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Purpose: This paper aims to promote urban–rural synergy in carbon reduction and achieve the dual carbon goal, reconstruct the low-carbon urban–rural spatial pattern and explore planning strategies for carbon mitigation in urban agglomerations. Design/methodology/approach: The authors propose the idea of land governance zoning based on low-carbon scenario simulation, using the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei (BTH) urban agglomeration as the empirical research area. Specifically, the authors analyze its spatiotemporal evolution characteristics of carbon balance over the past two decades and simulate the land use pattern under the scenario of low-carbon emission in 2030. Furthermore, the authors create spatial zoning rules combined with land use transition characteristics to classify the urban agglomeration into carbon sink restoration zone, carbon sink protection zone, carbon control development zone and carbon transition agriculture zone and put forward corresponding targeted governance principals. Findings: The study findings classify the BTH urban agglomeration into carbon sink restoration zone, carbon sink protection zone, carbon control development zone and carbon transition agriculture zone, which account for 28.1%, 17.2%, 20.1% and 34.6% of the total area, respectively. The carbon sink restoration zone and carbon sink protection zone are mainly distributed in the northern and western parts and Bohai Rim region. The carbon transition agriculture zone and carbon control development zone are mainly distributed in the southeastern plain and Zhangjiakou. Research limitations/implications: The authors suggest restoring and rebuilding ecosystems mainly in the northwest and east parts to increase the number of carbon sinks and the stability of the ecosystem. Besides, measures should be taken to promote collaborative emission reduction work between cities and optimize industrial and energy structures within cities such as Beijing, Langfang, Tianjin and Baoding. Furthermore, the authors recommend promoting sustainable intensification of agriculture and carefully balance between both economic development and ecological protection in Zhangjiakou and plain area. Originality/value: The authors propose a zoning method based on the optimization of land use towards low-carbon development by combining "top-down" and "bottom-up" strategies and provide targeted governance suggestions for each region. This study provides policy implications to implement the regional low-carbon economic transition under the "double carbon" target in urban agglomerations in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei are located in the Bohai Rim region of Northeast Asia, China. It is the region with the largest economic scale and strongest economic vitality in northern China. Due to historical development and administrative division, the economic strength of Beijing and Tianjin is strong, while the economic strength of Hebei Province is weak. The economic development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region is severely uneven. The "Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Coordinated Development Strategy" is proposed and elevated to a national strategy in this context, aiming to explore the path of coordinated economic development in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, promote economic cooperation, balance economic differences, and enhance the overall economic strength of the Beijing Tianjin Hebei region through national leadership. The economic collaborative development evaluation in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region is a classical multiple attribute decision making (MADM) problems. Recently, the TODIM and Evaluation based on Distance from Average Solution (EDAS) method has been used to cope with MADM issues. The hesitant triangular fuzzy sets (HTFSs) are used as a tool for characterizing uncertain information during the economic collaborative development evaluation in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. In this paper, the hesitant triangular fuzzy TODIM-EDAS (HTF-TODIM-EDAS) method is built to solve the MADM under HTFSs. In the end, a numerical case study for economic collaborative development evaluation in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region is given to validate the proposed method. The main contributions of this paper are summarized: (1) the HTF-TODIM-EDAS method is proposed under HTFSs. (2) The MADM method is designed based on the information entropy and HTF-TODIM-EDAS method under HTFSs. (3) A numerical case study for economic collaborative development evaluation in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region is given to validate the proposed method. (4) A comparison between proposed method and existing methods is carried out to check its effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei integration plan rose to the status of a national-level strategy in 2014. This paper provides a deep analysis of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei area's inter-city commuter big data. This research analyzed the overview of spatial structure, polycentric structure, hierarchical structure and clustering characteristics of the BTH based on network analysis methods. It reveals that the inter-city commuter network exhibits clear polycentric characteristics, with Beijing acting as the central hub. The degree of network correlation between cities in Tianjin and Hebei is notably low, indicating that the flow of people primarily revolves around Beijing, while interactions between other cities remain limited. Therefore, it is necessary to further decentralize Beijing's non-capital core functions. The level of connectedness among the areas surrounding the Bohai Rim is not very high, and it has not developed the coastal advantage. The cooperation could be strengthed among the cities within Bohai Rim. The polycentric structure has initially taken shape, but it exhibits obvious polarization characteristics. It is necessary to strengthen the interaction of talents between cities to form secondary central units in BTH. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, China has implemented several measures to improve air quality. The Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) region is one area that has suffered from the most serious air pollution in China and has undergone huge changes in air quality in the past few years. How to scientifically assess these change processes remain the key issue in further improving the air quality over this region in the future. To evaluate the changes in major air pollutant emissions over this region, this paper employs ensemble Kalman filtering (EnKF) for integrating the national ground monitoring pollutant observation data and the Nested Air Quality Prediction Modeling System (NAQPMS) simulation data to inversely estimate the emission rates of SO2, NOX, CO, and primary PM2.5 over BTH region in February from 2014 to 2019. The results show that SO2, NOX, CO, and primary PM2.5 emissions in the BTH region decreased in February from 2014 to 2019 by 83%, 37%, 41%, and 42%, while decreases in Beijing during this period were 86%, 67%, 59%, and 65%, respectively. Compared with the prior emission inventory, the inversion emission inventory reduces the uncertainty of multi-pollutant simulation in the BTH region, with simulated root mean square errors of the monthly average concentrations of SO2, NOX, PM2.5, and CO reduced by 41%, 30%, 31%, and 22%, respectively. The average uncertainties of SO2, NOX, PM2.5, and CO inversion emissions in 2014–19 are ±14.03% yr−1, ±28.91% yr−1, ±126.15% yr−1, and ±43.58% yr−1. Compared with the uncertainty of MEIC emission, the uncertainties of all species changed by +2% yr−1, −2% yr−1, −26% yr−1, and −4% yr−1, respectively. The spatial distribution results illustrate that air pollutant emissions are mainly distributed over the eastern and southern BTH regions. The spatial gap between the inversion emissions and MEIC emissions was further closed in 2019 compared to 2014. The results of this paper can provide a new reference for assessing changes in air pollution emissions over the BTH region in recent years and validating a bottom-up emission inventory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the rapid development of China's digital economy and many studies involving the development of digital economy, there is no unified standard on the measurement of digital economy, and the existing accounting methods all have certain shortcomings. In view of this, this paper constructs a set of accounting system to measure the scale of digital economy industry, from the perspective of digital industrialization and industrial digitization, based on input-output tables. We separate digital economy from traditional industries by splitting and merging IO tables using data such as the Economic Census Yearbook and SAT to calculate the scale of digital economy industry. In this paper, data from Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei provinces in 2017 were used as an example for the calculation. The accounting results show that there is still a large gap in digital economy industry development between Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei, with the total digital economy industry scale, industry digitization scale, digital industrialization scale and the proportion of digital economy value added to GDP in Beijing being much higher than those in Hebei and Tianjin. In addition, due to the characteristics of the respective industrial structures in Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei, the percentages of the four major categories in digital industrialization also show different performance. The share of digital technology application industry in Beijing is much higher than that in Tianjin and Hebei, while the share of digital product manufacturing in Hebei and Tianjin is high. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to deal with severe problems such as environmental pollution and climate change, the Chinese government has proposed the goal of carbon neutrality in 2030 and carbon peak in 2060. Strategic emerging industries have become key areas of high-quality growth of green economy. In order to solve the practical problems of insufficient funds and financing constraints, this paper empirically measures the financing efficiency of strategic emerging industries. Based on the Super Slack-Based Measure model, this paper selects the data analysis of listed companies in Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei from 2011 to 2020. At the same time, this paper systematically combs the index system that affects financing efficiency based on grounded theory. Based on the binary relation and structural level of adjacent matrix and reachable matrix, the explanatory analysis is carried out. On this basis, a systematic GMM model is established to explore the significance of different factors influencing financing efficiency. The research shows that the strategic emerging industry is still in the initial stage, the financing efficiency is not high and the financing output is insufficient. The factors affecting financing efficiency can be divided into 6 dimensions, 20 indicators in total and 5 multipole hierarchical levels. Credit financing, equity financing, financing constraints, technological innovation and government support are the important factors affecting financing efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The production connection is a crucial component of the Inter City Association. An urban network based on the enterprise perspective better reflects the structural characteristics of regional cities. Based on data gathered from the headquarters and branches of the listed manufacturing enterprises in 2020, this paper analyzes the county-level administrative units in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region of China. Using the subordinate connection model and the social network analysis method, this paper examines the spatial structural characteristics and factors of urban networks in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. The results suggest that resource allocation in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region is unbalanced, with a significant difference in urban radiation and agglomeration capacity. As the administrative centers, Beijing, Tianjin, and Shijiazhuang show a strong ability to allocate resources within the network. The overall network density in the region was shown to be relatively low, with the main links being of low or medium level. The urban network is defined by the network connection led by Beijing and Tianjin with Beijing-Tianjin-Tangshan and Beijing-Baoding-Shijiazhuang as the main axis. These cities exhibit a "dense southeast and sparse northwest" pattern. From a hierarchical perspective, high-level network connections are based mainly on spatial proximity. Analyzing the agglomerative subgroups, the study found that the inner and outer connections of the core subgroups were relatively high. Semi-marginal subgroups generally accepted the radiation of core subgroups, while marginal subgroups had little connection with other subgroups in the region. The results of the QAP analysis show that the administrative relationship, spatial distance, city size difference, economic development level difference, industrial structure difference, and labor cost difference have a significant influence on the urban network of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a politically and culturally important city cluster, the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei (BTH) region is the most prominent area in China where the imbalance between the supply and demand of water resources restricts the sustainable and healthy development of the regional social economy. In the context of global warming, research into water demand prediction that takes climate change into consideration would be more in line with the strategic goal of the low-carbon sustainable development of future cities. At the same time, the prediction of agricultural water demands against a background of climate change is urgently needed, while industrial water consumption is weakly correlated with climate change, an investigation of the statistical relationship between the two is needed. Thus, in this paper, future climate data from the BTH region under the scenarios RCP2.6, RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 were generated using a statistical downscaling model, and then coupled with agricultural and industrial water demand prediction models to simulate and analyze the impact of climate change on the agricultural and industrial water demands, respectively. The results show that during the forecast period (2020–2035), the reference crop evapotranspiration (ET0) growth rates in the Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei areas under the RCP2.6 scenario are 1.438 mm·a−1, 1.393 mm·a−1 and 2.059 mm·a−1, respectively. Under the RCP4.5 scenario, they are 2.252 mm·a−1, 2.310 mm·a−1 and 2.827 mm·a−1, respectively. Under the RCP8.5 scenario, they are 3.123 mm·a−1, 2.310 mm·a−1 and 2.141 mm·a−1, respectively. Furthermore, under each climate scenario, the increase in evapotranspiration in the Hebei area is the largest, followed by that in the Tianjin area, and that in the Beijing area is the smallest. For water consumption per CNY 10,000 of industrial added value during the forecast period, under the three different climate scenarios, a downward trend is seen in the Beijing area, with rates of 0.158, 0.153 and 0.110, respectively, but in the Tianjin area, there is an upward trend, with an upward tendency in rates of 0.170, 0.087 and 0.071, and an upward trend in the Hebei area, with an upward tendency in rates of 0.254, 0.071 and 0.036, respectively. This study will help the BTH region to rationally allocate agricultural and industrial water against the background of future climate change, and strengthen the coordination and cooperation between the different regions to promote the healthy and sustainable development of the cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although urban expansion statistics have been widely carried out, large-scale and rapid monitoring is still worth doing in order to improve the efficiency of statistics, as well as make up for the omissions and deficiencies of construction expansion statistics with multi-year intervals. This paper presents a study of urban expansion in the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei plain based on ALOS Global Digital Surface Model "ALOS World 3D-30 m" (AW3D30 DSM), Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) DSM, and Landsat 7 ETM+ images. Through the evaluation of errors and the elimination of non-building changes, a relatively objective result is derived. The neighborhood block statistics of the construction height expansion reveal that from 2000 to 2009, the largest centralized construction expansion mainly occurred between the Second Ring Road and the Fifth Ring Road of Beijing, followed by Yizhuang, Shunyi, Tianjin Central City, and Langfang. Zonal statistics also show a significant imbalance in the expansion of construction in the counties of the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei plain. For example, Chaoyang, Dongcheng, Xicheng, Xuanwu, Chongwen, Nankai, Heping, and Hexi have a larger construction expansion; however, other counties present a relatively slow rate of building expansion. Furthermore, the correlation coefficient between the statistical average building height expansion per unit area (ABHE, by our method) and the actual average completed building floor space per unit area (ACBFS) derived from the Beijing Statistical Yearbook (BSY) is 0.9436, which proves that this method is feasible. With the continuous improvement of DSM data quality in the future, the method proposed in this paper can provide rapid and large-scale statistics to study more urban construction expansion in the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the launch of the "Channel Computing Resources from the East to the West" project, Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, as a national integrated big-data center system, has established a Zhangjiakou data center cluster and continuously optimized the regional computing power layout. Beijing has been accelerating the construction of a global digital economy benchmark city since 2021, committed to forming a collaborative development pattern of computing power integration, and achieving a globally leading density of data centers. The core industry of Beijing's digital economy has strong fundamental advantages, but as a high-energy consuming industry, data centers cannot fully meet real-time computing power needs solely relying on the local infrastructure construction in Beijing. Therefore, this paper explored the promoting role of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei national integrated big-data center system in the construction of a global digital economy benchmark city in Beijing through channels such as computing power resource sharing, green energy consumption support, and industrial development collaboration. Based on this, it analyzed the challenges that still exist in current regional collaboration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the development of global economy, the evaluation of industrial clusters has become an important method to scientifically analyze the advantages and disadvantages of industrial development. The current research model uses the traditional evaluation method, which leads to the problem of unsatisfactory evaluation results and low effect. This paper proposes an evaluation model based on the BP neural network combined with the LM algorithm, which has the advantages of fast convergence speed and strong application ability. The comprehensive evaluation model of industrial clusters is put forward from the comprehensive