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In order to control air pollution better, China has adopted the central environmental inspection mechanism. This paper adopts the data of 290 prefecture-level cities in China to evaluate the air improvement effect of the central environmental inspection mechanism. Firstly, based on the Mechanism Design Theory and Principal-agent Theory, this paper analyzes the government incentive measures and effort levels under the conditions of information as symmetry and asymmetry. Then, this paper introduces Regression Discontinuity Design (RDD) Model to evaluate the air improvement effect of the central environmental inspection mechanism. Lastly, this paper explores the sustainability of the environmental inspection mechanism through the regression analysis of environmental inspection revisit. The results show that: under the condition of information symmetry, the central government can make the local governments reach the Pareto optimal effort level through the design of incentive contract. In a short period of time, the first round of environmental inspection and environmental inspection revisit have significantly improved air quality, and significantly reduced PM2.5 and PM10 and other major single pollutants. In general, this system has had an immediate effect. The environmental inspection revisit has also significantly reduced the concentrations of AQI, PM2.5 and PM10. Compared with the first round of environmental inspection and environmental inspection revisit, the latter has a higher level of air pollution reduction and better effect. The sustainability of the improvement effect of environmental inspection mechanism is questioned. It is of great significance to evaluate the actual effect of the central environmental inspection system and tap the unique experience of "Chinese style" to explore how to control air pollution and promote green development. • This paper explored the effect of central environmental inspection. • The Regression Discontinuity Design (RDD) Model was used in this paper. • The sustainability of the environmental inspection mechanism was explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) program has provided policy innovation for global environmental affairs. China, the largest developing country in the world, is also faced with serious environmental problems. China developed a unique environmental policy – ecological compensation (Eco-compensation), which combined the flexibility of the PES mechanism with efficient government management. The paper studies the efficiency of eco-compensation policy in a large-scale region and the stability of policy in a long-time. We use the counterfactual method - Synthetic Control Method (SCM) to analyze the eco-compensation policy. Zhejiang province, China, which is the first province to implement Eco-compensation policy, chose as study case. We run several robustness checks to discuss the influence of other factors, including economy, politics and geology. The result shows that the eco-compensation policy improve the region's environment significantly. And it never has negative impact for the economy of Zhejiang. We discuss some experiences and challenges of this policy. The paper thinks that localization and the hybrid of government and market could provide successful experience for this policy. Image 1 • Ecological compensation policies have improved regional air quality. • Ecological compensation mechanism is effective in large scale space. • Synthetic control method is used to analyze problems. • The hybrid of government and market works well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Farmer-led agricultural innovation is increasingly viewed as a potential approach to sustainable agriculture especially promoting rural revitalization as well as mitigating agricultural non-point source pollution. However, little research has yet been paid to evaluating the environmental contribution caused by these emerging agricultural innovations. Using data generated in the Qingpu District of Shanghai, this paper focuses on the new agri-business entities and evaluates the impact of agricultural innovation on changes in their use of chemical fertilizers. The findings indicate that different forms of agricultural innovation have radically different outcomes. Innovation of new production technologies and sales tend to have negative impacts on the environment, while both vertical integration with manufacturing-processing-sales activities, and horizontal integration with service activities, are found to make a positive environmental contribution. The paper argues that the different sources of value added generated by innovation provide different incentives for farmers. Those with a narrow concentration on efficiency and market scale tend to intensify their output-maximized production, while those shifting to processing and service activities rely more on the quality and service centered production, which tends to create less damage to the environment. • Agricultural innovation is becoming a critical part of sustainable agriculture, but little has been known about the environmental contributions. • Agricultural Innovation with a narrow concentration on production efficiency and market scales is found with negative environmental contributions. • Both vertical and horizontal agricultural Integrations contribute to the reduction of chemical fertilizer use. • Supporting policies are required to guide behavior changes of new agri-business entities for sustainable agricultural development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's thermal electricity generation industry, the world's largest emitter of carbon dioxide, is experiencing a severe over-capacity problem. An effective solution to this problem is urgently needed to achieve the energy conservation and emission reduction goals, as well as a sustainable growth of China's economy. However, under China's existing political promotion system, there exists a market segmentation that hinders cooperation between regions. In the short term, market segmentation is conducive to the utilization of installed capacity in each place; however, in the long run, can market segmentation alleviate the over-capacity problem in the thermal electricity generation industry across China? Using the China Industrial Enterprise Database (CIED) from 2002 to 2013, this paper estimates the capacity utilization rate, an indicator of over-capacity, of China's thermal electricity generation firms through stochastic frontier analysis. Then, by applying the fuel and electricity price index, this paper measures the degree of market segmentation at three levels, (i) among all provinces, (ii) between neighboring provinces and (iii) among provinces covered by the same grid company. Based on these, this paper empirically estimates the impacts of market segmentation on the utilization rate of China's thermal electricity generation firms. The results indicate that market segmentation has significantly negative impacts on the capacity utilization rates. Heterogeneity analysis suggests that private firms, firms in regions with abundant coal resources and those in the western regions are affected to a larger degree. The results remain robust in the robustness check that replaces the data with the China Stock Market & Accounting Research (CSMAR) Database, the counterfactual test and the test that concerns endogeneity. These findings provide important policy implications for the solution of the over-capacity problem in China's electricity generation industry. • The over-capacity in China's thermal electricity generation industry is estimated. • Market segmentation impedes electricity sector's capacity utilization rate. • The impacts of market segmentation on capacity utilization rates are heterogeneous. • The findings suggest China to eliminate market segmentation through reforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Huang-Huai-Hai Plain (HHH) is typical of China's farming area, and was predicted as one of the fastest growing areas of urbanization in the world. Since the turn of the new millennium, construction land and farmland transitions in this region driven by rapid urbanization have resulted in dramatic loss of farmland, which triggered a serious threat to regional even national food security. In this paper, the coupling relationships between per capita construction land transition (PCCT) and per capita farmland transition (PCFT) in the HHH and their implications for regional food security are analyzed. During 2000–2015, the farmland decreased by 8.59%, 72.25% of which were occupied by construction land. There are two major coupling types between PCCT and PCFT, one is the double increasing of per capita construction land area (PCCA) and per capita farmland area (PCFA); another is the increasing of PCCA and the decreasing of PCFA. The fluctuant increasing of PCCT and decreasing of PCFT coexisted and presented symmetrical coupling characteristics in space. Physical, location, transportation and socio-economic factors play significantly different roles in driving PCCT and PCFT. The implications for ensuring food security involve promoting the reclamation and redevelopment of inefficient and unused urban-rural construction land, reducing inefficient occupation of farmland resources, developing appropriate scale management of agriculture, and establishing a better social security system to smoothly settle down the floating rural population in the city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Identifying ecological vulnerable regions is a significant aspect in ecological conservation and environmental management. This paper presents a first attempt to provide a prototype framework that can assess ecological vulnerability and evaluate potential impacts of natural, social, economic, environmental pollution, and human health elements on ecological vulnerability with integrating spatial analysis of Geographic Information System (GIS) method and multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA). A general ecological vulnerability index was constructed to describe the vulnerability status in an ecological hotspot of China. The assessment results of this study confirm the poor ecological vulnerability in China that only 1.32% of the China's population lives in not vulnerable ecosystem. A very high percentage (98.68%) of Chinese with 1.34 billion people lives in vulnerable and highly vulnerable area. This situation is mainly caused by increasing population pressure, exhausted nature resources, extensive economic growth, severe environmental pollution, insufficient environmental protection investment, and accelerating population aging. The spatial comparison indicates that spatial disparity existed in China with the central and northwestern provinces showing higher ecological vulnerability than the northeastern and southern provinces. The results of ecological vulnerability assessment can support effective guidance for mid- or long-term ecologic management. The developed framework can be replicated at different spatial and temporal scales using context-specific datasets to support ecological managers and government with decision-making. With available robust climate change models, future research might incorporate climate change into the ecological vulnerability framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental non-governmental organizations (ENGOs) play an increasingly important role in the process of urban