Search

With its early start in urbanization, Europe has accumulated a wealth of practical experience in urban agriculture (UA), exploring various development models. This paper compares and analyzes the characteristic patterns of UA in Europe and China through theoretical research, academic frontier exploration, and case analysis. In order to investigate and analyze theoretical developments and the current state of academic frontiers in a systematic, accessible, and comprehensive approach, the methodology of bibliometric analysis has been utilized. A bibliometric method is applied to analyze relevant data from the Web of Science (WoS) core collection database and 2230 CNKI publications. The case study section conducts separate field research on nine representative European practices of urban food gardening and urban farming. Additionally, the study scrutinizes UA research development and its implementation in Hangzhou, China. Based on the findings of this study, the authors recommend that European approaches to the development of UA in China's future UA practice be taken into account, in particular their methods and strategies for realizing social and cultural benefits. It is imperative to integrate UA projects into urban green space system planning and to rationalize their construction types. Simultaneously, Chinese scholars are encouraged to explore the socio-cultural functions of UA, with a particular focus on urban agricultural heritage conservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of climate change, the impact of extreme precipitation and its chain effects has intensified in the southeastern coastal region of China, posing a serious threat to the socioeconomic development in the region. This study took tropical cyclones–extreme precipitation–flash floods as an example to carry out a risk assessment of flash floods under climate change in the Yantanxi River Basin, southeastern China. To obtain the flash flood inundation characteristics through hydrologic–hydrodynamic modeling, the study combined representative concentration pathway (RCP) and shared socioeconomic pathway (SSP) scenarios to examine the change of flash flood risk and used the geographical detector to explore the driving factors behind the change. The results show that flash flood risk in the Yantanxi River Basin will significantly increase, and that socioeconomic factors and precipitation are the main driving forces. Under the RCP4.5-SSP2 and RCP8.5-SSP5 scenarios, the risk of flash floods is expected to increase by 88.79% and 95.57%, respectively. The main drivers in the case study area are GDP density (q = 0.85), process rainfall (q = 0.74), asset density (q = 0.68), and population density (q = 0.67). The study highlights the influence of socioeconomic factors on the change of flash flood disaster risk in small river basins. Our findings also provide a reference for regional planning and construction of flood control facilities in flash flood-prone areas, which may help to reduce the risk of flash floods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Accurate assessment of China's ecological environment changes in the past 20 years is important. • We used time-series NDVI data (1998–2018) to evaluate China's ecological environment change. • In one-third of China the ecological environment has improved, and in 10%, the ecological environment has deteriorated. • The Yellow River Basin is an area where the ecological environment has significantly improved. • The main reason for the deterioration in the ecological environment of the eastern coastal areas is urban expansion. The ecological environment is the foundation of human survival and development. China's ecological environment has undergone a historic transition from partial improvement to overall improvement. In this paper, long time series NDVI data (1998–2018) are used to evaluate the ecological environment change and spatiotemporal change that has taken place in China over the last 20 years, at different scales (regional, provincial, county, and grid scales). Combined with typical areas, the causes of ecological environment change are revealed. The results show that in about one-third of China, the ecological environment improved, and in 10%, the ecological environment deteriorated. Ningxia, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Guizhou, and Guangxi are the provinces in which the improvement of the ecological environment is most pronounced. However, the ecological environments with vegetation as the core in Shanghai and Jiangsu Province have deteriorated significantly. The areas with the fastest improvement in their ecological environment are those with precipitation of 200–600 mm. The Yellow River Basin is an area where the ecological environment has significantly improved. Forestry projects and the development of oasis agriculture effectively promote the improvement of the ecological environment. In the past 20 years, the main reason for the degradation of the ecological environment in eastern coastal areas is urban expansion. China should continue to strengthen its overall layout of forestry projects and improve its ecological environment. When planning its ecological construction, China should fully consider the associated physical and geographical conditions, and adjust measures to local conditions accordingly. China should coordinate the relationship between development and protection and avoid the "pie spread" expansion witnessed in eastern coastal areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the beginning of 2020, the weak domestic power demand caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the large-scale advancement of coal power construction projects may have further aggravated the coal power overcapacity in China. Given the new situation, this study collected the data on China's installed electricity capacity and electricity demand during the 13th Five-Year Plan period. Moreover, a reasonable capacity evaluation model of coal power was established based on the energy and electric power balance to analyze China's coal power overcapacity in 2019 and determine the reasonable capacity for 2025. The internal reasons of unreasonable energy structure and regional difference of energy structure are systematically discussed. Results show that the overcapacity in 2019 was approximately 170 GW, and the overcapacity situation in North, Northwest, and South China was particularly serious. The reasonable coal power capacity for 2025 under the basic situation is 950 GW, indicating that if all the coal power units under construction and planning are operated, the overcapacity in 2025 will be 300 GW. Sensitivity and comprehensive scenario analyses show that under different scenarios, the upper and lower limits of the reasonable coal power capacity in 2025 are 1083 and 794 GW, respectively. Finally, this paper proposes relevant policy recommendations to cope with China's serious coal power overcapacity problem. [Display omitted] • Capacity evaluation model of coal power is established. • Quantitative analysis is provided for each regional power grid of China. • The coal power overcapacity of China exceeds 170 GW in 2019. • The overcapacity situation may further deteriorate during the 14th FYP period. • A reasonable scale of coal power is 950–1000 GW at 2025. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]