Abstract
China’s rapid urbanization has led to increasing steel consumption for buildings and civil engineering infrastructure. The in-use steel stock in the same is considered to be closely related to social welfare and urban metabolism. Traditional approaches for determining the in-use steel stock are labor-intensive and time-consuming processes and always hindered by the availability of statistical data. To address this issue, this study proposed the use of long-term nighttime lights as a proxy to effectively estimate in-use steel stock for buildings (IUSSB) and civil engineering infrastructure (IUSSCE) at the provincial level in China. Significant relationships between nighttime lights versus IUSSB and IUSSCE were observed for provincial variables in a single year, as well as for time series variables of a single province. However, these relationships were found to differ among provinces (referred to as “inter-individual differences”) and with time (referred to as “temporal differences”). Panel regression models were therefore proposed to estimate IUSSB and IUSSCE in consideration of the temporal and inter-individual differences based on a dataset covering 1992–2007. These models were validated using data for 2008, and the results showed good estimation for both IUSSB and IUSSCE. The proposed approach can be used to easily monitor the dynamic of IUSSB and IUSSCE in China. This should be critical in providing valuable information for policy making regarding regional development of buildings and infrastructure, sustainable urban resource management, and cross-boundary material recycling.
Highlights
China is undoubtedly experiencing a phase of rapid urbanization and civil infrastructure construction
Linescan System (DMSP/OLS) Nighttime Light Time Series (Version 4) products was investigated based on a long-term dataset (1992–2008)
We found that the log-linear relationship between in-use steel stock and nighttime lights varied with time, showing slope ranges of 0.988–1.117 and 0.739–0.831, and intercept ranges of 1.719–4.182 and 1.984–3.358 for in-use steel stock of buildings (IUSSB) and IUSSE, respectively
Summary
China is undoubtedly experiencing a phase of rapid urbanization and civil infrastructure construction. Local and central governments are investing heavily in buildings and civil engineering infrastructure, such as highways and railways [1,2] In this regard, the consumption of steel, the most widely used construction material, is rapidly increasing [3,4]. It is important to note that as one of the main emitters of CO2, the iron/steel industry in China emitted 1.17 billion tons of CO2 in 2009, which accounted for 50% of the total emission amount of the steel industry worldwide [8]. In this light, it is essential to realize sustainable resource management for steel from the viewpoint of achieving environmental protection and a low-carbon society in rapidly urbanizing China
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