environmental governance, especially in some developing countries such as China. However, existing studies pay little attention to such an issue in China. In this paper, we consider 113 cities in China from the pollution information transparency index (PITI) list released by ENGOs as the treatment group and some other cities as the control group, and use the difference-in-differences (DID) model and propensity score matching DID (PSM-DID) model to explore the role of ENGOs in China's urban environmental governance. The results show that ENGOs play a significantly positive and robust role in China's urban environmental governance. Furthermore, using regression analysis for eastern, central, and western China, we find that the influence of ENGOs exists in eastern and central China rather than in western China. In addition, the results of the Placebo test indicate that the effect of ENGOs shows an upward trend since 2008. We suggest that ENGOs' role should be strengthened in China, and governments at various levels should take into account environmental information released by ENGOs and consider appropriate measures to improve local environment quality using the obtained information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental protection and carbon emission reduction play a crucial role in the sustainable development procedure. However, the environmental efficiency analysis and evaluation based on the traditional data envelopment analysis (DEA) cross model is subjective and inaccurate, because all elements in a column or a row of the cross evaluation matrix (CEM) in the traditional DEA cross model are given the same weight. Therefore, this paper proposes an improved environmental DEA cross model based on the information entropy to analyze and evaluate the carbon emission of industrial departments in China. The information entropy is applied to build the entropy distance based on the turbulence of the whole system, and calculate the weights in the CEM of the environmental DEA cross model in a dynamic way. The theoretical results show that the new weight constructed based on the information entropy is unique and optimal globally by using the Monte Carlo simulation. Finally, compared with the traditional environmental DEA and DEA cross model, the improved environmental DEA cross model has a better efficiency discrimination ability based on the data of industrial departments in China. Moreover, the proposed model can obtain the potential of carbon emission reduction of industrial departments to improve the energy efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study performed an input-output structural decomposition analysis on changes in COD, ammonia nitrogen, SO 2 , NOx, soot and dust, industrial solid waste, and CO 2 emission multipliers for 41 final products over the period 2007–2012 in China. The results show that during the examined period, emission multipliers were, in general, decreasing. The main driver of this was technical effects. The effects that made a significant contribution were concentrated in eight sectors: coal mining and washing; metals mining and quarrying; food and tobacco products; paper printing manufacturing; the chemical industry; non-metallic mineral products; metal smelting and rolling processing; and electricity, heat production, and supply. Moreover, the technical effects presented an obvious spillover. Although the contribution of the structural effects was far less than the technical ones, there were still some structural adjustments that led to significant synergistic mitigation. For example, the decrease in the direct demand of the agriculture products, electricity, and heat for food and tobacco products commonly reduced SO 2 , NOx, and CO 2 . In addition, four technical effects and most of the structural effects with high efficiency made small contributions. More than one third of the structural effects that showed obvious contributions played a positive role. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Currently, China is experiencing a phase of rapid urbanization. With the frequent occurrence of extreme rainfall events within the context of climate change, the problem of heavy rainfall and waterlogging in many cities is very prominent. In November 2020, China issued a proposal for the construction of sponge cities across the entire region to significantly enhance the rainfall flood prevention and drainage capacity of cities and effectively improve the resilience of sponge city systems for flooding management. Therefore, this paper selected the Zhu pai-chong watershed in Nanning with frequent waterlogging disasters as an example. Based on underlying surface information, We used a coupled SWMM-LISFOOD model to simulate runoff and waterlogging processes and analyze the spatial and temporal evolution characteristics of the basin under 10 designed rainstorm return periods (0.25a-50a). The results confirm the substantial spatial and temporal variabilities of the runoff coefficient in the study area; impermeability was the main factor contributing to high runoff coefficient values. The spatial distribution characteristics of inundation area was general dispersion and local linear aggregation. Furthermore, this study assessed the effect of the control rate of blue‒green‒gray facilities on the actual storms, and the value ranged from only 48.6% (0.25a)-24.05% (50a). This study quantified the two-dimensional distribution of rainfall storage volume thresholds with or without considering the discharged from the pipe network. Quantitative mapping between the elements of "rainfall-storage volume of blue‒green‒gray facilities-runoff-drainage capacity of the pipe network-waterlogging level" was conducted within the study area as an example. Finally, an overall technical process scheme for rainfall and waterlogging management was proposed. The scheme covered the hydrological‒hydraulic mechanism, storage function of sponge facilities, engineering control response, nonengineering measures and intelligent management of rainfall and waterlogging during sponge city construction, which could provide critical scientific support for effective promotion of the construction of sponge cities in China. [Display omitted] • The runoff waterlogging under different design rainstorm scenarios was simulated. • A quantitative method of the regulation level of the total rainstorm is presented. • The impact of pipe network drainage on control level of rainstorm is quantified. • A system plan to deal with rainstorm waterlogging of sponge city was summarized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China pushed for the unification of markets for natural resources and emissions, wherein initial allocation mechanisms have a significant impact on how well the market functions. To identify how the market works well, this paper builds an integrated framework, comprised of permits initialization and reallocation processes. Additionally, we simulate variables by 2030 through scenario analysis and machine learning methods. At the unified energy-carbon market, GDP could increase by more than 49%, while the total energy consumption and the total carbon emission increase by around 410 million tons and 711 million tons, respectively, in China. This illustrates how joint trading markets favor economic growth and emission reduction simultaneously. Besides, most of China's provinces obtain improved energy consumption and carbon emission intensities, which proves the effectiveness and importance of the unified market. However, two rebound effects are found, one is that the increased investment is not always promoting positive effects, and the other is that provinces with higher GDPs have less incentive to cut their energy use. Further, the accumulated per capita initialization type favors energy conservation, while per GDP initialization benefits economic growth and carbon reduction. It's needed that simultaneously constructing an economic and efficient incentive mechanism while effectively playing up the government's role. [Display omitted] • Energy and carbon joint markets have economic and environmental co-benefits. • A novel framework is designed enabling the exchange of energy and carbon permits. • The influence of socio-economic and climate change scenarios in the future is considered. • The influence of initial permits allocation modes on market performance is identified. • Promotion measures are needed especially for provinces with higher economic outputs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cities worldwide are facing a significant threat of stormwater hazards caused by the increase in extreme downpours and urbanization. Meso-level urban stormwater management focuses on alleviating the detrimental impacts of urban flooding and enhancing water resource utilization at the block or community scale, typically through 1) specific policies and management rules; 2) catchment-scale scenario simulation, optimization and evaluation; 3) the group of stormwater control measures implementation. It may effectively coordinate macro-level urban stormwater management planning and micro-level distributed stormwater control facilities. This study conducts a review of Urban Stormwater Management at Meso-level (USM-M) with a view to research publication trends, citation analysis, geographic spread and subject category, as well as content analysis, including temporal progression and research gaps. The Web of Science database and CiteSpace are used for the bibliometric analysis of 66 articles from 2006 to 2021. The results show that the number of USM-M topic articles generally has an upward trend over the years. Whilst the United States and China are leading research on this topic, the European countries have diverse local research and dense cooperation. Research foci have generally shifted from theoretical frameworks to multi-element subdivided topics and specific technical roadmaps. Moreover, the spatial layout optimization and multi-functional integration are, or will be, potential research directions in terms of enhancing stormwater utilization and co-benefits of USM-M. This systematic review concludes trends, challenges and potential approaches of USM-M, and aims to provide recommendations for researchers and policymakers on the development of a more advanced and comprehensive USM-M. • This paper aims to quantitatively and qualitatively review how Urban Stormwater Management at Meso-level (USM-M) is being studied and applied. • The question was "What are the trends, challenges and approaches of USM-M research?". • USM-M is applied at the catchment, block, community scale, and play a coordinator role between macro-level and micro-level. • Research focus has shifted from theoretical frameworks to subdivided topics and specific technical roadmaps. • Optimal spatial layout and multi-functional integration of USM-M implementation are potential directions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Models and information and communication technology (ICT) can assist in the effective supervision of urban receiving water bodies and drainage systems. Single model-based decision tools, e.g., water quality models and the pollution source identification (PSI) method, have been widely reported in this field. However, a systematic pathway for environmental decision support system (EDSS) construction by integrating advanced single techniques has rarely been reported, impeding engineering applications. This paper presents an integrated supervision framework (UrbanWQEWIS) involving monitoring-early warning-source identification-emergency disposal to safeguard the urban water quality, where the data, model, equipment and knowledge are smoothly and logically linked. The generic architecture, all-in-one equipment and three key model components are introduced. A pilot EDSS is developed and deployed in the Maozhou River, China, with the assistance of environmental Internet of Things (IoT) technology. These key model components are successfully validated via in situ monitoring data and dye tracing experiments. In particular, fluorescence fingerprint-based qualitative PSI and Bayesian-based quantitative PSI methods are effectively coupled, which can largely reduce system costs and enhance flexibility. The presented supervision framework delivers a state-of-the-art management tool in the digital water era. The proposed technical pathway of EDSS development provides a valuable reference for other regions. [Display omitted] • An integrated supervision framework to safeguard the urban river water quality is constructed. • A pathway to link data, model, equipment and knowledge for EDSS development is proposed. • A "Monitoring-Early warning-Source identification-Emergency disposal" workflow is developed. • "Qualitative‒Quantitative"+ "Chemical–Numerical" methods are coupled to extend flexibility. • A pilot EDSS is established in the Maozhou River, Shenzhen, and validated via field tests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between industrial structure (IS) and eco-efficiency (EE) is intricate with mutual influence and constraint. Exploring the coordinated relationship between IS and EE is beneficial to the sustainable development of ecologically fragile areas. This paper estimates and analyses the levels of EE and IS in 39 prefecture-level cities of the Loess Plateau, discussing the comprehensive and coordinated development levels between industrial structure rationalization (ISR) and EE, industrial structure advancement (ISA) and EE based on the coupling coordination degree model (CCDM). The results showed that the comprehensive development of the Loess Plateau has rough and imbalanced issues. The EE and IS are developing at a relatively low level, and the spatial distribution shows the development trend of high in the east and down in the west. The CCD of ISA and EE performs better than that of ISR and EE, but neither has reached the collaborative coupling state. The poor CCD score in the Loess Plateau is primarily attributable to its relatively backward degree of integrated EE and IS. The results are expected to provide decision-making support for EE improvement and industrial restructuring in the Loess Plateau and other ecologically fragile areas. • Industrial structure rationalization and industrial structure advancement are quantified. • ISA performs better than ISR when coupling with EE. • Comprehensive coupling of all cities is at basic coordination level and below. • The backward level of EE and IS is the main reason for the low CCD score of the Loess Plateau. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Chinese government has made great efforts in air pollutant reduction and carried out strict regulation policies. Since numerous air pollutants and CO 2 tend to have the same root, source, and process, recent studies argue that environmental regulation may also contribute to reducing carbon emissions. To investigate how various types of environmental regulations affect carbon emissions reduction, this paper constructs the spatial Durbin model and panel threshold model based on provincial panel data in China during 2003–2019. The main findings are as follows: First, China's net carbon emissions show a decreasing trend from east to west, displaying significant spatial agglomeration characteristics. Then, formal and informal environmental regulations have inverted U-shaped impacts on net carbon emissions. The "green paradox" and "reverse emission reduction" effects come into play at different stages. Finally, the threshold model reveals that with the improvement of regional technological innovation levels, the carbon-reducing effect of environmental regulation will increasingly come to the fore. These research findings are conducive to providing theoretical guidance for government to formulate and implement environmental regulation policies rationally. • Carbon sink effect is considered in the carbon emissions assessment framework. • The spatial spillover and threshold effects of environmental regulation is studied. • Environmental regulation has an inverted U-shaped impact on net carbon emissions. • Technological innovation level exerts a threshold effect between them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the ongoing urbanization in developing regions, integrating regional waste disposal capability is challenging due to unbalanced economic development and rising environmental issues. This research proposed a multi-dimensional symbiotic integration of waste disposal capability. Applying data from the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) in China, we first explore the waste flows and interactions between cities to identify the possibility of inter-municipal collaboration based on the augmented gravity model. We then employ social network analysis to categorize the cities in the collaborative network of waste disposal into subgroups by functionalities. Finally, we proposed the top-down framework of symbiotic networks for waste disposal. Our findings indicate that YRD cities can be classified into four types according to their waste density and disposal efficiency: High-High, Low-High, Low-Low, and High-Low. We also identify three types of inter-municipal collaborative relationships: between high-density and high-efficiency cities, between high-density cities, and between high-efficiency cities. The city subgroups can be categorized into "high-efficiency clusters," "high-density clusters," and "hub clusters," which pave the way for a shared or complementary urban symbiosis in the waste recycling industry. The division of roles among subgroups enables symbiotic activities within the city cluster. This paper extends the spatial scope of industrial symbiosis literature and has practical implications for transitioning to a circular economy in waste management of developing countries. [Display omitted] • Inter-municipal collaboration based on spatial heterogeneity is discussed. • DEA model, the gravity model, and social network analysis is employed. • Complementary or shared symbiotic cooperation between cities is emerging. • Cities are clustered into different functional subgroups. • We proposed a symbiotic waste disposal network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study utilizes the environmental tax reform in China as a quasi-natural experiment to investigate the effect of environmental taxes on income inequality. In January 2018, the Environmental Protection Tax Law (EPTL) came into effect in China, provinces began to collect environmental taxes in accordance with the law. We find that the reform contributes to lower within-firm wage inequality. The reform leads to declines in executive compensation and increases in worker wages. We further find that tax enforcement, environmental regulations, fiscal stress and tax competition vary the relationship between the reform and wage inequality. Heterogeneity analyses show that the effect is greater in non-state-owned firms, small firms, and firms with higher board shareholdings. Extensive robustness tests corroborate our inferences. This paper verifies the effectiveness of environmental regulation in enhancing social welfare, and is beneficial for assessing the welfare effects of environmental regulation more accurately. The findings can also help the government reduce obstacles in the implementation of environmental taxes, and further enhance the effectiveness of the EPTL. [Display omitted] • Environmental taxes contribute to lower income inequality. • The reform results in lower executive compensation and higher worker wages. • Tax enforcement varies the effect of environmental taxes. • Fiscal stress and tax competition influence the effectiveness of the reform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New energy is an inevitable choice to cope with global climate change. China has invested heavily in new energy, but it still faces enormous pressure to reduce emissions. The effectiveness and path of new energy industry development still need to be solved. This paper studies the relationship between the development of new energy industry and carbon emissions. A theoretical model of new energy firms' production behaviour was constructed, reflecting that the internal carbon emissions of the new energy industry mainly depend on its cost structure and R&D intensity. Specifically, part of the carbon emission caused by scale effect comes from direct capacity construction, and the other part comes from the production-cost effect of R&D. Based on the provincial panel data in China from 2005 to 2019, empirical tests are carried out from two aspects of scale effect and technology effect. Results show that the scale expansion has an inverted U-shaped relationship with carbon emissions, which is supported by the regression with GDP as the threshold variable. The effect of new energy technologies in reducing emissions is continuous. The threshold for technology to play a role in reducing emissions is smaller than the threshold for scale. The findings explain the expansion of the new energy industry in the early stages may lead to an increase in carbon emissions. Our study provides important insights that the scale and technology are two dimensions that cannot be ignored in the process of energy transformation. It is necessary to act in the reasonable range and pay attention to the accumulation of technology innovation and the orderly expansion of production capacity. [Display omitted] • Analyze the relationship between new energy industries and carbon emissions. • Built a theoretical model of new energy firms' production behavior. • The internal emissions mainly depend on its cost structure and R&D intensity. • Extending STIRPAT model from the industrial-scale and technological progress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the Paris Agreement and 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development are the two most important global governance agendas, in practice they have been implemented in isolation. This calls for the need to focus on the potential policy synergies between emission reduction policies and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This paper therefore aims to explore whether the emissions trading scheme (ETS) policy—one of the most effective ways to fulfill the target determined by the Paris Agreement, would facilitate reducing income inequality (SDG10). By combining a difference-in-difference estimation and propensity score matching technique based on a balanced panel dataset for 31 Chinese provinces from 2010 to 2018, we quantify the impact of ETS policy on income inequality between urban and rural areas in China. The results demonstrate that compared with the regions without ETS, the Theil index between rural and urban areas with ETS decreased by 0.018 on average in China. In addition, the ETS would perform better in regions with low urbanization level and high coal dependence. Hence it is vital to speed up the establishment of a unified ETS market in China. This is particularly true for inner underdeveloped regions in China. These findings proven to be robust according to a series of tests challenge the view that SDG 10 has the least relevance to climate action and suggest rethinking the effectiveness and applicability of ETS. Therefore, our research can not only serve as a reference for the development of ETS in China and elsewhere, but also inform decision makers who are seeking for policy synergies between the Paris Agreement and SDGs. [Display omitted] • We quantify for the first time the impact of ETS on urban-rural income inequality. • We make joint use of DID model and PSM technique with data for 31 Chinese provinces. • Overall the ETS exerts a mitigation effect of 0.009 on urban-rural income inequality. • The ETS performs better in low urbanization level and high coal-dependent pilots. • The ETS generates policy synergies between the Paris Agreement and SDG 10. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recommended management practices (RMPs, e.g., manuring, no-tillage, crop residue return) can increase soil organic carbon (SOC), reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and maintain soil health in croplands. However, there is no consensus on how RMPs affect the SOC storage potential of cropland soils for climate change mitigation. Here, based on 2301 comparisons from 158 peer-reviewed papers, a meta-analysis was conducted to explore management-induced SOC stock changes and their variations under different conditions. The results show that SOC stocks in the 0–20 cm layer were increased by 31.8% when chemical fertilization combined with manure application was compared with no fertilizer; 9.98% when no-tillage was compared with plow tillage; and 10.84% when straw return was compared with removal. The RMPs favorably increased SOC stock in arid areas, and in alkaline and fine-textured soils. Initial SOC, carbon-nitrogen ratio, and experimental duration could also affect SOC storage. Compared with the initial SOC stock, RMPs increased the SOC sequestration potential by 2.6–4.5% in the 0–20 cm soil depth, indicating that these practices can help China achieve targets to increase SOC by 4.0‰. Hence, it is essential to implement RMPs for climate change mitigation and soil fertility improvement. • RMPs can increase SOC stock and mitigate climate change. • RMPs-induced SOC changes depend on local environmental conditions. • The SOC storage potentials were decreased with the increase of soil depth. • RMPs can achieve targets to increase SOC by 4.0‰ in Chinese croplands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agro-ecosystem contamination with microplastics (MPs) is of great concern. However, limited research has been conducted on the agricultural soil of tropical regions. This paper investigated MPs in the agro-ecosystem of Hainan Island, China, as well as their relationships with plastic mulching, farming practices, and social and environmental factors. The concentration of MPs in the study area ranged from 2800 to 82500 particles/kg with a mean concentration of 15461.52 particles/kg. MPs with sizes between 20 and 200 μm had the highest abundance of 57.57%, fragment (58.16%) was the most predominant shape, while black (77.76%) was the most abundant MP colour. Polyethylene (PE) (71.04%) and polypropylene (PP) (19.83%) were the main types of polymers. The mean abundance of MPs was significantly positively correlated (p < 0.01) with all sizes, temperature, and shapes except fibre, while weakly positively correlated with the population (p = 0.21), GDP (p = 0.33), and annual precipitation (p = 0.66). In conclusion, plastic mulching contributed to significant contamination of soil MPs in the study area, while environmental and social factors promoted soil MPs fragmentation. The current study results indicate serious contamination with MPs, which poses a concern regarding ecological and environmental safety. [Display omitted] • Abundance and spatial distribution of MPs were analyzed in agriculture soil. • Most of the MPs in soil of Hainan were fragments and < 500 μm in size. • PE was the most abundant polymer observed in the study area. • MPs distribution was site specific with no strong relation with crops. • Plastic mulching was the main source of MPs in soil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of coal resources is necessary, but it has a huge negative impact on land, ecology, and the environment. With the increasing awareness of environmental protection and the requirements of related regulations, the design and practice of reclamation projects run through the mining life cycle and continue for a long time after the coal production. High-precision monitoring of mining disturbance and reclamation, quantifying the degree and time of vegetation disturbance and restoration, is of great significance to minimize the environmental effect of mining. Remote sensing, widely used as efficient monitoring tool, but there is not enough research on disturbance and reclamation monitoring taking into account large-scale areas and high temporal and spatial accuracy. Especially when mining sites remain unknown, how to distinguish the disturbance of coal mining and other human activities affecting the surface land cover has become a challenge. Therefore, this paper proposed a method to reconstruct the time series of mining disturbance and reclamation in a large area by using the POI (point of interest) and Landsat time series images using multiple buffer analysis methods. The process includes: (1) Retrieval of POI in the study area based on the public mining list using Python crawler, and buffering 100 km for preliminary extraction of potential mining areas; (2) Using spectral index mask and random forest algorithm to accurately extract the exposed coal on the Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform; (3) Buffering 10 km to identify the occurrence of disturbance and reclamation, using pixel-based temporal trajectory identification of LandTrendr algorithm under GEE. The method successful detect the change points of surface coal mining disturbance and reclamation in eastern Inner Mongolia of China. The results show that: (1) The method can effectively identify the extent of surface coal mining disturbance and reclamation, and the overall extraction accuracy is 81%. (2) Surface coal mining disturbance in eastern Inner Mongolia was concentrated in 2006–2011. By 2020, the total disturbed area is 627.8 km2, with an average annual disturbance of 18.5 km2, and the annual maximum disturbance to the ground reached 64.6 km2 in 2008. With the total reclaimed area being 236.3 km2, the reclamation rate is about 37.6%. This study provides a systematic solution and process for monitoring the disturbance and reclamation of surface coal mining in a large range with little known about the mines' location. It can effectively identify the mining disturbance and reclamation process which can also be extended to other areas, providing a quantitative assessment of mining disturbance and reclamation, which can support further ecological restoration decision-making. [Display omitted] • A remote sensing procedure of surface coal mine classification, disturbance and reclamation monitoring is developed. • Landsat, random forest, web scraping, and Google Earth Engine has been used to detect 73 surface coal mining sites. • 0.94% of the total study area has been disturbed by surface mining. • The developed procedure is able to reveal the surface coal mine reclamation pattern. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Air pollution shares the attributes of significant spatial spillover effects and environmental public goods, leading to the territorial governance model that easily falls into a state of failure. Despite a growing number of studies on the local spatial spillover effect of air pollution, scant evidence currently exists on its global spatial association effect and a good subgroup governance model. Based on a panel data set of the daily prefecture-level city data on air quality measured by the air quality index (AQI) in "2 + 26" cities of China in 2015 and 2018, this study first builds an air pollution transport network (APTN), i.e., the cities as the nodes and the association relationships between the nodes as the edges. Furthermore, this paper reveals the spatial association effect and the temporal lagged attribute of the APTN using the Social network analysis (SNA) and the Generalized impulse response function (GIRF). The results are summarized as follows. (1) Every city has significant spatial association effects of air pollution with at least another city in the APTN, and northern APTN affects most to the air pollution of other cities, while southern APTN is obviously always affected by air pollution in other cities. (2) Transport strength peaks on the second day of an air pollution transport process, and the transport process lasts for 7–12 days. (3) The APTN is divided into four subgroups: Sycophants, Primary, Bidirectional, and Brokers, with Baoding, Zhengzhou, Heze, and Hengshui as the central cities of each group, respectively. Overall, our study provides a networked, modular, and early-warning governance model for policymakers. [Display omitted] • An air pollution transport network (APTN) is constructed using granger causality test method in "2 + 26" cities, China. • Spatially, there is a significant association effect between any two cities. • Temporally, air pollution transport shock strengths peaks on the second day and the transport process lasts for 7–12 days. • The APTN is divided into four subgroups with every group has a governing body, respectively. • A networked, modular and early-warning governance model for policymakers is provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the roles and regional differences associated with cleaner production (CP) and end-of-pipe treatment (ET) can provide valuable information for the reduction of pollutant emissions. Considering the differences of these impact pathways, this paper proposes a two-stage decomposition method for investigating the contributions of CP and ET to the reduction of pollutant emissions. This two-stage method enhances the accuracy and obtainable detail of the decomposition results. Then, empirical research was conducted by decomposing the changes of China's industrial sulfur dioxide (SO 2) emissions during 2005–2015. At the national level, CP and ET both decreased Chinese SO 2 emissions, and CP has become the dominant approach for SO 2 emission reduction in 2010–2015. Moreover, coal pollution intensity and treatment strength are key factors that need to be improved in CP and ET , respectively. At the provincial level, CP exerts a stronger impact on SO 2 emission differences among different regions, while ET exerts less impact on SO 2 emission differences among different regions. Based on the decomposition results, this paper presents targeted policy implications. • We proposed a two-stage method to enhance the accuracy and richness of results. • The SO 2 emission changes are decomposed into 7 factors from 2005 to 2015 in China. • Cleaner production became dominant approach of SO 2 emission abatement in 2010–2015. • Coal pollution intensity and treatment strength are the key factors to be improved. • The difference in contributions of cleaner production among regions has widened. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The conservation and efficient use of water resources are directly related to the sustainable and high-quality development in China. This paper regards the pilot policy of water-saving society construction as a quasi-natural experiment, and employs a differences-in-differences approach to evaluate the effectiveness of urban water-saving policies and exploit its drive mechanism by using the panel data of 263 cities in China from 2001 to 2016. Findings show that the pilot policy of water-saving society construction can achieve better water-saving effects, which can not only promote the reduction of urban water consumption in intensity and total amount, but also improve the efficiency of water resources utilization. And this policy has brought long-term dynamic effects on the urban water resources conservation. Heterogeneous effects exist in different types of cities, that is, the water-saving performance is more significant in cities with sufficient water resources and in central China. Besides, this paper finds that the impact of this water-saving policy on urban water resource conservation is mainly through two channels such as water resources infrastructure investment and water resources pricing. These findings provide useful inspirations for local governments to take effective economic measures to manage water resources. • Regard the pilot policy of water-saving society construction as a quasi-natural experiment. • Employ a differences-in-differences approach with the panel data of 263 cities in China from 2001 to 2016. • Evaluate the effectiveness of urban water-saving policies and exploit its drive mechanism. • Water-saving society construction can achieve better water-saving effects. • Water infrastructure investment and water pricing are important mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study addresses the question of why industrial restructuring towards light industries or services sometimes fails to achieve carbon emission mitigation goals. By employing a new perspective of dividing industry segments into emission-dominating and non-emission-dominating ones based on Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index (LMDI) decomposition method, this paper analyses city-level carbon dioxide emission reduction performance under three distinctive industrial restructuring directions. Results indicate that carbon dioxide emission dominating segments are relatively fixed across cities, regardless of the various city types in China. The key point to achieve emission reduction through industrial restructuring is to identify and control the emission-dominating segments, instead of economic-leading ones. Besides, emission reduction performance of industrial restructuring from emission-dominating industry segments to services is better than that to non-emission-dominating ones. More importantly, industrial restructuring not involving output scale controlling of emission-dominating segments, or that recklessly rushing towards services are likely to fail the emission mitigation goal. This paper presents a strong international reference that merits cities facing policy hesitation over industrial restructuring directions while in pursuit of emission mitigation. It suggests that cities first focus on identifying the carbon dioxide dominating segments, of which the output scale should be controlled. For cities whose emission-dominating segments are not economic-leading ones, it is necessary to carry out industrial restructuring towards services or non-emission-dominating segments; while for cities heavily dependent on emission-dominating segments, energy efficiency should also be improved. • Identifying CO 2 -dominating segments at city level with LMDI method. • Comparing CO 2 mitigation effects among different industrial restructuring directions. • Providing feasible restructuring paths for distinct cities to reduce CO 2 emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Located in the hinterland of the Eurasian continent, the inland areas of northwestern China have an arid climate and are confronted with continuing challenges in water resources quantity and quality. Reclaimed water plays an important role in maintaining the sustainable use of urban water resources, especially in arid regions. In this paper, a system dynamics urban reclaimed water model (SDURWM) considering the status of arid regions in northwestern China was constructed. The supply and demand balance index (RWB) and the utilization efficiency index (RWUE) of reclaimed water were proposed as evaluation indicators. The potential of reclaimed water utilization (2016–2025) in three typical cities with similar natural environments and population sizes but with large economic differences were estimated by the SD model. Then the relevant values of reclaimed water quota, supply and resident awareness were adjusted within the range of 10%–20%. The predicted results from intervention demonstrate that the RWB of three cities will be closer or maintain to the ideal value, and that the RWUE will increase by about 0.1, compared with the non-intervention results. This indicates that a minor change of the targeted policies can invigorate the capacity of reclaimed water use in droughty cities. This paper provides some effective solutions for the government's planning of developing the potential of reclaimed water. • Established a SD model for urban reclaimed water utilization in arid areas. • Proposed RWB and RWUE for evaluating the comprehensive utilization potential of reclaimed water. • Explored targeted measures to improve the utilization of reclaimed water in typical arid cities of northwest China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soil pollution is a serious environmental issue in China. As a key subject of agricultural practices, promoting Chinese farmers' Pro-Environmental Behavior (PEB) through increasing their soil pollution risk perception is an important means for soil protection, agricultural transformation and ecological development. In this study, we distinguish four dimensions of soil pollution risk perception: fact perception (FP), loss perception (LP), cause perception (CP) and response behavior ability perception (RBAP). We conceptualize a model that depicts the relationships between the four dimensions of Chinese farmers' soil pollution risk perception and their PEB and the moderating effect of farms' household income level on these relationships. Using a questionnaire survey to collect empirical data, we find: first, the four dimensions of Chinese farmers' soil pollution risk perception have positive effects on their PEB; second, Chinese farmers' household income level positively moderates the relationships between their FP, LP and CP and their PEB but its moderating effect on the relationship between their RBAP and their PEB is not significant. Relevant theory and policy implications for environmental management are discussed in the paper. • The paper distinguishes four dimensions of farmers' soil pollution risk perception. • Soil pollution risk perception positively influences pro-environmental behavior. • Household income moderates the effects of soil pollution risk perception on PEB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on data of the manufacturing sector of China and Japan from 2003 to 2016, this paper attempts to measure the progresses in energy-biased technology and energy efficiency by constructing a threshold panel regression model with variables including foreign direct investment (FDI) and energy consumption structure to explain energy efficiency using energy-biased technology as the key explaining variable. The estimation indicates significant differences in the energy efficiency of China's and Japan's manufacturing industries. In general, Japan's total energy efficiency is higher than China's. The industry with more intensive technology has higher energy efficiency which rises much faster. The paper finds that the energy efficiency of China's manufacturing sector shows an upward trend in general, while Japan's fluctuates more, showing two peaks and two troughs. Our empirical results show that there is a threshold value of progress in energy-biased technology; below this, progress in energy-biased technology will have a positive effect on energy efficiency and beyond it, the effect will be negative. Since this effect is not one-way, we define it as a 'double-edged effect'. It is estimated that the level of energy-biased technology progress of most manufacturing industries in China is below the threshold value, indicating that the technology progress in China's manufacturing sector has not been excessively biased towards energy consumption, and the impact on energy efficiency is still positive. The China-Japan comparison shows that the threshold value for Japan's manufacturing sector is significantly lower than that for China's, indicating a marginal effect on the 'double-edged effect': The threshold value will decrease when energy efficiency reaches a certain level. Therefore, it is necessary to offset these negative externalities from technological progress with other factors such as by increasing FDI and improving energy consumption structure. • This paper examines the influence of energy-biased technological progress alone on energy efficiency. • It proves the influence of energy-biased technological progress on energy efficiency to be nonlinear. • It measures the energy-biased technological progress and energy efficiency of some industries of the manufacturing sector of China and Japan. • It proves the rebound effect to be conditional in the manufacturing sector of China and Japan. • It also proves the threshold effect in the influence of energy-biased technological progress on energy efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are nearly two million ha of red jujube in the arid inland agricultural region south of the Tianshan mountains in China that produce approximately 37.2% of the global red jujube market. This paper provides an insight into the spatiotemporal variation of the water footprint and economic water productivity of red jujube cultivation in six main red jujube-producing areas. The effects of regional policies, industrial clusters, planting structures, irrigation methods and brand values studied extensively in this paper and shows how these driving factors affect the variation. Time series data covering the period of 2003–2015 was used for the study. The results showed that the annual variation of yield, cultivated areas, water footprint and economic water productivity of red jujube cultivation have experienced upward trends in the Tianshan regions, but that there were also few differences between different growing areas. The blue water makes the largest contribution (more than 70%) to the components of the red jujube water footprint in each red jujube producing area. The contribution of grey water footprint to the total consumptive WF was quite small (less than 10%) and the remaining 10%–15% was due to the green water. The water footprint and overall economic water productivity through the red jujube in various producing areas are affected by local government management and performance. The possible ways of improving economic water productivity in terms of red jujube cultivation are through policy, technological and management interventions. • Water footprint is proposed as an effective assessment tool for management of water resources. • Blue water footprint has the greatest impact on red jujube growing scale in Turpan-Hami basin. • The difference in economic water productivity provides reference