Urban Residential Consumption Research Articles

Sustainability assessment of urban residential consumption in China megacity

Sustainability is enduring unprecedented challenges, driven by exponential population growth and people’s ever-growing need for a better life. These increasing material and cultural needs have limited human's capability to protect ecosystems. Sustainability assessment is widely used as an effective tool to evaluate current state and propose target measure adjustment. This study constructs a series of indicators on sustainability assessment of urban residential consumption by using emergy ecological footprint method. It is applied to 17 Chinese megacities sustainability assessment of urban residential consumption from 2007 to 2016. The results showed that ecological deficit mainly exists in Jing-Jin-Ji, Yangtze River Delta region and Pearl River Delta region with developed economy. This study divided 17 megacities into four categories, including Shanghai type, Chongqing type, Suzhou type and Xian type, to help government make appropriate policies based on the local conditions.

Carbon emissions and driving forces of China’s power sector: Input-output model based on the disaggregated power sector

The power sector plays a significant role in China’s energy transition and emission reduction strategy. Considering that the aggregation of the power sector from different sources in input-output (IO) tables will lead to the “aggregation bias problem”, it is vital that we disaggregate the power sector using IO tables when analyzing and comparing the driving forces of embodied carbon emission changes in the power sector. This paper first disaggregates the power sector into seven subsectors; then, it uses structural decomposition analysis (SDA) to analyze the driving forces of embodied carbon emission changes in each subsector and allocates embodied emissions that occur from 2007 to 2015 according to the demand categories. The results show that the embodied carbon emissions from each clean energy sector were relatively lower than those from thermal power during the study period. Consumption volume was the main driving factor for the embodied carbon emission increments. From 2012 to 2015, the production structure was mainly responsible for the embodied emission increases in each clean energy sector, indicating that the embodied carbon emissions caused by power equipment updates or reconstruction processes should receive more attention. In addition, the embodied carbon emission changes induced by urban residential consumption on the thermal power showed a plateaued trend from 2007 to 2015. This paper provides support for the formulation of emission reduction measures and the low-carbon structural transformation of the power sector.

Revealing contributions to sulfur dioxide emissions in China: From the dimensions of final demand, driving effect and supply chain

More stringent air pollution control measures implemented during the 12th Five-Year Plan period contributed to some achievements on air quality improvement in China. Considering more focus on production-side emissions, it requires to identify what drove changes in pollutant emissions during this period from demand-side. This study is devoted to revealing the contributions to changes in SO2 emissions during 2010-2015 from three dimensions including final demand, driving effect and supply chain. Based on the harmonized input-output framework and emission datasets, demand-driven accounting, structural decomposition analysis and structural path decomposition analysis are conducted progressively. The results indicate that fixed capital formation and exports were the main drivers of demand-driven emissions during the study period, contributing more than 60% in the total. Changes in emission intensity and per capita final demand were the effects with most prohibiting and promoting impacts on emissions, decreasing 9.98 million tons (Mt) and increasing 5.99 Mt, respectively. The supply chain contributed most to increasing emissions was “Manufacture of nonmetallic mineral products → Construction → fixed capital formation” mainly affected by increased emission intensity; that contributed most to decreasing emissions was “Production and Supply of Power and Heat → urban residential consumption” mainly affected by decreased emission intensity. Some policy implications targeting the three dimensions are discussed accordingly. The quantified contributions and uncovered driving mechanism regarding SO2 emissions may assist in facilitating more complete air pollution control strategies from multiple dimensions in the future.

Research on technical problems of urban domestic sewage treatment under environmental protection form

The increasing urban scale in China has led to an increase in the water consumption of urban residents. Freshwater resources have become more and more precious. This has increased the pressure on sewage treatment to a certain extent, so in this case it should be Urban sewage treatment issues are researched and improved and strengthened to allow freshwater resources to be recycled. These have very important practical significance for the urban ecological environment protection and the promotion of the scientific development of the city.

