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Territorial spatial planning involves fixability and flexibility in different driving factors related to control and development orientation, and they play an important role in regional sustainable development, especially in developing countries such as China. With rapid urbanisation and industrialisation, China has been impacted by conflicts between development and protection in territorial space. To integrate the contradictions among different territorial spatial planning measures, planners and scholars have started to focus on studies regarding fixability–flexibility relationships and integration. However, the relationship between and integration of fixability and flexibility in territorial spatial planning have yet to be clearly summarised. This paper explores an innovative research direction for the fixability–flexibility relations in territorial spatial planning from a new perspective, the Food–Energy–Water Nexus, which is a dynamic and comprehensive framework for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) studies. This paper covers the existing research on fixability and flexibility in territorial spatial planning. Moreover, after summarising the conflicts of fixability and flexibility, the dialectical relationship between and the integration of fixability and flexibility are researched. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The coupling coordination of agricultural technology innovation with food security is of great significance for high-quality agricultural development. By identifying the coupling coordination relationship between the two systems and the influencing factors, this paper aims to promote the virtuous cycle of coordinated development between regional agriculture and technology, as well as accelerate the realisation of high-quality development of Chinese agriculture. Therefore, this paper explores the spatial and temporal coupling characteristics of the two using the entropy value method, coupling coordination degree model, and exploratory spatial data analysis, and it screens for important influencing factors using the grey correlation model. The main results show that ① the coupling coordination relationship between agricultural technology innovation and food security in China is at a dissonant stage, but the value of the coupling coordination degree increases from 0.2076 to 0.3437 during the period of study, and the level of coordination gradually improves. ② The degree of coupling coordination in the provincial space exhibits a distribution pattern of "high in the east and low in the west". The areas of high value are primarily situated in the provinces of Shandong, Jiangsu, and other provinces along the southeastern coast of China, while the areas of low value are mainly located in the provinces of Qinghai, Ningxia, and other provinces in inland northwest China. ③ The Moran's index of provincial coupling coordination is greater than 0, showing a certain positive correlation, and there is a significant pattern of spatial aggregation. ④ The correlation coefficients between the influencing factors and the degree of coupling coordination are all greater than 0.35, indicating a moderate or high correlation, but the significance of technological support capacity and food distribution security increased over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After nearly forty years of development, China's land consolidation policies (CLCP) have become an important tool for promoting rural revitalization and sustainable development. However, as a major land management policy, there is still a lack of quantitative evaluation research on its text. This paper establishes an evaluation system for CLCP using text analysis and the PMC-Index model. Based on a reasonable definition of the connotation of land consolidation, this paper collects 313 related policies issued by China's central government from 1982 to 2022, using text analysis to sort out the characteristics of issuance time, policy types, issuing institutions, and cooperation networks. By combining the outcomes of text mining with the previous research results to set evaluation indicators for the PMC-Index model, it distinguishes between comprehensive policies and specialized policies and separately evaluates them. Then, the PMC-Surface is established to clearly display the calculation results. The results show that the evaluation scores of comprehensive policies and specialized policies showed an upward trend over time. This indicates that the content of CLCP is constantly being enriched and expanded. The evaluation scores for different dimensions of comprehensive policies are relatively balanced, whereas there are significant differences in the evaluation scores of various dimensions of specialized policies. Both comprehensive policies and specialized policies have weaknesses in policy functions, incentives and constraints, and implementation guarantees, so improvements may be needed in these areas in the future. This study provides valuable insights into the advantages and disadvantages of a single land consolidation policy in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

(1) Background: The decoupling of energy consumption from economic growth in the construction industry is crucial to the sustainable development of the global construction industry. The existing studies focus on the advancements in energy efficiency by designers for building monoliths or construction techniques, involving no exploration of energy efficiency management from a regional perspective, which is unfavorable for the formulation of energy efficiency policies and systematic control of the construction industry by local governments. (2) Methods: From the perspective of regional management, this paper constructs an integrated analysis and application framework of "spatio-temporal characteristics + matching evaluation + policy design" based on the decoupling model and GIS tools. It studies the spatio-temporal characteristics of energy consumption in the construction industry in 30 provinces of China from 2010 to 2019, and its decoupling relationship with the economic development of the construction industry, and proposes an optimal zoning and recommendations for energy consumption in the construction industry, providing a reference for energy conservation management in the construction industry in China. (3) Results: First, the change of energy consumption amount (ECA) in the construction industry in the provinces was dominated by ascent, while the energy consumption intensity (ECI) predominantly decreased, and most provinces are still in a period of growth or plateau in energy consumption. Second, ECA and ECI had prominent spatial heterogeneity and aggregation. High-energy-consuming regions are concentrated along the coast and along the Yangtze River, while low-energy-consuming regions are mainly clustered in remote areas, such as the northeast, northwest, and southwest of China. Energy consumption shows a clear north-south difference in intensity, with high-intensity regions clustered in the north compared to low-intensity regions in the south. Third, most of the provinces were in strong negative decoupling, expansive coupling, and weak decoupling, and better decoupling regions were mainly gathered in south and central China. Nearly one half of these provinces showed decoupling degradation and only a few achieved evolution, with evolutionary regions clustered mainly in central and southern China. The northeast and northwest were the key problem areas of energy-saving transformation in China's construction industry. (4) Conclusion: The 30 provinces were divided into three types: leader, intermediate, and laggard, and the development goals and suggestions on low energy consumption in the construction industry for three zones were put forward, significantly improving the precision of policy design and implementation. The study in this paper expands the research perspective on energy saving management in the construction industry and provides a methodology and basis for developing energy efficiency policies and plans for the construction industry in China and similar developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the course of China's rapid urbanization, rural places are brought into urban areas, forming semi-urbanization. These semi-urbanized sites suggest a dual urban–rural structure in their form and management. With the slowing down of urbanization, the Chinese government adopted heritage tourism to boost the local economy. Local historic buildings and cultural resources were regenerated and restored in this process. This paper aims at examining the role of heritage tourism in blurring the boundary of rurality and urbanity, boosting local economy, and revitalizing the areas with cultural-led development. In this paper, we analyzed the Huangpu Ancient Village's regeneration process. We argue that the Huangpu Ancient Village integrates local historical and cultural resources to boost the local economy, simultaneously adopting urban renewal and rural revival strategies. This paper contributes to the body of literature addressing villages in urban areas, breaking the duality of urbanity and rurality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the interactions between the human sphere and the natural sphere in key places and regions of the world is crucial for promoting sustainability science and achieving sustainable development. As one of the emerging global city-regions in China and the Global South, the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) plays an increasingly nonnegligible role in the globalized economy and telecoupling social-ecological systems (SESs). Considering the well-known importance and representativeness, the YRD has been regarded as an appropriate experimental site of integrated research on geographical and sustainability science at the subnational scale. This paper tries to establish theoretical and practical linkages between regional integration and sustainable development at the subnational scale based on the sustainable development goals (SDGs), the Chinese contexts, and a literature review of relevant researches. We argue that future research should