Comprehensive Environmental Quality Research Articles

A measurement study of the environmental quality and medical expenditures of elderly individuals: causal inference based on machine learning

BackgroundThe global surge of environmental pollution exacerbates health issues, disease incidence, and economic strain. In China, the increasing healthcare costs of the elderly population necessitate addressing this challenge as part of the “Healthy China” strategy. We explore the impact of environmental quality on elderly healthcare expenses.MethodsThis study devised a comprehensive environmental quality index for 30 Chinese provinces, excluding Tibet, which was correlated with medical expenses for individuals older than 60 years, using China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) data. Because the traditional econometric model cannot solve the endogeneity problem and the selection of instrumental variables is subjective, a new machine learning algorithm is adopted based on the traditional ordinary least squares (OLS) model and the fixed effect model to conduct causal analysis to ensure the reliability of the results. Finally, heterogeneity analysis was conducted based on the generalized random forest algorithm.ResultsSouthern provinces such as Jiangxi and Guangxi exhibited superior environmental qualities. A regional analysis revealed a gradient where environmental quality decreased from west to east and from south to north. Both conventional and machine learning methodologies underscored a pivotal finding: enhanced environmental qualities significantly curtail elderly healthcare expenses. A heterogeneity assessment revealed that such improvements predominantly benefit elderly people in the eastern and central regions, with marginal impacts in the west. For different groups, the improvement of environmental quality can significantly reduce the medical expenditure of people aged 60 to 75, with bedtime hours between 9 and 11 PM and a lower household income.ConclusionsThis study, employing machine learning and traditional models, demonstrates that enhancements in environmental quality significantly reduce medical costs for the elderly in China, especially in the eastern and central regions, and among demographics such as individuals aged 60–75 and low-income households. These findings underscore the potential of environmental policies to lower medical costs within the “Healthy China” initiative framework. However, the study’s scope is limited by the environmental quality index and the extent of data coverage, indicating a need for further research expansion.

Evaluating the Performance and Practicality of a Multi-Parameter Assessment System with Design, Comparative Analysis, and Future Directions

This study introduces a developed environmental quality assessment system, detailing its hardware, software, and comparative analysis against a publicly available system. While showing larger deviations in particulate matter and air humidity parameters, the proposed system demonstrates sufficient accuracy in other environmental characteristics. It establishes a standardized operating procedure and evaluates uncertainty and quality assurance measures, ensuring reliability in environmental measurements. The system offers comprehensive capabilities, measuring parameters like total volatile organic compounds, carbon dioxide, temperature, humidity, particulate matter, noise, nitrogen oxides, sulfur oxides, ozone, and carbon monoxide, with real-time monitoring functions for detecting environmental changes. Its user-friendly interfaces, scalability, and potential integration with existing systems enhance its versatility and cost-effectiveness across diverse settings. This study underscores the need for future research to enhance accuracy, reliability, and real-time operability and explore integration with smart city initiatives and environmental management systems. Overall, the proposed system represents a promising advancement in environmental monitoring technology, facilitating comprehensive environmental quality assessment and management.

The impact of green credit on environmental quality: empirical evidence from China.

As an innovative financial instrument, green credit is a new driving force for environmental governance. To study the impact of green credit on environmental quality, this paper uses the provincial panel data from 2007 to 2020 to construct a panel model for analysis based on the comprehensive environmental quality index. At the same time, it discusses the mechanism and regional heterogeneity of green credit affecting environmental quality. The results show that green credit significantly improves the overall quality of the environment, which has a significant effect on air quality and green quality but has no significant impact on water quality and soil quality. Green credit improves environmental quality by improving green technology innovation and promoting industrial structure upgrading. At the same time, there is obvious heterogeneity in the environmental effect of green credit. Among them, the environmental quality improvement effect of the eastern region and the carbon emission pilot area is more evident than that of the central and western regions and the non-carbon emission pilot area. This paper has important implications for promoting the development of green credit and giving full play to the environmental effects of green credit to achieve sustainable goals.

