Resource-dependent City Research Articles

Driving factor analysis and dynamic forecast of industrial carbon emissions in resource-dependent cities: a case study of Ordos, China.

Urban carbon emissions are one of the most important areas contributing to the growth of carbon emissions, and resource-dependent cities with natural resource extraction and processing as their leading industries tend to have higher carbon emissions. Ordos is the city with the highest coal production in China, and its economic development is dominated by coal, oil and gas, and other resource extraction and processing industries, with industrial activities making a large contribution to carbon emissions. At the same time, Ordos has undergone rapid industrialization in recent years, but still faces the problem of environmental pollution, epitomizing a typical resource-dependent city in China. Therefore, this paper takes Ordos as an example and uses the Generalized Divisa Index Method (GDIM) to study the drivers of industrial carbon emissions in Ordos from 2005-2020, a typical resource-dependent city in China, and further analyzes are conducted in relation to the three phases of development. Based on the key drivers, the Monte Carlo method is used to forecast industrial carbon emissions from 2021 to 2030. The results show that the most important factors driving the growth of industrial carbon emissions are the scale of industrial output and industrial energy consumption, while the intensity of industrial energy investment is the most important factor mitigating industrial carbon emissions, and that energy efficiency and carbon intensity of energy consumption can also mitigate carbon emissions after economic transformation. At the same time, investment is the factor with the greatest potential for optimization on the path to emissions reduction.

Does the transformation of resource-dependent cities promote the realization of the carbon-peaking goal? An analysis based on typical resource-dependent city clusters in China

The key to transforming resource-dependent cities is for them to stop depending on resources for economic development. This would be a sustainable development path to lead to the peaking of carbon emissions . The carbon-peaking goal imposes strong carbon emission constraints and improper responses challenge the low-carbon transformation of resource-dependent cities. Continuous reduction in the intensity of carbon emissions is necessary for achieving the carbon-peaking goal. The transformation of resource-dependent cities, characterized by industrial transformation, tends to achieve this goal indirectly by reducing resource depletions . Effective environmental regulation introduces a more direct mechanism to reduce the intensity of carbon emissions on the terminal-end. Therefore, this study explores the carbon-peaking effect of resource-dependent city transformation and its mechanisms using the propensity score matching combined difference-in-differences method. The panel data from 324 districts and counties from 2005 to 2017 is selected based on the industrial transformation of typical resource-dependent cities in the adjoining Shanxi Province, Shaanxi Province, and Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of China initiated in 2009. The results show that industrial transformation only focuses on the stop-loss effect of cities with high-resource-dependence and promotes the continuous reduction in the intensity of carbon emissions at the early stages of resource-dependent city transformation. Furthermore, the carbon-peaking momentum during this transformation is a direct result of the increase in green technology innovation which introduces new mechanisms for green low-carbon development to transforming city. Meanwhile, environmental regulations achieve the carbon-peaking goal by increasing green total factor productivity through restraining existing high-carbon development inertia thereby reducing the intensity of carbon emissions. Therefore, environmental regulations and industrial transformation need to be coordinated, through combination of introducing green low-carbon mechanisms and restraining high-carbon development inertia, to jointly reduce the intensity of carbon emissions and create a sustainable mechanism for resource-dependent cities to achieve the carbon-peaking goal. • The transformation of resource-dependent cities promotes carbon peaking in China. • Both industry transformation and environmental regulation benefit carbon peaking. • Environmental regulation reduces carbon-emission by green total factor productivity. • Development transformation needs green innovation besides industrial substitution. • New low-carbon mechanisms need curbing high-carbon development inertia meanwhile.

Stoichiometric characteristics and economic implications of water-soluble ions in PM2.5 from a resource-dependent city

The stoichiometric characteristics of water-soluble ions (WSIs) in PM2.5, which can be used as an indicator socioeconomic development level, are mostly depending on the sources and formation mechanism of PM2.5. This work presents the stoichiometric characteristics and socioeconomic linkage of WSIs in PM2.5 from a resource-dependent city. The relationship between NO3−/SO42− and car parc indexes the contribution of mobile emission source. The equivalent ratio of WSIs suggested that aerosol particles were weak acidic due to the deficiency of cations in PM2.5, which was consistent with the average annual pH (6.27) of precipitation in Wuhai in 2015. NH4+ neutralizes PM2.5 acidity in clean and polluted days, while Ca2+ and NH4+ in dust storm days. Furthermore, the PCA analysis indicated the multi-sources pollution characteristics from Spring to Fall, which was related the small build-up area (only 62.30 km2) and the close-set of various industrial enterprises in Wuhai. The ratios of NO2/SO2 may not work effectively to identify the importance of mobile versus stationary pollution emission sources when the heavy emission from the secondary industry, especially the proportion of secondary industry higher than 65% and the ratios of NO2/SO2 lower than 0.4. This work contributes to more effective control strategies for PM2.5 in resource-dependent areas.