application of the scale, benefit, and 27 related evaluation indexes of industrial clusters. This paper takes Beijing, Tianjin, and Hebei industrial clusters for BP-LM evaluation and analysis, which fully illustrates the advantages of this method. The evaluation results show that the evaluation target value and the average error of the overall parity have obvious advantages compared with those of other models, which provides application guidance for local economic development and policy formulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper about the high-quality development level of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region is of vital importance to promote high-quality development of China. An evaluation index system that can comprehensively describe the high-quality development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region is designed in this paper. There are 27 indexes selected to evaluate the high-quality development of the cities in Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei province from three dimensions: target level, standard level and index level. By applying the SOM (Self-Organizing Map) algorithm to cluster analysis of high-quality development levels. The results of the study showed that there are variations in high-quality development of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei city cluster. Beijing has the highest quality development level, followed by Tianjin and Hebei, and a significant gap exists between Beijing and Hebei in terms of the level of quality development. In addition, the high-quality development level of cities in Hebei Province are not balanced. Therefore, Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei city cluster should break down administrative barriers, making overall plans and promoting coordinated development among regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The observation facts of trend and variability are estimated for a century‐long timescale, as well as some possible attributions affecting temperature extremes over Beijing‐Tianjin‐Hebei region. In this paper, the new constructed daily maximum and minimum temperature series during the last 100 years in situ stations of Beijing, Tianjin and Baoding city are used, and two 30‐year baseline climatology of 1961–1990 and 1980–2010 are both used in calculating extreme temperature events. The results indicate that there are long‐lasting, frequent and serious extreme warming over Beijing‐Tianjin‐Hebei region, especially for extreme low temperature, with larger declining trends (at 5% significance) from 1981 to 2010 baseline than those from 1961 to 1990 baseline. And from a statistical perspective, El Niño decay years and surface sea temperature (SST) anomalies at some typical ocean regions of the Arabian Sea and the Bengal Bay on the northern Indian Ocean, the Western Pacific and the Mid Atlantic, Southern Indian Ocean and around 45°–85°E, 68°–82°N on the southwest Arctic Ocean can be used as the warning signals denoting extreme warming over Beijing‐Tianjin‐Hebei region. Additionally, urbanization has a significant (at 5% significance) effect on extreme warming over Beijing‐Tianjin‐Hebei region since 1979, with 24.3% warming contribution for annual minimum temperature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taking 13 cities in Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei as the research objects, this paper constructed the urban smart development index system from three aspects: smart space construction, smart element allocation and smart welfare performance, measured the urban smart development level in Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei from 2008 to 2018, and used ArcGIS software to realize the temporal and spatial measurement performance of smart development level. The obstacle degree model was used to reveal the criterion-level factors that hinder the smart development of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei cities. The main conclusions are as follows: (1) The smart development level in Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei is low, the research period shows a weak fluctuation and downward trend, and there is room for improvement. (2) From the spatial difference of smart development level, the double core trend with Beijing and Tianjin as the high level is obvious, showing a downward trend from the center to the surrounding. (3) From the overall barrier performance of study area, smart welfare performance accounts for the largest proportion, smart space construction takes the second place, and smart factor allocation is the lowest. (4) The obstacles to smart development in different cities vary. The obstacles in Beijing and Tianjin are mainly focused on smart welfare performance. As the main core area to undertake Beijing's noncapital functions, smart space construction and smart element allocation are the obstacles in most cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • 2010-2018: Ecological-economic coordination was highest in Hebei and lowest in Tianjin. • The ecological-economic coordination degree of various regions has obvious spatial spillover effects. • Improved functional and development tactics and policy reforms can strengthen ecological-economic development relations. The Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region is an integral part of the ecology and economy of northern China. Unique geographical factors closely interlink the regions; however, limited attention has been paid to urban clusters' ecological and economic spatial linkages. Therefore, this paper introduces Ecosystem service value and Ecological-economic coordination degree, considering extensive spatial spillover effects within the region under study. This paper adopts spatial autocorrelation and the spatial Durbin model to detect the coordination relationship. Moreover, examine the influence of population growth, sales of consumer goods, health facilities, green areas, and Tertiary Industry on Ecological-economic coordination. The relationship is tested economic growth, using the internal and external Thus, it determines that the change of coordination degree shows a "V"-shaped development in time and space and gradually realizes the overall coordinated development. It affirmed the judgment that the Ecological-economic coordination degree of each region has an obvious spatial spillover effect. Policy reforms, improved functions, and development mechanisms can enable the balanced and healthy development of the region's ecological and economic systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2022 Winter Olympics were held in the three competition zones of Beijing, Yanqing and Zhangjiakou, China. The venues of this Winter Olympics were scattered and the terrain was complex. Moreover, the medical resources of Hebei and Beijing were relatively unbalanced. In the medical security of major events, the connection between first aid and in-hospital processes is of the utmost importance to rescue quality. 5th generation mobile network (5G) applications in medical scenarios are on the rise. It would be of great relevance to fully use 5G's low-latency and high-speed features to share the process information of patients, ambulance personnel, and the destination hospital's rescue team at emergency scenes and in transportation, improving rescue efficiency. This paper proposes a system scheme of cross-institutional emergency health information sharing based on 5G and augmented reality wearable devices. It also integrates the construction method of monitoring and other sign data sharing, in addition to testing the proposed scheme's service quality in 5G environments. In the deployment area of the 5G emergency medical rescue information sharing scheme for the Beijing Winter Olympic Games, we selected two designated medical support institutions for testing. The test adopted a combination of fixed-point and driving tests to experiment on the service data, voice service, and streaming media indicators. The 5G signal's coverage rate was close to 100%, the standalone connection's success rate was 100%, and the drop rate was 0. The average downlink rate of multiple scenarios was 620mbps, and the average uplink rate of 5G was over 71.8mbps, which is higher than the average 5G level in China. The downlink rate was more than 20 times larger than the 4th generation mobile network (4G) rate. This study's proposed scheme demonstrates the importance of 5G applications in emergency response and support, in addition to providing a suitable scheme for the integration of 5G networks in the medical scene. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whether the place-based industrial policy promotes regional economic growth is a hot issue in the field of regional industrial economic practice. As a major national strategy in China, the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei industrial coordinated development policy has been implemented more than 8 years. Verifying its effect on regional economic growth and revealing the policy action path will help to further optimize the policy implementation process through feedback. In this paper, the policy effect and its differentiation are empirically studied from 'quality' and 'quantity' respectively by establishing a growth model using the Dual Differences method. The results show that the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei industrial coordinated development policy improves total factor productivity by 2.26% in terms of 'quality', and reduces GDP growth rate by 4.65% in terms of 'quantity'. For the different region, the GDP growth rate increased by 1.28%, while total factor productivity decreased by 2.63% in Beijing, the GDP growth rate decreased by 3.17% and total factor productivity increased by 0.87% in Tianjin, and the GDP growth rate increased by 2.56% and total factor productivity increased by 1.58% in Hebei. The policy is mainly realized by fixed asset investment, capital deepening degree and enterprise scale expansion, while the effect of labor input, R&D investment and enterprise number is not significant. The policy is to give full play to the driving role of fixed asset investment such as "new infrastructure", increase investment in labor and research and development in the region, strengthen the construction of a competitive market environment, and stabilize the 'quality' and 'quantity' to further release policy dividends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the accelerating urbanization process in China, the extensive economic growth model with high energy consumption and high pollution aggravates atmospheric environmental pollution and restricts the sustainable development of the social economy. The Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region has the most severe haze pollution and the most acute contradiction between resources, environment and economic development. Based on the physical coupling theory, this paper constructs a coupling coordination degree model of the economy, environment and high haze pollution industries, such as the thermal power industry. Through literature analysis and expert investigation of the economic, industrial and environmental data of the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region from 2006 to 2018, the coordinated development of the economy, environment and high haze pollution industries, such as the thermal power industry, in the above region, was dynamically monitored. The monitoring results show that the development level of the Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei region is significantly different, and the three subregions have not entered the stage of coordinated development. Moreover, since 2015, they have been in a bottleneck period of development and have not achieved a higher level of progress. The three subregions have different advantages and restraining factors. For example, the backward level of Hebei's economy and high haze pollution industries, such as the thermal power industry, restrict the coordinated development of the region as a whole. Only by accelerating the high-quality development of the Hebei economy can we break through the bottleneck of the development of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Atmospheric oxidizing capacity (AOC) is an essential driving force of troposphere chemistry and self-cleaning, but the definition of AOC and its quantitative representation remain uncertain. Driven by national demand for air pollution control in recent years, Chinese scholars have carried out studies on theories of atmospheric chemistry and have made considerable progress in AOC research. This paper will give a brief review of these developments. First, AOC indexes were established that represent apparent atmospheric oxidizing ability (AOIe) and potential atmospheric oxidizing ability (AOIp) based on aspects of macrothermodynamics and microdynamics, respectively. A closed study refined the quantitative contributions of heterogeneous chemistry to AOC in Beijing, and these AOC methods were further applied in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and key areas across the country. In addition, the detection of ground or vertical profiles for atmospheric OH·, HO 2 ·, NO 3 · radicals and reservoir molecules can now be obtained with domestic instruments in diverse environments. Moreover, laboratory smoke chamber simulations revealed heterogeneous processes involving reactions of O 3 and NO 2 , which are typical oxidants in the surface/interface atmosphere, and the evolutionary and budgetary implications of atmospheric oxidants reacting under multispecies, multiphase and multi-interface conditions were obtained. Finally, based on the GRAPES-CUACE adjoint model improved by Chinese scholars, simulations of key substances affecting atmospheric oxidation and secondary organic and inorganic aerosol formation have been optimized. Normalized numerical simulations of AOIe and AOIp were performed, and regional coordination of AOC was adjusted. An optimized plan for controlling O 3 and PM 2.5 was analyzed by scenario simulation. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pollution havens create environmental inequality issues. China's recent policy of directing high-pollution firms to migrate out of its capital, Beijing, offers a case of a pollution haven that was mandated, rather than resulting from firms' responses to environmental regulation. More importantly, it leads to a question that has been less discussed in previous literature: does a pollution haven strike back? After the highly polluting enterprises moved out of Beijing to neighboring Hebei province, Hebei has been blamed for the continuing poor air quality in Beijing, based on a perception that the pollutants emitted in Hebei are being blown back to Beijing. This paper investigates the existence of a pollution haven in Hebei and quantifies the contribution of Hebei's emissions to Beijing's air quality. We find that the proportion of output values and the relative concentration of high-pollution industries in Hebei increased when the large-scale out-migration began, while the indicators in Beijing decreased. We also find higher emissions of enterprises in Hebei than their counterparts in Beijing. Together, these findings indicate the existence of a "manmade" pollution haven. Further, based on high-frequency spatial data, we combine an Autoregressive Distributed Lag model and a Spatial Autoregressive Model and decompose the factors that affect Beijing's air quality into local and regional transport of air-borne pollutants. We find a significant effect of the neighboring cities' air pollution on Beijing's air quality. This indicates that the pollution haven indeed struck back. These findings imply the importance of regional policies to control air pollution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the spatial and temporal variability and changes in characteristics of the economic efficiency of urban construction land (EEUCL) in 14 administrative regions in the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei (BTH) urban agglomeration from 2002 to 2019, based on the super-efficiency SBM-DEA model and Malmquist index, using carbon emissions as the non-desired output. On this basis, the Tobit model is used to study the role of nine external environmental factors, such as the level of socioeconomic development and industrial structure, in influencing the EEUCL. The results indicate that (1) carbon emissions from urban construction land in Beijing, Tianjin, and Hebei have all reached their peak, and the growth rate has slowed down significantly in the past two years, although there has been a slight rebound; (2) from the 10th Five-Year Plan period to the 13th Five-Year Plan period, Beijing has maintained a high level of EEUCL and the trend is slowly increasing. However, the EEUCL values of Tianjin and Hebei are gradually declining; (3) the socio-economic development level, industrial structure, and green economy development level have a significant positive impact on the EEUCL in the BTH region, while the urban scale, scientific and technical support intensity, outward opening level and population density have significant negative effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei metropolitan cluster has inevitably brought many problems along with its vigorous economic development, one of which is environmental pollution. Based on our previous research, we clarified the mechanisms and characteristics of environmental pollution transfer in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and surrounding regions, and this paper refered to the further correct delineation of the responsibility for environmental pollution control in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and the surrounding provinces. This study measureed the full cost of environmental pollution control and economic benefits in Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei and surrounding provinces in terms of the economic costs required for governance, and constructed an inequity index (CG index) to characterise the inequity in the share of costs borne and benefits by the aforementioned provinces. The results of the study showed that there is significant environmental inequity and inequality of responsibility in the process of regional trade among the provinces in and around Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei and the surrounding region. The developed provinces (Beijing and Tianjin) benefited more and bore less responsibility for pollution control due to their optimised industrial structure, producing more capital-intensive and high value-added industries, while provinces with heavy chemical, high pollution and labour-intensive industries, such as Hebei and Shanxi, developed their economies more in the primary and secondary sectors due to their irrational industrial structure, and therefore benefited less and bore more when trading goods with the developed provinces (Beijing and Tianjin) benefited less and took more responsibility for pollution control. Based on the above findings, policy recommendations are then put forward to provide suggestions and references for the collaborative management of environmental pollution in Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region is subject to the most severe haze condition in China. Against the backdrop of the coordinated development of Beijing, Tianjin, and Hebei, it is of great significance to explore the space-time distribution characteristics of high haze pollution industries in the above region. The purpose of this article is to find high haze pollution industries scientifically, analyze the spatial distribution characteristics of high haze pollution industries in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei correctly, and formulate effective reduction measures for the spatial distribution of high haze pollution industries in different regions of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei. It hopes that the measures provide a basis for