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

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

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

Challenges brought on by the rapid rate of economic growth include the depletion of natural resources (NAR) and environmental deterioration. Due to its abundant mineral resources and rapid economic growth, China has gained attention from both the developing and developed worlds. Using data from 1970/Q1 to 2020/Q4, this paper evaluates the time‐frequency nexus between CO2 emissions and natural resources, coal consumption, and economic growth. The study employs the Wavelet Local Multiple Correlation (WLMC) to explore this nexus. This approach enhances the capacity to comprehend the fundamental relationships between these indicators at different frequencies. To the best of the investigator' knowledge, this is the first empirical investigation to explore the time‐frequency nexus between natural resource, economic growth, coal use, and CO2 emissions in China, thus filling a gap in the literature. Furthermore, wavelet coherence is employed as a robustness check. The WLMC bivariate cases revealed that economic growth, coal consumption, and natural resources drive CO2 emissions positively at all frequencies, that is, in the short and long‐term, thus leading to environmental degradation. Furthermore, the wavelet coherence results support the outcomes of the WLMC bivariate cases. This study offers significant implications for policy and insights that are supported by the findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poverty is a primary obstacle to achieving sustainable development. Therefore, exploring the spatiotemporal dynamics and causes of poverty is of great significance to the sustainable poverty reduction of the "post poverty alleviation era" in China. This paper used the multisource big data of 2022 counties in China from 2000 to 2015 to establish a comprehensive evaluation framework to explore the multidimensional poverty situation in China. The results showed the following findings: There is an obvious spatiotemporal heterogeneity of multidimensional poverty, showing a typical stair-like gradient from high in the west to low in the east, with the poverty level in state-designated poverty counties higher and intensifying over time. The spatial differentiation of multidimensional poverty is contributed to by multiple factors, in which the geographical condition has a stronger impact on state-designated poverty counties, while natural endowment and human resources have a stronger effect on non-state-designated poverty counties. These things considered, the regional poverty causes were relatively stable before 2015, but the poverty spatial agglomeration of some regions in the Northwest, Northeast, and Yangtze River Economic Belt has undergone significant changes after 2015. These findings can help policymakers better target plans to eliminate various types of poverty in different regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The United Nations adopted 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to address societal, economic and environmental sustainability issues. The efficiency of SDGs monitoring could be improved by essential variables (EVs), which can help to better deal with massive data, interdisciplinary knowledge and workloads. However, in practice, effectively combining EVs with SDGs monitoring remains challenging. In this paper, we proposed a refining method of essential SDGs variables (ESDGVs) to land degradation. Firstly, we selected northwest China as our experimental region and extracted a group of variables related to land degradation from SDG indicators based on the DPSIR framework. Next, we identify the essential ones using a combined qualitative and quantitative methods with the criteria of feasibility, spatialization, and relevance which considered the issues of data acquisition, monitoring scale, and closeness to the land degradation. Finally, we analysed the monitoring role of ESDGVs. Results show that, compared to conventional observations, ESDGVs facilitate the monitoring and evaluation of regional SDGs with reduced efforts. And both climate and human activities have a facilitating or inhibiting effect on land degradation processes. In the future, we hope to have more mature data sets and consider adding more SDG indicators for ESDGVs' refinement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While existing literature acknowledges the development of digital capabilities as essential for enterprises to achieve digital transformation, it falls short in offering comprehensive theoretical insights into the dynamic evolution of these capabilities, especially in the field of environmental and sustainability issues. This paper addresses this gap by employing an exploratory single-case study methodology to investigate the intricate process through which an ecological restoration enterprise in China updates its digital strategy, facilitating the dynamic evolution of its digital capabilities from a resource orchestration theory perspective. Our findings reveal a sequential evolution from digital strategy renewal to resource orchestration and, ultimately, the advancement of digital capabilities. Specifically, the enterprise engages in a co-adjustment and co-creation process, aligning its resources with a digital strategy refresh and fostering the emergence of digital integration and innovation capabilities through effective resource management. This includes the accumulation and divesting of resources as part of the construction process, alongside the enrichment and bundling of resources. This research bridges the gap in the current literature by providing a nuanced understanding of the mechanisms that drive the evolution of digital capabilities, and it offers a theoretical framework that integrates strategic renewal with resource orchestration for environmental and socio-economic sustainable development. Furthermore, the insights gained provide vital managerial implications for the governance, corporate social responsibility and policy of industrial digitalization towards global environmental practice and sustainable development goals (SDGs). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • This paper proposed general laws of rural housing-industry transformation and revitalization. • Complex adaptability system theory is developed to identify the pattern of rural housing-industry transformation. • The pattern of TGRA' rural housing-industry transformation process was identified. • Policy suggestions were given for TGRA of China's rural revitalization. The core of dual circulation in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area (TGRA) and the greening Yangtze River is sustainable development. Reservoir housing-industry coordinate sustainable is extremely important to ensuring a more sustainable TGRA. Here, we investigate the overall characteristics of housing-industry transformation development and rural revitalization path in the TGRA at microscopic perspective. Taking Wutu village (WTV), a historical and cultural rural in the TGRA, as case study area, we also analyze the evolution, stage characteristics, and trends of housing-industry system (HIS) using theoretical analysis and empirical research from the perspective of spatio-temporal-development and complex adaptability system model. The findings reveal that: (1) In the traditional housing-industry separation stage(1978–1998), the development of villagers' self-organization and the positive and correct leadership of the village party branch are the dominant forces for the evolution of HIS in WTV. The adaptive behavior of the main body and the strength of the housing-industry effect are limited, and the evolution of the HIS is in the accumulation stage of quantitative change. (2) In the stage of cooperative transformation of housing-industry (1999–2018), the positive and correct leadership of the village party branch is the dominant force of the evolution of HIS in WTV, and the government's policy support is the main force of the evolution of HIS in WTV. (3) In the stage of modern housing-industry integration (2019 to present), the interaction of multiple subjects is the dominant force in the evolution of HIS in WTV. Multiple entities further adapt to various changes in the external environment, and the system structure and level have taken a qualitative leap. Overall, the evolution of HIS in WTV is a dynamic and continuous process. Based on the evolution stage and driving mechanism of HIS, it is necessary to improve the self-organization and adaptive response and ability of the complex adaptive system in WTV, adapt to the general law of system evolution, and effectively regulate the transformation and upgrading of HIS in WTV. Our research outcomes offer valuable insights for fostering rural transformation, enhancing the housing-industry environment, and ultimately propelling the TGRA towards a more sustainable and prosperous future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, sustainable digital economy development goals have received increasing attention because of the serious influence environment with the development of the rapid economy. Meanwhile, Multiple Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) methods are efficient ways to measure sustainable developments, which can controls environmental pollution and protects sustainability improvement. However, assessment results are unconvincing by using the common MCDM methods because various areas that caused pollution conditions are inconsistent. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to design an interpretable MCDM method with uncertain weights for various areas evaluation. In particular, MCDM can be used to evaluate environmental sustainability development efficiently, and deep neural networks can supply credible weights to MCDM. Interpretability is used to understand key factors in the decision-making process. Referring to the national policy and urgent areas from central areas in China, six areas are conducted to assess the sustainable digital economy problem, which could be interpreted as demonstrating the effectiveness and feasibility of the proposed approach. Besides, the experimental results demonstrate that the sustainable developmental level of Hubei is the best in the latest year. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the path of industrial eco-efficiency (IEE) needs to be re-examined from a multi-dimensional perspective, this research opens the internal "black box" of China's industrial eco-economic system driven by sustainable development goals (SDGs) and decomposes IEE into industrial production and sustainable development stages. It further divides the industrial production stage into two parallel subsystems of water use efficiency (WUE) and energy efficiency (EE) and derives SDG6 efficiency (SDG 6 E) and SDG7 efficiency (SDG 7 E) in the sustainable development stage respectively. The paper proposes a meta two-stage parallel entropy dynamic DDF-DEA model to re-measure IEE of 30 provinces in China from 2015 to 2021, discusses the relationship between overall efficiency and stage efficiency, and by using the Tobit model explores various types of influencing factors by subregion. The results show that the modified DDF-DEA model can explore China's IEE more accurately under SDGs. China's IEE is more stable from 2015 to 2021, with the efficiency value always fluctuating between 0.59 and 0.64, the overall level is low, and there is more room for improvement. There are significant inter-provincial differences in IEE and efficiency inertia. In more than 75% of the provinces SDG 7 E constrains IEE improvement, while the dynamic evolution of IEE and its subsystem efficiency varies across regions. Environmental regulation is a common factor affecting IEE across the country and in the east, central, and west regions, whereas the level of economic development, openness to the outside world, and urbanization rate are differential factors affecting IEE across the country and in the three major regions. This study offers new perspectives for exploring the path of IEE enhancement and providing empirical references for the collaborative construction of industrial ecological civilization. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rational assessment of the regional sustainable development level is an important prerequisite for formulating development strategies and achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Currently, little literature provides nuanced understanding for national sustainable development from the perspective of county sustainability. Such studies can provide more accurate regional heterogeneity characteristics and policy decision support. Thus, this paper applies the entropy weight method and Chinese county data from 2000 to 2017 to reassess the sustainability of Chinese counties. The results show that China's county sustainability (Sustainable Development Index, SDI) is slowly improving. County sustainability performance is poorer in ethnic minority agglomerations, poor counties, old revolutionary counties, and central and western regions, better in county-level cities and eastern regions. The decomposition results show that economic sustainability and environmental sustainability are the main supporters of SDI growth, and livelihood sustainability is in urgent need of improvement. The regional inequality of SDI in Chinese counties gradually decreases, and inter-group differences are the main contributors to regional inequality in SDI. This paper provides support for China to develop county-level sustainable development measures and practice the SDGs. The findings could be useful for policymakers. [Display omitted] • Based on the entropy weight method and the Chinese county data, the sustainable development levels of 1533 counties in China from 2000 to 2017 are estimated. • Analyses of spatial-temporal dynamic heterogeneity, Linear decomposition, and Dagum decomposition are conducted to study the features of sustainable development in Chinese counties. •The influence of natural features and national concern preferences on county sustainable development are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainability has been a challenging issue in the transportation industry, which necessitates obtaining a better measurement of transport sustainability performance. To appropriately measure performance, this paper presents a hybrid approach based on the hierarchical Bayesian network model (BNM) and Principal Component Analysis (PCA). The proposed BNM encompasses social, economic, environmental, and technological dimensions, where each dimension consists of various subdivisions. The Conditional Probability Table of the model is determined by PCA. Twenty-three sustainable transportation indicators involved in the different stages of traffic management are used to kick off the calculation and probability propagation. The results show that the overall transport sustainability of the selected cities is generally at a medium level, indicating that there is much room for further improvement. The sustainability-economic coupling analysis exhibits the nonlinear relationship between sustainability and economic level, revealing that economic growth does not necessarily lead to the enhancement of the transport sustainability. Additionally, the sensitivity analysis reveals that "Accessibility," "Serviceability," "Reliability," and "Innovation" demonstrate an upward trend, indicating their great effect on transportation sustainability. Last, the policy implications of this study can not only offer a solution for the current needs of transportation systems but also serve as more transparent decision-making to develop a sustainable transportation system in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a case study of the well irrigation in Guanzhong Plain during the Qing dynasty. The paper analyses the scales and results of well irrigation campaigns sponsored by the government in the mid-eighteen century and the late nineteenth century. Limited by the natural environment and technical conditions, the efficiency of well irrigation is poor. Farmers' choices also affect the development of well irrigation. Moreover, a lack of management led to the unsustainable use of groundwater. Historical groundwater policies were mainly aimed at increasing agricultural production. Policies should be made according to local conditions. It is important to ensure the sustainable development of groundwater. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Shale gas plays an important role in energy transformation. The sustainable development of the shale gas industry is a prerequisite for achieving an efficient, green, and long-term use of shale gas resources. This paper uses the WSR (Wuli-Shili-Renli) methodology to determine a comprehensive indicator system for assessing the sustainability of the shale gas industry. Game theory was used to combine two objective weighting methods and determine the comprehensive weight. The sustainability of the shale gas industry was evaluated based on the fuzzy matter-element extension theory. The results of the evaluation show that the overall sustainable development of China's shale gas industry is relatively poor. Shale gas industry in most regions is in a critically sustainable state (The critically sustainable state indicates the sustainability of the shale gas industry in general. The industry as a whole has the basic conditions for sustainable development in the short term; however, efficiency needs to be further improved to avoid the risk of degradation.) and is susceptible to degradation due to environmental changes. The shale gas industry in a few other regions is in an unsustainable state and cannot achieve an efficient and green development of shale gas. This paper evaluated the sustainability of the shale gas industry from a unique perspective. It is expected that the results of this research will contribute to the formulation of sustainable development strategies and further promote the green development of the shale gas industry. • The sustainability of the shale gas industry in some areas of China was studied. • We developed an evaluation model using the WSR methodology and the fuzzy matter-element extension method. • Expanded the application scope of game theory methods. • China's shale gas industry has a poor level of sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the process of product innovations, it is necessary to evaluate the sustainability of innovative products in order to meet the demands of sustainable development. So, the calculation process for evaluating the sustainability of innovative products is proposed in this paper. Firstly, the performances of the innovative products in social, economic, and environmental aspects are calculated based on the concepts proposed in this paper, including social matching degree, economic feasible degree, and environmental improving rate. Then, the vector-cosine method in the three-dimensional space is proposed to calculate the sustainability integrated in the three aspects, which regards innovative products as the vectors. Both the size and direction of the vectors are considered to calculate the