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Urbanization nowadays is a very important driving force for China's social and economic development, but the resource shortage and pollution accompanied have troubled China especially in the urban areas. As the capital of China, Beijing is a mega-city and densely populated. Its development and prosperity is supported by a large amount of material consumption, rendering a severe shortage of natural resources and serious pollution. Underlying the premise of maintaining its development and prosperity, Beijing is facing an enormous challenge in dealing with heavy pollution load. Therefore, it is a very important step to decouple the relationship between economic development and environmental pollution. This paper makes a study on the relationship between the economic growth and pollution load for Beijing based on the analysis of Environmental Kuznets Curves (EKC) which builds an econometric model using data over the period 1990–2014. We found the intensity of most pollutants have arrived at the turning point around 2006 while the total amount of most emissions remain at a high level, this is a favorable initiation for the transforming the development patterns as it has begun to decouple the pollution intensity and economy. Based on the statistics, this paper further analyzes the driving factors behind the active change. We found that the adjustment of industrial structure, a reasonable city planning, powerful measures in pollutants control and technology advance, contribute a lot to the transformation. Especially in the recent years, Beijing and correlative regions took joint measures to prevent and reduce air pollution, which have an apparent functions. Finally, this paper proposes several suggestions for Beijing to decouple the economic growth and environmental pollution load, based on these important conclusions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of the paper is to determine whether the agri-environmental schemes included in the rural development programme of Emilia-Romagna (Italy) have played a role in enhancing the nature value of farmland in that region. An indicator is developed for biodiversity friendly farming practices (BFFP) and its level and distribution at the municipality level is measured, using data derived from the two last national agricultural censuses, year 2000 and 2010. Thereafter, the relationship between BFFP and participation in rural development measures is analysed by way of spatial econometric techniques. The main result of the paper are consistent with the expectation that RDPs have an impact on how BFFP changes. However, measures supporting organic farming contribute to the evolution of its distribution in a positive manner, whilst the other measures investigated, such as integrated production, do not. The paper also highlights the fact that these effects have significant spatial correlations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the state of forest resource utilization in China and correctly evaluating the role and function of forest resources in national economic development are essential for realizing balanced development of forests, the environment, and the economy. This is especially true given the present situation of increasingly scarce forest resources. Using data from Chinese forest industry statistical yearbooks, forestry development reports, and other documents, this paper examines the current state of forest resource utilization in China from the angle of combining quantities and values based on input–output tables. We show that demand for and input use of forest resources varies greatly across industrial sectors; the paper products and furniture manufacturing industries have the greatest direct consumption coefficient for timber use. When considering direct and indirect demand, it is clear that forest resources restrict different industrial sectors in diverse ways. These results provide an important set of reference values regarding the utilization of forest resources and coordinated industrial development in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ecosystem services (ES) assessments commonly focus on a specific biophysical region or nation and take its geographic borders as the system boundary. Most geographical regions are, however, not closed systems but are open and telecoupled with other regions, such that the use of ES in one location is dependent on ecosystem processes and ecological management in other locations. Interregional ES flows often affect national economies and may trigger issues of national security and global equity. To date, however, methodologies for assessing interregional flows of ES have been published in dispersed literature. This paper provides a three-step guidance for how to assess four different types of interregional ES flows (traded goods, passive biophysical flows, species migration and dispersal as well as information flows). This guidance is intended to complement national and regional ecosystem assessments. The three steps are to (i) define the goal and scope of interregional ES flow assessments, (ii) quantify the interregional ES flows using a tiered approach and (iii) interpret results in terms of uncertainties, consequences and governance options. We compile different indicators for assessing interregional ES flows and evaluate their suitability for national and regional ES assessments. Finally, to assess the implications of interregional ES flows for environmental sustainability and human well-being, we relate our flow indicators to the Sustainable Development Goals. This guidance towards systematic assessment of interregional ES flows provides a first step to measure and quantify externalised environmental costs and can contribute to the development of indicators to address interregional imbalances in trade, foreign policy and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • 17 indices were used to study the spatial characteristics of 146 Chinese cities. • There were regional differences in the spatial forms of Chinese cities. • The shape complexity from small cities to megacities was increasing. • The dispersion from small cities to megacities was decreasing. Abstract The impact of urban spatial form on infrastructure investment and ecological