Case Study Of Guangdong Research Articles

Sustainable utilization of cultivated land resources based on "element coupling-function synergy" analytical framework: A case study of Guangdong, China

Solely focusing on the agricultural production function of cultivated land resources is not conducive to the various demands for meeting the UN's Sustainable Development Goals. Recognizing the multifunctionality of cultivated land and understanding the interrelationships between individual functions are crucial for the rational planning and utilization of resources. This paper introduces an "element coupling-function synergy" analytical framework for the sustainable utilization of cultivated land resources. The proposed framework is based on the causal relationships between elements and functions within the cultivated land system. Subsequently, a causal Bayesian belief network was constructed to identify trade-offs and synergies among multiple functions of cultivated land resources in Guangdong, China. The findings reveal trade-offs between food cleanliness and food production/social security, and synergistic relationships among food production, social security, and ecological regulation, as well as among ecological regulation, habitat maintenance and landscape culture. The study area was divided into eight functional zones: Green Agricultural Zone, Agro-inputs Control Zone, Urban Agricultural Zone, Major Grain-producing Zone, Modern Agricultural Zone, Agro-ecological Preservation Zone, Agro-ecological Tourism Zone, Quality Improvement Zone. Multi-objective management plans were formulated for optimizing multifunctional relationships within each zone. The analysis result reveals the importance of nutrient conditions and ecological environments for the sustainable management of cultivated land. Consequently, specific policy recommendations are proposed accordingly. This paper may not only advance understanding of the multifunctionality of cultivated land but can also provide valuable insights for land-use planning to ensure the judicious and sustainable management of cultivated land resources.

Assessing hotspot for tropical cyclone compound rainstorms from a disaster perspective: a case study in Guangdong, China

In Guangdong Province, China, known as a hotspot for tropical cyclone (TC) and rainstorm disasters, investigating the role of hazard factors for both TC and rainstorm disasters is of great scientific and operational importance. Daily observational data from meteorological stations along with rainstorm/TC disaster loss data at the county level in Guangdong during 2001–2020 were analyzed to compare the characteristics of rainstorm and TC disasters. During the study period, although non-TC rainstorm rainfall in Guangdong was generally greater than TC rainstorm rainfall, TC disaster losses were double those of rainstorm disasters. Non-TC rainstorms and their losses predominantly occurred during the first flood season, whereas TC disaster primarily occurred in the second flood season. Although regional-average TC rainstorm rainfall was similar to non-TC rainstorm rainfall during the second flood season in Guangdong, it was greater than non-TC rainstorm rainfall in western Guangdong. Additionally, the coastal areas were frequently affected by TC strong winds, resulting in greater TC disaster losses than rainstorm disaster losses. The maximum daily precipitation was significantly correlated with rainstorm disaster losses. In areas influenced by both TC strong winds and rainstorms, TC disaster losses exhibited a significant positive correlation with the daily maximum wind speed, and the combined effect of strong winds and rainstorms led to greater disaster losses than with TC rainstorms alone. These findings emphasize the effects of TC strong wind and storm surges, besides those of heavy rainfall, in coastal areas of China when assessing the risks related to TC disasters.

Comprehensive evaluation of newly cultivated land sustainable utilization at project scale: A case study in Guangdong, China

Comprehensive evaluation of newly cultivated land sustainable utilization at project scale: A case study in Guangdong, China

Construction and Simulation of System Dynamics Model of Green Certificate-Carbon Market Synergy: A Case Study of Guangdong

Construction and Simulation of System Dynamics Model of Green Certificate-Carbon Market Synergy: A Case Study of Guangdong

Optimal design and robust operational management of regional bioethanol supply chain with various technological choices and uncertainty fusions

Bioethanol has emerged as a promising alternative to fossil fuels, but its commercialization is hindered by high costs and uncertainties surrounding feedstock supply and policies. To address these challenges, a two-stage stochastic robust programming model is developed for regional biorefineries planning and supply chain management with various technological choices and uncertainty fusions. The model maximizes total profits by optimizing site selection, alternative technology combinations, feedstock inventories, and accounting for uncertain and seasonally varying biomass supply. This method helps decision-makers achieve risk-aversion robust optimal solutions, tailored for a case study in Guangdong, China. The results suggest that installing 8 biorefineries using the LHW-SSF-A technique combination would be optimal. The desired feedstock warehouse capacity would be 358.48 ktons, with low utilization closely tied to seasonal crop harvests. Risk-averse decision makers would take conservative production strategies, potentially reducing investment in biorefineries, while market prices and subsidies could encourage fewer conservative investors.

