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The rapid urbanization of Ya'an has brought about a series of environmental issues. By referring to the physical coupling model and using the data from 2010 to 2019, this paper establishes a coupling coordination model of the urbanization and eco-environment in Ya'an. First, the entropy method was used to calculate the weight of each index of urbanization and eco-environment systems. Then, the comprehensive urbanization level of Ya'an was calculated using four indexes: economic, population, spatial and social urbanization. The eco-environment evaluation index system included three main indexes: eco-environment level, pressure and response. Finally, coupling coordination model was used to determine the degree of coupling and coordination between urbanization and the eco-environment, and the spatial correlation of the coordination degree between districts and counties in Ya'an was analyzed. The results show that: (1) economic urbanization (37.76%) and eco-environment pressure (40.50%) made the most significant contributions to the urbanization and eco-environment subsystems, respectively. This shows that economic factors are the most significant contributors in promoting the development of urbanization. As it is very important for Ya'an to reduce environmental pollution and the pressure on the eco-environment, these findings suggest that more attention should be paid to economic development and environmental protection when formulating and implementing policies. (2) The degree of coupling coordination between urbanization and the eco-environment has increased every year, from moderate imbalance to high coordination. The overall development of spatial autocorrelation from positive to negative suggests that Ya'an should strengthen the interregional cooperation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper specifically looks at the rural-urban interaction and contribution of various entities or agents to the total employment in China, rural China, and urban China. The study concentrated on the total employment after 1978 reforms. The paper looked at the 1978-2004 reform and after 2004 reform. It was revealed that 1978-2004 reform hindered the flow of labor from rural to urban but after 2004 reform promoted the flow of labor force from rural to urban China the development, which resulted in a drastic reduction in the rural labor force. Before the reforms, state- and collective-owned units were the only entities that were employing people in China. Even though private enterprises were allowed after the reforms, the leading role of the state- and collective-owned units persist. State-owned units contribute immensely to the total employment in China and urban employment, but its contribution to employment in rural China is negative. Collective-owned and cooperative units show a positive contribution to employment in rural areas but its contribution to the total employment in China is negative. Units with funds from Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan and rural private enterprises also contribute positively to total employment in China. Cooperative units, joint holding corporations Ltd., foreign-funded units, and rural self-employed individuals contribute negatively to the total employment in China. Collective-owned and cooperative units contribute negatively to employment in the urban areas. Urban and rural private enterprises and rural self-employed individuals contribute positively to urban employment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The construction of new-type urbanization with the theme of innovation, green, and smart development is becoming the endogenous driving force of China's economic transformation and upgrading, and green technological innovation is a key factor in cracking the problems of development motivation and environmental constraints in urbanization construction. This paper investigates the impact of green technology innovation on urbanization based on a panel dataset covering 30 provinces in China from 2005 to 2019. First, we use the entropy method and the super-efficiency DEA method to measure the level of urbanization and green technology innovation, respectively. Moreover, on this basis, we use panel regression model and FGLS model to estimate the direct impact of green technological innovation on urbanization and its three dimensions-population urbanization, industrial urbanization, and ecological urbanization. Then, the mediating effect model is used to further study the indirect impact of green technological innovation on urbanization. The results indicate that green technological innovation is the most effective way to promote the development of new urbanization currently. In addition, green technology innovation can indirectly affect urbanization through the effects of foreign capital, energy consumption and information development, while the effect of industrial structure optimization effects is not significant. Finally, some policy suggestions are discussed to better promote the development of urbanization in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between urbanization and economic development has become a hot topic in the scientific community due to its great practical significance, and economic and social value. However, this relationship continues to change dynamically. In the new stage of urbanization, it is urgent to reveal the causal relationship quantitatively and diagnose the future direction systematically. Based on this, this paper calculates the contribution rate of China's urbanization to economic development from 1978 to 2019 and uses the panel data cointegration test method to explore the causal relationship between urbanization and economic development in China. The study has three principal results. First, the contribution rate of urbanization to economic growth has maintained the overall growth trend from 1978 to 2019, but the growth rate of urbanization's contribution to economic growth has been relatively low since 2012. It is an important reason that the real estate sector has moved into a new stage of transformation. Second, the cointegration test shows that economic development is a significant factor in advancing urbanization and the urbanization is the product of economic development. Urbanization has a positive feedback effect on economic development, but this effect does not pass the 5% significance level test. The impulse response function shows that the impact of urbanization on economic development is relatively small and stable, indicating that it is limited that the boost of economic development by land-centered urbanization. Third, China's urbanization and economic development have both shown rapid growth for some time, but their relationship is still the low level of coordination, which has also led to a downward trend in the contribution of new-type, people-oriented urbanization to economic growth in recent years. In the future, China's urbanization and economy need to maintain relatively medium-low speed growth in the medium-long term, and we should boost the coordinated development of urbanization and economy from low level to high level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, China's final energy consumption has been divided into two parts: production energy consumption and resident energy consumption. Under this framework, the LMDI method is used to study the nature of the factors governing the changes in final energy consumption. Thus, seven factors are defined in this paper: energy mix effect, energy intensity effect, economic structure effect, economic growth effect, resident income effect, urbanization effect, and population effect. The production energy consumption almost accounted for 90 % of total final energy consumption in 2011. The annual growth rate of resident energy consumption increased to 8.7 % during 2001-2011. The gap in resident energy consumption per capita between urban and rural decreased during 1991-2011. Our results show that the energy intensity effect plays an important role in decreasing final energy consumption. However, the economic growth effect is found to be primarily responsible for driving final energy consumption growth over the study period, followed by resident income effect, population effect, economic structure