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It is an important way to realize rural revitalization and sustainable development to guide rural settlement transition (RST) in an appropriate way. This paper uses actor network theory (ANT) to construct a theoretical framework for the study of RST. Taking two typical villages with different transition paths in rural areas of North China Plain as examples, this paper reveals the mechanism of RST and makes a comparative analysis. The results show that: 1) after identifying problems and obligatory passage point, key actors recruit heterogeneous actors into the actor network by entrusting them with common interests, and realize RST under the system operation. 2) Rural settlements under different transition paths have similarities in the problems to be solved, collective actions and policy factors, but there are differences in the transition process, mechanism and effect. The actor network and mechanism of RST through the path of new rural community construction are more complex and the transition effect is more thorough. In contrast, the degree of RST of retention development path is limited if there is no resource and location advantage. 3) Based on the applicable conditions of different paths, this paper designs a logical framework of 'Situation-Structure-Behavior-Result' to scientifically guide the identification of RST paths under the background of rural revitalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study introduces the Five-Year Plan as an assignable Chinese experience for attaining comprehensive development to provide policy reference for goal-based development related to sustainability. Before illustrating a dynamic localized implementation path of merging the UN Development Strategy and China's national planning policies, the paper uses quantitative comparative analysis to depict an overview of this dynamic. Two key features, goal integration and development efficiency, were then built to characterize China's multidimensional development goal implementation capacity. Then, we implemented a high-dimensional fixed-effects model to examine how different stages of development impacted the likelihood of achieving our goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the process of global urban development, there are urgent ecological security and environmental pollution problems, green development is the fundamental way for urban sustainable development, economic transformation and mitigation of ecological and environmental problems. Based on the panel data of 283 cities at prefecture level and above in China from 2003 to 2017, this paper analyzes spatial–temporal evolution characteristics of urban green development efficiency (UGDE) and the peer effects of UGDE between cities of different grades. It is found that during the study period, in terms of temporal evolution, the average UGDE in China increased from 0.47 in 2003 to 0.61 in 2017, with a cumulative growth rate of 29.79%, showing a rising trend in general. In terms of spatial evolution, the number of low-efficiency cities and medium-efficiency cities continued to decrease. The eastern region has always been the main distribution area of higher-efficiency cities and high-efficiency cities; in the central region, UGDE in most cities improved significantly; in the western region, UGDE has always lagged behind that in the eastern and central regions. In addition, the center of gravity of UGDE presented a trend of northwest migration in general, with a total displacement of 100.07 km, and UGDE showed a spatial dispersion trend. The empirical results indicate that the improvement of UGDE in large cities has a driving effect on that in neighboring medium cities and small cities through the positive peer effect, and the growth of UGDE in medium cities has a promoting effect on that in neighboring small cities through the positive peer effect; the increase of UGDE in medium cities has a positive peer effect on that in neighboring large cities, and the growth of UGDE in small cities has a positive peer effect on that in neighboring medium cities; UGDE promotes each other between large cities through the positive peer effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organization's sustainability performance is influenced by its suppliers' sustainability performance. This relationship makes sustainable supplier development a strategic competitive option for a buyer or focal organization. When considering sustainable supplier development practices (SSDPs) adoption, organizations have to balance and consider their limited financial resources and operational constraints. It becomes necessary to both select the best SSDPs set and investment allocation among the selected SSDP set such that the organization can maximize overall sustainability performance level. In this paper, an integrated formal modeling methodology using DEMATEL, the NK model, and multi-objective linear programming model is used support this objective. The proposed methodology is evaluated in a practical sustainable supply chain field study of an equipment manufacturing company in China. Through case study, we found that the interdependency among SSDPs must be considered in SSDPs selection and investment allocation problem. Theoretical, managerial and methodology implications, conclusions, and directions for future research are also presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the coupling coordination degree between digital economy and green technology innovation in 19 urban agglomerations across China from 2011 to 2020. Through the analysis of the coupling coordination degree model, spatial autocorrelation, multi-distance spatial clustering analysis, kernel density analysis and grey correlation model, this study uncovers the mechanism of coupling between digital economy and green technology in Chinese urban agglomerations. Data analysis revealed a significant increase in the coupling coordination between the digital economy and green technology innovation within urban agglomerations. However, there are noticeable spatial imbalances in this trend. Additionally, the multi-distance spatial distance analysis highlights a shift from a random distribution to a clustered distribution of spatial characteristics. The polarization features vary among each urban agglomeration and exhibit a significant positive spatial correlation. Factors such as economic sustainability, creative talent, policy support, digital impetus, and technological support will affect the coupling mechanism of green technology innovation and the digital economy in China's urban agglomerations. Policy recommendations are proposed to foster the development of the digital economy, promote coordinated growth within and beyond urban clusters, and ultimately build a digital ecological civilization that is both green and intelligent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growth of global environmental concerns has prompted a worldwide movement towards sustainable development. In recent years, China's rapid economic growth has been reflected in increased environmental degradation, exacerbated by rapid urbanization, the urban–rural divide, and a government commitment to urban ecological preservation at the expense of rural areas. At the same time, rural communities require increased cultural awareness of environmental conservation and sustainable practices. To address the indiscriminate depletion of natural resources endangering China's rural landscapes, this paper presents a novel framework that combines deep convolutional neural networks (CNNs) with rural ecological governance. A thorough understanding of rural ecological dynamics is made possible by the integration of cutting-edge CNN technology, which facilitates complex data processing and image recognition from satellite and sensor data. Utilizing the Eurostat dataset, it carries out an extensive sustainability analysis of rural ecological governance by applying fundamental theories of environmental governance, such as polycentricity and symbiosis, that are adapted for rural environments. The pastoral environmental governance issues are systematically addressed by means of a multi-stage PPS hierarchical approach. The framework also suggests a novel approach to household waste management for isolated communities, focusing on natural sewage treatment and waste recycling as ways to reduce environmental impact. This all-encompassing strategy seeks to transform rural ecological management by providing customized solutions to protect resources and promote sustainable development in China's rural areas. The experimental results show a fantastic accuracy rate of 98.5% of the CNN model. This compares favorably to recognized architectures such as ResNet16, ResNet32, and ResNet64, demonstrating CNN's ability to handle complex features of rural landscapes. A comparative analysis with RNN and LSTM highlights CNN's capacity to extract hierarchical features and capture spatial dependencies. In addition, the work reveals that rural residents have an overall satisfaction rate of 85.2% with environmental governance, of which 45.6% provide high levels of satisfaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To solve various extraction-related problems existing in the deep Jurassic mines in the Inner Mongolia-Shaanxi (IM-S) mining area, this paper puts forward a method to control roof water hazards based on the sedimentary facies pattern of the aquifers. The problems we addressed are: high volumes of goaf water, mixing of coal-based water in the stope, the proximity of the upper coal seam to water-enriched aquifers, and the inability for safe excavation and stoping. We first investigated the spatial