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A flat arid unmanned Gobi in northwest Gansu, China, has been recognized as a good location for a planned spent-fuel reprocessing plant site. To better assess its applicability and safety as a proposed site, it is important to understand the composition and characteristics of the local vadose zone. Laboratory tests were carried out to analyze the basic properties of the soil in the unsaturated layer, such as particle size, structure, chemical composition and mineralogical characteristics. The permeability coefficients at different depths were measured by three methods, including the single ring, double ring, and inverse auger methods. Four groups of probes were buried at depths of 0.2–4 m in the vadose zone to detect changes in matrix suction with water content in the dehydration state and to determine the field soil-water characteristics curve. Based on the measured hydrological and geological parameters, the migration of intermediate-level nuclides H-3, Co-60, and Cs-137 from the vadose zone into groundwater was simulated by HYDRUS-1D under different rainfall intensities. The simulation results showed that the vadose zone in the study area has a strong retention effect, in which the Co-60 and Cs-137 nuclides were retained in the vadose zone during the 1000-year simulation period. The radioactivity and distribution coefficients of the nuclides were the main factors affecting the time to reach the pollution standard at the groundwater level on a short time scale. Rainfall significantly increased nuclide migration speed on a large time scale. Finally, two engineering protection measures derived from weakening the driving force and increasing the migration path were proposed and were effective in a numerical simulation. • Vadose zone in a planned spent fuel reprocessing plant site was investigated. • Soil-water characteristic curve was fitted by field test and filter paper method. • Migration of H-3, Co-60, and Cs-137 in the vadose zone was simulated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to deal with the rapid growth in residential electricity consumption, residential peak-valley pricing (PVP) policies have been implemented in 12 provinces in China. However, being inappropriate, the residential PVP policies have delivered no significant results. The challenge to China's PVP policy research lies in obtaining high-resolution electricity consumption data and modeling residents' behavior. By simulating household electricity load profiles, an electricity price policy response model and a residential PVP policy optimization model, are constructed and applied in this paper to simulate the effect of the current residential PVP policy and optimize the policy. The results show that the peak-shaving capability (represented by the reduction in peak load) of the PVP policy in 11 provinces is less than 3%, while the PVP policy in Gansu Province has increased household electricity bills by about 5.7%. In addition, the optimized PVP can reduce household electricity bills by 3% and reduce peak electricity consumption by about 9%. The 12 provinces should adopt the 3-phase division method and optimize the electricity price in the peak and valley (i.e. off-peak) periods respectively. This paper promotes the research on China's residential PVP policy and provides an effective reference for the design of the PVP policy. • An electricity demand model based on household characteristic is presented. • The peak-shaving effect of the current PVP policy in 11 provinces is less than 3%. • Optimized PVP can significantly reduce peak power usage and increase benefits. • The PVP policy needs to be optimized from the price and time period division. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to deal with the rapid growth in residential electricity consumption, residential peak-valley pricing (PVP) policies have been implemented in 12 provinces in China. However, being inappropriate, the residential PVP policies have delivered no significant results. The challenge to China's PVP policy research lies in obtaining high-resolution electricity consumption data and modeling residents' behavior. By simulating household electricity load profiles, an electricity price policy response model and a residential PVP policy optimization model, are constructed and applied in this paper to simulate the effect of the current residential PVP policy and optimize the policy. The results show that the peak-shaving capability (represented by the reduction in peak load) of the PVP policy in 11 provinces is less than 3%, while the PVP policy in Gansu Province has increased household electricity bills by about 5.7%. In addition, the optimized PVP can reduce household electricity bills by 3% and reduce peak electricity consumption by about 9%. The 12 provinces should adopt the 3-phase division method and optimize the electricity price in the peak and valley (i.e. off-peak) periods respectively. This paper promotes the research on China's residential PVP policy and provides an effective reference for the design of the PVP policy. • An electricity demand model based on household characteristic is presented. • The peak-shaving effect of the current PVP policy in 11 provinces is less than 3%. • Optimized PVP can significantly reduce peak power usage and increase benefits. • The PVP policy needs to be optimized from the price and time period division. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The carbon peaking and carbon neutrality strategy have become China's national strategy. Given the significant regional differences in China, the Chinese government has proposed "one policy for one province" guiding principle for carbon emission reduction. This study takes Tianjin as a representative of "a province-level city with high degree of industrialization and prominent emerging industries", and Gansu Province a representative of "a province with a low degree of industrialization but the potential for green energy". Using the integrated modeling frameworkthis study conducts a comparative analysis of the hidden flows generated by inter-provincial inward and outward transfers and extracts a feasible model for carbon neutrality transformation. The study also focuses on carbon emission, GDP changes, carbon hidden flow change in trade and carbon emission reduction path. By comparing the results, this study identifies the mechanism of the industrial spillover effect and carbon emission spillover effect between the two regions. Then it concludes the "cross-regional transfer mode of high-carbon industries" of industrial carbon neutral transformation: more carbon emission allowances are allocated to developing regions represented by Gansu Province, implement regionally differentiated carbon emission reduction constraint policies, and achieve industrial spatial transfer through more inter-provincial transfer. The paper found that in implementing a regionally differentiated carbon emission reduction constraint policy (DE scenario), the transfer of high-carbon industries can achieve the "superposition effect" through inter-provincial transfer. Accordingly, three carbon policy mechanisms for cross-regional transfer of high-carbon industries are summarized. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New Energy Vehicles (NEVs) exert great potential in reducing carbon emissions, improving air quality and reducing the dependence on petroleum products, and are also essential in realizing the social transformation toward a low-carbon society. Since public are the principal users and stakeholders of NEVs, it's vital to understand their acceptance of NEVs and discuss the influencing factors of public acceptance, so as to promote the development of NEVs. Based on the survey data of Gansu Province, this paper analyzes the public perception and acceptance of NEVs in underdeveloped regions, and explores main factors affecting their acceptance by adopting Structural Equation Model. The results show that the public acceptance of NEVs is relatively higher, with only 51.99% residents are willing to accept NEVs. And there are differences of public acceptance of NEVs among different groups. The acceptance of females, young and less educated public are relatively higher, decreases with aging and increases with education attainment. Perceived risk and perceived cost are significantly negative correlated with public acceptance of NEVs, while subjective norm and the quality of NEVs positively correlated with public acceptance. In addition, support policy is significantly positively correlated with perceived cost while perceived cost is positively corelated with perceived risk. Finally, this paper proposes countermeasures and suggestions on improving the public acceptance of NEVs in underdeveloped regions. • We conducted the NEVs acceptance of 1356 residents in Chinese underdeveloped regions. • 51.99% of the public in underdeveloped regions of China were willing to accept NEVs. • Perceived risk, perceived cost, and NEVs' quality are the key influencing factors. • Support policy, knowledge have significant indirect impact on acceptance of NEVs. • Enhancing subsidies and supporting facilities were effective ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper developed a multi-objective fuzzy programming method for simultaneously optimizing the use of water and land resources for irrigation under uncertainty. The developed model was then applied to a case study in Wuwei, Gansu Province, China. In this study, administrative, economic and ecological benefits were regarded as the planning objectives. Moreover, the variations of irrigation water demand with rainfall, soil moisture content and evapotranspiration were considered in the developed model. Optimal irrigation plans were obtained under different possibility levels of fuzzy parameters. The obtained results could be helpful for decision makers to make decisions on the optimal use of irrigation water and land resources under uncertainty and multiple objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water resources is one of the basic resources for human social development. In the context of China's rapid economic development, how to achieve the sustainable development of water resources, social economy and ecological environment has become an urgent issue. Water Resources Carrying Capacity (WRCC) is an important indicator of the degree of coordinated social, economic and ecological development that can be supported by water resources in a certain region. Based on the internal mechanism of WRCC, this paper constructs the evaluation system of WRCC, and estimates WRCC of 9 provinces in the Yellow River Basin (YRB) from 2009 to 2018 by the entropy method. Using the Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index (LMDI) model, we analyze the driving effects of WRCC differences in the YRB from both spatial and temporal aspects. Main conclusions are as follows: (1) There is an inherent mechanism between water resources, social economy and eco-environment, and the coordinated development of the three subsystems can promote the improvement of WRCC; (2) From 2009 to 2018, WRCC of the YRB showed a relatively stable upward trend, in which the sewage treatment effect and the technical effect were the main factors promoting WRCC, while the economic effect had a negative weakening function throughout the research period; (3) There were obvious differences in the WRCC of each province. We choose Shandong and Gansu as the comparison objects, then analyze the factors causing differences of WRCC through the driving effects decomposition analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Exploring the potential of crop type adjustment to improve