Uncovering the benefits of integrating industrial symbiosis and urban symbiosis targeting a resource-dependent city: A case study of Yongcheng, China

While promoting the economic development of resource-dependent cities, the industry also brings serious environmental and ecological issues. The combination of industrial symbiosis and urban symbiosis (IS/UrS) offers a new solution to environmental and ecological challenges for resource-dependent cities. To quantify the benefits of IS/UrS in resource-dependent cities, this study assessed triple benefits including environmental (raw materials saving and wastes reuse), reduced CO2 emission, and ecological (emergy saving) benefits via IS/UrS in Yongcheng (China) by combining material flow analysis and emergy analysis. The results indicate that a total of thirty-nine IS/UrS activities (including twenty-nine in-use and ten potential IS/UrS activities) are identified, which can achieve remarkable resources saving including 2.37 Mt slag substitution for feedstock mix in cement clinker production (96% from existing in-use activities), 0.43 Mt municipal solid waste reduction (100% from potential activities), 1.07 Mt coal saving (35% from potential activities), 4.88 Mt CO2 emission reduction (23% from potential activities) and 5.53E+21 sej emergy saving (17% from potential activities). Urban symbiosis activities can contribute additional CO2 reduction and emergy saving by 11% and 7% respectively. Based on the performance of CO2 reduction and emergy saving, recycling of slag/fly ash and scrap steel should be given top priority in the local IS/UrS policy making process. The case study shows that IS/UrS is a useful approach to facilitate the sustainable development of resource-dependent cities, and could be expanded to other similar cities.

Built-up land expansion and its impacts on optimizing green infrastructure networks in a resource-dependent city

The optimization of green infrastructure networks (GINs) is an essential part of sustainable urban development, and the expansion of built-up land has to be treated as an important disturbing force of urban GINs. This paper employs morphological spatial pattern analysis (MSPA) to extract the GINs in Wu’an (a resource-dependent city in China), and five factors of production and a three-dimensional digital model are involved in predicting the possibility of built-up land expansion. The entire city is then divided into different eco-sensitive areas, and ecological protected areas with different GIN optimization objects are determined. The main findings indicate that the stability of GINs in Wu’an is reduced. From 1987–2016, the number of large ecological cores increased by 5, but the total area of the large ecological cores decreased by 359.81 km2, and the number and area of small ecological cores increased by 5 and 26.16 km2, respectively. The expansion of built-up land leads to disconnection of the GINs, and the possibility of built-up land expansion gradually decreases from the downtown and satellite towns to their surrounding areas. The main contribution of this paper is to provide a new way to optimize the GINs from the perspective of built-up land expansion.

Prediction of Ecological Pressure on Resource-Based Cities Based on an RBF Neural Network Optimized by an Improved ABC Algorithm

Resource-based cities are those where resource-based industries comprise a large proportion of all industries. Sustainable development implies that cities make full use of their own resources to support current development initiatives and take sustainability into account both during and after resource consumption. To promote investment in the sustainable development of resource-based cities and to a provide a decision system for these cities, this paper uses an ecological footprint model to evaluate and analyze the per capita ecological footprint, per capita ecological carrying capacity and per capita ecological deficit of a representative resource-based city, Yulin. The data are collected from 2001 to 2015. In addition, due to the complexity of the influencing factors for ecological carrying capacity and the variety of situations that are difficult to accurately predict, this paper proposes a new urban ecological carrying capacity prediction model, which consists of a radial basis function (RBF) neural network that is optimized by an improved artificial bee colony algorithm. The prediction results show that energy consumption is the major factor affecting the urban ecosystem; moreover, the model precision of the training results and the simulation accuracy of the test results achieved by the RBF neural network model are 97.91% and 94.16%, respectively, and in 2020, the per capita ecological footprint, biocapacity, and ecological deficit of Yulin are predicted to reach 4.892 hm 2 , 3.317 hm 2 , and 1.575 hm 2 , respectively. Accordingly, effective proactive measures should be taken in advance to maintain or reduce the ecological pressure on this resource-dependent city. This paper strives to provide a scientific basis for local government decision-making to realize the healthy, stable, and rapid sustainable development of resource-based cities.