Factors Influencing Indirect Carbon Emission of Residential Consumption in China: A Case of Liaoning Province

Indirect carbon emissions caused by residential consumption has gradually become the key to the formulation of carbon emission reduction policies. In order to analyze the factors that influence the provincial residential indirect carbon emissions in China, comprehensive structural decomposition analysis (SDA) and logarithmic mean Divisia index (LMDI) models are established in this paper. The Liaoning province was selected due to its typical features as a province with higher urbanization rates. The model is based on input–output tables from 2002 to 2012, including those pertaining to the carbon emission coefficient (ΔF), energy intensity effect (ΔE), intermediate demand (ΔL), commodity structure (ΔS), residential consumption structure (ΔU), residential consumption ratio (ΔR), per capita GDP (ΔA) and population size (ΔP). The results show that the consumption of urban residents is the most common and significant section causing the growth of direct and indirect carbon emissions, both of which show an obvious upward trend. Nonmetal mining is the sector experiencing the greatest growth in indirect carbon emissions. The two most influential factors of indirect carbon emissions via the consumption of rural and urban residents are the intermediate demand effect (ΔL) and the per capita GDP effect (ΔA), respectively. Reducing energy intensity and optimizing commodity structures are the most effective ways to reduce indirect carbon emissions.

Factor decomposition of China’s industrial electricity consumption using structural decomposition analysis

We analyzed changes in China’s industrial electricity consumption using a structural decomposition model based on input-output analysis. China’s industrial electricity consumption changes during 2007–2012 were decomposed into four factors: electricity intensity, technology-input structural, final demand structure and total final demand. The results showed that changes in total final demand contributed most to increases in China’s industrial electricity consumption, which increased electricity consumption by 2091.34 billion kW h. As for aggregate demand, increased investment, urban residential consumption, and exports all played major roles. However, increases in total rural residents’ consumption and total inventory had little effect on the electricity consumption of various industrial sectors. The key reason for reductions in industrial electricity consumption was the decrease in electricity intensity in the heavy manufacturing industry, the service industry, and the energy industry. The decline in electricity consumption intensity in China reduced electricity consumption by 446.21 billion kW h.

Research on Applicability of Fuel Cells in North China’s Residential Buildings：Based on Investigation of Living Habits and Energy Consumption of Urban Residents

The state’s emphasis on energy conservation and emission reduction has been continuously strengthened, and the use of clean energy has received great attention. As the fourth generation of power technology, fuel cell technology has developed rapidly abroad. Household fuel cells have achieved market-oriented development in Japan. In order to understand the technical applicability of household fuel cells in China, a survey on household living habits and energy consumption in cities and towns was carried out. The application of fuel cells in China was preliminarily analyzed from three aspects: the situation of family members at home, the use of domestic appliances and bathing habits.

Direct Rebound Effect for Electricity Consumption of Urban Residents in China Based on the Spatial Spillover Effect

Based on methods of price decomposition and spatial econometrics, this paper improves the model for calculating the direct energy rebound effect employing the panel data of China’s urban residents’ electricity consumption for an empirical analysis. Results show that the global spatial correlation of urban residents’ electricity consumption has a significant positive value. The direct rebound effect and its spillover effects are 37% and 13%, respectively. Due to the spatial spillover effects, the realization of energy-saving targets in the local region depends on the implementation effect of energy efficiency policies in the surrounding areas. However, the spatial spillover effect is low, and the direct rebound effect induced by the local region is still the dominant factor affecting the implementation of energy efficiency. The direct rebound effect for urban residents’ electricity consumption eliminating the spatial spillover effect does not show a significant downward trend. The main reason is that the rapid urbanization process at the current stage has caused a rigid residents’ electricity demand and large-scale marginal consumer groups, which offsets the inhibition effect of income growth on the direct rebound effect.

Do Consumption Habit and Income Difference Eliminate the Risk Premium in Chinese Capital Market?

This paper explores the effects of Chinese urban residents' consumption habits with income differences on financial asset pricing over the period 1991–2016. With the use of generalized method of moments estimation, the results reveal that the specific values of habit‐formation parameter k eliminate the high‐risk premium puzzle in the standard consumption‐based Capital Asset Pricing Model to a certain extent based on the data of consumption of urban residents at different income levels, the rate of total stock market return, and the risk‐free asset return rate. Moreover, the empirical tests also uncover income differences that cannot explain the risk premium themselves but do reveal that people with different income levels have different attitudes toward risks.

