High-speed Economic Development Research Articles

Spatial-temporal distribution and emission of urban scale air pollutants in Hefei based on Mobile-DOAS

As a significant city in the Yangtze River Delta regions, Hefei has experienced rapid changes in the sources of air pollution due to its high-speed economic development and urban expansion. However, there has been limited research in recent years on the spatial-temporal distribution and emission of its atmospheric pollutants. To address this, this study conducted mobile observations of urban roads using the Mobile-DOAS instrument from June 2021 to May 2022. The monitoring results exhibit a favourable consistent with TROPOMI satellite data and ground monitoring station data. Temporally, there were pronounced seasonal variations in air pollutants. Spatially, high concentration of HCHO and NO2 were closely associated with traffic congestion on roadways, while heightened SO2 levels were attributed to winter heating and industrial emissions. The study also revealed that with the implementation of road policies, the average vehicle speed increased by 95.4%, while the NO concentration decreased by 54.4%. In the estimation of urban NOx emission flux, it was observed that in temporal terms, compared with inventory data, the emissions calculated via mobile measurements exhibited more distinct seasonal patterns, with the highest emission rate of 349 g/sec in winter and the lowest of 142 g/sec in summer. In spatial terms, the significant difference in emissions between the inner and outer ring roads also suggests the presence of the city's primary NOx emission sources in the area between these two rings. This study offers data support for formulating the next phase of air pollution control measures in urban areas.

China’s safe and just space during 40 years of rapid urbanization and changing policies

ContextChina’s high-speed economic development was accompanied by rapid urbanization for forty years, guided by a series of changing policies enacted by the central government. However, did China become more sustainable both economically and environmentally? Or more specifically, did it operate within or towards a safe and just space (SJS)? Although numerous relevant studies exist, these questions have not been adequately addressed, and a multi-scale landscape perspective is needed.ObjectivesThe main objective of this study was to examine China’s urbanization trends, associated institutional changes, and their impacts on the nation’s sustainability trajectory during the past four decades. Specifically, we intended to analyze the impacts of urbanization and related policies on the spatial patterns, temporal trends, shortfalls, and complex nexus of the different dimensions of SJS across scales in China.MethodsWe apply the SJS framework, which integrates eight environmental ceilings and seven social justice foundations, to examine China’s urbanization, socioeconomic dynamics, and institutional changes, as well as their impacts on sustainability at multiple spatial scales. Segmented regression and correlation analysis were used to analyze the relationship of SJS with landscape urbanization and governance across China.ResultsSince the implementation of China’s Western Development Plan, China has faced increasing challenges of overshoots in CO2 emissions, phosphorus and nitrogen loading, ecological footprint, and material footprint on a per capita basis. However, our analysis showed that, by 2015, China met nearly all basic social justice needs. The pattern of SJS showed geospatial gradients of increasing social justice (except material footprint), multi-footprints, and CO2 from eastern to central, northeastern, and western regions, and from developed to developing provinces. The tradeoffs between social justice, environmental safety, and regional equality remain pronounced across heterogeneous landscapes with different levels of urbanization. The western region’s material footprint expanded enormously, but mainly for consumption in the eastern region of China.ConclusionsChina’s development in the past four decades is characterized by enormous economic growth, rapid urbanization, much improved living standards, highly fragmented landscapes, and increasing environmental problems. To promote sustainability, China should continue to implement the strategy of high-quality development and promote ecological civilization. Regional landscape-based approaches are needed to explicitly recognize geospatial heterogeneity and disparities, and better understand the urbanization-governance-landscape nexus for promoting a safer and more just China.

Study of Land Cover Change in the City with the Fastest Economic Growth in China (Hefei) from 2000 to 2020 Based on Google Earth Engine Platform