effect, and urbanization effect. Though the urbanization rate increased rapidly over the period 1991-2011, the urbanization effect plays minor contribution to the increase in final energy consumption among all factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The reliable optimization of multilevel urban distribution network research helps to adapt to the changeable demand. It also can guarantee service ability of urban distribution network, so as to promote the economic development. Using the method of fuzzy reliability, series system reliability, failure rate, relative failure rate and failure function, the paper aimed at defining the key factors, the measure model and the measurement method of the reliability of urban distribution network clearly. Then, with the simulated data, the analysis of measurement model process and the application method are presented. The method can clear the level of the reliability and the weaker aspect of the urban distribution network which can provide the basis for improving the whole reliability. The paper sets up the measure model for the reliability of two-layer urban distribution network and then verify the validity of the methods. Bayesian network analysis is used to examine the influence of each factor on the reliability of the system, and the importance of each influencing factor is calculated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of the relationship between economic development and land urbanization is significant not only for China but also for other developing countries. This paper investigates the causal relationship between land urbanization quality and economic growth in China on a regional level in order to explore such relationship. Panel data from 2003 to 2012 of 35 major cities were employed in the analysis. According to the Seventh Five-Year Plan, we divided these cities into three groups, namely, Eastern China, Central China and Western China, based on their geographic position and economic development. By using the VECM methodology, panel fully modified ordinary least square and the Granger method; we intend to highlight the type of causality between land urbanization quality and economic growth. The empirical results show that (1) long-run causality from land urbanization quality to economic growth exists on a national scale, with the largest effects observed in the Western region, followed by the Central region, and the Eastern region, which is ranked last; (2) economic growth positively affects land urbanization quality, although this effect diminishes over time in all three regions; and (3) mutual short-run causality is found in all regions, in addition to Central China. This study placed more emphasis on the quality and efficiency of land use in urban areas. Furthermore, we propose that the transformation of the local government's performance evaluation mechanism, inter-regional coordination, and cross-regional operation can contribute to land urbanization quality and that, more importantly, Central China is the region that requires the greatest policy support from the government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Policy analysis provides multiple methods and tools for generating and transforming policy-relevant information and supporting policy evolution to address emerging social problems. In this study, a bibliometric analysis of a large number of studies on historical policy analysis was performed to provide a comprehensive understanding of the distribution and evolution of policy problems in different fields among countries. The analysis indicates that policy analysis has been a great concern for scholars in recent two decades, and is involved in multiple disciplines, among which the dominant ones are medicine, environment, energy and economy. The major concerns of policy analysts and scholars are human health needs, environmental pressures, energy consumption caused by economic growth and urbanization, and the resulting demand for sustainable development. The multidisciplinary dialog implies the complicated real-world social problems that calls for more endeavors to develop a harmonious society. A global profiling for policy analysis demonstrates that the central policy problems and the corresponding options align with national development, for example, developing countries represented by China are faced with greater environmental pressures after experiencing extensive economic growth, while developed countries such as the USA and the UK pay more attention to the social issues of health and economic transformation. Exploring the differences in policy priorities among countries can provide a new inspiration for further dialog and cooperation on the development of the international community in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid urbanization in China has been associated with a growing hunger for energy consumption and steadily-increasing CO2 emissions. In this paper, an integrated system dynamics model composed of four sub-models is developed to simulate the urbanization and energy consumption in China from 1998 to 2050. Three scenarios are provided: accelerated economic development, emission reduction constraint, and low-carbon oriented. The result reveals that rapid economic growth and sufficient energy supply will foster China's urbanization in all three scenarios. Under the low carbon transition scenario, China's urbanization rate is expected to reach 76.41% in 2050, both reducing carbon emissions and promoting eco-friendly development. All three scenarios witness a dramatic growth of residential energy consumption and a steady increase of industrial energy consumption. China still has a long way to achieve the low-carbon transition goal. China should promote renewable resources and energy, pursue a low-carbon lifestyle, and reduce energy intensity over the next few decades. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the reform and opening-up in 1978, the city of Beijing as the capital of China has been going through a rapid urbanization. Water as the public, fundamental and strategic resources for the social and economic development as well as the survival basis of human and surroundings, is constrained to the urbanization of Beijing. In order to solve the hydrological challenges by urbanization, as the municipal water information service, Beijing Hydrological Center (BHC) is currently focusing on the safe water supply based on the mega-city hydrological development concept and making efforts to deal with new hydrological problems caused by the rapid urbanization. After years of study on theories and practices, the solutions to intense water scarcity, such as new well fields development, South-North water diversion, water resource and quality monitoring networks improvement, reclaimed water usage and so on, have provided strong support for Beijing turning into an international city. In this paper, the current water problems of Beijing are described in details on water shortage, water quality deterioration, drinking water safety and problems concerning water drainage system and flood control. The experiences of hydrometric, water quality and groundwater monitoring networks are provided as measures for water resources management. Additionally, the previous and current research work which provides technical and scientific support for decision-making of water resources management in Beijing is discussed in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urbanization, industrialization and real estate reform have led to a vast growth of the real estate-construction sector in China. Using the 2002 and 2007 provincial input-output tables, this paper examines the importance of the real estate-construction sector in the Chinese economy by applying the hypothetical extraction method. The results show that for the 30 studied provinces, the weighted average impact of the real estate-construction sector accounts for 21 % of total output and for approximately 14 % of all jobs in 2002. For 2007, these figures are 23 and 22 %, respectively. The impact of the real estate-construction sector on total output and employment varies across regions. In 2007, the direct and indirect output and employment of real estate-construction sector accounted for around 15 % of total regional output and employment in Shandong and Henan, and