for the selection and development of producing areas. • Policy planning represents a key factor for sustainability management in red jujube industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental regulation (ER) is regarded as an important driver of environmental improvement. Taking China's non-ferrous metals industry (NFMI) as a sample, this paper discusses the relationship between ER and energy environmental performance (EEPI) in two stages, and tests the effectiveness of the "strong" Porter hypothesis. In the first stage, this paper uses the global environment DEA to construct the competitiveness index, EEPI, which represents "green" development. In the second stage, we explore the relationship between two types of ER and EEPI by using the panel Tobit model and considers the non-linear characteristics of ER and regional heterogeneity. Moreover, a mechanism analysis is conducted. The results show that: (1) at a reasonable regulatory level, this study supports the "strong" Porter hypothesis in China's NFMI. (2) Technological innovation plays a mediating effect between environmental regulation and EEPI. (3) From a national perspective, there is a significant inverted U-shaped non-linear relationship between environmental expenditure and EEPI, and a significant U-shaped non-linear relationship between environmental investment and EEPI. (4) Regional samples present heterogeneous results between ER and EEPI. Based on the conclusions, we believe that environmental regulation policies should take into account regional differences and incorporate diversified green innovations to achieve sustainable development. • At a reasonable regulatory level, this study supports the "strong" Porter hypothesis. • 2. Take energy-environment performance index as the competitiveness indicator. • Significant inverted U-shaped relationship between environmental expenditure and EEPI. • Significant U-shaped relationship between environmental investment and EEPI. • Regional samples present obvious heterogeneous results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Household consumption activities affect energy and water consumption directly and indirectly. Based on input-output modeling, this paper divided Chinese urban and rural residents into 12 groups, and investigated the impact of the consumption activities of residents with different levels of income on China's energy and water consumption from the perspective of consumers. Two main results were found. 1) In 2012, the energy consumption caused by the consumption activities of the highest-income urban residents accounted for 17.3% of the total energy consumption. For water resources, the per capita water withdrawal and consumption of the highest-income urban residents reached 481.21 m3 and 284.45 thousand m3, 6 times more than that of the low-income rural residents. 2) We identified medium and medium-high income urban residents as the key groups of residents. From the perspective of the industrial sectors, the key sectors for high energy consumption and water usage included the Electricity and Agricultural sectors, and we identified the Electricity sector as the key sector for the water and energy nexus of the residential sectors. The conclusions of this paper have pertinence for policymaking, and they provide an appropriate policy basis for guiding residents' energy and water consumption. • Energy and water usage caused by household consumption in China is investigated. • Chinese urban and rural residents in input-output table are divided into 12 groups. • Energy consumption caused by the highest-income urban residents accounted for 17.3%. • Water usage of the highest-income urban residents is 6 times more than that of the low-income rural residents. • Electricity sector as the key sector for the water and energy nexus of the residential sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Air pollution, especially haze pollution is a serious environment problem that directly affects the sustainable development in China. Identifying the key factors affecting PM2.5 concentration and the interaction mechanism between them through quantitative analysis can greatly help a city devise PM2.5 pollution control strategy. Using the geographical detector model, we quantitative measured 13 cities in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region's social factors and their interaction impacts on PM2.5 concentration in 2016. In the analysis process, factor analysis method is used to separate the factors preliminary. According to the results, the factors mainly divided into two categories, i.e. economic factor and environment factor. R&D ranks top in the studied cities in terms of factor detection results, presenting closely relationship between PM2.5 concentration and R&D. We also find the interaction between any two factors all enhance impact on PM2.5 concentration than any one alone. This study provided a scientific basic and guidance for measure the driving degree of social factors and their interaction effects. • This paper identifies the key elements affecting PM2.5 concentration. • The geographical detector model is used to study the interaction mechanism of those factors. • This paper takes 13 cities in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region as an example. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Atmospheric pollution emissions have become a matter of public concern in recent years. However, most of the existing researches on NOx pollution are from the natural science and technology perspective, few studies have been conducted from an economic point, and regional differences have not been given adequate attention. This paper adopts provincial panel data from 2006 to 2013 and the LMDI model to analyze the key driving factors and regional dilemmas of NOx emissions. The results show that significant regional disparities still exit on NO x emissions and its reduction effect 27 provinces didn't accomplish their corresponding reduction targets. Economic development factor is the dominating driving factor of NO x emissions during the study period, while energy efficiency and technology improvement factors offset total NO x emissions in the majority of provinces. In addition, the industrial structure factor plays a more significant role in reducing the NO x emissions after 2011. Therefore, the government should consider all these factors as well as regional heterogeneity in developing appropriate pollution mitigating policies. It's necessary to change NOx emissions control attitude from original key areas control to divided-zone control, not only attaches great importance to the reduction of the original key areas, but also emphasizes the new potential hotspots with high NO x emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increased attention has been paid to PM 2.5 pollution in China. Due to its detrimental effects on environment and health, it is important to establish a PM 2.5 concentration forecasting model with high precision for its monitoring and controlling. This paper presents a novel hybrid model based on principal component analysis (PCA) and least squares support vector machine (LSSVM) optimized by cuckoo search (CS). First PCA is adopted to extract original features and reduce dimension for input selection. Then LSSVM is applied to predict the daily PM 2.5 concentration. The parameters in LSSVM are fine-tuned by CS to improve its generalization. An experiment study reveals that the proposed approach outperforms a single LSSVM model with default parameters and a general regression neural network (GRNN) model in PM 2.5 concentration prediction. Therefore the established model presents the potential to be applied to air quality forecasting systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emissions Trading Schemes (ETS) rely on market signals like price stability and predictability, which are affected by the volatility of the financial market and the energy market. Risk is an important indicator of price stability. Using a time-varying copula method, this study analyzes the extreme risk impact of uncertainties (including Economic policy uncertainty (EPU), financial market (VIX) and energy market uncertainty (OVX)) on carbon markets in China and the European Union (EU). This paper also measures the asymmetry of that risk spillover; that is, we identify the impact of increasing and decreasing uncertainties on ETS market risk (stability). Our results show that increased uncertainty in economic policies, financial markets and energy markets will lead to a decline in ETS prices in China and the EU. Chinese and European ETS market risks are most significantly affected by energy market uncertainty changes, and least affected by economic uncertainty changes. Although European ETS markets are riskier than Chinese ETS markets, European ETS prices are more stable. Downside and upside analysis show that risk spillovers to Chinese and European carbon markets are significantly asymmetric and dynamic. Specifically, the downward volatility of uncertainty has a stronger risk impact on ETS than the upward volatility does. Our research provides a useful reference for policy makers to improve ETS market price stability and guide expectations, providing investors with a reliable method to predict market risks. • Extreme Risk linkages between China carbon returns and three types of uncertainty are investigated. • Two types of ΔCoVaR are employed to explore the influence of extreme uncertainty movement on Chinese carbon returns. • The non-linear and dynamic dependence relationships are investigated using time-varying copula models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development, protection, and restoration of bays require works in scientific research and applications, and the success of which depends on a well deployment of monitoring stations for marine water quality. However, for bays without historical data, it is difficult to carry out related research on deployment of the monitoring stations, resulting in very few research works. This paper has introduced the affinity propagation (AP) clustering algorithm and achieved good results by correcting the preferences. The results show that under the given preference, that is, when the value of M is −6800, the number of monitoring stations in the Xincun lagoon area is 24. Simultaneous the sensitivity analysis of preferences shows that the number of exemplars decreases with lower preferences, that is, when M decreased from −4000 to −12000, the number also decreased from 70 to 36. However, some exemplars remain unchanged or being changed to adjacent positioning. This shows the stability of computation results and the rationality of AP. The research results can be well applied to other bays, even open waters. • AP clustering can be used to layout seawater monitoring stations. • Multi-dimensional feature parameters is used to modify the bias parameters of the algorithm. • Sensitivity analysis shows that AP clustering can be applied in bays lacking historical data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which was first put forward by China in late 2013, has made a significant contribution to international economic activities and inevitably reshaped the pattern of carbon dioxide (CO 2) emissions. Considering the spatial spillover effects of CO 2 emissions among countries, this paper employs spatial difference-in-differences models in order to investigate the BRI's effects on total CO 2 emissions (TCE), per capita CO 2 