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To investigate whether soda residue soil could be used as a green roof substrate, this paper setup six green roof systems with four materials (peat soil, coconut bran, perlite, and soda residue soil) mixed in different volume proportions. The effect of soda residue soil content on Sedum lineare growth and pollutant removal from the stormwater runoff was analyzed and the runoff quality index (RQI) was calculated. Results showed that the relative growth rate of S. lineare height in system B with 10% soda residue soil was about 21.5–53.2% higher than the other systems. The outflow of system B with 10% soda residue soil had the lowest mass concentration of NH4+-N and TN, which were 2.2 and 3.2 mg/L, respectively. The average repetitive rainfall retention rate of system A without soda residue soil was the lowest at 82.6%. System B had the highest RQI at about 0.71. It confirmed that soda residue soil can be a material with practical application value, and when the volume ratio of peat soil, coconut bran, perlite, and soda residue soil was 4:3:2:1, the green roof would have the best performance in regulating and purifying the initial rainwater runoff. HIGHLIGHTS The pollutant removal effects of six green roof systems with different substrate ratios on stormwater runoff were investigated.; Soda residue soil was introduced and analyzed for its effect on the operational efficiency of green roofs.; A runoff quality index (RQI) was calculated to evaluate the comprehensive influences of configurations on the runoff quality.;

The bioretention system is one of the most widely used low impact development (LID) facilities with efficient purification capacity for stormwater, and its planting design has been a hot spot for research at home and abroad. In this paper, ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.), bermuda (Cynodon dactylon Linn.), bahiagrass (Paspalum notatum Flugge), and green grass (Cynodon dactylon × C .transadlensis ‘Tifdwarf’) were chosen as plant species to construct a shallow bioretention system. The growth traits and nutrient absorption ability of four gramineous plants were analyzed. Their tolerance, enrichment, and transportation capacity were also evaluated to compare plant species and their absorptive capacity of heavy metals (Cu, Pb, and Zn). Results showed that the maximum absorption rate (Imax) ranged from 22.1 to 42.4 μg/(g·h) for P and ranged from 65.4 to 104.8 μg/(g·h) for NH4+-N; ryegrass had the strongest absorption capacity for heavy metals and the maximum removal rates of Cu, Pb, and Zn by four grasses were 78.4, 59.4, and 51.3%, respectively; the bioretention cell with ryegrass (3#) was significantly more effective in purifying than the unplanted bioretention cell (1#) during the simulated rainfall test. Overall, the system parameters were optimized to improve the technical application of gramineous plants in the bioretention system. HIGHLIGHTS Four kinds of gramineous plants were selected as plant species to construct shallow bioretention systems.; Ryegrass showed the strongest absorptive capacity for phosphorus, ammonia nitrogen, and heavy metals.; The bioretention cell with ryegrass (3#) was significantly more effective in purifying than the unplanted bioretention cell (1#) during the simulated rainfall test.;

Bioretention systems are a low-impact development (LID) measure to effectively control stormwater runoff and reduce pollutant concentrations. In this paper, three groups of bioretention cells with different filling materials (1# bioretention soil media (BSM), 2# BSM + 5% biochar, and 3# BSM +5% biochar +biological filler) were constructed to analyze the pollutant removal characteristics and microbial action under different simulated rainfall conditions. Results showed that the overall pollutant removal capacity of systems 2# and 3# was higher than that of system 1#, with system 3# having the lowest effluent concentrations of 2.71 mg/L for total nitrogen (TN) and 64.3 mg/L for chemical oxygen demand (COD). The load reduction effect for heavy metals of the three systems was ranked as 2# > 1# > 3#, and average load reduction rates were 80.3, 75.1, and 84.8% for Cu, Pb, and Zn in 2#. Microbial community analysis indicated that Proteobacteria and Firmicutes were the absolute dominant bacteria of the three bioretention systems, and the dominant genera included Bacillus, Hyphomicrobium, Micrococcaceae, and Nitrospira. In addition, the total number of denitrifying functional bacteria genera in systems 2# and 3# was increased by 1.39 and 52.1% compared to system 1#. HIGHLIGHTS The bioretention system of composite filler coupled with the water storage area was constructed for advanced treatment of stormwater runoff.; The overall pollutant removal capacity of the modified bioretention systems 2# (BSM + 5%BC) and 3# (BSM + 5%BC + BM) was improved.; The total number of denitrifying functional bacteria genera in system 3# (BSM + 5%BC + BM) was increased by 52.1% compared to system 1# (BSM).;