for 40 % in Tianjin, Jilin, Shaanxi, Ningxia and Xinjiang. Our results also indicate that the real estate-construction sector is strongly own final demand oriented and regional economies which highly rely on it are particularly vulnerable to a fall in its demand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With rapid population growth and rural-to-urban migration in many Chinese cities, a large amount of natural lands have been converted to urban and agricultural lands recently. During this process of land conversion, economic development and quality of life improvement are considered as major goals, and their influences on ecological systems have often been neglected. The degradation of natural ecological systems due to land use change, however, has become severe, and may require immediate attentions from urban planners and local governments. Taking HaDaQi industrial corridor, Heilongjiang Province, China, as a case study area, this paper examined the trend of land use changes during 1990-2005, and quantified their influences on natural ecosystem service values. In particular, this study applied two major valuation methods, and examined whether different valuation methods generate significantly different results. Analysis of results suggests that human dominated land uses (e.g., urban and agriculture) have expanded rapidly at the cost of natural lands (e.g., wetlands and forest). Due to these land use changes, the total ecosystem service value decreased 29% (2.26% annually) from 1990 to 2005 when the first method was applied, and this rate is estimated to be 15.7% (1.13% annually) with the second approach. Moreover, the annual rate of ecosystem service value decline during 2000-2005 is about four times higher than that in 1990-2000 with both methods, suggesting much more severe ecosystem degradation during 2000-2005. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China is undergoing rapid urbanization, along with economic growth and transport automation. Because it is densely populated, China is constrained by natural resource limitations and potential impacts of global climate change. Significant challenges for sustainable urban development include urban sprawl, traffic congestion, air pollution, city layouts not oriented to twenty-first century lifestyles, declining traditional urban culture, selective over-development, and social inequities. Increasing awareness of these pressing problems has led national and provisional governments and cities to seek sustainable urban development solutions. Central ministries and non-government organizations have implemented pilot projects demonstrating best practices in the Chinese context. These are being scaled up to develop local and national guidelines and policies. This paper describes China's urbanization issues and national and local efforts toward the realization of sustainable urbanization. It is hoped that China's urbanization trends and challenges will stimulate sustainable and low-carbon concepts and approaches that can enrich sustainable urbanization theory and practices in and beyond China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzed dual perspectives of production and resident, and quantified factors affecting the energy-related per capita carbon emission from cities. Tianjin is the largest coastal city in northern China with rapid economic development and urbanization. Analysis of the CO emission generated by driving forces in Tianjin can provide guidance for policy decisions on the CO emission mitigation in global metropolises. Using LMDI and Kaya extension methods, this study built a decomposition model of economic output, economic structure, energy intensity of the production sectors, energy mix of the production sectors, population structure of urban and rural distribution, energy consumption per capita and energy mix of the household sectors to analyze the per capita carbon emission factors. The empirical study of Tianjin from 2005 to 2011 showed: Economic output played a positive role in the per capita carbon emission increasing, while economic structure, energy intensity of the production sectors and energy mix of the production sectors played a negative role; population structure of urban and rural distribution and energy consumption per capita promoted in the per capita carbon emission increasing, while energy mix of the household sectors inhibited the per capita carbon emission increasing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Northwest Pearl River Delta is one of the most developed areas in China and has faced serious water problems because of its fast economic growth, urbanisation and other developments. It is widely believed that an integrated management of the socio-economic factors cross individual administrative cities is an effective way to solve the water problems. To serve this purpose, this paper aims to develop an integrated model for the optimal allocation of water quantity and waste load. In order to consider the interaction between water quantity and waste load allocation, the Saint-Venant equations were used to simulate dynamic water flow for the water quantity allocation, whereas the one dimensional advection-dispersion mass transport equation was used to simulate water quality for the waste load allocation. In addition to the maximisation of the economic benefits, which is often considered as an objective of optimal water resource allocation models, the minimisation of water shortages and maximisation of waste load were also introduced as objectives of the model. To solve the multi-objective allocation model, a second generation non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm was employed because of its computational efficiency and running time. The results indicate that it is a serious task to reduce the COD in the Northwest Pearl River Delta since the maximum waste load allocations under water quality targets is less than the present amount of waste discharged into rivers in the study area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to its rapid industrialization and urbanization, China faces the daunting challenge of sharply growing energy and resource consumption. It is now indispensable for the nation to alter its course of development into more sustainable paths in terms of energy and resource efficiency. In this paper, we discuss the energy intensity of the industrial sectors of the Yangtze River Delta, consisting of Shanghai City and the neighboring province of Jiangsu-the fastest economically developing region of the country-and argue possible strategies for energy efficient industrial activities there. We first examine the historical trends of energy intensity associated with industrial sectors and study the factors affecting the evolution of these trends by applying decomposition analysis. We then argue that if 'business as usual' (BAU) development patterns are continued, energy intensity level in both regions may surpass China's policy targets in 2010, and GDP growth as well as energy consumption will exceed possible pathways under current policy targets by 2020. Thus, appropriate measures are urgently needed to lower energy intensity and consumption. Based upon these analyses as well as the Chinese government's policy orientation, we propose two options as alternative scenarios for improving practices in energy-intensive industries, particularly targeting the cement and steel production sectors. These options are: (1) diffusion of highly energy efficient technologies into these industries, and (2) promotion of a circular economy and industrial symbiosis. We highlight that these options can potentially lead to energy savings and reductions in resource consumption associated with industrial activities and can serve as a regional model for more sustainable industrial activities in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