environment is as important as that of urban social and economic factors. It is of great significance to study the spatial distribution pattern of cities for deciding the direction of urban spatial development. In this paper, a total of 17 indices of urban spatial morphology, including those describing patch area, shape, and degree of urban agglomeration, were selected. Using the correlation, factor analysis, cluster analysis and non-parametric test of the indices, we studied the 146 cities in China. There was a strong correlation between some indicators, and through factor analysis, four main factors, including the "area-based agglomeration," "adjacency-based agglomeration," "shape," and "shape-area," explained 79.61% of the variance in the data set. Using cluster analysis, the 146 cities could be further divided into five clusters showing significant differences among them. There were strong regional differences in the spatial forms of Chinese cities, especially cities clustered in the Yangtze river delta, Pearl river delta, Shandong peninsula, Sichuan province. At the same time, megacities (populations greater than five million) had a more complex shape and the spatial axis of medium and small cities (populations less than one million) was more obvious. A more complex urban form would be associated with greater investment of infrastructure, and a more compact city would be higher economic resources, and greater development of public transport. From the perspective of resource saving, megacities were faced with the greater challenge of spatial form. The ecological demands of cities are equally important, and how to balance the ecological space e.g. water and green space in cities to obtain a reasonable spatial threshold should be explored in more detail. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Land Use Suitability (LUS) concept informs decision-making by providing stakeholders with integrated information about the economic, environmental, social and cultural consequences of land use choices. This paper addresses an application of the LUS concept: evaluating the suitability of land for sustained productivity subject to environmental constraints, as defined by water quality objectives. We refer to this application of the LUS concept as ‘Productivity within Environmental Constraints’ (PEC). A PEC assessment uses three indicators to evaluate land-water systems: 1) productive potential, describing the inherent productive and economic potential of land parcel s ; 2) relative contribution, describing the potential for a land parcel to contribute contaminants (relative to other land parcels) to downstream receiving environments; and 3) pressure, describing the contaminant load delivered to a receiving environment compared to the load that ensures that environmental objectives are met. The three indicators can be expressed categorically, mapped at catchment to national scales, and used to support strategic land assessments and plan land development and investment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hydropower dam development in the Mekong River Basin is threatening both biodiversity and the output of the world’s largest inland fishery. Fragmentation of the river system by dams blocking the free movement of riverine species can have a direct impact on migratory fish species, which constitute a significant portion of the basins wild fishery. Fish passes, which allow fish to bypass dams, are often proposed as potential solutions to these problems. However, there is uncertainty around the effectiveness of fish passes in the species-rich environment of the Lower Mekong, and this has real consequences for the region and its development strategies. As a first step to evaluate the effects of dams in the region, we used the Dendritic Connectivity Index (DCI) to examine the impact on connectivity by providing fish passage on as many as 105 current, under construction and planned dams on the Sesan, Srepok and Sekong tributaries of the Mekong River. Our results indicate that, at the current stage of development, overall connectivity of the river system is sensitive to the efficiency of fish passes – and with highly efficient fish passes, connectivity comparable to a natural network is possible. However, as the number of dams on each tributary increase, even highly efficient fish passes are unable to improve connectivity significantly. While this paper does not explicitly focus on the functioning and limitation of fish passes, this broader analysis clearly establishes that, if constructed, robust monitoring for the newly-designed fish pass on the Lower Sesan II dam would be critical for evaluating and informing future development strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As cities represent the microcosms of global environmental change, it is very important for the global sustainable development by decoupling environmental pressure from economic growth on city level. In this paper, the municipality of Chongqing in China is employed as a case to show whether the decoupling of environmental pressures from economic growth has occurred in cities undergoing rapid economic growth; what is the level of decoupling; and what causes the observed degree of decoupling. Results show the following. (1) During the period of 1999–2010, decoupling from economic growth has been absolute for the emissions of SO 2 , soot, and waste water, while it has been relative for total energy consumption, emissions of CO 2 and solid waste. (2) Compared with the period 2000–2005, decoupling level improved for all the six environmental pressures in the period 2005–2010. (3) Compared with China and other three municipalities of China, the overall decoupling level of Chongqing is above China’s average while below those of Beijing and Shanghai. (4) During the period 1999–2000, technological change was the dominate factor for decoupling Chongqing’s environmental pressure from economic growth, as it contributed 131.4%, 134.6%, 99.9%, 97.7%, 104.5% and 54.9% to the decoupling of total energy consumption, emissions of CO 2 , SO 2 , soot, waste water and solid waste, respectively; while economic structural change had very tiny effect to the decoupling of emissions of soot and SO 2 , and it even had negative effect to that of total energy