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In order to deal with severe problems such as environmental pollution and climate change, the Chinese government has proposed the goal of carbon neutrality in 2030 and carbon peak in 2060. Strategic emerging industries have become key areas of high-quality growth of green economy. In order to solve the practical problems of insufficient funds and financing constraints, this paper empirically measures the financing efficiency of strategic emerging industries. Based on the Super Slack-Based Measure model, this paper selects the data analysis of listed companies in Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei from 2011 to 2020. At the same time, this paper systematically combs the index system that affects financing efficiency based on grounded theory. Based on the binary relation and structural level of adjacent matrix and reachable matrix, the explanatory analysis is carried out. On this basis, a systematic GMM model is established to explore the significance of different factors influencing financing efficiency. The research shows that the strategic emerging industry is still in the initial stage, the financing efficiency is not high and the financing output is insufficient. The factors affecting financing efficiency can be divided into 6 dimensions, 20 indicators in total and 5 multipole hierarchical levels. Credit financing, equity financing, financing constraints, technological innovation and government support are the important factors affecting financing efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green finance has become an important reform force to promote the sustainable development of China's economy. Therefore, it has a great significance for in-depth analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of regional green finance development, to further promote it by clarifying and predicting the regional differences and dynamic evolution trends. Based on this, this paper will select the relevant index from 2001 to 2020 to construct China Green Finance Core Network (CGFCN) in different years by using Space-L method at the first, then analyze its network characteristics and spatial evolution pattern in depth, and finally predict the future development trend of CGFCN by link prediction. The research results show that: firstly, the evolution of CGFCN is mainly divided into three stages: rapid development, stable development and optimal development, and the closeness of CGFCN is constantly improving. Besides, two strong relationship networks are gradually forming, that is Beijing-Tianjin region and the Yangtze River Detla region. Secondly, with the development of green finance, the community division has changed. It is mainly divided into four communities, named the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei leading community, the eastern provincial community, the Yangtze River Delta community and the central and southern joint community. Different communities will have different integration in different periods. Thirdly, the future development direction of green finance network is mainly Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and Yangtze River Delta regions, and their outward radiation are mainly shown in the eastern coastal and central regions, which also have strong development potential. In this regard, it is proposed to coordinate development across provinces to speed up the "urban integration" of green finance services; Establish an efficient community development mechanism and promote the interconnection of green finance markets and infrastructure between different regions; Strengthen the resource flow among regions and coordinate the resource competition of green finance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the accelerating urbanization process in China, the extensive economic growth model with high energy consumption and high pollution aggravates atmospheric environmental pollution and restricts the sustainable development of the social economy. The Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region has the most severe haze pollution and the most acute contradiction between resources, environment and economic development. Based on the physical coupling theory, this paper constructs a coupling coordination degree model of the economy, environment and high haze pollution industries, such as the thermal power industry. Through literature analysis and expert investigation of the economic, industrial and environmental data of the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region from 2006 to 2018, the coordinated development of the economy, environment and high haze pollution industries, such as the thermal power industry, in the above region, was dynamically monitored. The monitoring results show that the development level of the Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei region is significantly different, and the three subregions have not entered the stage of coordinated development. Moreover, since 2015, they have been in a bottleneck period of development and have not achieved a higher level of progress. The three subregions have different advantages and restraining factors. For example, the backward level of Hebei's economy and high haze pollution industries, such as the thermal power industry, restrict the coordinated development of the region as a whole. Only by accelerating the high-quality development of the Hebei economy can we break through the bottleneck of the development of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Secondary vocational education faces constant challenges such as the absence of higher quality, industrial structure upgrading, and a mismatch between the supply of skills and the needs of a specific industry. Therefore, investigating the relationship between the structures of secondary vocational school (SVS) programmes and industries can help us understand their positive interactions and reduce skill mismatch, which is of great significance to the strategies of secondary vocational education and sustainable economic development. Studies on the interactive relationship between SVS programmes and industries and the use of quantitative methods are still lacking. To address this research gap, this paper uses the perspective of coupling and coordination to build a conceptual framework and a computation model to measure the relationship between the two. The method of grey relational analysis is utilized to explore the influencing factors between indicators of SVS programmes and the coupling coordination degree(CCD). Using data from Tianjin, China, the findings are as follows: The interaction between the structure of the SVS programme and industries shows that with the increase in the contribution of the SVS programme structure to the coupling system, the CCD between the two also increases. Compared with the primary and tertiary industries, the secondary industrial structure is more closely related to the SVS programme's structure, the interaction between the two has a high degree of influence, and the correlation is relatively high between the indicators of secondary industry programmes in SVSs and the CCD. It is necessary to adjust the number of programmes, increase the number of students in the secondary-industry-related programmes and reduce the number of students in the programmes of the primary and tertiary industries to adapt to the needs of a dynamic industrial structure gradually. SVSs should improve programmes in primary and tertiary industries to enhance students' skills, prepare them for a competitive labour market and strengthen students' transition from school to work. This study found that the coupling coordination relationship between the two is affected by the following crucial factors: interaction between the two, the contribution of the programme's structure, regional featured or key industries, and changes in admission policies by the local education authority. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The analysis of the multi-scale evaluation of port city's international trade goal is conducive to the sustainable development of port city's international trade. In order to make a more in-depth study on the realization ability of port city's international trade sustainable development goal, this paper proposes a new multi-scale evaluation method of port city's international trade goal. This method selects the evaluation indexes, uses the improved normalization method to process the indexes, uses the combination of AHP and factor analysis method to form the subjective and objective combination weighting method, brings the processed indexes into the least square optimization combination evaluation model, calculates the index weight, and uses the fuzzy evaluation method to carry out multi-scale index evaluation on the international trade of port cities to realize its multi-scale evaluation and analysis. The results show that the standardized index of Shanghai's foreign trade dependence is 0.0056, indicating its independence in international trade. In the comprehensive evaluation, the evaluation values of Shanghai, Tianjin, and Guangzhou are 92.56, 87.89, and 88.45, respectively, which are very close to the actual results, which shows that the accuracy of the evaluation method is high, and provides a theoretical basis for the sustainable development of international trade in port cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the spatial and temporal variability and changes in characteristics of the economic efficiency of urban construction land (EEUCL) in 14 administrative regions in the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei (BTH) urban agglomeration from 2002 to 2019, based on the super-efficiency SBM-DEA model and Malmquist index, using carbon emissions as the non-desired output. On this basis, the Tobit model is used to study the role of nine external environmental factors, such as the level of socioeconomic development and industrial structure, in influencing the EEUCL. The results indicate that (1) carbon emissions from urban construction land in Beijing, Tianjin, and Hebei have all reached their peak, and the growth rate has slowed down significantly in the past two years, although there has been a slight rebound; (2) from the 10th Five-Year Plan period to the 13th Five-Year Plan period, Beijing has maintained a high level of EEUCL and the trend is slowly increasing. However, the EEUCL values of Tianjin and Hebei are gradually declining; (3) the socio-economic development level, industrial structure, and green economy development level have a significant positive impact on the EEUCL in the BTH region, while the urban scale, scientific and technical support intensity, outward opening level and population density have significant negative effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the PSR conceptual evaluation model of urban green and low-carbon development competitiveness, this paper evaluates the green and low-carbon development competitiveness of 13 cities in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei from 2010 to 2019 and reveals their spatial effects and obstacle factors combined with the spatial autocorrelation and obstacle model. The results show the following: (1) In terms of the overall situation, the evaluation index of urban green and low-carbon development competitiveness in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region shows a fluctuating upward trend as a whole from 2010 to 2019. Among them, the comprehensive evaluation indexes of Beijing, Zhangjiakou, and Tianjin are very competitive, while Hengshui, Handan, and Xingtai are relatively weak. (2) In terms of spatial data analysis, the global and local Moran's I of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei cities from 2010 to 2019 were positive and passed the 1% significant level test. This shows that the comprehensive evaluation index of urban green low-carbon development competitiveness of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei cities has a positive spatial correlation, and the spatial agglomeration effect is significant. On the whole, it presents a spatial agglomeration pattern of "high in the north, partial jump, and low in the south". (3) In the aspect of obstacle factor analysis, the proportion of the tertiary industry output value in GDP, energy consumption of ten thousand yuan of GDP, the urban green technology innovation level, and industrial soot emission of ten thousand yuan of GDP are the main obstacle factors restricting the improvement of urban green low-carbon development competitiveness in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Improving carbon emission efficiency (CEE) would promote the development of the green and low-carbon economy in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) region, China. This paper uses the EBM model of unexpected output to measure the city-level CEE of the BTH region from 2007 to 2016. The spatial distribution characteristics and evolution law of CEE are analyzed with respect to overall and local aspects, and the spatial quantile regression model is used to verify the influencing factors of CEE. The main findings are as follows: (1) The carbon emission in the BTH region is considered to be of medium efficiency, and there are eight cities within the region at middle- and high-efficiency levels. The overall efficiency values show a downward trend. Beijing, Cangzhou, Baoding have high-CEE values, whereas Handan, Tangshan, and Zhangjiakou have low-CEE values. (2) The CEE values for BTH show significant spatial agglomeration characteristics at both the global and local levels. The "H–H" agglomeration areas are primarily distributed in the central region, and the "L-L" agglomeration areas are chiefly distributed in the southern and northern regions. The spatial pattern change is generally stable. (3) The selected factors, URB, PGDP, DS, ISG, FDI, and TEL, have different regression coefficients on CEE at different quantiles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Taking the system dynamics model as the modeling technology and Tianjin as the research area, the DPSIR analysis framework is used to construct the Tianjin green development system innovation and policy simulation model. The model consists of three subsystems, including the economic population subsystem, the resource energy subsystem, and the environmental assessment subsystem. This study designed three policy scenarios, namely, the extensive-adjustment policy scenario, the economic transition priority policy scenario, and the pollution governance priority policy scenario. Taking the data of Tianjin City in 2018 as a reference sample, the simulation results of the city from 2020 to 2035 were obtained. The simulation results show that in the aspect of economic aggregate growth and urbanization, the economic transformation priority policy scenario is optimal; in terms of energy supply, all three scenarios show a negative effect; in the aspect of air pollution control, the pollution control priority policy scenario is optimal. In terms of carbon emissions and water pollution control, the economic transformation priority policy scenario is the best. According to the simulation results, this paper puts forward corresponding policy recommendations for the reference of Tianjin green development system innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Agricultural Resources & Environment / Nongye Ziyuan yu Huanjing Xuebao is the property of Journal of Agricultural Resources & Environment Editorial Board and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Using a heterogeneity stochastic frontier model (HSFM), we empirically investigated the economic efficiency of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei from 2003 to 2016 and its influencing factors. The key findings of the paper lie in: 1) in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, the overall economic and technological efficiency tended to increase in a wavelike manner, economic growth slowed down, and there was an obvious imbalance in economic efficiency between the different districts, counties and cities; 2) the heterogeneity stochastic frontier production functions (SFPFs) of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei were different from each other, and investment was still an important impetus of economic growth in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei; 3) economic efficiency was positively correlated with economic agglomeration, human capital, industrial structure, infrastructure, the informatization level, and institutional factors, but negatively correlated with the government role and economic opening. The following policy suggestions are offered: 1) to improve regional economic efficiency and reduce the economic gap in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, governments must reduce their intervention in economic activities, stimulate the potentials of labor and capital, optimize the structure of human resources, and foster new demographic incentives; 2) governments must guide economic factors that are reasonable throughout Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and strengthen infrastructure construction in underdeveloped regions, thus attaining sustainable economic development; 3) governments must plan overall economic growth factors of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and promote reasonable economic factors (e.g., labor, resources, and innovations) across different regions, thus attaining complementary advantages between Beijing, Tianjin, and Hebei. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Haze is a pollution phenomenon that has become increasingly frequent in recent years, primarily composed of SO2, NOx, and particulate matter. Since the “PM2.5 Crisis” in 2013, the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region has been plagued by haze. After a series of high-intensity management activities, the air quality in Beijing has continued to improve. To investigate the effectiveness of the haze control measures in Beijing, a dynamic management model was constructed using the system dynamics approach and implemented using Stella software. The model is simulated and evaluated the contribution to different governance strategies (increasing investment in science and technology innovation, reducing motor vehicle ownership, reducing coal consumption, and a combination policy) to reduce haze in Beijing from 2010 to 2025. The validity and robustness of the model were verified through model testing and validation. The simulation results showed that: (1) the combination policy has the most significant effect on reducing energy consumption and pollution emissions, which would reduce energy consumption by 38.93 million tons and pollution emissions by 128.33 thousand tons in 2025, (2) among the single treatment measures, reducing industrial coal consumption is the most effective measure to reducing haze, (3) it is necessary to strengthen the joint prevention and control of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region in the future to promote the sustainable development of the regional environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The coordination and balance between agricultural development (AD) and agricultural carbon emissions (ACE) is one of the most important ways to boost the high-quality development of agriculture in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. Taking 13 prefecture-level cities in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region as the research object, this study uses the comprehensive evaluation method and Tapio decoupling model to analyze the decoupling effect between the AD level and the Agricultural Carbon emissions intensity (ACEI) from 2000 to 2020, based on the assessment of AD status and the calculation of Agricultural Carbon emissions quantities (ACEQ) and ACEI. It found that: (1) From 2000 to 2020, the AD in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region generally showcased a gradual increase trend, and demonstrated a basic feature that AD in the northern areas was higher than that in the southern ones. (2) From 2000 to 2020, the ACEQ in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region showed a trend of first increasing and then decreasing, with a spatial distribution feature that the ACEQ in the southern cities was higher than that in the northern ones. Regarding the source of ACE, the livestock and poultry farming took the highest proportion. ACEI was decreasing year by year, higher in the southern areas than in the northern ones. (3) The main types of decoupling in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region were strong decoupling, recession decoupling, strong negative decoupling, weak negative decoupling, recession coupling, and expansion negative coupling. The decoupling relationship between AD and ACEI were in dynamic change, but the change trend of the decoupling relationship was optimistic. The results of this study deliver certain deployable practice value for improving the sustainability of regional agricultural green development and ecological environmental protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainable development, as a new idea of development, has become a source of worldwide concern. Many elements, such as society, economics, resources, and the environment, have a role in the long-term evolution of the ecological environment. It is an intricate mechanism. Based on previous research, this study investigates the relationship between environmental design and the long-term evolution of the ecological environment in the new age. The following are the specifics. First, the conceptual model of ecological sustainable development is constructed, and the "low-carbon idea" environmental design approach is addressed. Then, using Tianjin as an example, an assessment method for environmental sustainable development in environmental design is constructed based on summarizing past studies. The ecological features are included in the DPSIR model, and the "low-carbon concept" environmental design method is used in Tianjin Binhai New Area. The findings show that, with the continued development of Binhai New Area, the adjustment of industrial structure, and the gradual improvement of people's awareness of urban sustainable development, the ecological environment's sustainability index will improve, with per capita ecological carrying capacity rising from 2019 and the per capita ecological carrying capacity of agricultural and livestock products, which are 0.09 hm2 and 0.09 hm2, respectively, rising significantly. Since 2019, the per capita ecological footprint has also declined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to curb anthropogenic carbon emissions and achieve the carbon intensity reduction target in China, it is crucial to shed light on influencing factors of carbon emissions at the city level. This paper selects Tianjin, one of the largest economic centers in northern China, as a study case. An extended stochastic impact by regression on population, affluence, and technology model is conducted to systematically identify the determinant factors driving CO emissions in Tianjin during the period 1996-2012. To eliminate multicollinearity problems, partial least squares regression is applied to improve this model. Empirical results show that the rapid process of urbanization has the greatest impact on the increase in carbon emissions, while the industrialization level has the least impact. Affluence level, population size, and FDI also play important roles in CO emission growth. The outcome of the FDI-emission nexus supports the pollution haven hypothesis, which shows that the inflow of foreign capital harms the local environment. Improvement in energy intensity is the major inhibitory factor and partially offsets the increase in carbon emissions. Finally, policy recommendations for carbon emission reduction plan in Tianjin have been given. Moreover, the approach developed in this research is transferable and can be utilized to analyze driving factors of CO emissions and formulate sustainable development strategies in another region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Li, M.; Li, W.; Xu, Y.Q.; Lin, W., and Li, T., 2020. Evaluation of water resources carrying capacity of Bohai coast Jing-Jin-Ji regions. In: Gong, D.; Zhang, M., and Liu, R. (eds.), Advances in Coastal Research: Engineering, Industry, Economy, and Sustainable Development. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 106, pp. 414–418. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208. Water resources are an irreplaceable natural resource for human survival and economic and social development and an important guarantee for sustainable economic and social development. This study looks at the ecological footprint of the water environment in coastal areas and evaluates the ecological deficit or surplus in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (Jing-Jin-Ji) region based on empirical results. The results showed that the water ecological footprint of the Jing-Jin-Ji region is generally in a state of deficit, with Beijing being the most serious, followed by Tianjin and Hebei. Finally, this paper puts forward countermeasures and suggestions to promote carrying capacity of water resources in coastal areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the whole life cycle theory, the carbon effect of three different sizes of high-standard basic farmland construction projects is measured and analysed. The results show that the carbon emissions generated during the construction of high-standard basic farmland projects and the carbon absorption capacity at the later stage are different for projects of different sizes. The carbon emissions of different scales of high-standard basic farmland projects will increase during the construction stage. The results of carbon effect changes in the later operation and management stage show that the high-standard basic farmland construction projects will help reduce the carbon emissions of the field ecosystem where the farmland is located and increase its carbon sink capacity after the completion of construction, which is more obvious in larger projects. The emission reduction and carbon sequestration capacity of the farmland after remediation are improved to different degrees, which is more conducive to the ecological development of agricultural production and ecological environmental protection in the relevant areas. The study contributes to the green development of farmland, which is of some significance for the sustainable development of agriculture in Tianjin and the whole country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Capturing and converting polluted gases from the air using green solvents (e.g., ionic liquids and deep eutectic solvents) are very important for sustainable development and high air quality; however, these gases should be treated differently due to the fact that their concentration in air changes differently with time. Jingjinji (Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei) region is the largest and most dynamic region in northern China; Beijing (Jing) is also the capital of China. Time-dependent (2016–2020) air quality and the concentration of air pollutants of Jingjinji are very helpful for the sustainable treatment of major air pollutants by green solvents in the future. Results show that the air quality of the Jinjinji region has improved in these years. Moreover, the concentration of most of the air pollutants (e.g., PM2.5, PM10, SO2, NO2, CO) in the air of the Jingjinji region has decreased. Nevertheless, the concentration of ozone (e.g., O3) in the air of the Jingjinji region has shown no decrease recently. This work is a meaningful guide for the utilization of green solvents for gas capture and conversion in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The escalating greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from maritime trade present a serious environmental and biological threat. With increasing emission reduction initiatives, such as the European Union's incorporation of the maritime sector into the emissions trading system, both challenges and opportunities emerge for maritime transport and associated industries. To address these concerns, this study presents a model specifically designed for estimating and projecting the spatiotemporal GHG emission inventory of ships, particularly when dealing with incomplete automatic identification system datasets. In the computational aspect of the model, various data processing techniques are employed to rectify inaccuracies arising from incomplete or erroneous AIS data, including big data cleaning, ship trajectory aggregation, multi-source spatiotemporal data fusion and missing data complementation. Utilizing a bottom-up ship dynamic approach, the model generates a high-resolution GHG emission inventory. This inventory contains key attributes such as the types of ships emitting GHGs, the locations of these emissions, the time periods during which emissions occur, and emissions. For predictive analytics, the model utilizes temporal fusion transformers equipped with the attention mechanism to accurately forecast the critical emission parameters, including emission locations, time frames, and quantities. Focusing on the sea area around Tianjin port--a region characterized by high shipping activity--this study achieves fine-grained emission source tracking via detailed emission inventory calculations. Moreover, the prediction model achieves a promising loss function of approximately 0.15 under the optimal parameter configuration, obtaining a better result than recurrent neural network (RNN) and long short-term memory network (LSTM) in the comparative experiments. The proposed method allows for a comprehensive understanding of emission patterns across diverse vessel types under various operational conditions. Coupled with the prediction results, the study offers valuable theoretical and data-driven support for formulating emission reduction strategies and optimizing resource allocation, thereby contributing to sustainable maritime transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With regard to the aims of achieving the "Dual Carbon" goal and addressing the significant greenhouse gas emissions caused by urban expansion, there has been a growing emphasis on spatial research and the prediction of urban carbon emissions. This article examines land use data from 2000 to 2020 and combines Grid and the PLUS model to predict carbon emissions in 2030 through a multi-scenario simulation. The research findings indicate the following: (1) Between 2000 and 2020, construction land increased by 95.83%, with carbon emissions also increasing. (2) By 2030, for the NDS (natural development scenario), carbon emissions are expected to peak at 6012.87 × 104 t. Regarding the ratio obtained through the EDS (economic development scenario), construction land is projected to grow to 3990.72 km2, with expected emissions of 6863.29 × 104 t. For the LCS (low-carbon scenario), the "carbon peak" is expected to be reached before 2030. (3) The intensity of carbon emissions decreases as the city size increases. (4) The shift of the center of carbon emission intensity and the center of construction land all indicate movement towards the southeast. Studying the trends of regional land use change and the patterns of land use carbon emissions is beneficial for optimizing the land use structure, thereby enabling us to achieve low-carbon emission reductions and sustainable urban development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we argue that to analyse the eco-development process we need to explore it as a whole, from design, through delivery and then to how these developments influence the behaviour of the people who live and work in eco-developments. At each stage of the development process it is important to analyse and understand what key actors understand by the term ‘eco’ (resource efficiency of land and materials), how they understand the institutional, economic, social and communicative mechanisms to effectively produce ‘eco’ developments and ‘green economy’, and what learning opportunities exist to promote positive ecological and competitiveness ideas. Perhaps, because so little is known, the greatest need of all is to analyse how the new residents of eco-cities are living their lives and whether or not they are more environmentally friendly than before. In this paper we provide empirical data on those who have moved to the most profile eco-development in China, the Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-City. The data reveals that whilst the habits of some residents are sympathetic to the environment, other parts of their lifestyle – linked to comfort and convenience – are not. Moreover, the aspirations of the residents for an increasingly middle class lifestyle mean that resource use could be even higher in the future. This is a highly significant finding both for those engaged in academic debates on eco-development and for policy makers and practitioners involved in the development of eco-cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Even though renewable energy development has gained momentum in China, thermal power generation still accounts for approximately 70% of the county's total power generation serving as the major source of carbon dioxide (CO 2) emissions in China. Facing the challenges of meeting 2030 peak target of CO 2 emission and realizing the coordinated development of thermal power generation in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, this paper applies generalized Divisia Index Method (GDIM) to decompose the dynamics in the relevant CO 2 emission. The effects of five factors including electricity demand, energy consumption, technology, energy efficiency and energy-mix are considered. The decomposition suggests that electricity demand is the primary factor driving the CO 2 emission up, whereas technology effect decreases CO 2 emission the most. Given the significant roles of technology, energy-mix and energy efficiency in CO 2 emissions reduction, seven scenarios are designed to identify the optimal coordinated development pathway for thermal power generation in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. Through upgrading energy structure and/or enhancing energy efficiency, the thermal power generation in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region can achieve coordinated development and realize the 2030 peak target under four scenarios. The detailed development pathways for CO 2 emissions and specific policy implications for Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei are provided to further govern CO 2 emissions and maintain sustainable development. • Proposed a five-factor Generalized Divisia Index Model (GDIM) for CO 2 emission analysis. • Analyzed the CO 2 from thermal power generation in China's Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. • Electricity demand and technology contributed the most to the positive and negative changes of CO 2 , respectively. • Designed seven thermal generation development scenarios to study the CO 2 change until 2030. • The 2030 CO 2 peak target can be achieved under four scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Water use efficiency evaluation based on 3D water footprint using SBM model. • Two scenarios for water use efficiency evaluation. • Analyzing the driving forces affecting water footprint change using the LMDI model. Water shortage and the conflict between water supply and demand have become the main constraints to the sustainable development of sustainable societies in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) region. Scientific evaluation of water usage efficiency and clarification of the three-dimensional water ecological footprint (EF 3D) drivers are of great significance for the collaborative environmental management of BTH region. This paper firstly explores the evolution of water footprint breadth (EF size), depth (EF depth) and EF 3D in BTH region from 2004 to 2020. Using the super-efficient SBM (Slacks-Based Measure) model with EF 3D to evaluate the water use efficiency of BTH region in two scenarios. 