Haze Pollution In China Research Articles

Sustainable Environmental Management: Evaluating the Effects of the Tail Number Restriction Policy on Air Quality in Lanzhou, China

In recent years, haze pollution in China has garnered significant attention from both the government and the public, with vehicle emissions being identified as a key source of pollution. This study analyzes the impact of the tail number restriction policy (TNRP) on air quality using daily data from Lanzhou, China, in 2020, by employing the regression discontinuity in time (RDiT) method. The results show that the TNRP significantly reduced the air quality index (AQI) and concentrations of PM2.5, PM10, NO2, and CO, indicating a positive effect on air quality, though this is not a long-term standalone solution. Unlike previous policies, the current TNRP restricts traffic during peak hours, yielding consistent effects. This study recommends continuing the restriction policy and developing a comprehensive environmental governance system to promote new energy vehicles and enhance public transportation infrastructure.

High-speed rail, resource allocation and haze pollution in China

The transport sector is crucial in influencing anthropogenic pollution. By employing Chinese prefecture-level city data from 2003 to 2019 and a sample of 443124 observations of industrial firms from 2003 to 2013, this paper treats the opening of high-speed rail (HSR) as a quasi-natural experiment and uses a multi-period difference-in-differences (DID) method to investigate the impact of HSR on haze pollution. The findings reveal that (1) HSR has a significant negative effect on cities' PM2.5 concentrations, and the result is held after a series of robustness checks; (2) the analysis based on Chinese industrial firm data also yields significant results in reducing smoke and dust emissions by HSR, providing micro-level understanding for the main conclusion; (3) at the firm level, heterogeneity derives from firm ownership, location, and industry; (4) the reduction in industrial firms' labor and capital distortion and resource misallocation play a crucial role in the HSR's impact on mitigating haze pollution; (5) at the city level, HSR reduces haze pollution by improving overall resource allocation across cities, and promoting the flow of capital to cities that are more developed and have higher returns. These results indicate that recognizing the causal relationship between HSR and haze pollution and the impact mechanism poses policy implications for inter-city transportation infrastructure development and pollution control.

Green Finance Advancement and Its Impact on Urban Haze Pollution in China: Evidence from 283 Cities

This study selects the entropy method to measure the comprehensive index of green finance and 2011–2020 panel data covering 283 cities in China; describes spatial and temporal evolution, the migration of the centre of gravity, and discrete trends in green finance and urban haze pollution; and empirically examines the effect of green finance on urban haze pollution using static and dynamic spatial Durbin models. The study revealed that Chinese urban haze pollution significantly decreased during the sample period and that the hotspot emission area shifted to the northeast. Green finance experienced significant advancement, transitioning from a lower stage to a higher stage and becoming more geographically focused. Green finance mainly suppresses urban haze pollution through spatial spillover effects, and such spatial spillover effects change from positive to negative over time. Regarding regional heterogeneity, the effect on the western region is positive, the effects on the central and eastern regions are negative, and there is a spatial spillover effect “from promotion to inhibition” in the eastern region. Due to the heterogeneity in resource endowments, green finance in nonresource-based cities has a greater impact on haze pollution than does green finance in other cities, and in the long term, it has a significant inhibitory effect on haze pollution. This study reveals the effect of green finance on urban haze pollution from a dynamic perspective and, in doing so, it not only provides a new path for joint governance of haze pollution between cities but also provides more accurate guidance for the government to formulate policies for different regions and regions with different resource endowments.

Can the construction of a high-speed rail alleviate haze pollution: an empirical analysis based on social networks and dynamic spatial econometric models.

With the increase in haze pollution in Chinese cities, answering the question of whether using a high-speed rail (HSR) as a green and efficient transportation system can alleviate haze pollution in China has become a research hotspot. This study empirically tests the impact of HSR network construction on haze pollution and its spatial spillover effects. (1) The construction of a HSR would have a mitigation effect on haze pollution in node cities and surrounding cities, and the more developed the HSR is, the more significant that this effect would be. (2) Haze pollution persists for a long time, the haze pollution from the previous year may have a positive promoting effect on the haze pollution in the following year. (3) The use of a HSR reduces haze pollution by replacing traditional road transportation and promoting industrial structure upgrading and technological innovation. (4) The inhibitory effect of HSR use on haze pollution varies due to regional differences and variation in city size.