consumption, and emissions of CO 2 and waste water. Based on the above observations, we explain the difference in decoupling levels for different environmental pressures and suggest approaches for policy-makers on further promoting decoupling environmental pressure from economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of the System for Environmental-Economic Accounting, biodiversity accounting is being developed as a tool to monitor and increase the understanding of human impacts on biodiversity. Biodiversity accounting aims to structurally measure, monitor and map changes in multiple biodiversity components, as an integral part of a larger system of ecosystem accounts. Both indicators relevant for ecosystem functioning and indicators that reflect the non-use values of biodiversity can be included in biodiversity accounting. In this paper we focus on the latter, and we test the potential applicability of a set of species indicators for developing a biodiversity account in Limburg province, the Netherlands. In particular, we map and analyse a range of indicators reflecting species richness, the presence of rare and threatened species and species diversity. We test spatial correlation to identify the minimum set of indicators that would need to be included in the account. We also evaluate individual indicators using eight different criteria. We show that, in Limburg province, a set of indicators covering at least five species groups is required, and that it would be most meaningful to have indicators reflecting the occurrence of threatened species. However, data availability as well as the most suitable set of indicators are likely to differ between areas, and case studies in other countries are required to support the selection of indicators for biodiversity accounting in an international framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coastal environment has been disturbed by human activities for a long time, especially in the rapidly urbanizing and industrializing areas. Although the surrounding area has achieved great economic success in the past 30 years, Western Xiamen Bay (China) is seriously affected by pollutants and is facing increasing ecological pressure. Because of this, Xiamen was selected in 1994 as a demonstration site for implementing an integrated coastal management program, which included a series of measures for protecting the coastal environment. However, coastal environment is dynamic, complex and site-specific, and thus a scientific quantitative evaluation framework is necessary for environment quality analysis and effective coastal management. In this study, we used oceanographic knowledge together with quantitative methods (Bai-Perron's structural break test) to analyze the long-term variations of water quality indices (pH, DO, COD, DIN, PO 4 -P and Oil) in Western Xiamen Bay. In addition, we compared with other coastal areas to identify the effectiveness of phosphorus-based nutrient management measures and predicted the probable variation trend in the future. The results show that in Western Xiamen Bay: (1) the concentrations of DO and Oil in seawater are effectively controlled by local coastal management measures; (2) seawater acidification will continue to worsen based on the present situation; and (3) the P-limitation treatment strategies are effective and PO 4 -P concentration starts to fall according to the multiple statistical analysis and Environmental Kuznets Curve. This paper hopes to provide an epitome of the conflicts and consolations between socioeconomic development and environmental quality in the past, and hints for coastal management in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new perspective for the management effectiveness of protected areas needs the inclusion of social data for decision-making. In this process, environmental education (EE) plays a key role in catalyzing biological and social issues in the management process, but there are scarce data about this relationship. The objective of this paper is to develop, from an institutional bottom-up perspective, a proposal for a set of EE indicators that is easy to use by practitioners to measure the response of the EE program in relation to the conservation objectives of protected areas management plans. Using a combination of quantitative and qualitative techniques, a case study at the National Parks System of Colombia is presented, which is divided in five stages: 1. An EE evaluation survey on a national scale. 2. An interview phase with EE practitioners and NGOs. 3. EE objectives categorization. 4. Systematization process and 5. Focus group to evaluate the proposed set of indicators. A set of 5 EE indicators was developed to fulfill the identified needs: appropriation of information, articulation, participation quality, program implementation and continuity of EE process. We expect that this new approach for EE evaluation will hopefully be adopted in the update of management plans, as an innovative tool that contributes to the effectiveness assessment of protected areas, integrating a more social and participative focus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Decreasing the environmental impact, increasing the degree of social responsibility, and considering the economic motivations of organizations are three significant features in designing a reverse logistics network under sustainability respects. Developing a model, which can simultaneously consider these environmental, social, and economic aspects and their indicators, is an important problem for both researchers and practitioners. In this paper, we try to address this comprehensive approach by using indicators for measurement of aforementioned aspects and by applying fuzzy mathematical programming to design a multi-echelon multi-period multi-objective model for a sustainable reverse logistics network. To reflect all aspects of sustainability, we try to minimize the present value of costs, as well as environmental impacts, and optimize the social responsibility as objective functions of the model. In order to deal with uncertain parameters, fuzzy mathematical programming is used, and to obtain solutions on Pareto front, a customized multi-objective particle swarm optimization (MOPSO) algorithm is applied. The validity of the