Summary: Air pollution is a challenge for many cities. The digital economy enhances support for environmental pollution management, while the mechanisms and scaling heterogeneity remain unclear. This study explored the contribution of digital economy development to PM2.5 concentrations control in China and driving mechanisms in different economic subregions and urban agglomerations. Results show that the spillover transfer effect on air pollution mitigation far exceeded the direct effect at different scales. At the national scale, the air pollution mitigation effect of digital economy was mainly through empowering industrial structure optimization and green technology innovation, while it also affected economic subregions and urban agglomerations through varying scenario combinations of pathways with structural optimization, green production, resource allocation, and technology innovation. Research findings provide support for cross-regional joint management strategies of digital economy and air quality and designing regionally differentiated pollution control pathways in the digital economy dimension.

Permeable pavement is a widely used stormwater runoff blocking technology in sponge city construction. Its application to urban motorized/non-motorized roads is expected to reduce runoff and pollution loads. This study aimed to analyze the nutrient pollution, thermal pollution reduction efficiency and removal pathways of cement permeable bricks (CP-B-Cement), steel slag permeable bricks (SP-B), ceramic permeable bricks (CP-B-Ceramic) and permeable asphalt pavement (PAP) under different pollution loads and rainfall intensities by simulating the different stormwater runoffs. Results indicated that the effluent concentration of different permeable pavements increased with the extension of rainfall duration. Compared with impermeable pavements, the infiltration and water storage capacities of permeable pavements could effectively remove typical pollutants from stormwater runoff. However, the effluent concentrations of all pollutants did not reach the threshold of Class V according to the Environmental Quality Standards for Surface Water except for TP and Zn. Meanwhile, the thermal pollution removal capacity of the permeable pavements ranking from the highest to the lowest was SP-B > CP-B-Cement > CP-B-Ceramic > PAP. The findings in this study provide references for the selection of stormwater source reduction facilities and the development of surface source pollution countermeasures. HIGHLIGHTS The nexus of urban cooling and water purification effects of permeable materials.; Four types of new materials including cement permeable bricks (CP-B-Cement), steel slag permeable bricks (SP-B), ceramic permeable bricks (CP-B-Ceramic) and permeable asphalt pavement (PAP) were investigated.; The effluent concentration of different permeable pavements increased with the extension of rainfall duration.;

Vegetation is an important strategy for mitigating heat island effects, owed to its shading and evaporative cooling functions. However, urbanization has significantly affected regional vegetation phenology and can potentially weaken the cooling potential of vegetation. Previous studies have mainly focused on national and regional vegetation phenology, but local-scale vegetation phenology and dynamic variations in built-up areas remain unclear. Therefore, this study characterized the vegetation phenology in the densely built-up area of Beijing, China over the period of 2000–2020 based on high-resolution NDVI data using Savitzky–Golay filtering and explored its spatiotemporal characteristics and drivers. The results indicate that the vegetation phenology exhibits significant spatial heterogeneity and clustering characteristics. Compared with vegetation in peripheral blocks, vegetation in central urban blocks generally has an earlier start in the growing season (SOS), later end in the growing season (EOS), and a longer growing season length (GSL). However, the overall distribution of these parameters has experienced a process of decentralization along with urbanization. In terms of drivers, vegetation phenology indicators are mainly influenced by background climate. Specifically, SOS and GSL are mainly affected by temperature (TEP), whereas EOS is mainly influenced by annual precipitation (PRE). Additionally, local environmental factors, particularly the percentage of water body (WAP), also have an impact. Notably, the local environment and background climate have a synergistic effect on vegetation phenology, which is greater than their individual effects. Overall, this study extends the current knowledge on the response of vegetation phenology to urbanization by investigating long-term vegetation phenology dynamics in dense urban areas and provides new insights into the complex interactions between vegetation phenology and built environments.