pay more attention to the interdisciplinary, transregional, and multi-scale attributes of issues related to regional integrated and sustainable development in the YRD. The following research agendas, such as linking SDGs to regional integrative development, analyzing the sustainability of regional SESs, assessing the integrated region at the subnational scale, investigating the YRD at different geographical scales, exploring applicable governance structures and institutions, as well as applying multi-source data and interdisciplinary methodologies, call for more scholarly attention. We hope that this paper could be an initial motion to expand and enrich relevant research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid industrialization and urbanization promote socioeconomic development, but also pose a certain threat to food and ecological security. Cultivated land green use efficiency (CLGUE) is an important indictor to comprehensively reflect the coordinated relationship between cultivated land utilization and ecological protection. Therefore, it is of great practical significance to explore CLGUE to guarantee efficient and sustainable utilization of cultivated land resources. This paper thus conducts an empirical investigation of 31 provinces in mainland China during 2000–2020, aiming to measure the CLGUE level using the Super-SBM model and explore its influencing factors based on panel regression model. The data, which were mainly derived from various statistical yearbooks, together with the reference dataset, were all accurate. The results show that the average CLGUE value in China exhibited a fluctuating upward development trend, with the highest efficiency value of 0.957 in 2020 and the lowest one of 0.853 in 2003. Northeastern China had the highest efficiency value, while Central China had the lowest efficiency value. The overall ranking of CLGUE in the four major regions from high to low is Northeastern, Eastern, Western, and Central China. Spatially, there are significant diversities in CLGUE across China, which means that differentiated measures need to be taken to improve the efficiency based on regional natural conditions and the socioeconomic level. The regression model indicated that the crop diversity index, GDP per capita, urbanization level, effective irrigation rate, and fiscal support for agriculture positively influenced the CLGUE, while the proportion of natural disaster area had a negative impact. The findings had important implications for improving the CLGUE and achieving sustainable agricultural development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Consolidating and expanding the achievements of poverty alleviation, and effectively connecting it with rural revitalization, are part of an important path to achieving sustainable poverty alleviation and common prosperity in China, especially in its northwest arid areas. In this paper, the human–earth system was employed to analyze the elemental composition, structural organization, and functional state of China's northwest arid areas. The results revealed the following: (1) poverty in northwest arid areas stems from the lack of a coupling and coordinating mechanism among humans, the economy, resources, and environmental elements; this is not conducive to transforming ecological advantages into regional development. (2) In the antipoverty stage, China's northwest arid areas innovate human–earth coupling and a coordinating mechanism through a series of targeted measures. (3) We found that three paths, namely "promoting the integration of featured advantageous industries and tourism culture, innovating the realization path according to local conditions, and paying attention to the subjectivity of farmers" broaden the means of sustainable livelihood, consolidate the achievements of poverty alleviation, and achieve rural revitalization. (4) In particular, it is necessary to practice the concept of green development and pursue ecological industrialization by establishing a policy system of green land-people-industry-right, thus building an endogenous growth mechanism of sustainable poverty alleviation and green development in China's northwest arid areas. The results provide theoretical support and model reference for the effective connection between consolidating and expanding the key achievements of poverty alleviation and rural revitalization in China's northwest arid areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rapid development of urbanization and industrial economy, urban green space and land resources have been squeezed. The problem of urban ecological environment pollution is becoming increasingly serious. With the concept of sustainable development, green infrastructure construction can not only improve the adverse effects of human activities on the urban ecological environment, it can also deal with the relationship between survival and development, economy and the environment, society, and resources. This paper used different provinces and regions of China as an example to construct a multi-dimensional evaluation model. The multi-function green infrastructure was evaluated quantitatively from three dimensions: economy, society, and ecology. The study results showed that the multifunctional development level of green infrastructure varies among different regions in China due to regional location, economic development, and natural resources. The development mode of green infrastructure in North China, South China, and Northwest China has changed from multi-functional weak and basic coordination to strong and coordinated development. Therefore, the multi-dimensional analysis of green infrastructure is helpful for systematically studying and evaluating the functional value of green infrastructure. It can be used to investigate the development models of green infrastructure in different regions, formulate green infrastructure development strategies, and provide countermeasures and suggestions for relevant government departments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China’s long-standing urban-rural dichotomy has led to a widening gap between urban and rural areas, posing a huge challenge to the sustainable development of Chinese society. This paper adopted the subjective-objective weighting method, coupled coordination degree model, and geographically weighted regression model to conduct urban-rural sustainable development research on 31 provincial administrative regions in China and discussed their spatial-temporal divergence and driving mechanisms during 2007–2018. The results showed that (1) the quality of both rural revitalization and new urbanization improved during the study period, and the gap between them showed a trend of increasing after fluctuations. Both of them had significant spatial and temporal divergence characteristics. (2) The urban-rural coupling coordination degree in China continued to increase during the study period and showed an overall pattern of “high in the east-west and low in the north and southwest”. The changes of relative development type indicated that new urbanization had far surpassed rural revitalization during the study period. (3) The coefficients of driving factors varied significantly in space, showing a hierarchical band distribution. Seven of the eight driving factors showed a strong positive correlation in the vast majority of regions. The results and suggestions of this research can further promote the organic combination of rural revitalization and new urbanization strategy, which is of great practical significance for narrowing the urban-rural gap and realizing sustainable urban-rural development. Likewise, it can be a reference for other developing countries around the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the ten years since committing to clean energy transition, China has formulated a large number of policies and programs to achieve some very ambitious targets. This paper argues that the dearth of empirical studies concerning the implementation of these new policies and programs has created a knowledge gap between official policy documents, which are vague and lacking in specifics, and official policy outcomes, which are unreliable. In particular, the merits and limitations of flexible implementation with regard to desirable outcomes need to be debated and clarified. This paper calls for more empirical investigation in four areas as a starting point: (1) the nature and extent of flexibility in the implementation; (2) implementation strategies and their impacts; (3) factors that shape the behavior of local officials responsible for implementation; and (4) the relationship between the central-local relation and policy implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon emissions pose a significant challenge to sustainable development, particularly for China, which is the world's largest emerging economy and is under pressure to achieve carbon neutrality and reduce emissions amid escalating human activities. The variation in economic development levels and carbon sequestration capacities among its provinces poses a significant hurdle. However, previous research has not adequately examined this dual discrepancy from the perspective of spatial heterogeneity, resulting in a lack of differentiated management of forest carbon sinks across diverse regions. Therefore, to mitigate this discrepancy, this study presents an assessment methodology that analyzes over 100 types of natural and plantation forests using forest age and biomass expansion factors. This study presents a model that can significantly support the efforts of both China and the whole world to achieve carbon neutrality through the improved management of forest carbon sinks. This approach facilitates the assessment of carbon offsets required to meet reduction targets, the development of a provincial framework for carbon intensity and sequestration, and the exploration of their potential for trading markets. Analysis is conducted using MATLAB. Key achievements of this study include the following: (1) The collection of a comprehensive carbon stock dataset for 50 natural and 57 plantation forest types in 31 provinces from 2009 to 2018, highlighting the significant role of new forests in carbon sequestration. (2) The