Hefei’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate ranks first among all cities in China, and it was the fastest-growing city in China from 2000 to 2020. The high-speed economic development inevitably led to rapid changes in land cover types, e.g., an increment in artificial features (built-up) and decrement in natural features (vegetation). However, (1) many previous studies focus on the land cover change in metropolis or at the global scale, yet few focus on underdeveloped but fast-growing cities; (2) land cover studies mainly focus on global variations, yet seldom on local characteristics. Thus, it is of great significance to monitor the land cover change for the city with the fastest economic growth in China based on the long time-series satellite images from both global and local perspectives. In this study, with support from huge amounts of data (including 719 Landsat TM/ETM+/OLI satellite images, land surface temperature, nighttime satellite images, DEM, multiple land cover products, and various auxiliary data), processing and parallel computing abilities of the GEE platform, classification maps of land cover in Hefei from 2000 to 2020 are produced based on a random forest machine learning method, and the spatio-temporal variations and driving factors are analyzed from both global and local viewpoints. The results show that: (1) the classification accuracy is excellent; the average overall accuracy is 93% and the Kappa coefficient is 0.88; (2) the general spatio-temporal variations in land cover in Hefei from 2000 to 2020 are obvious; the built-up area expanded from 419.72 km2 to 1530.20 km2, with a total growth rate of 264.58%. With the expansion of the built-up area, the vegetation coverage decreased by 16.61% (1652.56 km2); (3) the land surface temperature shows an increment trend in the new town yet a decrement trend in the old town due to the change in vegetation coverage and the decentration of administration centers; further analysis shows that the population and the social economy are two driving factors for land cover changes. It is worth noting that both the area and coverage of vegetation in the old town and water body area in Hefei increased significantly, although the fast urbanization inevitably caused a decrement in vegetation and water area in the whole city, indicating both the high-speed economic development and improvement in green surfaces simultaneously experienced in Hefei from 2000 to 2020.

Source-specific health risk assessment of PM2.5 bound heavy metal in re-suspended fugitive dust: A case study in Wuhan metropolitan area, central China

To more accurately assess the health risk of heavy metals (HMs) from PM2.5 re-suspended fugitive dust (RFD2.5), it is necessary to understand the main source of health risk from different types of RFD2.5. For this purpose, the HMs (As, Cd, Co, Cr, Mn, Ni, Pb, V, and Zn) in five types of RFD2.5 from the Wuhan metropolitan area, which was prepared with a homemade suspension chamber, were comprehensively measured. A method combining the positive matrix factorization with the health risk assessment model was used to quantify the source-specific health risks. Results indicate that traffic-related activities contributed the most HMs to RFD2.5 at 61.18%, followed by nature sources (21.58%), fossil fuels emission (9.32%), and local deposition (3.92%). Although the non-carcinogenic risk of HMs had not been found from RFD2.5 through inhaling, cancer risks from Cr exceed the safety threshold. Moreover, traffic-related activities were also the main reason to cause carcinogenic risk of Cr from RFD2.5 in the Wuhan metropolitan area, especially in Wuhan. Besides that, developing characteristics would affect the carcinogenic risk level from RFD2.5, such as citizens in high-speed economic development or tourist cities would face relative high carcinogenic risks of Cr from traffic-relate activities in RFD2.5, while in green economic transition or small-scale city such risks were shown as relatively low. The investigation improves the understanding of the source of HMs health risk in different types of RFD2.5 and the results provide valuable information on health risk mitigation strategies for environmental managers.

The Quantitative Impact of the Arable Land Protection Policy on the Landscape of Farmland Abandonment in Guangdong Province

In the past two decades, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of China (MARA) has issued a series of strict cultivated land protection policies to prevent the spread of farmland abandonment and maintain a dynamic balance between the quantity and quality of arable land. However, high-speed economic development, strict arable land protection policies, and ecological security and sustainable development strategies interacting with human activities have brought challenges to quantifying the effectiveness of arable land protection policies. In this study, we proposed a method to quantify the impacts of the arable land protection policies and evaluate the quantitative impacts on farmland abandonment in Guangdong Province after 2014 from the perspective of landscape ecology. The results illustrated that the landscape fragmentation of farmland abandonment in Guangdong Province decreased after the new arable land policies were issued. More annual farmland abandonment (AFA) shifted to seasonal farmland abandonment (SFA), revealing the considerable pronounced effects of farmland abandonment management. The new policies effectively restrained the area increase for AFA in the regions with lower rural population (RPOP) and lower gross domestic product (GDP), and reduced the fragmentation of AFA in the regions with the highest RPOP and lower GDP. Additionally, the new policies effectively restrained the fragmentation increase for SFA in the regions with lower RPOP and lower GDP, and reduced the area increase for SFA in the regions with the highest RPOP and lower GDP. The management effect was not that significant in the regions with higher RPOP and higher GDP. These findings will provide important data references for arable land decision making in southern China.