a stage of rapid economic development and urbanization in China, most cities are faced with serious problems caused by environment deterioration such as pollution, space press, afforestation degradation, and disordering. Kunshan City, one of the most economically vigorous regions in China, has suffered a more prominent conflict between urbanization and environmental safety. In this paper, urban land expansion in Kunshan City in the Yangtze River Delta was measured with reference to the Landsat data recorded in 1982, 1991, 1995, and 2003 and change in land-use pattern in 1981, 1991, 1995, and 2004 as well as that in nutrients in soils of different purposes between the periods were analyzed to study the effect of urban land-use expansion on soil characteristics. To get a better understanding of soil nutrients, heavy metal content, and pollution, on-the-spot investigation, sampling and laboratory analysis were all conducted, and the geo-accumulation factors and revised Nemerow comprehensive index method were adopted for evaluation of the findings. The results show that the content of organic matter, total nitrogen, rapidly available nitrogen, and available phosphorus in the soil (except available potassium) all increased, and the average content of As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Pb, Ni, Hg, Se, and Zn prove to be 8.61, 0.12, 83.53, 32.49, 29.93, 30.45, 0.27, 0.24, and 93.3 mg kg, respectively, showing degradation in soil quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to rapid economic development, China has experienced one of the greatest rates of change in land use/land cover during the last two decades. This change is mainly urban expansion and cultivated land reduction in urban growth regions, both of which play an important role in regional climate change. In this paper, the variation of the urban heat island (UHI) caused by urbanization has been evaluated with an analysis of land use change in China. First, meteorological observation stations were grouped by different land cover types (dry land, paddy field, forest, grassland, water field, urban, rural inhabitable area, industrial and mineral land, and waste land) throughout China. These stations were subdivided into urban and non-urban classes. Then, a new method was proposed to determine the UHI intensity from the difference between the observed and the interpolated air temperature of urban type weather stations. The results indicate that the trends of UHI intensity in different land use change regions are spatially correlated with regional land use and its change pattern. During 1991–2000, the estimated UHI intensity has increased by 0.11 °C per decade in the spring and has fluctuated in other seasons throughout China resulting from land use change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental pollution from industrialization, urbanization and agriculture is a serious issue facing all countries during economic development. The Pearl River Delta in Southern China offers a unique case for study and documentation on the ecosystem changes during the fast economic development and urbanization over the past 40 years. This collection of papers from a conference on marine coastal pollution and ecotoxicology held in Guangzhou of China provide the current status on the environmental and ecological processes from the intensive urbanization and development. The research information available from this special issue can be used for both a comparison over time and with other locations and countries, and, in addition, for policy making to serve the long-term sustainable development of the region and the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We develop an overlapping-generations framework of education-based migration that takes place prior to labor-market participation and explore its role for economic development, urbanization and workforce composition. We show that education-based and work-based migration are substitutes and the equilibrium outcome depends crucially on children's talent distribution, college costs and selectiveness, urban job opportunities, and migration barriers. We establish conflicting partial- and general-equilibrium effects at work for comparative statics, and examine their locational as well as macroeconomic implications for assessing education and migration policies. Applying our model to fit the data from China over 1980–2007, we find that, although education-based migration only amounts to one-fifth of that of work-based migration, it contributes more to per capita output growth than work-based migration owing to its high-skilled nature. Moreover, the abolishment of education-based migration policy and the relaxation of the work-based migration are found to have limited effects on per capita output and urbanization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The spatial inequilibrium phenomenon is apparent during China's rapid urbanization in the past four decades. As the fertility rate decreases and the population ages, this phenomenon will become more critical. To accurately forecast the future economic development of China, it is necessary to quantify the attractiveness of individual cities. This study introduces web search data to quantify the attractiveness of cities with a fine spatial scale (prefecture-level city) and relatively long-term span (nine years). Results confirm that the estimated city attractiveness can unravel a city's capability to attract labor force, and suggest that tourism and health care functions of a city have a positive effect to the city's attractiveness. Additionally, China's north-south gap in economic development has been widened in the past decade, and 11 cities with nationwide influence have prosperous development potential. This study provides a new lens for predicting China's economic development, as well as its spatial patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urbanization is a dominant component of social and economic development around the world, but this process creates tremendous pressure on the ecological environment. How to achieve coordination between urbanization and conservation of this environment has become a key issue, especially in developing countries. It is necessary to identify the driving factors that affect this coordination. To identify these factors, we chose 290 Chinese prefecture-level cities to analyze the driving factors behind urbanization using spatial regression analysis, and explored the spatial differences among regions in these factors. Our results show that industrial upgrading and technological progress were the main factors that promoted coordinated development, with industrialization having positive effects under government management, but with differences among regions in how the driving forces affected coordinated development. Using technological progress to promote industrial upgrading, creating new employment to absorb surplus rural labor, and providing workers with skills training so they can take advantage of new jobs can promote win–win solutions that coordinate urbanization with conservation of the ecological environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid development of economic and urbanization systems exerts a negative impact on environmental system. To achieve the sustainable development of a country, it is important to obtain an in-depth understanding of the interaction among economic, urbanization and environmental systems. A coupling coordination model of the three systems is constructed in this research to investigate the interactions among the three systems in China. This study determines the contribution rate of each indicator to the three systems during the studied period, then evaluates the development levels of the three systems and finally explores coupling coordination levels among them. The results show that economic scale, spatial urbanization and environmental governance are the prominent indicator in the economic, urbanization and environmental systems, respectively. The findings suggest that the policy makers need to consider these indicators for the development of the three systems. Furthermore, the development level of economic, urbanization and environmental systems in China generally shows an upward trend, while the environmental system development has been lagging behind the development level of economic and urbanization systems. The spatial difference exists chronically, but such differences are gradually decreasing as time evolves. Among these systems, the reduction of difference in urbanization system is most obvious. Although the coupling coordination level of the three systems presents an upward trend, unbalanced development of these systems in regional level still exists. The insightful implications are discussed for coordinated