regional food security, ecological security and net economic benefits is significant for agricultural water management, green production and sustainable development in drylands. Previous studies on the optimization of crop type were mostly concentrated within the region, without considering the impact of interregional food trade on the adjustment of regional crop type. It is difficult to give full play to the advantages of crop type optimization in improving regional food security. This paper introduces the virtual water trade theory into the optimization model of crop type. By quantifying the water footprint, carbon footprint, crop calories and net economic benefits of food crops in Northwest China and Central Asia. On the basis of fully considering farmers' planting willingness in Northwest China and food trade with Central Asian, the relative and absolute comparative advantage index is used as the optimization coefficient of the model. The food security and ecological security of the region, the blue water use efficiency, the green water ratio and the net food efficiency of the provinces (districts) in the region were used as objective functions to construct an open-ended crop type optimization model to optimize the crop type in the region. The results showed that the use of the constructed open crop type optimization model to guide regional food crop type adjustment increased the calories and grey water footprint provided by regional crops by 7.5% and −6.6%, respectively. The provinces in the region have seen varying degrees of improvement in the benefits of blue water use and net economic benefits, particularly in Gansu Province, which have increased by 51.0% and 53.5%, respectively. Due to the effect of crop type adjustment on the regional green water footprint and carbon footprint targets is less than satisfactory. On this basis, effective suggested measures to improve the efficiency of crop green water use and reduce the carbon footprint were proposed. In this study, the combination of relevant measures and grain crop type adjustment can give full play to the role of grain crop type adjustment in alleviating regional water resources and ecological pressure, improving food security, ecological security and sustainable grain production. It is expected to ensure global food security and promote green production and sustainable development of crops. [Display omitted] • Construct optimization model of open planting structure under virtual water trade. • Relative, absolute comparative advantage of 12 units and 5 crops was taken as coefficient. • Crop calories, blue water use benefits and grey water increased by 7.5%, 23.4% and −6.6%. • The study promotes regional food security, water use efficiency and marketing power. • Structural adjustment combined with green water use measures, effect is more obvious. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we comprehensively assess the differences in soil and water conservation tillage technology among different districts: Fenyang and Ji county of Shanxi province, Ansai and Jingbian county of Shaanxi province, and Zhenyuan and Jingchuan county in Gansu province. We use survey data of 1237 rural households of the Loess Plateau on their adoption of the core technology of soil and water conservation tillage (e.g., contour tillage, groove ridge planting, moderate or non-tillage, subsoiling, straw plowing, stubble mulching, plastic film covering). We use the bootstrap test to analyze peasant household horizontal and vertical differentiation directly impacting on soil and water conservation tillage technology adoption. Next, we test risk perception as the mediation role for technology adoption. Finally, we analyze the moderating effect of government subsidies, and government subsidy can compensate for possible risk losses and encourage farmers to adopt soil and water conservation tillage technology. The results are showed the following: (1) The horizontal and vertical differentiation of farmers have a significant positive impact on the adoption of soil and water conservation tillage technology. (2) In the context of horizontal differentiation, risk perception has a positive mediating effect on the adoption of contour tillage, groove ridge planting, moderate or non-tillage, straw plowing, and plastic film covering technology; in the adoption of subsoiling technology, the mediating effect of risk perception differs because of the size of the government subsidies; in the adoption of stubble mulching technology, the mediating effect of risk perception is not significant. In the context of vertical differentiation, risk perception has a positive mediating effect in the adoption of contour tillage, groove ridge planting and straw plowing; and in the adoption of moderate or non-tillage, subsoiling, and stubble mulching, the mediating effect of risk perception is not significant. (3) In the context of horizontal differentiation, the moderating effect of government subsidies is not significant in the adoption of contour tillage, moderate or non-tillage, straw plowing, and plastic film covering; the moderating effect of government subsidies is significant in the adoption of groove ridge planting and subsoiling. In the context of vertical differentiation, the moderating effect of a government subsidies is not significant in the adoption of contour tillage, groove ridge planting, and straw plowing technology; the moderating effect of a government subsidies is significant in the application of plastic film covering technology. • Influence of peasant household differentiation on technology adoption is studied. • Impact of career differentiation and income differentiation are considered. • Risk perception plays a mediating role on technology adoption. • Government subsidies play a moderating role on adoption behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]