City Environmental Protection Research Articles

Coastal City Environmental Protection and Governance: Reviewing Residents’ Recycling of Renewable Resources for Waste Management in China

China’s coastal cities have vigorously promoted environmental protection of urban garbage classification system, and the construction process of renewable resources recovery system is still in a state of slow development. This study starts from the residents’ awareness and daily behavior of renewable resources utilization. Through in-depth interviews and questionnaire survey, we can get a better grasp of the awareness and behavior of renewable resources recovery from the interviews, and make more systematic and comprehensive statistics on residents’ understanding of renewable resources related issues from the questionnaire. In addition to the difficulties in management, capital, personnel and technology, urban residents are not active enough in recycling renewable resources in their daily life. Therefore, renewable resources are a new kind of human resources. The rational use of "waste" can not only solve the environmental problems, but also solve the resource problems, so as to achieve a win-win situation. In today’s society, the concept of circular economy ecosystem has been gradually introduced into the mechanism of economic operation. The construction of renewable resources recycling system has become an important part of circular economy strategy.

Can energy efficiency progress reduce PM2.5 concentration in China’s cities? Evidence from 105 key environmental protection cities in China, 2004–2015

At present, PM2.5 is still one of the most serious air pollution issues in China. By empirically testing the actual inhibitory effect of China’s total factor energy efficiency progress on PM2.5, this paper can provide a new evaluation index for energy conservation in China and help Chinese cities understand the beneficial environmental effect of total factor productivity (TFP) progress under the constraint of energy consumption to point out an effective path of energy conservation and emission reduction that is highly in line with China’s current high-quality development strategy. Based on the panel data of 105 key environmental protection cities in China, this paper evaluates total factor energy efficiency with range directional model (RDM) and global Malmquist (GM) productivity index based on data envelopment analysis (DEA); it then uses spatial econometric models to test the impact of energy efficiency progress on PM2.5 concentration. The efficiency evaluation results show that the total factor energy efficiency of 105 key environmental protection cities has increased by an average of 35.9% from 2004 to 2015, with an average annual progress rate of 2.2%. Compared with Eastern and Central China, the progress of energy efficiency in the western region during 2004–2015 is relatively lagged. The average energy efficiency progress rate of higher administrative hierarchy cities and super cities with more than 10 million permanent residents is much higher than that of other cities. The results of GM index decomposition show that technological progress is the main driving force of energy efficiency progress. The spatial econometric analysis results show that there is a significant positive spatial autocorrelation in the concentration of PM2.5 in sample cities, and the energy efficiency progress can significantly inhibit the PM2.5 pollution in local and adjacent cities. The influence of each explanatory variable on PM2.5 concentration is mainly composed of the spatial spillover effect.

The effect of environmental information disclosure on environmental quality: Evidence from Chinese cities

This paper attempts to provide a more systematic view of the relationship between environmental information disclosure (EID) and environmental consequences to reconcile the existing conceptual controversy and empirical inconclusiveness. Hence, using a panel data of 113 major Chinese key environmental protection cities from 2008 to 2018, this study adopts the estimations of dynamic generalized method of moments (GMM), quantile regression, panel threshold model, and dynamic spatial Durbin model (SDM) to investigate the effect of EID on environmental quality. The non-spatial empirical results indicate that EID exerts a positive influence on environmental quality in a particular region, and there is a double threshold for the impact of EID. This impact becomes pronounced and then strengthened when the level of economic development reaches critical threshold values. Moreover, the first-order lag effect of environmental quality and spatial autocorrelation are needed to be incorporated. In terms of spatial econometric estimation, the results show a positive direct while negative indirect relationship between EID and environmental quality, making the total effect nearly zero. These findings are evidenced in both the short-term (contemporaneous) and long-term (cumulative) span, which reveals so-called beggar-thy-neighbor as well as a zero-sum game among local governments. Overall, this study highlights the crucial role of EID in affecting environmental quality and calls for a mutually beneficial coordination between regions.