development of a provincial carbon status scoring system that categorizes provinces as carbon-negative, carbon-balancing, or carbon-positive based on local forest sink data and carbon credit demand. (3) The formulation of the carbon intensity–carbon sink assessment (CISA) model, which suggests that provinces with middle- to upper-middle-level economies may have a prolonged need for carbon sink credits during their peak carbon phase. Furthermore, the results show that carbon trading may benefit Guangxi and Yunnan, but may also bring opportunities and risks to Hunan and Hubei. To address regional imbalances, this study advocates tailored policies: carbon-negative and carbon-balancing provinces should enhance carbon sink management, while carbon-positive provinces must focus on energy structure transformation to achieve sustainable development goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban rainstorm waterlogging is one of the most important problems in urban development and a comprehensive embodiment of urban diseases. China is facing a severe risk of rainstorm waterlogging disasters, which is affecting sustainable development. Urban rainstorm waterlogging in China is caused by many factors, including natural factors and human factors, such as climate warming, unreasonable urban construction, inadequate upgrading of urban fortification standards, etc. Based on the analysis of the current strategies to deal with urban waterlogging around the world, including an increase in surface infiltration, and a reduction in runoff (and its various impacts), this paper holds that the connotation and goal of these measures are highly consistent with the construction of a sponge city in China. Based on the analysis of the problems, including construction of an urban rainwater recovery system, construction of urban rainwater storage facilities, and construction of data platforms faced by China's sponge city, this paper puts forward the guiding principles of promoting the construction of a sponge city. The guiding principles are to cooperate to deal with climate change and ecological civilization construction, to study the foreign experience, and to unite multiple subjects, integrate multiple elements, design multiple processes, form a joint force, and create an all-round response system to deal with urban rainstorm waterlogging. Then, this paper gives policy recommendations on how to deal with the urban rainstorm waterlogging disasters, which include improving the defense standards, encouraging social participation, popularizing the construction of sponge cities, perfecting the monitoring and early warning system, strengthening the scientific planning of cities, strengthening the ability of dealing with catastrophes in metropolitan areas, the overall planning of cross-regional responses, and enhancing the awareness of decision makers. Finally, this paper expounds the reference significance of urban rainstorm waterlogging control in China to the global audience. This paper explores the significance of comprehensively and scientifically understanding urban rainstorm waterlogging disasters, and provides support for long-term planning and high-quality construction of future safe cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The water footprint (WF) is a widely recognised and comprehensive indicator of both the direct and indirect appropriation of freshwater. It has been utilised for diverse functions, including as a key indicator of the planetary boundaries and United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Focusing on the nation with the greatest WF, i.e., China, this study reviews journal articles both in English and Chinese published from January 2003 to June 2020. Using CiteSpace and bibliometric analysis of papers, journals, and keywords, we explore state-of-the-art WF accounting, driving forces, and effects. Visible differences in WF accounting keywords and spatial scales between English and Chinese literature are identified. Reported WF values for the same product varied across studies, and there was a lack of information regarding uncertainties. Key driving factors have been largely investigated for agricultural WFs but not for other sectors. The WF impact analyses primarily assess the environmental effects, ignoring the associated social and economic impacts. The development of WF studies has improved our understanding of water issues in China. However, there are still existing knowledge gaps to be filled to find solutions to WF-related issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The trade-off between economic growth and ecological improvement has always become an important and difficult issue for many countries, especially for developing countries. Due to a long-term extensive economic growth pattern, the regional resource allocation deviates from the optimal, especially the existence of energy misallocation, which hinders the maximization of economic output. Therefore, considering the characteristics and heterogeneity of resource endowments in different regions and increasing renewable energy consumption, that is, promoting energy transition, is it capable of sustainable development under China's actual conditions? The exploration of the issue is a core step in the research of the impact of renewable energy on industrial green transformation. Based on the panel data of 30 regions in China from 2009 to 2016, this paper constructs a threshold model from the perspective of regional energy misallocation and empirically tests the nonlinear mechanism of renewable energy consumption to promote industrial green transformation. The results show that China's energy allocation efficiency is low, there is a certain misallocation phenomenon, and the improvement effect in recent years is not satisfactory. Further, the relationship between renewable energy consumption and industrial green transformation is not a simple linear relationship, but a double threshold effect due to regional energy misallocation. In areas with severe energy misallocation, renewable energy consumption does not have a significant boost to industrial green transformation. Finally, this paper proposes the policy enlightenment of promoting industrial green transformation from the aspects of performance evaluation, market reform, and factor flow. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The evaluation of regional water and energy consumption is of great significance to improving regional resource utilization. This paper analyzed the water and energy footprints in different provinces of China, considering regional economic levels. The results indicate: (1) both the largest water footprint and water footprint per capita were in Xinjiang and agriculture had the largest value; (2) Shandong was the largest energy consumer, Ningxia had the largest energy footprint per capita, and coal occupied the largest proportion for the top five energy footprint provinces; and (3) the resource input–output efficiencies in Beijing and Fujian were high, while water and energy consumption were low and gross regional product was high, compared with the average value of China. The situations in Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia were opposite. The change of consumption pattern for each inhabitant, the adoption of water-saving technology, and an increase to water-saving awareness would be helpful to decrease regional water consumption. An increase of regional energy use efficiency and a change to reduced energy consumption would contribute to the decreasing of regional energy consumption. More attention should be paid to renewable and clean Energies. In addition to solution from the local perspective, the virtual water trade and the energy product trade may relieve regional resource pressure in some extent, and the possible influencing should be considered at the same time. This paper could provide suggestions for regional resource utilization and sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Geothermal energy is one of the cleanest sources of energy which is gaining importance as an alternative to hydrocarbons. Geothermal energy reserves in China are enormous and it has a huge potential for exploitation and utilization. However, the development of the geothermal industry in China lags far behind other renewable energy sources because of the lack of fiscal and taxation policy support. In this paper, we adopt the system dynamics method and use the causal loop diagram to explore the development mechanism of fiscal and taxation policies in the geothermal industry. The effect of the fiscal and taxation policy on the development of the geothermal industry is analyzed. In order to promote sustainable development of the geothermal industry in China, the government should pay more attention to subsidies for the geothermal industry in the life-cycle stage of the geothermal industry. Furthermore, a plan is necessary to provide a reasonable system of fiscal and taxation policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the impact of energy poverty on internal immigration based on the current situation in which reducing energy poverty is a necessary condition for ensuring sustainable development. The threshold effects model is applied to verify the significance of energy poverty in the prediction of internal immigration. The main results suggest that energy poverty significantly and negatively affects internal immigration. A heterogeneity analysis between coastal and non-coastal regions shows that the effects are more pronounced in non-coastal regions than in coastal regions. Further analysis reveals that there exists a kink in the threshold effects. The results remain robust using the specification of the kink threshold effects model. The policy implication is that a balanced development of energy infrastructure in different regions is required to achieve better social welfare for migrants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon neutrality is a key human endeavor to deal with global climate while China is the country producing the most publications on carbon neutrality. However, what are the focuses of carbon-neutrality research in China? To answer such an important question, this study adopts a bibliometric approach