distribution patterns of the aquifers and their related storage properties. A zone model of water yield compatible with the hydrogeological characteristics of a deep Jurassic mine was evaluated for the aquifers in the roof of the 3–1 coal mine, and a "low-position and lateral interception" control method was proposed based on the water yield zonation. The results demonstrated that the depositional environment for the sandstone aquifer in the first member of the Zhiluo Formation had a channel bar paleoenvironment that was characterized by a varying water table. This proved to be the key layer for preventing and controlling the water hazards. The method described in this paper effectively mitigated the water hazards associated with that aquifer in the study area and thus provide a theoretical and practical basis for controlling mine water hazards in the IM-S mining area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Eco-civilization, as a civilizational discourse led by China, implies the next stage of civilization after industrial civilization, the essence of which is to respect, conform to, and protect nature. Although the international community is paying more attention to eco-civilization, the existing literature still lacks a systematic discussion of which theories and practices underpin the construction of eco-civilization. Due to the ambiguity of eco-civilization, some even criticize it as being a form of purely partisan politics in China. By systematically reviewing its theoretical pillars, practical actions, and major achievements, this perspective paper argues that China's eco-civilization is not a partisan politics, but rather a legitimate, imperative pathway to global sustainable development rooted in complementary theory and practice, i.e., theories guide practices, and practices enrich theories. We highlight that the theoretical basis and practical actions of eco-civilization constitute a continual improvement process that permits diverse viewpoints and understanding, and any action exploring how to achieve a harmonious coexistence between humans and nature is consistent with the values of eco-civilization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's concept of "ecological civilization" can be understood as a new system of development and governance based on the perspective of political decision-making. Environmental management, ecological restoration, and green development are its primary principles—distinctly different from industrial and agricultural-oriented civilizations. In this paper, we evaluate the evolution of political connotations of the ecological civilization concept in China over the past 15 years through a textual analysis approach. Additionally, we systematically outline an ecological civilization indicator system and analyze its evolutionary process, applicable scales, and role in guiding the implementation of the ecological civilization concept. Eco-civilization demonstration sites and experiences are also discussed, followed by a review of academic research and policy-making responses. Finally, we propose different perspectives on the outlook for the future of ecological civilization development in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are urgent ecological and environmental problems in the process of the utilization of urban construction land, promoting green utilization of construction land is conducive to urban sustainable development and high-quality economic development. Based on the panel data of 108 prefecture-level and above cities in the Yangtze River Economic Belt, China from 2003 to 2017, this paper uses the super-efficiency SBM model to measure the green efficiency of urban construction land (GEUCL), analyzes its spatial–temporal evolution characteristics, and constructs the spatial autoregressive model to study its spatial spillover effects from the perspective of urban hierarchy. It is found that, in terms of temporal variation, the average efficiency value shows a fluctuating upward trend during the study period, rising from 0.27 in 2003 to 0.39 in 2017, the cumulative growth rate is 44.44%, with an average annual growth rate of 3.14%. In terms of spatial distribution characteristics, during the study period, the number of medium-efficiency and high-efficiency cities increases significantly, while the number of low-efficiency cities decreases sharply; high-efficiency cities always present scattered distribution, while medium-efficiency cities change from scattered distribution to agglomeration distribution. In addition, GEUCL has significantly positive spatial spillover effects between neighboring cities of different grades and between neighboring cities of the same grade, among them, the increase of GEUCL in higher-grade cities has significantly positive spatial spillover effects on that in adjacent lower-grade cities; the increase of GEUCL in lower-grade cities has significantly positive spatial spillover effects on that in neighboring higher-grade cities; GEUCL has significantly positive spatial spillover effects between neighboring cities of the same grade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agricultural green development is an essential direction for global sustainable agriculture. The academic literature, however, needs to place greater emphasis on studying the factors influencing agricultural green development performance and how such performance can be improved. A theoretical framework for agricultural green development performance was constructed in this paper using the Super-SBM model, which considers undesirable outputs, to measure the agricultural green development performance of 330 cities at or above the prefecture level in China (excluding Tibet Autonomous Region, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan of China) from 2007 to 2018. Furthermore, the influencing mechanism of agricultural green development performance was then analyzed using a spatial econometric model. The results show that: 1) from 2007 to 2018, China's agricultural green development performance experienced three stages of evolution: 'rise, decline and rise'. 2) The regions with high performance agricultural green development are mainly distributed in eastern China, northeastern China, and southern Qinghai Province. 3) The agricultural economic level, industrialization process, and labor quality play significant roles in promoting local agricultural green development performance, while such performance is obviously inhibited by the openness level and the government's environmental regulations. Local agricultural green development performance is significant inhibited by the agricultural economic level and accelerated industrialization process in neighboring cities, while significantly promoted by the agricultural industrial structure in neighboring cities. Some suggestions for improving agricultural green development performance are proposed based on these research results, which can provide scientific references for promoting sustainable agriculture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ending poverty in all its forms is the first of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Therefore, it is of great significance to study poverty in the context of sustainable development. After eradicating absolute poverty, constructing a long-term mechanism to solve relative poverty is an inevitable requirement for achieving common prosperity in China. Therefore, it is extremely important that relative poverty is accurately identified and quantitatively decomposed. This paper adjusts the Foster–Greer–Thorbecke poverty index to propose a new methodology for relative poverty decomposition comprising growth, dispersion, heterogeneity, and identification effect. Based on China Family Panel Studies data from 2014 to 2018, the empirical analysis reveals the contributions to relative poverty made by growth, dispersion, heterogeneity, and identification effects. Specifically, the growth effect reduces the incidence of relative poverty; dispersion effect worsens relative poverty by affecting the depth of poverty; the heterogeneity effect depends on the heterogeneous characteristics of the population; the identification effect aggregates relative poverty by acting mainly on poverty incidence. We also compare the four relative poverty effects in urban versus rural areas. The findings show that dispersion effect and heterogeneity effect are keys to the differences. In particular, dispersion effect differences arise from income disparities, while heterogeneity effect differences depend on heterogeneous characteristics such as education, health insurance, and migrant work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public sports venues serve as a crucial material medium for human athletic activities. Research on their spatial distribution holds profound implications for optimizing spatial layout and promoting human sports endeavors. This paper takes interest points of sports venues in China as research samples, employing GIS spatial analysis tools, mathematical statistics, and Geo-detector as research methods. It systematically investigates the spatial distribution characteristics and causes of sports venues in China, aiming to provide insights and references for the optimization of spatial arrangement, sustainable development, and relevant policy formulation of sports venues in the country. The results indicate that: (1) In terms of overall distribution characteristics, sports venues in China present a multi-centric agglomeration in geographical space. (2) From a regional distribution perspective, the spatial layout of these venues reveals a pattern of "more in the south, less in the north," "dense in the southeast, sparse