Study on the relationship between precipitation and urban atmospheric environment: Cases of 113 key environmental protection cities

Study on the relationship between precipitation and urban atmospheric environment: Cases of 113 key environmental protection cities

Does China’s Pollution Levy Standards Reform Promote Green Growth?

Estimating the impact of environmental taxes on economic output is of great theoretical value for promoting green growth in China. Using a dataset of 232 cities from 2004 to 2014, this paper investigates the effect of pollution levy standards reform (PSR) on green total factor productivity (GTFP). We employ directional distance functions (DDF) computed by data envelopment analysis (DEA) to derive GTFP based on the Malmquist–Luenberger (ML) productivity index. Then, we investigate the impacts of PSR on China’s GTFP using Difference-in-Differences (DID) estimation. The results reveal that PSR has an inhibitory effect on GTFP, via the mechanism of technological change. Furthermore, PSR has heterogeneous impacts on different city types. The results indicate that PSR statistically significantly reduces GTFP in key environmental protection cities (KEPCs), large cities, and eastern cities, but that it has less impact on non-KEPCs, small/medium cities, megacities, and cities in central areas.

Environmental governance with Chinese characteristics: are environmental model cities a good example for other municipalities?

Model programs such as the ‘environmental protection model city’ have become an inherent part of China’s urban environmental governance. The role of these incentive schemes for promoting best practice, however, has been neglected so far. In this study, we show that model city programs raise the bar in terms of environmental standards. What is more, model cities have a positive impact on regional economic development. We deploy a spatial Durbin model to measure best practice diffusion among 126 key environmental protection cities between 2009 and 2012. The results suggest that environmental model cities are better performers on average. We also find evidence for a positive spillover effect. Diffusion patterns are multi-layered where economic proximity is the most important dimension, followed by physical colocation and administrative hierarchy.

The effect of environmental policy on Chinese firm's green productivity and shadow price: A metafrontier input distance function approach

In this paper, a new parametric meta-frontier estimation method, which we call the metafrontier input distance function (MIDF), is proposed to construct a new green productivity index and the shadow price for Chinese coal-fired power plants. Taking the policy heterogeneity into account, 93 Chinese coal-fired power plants are divided into two groups based on whether they are located in China's key “environmental protection cities”, a Chinese environmental protection policy. Using this method, the productivity and the shadow price of the two groups are compared. We find that the average annual growth rate of green productivity of coal-fired power plants in key environmental protection cities is 5.11% from 2005 to 2010, while in the non-key environmental protection cities it is 9.43%, suggesting that environmental regulation will damage productivity growth. Interestingly, although coal-fired power plants in key environmental protection cities face more stringent environmental regulation, their green productivity index still shows an overall upward trend, which partially supports the Porter hypothesis. For the shadow price of sulfur dioxide (SO2), the group-based shadow price of coal-fired power plants in key environmental protection cities is 5419 US dollar per ton on average, while in non-key environmental protection cities it is 1628 US dollar per ton, which also indicates that power plants facing more stringent regulation bear greater abatement costs.

Comparison And Analysis Of Air Quality In Major Cities Of Environmental Protection

As one of the most important environmental problems, air quality has always been highly valued by the government and society. The analysis of air quality in key cities can provide a basis for how to evaluate air quality and how to classify air quality levels and from what aspects it is helpful to improve air quality. The air quality of 51 key cities of environmental protection in China is analyzed and evaluated by selecting 7 indicators of air quality as the original variables. Cluster analysis was used to classify the key environmental protection cities preliminarily, and it was found that the air quality of the cities with fast development level was relatively poor, and the air quality of coastal cities was similar. It is found that the air quality of northern cities is generally worse than that of southern cities, and that of inland cities is generally worse than that of coastal cities. At last, according to the research results, some reasonable conclusions and suggestions are given.

