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With the rapid development of global economy and society, water shortage has become a crucial limitation to the growth of many cities. The agricultural water resources carrying capacity (AWRCC) is a key indicator to judge the sustainable development of agriculture. It is necessary to quantificationally evaluate AWRCC to ensure safety of regional economic development and human being's living demand. To reasonably quantify AWRCC, this paper constructs an agricultural water resources evaluation system. CRITIC (CRiteria Importance Through Intercriteria Correlation) is introduced, and its combination with analytic hierarchy process (AHP) solves the subjectivity and randomness of weight determination. Based on the definition of AWRCC and fuzzy comprehensive evaluation (FCE), we construct support index (CCS), pressure index (CCP) and carrying capacity index (CCI) to describe the spatio-temporal variation of AWRCC in Henan Province. Applying sensitivity and correlation analyses into the AWRCC evaluation demonstrates practicality and rationality of results. It eventually provides corresponding suggestions to each city group with diverse carrying capacities. Main conclusions are as follow: (1) The per capita water consumption and agricultural water utilization rate in Henan trended to decrease yearly. The irrigation rate of cropland and the proportion of water-saving irrigation of cropland increased to a varying extent. Water resources utilization rate, cropland irrigation rate, proportion of water-saving irrigation in cropland, grain yield per unit cropland, and wetland proportion were relatively sensitive indicators and they were higher correlated with AWRCC. (2) During 2010–2020, although the agricultural water resources have been overloaded in Henan, AWRCC exhibited a slight enhancement on the temporal scale. On spatial scale, the central region had a stronger AWRCC than the surrounding cities, while the southwest region was relatively weaker, and the AWRCC of the eastern region continued to enhance. (3) According to the tertiary characteristics and spatio-temporal variation of AWRCC, cities of Henan can be roughly divided into four groups and some proposals were proposed individually to enhance the carrying capacity. The conclusion of this paper is helpful to understand the current situation of agricultural water resources in Henan and can provide a reference for the sustainable development of AWRCC. [Display omitted] • CRITIC combined with AHP solves the subjectivity of weight determination. • Spatio-temporal variation characteristics of AWRCC in Henan were analyzed. • Sensitivity and correlation analysis are used to detect AWRCC sensitive indicators. • Proposals were suggested respectively for cities with diverse AWRCC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water price reform is an effective way of rationalizing and protecting water resources in areas where water is scarce. This paper first presents a method for measuring water footprint by sector based on the non-competitive input-output technique. Second, this research explores the relationship between water price adjustment and labor compensation, as well as regional water export. Accordingly, this paper constructs a mathematical planning model for differentiated water price adjustment by sector with the objectives of minimum water exports and maximum labor rewards, and conducts a simulation study in the water-scarce Henan Province. The study's findings suggest that: (1) In contrast to direct water use, water consumption in Henan Province is more balanced in terms of water footprint, with the food and tobacco processing industry replacing agriculture as the leading water consumption sector. (2) Sectoral differentiated pricing saves 6.9% more export water resources in Henan Province than uniform sector-wide pricing with the same export GDP loss. (3) At present, the industries in Henan Province that are in urgent need of increased water charges are agriculture, textile industry, Manufacture of leather, Processing of timber and furniture, Manufacture of paper and printing, and Manufacture of chemical products these totals 6 industries. An increase of $1.73, $4.87, $38.55, $51.20, $5.83 and $6.55 per cubic meter in the water price of these six industries can reduce the export water resources of Henan Province by 10.72%. As a result, our findings can be used to optimize water allocation and improve sustainable water use in water-scarce regions. • Sub-sectoral differentiated water price adjustment method is proposed. • Sectoral differentiated pricing approach is more conducive to water conservation. • The method can find the local sectors in urgent need of water price adjustment. • Adjust sectoral water price with minimize economic impact to achieve water saving. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of global climate change and energy security pressures, biomass power generation has been regarded as an effective way to supplement the energy supply, reduce fossil fuel consumption, and alleviate environmental pollutants. This paper presents an integrated modeling framework to address the regional biomass power generation planning to facilitate biomass utilization in developing countries. By combining the geographic information system, multi-criteria decision-making approach, as well as the type-2 fuzzy inexact programming method, the proposed integrated framework could assist the optimal decision-making for the specific site and size selection of biomass power plants in the whole region as well as the optimal operation strategies under deep uncertainties. The proposed modeling framework is applied to the particular context of Henan, an agricultural province in China with great biomass potential. The results suggested that biomass power plants with a total capacity of 2.4 GW could be established, which could satisfy 6% of local electricity consumption and avoid 18.51 Mt of carbon emissions. The sensitivity analysis of the main economic parameters indicated that lower investment and operation costs were essential to stimulate the utilization of local biomass energy. A higher feed-in tariff is not encouraged due to the limited incentive effect but is a heavy burden for the government. Furthermore, the optimal strategies for biomass power generation planning under uncertainties could be suggested for different decision makers with various risk preferences to achieve a tradeoff between system cost and risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The industrial economy in Henan has developed rapidly, and Henan has transformed from an agricultural province into an industrial one. However, the previous rough development model led to a certain