22 impact factors were selected to analyze the dynamics affecting the change of EF 3D in BTH region by using the LMDI (Logistic Mean Divided Index) model. The results show that: (1) The water resources pressure of the three provinces are in the overload state from 2004 to 2020, and the EF 3D is at its maximum in 2011–2015. The EF depth of BTH region is fluctuating up and then fluctuating down around 2012, and the most serious capital consumption of water resources stock is in Tianjin. (2) The water resources in Hebei are all in inefficient use. The water resources in Tianjin are in a state of inefficient use in some study years, and since 2014, the water resources are in a state of fluctuating increase and high efficiency. As for Beijing, the water resources are in a state of efficient use in the study years. On the whole, scenario 2 better reflects the water resources utilization efficiency situation and is more in line with the real situation. (3) The water structure and endowment of water resources are pivotal factors positively influencing the EF 3D. To mitigate EF 3D and achieve sustainable utilization of water resources, both Hebei and Tianjin have ample room for progress in elevating agricultural water-saving technologies, optimizing industrial structure, and enhancing water usage patterns. Agricultural water consumption is no longer the primary driver of water resource depletion in Beijing, necessitating focused attention on the impact of external water diversions in terms of local water displacement, optimization of water usage structures, and their role in supporting socio-economic development. Additionally, excessive reliance on external water diversions may entail associated risks that warrant consideration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under the restriction of carbon neutral and carbon peak, the development of green building has become the strategic demand of most countries in the world. Despite the rapid development of green building in China, there are still some problems, such as insufficient market development force under the government's leadership, emphasizing design and neglecting operation. In order to realize high-quality synergistic development of green building market, this paper constructs a new synergistic development framework of green building market, establishes a tripartite evolutionary game model including local governments, developers and consumers, uses the analysis tool of evolutionary game theory and synergistic theory to explore the unilateral ESS and the system ESS of green building market. In order to verify the model, this paper adopts a case study method, takes a residential building project in Tianjin, China which has awarded a three-star mark in green building design evaluation as an example for numerical simulation, discusses the influence of government guidance on the system evolution trajectory, demonstrates the interactive process of stakeholders' behavior, and finds out the key factors affecting the system equilibrium strategy. The result shows that (1) the means of government guidance will affect the speed and result of system evolution; (2) the strategy of stakeholders depends on the comparison of costs and benefits; (3) the probability of ideal events is positively correlated with the economic benefits and negatively correlated with incremental cost of green building. This study can provide theoretical guidance for local governments, developers and consumers to make scientific decisions, and provide practical enlightenment for government to play a more active role in green building market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tianjin, as one of the pioneering and most prominent cities in China, has a long history of harnessing geothermal energy. The geothermal resource available in Tianjin is primarily characterized as a low- to medium-temperature hydrothermal geothermal resource. This manuscript introduces the ongoing status and potential of geothermal utilization in China, with a particular focus on the characteristics and utilization status of geothermal resources in Tianjin, China. Moreover, the relevant strategies and challenges for cost-efficient sustainable utilization of Tianjin geothermal resources are identified. The formation parameters of heat storage characteristics of Tianjin geothermal resources are also discussed. In addition, the key paths, guidelines and challenges on how to solve the obstacles related to the geothermal resources development in Tianjin are also suggested. The summarized results indicate that the geothermal reservoirs exploited in Tianjin vary greatly, which include sandstone of Neogene Minghuazhen formation, Guantao formation, Ordovician and Cambrian and carbonate of Proterozoic Wumishan formation. Most of the exploitative geothermal resources (146 geothermal wells) in Tianjin have mainly been produced from the Wumishan formation of the Jixian system and the Guantao formation of the Neogene system. The current production capacity has been doubled, and a two-stage cascade utilization system has been established, incorporating geothermal power generation and geothermal heating. The geothermal utilization share in Tianjin is estimated to be 81.66% for heating, 16.6% for domestic hot water and 1.35% for bathing. In conclusion, notwithstanding the diversity of geothermal resources in Tianjin, it is difficult to guarantee the sustainable development and utilization of geothermal resources in Tianjin due to the unreasonable layout of geothermal wells, imbalance of production and reinjection. Hence, the integration of distributed temperature sensing and distributed strain sensing monitoring demonstrates significant promise and effectiveness in tracking water circulation and detecting flow localization problems as dynamic monitoring processes and smart thermal response tests should be recommended and established as a substantial feature required in the future utilization and development of geothermal resources in Tianjin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Redesigns dimensions and key indicators for circular transformation in industrial parks. • The newly-designed DEARA model has advantages over the traditional DEA model for data with large distributions. • There is a strong, positive correlation between resources and environmental performance in industrial parks. • The driving factors of circular transformation are mainly GDP and types of leading industries. • Circular transformation of industrial parks is more effective in improving resource efficiency than the national average. Checking the circular economy (CE) efficiency of industrial parks and exploring the potential reasons involved have not been systematically investigated. Recent researches lacked a unified and up-to-date framework toward CE in industrial parks emerging in high-quality development stage. It is therefore critical to build a new dimension and quantify the CE efficiency of industrial parks under the new historical period, so that appropriate policies can be formulated. This paper measures the CE efficiency of circular transformation by developing an original DEARA (Data Envelopment-Regression Analysis) model, and highlighting its advantages over the traditional DEA (Data Envelopment Analysis) model. To do this, an evaluation model is constructed that combines eight key indicators for environment, resources, economics and driving factors. The first batch of circular transformation pilot parks in China were selected for empirical analysis. The results show that the CE efficiency of sample parks has high variability from 0.112 to 1.030 in 2011. The efficiency matrix reveals a positive correlation between resources and environmental performance, with the driving factors for circular transformation being mainly GDP and leading industries. Compared with national indicators, the circular transformation of park levels is more effective in improving CE efficiency than the national average level of circular development, among which the experiences of the Beijing and Tianjin development zones are worthy of being exported to other industrial parks. Ultimately, this paper intends to contribute to policy instruments for developing viable and efficient industrial parks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through the overview of the development history of Tianjin Concession Parks, this paper analyzed the historical significance of Tianjin Concession Parks and put forward its existing problems, then summed up a series of strategies of sustainable development as follows: adhering to the Florence Charter, retaining the original form and texture of the Concession Parks; adopting a dynamic philosophy of protection and preservation; integrating with citizens' social life; supplementing and improving infrastructure facilities; and achieving environmental regeneration by planting. All these efforts are expected to contribute to making a balance between the development and construction of urban cities and the preservation of historical features, as well as provide lessons for inheriting urban history and culture in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban industrial heritage is both a physical component of the city and an important carrier of urban memory, but there is still a lack of comprehensive analysis of industrial heritage in Tianjin and a need for a conservation system. This study took the industrial heritage of Tianjin built between 1860 and 1978 as the research object and used GIS technology to analyse the spatial and temporal distribution of industrial heritage and the current state of its reuse. The results show that in the temporal dimension, the distribution of industrial heritage in Tianjin shows a pattern of change of "gathering first, then scattering", with the 1960s as the time point; in the spatial dimension, the existing industrial heritage shows a pattern of distribution along important transport routes—the Haihe River, the Jingfeng Railway and the Jinpu Railway, and there are three industrial heritage clusters. The conservation and reuse status of industrial heritage varies by resource type, but the overall state is poor. Based on the results of the above analysis, a holistic conservation concept of the "Tianjin Industrial Heritage Route" and a reuse strategy for different resource types of industrial heritage