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The river and lake chief system offers a valuable policy toolkit to mitigate the degradation of water ecology, thereby bolstering water resource management for sustainable water development in China. To evaluate the effects of implementation and improve policy, this study took Beijing as a typical case and conducted a quantitative assessment using multidimensional data. The findings suggest that while the river and lake chief system in Beijing is effective and has significantly contributed to the ecological management of rivers and lakes, there are also notable regional disparities and urban–rural divergences. In addition, human activities are the main sources of environmental pollution in rivers and lakes, which should be the focus of the river and lake chief system. The river and lake chief system needs to embed more public participation and cooperative governance. This research aids in better understanding China's river and lake chief system for both researchers and practitioners, facilitating the advancement of the knowledge body of global water policy and governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The world economy has witnessed the proliferation of economic clusters and the growth of transitioning economies. This study attempts to further understand the roles that economic clusters play in the evolving urban economic space in a Chinese transitional city from the perspectives of regional industrial restructuring and urban spatial transformation. An exploratory approach is applied that combines a factor analysis and spatial data analysis to examine the transitioning process of Beijing's spatial-economic development between 1987 and 2002. This was the period when substantial economic and spatial restructuring happened in the city since the transition from a planned economy to a market economy started in 1978. Two spatial-economic models were derived to illustrate this transitioning process from a manufacturing-driven structure to a clustered service-driven structure. The key drivers analyzed include institutional reforms, market economy mechanisms, and global forces. The researchers argue that this cluster approach can advance the theories on transitional urban restructuring as applied to contemporary city development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Identifying the individual and combined hydrological response of land use landscape pattern and climate changes is key to effectively managing the ecohydrological balance of regions. However, their nonlinearity, effect size, and multiple causalities limit causal investigations. Therefore, this study aimed to establish a comprehensive methodological framework to quantify changes in the landscape pattern and climate, evaluate trends in streamflow response, and analyze the attribution of streamflow events in five basins in Beijing from the past to the future. Future climate projections were based on three general circulation models (GCMs) under two shared socioeconomic pathways (SSPs). Additionally, the landscape pattern in 2035 under a natural development scenario was simulated by the patch-generating land use simulation (PLUS). The Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) was applied to evaluate the streamflow spatial and temporal dynamics over the period 2005–2035 with multiple scenarios. A bootstrapping nonlinear regression analysis and boosted regression tree (BRT) model were used to analyze the individual and combined attribution of landscape pattern and climate changes on streamflow, respectively. The results indicated that in the future, the overall streamflow in the Beijing basin would decrease, with a slightly reduced peak streamflow in most basins in the summer and a significant increase in the autumn and winter. The nonlinear quadratic regression more effectively explained the impact of landscape pattern and climate changes on streamflow. The trends in the streamflow change depended on where the relationship curve was in relation to the threshold. In addition, the impacts of landscape pattern and climate changes on streamflow were not isolated but were joint. They presented a nonlinear, non-uniform, and coupled relationship. Except for the YongDing River Basin, the annual streamflow change was influenced more by the landscape pattern. The dominant factors and the critical pair interactions varied from basin to basin. Our findings have implications for city planners and managers for optimizing ecohydrological functions and promoting sustainable development. [Display omitted] • An approach to analyze and attribute streamflow changes from past to future. • Nonlinear quadratic regression better explains the relationship between landscape pattern and streamflow. • The combined impacts on streamflow are nonlinear, non-uniform, and coupled. • Dominant factors and the critical pair interactions varied across basins. • The overall streamflow will decrease in the Beijing basin in 2035. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]