Households In Beijing Research Articles

A Data Mining-Based Method to Disclose Usage Behavior Patterns of Fresh Air Systems in Beijing Dwellings during the Heating Season

As the popularity of fresh air systems (FAS) in residential buildings increases, exploring the behavioral characteristics of their use can help to provide a comprehensive understanding of the potential for demand flexibility in residential buildings. However, few studies in the past have focused on the personalized usage behavior of FAS. To fill this gap, this study proposes a method based on data mining techniques to reveal the behavioral patterns of FAS usage and the motivations behind them, including motivational patterns, operation duration patterns, and human–machine interaction patterns, for 13 households in Beijing. The simultaneously obtained behavioral patterns, in turn, form the basis of association rules, which can classify FAS usage behavior into two typical residential user profiles containing user behavioral characteristics. This study can not only provide more accurate assumptions and inputs for behavioral stochastic models but also provide data support for the development and optimization of demand response strategies.

Are we underestimating inner-megacity energy poverty in developing countries? Evidence from 2054 households in beijing, China

The prevalence of poverty and inequality in megacities often manifests as high levels of energy poverty and disparities in household energy consumption. A comprehensive survey of 2054 households in Beijing was conducted in 2023 to examine the dynamics of energy poverty within such an urban settings. As one of the world's most influential megacities, Beijing offers a distinct and insightful case study for understanding energy poverty in a rapidly urbanizing global context. Utilizing the 10 % and low-cost/high-income (LIHC) methods, we estimated that the energy poverty rate in Beijing ranges between 16.07 % and 17.53 %, with the highest rates observed in suburban areas. In addition, we explored the spatial differences in energy poverty and the root causes. Our research reveals a significant correlation between economic and geographical factors and the spatial distribution of energy poverty. Furthermore, our findings suggest that larger populations tend to be associated with reduced disparities in energy poverty across different areas. Therefore, we suggest promoting the use of energy-efficient installations, implementing time-sensitive heating systems, and providing electricity and hygienic cooking facilities.

Enhancing the explanation of household water consumption through the water-energy nexus concept

Estimating household water consumption can facilitate infrastructure management and municipal planning. The relatively low explanatory power of household water consumption, although it has been extensively explored based on various techniques and assumptions regarding influencing features, has the potential to be enhanced based on the water-energy nexus concept. This study attempts to explain household water consumption by establishing estimation models, incorporating energy-related features as inputs and providing strong evidence of the need to consider the water-energy nexus to explain water consumption. Traditional statistical (OLS) and machine learning techniques (random forest and XGBoost) are employed using a sample of 1320 households in Beijing, China. The results demonstrate that the inclusion of energy-related features increases the coefficient of determination (R2) by 34.0% on average. XGBoost performs the best among the three techniques. Energy-related features exhibit higher explanatory power and importance than water-related features. These findings provide a feasible modelling basis and can help better understand the household water-energy nexus.

A dataset on energy efficiency grade of white goods in mainland China at regional and household levels

To improve energy-saving management, the energy efficiency grade (EEG) was introduced by the Chinese government in the 2000s and mainly implemented for white goods (WGs) in early stages. However, due to the lack of actual statistics, how effective the promotion of high EEG WGs has been in China is still not clear. The China Energy Efficiency Grade (CEEG) of WGs dataset described here comprises (i) EEG-related data on 5 kinds of WGs at the regional (national, provincial) and household levels in China and (ii) predictions of future average EEG trends. By web crawling, retrieving and processing in SQL, the average EEG data weighted by sales in 30 provinces in mainland China from 2012 to 2019 are provided. Household WG survey data, including household information and average EEG, were collected by distributing questionnaires to 1327 households in Beijing, China. The CEEG dataset will facilitate the advancement of research on household energy consumption, household appliance consumer choice, and the assessment of energy efficiency-related policies.