Assessing the co-benefits of emission reduction measures in transportation sector: A case study in Guangdong, China

The transportation sector is becoming a major contributor to air pollutants and greenhouse gas emissions, and a key sector for emission control. Given the relevant pollutant reduction measures have been in place, policymakers must quantify mitigation potential and synergies of existing policies to determine further measures. In this study, we aim to explore the potential and co-effects of transportation sector abatement policies on air pollutants and CO2 emissions during 2020–2060 in Guangdong. To more thoroughly assess the effectiveness of the policies, we also conducted analysis within transportation sub-sectors. The findings show that the co-benefit effects differ among various pollutants and sub-sectors. The strengthening emission standards scenario has the greatest short-term effect on reducing air pollutant emissions but no effect on CO2 as there is a lack of CO2 emission control standards. The optimising energy structure scenario presented the largest potential abatement, with a 60–90% reduction compared to the business-as-usual scenario in 2060. However, there are potential emission transfers, with SO2 (1.2 kt) and PM2.5 (1.5 kt) emission reductions, from electric vehicles to the power sector. Moreover, emission transfers among transportation sub-sectors were also found in the optimising transport modes scenario.

Maintaining key ecosystem services under multiple development scenarios: A case study in Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao greater bay Area, China

Effective land use management can better maintain ecosystem services, especially in urban agglomerations. However, rational urban scale systems and landscape patterns to maintain key ecosystem services (ESs) in highly urbanized areas remain poorly understood. Taking the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) as a study area, we quantified the spatio-temporal change of key ESs from 2000 to 2020 by the Integrated Valuation of Environmental Services and Tradeoffs (InVEST) model, and simulated land use change prior considering ES conservation priority areas under different multiple development scenarios in 2050 by adopting the future land use simulation (FLUS) model. The main findings were as follows: (1) From 2000 to 2020, natural habitat, water retention and carbon sequestration decreased by 5.5%, 7.9%, and 3.9%, respectively, while the soil conservation increased by 63.7%. (2) The proportion of different conservation priority areas ranged from 10.6% to 22.6%, which were mainly located in the mountainous region. (3) The urban land area would increase from 4286.00 km2 to 4802.25 km2 between 2020 and 2050 in the GBA, with a growth rate of 12.05%. Under the simulation scenarios, the new urban land was mainly distributed in megacities and supercities. (4) Under the integrative conservation scenario, the habitat quality index, water conservation, soil conservation and carbon sequestration would increase by 0.036, 7 × 104 t, 5.11 × 106 t and 0.93 × 106 t, respectively. To maintain the key ESs, we recommend optimizing the urban scale system, making it compact at the city scale and scattered at the regional scale, and strictly restricting the conversion of forestland and farmland adjacent to megacities into urban land. These findings were beneficial to achieve regional high-quality development and sustainable development via rational urban system and landscape management.

Multiple sources emission inventory closely integrated with atmospheric environment management: A case study of Guangdong, China