Studies have used different indicators to quantify outdoor thermal comfort in humid and hot areas of China. This study aimed to evaluate the applicability of three commonly used thermal indicators and to further improve their applicability by revising their scales. The database included 1005 interviews accompanied by field measurements. Two statistical and three quantitative criteria were established to assess the performance of the selected thermal indices, and the corrected scales of the thermal indices were modified using three techniques. The results indicate that although the original scales of the thermal indices had a high correlation coefficient with thermal sensation votes (TSV), the percentage of correct predictions was relatively low (

Summary: Urban heat is severe in numerous cities, but the urgency of heat action and support for the development of heat-resilient infrastructure is unclear. To address these research gaps, this study investigated the perceived urgency of developing heat-resilient infrastructure and associated payment issues in eight megacities, in China using a questionnaire survey of 3758 respondents in August 2020. Overall, the respondents thought it was moderately urgent to take actions to address heat-related challenges. The development of mitigation and adaptation infrastructure is urgent. About 86.4% of the 3758 respondents expected the government to be involved in paying for heat-resilient infrastructure, but 41.2% supported cost-sharing among the government, developers, and owners. There were 1299 respondents willing to pay, resulting in an average annual payment of 44.06 RMB in a conservative scenario. This study is important for decision-makers to formulate plans on heat-resilient infrastructure and to release financial strategies for collecting investments and funds.

COVID-19 has caused a considerable proportion of the public to work from home, either part- or full-time, in unregulated domestic conditions, which have not been designed for commercial activities. This study determined what existing lighting conditions were present in a selection of work-from-home (WFH) environments (Objective One) through quantitative lux level and equivalent melanopic lux (EML) readings by evaluating them against regulatory standards, where further study is required to validate the results with a larger dataset. This study also investigated the social demand for human-centric lighting (HCL) installations within WFH environments (Objective Two) through qualitative questionnaires by considering key parameters: sustainability, practicality, and cost. The results of Objective One showed that compliance with general safety lighting requirements was achieved by 80% of the installations. The mean lux level recorded was 452.4 lux and 0.729 uniformity, which fell below commercial requirements defined for commonly performed WFH activities; 34.3% of recorded EML dropped below the regulatory requirements under daylight conditions. When isolated to artificial lighting, only 7.5% of the required EML was achieved. The results of Objective Two showed that generally participants did not feel that their WFH installations were unsuitably lit, however, 46.2% of participants identified noticeable headaches or eye strain when working from home. A total of 80% of participants highlighted that HCL task lighting would be preferable. It was also found that participants were willing to invest in circadian lighting for health, where 63.2% of them would not accept a reduction in efficiency of over 10% compared to non HCL. Wellbeing was found to be participants’ key preference for their lighting systems, followed by efficiency, home impact, and cost.

Upgrading toilets in rural areas is an effective way to protect public health and reduce environmental pollution. Although there are studies on rural toilets, the sustainable performance of rural toilets in developing areas is considerably less understood. The study aims to build a sustainability assessment model of rural toilet technology to support the local government in upgrading rural toilets. The unascertained measure theory is integrated into the model to quantify the sustainability performance of rural toilet technology in three dimensions: economy, service and management, and environment. A case study of Honghai Village, Inner Mongolia, China, is conducted to verify the reliability of the sustainability assessment model. The results indicate that the sustainability performance of the three-compartment septic tank toilet technology is good in Honghai Village. The results are consistent with the situation of the three-compartment septic tank toilets in the village, which verifies the model’s validity. This study can help local government significantly upgrade rural toilets and improve the living standards of rural residents.