Assessment of Urban Air Pollution and Spatial Spillover Effects in China: Cases of 113 Key Environmental Protection Cities

Abstract: With rapid urbanization and energy consumption, environmental pollution and degradation have become increasingly serious problems in China. At the beginning of 2013, China implemented new ambient air quality standards (GB 3095-2012) in which the concentration of six pollutants including PM2.5, ozone, carbon monoxide, PM10, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide were monitored. This study gathered annual air pollutant concentration data for the six pollutants in 113 key environmental protection cites throughout China in 2014 and 2015 to explain spatial patterns of urban air pollution. Based on the Kernel density estimation method, spatial hotspots of air pollution were illustrated through which spatial cluster of each pollutants could be plotted. By employing an entropy evaluation system, urban air quality was assessed in terms of the six atmospheric pollutants. We conclude that, in general, CO and SO2 were two important pollutants in most Chinese cities, but this varied greatly among cities. The as...

A fragmented environmental state? Analysing spatial compliance patterns for the case of transparency legislation in China

Do Chinese cities compete for investments with lax environmental law enforcement? The here presented study suggests that this is true for some municipalities but not all of them. Based on data for 126 key environmental protection cities and regional economic hubs between 2010 and 2012 we show that economic decentralization and political centralization both shape spatial patterns of compliance with environmental transparency legislation. Our results give reason to suppose that the Chinese economy moved beyond homogenous preferences for low-cost regulatory arrangements. The emerging jurisdictional interaction is in line with a Tiebout sorting process, where cities compete with diverse factor packages to attract an optimal amount of investments.

Side stream treatment nitrogen removal: alternatives for New York City

New York City Environmental Protection (NYCEP) is in the process of upgrading its treatment plants for nitrogen removal and is treating centrate, the side stream emanating from the anaerobic digestion process separately (SCT). The City is currently using a multi prong approach to treat centrate. Currently it uses the conventional nitrification/denitrification process with caustic and carbon addition at some of the plants and has the world's largest SHARON® demonstration facility at one site. In addition, the City is exploring the use of the anammox process as a viable alternative to the above two processes. To this effect, a pilot MBBR partial nitritation/anammox (PNA) reactor was operated in conjunction with the City College of New York (CCNY) at the 26th Ward Waste Water Treatment Plant in Brooklyn, NY. PNA is a nitrogen removal process that has a low carbon footprint and fits a low energy framework exceedingly well with low aeration and no external carbon requirements. Conducting a cost comparison of the PNA process to the conventional SCT and the SHARON® process on a cost per pound of nitrogen removed basis, it is found that the operating costs for the PNA process is only 35% of the SCT and 65% of the SHARON®, thus delivering substantial savings to the City when adopted at full-scale for future decades.

The association between rural–urban migration flows and urban air quality in China

In light of the rapid urbanization of the world’s population over the past decades, there is a growing concern about the environmental impacts of urban population growth. Rural–urban migration is a particularly important component of the urbanization process in developing countries and is often considered to be detrimental to urban environmental conditions. However, few studies have explicitly examined the presumed negative impacts of in-migration on the natural environment of cities. The continuously increasing volume of rural–urban labor migration in China since the early 1980s has formed the largest population flow in world history. This study links the existing literature on population–environment and urbanization–environment interactions by empirically assessing the relationship between rural–urban migration and urban air conditions in China. A two-period (2004 and 2010) longitudinal dataset for the 113 key environmental protection cities of China was constructed based on multiple data sources. We applied the STIRPAT equation using conventional and spatial panel regression models to examine whether rural–urban migration flows were associated with air pollution in cities. Results show a strong negative association of in-migration with urban air quality even after controlling for the effects of other population, affluence, and technology factors. Findings from this research can contribute to a better understanding of the environmental consequences of rural–urban migration in China, with broader implications for sustainable development research and policies.

Anammox moving bed biofilm reactor pilot at the 26th Ward wastewater treatment plants in Brooklyn, New York: start-up, biofilm population diversity and performance optimization.

