Low-carbon Urban Construction Research Articles

Urban construction and firm green innovation: Evidence from China's low-carbon pilot city initiative

Urban construction plays an important role in firms' environmental considerations. This paper examines the effect of low-carbon urban construction on firm green innovation, using China's low-carbon pilot program as a quasi-natural experiment. Our results show that the construction of low-carbon pilot cities can promote firm green innovation. Further analyses reveal that the positive effect of low-carbon pilot city construction on firm green innovation is more pronounced in regions with high degrees of intellectual property protection, in less financially constrained firms, and in state-owned enterprises. We also examine the mechanism for these relationships and find that the positive effect of low-carbon pilot city construction on firm green innovation is realized through strengthening environmental regulation, enhancing environmental governance, and increasing enterprises' environmental awareness. Collectively, these findings suggest that urban construction matters for firm green innovation in emerging markets.

Research Methods of Carbon Emissions

As a pillar industry, the construction industry generates 28% of the total carbon emissions of the whole society throughout its life cycle. Through the carbon emission ratio of the whole life cycle of existing buildings, it is found that the carbon emission per unit time in the construction phase is the highest among all phases, and the various environmental pollution caused by it is also the most concentrated. In order to achieve low carbon construction and reduce environmental pollution, relevant parts of the country have promulgated building construction management documents since 2007. The documents put forward clear requirements for green and low-carbon urban and rural construction to ensure green and low-carbon construction activities. It can be seen that in the context of the "two carbon" strategy, carbon emission monitoring and carbon emission reduction of construction have attracted wide attention from all walks of life. In this paper, through the analysis of carbon emission monitoring methods of construction projects, a carbon emission calculation model based on carbon sources and sinks of the construction process is established to realize the quantitative calculation of carbon emission in the construction phase of construction projects. It also establishes a carbon emission monitoring method for the construction phase of the construction project, which provides practical guidance for the carbon emission data monitoring of each construction project and guides the real-time monitoring of carbon emission during the construction phase of the construction project.

From pilots to demonstrations: the green economic development effect of low-carbon city pilot policies

Accurately assessing the impact of low-carbon urban construction on green economic development has great significance for achieving economic development with environmental protection, and for building an ecological civilization and a beautiful China. Based on panel data for 271 cities in China from 2004 to 2019, multi-period and spatial difference-in-difference econometric models were used to comprehensively investigate the impact of three batches of low-carbon city pilot policies on green economic development, finding the following: The contribution of low-carbon urban construction on urban green economic development is significant and positive, and still holds under a series of robustness tests. Parallel trend tests also show a lag in the policy effect, and the effect is strengthened over policy implementation time. Green orientation of technological progress, green transformation of industry, and green upgrade of consumption are important channels for the effect of the policies. The promotion effect of low-carbon city construction is stronger in the central and northern cities, and in cities with high green economic development, than in western and southern cities, and those with low green economic development. Construction of low-carbon pilot cities not only promotes their own green economic development, but also that in neighboring cities, exerting a demonstration effect. This effect is greater in urban areas. This study provides empirical support for policy planning to promote low-carbon urban construction across the country.

A novel interfaces contact model for analyzing assembled joints of prefabricated underground structures

Modern prefabricated underground structures are the key advancement in the low-carbon urban construction. The rapid development of prefabricated structures has increased the diversity of assembled joints. It becomes more difficult to evaluate the joint performance considering multiple parameters, such as joint size, morphology, interface properties, and axial forces. Therefore, this study developed an assembled joints mechanical assessment model to solve the multi-parameter problems. First, the interface contact formulas were established for typical interfaces. Second, a joint interfaces contact model (JICM) was established based on the above formulas and multiple parameters. Finally, model validation and case study were performed for JICM. The results show that: (1) JICM fitted well with the experimental data, and reflected the multi-parameter effects of multi-type assembled joints. (2) JICM calculated the contact stress at the outer edge of the interfaces can be twice larger than the bending stress. Accordingly, JICM revealed the key reason for brittle damage of assembled joints. (3) JICM demonstrated promising joint design capabilities: it calculated that the bending moment contribution of one interfaces group was dominant; it further calculated the deformation and bearing capacity of the assembled joints at the yield and ultimate moments. (4) JICM demonstrated promising joint deformation control: it calculated the rotation developments of assembled joint and continuous section were not consistent; it further presented the deformation pattern of the assembled components was a folded line and can be 20% larger than that of a continuous component. JICM provides a tool for parametric design of joints and quantitatively evaluates multi-parameter effects, demonstrating practical value for urban green low-carbon construction.