The framework design and compilation methods of air emission inventory cannot connect multiple sets of environmental management statistics. The environmental statistics with different emission results increase the difficulty of policy making by the administrative departments. Based on the existing statistical system of environmental management in Guangdong Province, this study combines traditional compilation method of atmospheric pollution source emission inventory to optimize the classification system of air emission inventory and the integration based on multi-source data of environmental management. The study proposes a four-level classified pollution source system of national economy with Guangdong characteristics as well as a calculation method of multi-source data fusion supporting annually updating. Taking 2020 emission inventory formation as an example, results show that the emissions of SO2, NOx, VOCs, NH3, PM2.5, PM10 and CO in Guangdong Province are about 180, 985, 1,989, 390, 270, 750 and 2844 thousand tons respectively. In this case, SO2 and CO mainly come from industrial sources, NOx and PM2.5 mainly come from mobile sources, VOCs mainly come from natural sources, NH3 mainly comes from agricultural sources, and PM10 mainly comes from dust sources. The study raises a method of uncertainty grading evaluation and conducts a simulation verification of emission inventory accuracy. Results suggest that the emission inventory can reflect the emission status in 2020, but the quality of environmental management data of residential sources, dust sources and eastern Guangdong region still needs to be improved, and the pollution source control strategy of such sources or the region needs to be strengthened.

Evaluating Effects of Dynamic Interventions to Control COVID-19 Pandemic: A Case Study of Guangdong, China.

The emergence of different virus variants, the rapidly changing epidemic, and demands for economic recovery all require continual adjustment and optimization of COVID-19 intervention policies. For the purpose, it is both important and necessary to evaluate the effectiveness of different policies already in-place, which is the basis for optimization. Although some scholars have used epidemiological models, such as susceptible-exposed-infected-removed (SEIR), to perform evaluation, they might be inaccurate because those models often ignore the time-varying nature of transmission rate. This study proposes a new scheme to evaluate the efficiency of dynamic COVID-19 interventions using a new model named as iLSEIR-DRAM. First, we improved the traditional LSEIR model by adopting a five-parameter logistic function to depict the key parameter of transmission rate. Then, we estimated the parameters by using an adaptive Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithm, which combines delayed rejection and adaptive metropolis samplers (DRAM). Finally, we developed a new quantitative indicator to evaluate the efficiency of COVID-19 interventions, which is based on parameters in and considers both the decreasing degree of the transmission rate and the emerging time of the epidemic inflection point. This scheme was applied to seven cities in Guangdong Province. We found that the iLSEIR-DRAM model can retrace the COVID-19 transmission quite well, with the simulation accuracy being over 95% in all cities. The proposed indicator succeeds in evaluating the historical intervention efficiency and makes the efficiency comparable among different cities. The comparison results showed that the intervention policies implemented in Guangzhou is the most efficient, which is consistent with public awareness. The proposed scheme for efficiency evaluation in this study is easy to implement and may promote precise prevention and control of the COVID-19 epidemic.

Understanding Human Activities in Response to Typhoon Hato from Multi-Source Geospatial Big Data: A Case Study in Guangdong, China

Every year typhoons severely disrupt the normal rhythms of human activities and pose serious threats to China’s coast. Previous studies have shown that the impact extent and degree of a typhoon can be inferred from various geolocation datasets. However, it remains a challenge to unravel how dwellers respond to a typhoon disaster and what they concern most in the places with significant human activity changes. In this study, we integrated the geotagged microblogs with the Tencent’s location request data to advance our understanding of dweller’s collective response to typhoon Hato and the changes in their concerns over the typhoon process. Our results show that Hato induces both negative and positive anomalies in humans’ location request activities and such anomalies could be utilized to characterize the impacts of wind and rainfall brought by Hato to our study area, respectively. Topic analysis of Hato-related geotagged microblogs reveals that the negative location request anomalies are closely related to damage-related topics, whereas the positive anomalies to traffic-related topics. The negative anomalies are significantly correlated with economic loss and population affected at city level as suggested by an over 0.7 adjusted R2. The changes in the anomalies can be used to portray the response and recovery processes of the cities impacted.