Trade Openness and Haze Pollution in China: The Moderating Role of Environmental Regulation

Trade Openness and Haze Pollution in China: The Moderating Role of Environmental Regulation

Reduced atmospheric sulfate enhances fine particulate nitrate formation in eastern China

Nitrate (NO3−) is a major component of atmospheric fine particles. Recent studies in eastern China have shown the increasing trend of NO3− in contrast to the ongoing control of nitrogen oxide (NOx). Here, we elucidate the effects of reduced sulfur dioxide (SO2) on the enhancement of NO3− formation based on field measurements at the summit of Mt. Tai (1534 m a.s.l.) and present detailed modelling analyses. From 2007 to 2018, the measured springtime concentrations of various primary pollutants and fine sulfate (SO42−) decreased sharply (−16.4 % to −89.7 %), whereas fine NO3− concentration increased by 22.8 %. The elevated NO3− levels cannot be explained by the changes in meteorological conditions or other related parameters but were primarily attributed to the considerable reduction in SO42− concentrations (−73.4 %). Results from a multi-phase chemical box model indicated that the reduced SO42− levels decreased the aerosol acidity and prompted the partitioning of HNO3 into the aerosol phase. WRF-Chem model analyses suggest that such a negative effect is a regional phenomenon throughout the planetary boundary layer over eastern China in spring. This study provides new insights into the worsening situation of NO3− aerosol pollution and has important implications for controlling haze pollution in China.

The Impact of Smart City Pilots on Haze Pollution in China—An Empirical Test Based on Panel Data of 283 Prefecture-Level Cities

The rapid pace of urbanization in China has led to a significant increase in haze pollution in its cities. However, there has been limited research on the dynamic impact and mechanisms of smart city pilots, which offer an innovative approach to urbanization, on haze pollution. This study selects panel data from 283 prefecture-level cities in China from 2007 to 2017 and uses a quasi-experimental approach based on the three batches of pilot construction of smart cities since 2012 to examine the impact of smart city pilots on haze pollution. The multi-phase difference-in-differences (DID) model is used for the analysis. The findings reveal: (1) Smart city pilots have a significant positive effect on reducing urban haze pollution. (2) Smart city pilots contribute to changes in the urban development model, where technological innovation, industrial structure adjustment, and resource allocation optimization under innovation-driven development significantly mitigate haze pollution. (3) Heterogeneity analysis shows regional differences in the effectiveness of smart city pilot policies in reducing haze pollution in China, with a decreasing trend from the eastern to the western regions. The haze-reducing effect of smart city pilots in the central region has yet to be observed. This research provides valuable theoretical and policy insights for improving urban ecological environments and promoting green transformations of production and lifestyle.

Polluting thy neighbor or benefiting thy neighbor: Effects of the clean energy development on haze pollution in China

Polluting thy neighbor or benefiting thy neighbor: Effects of the clean energy development on haze pollution in China

Public Concern about Haze and Ozone in the Era of Their Coordinated Control in China.

In China, due to the implementation of the Action Plan for Prevention and Control of Air Pollution (APPCAP), the concentrations of PM2.5 (fine particulate matter) and severe haze in most cities have decreased significantly. However, at present, haze pollution in China has not been completely mitigated, and the problem of O3 (ozone) has become prominent. Therefore, the prevention and control of haze and O3 pollution have become important and noticeable issues in the field of atmospheric management. We used the Baidu search indices of "haze" and "ozone" to reflect public concerns about air quality and uncover different correlations between level of concern and level of pollution, and then we identified regions in China that require public attention. The results showed that (1) over the last decade, the search index of haze had a rapid trend of variation in line with changes in haze pollution, but that of O3 had a relatively slowly increasing trend; (2) the lag days between the peaks of public concern and the peaks of air pollution became increasingly shorter according to daily data analysis; and (3) 96 polluted cities did not receive sufficient public attention. Although periods of heavily haze-polluted weather, which affects visibility, have generated much public concern, periods of slight pollution have not received enough public attention. Public health protection and environmental participation regarding these periods of slight pollution in China deserve appropriate levels of attention.