Forecast of Coal Demand in Shanxi Province Based on GA—LSSVM under Multiple Scenarios

Under the “carbon peaking and carbon neutrality” goal, Shanxi Province adjusts the power supply structure and promotes the development of a high proportion of new energy, which has a certain impact on the demand for thermal coal. Therefore, constructing a reasonable forecasting model for thermal coal demand can play a role in stabilizing coal supply and demand. This paper analyzes various factors related to coal demand, and uses Pearson coefficient to screen out six variables with strong correlation. Then, based on the scenario analysis method, combined with the “14th Five-Year Plan” of Shanxi Province, different scenarios of economic development and carbon emission reduction development are set. Finally, a multi-scenario GA–LSSVM forecasting model of thermal coal demand in Shanxi Province is constructed, and the future development trend of thermal coal demand in Shanxi Province is predicted. The results show that the demand for thermal coal is the largest in the mode of high-speed economic development and low emission reduction, and the demand for thermal coal is the lowest in the mode of low-speed economic development and strong emission reduction, which provides a scientific basis for the implementation of Shanxi Province’s thermal coal supply policy.

Heterogeneous Impact of Economic Policy Uncertainty on Provincial Environmental Pollution Emissions in China

With China’s proposal of carbon peak and carbon neutral goals, its trend of economic development has shifted from pursuing high-speed economic development to high-quality development. However, for the past few years, with the increasing global economic policy uncertainty, fluctuations in the world economy, especially emergent through public events such as COVID-19, affect investment and consumption, and thus indirectly affect the realization of the dual carbon target. Economic policy uncertainty plays an increasingly important role in many factors affecting environmental pollution. We conducted an empirical test on sample data, which are from 30 provinces and autonomous regions in China from 2008 to 2020, to further study the impact of economic policy uncertainty on environmental pollution emissions. We found that: (1) Economic policy uncertainty is inversely related to the emission of environmental pollution, and the consumption effect brought by economic policy uncertainty is more than the investment effect. This means that, with the economic policy uncertainty index increasing, the comprehensive index of environmental pollution emissions is lower, and the environmental pollution emissions are lower; (2) Compared with provinces with an average level of economic development, the impact of economic policy uncertainty on environmental emissions is deeper in developed provinces.

Simulation of Urban Storm Water Runoff Control Based on Big Data

The acceleration of urbanization has brought about rapid economic development, but at the same time, it has also brought some damage to the ecological environment. The proportion of hardened area of the ground is higher and higher, and the rainwater runoff pollution caused by rainfall is more and more serious. In order to follow the sustainable development strategy, and for the more stable and high-speed economic development, the control of rainwater runoff pollution is urgent. The purpose of this paper is to simulate the urban storm water runoff control and find the most suitable scheme for storm water runoff pollution control. Because the simulation of SWMM is more accurate than other models, it can directly reflect the situation of rainwater runoff pollution, so the model selected for rainwater runoff in this paper is SWMM, and then build the model, through the collection and collation of the basic data of the study area, the generalization of the sub catchment area and drainage network is completed. Through the analysis of the characteristics of the study area, the rainwater garden and permeable pavement are determined as the scheme to control the rainwater runoff in the study area. Finally, the SWMM model is used to simulate the control effect of rainwater garden and pervious pavement on rainwater runoff pollution control. The experimental results show that the storm water garden can effectively control the impact of SS scouring effect on the environment, significantly reduce the discharge of SS, and significantly reduce the peak concentration of SS, and its ability to control SS increases with the thickness of the surface plant layer. The control ability of rain permeable brick pavement to SS increases with the increase of surface porosity, that is, the control effect of SS is the best when the porosity is 20%.