are proposed. This will help to integrate the reuse of Tianjin's industrial heritage into the sustainable development of the city and provide a reference for the conservation of industrial heritage in other cities in China and even in the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is an analysis of the spatiotemporal evolution characteristics of arable land in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region from 1990 to 2015 and detects the driving factors of arable land change. On the basis of the study, the existing problems of arable land are discussed and some suggestions to promote regional rural development are proposed. The conclusions are as follows: (1) The proportion of arable land gradually decreased from 1990 to 2015 and the proportion of arable land in the south of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region was larger than that in the north of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region: arable land with a proportion of more than 75% lies in the low elevation and slope. The proportion of arable land in Beijing has also decreased faster than in other regions because most arable land was converted primarily into construction land due to urban expansion. (2) The mechanism showed that county economies and populations influenced the change in the quantity of arable land, and the position and natural conditions influenced the pattern changes in arable land. (3) Finally, this paper details some suggestions on the terms of legal institutions, the land consolidation project, and developing modern agriculture and industrial upgrading, which could provide scientific support for rural sustainable development and arable land protection in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. • This paper analyzed the spatiotemporal differences of arable land in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region from 1990 to 2015. • The study detected the driving factors and mechanism using multiply regression models and geographical detector. • This paper proposes to develop land consolidation project and modern agriculture to realize arable land sustainable use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nature-based solutions are some of the most effective strategies to promote sustainable city development; however, existing research on NbS is mostly comprised of single variable studies rather than multiple variables. The purpose of this study was to explore the possibility of extending the NbS of a single variable to two variables for the better development of sustainable cities. Both forestation and wetland restoration are regarded as NbS for sustainable city development. The research approach of "forest–wetland" NbS was proposed and centers on the process and core issues of traditional NbS. Taking Tianjin as an example, the spatial patterns of forests and wetlands, correlation between the spatial distribution of forests and wetlands, and spatial correlation between the areas of forest growth and wetland growth within a certain distance in different years were studied using a spatial distribution pattern analysis, geographic concentration analysis, kernel density estimation and spatial autocorrelation analysis. Based on the core issues of NbS and the above spatial analysis, a "forest–wetland" spatial planning strategy was formulated. The main conclusions are as follows: forest and wetland were negatively correlated in the whole area of Tianjin, forest resources w mainly located in north, while wetland resources were mainly located in south. Compared with forests, the spatial distribution of wetlands in Tianjin was more balanced. There exist synergy and trade-offs between forest and wetland area under certain circumstances. Growth of forests was positively correlated with the growth of wetlands, within a distance of 0–400 m from 2000 to 2010, and within a distance of 0–600 m from 2010 to 2020. An increase in forest area will lead to an increase in evaporation, which in turn will hinder the growth of wetlands in Tianjin. Forest–wetland ecological network could promote synergistic between forest and wetland, and grey infrastructure to reduce potential trade-off between forest and wetland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green development is the inevitable choice for global sustainable development, and China has chosen green development as its national strategy. Land use changes will affect a soil's organic matter by changing the land's productivity, soil quality and fertility. It is of great significance for ensuring soil fertility, improving the environment and promoting the carbon cycle that the concept of green development is implemented in the process of land use activity. Establishing an indicator system and evaluation method for a green land use benefit evaluation suitable for green development is helpful for strengthening the responsibility and consciousness of such land use, and to provide theoretical guidance and decision-making references for promoting such developments and evaluations. In this study, based on a connotation analysis of green land use, the entropy weight method and BP (Back Propagation) neural network model method were used to construct an evaluation index system for green land use benefits, including four criterion layers and eighteen evaluation indexes, and the entropy-BP neural network evaluation method was proposed to reveal the problems in green land use benefits in the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region. The results showed that the green land use benefit level in the region was low, while the spatial pattern was high in the north, low in the middle and high in the south. Langfang, Beijing and Handan were the lowest centers of green land ecological benefit, while Beijing and Tianjin were the lowest centers of green land economic benefit. The green governance benefit and green space benefit were in a relative spatial equilibrium. The cultivated land area, forestry products, sewage centralized treatment degree and built-up area ratio were the most important influences on the green ecological benefit, green economic benefit, green governance benefit and green space benefit, respectively. The entropy-BP neural network evaluation system and method have certain applications in the design of relevant assessment reward-and-punishment systems. Accelerating the optimization of the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei territorial space's development and utilization pattern, and constructing a green benefit sharing mechanism of land use, are important strategies to improve the benefits of green land use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rapid urbanization and industrialization in China have seriously threatened the ecosystem and urban sustainability. This paper estimated the dynamic variations of ecosystem service value (ESV) in response to changes of land use/land cover (LULC) under rapid urbanization, and it analyzed their impacts on sustainability of urban system. Tianjin, the largest coastal city in China, was selected as the study area. The total ESV of Tianjin was approximately 8791.86 million Yuan in 2003, 7948.04 million Yuan in 2007, and 8378.53 million Yuan in 2011. By taking the total dynamic ESV as one of the key factors, we calculated the indexes of urban sustainability from 2003 to 2011. It was found that the dynamic variations of ESV in response to LULC changes had significant impacts on the sustainability of urban system. Therefore, in order to increase the capacity for urban sustainable development, there is an urgent need to lighten the heavy burden on the ecosystem through rational land use management during rapid urbanization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water shortages caused by poor water quality severely affect the sustainable social and economic development of Tianjin City and Tangshan City in China. The Panjiakou Reservoir is located in the Luanhe River mainstream and provides water to the public in both cities since 1983. The evolution of water quality and aquatic community structure in the Reservoir and interactions with the social and economic development of its surroundings (Tangshan City and Chengde City) were analyzed. The relations between these changes and the various interrelated Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were also evaluated. From 1984 to 2019, the overall trend of total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorus (TP), chemical oxygen demand (CODMn), and ammonia nitrogen (NH3-N) concentrations first increased and then decreased with economic growth. The organisms with strong ecological adaptability and pollution resistance became dominant species in the aquatic community. These included chlorophyta, cyanophyta and bacillariophyta among phytoplankton, copepods among zooplankton, and tubificidae and chironomidae among zoobenthos. The completion of Panjiakou Reservoir satisfied the water demand of Tianjin City and Tangshan City as well as benefited the economic and social development of the surroundings. However, high levels of pollutants produced by cage fish culture, mineral processing, and tourism threatened the water environment, which would in turn harm society and the economy. Therefore, fish cages were removed and other environmental protection measures were implemented