sustainability. Finally, a case study of the cloud rail made by BYD Company in China is provided to illustrate the validity of the proposed calculation process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's rapid urbanization growth during the past decades which has highly promoted its affluence has induced various challenges for the countryside. The problem of rural decline of quite many villages which are suffering depopulation in turn challenges the urbanization sustainability in China. By way of in-depth historical and literature review, the paper finds distorted urban-rural relationship and the tendency of village decline owing to China's long time urban biased policy. By further investigating China's new-type urbanization strategy, the paper draws concerns about future rural development which is less mentioned in the plan. It calls for ruralization and actions to revitalize the countryside so as to be adapted to China's new-type urbanization plan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The sustainability of the water-energy-food (WEF) nexus is a significant challenge faced by developing countries, especially China. Evaluating the sustainability status of China's water-energy-food, and improving its sustainable use, may provide good physical conditions to support China's future development. This paper applied the Pressure, State, and Response (PSR) model to select evaluation indexes. A combination weighting method was used to combine two objective weighting methods to determine index weights. The study constructed the classical field, the limited field, and the matter-element to be evaluated. This allowed the establishment of an improved matter-element extension model to evaluate the sustainability of the water-energy-food nexus; the model was then used to quantitatively evaluate the sustainability of China's water-energy-food nexus. The simulation results indicated that in 2005, the sustainability of China's water-energy-food was at a relatively low efficiency rank. By 2015, the sustainability of China's water-energy-food had reached a general efficiency rank. The results suggested that the sustainability of China's water-energy-food system significantly improved between 2005 and 2015; however, the improved sustainability remained at a general status (The general status means that the sustainability of water-energy-food nexus in China can meet the basic development needs, but it is far from the optimal state and needs further adjustment and improvement). Thus, China should improve its current utilization patterns for the three resources and consider them as a whole. This would help realize synergistic resource use and enhance their sustainability. Highlights • The sustainability of WEF nexus is a severe challenge faced by developing country. • An improved matter-element extension model to evaluate sustainability of WEF nexus. • The sustainability of China's WEF system significantly improved from 2005 to 2015. • China should improve its utilization patterns for the WEF and consider it as whole. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The huge energy consumption and high pollutants emission have restrained the sustainable development of China's iron and steel industry. It is very necessary to explore those underlying obstacles which hinder the sustainable development of this industry from a systematic point. This paper adopted an improved emergy based method and a set of indicator system to evaluate the sustainability of steel production enterprises, in which dilution method, disability adjusted life years (DALY) method and potentially disappeared fraction (PDF) method were integrated into classic emergy analysis to quantify the impact of emissions, and then the related indicator system characterizing the industrial production process was put forward. One steel production enterprise in Sichuan Province, China, as a case, was studied using the proposed methods and indicator system. The research results show that this enterprise is not sustainable in the long term, due to large share of nonrenewable inputs and strong dependence on imported inputs; emissions' impact further aggravates this situation due to the increasing environmental loading; the proposed methods and indicator system can act as one of helpful tools for decision-making in steel & iron industry. Finally, this paper gives some corresponding suggestions so as to improve the comprehensive performance of this enterprise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fresh food cold supply chains (CSCs) feature high fresh food quality and safety, high energy consumption, and poor economic and environmental sustainability. Sustainable management of fresh food CSCs is critical. However, limited research has addressed the implementation of systematic good practices in sustainable fresh food CSCs in developing countries. Consequently, decision-makers lack empirical evidence to help them understand how companies successfully implement systematic good practices and how those good practices affect sustainability performance. This paper formulates a hybrid analytic hierarchy process-fuzzy technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (AHP-Fuzzy TOPSIS) decision framework to systematically explore the impact of good practices on the sustainability performance of fresh food CSCs in the context of a developing country such as China. The results of the integrated methodology show that China's CSC industry pays more attention to economic sustainability and that employee training is the most impactful good practice for improving the sustainability performance of fresh food CSCs. • A systematic study of good practice and sustainability performance indicators. • A fresh food CSC sustainability performance assessment framework applied in China. • Order of importance of sustainability performance assessment indicators. • Ranking of good practices to improve fresh food CSC sustainability performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing pressures of global warming, population growth and epidemic occurrence are causing challenges in meeting the growing requirements for water, energy and food. In particular, the contradiction between the supply and demand for water, food, and energy is exacerbated by inefficient resource utilization and carbon emission increase. Incorporation of the interlinked aspects of water, energy, food and carbon emissions from agricultural systems into one water-food-energy-carbon nexus facilitates integrated resource management. Biochar application to farmland is a potential strategy for carbon management and agricultural productivity improvement. The integration of biochar systems and the water-food-energy-carbon nexus is an efficient and coordinated alternative method for sustainable agricultural management and a crucial strategy for addressing water, energy and food security issues. Accordingly, this paper proposes an approach for the synergistic regulation of water, land, energy, and carbon emissions in a circular agricultural system by balancing water supply and demand, land allocation, electricity consumption, and economic upgrading principles. A two-stage circular agriculture framework is constructed, with biochar and electricity generated from agricultural residues at the first stage and employed at the second stage. Economic-environmental-energy harmonization is considered in the methodology, and the agrotechnical potential of biochar is quantified via crop yield increase and greenhouse gas emission reduction functions. This approach can assist decision makers in providing the best policy options given certain agricultural resources to achieve the maximum economic performance of the system while minimizing environmental side effects. In this paper, the model framework is applied to the Sanjiang Plain in northeastern China to verify the feasibility of the approach. The results indicate that the external electricity demand is reduced by 87.8% due to the generation of biofuels. Cropland greenhouse gas emissions are reduced by 34.09%–67.06% via the application of biochar. This study proposes an optimization method with important implications for the improvement of regional cropland management techniques and development of sustainable circular agriculture. This methodology can be extended to other agriculture-centered regions with limited resources and environmental problems. • Carbon cycle is integrated in agricultural water-food-energy-carbon (AWFEC) nexus. • An AWFEC nexus based model is developed for agricultural resources recycling. • Biochar and electricity are optimized sustainably for circular agriculture. • Analysis of resources recycling on economic-environmental balance is performed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bicycles are a desirable form of transportation for many reasons, including the fact that taking a bicycle is environmentally-friendly, economically cost-effective, a way to keep fit and healthy and, on occasions, an enjoyable social activity. This paper explores the characteristics and commonalities between particular bike-sharing systems in urban areas, with a view to deriving influences on the sustainability of such systems. The empirical study is China and the paper analyses bike-sharing systems in five Chinese cities. China is suffering from the severe negative consequences of high private vehicle usage in large and densely populated cities. Nevertheless a long history of bicycle usage in the country provides great potential for such a green form of travel to be part of public and private transportation. The findings show that bike-sharing systems have varying degrees