Urban temperature increase brings a challenge to public health, so urban warming has been widely concerned. Within the central area of Shenyang, a 3 × 3 fishnet with nine grids was built to analyze land surface temperature (LST) and frontal area index (FAI) variations based on the local climate zone (LCZ) classification and to explore relationships among them to generate implications for using wind for urban cooling. The results indicate that LST in the 4# grid (central grid) was the highest (35.11 °C) among the nine grids. In general, a higher LST occurred in the grid with a larger building area and vice versa. LCZ-G underwent the largest temperature reduction among the 17 LCZ types. LCZ-2 had the highest LST, while the LCZ-1 had the lowest LST among the three high and intensive building types, except for the LST in the 2# and 4# grids. The FAI in Shenyang decreased from the center to the surroundings. The FAI value was greatest in the 4# grid and the lowest was in the 2# and 8# grids under the prevailing wind of summer and winter. The FAI variations suggested that prevailing SW, SSW, and S winds in summer were difficult to penetrate the central urban area, and the wind cooling effect could not perform. The prevailing NEN and EEN winds in winter could enter the central urban area, enhancing the wind cooling effect, while it was a disadvantage in winter. Overall, there was a significant positive relationship among LST, FAI, and area of LCZ-building.

Lanzhou City is located in the semi-arid region of northwest China, which experiences serious desertification. Moreover, the high intensity of land development, with the accelerated industrialization and urbanization, causes increasingly aggravated conflict between humans and the environment. Exploring the response of the ecological environment quality to the natural environment and anthropogenic activities is important to protect the sustainable development of urban economic construction and the environment. Based on the Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform, this paper constructed a modified Remote Sensing Ecological Index (MRSEI) model which could reflect the ecological environment quality by integrating the desertification index (DI) into the Remote Sensing Ecological index (RSEI) model. This paper explores the spatiotemporal variation in the environmental quality from 2000 to 2020 in Lanzhou, China, and analyzes the natural and anthropogenic factors affecting the environment quality in terms of temperature, precipitation, gross domestic product (GDP), land use, night lighting, and population. The results showed that the mean value of MRSEI ranged from 0.254 to 0.400. The area undergoing fast growth in ecological quality was in the northwestern part of Lanzhou, and the area of decrease was in the central part. Various factors have different degrees of influence on the ecosystem, with temperature, precipitation, and land use having a greater impact, and GDP and population having a limited impact. Precipitation and temperature showed a strong impact when interacting with other factors, demonstrating that precipitation and temperature were also key factors affecting MRSEI. Overall, climate change and the implementation of ecological restoration projects have led to an improvement in the quality of the ecological environment in Lanzhou. This study provides a reference for understanding the spatiotemporal changes in the ecological environment in semi-arid Lanzhou and is conducive to formulating proper protection strategies.

Actively addressing urban heat challenges is an urgent task for numerous cities. Existing studies have primarily developed heat mitigation strategies and analyzed their cooling performance, while the adaptation strategies are far from comprehensive to protect citizens from heat-related illnesses and deaths. To address this research gap, this paper aims to enhance people's adaptation capacity by investigating walkability within fifteen-minute cities (FMC). Taking cognizance of thermal comfort, health, and safety, this paper developed a dynamic attenuation model (DAM) of heat stress, along with heat stress aggravation, continuance, and alleviation. An indicator of remaining tolerant heat discomfort (Rt) was proposed with the integration of the Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI) to assess heat-related walkability. Following an empirical study among 128 residents in Mianyang, China, and assessing four levels of heat stress, the maximum tolerant heat discomfort was determined to be 60 min. Furthermore, the DAM was applied to an FMC with 12 neighborhoods in Fucheng, Mianyang, China. The results indicate that for each neighborhood, the street was generally walkable with an Rt ranging between 15 and 30 min, after walking for 900 m. A population-based FMC walkability was further determined, finding that the core area of the FMC was favorable for walking with an Rtof 45–46 min, and the perpetual areas were also walkable with an Rtof 15–30 min. Based on these results, suggestions on the frequency of public services (frequently used, often used, and occasionally used) planning were presented. Overall, this paper provides a theoretical model for analyzing walkability and outlines meaningful implications for planning heat adaptation in resilient, safe, comfortable, and livable FMCs.

