A new and integrated hydro-economic accounting and analytical framework for water resources: a case study for North China

Water is a critical issue in China for a variety of reasons. China is poor of water resources with 2300m(3) of per capita availability, which is less than 13 of the world average. This is exacerbated by regional differences; e.g. North China's water availability is only about 271m(3) of per capita value, which is only 125 of the world's average. Furthermore, pollution contributes to water scarcity and is a major source for diseases, particularly for the poor. The Ministry of Hydrology [1997. China's Regional Water Bullets. Water Resource and Hydro-power Publishing House, Beijing, China] reports that about 65-80% of rivers in North China no longer support any economic activities. Previous studies have emphasized the amount of water withdrawn but rarely take water quality into consideration. The quality of the return flows usually changes; the water quality being lower than the water flows that entered the production process initially. It is especially important to measure the impacts of wastewater to the hydro-ecosystem. Thus, water consumption should not only account for the amount of water inputs but also the amount of water contaminated in the hydro-ecosystem by the discharged wastewater. In this paper we present a new accounting and analytical approach based on economic input-output modelling combined with a mass balanced hydrological model that links interactions in the economic system with interactions in the hydrological system. We thus follow the tradition of integrated economic-ecologic input-output modelling. Our hydro-economic accounting framework and analysis tool allows tracking water consumption on the input side, water pollution leaving the economic system and water flows passing through the hydrological system thus enabling us to deal with water resources of different qualities. Following this method, the results illustrate that North China requires 96% of its annual available water, including both water inputs for the economy and contaminated water that is ineligible for any uses.     

Eco-health evaluation for the Shanghai metropolitan area during the recent industrial transformation (1990-2003)

Shanghai is a cosmopolitan city and one of the most important economic centers in China, but is saddled with serious environmental problems resulting from a recent industrial transformation. This paper examines the interactive relationships between economic growth, eco-efficiency of urban metabolism, and environmental performance of the Shanghai metropolitan area since the 1990s using 15 indicators. This study has revealed an enhanced eco-efficiency of water and energy use as well as an improved overall environmental quality in the central urban districts of Shanghai. Both TGDP (total GDP) and GDP per capita increased rapidly at the annual rate of 16.28% and 15.91%, respectively. In contrast, energy consumed per 10000RMB YUAN GDP (ECG), water consumed per 10000RMB YUAN GDP (WCG), wastewater discharged per 10000RMB YUAN GDP (WWDG), and waste gases emitted per 10000RMB YUAN GDP (WGEG) decreased at the annual rate of 9.34%, 10.69%, 14.57%, and 8.52%, respectively. The rapid decline in ECG, WCG, WWDG, and WGEG indicates an enhanced eco-efficiency of urban metabolism. However, uncontrolled emission of wastes from domestic instead of industrial sources adversely affected the overall environmental quality. In addition, suburban areas have undergone rapid economic growth at the cost of human health deterioration, as measured by mortalities and relative mortality ratios of three major diseases (tumor, respiratory disease, and trauma/toxicosis). With Shanghai serving as the "locomotive" driving the economy of the Yangtze River Basin, effective pollution control policies and a network of regional coordination are urgently needed in the globalization and ecological security of the entire area.     

烟台市水环境污染与经济发展的关系研究

对烟台市2001～2017年水环境质量与经济发展的系列数据进行收集、整理及分析后,建立以环境库兹涅茨曲线(EKC)及其相关理论为基础的烟台市人均GDP与烟台市水环境污染指标的计量模型.对结果进行分析后发现:烟台市工业污水排放量对数值与人均GDP对数值间关系呈倒"N"形曲线,烟台市城乡居民生活污水排放量与人均GDP间关系...     

水资源开发与利用科研工作的现实制约与对策建议

中国人均水资源量少、水资源时空分布不均,近年来经济社会对水资源需求日益增大。在相关领域科技成果的大力支撑下,中国走出了一条有效的水资源管理之路,实现了水资源的高效利用和有效保护。但目前在水资源开发利用的科技活动中仍存在一定的现实制约,本文进行了一定分析,并提出了对策建议。     

Exergy and economic analysis of organic Rankine cycle hybrid system utilizing biogas and solar energy in rural area of China

Due to the existing huge biogas resource in the rural area of China, biogas is widely used for production and living. Cogeneration system provides an opportunity to realize the balanced utilization of the renewable energy such as biogas and solar energy. This article presented a numerical investigation of a hybrid energy-driven organic Rankine cycle (ORC) cogeneration system, involving a solar ORC and a biogas boiler. The biogas boiler with a module of solar parabolic trough collectors (PTCs) is employed to provide heat source to the ORC via two distinct intermediate pressurized circuits. The cogeneration supplied the power to the air-condition in summer condition and hot water, which is heated in the condenser, in winter condition. The system performance under the subcritical pressures has been assessed according to the energy–exergy and economic analysis with the organic working fluid R123. The effects of various parameters such as the evaporation and condensation temperatures on system performance were investigated. The net power generation efficiency of the cogeneration system is 11.17%, which is 25.8% higher than that of the base system at an evaporation temperature 110°C. The exergy efficiency of ORC system increases from 35.2% to 38.2%. Moreover, an economic analysis of the system is carried out. The results demonstrate that the profits generated from the reduction of biogas fuel and electricity consumption can lead to a significant saving, resulting in an approximate annual saving from $1,700 to $3,000. Finally, a case study based on the consideration of typical rural residence was performed, which needs a payback period of 7.8 years under the best case.     