proposed solution procedure has been analyzed in small and large size test problems based on four comparison metrics and computational time using analysis of variance. Finally, in order to indicate the applicability of the suggested model and the practicality of the proposed solution procedure, the model has been implemented in a medical syringe recycling system. The results reveal that the suggested MOPSO algorithm overtakes epsilon-constraint method from the aspects of quality of the solutions as well as computational time. Proper use of the proposed process could help managers efficiently manage the flow of recycled products with regard to environmental and social considerations, and the process offers a sustainable competitive advantage to corporations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Up until now, analyses of the inter-country distribution of pollutant emissions have not paid sufficient attention to the implications that, in terms of global sustainability, the combined evolution of the global world average entails. In this context, this paper proposes the use of general distributive sustainability indexes in order to make a comprehensive examination of the international equity factor and also the mean (world) factor in this field. The proposed methodology, which is adapted from the welfare and inequality economics literature, is implemented empirically in order to explore the evolution of the greenhouse gases and its main components: CO 2 , CH 4 and N 2 O during the period 1990–2012. The main results found are as follows: firstly, typically, the general distributive sustainability associated with the overall greenhouse gases in per capita terms increased over the global period but, contrarily, it seems to decrease since 2000; secondly, typically this last reduction is basically explained by the increase in world mean average, given the clear reduction on cross-country inequalities; thirdly, the analysis of different gases also points out some differences in temporal variations and depending on the index used. These results would seem to be relevant in policy and academic terms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The annual growth of hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico is largely attributed to agricultural nutrient loadings that originate from the Mississippi/Atchafalaya River Basin (MARB). To effectively target conservation efforts throughout the entire MARB in order to reduce Gulf hypoxia, strategies to rank areas according to their impact on both agricultural production and ecosystem services are extremely important. In this paper, we utilize an Environmental Performance Index (EPI) to rank regions within the MARB according to their environmental performance, that is, their ability to produce agricultural outputs while minimizing nutrient loadings to the Gulf of Mexico. We compare our index rankings to previously used rankings of delivered yields alone and find the spatial distribution of rankings changes considerably when accounting for agricultural productivity. For example, the Corn Belt regions of central Iowa and northern Illinois no longer make up the lowest performing regions of the MARB after accounting for their high levels of agricultural production. Instead, regions along the Missouri river including central Missouri, western Iowa, and southeastern South Dakota as well as areas near the Ohio river including southern Illinois, western Kentucky, and southern Ohio now count among the lowest performing regions using the EPI ranking scheme. We suggest that incorporation of economic production value into large-scale prioritization of agricultural conservation within the MARB is essential to effectively reduce Gulf hypoxia while maintaining food security from efficient farm production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Different from previous studies which mainly focused on conventional estimation techniques, this paper examines the CO 2 EKC hypothesis of China using a spatial panel data model to avoid the coefficient estimation error covering the period of 1997–2012. Furthermore, a comparative analysis of the turning points between the non-spatial panel model and spatial panel model is conducted. The results show that the relationship between economic growth and CO 2 emissions shapes as an inverted-N trajectory. Spatial spillovers effects are confirmed to affect the shape of the CO 2 environmental Kuznets curve. There exists an apparent block distribution in spatial structure of China's provincial CO 2 emissions. Specifically, CO 2 emissions have a relatively sharp increase from the eastern regions to the central and the western regions of China. It has also been found that urbanization and coal combustion are main factors on increasing CO 2 emissions. While the trade openness contributes to slight decrease in CO 2 emissions. The government should make targeted carbon-reduction policies for CO 2 emission reduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Natural resource scarcity is no longer merely a remote possibility and governments increasingly seek information about the global distribution of resource use and related environmental pressures. This paper presents an international distributional analysis of natural resource use indicators. These encompass both territorial (national production) and footprint (national consumption) indicators for land-related pressures (human appropriation of net primary production, HANPP, and embodied HANPP), for material use (domestic material extraction and consumption and material footprint), and for carbon emissions (territorial carbon emissions and carbon footprints). Our main question is “What, both from a territorial and a footprint perspective, are the main driving factors of international environmental inequality?”