Search

Sudden events of crisis ('focusing events') trigger intense media reporting, which in turn can prompt political decision-makers to respond with an adjustment of existing policies. As such, focusing events can potentially lead to long-term policy change on a certain issue. This article explores the sudden and intense period of air pollution in Beijing in January 2013 as a focusing event. The episode, which international media referred to as 'Airpocalypse', triggered widespread discussion and policy adjustments that can be assumed to have accelerated the control of air pollution in China. The 'Airpocalypse' was not the first event of intense air pollution in Beijing, but the only one which seemingly caused lasting sociopolitical changes. The aim of this article is to explore the underlying situational factors that enabled the 'Airpocalypse' to be more relevant than other events of severe air pollution. This paper argues that a combination of historically high pollution, improved access to information, increasing government willingness to address the issue, and the ability of media to more openly discuss air pollution created a public pressure situation to which the government was prompted to respond in a stronger way than during previous events of heavy air pollution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impacts of climate change and human activities are challenging water sustainability in many cities around the world. Advanced understanding of the future long‐term coevolution of coupled urban human‐water systems is of considerable interest in this context. This study uses a previously developed sociohydrologic model to explore the coevolutionary trajectories of Beijing City's human‐water system over the 2015–2099 period under possible climate changes. The effects of multiple human adaptive actions under alternative climate scenarios are investigated in particular. Results show that there might be a recurrent competition for water between humans and the natural environment (e.g., groundwater aquifer) in the long‐term future, indicating that effective water management needs to ensure that this competition remains within a safe operating space. Three regimes of the human‐environment competition are revealed, including a sustainable development regime in which human society and groundwater aquifer are both safe throughout their coevolutionary trajectories, a regime that may lead to severe population loss due to overaggressive population control actions, and a regime that may cause aquifer depletion due to under‐perception of the drawdown of groundwater table. Results also show that relying too much on interbasin water diversion project might slacken human water conservation measures and eventually cause more severe aquifer depletion in the long run. Maintaining a high community sensitivity to drawdown of groundwater table and moderate measures to control population growth are keys to avoid unintended, negative consequences. Key Points: Three possible regimes of human‐environment competition for water depending on human adaptive actions are revealedActively transferring water from outside might unintendedly cause more severe aquifer depletion in the long runMaintaining a high community sensitivity to changes in groundwater depth is the key to avoid unintended negative consequences [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the increasing pressure from population growth and economic development, northern China (NC) faces a grand challenge of water scarcity, which can be further exacerbated by climatic and societal changes. The South‐to‐North Water Diversion (SNWD) project is designed to mitigate the water scarcity in NC. However, few studies have quantified the impact of the SNWD on water scarcity within the context of climatic and societal changes and its potential effects on economic and agricultural food in the region. We used water supply stress index (WaSSI) to quantify water scarcity within the context of environmental change in NC and developed a method to estimate the economic and agricultural impacts of the SNWD. Focuses were put on alleviating the water supply shortage and economic and agricultural benefits for the water‐receiving NC. We find that societal changes, especially economic growth, are the major contributors to water scarcity in NC during 2009–2099. To completely mitigate the water scarcity of NC, at least an additional water supply of 13 billion m3/year (comparable to the annual diversion water by SNWD Central Route) will be necessary. Although SNWD alone cannot provide the full solution to NC's water shortage in next few decades, it can significantly alleviate the water supply stress in NC (particularly Beijing), considerably increasing the agricultural production (more than 115 Tcal/year) and bringing economic benefits (more than 51 billion RMB/year) through supplying industrial and domestic water use. Additionally, the transfer project could have impacts on the ecological environment in the exporting regions. Key Points: Societal changes, especially economic growth, are the major contributors to water scarcity problem in northern China (NC) during 2009–2099Diverting water from Yangtze River can significantly reduce water scarcity in NC but cannot entirely solve the issue in next few decadesWater diversion can increase agricultural food (115 Tcal/year) and economic benefit (51 billion RMB/year) in NC under global warming of 1.5°C [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Impending climate warming is expected to influence plant growth and distribution, and the distribution range limit of tree species is extremely sensitive to climate change. However, synchronous comparisons of responses of different tree species with overlapping ecological niches to climate at their distribution range limit in the same region have received little attention. In the present study, we assessed the discrepancy in radial growth responses of two dominant oak species to climate at their distribution range limit (southern range limit for Quercus mongolica, northern range limit for Quercus variabilis) in Beijing, China. Furthermore, growth-climate relationships were examined using linear mixed-effects models, and growth trends up to the year 2100 were forecast based on future climate scenarios (RCP2.6 and RCP8.5). Our results indicated that there were no significant differences in the growth response to climate between Q. variabilis at its northern limit and Q. mongolica at its southern limit, and the growth of the two tree species was positively correlated with the minimum temperature and negatively correlated with the climatic moisture deficit of autumn. However, the growth response to climate variables varied at different sites. Additionally, the model forecast showed an increase in radial growth of Q. variabilis at its northern limit and Q. mongolica at its southern limit up to the end of the present century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Daily weather records from a historical private diary provide important data for studying historical climate change. We compiled daily weather records from the Weng Tong-He Diary and counted the number of monthly precipitation days during 1860-1897 AD for Beijing; then, using the number of monthly precipitation days, we reconstructed the seasonal precipitation using regression models relating the precipitation and precipitation days. The findings show that the monthly mean number of precipitation days for 1860-1897 was greater than that for 1951-2009 by about 1 d month−1 and that the summer (June to August, JJA) precipitation for 1860-1897 was 471.8 mm greater than that for 1951-2009 by about 15.5%. The JJA precipitation of 1860-1897 had not only inter-annual variations but also inter-decadal variations that were characterized by less precipitation before 1886 (about 421.9 mm) and more precipitation thereafter (about 550.7 mm). As a consequence, the JJA precipitation of 1860-1897 showed an evident positive trend with a rate of about 57.9 mm per decade. These precipitation variations were confirmed by other datasets. However, it is worth noting that our reconstruction underestimates the historical precipitation values (by about 22.5%) because of rainfall/snowfall events missed in Weng's diary and the poor ability of the regression models to capture extreme years. In the future, new methods of reconstructing precipitation with the consideration of missed rainfall/snowfall events are needed. Copyright © 2012 Royal Meteorological Society [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the effects of site change and urbanization on the 1977-2006 temperature series in Beijing (BJ), China. It provides an overview of the location change of the BJ meteorological station and mentions that the daily BJ temperature series was used to analyze how site-change and urbanization affects climate changes. Site-change-induced and urbanization-related warming biases were quantified. It concludes that BJ climatic warming in 1977-2006 is about 0.48 degrees Celsius/decade.

This article provides information on the Youth Scientist Forum sponsored by the China Science and Technology Association in Beijing, China from July 20-22, 1999. The theme of the Forum was the ecologic-environmental changes and controls in China's arid and semi-arid areas. Some 20 young delegates from Chinese leading universities and research institutions and two delegates from overseas, which included one from the U.S. and one from Australia were invited to attend the forum. The main purpose of the forum was to provide an opportunity for young Chinese and overseas scientists to discuss and evaluate research developments on China's ecologic-environmental changes and its controls in arid and semi-arid areas in China that influence the future growth of social and economic development beyond the year 2000. Topics addressed ranged from a general analysis of China's ecological environmental changes and its controls in arid and semi-arid areas to an evaluation of resource carrying capacities and sustainable development requierements, from social and economic development needs and environmental management to population controls, from natural ecosystem deterioration to global climate change, from resource development planning to government policy issues.