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Abstract: This paper first defines the term “urban fire risk” by referring to both the definition of “risk” in U.N.’s “International Strategy for Disaster Reduction” which was enacted in 2004 and the features of urban fire. Secondly, this paper presents a comprehensive analysis on the urban fire risk from the respects of risk of fire accidents in urban areas, urban vulnerability and urban anti-fire capability. Based on the analysis, the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) is employed in this paper to establish an urban fire risk assessment system, which includes 3 first-level indicators, 13 second-level indicators and 48 third-level indicators. With the data on fire accidents and fire statistics in the past as the basis, this paper applies the Gray Correlation Degree Method to set up the Weight Coefficient of the system and quantify the indicators mentioned above, and finally, this paper applies what has been discussed above to the case of Haikou, capital city of Hainan province, P.R. China. In the city''s chosen 17 sub-districts and 1 town, fire risk assessments are conducted, and the values of risk of fire accidents in urban areas, urban vulnerability, anti-fire capability and comprehensive fire risk in the mentioned selected areas are computed and identified. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In freshwater aquaculture ecosystems with high-frequency occurrences of cyanobacteria blooms, a chronic neurotoxic cyanobacteria toxin, β- N -methylamino- l -alanine (BMAA), is a new pollutant that affects the normal growth, development, and reproduction of aquaculture organisms. BMAA poses a great threat to the food quality and food safety of aquatic products. In this paper, high-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS) was used to detect the contents of BMAA in the edible portions of six representative freshwater aquaculture products (Corbicula fluminea, Anodonta arcaeformis, Macrobrachium nipponense, Eriocheir sinensis, Ctenopharyngodon idella, and Mylopharyngodon piceus) from Taihu Lake Basin in China. Noncarcinogenic health risks were assessed with reference to the model recommended by the International Environmental Modelling and Software Society and based on the biomagnification characteristics of BMAA in the various aquaculture products investigated by the stable nitrogen isotope technique. The average BMAA concentrations in the edible portions of the six freshwater culture products were from 2.05 ± 1.40 to 4.21 ± 1.26 μg g−1 dry weight (DW), and the difference was significant (p < 0.05), such a difference increased with the increase in the trophic level in the aquaculture products. Although a biomagnification indication was observed, the trophic magnification factor (TMF) was only 1.20 which exhibited a relatively low biomagnification efficiency. The annual health risk values of BMAA in all the measured aquatic products were within the maximum tolerable range (<1 × 10−6 a−1), and the health risk increased with the increase in the trophic level. The risk values of BMAA in the six freshwater aquaculture products for children was slightly higher than the negligible level (<1 × 10−7 a−1), thus there might have potential health risks for children's long-term consumption. Considering China's national conditions, the guidance values of BMAA based on the quality and safety of freshwater aquaculture products were proposed to be 7.2 μg g−1 DW for adults and 1.8 μg g−1 DW for children. Image 1 • BMAA in freshwater aquaculture products (FAPs) were investigated. • Biomagnification characteristics of BMAA in FAPs were revealed. • Noncarcinogenic health risks of BMAA in FAPs were assessed. • Guidance values of BMAA were proposed to ensure the quality and safety of FAPs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the theoretical foundations and development of a multidimensional, water-focused, thematic indicator of rural poverty: The Water, Economy, Investment and Learning Assessment Indicator (WEILAI). The WEILAI approach was specifically designed for application in rural China, to support poverty alleviation project planning, monitoring and evaluation, as well as targeting and prioritization. WEILAI builds primarily on the basic needs framework of poverty alleviation, and on the methodological structure of the Water Poverty Index, to provide a proxy measure of an area's poverty by assessing eight key poverty sectors, with a strong focus on the components of water-poverty. The WEILAI approach was piloted and implemented in 534 households in China's mountainous southwest. This paper describes the indicator construction, weighting schemes, methodology, field sites, and statistical validation of the results. In addition, we discuss the results, feedback from in-country project staff, and the likely utility of the tool for project planning, monitoring and evaluation support. The paper concludes with a discussion of WEILAI's overall utility and ongoing development. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Construction industries have significant impacts on the economy, society and environment. To transform construction industry towards sustainability, construction enterprises' perceptions and performance on sustainability needs to be understood and evaluated, which has not be fully explored by existing studies. This paper holistically examines the Chinese construction enterprises’ attitude towards and performance on various aspects of sustainability (e.g. the economic, social and environmental aspects) in order to identify those aspects the firms perceive to be the most and least important and those aspects the firms perform best and worst on. The associations among the sustainability attitude, sustainability performance, and firm size are also explored. The findings show that quality management and customer service are perceived as the most important as well as the best-performed aspects by the firms while supporting community development is the least important and worst-performed aspect. Sustainability attitude is positively correlated with performance, and larger firms tend to have better sustainability performance than that of small ones. However, larger construction firms do not necessarily perceive sustainability more important. This study provides a useful reference for policy makers and researchers to understand how sustainability is perceived and implemented by the Chinese construction firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the global climate change and the rapid progress of urbanization, the frequent occurrence of flooding disasters and non-point source pollution seriously threaten the sustainable development of modern cities. To alleviate these problems, China started to pilot construction of the "Sponge City" (SPC). Over a decade, it has attracted public attention, supports, and participations. The paper presents a literature review of sponge city construction (SPCC) process (planning, design and construction) as well as the assessment of SPC, including: operation, maintenance, and effectiveness. Research gap and future works are also proposed. The paper offers some tactics for SPCC, including: 1) in the planning and construction stage of SPC, the goals and systematic plans should be formulated according to local water-environmental conditions. The drainage plan should cover the strategy to dispose runoff volumes at sources and the ultimately goal for flood mitigation. The drainage design involves the combination of various green and grey infrastructures; 2) It is important to identify monitoring methods and hydrological models which can be used to assess the performance of a SPC. With adequate field data, all models and methods should be calibrated for not only runoff quantity and quality control but also the alleviation of urban heat island effects, including the base flows and local groundwater table; 3) Based on the regional field data, it is necessary to standardize regional design parameters, construction material specifics, and maintenance scheme and schedule that would significantly affect the facility's infiltrating and filtering processes, therefore, a regular maintenance program should be initiated to monitor the operations of the as-built facilities according to local climate conditions. The paper evaluated several maintenance methods for ten typical facilities to provide a reference for the operation and maintenance of facilities in SPCC. • The sponge city construction (SPCC) and design methods were introduced in detail. • Scientific and reasonable assessment can better guide the SPCCs. • The sponge city (SPC) facilities can be a better way to control stormwater runoff. • Monitoring and simulation method are equally important for assessing SPC effect. • A maintenance program should be initiated to monitor the operations of SPC facility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Construction is undoubtedly the most dangerous industry in Hong Kong, being responsible for 76% of all fatal accidents in the region—around twenty times more than any other industry—and involving a loss of an estimated 145,000 man-days each year through accidents on site. In this paper, a new safety assessment method, termed the 4D Interactive Safety Assessment, is described which offers an improvement. This involves individual construction workers being presented with 4D virtual risky scenarios concerning their project and a range of possible actions for selection. The method provides an analysis of results which include the assessment of the correctness or otherwise of the user''s selections to contribute to an iterative process of retraining and testing until a satisfactory level of knowledge and skill is achieved. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The paper highlights the findings of a study from selected ecosystems in Indonesia, China and Japan. The study sought to trace changes to productive resources of ecosystems over a period of 50years; and trace the dependence of well-being of local populations on the ecosystems for the same time period. Data was collected from land-use maps, records and participatory rapid/rural appraisal (PRA) surveys in multistakeholder forums. To illustrate the changes, an indicator-based assessment framework was developed that integrates data from biophysical and socio-economic parameters. We observed that the approach (1) provides a better representation of the preferences of different stakeholders of ecosystem services, (2) fosters validation of data between the different stakeholders and (3) enables a communication and planning process among the stakeholders to sustainably utilize and manage their ecosystems. The use of spatial maps validates the relevance and utility of diachronic observations of communities and other stakeholders directly dependent on ecosystems. At the same time, they can be used to strengthen local planning processes for the development of services in the ecosystem. Such research thereby also acts as a catalyst to a social process of coordinated action to address local issues of global relevance. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In recent decades, the Pearl River Delta (PRD) region located in south China has been experiencing severe air pollution, arising from the rapid increase in industry and motor vehicles. As a major contributing source to VOCs and NOx emissions, control of vehicular emissions plays a very important role in improving regional air quality. By taking 2015 as a target year, this paper assessed the impacts of five possible motor vehicle emission control measures and a combined policy scenario on ambient air quality in the PRD region, with the use of the Model-3/CMAQ (Community Multi-scale Air Quality) model. The results show: (1) an overall decreasing pattern in SO2, NO2 and PM10 concentrations was found in central-south metropolitan areas of the PRD region for all measures, but increased O3 concentrations may occur in these areas as well. The exception to this is that a slight decrease was observed for the cases of motorcycle restriction and introduction of HEV; (2) upgrading to National IV emission standards is the most effective individual measure and can reduce daily averaged NO2 and PM10 concentrations by 11.7ppbV and 21.3μgm−3, respectively; but involves an increase (at maximum) of 10.3ppbV in O3 concentration. Evaluation of the combined scenario indicates that solely controlling motor vehicle emissions is not sufficient to improve PRD regional air quality significantly. O3 and PM10 concentrations under the same VOC/NOx reduction ratios exhibit differently at different locations, suggesting that integrated and location-specific pollution control strategies, considering co-control of multi-pollutants, are needed in this region in order to decrease primary and secondary pollutant concentrations simultaneously. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Major abrupt environmental pollution accidents can cause huge socio-economic losses and seriously damage the environment. Zoning of abrupt environmental pollution risk can greatly aid decision-making and governance, with a view to preventing and mitigating such pollution accidents in a typical mega-city. The present paper proposes a risk system for environmental pollution accidents, which comprises an index system and a quantitative risk assessment model of environmental risk zonation. The system is based on data on past abrupt environmental pollution accidents, regional environmental risk theories, and natural disaster risk theories. An Abrupt Environmental Pollution Risk Zonation (AEPRZ) approach, applicable to a large area, is proposed, which involves the selection of appropriate zonation principles, units, and indexes for the measurement and classification of environmental risk, amending the zonation, and then mapping risk zonation with GIS tools. The AEPRZ approach is applied to the risk zonation of environmental pollution accidents in Minhang District, Shanghai, China, which was divided into four zones according to high, medium, low, and very low degrees of risk. In each zone, each of the socio-economic, hazard, vulnerability, and overall risk factors is assigned a specific degree of risk, thus providing a basis for the implementation of control measures as part of environmental risk prevention management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

PM 2.5 pollution poses a serious health risk to residents. In recent years, individual exposure to PM 2.5 in daily activities has received much attention, but the impact of different activities at different times and spaces on PM 2.5 -triggered individual health risks has been ignored. In this paper, the residents' activity diaries and the data on the spatial-temporal changes in urban PM 2.5 concentration obtained through the land-use regression model (LUR) were coupled to dynamically evaluate and analyze the characteristics of Guangzhou residents' PM 2.5 inhaled dose in 24 h during workdays. The study showed that the residents' PM 2.5 inhaled dose in daily activities is about 940.2 ± 94.5 μg (95% CI). This can better reflect the individual differences than the exposure to PM 2.5 in daily activities. For every increase of 1 μg/day in the exposure to PM 2.5 , the inhaled dose will increase by 1.5 μg/day. The obvious spatial-temporal characteristics of PM 2.5 inhaled dose are closely related to people's daily activities. The inhaled dose is high during the day and low at night, and the individual differences in inhaled dose in the commuting and leisure period is significant but is small during the working and sleeping period; if the individual inhaled dose exceeds the population's average for accumulated 7 h in a day, the probability of a high risk of the all-day inhaled dose increases significantly. The inhaled dose at the workplace and residence as well as in light physical activities accounts for a large proportion of the total. However, although the inhaled dose on roads and in other places, and moderate physical activities account for only a small proportion, it