E peres has remained less than 1, indicating that its emission-reduction effect of fossil energy saving is worse than in other provinces. Moreover, the elasticity of Eastern China is greater than that of Central China and Western China. This finding sheds light on pathway selection for energy saving and emission reduction in China: it would be more appropriate to encourage fossil energy saving in Eastern China, and to promote clean energy use (e.g., water electricity and solar energy) in Central China and Western China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A large accumulation of carbon dioxide emission have attracted much attention recently. The existing researches mainly focused on such impact factors of carbon dioxide emission as population, economy, technology and others. However, there is little specific guidance for the subdivision of demographic factors. This paper employed STIRPAT (Stochastic Impacts by Regression on Population, Affluence and Technology) model to examine the impact of population size, per capita consumption, energy intensity, urbanization and aging population on CO 2 emissions by adopting panel data of 30 provinces from 1997 to 2012. Taking the climate change as a control variable, we can get the result that the population size, per capita consumption and energy intensity have strong explanatory power on CO 2 emissions in the three regions. The urbanization level has a positive influence on carbon emissions in the western region and has a negative effect in the central region, while it is not statistically significant in the eastern region. Aging population increases emissions in the eastern region, while decreases emissions in the central region and the western region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Islands, which provide multiple ecosystem services, are subject to increasing urbanization pressure due to the ongoing marine development, especially in developing countries. Insights into the island urbanization mechanism and its ecological consequences are essential to sustainable development. In the present paper, the satellite images, nighttime lights, and topographic data were integrated to characterize the spatially explicit urbanization process and mechanism during 1995–2011 in the Zhoushan Island, East China. Furthermore, the corresponding spatially explicit changes in ecosystem services, including net primary productivity (NPP), carbon sequestration and oxygen production (CSOP), nutrient cycling, crop production, and habitat quality, were quantified based on the Carnegie–Ames–Stanford Approach (CASA) and Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs (InVEST) models. The results showed that the Zhoushan Island had experienced a rapid urbanization over the years, with significant urban encroachment on the farmland and tidal flat. Moreover, the urban land expansion was positively correlated with that of the nighttime lights and negatively correlated with the elevation, slope, and the distance to shoreline. These indicated that the urban expansion was resulted from the enhancement of socioeconomic activities, and concentrated in the near-shore areas with low altitude and gentle slope. The urban encroachment on other land use types resulted in a decrease of 3.4 Gg C a −1 NPP, 8.7 Gg a −1 CSOP, 13.2 Gg a −1 nutrient cycling, and 12.3 t a −1 crop production, respectively. In addition, the habitat quality in 11% area of this island degraded substantially. Therefore, to achieve sustainable development of islands, it is urgent to implement more stringent policies, such as island spatial regulation, environmental impact assessment, intensive land use, and urban greening, etc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rapid urbanization has exerted substantial pressure on China’s energy system and contributed to climate change. To find the key drivers of urban residential energy consumption and CO 2 emissions, this paper uses an extended Stochastic Impacts by Regression on Population, Affluence and Technology (STIRPAT) model that employs city-level data to examine the influences of population scale, income level, population compactness and price on house-based residential energy consumption, energy-related CO 2 emissions and private vehicle ownership. The empirical results indicate that factors such as population scale, affluence, and population compactness can lead to increases in residential energy consumption and CO 2 emissions. In terms of transportation, income and population scale positively drive the growth of private vehicle ownership, while the fuel price negatively influences private vehicle ownership. Moreover, population scale is the most important factor in residential energy consumption and CO 2 emissions. Finally, policy recommendations are suggested for China’s urban development strategy and urban design and to encourage technology innovations that reduce residential energy consumption and CO 2 emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses a meta-frontier slack-based DEA model to measure the ecological total-factor energy efficiency as well as the energy conservation potential of China’s four energy intensive subsectors. We incorporate both desirable and undesirable output together in the period, 2000–2013. The conclusions are: firstly, under the meta-frontier, the four subsectors of energy intensive industries have low average level of ecological total-factor energy efficiencies. They are 0.137, 0.212, 0.238, and 0.307 in the non-metallic mineral products manufacturing industry, raw chemical materials and chemical products manufacturing industry, smelting and pressing of ferrous metals industry, and smelting and pressing of non-ferrous metals industry, respectively. Secondly, the ecological energy efficiency in East China is the highest among three regions. Central China and West China are behind, but they are extremely close to each other. Thirdly, East China almost has no technology gap pertaining to energy efficiency, while Central China and West China almost have the same gap. Finally, Sichuan is considered to be the best province in West China under group frontier due to its perform in the three energy intensive subsectors. For Central and East China, no province has higher ecological energy efficiency in more than two energy intensive subsectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an initial inquiry into model-based numeric nitrogen and phosphorus criteria for estuaries based on stressor-response models between nutrients and algal biomass (Chl- a concentration) and further studies the effect of salinity ( S ) on nutrient criteria. Field data collection and associated indoor modeling were conducted in Daliaohe Estuary. Dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN), total nitrogen (TN), phosphate ( P O 4 3 − ) and total phosphorus (TP) eco-criteria of Daliaohe Estuary in China were calculated at salinities of 15, 25 and 31. The results suggested that the variation in S had significant influence on the DIN and TN eco-criteria and no obvious effect on the P O 4 3 − and TP eco-criteria. The values of DIN and TN eco-criteria increased with either higher or lower salinity concentrations, and were strongly linked to the effects of salinity on algal nutrient absorption and utilization, growth, metabolism, and osmotic pressure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper estimates water use efficiency of 31 provinces in China during 2004–2013 using slack based measure-data envelopment analysis (SBM-DEA) model which takes consideration of sewage. By using panel data model, factors that influence water use efficiency are explored. The results show that: (1) water use efficiency is higher in economically developed provinces such as Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin. (2) In general, inefficiencies of labor input and water input are larger than that of capital input. (3) After taking into account sewage as unexpected output, inefficiency of gross domestic product (GDP) for each province is quite low, but most provinces have inefficient sewage emission. (4) It is found in the analysis of influencing factors that the ratio of added value of agricultural sector, water usage per capita and sewage per unit of output have negative impact on water resources use efficiency, while the import dependence and export dependence have positive impact. The results are robust. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Environmental regulation (ER) directly promotes China's GTFP growth. • Both Industrial structure rationalization and advancement have mediating effects. • Green and production technological innovation mediate between ER and GTFP growth. Green total factor productivity (GTFP) growth is an essential route to realize the target of carbon peak and carbon neutrality. Chinese government has implemented several environmental regulations (ER) to accelerate GTFP growth. However, the influencing path of ER on China's GTFP growth is still puzzled. This paper based on Porter's and the Compliant Hypotheses, employs super-efficiency Epsilon-based measure (EBM) model and Malmquist-Lunberger (ML) index under meta -frontier to estimate the provincial GTFP growth from 1998 to 2018. A Systematic Generalized Method of Moments (SYS-GMM) model was applied to probe the nexus between ER and GTFP growth from the perspective of industrial structure upgrading and technological innovation. The results reveal that the average ML index is 0.955, while efficiency change (EC) and technology change (TC) index are 1.003 and 0.953. The Porter's hypothesis was confirmed refuting the Compliance Cost Hypothesis. Environmental regulation directly promotes China's GTFP growth. ER can also facilitate industrial structure rationalization (ISR) and industrial structure advancement (ISA), which further promote China's GTFP growth. Green technological innovation (GTI) and production technological innovation (PTI) mediates between ER and GTFP growth in China. Hence, the Chinese government should strengthen the ER for industrial structure upgrading, technological innovation, and GTFP growth in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The spatial and temporal evolution characteristics of wetlands in China from 2000 to 2020 were investigated. • The driving mechanisms of spatial and temporal changes in wetlands in China over the past 20 years were analyzed. • The changes in NPP showed consistency with the direction of wetland transfer. Wetlands are one of the most productive ecosystems on earth and play an important role in maintaining ecological balance and regulating climate. In this paper, 30 m resolution land use/land cover (LULC) data (2000, 2005, 2010, 2015, 2020) were employed to analyze the characteristics of spatial and temporal changes in the distribution of wetlands in China and their evolution patterns in the last two decades. The results indicated that the total area of wetlands in China showed an increasing trend during 2000–2020. During the study period, provinces with more increase in wetland area were concentrated in Qinghai Province, Tibet Autonomous Region and Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. And the provinces with more reduction in wetland area were mainly in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. The analysis of wetland change driving mechanism by introducing PLS-SEM model and GWR model found that good climate conditions as well as agricultural and economic conditions are favorable for wetland conservation in 2000–2020, while accelerated urbanization and population growth showed negative effects on wetland change. The spatial distribution pattern of wetland and NPP (Net Primary Production) changes showed spatial consistency in the extent of NPP changes and wetland transfer. The results of this study are intended to provide a basis for wetland conservation, rational use of wetland resources and scientific restoration in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • The measurement errors in long-time series remote sensing images are corrected by statistical and spatio-temporal prediction model. • The ecological degradation of the Miyun Reservoir basin from 1985 to 2021 is mainly caused by anthropogenic factors. • Through statistical theory, the ecological development trend in the experimental area is analyzed, and the conclusion is verified by land use evolution. Miyun Reservoir, located in the Miyun District, Beijing, China, is the largest comprehensive water conservancy project and is an important ecological protection area in the North China region. Changes within the basin are the driving factors affecting the ecosystem in the watershed; therefore, it is important to analyze the changes in the ecological environment of Miyun Reservoir. For the analysis of a long time series of image data remotely sensed by satellite, the outliers caused by atmospheric, lighting, and sensor measurement errors are significant, and it is difficult for traditional algorithms to effectively recover the true image value. To address this, this paper proposes a theoretical model for predicting spatio-temporal variation based on deep learning to identify and correct invalid and anomalous values in extended time series data. This study corrected and analyzed the results of Remote Sensing based Ecological Index inversion of Landsat data of the Miyun Reservoir watershed from 1985 to 2021. The findings and conclusions of this study are important for the analysis of long time series image data from satellite remote sensing and for improving regional ecological evaluation and sustainable development planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A framework for analyzing socioeconomic factors affecting ESV is proposed. • Use economic models to determine best management policies. • The effect of factors on ESV changes with the stage of development. • The spatial spillover effect of the influencing factors of EVS is obvious. The impact of social and economic development on local ecological patterns should not be ignored. Because human beings cannot change the natural environment quickly, it is only by paying attention to the research on social and economic factors that we can promote the implementation of policies. From the perspective of ecological economics, this paper selects panel data for 31 provinces in China during 2000–2020 to explore the differences in influencing factors in different socioeconomic development stages by using the spatial Durbin model and piecewise regression method. We found that the distribution of ecosystem service value per unit area in China is uneven, being high in the east and low in the west, high in the south, and low in the north. At different stages of social and economic development, per capita GDP, the proportion of the primary industry, the proportion of the tertiary industry, industrial pollution control investment, population density, construction land area, total investment in key forestry projects, education infrastructure and per capita road length have different impacts on ecosystem service value, and even different spatial spillover effects on local and adjacent areas. Therefore, when formulating policies to improve the value of ecosystem services, the impact of socioeconomic factors in different regions and at different times must be carefully considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Big data technology and multisource data were used for high-risk area identification. • A framework linking heavy metals in soils with their sources was established. • A heavy metal pollution assessment result was obtained with good performance. • Mineral exploration affected the distribution of heavy metal pollutants in soil. With the increasing maturity of big data technology, its application in the field of environmental assessment has become an important issue. The mining of mineral resource can affect the balance in the ecological environment surrounding mining areas and the normal life activities of humans through groundwater. To solve this problem, big data-based methods were used to evaluate the pollution