development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the heterogeneous causal linkages between urbanization, the intensity of electric power consumption, water-based pollutant emissions, and GRP in regional China by developing an urbanization-augmented "Stochastic Impacts by Regression on Population, Affluence, and Technology" (STIRPAT) model. A whole country panel of 29 provinces as well as region sub-panels of China, for the period 1999 to 2018, are estimated employing common correlated effects mean group approach (CCEMGA), which offers robustness against heterogeneous characteristics and cross-sectionally dependent series. From the theoretic modeling aspect, the intensity of electric power consumption and urbanization have been introduced as the determinants of water-based pollutant emissions in the STIRPAT modeling framework. Based on empirical results, first, GRP growth has shown appealing behavior in the form of its heterogeneous impacts on water-based pollutant emissions growth in the case of different regions. For instance, its impact is noted to be positive and statistically significant for the western region, which turned positive but statistically insignificant for the intermediate region. And it further turned significantly negative in the case of the eastern region. We call this phenomenon as "development level-based emission mitigation effect." Second, in terms of the impact of GRP growth on urbanization, the "development-based urbanization ladder effect" has been found. Based on heterogeneous causal links, firstly, the existence of a positive bilateral causal link between the intensity of electric power consumption and GRP growth and urbanization and GRP growth has been validated. Secondly, a positive unidirectional causal link emerged from urbanization to the intensity of electric power consumption and water-based pollutant emissions growth. Thirdly, the causal connection between GRP growth and water-based pollutant emissions growth remained very interesting and of mixed nature. Based on empirical findings, useful policies are extended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between China's urbanization and economic development (RCUED) is an important concern nationwide. As important actors in regional strategy and policy, county-level regions have played an increasingly significant role in the development of China's social economy. However, the existing research on the RCUED lacks the fine depiction of the county-level administrative units. Using 2000 and 2010 census data and the statistical analysis method, we uncovered the evolution characteristics of China's urbanization and economic development and conducted a quantitative identification for the RCUED with improved methods using the quadrant map approach. In addition, we investigated the spatial correlation effect of the RCUED using the spatial autocorrelation analysis method. The results were as follows: 1) In general, a high degree of matching exists between China's urbanization and economic development at the county level at the significance level of 0.01. The correlation coefficients between China's urbanization and economic development in 2000 and 2010 were 0.608 and 0.603, respectively. 2) A significant regional difference exists in the RCUED at the county level. Based on a comparative analysis of 2276 county units in China in the two years, we found that county units can be categorized as under-urbanized, basic coordination and over-urbanized in various areas. No situation was observed where urbanization seriously lagged behind the economic development level, so the levels of urbanization and economic development appear to be basically coordinated, and the coordination state may be gradually optimized over time. 3) Over time, the spatial dependency of the RCUED has weakened and the spatial heterogeneity has increased. Northeast China has always been an area characterized by over-urbanization. The number of county units classified as under-urbanized has begun to decline in eastern coastal urban agglomeration areas, while counties rich in resources have transformed from having point-shaped over-urbanization to plane-shaped under-urbanization along the northern border, and the number of over-urbanized county units has increased in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River. 4) 'Lag-lag' type and 'advance-advance' type accounted for 68% of all counties in China, and these counties were shown to have obvious spatial differentiation characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In extant literature on China’s carbon intensity, economic growth is considered an important determinant. However, the corresponding policy implications are slightly weak in subsequent practice because economic growth is an outcome of many economic activities, such as technological progress and capital stock accumulation. Furthermore, spatial spillover effects are ignored when using regional datasets. As a result, this study uses the dynamic spatial model to analyze the driving forces of China’s provincial carbon intensity over the period 2000-2014. Results indicate that both technological progress and capital stock accumulation are important measures to carbon intensity reduction. China’s current industrialization, urbanization, and special energy structure exert a negative effect on the decline in carbon intensity. In addition, China’s provincial carbon intensity also exhibits considerable spatiotemporal distribution characteristics. As such, the corresponding policy measures are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Minerals and the metals derived therefrom are non-renewable resources that deliver a wide range of goods and services to mankind. While their value has been recognized since thousands of years, their large-scale industrial production only really took off after World War II, thanks to the availability of efficient industrial production processes and of a rapidly rising demand, driven by demographic growth, urbanization and growing economic affluence in developed countries. The fast development of the Chinese economy, with about 300 million people reaching middle-class status and migrating to cities, drove a boom demand for minerals and metals of unprecedented magnitude in terms of tonnages consumed, that lasted from 2002 to 2013. Over a century, from 1914 to 2013, the production and consumption of pig iron, manganese and copper grew by a factor of 20, that of chromium by a factor of 182 and that of phosphate by a factor of nearly 42, while humanity grew only by a factor of about 4. Driven by demographic growth, continuing urbanization and growth of the global middle class the demand for minerals and metals will continue to exponentially grow. A scenario is proposed assessing what the theoretical requirements could be up to 2050 for minerals and metals commonly used in the construction industry, to develop infrastructure, for the mass production of metal intensive goods such as cars or in agriculture, to provide our food. The scenario, built on the trends observed since 1950, foresees that, by 2050, the demand for aluminium demand could be eight times the current production levels and the production of cement would need to grow by a factor of 7 to meet the 2050 level of demand. The lead demand would double by 2050. While geological scarcity does not appear to be an issue to feed such a demand, many factors are likely to limit the amount of minerals and metals that can be sustainably produced. Energy and water, both essential to mining, ore processing and metallurgy are likely to be limiting factors, as well as the sustainable management of the enormous amount of waste that would be generated. Public acceptance and access to exploration and mine development financing are other limiting factors to be considered. Inter-generational equity among all the stakeholders is concerned by mining, and intra-generational equity is necessary to ensure that the use of non-renewable natural capital provides benefits that last well beyond the closure of mining operations. This requires equity among stakeholders, including with nature, the silent stakeholder our lives depend on. Overcoming the challenges of the twenty-first century will require the following factors: Decoupling economic growth from its unsustainable negative environmental impacts (UNEP 2011a), inter alia to reduce the pressure on natural resources;Rapid development of a more circular economy based on resource efficiency and the systematic minimization of waste. Flanking policy measures (for instance: European Commission 2016) are needed to close the natural resources loop and avoid the dire predicaments of resources depletion;Institutional strengthening and capacity building to ensure that sustainability agendas are developed and well integrated in corporate strategies and public policies; andTrust among the stakeholders, based on corporate accountability, transparency, stakeholder engagement and reporting of the economic, environmental, governance and social performance of companies.Failure to act on the above requirements at the global scale is likely to be a source of deep crisis where all humanity could lose. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Monthly wind data from 506 meteorological stations and ERA-Interim reanalysis during 1991–2015, are used to examine the surface wind trend over East China. Furthermore, combining the urbanization information derived from the DMSP/OLS nighttime light data during 1992–2013, the effects of urbanization on surface wind change are investigated by applying the observation minus reanalysis (OMR) method. The results show that the observed surface wind speed over East China is distinctly weakening with a rate of −0.16 m s−1 deca−1 during 1991–2015, while ERA-Interim wind speed does not have significant decreasing or increasing trend in the same period. The observed surface wind declining is mainly attributed to underlying surface changes of stations observational areas that were mostly induced by the urbanization in East China. Moreover, the wind declining intensity is closely related to the urbanization rhythms. The OMR annual surface wind speeds of Rhythm-VS, Rhythm-S, Rhythm-M, Rhythm-F and Rhythm-VF, have decreasing trends with the rates of −0.02 to −0.09, −0.16 to −0.26, −0.22 to −0.30, −0.26 to −0.36 and −0.33 to −0.51 m s−1 deca−1, respectively. The faster urbanization rhythm is, the stronger wind speed weakening presents. Additionally urban expansion is another factor resulted in the observed surface wind declining. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the booming economic growth and urbanization in China, cities have become crucial to sustaining this development and curbing national emissions. Understanding the key drivers underlying the rapid emissions growth is critical to providing local solutions for national climate targets. By using index decomposition analysis, we explore the factors contributing to the carbon dioxide (CO) emissions in Chinese megalopolises from 1985 to 2010. An additional decomposition analysis of the industry sector is performed because of its dominant contribution to the total emissions. The booming economy and expanding urban areas are the major drivers to the increasing CO emissions in Chinese megalopolises over the examined period. The significant improvement in energy intensity is the primary factor for reducing CO emissions, the declining trend of which, however, has been suspended or reversed since 2000. The decoupling effect of the adjustments in the economic structure only occurred in three megalopolises, namely, the Yangtze River Delta (YRD), the Beijing-Tianjin-Heibei Megalopolis (BTJ), and the Pearl River Delta (PRD). In comparison, the impacts of urban density and carbon intensity are relatively marginal. The further disaggregated decomposition analysis in the industry sector shows that energy intensity improvements were widely achieved in 36 sub-industries in the PRD. The results also indicate the concentrations of energy-intensive industries in the PRD, posing a major challenge to local governments for a low-carbon economy. As economic growth and urbanization continue, reductions in energy intensity and clean energy therefore warrant much more policy attentions due to their crucial roles in reducing carbon emissions and satisfying the energy demand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In post-reform China, local governments, instead of the central state, have become major promoters of urbanization. Differing from the existing literature based on Western theories, this article argues that a localized perspective, 'administrative urbanization', can provide a contextual explanation for the mechanism of urbanization in the reform era. The case study of Ordos indicates that new town construction, especially in the inland area, has become the main strategy for investment attraction and economic development. The local government has played a dominant role in this construction through a series of administrative measures, including avoidance of central state regulations, land leasing, high standard infrastructure construction, relocation policies and industrial attraction. This article also explores the issue of unsustainability in the new town, and identifies that underdeveloped industrialization, slow population agglomeration and real estate bubbles are primary threats to the sustainability of administrative urbanization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the accelerating progress of industrialization, urbanization and population growth in recent decades, community resilience, the ability of communities to function effectively and recover successfully in the aftermath of disasters and shocks, has received great attentions. A number of studies had been conducted focusing on community resilience. This article applied community resilience framework to the coastal areas of China, which are the most densely populated and economically developed areas in China with the most frequent marine disasters. City-level social and economic data were used to construct a community resilience index (CRI). Using factor analysis and the global principal component analysis method, 55 city-level indexes were reduced into 15 factors that explain 73.99% of the variance. Getis-Ord G* Statistics were used to depict the high-value clusters and low-value clusters of the CRI. Clearly identified spatial and temporal variations of the CRI showed that both the overall level and regional differences of the CRI increased from 2003 to 2013; the overall spatial agglomeration characteristic of community resilience was not significant. Our findings also highlighted the key elements to improving community resilience: a robust and developed economic system; excellent education programs and training to improve consciousness on disaster prevention and mitigation; adequate investment on critical infrastructure, especially transportation and communication; proper environmental policies to protect ecosystems and water rouses; and extra attention and disaster risk budgets for vulnerable populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developments in automotive industries are increasing to deliver secured and pleasant journey by exchange of information among the vehicles, inside vehicles, between vehicle and with infrastructure utilizing wireless communication networks (WCN). To meet the requirements for various wireless applications, a new printed planar based circularly polarized penta-band spiral antenna with tapered feed is designed to cover the navigational frequencies viz., 1.2, 1.5 GHz and WCN frequencies viz., 2.4, 3.3 GHz and Dedicated Short Range Communication frequency 5.8 GHz for vehicular mobile communications. A 3D Electromagnetic (EM) tool is used for design and is validated via field measurements with Radio Frequency (RF) equipment. In order to validate the performance of the designed antenna, Received Signal Strength (RSS) experiments were conducted between two vehicles at 2.4 and 5.8 GHz in an open area and on road with a vehicle moving speed of 15 km/h. Further, path loss analysis is done for vehicular environments with line of sight condition are simulated using EM propagation tool and simulated results are compared with empirical model viz., ITU, Two-ray reflection, dual-slope model and COST 231 Walfisch Ikegami model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urbanization involves an array of coupling interactive processes. Consequently, its coordinated development consequently relies on the synchronous advancement of these involved processes. However, seldom