effective to reduce high haze pollution in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. Using the Gini coefficient and location entropy, this paper explores the space-time characteristics of high haze pollution industries in 13 cities of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. The results show that those aforesaid high haze pollution industries present an obvious clustering trend in Beijing, Tianjin, Shijiazhuang, Handan, and some areas along the economic axis of China, overall flooding into Eastern coastal and Southern inland areas. By industry, the petroleum processing and coking processing industry, chemical raw materials and chemical products industry, manufacture of non-metallic mineral products, and ferrous metal smelting and rolling processing industry witness a declining clustering trend, as opposed to the electricity, heat production, and supply industry. Meanwhile, core cities of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region have developed high haze pollution industries, and the hinterland lags in economic development. It is necessary to face up to the differences in economic development among areas in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, promote the staggered development of high haze pollution industries, and build a high haze pollution industry chain with coordinated economic and environmental development, thus reducing the economic gap with each area, and realizing the coordinated development of economy, industry, and environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In terrestrial ecosystems, vegetation is sensitive to climate change and human activities. Its spatial-temporal changes also affect the ecological and social environment. In this paper, we considered the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region to study the spatio-temporal vegetation patterns. The detailed analysis of a moderate-resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) data were carried out through the Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform. Our results show a slow and tortuous upward trend in the average leaf area index (LAI) in the study region for the periods 2001–2020. Specifically, Beijing had the highest LAI value, with an average of 1.64 over twenty years, followed by Hebei (1.30) and Tianjin (1.04). Among different vegetation types, forests had the highest normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) with the range of 0.62–0.78, followed by shrubland (0.58–0.75), grassland (0.34–0.66), and cropland (0.38–0.54) over the years. Spatially, compared to the whole study area, index value in the northwestern part of the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region increased greatly in many areas, such as northwest Beijing, Chengde, and Zhangjiakou, indicating a significant ecological optimization. Meanwhile, there was ecological degradation in the middle and southeast regions, from Tangshan southeastward to Handan, crossing Tianjin, Langfang, the east part of Baoding, Shijiazhuang, and the west part of Cangzhou. Air temperature and precipitation were positively and significantly correlated with net primary production (NPP) and precipitation stood out as a key driver. Additionally, an intensification of the urbanization rate will negatively impact the vegetation NPP, with the shrubland and forest being affected most relative to the cropland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Currently, ozone pollution is one of the key environmental concerns, and to provide more effective strategies for ozone control, this paper proposes the use of the Geostationary Environmental Monitoring Spectrometer (GEMS) in conjunction with MAX-DOAS for observations and ozone sensitivity analysis. Compared to traditional polar-orbiting satellites, GEMS, launched by South Korea in 2019, offers superior spatiotemporal resolution. However, there is a lack of ground validation for GEMS data related to ozone and its precursors. In this study, we conducted validation in the Jing-Jin-Ji (Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei) region using two typical MAX-DOAS sites and the China National Environmental Monitoring Center (CNEMC) sites, confirming the accuracy of GEMS data. Analysis of the seasonal horizontal distribution results from GEMS and vertical distribution results from MAX-DOAS in 2022 reveals that the concentrations of NO 2 , HCHO, O 3 , and ozone sensitivity not only display seasonality and regional variations but also exhibit distinct characteristics at different altitudes and times, influenced by local climatic conditions, human activities, and topography. When formulating ozone control policies, it becomes imperative to consider factors such as time, regional characteristics, and seasonality. Comparisons between daily results from TROPOMI and GEMS indicate that polar-orbiting satellites may overlook high-pollution periods within a single day, and their measurements may not provide a comprehensive representation of an entire day's data. Consequently, relying solely on polar-orbiting satellite data for shaping ozone prevention and control policies may inadvertently encourage ozone formation during specific time periods, rendering these policies ineffective. Therefore, leveraging GEMS is essential for the development of comprehensive, around-the-clock ozone control policies. Finally, we used monitoring data from Beijing on October 6, 2022, to illustrate how the combination of GEMS and MAX-DOAS enables three-dimensional monitoring of pollutant transport processes on an hourly scale. [Display omitted] • Validation of the accuracy of ozone and its precursor data from GEMS. • Analysis of hourly ozone sensitivity level distribution using GEMS. • Limitations of polar orbit satellites in O 3 sensitivity analysis compared to GEMS. • Observation of the transport of pollutants combining GEMS and MAX-DOAS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the PSR conceptual evaluation model of urban green and low-carbon development competitiveness, this paper evaluates the green and low-carbon development competitiveness of 13 cities in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei from 2010 to 2019 and reveals their spatial effects and obstacle factors combined with the spatial autocorrelation and obstacle model. The results show the following: (1) In terms of the overall situation, the evaluation index of urban green and low-carbon development competitiveness in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region shows a fluctuating upward trend as a whole from 2010 to 2019. Among them, the comprehensive evaluation indexes of Beijing, Zhangjiakou, and Tianjin are very competitive, while Hengshui, Handan, and Xingtai are relatively weak. (2) In terms of spatial data analysis, the global and local Moran's I of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei cities from 2010 to 2019 were positive and passed the 1% significant level test. This shows that the comprehensive evaluation index of urban green low-carbon development competitiveness of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei cities has a positive spatial correlation, and the spatial agglomeration effect is significant. On the whole, it presents a spatial agglomeration pattern of "high in the north, partial jump, and low in the south". (3) In the aspect of obstacle factor analysis, the proportion of the tertiary industry output value in GDP, energy consumption of ten thousand yuan of GDP, the urban green technology innovation level, and industrial soot emission of ten thousand yuan of GDP are the main obstacle factors restricting the improvement of urban green low-carbon development competitiveness in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Air pollution caused by coal burning not only increases the cost of environmental pollution but also harms human health. It is urgent for China to change the practice of coal-fired central heating. Therefore, the effectiveness and sustainability of the Coal to Gas and Electricity policy have become the focus of all sectors of society. In this paper, eight cities in the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region were taken as the experimental groups and the other eleven cities as the control groups. Based on the PSM-DID model and the time-varying DID model, a quasi-natural experimental analysis was conducted to evaluate the effect of the policy of coal to gas and electricity to improve air quality in the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region from 2015 to 2020 and to test the sustainability of the policy. Three research conclusions are shown below: First, during the implementation of the policy, especially in 2019, the AQI index decreased significantly. Although there was a rebound thereafter, it was still lower than before. This shows that the Coal to Gas and Electricity policy has indeed improved the air quality in Beijing, Tianjin, and Hebei during its implementation. Second, the policy had a great impact on SO2 and PM10 but was relatively weak on PM2.5 and CO. Therefore, there is an urgent need to formulate scientific and accurate policies to control different air pollutants. Third, the time-varying DID model was used to identify the dynamic sustainability effect of the Coal to Gas and Electricity policy. The results showed that the policy had a strong impact in the initial stage, but its effect was greatly reduced at the end of the implementation or near the end, when it was far less obvious than in the initial stage of the policy. Therefore, in formulating relevant measures to reduce air pollution, it is necessary to fully consider the sustainability of the policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper constructs a mobility network of Chinese scientists and a cooperation network of scientific research based on data on mobility and research cooperation in China at the urban scale. Through several methods, including spatial analysis, network analysis, and regression analysis, the nodes and bilateral relations in the two networks are found to be highly coupled. Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei, the Yangtze River Delta, and the Pearl River Delta are hot spots for the mobility and scientific research cooperation networks of Chinese scientists. Only a few cities in the two networks play important roles, and most of the cities serve as a foil. The spatial mobility and scientific research cooperation activities of Chinese scientists are concentrated in the eastern region, the Chinese scientists' mobility and scientific research cooperation networks are rhombus structure, the two networks both are compact and hierarchical network with Beijing as the single dominant city, and the power‐law distribution in the bilateral relationship of two networks shows a "pyramid structure". Finally, we discuss the possible reasons for the spatial co‐location relationship between the mobility and scientific cooperation of scientists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper takes Qing County, Cangzhou City, Hebei Province, a county-level city along the Grand Canal during the Ming and Qing Dynasties, as the research object. The study takes the rise and fall of the canal and the change of transportation modes in modern China as the starting point, and focuses on the transportation changes and urban development of canal cities in Beijing and its environs. By analysing the distribution and function of them, as well as the the influence of railways on urban development, the important value of the canal and the railway for the city is distilled. The study aims to reveal the law of urban development along the Grand Canal under the influence of both the canal and the railroad, and the inherent relationship between urban development and the construction of the canal and the railroad, through the historical perspective of the post system derived from the waterway transportation of the canal and the railroad transportation system rising in modern times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region is an area where the conflict on resource environment and development most acute. Based on the panel data of listed companies in 2010-2019, this paper constructs a panel model on strategic identification degree, which reveals the development strategy of enterprises and the degree of strategic transformation. The results show that environmental and credit policies in this region have been focused on protecting and supporting business-oriented enterprises. The listed company converts monetary funds and some business assets into financial assets through the items available on the balance sheet, which hinders the development strategy of promoting independent innovation in Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei. We hope that the government should pay more attention to the problem of illegal use of funds in enterprises, and take the necessary regulatory measures to correct the tendency of misallocation of assets. At the same time, the environmental protection department and commercial banks will coordinate and work together to promote the independent innovation and business development of enterprises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The spatial spillover of air pollution in Beijing - Tianjin - Hebei region makes the territorial governance model inefficient. At the same time, it is facing the contradiction between environmental governance and economic development. So far, there is still no regional long-term mechanism for coordinated governance of air pollution. Ecological compensation theory is becoming an effective guiding theory to coordinate economic and environmental benefits. There is relatively little research on ecological compensation mechanism in the coordinated control of regional air pollution. Ecological compensation mechanism is an effective tool to promote air pollution control. At the same time, regional cooperation can realize the efficient control of air pollution. Scientifically constructing the cross regional cooperative control model of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei is a favorable way to implement comprehensive Control of air pollution. This paper discusses the necessity of ecological compensation mechanism for regional coordinated control of air pollution. Referring to practical experience of provinces and cities that have implemented the ecological compensation mechanism for air pollution control, and the effective way to distribute the compensation amount, compensation subject and compensation standard determination method that can be implemented in Beijing - Tianjin - Hebei region are analyzed, further proposing an effective way to establish an ecological compensation mechanism for regional air pollution collaborative control according to its reality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Observations suggest that the vertical distributions of air pollutants, such as black carbon (BC), present as various types depending on the emission sources and meteorological diffusion conditions. However, the formation process and source appointment of some special BC profiles are not fully understood. In this paper, by using the Weather Research and Forecasting model coupled with Chemistry (WRF-Chem) with a BC-tagging technique, we investigate the formation mechanism and regional sources of a BC peak in the free troposphere observed by an aircraft flight in Beijing (BJ) on 5 May 2018. The results show that the contribution rate of the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei (BTH) region to the surface BC of BJ exceeded 80 % in this case. Local sources dominated BC in BJ from the surface to approximately 700 m (78.5 %), while the BC peak in the free troposphere (∼4000 m) was almost entirely imported from external sources (99.8 %). Combining BC tracking and process analysis, we find that horizontal advection (HADV) and vertical advection (VADV) processes played an important role in the convergent and upward movement and the transport of BC. The BC originating from the surface in central provinces, including Shanxi (SX), Henan (HN), and Hebei (HB), had been uplifted through a cyclone system 16 h previously, was transported to a height of approximately 3000 m above BJ, and was then lifted by the VADV process to approximately 4000 m. At the surface, BJ and its surroundings were under the control of a weak pressure gradient, leading to the accumulation of BC within the boundary layer. Our results indicate that cyclone systems can quickly lift air pollutants, such as BC, up to the free troposphere, as well as extend their lifetimes and further affect the regional atmospheric environment and climate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electric heating is helpful in resolving air pollution, and also utilizes renewable energy power. However, the environmental benefits of electric heating are restrained by regional resources endowment and regional electrical energy structure. In the context of the active promotion of electric heating in Beijing—Tianjin–Hebei, the paper studied the development potential and limits of wind power electric heating under the constraints of environmental effects to provide reference for the orderly development of electric heating. A model to predict the capacity of the installed wind power improved by the fruit fly optimized ELM (Extreme Learning Machine) algorithm and an electric heating environment effect calculation model are constructed. The optimal value and critical value of the newly added heating area in Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei are obtained through calculation under four scenarios of wind abandonment rate. As the wind abandonment rate increases from 4–10% (with interval of 2%), the optimal value of the newly added electric heating area in Beijing—Tianjin–Hebei will be 19.15, 29.47, 36.26, and 47.90 million m2 by the year 2030. Additionally, as the utilization rate of thermal power exceeds 41.16%, electric heating will produce more carbon emissions compared to coal‐fired heating. Therefore, if we want to develop electric heating on a large scale, we need to control the proportion of thermal power in the power supply structure and increase the proportion of new energy. This study can be used as theoretical reference to the development programme of electric energy substitution in the future. © 2021 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Coordination among subsystems is key to improving urban resilience. • There is a large gap between the UR of Hebei Province and of Beijing-Tianjin. • The CCD of the urban resilience subsystem is trending upward but growing slowly. • The degree of spatial correlation of subsystems CCD in BTHUA is weak. Building resilient cities is a novel concept for dealing with risk crises and achieving sustainable urban development in modern times. This paper utilized data from the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei urban agglomeration (BTHUA) spanning from 2009 to 2019, along with the CRITIC-Entropy weight method, coupling coordination degree (CCD) model and spatial correlation analysis to measure urban resilience and investigate subsystem coupling coordination relationships while considering spatial clustering characteristics. The results indicate that: (1) Spatially, there is a significant gap between the UR index of cities in Hebei Province and that of Beijing-Tianjin, with a "Beijing-Tianjin dual-core driven" trend. Regarding temporal evolution, the growth trend of the UR index is consistent with that of the subsystem resilience index. (2) In general, the CCD of the urban resilience subsystem is slowly trending upwards, with the overall CCD level of BTHUA ranging from primary coordination to moderate coordination. (3) The degree of spatial correlation of subsystem CCD in BTHUA is weak, and more cities exhibit heterogeneous agglomeration. These findings provide valuable inspiration and reference for resilient city construction and coordinated regional development to a certain