The Impact of Urban Construction Land Use Change on Carbon Emissions: Evidence from the China Land Market in 2000–2019

Urban construction land has an increasing impact on ecological carbon storage capacity and carbon emissions. Based on the theoretical analysis framework and the panel data of 278 prefecture-level cities in China from 2000 to 2019, this paper analyzes the impact of changes in urban construction land on carbon dioxide emissions. Our results suggest that the increase in urban construction land significantly promotes carbon dioxide emissions, and this conclusion still holds after selecting geographic and historical data as instrumental variables and conducting a series of robustness tests. Importantly, the newly added construction land and industrial land are important sources of increased carbon dioxide emissions, and there exist heterogenous impacts of the urban construction land on carbon emissions across different geographical distributions and different urban sizes. In addition, the results of the quantile regression show that, as the quantile level increases, the impact of changes in urban construction land on urban carbon emissions shows an inverted U-shaped trend that first increases and then decreases. Thus, our results provide evidence for promoting the coordinated development of land transaction marketization and low-carbon urban construction.

Analysis and Evaluation of Factors Influencing the Low-Carbon Effect of Urban High-Rise Settlement Planning Schemes Based on AHP-Fuzzy Comprehensive Evaluation Method

With the rise of low-carbon concept and the trend of low-carbon planning, the evaluation of low-carbon planning has been paid more and more attention by the academic and planning circles. Carbon evaluation has become a hot topic after “environmental evaluation” and “green evaluation.” In order to promote the important content of energy conservation and sustainable development in the construction of low-carbon cities, this paper constructs and plans the content of low-carbon city planning and construction. On the basis of the effectiveness evaluation index system, this paper discusses the linkage between analytic hierarchy process and fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method and makes a comprehensive quantitative evaluation on the effectiveness of case planning EIA. Combining the advantages of analytic hierarchy process and fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method, the subobjectives and weights of each index are determined by the analytic hierarchy process. The multi-level fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method is used to evaluate the factors that affect the low-carbon effect of urban high-rise residential district planning. This study leads the new trend of future urban construction, and the construction of low-carbon residential areas, as an important part of promoting urban sustainable development, is the core component of future low-carbon urban planning and construction.

Research on the path of low-carbon city system construction mode based on energy consumption per unit output value method

In recent years, low-carbon research has become a research hotspot in urban system construction. Cities consume a large amount of carbon-based energy and are an important research object in low-carbon research. This paper first quantitatively analyzes the correlation between the three major industrial structures and the industrial energy consumption structure. At the same time, it studies the substitution of multiple energy sources, and obtains the mechanism of action of the low-carbon city system. Through the collection and analysis of data, the necessity of improving energy efficiency for the development of low-carbon cities has been proven. On the basis of this data analysis, this paper uses the method of energy consumption per unit output value to build a scenario analysis model of urban carbon emissions, puts forward four models of low-carbon urban system construction in terms of material flow, and gives the path planning and selection of low-carbon urban system construction.

Spatial correlation of factors affecting CO2 emission at provincial level in China: A geographically weighted regression approach

Abstract Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions have become a rising concern in China. Few studies have considered spatial correlation and agglomeration effect of CO2 emissions for adjacent regions and provinces. This paper employs Geographical Weighted Regression (GWR) model to examine the impact of urbanization, industrial structure and energy intensity on CO2 emissions and reveals the spatial correlation in different provinces in 2005, 2008, 2011 and 2015. The results indicate that there is an obvious spatial effect on CO2 emissions of each province based on the GWR results. Urbanization is the most significant factor in the increase of CO2 emissions for all provinces in each year. For the neighboring provinces, a coordinated low-carbon urban construction plan should be carried out based on the urbanization development level. Energy intensity has a positive effect on CO2 emissions, but the effect on the emission reduction is relatively weak and unstable. It should strengthen exchanges and cooperation between provinces and regions by jointly exploring and promoting technologies to improve the efficiency of resource use and reduce CO2 emissions. The influence of industrial structure on CO2 emissions is positive, indicating that the industrial structure adjustment plays an important role in carbon emission reduction.