to analyze carbon-neutrality journal publications from China-based researchers during the period of 2008–2022 using CNKI and Scopus. Results showed that carbon-neutrality publications in Chinese and English journals by Chinese-based researchers increased from 4 in 2008 to 2879 in 2022. In Chinese journals, X.D. Hao was the most productive author with 10 publications. In English journals, Y.K. Zhou was the most productive author with 14 publications. As a whole, the Chinese Academy of Sciences was the most productive institution with 376 publications. Co-occurrence of keywords analysis revealed seven themes in Chinese journal articles, namely, "carbon neutrality and climate change", "energy transformation", "peak carbon emission", "carbon emission and low carbon economy", "realization path in China", "hydrogen energy and clean energy", and "green finance and sustainable development". In English journals, three major clusters were formed—"carbon, carbon neutralities, emission control, and energy utilization", "carbon dioxide, carbon neutrals, biomass, and electrocatalysts", and "China, carbon neutrality, sustainable development, and economic development." Most extant publications focused on policy and technological development. Emphasis shall be paid to social change and changes in people's behavior, sectoral carbon emissions, and carbon leakage in future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Oasification and desertification are two essential processes of land use and cover (LULC) change in arid regions. Compared to desertification, which is widely regarded as the most severe global ecological issue, the importance of oasification has not received universal recognition. However, neglecting oasification can lead to detrimental outcomes to the effectiveness of ecological governance by affecting the comprehensiveness of environmental policies proposed only based on desertification. Therefore, this study incorporates oasification into the examination of desertification by analyzing land use data for five representative periods spanning from 1980 to 2020, as well as socioeconomic and environmental data from 2000 to 2010. The aim is to evaluate the spatial and temporal dynamics of oasification and desertification in the Manas River Basin and identify the underlying factors driving these processes. The findings indicated that (1) the general trend of oasification and desertification exhibited the expansion of oases and the retreat of deserts. Specifically, the oasification area showed a "decrease-increase-decrease" pattern over time, while the desertification area consistently decreased. (2) In terms of spatial distribution, oasification and desertification displayed a transition from scattered and disordered patterns to an overall more organized pattern, with the hotspot area of desertification shifting from Shawan County to Manas County over time. (3) Population density, average land GDP, soil type and annual precipitation significantly influenced the degree of oasification, with driving force q-values above 0.4, which were the key factors driving oasification. Population density and average land GDP significantly affected the degree of desertification, with driving force q-values above 0.35, which were the key factors driving desertification. The driving force of all factors increased significantly after the interaction, and socioeconomic factors influenced oasification and desertification more than other factors. The study's findings aim to provide a scientific basis for land resource use, ecological governance and sustainable development in the Manas River basin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inter-provincial power transmission in China solved the problem of electricity production and consumption spatial mismatch, which also facilitated Chinese green energy transition and sustainable development. Aiming to understand the spatial patterns and main driving factors, this paper accounted the aggregate carbon intensity per electricity produced by each province, built the inter-provincial Out–Destination matrixes of carbon emission embodied in power transmission among 27 provincial areas of 2006 and 2019, and quantitatively analyzed the change in spatial patterns of carbon flow and carbon intensity difference between power inward and outward provinces. We found that the inter-provincial power transmission has led to the reduction in the national average carbon intensity per electricity produced from 0.855 kg/kWh in 2006 to 0.628 kg/kWh in 2019 and the green energy transition of all provinces. The spatial morphology characteristics of carbon flow show the 'three corridors of West-East Power Transmission (WEPT)' pattern, in which power is transmitted from some main thermal power-dominated provinces in central and north-west China to the eastern coastal provinces. Further, it resulted in the carbon leakage from electricity consumption of the coastal provinces and carbon overload of the hinterland provinces. Despite natural resource endowment, the location of the provinces in the national power grid, the national low-carbon energy transition strategy, as well as advances in long-distance ultra-high-voltage power transmission technologies were the main factors to the formation and evolution of Chinese electricity green transition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Effective land use contributes to sustainable urban development. However, there are various reports suggesting that urban land resources used mismatch to different extents in many Chinese cities. This study measures the degree of the mismatch phenomenon in utilizing urban land resources from a supply–demand perspective, and a mismatching coefficient, namely land resource mismatch (LRM), is adopted as the measurement. The data used for the empirical analysis are from a sample of 35 cities in China. The empirical study shows the effectiveness of employing the mismatching coefficient LRM model in evaluating the degree of the mismatch phenomenon in utilizing urban land resources. The research findings suggest the following: (1) Overall, the mismatch phenomenon in utilizing urban land resources is significant in China in the form of either supply shortage or over-supply. (2) The degree of the mismatch phenomenon is different between different types of land, with the land for administration and public services showing more serious mismatching and the land for commercial and business facilities showing less mismatching. (3) There are significant differences both in the type and the degree of land use mismatch among different cities, which are contributed largely by the intensity of local government's controlling and planning role on land resources and the maturity of applying market mechanisms. The results from this study can inform the government of the importance and necessity of adopting effective policy measures for mitigating the mismatch phenomenon in utilizing urban land resources. The research method applied in this study can be applied in a larger context internationally for understanding the effectiveness of utilizing urban land resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To achieve the goal of sustainable development, China has implemented the energy conservation and emission-reduction policy. So far, there is still little evidence of the impact of the policiy on corporate behaviour. Therefore, this study collects data on Chinese A-share listed companies from 2010 to 2017 and applies the staggered difference-in-differences method to analyse the impact of the energy conservation and emission-reduction policy on the environmental, social and governance performance of companies in China. The result shows that the energy conservation and emission-reduction policy reduces environmental, social and governance performance, and this negative effect increases over time. Meanwhile, a further mechanism analysis confirms that the negative impact on environmental, social and governance performance operates through the incentive effect on environmental performance, the crowding-out effect on social performance and the spillover effect on governance performance. Furthermore, the negative effect is heterogeneous across companies and cities. Overall, our results provide empirical evidence for optimising energy conservation and emission-reduction policies in developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green bonds have increasingly been utilized around the world as a source of financing for renewable energy development, designed with compliance requirements and measurable economic returns to investors, while mitigating climate change. However, the efficacy of green bond arranged in the emerging economies for financing renewable energy assets and how the underlying risks are managed have remained to be explored. The paper aims to examine the evolving green financial system sponsored by both public and private institutions in managing such risks within China's emerging economy. A case study of green financing for a bundle of wind power assets led by a state-owned enterprise (SOE) reveals an alternative approach by structuring public–private collaboration while stipulating market-based financial incentives to institutional stakeholders under a political economy. This institutional consortium is composed of a state development bank, a commercial bank, credit rating agencies, institutional and private investors, regional power purchasers, and carbon trading entities. Financial stakeholders' risk in such emerging sustainable investment is moderated by these participating institutions and structured "upsides" from carbon trading aligned with the framework of green finance and standards for green bond development. The results reveal the potentials of scaling up the development of renewable energy by adequately managing and sharing key risks, while allocating substantial funding into renewable energy projects under such a green financial system that is to be complementary with a scalable post COVID-19 economic recovery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has experienced rapid social and economic development in the past 40 years. However, excessive consumption of fossil fuel energy has caused an energy shortage and led to