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Shrinkage in China's cities has gradually received increasing attention. Specifically, county-level shrinking cities are numerous and widely distributed. City shrinkage even appears throughout Zhejiang Province, which is highly developed and has stable economic growth. County-level shrinking cities resulting from regional competition can still maintain long-term and stable economic growth, but their economic growth lags behind the whole competitive region. We identified five county-level shrinking cities in Zhejiang Province, and characterized the shrinkage phenomenon in Changshan County using census, nighttime lighting (NTL), and Tencent Location Big Data. City shrinkage resulted from the comprehensive effects of declining traditional industries, backward per capita income, highly skilled labor force shortages, and population age structure changes. Given the shrinkage status of Changshan, we proposed countermeasures and suggestions including aspects of industrial development, urban planning, social governance, and care for the elderly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy consumption is a major factor influencing climate change. Low-carbon strategies can be defined from carbon (C) footprint and ecological pressure caused by energy consumption. We hypothesized that this should be done at the regional and city levels because factors controlling C footprints vary with location and time, yet there is actually little knowledge at local levels. Here, we mapped the C emissions and footprint of 11 cities in the Zhejiang Province of China, a rapidly growing area of about 57 million inhabitants, which is representative of the strong economic growth in China. The C footprint is expressed as the land surface necessary to adsorb C emissions. We studied spatio-temporal evolution of C footprints from 2005 to 2015 using the center of gravity method. Results show that total annual C emissions due to energy consumption in Zhejiang increased by 40.83 million tons (55.8%) from 2005 to 2011. Then, from 2011 to 2015, C emissions decreased by 5.8%, which is explained by the 5-year national plan aiming at decreasing emissions. Similarly, the total C footprint increased by 55.8% from 29,201,904 hm2 in 2005 to 45,496,817 hm2 in 2011 and then declined by 5.8% from 2011 to 2015. At the city level, Ningbo has the largest C footprint contribution, whereas Lishui the lowest. Zhoushan shows an increase in C emissions and footprint, whereas Hangzhou and Shaoxing show a decline. The center of gravity of the C footprint is located in Shaoxing and is moving southeast from 2006 to 2011. Overall, our findings reveal the high spatial heterogeneity of C footprint at the regional and city levels, implying that national low-carbon strategies should be adapted at lower levels for higher efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• This paper reviews the history of indemnificatory housing development and explores its effectiveness. • An optimization-based framework for housing subsidy system that focusing on housing voucher is designed. • We provide an effective alternative housing subsidy policy which can facilitate the settling down of migrants in cities. • Capitation grant, occasion for implementation and cost estimation are important elements in housing subsidy system. Rapid urbanization has transformed cities by improving the quality and quantity of production factors, such as population, land, and capital gain optimization. However, housing problems of the floating population (liudong renkou) have seriously increased during the urbanization process. This study reviews the history of indemnificatory housing development in China and explore its effectiveness in the context of sustainable urbanization. Difficulties in the housing subsidy policy are identified, and an optimization-based framework for housing subsidy system that focusing on housing voucher is designed with the consideration of capitation grant, occasion for implementation, cost estimation, implementation procedure, and supplementary policy. The appropriateness of the housing voucher policy was tested on Zhejiang Province, and expert interview was conducted to evaluate the proposed housing subsidy system. This study provides an effective alternative housing subsidy policy which can facilitate the settling down of floating population in cities and also contribute to sustainable urbanization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]