risk in mining areas in this article. Based on a spatial big data management framework, in this paper, high-risk areas in eastern Tianshan were quantitatively analyzed and delineated via a new comprehensive heavy metal pollution assessment system. A distributed storage environment, unstructured management method and spatial index coding were used to uniformly manage spatial data in vector and raster formats retrieved from different sources. A system involving 18 geological environment indicators was used to evaluate the risk level in the study area and in delineated areas with a high risk of heavy metal pollution. The results indicated that the proposed framework could efficiently store and process spatial data and realize environmental pollution risk assessment in a big data environment. In addition, some of the high-pollution risk areas identified based on the assessment results were consistent with actual mine locations. Overall, the results show that integrating multi-source geological characteristics through a comprehensive evaluation system based on big data can have a positive effect on improving the accuracy of heavy metal pollution risk assessment. Heavy metal pollution assessment can provide a reference for environmental monitoring and governance of the eastern Tianshan region and offer new solutions to large-scale heavy metal pollution assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The achievement of regional sustainable development is at the core of PLES. • The quantitative identification of land use functions forms the foundation of territory spatial planning and management. • The COAL model provides a reference for determining future PLES development. Analysis of the dynamics of regional production-life-ecological space (PLES) can help to mitigate conflicts between economic development and the natural environment and can also promote sustainable and healthy regional development. However, the delineation and optimal integration of PLES at large scales, and predictions about its future, still lack sufficient scientific basis and reliable quantitative analysis. To fill this gap, this paper therefore chooses the city cluster as a research scale and the Lanzhou-Xining City Cluster (LXCC), an area typical of the "human-nature" conflict in northern China, as a case study. A collaborative optimal allocation of land-use (COAL) model was established to explore the future development of PLES in city clusters. In COAL, a morphological spatial pattern analysis (MSPA) and a minimum cumulative resistance model are used to determine the spatial functional areas of the country in 2020. Then, combined with the future land use simulation model, the PLES of LXCC is predicted in a multi-scenario perspective and differential control strategies are implemented for different land use functions. The results show that: (1) The identification and prioritization of source sites with important functions were the basis for enhancing the multiple functions of the land in the region. The ecological "source" of expansion accounts for 42% of the total area of LXCC, mainly in the mountains, forests, and ecological reserves, while the living "source" of expansion accounts for 58% of the total area of the city, mostly scattered on flat terrain. Based on this, five functional zones have been defined. The ecological protection zone was the largest, mainly in the western part of LXCC, and the agricultural buffer zone was the smallest. (2) The integration of different functional areas into the optimal allocation of land use is the premise of PLES delineation under the COAL framework. After a comparative analysis of multiple scenarios, the result of land use optimization under coordinated the city cluster scenario increased the area of productive land to 177,780.68 km2 and the area of living land to 13,947.33 km2. Based on this, the proportion of LXCC ecological, production, and living space were 77.20%, 18.23%, and 4.57% respectively. The optimized results have been proven to serve to meet the future spatial needs for food security and ecological conservation. The results of this study demonstrate that the COAL framework can help the government to determine the future development of PLES and promote balanced regional development in city clusters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Understanding the driving forces of environmental consequences is pivotal for agricultural sustainability. • An integrated approach hybridized by econometric modeling and machine learning was used. • Income and geographical proximity factor determine a large share of variation both fertilizer use and water quality. • Non-linear associations discovered will be conducive to policy improvement. Farming in sustainable ways is rapidly gaining importance, which necessitates a quantitative understanding of the major determinants of agricultural environmental consequences. The main objective of this paper is to investigate the environmental effects and their drivers of agricultural production through the lens of fertilizer application and water quality. An integration of the econometric modeling and machine learning methodologies (multiple regression model and boosted regression trees method) was employed to dissect the relative importance and the non-linearity of each variable. The results showed that (1) Household income level is a primary contributing factor to both fertilizers use and water quality, demonstrating an increasing marginal effect. (2) Proximity factor-distance from provincial capital city positively correlated with these two terms. (3) Water quality is more sensitive to natural conditions, such as precipitation and elevation, which also considerably affect fertilizer use. (4) Agricultural mechanization level is positively related to fertilizer use despite their non-linear effects. In summary, capital, technology, and labor input are the major socio-economic determinants of the environmental consequences, which were also largely associated with regional natural conditions. These findings provide quantitative insights that can be used to improve the agro-environment and achieve sustainable agricultural growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• An optimization of eco-industrial structure considering economy-society-ecology. • A multi-objective optimization model meeting three dimensional objectives is built. • The hybrid ACO-PSO algorithm is applied to solve the model. • Optimized scenarios realize overall development of economic-social-ecological benefits. • The optimized scenarios with different tendencies promote different benefits. The establishment of ecological economic system has become the key to realize the transformation of China's economy from high-speed development to high-quality development. This paper considers the multiple goals of economic, social, and ecological benefits to achieve sustainable development. Firstly, it establishes an indicator system affecting economic, social, and ecological benefits to guide the construction of the subsequent model. Secondly, this study constructs a multi-objective optimization model for ecological industrial structure. According to the different emphasis of objectives, a hybrid approach based on ant colony optimization and particle swarm optimization (ACO-PSO) is implemented to solve the optimal solution set of feasible schemes. Finally, Sichuan Province is selected as the case study area, and three scenarios including economic oriented scenario, employment protection scenario and environment-friendly scenario are screened and analyzed. The results show that: (1) After reasonable optimization and adjustment of the industrial structure, it realizes the overall development of economic benefits, social benefits, and ecological benefits. The comprehensive benefits of sustainable development have been significantly improved. (2) The optimized scenarios with different tendencies promote different benefits. Decision makers can make better choices based on the diverse needs of the different development