Impact of Two-Way FDI on China’s Environmental Quality: The Perspective of Environmentally Cleaner Production and End Treatment

While the rapid development of two-way foreign direct investment (FDI) has boosted China's economic growth, its impact on environmental quality is uncertain. Based on provincial panel data from China covering the period from 2002 to 2020, this paper proposes an environmental quality assessment index system for China from two aspects: environmentally cleaner production and environmental end treatment. The comprehensive environmental quality index (EQI), environmentally cleaner production index (EPI), and environmental end treatment index (ETI) were all measured, with the geographic information system tool and Dagum Gini coefficient used to analyse the indicators' differences using a system-generalised method-of-moments (SYS-GMM) estimation to study the impact of two-way FDI on environmental quality in various regions across China. The results demonstrate that during the sample period, inward FDI positively impacted environmental quality and cleaner production but had a negative impact on environmental end treatment. Outward FDI significantly promoted EQI, EPI, and ETI, and the interaction between inward FDI and outward FDI positively impacted environmental quality and environmentally cleaner production, while it negatively impacted environmental end treatment. This indicates that under two-way FDI, China's relationship with environmental quality has gradually evolved from 'pollution first and then treatment' to 'green development of cleaner production'.

Can Government Environmental Auditing Help to Improve Environmental Quality? Evidence from China

Promoting environmental governance to achieve green and low-carbon development is the focus of attention from all walks of life. As a policy tool to control environmental pollution, the effectiveness of environmental audits remains to be verified. Based on China's provincial data from 2004 to 2019, this paper aims to examine the impact and mechanisms of government environmental auditing on environmental quality. Results show that government environmental auditing helps to improve overall environmental quality, but there is a certain lag effect occurring. The heterogeneity test suggests that the impact of environmental auditing on comprehensive environmental quality is more significant when the government competition is smaller, the financial situation is better, and the institutional environment is weaker. Our analysis provides empirical evidence for understanding the role and function of government environmental auditing in environmental governance.

The role of ICT, R&D spending and renewable energy consumption on environmental quality: Testing the LCC hypothesis for G7 countries

Intense anthropogenic air, water, and soil pollution motivates researchers and this study to analyze the determinants of pollution and propose solutions to ensure environmental sustainability. By using the load capacity factor to examine the factors that determine environmental quality and by proposing the load capability curve (LCC) hypothesis, this study adds to the existing environmental literature. The load capacity factor allows for comprehensive environmental quality monitoring of environmental quality by comparing ecological footprint and biocapacity. This study evaluates the load capacity factor in relation to information and communication technology (ICT), research and development (R&D), renewable energy consumption, and income. In doing so, the study applies the cross-sectionally augmented autoregressive distributed lag estimator and the Durbin-Haussman cointegration test from 1986 to 2017 for the G7 countries. The empirical results show that renewable energy, R&D spending, and ICT positively affect environmental quality. Moreover, since there is a U-shaped relationship between environmental quality and income, this study confirms the LCC hypothesis, implying that income initially deteriorates ecological conditions but helps improve environmental quality after crossing a certain threshold. The bottom turning point is around US$ 46660–47909, where G7 countries such as Canada, Germany, Japan, and the United States have reached income levels that improve load capacity factor. Based on the overall results, G7 governments should promote economic development, disseminate renewable energy, direct R&D spending to areas of greatest benefit, and support the deployment of green ICT infrastructure as part of their environmental policies.

Natural resources and environmental quality: Exploring the regional variations among Chinese provinces with a novel approach

Environmental quality became the major concern as the world shifted towards sustainable development. The environmental quality related natural resource literature mostly used ecological footprints and CO2 emission to represent environmental quality. This paper developed a comprehensive environmental quality indicator and explored the impact of natural resources on environmental quality among Chinese provinces from 1995 to 2017. Considering cross sectional dependence, second generation unit root and co-integration tests with the Pooled Mean Group are used as a benchmark model. The robustness of results is checked with the Fully Modified Ordinary Least Squared and causality test. The aggregate sample outcomes confirmed the adverse impact of natural resources, economic development, urbanization, industrialization, income inequality, nonrenewable energy and population growth on environmental quality in the long-run. However, technological progress, environmental regulations and renewable energy improve environmental quality. Furthermore, natural resources deteriorate the environment in central and western provinces but improve environmental quality in the eastern region in the long-run. The causality analysis confirmed a unidirectional causality among variables. The robustness results also established that the impact of natural resources on environmental quality varies among regions. This study offers substantial policy suggestions for central and local governments to promote sustainable development.