Unequal age-based household emission and its monthly variation embodied in energy consumption – A cases study of Tokyo, Japan

City is the main place to consume goods and services throughout the world. Among the various consumption terminals, household-level consumption is highly behavior driven, which can be affected by various factors such as household income level, age, living environment etc. However, city-level household emissions characteristics are still not fully understood due to the complexity of consumption behaviors and the lack of the supply chain’s data. To include the environmental responsibility embodied in residential consumption and reveal how it varies among household type and season, this study investigates city-level household consumption as it relates to energy demand using a city-scale input-output model and urban residential consumption inventories. Importantly, age- and month-based emission are analyzed from different aspects such as emission type, source, fuel types and consumption items. Findings indicate that (1) household emissions differ substantially among the various household age groups; older households generally produce higher emissions levels on a per capita basis; (2) decreases in temperature are the main reason for the increased emissions in older households, while this is not a significant factor in younger households; (3) the high per capita household emissions in older households indicate inefficient energy usage among elder citizens, which strongly suggests that aging societies will face long-term emissions increases if appropriate measures are not taken.

Changing phosphorus metabolism of a global aquaculture city

The anthropogenic phosphorus scarcity and phosphorus-induced pollution call for a substantial improvement of phosphorus use efficiency (PUE). Using substance flow analysis, phosphorus flow charts for an agriculture city with fast growing aquaculture, i.e. Zhangzhou in China for the period 1995–2014, were drawn to present phosphorus flow distribution through its food system and identify where PUE can be improved substantially. The results showed that the phosphorus input amount of the system increased 1.73 times, to 7.67 × 104 t P in 2014 since 1995, mainly attributed to the change of agricultural production structure, characterized as the rapidly expanding aquaculture. There was 325% (2.54 × 104 t P) increase of annual phosphorus input to aquaculture, compared with 20% (0.64 × 104 t P) increase for crop farming and 15% (679 t P) for feeding livestock. Accordingly, the amount of annual net phosphorus loss from aquaculture also increased much more than that from other subsystems. Thus, improving PUE in the aquaculture is more urgent than that in others. As for the food consumption subsystems, compared with rural residents, annual food phosphorus consumption of urban residents significantly increased (236%, 559 t P yr−1), resulting in rapid increase of its net environmental phosphorus load. Therefore, urbanization could be another driver on regional phosphorus loss by enhancing regional per capita food phosphorus footprint. However, most of the loss occurred during food production rather than food consumption, although the production loss was mainly driven by the change of food consumption amount and patterns. Reducing and recycling phosphorus loss in production is therefore much more important than recovering phosphorus from food consumption stage. Thus, improving PUE in an agricultural area should rely on optimizing and upgrading production structure and enhancing regional internal recycling/reusing of phosphorus.

Wastewater analysis reveals spatial pattern in consumption of anti-diabetes drug metformin in China

Metformin has been widely used as an oral drug for the treatment of diabetes mellitus. However, its consumption can be influenced by many economic and social factors. In this study, we investigated the spatial consumption pattern of metformin in China through wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) approach. Influent wastewater samples were collected from 21 wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in 19 cities of the northeast China. A method using solid-phase extraction combined with N-Methyl-bis (trifluoroacetamide) derivatization for GC-MS detection was applied for metformin analysis. In 21 days, metformin showed high stability in wastewater at 24 °C and −20 °C. The mean concentrations of metformin in all WWTPs ranged from 2.42 μg L−1 to 53.6 μg L−1. The consumption of metformin was 0.66–15.6 mg d−1 capita−1 with the mean value of 5.54 ± 4.28 mg d−1 capita−1. The prevalence of metformin ranged from 0.09% to 2.10% with an average of 0.74%. Both the consumption and prevalence of metformin displays significant spatial variations in northeast China. A statistical correlation analysis indicated that the consumption of metformin increases with the decrease of per capita disposable income of urban residents. To further predict the use of metformin in China, we developed a regress model and depicted a consumption map. The annual consumption of urban residents in Chinese provinces range from 1085-63,828 kg yr−1 with mean value of 25,347 kg yr−1, which would provide a certain reference value for public health care and diabetes control.