stage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Markov-FLUS and InVEST models can effectively predict the spatiotemporal changes of LULC and carbon storage. • Carbon storage will continue to increase in the future, with the largest increase in the ecological protection scenario (EP). • The implementation of ecological engineering and economic development had obvious promotion effect on carbon storage. There are more than 2,800 counties in China, including 341 in the Loess Plateau region. The county is the basic unit of administrative management and is considered to be the best scale for land use control, environmental planning and policy implementation. Since the 1990 s, socioeconomic development and the implementation of ecological engineering have greatly changed the land use and land cover (LULC) patterns in the Loess Plateau counties, and presumably in the county's carbon. However, accurate assessment of carbon storage and driving factors remains a challenge. This paper selected Qingcheng County, a typical county in the Loess Plateau, and used multi-source data and comprehensive environmental modeling methods to evaluate and analyze the temporal and spatial trends and driving factors of carbon storage in Qingcheng County from 2000 to 2030. The results showed that: (1) the carbon storage in the terrestrial ecosystem increased from 2000 to 2030 in Qingcheng, and it was mainly distributed in grassland and forest, accounting for 49 %–53 % and 36 %–40 % of the total carbon storage, respectively. (2) The implementation of ecological engineering had obvious promotion effect on carbon storage in the terrestrial ecosystem. The precipitation and temperature in the past 20 years had provided favorable climatic conditions for ecological engineering. In addition, carbon storage was also affected by economic development, land input intensity, and population size. These findings provide recommendations for achieving sustainable socioeconomic and ecological development at county-level. This study contributes to a deeper understanding of the relationship between LULC and carbon storage caused by natural environment and socioeconomic factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• ●We use Matlab to simulate the behaviour of government, farmers and consumers. • ●Government's ecological compensation can be upped to 200 %∼267 % of the original level. • ●Government's consumption subsidy can be upped to about 136% of the original level. • ●Farmers' risk expectations inversely affects their willingness to reduce fertiliser. • ●Consumer trust positively affects farmers' willingness to reduce fertiliser use. The excessive use of chemical fertilisers seriously worsened the agro-ecological environment in China. Despite the Chinese government enacted a series of policies to reduce chemical fertilisers use, the situation has not been significantly improved. Existing researches about the fertiliser reduction mainly from a single subject, but farmers' chemical fertiliser use behaviour is jointly affected by multiple subjects, including farmers, market and government. To reduce chemical fertilisers use and realize the green and sustainable development of agriculture, this paper builds a tripartite evolution model of the government, farmers and consumers based on evolutionary game theory, and simulates and discusses the behaviour of the government, farmers and consumers in the process of fertiliser reduction. Results indicate: (1) Under different partnership modes, the tripartite of government, farmers and consumers can evolve to reach a stable state. (2) The government's ecological compensation for farmers' fertiliser reduction and subsidies for consumers' green consumption are inadequate. Raising ecological compensation to 200%–267% of the original level could incentive farmers chemical fertiliser reduction. Raising the price subsidies for consumers' green consumption to approximately 136% of the original level could help motivate farmers to make a green production transformation through the market mechanism. (3) Farmers' risk expectations of fertiliser reduction is negatively correlated with farmers' chemical fertilisers reduction willingness and consumers' green consumption willingness. Consumers' trust is positively correlated with farmers' chemical fertilisers reduction willingness and consumers' green consumption willingness. This study provides theoretical guidance for the government, farmers and consumers in making scientific decisions, serving as a policy reference for the government to promote chemical fertiliser reduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The sustainability of Chinese economy has attracted attentions from all over the world since China''s reform & opening up policy. This paper attempted to evaluate the relationships among Chinese economy, energy and its impact of emissions during 1991–2009 using several novel indicators based on emergy, energy and monetary units. The results show that NH3-N in wastewater has taken main responsibility for impact of emissions, the hidden environmental cost per unit economic output has been continuously reduced, education and R & D investment has cut pollutants generating intensity since 1997, and environmental protection investment has cut emission intensity since 1996. Generally speaking, the coordination degree of structure and scale of China''s economy has been improved to different degree from 1991 to 2009. However, the growth of education and R & D investment and environmental protection investment has not prevented impact of emissions from increase caused by economic aggregate growth, and the turning point has not appeared in this period. Finally, this paper discusses some related issues and puts forward the corresponding suggestions. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

• System GMM model was applied to test the mechanism of environmental regulation on the pollution-intensive industry transfer. • The transfer shows a general trend from the east to the central and western in China. • The central and the western have become "pollution paradise" for pollution-intensive industries. The pollution associated has intensified the environmental pressure within industrial transfer between the central and the western region in China. It's the key issue that how to use environmental regulations to promote the orderly pollution-intensive industries transfer and the optimization of industrial structure to realize the construction of ecological civilization during the transformation and upgrading of economic. By constructing the index of environmental regulation and industry transfer, this paper analyzed the spatial-temporal change of pollution-intensive industry transfer. We collected panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2004 to 2016 and studied the spatial differences of pollution-intensive industry transfer from the perspective of environmental regulation. This paper studied the path and mechanism of environmental regulation on the pollution-intensive industry transfer theoretically and empirically with System Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) model. The conclusions are as follows: Firstly, the pollution-intensive industry transfer in China shows a general trend from the east to the central and western regions. Secondly, there are obvious differences in environmental regulation between different regions. Thirdly, there are some differences in the impact of environmental regulation on industrial transfer. Therefore, the central and western regions should coordinate economic development and environmental protection when undertaking industrial transfer from the east, to optimize and upgrade industrial structure, and promote long-term economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• GDIM is used to investigate the influencing factors of energy-related PM 2.5 emissions in China. • A novel decoupling indicator is constructed based on GDIM decomposition results. • The increase of PM 2.5 emissions is primarily due to output scale and energy use