of success. The configurations which seem the most sustainable consider and integrate elements relating to transport planning, system design and choice of business model. Key conclusions are that those responsible for developing policy and practices in relation to bike-sharing systems need to understand the diverse aspects of value for the stakeholders wishing to engage with such a system. Public bicycle sharing, as a Product Service System, needs to be carefully developed to appreciate the quality and timely interplay between the physical design of the system and the provision of services being offered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: As one of the most important overhead capital of urban economics and social development, the sustainable development of urban infrastructure is becoming a key issue of prosperous society growing. The purpose of this paper is to establish a basic model to analysis certain infrastructure project's sustainable construction and operation. Design/methodology/approach: System dynamics is an effective stimulation method and tool to deal with such complex, dynamics, nonlinear systems, which could be used in analyzing and evaluating all aspects of infrastructure sustainability internally and externally. In this paper, the system is divided into four subsystems and 12 main impact indicators. Through setting the boundary and other basic hypothesis, this paper designs the basic causal loop diagrams and stock & flow diagrams to describe the relationship between variables and establish a quantifiable structure for the system. Findings: Adopting a sewerage treatment in China as a case to test our model, we could conclude that the model of internal sustainable subsystem is reasonable. However, this model is a basic model, and it need to be specific designed for the certain project due to the diversity of infrastructure types and the unique conditions of each projects. Originality/value: System Dynamics (SD) is widely used in the study of sustainable development and has plentiful research achievements from macro perspective but few studies in the microcosmic project systems. This paper focuses on the unique characteristics of urban infrastructure in China and selects infrastructure project which is based on micro-system discussion. The model we designed has certain practical significance in policy setting, operation monitoring and adjustment of the urban projects with high rationality and accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: As one of the most important overhead capital of urban economics and social development, the sustainable development of urban infrastructure is becoming a key issue of prosperous society growing. The purpose of this paper is to establish a basic model to analysis certain infrastructure project's sustainable construction and operation. Design/methodology/approach: System dynamics is an effective stimulation method and tool to deal with such complex, dynamics, nonlinear systems, which could be used in analyzing and evaluating all aspects of infrastructure sustainability internally and externally. In this paper, the system is divided into four subsystems and 12 main impact indicators. Through setting the boundary and other basic hypothesis, this paper designs the basic causal loop diagrams and stock & flow diagrams to describe the relationship between variables and establish a quantifiable structure for the system. Findings: Adopting a sewerage treatment in China as a case to test our model, we could conclude that the model of internal sustainable subsystem is reasonable. However, this model is a basic model, and it need to be specific designed for the certain project due to the diversity of infrastructure types and the unique conditions of each projects. Originality/value: System Dynamics (SD) is widely used in the study of sustainable development and has plentiful research achievements from macro perspective but few studies in the microcosmic project systems. This paper focuses on the unique characteristics of urban infrastructure in China and selects infrastructure project which is based on micro-system discussion. The model we designed has certain practical significance in policy setting, operation monitoring and adjustment of the urban projects with high rationality and accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Eco-efficiency is of great significance in facilitating a region’s sustainable development. However, there are some inconsistencies among the concepts and also relationships of eco-efficiency and its relevant efficiencies in recent studies. This paper integrates eco-efficiency and three related-efficiencies (economic efficiency, energy efficiency, and environmental efficiencies) into a total-factor analysis framework, regarding them as composite eco-efficiency indicators. Employing a new data envelopment analysis approach, named Meta-US-SBM, which considers meta-frontier, undesirable outputs, super efficiency, and slacks simultaneously, the measure system of these four efficiencies is established. An empirical study is conducted using Chinese provincial data from 2001 to 2014. Results indicate that, overall, the regional economic efficiency is better than other related efficiency indicators. Furthermore, different provinces are adopting different development modes, as denoted by significant heterogeneity among eco-efficiency indicators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) play a very important role in national production, and provide more than 60% of the employment opportunities for the society. The benign development of small and medium-sized enterprises determines the sustainability of economic operation. In recent years, small and medium-sized enterprises have faced increasing operational pressure. Due to scale limitations, insufficient funds and weak bargaining power, small and medium-sized enterprises are often at a disadvantage when dealing with suppliers. One the one hand, large suppliers rely on the imbalance of bargaining power to increase the transaction costs of small and medium-sized enterprises; On the other hand, small and medium-sized suppliers with poor reputation may use legal loopholes to commit fraud, which may even threaten the survival of small and medium-sized enterprises in severe cases. However, the existing literature focuses more on the situation of large organizations facing complex and diverse suppliers. Therefore, this paper constructed a supplier selection evaluation framework for small and medium-sized enterprises, and proposed an extended PROMETHEE Ⅱ method to achieve sustainable supplier selection process. First, establish a sustainable supplier selection evaluation framework from the three dimensions of product and service capability, cooperation degree and risk factors; Second, combine the PROMETHEE Ⅱ approach with subjective preference parameters and probability language term set (PLTS) to obtain an extended PROMETHEE Ⅱ approach; Last, use the methodology of this paper to implement sustainable supplier selection for a small and medium-sized enterprise (M company) in China. The practical case and sensitivity analysis showed that the evaluation framework and method proposed in this paper were applicable and effective. Actual cases and sensitivity analysis showed that cost, credit and corporate irregularities were the three most important aspects for small and medium-sized enterprises to evaluate supplier performance. [Display omitted] • Small and medium-sized enterprises face complex and diverse suppliers. • Establish a sustainable supplier selection criteria framework. • Improve the PROMETHEE Ⅱ method by combining probabilistic language term sets. • The study provides decision support for the supplier selection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past decade, the concept of sustainable development has gained increasing importance within China's urban development. Urban(ising) China not only catalyses many of the country' sustainability issues, but also constitutes the locus where novel institutional arrangements for sustainable development are tested and implemented. This paper explores new paradigms of integrated territorial management unfolding in areas where concerns of water pollution intersect with objectives of urban renewal. The analysis focuses on the case of the Lihu Lake basin, located in the city of Wuxi (Jiangsu Province), considered by many observers to be at the forefront in China's quest for sustainable urban development. In Lihu the integration of environmental management with urban planning has led to the creation of a new organisational field, revolving around the issue of sustainable development of urban areas, with distinctive regulatory, normative, and cognitive aspects. While epitomising a case of integrated territorial management, the experience of Lihu Lake basin highlights the challenge of fostering inclusive social development in urban areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China is experiencing rapid development and suffering from resource depletion and increasing environmental emissions. It is necessary to identify the key patterns of resource use in different Chinese regions so that more appropriate solutions can be raised. Under such a circumstance, the aim of this paper is to scientifically measure and evaluate the sustainability of natural resources utilization of 30 Chinese provinces for the year of 2007 by adopting a bio-perspective method-emergy analysis. After referring to the traditional emergy accounting method, several emergy-based indicators were established to evaluate resource flows, structure, efficiency and the overall