Blizzard is a severe weather-related disaster with significant environmental, economic, and social impacts. What is worse, the blizzard is increasingly frequent along with climate change. To enhance resilience, it is important to accurately estimate the blizzards. While some studies have reported the blizzard formation and characteristics, limited studies have not well presented the backflow blizzard associated with the cold vortex in Northeast China. In order to overcome this research gap, this study aims to analyze the characteristics of a backflow blizzard in Liaoning, China, and reveal the reasons behind the spatial heterogeneity of snowstorm intensity and duration. With observation data and mesoscale numerical simulation, this study discovered that the northeast cold vortex was the combined results of airflows from the Sea of Japan transported by the easterly airflow, the East China Sea, and the Yellow Sea transported by the southeast airflow, and the low-level southwest airflow, and the vortex was an important driver to the blizzard. Results further indicate that the interactions of airflow movement, water vapor variation, and frontogenesis occurrence at different layers caused the differences in snowfall intensity, duration, and volume at Zhangwu and Huanren stations. In particular, at Zhangwu station, there was an interaction of warm-wet and cold-dry airflows, but low-layer water vapor content was small, under which background only the cold air pushed the warm air as the southwest wind did not increase significantly, leading warm-humid air to be forced to climb and resulting in frontogenesis at 700–925 hPa. Therefore, the situation of no frontogenesis and poor humidity conditions in the low-level cold air contributed to the weak and a short-duration of snowfall at Zhangwu Station. The water vapor content of warm-wet and cold-wet airflows over Huanren station was better than that at Zhangwu so that during cold and warm air interaction, there was frontogenesis at 500–925 hPa. Near the top of the inverted trough in the ground layer, there was a convergence of the southeasterly wind and the northeasterly winds, resulting in the occurrence of horizontal frontogenesis throughout the layer of 500 hPa and forming an upward movement column. Moreover, a deep near-saturated water vapor layer formed below 600 hPa due to the upward movement column. Overall, the abundant water vapor combined with the deep dynamic uplift led to the heavy and long duration of snowfall at the Huanren station. Overall, this study is an important reference for understanding the backflow blizzard and its mechanism. Moreover, it is conducive to the accurate estimation of backflow blizzards in Northeast China and eastern China, the eastern coast of the Korean peninsula, and other similar areas where on the east part of the continent is the ocean.

Water is the source of life and the fundamental element of ecology, and climate is inseparable from water. To evaluate the influence of water-adaptive space in a traditional Weizi (polder village) settlement on its microclimate, the authors analyzed the morphological characteristics of such a polder village and applied the ENVI-met model to simulate the impact of water bodies and village morphological elements on human thermal comfort. This paper demonstrates the positive impact of water bodies on improving the thermal environment of a village and regulating its microclimate by quantifying the impact of morphological elements of the settlement on microclimate. The results indicate that: 1) The simulation model fits the actual measurements well, and the simulation accurately reflects experimental results; 2) In summer, the cooling effect of water bodies is better in the afternoon than in the morning, especially from 12:00 to 15:00. The cooling effect is significantly correlated with the distance to water bodies, i.e., the closer, the better; 3) Building density and man-made underlying surface are negatively correlated with temperature, humidity, and Physiological Equivalent Temperature value, while greening rate and water body rate are positively correlated with microclimate. Overall, water bodies can improve outdoor comfort in summer and thus should be protected and developed in rural planning and design. Villages can be built around water bodies for a maximized cooling effect, and microclimate comfort can be effectively improved by increasing green plants near the village center, and reducing man-made underlying surface and building density. The results of this study will guide the improvement of the habitat environment in the process of rural revitalization, as well as the protection and re-development of traditional villages.