The Impact of Basic Endowment Insurance on Urban Residents\' Consumption-Empirical Analysis Based on 31 Provincial (Municipal) Panel Data

This paper compares three estimation strategies: mixed regression, fixed-effect regression and random-effect regression, based on the provincial (municipal) panel data of China from 2006 to 2015. By examining the individual and structural effects of the data, it finds that the fixed effect model is suitable for this study. Using the variables of urban residents' basic endowment insurance fund expenditure, endowment insurance coverage rate and endowment insurance contribution rate, it establishes a fixed effect variable coefficient model to analyze the relationship between urban residents' basic endowment insurance system and urban residents' per capita consumption expenditure. The results show that increasing the expenditure of basic endowment insurance fund and improving the coverage rate of basic endowment insurance can improve the consumption level of urban residents. The marginal propensity to consume disposable income of urban residents in the current period is larger than that of the basic endowment insurance fund, which indicates that disposable income in the current period can affect the current consumption of urban residents more.

A Novel Leakage-Detection Method Based on Sensitivity Matrix of Pipe Flow: Case Study of Water Distribution Systems

AbstractUrban water supply networks are important infrastructure to ensure the daily water consumption of urban residents and factories. However, the scope of leakage detection is large and inaccur...

Is the implementation of the Increasing Block Electricity Prices policy really effective?--- Evidence based on the analysis of synthetic control method

The implementation of Increasing Block Electricity Prices (IBEPs) aims to guide residents towards electricity savings and rational energy use, but there are questions over the effectiveness of the IBEPs to achieve these goals. To this end, this paper uses residential IBEPs policy implemented in Sichuan Province of China in 2006 as a natural experiment to answer the question of whether IBEPs effectively regulate residents’ electricity demand. Synthetic control method (SCM) was used to evaluate the treatment effect of the policy. The paper finds that the IBEPs policy significantly reduces urban and rural residential electricity consumption. The per capita electricity consumption of urban residents fell by 26.87–100.76 kWh/year with an average of 51.40 kWh/year, equivalent to a decrease of 5.93%–17.50% and average of 11.17%. On the other hand, the per capita electricity consumption of rural residents decreased by 20.86–48.28 kWh/year with an average of 26.28 kWh/year, which is equivalent of a decreased of 7.8%–16.79% and average of 12.75%. Electricity demand in urban areas decreased more than in rural areas, but rural residents are more sensitive to IBEPs than urban residents. In order to achieve “equity” and “efficiency”, China needs to further improve the design mechanism of residential IBEPs.

Natural gas consumption of urban households in China and corresponding influencing factors

Driven by the impact of economic growth, urbanization, and national strategies for low-carbon development, the TNGC of urban households in China is growing rapidly. In this paper, the feasible generalized least square method is used to investigate the consumption of natural gas and the per capita natural gas consumption of urban residents in 30 provinces in China (not including central heating and the natural gas consumption of natural gas vehicles). We study the factors influencing natural gas consumption by urban residents in China and conduct scenario forecasting. The empirical results show that the impact coefficients of PNGs and household income on average natural gas consumption are − 0.895 and 0.222, respectively, while the impact coefficients of the NGP are − 0.603 and 0.346, respectively. The scenario forecast results show that the consumption of natural gas in Chinese households reached 75.469 billion cubic meters in 2025. China's natural gas season peak pressure will continue to increase. In response to this, the following three suggestions are proposed. (1) According to the price elasticity of natural gas, the Chinese government should adjust and improve the mechanism for the formation of PNGs for residents and promote the marketization of natural gas. (2) Accelerate the construction of natural gas reserves and allocate the natural gas supply according to regional differences in natural gas consumption to enhance China's natural gas peak shaving capacity. (3) Improve and optimize natural gas development plans to achieve coordinated development of natural gas supply and demand.

Study on the Relationship Between Cultural Consumption of Urban Residents and Economic Growth in Xi'an

Cultural consumption plays an important role in promoting industrial structure upgrading and economic growth, at the same time economic growth also plays a positive role in promoting cultural consumption. Based on the related researches and the development of Xi 'an, we used data of Xi 'an in 2000-2016 to do a research about Xi'an cultural consumption and economic growth. The results showed that there is significantly positive correlation between cultural consumption of urban residents and economic growth. And the paper put forward some suggestions which are beneficial for promoting cultural consumption of urban residents and economic growth.