effects. • Emission intensity and emission coefficients are the main factors decreasing PM 2.5 emissions. • Technical effect plays an important role in promoting the decoupling of PM 2.5 emissions. Haze pollution has become a severe threat to China's sustainable development. It is crucial to provide a complete explanation for the mechanism behind the changes in PM 2.5 pollution and explore how to decouple economic growth from PM 2.5 pollution. Compared with the traditional decomposition analysis methods, the Generalized Divisia Index Method (GDIM) integrates multiple influencing factors and provides a fuller understanding of the influence mechanism of PM 2.5 pollution. In addition, the decomposition of the monitored PM 2.5 concentration in previous studies leads to ambiguous economic meanings of some relative impact indicators. In this paper, GDIM decomposition is applied to study the driving factors of energy-related PM 2.5 emissions changes in China. Then, based on the GDIM decomposition results, this paper constructs a novel decoupling indicator to study the decoupling relationship between PM 2.5 emissions and economic growth, and the contributions of the technical and non-technical factors to the decoupling indicator are quantified. The main results are summarized as follows. (1) The output scale effect and energy use effect are the main reasons for the increase of PM 2.5 emissions, while the emission intensity effect and emission coefficient effect make major contributions to decreasing PM 2.5 emissions. The effects of population, per capita emissions, per capita output, and energy intensity are relatively minor. (2) China and its three economic regions move from strong decoupling in 1998–2000 to weak decoupling during 2000–2010, and then into strong decoupling over the period of 2010–2014. (3) Technical effect plays an important role in promoting the decoupling between PM 2.5 emissions and economic growth, but its contribution shows a downward trend over time. In contrast, non-technical effect hinders the decoupling process, and its contribution is decreasing from 2000 to 2014. This paper is supportive for formulating emissions reduction policies and improving China's air quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• We analysed the influencing factors of urban eco-efficiency in Western China. • The US-SBM model and spatial econometric models were used for 84 cities' data. • Urban eco-efficiency showed a fluctuating upward trend during 2004–2017. • Economic development and urbanization had U-shaped impact on urban eco-efficiency. • Four explanatory variables showed a positive impact on urban eco-efficiency. Improving eco-efficiency can promote sustainable development. This study first evaluated the urban eco-efficiency of 84 cities in Western China from 2004 to 2017 by the undesirable-super-slack-based measure (US-SBM) and analysed their spatiotemporal characteristics, and then investigated its influencing factors using spatial econometric models. The results indicated that the urban eco-efficiency in Western China was at a relatively low level and showed a fluctuating upward trend with the highest average value of 0.65; however, capital cities of Western China have improved their eco-efficiency rapidly. Furthermore, there were obvious spatial spill-over impacts of the urban eco-efficiency in Western China. This paper also found that both the economic development level and urbanization level have "U" shaped impacts on Western China's urban eco-efficiency, which decreases at first and then rises. Similarly, increasing the proportion of secondary industry promotes urban eco-efficiency, and FDI, trade activities, improved environmental regulations as well as technological innovation capabilities have a positive impact on urban eco-efficiency in Western China. This paper also put forward corresponding policy suggestions to promote Western China's urban eco-efficiency. The present study may be helpful for policy-makers to balance economic development and environmental protection in Western China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Two new indicators are proposed to assess the impact of sector CO 2 reduction on other sectors. • These indicators consider the cascading effect between sectors in the industrial chain. • Compared with existing indicators, new indicators can provide more information for policy. • Electricity and hot water production and supply sector has a major impact on China's CO 2 emissions. To mitigate environmental pressure, many studies have calculated the CO 2 emissions of a sector from the perspectives of production and consumption. However, determining a sector's CO 2 reduction tasks based on these two indicators may underestimate the contribution of that sector to CO 2 reductions in the entire economic system. The total CO 2 emission reduction in the entire economic system cannot be regarded as a simple sum of CO 2 emission reductions in various sectors. The situation that the reduction of CO 2 emissions in one sector can promote the reduction of CO 2 emissions in other sectors through a series of chain reactions in the industrial chain needs to be considered. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to develop new indicators to assess the impact of sectoral CO 2 reduction in the industrial chain, that is, when CO 2 emissions are reduced in one sector, how much it promotes to the reductions in other sectors. We take China as a case and gain additional insights that are not available from existing indicators. The results reveal when the CO 2 emissions of the Electricity and hot water production and supply sector change by 10%, its PCIC-CE and CCIC-CE are 4.13% and 3.83%, respectively. This indicate that the direct reduction of CO 2 emissions in the sector has an additional impact on the CO 2 emissions of the entire economic system. Hence, the new environmental indicators proposed in this paper can complement the existing indicators and guide sector-level environmental pressure mitigation strategies from a holistic perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A new Two-dimensional decoupling model was constructed. • The static and dynamic two-dimensional decoupling state of China's 30 provinces from 2000 to 2019 was analyzed. • The decoupling state of economic growth and CO 2 emissions of 30 provinces was discussed in two decoupling models. The traditional Tapio decoupling model can not discriminate the decoupling state of a country or region with multiple levels of economic development. Based on this, this paper introduces the economic growth index into the Tapio decoupling model for the first time, and constructs a new two-dimensional decoupling (TDD) model. Through the TDD analysis of economic growth and CO 2 emissions of 30 provinces in China from 2000 to 2019, the three main conclusions can be drawn: (1) the economic development level of the developed eastern provinces is at the medium or high state and the economic growth does not highly depend on energy consumption; (2) The economy of the central and western provinces is at the low or middle level, their economic growth relies too much on energy consumption; (3) The dynamic path of TDD state of 23 provinces is ascendant and the remaining 7 provinces are fluctuant over the 4 sub-periods. Provincial governments should adjust industrial and energy structures based on their local conditions to reduce carbon emissions, as well achieve the ideal TDD state of economic growth and CO 2 emissions, that is, Strong Decoupling-High economic state (SD-HS). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • The proportion of vegetation improvement area in QLMs reached 65.06% in the past 21 years, while 52% of the area will be continuously improved in the future. • The distribution of the NDVI in the QLMs maintained a high spatial agglomeration. • Annual sunshine duration is the main meteorological factor affecting vegetation change in Qilian Mountains. • The interaction between different driving factors can improve the explanatory power of vegetation changes compared with a single driving factor. Vegetation is an important indicator reflecting ecological environment stability, and monitoring vegetation change and understanding its potential driving force have important guiding significance for the adjustment and implementation of ecological restoration measures. As an ecological security barrier in northwest China, the Qilian Mountains (QLMs) play an important role in promoting the green development of social and economic development. Currently, the comprehensive driving effects of natural and anthropogenic factors on vegetation change in the QLMs are not clear. Based on the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), the spatiotemporal characteristics and trend changes in vegetation in the QLMs were systematically analyzed from 2000 to 2020 in this paper. The effects of natural and anthropogenic driving factors on vegetation change were explored using a geographic detector (GeoDetector). The results showed that the vegetation has improved continuously in the past 21 years, but the overall vegetation coverage was still low. The vegetation distribution was highly clustered, with a decreasing trend from east to west. Annual sunshine duration (q statistic = 0.3347) and distance to the rivers (q statistic = 0.2649) had the greatest explanatory power for vegetation change, while slope, aspect, and landform type had the least explanatory power. The interaction between elevation and sunshine duration, temperature and precipitation, temperature and sunshine duration, elevation and precipitation had the most explanatory power for vegetation change. Finally, we determined the ranges or categories of driving factors that were most suitable for vegetation growth by using a risk detector. The results of this study can help us further understand the potential driving mechanism of vegetation coverage variation in the QLMs and provide theoretical guidance for relevant managers to formulate ecological restoration measures and land management policies in the next step. It is of great significance to maintain the stability of the fragile ecological environment and prevent land degradation in arid and semiarid areas of Northwest China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Presents a data-driven measurement, evaluation, and identification method. • Uses a coupling coordination degree model for three regional agriculture subsystems. • Suggests ways to reduce costs, increase social support, and enhance competitiveness. This study aims to evaluate the relationship between the agriculture economy environment, and society from the perspective of system theory and then put forward targeted suggestions for sustainable development of Anhui's agriculture in China. Based on the collection of relevant data and the objective weighting of indicators, the entropy weight method is used to measure the comprehensive development level of regional agriculture. The coupling coordination degree model is employed to evaluate the coupling coordination level among the three subsystems of regional agriculture. The obstacle degree model is used to identify the key obstacle factors. The case study results show that the main obstacles of the coordination system are the use of pesticides, the number of agricultural scientific and technological achievements, the application of agricultural plastic film, the number of farmers' technical training schools, and the proportion of animal husbandry. Accordingly, the paper posits suggestions, such as reducing the input of pesticides and agricultural plastic films in agricultural production, improving the social support level of agricultural science, technology, and education, and enhancing the competitiveness of animal husbandry in the Anhui Province. This study provides theoretical and methodological support for the coupled and coordinated development of regional agricultural economy, ecology and society(EES). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • A new spatial autoregressive threshold panel model and its estimation method are proposed. • PM 2.5 concentration in adjacent provinces increases 1% can lead to that in observing province increases 0.7678%. • The influence effects of socioeconomic and climatic factors on PM 2.5 are different at low and high economic levels. • Applying nonlinear spatial econometric techniques in environment research. Reducing PM 2.5 is an important way to ameliorate air quality. Research on driving factors of PM 2.5 can provide empirical support for controlling cross-regional linkage air pollution. In this paper, we first propose a new spatial autoregressive threshold panel model and its estimation method, and then apply this methodology to study influencing elements of PM 2.5 using the panel data of China during 2000–2019. The results reveal that China's provincial PM 2.5 has a significant positive spatial spillover effect, and its major driving factors have significant two regimes threshold characteristic when economic development is divided into low and high levels. Specifically, (1) PM 2.5 concentration in adjacent provinces increases 1% can lead to that in observing province increases 0.7741%. (2) The positive impacts of population size, energy structure and humidity on PM 2.5 are significant at low economic level, and become not significant at high economic level. (3) The influence of industrialization, economic development, energy intensity, urbanization and wind speed on PM 2.5 in two regimes is significantly positive, and elasticity coefficients of industrialization and economic development decrease with improvement of economic level while energy intensity, urbanization and wind speed are on the contrary. (4) The influence of possession of civil vehicles on PM 2.5 changes from negative to positive as economic level increases. (5) Temperature has no significant effect on PM 2.5 concentration. (6) The influence of precipitation on PM 2.5 is significantly positive in regime II and not significant in regime I. Therefore, local governments should strengthen cooperation with adjacent provinces and jointly adopt effective measures to cut down on PM 2.5 pollution. The provinces with low economic level should accelerate economic transformation, improve industrial production efficiency, optimize energy structure, and advocate green and low-carbon lifestyle. The provinces with high economic level need to further expand consumer demand, actively develop tertiary industries, promote new energy vehicles and vigorously develop public transport. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The island development of functional polycentricity was lagging than that of the morphological dimension. • Spatial regression model performs well in fitting the association between polycentric urban variables and island landscape changes. • The effects of dual polycentric urban indicators on island landscape changes varied spatially and temporally. • Polycentric urban development generally contributed to fragmented and complex island landscape patterns on the periphery areas of subcenters and reclamation. Polycentric urban development has become popular worldwide as expected to generate greater agglomeration externality and facilitate socioeconomic achievements. Despite much insightful work on urban polycentricity in coastal agglomerations or megacities, few studies have focused on how polycentric urban development affects landscape sustainability in vulnerable island cities. This paper characterized the urban polycentricity from the perspective of morphological and functional dimensions during 1990–2020 in Yuhuan island city, China, and quantified the association between polycentric urban variables and island landscape changes by spatial regression. The results showed that there was a mismatch in development between the morphological and functional polycentricity, in which the functional dimension was lagging. In response, island landscape patterns became fragmented and scattered. With the application of GWR models, the effects of two polycentric factors on