Manufacturing agglomeration, urban form, and haze pollution.

Manufacturing agglomeration promotes rapid economic development while also causing severe environmental pollution. This paper investigates the impact and mechanism of manufacturing agglomeration on haze pollution from the Chinese city level. Furthermore, we discuss the moderating effect and threshold effect of the three urban forms of urban external shape complexity, urban compactness, and urban fragmentation on the relationship between the two. The result shows the following: (1) The aggregation of the manufacturing industry presents an inverted U-shaped characteristic of promoting first and then inhibiting haze pollution in China's overall, eastern and central regions. (2) The complexity of the city's external shape and the city's fragmentation has a positive moderating effect on the relationship between manufacturing agglomeration and haze pollution. And urban fragmentation shows a negative moderating effect on the relationship between the two when the level of manufacturing agglomeration is on the right side of the inverted U-shaped curve. (3) The urban form shows a significant double threshold characteristic for haze pollution, increasing the complexity of the city's external shape and the city's fragmentation. The agglomeration of manufacturing shows the characteristics of first inhibiting and then promoting haze pollution. As urban compactness increases, the inhibitory effect of manufacturing agglomeration on haze pollution increases.

Heterogeneity environmental regulation and provincial haze pollution in China: an empirical study based on threshold model

Heterogeneity environmental regulation and provincial haze pollution in China: an empirical study based on threshold model

Multiplicative consistency of linguistic preference relations with weakened hedges

Preference relations are often used to derive the priority of attributes and/or alternatives. Linguistic term with weakened hedges (LTWH) as a type of complex linguistic expressions can more straightforwardly describe the linguistic information provided by DMs when evaluating under uncertainties. The preference relations represented by LTWHs are an effective tool to model linguistic information. The concept and properties of additive consistency have been proposed before. This paper aims to study the multiplicative consistency of preference relations expressed by LWTHs. This paper constructs the principle of inspection for multiplicative consistency. Especially, the theories and algorithms for consistency checking and improving are proposed. We develop an automatic approach to improve a LWHPR that is not multiplicatively consistent. Finally, we demonstrate the practicality of the proposed method through a case study of evaluating the attributes in the prevention of haze pollution in China.

Urban land expansion, fiscal decentralization and haze pollution: Evidence from 281 prefecture-level cities in China

Urban land expansion will influence aspects of economy and society, including the quality of the urban environment. This study aims to examine the impacts of urban land expansion in China on haze pollution under the fiscal decentralization system using the spatial Durbin model. Urban land expansion is measured using two dimensions of urban land expansion, namely, intensity and orderliness of the structure of urban land expansion. The results reveal that urban haze pollution in China exhibits significant positive spillover characteristics, which manifest as “high–high” and “low–low” characteristics of spatial agglomeration. In general, improving the expansion intensity of urban land and the orderly structure of urban land expansion can reduce haze pollution in local and surrounding areas. With the improvement of the degree of fiscal decentralization, the positive effect of an orderly urban land structure in reducing haze pollution will be weakened. The above-mentioned influences depict distinct heterogeneities at the levels of city size, type, and location.

Influence mechanism of urban polycentric spatial structure on PM2.5 emissions in the Yangtze River Economic Belt, China

