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An overview of the municipal solid waste (MSW) management in Beijing, a city with a resident population of about 19.61 million in 2010, is presented in the article. Economic development and population growth have resulted in a MSW generation increase from 2.96 million tons in 2000 to 6.20 million tons in 2007, fluctuating to 6.35 million tons in 2010. The components of MSW over the past decade are characterized by increasing food and paper contents, and a decreasing ash content. The percentage of food waste, the main putrescible component, increased steadily from 45.77% in 2002 to 66.98% in 2010. Combustible materials, such as plastic, paper, textile, wood and food waste, accounted for 94.66% of MSW in 2008. There are 15 landfill sites, 2 incinerators and 2 composting plants in Beijing, with a total designed capacity of 15,380 tons/day in 2010. The main waste disposal technology used in Beijing is landfill, which accounts for 92.27% of the total designed capacity in 2008 and 78.54% in 2009. The designed capacity of the existing disposal plants cannot cope with the actual quantity of waste generation, resulting in overloading and premature closure of landfill sites. Solid waste incineration has been given priority in technology development and financial support over other disposal methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The future of cities in China is becoming increasingly important, not just within China but globally. China's urban population has grown from about 200 million in 1980 to about 800 million or 59% in 2018: that is about twice the total population of the USA and 1.5 times the total population of the EU. China has over 100 cities with over a million people. There are also more and more papers being written about urbanisation in China. However, urban development in China is very unlike urban development in the west or in many other developing countries. Despite the growth of a large, dynamic market sector, China is still a Communist country in terms of the pervasive and leading role of the party and the state. The question posed in this commentary is whether urbanisation in China is unique; or, to be more precise, whether the post-reform Chinese experience of urbanisation since around 1980 is so unusual that it constitutes an entirely unique case which lies outside conventional generalisations about urban change processes. This question links to recent discussions of comparative urbanism in which various scholars have grappled with questions about the generalisability of urban theory and experience. The tentative conclusion is that Chinese urbanisation may be unique and is certainly not easily subsumed into standard discussions about urban development and urban change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban agglomerations (UAs) in China play a vital role in the distribution of productive forces and constitute the most dynamic and potentially rich core areas for future economic development. However, the rapid economic growth and high-intensity interactions seen in relation to these areas, results of the high population densities and aggregation of industries in UAs, also pose significant ecological threats to the environment. This paper attempts to analyse changing trends in the input–output efficiency of UAs in China based on the data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach. The paper investigates the DEA efficiency of UAs with different population sizes and geographical locations, explores the relationship between the elements that make up a decomposed model of efficiency and compares the efficiency performance of China’s UAs with that of 35 central cities. Moreover, the exogenous factors determining the input–output efficiency of UAs, the question of how to improve UAs’ efficiency performance, as well as the focus of future research are also discussed. A number of valuable implications have been drawn from the study, which may be helpful to the task of understanding more deeply the high-density aggregation effects of UAs in China. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Exploring prehistoric variation in human–environmental interaction is critical for understanding the historical patterns and mechanisms of long-term human–land evolution. In this paper we review the published radiocarbon and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) data from Late Paleolithic, Neolithic and Bronze Age sites in China, analyze the spatial–temporal distribution of these sites, and compare it with the results of recent paleoclimatic and archaeological studies. We seek to study the trajectory and influencing factors of human–environmental interactions in late prehistoric China. We detect changing patterns in the relationship between humans and the environment during different phases of the prehistoric era in China. Climate change clearly affected the environment of hunter-gatherer groups between 50,000–10,000 BP (before present, defined as 1950AD), and variation in human population in Neolithic China (∼10,000–4000 BP) was likely influenced primarily by the development of agriculture, in addition to substantial climate events. The spatial scale of human settlements expanded in the Bronze Age (∼4000–2200 BP) in a period of cooling climate. During this time the impact of human activities on the environment increased significantly, primarily caused by technological innovations related to the onset of prehistoric transcontinental cultural exchange in Eurasia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the evolution of the size distribution of Chinese cities. Since the relaxation of restrictions on rural-urban migration in the 1980s, China has experienced rapid urban growth. However, cities of different sizes have experienced varying patterns of growth. First, the evolution of city size distribution in China is described by documenting the growth in city size and in the number of existing cities. Then, focusing on the period from 1990 to 2000, the urban evolutionary trend is analysed by means of the Pareto law estimation and the mobility of cities between different size groups is examined with the Markov transition matrix. The convergence hypothesis in the city population growth process is also tested. The results suggest that, contrary to the expected dominance of large city growth, the Chinese city size distribution evened out during the 1990s, with small cities growing more rapidly than large cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Loess Plateau, China, has long been suffering from serious soil erosion. About 2000 years ago, larger areas were used for grain production and soil erosion was thus becoming severe with increase in human activity. Severe soil and water loss led to widespread land degradation. During the past decades, great efforts were made in vegetation restoration to reduce soil erosion. However, the efficiency of vegetation restoration was not as satisfactory as expected due to water shortage. China initiated another state-funded scheme, the ‘Grain-for-Green’ project in 1999, on the Loess Plateau to reduce soil erosion and improve land quality. However, the control of soil erosion effectively by land-use modification raised problems. In this paper, the lessons and experiences regarding soil and water conservation in the Loess Plateau in the past decades are analysed first. Urgent problems are then elaborated, such as the contradiction between land resource and human population, shortage of water both in amount and tempospatial distribution for vegetation growth, weak awareness of the problems of soil conservation by local officials, and poor public participation in soil and water conservation. Finally, suggestions regarding soil and water conservation in the Loess Plateau are given. In order to control soil erosion and improve vegetation, a scientific and detailed land-use plan for the Loess Plateau has to be made, in the first instance, and then planning for wise use of water resources should be undertaken to control mass movement effectively and to improve land productivity. Methods of improving public awareness of environmental conservation and public involvement in vegetation rehabilitation are also important. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The city-region has emerged as an important scale of state spatial strategy in China to promote equitable and sustainable development. This study investigates the spatial inequality of city-regions in the Yangtze River Valley (YRV) in terms of population, land, GDP and productivity, and examines changing patterns and factors of GDP per capita. We find that the spatial form of the YRV is typical of city-regions in China, where population density and productivity around mega-cities are much higher and decline from the low to the middle and upper reaches of the YRV. We also find that inequality across city-regions is high, and that most inequality is due to differences within city-regions. We find that the YRV is driven by capital-intensive and labour-intensive growth, with an emerging significance of productivity. Our analysis reveals the significance of institutional factors, including the processes of marketisation, globalisation, decentralisation and urbanisation in regional development. Moreover, the importance of the non-state sector in economic growth has been increasing, while the role of globalisation has been declining. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article addresses the ways in which Roseberry's work advances our understanding of the processes of transformation under capitalism. Looking at his use of class in selected writings, I explore Roseberry's ideas on class and class analysis by applying them to the case of international migration. While Roseberry did not engage with the subject of migration, I will argue that his discussions of social differentiation, petty commodity production, fields of force and social class nonetheless have heuristic value in the study of contemporary international migration. They provide the conceptual and methodological tools to enhance our understanding of the nature of social reproduction and dynamics of capital formation in different social and economic sites that are configured by migration. Roseberry's analytical insights are applied to cases of migration within China, as well as migration between China and France. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]