. We show that, for the environmental indicators we studied, inequality tends to be higher for footprint indicators than for territorial ones. The exception is land use intensity (as measured by HANPP), for which geographical drivers mainly determine the distribution pattern. The international distribution of material consumption is mainly a result of economic drivers whereas, for domestic extraction, demographic drivers can explain almost half of the distribution pattern. Finally, carbon emissions are the environmental pressure that shows the highest international inequality because of the larger contribution of economic drivers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water sustainability indices have been recently used to measure the sustainability of water resources within a catchment. Developing a sustainability index involves various steps, some of which have uncertainties associated with them. For the recently developed West Java Water Sustainability Index (WJWSI), three sources of uncertainties were identified, namely uncertainties in the thresholds of non-categorical indicators and sub-indicators, in the weighting schemes, and in the aggregation methods. This paper presents the uncertainty and sensitivity analysis of WJWSI, based on the application of WJWSI to Citarum catchment in West Java, Indonesia. The results of the uncertainty analysis, measured by the coefficient of variation of the thresholds and the sub-indices, indicates that minimum thresholds of Land Use Changes , Coverage , Education , Poverty , Health Impact and Sanitation , and the maximum threshold of Water Quality have higher variation when compared to variation of the other thresholds. The results of the sensitivity analysis, measured by the correlation coefficients between the final index and the thresholds, indicate that changes in the thresholds of WJWSI indicators have not significantly affected the sub-index values of most indicators and sub-indicators. The sensitivity analysis also concluded that either the equal or non-equal weighting scheme can be used for future use of the aggregation of WJWSI indicators and sub-indicators, as changes from equal to non-equal weighting scheme did not significantly affect the final index. However, it was found that the final index values were most sensitive to the aggregation method used (i.e. arithmetic and geometric methods), shown by the significant changes in the final index value when the aggregation method was changed from arithmetic to geometric. The uncertainty and sensitivity analysis presented in this study will not just assist in the efficient use of the WJWSI, but will also help undertake similar analysis for other indices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to investigate whether countries tend to relocate their ecological footprint as they grow richer. The analysis is carried out for a panel of 116 countries by employing the production and import components of the ecological footprint data of the Global Footprint Network for the period 2004–2008. With few exceptions, the existing Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) literature concentrates only on the income-environmental degradation nexus in the home country and neglects the negative consequences of home consumption spilled out. Controlling for the effects of openness to trade, biological capacity, population density, industry share and energy per capita as well as stringency of environmental regulation and environmental regulation enforcement, we detect an EKC-type relationship only between per capita income and footprint of domestic production. Within the income range, import footprint is found to be monotonically increasing with income. Moreover, we find that domestic environmental regulations do not influence country decisions to import environmentally harmful products from abroad; but they do affect domestic production characteristics. Hence, our findings indicate the importance of environmental regulations and provide support for the “Pollution Haven” and “Race-to-the-Bottom” hypotheses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• An existing method for gauging the performance of MWMSs is extended to the treatment of spatial effects. • The radius within which proximity effects are enclosed is computed. • A final efficiency indicator is estimated to benchmark each MWMS against its local peers. • Spatial conditioned efficiency indicators are used to evaluate scale effects in a case study. • Differences between spatial conditioned and unconditioned efficiency scores are shown. In an article recently published in this journal, Sarra et al. (2017) presented an approach to measure the efficiency of municipal waste management systems (MWMSs) that allows a joint consideration of their performance in both environmental and economic terms. Such an approach does not consider the existence of the effects of spatial proximity among municipalities. This could result in biased efficiency scores that may lead to inappropriate policy decisions. To overcome this weakness and to provide policy makers with a more reliable tool for the joint evaluation of the environmental and cost performance of MWMSs, this paper proposes to integrate a multistep procedure that would control for spatial effects with the approach of Sarra et al. (2017). This paper also presents an application of the proposed approach to the same data used by Sarra et al. (2017) to allow a comparison between the results obtained. The findings of this study suggest that jointly assessing the environmental and economic efficiency of MWMSs through data envelopment analysis-based methods can lead to distorted judgments if spatial effects are not properly taken into consideration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a system dynamics approach to model consumers’ responses to carbon labelled products by showing how the number of consumers is varied visually. Three categories of the consumers are defined, i.e., potential, ordinary and loyal consumers, to reflect their different preferences to the carbon labelled products. Two case scenarios are presented to demonstrate the application of the proposed approach, in which the consumers’ preferences to the carbon labelled and non-labelled milk, as well as the carbon labelled milk with different fat contents are simulated. The result shows that both of the two scenarios have the similar variation in the number of the defined consumers, and especially the number of loyal consumer accounts for the largest proportion. In addition, public awareness, education level, critical premium and perceived consumer effectiveness are identified as key factors to have an impact on the purchasing behaviour. The limitations of this approach are then discussed, laying a foundation