Urban spatial structure has important impact on environmental pollutant emissions , but few studies have investigated the possibility of a bidirectional influence mechanism between the two. This study used panel data of 108 prefecture-level cities in the Yangtze River Economic Belt (China) from 2009 to 2018. The objective was to test empirically the dynamic emission reduction effect of polycentric spatial structure on environmental pollution using the STIRPAT model as a framework to decipher the bidirectional causality effect. System generalized method of moments and the Sobel Test were applied to construct a panel intermediary effect model to verify the mechanism of urban polycentric development mode on urban haze pollution in China. Results showed that the urban polycentric structure in the Yangtze River Economic Belt has produced substantial pollution reduction effects, and that there are heterogenous regional, size, and functional differences in the impact of urban spatial structure of the Yangtze River Economic Belt on the environment. Moreover, the results of the intermediary effect test showed that market integration and industrial structure optimization are important ways via which to improve environmental pollutant emissions using the polycentric spatial development model. On this basis, suggestions were proposed for optimizing urban spatial structure to promote high-quality development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt. • Urban polycentric spatial structure has a dynamic abatement effect on environmental pollution. • There are heterogeneous regional, size, and functional differences in the influence mechanism. • Market integration and industrial structure optimization play an intermediary role. • Two intermediary variables can more effectively release the positive externality of polycentric spatial structure. • Cities should strengthen polycentric spatial structure to reduce PM 2.5 pollution.

Exploring the association between resource dependence and haze pollution in China: the mediating effect of green technology innovation.

Haze pollution has been addressed in extensive studies over the last few years. However, the relationship between resource dependence and haze pollution has not been fully investigated. This study focuses on addressing this problem while considering the mediating role of green technology innovation. A panel dataset of 263 prefecture-level cities in China from 2005 to 2018 is used for the analysis. The results show the following: (1) the two-way fixed-effect model reveals that resource dependence contributes significantly to haze pollution, and this finding remains robust across a series of robustness tests. (2) A mediation analysis indicates that resource dependence is unfavorable for green technology innovation, indirectly affecting the alleviation of haze pollution. (3) The results of panel threshold regression suggest that green technology innovation promotes haze reduction in the weak and medium resource dependence stages, whereas this optimization effect disappears in the strong resource dependence stage due to rebound effects. (4) The results of regional heterogeneity demonstrate that the positive effects of resource dependence on haze pollution exist in eastern and western China but not in central China. Based on these results, policy implications are given to reduce haze pollution.

How high-speed rail reduces haze pollution in China

ABSTRACT This article examines the effect of high-speed rail (HSR) on haze pollution using a panel data set covering 276 Chinese cities in 2010–2019 using the GS2SLS approach. It is found that HSR accessibility can significantly reduce haze pollution in China, which has important policy implications on HSR development.

Variation of Aerosol Optical Depth Measured by Sun Photometer at a Rural Site near Beijing during the 2017–2019 Period

In recent years, the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region has become one of the worst areas for haze pollution in China. Sun photometers are widely used for aerosol optical property monitoring due to the advantages of fully automatic acquisition, simple maintenance, standardization of data processing, and low uncertainty. Research sites are mostly concentrated in cities, while the long-term analysis of aerosol optical depth (AOD) for the pollution transmission channel in rural Beijing is still lacking. Here, we obtained an AOD monitoring dataset from August 2017 to March 2019 using the ground-based CE-318 sun photometer at the Gucheng meteorological observation site in southwest Beijing. These sun photometer AOD data were used for the ground-based validation of MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) and AHI (Advanced Himawari Imager) AOD data. It was found that MODIS and AHI can reflect AOD variation trends by sun photometer on daily, monthly, and seasonal scales. The original AOD measurements of the sun photometer show good correlations with satellite observations by MODIS (R = 0.97), and AHI (R = 0.89), respectively, corresponding to their different optimal spatial and temporal windows for matching with collocated satellite ground pixels. However, MODIS is less stable for aerosols of different concentrations and particle sizes. Most of the linear regression intercepts between the satellite and the photometer are less than 0.1, indicating that the errors due to surface reflectance in the inversion are small, and the slope is least biased (AHI: slope = 0.91, MODIS: slope = 0.18) in the noon period (11 a.m.–2 p.m.) and most biased in summer (AHI: slope = 0.77, MODIS: slope = 1.31), probably due to errors in the aerosol model. The daily and seasonal variation trends between CE-318 AOD measurements in the Gucheng site and fine particulate observations from the national air quality site nearby were also compared and investigated. In addition, a typical haze–dust complex pollution event in North China was analyzed and the changes in AOD during the pollution event were quantified. In processing, we use sun photometer and satellite AOD data in combination with meteorological and PM data. Overall, this paper has implications for the study of AOD evolution patterns at different time scales, the association between PM2.5 concentrations and AOD changes, and pollution monitoring.