emissions (PCE), and CO 2 emissions intensity (CEI), respectively. The results of global Moran's I index prove the existence of spatial correlations of CO 2 emissions. The BRI's effect on TCE is significantly positive, while the effects on PCE and CEI are significantly negative, suggesting the BRI has aggravated the amount of CO 2 emissions in the partner countries, but has promoted green development by decreasing PCE and CEI. Besides, the spatial effects of control variables on CO 2 emissions are also evaluated. Some tests, including placebo test and employing alternative weight matrices, are further conducted to verify the robustness of the model. The findings indicate the BRI has facilitated green economic growth, by eventually achieving emission reduction targets in the partner countries. [Display omitted] • The spatial interactions between the BRI and CO 2 emissions are investigated. • There are strong spatial autocorrelations of CO 2 emissions from 2008 to 2018. • The BRI's effect on TCE is positive, while the effects on PCE and CEI are negative. • The direct effects of determinants are far larger than their indirect effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a basic natural and strategic resource, water is of great significance to the sustainable development of economies and societies. Owing to population growth, industrialization, the acceleration of urbanization, and global warming, water poverty is gradually increasing in some parts of the world. Effectively assessing water poverty from different dimensions is still a serious challenge for global water resources planning. This paper establishes a framework of multidimensional water poverty (MWP) from six dimensions: water management, water technology, water assets, water welfare, water resources, and water environment. The measurement model of MWP is built based on the Back Propagation Neural Network (BPNN), and the Spatial Correlation Analysis tool is used to visualize the spatial effects of MWP. The Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB) was used as a case study and the main factors affecting the MWP of the YREB were determined by the Geodetector. When analyzing the results the following observations were made: (1) In terms of time distribution, the level of MWP in the YREB has gradually increased, and the poverty gap between the upper reaches, as well as the middle and lower reaches, shows an increasing trend. (2) With respect to spatial distribution, there is a continuously increasing agglomeration effect that shows a gradient-increasing distribution pattern of "West-Central-East." (3) The MWP in the YREB is mainly affected by these indicators in the three dimensions consisting of water resources, water technology, and water management. Specifically, R&D expenditure as a percentage of GDP, the proportion of water-saving irrigation area in the cultivable land area, the urban daily wastewater treatment capacity, the land surface water resources per capita, and the groundwater resources per capita play an important role in the MWP. Based on the above findings, targeted policy recommendations are proposed to alleviate the MWP in the YREB. • Model of multidimensional water poverty developed to assess water scarcity. • Multidimensional water poverty and its agglomeration effect in the YREB increases. • Differences in multidimensional water poverty for the YREB's three reaches are clear. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the most biodiversity-rich part of the protected areas system, habitats within the pilot national parks have long been threatened by drastic human-induced land use and land cover changes. The growing concern about habitat loss has spurred China's national park project to shift from pilot to construction phase with the official establishment of China's first group of national parks (CFGNPs) in October 2021. But far too little attention has been paid to the synergistic work concerning the habitat quality (HQ) dynamics of all five national parks. Here, the InVEST model, combined with a satellite-derived land use and land cover product and a hot spot analysis (HSA) method, was used to investigate the HQ dynamics at the park- and pixel-scale within the CFGNPs. Our results demonstrate that the past ecological conservation practices within national parks have been unpromising, especially in Giant Panda National Park, Northeast China Tiger and Leopard National Park (NCTL), and Wuyi Mountain National Park (WYM), where HQ as a whole showed a significant decline. Furthermore, more than half of Hainan Tropical Rainforest National Park (87.2%), WYM (77.4%), and NCTL (52.9%) showed significant HQ degradation from 1980 to 2019. Besides, increasing trends in the area shares of HQ degraded pixels were observed in all five national parks from 1980–1999 to 2000–2019. The HSA implied that the hot spots of high HQ degradation rates tend to occur in areas closer to urban settlements or on the edge of national parks, where human activities are intensive. Despite these disappointing findings, we highlighted from the observed local successes and the HQ plateau that the construction of CFGNPs is expected to reverse the deteriorating HQ trends. Thus, we concluded our paper by proposing an HSA-based regulatory zoning scheme that includes five subzones to guide the future construction of China's national park system. [Display omitted] • The first known investigation to reveal the habitat quality trends for China's first group of national parks was presented. • The past ecological conservation practices within national parks have been unpromising over the past four decades. • The area shares of habitat quality degraded pixels show an increasing trend in all five national parks from 1980 to 2019. • We developed a regulatory zoning scheme for habitat protection or ecosystem restoration within these national parks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many countries have formulated strict environmental regulation policies, but unfortunately, environmental pollution is still severe. We believe that this phenomenon may result from institutional factors. We study whether local government competition affects the dependence on polluting industries and test it with the transaction data of China's land market. We find that the decline in the economic ranking of cities increases the scale of land transferred to polluting industries, and the more the ranking decline, the larger the scale of land in polluting industries. Besides, we analyze the impact of the first decline in the urban economic ranking, finding that the land transfer scale of polluting industries exhibits a trend of slowing down after a rapid rise in the short term. Heterogeneity analysis shows that officials with lower education levels and before-retirement age will dependent more on polluting industries to a greater extent when they face local government competition, and cities with economic growth lower than the national average will increase their dependence on polluting industries to a greater extent. This paper provides new insights into the causes of the environmental governance dilemma, which also highlights the need to weaken economic indicators and strengthen environmental indicators in government performance assessment. • Local government competition is an important factor in environmental pollution. • Economic ranking falls will increase the amount of land going to polluting industries. • Economic competition and environmental protection are competitive relation. • Heterogeneity effect of officials' characteristics and economic growth targets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The digital economy has demonstrated strong resilience and great potential, under the interwoven influence of the global pandemic and severe environmental concerns across the world. Therefore, there is a need to focus on the value of green economic growth in the digital economy. This paper constructs an evaluation index system and adopts the SEEA (System of Environmental and Economic Accounting) method to measure the digitalization level (Digi) and green economy growth level (GEG) of China. The internal mechanism and linear relationship between digitalization and green economy growth are examined based on the panel data from 2013 to 2019. Moreover, this study explores the spatial spillover effect. The major study findings are as follows: (1) Digitalization and green economy growth represent a steady growth trend, and the former as a whole significantly promotes the latter, with a marginal effect of 1.648. (2) The mechanism analysis indicates the intermediary effects' size of three crucial intermediaries: green technology innovation > advanced industrial structure > the rationalization of industrial structure. (3) Both the "local effect" (0.556; 0.574) and "neighboring effect" (1.382; 1.415) of digitalization on green economy growth are positive under the two weight matrices and display "simultaneous resonance" characteristics based on the spatial perspective. (4) There exists obvious regional spatial heterogeneity and resource endowment heterogeneity. Finally, this study put forward corresponding policy implications, such as construction of new digital infrastructures and guiding green-energy consumption. • The green economic growth (GEG) level is measured by the SEEA method. • The linear relationship shows digitalization (Digi) can significantly promote GEG. • The spatial effect of Digi on GEG shows "positive simultaneous resonance". • Three crucial intermedia's effects are compared. • The heterogeneous impact is explored from different dimensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides insights into the allocation of benefits derived from joint wastewater treatment in the Lake Tai Basin of China and the acceptability and stability of different cost allocation schemes in a trans-jurisdictional water system context. First, the wastewater treatment cost function is estimated and coalition costs are compared to the cost of stand-alone wastewater treatment in each province. Second, two standard and five game theoretical cost allocation schemes are applied to the grand coalition. Results suggest that a cost savings of US $46.46 million can be obtained by forming a grand coalition. All allocation schemes were found to be acceptable. Results also suggest that both Shanghai and Jiangsu Province would prefer a proportional allocation scheme based on pollutant discharge, because it would offer them the largest cost savings. But this allocation scheme is the least stable one. Based on the criterion of stability, the Nash-Harsanyi scheme emerges as providing the optimal allocation. Finally, calculation of power and stability indexes suggests Jiangsu Province as an agent is critical to the success of grand coalition formation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cadmium-enrichment of farmland soil greatly threatens the sustainable use of soil resources and the safe cultivation of grain. This review paper briefly introduces the status of farmland soil as well as grain, which are both often polluted by cadmium (Cd) in China, and illustrates the major sources of Cd contaminants in farmland soil. In order to meet soil environmental quality standards and farmland environmental quality evaluation standards for edible agricultural products, Cd-enriched farmland soil is frequently remediated with the following prevailing techniques: dig and fill, electro-kinetic remediation, chemical elution, stabilisation