Comparative Analysis of Civil Engineering Quantity Calculation Based on Glodon GTJ and Revit

Diversified BIM software have been generated in recent years with the high-speed economic development and fast progress of computer technology in China. BIM technologies have been widely applied in construction engineering, e.g., the calculation of engineering quantities, where the modeling method and data importing method in 3D graphics quantity calculation software have been mainly used. In this study, the technical features of Glodon GTJ and Revit software as well as the possible errors of the two software in the engineering quantity calculation were analyzed. Taking the civil engineering of Ganglin C-01 Phase II high-standard plant as an example, the two software were used for the civil engineering modeling, the concrete engineering were calculated, the reasons for the errors in the engineering quantities were analyzed according to the calculation results, and through the extensive analysis and calculation, it was finally obtained that the errors were not only related to the limitations of two software but more correlated with the professional quality of technical personnel.

NGHIÊN CỨU MÂU THUẪN VÀ LỰA CHỌN ƯU TIÊN TRONG QUY HOẠCH TỔNG HỢP KHÔNG GIAN VEN BIỂN HUYỆN HẢI HẬU - NGHĨA HƯNG TỈNH NAM ĐỊNH

Hai Hau - Nghia Hung are two coastal districts in the Southeast of Nam Dinh province with total area of 35,652.29 km2. Located in the middle between the Southern provinces of the Red river delta and the North Central provinces, Hai Hau and Nghia Hung are about 100 km from Hanoi along National Route 1A and 80 km from Hai Phong, in an area directly affected by the Hanoi - Hai Phong - Quang Ninh growth triangle. The two districts have an approximately 47 km coastline accounting for over 65% of the coastline of the province. Along the coastline there are four rivers: Red river, So river, Ninh Co river and Day river emptying into the sea through the estuaries: Ba Lat, Ha Lan, Ninh Co and Day, which facilitate the development in industry, agriculture, sea ports, trade, tourism... This is also a region with high-speed economic development and a series of plannings. Thus, a number of conflicts in exploiting and using natural resources and environmental protection have been raised, leading to destroyed sceneries, lost ecological balance, and becoming an anxious problem. This paper presents experimental results in defining the conflicts and priorities between sectors and economic fields in integrated coastal space planning of Hai Hau - Nghia Hung districts to select the economic sectors that have the most potential and advantages. Therefore, it will be appropriate in space usage in exploiting and using natural resources and environmental protection, which will provide the basis for the development of a sustainable marine economy.

Rapidly alleviating particulate matter pollution while maintaining high-speed economic development in the “world’s factory”

Dongguan, a city at the heart of China’s early reform and opening-up, has been known as the “world’s factory” for being one of the largest manufacturing bases in the world. Combining rational socioeconomic developments with effective control policies on particulate matter (PM) pollution, Dongguan successfully transformed to win-win situation in both high-speed economic development and rapid air quality improvement from 2005 to 2017. In this study, we applied a STIRPAT (Stochastic Impacts by Regression on Population, Affluence, and Technology) model to examine the relationships between PM pollution and the selected indicators of socioeconomic development in Dongguan. We found that the growths of proportion of secondary industry, low-grade road density and GDP per capita contribute greatly to the increase of PM pollution, while the growths of proportion of tertiary industry and high-grade road density could significantly slow down the increase of PM pollution. In addition, the policies for controlling PM pollution (e.g. retiring Yellow-Label cars, designating no burning zone and reforming industrial boilers) had great positive influence on PM reduction. However, PM pollution was negatively correlated with the number of automobiles probably due to the rapid and continuous improvements in the vehicle emission standard. Dongguan’s experience in its pursuit of such win-win situations within a short period of time can provide valuable guidance for other cities in China as well as many undeveloped and developing cities worldwide.

Environmental quality and economic sustainable development in Henan province

Purpose. Based on the econometric model (Kuznets curve) of the relationship between economic growth and environmental pollution – Environmental Kuznets Curve, this article analyses the relationship between economic growth and environmental pollution in Henan Province, and studies the natural economic relationship. 
 Methodology / approach. Three kinds of regional pollution index data of waste gas pollution and solid waste pollution and relative data of per capita GDP in Henan province were analyzed by using STATA software and OLS method was used to fit the relationship between environmental quality and economic growth, and the regression curve with the best fitting degree was obtained.
 Results. This article analyses the relationship between the overall environmental quality and economic growth in Henan Province over the years. According to the established data model it is obviously that economic growth itself cannot promote the improvement of environmental quality. To realize the double goals of economic growth and environmental protection, the key is to find out the inherent law of economic change in the process of economic growth, so as to construct a long-term mechanism of promoting environmental friendly economic growth. It is necessary: strengthening of pollution control and reduce pollutant discharge; follow the economic road of recycling resources; optimizing industrial structure and promoting coordinated sustainable development; adhere to the policy of energy saving and emission reduction.
 Originality / scientific novelty. Author’s developed econometric model is very useful in empirical assessment for the sustainable development of resources, environment and economy in Henan Province, and to provide a decision-making reference for the development of ecological environment in Henan Province. Accordingly, the proposed method, in the face of high-speed economic development today, put forward the countermeasures of economic sustainable development.
 Practical value / implications. Using the author’s proposed method leads to the achievement of the following results: can better promote Henan Province economy and ecological environment coordinated development.