for further work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The urban population in Anhui province has increased rapidly in recent years. Simultaneously, society has grown more concerned with protecting the ecological environment, including controlling atmospheric pollution. As such, the relationship between urban population and the environment merits consideration. This paper examines five statistical indicators (urban population, three kinds of industrial waste, and urban green area) using the GMM method to quantitatively explore the relationship between urban population and the ecological environment in cities of Anhui province. The results show that waste gas pollution is truly positive to the emigration of population and to each area, the higher the level of average urban income, the higher the possibility of emigration after the area being polluted; effects are smallest on landscape green area. The article concludes with suggestions on how policymakers can better align the needs of a growing urban population with environmental growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The conflict between cultivated land protection and economic development has become increasingly acute in recent years. Despite, intensive researches made on this conflict, little attention has been paid to the spatial correlation of variables. In view of this, the paper introduces the spatial panel regression model to estimate, and test whether the relationship between economic growth and cultivated land conversion conforms to Kuznets curve. Research results show that the area of converted cultivated land in China exhibits strong spatial auto-correlation; the spatial panel model with time effect and fixed effect is more stable and significant than conventional panel mode, and that the relationship between economic growth and cultivated land conversion agrees with the inverted U-shape of Kuznets curve, with inflection point occurring when average per capita GDP reaches ¥31330.93 (calculated at comparable price of 1999). On the basis of analysis, it is suggested that the government, with a view to developing economy alongside protecting cultivated land, should attach more importance to land use and planning in the future, pay more attention to the spatial correlation of cultivated land planning in adjacent areas and make greater efforts to increase the input–output ratio of land. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on slacks-based measure (SBM) mechanism, this paper builds a dynamic indicator to evaluate the ecological economic transition in Chinese provinces since the reform. The measurement indicates that Chinese ecological economic development could be divided into five stages since the reform: the poor development during 1985–1992 and the beginning of this century (2003–2009), and the good performance in early reform period (1981–1984), the period of 1993–2002 and in present years (2010–2012). The evaluation indicator of ecological transition, produced from the economic theory, takes both the growth quality and speed into account and thus could be employed as a more appropriate alternative of conventional GDP evaluation criterion. The heterogeneity and inconsistency of evaluation for each province revealed that Chinese ecological economic transition is still at the unstable early stage and more appropriate environmental regulations should be implemented to support the long-run process of ecological economic development in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the decision analysis of heterogeneous enterprise between green technology innovation and rent-seeking, this paper formulates the Hybrid-Luenberger index considering undesirable outputs and studies difference in the response of regional industrial green productivity to civil environmental protection. Empirical study on China's regional industrial data from 1997 to 2011 shows that: (1) Compared with the intensity of environmental pollution and other passive environmental protection incentives, the public are more sensitive to per capita income level, education quality, health concern and other rational environmental protection incentives. (2) The increase in the civil environmental protection effect promotes the industrial green technology innovation, while the rent-seeking activities have a significant negative effect on green productivity. (3) The civil environmental protection of the eastern coastal area has more significant effect on the industrial green productivity compared with that of the central and western inland area. (4) As the quantile of the industrial green productivity increases from the low point to high level, the positive effects of the civil environmental protection on the industrial green productivity turn to be more significant, and the rational environmental protection have positive and negative effects on high and low quantile of the industrial green productivity, respectively, which proves that the “Potter Hypothesis” can only be established on the condition that producers are approaching to the technology frontier. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The company's environmental management behaviors can improve the relationship between the company stakeholders, help companies to sustainably develop. But it is more seen as an obligation and cost of the company's environmental protection in developing countries. So what kind of impact the environmental protection have on the value of the company? Taking Chinese listing Corporation as a sample. This paper analyzes the impact of enterprises’ environmental management and its disclosure on corporate value. We conclude that environmental management excluding independent environment report can improve corporate value. In specific environmental management measures, producing environmental friendly products can help environmental friendly products gain recognition and improve corporate value significantly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The regional level has been recognized as a good scale for implementing actions towards sustainable development (SD). An important pathway to improve regional sustainability is to locally carry out long-term ecological planning. In order to reduce environmental impacts from fast economic growth, several