studies have quantified the coordinated degree of urbanization by analyzing the coupling interactive relationships among the involved processes. This study assessed the coordinated degree of urbanization by quantifying four involved processes (demographic, social, economic and spatial) in Shanghai City (China) from 1952 to 2012. Results showed that demographic urbanization did not advance discontinuously and roughly presented a U-shaped trend. The social and economic urbanization progressed slowly before 1980 and then accelerated rapidly. The spatial urbanization kept an increasing trend through the 60 years. These four processes interacted with each other with a low coupling degree, and led to the uncoordinated development of urbanization in Shanghai. Specifically, the coupling coordination degree of urbanization increased between 1970 and 2000, but slowed down after the 2000s. To achieve coordinated urbanization development, the social urbanization should be given priorities. This study demonstrated an applicable framework to quantify the coordinated degree of urbanization using the quality and quantity data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine the question of whether China was trapped within a Malthusian regime at a time when Western Europe had all but emerged from it. By applying a difference-in-differences analysis to maize adoption in China from 1600 to 1910, we find that cultivation of this New World crop failed to raise per capita income. While maize accounted for a nearly 19 % increase in the Chinese population during 1776-1910, its effect on urbanization and real wages was not pronounced. Our results are robust to different sample selection procedures, to the control of variables pertinent to Malthusian 'positive checks', to different measures of economic growth and to data modifications. Our study thus provides rich empirical support to the claim that under the conditions in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century China, new agricultural technologies led to the Malthusian outcome of population growth without wage increases and urbanization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study analyzed the impact of urbanization and the level of economic development on CO emissions using the STIRPAT model and provincial panel data for China. This study classified the 29 provinces of China into three groups (eastern, central, and western regions) and examined regional differences in the environmental impacts of urbanization and economic development levels. The results demonstrated that there was an inverted U-shaped relationship between urbanization and CO emissions in the central and western regions of China. However, we did not confirm the environmental Kuznets curve relationship between urbanization and CO emissions in eastern China, where CO emissions increase monotonically with urbanization. This study showed that the impacts of urbanization differ considerably. There was a U-shaped relationship between economic growth and CO emissions. However, the point of inflexion was very low, which indicates that economic growth will promote CO emissions in China. The share of the industry output value had a marginal incremental effect on CO emissions. There was a decreasing effect of population scale on CO emissions. Energy efficiency is the main factor that restrains CO emissions, and the effect was higher in regions with low energy efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines how economic development influences the effects of socio-economic status (SES, measured with education and income) on individuals' well-being (happiness, self-rated health, and depression) in urban China. Building on Tversky and Griffin's judgment model of well-being, we propose an endowment and a contrast hypothesis for the variation of SES gradients in well-being across economic contexts. Drawing on six waves of the Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS 2003, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2011) and allowing for non-linear development effects, we obtain four main findings: (1) the widely observed SES gradients in physical health are confirmed not only for self-rated health (SRH) but also for happiness and depression among urban residents in China. However, the SES gradients are contingent on economic development in two systematic ways; (2) consistent with both theoretical hypotheses, SES gradients in happiness are positive at lower levels of economic development but become negligible and insignificant at the highest level; (3) consistent with the contrast hypothesis, SES gradients in SRH and depression are substantially smaller at the highest level of economic development. Inconsistent with the endowment hypothesis, these SES gradients are also smaller at the lowest level, suggesting that an impoverished environment can significantly limit the endowment effects of SES; and (4) given the broad support for the contrast hypothesis, we further consider its generating mechanism. A preliminary test does not support the role of relative status, as emphasized by Tversky and Griffin. We therefore discuss two alternative theoretical mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As one of the world regions with the most rapid economic growth and urbanization, eastern China faces many challenges during its urbanization process. The growth is characterized by the broad-scale loss of agricultural land, and by complex and unplanned urban growth, both of which threaten the future sustainability of the regional economy. The goal of this research is to investigate the changes within the driving forces behind the urban growth and to explore an analytical framework that explains the process. In particular, we discuss the role of the behavior of individuals in driving urban growth from a micro-perspective and formalize a framework for understanding and modeling the mechanisms of urban growth in eastern China. We start with an analysis of the changes in the macro-environment and how they have affected the autonomy of individuals, followed by an examination of the role of adaptive behavior in driving urban growth. We then propose a general analytical framework composed of an agent system, an environment system, and a policy and planning system. We present a layout for these subsystems and discuss the interactions within and among the subsystems. Furthermore, we summarize the common elements of urban micro-agents' adaptive behavior into three stages: agent learning, agent decision-making, and agent action. We enrich the urban micro-agents' learning process by importing learning from past self-experience and from shared experiences. The results may be helpful in the further modeling of urban micro-agents' adaptive behavior for simulating urban growth in support of scientific urban planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to evaluate whether or not the county units' economy in the Changsha-Zhuzhou-Xiangtan (Chang-Zhu-Tan) Urban Agglomeration was growing as expected, this study analyzed the spatial economy pattern at county-level by using the Exploratory Spatial Data Analysis (ESDA) method. In this process, the global Moran's I and local Getis-Ord G* indexes were employed to analyze indicators including per capita GDP and three industrials (i.e. primary, secondary and tertiary industry) from 2000 to 2010. The results show that: 1) the county units' economy in the Chang-Zhu-Tan Urban Agglomeration has exhibited a strong spatial autocorrelation and an accelerated integration trend since 2008 (Moran' s I increased from 0.26 to 0.56); 2) there is a significant difference in economy development between the northern and southern county units in the Chang-Zhu-Tan Urban Agglomeration: the hotspot zone with high economic level was formed among the northern county units whereas the coldspot zone with low economic level was located in the southern areas. This difference was caused primarily by the increasingly prominent economic radiation effect of Changsha 'upheaval'; 3) town density, secondary industry, and the integration policy are the major contributors driving the evolution of the spatial economy pattern in the Chang-Zhu-Tan Urban Agglomeration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on more than 2,000 data points reflecting various meaningful aspects of urban