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Based on the data of 59 prefecture-level cities in the Yellow River Basin from 2011 to 2019, this paper uses the Slack Based Measure-Global Malmquist Luenberger (SBM-GML) model to measure green total factor productivity (GTFP) of the cities. Under the space–time concept of the Basin, heterogeneity analysis of the upper, middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River Basin is conducted. On this basis, a panel Tobit model is constructed to analyze the impact of environmental regulation on GTFP in the whole basin, upstream region, middle region and downstream region. The results show that the intensity of environmental regulation in the Yellow River Basin increases gradually, which is the highest in the lower reaches, followed by the middle reaches; spatially, the intensity of environmental regulation shows a certain aggregation trend. The green economic growth is realized in the whole basin, and the green technology progress effect is the driving factor of GTFP. The GTFP distribution in the upstream region is relatively concentrated, showing a slow upward trend. The distribution of GTFP in the middle reaches is discrete, and the annual difference is large. In the downstream region, it shows a trend of decline first and then increase. Environmental regulation promotes GTFP in the whole basin, upper, middle and lower reaches, accompanied by certain spatial differences. The Yellow River Basin breaks through the cost effect brought by environmental regulation and triggers technological innovation, thereby enhancing GTFP; the "Porter hypothesis" has been verified in the Yellow River Basin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study proposes a reservoir model for evaluation of aquifer parameters from a long duration pumping test conducted with a radial collector pumping well and nine observation wells in an unconfined aquifer in the Tailan River basin of China. The proposed model, based on the concept of double continuum, was used to conceptualize the pumping test site into conduit and porous reservoirs coupled by a linear flow exchange for simulating flow during the pumping test. The set of model equations developed from the concept were solved by an iterative method. The model-simulated hydraulic heads agree reasonably well with the observation heads in both the pumping and observation wells at an average normalized root mean square error of 10.99 and 8.06%, respectively, during pumping but were weaker in the recovery period. This notwithstanding, the specific yield estimates compare well with the range obtained for a numerical modeling of the entire aquifer basin. Significantly, the model was applied successfully in simulating sustainable withdrawal rates from the aquifer and may be a useful tool for analyzing flows to radial collector wells for applications in water resources management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2021, The People's Republic of China proposed goals for peaking carbon dioxide emissions before 2030 and carbon neutrality before 2060, in the 15 counties (districts) of the Main Stream Area of the Yellow River Basin in Gansu that plays an important role in ecological protection and green development. Next the CO2 equivalents were converted according to the IPCC2 standard, the total agricultural GHG emissions was calculated, the relationship with the agricultural output value was analyzed, and the discretization of the space was analyzed by the coefficient of variation and standard deviation. Firstly, the total agricultural GHG emissions in 15 counties (districts) of the Main Stream Area of the Yellow River Basin increased 55.54% in 2000–2019, and 2.35% annually, roughly divided into three stages: the rapid growth period (2000–2008), the slow decline period (2009–2014) and the rapid decline period (2015–2019). The economic efficiency is significantly improved, with an average annual decline of 6.49%, roughly divided into three stages: the slow-descent stage (2000–2004), the period of slow-growth stage (2005–2008) and the period of fast-decline (2009–2019). Secondly, based on the characteristics of the total GHG emissions, Maqu County has the largest GHG emissions increase, from 26.8842 kt in 2000 to 38.9603 kt, in 2019, an increase of 44.92%, while the smallest GHG emissions, in Anning District, decreased 87.33% from 111 t in 2000 to 14.1 t in 2019; In the rate of increase in the total GHG emissions, Dongxiang County had the largest rate of increase from 2000 to 2019, an increase of 160.28% and an average annual increase of 4.90%. The smallest rate of decrease in GHG emissions was seen in Chengguan District, where they decreased 92.11% from 2000 to 2019, an average annual decrease of 11.93%. The characteristics of agricultural GHG emissions intensity is a significant declining trending and agricultural production efficiency has been significantly improved. Finally, to provide a basis for the formulation of differentiated agricultural energy conservation and emissions reduction policies, reduce agricultural GHG emissions intensity and reduce the use efficiency of resources by formulating differentiated emission targets, tasks and incentive measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Automobile traffic has shifted the use of bicycles in many developed regions to being mainly for sport, recreation and