中新天津生态城可持续发展建设经验分析及示范推广路径研究

中新天津生态城作为中国和新加坡政府合作推动的生态城市创建工程，自规划建设之初就以绿色发展理念为指导，着力推进城市建设绿色化，培育绿色产业，加强生态修复与环境治理，昔日的盐碱荒滩上逐渐建起一座现代化的生态新城。探索出了资源环境约束条件下，生态指标引领的城市管理、建设及规划新路径，形成了城镇化建设的可持续发展典型经验。围绕我国新型城镇化建设形势，结合当前生态低碳城镇建设需求，提出了中新天津生态城建设模式、管理经验和指标体系全面复制和推广的基本思路和对策。 Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-City as an ecological city project which was carried out by China and Singapore government, always adhered to the ecological concept of green development, and focused on developing ecological industry and strengthening the ecological restoration and environmental control. The new path of urban management, planning and construction was set up according to the ecological index, and a typical experience of the sustainable development of urbanization was formed. Around the new urbanization construction situation in China, combining with the current ecological and low-carbon urban construction demand, the basic ideas and countermeasures were proposed to popularize the construction mode, management experience and index system of Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-City.

Study on Ecological Approach of Urban Green Space Based on Low Carbon Idea

The sharp degradation of urban ecological environment resulted from global climate change and rapid urbanization has become an important affecting factor of regional sustainable development. Low carbon city is a considerable countermeasure to solve this problem. Being an important part of low carbon city construction, low carbon urban landscape has attracted increasing interests from city managers and planners. The strategy of the low carbon urban landscape development was discussed from an ecological perspective, and the strategies of low-carbon urban landscape planning and construction were proposed, in order to provide practical reference for planning and construction of low-carbon city and low-carbon urban landscape. These strategies included selecting plant varieties, improving plant community structure, optimizing spatial structure of green space, constructing low maintenance green space, and synthesis utilization of water resources etc.

Research on the Index System Construction of Low Carbon City for Jinan

In the context of the development of a global low carbon, low carbon city construction has caused many of the city's attention. The planning of strive to build low-carbon cities continue to be appeared in various cities. This paper analyzes index systems on low-carbon urban construction of different scholars, integrates their advantages, and builds the low-carbon index system suited for Jinan. Based on Jinan’s time series data analysis, this paper make clear the development trend and current situation of Jinan low carbon city at present stage. The results show that, from 2005 - 2012, the composite score on low-carbon urban construction of Jinan continues to improve. Low carbon city construction has great development; each system layer has obvious progress, and coordination also is good. Establishment of the index system of can provide a good basis and theoretical support on low-carbon urban construction.

Study on Low-Carbon Buildings Materials

The low-carbon urban construction will become the important guiding of China's urban development in the period of "12th Five-Year". With the acceleration of urbanization and surge increase of urban housing, China's construction industry will also face a new revolution. In this article, it focused on exploring the potential benefits and the development prospects of the low-carbon buildings in the future development of the construction industry, which will be taken as a reference.

Research on Low-Carbon Eco-City Construction in China from the Perspective of Ecological Ethics

Low-carbon city development has become the inevitable choice for Chinese urban sustainable development. From the perspective of ecological ethics, by learning from the experience of developed countries, low-carbon urban construction, this paper proposes to slow down the speed of city expansion, to avoid the errors occurred in the process of the western industrialized urban development, and to change from external expansion to internal development so as to achieve harmony between city and nature.

How to Lead Low-Carbon City Construction Development by Low Carbon Ideology

Climate crisis has become the main concern of International community. China is undergoing the quick growing period of urbanization. The fast urbanization inevitably encountered a lot of problems and defects. Our carbon emission occupy more and more percentage of the whole world. To change the traditional way of constructing activity and work towards low-carbon city development mode is the most important task of China city development. From the causes of low carbon cities construction and its significance, this essay focuses on the space structure, traffic mode, land use and landscape architecture framework of constructing a low-carbon city. Low carbon urban construction planning is also presented.

Ecology Community Construction Based on Low-Carbon Idea

The low-carbon urban construction is an important carrier of the energy saving and emmission reduction,which will lead to an new trend of future city construction.while regarded as the important component of low-carbon construction, low-carbon ecology community will promote city sustainable development. And it is characteristic of the naturalness, economy and sociality. Based on present situation of chinese ecology community construction, some strategies are presented, incuding that the first is urban planning at macro-level; the second is spatial plan, transportation system, service facilities and green space system at medium measure; the third is water environment plan, energy plan, architectural design from at micro level; the fourth is community housing structure and public participation from social policies.