in the northwest," and a coastal strip distribution. (3) Regarding spatial correlation, the hot and cold spot partitions of sports venues largely align with the "Hu-Line", with their spatial distribution tending towards a positively correlated pattern of high–high clustering and low–low clustering. (4) There is evident heterogeneity in factors affecting sports venues' spatial distribution. The distribution results from the interactive coupling of multiple factors, where the interaction between any two factors offers stronger explanatory power for the spatial layout of the venues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's economic growth has reached a new plateau. It is no longer appropriate to use the old economic growth model, which relied on labor, land resources, mineral resources, and other economic considerations. Under the background of artificial intelligence, high-quality economic development is an inevitable trend. A new financial paradigm called "digital finance" integrates financial services with information technologies. Digital financial technology is thought to be a crucial foundation for fostering high-quality and sustainable economic and social development since it may offer more economic entities reduced cost of capital and more realistic financial service skills than in traditional financial models. In the era of artificial intelligence, how to reasonably release the momentum of digital finance for China's sustained economic growth has become a hot topic of discussion at this stage. This paper studies the impact of digital finance on the economic efficiency of the energy industry in the context of artificial intelligence. Relevant metrics were also calculated. The findings revealed that: The benchmark regression result of digital finance on the efficiency of the green economy was 0.4685 before adding the main restrictions; the benchmark regression result of digital finance on the efficiency of the green economy was 0.2243 after adding the main constraints. As a result, data finance had a favorable impact on the effectiveness of the green economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are urgent ecological and environmental problems in the process of the utilization of urban construction land, promoting green utilization of construction land is conducive to urban sustainable development and high-quality economic development. Based on the panel data of 108 prefecture-level and above cities in the Yangtze River Economic Belt, China from 2003 to 2017, this paper uses the super-efficiency SBM model to measure the green efficiency of urban construction land (GEUCL), analyzes its spatial–temporal evolution characteristics, and constructs the spatial autoregressive model to study its spatial spillover effects from the perspective of urban hierarchy. It is found that, in terms of temporal variation, the average efficiency value shows a fluctuating upward trend during the study period, rising from 0.27 in 2003 to 0.39 in 2017, the cumulative growth rate is 44.44%, with an average annual growth rate of 3.14%. In terms of spatial distribution characteristics, during the study period, the number of medium-efficiency and high-efficiency cities increases significantly, while the number of low-efficiency cities decreases sharply; high-efficiency cities always present scattered distribution, while medium-efficiency cities change from scattered distribution to agglomeration distribution. In addition, GEUCL has significantly positive spatial spillover effects between neighboring cities of different grades and between neighboring cities of the same grade, among them, the increase of GEUCL in higher-grade cities has significantly positive spatial spillover effects on that in adjacent lower-grade cities; the increase of GEUCL in lower-grade cities has significantly positive spatial spillover effects on that in neighboring higher-grade cities; GEUCL has significantly positive spatial spillover effects between neighboring cities of the same grade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainable development of agriculture is the basis for achieving social sustainable development. As the basic industry of national economy, green development of agriculture has become an important support for building an environment-friendly society. Agricultural fiscal expenditure is a direct channel for the government to support agriculture and promote agricultural transformation. It is important to analyze the impact of agricultural fiscal expenditure (AFE) on agricultural green total factor productivity (AGTFP) for sustainable agricultural development. Therefore, this paper employs the random effect model and spatial Durbin model to empirically analyze the direct effect and spatial spillover effect of AFE on AGTFP by using the agricultural panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2008 to 2020. Then, by taking the policy proposal as the time node, this paper also conducts a time heterogeneity analysis to measure the impact of policy enactment on AFE and AGTFP. The main conclusions are as follows: (1) AGTFP exists significant positive spatial spillover effect. The "radiation effect" of agricultural green development is significant. (2) AFE can significantly reduce the AGTFP in the local area, that is, 1% increase of AFE in the local area will reduce AGTFP by 0.037%. At present, agriculture is still yield-oriented. The improvement of AFE in the local area will lead to the expansion of local agricultural production and increase pollution emission. (3) AFE has a significant negative spatial spillover effect on AGTFP, that is, for every 1% increase in AFE, the AGTFP will decrease 0.123% in geographically similar areas, while the AGTFP will decrease by 0.116% in economically and geographically similar areas. It is obvious that AFE will promote the optimization of agricultural production conditions in the province, with the "demonstration effect" on the surrounding areas, the enthusiasm of production in the surrounding areas will increase, thus expanding the pollution emission. (4) According to the analysis of different periods, AFE has a negative impact on AGTFP mainly before the reform innovation is proposed in 2015. It indicates that reform policies have a significant impact on agricultural sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Yilong Lake is the southernmost plateau freshwater lake in China. The health of its watershed ecosystem is of special strategic significance to maintain the ecological security and ensure the sustainable development of regional economy and society. This paper analyzed the characteristics of landscape type in Yilong Lake Basin of 1990, 1995, 2000, 2005, 2010, 2015 and 2018 and discussed the impact of landscape pattern type changes and its effect on ecosystem services values (ESV). The results showed that: (1) The landscape types of Yilong Lake are mainly forest land and the largest dynamic degree of comprehensive 1andscape type in the six stages is 2010–2015 and the smallest is 2015–2018. (2) Spatially, the most frequent conversion was arbor forest land, which turned to shrub forest land and garden land. The rapid expansion of construction land and transportation land were turned by cultivated land area. (3) Temporally, from 1990 to 2018, the total ESV also increases year by year, and the regional distribution of high ESV is consistent with the distribution of water areas and gardens. The comprehensive analysis shows that the implementation of governance projects such as ecological protection and governance of Yilong Lake surface mountain are conducive to increase the landscape types and the total ESV. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agglomeration of the industry significantly impacts economic performance and environmental sustainability. In line with its strategic context of striving to achieve carbon reduction targets, China is making efforts to optimize the producer services landscape to reduce carbon emissions. Understanding the spatial correlation between industrial agglomeration and carbon emissions is particularly crucial against this background. Based on POI and remote sensing data of China's Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB), the paper adopts the mean nearest neighbor analysis, kernel density analysis, and standard deviation ellipse to portray the agglomeration of producer services. Then uses Moran's I to present the spatial distribution characteristics of carbon emissions. Accordingly, the spatial heterogeneity of producer services agglomeration and carbon emissions is showed using the Geographic detector so as to provide strong support for industrial structure optimization and sustainable development. Here are some of the conclusions drawn from the study: (1) Producer services are a significant state of agglomeration in the provincial capitals and some central cities, with similar agglomeration patterns. (2) Carbon emissions exhibits significant spatial aggregation characteristics, with the spatial distribution pattern of "High west–Low east". (3) Wholesale and retail services industry is the primary risk factor that causes spatial differentiation of carbon emission intensity, "leasing and business services industry-wholesale and retail services industry" is the key interaction factor of the spatial differentiation. (4) Carbon emissions shows a downward trend followed by an upward trend as producer services agglomeration increases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to analyze the green efficiency performance of the logistics industry in China's 30 provinces from 2008 to 2017. We first evaluate the green efficiency of the logistics industry through the non-directional