Agriculture Surplus Transfer and Urban-rural Income Gap in China: Theoretical and Empirical Study on the State Monopoly on Grain Procurement and Sale

The state monopoly on grain procurement and sale is an important institution arrangement in Chinese history and has profound effect on urban-rural income gap. Based on the two-sector model of price scissors constructed by Knight in 1995, this paper analyzes the effect of the state monopoly on grain procurement and sale on urban-rural income gap in China and makes an empirical test by using the provincial panel data from 1953 to 1989. It finds that, whether grain purchase rate and inter-provincial grain allocation or grain overbought rate are used to measure state monopoly on grain procurement and sale, state monopoly on grain procurement and sale enlarges the urban-rural income gap; the effect is the most significant in the planning period before 1978, gradually weakens as a whole after the reform of 1978, and becomes insignificant at the early stage of the reform from 1979 to 1984. The mechanism analysis shows that state monopoly on grain procurement and sale raises the consumption of urban residents and then reduces the consumption of rural residents, thereby enlarging the urban-rural income gap. Therefore, the essence of state monopoly on grain procurement and sale lies in that governments subsidy the development of urban areas and industry sectors through the absorption of agricultural surplus, which is the important reason for the enlarging urban-rural income gap in China in the planning period.

Research on Carbon Emission of Residents’ Consumption—Based on the City of Guangzhou

Carbon dioxide can cause greenhouse effects and that have a bad effect on the lives of residents. With the continuous improvement of economic development level, the consumption structure of residents is also changing, and then the carbon dioxide emission produced by residents is also changing. Therefore, this paper used LMDI decomposition method to calculate and analyze the indirect energy consumption of Guangzhou residents carbon emissions, which creatively used the LMDI method in the study of urban residents on the carbon emissions. At the same time, the research of this paper is helpful to strengthen the residents’ awareness of carbon emission reduction. This paper first explored the factors that affect the indirect energy carbon emissions of residents, then defined the research frame of residents’ indirect energy carbon emission, and therefore accounted for the indirect energy consumption of residents. According to the demographic characteristics of the population of Guangzhou, the emission from residents’ carbon consumption is further divided into urban consumer carbon emissions and rural consumer carbon emissions. The research results are as follows: The main factor that stimulates the carbon dioxide emission of Guangzhou’s residential indirect energy consumption is per capita income; the main factor that suppresses the emission is the intensity of energy consumption Population size, per capita income, and the resident consumption structure have a stimulating effect on the emissions of carbon dioxide from Guangzhou’s residential indirect energy consumption of urban and rural residents. The intensity of energy consumption and the emission intensity of carbon dioxide have a suppressing effect on the emissions of carbon dioxide from Guangzhou’s residential indirect energy consumption of urban and rural residents. Urban and rural population structure has a stimulating effect on the emissions of carbon dioxide from Guangzhou’s residential indirect energy consumption of urban residents, but has a suppressing effect on rural residents.

Estimasi Fungsi Konsumsi Pangan dan Non Pangan Penduduk Perkotaan Propinsi Jambi

This study aims to identify and analyze the development of consumption expenditure of urban residents, the spending patterns of food and non food consumption of urban residents, the MPC for food and non food of urban residents, and the function of food and non food consumption of urban residents in Jambi province. Descriptive analysis method was used as data analysis in this study. The results of this study showed that during the time period of 1993-2011 per capita consumption expenditure of urban residents in Jambi always increase with an average of 52.11 percent per three years, or 17.37 percent annually. Meanwhile, the pattern of consumption expenditure of urban residents in Jambi province is still dominated by food consumption expenditure by the average of 55.09 percent while non-food consumption only amounted to 44.01 percent. However, the spending patterns of food and non food consumption of urban residents Jambi province has changed. The function of food consumption of urban residents Jambi province during the period 1993-2011was by 25.8 percent and 23.8 percent for non-food.Keyword: The function of consumption, consumption patterns, food and non-food