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The situation of resource utilization and eco-environment protection remains critical globally. The harmony between eco-environment health and water-energy utilization efficiency is a strong support for the realization of high-quality development. In this paper, an Assessment-Decoupling two-stage framework was developed to investigate the relationship between water-energy resource utilization and ecological security. In detail, an improved input-output indicator system was constructed to assess the water-energy resource utilization efficiency (WEUE), and its influencing factors were examined from multiple system perspectives; then, we intended to evaluate the ecological risk (ER) from a raster-scale perspective based on land-use types; and finally, the decoupling idea was introduced to quantify the fitness relationship of the above two aspects. The framework was applied to Henan Province, China. The study found that: (1) the WEUE of Henan Province shows a "W" pattern of development during 2000–2020; in 2000–2010, the WEUE of South Henan declined, while in 2010–2020, the WEUE of Henan Province gradually improved, with significant increases in various districts. (2) The ecological risk index (ERI) in Henan Province generally shows a decreasing trend, and the spatial difference is more obvious, with the high-risk areas mainly concentrated in the central, east, and south Henan, and the west of Henan is mainly a low-risk area. (3) There is strong spatial variation in the decoupling states of WEUE and ERI of the 18 districts in Henan Province, and the differences become more pronounced over time. The number of districts with a strong negative decoupling state has been increasing during the entire period, and a total of 14 districts have reached the above state in 2020. The developed framework offers a new idea for clarifying the relationship between resource utilization and ecological conditions, and the obtained results can provide data support for the realization of sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper evaluates the ecotourism suitability of Henan province based on the ecotourism suitability evaluation system. And our research clarifies the spatial distribution of the ecotourism suitability in Henan province, China, explores the internal relations between landscape pattern and ecotourism suitability, and provides a scientific basis for the future sustainable development of ecotourism in Henan from an ecological perspective. The results show the following: 1) the ecotourism suitability is obvious differences between the eastern and western regions in Henan, with the indexes of ecotourism suitability in the western and southern regions being higher than those in other regions. The ecotourism suitability shows a trend of first increasing and then decreasing in Henan, with the highest value in 2007; 2) the Pearson correlation analysis shows that the key landscape pattern factors, including landscape patch area, shape, number, type, and spatial configuration, have an important impact on ecotourism suitability and show significant time differences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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

Few studies have investigated agricultural carbon emissions peaks, especially from the financial development perspective. This study focuses on the effects of financial scale and efficiency to achieve an agricultural carbon emissions peak in China's Henan Province. Using an extended STIRPAT model and scenario analysis, we find: (1) with the inverted U-shaped influence mechanism of rural financial scale and incorporating rural financial efficiency, agricultural carbon emissions in Henan will peak at 14.17 million tons in 2040, 12.50 million tons in 2034, and 11.73 million tons in 2023 under the baseline low-carbon, moderately accelerated low-carbon, and stringent low-carbon development scenarios; (2) without financial efficiency improvements, carbon emissions will peak five years, three years, and six years later, and the peak value will increase 0.97 million tons, 0.65 million tons, and 0.30 million tons. Therefore, agricultural carbon emissions will peak earlier with continuous and strong financial policy adjustment to facilitate financial development. We also find that agricultural carbon absorption exceeds emissions, achieving carbon neutrality. The policy implication is that financial development matters to sustainable agricultural development. Developing countries could learn from the financial development experience (i.e., gradual financial reform and a stable financial environment) in Henan and China in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]