The energy rebound effect in households: Evidence from urban and rural areas in Beijing

With Beijing facing greater pressure for energy conservation, improving energy efficiency becomes more necessary. However, the energy rebound effect may weaken this energy-saving effect. Using the LA-AIDS (Linear Approximation of the Almost Ideal Demand System) model and simulation analysis, this paper evaluates the energy rebound effects of different commodity groups in Beijing’s urban and rural households during 2000–2019. Then, the Slutsky decomposition equation is introduced to decompose the energy rebound caused by the substitution and income effects. Results suggest that: (1) The energy consumption of urban and rural residents shows a partial rebound in most years, and the energy rebound effect of rural residents exceeded that of urban residents after 2010. (2) The income effect from commodity price changes is the main source of the energy rebound effect both in urban and rural households. (3) The commodity groups Residence, Household facilities & Services, Transportation & Communication and Health care & Medical services have the same influencing direction on the energy rebound effect in urban and rural residents, while the commodity groups Food, Tobacco & Alcohol, Clothing and Culture, Education & Entertainment have different influencing direction. Finally, suggestions are provided for alleviating the energy rebound effect of households in Beijing.

Domestic Waste Classification Behavior and Its Deviation from Willingness: Evidence from a Random Household Survey in Beijing.

To realize widespread domestic waste classification (DWC), deviation between residents' waste classification willingness (WCW) and waste classification behavior (WCB) needs to be reduced. Based on an extended framework of the theory of planned behavior, this study investigates residents' WCW, WCB and their deviation through a random face-to-face survey of 632 households in Beijing. By employing the ordered logit model, determinants have been empirically revealed. We find that there is a deviation between WCW and WCB. 54.3% of respondents reported a higher degree of WCW than that of WCB. The deviation is determined by specific external conditions, including attitudes and norms associated with other subjects that are not authoritative regulators, and the implementation of various policy instruments for DWC. The higher the satisfaction with the services of property enterprises, the higher the deviation is. The positive WCB of peers in communities failed to create positive subjective norms, but instead exacerbated free-rider phenomenon by inducing their negative WCB. Flat-rate charge, publicity measures and the effectiveness of DWC within community can significantly reduce the deviation. On this basis, policy suggestions are put forward to further reduce the deviation and improve the rate of DWC.

Discovering the impact of farmer field schools on the adoption of environmental-friendly technology

Excessive use of irrigation and fertilizers aggravates water shortage and challenges environmental sustainability. Although environment friendly technologies save water and fertilizer, yet their adoption rate remains low. One possible reason for this is the lack information about them, which necessitates effective information-delivering agricultural extension modes. Using data from 274 tomato and cucumber farm households in Beijing, this study examined the effect of farmer field schools (FFS) on promoting the adoption of environment friendly irrigation and fertilization technologies. We found evidence that FFS training significantly increases the adoption rate of environment friendly irrigation and fertilization technologies. The results suggest that the FFS program is an effective approach to extend environment friendly irrigation technologies to partially solve the problem of water shortage and nitrate leaching. We propose extending the FFS program to fields other than integrated pest management.

Impact of farmer field schools on agricultural technology extension—evidence from greenhouse vegetable farms in China

ABSTRACT Agricultural extension is a key instrument to bridge the gap between new technologies and farmers. As a popular extension approach, farmer field schools (FFS) usually improve farmers’ knowledge and crop productivity. This study aims to quantify the heterogeneous impact of FFS on the cognition and adoption of multiple new agricultural technologies. In this study, we apply Tobit models to estimate the impact of FFS on technology extension regarding farmers’ cognition and adoption rates of different technologies, using data collected for 274 tomato and cucumber farm households in Beijing, China. We find that the FFS programmesignificantly increased farmers’ cognition and adoption of new agricultural technologies. We also find that the effects of FFS on extension vary in different categories of new technology. Particularly, we find that the extension of facility technologies is difficult, and new varieties are easy to disseminate but difficult to adopt by farmers. We conclude that FFS is an important channel for the extension of new agricultural technologies. At the same time, attention should be paid to the design of the FFS programme, adjusting to the attribute of different technologies.

Regional differences and the driving mechanism of relationships between rural household livelihood and ecosystem services:A case study in upstream watershed of Miyun Reservoir, China.