distance function method. Then, we use the functional clustering method funHDDC, which is one of the popular machine learning methods, to divide 30 provinces into 4 clusters and analyze the similarities and differences in green efficiency performance patterns among different groups. Further, we explore the driving factors of dynamic changes in green efficiency through the decomposition method. The main conclusions of this paper are as follows: (1) in general, the level of green efficiency is closely related to the geographical location. From the clustering results, we can find that most of the eastern regions belong to the cluster with higher green efficiency, while most of the western regions belong to the cluster with lower green efficiency. However, the green efficiency performance in several regions with high economic levels, such as Beijing and Shanghai, is not satisfactory. (2) Based on the analysis of decomposition results, the innovation effect of China's logistics industry is the most obvious, but the efficiency change still needs to be improved, and technical leadership should be strengthened. Based on these conclusions, we further propose some policy recommendations for the green development of the logistics industry in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the main means to dovetail the domestic system with international rules, institutional openness is the key to deepening participation in the global economic governance system, breaking through energy and carbon emission constraints, and achieving green and sustainable economic development. Taking 284 prefecture-level cities in China from 2006 to 2019 as the research sample, this paper uses the establishment of Pilot Free Trade Zones as a quasi-natural experiment to systematically identify and test the actual impact of institutional openness on urban carbon emissions in China through the asymptotic difference in difference method, instrumental variables method, spatial econometric model, and mediating effects model. Meanwhile, technological progress is used as the entry point to analyze the intrinsic mechanism of action by adopting digital transformation oriented to efficiency improvement and green innovation capability oriented to R&D innovation as the differentiated perspective. It is found that institutional openness significantly suppresses urban CO2 emissions, and there is a certain heterogeneity and spatial spillover effect of this effect. Further study finds that institutional openness achieves carbon emission reduction through technological progress. The study aims to find new institutional innovation and development paths for low carbon development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper innovatively expands China's human development index under the background of development concept in the new era, constructs the index system of China's human development index (CHDI) with four core dimensions of "life span, education, income and sustainable development" and measures the human development level of 31 provinces and the whole country from 1990 to 2017. Using the method of exploratory spatial data analysis (ESDA), this paper studies the spatiotemporal evolution characteristics of CHDI in 31 provinces from 1990 to 2017 and discusses the mechanism of CHDI in China. The results show that: ① CHDI in eastern China is obviously ahead of other regions and there is a big gap in human development among different regions. CHDI of 31 provinces had positive spatial correlation, showing significant spatial aggregation effect. ② In addition to its own influencing factors, the CHDI of a province is also affected by the CHDI of its "neighboring" provinces. ③ Urbanization rate, per capita financial expenditure on education and the number of health professionals are the three main positive driving factors of China's CHDI and the per capita carbon emission is the main reverse driving factor. This study provides policy suggestions for improving the level of human development in China and realizing regional balanced development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mega-urban agglomerations in developing countries have been main parts of economic development. But at the same time, they have become the most prominent and sensitive areas of resource and environment problems. It is important to clarify the mechanism and driving factors of green growth in mega-urban agglomerations. Based on the panel data of 28 major cities in China's Pan-Pearl River Delta urban agglomeration from 2006 to 2015, this paper evaluates the level of green development of urban agglomeration by green total factor productivity index (GTFP) based on Global Malmquist DEA model, and decomposes GTFP into technological progress, pure technical efficiency change, scale efficiency change and technological scale change. On this basis, this paper constructs a panel econometric model to analyze the influencing factors of GTFP and its decomposition factors. The results show that GTFP of Pan-Pearl River Delta urban agglomeration is growing, and the scale effect caused by technological progress is the main driving factor. Green development in the Pearl River Delta urban agglomeration takes into account efficiency and regional fairness, which causes differences in GTFP growth patterns of sub-urban agglomerations within mega-urban agglomerations. The technological progress and technical efficiency improvement are becoming the main driving force of GTFP growth in relatively backward areas. Furthermore, according to the influencing factors of GTFP and its decomposition factors, mega-urban agglomeration should eliminate internal administrative barriers to build an integrated market. It should also increase the proportion of technology industries in core cities, and give full play to the role of technology spillover effect on surrounding cities. In addition, improving the efficiency of resource and energy utilization is also helpful to promote the transformation of urban agglomeration development from factor-driven to efficiency-driven and innovation-driven. Our research results have implications for the coordinated development of economy and environment in developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to the debate on the nexus between informal economies and the environment by investigating the long-term dynamic impacts of China's informal economies on pollution and considering regional differences in informal economies' pollution. This paper uses the Multiple Indicators Multiple Causes (MIMIC) model to estimate the size of informal economies and employs econometric models to examine their relationships to pollution based on provincial-level panel data from 2000 to 2017. The results indicate that informal economies' effects on environmental pollution are not purely positive or negative. Rather, our model indicates that there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between informal economies and pollution in the long run in China; this means that the level of environmental pollution increases at first and then decreases with the growth of informal economies. Further analysis shows that while this inverted, U-shaped relationship is significant in different regions of China, it is affected by different environmental impact factors. The paper concludes by discussing the policy implications for environmental protection and sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forestry plays an essential role in reducing CO2 emissions and promoting green and sustainable development. This paper estimates the CO2 emissions of 30 provinces in China from 2008 to 2017, and uses Global DEA-Malmquist to measure the total factor productivity of the forestry industry and its decomposition index. On this basis, by constructing a spatial econometric model, this paper aims to empirically study the impact of forestry industry's total factor productivity and its decomposition index on CO2 emissions, and further analyze its direct, indirect and total effects. The study finds that the impact of forestry industry's total factor productivity on CO2 emissions shows an "inverted U-shaped" curve and the inflection point is 0.9395. The spatial spillover effect of CO2 emissions is significantly negative. The increase of CO2 emissions in adjacent areas will provide a "negative case" for the region, so that the region can better address its own energy conservation and emission reduction goals. TFP of forestry industry also has positive spatial spillover effect. However, considering the particularity of forestry industry, this effect is not very significant. For other factors, such as foreign direct investment, urbanization level, industrial structure and technology market turnover will also significantly affect regional CO2 emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid economic development of China has intensified the country's many problems. Among them, energy shortage and environmental pollution are two main problems, which highly affects the economic growth and sustainable development. To achieve more rapid green growth, the innovative technology by reusing the environmental wastes has been widely used since doing so not only decreases the environment pollution, but also further brings more natural resource. The present paper establishes a two-stage structure for evaluating the regional green growth and sustainable development in China by calculating the efficiency of "energy saving" and "pollution treatment" separately. Specifically, a set of models based on slack-based measure approach are constructed in which non-discretionary inputs can be calculated in both resource utilization stage and pollution treatment stage. Comparing with the traditional models, the