Assessing sustainable water utilization from a holistic view: A case study of Guangdong, China

Sustainable water utilization is the basis of sustainable development and is crucial to the realization of UN sustainable development goals. It is necessary to assess the progress of sustainable water utilization using a comprehensive framework concerning both water quantity and quality. Our work constructed a framework WRWGF (Water Resource-Withdrawal-GDP-Footprint) articulating water quantity with water quality based on grey water footprint (GWF), and investigated the sustainable water utilization of cities in China's largest economic province——Guangdong which suffers from severe water pollution. Findings showed that the GWF of Guangdong decreased from 156.46 to 133.72 Gm3/y with fluctuation from 2008 to 2018, and the GWFs of cities presented higher in the Pearl River Delta (PRD) urban agglomeration, as well as the higher level of grey water stress. Sustainable water utilization of most cities showed climbing trends with fluctuation, and provincial sustainable water utilization achieved great improvement after 2015 driven by stricter water regulations. Wastewater disposal rate was the major driver of sustainable water utilization in most cities. The GWF indicator should be incorporated into current water management focusing on mitigating water shortage and pollution that tailored to local conditions based on development levels, contributing to the overall improvement in sustainable water utilization across Guangdong. The study proposed an integrated framework to assess the sustainable water utilization from a holistic view, aiming at providing a scientific basis for water management towards regional sustainability.

Assessing the Co-Benefits of Emission Reduction Measures in Transport Sector: A Case Study in Guangdong, China

Assessing the Co-Benefits of Emission Reduction Measures in Transport Sector: A Case Study in Guangdong, China

Protection Effect and Vacancy of the Ecological Protection Redline: A Case Study in Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area, China

The Ecological Protection Redline (EPR) is an innovative measure implemented in China to maintain the structural stability and functional security of the ecosystem. By prohibiting large-scale urban and industrial construction activities, EPR is regarded as the “lifeline” to ensure national ecological security. It is of great practical significance to scientifically evaluate the protection effect of EPR and identify the protection vacancies. However, current research has focused only on the protection effects of the EPR on ecosystem services (ESs), and the protection effect of the EPR on ecological connectivity remains poorly understood. Based on an evaluation of ES importance, the circuit model, and hotspot analysis, this paper identified the ecological security pattern in Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA), analyzed the role of EPR in maintaining ES and ecological connectivity, and identified protection gaps. The results were as follows: (1) The ecological sources were mainly distributed in mountainous areas of the GBA. The ecological sources and ecological corridors constitute a circular ecological shelter surrounding the urban agglomeration of the GBA. (2) The EPR effectively protected water conservation, soil conservation, and biodiversity maintenance services, but the protection efficiency of carbon sequestration service and ecological connectivity were low. In particularly, EPR failed to continuously protect regional large-scale ecological corridors and some important stepping stones. (3) The protection gaps of carbon sequestration service and ecological connectivity in the study area reached 1099.80 km2 and 2175.77 km2, respectively, mainly distributed in Qingyuan, Yunfu, and Huizhou. In future EPR adjustments, important areas for carbon sequestration service and ecological connectivity maintenance should be included. This study provides a comprehensive understanding of the protection effects of EPR on ecological structure and function, and it has produced significant insights into improvements of the EPR policy. In addition, this paper proposes that the scope of resistance surface should be extended, which would improve the rationality of the ecological corridor simulation.

Multi-objective programming for energy system based on the decomposition of carbon emission driving forces: A case study of Guangdong, China

Energy-related carbon emissions are increasing the rate of climate change, and controlling carbon emissions is a common challenge for the international public. Despite attempts to restrict the utilization of fossil energy and advancing technology for cleaner production, there has been little discussion on the determinants of change in carbon emissions for future scenarios and planning energy systems according to the analysis of low carbon development. In this study, a comprehensive energy optimization planning framework under a low-carbon mode is established. A framework based on the gray model (GM) and logarithmic mean Divisia index (LMDI) method are constructed to predict the emission mitigation potential and decompose the carbon emission driving factors. The decomposition results are key input prerequisites for the following energy optimization model: An interval parameter multiple-objective programming (IPMOP) optimization model, which is developed to support regional energy system administration by seeking the trade-offs among economic development, energy utilization, and environmental protection under multiple uncertainties. Furthermore, the proposed approach is applied to a case study in Guangdong, China. The results reveal that (a) the clean production effect (GDP per unit of atmospheric pollutants emission) would become the primary positive force for carbon emission increase, and the pollutant reduction effect (total atmospheric pollutants emission) would play the primary negative role; (b) the coal-dominated energy structure in Guangdong is expected to be transformed to a petroleum-dominated energy structure; (c) the GDP in Guangdong would steadily increase over time, but the pace of economic growth will decelerate, and the annual average growth rate of GDP for the coming fifteen years will be [3.67%, 4.26%]. This study provides a new pathway for policymakers to identify the determinants of carbon emission increase and to generate optimal solutions on a regional scale.