It is of great significance to link ecosystem and rural household welfare, with the aim to develop different strategies of rural household livelihood management and regional sustainable deve-lopment. Based on 1754 questionnaires of rural households in Beijing and Hebei within the upstream watershed of Miyun Reservoir, we analyzed the relationships between rural household welfare (defined by total income per rural household) and ecosystem reliance (expressed by an index of dependence on ecosystem services) by statistical and econometric methods. The relationships between rural household welfare and ecosystem reliance could be classified into four types, but with significant differences between Beijing and Hebei within the watershed. The rural household type of high welfare and low dependence had the highest proportion (33.9%) in Beijing. The average annual income and livelihood capitals of rural households in Beijing was significantly higher than that of Hebei Province. In Hebei Province, the dominant type was low welfare and high dependency (39.1%) that was the least popular one. The quality of human capital quality, social capital, and financial capital, which were crucial to human well-being, were significantly lower than that of Beijing households. The income of rural households in Hebei mainly depended on agricultural production (41.2%), which led to higher land utilization intensity. The natural resource and human capital quality significantly influenced rural household livelihood in Hebei. Maintaining suitable family size and age structure, improving education and skill levels, and strengthening payment for ecosystem services within low welfare households would be the key to form a good relationship between ecosystems and household welfare (the type of high welfare and low dependency).

Exploring cooling pattern of low-income households in urban China based on a large-scale questionnaire survey: A case study in Beijing

Affected by climatic changes, heat waves have become a global concern and have a huge impact on the indoor environment and the life and health of low-income households. Although there are several studies focusing on energy poverty, only a few have focused on the cooling poverty in China. Focusing on the low-income households in Beijing, an online questionnaire survey was conducted, and 481 replies were collected. Based on the questionnaire results, this study reveals the cooling pattern of low-income households, classifies the key items to identify vulnerable households, and proposes the effective ways to improve the cooling effect and solve cooling poverty. Furthermore, related policy implication is discussed in this study.

A novel model for regional indoor PM2.5 quantification with both external and internal contributions included

PM2.5 (particulate matter with an aerodynamic size ≤ 2.5 μm) of indoor origins is a dominant contributor to the overall air pollution exposure. Although some sophisticated models have been developed to simulate indoor air quality for individual households, it is still challenging to quantify indoor PM2.5 on a regional scale, which is critical for health impact assessments. In this study, a new model was developed to predict indoor PM2.5 concentrations by quantifying the external penetration, as well as the internal contributions. The model was parameterized based on a set of simultaneously measured indoor and outdoor PM2.5 concentrations at five-second temporal resolution for 53 households in Beijing. This study found that indoor PM2.5 concentrations were significantly correlated with those in the outdoor environment with an approximately 1-h lag-time on average. Outdoor-to-indoor penetration dominated the contribution to indoor PM2.5 during polluted hours with relatively high ambient PM2.5 concentrations, while the indoor PM2.5, during clean hours, was contributed by internal sources, including smoking, cooking, incense burning, and human disturbance. The influence of windows, house area, and air purifier use was addressed in the new model. The model was applied to evaluate indoor PM2.5 concentrations in six urban districts of Beijing via an uncertainty analysis. The model was developed based on and applied to households using clean residential energy, and it would be interesting also important to evaluate it in households using solid fuels.

Land, ladies, and the law: a case study on women's land rights and welfare in Southeast Asia in the nineteenth century†

AbstractThis study evaluates women's de jure and de facto land rights and their implications for household welfare in nineteenth‐century Bangkok. Women constituted a significant share of agricultural landowners holding government‐issued land deeds in central Siam (now Thailand)—a pattern that stands in contrast to both historical and contemporary developing economy contexts where the structure of land rights often favours men. The findings show, through both direct and indirect evidence, that women's de jure rights were upheld in practice. Women made significantly more agricultural investments than male or mixed‐gender owners, which supports the assertion that women perceived their land rights as secure under Siam's traditional usufruct land rights system. An assessment of land‐related court cases directly supports our claim, showing that women in Siam had access to legal representation and were protected when their land rights were challenged by investors and local elites in the context of high demand for both agricultural and urban land. Such secure land rights helped preserve women's livelihoods as agriculturists and household well‐being. We estimate that the median female‐owned orchard could support 10 adults annually, achieving a standard of living comparable to unskilled labourer households in Beijing and Milan during the same period.