New York City Environmental Protection in conjunction with City College of New York assessed the application of the anammox process in the reject water treatment using a moving bed biofilm reactor (MBBR) located at the 26th Ward wastewater treatment plant, in Brooklyn, NY. The single-stage nitritation/anammox MBBR was seeded with activated sludge and consequently was enriched with its own 'homegrown' anammox bacteria (AMX). Objectives of this study included collection of additional process kinetic and operating data and assessment of the effect of nitrogen loading rates on process performance. The initial target total inorganic nitrogen removal of 70% was limited by the low alkalinity concentration available in the influent reject water. Higher removals were achieved after supplementing the alkalinity by adding sodium hydroxide. Throughout startup and process optimization, quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) analyses were used for monitoring the relevant species enriched in the biofilm and in the suspension. Maximum nitrogen removal rate was achieved by stimulating the growth of a thick biofilm on the carriers, and controlling the concentration of dissolved oxygen in the bulk flow and the nitrogen loading rates per surface area; all three appear to have contributed in suppressing nitrite-oxidizing bacteria activity while enriching AMX density within the biofilm.

Energy-Related Carbon Emissions of China’s Model Environmental Cities

This paper identifies three types of model environmental cities in China and examines their levels of energy-related carbon emissions using a bottom-up accounting system. Model environmental cities are identified as those that have been recently awarded official recognition from the central government for their efforts in environmental protection. The findings show that, on average, the Low-Carbon Cities have lower annual carbon emissions, carbon intensities, and per capita emissions than the Eco-Garden Cities and the Environmental Protection Cities. Compared internationally, the Eco-Garden Cities and the Environmental Protection Cities have per capita emissions that are similar to those of American cities whereas per capita emissions from the Low-Carbon Cities are similar to those of European cities. The result indicates that addressing climate change is not a priority for some model environmental cities. Policy changes are needed to prioritize climate mitigation in these cities, considering that climate change is a cross-cutting environmental issue with wide-ranging impact.

Prime Discussion on the Development of City Environmental Protection Industries

In recent years, due to increase in urban construction, China's cities are constantly developing and become more and more modern. Meanwhile, city pollution expands at the same rate or even faster. Excessive expansion has caused many adverse reactions of city living environment and has threatened the city's development. Therefore, how to solve the environmental problems of the city becomes one of the essential problems in the development of the city.

The Urban Ecological Sensitivity Analysis of Enshi city Based on GIS and Analytic Hierarchy Process Model

With the rapid development of urbanization in China, the ecological environment is more and more seriously threatened; most cities should be focused on urban ecological environment construction and protection. In this paper, we choose the vegetation, slope, elevation, surface river system as the factors, and their weights were determined by analytic hierarchy process (AHP). Applying with GIS spatial analysis technique, the ecological sensitivity of the four factors was divided into four grades which contains high sensitive area, moderately sensitive area, low sensitive area and insensitive area areas occupied 9.43%, 36.46%, 50.61% and 3.50%. There existed a significant spatial differentiation in the ecological sensitivity of Enshi city. This study could provide scientific references for the city's environmental protection and economic development, to help its economic growth.

Critical modeling parameters identified for 3D CFD modeling of rectangular final settling tanks for New York City wastewater treatment plants

New York City Environmental Protection is in the process of incorporating biological nitrogen removal (BNR) in its wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) which entails operating the aeration tanks with higher levels of mixed liquor suspended solids (MLSS) than a conventional activated sludge process. The objective of this paper is to discuss two of the important parameters introduced in the 3D CFD model that has been developed by the City College of New York (CCNY) group: (a) the development of the 'discrete particle' measurement technique to carry out the fractionation of the solids in the final settling tank (FST) which has critical implications in the prediction of the effluent quality; and (b) the modification of the floc aggregation (K(A)) and floc break-up (K(B)) coefficients that are found in Parker's flocculation equation (Parker et al. 1970, 1971) used in the CFD model. The dependence of these parameters on the predictions of the CFD model will be illustrated with simulation results on one of the FSTs at the 26th Ward WWTP in Brooklyn, NY.