extent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to understand mobility patterns in mega-city regions from perspectives of accessibility and air-rail intermodality. Travellers' preferences for intercity mode and its access and egress modes were simultaneously collected in the context of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei mega-city region. The accessibility of transport hubs and destinations was measured to enable interpreting mobility behaviour in three dimensions, i.e., travel mode decisions, departure transport hub decisions, and transport service decisions. The calibrated behavioural model highlights a series of determinants regarding level-of-service attributes, travel characteristics, accessibility, socio-demographics, and their interaction. Based on the behavioural insights, twenty domestic cities were selected as destinations for analysing the dynamics of mobility patterns in terms of the competition within the multi-airport system and air-rail cooperation potential in the long-haul market. The elasticity of shifts in transport demand between the primary and secondary airports in the Beijing multi-airport system was assessed under various pricing strategies, highlighting the vital role of the most accessible airport in air traveller decision-making. Moreover, the results underline the effect of air-rail intermodal service upgrades, e.g., offering baggage handling systems and flexible tickets, on stimulating air-rail intermodal mobility in the mega-city region. • Behavioural determinants of intermodal travellers. • Joint decisions on transport modes, hubs, and services. • Effect of accessibility on competitive relationships in multi-airport systems. • Market share of air-rail intermodality in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei mega-city region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei metropolitan area is a significant carbon emission center. The region's early achievement of peak carbon targets is critical to the nation's achievement of peak carbon targets. In this paper, it is proposed to use different orders of grey models to classify into three scenarios. Based on three scenarios, the grey multivariate convolutional model with new information priority accumulation is adopted to predict carbon emissions in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and select the scenario suitable for local development. The results show that: (1) The Beijing region has already achieved peak carbon, the Tianjin region may not reach its peak carbon target by 2030, and the Hebei region is expected to reach its peak carbon target by 2030. (2) The high rate of carbon emission reduction scenario will greatly improve the air quality of Beijing. The low-speed growth carbon emission scenario is more in line with the future development of Tianjin city. The low-rate carbon reduction scenario is more in line with the synergistic governance of pollution reduction and carbon reduction in Hebei Province. (3) Beijing's population policy in the most recent years has been conducive to improving the local environment. Tianjin's medium-term population policy is more in line with the local area. Hebei's medium-term industrial structure reform is favorable to local development. • Grey correlation analysis is used to analyze the factors affected carbon emissions in a region. • The factors with high correlation are predicted by using grey prediction models of different orders. • The high rate of carbon emission reduction scenario will greatly improve the air quality of Beijing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Water use efficiency evaluation based on 3D water footprint using SBM model. • Two scenarios for water use efficiency evaluation. • Analyzing the driving forces affecting water footprint change using the LMDI model. Water shortage and the conflict between water supply and demand have become the main constraints to the sustainable development of sustainable societies in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) region. Scientific evaluation of water usage efficiency and clarification of the three-dimensional water ecological footprint (EF 3D) drivers are of great significance for the collaborative environmental management of BTH region. This paper firstly explores the evolution of water footprint breadth (EF size), depth (EF depth) and EF 3D in BTH region from 2004 to 2020. Using the super-efficient SBM (Slacks-Based Measure) model with EF 3D to evaluate the water use efficiency of BTH region in two scenarios. 22 impact factors were selected to analyze the dynamics affecting the change of EF 3D in BTH region by using the LMDI (Logistic Mean Divided Index) model. The results show that: (1) The water resources pressure of the three provinces are in the overload state from 2004 to 2020, and the EF 3D is at its maximum in 2011–2015. The EF depth of BTH region is fluctuating up and then fluctuating down around 2012, and the most serious capital consumption of water resources stock is in Tianjin. (2) The water resources in Hebei are all in inefficient use. The water resources in Tianjin are in a state of inefficient use in some study years, and since 2014, the water resources are in a state of fluctuating increase and high efficiency. As for Beijing, the water resources are in a state of efficient use in the study years. On the whole, scenario 2 better reflects the water resources utilization efficiency situation and is more in line with the real situation. (3) The water structure and endowment of water resources are pivotal factors positively influencing the EF 3D. To mitigate EF 3D and achieve sustainable utilization of water resources, both Hebei and Tianjin have ample room for progress in elevating agricultural water-saving technologies, optimizing industrial structure, and enhancing water usage patterns. Agricultural water consumption is no longer the primary driver of water resource depletion in Beijing, necessitating focused attention on the impact of external water diversions in terms of local water displacement, optimization of water usage structures, and their role in supporting socio-economic development. Additionally, excessive reliance on external water diversions may entail associated risks that warrant consideration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The green growth of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) urban agglomeration plays a leading and exemplary role in overcoming internal resource restrictions, addressing climate change, and supporting China's high-quality growth. From the standpoint of pollution reduction and carbon reduction, this paper first conducts a comprehensive evaluation of the environmental impact based on combined weighting technique. The Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index (LMDI) model is used to decompose the environmental impact drivers in distinct areas. A decoupling effort index is further constructed to measure the effect of various efforts on the decoupling of economic growth and environmental impact, the improved grey Markov model is applied to predict the future trend of regional decoupling efforts. The results of empirical analysis based on data of the BTH region during 2011–2018 show that: 1) the environmental impact index of Beijing is the lowest followed by Tianjin and Hebei; 2) environmental regulation exerts the most significant impact on reducing environmental pressure in Beijing while technology progress and energy intensity have the most significant effect on easing environmental pressure in Tianjin; 3) strong decoupling efforts have been found in Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei, however, such effect is more significant in Beijing; 4) Beijing's decoupling state is mostly driven by regulatory effect, intensity effect, and scale effect, while Tianjin and Hebei's decoupling states are primarily driven by improvements in environmental regulation and energy intensity; 5) according to the forecast outcome of the improved grey Markov technique, a state of strong decoupling effort will be maintained in the BTH area by 2025, and the decoupling effort index in Beijing will remain the highest while the index in Hebei will remain the lowest. • A comprehensive evaluation of the environmental impact of BTH based on combined weighting method is estimated. • Determinants of environmental impact is decomposed as regulatory, technological, intensity, growth and scale effects. • LMDI model is constructed to estimate the five determinants of regional environmental impact. • Decoupling effort approach and improved grey Markov model are used to analyze and predict the status of various decoupling efforts. • Various suggestions are proposed from the perspective of regional heterogeneity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Land-use change and the associated influences on the carbon metabolism system should not be overlooked in the context of rapid urbanization. By combing carbon emissions/sequestrations accounting and ecological network analysis, this paper quantitatively described the general situation and spatial distribution evolution of carbon metabolism in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) urban agglomeration from 2015 to 2019, investigated carbon flows induced by land-use change, and revealed the ecological relationships between the components of the system. The spatial distribution of carbon emissions showed a trend of high in the southeast and low in the northwest, while carbon sequestrations were the opposite. At the early stage of regional coordinate development, the migration of enterprises with heavy energy consumption and emission and expansion of the transportation network has promoted the economic development in the surrounding area of Beijing, but also lead to the carbon emission transfer and the severe imbalance of carbon metabolism. Despite that a slight improvement can be found in the carbon metabolism system of Beijing and Tianjin, Hebei province still faces intensely competitive ecological relationships between