Molecular identification of Cryptosporidium spp. in pet snakes in Beijing, China.

Few reports of Cryptosporidium spp. in snakes in China have been published. To determine the infection rate and document the presence of Cryptosporidium in pet snakes using molecular methods, 273 fecal samples were collected from eight species of pet snakes from 13 pet households in Beijing, China, and were examined by PCR amplification of the small subunit ribosomal RNA gene. Cryptosporidium was detected from 17 of 273 (6.2%) samples, and nine out of 13 households tested positive for Cryptosporidium with a range of 3.3 to 33.3% among households showing significant difference (p < 0.01). The infection rate of Cryptosporidium for females and males was 6.5% (13/201) and 5.6% (4/72), respectively, showing no significant difference (p > 0.05). Six out of eight pet snake species tested positive for Cryptosporidium with a range of 4.2 to 9.1% among species, showing no significant difference (p > 0.05). Two Cryptosporidium species were identified: Cryptosporidium serpentis in 10 samples and Cryptosporidium varanii in seven samples. No zoonotic Cryptosporidium species occur in our study populations.

Physical distancing, face masks, and eye protection for prevention of COVID-19

Physical distancing, face masks, and eye protection for prevention of COVID-19

Charging for municipal solid waste disposal in Beijing

Considering the various ways of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) disposal that are currently in practice, this paper proposes a bundle pricing model of MSW disposal in Beijing, China. The bundle pricing model is set according to per capita annual disposable income, per capita annual consumption expenditure and MSW disposal cost based on the cost reimbursement principle and complementarity principle. This paper first estimates the unit costs of landfill and incineration respectively, and then designs three bundling packages according to three different income levels of households in Beijing (low-income households, middle-income households and high-income households). Specifically, based on our bundle pricing model, we propose to charge low-income households (of the average size of 3 persons) MSW fees 5.64 RMB per month, middle-income households 10.16 RMB, and high-income households 20.70 RMB per month. We also discuss and explain how the proposed mechanism can be expected to not only mitigate the capital shortage problem, but also reduce MSW quantity and improve the MSW incineration disposal technology.

Help whom and help what? Intergenerational co-residence and the gender differences in time use among dual-earner households in Beijing, China

An extensive literature has documented the conflict between employment and household responsibilities and its impacts on the gendered patterns of daily activities in dual-earner households. However, most studies have focused exclusively on the division of household labour in nuclear households, with insufficient attention paid to the impact of alternative household strategies such as co-residence with extended family members. This article investigates the extent to which the presence of elderly parents shifts gendered activity patterns and even reduces the gender inequality in time use in urban China. By drawing on an activity diary survey conducted in Beijing in 2012, we compare and contrast the gendered patterns in time use between nuclear family households and extended family households. We find that co-residence mitigates the tension between employment and household responsibilities for women and leads to greater gender equality in the division of household labour and a reduced gender gap in the time spent on employment. However, co-residence only enables women to shift their time allocation from household responsibilities to employment rather than to pursue discretionary activities, and therefore its positive role is limited. We further discuss the policy implications given the limitations of intergenerational co-residence as an individual-based solution for childcare and other social services in transitional urban China.