Cloudy Region Drought Index (CRDI) Based on Long-Time-Series Cloud Optical Thickness (COT) and Vegetation Conditions Index (VCI): A Case Study in Guangdong, South Eastern China

Widespread and long-lasting drought disasters can aggravate environmental degradation. They can lead to significant economic losses and even affect social stability. The existing drought index mostly chose arid and semi-arid regions as study areas, because cloudy weather in humid and semi-humid regions hindered the satellite in its attempts to obtain the surface reflectivity. In order to solve this problem, a cloudy region drought index (CRDI) is proposed to estimate the drought of the clouded pixels. Due to the cumulative effect of drought, the antecedent drought index (ADI) has a certain impact on the calculation of the current drought. Furthermore, cloud is the only source of natural precipitation, and it also affects the evaporation and emission process on the ground. Therefore, based on the remote sensing drought index, ADI and cloud optical thickness (COT) are used to estimate the drought of pixels with missing data due to cloud occlusion. In this paper, a case study of the cloudy Guangdong, which is located in a humid area, is presented. First, we calculated the CRDI using Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data from 2003 to 2017, and then discussed the effect of CRDI with the data from 2016 as examples. Through the analysis of the parameters of regression equation, filling efficiency, rationality of the estimated value, the continuity of CRDI and the rationality of CRDI spatial distribution results, it is concluded that CRDI can effectively estimate the drought severity of the cloud-covered pixels, and more comprehensive drought data can be obtained by using CRDI. The successful application of CRDI in Guangdong shows it is robust and flexible, suggesting high efficiency and great potential for further utilization.

Agglomeration and/or differentiation at regional scale? Geographic spatial thinking of hotel distribution – a case study of Guangdong, China

ABSTRACT This study is among the first attempts to understand hotel location choice by developing a spatial framework based on spatial autocorrelation to investigate hotel pattern. By taking Guangdong Province, China as the study context, this research analyzes the differentiation and agglomeration effects of star-rated hotels in terms of absolute number and density at the county level with Local Moran’s I. The spatially diverse relationships between 13 factors and the number of star-rated hotels were quantified by regions classified by the Local Moran’s I. Results indicate that (1) counties with positive agglomeration were located south of the Pearl River Delta; (2) factors influencing hotel location choice varied across regions; and (3) attractions and urbanization do not always affect hotel location choices.

Economic Analysis of Renewable Energy in the Electricity Marketization Framework: A Case Study in Guangdong, China

Along with China's rapid advancement of electricity market reform, market-oriented policies in promoting renewable energy development and accommodation are foreseeing. Assessing the economics of renewable energy under electricity marketization is an important issue worthy of study. In this paper, we firstly employ merit order method to establish an electricity market clearing model of the electricity trading by modeling 48 hypothetical scenarios. Then we simulate the market clearing prices at 15-minute intervals to discuss the economics of renewable energy in a benchmark feed-in tariff (FIT) scenario and a market-oriented scenario with the historical data of Guangdong, China. Further, the study exams the economic interrelationship between the outputs of wind and solar power in different load scenarios. The results demonstrate that the consumption of renewable energy is greatly improved in the market-oriented situation. However, in this scenario, renewable energy generation is unprofitable and uneconomic compared with in the benchmark FIT scenario. In the high-load scenarios, the changes in wind power output have a negative impact on the economics of solar power, while the mixed effects exist in the low-load scenarios. Based on these findings, conclusions and policy implications are drawn at the end of the paper.

Impact of land use land cover changes on ecosystem service value - A case study of Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao in South China.