Measurement and analysis of ecological pressure due to industrial development in the Yangtze River economic belt from 2010 to 2018

The main aim of the study is to measure the ecological pressure due to industrial development in the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB), which accounts for half of China's industrial output. In contrast to previous empirical studies, we test the ecological pressure on the YREB due to industrial development by using a more comprehensive environmental quality model named the ecological footprint. Meanwhile, a panel regression model is further established to search the influencing factors relating to the YREB's industrial ecological footprint. Although the YERB still faces the tremendous ecological pressure brought by industrial development, the conditions of ecological environment deterioration and resource depletion have been improved. The ecological footprint of industrial added value in various provinces and cities has generally shown a downward trend, and the ecological benefits of industrial development are continuously improving. The improvement of the ecological benefits of industrial development in the YREB now mainly depends on environmental regulation. To achieve the unity of economic benefits and ecological benefits, the government should design related policies, as discussed in the conclusion.

Impact of income inequality and environmental regulation on environmental quality: Evidence from China

China’s environmental pollution is of widespread concern, and environmental governance has become the country’s main method of achieving high-quality development. Environmental quality is a comprehensive indicator, which includes many factors, such as air, water, and solid waste pollution. This study did not use a single pollutant as a substitute variable for environmental quality. Firstly, we used principal component analysis to construct a comprehensive environmental quality index. Secondly, the Stochastic Impacts by Regression on Population, Affluence, and Technology and panel quantile regression models were used with data from 30 Chinese provinces in China from 1998 to 2017 to analyze the effect of income inequality and environmental regulation on environmental quality. The constructed comprehensive index revealed that China’s environmental quality had an M-type trend over time. The mean regression results showed that income inequality and environmental regulation improved environmental quality, but higher income inequality reduced environmental quality. The panel quantile regression model results revealed that the coefficient of income inequality was positively significant at the 10–30% quantiles and negatively significant at the 70–90% quantiles. The coefficients of the absolute value of income inequality at the 10–30% quantiles were less than those at the 70–90% quantiles. This implied that higher income inequality reduced environmental quality, whereas higher environmental regulations improved environmental quality. Considering the possible impact of environmental quality on income inequality and environmental regulations, we designed a simultaneous equation model to overcome the deviation caused by bilateral causality. The conclusions of this study provide policymakers with a new perspective on environmental governance and new paths for achieving high-quality development.

SWOT analysis of the urbanized area environmental component (using the example of city of Odesa)

Urbanized areas are characterized by a concentration of anthropogenic sources of pollution, and their functioning is a major factor of environmental change. A comprehensive environmental quality assessment, study of the city's environmental component and its impact on the living conditions enable directing the environmental situation management in such a way that allows achieving the optimum possible state of the urbanized areas' natural component. Odesa is a large multifunctional city with extremely diverse anthropogenic impact. This leads to the formation of unfavorable environmental situation. The work is aimed at providing a SWOT analysis of the environmental component of city of Odesa. To achieve this goal, we analyzed the main natural and anthropogenic factors that affect the formation of the ecological situation within the territory of Odesa. The SWOT analysis consists in identifying the Strengths (S) and Weaknesses (W) of the internal environment of the object under research, the Opportunities (O) and Threats (T) of the external environment and establishing the link between them. When speaking about urban systems, the Strengths are different environmentally positive situations, capabilities and properties of the city. The Weaknesses include the existing environmental problems. The Opportunities of the external environment include natural potential of surrounding territories, as well as environmentally positive socio-economic conditions of regional and national levels. The Threats of the external environment include factors that are able to cause harm to the city environment and may cause deterioration of the environmental situation therein. The paper analyzes the existing environmental problems such as a high level of air basin pollution by emissions from mobile and stationary pollution sources, marine environment pollution by pollutants present in sewage and other return waters, surface runoff originating in the city; poor state of water supply and sewage networks; insufficient quality of drinking water from surface and underground water sources; soil contamination by heavy metals, oil products and other pollutants; insufficient landscape gardening of certain city areas and unsatisfactory state of green plantations therein; formation of technogenic groundwater and flooding of the large part of the city's territory; development of dangerous exogenous geological processes; presence of acoustic and electromagnetic pollution sources; poor management and treatment of industrial and consumption waste; presence of environmentally hazardous industrial facilities; unsatisfactory health status of urban inhabitants; low level of environmental culture among citizens. Based on the analysis of internal (strengths and weaknesses) and external (opportunities and threats) factors, a set of measures to improve the environmental situation in Odesa is offered.