sustainable level of different Chinese regions. Furthermore, by employing GIS technology, spatial distribution of natural resources was presented to illustrate emergy consumption with various regional characteristics in 30 Chinese provinces, which may help better understand regional disparities of resource utilization. The results show that regions with most emergy consumption include Shanxi (2.07E+24sej) and Shandong (2.07E+24sej), and most regions with higher resource consumption locate in east China, while less developed region Qinghai has the highest sustainability level, with ESI being 44.82. Another key finding is that renewable resources were very important to sustainability development, and a large amount of consumption on non-renewable resources led to higher environmental press on local and surrounding ecosystems. Sustainable resource use can only be achieved by reducing total resource use, encouraging technology innovation, initiating institutional reform and preparing region-specific development strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The island development of functional polycentricity was lagging than that of the morphological dimension. • Spatial regression model performs well in fitting the association between polycentric urban variables and island landscape changes. • The effects of dual polycentric urban indicators on island landscape changes varied spatially and temporally. • Polycentric urban development generally contributed to fragmented and complex island landscape patterns on the periphery areas of subcenters and reclamation. Polycentric urban development has become popular worldwide as expected to generate greater agglomeration externality and facilitate socioeconomic achievements. Despite much insightful work on urban polycentricity in coastal agglomerations or megacities, few studies have focused on how polycentric urban development affects landscape sustainability in vulnerable island cities. This paper characterized the urban polycentricity from the perspective of morphological and functional dimensions during 1990–2020 in Yuhuan island city, China, and quantified the association between polycentric urban variables and island landscape changes by spatial regression. The results showed that there was a mismatch in development between the morphological and functional polycentricity, in which the functional dimension was lagging. In response, island landscape patterns became fragmented and scattered. With the application of GWR models, the effects of two polycentric factors on island landscape changes varied spatially and temporally. The stronger relationships between them were identified in regions where more heterogeneous patterns were presented, such as the subcenters and their surroundings and reclamation areas. These trends were mainly attributed to industrial suburbanization and the development of new economic zone and Damaiyu port. Our findings call for a more balanced functional urban polycentricity; and local-specific landscape effects should be scheduled in island planning practice and sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In ecological network theory, network efficiency and resilience are two essential but complementary attributes of the network structure, and a balance between these factors is critical for an ecosystem's long-term sustainability. Our paper introduces this method and related concepts into water use systems to provide a new angle for sustainability quantification. In this paper, we investigate the meanings of network efficiency and resilience in the context of sustainable development of water use systems, and define sustainable systems based on the optimal balance between network efficiency and resilience. With the consideration of complex artificial characteristics of water use, we propose an optimal water use network and quantify its flows. By ascendency calculation, the balanced network structure can be determined. We then use the four sub-basins of China's Haihe River as a case study to illustrate how the optimal network can be constructed and how the optimal balance for each scenario can be calculated. The results show that the optimal balance for the sub-basins has ascendency values ranging from 0.5970 to 0.7161. By analyzing the contribution of each water use activity to network's balance structure, the location of the optimal balance in water use systems can be better understood. This research represents the first attempt to explore the balance between a network structure's efficiency and resilience as a way to quantify the sustainability of water use systems, and builds a foundation for future studies on the assessment, regulation, and management of water resources. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The primary objective of this paper is to demonstrate and validate the necessity of reforming Beijing to a public transit oriented (PTO) city from the view of transportation equity. Equity is believed to be of significant importance to the development of sustainable transportation. This paper presents a comparison of the transportation structure in Beijing with that in other big cities around the world using Cluster Analysis. To accomplish the objective, a road spatial recourse analyzing model is used. This model describes how to distribute road spatial resources fairly to private cars, taxies, and buses. Furthermore, a survey on the satisfactory degree about the first bus rapid transit (BRT) line in Beijing from 8 aspects was conducted. An average score between 4.5 and 3.5 out of 5 demonstrates that the residents are satisfied with the BRT line. Results of this study show the feasibility and creditability in applying PTO transportation structure in Beijing. It is emphasized that more attention should be paid to public transit and it should be the orientation of Beijing's transportation system developed for the consideration of transportation equity. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An understanding of flood impact in terms of sustainability is vital for long-term disaster risk reduction. This paper utilizes two important concepts: conventional insurance related flood risk for short-term damage by specific flood events, and long-term flood impact on sustainability. The Insurance Related Flood Risk index, IRFR, is defined as the product of the Flood Hazard Index (FHI) and Vulnerability. The Long-term Flood Impact on Sustainability index, LFIS, is the ratio of the flood hazard index to the Sustainable Development Index (SDI). Using a rapid assessment approach, quantitative assessments of IRFR and LFIS are carried out for 2339 counties and cities in mainland China. Each index is graded from ‘very low’ to ‘very high’ according to the eigenvalue magnitude of cluster centroids. By combining grades of FHI and SDI, mainland China is then classified into four zones in order to identify regional variations in the potential linkage between flood hazard and sustainability. Zone I regions, where FHI is graded ‘very low’ or ‘low’ and SDI is ‘medium’ to ‘very high’, are mainly located in western China. Zone II regions, where FHI and SDI are ‘medium’ or ‘high’, occur in the rapidly developing areas of central and eastern China. Zone III regions, where FHI and SDI are ‘very low’ or ‘low’, correspond to the resource-based areas of western and north-central China. Zone IV regions, where FHI is ‘medium’ to ‘very high’ and SDI is ‘very low’ to ‘low’, occur in ecologically fragile areas of south-western China. The paper also examines the distributions of IRFR and LFIS throughout mainland China. Although 57% of the counties and cities have low IRFR values, 64% have high LFIS values. The modal values of LFIS are ordered as Zone I

The uncertainty of the hydrological environment and unbalanced water resource allocation result in a high risk of irrigation water shortages in regional agriculture, which seriously affects the sustainable development of agricultural systems. In this paper, we propose a risk regulation based modeling approach for the optimal allocation of agricultural water resources in a complex stochastic environment. The approach includes a conditional value-at-risk (CVaR) model, two-stage stochastic programming (TSP) model, two-dimensional joint distribution probability (JP) model, fractal criteria, and a multiple forms of chance-constrained programming (CCP) model. The model can weigh the contradiction between the intended target and associated penalties attributed to unknown hydrological events, measure the risk between system benefits and expected losses in agricultural water allocation at different confidence levels, and address the randomness in the objective function and constraints (including the left end term, right end term, and left and right end terms). To verify the applicability of the method, it is applied to the Jinxi Irrigation District in China to optimize the allocation and risk regulation of limited water resources under the variable runoff conditions of the Songhua River and crop water demands in the irrigation area. By adjusting parameters such as risk preference and probability of violation, the risk of water shortages in the irrigation area can be regulated, and the multidimensional impacts of different water allocation schemes on agricultural economic benefits, social benefits, ecology and environment can be determined. The case study reveals that the CTSP-CCJP method is sensitive, applicable to complex and uncertain environments and important for the efficient use of agricultural water resources and risk reduction. • The stochastics of water supply and demand linkage are considered. • The multiparameter