China’s Cap on Coal and the Efficiency of Local Interventions: A Benefit-Cost Analysis of Phasing out Coal in Power Plants and in Households in Beijing

China’s Cap on Coal Consumption (CCC) Policy serves as a key strategy to address the serious air pollution in China, and it helps to address coal’s climate, environment and health damages. Current implementation of it focuses on substituting coal used in power plants and boilers with natural gas, whereas phasing out household coal use is less emphasized. This study estimates the benefits and costs of interventions for phasing out coal used in power plants and in households in Beijing. The results suggest that the phasing out of household coal use can result in net social benefits. However, coal-to-gas projects for power plants actually bring net social losses, a result largely attributable to the relative high price of natural gas in China. In addition to the actual policy evaluations of phasing out coal, this study outlines how to conduct economic analysis of air pollution policies in China taking into account uncertainty and correlations of key parameters. With the importance at a national and global level to reduce the negative effects of coal consumption, together with the trend of scaling up coal reduction interventions in China from local pioneers to the national level, this study provides implications on how to achieve more socially beneficial results for such interventions.

Quantification of Greenhouse Gas Emissions from the Predisposal Stage of Municipal Solid Waste Management.

Municipal solid waste (MSW) disposal represents one of the largest sources of anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. However, the biogenic GHG emissions in the predisposal stage of MSW management (i.e., the time from waste being dropped off in community or household garbage bins to being transported to disposal sites) are excluded from the IPCC inventory methodology and rarely discussed in academic literature. Herein, we quantify the effluxes of carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide (N2O) from garbage bins in five communities along the urban-rural gradient in Beijing in four seasons. We find that the annual average CO2, CH4, and N2O effluxes in the predisposal stage were (1.6 ± 0.9)103, 0.049 ± 0.016, and 0.94 ± 0.54 mg kg-1h-1 (dry matter basis) and had significant seasonal differences (24- to 159-fold) that were strongly correlated with temperature. According to our estimate, the N2O emission in the MSW predisposal stage amounts to 20% of that in the disposal stage in Beijing, making the predisposal stage a nontrivial source of waste-induced N2O emissions. Furthermore, the CO2 and CH4 emissions in the MSW predisposal account for 5% (maximum 10% in summer) of the total carbon contents in a Beijing's household food waste stream, which has significance in the assessment of MSW-related renewable energy potential and urban carbon cycles.

Municipal household solid waste fee based on an increasing block pricing model in Beijing, China.

This article aims to design an increasing block pricing model to estimate the waste fee with the consideration of the goals and principles of municipal household solid waste pricing. The increasing block pricing model is based on the main consideration of the per capita disposable income of urban residents, household consumption expenditure, production rate of waste disposal industry, and inflation rate. The empirical analysis is based on survey data of 5000 households in Beijing, China. The results indicate that the current uniform price of waste disposal is set too high for low-income people, and waste fees to the household disposable income or total household spending ratio are too low for the medium- and high-income families. An increasing block pricing model can prevent this kind of situation, and not only solve the problem of lack of funds, but also enhance the residents' awareness of environmental protection. A comparative study based on the grey system model is made by having a preliminary forecast for the waste emissions reduction effect of the pay-as-you-throw programme in the next 5 years of Beijing, China. The results show that the effect of the pay-as-you-throw programme is not only to promote the energy conservation and emissions reduction, but also giving a further improvement of the environmental quality.

EXAMINING THE UNEVEN DISTRIBUTION OF HOUSEHOLD TRAVEL CARBON EMISSIONS WITHIN AND ACROSS NEIGHBORHOODS: THE CASE OF BEIJING

ABSTRACTAlthough a growing number of studies have scrutinized population‐based variations in travel carbon emissions, few have examined these variations and uneven composition at the neighborhood level. Based on a 2007 Beijing household daily travel/activity survey, this paper attempts to calculate household daily travel carbon emissions and delineate the heterogeneous distribution within and across different neighborhoods. Using multilevel regression models, this paper confirms that socioeconomic variables (especially car availability) are the dominant contributing factors to household travel carbon emissions. Increasing the population density, land use mix and access to metro stations decreases emissions; whereas, household travel emissions increase along with the residential distance to the city center. Moreover, these effects vary across neighborhoods. Consequently, besides behavioral change policies aimed at high emitters, land use instruments should be targeted to different neighborhoods. The observed heterogeneous distributions call for a new governance framework to develop more effective and equitable urban transport policies.