degree of imbalance in the industrial structure (IS), which had impact on environment pollution (EP). Based on the existing problems of industrial pollution in Henan, it is still necessary to explore whether the evolution of IS had impact on EP or not. Thus, firstly, the paper used the latest available data of the whole Henan, the prefecture-level cities and the different types of industries from 2008 to 2019 to measure the temporal and spatial evolution of IS using the IS rationalization index, the IS advanced index and the IS change index. Secondly, based on the three indicators of the IS evolution and the comprehensive index of EP, multiple linear regression models and mediation effect models were constructed to assess the impact of the IS evolution on EP. The results showed that the economic growth of industrial sectors presented the characteristics of the structure optimization. The improvement of the rationalization index and the advanced index of IS could reduce the pollution level significantly. Fig: a. The impact of the IS rationalization index on EP b. The impact of the IS advanced index on EP c. The impact of the IS change index on EPFig. a. The mediation effect of IS rationalization index on EP b. The mediation effect results of IS advanced index on EP c. The mediation effect results of IS change index on EP. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The carbon emission from major sectors and key industries is the main source of regional carbon emission, which has caused severe climate anomalies. Decoupling analysis and prediction of carbon emissions are helpful to formulate effective carbon emission reduction targets and coordinate the relationship between carbon emission and economic development. Considering the differences between sectors, this paper selects 12 major industrial carbon emitting sectors in Henan Province as the research object, decomposes the carbon emission driving factors by Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index (LMDI) method, analyzes the decoupling relationship of carbon emission and economic development by Tapio decoupling model, constructs a decoupling effort model by combining the LMDI method and Tapio decoupling model to analyze the influence of each effect on the decoupling relationship, and sets up baseline scenario, low carbon scenario and enhanced low carbon scenario to forecast carbon emission and its decoupling state with economic development by the Long-range Energy Alternatives Planning system (LEAP) model. It is concluded that the restraining effects of energy structure, energy intensity and industrial structure are increasing. The decoupling index between carbon emission and economic development of 12 sectors shows a downward trend. Both energy structure effect and energy intensity effect have made weak decoupling efforts, and the decoupling efforts of industrial structure effect were relatively small, especially in Ferrous metal smelting and calendering industry and other five sectors. In 2035, four sectors will achieve carbon neutralization and the overall decoupling effect of carbon emissions will be obvious. Finally, this paper puts forward some recommendations to promote carbon emission reduction. • Decomposition, decoupling and forecasting analysis of carbon emission. • Combining decomposition and decoupling analysis to construct decoupling effort model. • Differences between sectors of industry are considered. • The decoupling efforts of industrial structure effect were relatively small. • Four industrial sectors will achieve carbon neutralization in 2035. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At present, the air quality of most cities in Henan Province is seriously polluted. This will do great harm to people's health and the sustainable development of society. In order to solve this situation and improve the air quality of Henan Province, it is necessary to make effective forecast for the future air quality. After comprehensive consideration of various prediction models, combined with the characteristics of air quality, this paper selects the grey model as the research tool. In order to improve the prediction accuracy of the model, a compound accumulative grey model is proposed in this paper. It has been proved that the accuracy of this model is higher than that of other models. The study found that the concentration of SO 2 and NO 2 in 18 cities in Henan province will continue to decline, reaching the first-level standard. PM 2.5 and PM 10 concentrations in all cities still exceeded the standard, with some cities exceeding the standard seriously. In the future, the focus of air control in Henan Province should be on PM 2.5 and PM 10. The forecast results can provide reference for related departments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regional water resources coordination (RWRC) plays a prominent role in long-term sustainability. In order to achieve harmonious utilization of regional water resources, it is suggested that local governments should focus on balancing three goals - security, equity, and efficiency, resulting in both ecological and socio-economic benefits in a region. Therefore, this paper aims to develop a comprehensive evaluation methodology for assessing the degree of RWRC. First, a security-equity-efficiency (SEE) evaluation indicator system is established. A novel multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) approach that integrates decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) method and VlseKriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje (in Serbian, known as VIKOR) method considering two different hesitant fuzzy linguistic term sets (HFLTSs) is then proposed. With this approach, a final ranking is obtained for six alternatives for the RWRC of the relevant regions (i.e., Shandong Province, Henan Province, Hebei Province, Anhui Province, Tian City, Jiangsu Province) in North China Plain, and the six relevant regions receive coordination performance ranking of II, III, V, I, VI, IV. Moreover, comparison analysis and sensitivity analysis are conducted to verify the effectiveness and reliability of the proposed method and dig deep into the RWRC conditions in the studied regions. Finally, some managerial suggestions are provided for strengthening the coordination levels in these regions. • A SEE indicator system is established for RWRC evaluation. • A hybrid MCDM method integrating different HFLTSs is proposed. • A maximum consensus and minimum hesitant degree model of HFLTSs is constructed. • Interval HFLTSs are introduced into DEMATEL method for indicators' weights. • A case study is presented to verify the effectiveness of the evaluation method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]