commuting. Due to the desire to mitigate the impacts of climate change and alleviate traffic jams, bicycle sharing is booming in China. Governmental public bicycles and dockless bicycles are the main types of bicycle sharing in China, each with different types of management and pricing. Field research has found that many bicycle sharing networks are idle and wasteful, and thus we investigated which type is more popular and suitable for Chinese cities. This research comparatively analyzes the application of governmental public bicycles and dockless bicycles, mainly focusing on the cycling destination, cycling frequency, and cycling factors, taking Linfen City as an example. The results show that: (1) The purpose is different between governmental public bicycles and dockless bicycles. On the one hand, the aim of riding a governmental public bicycle to work represents the largest proportion at about 29%, mainly because of the fixed route of travel, and the fact that the fixed placement of governmental public bicycles makes them more available compared to the random arbitrariness of dockless bicycles. On the other hand, the aim of riding a dockless bicycle for entertainment accounts for the largest proportion, at about 34%, mainly due to the ease of borrowing and returning a bike, and mobile payment. (2) In terms of frequency, the public's choice of riding a dockless bicycle or a governmental public bicycle has no essential difference, given that there are only two options for citizens in Linfen. (3) The response to the two kinds of bicycle sharing is different; the governmental public bicycle has the advantage of lower cost, but the dockless bicycle has more advantages in the procedure of borrowing and returning the bicycle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tourism efficiency is an effective index of measuring the development quality of the tourism industry. In this study, the tourism efficiency of 30 provinces in China during the period from 2006 to 2018 was measured with the SBM model and Malmquist index. On the basis of ESDA and GWR models, we explored the spatial pattern of China's tourism efficiency and the spatial heterogeneity of the influencing factors in depth. The results revealed that China's tourism efficiency has been constantly enhanced with an increasingly balanced pattern. Meanwhile, the utilization degrees of various input factors have constantly been improving. Both technological efficiency and technological progress jointly promote rapid growth of total-factor productivity. Accompanied with constant enhancement of the spatial agglomeration effect, the local spatial pattern also showed obvious differentiation. In general, low-efficiency regions were mainly concentrated in northern China, while high-efficiency regions were concentrated in southern China. The distinct spatial–temporal differentiation characteristics of tourist economic efficiency can be attributed to different influencing strengths of various factors in various regions and different action tendencies. The level of economic development, traffic conditions, the professional level of tourism, and openness degree can significantly promote tourism efficiency. Tourism resource endowment and environmental cost impose slight effects and differ in action direction, thereby inhibiting the tourism efficiency of many regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the measurement of producer service industry agglomeration and export technological complexity of manufactured products in 288 Chinese cities from 2000 to 2015, this paper illustrates the evolvement and spatial characteristics of the two factors through visualization figures, and discusses the effects of producer services agglomeration on export technological complexity of manufacturing through robust panel data models. The findings are as follows: as with the influence of industrial connection, empirical outcomes indicate that urban producer service agglomeration can promote technological complexity of export manufacturing on the full-sample level. Visualization analysis shows that the scale of producer service industry agglomeration and the export technological complexity of manufactured products around Chinese cities kept rising constantly during the study period. However, although the export technological complexity displayed a trickle-down effect, the producer service industry agglomeration experienced continuous polarization both on the national and the regional levels. Accordingly, as is shown in the empirical analysis by areas, regions with strong support from producer service industry saw a remarkable promotion in the export manufacturing technology, while the northwest and the northeast gradually lagged behind. Such results sufficiently prove that heterogeneity does exist in the performances of industrial connection between producer service industry and export manufacturing in cities of different regions in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Health is the basis of a good life and a guarantee of a high quality of life. Furthermore, it is a symbol of social development and progress. How to further improve the health levels of citizens and reduce regional differences in citizens' health status has become a research topic of great interest that is attracting attention globally. This study takes 31 provinces (municipalities and autonomous regions) of China