Research on Resource Curse Effect of Resource-Dependent Cities: Case Study of Qingyang, Jinchang and Baiyin in China

For a specific small-scale region with abundant resources, its copious resources tend to dictate the basic direction of its development, and may subsequently give rise to an industrial structure centered on the advantageous resources. This can give rise to an economic structure that lacks diversity, causing the economic development in the entire local region to fall into the dilemma of the resource curse. The present study conducts a case study from the perspective of small-scale regions, incorporating various types of resource-dependent cities in China, including Qingyang, Jinchang, and Baiyin, to interpret and analyze the resource curse effect by calculating a resource curse coefficient. Moreover, based on the regression model, the present study further discusses the empirical relations associated with the resource curse phenomenon. The results show that, regardless of whether a resource-dependent city is in the early, intermediate or late stage of its resource development, economic development is always plagued by the resource curse effect to a certain degree. Resource development cannot promote economic development, rather, it inhibits economic growth to some extent, resulting in an array of effects that are unfavorable to economic development, rendering the development unsustainable. For different types of resource-dependent cities, resource curse effect exhibits distinct characteristics. The resource curse effect is strongest for a resource-dependent city during an economic recession, is less severe during a development period, and is weakest during maturation. Resource development not only has a direct adverse impact on economic growth, but also often affects economic growth in multiple ways and on various levels through the Dutch disease effect, the crowding out effect, and the institution weakening effect. Until now, most results show that there is no obvious resource curse effect at the national and provincial level. The verification results of small-scale regions show that the resource curse effect at the city level still exists. In addition, the resource curse effect differs across different types of resource-dependent cities.

Supplying Community Integrated Services to Serve Urban Residents in Daqing Oilfield Better

The community complex services is the abbreviation of the community comprehensive commercial body. It refers to the community building model of supermarket, convenience store, disposal of used goods, laundry, bank, catering and medical service. Through the study of the development strategy and model of the Daqing oilfield community complex services, there is great significance to improve Daqing community business, meet the residents' consumption, change the city's appearance, expand the employment, improve the commercial modernization and comprehensive competitiveness, and can serve the residents of the Daqing Oilfield Community better. These methods can promote the district Construction similar. Daqing Oilfield is the largest oil field in China and Daqing is a typical resource-dependent city. The community where the employees of Daqing Oilfield live has a very obvious characteristics, that is single occupational, the parents of many families work in Daqing Oilfield has the same commuting time. The management unit of the community is also a property management unit of the Daqing Oilfield. it is import to build the community complex of Daqing Oilfield, and it can be served the residents and the employees of Daqing Oilfield well.

Constraint-adaptation challenges and resilience transitions of the industry–environmental system in a resource-dependent city

Resource-dependent cities face the significant challenge of industrial transition under resource and environmental constraints. However, the interplay between industrial and environmental variables and their resilience trajectories have received insufficient attention to date. A constraint–adaptation framework was established to quantify the constraint–adaptation trajectory and resilience transitions of the industry–environmental system in the transition pilot of Baiyin City, western China. In this framework, an environmental performance index (EPI) was employed to reveal constraints of seven resource and environmental variables on local industrial development, combining with industrial indicators (i.e., industrial structure entropy and the shift-share method) to reflect the industrial structure adaptation. The resilience trajectories of seven resource and environmental variables were simulated to depict the industry–environmental system resilience dynamics using the four-phase adaptive cycle theory. Results from 1990 to 2016 in Baiyin City demonstrate that: (1) heavy dependence on mineral and energy resources, and resulting solid waste and atmospheric pollution, undermined local industrial competitiveness; (2) The competitiveness of secondary industry experienced a descending trend since 2011, while the total increase fell dramatically with total deviation of −30.64%; (3) the system underwent a vulnerable resilience transition to great adaptive capacity, with most resilience values greater than 0.5 (ascending adaptive capacity with resilience values from 0 to 1) in the past five years; (4) aggressive transition measures must be adopted to enhance adaptive capacity in the local industry–environmental system and foster co-benefits. This study provides a model to explore the transitions of resource-dependent cities in and beyond China.

An Emergy-Based Hybrid Method for Assessing Sustainability of the Resource-Dependent Region

As the natural resources are getting exhausted, the concept of sustainable development of regions has received increasing attention, especially for resource-dependent cities. In this paper, an innovative method based on emergy analysis and the Human Impact Population Affluence Technology (IPAT) model is developed to analyze the quantitative relationship of economic growth, energy consumption and its overall sustainability level. Taiyuan, a traditional, resource-dependent city in China, is selected as the case study region. The main results show that the total emergy of Taiyuan increased from 9.023 × 1023 sej in 2007 to 9.116 × 1023 sej in 2014, with a 38% decline in non-renewable emergy and an increase of imported emergy up to 125%. The regional emergy money ratio (EMB) was reduced by 48% from 5.31 × 1013 sej/$ in 2007 to 2.74 × 1013 sej/$ in 2014, indicating that the increasing speed of consuming resources and energy was faster than the increase of GDP, and that Taiyuan’s money purchasing power declined. The lower emergy sustainability index (ESI) indicates that Taiyuan was explored and produced large quantities of mineral resources, which puts more stress on the environment as a consequence, and that this is not sustainable in the long run. The IPAT analysis demonstrates that Taiyuan sticks to the efforts of energy conservation and environmental protection. In order to promote regional sustainable development, it is necessary to have an integrated effort. Policy insights suggest that resourceful regions should improve energy and resource efficiency, optimize energy and resourceful structure and carry out extensive public participation.

