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The global trade of solar photovoltaic (PV) products substantially contributes to increases in solar power generation and carbon emissions reductions. This paper depicts global PV product trade patterns, explores emissions reduction potential, and evaluates the impeding effect of tariff barriers on global PV product trade and emissions reductions. Solar power generation will result in a reduction of emissions in a range of 50–180 gigatons of carbon dioxide equivalent (GtCO2e) between 2017 and 2060 in a business as usual (BAU) scenario. Compared with BAU, during 2017–2060, global total solar cell and module production and installation will increase by roughly 750 gigawatts (GW) if half of the status quo trade barrier are removed, while it will decrease by 160–370 GW under tensioned trade barrier scenarios. Trade barrier reduction by half from the 2017 status quo level will increase the net carbon emissions mitigation potential by 4–12 GtCO2e by 2060, while extra trade barrier imposition will result in global net carbon emissions mitigation potential decreasing by up to 3–4 GtCO2e by 2060. Well-coordinated policy and institutional reforms are recommended to facilitate PV product trade and to deliver the related global environmental benefits. Global trade of solar photovoltaic (PV) products has an important role to play in sustainable mitigation to climate change. Highlighting global PV product trade, this study explores the impeding effect of tariff and non-tariff barriers on global PV product trade and carbon emissions reductions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emergent plants in river riparian zones (RRZs) are an important part of the river ecosystem, and the evolution of their spatial distribution patterns is a direct indicator of the health of river ecosystems. In previous studies, the simulation of the spatiotemporal pattern evolution process for emergent plants mainly focused on the overall pattern change of emergent plant communities. However, they did not distinguish the types of emergent plants and ignored the differences in response of different emergent plants to environmental changes. The difference in the competitiveness of different emergent plants will affect the distribution of emergent plants. In this research, the transformation rules of five emergent plants under different water levels were determined, and the Cellular Automata model was constructed to dynamically simulate the proliferation of emergent plants in RRZs. The results showed that when the water level was 11.5 m, the total area of emergent plants reached the maximum, and among the five emergent plants, Phragmites australis was the dominant species. When the water level dropped to 12.5 m, the shallow water area in the east of the riverside zone increased, and P. australis expanded rapidly in the east. By dynamically simulating the distribution of emergent plants in RRZs, the distribution status of the emergent plants in RRZs in the future can be obtained. It is of great significance for biodiversity conservation and resource management in riparian zones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hydropower development can lead to riverine ecosystem degradation due to flow regime alteration, but also offers an opportunity to reduce water withdrawal from rivers for better maintenance of environmental flows, because hydropower could substitute for water to promote economic development, to some extent. Seizing this opportunity, this research proposes to adjust the water withdrawal volume at the national scale by reducing withdrawal from rivers with environmental flow deficits, and seeks to determine the volume of water withdrawal that could be reduced under the increase of hydropower generation. A computable general equilibrium model (CGE) is established to analyse the balance of water and hydropower from the perspective of economic development. China is adopted as a case study to demonstrate the effectiveness of the method. The results show that the water‐hydropower equivalent decreases with the hydropower yield. When the hydropower yield increases by 10%, 30%, 100% and 150%, the water‐hydropower equivalents are 0.73, 0.54, 0.22 and 0.13 m3/kWh, respectively, and the water compensation rate for hydropower increase is determined accordingly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Maintaining crop outputs to feed its large population with limited resources while simultaneously mitigating carbon emissions are great challenges for China. Improving the efficiency of resource use in crop production is important in reducing carbon emissions. This paper constructs a methodological framework combining emergy-based indicator accounting and a nonseparable undesirable output slack-based measurement (SBM) data envelopment analysis (DEA) model. This framework is used to explore the efficiency of inputs and outputs and the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction potential for crop production systems, using Zhejiang province, China, as a case study. It is found that an emergy synthesis and a nonseparable undesirable output SBM-DEA framework is compatible with the case study. Crop production in Zhejiang province has relied heavily on an increase in agrochemical inputs to maintain agricultural output. Energy and chemical fertilizer use are determined as the province’s major carbon emissions sources. Although