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The geological transitional period from the Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 5 to 4 during the Quaternary period is a multidimensional change involving monsoon and precipitation variation, vegetation dynamics, and environmental evolution. The first loess layer (L1) and the first paleosol layer (S1) in the Chines Loess Plateau provide excellent high-resolution terrestrial sediment record for this transition. In this work, grain size (GS), CaCO3 content, magnetic susceptibility (MS), and pollen composition were measured at intervals of 2-cm in two representative L1/S1 profiles in the southern Chinese Loess Plateau to reconstruct records of climatic and vegetative changes during this transition. Our results showed that, in general, the paleo-vegetation type was forest-steppe, with Pinus being the commonest tree, and Chenopodiaceae and Artemisia being common herbs in the study area. The topography had a significant impact on the distribution of paleo-vegetation. The increase of coarse particles, the decrease of magnetic susceptibility, and the rising percentage of Gramineae, Artemisia and Chenopodiaceae pollen, all indicated that the paleoclimate became cooler and drier over the transitional period. Besides, we identified a cool event at about 76.8 ka B.P. as revealed by grain-size curves, and in response to this event, the vegetation changed significantly but lagged several hundred years behind the grain size record. This study confirmed the cooling and drying tendency during the MIS 5 to 4 transition phase in the southern margin of the Chinese Loess Plateau. These findings shed light on the climatic change on vegetation evolution during the MIS 5 to 4 transition period.

Accidental pollution incidents have caused a major threat to water safety of drinking water sources. However, few studies have focused on quantitative risk assessment of pollution incidents in a watershed which contains drinking water sources. A coupling model consisting of the Seveso III Directive, SWAT, and MIKE21 models was constructed for risk assessment of sudden pollution incidents at the watershed scale. The potential hazard of risk sources (e.g., industrial enterprises), the vulnerability of risk receptors (e.g., drinking water intakes), and the environmental risk of different sub-regions of the watershed were evaluated by this model. In addition, a case study was applied in Hongfeng Lake watershed (HLW), where the Hongfeng Lake drinking water source is located. The results showed that about 68% of the industrial enterprises in the HLW were potentially hazardous according to the Seveso III Directive, including 5 high hazard enterprises, 13 medium hazard enterprises, and 37 low hazard enterprises, most of which were concentrated in the coal mining, chemical production, and building material industries. The HLW was divided into the Yangchang River watershed (YRW), the Maiweng River watershed (MRW1), the Maxian River watershed (MRW2), the Houliu River watershed (HRW), and the lake area by the hydrological characteristics, among which, the vulnerability index of YRW was the largest. Besides, it was essential to consider the vulnerability assessment of drinking water intakes when conducting an environmental risk assessment in the HLW. Regional environmental risk grade of YRW, MRW1, MRW2, HRW, and the lake area was high, medium, low, low, and none, respectively. The environmental risk assessment results showed good consistency with the pollution characteristics and spatial distribution of industrial enterprises in the HLW. Furthermore, the theory of a three-level prevention system for &ldquo, risk sources&ndash, water body connection&ndash, water intakes&rdquo, was proposed for environmental risk management in the HLW. Overall, the case study in the HLW indicated that the coupling model proposed in this study had a good compatibility for environmental risk assessment of sudden water pollution incidents in a watershed.

This paper aims at checking the effectiveness of environmental policy pushed by the Central Government at provincial level since China’s entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO). For this purpose, the industrial system of each province is divided into industrial production sub-system and pollution treatment sub-system, and a novel slack-based measure data envelopment analysis (SBM-DEA) model with non-cooperative game is proposed to evaluate the environment efficiency of both industrial production sub-system and pollutant treatment sub-system. The results show that the proposed model can describe the environmental efficiency more precisely than the traditional DEA models. During 2003–2012, the efficiencies of industrial production sub-system and pollution treatment sub-system at the provincial level are both relatively low. Specifically, the efficiency of industrial production is not only lower than pollution treatment efficiency, but is falling generally, especially in the Eastern area. However, in the Central and Western area, the efficiency of industrial production remains relatively stable, and pollution treatment efficiency is rising steadily. The technology gap between the Central/Western area and the Eastern area is narrowing, particularly concerning pollution treatment technology. We thus conclude that though the Central Government’s environmental policies fail to solve the inner contradiction between economic and environmental systems, and they indirectly contribute to the expansion of pollutant treatment technology among the Eastern, Central, and Western areas, which is conducive to the coordinated development among different areas.

In this paper we intend to check the performance of Peer-to-Peer online lending platforms in China. Different from commercial banks, Peer-to-Peer (P2P) platforms&rsquo, business process is divided into the market-expanding stage and the risk-managing stage. In the market-expanding stage, platforms are intended to help borrowers attain more money, and in the risk-managing stage, platforms try their best to ensure that the lenders&rsquo, money is repaid on time. Thus, with a sample of 66 leading big P2P platforms, and a novel two-stage slacks-based measure data envelopment analysis with non-cooperative game, the performance efficiency of each stage as well as the comprehensive efficiency are evaluated. The results show that the leading big platforms are good at managing the risk, although risk management is not the major concern of most P2P platforms in China. We also find that average performance efficiency of the platforms that are located in non-first tier cities is higher than that in first tier cities. This unexpected result indicates that development of the P2P industry may relieve the severe distortion of resource allocation and efficiency loss arising from unbalanced regional development. Then dividing the platforms into different groups according to different types of ownership, we verify that performance efficiency of the P2P platforms from the state-owned enterprise group is in a dominant position, and the robustness check indicates that the major advantage of the state-owned enterprise (SOE) group mainly lies in the risk management. We also make a further study to figure out the sources of inefficiency, finding that it mainly arises from the shortage of lenders, the lack of average borrowing balance, and the insufficient transparency of information disclosure. In the last section we conclude our research and propose some advice.