new proposed models can measure the performance of resources saving and pollution treatment with considering the influence of non-discretionary inputs. An empirical application on Chinese 30 regions during 2011–2015 have been done to illustrate the use of our framework and the performance of regional green growth and sustainable development. Based on the efficiency results, we find that the efficiency scores of the provinces in central and northeast area are lower, which is mostly caused by their poor performance on "pollution treatment". Both the environmental efficiency scores and target values for performance improvement are obtained in this paper to enlighten the corresponding decision-makers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three types of spatial function zoning is an effective measure for regional environmental protection and orderly development. For ecological and economic coordinated development, spatial function zones should be divided scientifically to clear its direction of development and protection. Therefore, based on ecological constraints, a beneficial discussion would be about the key ecological function areas adopting the concept of ecological protection restriction and supporting socioeconomic development for spatial function zoning. In this paper, the researchers, taking Tacheng Basin, Xinjiang of China as an example, choose township as basic research unit and set up an evaluation index system from three aspects, namely, ecological protection suitability, agricultural production suitability, and urban development suitability, which are analyzed by using spatial analysis functions and exclusive matrix method. The results showed that: 1) This paper formed a set of multilevel evaluation index systems for three types of spatial function zoning of the key ecological function areas based on a novel perspective by scientifically dividing Tacheng Basin into ecological space, agricultural space, and urban space, which realized the integration and scientific orientation for spatial function at the township scale. 2) Under the guidance of three types of spatial pattern, the functional orientation and suggestions of development and protection was clearly defined for ecological protection zones, ecological economic zones, agricultural production zones, and urban development zones. 3) A new idea of space governance is provided to promote the coordinated and sustainable development between ecology and economy, which can break the traditional mode of thinking about regional economic development, and offers a scientific basis and reference for macro decision-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper dissects the effects of environmental regulation on the productivity of pollution-intensive industries and by doing so offers a new perspective on the Porter Hypothesis. A theoretical model that incorporates firm's productivity heterogeneity shows that tighter environmental regulations impose two opposite effects on aggregate industry productivity: a negative productivity erosion effect on all the firms, and a positive productivity selection effect through impacts on firms' entry and exit. Thus, the final effect of environmental regulation on industry productivity depends on the magnitude of the two individual effects. An empirical study supports the theoretical model. Data from 184,186 firms from 15 Chinese pollution-intensive industries during 1998–2007 shows that environmental regulation has imposed a significant negative effect on firm-level productivity but at the same time has affected the probability of entry and exit of low productivity firms. Stricter environmental regulation increases the probability of exit for the lower productivity firms and reduces the probability of entry for potential pollution-intense entrants, leading to significant resource reallocation within the industries. These two effects result in an inverted U-shaped relationship between environmental regulation stringency and aggregate industry productivity; aggregate industry productivity increases when the stringency of environmental regulation is neither too high nor too low. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In today's world, environmental problems are becoming increasingly serious, and countries and regions are attaching great importance to them. Low-carbon and circular economy have become a strategic choice for China's sustainable economic development. As the public's awareness of environmental protection becomes stronger and stronger, the managers of companies ought to consider the maximum economic benefits. Meanwhile, they are supposed to focus on the green image of enterprises, so as to win in the market competition. The probabilistic linguistic term sets (PLTSs) are useful for expressing uncertain and fuzzy cognitions of the DMs over attributes. In this paper, we extend the Evaluation based on Distance from Average Solution (EDAS) method to the multiple attribute group decision making (MAGDM) with PLTSs. Firstly, concept, comparative formula, and distances of PLTSs are introduced in a nutshell. Then, the extended EDAS method is used to cope with the problems of MAGDM in PLTSs. In addition, for the sake of verifying the applicability of the expanding method, a calculation example about the sorting of green supplier is utilized. Consequently, the example shows that the method is easy to understand and operate. This method can be employed to choose the appropriate solution in other problems of selecting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to speed up the development and utilization of hydrothermal energy, it is essential to assess the potential of geothermal resources in petroliferous basins. In this paper, the distribution of reservoirs (aquifers) and the characteristics of geothermal fields have been studied systematically based on geological, geophysical, well drilling, temperature, and sample test data obtained from the major petroliferous basins of China. It has been found that some of the porous sandstone formations in these petroliferous basins are major geothermal reservoirs and are extensively thick and widely distributed. In general, the geothermal gradient in China is higher in the eastern basins and lower in the western basins. On average, the geothermal gradient is above 30 °C/km in the Bohai Bay, Songliao, and Subei basins. The geothermal resource abundance is also higher in eastern China and in the Beibuwan basin in southern China, and the geothermal source forming condition is better, followed by the Ordos, Qaidam, and Sichuan basins in Central China. Other potential basins include the Tarim and Junggar basins in western China, where the geothermal gradient ranges between 21 and 22 °C/km, on average. In this paper, three methods, stochastic simulation, unit volumetric, and analogy, were used for the assessment of geothermal resources. Using the stochastic simulation and unit volumetric methods, the geothermal resources, annual recovered geothermal resources, geothermal water resources, and thermal energy of water in 11 basins or blocks of up to 4000 m deep were calculated. Grading evaluation criteria were established by considering the heterogeneity of geothermal reservoirs. The results showed that the petroliferous basins are very rich in geothermal resources. The annual recoverable resources reach 1626.8 × 106 tons of standard coal, in which grade I, grade II, and grade III resources are 641.9 × 106, 298.6 × 106, and 686.3 × 106 tons of standard coal, respectively. The results demonstrate that the development and utilization of geothermal energy in oilfields has a huge potential for industrial production and family use, and a great significance for the development of green oilfields. With the high demand of heat, the eastern oilfields with high geothermal resource abundance should be the first to be considered for the production and utilization of geothermal energy, followed by the central and western oilfields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The conventional equation of economic well-being with the gross domestic product (GDP) has dominated policy thinking for at least 50 years. However, a variety of authors have pointed to the social and environmental costs of economic development and called for more comprehensive and more representative measures of progress to be developed. Therefore, a variety of 'adjusted' indicators have been developed. The robustness and reliability of these indicators is still a contentious issue. But these attempts raise important questions about sustainable development and pose an important challenge to conventional thinking about the relationship between economic progress, well-being and sustainability. The Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI) is one of the indicators of measuring sustainable development. Apply it to Liaoning Province, this paper evaluates Liaoning's GPI from 1978 to 2011. GPI, Per Capita GPI and GDP of Liaoning are compared with each other. It is concluded that GDP and Per Capita GDP of Liaoning grow much faster than GPI and Per Capita GPI. Grouped all components of GPI into three categories (economy, environment and Social), it shows that social and environmental development lags behind economic growth in Liaoning. This paper is till now a unique application of GPI indicator in Liaoning and China's provincial level and also contribution to the continuing development of the methods and results for the Index of Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI). Policy implications are given finally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Data play an increasingly crucial role in decision evaluation. However, the noise and redundant