island landscape changes varied spatially and temporally. The stronger relationships between them were identified in regions where more heterogeneous patterns were presented, such as the subcenters and their surroundings and reclamation areas. These trends were mainly attributed to industrial suburbanization and the development of new economic zone and Damaiyu port. Our findings call for a more balanced functional urban polycentricity; and local-specific landscape effects should be scheduled in island planning practice and sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Spatiotemporal variation in vegetation on the Loess Plateau was investigated. • Precipitation was the greatest driving factor. • There was a bivariate or nonlinear enhancement between all factors. • Key factors' adaptation range or type suitable for vegetation cover was identified. Vegetation, being a core component of ecosystems, is known to be influenced by natural and anthropogenic factors. Studying vegetation cover dynamics variation and its drivers is critical to understanding the interactions between vegetation and ecosystems. The Loess Plateau (LP) is located in a semi-arid and semi-humid region with severe soil erosion and fragile ecology. This paper used the annual maximum Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI ymax) and growing season mean NDVI (NDVI gsmean) as the vegetation cover indicator. The vegetation cover variation of LP from 2000 to 2020 was analyzed using Sen's slope and Mann-Kendall test. Then the influence of natural and anthropogenic factors on the driving mechanisms of spatial vegetation differentiation was explored by the Geodetector model. The results revealed that the growth trends of NDVI ymax and NDVI gsmean were 0.075/10 years and 0.038/10 years, respectively, and the areas with improved vegetation cover accounted for 92.67 % and 88.58 % of the total area. The vegetation cover of the southeastern and northern parts of the LP decreased significantly; however, the central, southwestern, and northeastern parts exhibited a remarkable improvement. Precipitation, vegetation type, soil type, temperature, and land use type were the key driving forces, ranked differently on NDVI ymax and NDVI gsmean. However, precipitation was the most critical factor both on NDVI ymax and NDVI gsmean. The interaction detection showed non-linear and mutual enhancement, with no independent factor. The findings of our study can assist in identifying the vegetation cover status of the LP, as well as the driving forces, which can provide theoretical support for the formulation of environmental conservation policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• DPSIRM model was used to evaluate the ecological security of Xilingol grassland. • Remote sensing, meteorology, socio-economic and survey data are used in this paper. • We use grid GIS method to obtain more accurate evaluation results. • We analyzed the spatial-temporal evolution characteristics of ecological security. • Changes in the center of gravity in different security levels are also explored. The quantitative evaluation of the ecological security can reflect the changes in the quality of ecological environment and provide a scientific basis for the formulation of land-use policy and for the construction of the ecological environment. In this study, we selected Xilingol League in Inner Mongolia, China, as the research area, and established the driving force-pressure-state-impact-response-management (DPSIRM) model to evaluate grassland ecological security. The results were as follows: (1) During 2005–2015, the overall trend of ecological security level in the study area increased, with the western region being relatively ecologically insecure and the eastern region being more secure. (2) The spatial distribution trend of ecological security level from west to east was " very serious alerts " → " serious alerts " → " moderate alerts " → " light alerts "→ " no alert ". (3) The " very serious alerts " and " serious alerts " are mainly concentrated in Sonid Left Banner and Sonid Right Banner, but from the perspective of spatial migration of ecological security, unsafe and less safe tend to shift to the northeast. This study provides a new idea for grassland ecological security evaluation research, has important practical significance for understanding the ecological security level of Xilingol grassland area, and will guide the reasonable development and utilization of Xilingol grassland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The rainy season was the key period when land use landscape pattern affected the river water chemistry. • The sub-watershed scale was the core scale that affects river water chemistry as a whole. • The "source-sink" functions of the same land use type changes with the change of scale. • Forestland and grassland have obvious interception effect on soil erosion at riparian scale. The impact of the land use landscape pattern on river hydrochemistry has significant scale effects. It is the premise and foundation of landscape optimization and the conservation of water resources to accurately identify the core scale of the landscape pattern impacting on river hydrochemistry. Taking Binggou River Basin in the source region of Shiyang River Basin as the study area, this paper selected the three spatial scales of catchment area, buffer zone, and riparian zone, and the relationships between land use types and landscape indices and river hydrochemical characteristics were analyzed at different spatio-temporal scales using redundancy analysis. The results showed that the hydrochemistry characteristics of Binggou River Basin had strong temporal variability, and the rainy season was the key period when the land use landscape pattern affected the river hydrochemistry. The sub-watershed and riparian scales were the core scales of influence of the landscape pattern on river hydrochemistry in Binggou River Basin. In particular, the landscape pattern index contributed the most to the river hydrochemistry at the sub-watershed scale on the whole, which was the core scale affecting river hydrochemistry. The "source" or "sink" functions of the same land use type also changed as the scale changed. Forest land showed weak "source" effect at the sub-watered scale, but a strong interception effect on the soil erosion process at the riparian scale, which is a typical "sink" landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Both GPP and GPP max in Chinese grasslands showed increases at different space–time scales. • Trend analysis and breakpoint tests were used for the first time to monitor GPP change simultaneously in Chinese grasslands. • GPP max × CUP is a robust indicator to explain annual-scale variation in GPP. At the ecosystem level, Gross Primary Productivity (GPP) was defined as the organic compounds formed by plants that absorb atmospheric CO 2 through photosynthesis and sequester carbon in plant bodies. How to accurately assess the spatiotemporal evolution of ecosystem carbon indicators has become a critical issue to be addressed. Chinese grasslands are located in a typical arid and semi-arid climate zone and are sensitive to global changes, which will inevitably have serious impacts on the function and structure of Chinese grasslands. Based on this, our paper takes Chinese grassland ecosystems as the research area, and used multi-source GPP dataset from terrestrial ecosystem model simulations and remote sensing satellite observations to quantitatively analyze the spatiotemporal evolution patterns of GPP in Chinese grasslands over the past 40 years. We combined trend analysis and breakpoint test, and then to analyze the mechanism components of GPP space–time variability. The main results are as follows: (1) The model and remote sensing estimated GPP results showed that more than 80% of Chinese grasslands show a significant increasing trend over the past 40 years, with growth rates ranging from 0.68 to 3.13 g C/m−2 year−1. (2) GPP max also shows that more than 80% of Chinese grasslands