to ensure the safety of drinking water. This study demonstrated that considering comprehensively the individual needs inside and across catchments to minimize trade-offs and maximize synergies was of great significance for coordinating the relations among society, economy, and water resources to achieve sustainable development at the sub-national scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interregional trade not only contributes to economic growth but also causes a large amount of virtual water transfer. The virtual water transfer brings about two-way impact of environmental stress between regions. It is essential to examine the two-way impact mechanism to achieve water sustainability. Interregional virtual water transfer includes three aspects of effects: multiplier, spillover and feedback effects. Among them, multiplier effect is the interaction in a single region. Spillover effect generally refers to the one-way impact of former region's economic development on latter region, while the feedback effect refers to the economic change of latter region in turn has an impact on the former region on the basis of the spillover effect. However, most studies have been focusing only on the one-way impact of virtual water transfer, which are the multiplier and spillover effects. This paper introduces a new spillover-feedback effects model to measure the two-way impact of virtual water transfer in urban agglomerations, and takes the Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei capital agglomerations in China as a specific case. The results illustrate that the spillover-feedback effects had significant contributions to virtual water transfer. From the perspective of regional scale, Beijing was a net importer of virtual water, with a net import volume of 1.019 × 108 m3. Tianjin and Hebei were net exporters of virtual water, with net exports of 0.069 × 108 m3 and 0.950 × 108 m3 respectively. The values of the feedback effect were large and should not be ignored, which accounted for up to 40% of the spillover effect. Furthermore, at the sectoral scale, the sectors with large ratios of spillover-feedback effects to total effects in regions included mining, agriculture, manufacturing and transportation. In Beijing, this ratio of mining exceeded 50%. Additionally, the effect intensity patterns were different from the effect patterns, which prove that the regional ability to stimulate water consumption was not consistent with the actual impacts. Finally, regions should pay more attention to managing the industries and enterprises with high virtual water export, adjust the trade structure, strengthen inter-regional cooperation and clarify regional responsibilities for water-saving. In a word, understanding interregional two-way impact mechanism is essential for the sustainable and collaborative development of the economy and environment in urban agglomerations. • Application of spillover-feedback effects in environmental field was expanded. • Spillover-feedback effects of virtual water transfer were measured in urban agglomeration. • The feedback effects were significant and could not be ignored. • More attention should be paid on the two-way impacts of environmental stress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rapid growth of flight volume, the contradiction between insufficient support capability of air traffic control (ATC) units and large demand for development ultimately hinders their sustainable and safe development. The article aims at the leverage point of the contradiction between supply and demand so as to provide scientific safety policies. Based on the system archetype "growth and underinvestment", from the perspective of the feedback relationships between support capability, safety, and development, the causality of the dynamic factors of control, communication, navigation, and surveillance, as well as meteorology and information subsystems was studied. Then, a system dynamics model for the sustainable and safe development of ATC units was established. Taking the Tianjin ATC sub-bureau as an example, policy suggestions for sustainable and safe development were put forward according to the scenario simulation results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a hierarchical Bayesian network model (BNM) to quantitatively evaluate the resilience of urban transportation systems. Based on systemic thinking and taking a sustainability perspective, we investigate the long-term resilience of the road transportation systems in four cities in China from 1998 to 2017, namely Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, and Chongqing, respectively. The model takes into account various factors collected from multi-source data platforms involved in stages of design, construction, operation, management, and innovation in road transportation systems. We test the model with the forward inference, sensitivity analysis, and backward inference. The result shows that the overall resilience scores of all four cities' transportation systems are within a moderate range with values between 49% to 59%. Although they all have an ever-increasing economic level, the levels of transportation resilience in Beijing and Tianjin decrease first and then gradually increase in a long run, which indicates a strong multi-dimensional, dynamic, and non-linear characteristic in resilience-economic coupling effect. Additionally, the results obtained from the sensitivity analysis and backward inference suggest that decision makers should pay more attention to the capabilities of quickly rebuilding and making changes to cope with future disturbances. As an exploratory study, this study clarifies the concepts of long-term multi-dimensional resilience and specific hazard-related resilience and provides an effective decision-support tool for stakeholders when building resilient infrastructure. • A novel BNM is proposed to evaluate multi-faceted transportation resilience. • Forward inference, sensitivity tests, and backward inference are conducted. • Long-term transportation resilience is highly dynamic in the tested cities. • The coupling effects of resilience with economic level is not always linear. • Abilities to rebuild and adapt through reconfiguration are of importance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Shen, Z., 2020. Coordinated environment and economy in coastal development based on industrial wastewater and SO2 emissions. In: Wan, Z. (ed.), Coordinated Sustainable Development in Coastal Areas: Environment and Economy. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 109, pp. 13–18. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208. China's coastal areas have achieved great economic growth since the reform and opening up, but at the same time, there has been increasing concern about environmental damage. Many theories hold that economic development has caused great damage to the environment, while environmental protection will also make economic development stagnate. Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) puts forward an inverted U-shaped relationship between economic development level and environmental degradation, that is, when economic development reaches a certain degree, continuous growth can improve the environment quality. In this paper, a reduced-form VAR model is used to analyze the EKC relationship about three major coastal developed cities in China: Shanghai, Tianjin, and Shenzhen. Industrial wastewater discharge and sulfur dioxide emissions are used to reflect environmental indicators. Through analysis, it is found that the industrial wastewater index of Shanghai and the SO2 emission index of Tianjin both conform to the inverted U-shaped relationship of EKC curve, and the reaction of industrial wastewater to the industrial electricity consumption of Shenzhen and the reflection of SO2 to GDP also conform to this relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Studying on dynamic ecological footprint (EF) in Jing-Jin-Ji from 1996 to 2020. • Six impact factors for driving EF is decomposed. • The EF in Jing-Jin-Ji will increase of 10% from 2015 to 2020. The ecological footprint (EF) describes the complex relationship between the eco-environment and economic development. EF dynamics can better reflect the appropriation of natural resources in various countries or regions compared with previous studies. This paper identified six dominant factors including population, per capita GDP, three major industrial added values, and energy consumption using grey correlation model for the EF changes of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (Jing-Jin-Ji) region from 1996 to 2015. Then, we predicted the EF of the Jing-Jin-Ji region from 2016 to 2020 based on support vector machine model. (1) Since 1996, the EF and per capita EF of the overall Jing-Jin-Ji region have increased, of which those of Hebei Province and Tianjin increased while Beijing decreased. (2) Energy consumption dominated the EF of Jing-Jin-Ji region. The population of Beijing had a high correlation coefficient of 0.735 with the local EF, and the degree of correlation between the EF and per capita GDP was 0.812 in Hebei Province. In Tianjin, the added value of the tertiary industry was closely correlated with its EF, with a correlation coefficient of 0.741. (3) The EF of the Jing-Jin-Ji region will reach 