information in the data create confusion to the decision makers. To solve this problem, this paper creates a new attribute reduction model based on technique for order preference by similarity to an ideal solution (TOPSIS), grey correlation analysis and coefficient of variation approaches. First, we obtain the time weights of panel data in different years by TOPSIS and then transfer the panel data into a cross-sectional data matrix. Second, we delete the overlapping attributes by grey correlation analysis method. Third, we use the coefficient of variation to select the attributes with the highest information content. Finally, the proposed attribute reduction model has been varied based on the green economy evaluation data of 15 sub-provincial cities in China. The experimental findings provide decision-making reference for the local government policymakers to adjust or formulate green economic development strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China is one country in the world with the largest potash fertilizer-demand. Potash has been listed as one of the seven strategic resources in China for a long time. Qarhan Salt Lake is the earliest discovered large-scale potash deposit in China. It is a comprehensive deposit dominated by liquid potash resource with the coexistence of solid potash minerals (polyhalite, carnallite, sylvite) and other beneficial elements. It is the largest potash fertilizer production base in China. However, with the increase in production year by year, its potash reserves which reach industrial grade are decreasing continuously, and the sustainable production of potash fertilizer faces a severe reserve shortage. So it is particularly noteworthy to us that there are still 296 million tonnes of low-grade solid potash minerals in Qarhan Salt Lake, which have potential utilization value. These low-grade solid potash minerals are equivalent to a superlarge potash deposit. In this paper, we review the efforts to increase potash supply, to upgrade the industrial structures and to promote the healthy and sustainable development of the potash fertilizer industry in Qarhan Salt Lake, then discuss the process of exploitation and utilization of low-grade solid potash minerals, and the problems encountered, finally proposed the corresponding countermeasures suggestions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays, water security is becoming increasingly prominent and the water security problem becomes a primary bottleneck restricting China's future sustainable development. Water security in China is thus worth conducting an in-depth study. This paper aims to explore an effective water security evaluation method. Based on the proposed definition of water security, an evaluation index system of water security is first built from the perspective of "pressure–state–response" conceptual model. Considering the indicators' uncertainty and the decision makers' (DMs') limited knowledge, the DMs usually use linguistic terms to express their judgements. As a new type of linguistic variable, probabilistic linguistic term set (PLTS) not only allows the DMs to express their judgements with multiple linguistic terms but also can reflect the DMs' different preference degrees over these possible linguistic terms. For the water security issue under probabilistic linguistic environment, a programming model is developed to derive the attribute weights. Then, the TODIM (an acronym in Portuguese for interactive multi-criteria decision making) method, which considers the psychological factors of the DMs, is used to evaluate water security based on the PLTS. Furthermore, a case study is conducted and some discussions and comparative analysis are carried out according to the case results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Resources and environment carrying capacity is central to not only regional sustainable development but also major function- oriented zoning. This paper presents an evaluation index system for resources and environment carrying capacity based on four aspects of carrying capacity (i.e., water resources, land resources, the environment, and ecosystems) by using a square deviation decision- making method, and on the basis of above effort evaluates the resources and environment carrying capacity across 31 provincial regions in China (not including Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan regions of China). In addition, this paper evaluates the current state of socio-economic development, and analyzes the spatial distribution of resources and environment pressure. The results showed that distinct spatial differences in resources and environment carrying capacity and pressure across provincial regions. Resources and environment pressure is affected by both comprehensive resources and environment carrying capacity and socio-economic development. Regions subjected to lower degrees of resources and environment pressure will be restricted by resources and environmental problems through future courses of development owing to excessively low carrying capacities. By contrast, regions with higher comprehensive resources and environment carrying capacity will be subjected to excessively high levels of resources and environment pressure because of rapid socio-economic development. Both of resources and environment carrying capacity and pressure must therefore be considered in the allocation of country-binding targets to provincial regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper links China's pattern of infrastructure lending to Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) with China's own development experience in this regard. It raises the question whether Chinese infrastructure investments in LAC have the potential to promote sustainable development in the region. The paper consists of four parts. Part 1 outlines China's massive domestic infrastructure construction projects as a specific development strategy which has contributed considerably to the country's rapid internal development, but has simultaneously given rise to complex dynamics of social and environmental risk. Part 2 assesses the strategies involved in China's infrastructure investment in LAC. Part 3 identifies key actors involved in China-LAC infrastructure cooperation and how they relate to different ways of financing infrastructure projects. Part 4 focuses on policy guidelines for managing the social and environmental risks of infrastructure projects. The paper concludes that more research, more capacity-building, and new forms of multinational development cooperation are needed to strengthen the social and environmental policies associated with China's infrastructure investment in LAC countries, to help uphold existing social and environmental standards, and to extend project benefits more effectively to local communities and people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The key to studying urban sustainable development depends on quantifying stores, efficiencies of urban metabolisms and capturing urban metabolisms' mechanisms. This paper builds up the metabolic emergy account and quantifies some important concepts of emergy stores. Emphasis is placed on the urban metabolic model based on the slack based model (SBM) method to measure urban metabolic efficiencies. Urban metabolic mechanisms are discussed by using the regression method. By integrating these models, this paper analyzes the urban metabolic development in Beijing from 2001 to 2010. We conclude that the metabolic emergy stores of Beijing increased significantly from 2001 to 2010, with the emergy imported accounting for most of the increase. The metabolic efficiencies in Beijing have improved since the 2008 Olympic Games. The population, economic growth, industrial structures, and environmental governance positively affect the overall urban metabolism, while the land expansion, urbanization and environmentally technical levels hinder the improving of urban metabolic efficiencies. The SBM metabolic method and the regression model based on the emergy analysis provide insights into the urban metabolic efficiencies and the mechanism. They can promote to integrate such concepts into their sustainability analyses and policy decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the wide application of new Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) shows, the world is moving fast towards an information age. Since China was first connected to the Internet in 1994, the development of ICTs in China and around the world has been astonishingly fast, and yet there is a clear 'digital divide' among different regions in China. Although Chinese geographers have paid attention to regional differences in informatization, they usually employ a limited number of indicators, mainly focusing on the Internet. In fact, informatization is a much broader concept, covering not only the Internet, but also mobile phones as well as user ability. In the light of these considerations, this study provides a comprehensive examination of the development of informatization and its spatial differences in China. First, based on a literature review, the paper identifies 29 preliminary indicators for measuring informatization, and employs principal components analysis and the fuzzy analytic hierarchy process to streamline them into 12 indicators to form an ICTs Development Index ( IDI). Second, by using the data from provincial statistical yearbooks and the China Internet Network Information Center, the paper calculates the IDI of each mega-region and each province in 2000-2010, and measures the changing spatial differences in the development of informatization in China. Lastly, the paper quantifies the relationship between informatization