The seasonal changes and spatial trends of particle-associated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in the summer and autumn in Changsha city

16 Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in TSP were identified and quantified in samples collected during May and September of 2008, in Changsha, on three different sites: the city environmental protection agency of Changsha (A), the Middle School Attached to Hunan Normal University (B) and Yuhua district (C). The filters contained the particulate matter were extracted with dichloromethane in ultrasonic bath and then analyzed by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS). The total of 16 PAHs mean concentrations of summer at site A, B, C were 32.503 ng/m3 , 19.360 ng/m3 and 26.784 ng/m3, respectively; while the values for autumn at site A, B, C were 24.982 ng/m3, 17.088 ng/m3 and 15.465 ng/m3, respectively. The mean concentrations of PAHs of all samples in A site were 0.57 times higher than those measured at B site, and 0.38 times higher than at C site. The analysis of their distribution amongst the main emission sources was done through the diagnosis of concentration ratios of PAHs, as well as using statistical methods like principal component analysis. The diagnosis results of concentration ratios of PAHs suggested that the major polluting sources in the Changsha region during the studied period were the combustion of fuels, such as diesel oil, gasoline, wood and coal. The statistical analysis separated the 16 compounds studied into 3 and 4 factors for summer and autumn, separately. Factor 1 in summer represents vehicular emissions. Factor 2 represents emissions from the nature gas. Factor 3 represents emissions from combustion. In autumn, vehicle emissions, combustion sources, natural gas and coke oven were the major emissions.

The impacts of different kinds of dust events on PM 10 pollution in northern China

In this study the frequencies of PM 10 (as key urban pollutant) in 14 key environmental protection cities in northern China were analyzed. It follows that the PM 10 concentration in the high-frequency period is higher with an extent 0.009–0.066 mg m −3 than in the low-frequency period of 2001–2002. Further the impacts of three kinds of dust events on the PM 10 concentration in four cities (Beijing, Hohhot, Xi’an and Lanzhou) were explored. The results showed that different kinds of dust events have different influences on variation of PM 10 concentration in these four cities. In Lanzhou and Hohhot, which are near the source areas of dust events, the contribution degree of these three dust events to the PM 10 is: floating dust>dust storm>blowing dust. Whereas, in Beijing and Xi’an situated in dust event passing areas, the mean value of PM 10 concentration is higher in blowing dust than in floating dust (no dust storm). In addition, the influences of dust events on PM 10 concentration are different in the cities on different dust event paths. In Beijing and Hohhot (on the northern path), the high PM 10 concentration is usually caused by blowing dust. But in both Lanzhou and Xi’an (on the western/northwestern path) the high PM 10 pollution concentration is usually caused by floating dust.

Continuous Determination of Fine Particulate Matter Mass in the Salt Lake City Environmental Monitoring Project: A Comparison of Real-Time and Conventional TEOM Monitor Results

Fine particulate matter (PM2.5) mass was determined on a continuous basis at the Salt Lake City Environmental Protection Agency Environmental Monitoring for Public Awareness and Community Tracking monitoring site in Salt Lake City, UT, using three different monitoring techniques. Hourly averaged PM2.5 mass data were collected during two sampling periods (summer 2000 and winter 2002) using a real-time total ambient mass sampler (RAMS), sample equilibration system (SES)-tapered element oscillating microbalance (TEOM), and conventional TEOM monitor. This paper compares the results obtained from the various monitoring systems, which differ in their treatment of semivolatile material (SVM; particle-bound water, semivolatile ammonium nitrate, and semivolatile organic compounds). PM2.5 mass results obtained by the RAMS were consistently higher than those obtained by the SES-TEOM and conventional TEOM monitors because of the RAMS ability to measure semivolatile ammonium nitrate and semivolatile organic material but not particle-bound water. The SESTEOM monitoring system was able to account for an average of 28% of the SVM, whereas the conventional TEOM monitor loses essentially all of the SVM from the single filter during sampling. Occasional mass readings by the various TEOM monitors that are higher than RAMS results may reflect particle-bound water, which, under some conditions, is measured by the TEOM but not the RAMS.