severe environmental pollution. To achieve sustainable development, China is striving to transform its growth mode. Adopting renewable energy (RE) including solar photovoltaic (PV) power is an effective measure. How to promote the further development of solar PV power under the scenario of China's aspirational target of carbon peak by 2030 and 20% RE ratio in the energy mix remains a theme that need to be addressed. This paper analyzes the potential opportunities and challenges confronting solar PV power in China. The analysis covers the dimensions of political, economic, social, and technological (PEST). The results revealed a significant prospect for the further deployment of solar PV power in the coming decades. The aggressive estimated installed capacity of solar PV power is expected to reach 80+ GW annually. To successfully achieve the goal of 80+ GW, barriers that hinder the further development of solar PV power have to be eliminated. Suggestions for policymakers include maintaining enforceability and continuity of policies, favorable financial supports, mandatory RE quotas for all parties, and supporting fundamental R&D. Suggestions for the solar PV industry include full utilization of integrated applications, set up an after-sales service network, collaborative innovation among the industry chain, and engaging in storage and hydrogen technology. The findings are greatly beneficial for policymakers and the solar PV industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For years, China has adopted environmental regulations in developing ports to improve their sustainability. Based on the data of Chinese ports from 2009 to 2018, this paper presents a data envelopment analysis model with subdividing input-output indicator weights and develops it further in two stages with the weight preference and the slacks-based measure, respectively. After assessing the sustainable development capability (SDC) of Chinese ports and their spatial correlation, it revealed that Chinese ports are clustered in several regions and their SDC has spilled over into their neighbors. Further study revealed the SDC is affected by environmental regulations in different ways: as a key measure among regulations to improve the SDC, voluntary regulation has a spatial spillover effect, but neither the mandatory regulation nor public media regulation can significantly improve the SDC. This suggests that the port authority should enact environmental regulations based on the port spatial difference and the port should expand its operation scale and market size and recruit more top talent, which is good for improving its productivity and reducing its carbon emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The quantity and quality of cropland plays an important role in ensuring food security. In order to explore spatiotemporal patterns of the extent to which cropland satisfies people's grain need, we integrate multi-source heterogeneous data to investigate in which era, and in which region, the cultivated land can meet people's food demands. It turns out that in the past 30 years, with the exception of the late 1980s, the amount of cropland could satisfy people's grain needs at the nation scale. However, more than 10 provinces (municipality/autonomous region), mainly located in western China and southeast coastal areas, have been unable to meet the grain needs of local people. We projected the guarantee rate to the late 2020s. Our study concludes that the guarantee rate of cropland is estimated to be higher than 150% in China. Compared to 2019, except Beijing, Tianjin, Liaoning, Jilin, Ningxia, as well as Heilongjiang in the Sustainability scenario, and Shanghai in the Sustainability and the Equality scenarios, the guarantee rate of cultivated land will increase in every province (municipality/autonomous region) in 2030. This study has reference value for the study of China's cultivated land protection system, as well as important significance for China's sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

(1) Background: Digitalization is the key to sustainable village development, posing a new challenge for village planning, construction, and governance in all countries. The construction of digital villages is currently in the stage of experimentation and exploration; China is the largest developing country and a pioneer in the digitization of villages. (2) Methods: Based on a combination of the Boston Consulting Group Matrix and GeoDetector, we conducted an empirical study on 70 counties in Guangxi, aiming to analyze the construction level, evolution model, and driving mechanism of digital villages and to provide a basis for decisions on government investment and social participation. (3) Results: First, Conspicuous disequilibrium in rural digitalization has manifested in Guangxi, and counties at different levels (leader, follower, and straggler) show significant clustering and correlation effects in their geographical distribution. Second, digital village construction in Guangxi has evolves in diversified modes (divided into four types: star, gazelle, cow, and dog), with hot and cold areas forming a center–periphery structure. Third, rural digitalization has a very complex driving mechanism, with high heterogeneity in the direct influencing factors, significant synergistic enhancement of factors, and nonlinear enhancement dominating the interaction's relationship. (4) Conclusions: According to the results of analysis, we suggest highlighting the government-driven mechanism and regional linkage in the construction of digital villages, formulating differentiated management policies and development plans based on the combination of top-level design and grassroots innovation, establishing joint meetings or development associations and service alliances, and stimulating the enthusiasm of the whole of society, especially farmers and enterprises, in order to achieve rapid and sustainable rural digitalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Natural gas has an increasing role in Chinese energy transformation. We present a system dynamics model of the natural gas industry in China. A new system dynamics model for natural gas companies based on reserve exploration and well construction as well as investment dynamics is proposed. The contribution of the paper is to analyze the influence of technology, investment and policy factors on the natural gas industry. We found that the dynamics of the main variables, including gas policy, cost of investment, accounting depreciation and exploitation technology, are sensitive to the sustainable development of resources. The simulations and results presented here will be helpful for government to reform policies, and for upstream companies to make decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of land use functions (LUFs) has been widely employed to study and manage sustainable development. However, its employment is barely based on actual land uses. Difficulties in the accessibility of data and comparability of results also hinder the wide application of contemporary LUF frameworks on sustainability analysis. To fill these gaps, this study improves the LUF framework in which the monetary value of economic, social, and environmental LUF is evaluated using land use data. This framework is then used to examine how different LUFs relate to each other in Shandong, China. Results show that, at the township level, monetary values of economic and social functions are positively correlated, but are both negatively correlated with environmental function. All three functions grew between 2009 and 2018 in Shandong. Results also suggest that a focus on quantitative trade-offs of these three LUFs is insufficient; rather, their spatial balance also requires attention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

People used physical or pictorial note-taking methods to record and memorize in ancient times. With the development of productive forces, the emergence of classes, the formation of the state, and the invention of writing, many official documents appeared and were sorted, which then became archives. The natural attributes of archives are closely related to the development of human society. On the one hand, archival work develops with the development of human society. On the other hand, the status of archival work will affect the development of civilization as well. To fill the gap in the research on the sustainable development of archival work, we established a comprehensive evaluation model to analyze the development of Chinese archival work from 2018 to 2021. We found that the overall level was gradually flourishing and was less affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, but there is still a lot of room for improvement in some aspects. This study provides valuable insights for formulating targeting strategies to improve the development of archives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quantitative evaluation of the coupling coordination degree (CCD) between regional haze the disaster risk index (HRI) and urbanization development index level (UDI) is of great significance for the realization of regional sustainable development goals. Given the lack of the combination of remote sensing and statistical data to evaluate the CCD between two systems, the Chinese mainland's 31 provinces and autonomous regions were taken to evaluate their HRI and UDI by building index systems. Then, an entropy method and one improved coupling coordination model were used to calculate and analyze the spatiotemporal characteristics of CCD between HRI and UDI during 2000–2020. The results showed that: (1) From 2000 to 2020, the value of HRI in China showed a "W" type change trend with its value increased from 0.7041 in 2000 to 0.8859 in 2020, indicating that haze pollution level showed a fluctuating downward trend; (2) From 2000 to 2020, China's UDI values showed a gradual upward trend with its value increased from 0.1647 in 2000 to 0.4640 in 2020, with an average annual growth rate of 8.63%; (3) From 2000 to 2020, CCD values between HRI and UDI showed a fluctuating upward trend with its value increased from 0.5374 in 2000 to 0.7781 in 2020, with an average annual growth rate of 2.13%; the overall level