Comparative Analysis for the Urban Metabolic Differences of Two Types of Cities in the Resource-Dependent Region Based on Emergy Theory

Urban metabolism analysis has become a useful and effective tool to explore urban socio-economic processes. In this research, in order to explore the similarities and differences of metabolic characteristics and variation rules of different types of resource-dependent cities, we selected two cities—Taiyuan and Jincheng, the capital and a traditional resource-dependent city of Shanxi province, respectively, as research subjects, we also established an urban metabolic evaluation framework by employing a set of eight emergy-based indicators from socio-economic data from 2007 to 2014, and compared the similarities and discrepancies from the perspectives of metabolic structure, intensity, pressure, and efficiency, and put forward some suggestions for pursuing sustainable development for both cities and pointed out that more types of resource-dependent cities should be incorporated in future research work.

Industrial symbiosis as a countermeasure for resource dependent city: a case study of Guiyang, China

Solutions towards sustainable cities are of vital importance for China's stakeholders due to the rapid urbanizations, serious resources depletion and environmental contaminations in China. China as the second largest economy is suffering from the dilemma of rapid industrialization and urbanization, and sustainable development. One of the most severe problems affecting China's sustainable urban development is the resource dependent city, in which resource mining and process industries dominate the local economy. With the depletion of natural resources and the degradation of environment, the concept of sustainability and economy transition solutions become more and more important. Under this condition, this study aims to conduct a comprehensive review on the major projects for a more sustainable future in China's national resource dependent cities and propose a countermeasure for the sustainability transition based on the industrial symbiosis concept. Firstly, an investigation on the panoramic view, challenges, transiting policies of China's resource dependent cities' project has been carried out. Subsequently, Guiyang city in Guizhou province of China, as a typical resource dependent city, has been chosen as example of industrial and regional symbiosis focusing on the integration and symbiosis of coal, electricity, aluminum, phosphor chemical, iron/steel industry and urban. Then, a quantitative assessment on the environmental benefits has been conducted based on material flow analysis approach. Results highlight a dramatic resource saving, solid waste reduction and carbon dioxide emission mitigation, as well as generating revenue for companies and local business opportunities. Finally, policy implications for promoting the industry symbiosis are discussed in details. Our research provides an efficacious solution for the transition of resource dependent cities, and it is revelatory for future sustainable urban planning and policy making in China.

Analysis and Adjustment Proposal of Ordos’ Industrial Structure Based on Shift-Share Method

It has important and practical significance for realizing the resource-dependent city Ordos’ future coordinate and sustainable development that studying it’s industrial structure, analyzing its rationality problem. Rationality of Ordos’ industrial structure is analyzed based on the recent 5 years’ data of three national industrial structure, using shift-share method, taking Inner Mongolia autonomous region and China as references respectively. The results show that most industrial momentums grow well and have competitive ability, but the proportion of its dominant class industry in three industrial structures is small, which is not reasonable, needing adjustment and further configuration. At last, according to problem in the process of Ordos’ three industrial structure development, the adjustment and development proposal are put forward including agriculture and animal husbandry, coal industry , finance, tourism, modern services and other industries.

Empirical Study on the Relationship between Economic Growth and Carbon Emissions in Resource-dependent Cities Based on Vector Autoregression Model

Abstract The contradiction between economy and environment is a great challenge for resource-dependent city in the process of transition to low carbon economy. According to economic development and energy consumption data of Zibo city, 1999-2009, empirical research of dynamic relationship between economic growth and carbon emissions is made based on VAR (Vector autoregression) model with the use of impulse response functions and variance decomposition. It is concluded that in resource-dependent cities per capita GDP changes lead to Granger cause changes in carbon emissions; economic growth and carbon emissions do not exist inverted U-shaped relationship in the dynamic sense; per capita GDP contribute highly to the interpretation of predictive variance decomposition of carbon emissions, carbon reduction targets constraint is bound to cause the expense of economic growth to some extent. Therefore, the study suggested that in resource-dependent cities carbon reduction potential and the impact on the economy in determining carbon target constraints should be fully considered, the attention to harmonious development between economic growth and carbon emission reductions should be paid.