Renewable Energy Potential by the Application of a Building Integrated Photovoltaic and Wind Turbine System in Global Urban Areas

Globally, maintaining equilibrium between energy supply and demand is critical in urban areas facing increasing energy consumption and high-speed economic development. As an alternative, the large-scale application of renewable energy, such as solar and wind power, might be a long-term solution in an urban context. This study assessed the overall utilization potential of a building-integrated photovoltaic and wind turbine (BIPvWt) system, which can be applied to a building skin in global urban areas. The first step of this study was to reorganize the large volume of global annual climate data. The data were analyzed by computational fluid dynamic analysis and an energy simulation applicable to the BIPvWt system, which can generate a Pmax 300 Wp/module with a 15% conversion efficiency from a photovoltaic (PV) system and a 0.149 power coefficient/module from wind turbines in categorized urban contexts and office buildings in specific cities; it was constructed to evaluate and optimize the ratio that can cover the current energy consumption. A diagram of the distribution of the solar and wind energy potential and design guidelines for a building skin were developed. The perspective of balancing the increasing energy consumption using renewable energy in urban areas can be visualized positively in the near future.

Bohai and Yellow Sea Oil Spill Prediction System and Its Application to Huangdao ‘11.22’ Oil Spill Incident

Marine oil spill has deep negative effect on both marine ecosystem and human activities. In recent years, due to China’s high-speed economic development, the demand for crude oil is increasing year by year in China, and leading to the high risk of marine oil spill. Therefore, it is necessary that promoting emergency response on marine oil spill in China and improving oil spill prediction techniques. In this study, based on oil spill model and GIS platform, we have developed the Bohai and Yellow sea oil spill prediction system. Combining with high-resolution meteorological and oceanographic forecast results, the system was applied to predict the drift and diffusion process of Huangdao ‘11.22’ oil spill incident. Although the prediction can’t be validated by some SAR images due to the lack of satellite observations, it still provided effective and referable oil spill behavior information to Maritime Safety Administration.

Linkages Analysis for Water-carbon Nexus in Urban System

Accompanying with the blossoms of rapid urbanization, the water resource limitation and carbon emissions are two important bottlenecks for high-speed economic development. As most of the mainstay industries are correlated with water resource consumptions and carbon emissions originating from fuel combustions, the investigation of water and carbon nexus is becoming vital for the sustainable development of urban system. Linkages analysis, originating from input-output analysis, can facilitate to demonstrate the embodied flows of water and carbon inner the socio-economic system, via illustrating the backward linkage (consumer drive) and forward linkage (producer push). Accordingly, a clear map of the water-carbon nexus in urban system is drawn, detecting the major sectors and pathways associating with water consumptions and carbon emissions.

Analysis on medical expenditure of elderly population and health promotion strategies in Iiaoning province

High-speed economic development and progress of medical technologies in China have significantly benefitted people's health conditions.Significantly higher life expectancy in average, as a result, also contributed to population aging process.How to deal with the contradictions between population aging and rapid growth of medical costs is challenging the healthcare sector of the country.Analysis of medical costs at three tertiary hospitals in Liaoning Province discovered problems in out-of-pocket medical expenses of elderlies, and proposed on measures to effectively ease their burden in medical expenditure. Key words: Elderly population; Medical expenditure; Countermeasure

Effective teaching factors and student reading strategies as predictors of student achievement in PISA 2009: the case of China and the United States