Study of a comprehensive assessment method of the environmental quality of soil in industrial and mining gathering areas

Industrial and mining activities have been recognized as major sources of heavy metal contamination in soil. Here, we developed a comprehensive assessment method for the soil environment in industrial and mining gathering areas based on the pressure–state–response model. Using this method, we assessed the environmental quality of soil in a typical industrial and mining gathering area in Tianjin City, China. The results are as follows: (1) The comprehensive environmental quality index of the soil in the study area was 0.532, which corresponds to an alert state and shows that the soil environment is generally poor. (2) The pressure, state, and response indexes were 0.609, 0.634, and 0.163, respectively, which suggests that the pressure in the soil environment of the study area is barely acceptable, and the state is merely passable. Furthermore, the response measures are not ideal. (3) The low response index scores indicate poor production processes, low pollutant treatment level, and unsatisfactory level of management by the enterprises in the study area. (4) The distribution of soil risks was found to be inseparably related to that of contamination sources and land use types. Furthermore, the distribution was uneven to a certain degree. Finally, we propose recommendations for the optimization, adjustment, and management of typical industrial and mining gathering areas with petrochemical, metallurgy, and other heavily polluting enterprises.

Empirical Analysis of China’s Comprehensive Environmental Quality

This paper firstly develops the index for China’s comprehensive environmental quality evaluation, and employs spss17.0 to conduct factorial analysis and comprehensive analysis on the condition of China’s comprehensive environmental quality between 1995 and 2012. Results indicated that China’s environmental quality had seen continuous deterioration.

An Empirical Research on the Relationship between Environmental Quality and Energy Consumption in China

The relationship between environmental quality and energy consumption has become more and more important. This paper firstly develops the index for China’s comprehensive environmental quality evaluation, and employs spss17.0 to conduct factorial analysis and comprehensive analysis on the condition of China’s comprehensive environmental quality between 1995 and 2012. By using Eviews6.0 to build a regression model for China’s environmental quality and energy consumption and exercising stationary test and Granger causality test, this paper also affirms the co-integration relationship between environmental quality and energy consumption in China. Among all energy sources, coal consumption has the closest relationship with environmental quality, and oil and natural gas consumptions are in the 2nd and 3rd place. In the last part, this paper proposes countermeasures and suggestions like optimizing industrial structure, adjusting energy structure and improving technologies in energy utilization.

The Comprehensive Environmental Quality Evaluation and Pollution Analysis about the North Area of Guangdong

In order to evaluate the soil environmental quality of the north of the Guangdong Province, after a comprehensive research of the soil quality in the north of the Guangdong Province ,some analysis was been down for the characteristic of soil inorganic pollutants according to the soil test results. Refering to the standard of soil quality GB-15618-1995,making an evaluation for eight heavy metals (Cu,Pb,Zn,Cr,Cd,Hg,As,Ni). Single-factor index method and Nemerow comprehensive pollution index method were used in comprehensive assessment and classification of soil environmental quality in research area. The result shows that,the maximum of the single-factor index was Cd,the number is 1.71;the min number of the single-factor index was Hg,the number is 0.27;in regard to comprehensive pollution index,the average number is 1.94,according to the comprehensive pollution index,the soil environmental quality of study area was slightly polluted.