of China's CCD had raised from low coordination to moderate coordination, and eastern coastal provinces had higher CCD values, while those of central and western provinces had lower CCD values; (4) HRI, UDI and CCD could be well fitted with the R2 of 0.9869. Specifically, UDI had a higher contribution to improving the CCD than the HRI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Advances in crop breeding techniques and economic evaluation are critical to ensuring and improving crop yields and sustainable development. Based on the provincial data on food legumes breeding (FLB) in China from 2001 to 2020, the research and development (R&D) expenditure distribution, FLB contribution rate, and R&D expenditure on FLB were estimated. The economic benefits of output per unit area and R&D expenses were evaluated, and relevant policy suggestions were put forward. The study found that: (i) the R&D expenditure on FLB's showed a significant upward trend, and the development can be divided into a starting, stable, and rapid growth period. There were significant differences in R&D expenditures across eight provinces of China with relatively high R&D expenditures for FLB; (ii) the R&D expenditure on FLB had a significant lag in the improvement of per mu yield (1 mu = 0.067 hectares). For every 10,000 yuan increase in R&D funding for FLB, the yield per mu will increase by 0.145 kg/mu in the next five years, and the regional spillover effect of breeding costs is significant; and (iii) the marginal revenue of R&D expenditures FLB from 2008 to 2020 is 34.91 yuan, that is, every 1 yuan invested in breeding R&D can bring a short-term marginal revenue of 34.91 yuan and a long-term marginal revenue of 337.23 yuan. Based on the above analysis, some recommendations were proposed and discussed, including further increasing the R&D investment of FLB, strengthening industry–university–research cooperation in breeding, improving the breeding research system, and promoting the multi-dimensional development of FLB industry–university–research services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development zone is an important institutional form of industrial spatial organization in China's economic transformation and is an essential growth pole of urban economic development. Based on the county-level panel data of Guangxi from 2005 to 2017, this study contributes to the discussion by exploring the effects of development zones on economic development in developed regions. Additionally, this study further attempts to illustrate the character of the agglomeration effect built on development zones and try to reveal the significant influence factors of the effect of development zones on the economy. Through the progressive difference-in-difference (DID) model approach, empirical results reveal that the development zone has a negative effect on the local economy within three years after its establishment, and the "development zone fever" significantly reduces the potential for regional economic growth. With the decrease in the established frequency of development zones, the effect of the development zone on economic growth becomes positive. However, this promoting effect is unsustainable because the agglomeration effect of development zones is mainly caused by the "clusters of enterprises". Certain industrial agglomeration and technological capabilities are essential prerequisites for development zones to promote economic growth, while the negative impact appears in a highly competitive environment caused by excessive government intervention. Therefore, the key to maintaining the sustainability of development zones' competition is to strengthen the assessment standard of survival of the fittest for enterprises, and promote the agglomeration of high-end industries by improving the selection effect of development zones. These findings have great potential in policy making and can be used as a resource by policymakers to promote the sustainable development of less developed regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the literature concerning poverty is rich in theory and policy suggestion, the implementation of poverty alleviation is still poorly studied. This study aims to answer the question of what could be considered a good framework for poverty alleviation and how to implement it in rural areas. Based on China's experience, we here conceptualize an implementation framework and process by using a systemic approach. A five-year case study of over fourteen thousand poor households is used to demonstrate the effectiveness of the framework and process. The case study results show that poverty alleviation measures have been successfully implemented following the framework and process, and the absolute poverty is eliminated. Key characteristics of China's poverty alleviation program, such as people-centered philosophy, pro-poor development, functional institution, systematic anti-poverty measures, and social mobilization may be useful for other poverty alleviation implementation approaches. The novel implementation framework and process, and pro-poor development strategy in this study can provide valuable experience for other poverty alleviation programs, and more similar poverty alleviation programs would make a significant contribution to the shared Sustainable Development Goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the United Nations in 2015 guide the important direction of high-quality urbanization in China's main grain-producing areas (MGPAs), and improving the quality of urbanization is also crucial to achieve the SDGs. China's MGPAs not only undertake the task of promoting urbanization but also of ensuring food security. The establishment of an index system based on SDGs can more effectively measure the urbanization quality of MGPAs. For the specific targets of the SDGs, this study established two sets of multidimensional indicator systems, whether including the goals of food and agriculture, and tracked the progress toward improving urbanization quality of China's MGPAs, including 128 prefecture-level cities, during 2010–2018. We found that the comprehensive urbanization quality and the index of economic efficiency, urbanization level, and environmental quality showed an upward trend with significant regional differences and spatial agglomeration distributions, but the level of agricultural development and urban–rural co-ordination have declined in recent years; the ranking and distribution of urbanization quality, including agricultural development, varied significantly, and the number of cities belonging to the good co-ordination mode decreased as some cities changed to a lower level; and urbanization that does not sacrifice the agricultural capabilities of MGPAs could improve urbanization quality and implement the SDGs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China is the world's largest apple producer, and agricultural cooperatives play an important role in promoting sustainable production in its whole life cycle system. However, few studies on cooperatives have evaluated the environmental and economic performance from the life cycle thinking perspective. In this study, the combined methods of life cycle assessment (LCA) and life cycle cost (LCC) were used to comparatively analyze the environmental and economic performance of apple production between cooperatives and smallholder farmers. The results showed that, compared to the smallholder farmers, cooperatives significantly reduced resource depletion and environmental impacts by 12.50–22.16% in each category. The total environmental index for the cooperatives was 7.44% and 22.09% lower than smallholder farmers; meanwhile, the total LCC was 2659.71 Chinese Yuan (CNY), 19.27% lower than smallholder farmers. However, the net profit was 2990.29 CNY for the cooperatives, 21.23% higher than smallholder farmers. The results indicated that cooperatives exhibited a higher net profit while having lower resource input, environmental impact, and LCC than smallholder farmers. Moreover, pesticides and fertilizers were identified as the most critical environmental hotspots. Moreover, human labor cost was the most significant contributor to the total economic cost of the apple production system. These findings provide insights into optimizing farm inputs for apple production and active participation in agricultural cooperatives to alleviate multiple environmental impacts while maintaining apple yield and improving economic benefits, intending to make a marginal contribution to promoting sustainable development of the apple industry in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainable development is a common challenge for all global economies, and the assessment of the spatial distribution and development process of ecological resources is the basis of sustainable development. Considering the heterogeneity of regional ecological resource endowment, it is necessary to conduct a targeted assessment for different regions. In this study, we selected Guizhou Province, which is rich in ecological resources, but has a fragile environment, as our study area, and cultivated land, woodland, grassland, and water resources were selected as critical evaluation indicators. Notably, we applied Kernel density analysis methods, based on the remote sensing data of 2000, 2005, 2010, 2015, and 2020, to explore the spatiotemporal distribution characteristics and evolution pattern of regional ecological resources. The results indicated that the evolution of ecological resource development in Guizhou could be divided into three phases: degenerative (2000–2005), recovery (2005–2015), and development (2015–2020). The spatial distribution of Guizhou's ecological resource was shown to be heterogeneous in the north and south and more homogeneous in the middle regions. Guizhou has diverse land-use types, with obvious regional differences in land-use structure. Notably, even though the development of ecological resources in Guizhou has improved, the development and utilization degree of ecological resources is still low, and the ecological damage is serious. This study can be used as a scientific reference by policymakers and decisionmakers to develop new regulations for ecological resources protection