are growing rapidly, with an overall growth rate of more than 0.1 g C/m−2 year−1 in each region. The overall long-term trends and interannual variability of multi-source GPP and GPP max are generally consistent, yet vegetation dynamics in local areas are still uncertain. (3) The breakpoint test showed that 'monotonically increasing' was the largest breakpoint type of GPP in Chinese grasslands (33.09%), and the direction of change of GPP in Chinese grasslands before and after the breakpoint was also increasing. (4) GPP max × CUP explained 91% of the temporal variability of annual-scale GPP in Chinese grasslands from a mechanistic view, and we found that the peak photosynthetic growth and the length of the phenological period synergistically controlled the interannual variability of GPP in Chinese grasslands. Under the scenario of rapid global change, our study accurately assessed the long-term dynamics of GPP and its mechanism-driven of grassland ecosystems in China, which is helpful for estimating and predicting the carbon budget of grassland ecosystems in China, and has important guiding significance for policy formulation to mitigate climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Coupling coordination model applied to ecological well-being performance evaluation. • There are north–south differences in ecological well-being performance in China. • Dimension difference presents the arrangement pattern of city > province > region. • Cities are now the key to narrowing ecological well-being performance differences. With increasing pressure on the global ecological environment, natural capital has become scarce. Improving the well-being of residents within a limited ecological environment is a fundamental requirement for sustainable development. This paper constructs a novel multidimensional evaluation framework to make well-being performance (EWP) evaluation results comprehensive and universal. Meanwhile, the vertical and horizontal opening grade method, coupled coordination model, and spatial exploratory data analysis (ESDA) were introduced to measure and analyse EWP, which provides new ideas for EWP evaluation research. The results show that (1) the EWP of each dimension in China is not high, but the EWP of each dimension shows a good upwards trend. The EWPs of each dimension can basically remain stable or enter the primary coordination stage. (2) There is a north–south difference in EWP, which is opposite to the economic difference; that is, EWP in the north is better than that in the south. (3) The EWP of each dimension is also different, which shows an arrangement pattern of city dimension > province dimension > region dimension. (4) EWP is generally higher in provincial capital cities, which is significantly different from other cities in local provinces. The basic reason for this difference comes from the snowball effect of the provincial capital city itself and the siphon effect it has on the surrounding cities. (5) The spatial autocorrelation characteristics of EWP were significantly positive, showing a strong agglomeration pattern in space.. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • A framework of suburb sponge city construction that weighs subjective and objective is proposed. • The EIRSA methodology balanced the important ecological service and residents' basic needs clearly. • The MCDM method is conducive to optimizing the construction of sponge city. • The research is a feasible strategy to build a sponge city that can improve residents' well-being. The construction of the sponge city can effectively alleviate the problems of urban waterlogging and pollution and promote the city's sustainable development. However, few studies on sponge city construction take into account both natural background conditions and resident satisfaction. This study considers both physical and psychological benefits and presents a new integrated theoretical framework to improve urban runoff quality and the well-being of residents. The developed framework consists of two parts: sponge city control space identification and optimization design. The control space suitable for sponge city construction was identified, using the Eco-Importance-Resident Satisfaction Analysis (EIRSA) methodology, and the relationship between the basic needs of suburban residents and the current ecosystem service capacity was explored. The Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) method was used to optimize the design of the identified control space. The resident subjective visions and sponge city construction goals were used to determine the construction area and type of LID using GIS and the Storm Water Management Model (SWMM). The proposed framework was then applied to a suburb of Huizhou City, China, as a case study. This study analyzed the physical and psychological benefits of sponge city design schemes with different rainfall scenarios (S1, S2, S3, and S4) for the LID construction project. The results identified this scheme had met 90% or more of the region's volume capture ratio of annual rainfall constraints. Furthermore, >60% of the respondents were content with our planning scheme, with 21% being extremely satisfied, compared to only 2.1% satisfied, and 0.7% very satisfied. Considering the trade-off between ecological importance and resident satisfaction, it is a feasible strategy to build a sponge city that can improve residents' well-being in the future. The findings of this paper provide a detailed decision-making basis for the construction of sponge city in suburban areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A spatiotemporal analysis of economic-social-infrastructural-ecological resilience was provided. • An entropy weight-TOPSIS and CCD model were used to reveal interactions between urban resilience subsystems. • The interactions within urban resilience in the YREB was characterized by increasing regional disparity. • Optimal strategies and policy implications for the YREB were put forward. Urban resilience is a highly integrated system with multiple dimensions involving dynamic transformations and interactions across dimensions. It is crucial for urban sustainability to investigate the coupling coordination relationships between urban resilience subsystems. We used data from 126 cities in 2008, 2012, and 2017 in the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB) in China, the entropy weight-TOPSIS method, and a coupling coordination degree (CCD) model to quantify the economic, social, infrastructure, and ecological resilience and the coupling coordination relationships. The results indicated that the economic resilience (EnR), infrastructure resilience (IR), and ecological resilience (ElR) indices exhibited a non-steady increasing trend, whereas the social resilience (SR) index gradually decreased over time. Spatially, the EnR and SR indices decreased from the eastern to the central and western cities, and the IR and ElR indices had high values in the east and west and low values in the midstream region. Interestingly, the midstream region was the only one showing a dramatic decline in the SR and ElR indices, whereas the upstream and downstream areas maintained a steady growth trend for all four indices. Further, the YREB was dominated by cities with high IR and ElR indices, showing a gradual decline in the number of resilience patterns. Combined with the overall and pair-wise coupling coordination results, our findings indicate that the four subsystems were in moderate imbalance. The upstream and midstream regions remained in moderate imbalance, but the downstream regions changed from moderate imbalance to low coordination. Moreover, the interactions of EnR-IR, EnR-ElR, and IR-ElR changed from moderate imbalance to low coordination, and the other pairs of subsystems remained in moderate coordination. This paper sheds new light on the internal mechanism of urban resilience and provides references for practical interventions and policymaking for sustainable urban development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]