eastern provinces of China began Ecological Province Construction (EPC) at the end of 1990s. This paper presented a case for analyzing the progress of EPC in China via both qualitative and quantitative methods. We studied Shandong Eco-province Construction (SEPC) and evaluated its outcomes with its pre-set indicators in 2003–2010. A further evaluation with eco-efficiency and de-linking indices was conducted. The results indicated the pre-set indicators could not effectively reflect of the ecological province construction. It was recommended to introduce an evaluated framework combined with eco-efficiency and de-linking indices to indicate ecological planning at the regional scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim ng at the evaluation of environmental damages, we proposed a dynamic evaluation approach based on the optimal cluster criterion. Firstly, a method for sample data standardization was introduced. After determining the measurement of damage grade, we applied the system cluster analysis approach to classify the grades of corresponding environmental pollution events. Then, the optimal cluster level was evaluated based on the optimal clustering criterion. By using the marine environmental damages caused by 17 marine oil spill events as a sample, we tested the dynamic evaluation method proposed in this article with its practicability. Further, by comparing it with some traditional damage evaluation methods, we found that their evaluation results were consistent. All these have shown that the dynamic evaluation approach proposed in this paper can meet the requirement of environmental damage evaluation. Finally, directions of future researches were pointed out. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of a regional or national economy is always accompanied by a variety of environmental problems. Using meta-frontier and data envelopment analysis (DEA), this paper investigates the environmental protection mechanisms and economic development of 211 cities in China from the perspective of environmental efficiency. The major conclusions are: (1) the overall environmental efficiency of Chinese cities is low when the most advanced production technology is selected as the reference. Only 10% of cities have achieved a win–win, defined as an effective balance between environmental protection and economic growth. It is possible to increase economy and reduce pollutant emissions at the same time for most of cities. (2) The environmental efficiencies and production technologies of cities in five different groups (based on a widely accepted business index) present significant differences. First-tier cities possess more advanced technology, higher environmental efficiency and, therefore, a higher overall win–win balance between economic development and environmental protection; while the fourth-tier and fifth-tier cities have a relatively large gap between development and protection. (3) To achieve a win–win balance between environmental protection and economic development, the local government of different cities should develop appropriate policies that maximize the use of technology and management practices that enhance both growth and protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper adopts data envelopment analysis method to calculate the regional energy efficiency from the perspective of total-factor energy efficiency. The Markov chain and spatial Markov chain are the common methods to test the club convergence of regional energy efficiency in China. Results indicate that the regional energy efficiency in China has been globally characterized by “club convergence” since 1999, and the energy efficiency transitions in China are closely connected with regional characteristics. A high level of energy efficiency has a positive influence on a region, whereas a low level of energy efficiency has a negative influence. This empirical analysis provides a spatial explanation to the “convergence clubs” of regional energy efficiency in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes a way to account for mineral depletion through exergy replacement costs, which are defined as the exergy required to replace minerals from a complete dispersed state back to the initial conditions of composition and concentration in which they were originally found and with the best available technologies. The advantage of using such an indicator is that the scarcity factor of each commodity together with the state of technology can be taken into account. Moreover, as exergy is fully additive, all kinds of resources can be compared. Conducting an exergy analysis of the production for 22 non-fuel minerals in Spain for the year 2009, we obtain that the exergy replacement costs are 41.67 Mtoe, this amount is equivalent to the average domestic coal consumption in Spain for 2 years. If we account for the imports and exports of the 22 substances and we calculate the material consumption, production plus imports minus exports, we have that the total exergy replacement cost increases to 98.97 Mtoe. In the case of fossil fuels, if we add the imports to the Spanish production, the total exergy replacement costs are 94.15 Mtoe, where 93% corresponds only to imports. Depending if the energy source chosen for replacing the domestic mineral capital is in form of coal or electricity, the monetary equivalent of mineral depletion by extraction would be 3272 to 13,518 M€ (between 0.31 and 1.28% of Spanish GDP). If we take into account the total mineral consumption (also including the net flows from the rest of the world), the monetary equivalent would be between 27,408 and 57,008 M€ (2.61 to 5.43% of GDP). We also propose another relevant estimation. If we account for the exergy replacement costs using a theoretical price estimated by applying the relationship between extraction/replacement costs to actual price, the monetary value of exergy replacement cost of extracted minerals would be 188,863 M€, 18.62% of Spanish GDP and 84 times higher than the value obtained with current resource prices (2323 M€). For the resource consumption, the monetary value would be 280,594 M€, which represents an equivalent of 26.77% of Spanish GDP and is 25 times higher than the value estimated with actual and current resource prices (11,137 M€). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since carbon emissions are considered to contribute the lion's share in global warming, extensive studies have been devoted to measuring the carbon emissions abatement cost in various ways. This paper derives the shadow prices of China's aggregate carbon emissions at provincial levels by using directional output distance function and Shephard output distance function. The empirical results indicate that the shadow prices estimated by the directional distance function with directional vector of (1,−1) are significantly higher than those estimated by Shephard distance function, which implies that the green production technology is very expensive for the developing country of China. In addition, the shadow prices of carbon emissions present a rising trend during the sample period, which implies that it is increasingly costly for China to regulate CO 2 emissions. Moreover, the shadow price is positively correlated with regional economic development levels. Generally, the shadow price of the high income regions is significantly bigger than that of low income regions. Therefore, China should promote regional scheme of carbon emissions reduction, such as regional carbon emissions trading scheme, to fulfill its ambitious target of carbon emissions reductions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Land use planning has to consider different development goals, for instance, economic profit, biodiversity conservation, and the protection of traditional land use techniques. To evaluate different land use change scenarios for sustainable development, land use managers in the study area in southwest of China were provided with an integrated modelling approach. We applied the CLUE-Naban land-change model and a GAMS-based village farm household model (VFHM) to model a business as usual scenario (BAU) at the regional scale. The scenario was driven by the demand for different land cover types, as given by the VFHM model. In our approach, this aggregated demand was disaggregated to grid cells of 0.09ha size with the help of the CLUE-Naban land-change model and the farm types were defined as interface between the two models. Two farm types with characteristic land management regimes and public land type were identified using cluster analysis. The results of the BAU-scenario show that the area of rubber plantation in the lowlands more likely to increase until the year 2025. Hemp was introduced as a cash crop in the highlands of the study area. Areas with the most land use changes were where land was converted from extensively-used cropland to intensively-used rubber plantations. In this paper, an organizational heuristic with two conceptual models for linking land change with driving forces and actors is presented. Therefore, the CLUE-Naban approach can contribute to improve land use planning, because this approach creates spatially explicit land use change scenarios at the regional scale and also considers the socioeconomic driving factors that influence land management issues as considered in the VFHM model. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Over the past two decades, a continuously expanding list of footprint-style indicators has been introduced to the scientific community with the aim of raising public awareness of how humanity exerts pressures on the environment. A deeper understanding of the connections and interactions between different footprints is required in an attempt to support policy makers in the measurement and choice of environmental impact mitigation strategies. Combining a selection of footprints that address different aspects of environmental issues into an integrated system is, therefore, a natural step. This paper starts with the idea of developing a footprint family from which most important footprints can be compared and integrated. On the basis of literature review in related fields, the ecological, energy, carbon, and water footprints are employed as selected indicators to define a footprint family. A brief survey is presented to provide background information on each of the footprints with an emphasis on their main characteristics in a comparative sense; that is, the footprints differ in many aspects more than just the impacts they are addressed. This allows the four footprints to be complementarily used in assessing environmental impacts associated with natural resource use and waste discharge. We evaluate the performance of the footprint family in terms of data availability, coverage complementarity, methodological consistency, and policy relevance and propose solutions and suggestions for further improvement. The key conclusions are that the footprint family, which captures a broad spectrum of sustainability issues, is able to offer a more complete picture of environmental complexity for policy makers and, in particular, in national-level studies. The research provides new insights into the distinction between environmental impact assessment and sustainability evaluation, properly serving as a reference for multidisciplinary efforts in estimating planetary boundaries for global sustainability. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: A multitude of rural areas is facing increasing conflicts with regard to rural development and nature conservation because of the rapid commercialization of farming and the building and improvement of roads. In Xishuangbanna, Yunnan, South West China, this development results in strong land use changes. An analysis of these changes demands an integrated approach addressing their ecological, social, and economic dimensions. Using a combined modelling system, the NabanFrame Modeling Framework, the interdisciplinary research project LILAC was able to provide the calculation of scenarios based on the current state of land use and economic and ecological effects. The papers in the special issue combine description of the different components of the framework with some examples of scenarios calculated with the framework. Furthermore, frame conditions for better implementation of environmentally friendly land use options are explored. The role of interdisciplinary research in the development of site-adapted and integrated land use solutions is described. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]