and sustainable development in China. We suggest that different regions should adopt more detailed measures; particularly, it is important to establish a spatial governance system to promote ecological resources development in the context of local conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The analysis of the implementation effect of the supply-side reform (SSR) in the industrial sector of China's provinces and the reasons behind them are of great significance for China to formulate relevant policies in the future. However, this work has not yet been carried out. Industrial development performance is closely related to energy and environmental efficiency (EEE), and the effect of the SSR implementation is directly reflected in EEE. This study fills this gap by analyzing the EEE of 30 provinces in China from 2012 to 2017 using data envelopment analysis and Malmquist index methods. The results show that the positive effect of China's implementation of SSR has emerged. This positive effect is mainly reflected in the implementation of measures such as reducing overcapacity, which has promoted the technological innovation of enterprises. However, the low management level and resource-allocation efficiency hinder the further improvement of the implementation effect of the SSR, which should be paid special attention to in China's future supply-side reform. In addition, we believe that in the context of China's high-quality development and carbon neutrality goals, the SSR should be given more connotations, which are to increase the requirements for strengthening green and low-carbon development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Total-factor energy efficiency (TFEE) is widely used to measure energy efficiency under the data envelopment analysis (DEA) framework, but the efficiencies obtained from DEA are structurally biased upward, and thus TFEE tends to overestimate energy efficiency. This research thus applies the bootstrapped DEA approach to correct the bias of TFEE. Using a dataset consisting of 30 provinces of China in the period 2016–2019, the bootstrapped-based test supports technology with variable returns to scale. The biased-corrected TFEE also indicates that energy consumption on average can be scaled down by 42.36%, rather than the biased value of 19.4%. The bootstrapped clustering partitions provinces into three groups: Cluster 1, with Guizhou as the representative medoid, includes half of the superior coastal provinces in terms of actual energy consumption and TFEE and half of the competitive inland provinces, whereas Cluster 3 outperforms Cluster 2 in terms of TFEE, but the actual energy consumption is higher, with Shandong and Hebei as the representative medoids, respectively. Lastly, empirical results imply that the northeast and central regions need more government attention and resources to practice sustainable development and improve TFEE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Healthy buildings are a deep-level development of green buildings, which can effectively help relieve stress and improve occupants' physical and mental health. In addition, they are is likely to play an important role in preventing the spread of respiratory infectious diseases. Therefore, healthy buildings have attracted worldwide attention. This article reviews the research and development of healthy buildings in China. First, it briefly introduces the definition of healthy buildings, the key elements of evaluation standards, energy conservation measures and new technology applications for healthy buildings, and lessons learned from the global outbreak of SARS-CoV-2. Secondly, it presents the milestones of healthy building development and healthy building projects in China, and the benefits of healthy buildings were also discussed. Finally, the differences in the evaluation systems of healthy buildings between China and other countries were analyzed, the problems of the current policy system of healthy buildings in China were identified, and suggestions for future development were provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's forest products manufacturing industry is experiencing the dual pressure of forest protection policies and wood scarcity and, therefore, it is of great significance to reveal the spatial agglomeration characteristics and evolution drivers of this industry to enhance its sustainable development. Based on the perspective of large-scale agglomeration in a continuous space, in this study, we used the spatial Gini coefficient and standard deviation ellipse method to investigate the spatial agglomeration degree and location distribution characteristics of China's forest products manufacturing industry, and we used exploratory spatial data analysis to investigate its spatial agglomeration pattern. The results show that: (1) From 1988 to 2018, the degree of spatial agglomeration of China's forest products manufacturing industry was relatively low, and the industry was characterized by a very pronounced imbalance in its spatial distribution. (2) The industry has a very clear core–periphery structure, the spatial distribution exhibits a "northeast-southwest" pattern, and the barycenter of the industrial distribution has tended to move south. (3) The industry mainly has a high–high and low–low spatial agglomeration pattern. The provinces with high–high agglomeration are few and concentrated in the southeast coastal area. (4) The spatial agglomeration and evolution characteristics of China's forest products manufacturing industry may be simultaneously affected by forest protection policies, sources of raw materials, international trade and the degree of marketization. In the future, China's forest products manufacturing industry should further increase the level of spatial agglomeration to fully realize the economies of scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This econometric study contributes to the ongoing debate about the costs and benefits of urban form by employing interdisciplinary means-urban planning, econometrics and public administration--to explore the relationship between urban form and urban public services expenditure. In China, particularly, rapid urbanization is accompanied by an increase of urban public services expenditure and a difference in efficiency, which undermines the promotion of urban public service development. The Chinese government has paid great attention to urban sustainable development and promoting urban public services performance; however, until recently there has been a lack of empirical studies exploring the relationship between urban public services expenditure and urban form. Thus, the present research aims to analyze this issue by using relevant indicators based on an econometric model. The results provide a promising basis for improving urban public services expenditure efficiency. Based on the urban area interpreted by remote sensing data and geographic information system, two urban form metrics, the compactness ratio and the elongation ratio, are selected and quantified to describe urban compactness and urban sprawl accurately. Panel data analyses are performed using a cross-sectional dataset of the 30 cities for the years 2007, 2010 and 2013 to assess the likelihood of association between indicators of urban form and urban public services expenditure, while controlling for other determinants, such as educational level, income per capita, degree of industrialization, and unemployment rate. The results indicate that urban elongation is positively correlated to per capita urban public services expenditure and urban compactness is insignificantly correlated to it. Thus, it is recommended that policymakers consider the relationship between urban form and public services expenditure as part of urban planning and on-going strategies to promote public service efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Three-Rivers Headwaters region (TRHR) is an ecological shelter located in the northeast of the Tibetan Plateau, China, that provides environmental protection and regional sustainable development. This region also provides ecosystem services including water supply and soil conservation and exerts major impacts on both its surroundings, as well as the whole of China. A number of ecological restoration projects have been initiated within the TRHR since 2000, including the creation of a natural reserve. Analyses of trends in land use/land cover (LULC), net primary productivity (NPP), water yield and soil conservation within the TRHR are presented based on regional climate and land use datasets and utilizing the Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs (InVEST) model in tandem with the double mass curve (DMC) approach. The results of this study reveal a series of correlations between ecosystem services and lead to four distinct conclusions. First, the amount of variation between 2000 and 2012 in each LULC type within the TRHR was small. In particular, grassland substitution occurred in high-altitude areas and increased in central areas. Second, NPP, water yield, soil conservation amount and the volume of exported phosphorus (P) decreased along an east-west gradient with values of 64.44%, 38.81%, 7.37% and -49.98% recorded, respectively, between 2000 and 2012. The ecosystem services of the Yellow River basin to the east of the TRHR generally improved over the study period, while those of the Yangtze River and Lancang River basins where enhanced to a lesser extent, and obvious degradation was observed in some local areas. Third, the ecosystem services provided by forested land were highest, followed by grassland and cultivated land, respectively. Fourth, synergistic relationships were observed within the TRHR between NPP, water yield and soil conservation amount, indicating that increasing NPP simultaneously increased the values for these related factors. Synergistic relationships were also recorded between water yield and the amount of exported P, suggesting that increases in the former cause a reduction in water purity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are many uncertainties and risks in residential electricity consumption associated with economic development. Knowledge of the relationship between residential