has a great impact on the risk level of the individual total inhaled dose. Therefore, the characteristics of PM 2.5 inhaled dose and the individual activity should be considered, to propose targeted policies and suggestions from the perspective of both the government and individuals to reduce the health risk caused by PM 2.5 pollution. • PM 2.5 inhaled dose can better reflect individual differences than PM 2.5 exposure. • Spatiotemporal characteristics of PM 2.5 inhaled dose related to activities rhythm. • More attention should be paid to the risk of PM 2.5 in the workplace. • Policies formulation should consider PM 2.5 inhaled dose and individual activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Regulated rivers affect both hydrology and water ecology, but to various extent. • Proposed river health assessment framework guides the regular monitoring activities. • The river health assessment study can update water resources management strategy. • Entropy weight based Harmony Degree Evaluation method assesses river state suitably. For social and economic development in China, the rivers are regulated, but its impact on river ecosystem has not evaluated yet. Maintaining a trade-off between social protection and ecological protection of the rivers is very crucial for a country where competition for water is severe. Thus, the main focus of this study is to carry out a comprehensive assessment of river health in relation to water resources management. In this paper, Guijiang, Nenjiang, and lower Yellow- three regulated river's health statuses were drawn on the river-section scale using Fuzzy Matter Element (FME), Harmony Degree Evaluation (HDE), and Grey Relational Analysis (GRA) methods. The results indicated that the alteration of flow dynamics affected the 'hydrology' and 'water ecology' attributes of the rivers for which the River Health Index (RHI) of upstream sections of Nenjiang River was poor and downstream sections of lower Yellow River was critical respectively and the overall health statuses of the three rivers in that order, were good, fair to good, and fair. Particularly, Xiaolandi reservoir regulation at lower Yellow River impaired the habitat of benthic macroinvertebrate population that made the ecosystem health critical. We compared the evaluation methods and the results of FME and HDE were found consistent while GRA produced some discrepancies in the outcome. Finally, we proposed a framework for river health assessment for interpretation and communication of results to the managerial level. Our findings suggest that the water resources management of these regulated rivers should be rationalized and special care should be taken for 'water ecology' health restoration of the lower Yellow River. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Introducing a hierarchical structure of Resource-based Cities' Carrying Capacity Index. • Proposing an integrated method to compare the carrying capacity among cities. • Revealing the cause of the carrying capacity difference among resource-based cities. • Providing a new perspective and guideline to formulate sustainable development policies. Comprehensive carrying capacity is an important indicator for measuring the sustainable development of mineral resource-based cities and an important tool for the government to formulate relevant policies. Further investigation of the carrying capacities of mineral resource-based cities would contribute towards the cities' sustainable development. In this paper, we propose a novel R-type clustering analysis-technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution-rank sum ratio (RCA-TOPSIS-RSR) methodology and construct a composite mineral resource-based cities' carrying capacity index (MRCCCI) to evaluate the carrying capacities of 41 mineral resource-based cities. First, for better benchmarking and sustainable development policy formulation, the comprehensive evaluation of urban carrying capacity needs to fully consider the synergy between the economic, social, resource, and environmental sub-dimensions. Therefore, through indicator reduction, we obtained a final carrying capacity indicator system with 25 indicators in 5 dimensions (such as green coverage ratio of built-up areas, wastewater treatment rate, etc.). Second, we evaluated the comprehensive carrying capacity level and analyzed its influencing factors for each mineral resource-based city from 2010 to 2016. The results showed that the limiting factor of the comprehensive carrying capacity of each mineral resource-based city is different from the others. Further, cities with the same level of carrying capacity may be significantly different in the limiting factor. Finally, based on the level of comprehensive carrying capacity and sub-dimension equilibrium, we divided 41 mineral resource-based cities into four categories. The results showed that there is only one city with high carrying capacity and high equilibrium, and most of the cities are low carrying capacity and low equilibrium; this indicates that the sustainable development of most of China's mineral resource-based cities is facing severe challenges. Based on these findings, we put forward countermeasures and suggestions to improve the carrying capacities of mineral resource-based cities and to promote the sustainable development of cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]