and economic growth. The empirical results show that the IDI of the western and central China has been increasing faster than that of the coastal region, indicating that the digital divide in China has been narrowing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews China's future fossil fuel supply from the perspectives of physical output and net energy output. Comprehensive analyses of physical output of fossil fuels suggest that China's total oil production will likely reach its peak, at about 230 Mt/year (or 9.6 EJ/year), in 2018; its total gas production will peak at around 350 Bcm/year (or 13.6 EJ/year) in 2040, while coal production will peak at about 4400 Mt/year (or 91.9 EJ/year) around 2020 or so. In terms of the forecast production of these fuels, there are significant differences among current studies. These differences can be mainly explained by different ultimately recoverable resources assumptions, the nature of the models used, and differences in the historical production data. Due to the future constraints on fossil fuels production, a large gap is projected to grow between domestic supply and demand, which will need to be met by increasing imports. Net energy analyses show that both coal and oil and gas production show a steady declining trend of EROI (energy return on investment) due to the depletion of shallow-buried coal resources and conventional oil and gas resources, which is generally consistent with the approaching peaks of physical production of fossil fuels. The peaks of fossil fuels production, coupled with the decline in EROI ratios, are likely to challenge the sustainable development of Chinese society unless new abundant energy resources with high EROI values can be found. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reducing emission of greenhouse gases and improving energy security are crucial for sustainable development in China. Crop straw, accounting for 38.9% of total biomass resources, is considered an ideal candidate for clean energy production Zhang et al. 1. In this paper, we evaluate the production and distribution of food crop straw in China using a refined crop-to-residue index and collection coefficient methods. This study showed that an estimated 489 million tons of food crop straw was produced in China in 2006, with an estimated 598 million tons produced in 2014. Approximately 59.3% of this straw was produced in central and eastern China. Furthermore, high, middle, and low production areas were classified in this study. The amount of collectable straw increased from 2006 to 2013 and slightly decreased in 2014 to 472 million tons. Based on this estimate, future trends in the amount of food crop straw are proposed. The total straw yield will continuously increase at a small rate, whereas the amount of collectable straw will remain relatively stable due to the development of agricultural mechanization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Road to Rio+20 is the journey of countries in the world pursuing the sustainable development. As the first country to release the national Agenda 21, China's experience and lessons are of great significance for both China itself and other countries. The paper reviews the progress made and problems remained in pursuing the sustainable development in China with regard to policy formulation, institutional arrangements, planning and management. In the past five years, the mandatory targets-driven approach, which focused on energy efficiency and key pollutants reduction, played a very important role and made China comprehensive outcomes for sustainability. In order to achieve the targets, China adopted an integrated policy package including legal, administrative, economic and technology instruments. During the 12th Five-Year Plan period (2011-2015), China will continue and strengthen the approach above and mainstream the transformation of economic development pattern through realizing the idea of green and low-carbon development. By summarizing policy trends in the world, the paper points out two directions, i.e., integration approach and taking prioritized and concrete actions for a sustainable future beyond 2012. The paper also presents policy approaches and recommendations for sustainable development in the next 10 years in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quality of life (QOL) is a hotspot issue that has attracted increasing attention from the Chinese Government and scholars, it is also a vital issue that should be addressed during the cause of ′establishing overall well-off society′. Northeast China is one of the most import old industrial bases in China, however, the industrial structure of heavy chemical industry and the development mode of ′production first, living last′ have leaded to series of social problems, which have also become a serious bottleneck to social stability and economic sustainable development. Through applying the methods of BP neural network, exploratory spatial data analysis (ESDA) and spatial regression model, this paper examines the space-time dynamics of QOL of the residents in Northeast China. We first investigate the indexes of QOL of the residents and then use ESDA methods to visualize its space-time relationship. We have found a spatial agglomeration of QOL of the residents in middle-southern Liaoning Province, central Jilin Province and Harbin-Qiqihar-Daqing area of Heilongjiang Province. Two third of the counties are low-low spatial correlation, and the correlative type of about 60% of the prefecture level areas keeps stable, indicating QOL of the residents in Northeast China shows a certain character of path dependence or spatial locked. We have also found that economic strength and development levels of service industry have positive and obvious effect on QOL of the residents, while the effect of such indexes as the social service level and the proportion of the tertiary industries are less. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since climatic condition is the important foundation for human subsistence and development and the key factor in sustainable development of economy and society, climate change has been a global issue attracting great attentions of politicians, scientists, governments, and the public alike throughout the world. Existing climate regionalization in China aims to characterize the regional differences in climate based on years of the mean value of different climate indexes. However, with the accelerating climate change nowadays, existing climate regionalization cannot represent the regional difference of climate change, nor can it reflect the disasters and environmental risks incurred from climate changes. This paper utilizes the tendency value and fluctuation value of temperature and precipitation from 1961 to 2010 to identify the climate change quantitatively, and completes the climate change regionalization in China (1961-2010) with county administrative regionalization as the unit in combination with China's terrain feature. Level-I regionalization divides China's climate change (1961-2010) into five tendency zones based on the tendency of temperature and precipitation, which are respectively Northeast China-North China warm-dry trend zone, East China-Central China wet-warm trend zone, Southwest China-South China dry-warm trend zone, Southeast Tibet-Southwest China wet-warm trend zone, and Northwest China-Qinghai-Tibet Plateau warm-wet trend zone; level-II regionalization refers to fourteen fluctuation regions based on level-I regionalization according to the fluctuation of temperature and precipitation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chinese cities are plagued by the rise in resource and energy input and output over the last decade. At the same time, the scale and pace of economic development sweeping across Chinese cities have revived the debate about urban metabolisms, which could be simply seen as the ratio of output to resource and energy input in urban systems. In this study, an emergy (meaning the equivalent solar energy) accounting, sustainable indices of urban metabolisms, and an urban metabolic system dynamics model, are developed in support of the research task on Chinese cities 'metabolisms and their related policies. The dynamic simulation model used in the paper is capable of synthesizing component-level knowledge into system behavior simulation at an integrated level, which is directly useful for simulating and evaluating a variety of decision actions and their dynamic consequences. For the study case, interactions among a number of Beijing's urban emergy components within a time frame of 20 years (from 2010 to 2030) are examined dynamically. Six alternative policy scenarios are implemented into the system simulation. Our results indicate that Beijing's current model of urban metabolism-tertiary industry oriented development mode-would deliver prosperity to the city. However, the analysis also shows that this mode of urban metabolism would weaken urban self-support capacity due primarily to the large share of imported and exported emergy in the urban metabolic system. The keys of improving the efficiency of urban metabolism include the priority on the renewable resource and energy, increase in environmental investment and encouragement on innovative technologies of resource and energy utilization, et al. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Genetic progress has brought about a dramatic increase in yield potential per se for almost all production areas around the world. The present study examines the relationship of wheat yield with year of release, yield components, harvest index (HI), biomass production, and plant height. We used aggregative data from 1945 to 2010 to calculate genetic gain in wheat yield across different zones in China. A deeper understanding of these issues facilitates the identification of specific yield-limiting factors that can be used for future breeding strategies. Absolute yield gain for the different zones was found to range from 20 to 103 kg ha year, whereas relative yield gain ranged from 0.33 to 1.42 % per year. When data from all the Chinese wheat production zones was pooled, yield gain at the national level had an absolute value of 66 kg ha year and a relative value of 1 % per year. Grain weight and spike weight, rather than the other yield components, are significantly correlated with year of release for most zones, suggesting that these two were the most promising traits for breeders in the past. These two traits are also responsible for the significant genetic progress in wheat yield in China since 1949. HI and biomass production also showed strong correlation with year of release and grain yield. In China, HI and grain weight have experienced such a substantial increase that both have almost reached their theoretical maxima in the period 1945-2010. Further improvement in the yield potential of wheat will have to involve increase in biomass production and grain number. This paper also reviews cropping systems and technologies as well as improvement in physiological trait from 1945 onwards during the period of genetic gain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To meet the energy requirements of sustainable economic growth, policymakers, analysts, and business leaders have increasingly turned to the role that energy efficiency might play. This has resulted in a growing energy efficiency literature, which is examined in this paper. Using bibliometric techniques, we analyze the database of Science Citation Index Expanded and Social Sciences Citation Index covering the 1991-2010 period. Of the 8,244 publications, 78.8 % were journal articles, and about 95.5 % were published in English. Based on the h-index, an evaluative indicator, the USA has produced the most influential set of publications on energy efficiency, followed by Canada, UK, Japan, and China. In contrast, China is second to the USA in the volume of its publications. Correspondingly, the University of California at Berkeley, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Tsinghua University were the most productive research organizations. The three most common subjects examined in this body of research were 'energy and fuels', 'environmental sciences', and 'electrical and electronic engineering'. Energy Policy has been the most productive journal, and 'A water and heat management model for proton-exchange-membrane fuel-cells', has had the most citations (587 through May 2012). Based on an analysis of article titles and keywords, we conclude that the hotspots of energy efficiency research have been green communications, renewable energy, and energy sustainability; green communications, in particular, has developed rapidly as a focus of energy efficiency publications in recent years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China is entering a critical and accelerating phase of urbanization. As one of the most urbanized regions in China, the Changjiang (Yangtze) River Delta has experienced dramatic urbanization and urban transformation. However, in the recent years, many changes have taken place in this region and there is limited attention to the regional urbanization path evolution, its problems and the way to solve these problems. Therefore, we should revisit the urbanization process in the Changjiang River Delta again. In this paper, we revisited urbanization paths of the Changjiang River Delta by data analysis, influence factors of urbanization by the Gray Relational Analysis, and major challenges to urbanization of the Changjiang River Delta by theoretical considerations. We found that the urbanization of the Changjiang River Delta had experienced several stages of large-scale spatial and urban system restructuring. Within the Changjiang River Delta, Shanghai, Zhejiang and Jiangshu had experienced different urbanization path with local characteristics. But with their development model gradually converging, their urbanization model is also converging. We also found that the major influence factors affecting the Changjiang River Delta urbanization were dynamic change and urbanization was driven by different key factors in different socio-economic development stages. Meanwhile, the Changjiang River Delta urbanization is facing many problems such as existing institutional arrangements, including the hukou (household registration) system and others which can not meet the needs of current socio-economic development and urbanization. Therefore, it is imperative to promote institutional innovation and adopt a new urbanization development strategy for the sake of the orderly and sustainable urbanization development in the Changjiang River Delta. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the important role of land ecosystem in social-economic progress at regional, national, and international scale and concurrent degradation of land ecosystems under rapid urbanization, a systematic diagnosis of land ecological security (eco-security) for sustainable development is needed. A catastrophe model for land ecological security assessment was developed in order to overcome the disadvantages in subjectivity and complexity of the currently used assessment methods. The catastrophe assessment index system was divided into hierarchical sub-systems under the pressure-state-response framework. The catastrophe model integrated multiple assessment indices of land eco-security according to the inherent contradictions and relative importance of indices without calculating weights. Specifically, membership degree of higher level index was calculated based on the membership degrees of lower level indices that were subjective to suitable model, such as cusp, fold, swallowtail and butterfly model. This model was applied to evaluate the state of land eco-security in Shanghai. Mann-Kendall's test was utilized to characterize its temporal trend between 1999 and 2008. Significant downward trend was identified for land eco-security, in terms of pressure sub-index, state sub-index, response sub-index and synthetic index. All these implied that land ecosystem conditions were not optimistic for Shanghai and such situation should draw the attention of policy makers. The calculation procedure presented in this paper does not require a high level of technical expertise to determine the membership degree, making it simple and operational. Being applicable to similar land ecosystems, the catastrophe model is thus believed to provide an alternative approach to land eco-security assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainable development is a priority area of research in many countries and regions nowadays. This paper illustrates how a multi-stakeholders engagement process can be applied to identify and prioritize the local community's concerns and issues regarding sustainable development in Hong Kong. Ten priority areas covering a wide range of community's concerns in relation to the economic growth, societal development and environmental protection have been identified. An index is then constructed based on these priority areas to track the public's views on the progress of Hong Kong towards a more sustainable city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper intends to provide an overview of the reorientation of education in China in the period 1998–2009 with regard to development issues. During this time, the focus has shifted gradually from the environment and health to education for sustainable development. The article centres on highlighting the main interventions and strategies adopted by China’s schools to make this reorientation possible, including: the introduction of new visions of sustainable development and project planning; the establishment of organisational mechanisms and capacity-building measures for their implementation in the field; the integration of ESD into teaching and learning processes; the maintenance of an action-research mechanism for innovations; and the sharing of lessons with both the national and the international community in order to make the implementation of ESD more effective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On the island of Hainan, China, the provincial government has recently committed itself to sustainable development, which requires the integration of social, environmental, and economic factors in decision making. However, while Hainan’s recent Eco-province designation establishes environmental and economic factors as the basis of policy development, it overlooks the equally important social component of sustainability, in which social needs and values are key considerations. This paper presents the results of a study on Hainan in 2002, with government officials, forestry workers, and the Li, an indigenous minority group, and places the province’s situation within the context of both the larger changes underway in China, and the theory and practice of sustainable forestry. The research results show that the government of Hainan has not yet been able to manage both social welfare and environmental and economic issues, demonstrating the difficulty of implementing sustainable forestry and of balancing short- with long-term goals. The inclusion of Li communities in forestry-related decision making could reduce tensions between local communities and forestry management and also improve the sustainability of the government’s forestry practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]