industrial land and other land use, and has a relatively low mutualism index. It is suggested that integrated land use planning, strict cultivated land protection policies, and proper ecological compensation mechanism are the key measures to facilitate the sustainable development of the BTH urban agglomeration. • A temporal-spatial evolution of carbon metabolism in the BTH urban agglomeration is presented. • The impacts of land use change on urban carbon metabolism system are investigated. • Ecological relationships between land-use changes are explored based on the ENA method. • Industrial transfer and expanded transportation exacerbate carbon metabolism imbalance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's most critically air polluted area, the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) region has attracted significant attention; the regional linkage of environmental indicators in BTH has been widely studied in recent years. The city-level air pollutants and economic benefits hidden in trade activities are still poorly understood. This paper examines air pollutants and economic benefits embodied in BTH's consumption based on a city-level input-output table. Our results show that transfer flows of air pollutants and value-added between different cities lead to the unequal exchange of air pollution and economic benefits in BTH. Beijing gains more value-added (38.40%) through trade compared with its atmospheric pollutant equivalents (APE, 1.75%) induced by consumption demand in BTH. Conversely, Tangshan, Shijiazhuang, and Handan emit more air pollutants compared with the benefits they gain through trade. The results provide evidence for the establishment of compensation mechanisms between cities. • Trade between cities lead to the unequal exchange of air pollution and economic benefits in BTH. • Beijing gains a higher proportion of value added compared with its air pollutants induced by trade. • Cities in Hebei province gain lower proportions of value added compared with their air pollutants induced by trade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A CG-GSO model is proposed to measure the urbanization development level. • The model restores the nonlinear urbanization development in urban agglomeration. • The JJJ urban agglomeration is worse than single regions on urbanization development. • The obstacle factors of single regions and urban agglomeration are different. The Beijing(Jing)-Tianjin(Jin)-Hebei(Ji) (JJJ) urban agglomeration is one of the three major urban agglomeration in China, which plays an important strategic role in China's regional development pattern. Based on the concern of inter-relationship within urban agglomeration, this paper creatively proposed a comprehensive gravity-Gram Schmidt Orthogonalization coupling model (CG-GSO) to quantitatively measure the urbanization development level at different regional scales. Compared with the information entropy method, the CG-GSO model was more reliable and fairer in evaluating the urbanization development of an urban agglomeration in the inter-annual dimension. We used the obstacle factor model to find out important ways to realize sustainable development at different regional scales. According to the trends from 2003 to 2017, the urbanization development levels were predicted by using the gray forecast model at different regional scales during 2018–2030. There was an upward trend in urbanization development at different regional scales. Compared with the internal single regions, a high starting and slow developing trend was in the urban agglomeration. In Beijing, the obstacle factors in urbanization development were in the demographic, social and eco-environmental subsystems. However, the obstacle factors were in the economic, eco-environmental and social subsystems in Tianjin, Hebei and JJJ urban agglomeration. The forecast results showed that urbanization development was going strong in internal regions from 2018 to 2030, while the overall urbanization development was slow in urban agglomeration. Urbanization development should focus on labor redistribution, weakening the boundary on social welfare, improving the efficiency of economic development and paying attention to protecting eco-environment for taking the sustainable development road in the JJJ urban agglomeration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) has been suffering from severe groundwater storage (GWS) consumption and land subsidence (LS) for a long period. The overexploitation of groundwater brings about severe land subsidence, which affects the safety and development of BTH. In this paper, we utilized multi-frame synthetic aperture radar datasets obtained by the Rardarsat-2 satellite to monitor land subsidence's temporal and spatial distribution in the BTH from 2012 to 2016 based on multi-temporal interferometric synthetic aperture radar (MT-InSAR). In addition, we also employed the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) mascon datasets acquired by the Center for Space Research (CSR) and Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) to obtain the GWS anomalies (GWSA) of BTH from 2003 to 2016. Then we evaluate the accuracy of the results obtained. Furthermore, we explored the relationship between the regional GWSA and the average cumulative subsidence in the BTH. The total volume change of subsidence is 59.46% of the total volume change of groundwater storage. Moreover, the long-term decreasing trend of the GWSA (14.221 mm/year) and average cumulative subsidence (17.382 mm/year) show a relatively high consistency. Finally, we analyze the heterogeneity of GWS change (GWSC) and LS change (LSC) in the four typical areas by the Lorenz curve model. The implementation of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project (MSWDP) affects the heterogeneity of GWSC and LSC. It can be seen that the largest heterogeneity of LSC lags behind the GWSC in the Tianjin-Langfang-Hengshui-Baoding area. The largest uneven subsidence in Beijing and Tianjin occurred in 2015, and the largest uneven subsidence in Hengshui-Baoding occurred in 2014. After that, the heterogeneity of subsidence gradually tends to stable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Li, Z.-W., 2019. Statistical analysis of the development of the port cluster economy in Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei. In: Gong, D.; Zhu, H., and Liu, R. (eds.), Selected Topics in Coastal Research: Engineering, Industry, Economy, and Sustainable Development. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 94, pp. 692–695. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208. This paper aims to explore the development strategies of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei port cluster. Based on the data of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei port cluster in 1980∼2014, a VAR model was established with such four variables as total handling capacity, import and export, GDP and the employment. Then, the economic relationship between the port cluster and the hinterland was analysed by impulse response, and the four variables were subjected to the Grainger causality test. The results show that the total handling capacity of the port cluster has a positive effect on the import and export, GDP, and employment, but the increase in GDP is not the Granger-cause of the increase in the port cluster throughput. The GDP growth only has a short-term driving effect on the port cluster throughput. The long-term growth of port throughput largely depends on international economy. What is worse, the positive effect of port throughput on hinterland economy is rather limited. The research findings and suggestions provide meaningful reference for the research on port cluster economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• We improved the urbanization effects indicator by considering built-up areas. • Urbanization promoted annual precipitation in developed urban areas of temperate zone. • High uncertainties of urbanization effects existed in coastal cities. Rapid urbanization plays important roles in modifying regional climate. The effects of urbanization on annual precipitation in temperate climate zone were complicated and have not been fully investigated. In this study, Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) region of North China was selected as research area and field observations of inter-annual precipitation from 1980 to 2015 were utilized to conduct the spatiotemporal analysis and to extract the urbanization effects. Combined statistical methods were applied and the urbanization effects indicator (UE) was created to quantify the roles of urban development on annual precipitation by combining the land cover change of cities and urban–rural precipitation differences. The paper found following main results: (1) In 2000 s, annual precipitation increased faster in urban areas (slope = 7.165 mm/yr) than in rural areas (slope = 4.954 mm/yr). The urbanization effects on the increasing of precipitation have been implied by comparisons of urban–rural difference between 2000 s (slope = 2.211 mm/yr) and 1980 s (slope = 0.165 mm/yr). (2) Rapid urbanization led to increasing of annual precipitation. Built-up areas correlated higher with urban precipitation than with rural precipitation in 9 of 13 cities, and were used as weights to improve the urbanization effects indicator (UE). (3) As the largest and the most developed city, Beijing presented the highest urbanization effects (UE = 44.5) on the increasing inter-annual precipitation, which was 51% higher than the secondary city of Chengde (UE = 21.71). The coastal cities such as Tianjin, Qinhuangdao and Tangshan presented negative UE values probably due to the strong sea-land energy interactions. This study contributes new findings to the effects of urbanization on annual precipitation in temperate climate zone and could help understand the feedback of land surface changes to variations of atmospheric circulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]