as the research object. Through using GIS (Geographic Information System) technology, the entropy method, spatial autocorrelation, stepwise regression, and other quantitative analysis methods, measurement models and index systems are developed in order to perform an analysis of the spatio-temporal comprehensive measurements of Chinese citizens' health levels. Furthermore, the associated influencing factors are analyzed. It has important theoretical and practical significance. The conclusions are as follows: (1) Between 2002 and 2018, the overall health levels of Chinese citizens have generally exhibited an upward trend. Moreover, for most provinces, the health levels of their citizens have improved dramatically, although some provinces, such as Tianjin and Henan, showed a fluctuating downward trend, suggesting that the health levels of citizens in these regions displayed a tendency to deteriorate. (2) The health levels of citizens from China's various provinces showed clear spatial distribution characteristics of clustering, as well as an obvious spatial dependence and spatial heterogeneity. As time goes by, the degree of spatial clustering with regard to citizens' health levels tends to weaken. The health levels of Chinese citizens have developed a certain temporal stability, the overall health status of Chinese citizens shows a spatial differentiation of a northeast–southwest distribution pattern. (3) The average years of education and urbanization rate have a significant positive effect on the improvement of citizens' health levels. The increase of average years of education and urbanization rate can promote the per capita income, which certainly could help improve citizens' health status. The Engel coefficient, urban–rural income ratio, and amount of wastewater discharge all pose a significant negative effect on the improvement of citizens' health levels, these three factors have played important roles in hindering the improvements of citizen health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The issue of how to realize the coordinated development of various elements in human–land systems, or, in other words, how to achieve the coordinated development of population-economy-society-resource-environment (PESRE) systems, has become an important topic, which has received global attention. This study takes 31 provinces in China as the research objects, and carries out the research on the spatial–temporal synthetic measurement of the coordinated development of PESRE systems. The conclusions are as follows. From 1995 to 2015, the process of change of coupling coordination degree of China's PESRE systems can be divided into two types: Rising first and then declining, and fluctuant continuously. The number of provinces of the first type was higher, and most provinces were on the verge of uncoordinated development status or in a weakly coordinated development status. The coupling degree of PESRE systems at the provincial level in China generally shows some positive spatial correlations, and the level of coordinated development displays some obvious spatial aggregation patterns. Moreover, the degree of such aggregation first increases and then weakens. The eastern parts of China represent the main "high-high" type aggregation regions. The central and western parts of China represent the main "low-low" types, account for the largest proportion, and display obvious aggregation characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the industrial sector are rapidly increasing in China. As the largest producer of magnesia-refractory raw materials in the world, the production of magnesia-refractory raw materials in Dashiqiao city causes severe environmental problems, such as greenhouse gas emissions, air pollution and high energy consumption. As Dashiqiao's pillar industry, the production of magnesia refractory raw materials has become a serious obstacle to its sustainable development. At present, most studies are mainly focused on the greenhouse gas emissions from magnesium production and the emissions from magnesia refractory raw material production have not been thoroughly investigated. This research addresses this important information gap. This study focuses on the carbon emissions from the production of five kinds of magnesia refractory raw material products. The results demonstrate that the estimated greenhouse gas emissions are 2.7 t CO 2 eq/t of caustic calcined magnesia, 3.1 t CO 2 eq/t of general dead-burned magnesia, 4.7 t CO 2 eq/t of middle grade dead-burned magnesia, 4.7 t CO 2 eq/t of single-phase process fused magnesia, and 7.8 t CO 2 eq/t of two-phase process fused magnesia. In 2014, the five production chains of the main magnesia refractory raw materials in Dashiqiao released 13.76 million t GHGs, in which the single-phase process fused magnesia accounted for 24%, while the caustic calcined magnesia and the middle grade dead-burned magnesia for 23% and 23%, respectively. As one of the most important magnesia producer and supplier, the magnesia related industry in Dashiqiao has emitted large amounts of GHGs during the past 90 years, resulting in a significant contribution to global warming potential and negative impacts on urban sustainable development. Therefore, the city needs the magnesia industry to make structural adjustments and technical improvements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]