stochastic uncertainty is transformed. • The risks between system benefits and expected losses are balanced. • The sustainability of a risk regulation-based water allocation scheme is evaluated. • The impact of water scarcity on sustainable development is mitigated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Industrial parks have been adopted as one way to promote industrial development in China since the early 1980s. However, most of current performance evaluation indicators highlight the maximization of industrial yield, leading to both ecological degradation and environmental pollution due to intensive industrial activities. Therefore, it is critical to develop appropriate evaluation indicators so that industrial parks can move toward sustainable development. This paper aims to fill such a research gap by developing innovative emergy indicators. Kaya formula and index decomposition analysis (IDA) were integrated together in order to quantify the key factors influencing the sustainability of an industrial park. Tianjin Economic Development area (TEDA), the largest industrial park in terms of its economic scale in China, was chosen as one case study area for testing the related methods. The results show that during the period of 2006–2010 the sustainability of TEDA experienced a declining trend. From the Kaya formula and IDA analysis, indicators on economic efficiency of process, economic return on investment, renewable empower density and nonrenewable empower density were calculated. Such research findings provide valuable policy insights to the industrial park managers so that they can prepare appropriate development strategies for achieving sustainable development of their industrial parks by considering the local realities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainability is a key issue should be considered in the process of urbanization construction. The sustainable development of cities plays an important role in increasing urbanization quality. The paper evaluated the sustainability level of 19 first-tier cities in China by selecting 18 indicators from economic, social and environmental systems. Since indicator is the basic unit of the measurement of urban sustainability, the sustainability was refined to the indicator level. Indicator sustainability was measured by the combination of its competitive and developing levels. In addition, a sustainability oriented sequential relationship analysis method was proposed to allocate more weight to the indicator with higher sustainable level. The assessment results indicate that the sustainable performances of the cities were not ideal, because only three cities, Beijing, Shenzhen, and Dongguan, had the average performances above 0.5. Besides Tianjin, all the cities showed an upward development trend in the year 2010–2018. It indicates the sustainability prospect of these cities is optimistic. It is found that economy had the strongest connection with cities' sustainability. However, most of the cities showed the worst performance on economic sustainability. Combining the phenomenon of environmental decline in some cities, it is suggested to strengthen environmental protection while giving priority to economic development so as to realize the coordinated development between economy and environment. Image 1 • This paper evaluated the sustainability of 19 first-tier cities in China. • A SO-SRA method was proposed where weight reflects indicator sustainability. • Cites' sustainability was not ideal, only 3 cities with performances above 0.5. • Nearly all cities (accounting for 94.7%) showed an optimistic development prospect. • More than half cities showed the poorest sustainability on the key factor, economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Impact-based water footprint of rolled steel production is first performed. • Fossil energy footprint and carbon footprint are evaluated by using LCA. • Maritime transport, iron power and direct emissions are major contributors. • Adjustment of industrial structure is essential for carbon mitigation of steel industry. The Iron and Steel Industry (ISI) is a difficult-to-mitigate sector that has considerable contributions to energy consumption, water pollution, and CO 2 emissions. Despite broad interest in energy consumption and CO 2 emissions generated by steel production, there are few impact-oriented Water Footprint (WF) assessments of steel production. This study evaluates the water, carbon and fossil energy footprints generated from rolled steel production on the basis of life cycle assessment. Key contributors attributing to those environmental impacts are also identified so as to explore their potential mitigation. Using the Monte Carlo model, an uncertainty analysis is conducted with the aim of providing reliable results for decision-making. Results show that the impact per ton China's rolled steel production has on global warming, human health, ecosystem quality, and resources is 4.40 × 103 kg CO 2 eq (GSD2 = 1.24), 4.15 × 10-3 Disability Adjusted of Life Years (DALY) (GSD2 = 1.31), 7.08 × 10-5 Species·yr (GSD2 = 2.04), and 4.39 × 104 MJ (GSD2 = 1.28), respectively. Global warming and freshwater ecotoxicity is the dominant contributor to the damage impact on human health and ecosystem quality, respectively. Results also show that the transport (freight ship) of raw materials and the production of iron powder are the two main contributors to the overall impact on the environment that rolled steel production has. Several policy recommendations are proposed in this paper, which focus on adjusting the steel industry's industrial structure, promoting the national-level carbon emissions trading in the ISI, promoting international cooperation, and improving public awareness of green and low-carbon development. Such policy recommendations provide decision-makers with valuable insights, which thus allow them to prepare the appropriate mitigation policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water, energy, and food (WEF) are pivotal resources for the sustainable development of human society. Integrated assessment of the sustainable WEF nexus is essential to enhance resource efficiency and security, but there is a crucial gap to be filled in assessing the coupling relationship among sustainable WEF subsystems and improving multi-sectoral synergy. In this paper, a comprehensive indicator system for sustainable WEF nexus assessment was constructed based on theme-based frameworks and nexus thinking, and the combination weighting method based on game theory (GT-CW), the improved TOPSIS method based on gray relation degree (GRD-ITOPSIS), and the coupling coordination model were proposed for integrated assessment. The sustainability of WEF nexus in 30 regions of China from 2010 to 2019 was assessed and the spatiotemporal differences of the coupling coordination degree of sustainable WEF nexus were analyzed. The results revealed that the sustainability of WEF subsystems evidently affected the overall sustainability of regional WEF nexus. The change range of sustainable WEF nexus in different years was slightly lower than that of a single subsystem. The sustainability of WEF subsystems were highly coupled, and the WEF nexus in each region was within the coordinated development range. However, most eastern regions were at the intermediate coordinated development stage, and some western regions maintained at primary coordinated development stage for a long time. According to the results analysis, specific policy recommendations were proposed. The findings of this study can provide a useful reference for developing countries to improve resource management and promote sustainable development. [Display omitted] (1) Sustainable water-energy-food nexus in 30 regions of China was assessed. (2) Combination weighting method was optimized by game theory. (3) TOPSIS method was optimized by gray relation degree. (4) The synergy among WEF nexus were analyzed by coupling coordination degree. (5) The WEF nexus in each region was within the coordinated development range. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Low-carbon production is key to both economic and environmental sustainability. It is, however, inadequate to meet the low-carbon targets by the manufacturing industry alone. Current research on emission reduction targets mainly at individual optimality, with little consideration of the synergistic benefits achievable through coordination among supply chain players. This paper fills this gap by incorporating Pareto improvement to ensure that all members are likely to gain in emission reduction through coordination. It gives the emission-dependent manufacturers theoretical basis and managerial insights to go through the stringent emission-limited market, especially under a new proposed low-carbon policy of flexible cap-and-trade, which will soon be deployed for emissions trading in China. This flexible cap-and-trade policy aligns emission reduction with capacity adjustments, but its impact has rarely been investigated. Considering the complexity of the supply chain structure, this paper simplifies the problem to two stages: manufacturer and retailer. While the demand uncertainty is considered with Newsvendor models, Stackelberg game is exploited to solve this problem with three contracts, namely revenue sharing, cost sharing, and two-part tariff. Analytical and numerical studies show that the profitability and greenness of the supply chain are increased by coordination with revenue sharing and two-part tariff contracts. The Pareto improvement encourages cooperation between the supply chain members. Managerial insights are given to help emission-dependent manufacturers compete in the increasingly stringent low-carbon environment. The novelty of this paper lies in the investigation of synergistic benefits achievable through coordination under the new flexible cap-and-trade emission policy, and the Pareto-improving conditions with several contracts are analyzed by Newsvendor models. • Synergistic benefits achievable through different contracts are discussed. • It first analyzes the supply chain coordination problem under flexible cap-and-trade. • Green awareness and demand uncertainty are considered. • It targets to improve profitability and sustainability under emission restrictions. • TPT and RSC can coordinate the supply chain, but CSC cannot. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • The framework coupling mining intensity and socioecological resilience was constructed. • The resilience and mining intensity were analyzed for 547 counties in China. • 12 socioecological indicators were used to evaluate resilience in spatial scale. • The zoning results enhanced our understanding of sustainable development in mining areas. Coal is an important global energy resource. However, the negative impacts of mining are important factors restricting the sustainable development of mining areas. Under the superimposed influences of different mining intensities, different natural ground conditions, and social-economic development, there are large differences in the restoration characteristics and response strategies for mining. To guide the development and utilization of coal resources and ecological restoration, the spatial distribution should be appropriately analyzed at the macroscale. Based on the web-crawler technology and multi-source remote sensing data, this paper attempted to estimate the mining intensity and the social-ecological resilience respectively at the county level, to divide the mining areas into nine regions in China. Based on the zoning results, differentiated strategies were proposed for ecological restoration and resource development and utilization in the various coal mining regions. The valuation results suggested that coal mines are widely distributed and abundant in China, mainly concentrated in the central, southwest and northwest regions. However, nearly half of the coal mining regions are with low resilience. Especially, high mining intensity-low resilience areas are concentrated in north China which account for 10.83%. These areas should receive special attention to prevent possible ecological risks and minimize economic effects. Social-ecological resilience measures system adaptation to coal mining disturbances, which can be regarded as the standard of mining intensity adjustment. In the future, local governments can try to combine ecological restoration and resource development strategies to provide support for the sustainable development of coal mining areas in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainability assessments of coastal beach exploitation are difficult because the identification of appropriate monitoring methodologies and evaluation procedures is still ongoing. In particular, the most suitable procedure for the application of sustainability assessment to coastal beaches remains uncertain. This paper presents a complete sustainability assessment process for coastal beach exploitation based on the analytic hierarchy process (AHP). We developed an assessment framework consisting of 14 indicators derived from the three dimensions of suitability, economic and social value, and ecosystem. We chose a wind power project on a coastal beach of Yancheng as a case study. The results indicated that the wind power farms on the coastal beach were not completely in keeping with sustainable development theory. The construction of the wind power farms had some negative impacts. Therefore, in the design stage, wind turbines should be designed and planned carefully to minimize these negative impacts. In addition, the case study demonstrated that the AHP was capable of addressing the complexities associated with the sustainability of coastal beaches. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: China has now the largest annual outputs of galvanized steel and the most amount of galvanizing plants in the world. However, with obsolete technology, the hot dip galvanizing industry has been proved as one of the industries, which consume large amounts of raw materials and energy, produce numerous pollutants and causes serious contamination in China. Cleaner Production in the hot dip galvanizing industry is now the only way to achieve the sustainable development of hot dip galvanizing industry. The implementation of the Common Fund for Commodities (CFC) project: The Transfer of Technology and Promotion of demand: Batch hot dip galvanizing in China launched by International Zinc Association (IZA) is introduced in this paper, The Best Available Technologies of operation, energy and environmental management in the world are also introduced. With the implementation of the project, an assessment system of Cleaner Production and a training system have been developed and implementation of technical updating to the demonstration plant shows that the reduction of zinc loss, and water and fuel cost savings can be achieved. It is believed that the methodology of the project can be applied throughout China as the galvanizers see the cost benefits. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper presents an approach for rapid assessment of sustainability for Mainland China based on a multilayer index system. Efficient assessment is conducted with the basic mapping units at county and city levels. After evaluating a comprehensive sustainable development index, SDI, for each unit, five rankings of sustainability are determined, and a zonation map produced. Regional characteristics and differences are interpreted through macro-analysis of the spatial variation in SDI. A sensitivity analysis is performed by which the weights of the sub-indices are altered by ±20%, and SDI re-evaluated; the resulting grades remain the same, thus confirming the robustness of the technique. Moreover, the accuracy of the proposed approach is indirectly validated by comparison with assessment results from an alternative systems analysis method. It is found that major conurbations such as Beijing have relatively high levels of sustainability, whereas provinces in central and western China require investment to improve their sustainability. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper deals with the application of eMergy analysis to the sustainability of Chinese steel production in 1998–2004. Emissions'' impacts were quantified using eMergy synthesis and other methods (dilution method, disability adjusted life years (DALY) method and ecological cumulative exergy consumption (ECEC) method). The results show that its sustainability is very low and declining in this period, emissions obviously reduce the sustainability although their impacts are generally decreasing, and the main reasons lie in its low nonrenewable resources and energies'' efficiencies. Finally, the related suggestions were put forward for improving its comprehensive performance. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

• Energy sustainability includes security, efficiency, cleanness, low carbon emissions. • Chinese energy sustainability has obvious spatial heterogeneity. • Cleanness and efficiency perform better than security, low carbon emissions in China. • Energy supply, consumption structure and pollution emissions are key impact factors. • Targeted measures are proposed to promote Chinese energy sustainability. Energy sustainability is one of the largest challenges for sustainable development. Energy sustainability in China varies by regions because of the differences in energy resources, technology and economic levels. Previous studies have assessed national energy sustainability, few to none have looked internally on a regional or provincial scale. This paper defined energy sustainability from the four dimensions of security, efficiency, cleanness and low carbon emissions, established an index system and evaluated the energy sustainability levels of 30 provinces in China by the Improved Entropy Weight-Cloud Model (IEW-CM). The results show that: (1) General energy sustainability in Chinese provinces is deficient, and energy cleanness and efficiency perform better than security and low carbon emissions. (2) Chinese energy sustainability has obvious spatial heterogeneity and within the same province, the level is unbalanced in four dimensions. The characteristics of energy sustainability exhibit significant differences in different regions. (3) Energy security and low carbon emissions play a crucial role in achieving energy sustainability. Natural gas deliverability, energy consumption elasticity coefficient, CO 2 emission per unit of energy and share of fossil energy consumption are the primary factors affecting energy sustainability differences among provinces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainability is related to support the huge population and improve the residents' well-being in the Mega-city regions. Sustainability assessment is necessary under the context of implementing the Sustainable Development Goals in 2030. Refer to SDG 11, this study constructed an index system, assessed the sustainability level based on the theory of "weak" and "strong" sustainability and screened obstacles of 26 cities in the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) by applying a combined method of GIS–entropy–TOPSIS. The results showed that the overall