The rapid increase in anthropogenic activities, socioeconomic development, and land use land cover (LULC) changes since the opening of economic reforms (1978), have changed the ecosystem service value (ESV) in Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao (GKHM) region located in South China. This leads to the requirement of a significant tailored analysis of ecosystem services regarding incisive and relevant planning to ensure sustainability at regional level. This study focuses on the use of Landsat satellite imagery to quantify the precise impact of LULC changes on the ecosystem services in GHKM over the past three decades (1986–2017). The most renowned established unit value transfer method has been employed to calculate the ESV. The results show that the total ecosystem service value in GHKM has decreased from 680.23 billion CNY in 1986 to 668.45 billion CNY in 2017, mainly due to the decrease in farmland and fishponds. This overall decrease concealed the more dynamic and complex nature of the individual ESV. The most significant decrease took place in the values of water supply (-22.20 billion CNY, -14.72%), waste treatment (-20.77 billion CNY, −14.63%), and food production (-7.96 billion CNY, −33.18%). On the other hand, the value of fertile soil formation and retention (6.28 billion CNY, +7.26%) and recreation and culture (5.09 billion CNY, +12.91%) increased. Furthermore, total ESV and ESV per capita decreased significantly with the continuous increase in total gross domestic product (GDP) and GDP per capita. A substantial negative correlation exists between farmland ESV and GDP indicating human encroachment into a natural and semi natural ecosystems. The results suggest that in the rapidly urbanizing region, the protection of farmland and to control the intrusion of urban areas has marked an important societal demand and a challenge to the local government. This required a pressing need for smart LULC planning and to improve policies and regulation to guarantee ecosystem service sustainability for acceptable life quality in the study area and other fast expanding urban areas in China.

Evolution of urban household indirect carbon emission responsibility from an inter-sectoral perspective: A case study of Guangdong, China

Reduction of urban household indirect carbon emissions (UHICE) is important for climate change mitigation. Uncovering the evolution of UHICE from an inter-sectoral perspective helps clarify responsibilities among different sectors and improves our understanding of the mechanisms by which inter-sectoral linkages drive UHICE. In this study, an environmentally extended input-output analysis was used to examine Guangdong Province's sectoral UHICE responsibilities during 2002–2012. We investigated the evolution of key sectors and related paths using multi-temporal inter-sectoral linkage analysis and structural path analysis. Our analyses found that: (1) sectoral UHICE exhibited significant disparities, and the electricity and steam production and supply (S73), food and beverage services (S88), manufacture of metal products (S52), telecommunication and other information transmission services (S84), and transport via road (S78) sectors were the main UHICE sources; (2) from the evolution of sectors' forward and/or backward linkages, we determined 13 key sectors and 12 potential key sectors in UHICE reduction; (3) optimizing 20 key sectors' self-demand structures and improving the production efficiency in electricity and steam production and supply (S73) significantly affects UHICE reductions; and (4) except for a path's length and heterogeneity, the change of a path's UHICE contributions also determines its reduction management priority.

Spatial Distribution of Urban Transportation Capacity and Its Influencing Factors: A Case Study of Guangdong

Using spatial autocorrelation analysis method, the spatial and temporal evolution of the overall development of Guangdong’s transportation capacity during 2001-2016 is analyzed. There is no large displacement between high-level and low-level agglomeration areas between cities, and there is obvious path dependence. According to the development level of transportation capacity of 21 prefecture-level cities in 2010-2016, the factors affecting the development level of transportation capacity are discussed. The results show that: Guangdong’s overall transportation capacity has increased with time, and transportation resources have been concentrated in Guangzhou in recent years. Cities in the high-level transportation capacity segment and cities in the low-level transportation capacity segment are relatively fixed, and there is path dependence; transportation fixed assets investment, transportation industry employees, and economic development level improve the transportation capacity. There is a significant positive impact; government fiscal expenditure and industrial structure have a significant negative impact on transportation development, reflecting the ineffectiveness and mismatch in the process of government fiscal expenditure and the unreasonable industrial structure; population density has no obvious development of transportation capacity. As the population density increases, traffic congestion in the city will not produce a good effect on the improvement of transportation capacity.