This study investigated effective teaching factors and student reading strategies as predictors of student reading achievement in the United States and China. Participants were 10,348 students in the 2009 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) study, 5115 from China and 5233 from the United States. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) revealed 22 effective instructional indicators in a four-factor structure in the two countries: morality, environment, strategies, and stimulation. The results from hierarchical multiple regression (HMR) indicated that both effective instructional factors and student reading strategies predicted student reading achievement in the United States and China. In particular, morality and stimulation were significant for the Chinese sample and not significant for the US sample. Environment and strategy were significant for both countries. Text-summarize was not significant for both countries. Text-discuss content was not significant for the Chinese sample and significant for the US sample. Text-underline and summary-check paragraph were significant for the US sample only. Summary-write own words was significant for the Chinese sample only. These results were explained from both economic and cultural perspectives. The high-speed economic development in China affected teachers’ beliefs and values about education. From cultural perspectives, some results may have been caused by cultural uniqueness. A typical example was Chinese teachers not advocating text-discuss content associated with Confucian beliefs of learning while the US teachers perceived this as important since they were nurtured in the Western culture. This study also proposed a notion of “cultural free factors” related to teaching and learning that may be important for culture studies.

Planning sustainable electric-power system with carbon emission abatement through CDM under uncertainty

In this study, a fuzzy-interval possibilistic programming (FIPP) method is developed for supporting sustainable electric power system (EPS) planning with carbon emission abatement under uncertainty. In FIPP, systematic uncertainties expressed as crisp intervals and fuzzy-boundary intervals can be effectively tackled. A FIPP-based clean development mechanism (FIPP-CDM) model is formulated for realizing CO2-emission reduction and adjusting energy mix of Shenzhen’s EPS with cost-effective and sustainable ways. Located in the south of Guangdong Province of southern China, the City of Shenzhen is one of fastest-growing cities in the world and has experienced high-speed economic development, accelerated industrialization process, and increased population growth. This is the first attempt to introduce CDM into Shenzhen’s EPS with carbon emission abatement, while sustainable EPS’s transition pathways are explored through FIPP-CDM model. Results demonstrate that (a) city’s energy supply structure tends to the transition from coal-dominated into clean energy-dominated; (b) local renewable energy development is motivated through CDM projects; (c) city’s power generation mix is diversified by wind power and solar power, while renewable energy accounts for 2.12%; (d) an additional capacity of [4.88, 5.82]GW of CDM projects is added, contributing to a [15.91, 17.22] % reduction in CO2 emission of fossil fuel-fired power (i.e., corresponding to emission-reduction of [71.59, 85.51] million tonne). Decision alternatives under CDM can facilitate policy enactment of carbon-emission abatement, reformation of Shenzhen’s EPS through market-oriented mechanism, as well as achievement of sustainable EPS planning.

Applying Remotely Sensed Data to Reduction of Greenhouse Gas Emission and Clean Development Mechanism (CDM)

"Kyoto Protocol" came into force on the February 16th, 2005. It introduced rules on the responsibilities of reducing greenhouse gas emission so as to alleviate and deal with problems caused by climate change. Among the three fulfillment mechanisms in "Kyoto Protocol", the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) is the only one related to developing countries. As one of the most important developing countries in the world, it is urgent for China to make rational use of the CDM to support its high-speed economic development. At this point, nation-scale carbon related data are critical. This paper introduced the acquisition of soil, vegetation and land use/land cover data at a large scale using remotely sensed data and the simulation of carbon sink/source by means of ecosystem models. Remotely sensed data play an important role in the extraction of qualitative and quantitative information for CDM related researches and activities.

The Assessment and Reduction Approaches of the Carbon Emission in Jiangmen, China

Jiangmen in middle industrialization, in the high-speed economic development and at the same time energy consumption growing fast, are accompanied by a rise in Carbon dioxide emissions.In order to find out the main factors affecting the carbon emissions of Jiangmen, and reduce carbon emissions, this paper recommended 1990-2010 energy consumption carbon emissions of Jiangmen based on the method IPCC assessment . The ridge regression model based on the STIRPAT was set up to describe the environmental impact and the precise relationship between driving force. At last, some Suggestions were put forward : adjusting the industrial structure, changing the mode of economic growth, and the use of low carbon technology, building good real estate development of low carbon policy environment.