While there have been various studies on global vegetation dynamics, limited studies have been conducted to understand vegetation changes in arid areas. Vegetation distribution patterns can be affected by multiple factors, so understanding their interactions can help improve the capability of predicting future vegetation dynamics. This study, therefore, analyzed the dynamic vegetation changes in Alxa League, China, using the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) dataset (2000–2019), with the consideration of land cover types, digital elevation model, air temperature, precipitation, soil moisture, total evaporation, and air quality. The results show that the NDVI in Alxa League is small. Before 2012, the NDVI value fluctuated, while after 2012, the NDVI value dropped sharply and then slowly recovered after 2015. High NDVI values were found in areas with high and frequent human activities (city centers). The NDVI in the northwest region showed a slight degradation trend, and the southeast showed a slight improvement trend. According to the land cover type analysis, the NDVI value was the largest when the land cover type was tree cover, and the NDVI value was the smallest when the land cover type was bare/sparse vegetation. Alxa League was dominated by a bare/sparse vegetation distribution. The terrain analysis indicates that when the height was between 1800 and 3492 m, the NDVI value was the highest, and high NDVI values were mainly distributed in the area with a slope > 25°. When the slope was flat, the NDVI value was the smallest. Considering climate factors, the NDVI was negatively correlated with air temperature, precipitation, soil moisture, and total evaporation in space, and only precipitation and soil moisture were positively correlated in time. Moreover, the population size has a strong positive correlation with the NDVI in this area. The monthly variation of the NDVI and absorbable particulate matter (PM10) was negatively correlated, i.e., strongly negatively correlated in spring, summer, and autumn, but only weakly positively correlated in winter. The seasonal variation of the NDVI was as follows: summer > autumn > spring > winter, and the seasonal variation of PM10 was spring > winter > summer > autumn. The interannual variation of the NDVI and PM10 was positively correlated. This suggests that the absorbable particulate matter (PM10) may be an essential factor for the normalized vegetation index to underestimate the dynamic changes of vegetation in arid regions. This study provides a theoretical basis for the dynamic changes of vegetation in the dry Alxa League.

The suitability and feasibility of public-private partnership (PPP) patterns in a rural context have not been well-documented and understood. To address this research gap and practical plight, this study aims to analyze the rural resident's willingness to pay for and participate in the improvement of rural sanitation facilities, and further explore the drivers and barriers affecting their decisions. This study was performed in rural areas of three western provinces, including Shaanxi, Ningxia, and Inner Mongolia, of western China's rural areas by conducting a survey on 1,248 rural residents. In Inner Mongolia, the proportion of respondents who were willing to pay was highest, while the proportion of respondents who may provide labor was lowest among the three provinces. Respondents from Ningxia had the least willing to pay, and respondents from Shaanxi had the highest willingness to participate. Overall, respondents' rural (living) duration time, personal interest in local government notice, and the latest time when the sanitation facilities were improved could significantly affect their willingness. In Inner Mongolia, occupation and water availability could significantly influence respondents' willingness, and both gender and health conditions had significant impacts. In Ningxia, respondents' personal interest in local government notice had a notable impact on willingness, and low-income respondents showed a more notable willingness to pay and participate. In Shaanxi, occupation and water availability could significantly influence respondents' willingness. Respondents' personal interest in local government notice had a notable impact on their willingness. This study is of significant importance to understand rural resident's participation in sanitation infrastructure improvement to support relevant PPP projects, and is important to solve poverty-caused dilemmas.

