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Applying a parameterized directional distance function approach, this paper estimates the regional eco-efficiency and pollutants' marginal abatement costs in China based on provincial panel data covering the years 2003–2012. We find that China could potentially save capital, labor, land, energy and water by 18.07%, 11.47%, 11.20%, 12.28% and 11.19%, and reduce emissions of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ), household refuse and waste water by 11.75%, 11.02% and 11.46%, respectively, on condition that all provinces produced fully efficiently, The south and east coastal areas were the most eco-efficient, while the middle Yangtze River and southwest areas performed relatively poor. For the whole country, the average shadow prices of CO 2 , household refuse and waste water were 717.27 Yuan/tonne, 42,936.98 Yuan/tonne and 306.65 Yuan/tonne, respectively. The shadow price of CO 2 revealed significant regional disparities and that of household refuse showed a rapid increase throughout the study period. Our estimates suggest that policymakers should take measures to avoid ineffective capital investment and improve economic output efficiency in inland provinces, especially in the middle Yangtze River, northwest and southwest areas, and facilitate technological cooperation between developed and undeveloped areas. The regional heterogeneity and flexible price mechanism of various pollutants should be taken into consideration when making the reduction allocations among different areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the making of local climate governance in the Chinese setting where central-local inter-governmental relations continue to play critical part in almost every policy domain. Through analysing the climate responses of the three provincial-level governments at the Yangtze River Delta (YRD), the paper argues that the process of “experimentation under hierarchy” is relevant to understanding the evolving of the subnational climate regime in the YRD region. We find the preponderance of the central authorities in initiating national climate strategies and galvanising responses at the local level. Meanwhile, provincial governments have been able to leverage climate plans and actions to achieve their own gains. These findings suggest that any optimism about subnational climate activism in a Chinese setting has to be mixed with caution. In fact, the shadow of hierarchical authority structure lingers and plays important part in the initiation of subnational response and spurring climate responses and innovations from below. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent interpretations of the archaeology of domesticated rice evolution and the development of agriculture in the Lower Yangzi Valley are being informed by new genetic, palaeoenvironmental, archaeological and archaeobotanical data. This paper explores current views on early rice production in the region and attempts to expand the discourse to provoke exploration of new and modified questions. Rice-specific botanical through large-scale ecological issues and causality are examined. This paper argues that understanding rice domestication and production, although important, should not be the exclusive goal of research on early agriculture in the Yangzi Valley. Despite the preliminary nature of the investigations at Kuahuqiao (c. 8000–7000 cal. BP), evidence of resource management, and potential domesticated resources or their ancestors that includes pig (Sus scrofa), peach (Prunus persica), apricot (P. armeniaca), Japanese apricot (P. mume), foxnut (Euryale ferox) and water chestnut (Trapa spp.) underscore the need to broaden the scope of inquiry on early food/resource production. The complexities of the archaeological and environmental record in the Yangzi valley indicate that nuanced, complex explanations for rice domestication and agricultural origins rather than deterministic, single cause explanations are necessary in order to move forward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China is entering a critical and accelerating phase of urbanization. As one of the most urbanized regions in China, the Changjiang (Yangtze) River Delta has experienced dramatic urbanization and urban transformation. However, in the recent years, many changes have taken place in this region and there is limited attention to the regional urbanization path evolution, its problems and the way to solve these problems. Therefore, we should revisit the urbanization process in the Changjiang River Delta again. In this paper, we revisited urbanization paths of the Changjiang River Delta by data analysis, influence factors of urbanization by the Gray Relational Analysis, and major challenges to urbanization of the Changjiang River Delta by theoretical considerations. We found that the urbanization of the Changjiang River Delta had experienced several stages of large-scale spatial and urban system restructuring. Within the Changjiang River Delta, Shanghai, Zhejiang and Jiangshu had experienced different urbanization path with local characteristics. But with their development model gradually converging, their urbanization model is also converging. We also found that the major influence factors affecting the Changjiang River Delta urbanization were dynamic change and urbanization was driven by different key factors in different socio-economic development stages. Meanwhile, the Changjiang River Delta urbanization is facing many problems such as existing institutional arrangements, including the hukou (household registration) system and others which can not meet the needs of current socio-economic development and urbanization. Therefore, it is imperative to promote institutional innovation and adopt a new urbanization development strategy for the sake of the orderly and sustainable urbanization development in the Changjiang River Delta. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the role of the World Wildlife Fund for Nature China as policy entrepreneur in China. It illustrates the ways in which the World Wildlife Fund for Nature is active in promoting integrated river basin management in the Yangtze River basin and how the efforts at basin level are matched with the advice of the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development task force on integrated river basin management to the national government of China. This article demonstrates that the World Wildlife Fund for Nature uses various strategies of different types to support a transition process towards integrated river basin management. Successful deployment of these strategies for change in environmental policy requires special skills, actions, and attitudes on the part of the policy entrepreneur, especially in China, where the government has a dominant role regarding water management and the position of policy entrepeneurs is delicate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, increasing nutrient (i.e., nitrogen and phosphorus) concentrations have been observed in the surface water of many countries and this nonpoint source (NPS) pollution has become an important factor in the deterioration of water quality in the upper reach of the Yangtze River Basin. In this paper, the NPS pollution loads in the upper reach of Yangtze River Basin in the year 2000 were estimated using export coefficient model and remote sensing techniques. The spatial distributions of the NPS loads within the watershed were then displayed using geographical information system. Results indicated that the total nitrogen load was 1.947×106 t and the total phosphorus load was 8.364×104 t. Important source areas for the nutrients were croplands in the Jinsha R. and Jialing R. watershed, as well as the Chongqing municipality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The formation and geomorphic evolution of the Jiuduansha Shoal are investigated over the past 50 years in this paper. The sedimentary processes, formation, and geomorphic evolution of the Jiuduansha Shoal in the Yangtze River Estuary, eastern China, are analyzed based on digitized sea maps from 1945 to 2001, satellite images from 1975 to 2001, and field survey data in the spring-neap tidal cycle in the dry and flood seasons in 2003. The suspended sediment concentration and hydrodynamics of the North Passage and South Passage during the dry and flood seasons in the spring-neap tidal cycle in 2003 were investigated, and relations between the North Passage and South Passage of the Jiuduansha Shoal are analyzed. Results show that seasonal and spring-neap tidal cycle variations in sediment and water discharge from the drainage basin correspond to erosion and deposition on the Jiuduansha Shoal. The results and data can provide useful information for the management of the Yangtze River Estuary and restoration of the estuarine tidal flat ecology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is a response, both to Fuller et al.'s recent criticism of Chinese research on rice domestication, as lacking evidence, and to their argument for the beginning of rice domestication around 4000 BC in the lower Yangzi River. We first survey previous publications that discuss the process from wild rice collection to rice domestication in China, and then examine early rice remains from the perspectives of rice morphology and archaeological context. We focus on three aspects: the timing of the initial rice domestication in the Yangzi River region; the earliest presence of domesticated rice in the Lower Yangzi and Huai River regions; and the implications of changes in rice grain sizes in archaeological assemblages. We also discuss problems relating to the presence of immature rice remains in the archaeological record, grain size increase and overall grain shape, which are three of the criteria used by Fuller et al. for distinguishing domesticated from wild rice. Based on published data and our research on rice, we demonstrate that by the early Holocene (9000 cal. BP), Neolithic people in both north and south China may have been harvesting wild rice and initiating rice cultivation that eventually led to domestication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The lower Yangtze, eastern China, was colonized by several Neolithic and Bronze Age cultures giving rise to possibly the highest concentration of prehistoric sites in the world. Early Neolithic cultures in the delta region cultivated rice (Oryza sativa) and agricultural developments appear to have occurred throughout the Neolithic with abrupt socio-economic changes possibly associated with the terminal Neolithic. Given the extensive history of environmental exploitation and well-preserved archaeological sites, the Yangtze delta is an ideal setting to explore the complex interactions between humans and their environment. Multiproxies of environmental changes, namely pollen, charcoal and phytoliths, in a 14C AMS-dated sequence of sediments from an exposed profile at Qingpu, Yangtze delta, were investigated. 14C AMS dating indicates that the age range of the sedimentary sequence analysed is from c. 1800 to 6000 BP, and therefore encompasses the terminal Neolithic and subsequent Bronze Age in the region. This paper reviews this sediment-based evidence in the light of current understanding of human-environment interactions during a critical phase of the development of the Yangtze delta and associated human cultures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]