778.30 million hectares by 2020, an increase of 10% compared with the value in 2015. Finally, suggestions for the development of industrial structure and energy consumption are listed for the sustainable development of Jing-Jin-Ji region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main purpose of this paper is to build an objective and effective environmental performance evaluation model of air pollution control. Based on the severe air polluted region in China, that is Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, this evaluation model consists of four parts, including economic benefits, public service, government management and development potential, and uses the balanced scorecard theory. The weights of the indexes are measured by comprehensive evaluation method, which combined entropy weight method and analytic hierarchy process (AHP). To test the applicability of the evaluation method to different stages, back propagation (BP) neural network is introduced to simulate air pollution control in the future. The results reveal that the environmental performance of air pollution control in Beijing had an upward trend during 2010–2016, and the trend would continue in the next five years. The environmental performance of Tianjin continuously increased, especially from 2014 to 2016. Tianjin has great potential of air pollution control in the future. The environmental performance of air pollution control in Hebei fluctuated from 2010 to 2016 and it dropped to the lowest level in 2015, which mainly due to the large increase in number of days with air quality levelⅡor above compared with 2014 and the nonsignificant growth in the amount of expenditure on atmospheric prevention and control, the amount of investment in the control of industrial pollution sources and the number of law enforcement personnel. Moreover, the environmental performance of air pollution control closely related with industrial structure, especially with the proportion of the tertiary industry. The upgrading of urban industrial structure and the coordinated development of green industry should be implemented to restructure the environmental transformation in air-polluted region. Image 1000 • The traditional Balanced Scorecard is revised and applied into the environmental performance evaluation. • The effective control of vehicle emission directly determines the air quality of Beijing. • A fundamental improvement in air quality in Hebei requires a large amount of environmental investment. • The environmental law enforcement is an important guarantee for air quality improvement of Tianjin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China is facing great challenges to balance its natural water resource use and eco-environment protection, especially in the north semi-arid region with large water consumption due to the rapid economic growth. This highlights the urgency to use water resource carrying capacity (WRCC) as a measure to maintain the sustainable development of the human and natural water system. Here, we used a coupled model based on the system dynamics and cellular automaton models to assess the WRCC under the critical value of water resource withdrawal ratio (40%) and its sustainability in the Yongding River watershed in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, where the water use highly depends on river flow and nonrenewable groundwater resources. The analytical results showed that the current regional WRCC is severely overloaded due to strong human activities. The predicted results based on four scenarios, i.e., existing development, water saving, industrial restructuring, and integrated development schemes, showed that although the improvement of water saving and water use efficiency has mitigated the regional water shortage, evidenced by the increased WRCC, the water shortage would continue due to the increased water demand. Under the integrated development scenario, it will need at least additional 7.1 × 108 m3 water per year (Beijing: 2.5 × 108 m3, Tianjin: 0.8 × 108 m3, Hebei: 3.8 × 108 m3) via the water transfer project to maintain the sustainability in the next decades. Our research provides recommendations for reasonable water utilization and supplementation under the severe water crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei (BTH) region is a top urban agglomeration of China but has the problem of severe environmental pollution. Most of the current researches on the sustainable development of this region only concentrate on the environmental pollution itself and ignore its relationship to the socioeconomic development. In this research, an entropy-based coupling model, a polynomial equation with partial least squares algorithm, and socioeconomic and environmental data in 2006–2015 were used to measure and fit the above relationship. Empirical analysis led to the following conclusions. (1) Beijing, Tianjin, and Hebei presented similar socioeconomic development modes but different environmental pollution modes. (2) The social economy of the BTH region has been developing at the expense of environmental pollution, but the environmental cost has been decreasing year by year. (3) At present, the BTH region has huge potential to improve its environment. (4) Increasing the investment in the treatment of industrial pollution in Tianjin and mitigating the soot (dust) emissions in Tianjin and Hebei are the major environmental policy directions. (5) Controlling the development of smelting and pressing of ferrous metals and other building material sectors in Hebei is the major economic policy direction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High energy conservation and emission reduction (ECER) requirements across industries in the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei (BTH) region have been proposed along with the transformation of China's economic development mode. However, the energy consumption rebound effect, as an important proxy for achieving sustainable low-carbon development, has not been adequately investigated across industrial enterprises in this area. This study adopts an alternative estimation model based on neoclassical economic theory to measure the energy rebound effect of industrial enterprises in the BTH region from 1996 to 2015. Four main results are obtained. First, the energy rebound effects in Beijing, Tianjin, and Hebei are significantly different in the temporal and spatial dimensions. Second, technological progress does not reduce energy consumption, and the local government must simultaneously consider technological progress, industrial structure, and policy formulation to achieve the ECER goals. Third, ECER policies combined with government administrative measures do not have an impact on reducing energy consumption. Fourth, in the process of implementing the integration development of the BTH region, Hebei faces greater pressure to attain ECER goals in the future than the other regions. This study provides suggestions based on these derived results from the perspectives of market-oriented measures, management factors, development mode, and regional cooperation to achieve the sustainable development of the BTH region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Natural disasters occur frequently causing huge economic losses and reduced grain production. Therefore, it is important to thoroughly explore the spatial correlations between grain, disaster, and the economy. Based on inter-provincial panel data in China in 2019, this study integrates complex network and co-occurrence theory into a coupled grain–disaster–economy (GDE) multilayer network, which provides a new perspective to further explore the spatial correlation between these three systems. We identify the spatial coupled characteristics of the GDE multilayer network using three aspects: degree, centrality, and community detection. The research results show the following: (1) Provinces in the major grain-producing regions have a stronger role in allocating and controlling grain resources, and the correlation between grain and disasters in these provinces is stronger and more prone to disasters. Whereas provinces in the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei economic zone, and the Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta economic zones, such as Beijing, Tianjin, Jiangsu, Shanghai, and Zhejiang, have a high level of economic development, thereby a stronger ability to allocate economic resources. (2) The economic subsystem assumes a more important, central role compared with the grain and disaster subsystems in the formation and development of the coupled GDE multilayer network, with a stronger coordination for the co-development between the complex grain, disaster, and economy systems in the nodal provinces of the network. (3) The community modularity of the coupled GDE multilayer network is significantly higher than that of the three single-layer networks, indicating a more reasonable community division after coupling the three subsystems. The identification of the spatial characteristics of GDE using multilayer network analysis offers a new perspective on taking various measures to improve the joint sustainable development of grain, disaster, and the economy in different regions of China according to local conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]