carbon emissions per unit of monetary output has decreased sharply, the carbon emissions per unit emergy output has increased, demonstrating a high carbon intensity reality. The DEA highlighted the differences in crop production efficiency, resource factor redundancy and carbon mitigation potential in the different prefectures of the province. To conclude this research, policies to support low carbon agriculture development, including subsidizing low carbon agriculture technology development and expansion and the cancellation of subsidies to high carbon production factors, such as chemical fertilizer production and sales, are discussed to conclude the research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainable urban water infrastructure planning is vital for all cities in developing countries, where rapid urbanization has exacerbated the increasingly burdened environment. Water sustainability is a prerequisite for economic growth, social equity, and living quality in urban areas. This paper documents the current challenges and summarizes the solutions adopted in water infrastructure planning and management. Then, case studies of how multilateral financial institutions have promoted sustainable water infrastructure planning through economic appraisal and the novel approaches adopted for sustainable water infrastructure planning and asset management, are presented for the three cities of Jiaozhou, Cixi, and Fangchenggang. Conclusions are made based on the comparison and analysis of the experiences drawn from the case studies of how economic analysis could help promote sustainable water infrastructure planning and management. It is illustrated that economic analysis that considers ecosystem services supply should be employed more in water infrastructure planning, operation, and management in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Temporal index decomposition analysis and spatial index decomposition analysis were applied to understand the driving forces of the emissions embodied in China’s exports and net exports during 2002–2011, respectively. The accumulated emissions embodied in exports accounted for approximately 30% of the total emissions in China; although the contribution of the sectoral total emissions intensity (technique effect) declined, the scale effect was largely responsible for the mounting emissions associated with export, and the composition effect played a largely insignificant role. Calculations of the emissions embodied in net exports suggest that China is generally in an environmentally inferior position compared with its major trade partners. The differences in the economy-wide emission intensities between China and its major trade partners were the biggest contribution to this reality, and the trade balance effect played a less important role. However, a lower degree of specialization in pollution intensive products in exports than in imports helped to reduce slightly the emissions embodied in net exports. The temporal index decomposition analysis results suggest that China should take effective measures to optimize export and supply-side structure and reduce the total emissions intensity. According to spatial index decomposition analysis, it is suggested that a more aggressive import policy was useful for curbing domestic and global emissions, and the transfer of advanced production technologies and emission control technologies from developed to developing countries should be a compulsory global environmental policy option to mitigate the possible leakage of pollution emissions caused by international trade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the practice potential of self-administered drop-off as a survey mode for contingent valuation (CV) studies. Design/methodology/approach – This paper conducts an empirical comparison of mode effects of two survey methods for improved ecological services in Beijing. Data were collected from a CV survey, which has two subsamples, one using face-to-face interviews and the other employing self-administered drop-off surveys. Findings – There is some evidence of social desirability bias in the face-to-face interviews for the participation question; however, such effects do not carry over to subjects’ responses to the contribution decision. No difference is observed in sample demographics between modes. And satisficing effect is not observed in the drop-off survey in this study. Research limitations/implications – More well-controlled mode comparisons are warranted to test the robustness of the results; and collection time effects as well as the use of drop-off surveys for environmental valuation with different levels of complexity and familiarity are worthy of further study. Practical implications – The authors find more similarities between drop-off and face-to-face surveys than differences therefore support the practice of self-administered drop-off surveys in CVM for environmental valuation. Originality/value – This paper adds to the limited number of well-controlled mode comparisons in the CV surveys, and contributes to a better understanding of self-administered drop-off surveys, a potential low-cost alternative to face-to-face interviews in future CV applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, China, Japan, and the Republic of Korea (Korea) are conducting a government-commissioned feasibility study on the Free Trade Agreement among the three countries (CJKFTA) to form a regional free trade zone in East Asia. Considering that freer trade can cause unexpected impact on domestic environment, there is a need to evaluate the environmental impact of such a trade policy. This move should be made to help negotiators understand and pay more attention to environmental issues during CJKFTA negotiations, and to help lobby with the government to carry out appropriate policy instruments for adaptation or mitigation. Following the Chain Reaction Assessment Method that integrates and links the elements of trade, production, and environment, the present research aims to quantitatively assess CJKFTA's possible impact on China's environment. This is done by estimating the variations of China's major conventional pollutants and greenhouse gases (GHGs) emission in two policy scenarios to represent CJKFTA's scale and composition effects on China's environment. Estimating the variations is based on a static Computable General Equilibrium model, working with Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP) 7 database and China's energy-environment statistics. Based on these assessments, CJKFTA is predicted to lead to notable environmental impact, including increased emissions of agricultural total nitrogen, agricultural total phosphorus, chemical oxygen demand, and GHGs. On the other hand, decreased emissions of industrial SO and dust are also expected to happen. Suitable policies need to be made to combat negative effects and amplify positive ones, while aiming at a more sustainable regional freer trade system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Dempster-Shafer (D-S) algorithm is improved to fuse different features of multi-temporal Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images to detect changes in urban areas. Firstly, D-S theory is developed by not only considering the certainty of the sources, but also considering the average support of the sources to different subsets in the frame of discernment, in the process of evidence combination. In this way, it can assign conflict information in deferent sources reasonably and present a more reliable combination result. Secondly, amplitude ratio and distance between probability density distribution functions in Pearson graph of different temporal SAR images are extracted to present the change features in different scales. Lastly, the improved D-S algorithm is applied to fuse the two different features to detect change information of SAR images. An example of the Shanghai Lujiazui area using European Remote Sensing 2 (ERS-2) SAR images demonstrates the accuracy of the improved fusion algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ecosystem health has been a focal point and research frontier of applied ecology in recent years, increasingly used in urban ecological studies. To quantify the effect of ecological improvement from eco-planning, an ecosystem health assessment method is used in eco-planning evaluation and decision support in the urban eco-planning research of Guangzhou City of China. Based on features of an urban ecosystem, five factors such as vigor, organizational structure, resilience, ability to maintain ecosystem service, and influence on people’s health were selected to develop the assessment indicator system. Then, to evaluate the validity of planning measures, a cost-effect analysis of the different scenarios on eco-planning was made, taking investment of the planned projects as the cost and ecosystem health state after implementing the scenarios as the effect. To establish priority of all the proposed planning schemes or countermeasures, variation of the ecosystem health state was evaluated when the investment of eco-environmental construction projects changes by ±10%, ±20% and ±50%, respectively. Thus, the order of importance of eco-environment construction projects to the urban ecosystem health state can be worked out, providing a reference for prioritizing the implementation of such urban eco-environmental projects. The study proved the trial value of an ecosystem health evaluation method in urban eco-planning research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reducing the degree of flow regime alteration is a basic principle for biodiversity conservation in rivers. The range of variability approach (RVA) is the most widely used method to assess flow regime alteration. Generally, researchers tend to put all of the available pre-impact and post-impact flow records into the RVA. However, no research has tested whether it is optimal to use the entirety of the available flow records from the perspective of calculation accuracy for the degree of flow regime alteration. In this research, a series of numerical simulations is conducted, demonstrating that the greatest accuracy for flow regime alteration degree assessed by the RVA is achieved when the length of both the pre- and post-impact flow time series is set equal to multiples of periodicity length, and that, when attempting to put the whole available flow record into the RVA, calculation accuracy may be reduced. On the basis of these findings, we further propose revising the traditional RVA procedure by assessing the periodicity of the pre- and post-impact flow time series in advance. If the periodicity of the pre- or post-impact flows is detected, the length of the time series should be set equal to its periodicity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]