sustainable level of the YRD improved, while its spatial pattern is relatively stable from 2007 to 2016. Furthermore, the co-operation effect within regions was unstable and unbalanced, due to the lack of interaction and influence among cities. In addition, the obstacles of each city gradually shifted from strong sustainable factors to weak sustainable factors. This paper also provided corresponding solutions regarding government management practice. • The overall sustainability level of the YRD improved obviously during 2007–2016. • The spatial correlation of sustainability among cities was weak and unstable. • The sustainability of megacities was more affected by weak sustainability factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• An integrated methodology is proposed to conduct the spatial–temporal decoupling analysis. • Economic growth decouples from water consumption. • Decoupling of water consumption and economic growth shows spatial independence. • Paths of realizing sustainable water consumption while developing economy are identified. Decoupling economic growth (EG) from water consumption (WC) is crucial to regional sustainable development. Therefore, it is necessary to analyze the spatial and temporal decoupling of WC and EG, and then to identify the feasible paths for achieving the desired level of decoupling. Firstly, this paper measures the WC of the provincial areas in the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB) from 2004 to 2017 by using the water footprint (WF) method; Secondly, the decoupling analysis of WF and EG is carried out based on the Tapio decoupling model, furthermore, the spatial autocorrelations of decoupling results are examined by the Moran's I index with three different spatial weight matrices; Finally, the paths of achieving strong decoupling (SD) of WC and EG are explored by using the static fixed effect regression model. Three main conclusions can be drawn: (1) The WFs of most provincial areas in the YREB show an overall increasing trend and there are huge disparities among the provinces in terms of their WFs; (2) The WF and EG in the YREB are decoupled either strongly or weakly. More SD has been achieved since 2015 in general. No spatial autocorrelations are observed; (3) Reducing the WF as the economy grows is a necessary condition for achieving SD. Moreover, developing water-saving technologies is a key path of achieving SD since it has huge positive impact on WF reduction. In a nutshell, this study provides a novel framework and results that can be used as an evaluation index and policy insights for decoupling EG from WC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China faces the problem of depletion of its coal resources, and a large number of mines are becoming aged mines. Demand for coal, however, still increases due to the growth of China's economy. Energy shortage might restrict the sustainability of China's national economy. As one contribution to a solution, this paper proposes the innovative exploitation method of solid backfill coal mining (SBCM) technology to exploit parts of pillar-blocked (residual coal pillar resources under industrial square, RCPRIS) that protect industrial facilities. Thus, blocked coal resources may be converted into mineable reserves that improve the recovery ratio of mine resources. Also, waste would be removed from the surface reducing hazards of environmental pollution. Based on the case of the Baishan Coal Mine in Anhui, China, numerical simulation is used to study the size of shaft-protecting coal pillars (SPCP) required at different backfill ratios. Results show that the disturbance to a shaft caused by exploitation decreases with the increase of the backfill ratio. When using SBCM to exploit RCPRIS under the condition of 80% backfill ratio, compared with the caving method, a lot of pillar-blocked coal resources would be freed. The life of Baishan Coal Mine would be prolonged, resulting in appreciable social, environmental, and economic benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The operating structure and efficiency were surveyed in western city of China. • The sustainability decreased from 330.85 to 15.64, keeping stable at last. • The decline rate of sustainability is getting slower and slower. • Several ecological indicators were used to depict the urban development patterns. • Policy implications are provided for eco-environmental management and planning. Rapid urbanization has brought about a series of resource and environmental problems in China, especially in the western areas with fragile ecological environment conditions and weak economic basis. Therefore, the sustainable development of the western regions is of great importance, and how to choose a more reasonable development path has become an urgent problem. From the theory of systems ecology, this study analyzed the metabolic structure, efficiency and evolution of development mode of a typical western city-Xining based on the ecological emergy analysis. In addition, the paper puts forward effective policy suggestions to promote sustainable development in accordance with local characteristics. The study found that the sustainability level of Xining had been declining during the study period overall from 330.85 to 15.46, but the its decline rate had been decreasing, and finally the sustainability level remained stable in the last several years. It is closely related to the ecological civilization construction and green development strategy adopted by Xining city. With the development of economy, the metabolic efficiency of Xining has been improved and the metabolic structure has gradually become more reasonable due to the decline in emergy use per GDP and escalation in emergy exchange rate. The development of Xining can provide a role model and reference for the western regions, and the study could provide scientific basis and theoretical guidance for the sustainable development of western cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rapid and large-scale industrial growth has imposed tremendous challenges to the sustainable development of cities in China. The evaluation of the environmental sustainability of industrial planning has become a top priority for improving urban sustainability. In this regard, a goal-oriented framework, called three-line environmental governance, was proposed in the latest Chinese environmental management policy. Three lines, consisting of an ecological conservation red line, an environmental quality bottom line and a resource utilization upper limit line are to be taken into account when evaluating the potential effects of an urban industrial development plan. In this paper, the fuzzy axiomatic design system was applied in the development of an evaluation process and an indicator system that can be used to evaluate industrial alternatives that are established based on the three lines requirement. In an application of this methodology, the Industrial Green Development Plan of the city of Ordos was taken as a case study to recommend an optimal alternative. The target accessibilities of five alternatives were evaluated by conducting a comprehensive comparison among the alternatives meeting the environmental sustainability objectives of all of the indicators. This research shows that the evaluation of environmental sustainability on the basis of the three-line environmental governance policy is an effective way of promoting industrial green development and integrating environmental management requirements into urban industrial planning. It proposes not only a universal process for evaluating the environmental sustainability of urban industrial alternatives, but also a feasible method of tracking and evaluating the performance of industrial green development. • Three-line environmental governance (TLEG) is a new goal-oriented policy in China. • TLEG provides a framework for decomposing environmental sustainability (ES) goals. • A holistic and unified evaluation indicator system is established under TLEG. • Fuzzy axiomatic design is used to evaluate the target accessibility of alternatives. • TLEG based ES evaluation serve as a potential way to promote green industrial growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) proposed by the United Nations (UN) General Assembly in September 2015, provided a global development agenda for all countries to use as a blueprint for progress on economic, social, and environmental sustainability. There are 17 Goals, 169 Targets and 230+ Indicators in SDGs, which specifically depends on multi-source data for monitoring and reporting on progress towards the associated targets and indicators. The existing evaluation methods are mainly based on statistic and survey data with lower spatiotemporal resolution, longer evaluation cycle, and higher cost. To monitor indicators of the SDGs quickly and accurately, it required us to explore new data sources and technology. In this paper, firstly, we reviewed comprehensively all indicators information (concepts and definitions, computation method, and data sources) in three Goals (SDG6, SDG11, and SDG15). Then, we analyzed the feasibility of monitoring accurately and quickly the above indicators on basis of available multi-source data (statistics, remote sensing, ground-based observations and internet data). Finally, a series of integration methods are developed to monitor several specific indicators with multi-source data. The methodology of this study provided experience for monitoring SDGs indicators in developing countries and filled the gap for the assessment of SDGs indicators at fine scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]