Water National Parks (WNPs) have been launched by the Ministry of Water Resources of China (MWR) to develop tourism functions for water conservancy projects since 2001. Although WNPs can provide socio-economic benefits, their tourism activities may overload environmental carrying capacity. This study developed a sustainability analysis framework to measure the impact of tourism holistically and explore the challenges inherent in the sustainable development of WNPs. The framework, based on the Pressure-State-Response model, consists of four components: characterisation of WNPs; pressure, state, and response assessment; calculation of a sustainability score; and sustainability analysis of WNPs. To demonstrate the usability of the framework, this study first collected data on 778 WNPs from the MWR in order to characterise WNPs in China, followed by selecting 83 WNPs as examples for a detailed sustainability assessment. The results show that the framework enables: (1) the sustainability analysis of WNPs based on temporal trends, spatial distribution, and types of WNP; and (2) sustainable development challenges to be identified such as the tendency to increase waste discharges and energy consumption. The framework provides a strategic approach for the sustainability analysis, assisting WNPs and other water conservancy projects to achieve sustainable development goals.

This study investigated monthly variations of surface urban heat island intensity (SUHII) and the applicability of the local climate zones (LCZ) scheme for land surface temperature (LST) differentiation within three spatial contexts, including urban, rural and their combination, in Shenyang, China, a city with a monsoon-influenced humid continental climate. The monthly SUHII and LST of Shenyang were obtained through 12 LST images, with one in each month (within the period between 2018 and 2020), retrieved from the Thermal InfraRed Sensor (TIRS) 10 in Landsat 8 based on a split window algorithm. Non-parametric analysis of Kruskal-Wallis H test and a multiple pairwise comparison were adopted to investigate the monthly LST differentiations with LCZs. Overall, the SUHII and the applicability of the LCZ scheme exhibited spatiotemporal variations. July and August were the two months when Shenyang underwent strong heat island effects. Shenyang underwent a longer period of cool than heat island effects, occurring from November to May. June and October were the transition months of cool–heat and heat–cool island phenomena, respectively. The SUHII analysis was dependent on the definition of urban and rural boundaries, where a smaller rural buffering zone resulted in a weaker SUHI or surface urban cool island (SUCI) phenomenon and a larger urban area corresponded to a weaker SUHI or SUCI phenomenon as well. The LST of LCZs did not follow a fixed order, where in July and August, the LCZ-10 (Heavy industry) had the highest mean LST, followed by LCZ-2 (Compact midrise) and then LCZ-7 (Lightweight low-rise). In comparison, LCZ-7, LCZ-8 (Large low-rise) and LCZ-9 (Sparsely built) had the highest LST from October to May. The LST of LCZs varied with urban and rural contexts, where LCZ-7, LCZ-8 and LCZ -10 were the three built LCZs that had the highest LST within urban context, while LCZ-2, LCZ-3 (Compact low-rise), LCZ-8, LCZ-9 and LCZ-10 were the five built LCZs that had the highest LST within rural context. The suitability of the LCZ scheme for temperature differentiation varied with the month, where from July to October, the LCZ scheme had the strongest capability and in May, it had the weakest capability. Urban context also made a difference to the suitability, where compared with the whole study area (the combination of urban and rural areas), the suitability of built LCZs in either urban or rural contexts weakened. Moreover, the built LCZs had a higher level of suitability in an urban context compared with a rural context, while the land-cover LCZs within rural had a higher level of suitability.