electricity consumption and its key determinant--income--is important to the sustainable development of the electric power industry. Using panel data from 30 provinces for the 1995-2012 period, this study investigates how residential electricity consumption changes as incomes increase in China. Previous studies typically used linear or quadratic double-logarithmic models imposing ex ante restrictions on the indistinct relationship between residential electricity consumption and income. Contrary to those models, we employed a reduced piecewise linear model that is self-adaptive and highly flexible and circumvents the problem of "prior restrictions". Robust tests of different segment specifications and regression methods are performed to ensure the validity of the research. The results provide strong evidence that the income elasticity was approximately one, and it remained stable throughout the estimation period. The income threshold at which residential electricity consumption automatically remains stable or slows has not been reached. To ensure the sustainable development of the electric power industry, introducing higher energy efficiency standards for electrical appliances and improving income levels are vital. Government should also emphasize electricity conservation in the industrial sector rather than in residential sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authenticity and reliability of urbanization levels measured by different indicators in China have not reached a consensus, which may impede our understanding of the process of urbanization and its impacts on the environment. The objective of this study was to describe a reliable method of estimating urbanization level based on the Operational Line-scan System (OLS) on the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) nighttime light data and to analyze the dynamics of urbanization levels in China from 1992 to 2012. We calculated the comprehensive urbanization level at the national, provincial, and county scales using a compounded night light index (CNLI) and compared the change rate of CNLI with those of the other two conventional urbanization level indicators, proportion of the nonagricultural population and proportion of built-up area. Our results showed that CNLI derived from the DMSP/OLS data set provided a relatively reliable and accurate measure of the comprehensive urbanization level in China. During the last two decades, China has experienced continued and rapid urbanization with large regional variations. The CNLI increased 3.12 times, from 1.72 x 10-3 to 7.09 x 10-3. The annual increases of CNLI in eastern provinces were much faster than those in western provinces. In addition, we found that the rates of change in these three indicators were consistent for most provinces with the exception of the four municipalities (Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, and Chongqing) and a few eastern coastal provinces (Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, and Guangdong). Because the imbalance among population growth, urban expansion and socioeconomic development may affect cities' sustainable development, we should pay more attention to these regions with large disparities between different indicators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evaluating and exploring regional eco-environmental quality (EEQ), economic development equality (EDE) and the coupling coordination degree (CCD) at multiple scales is important for realizing regional sustainable development goals. The CCD can reflect both the development level and the interaction relationship of two or more systems. However, relevant previous studies have ignored non-statistical data, lacked multiscale analyses, misused the coupling coordination degree model or have not sufficiently considered economic development equality. In response to these problems, this study integrated multisource remote sensing datasets to calculate and analyse the remote sensing ecological index (RSEI) and then used nighttime light data and population density data to calculate the proposed nighttime difference index (NTDI). Next, a modified coupling coordination degree (MCCD) index was proposed to analyse the MCCD between EEQ and EDE. Then, spatiotemporal and multiscale analyses at the county, city, province, urban agglomeration and country levels were performed. Global and local spatial autocorrelation and trend analyses were performed to evaluate the spatial aggregation degree and change trends from 2001 to 2020. The main conclusions are as follows: (1) The EEQ of China displayed a fluctuating upwards trend (0.0048 a−1), with average RSEI values of 0.5950, 0.6277, 0.6164, 0.6311 and 0.6173; the EDE of China showed an upwards trend (0.0298 a−1), with average NTDI values of 0.1271, 0.1635, 0.1642, 0.2181 and 0.2490; and China's MCCD indicated an upwards trend (0.0220 a−1), with values of 0.4614, 0.5027, 0.4978, 0.5401 and 0.5525. (2) The highest global Moran's I of NTDI and MCCD was achieved at the city scale, while the highest RSEI was achieved at the county scale. From 2001 to 2020, the spatial agglomeration effect of the RSEI decreased, while that of the NTDI and MCCD increased. (3) A power function relationship occurred between NTDI and MCCD at different scales. Furthermore, the NTDI had a higher contribution to improving the MCCD than the RSEI and the R2 of the fitted curve at different scales ranged from 0.8183 to 0.9915. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fine knowledge of the spatiotemporal distribution of the population is fundamental in a wide range of fields, including resource management, disaster response, public health, and urban planning. The United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals also require the accurate and timely assessment of where people live to formulate, implement, and monitor sustainable development policies. However, due to the lack of appropriate auxiliary datasets and effective methodological frameworks, there are rarely continuous multi-temporal gridded population data over a long historical period to aid in our understanding of the spatiotemporal evolution of the population. In this study, we developed a framework integrating a ResNet-N deep learning architecture, considering neighborhood effects with a vast number of Landsat-5 images from Google Earth Engine for population mapping, to overcome both the data and methodology obstacles associated with rapid multi-temporal population mapping over a long historical period at a large scale. Using this proposed framework in China, we mapped fine-scale multi-temporal gridded population data (1 km × 1 km) of China for the 1985–2010 period with a 5-year interval. The produced multi-temporal population data were validated with available census data and achieved comparable performance. By analyzing the multi-temporal population grids, we revealed the spatiotemporal evolution of population distribution from 1985 to 2010 in China with the characteristic of concentration of the population in big cities and the contraction of small- and medium-sized cities. The framework proposed in this study demonstrates the feasibility of mapping multi-temporal gridded population distribution at a large scale over a long period in a timely and low-cost manner, which is particularly useful in low-income and data-poor areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on resource carrying capacity, this study used the revised theory of relative resource carrying capacity (RRCC) and introduced an innovative concept of relative fossil energy carrying capacity (RFECC), which evaluates the degree of fossil energy sustainability based on the relationship between economy, population, and environment. This study took China and the United States as the study objects, took the whole country as the reference area, and calculated the RFECC of population, economic, and environmental resources from 2000 to 2018. Therefore, based on the comparative analysis, the following conclusions were drawn: (i) there is a big difference in the RFECC between China and the United States, which is manifested in the inverted U-shaped trend in China and the U-shaped trend in the United States; (ii) the relative fossil energy carrying states in China and the United States are different, mainly reflected in the economy and environment; (iii) the gap in RFECC between China and the United States has gradually widened; in general, China's economic RFECC is better than that of the United States, while environmental RFECC and population RFECC in the United States is better than that of China; and (iv) coal and oil should be used as a breakthrough point for the sustainable fossil energy and sustainable development for China and the United States, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of the "Made in China 2025" strategy is to enhance the innovation capabilities of the local manufacturing industry and achieve green and sustainable development. The role of innovation in the development of manufacturing is a hotspot in academic research, though only a few studies have analyzed the interaction between green technology manufacturing efficiency and its external innovation capabilities. This study used the 2011–2017 Chinese A-share listed manufacturing companies as samples to discuss whether regional innovation capabilities can promote the improvement of green technology manufacturing efficiency. The results showed that a significant spatial correlation between regional innovation capability and green technology manufacturing efficiency was prevalent within spatial heterogeneous bounds. In addition, regional innovation capability directly promoted the effective manufacturing of green technology efficiency, which was strongest in the eastern region of the country. Regional innovation capabilities also had a positive effect on human capital and government revenue, thereby further enhancing the green technology efficiency of manufacturing through the intermediary effect. Based on the above conclusions, some policy recommendations are put forward to facilitate the improvement of China's regional innovation capabilities in terms of green technology efficiency in manufacturing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]