Digital economy development and haze pollution: evidence from China.

The development of the digital economy radiates to national ecological protection and resource utilization, holding the key to haze governance. However, as the largest developing country, the impact of China's digital economy on haze pollution has received little attention. Based on the panel data of 275 prefecture-level cities in China from 2011 to 2018, this paper studies the impact and mechanism of digital economy development on haze pollution. The results of fixed effect model show that the development of digital economy has a significant negative impact on urban haze pollution in China. The results of heterogeneity analysis show that the development of digital economy has a more significant inhibitory effect on the haze pollution of resource-based cities, non-resource-based cities, eastern cities, and large cities. The quasi-natural experimental results show that the establishment of the "national big data comprehensive experimental area" is conducive to haze pollution control, which proves the conclusion that the digital economy can significantly reduce haze pollution. The development of digital economy can significantly reduce haze pollution by promoting technological innovation and optimizing resource allocation.

Investigating Spatial Heterogeneity of the Environmental Kuznets Curve for Haze Pollution in China

This study investigates the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) for haze in 31 cities and provinces across China using the spatial data for a period of 15 years, from 2000 to 2014. We utilized the geographically weighted regression (GWR) model to consider the spatial non-stationary characteristics of the air quality in a vast territory. This approach allowed us to verify the region-specific characteristics, while the global model estimated the average relationship across the entire nation. Although the EKC for haze was statistically significant in the global models, the results only confirmed the existence of an EKC between the overall air quality and economic performance. Thus, it was difficult to determine the regional differences in an EKC. The results of the GWR model found the spatial variability of each variable and showed significant spatial heterogeneity in the EKC across regions. Although six regions—Beijing, Gansu, Heilongjiang, Jiangxi, Jilin, Liaoning, Shanghai, Tianjin, Xinjiang, and Zhejiang—showed inverted U-shaped EKCs, these were only statistically significant in three big cities—Beijing, Tianjin, and Shanghai. The results demonstrated no EKCs in the other 25 provinces and cities. These results provide strong empirical evidence that there is significant spatial heterogeneity in the EKC of China. Thus, a more regionally specialized air pollution control policy is required to create an effective policy for balanced economic growth in China.

Study on Socio-Economic Factors of Haze Pollution in the Context of Sustainable Development: Based on Asymmetric Interaction Effects Perspective

Haze pollution has been a global problem plaguing people for nearly two centuries, especially in developing countries, where haze pollution is getting worse and has become the culprit that restricts global sustainable development. As the largest developing country in the world, China’s regional characteristics of haze pollution are increasingly prominent, and the coverage is expanding, which means that there is a strong spatial interaction of haze pollution. The real world is composed of asymmetric spatial relationships, and asymmetric spatial interactions are more consistent with the reality of haze pollution. To this end, this paper identifies the asymmetric spatial interaction effects of haze pollution by using the time series econometric analysis framework and then constructs asymmetric spatial weights. In this paper, the spatial panel Durbin model and spatial effect decomposition technique are used for the empirical investigation to provide new empirical evidence to reveal the socio-economic influences of haze pollution. The study finds that haze pollution in China has a significant asymmetric spatial interaction and the degree of influence varies among cities. During the sample period, there is a significant inverted U-shaped relationship between economic development and haze pollution. However, the vast majority of cities have not passed the top inflection point of the inverted U-curve and are still in the stage where haze pollution is gradually intensifying with economic growth. High population density, high energy consumption, and unreasonable energy consumption structure aggravate haze pollution, while fixed-asset investment and science and technology expenditure help to reduce haze pollution. However, only the spatial spillover effect of the energy consumption structure is significant. Therefore, the improvement and implementation of more effective socio-economic prevention and control policies in the case of asymmetric interaction is the key to effectively dealing with heavy pollution weather, fighting the defense of the blue sky, and achieving sustainable development.