systems and water-resource systems, and using a quantitative measurement model and ArcGIS, this study discusses the temporal-spatial variations of water resources constraint on urbanization in the Gansu section of China. The conclusions were: (1) from 1989 to 2007 the water resources constraint intensities (WRCIs) of Gansu section and its 9 cities have been generally decreasing, albeit with much fluctuation, and the decrease has been more rapid since 2000, with Lanzhou and Jinchang as the most representative cities. There is, however, a great deal of variation of WRCI among the 9 cities: Lanzhou changed from intensive constraint to relatively strong constraint, with a significant decline in its WRCI; 5 cities changed from extreme constraint to intensive constraint, including Wuwei and Jiuquan with significant declines in their WRCI, Jiayuguan and Jinchang with no dramatic declines and Dingxi with a fluctuating decline; and 3 cities remained at the same level of water resources constraint, including Zhangye and Baiyin with extreme constraint, and Tianshui with intensive constraint. (2) Looking at the 20-year average of WRCI, there are three types of spatial variations among the 9 cities in the Gansu section: Lanzhou, the capital city of Gansu Province, belongs to the relatively strong constraint-high type; 4 cities-Jiuquan, Jiayuguan, Jinchang and Tianshui-belong to the intensive constraint-high type; and the remaining 4 cities-Zhangye, Wuwei, Baiyin and Dxingxi-belong to the extreme constraint-low type. These results show that the Gansu section will continue to be affected by water resources constraint on urbanization and local economic development for some time to come. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the reform and opening-up program started in 1978, the level of urbanization has increased rapidly in China. Rapid urban expansion and restructuring have had significant impacts on the ecological environment especially within built-up areas. In this study, ArcGIS 10, ENVI 4.5, and Visual FoxPro 6.0 were used to analyze the human impacts on vegetation in the built-up areas of 656 Chinese cities from 1992 to 2010. Firstly, an existing algorithm was refined to extract the boundaries of the built-up areas based on the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program Operational Linescan System (DMSP_OLS) nighttime light data. This improved algorithm has the advantages of high accuracy and speed. Secondly, a mathematical model (Human impacts (HI)) was constructed to measure the impacts of human factors on vegetation during rapid urbanization based on Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) NDVI. HI values greater than zero indicate relatively beneficial effects while values less than zero indicate proportionally adverse effects. The results were analyzed from four aspects: the size of cities (metropolises, large cities, medium-sized cities, and small cities), large regions (the eastern, central, western, and northeastern China), administrative divisions of China (provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities) and vegetation zones (humid and semi-humid forest zone, semi-arid steppe zone, and arid desert zone). Finally, we discussed how human factors impacted on vegetation changes in the built-up areas. We found that urban planning policies and developmental stages impacted on vegetation changes in the built-up areas. The negative human impacts followed an inverted' U' shape, first rising and the falling with increase of urban scales. China's national policies, social and economic development affected vegetation changes in the built-up areas. The findings can provide a scientific basis for municipal planning departments, a decision-making reference for government, and scientific guidance for sustainable development in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the last 30 years, China has witnessed rapid economic growth and dramatic urbanization, with about 1.2 × 10 rural people migrating annually into urban areas. Meanwhile, especially since 1995, the rural population has been declining, which is closely linked to land circulation and the increase in farm size in many villages. Increasing scale of farming operations is often regarded as a key to avoiding the abandonment of farmland and to increasing the income of rural farmers. However, until now, there has been little research on the spatial and temporal variability of farm size at the national level in China. Using data from the national agricultural census and rural household surveys, this study examines the characteristics of land use circulation and the consequent changes in the area of farmland per household. The results show that: 1) 12.2% of rural households were involved in land circulation at the national level. The highest amounts of land circulation have occurred in those provinces where the farmland per capita is more than 0.2 ha or less than 0.1 ha; 2) over 80% of households operate less than 0.6 ha of farmland; 3) the proportion of mid-sized farms (between 0.2 ha and 0.6 ha per household) has decreased while the smallest and the largest farms have increased. This bears some similarity with the phenomenon known as the 'disappearing middle', referring to the changes in farm size. This study establishes a framework for interpreting the factors affecting the changes in farm size in China, which include two promoting factors (urbanization and agriculture) and four hindering factors (agricultual land system, household registration, stable clan system, and farmland loss). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Yangtze River Delta Economic Belt is one of the most active and developed areas in China and has experienced quick urbanization with fast economic development. The weather research and forecasting model (WRF), with a single-layer urban canopy parameterization scheme, is used to simulate the influence of urbanization on climate at local and regional scales in this area. The months January and July, over a 5-year period (2003-2007), were selected to represent the winter and summer climate. Two simulation scenarios were designed to investigate the impacts of urbanization: (1) no urban areas and (2) urban land cover determined by MODIS satellite observations in 2005. Simulated near-surface temperature, wind speed and specific humidity agree well with the corresponding measurements. By comparing the simulations of the two scenarios, differences in near-surface temperature, wind speed and precipitation were quantified. The conversion of rural land (mostly irrigation cropland) to urban land cover results in significant changes to near-surface temperature, humidity, wind speed and precipitation. The mean near-surface temperature in urbanized areas increases on average by 0.45 ± 0.43°C in winter and 1.9 ± 0.55°C in summer; the diurnal temperature range in urbanized areas decreases on average by 0.13 ± 0.73°C in winter and 0.55 ± 0.84°C in summer. Precipitation increases about 15% over urban or leeward areas in summer and changes slightly in winter. The urbanization impact in summer is stronger and covers a larger area than that in winter due to the regional east-Asian monsoon climate characterized by warm, wet summers and cool, dry winters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article considers the immediate forces influencing China’s food system and food security. By immediate is meant events of the reform period, from the late 1970s to 2008. It begins by asking the question that has preoccupied specialists since the publication of Lester Brown’s Who Will Feed China? in 1995: How much arable land does China have? Is that land area sufficient to insure grain sufficiency? To insure food security? The article focuses on the human pressures on the food production environment, and then treats the effects of socioeconomic change: land, air, and water degradation. The core of the article examines six responses of the state to both perceived and actual environmental stressors: policy restricting arable land conversion, China’s one-child policy, investment in irrigation systems, the South–North Water Diversion Project, large-scale afforestation and reforestation campaigns, and the program to convert marginal agricultural lands to forests and grasslands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]