and solidification, phytoremediation, field management and combined remediation. Most remediation techniques are still at the stage of small-scale trial experiments in China and few techniques are assessed in field trials. After comparing the technical and economical applicability among different Cd-enriched farmland soil remediation techniques, a novel ecological and hydraulic remediation technique has been proposed, which integrated the advantages of chemical elution, solidification and stabilisation, phytoremediation and field management. The ecological and hydraulic remediation concept is based on existing irrigation and drainage facilities, ecological ditches (ponds) and agronomic measures, which mainly detoxify the Cd-enriched soil during the interim period of crop cultivation, and guarantee the grain safety during its growth period. This technique may shift the challenge from soil to water treatment, and thus greatly enhances the remediation efficiency and shortens the remediation duration. Moreover, the proposed ecological and hydraulic remediation method matches well with the practical choice of cultivation while remediation for Cd-enriched soil in China, which has negligible impacts on the normal crop cultivation process, and thus shows great potential for large area applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Low-carbon pilot cities can break the lock-in effect of living carbon emissions, which are an important strategic component of China's response to climate change. Current research on low-carbon pilot cities focuses on the production field. Insufficient attention has been paid to whether low-carbon pilot cities can promote the green transformation of residents' lifestyle. Using panel data of 285 cities in China from 2004 to 2016, this study explores the inducing effect of low-carbon pilot cities on residents' low-carbon choices from holistic and single-dual perspectives based on the difference-in-differences method and the synthetic control method. This study finds that low-carbon pilot cities can promote the green transformation of residents' lifestyle, and this policy has reduced living carbon emissions by approximately 15.3%. The transmission mechanisms are mainly green life consciousness and green habits. The conclusion considers the effects of multi-pilot policies and other living differences during the parallel period and is still valid after robustness testing using propensity score matching difference-in-differences. In addition, the policy has a snowball effect, and is stronger in larger cities. Ultimately, this paper provides useful information for the scientific implementation of carbon emission reduction plans in the field of residents' living and the improvement of the long-term mechanism of pilot cities with both quality and quantity guaranteed. • Low-carbon pilot cities (LCPCs) induce residents to make low-carbon choices. • LCPCs have reduced living carbon emissions by approximately 15.3%. • LCPCs can coexist with other policies to achieve CO 2 reduction. • The mechanisms are mainly green consciousness and green habits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under the strict control measures, China has achieved phased victory in combating with the COVID-19, production activities have gradually returned to normal. This paper examined whether air pollution was rebounded or realized green recovery in the post-COVID-19 era with a dataset of weather normalized pollutant concentrations using difference-in-differences models. Results showed that air pollution experienced a significant decline due to the wide range of control measures. With entering the post-epidemic period, air pollution raised due to the orderly production resumption. Specifically, production resumption increased the PM 2.5 concentrations of lockdown cities and non-lockdown cities by 43.2% (22.3 μg/m3) and 35.9% (17.3 μg/m3) compared with that in the period of COVID-19 breakout. Although the economic activities of China have been gradually recovered, PM 2.5 concentrations were 8.8–11.2 μg/m3 lower than the level of pre-epidemic period. In addition, the environmental effects varied across cities. With the process of production resumption, the PM 2.5 concentrations of cities with higher GDP, higher secondary industry output, more private cars and higher export volume rebounded less. Most developed cities realized green recovery by economy growth and air quality improvement, such as Beijing and Shanghai. While cities with heavy industry reflected pollution rebound with slow economy recovery, such as Shenyang and Harbin. Understanding the environmental effects of control measure and production resumption can provide crucial information for developing epidemic recovery policies and dealing with pollution issues for both China and other countries. • Production resumption increased PM 2.5 concentrations in the post-COVID-19 era. • PM 2.5 concentrations in the post-COVID-19 era were lower than that during the period without epidemic. • PM 2.5 concentrations of cities with higher GDP, secondary industry output, and export volume rebounded less. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the proposal of carbon neutralization, countries pay much more attention to environmental protection. As waste electric vehicle battery (WEVB) has an important impact on the environment, its reverse logistics process has been a vital issue, in which an excellent reverse logistics network (RLN) becomes a prerequisite for waste recycling, cost reduction, profit increasement and efficiency improvement. However, reverse logistics network design (RLND) for WEVBs is still a significant challenge. In general, the amount and quality of the returned product in a RLN are highly uncertain, and the WEVB market in China is no exception to this. From a circular economic and environmental perspective, this paper is devoted to designing a multi-participants-based RLN for WEVBs, considering recycling and remanufacturing processes. Then, a fuzzy optimization model is proposed to determine the number and location of facilities in this RLN, promote sustainable development, reduce environmental pollution, and consider carbon emissions and two types of WEVBs. Finally, the results from a case study in Chongqing show good performance in cost reduction, profit increasement and efficiency improvement, which could significantly support the decision-making of WEVBs recycling. [Display omitted] • Build a multi-participants based collaborative optimization model for RLND. • Consider different recovery options and carbon emissions simultaneously. • Introduce the bill of material in recycling process of WEVBs. • Establish an appropriate number and location of different functional facilities. • Determine the flow and route of different items in RLN. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soil pollution has caused increasingly widespread attention in China. The environmental risk threshold of pollutants is a yardstick to measure soil environmental quality. For decades, plenty of research on soil environmental quality standards (SEQSs) has been carried out, providing scientific basis for the investigation and supervision of soil environmental quality. This paper summaries the development of SEQSs in China, the corresponding influencing factors and methodology of SEQSs derivation. In the current version of SEQSs (GB15618-2018), the thresholds of soil pollutants are derived by the methods of environmental risk assessment, which are more methodologically scientific than geochemical method and ecological effect method used in the previous version (GB15618-1995). Abundant toxicology data on related species is required for risk assessment of soil pollution using extrapolation; however, basic toxicological data is insufficient and few valid data is available at present. Besides, the inadequate consideration on influencing factors for the derivation of soil pollutant threshold would affect the scientificity and rationality of SEQSs, such as biotic factors (species type, test endpoint etc.) and abiotic factors (aging effect, leaching effect, synergistic or antagonistic effects of elements etc.). These problems should be paid close attention in future research on soil environmental quality standards. The contents summarized in this review may provide reference for decision-making on supervision of soil environmental quality and point out important directions for future studies. • The development processes of soil environmental quality standards (SEQSs) in China were reviewed. • The research progresses of derivation methodology of SEQSs were summarized. • At present, few valid data are available for SEQSs derivation using extrapolation. • The influencing factors on SEQSs derivation are taken insufficient account. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Impact of heavy metal (HM) pollution and its understanding on environment as well as human beings has grown a lot during the last few decades. The goal of this study is to create a scientometric study on heavy metal contamination, in the period 1989 to 2020, in order to provide futuristic goals for the new researchers on wastewater treatment. For this, a search was conducted in the Web of Science (WoS) and Scopus databases, related to heavy metal pollution. Totally, 37,154 records were collected during the study period from 1989 to 2020. The findings revealed that China, the United States, and India has most referenced papers across a wide range of trans disciplinary issues such as toxicity, technology, and pollution. As a result, this study concludes that more research on various treatment methods is required in order to obtain high-quality water for consumption and routine activities, with the incorporation of various treatment tasks poses various challenges for the upcoming future studies. [Display omitted] • A bibliometric study is performed an heavy metal pollution between 1989 and 2020. • 37,154 records were critically analyzed to extract the bibliographic maps. • China, USA and India are the leading countries in heavy metal pollution research. • Advanced oxidation, coagulation-flocculation, adsorption, and membrane filtering technologies were focussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the development of urbanization, ecological space is increasingly disturbed and invaded by human activities. From 2000 to 2020, the value of ecosystem services in China decreased from 28.05 to 27.77 trillion yuan. This paper combines the natural and social data of 370 administrative units in China from 2000 to 2020 with the GTWR model. Our results show that in most regions of China, the coefficient value of factor GDP or POP is significantly higher than that of other factors. The regions with higher natural factors coefficient value are concentrated in the northwest and southeast. In addition, this study found that the driving factors and ESV have geographical spillover effects. The above conclusions have important practical significance for planning policies according to local conditions. • The coefficients of natural and anthropogenic factors were compared. • Natural and anthropogenic factors' coefficients dominate regions showing regional differentiation. • Excessive anthropogenic disturbance can negatively impact ecosystem services. • GTWR model was used to analyze Spatial-temporal changes of ecosystem services. • Ecosystem service value has spillover effect in geographical space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]