Knowledge of wind effects is of great significance in structural, environmental, and architectural fields, where excessive relevance among wind pressure, building load, and natural ventilation has been formerly confirmed. Within the scope of high-rise buildings, functions of their layout, separation and height in altering wind pressure have been inquired on purpose, while a few investigations in relation to impacts of plane dimensions have been explored. This study consequently intends to ascertain wind pressure distributions on and around various squared-shaped tall buildings by the application of Computational Fluid Dynamics techniques. To start with, models established by the Common Advisory Aeronautical Research Council (CAARC) were simulated, for the purpose of correctness comparison, and reliability verification. Hereafter, wind pressure distributing on buildings was predicted under two scenarios, namely height-width (HW) and height-thickness (HT). Results evidenced that both HW ratio and HT ratio exerted great influence on wind characteristics of buildings. Positive pressure on building surface generally varied greatly, where a narrower windward tended to suffer higher wind pressures, while a larger one was corresponding to severer negative wind effects. The thickness played little influence on altering positive wind pressure. Prominently, pressure distributed on leeward surfaces showed great differences, whereas wind effects on leeward and side surface were strengthened. Likewise, both positive and negative effects around buildings were magnified by larger widths, while negative effects became feeble along the increasing building thickness.

For offshore bridges, the most prominent problem in the whole life cycle is that it is in an earthquake prone zone and an offshore corrosion environment at the same time. A nonlinear dynamic analysis model is set up for an offshore multispan and continuous rigid frame bridge based on the OpenSEES platform. The fragility surface of the bridge pier, bearing, bridge platform, and system are established by selecting a reasonable damage constitutive model of the material durability and a damage index analysis that studies the damage of the bridge durability to time-varying seismic fragility of bridge components and the system of the whole life cycle in offshore environment. The results show that the durability damage will lead to a constant decline in seismic capacity of the pier and an increase of the seismic demand under earthquake action as well as the probability to reach the ultimate failure state; compared to high piers, a low pier is more vulnerable to the offshore corrosion environment; the seismic fragility of bridge platform is higher than that of simply bearing; and the influence of offshore corrosion on environment is relatively large. With the prolongation of service period, the effect of durability damage on the seismic fragility of bridge system cannot be ignored in the coastal environment and it is necessary to make a reasonable evaluation on the seismic fragility of bridge structure during the whole life period.

Studies on urban ventilation indicate that urban ventilation performance is highly dependent on urban morphology. Some studies have linked local-scale urban ventilation performance with the local climate zone (LCZ) that is proposed for surface temperature studies. However, there is a lack of evidence-based studies showing LCZ ventilation performance and affirming the reliability of using the LCZ classification scheme to demonstrate local-scale urban ventilation performance. Therefore, this study aims to analyse LCZ ventilation performances in order to understand the suitability of using the LCZ classification scheme to indicate local-scale urban ventilation performance. This study was conducted in Shenyang, China, with wind information at 16 weather stations in 2018. The results indicate that the Shenyang weather station had an annual mean wind speed of 2.07 m/s, while the mean wind speed of the overall 16 stations was much lower, only 1.44 m/s in value. The mean wind speed at Shenyang weather station and the 16 stations varied with seasons, day and night and precipitation conditions. The spring diurnal mean wind was strong with the speeds of 3.56 m/s and 2.21 m/s at Shenyang weather station and the 16 stations, respectively. The wind speed (2.21 m/s at Shenyang weather station) under precipitation conditions was higher than that (1.75 m/s at Shenyang weather station) under no precipitation conditions. Downtown ventilation performance was weaker than the approaching wind background, where the relative mean wind speed in the downtown area was only 0.53, much less than 1.0. The downtown ventilation performance also varied with seasons, day and night and precipitation conditions, where spring diurnal downtown ventilation performance was the weakest and the winter nocturnal downtown ventilation performance was the strongest. Moreover, the annual mean wind speed of the 16 zones decreased from the sparse, open low-rise zones to the compact midrise zones, indicating the suitability of using LCZ classification scheme to indicate local-scale urban ventilation performance. The high spatial correlation coefficients under different seasons, day and night and precipitation conditions, ranging between 0.68 and 0.99, further affirmed that LCZ classification scheme is also suitable to indicate local-scale urban ventilation performance, despite without the consideration of street structure like precinct ventilation zone scheme.