Using nighttime light data to estimate water evaporation inside buildings in China's urban areas

Urbanization has a great impact on urban evapotranspiration. Water evaporation inside buildings is an important part of urban water vapor resources and a crucial core of urban hydrological processes. The systematic studies on building water evaporation (BWE) are mostly the method of experimental monitoring. This study proposed a new method to simulate and estimate water evaporation flux inside buildings in urban areas. Based on the nighttime light data and urban per capita gross domestic product (GDP), a new modeling system was built to simulate the total BWE. Building area was calculated using the nighttime light data. And the BWE coefficient D_f was estimated according to the important indicator of economic development per capita GDP value. Then the water evaporation inside urban buildings and the spatial distribution of water evaporation inside buildings in typical cities could be obtained. The results showed that the total amount of water evaporation inside buildings in China's urban areas was 24.5 billion m³. Among the 31 provincial capitals in China, Shanghai had the largest BWE of 1.08 billion m³. The minimum water evaporation of buildings in Lhasa was 20.0 million m³. Studies of BWE can assess urban water budgets, support on-demand allocation of water resources, and provide a fundamental understanding of the relationship between water resources and energy heat island effects in urban areas.     

Water saving effect on integrated water resource management

This study proposes an improved integrated water resource management (IWRM), in which water conservation was analyzed for the entire water use process. A multi-objective optimization method was applied to optimize the IWRM, which investigated the reduction of freshwater consumption and the total water supply cost. Customer's preference for saving water and an end use analysis (EUA) was applied in the water conservation analysis. Taking Tianjin as the study area, a reduction in customer's economic pressure (EP) was utilized to evaluate the degree of the customer's preference for saving water. The results revealed that agriculture had a greater preference for saving water than other sectors, where as the public had the weakest motivation for saving water. Improving the transportation method could contribute 62.1% of the total water savings in the agriculture sector. The optimization of the IWRM demonstrated that the local freshwater savings would be 21.5%, and the total cost for water supplies would decrease by 13%. However, a government subsidy of 87.5 million Yuan would be needed. Additionally, by analyzing the change in the amount of water savings affected by water price, the appropriate water price increase range was suggested to be 1.5–1.7 times the original price.     

'People, planet and prosperity': The determinants of humanity's environmental footprint

Environmental or ‘ecological’ footprints have been widely used in recent years as indicators of resource consumption and waste absorption on the basis of biologically productive land area required per capita with prevailing technology. Such footprints represent a partial measure of the extent to which the planet, its regions, or nations are moving along a sustainable development pathway. They vary between countries at different stages of economic development and varying geographic characteristics. The determinants of environmental footprints in some 113 countries from around the world have been evaluated. Dimensional analysis techniques from engineering and the physical sciences are employed to determine the relative significance of population density, economic wealth, and intensity of pollutant emission. Variations about the resulting ‘power‐law’ correlation suggest the extent to which individual nations are currently frugal or profligate in terms of their resource use and environmental impacts. The scatter associated with footprints, or closely related parameters, also indicates the uncertainty inherent within the international datasets needed to compute them, as well as differences in local climate and terrain. Nevertheless, national footprints alert humanity to the necessity of living within the regenerative capacity of the biosphere in order to ensure ‘environmental sustainability’.     

Mining and development in the region of Antofagasta

The objective of this paper is to analyse the effect of mining on economic and social development in the region of Antofagasta from 1985 to 2008. Analysis of development is restricted to spheres described by available indicators used by several international and non-governmental organizations such as income distribution, education, health, poverty, human development and security, satisfaction, cost of living, income per capita, GDP per capita, employment, productive activity, added value and its distribution. Correlation between some of these variables is estimated as well as the gap between these indicators and those of developed countries.     

Effectiveness of the policy of circular economy in China: A DEA-based analysis for the period of 11th five-year-plan

As a policy instrument for sustainable development, nationwide circular economy (CE) mode has been implemented for 7 years by the Chinese government, to overcome the dilemma among economic depression, energy shortage and environmental pollution. Unfortunately, few literatures contribute to checking the efficiency of regional CE and exploring the potential reasons in China, which will be practically helpful in guiding China's future development and providing reference for other developing countries that will adopt CE mode. Therefore, this paper puts forward the method of super-efficiency DEA window analysis to dynamically evaluate CE efficiency of 30 regions in China covering the period of 2005–2010. In line with the features of CE, the specific efficiency of three sub-systems, namely resource saving and pollutant reducing (RSPR) sub-system, waste reusing and resource recycling (WRRR) sub-system and pollution controlling and waste disposing (PCWD) sub-system, was assessed and compared regarding time series trend and spatial distribution, based on which, the comprehensive CE efficiency was totally ranked. The results show that, on the one hand, during the period of 2005–2010, Chinese CE efficiency slightly increased, implying a significant policy effect of CE; on the other hand, the efficiency of different sub-systems varies, with RSPR sub-system the lowest, and WRRR and PCWD sub-systems relatively higher. In terms of regional distribution, the efficiency of RSPR sub-system in the east area dominates during the whole period. However, for the other two sub-systems, from 2005 to 2007, the efficiency scores of the east fluctuate, then after 2007, the east area became more efficient than the central and the west areas. Throughout the study period, the RSPR sub-system in the central area stably maintains low efficiency, and so does the WRRR sub-system in the west area. The difference in regional efficiency of three sub-systems reflects the difficulty of carrying out CE policy in China comprehensively, which means that, promoting the adaptability of regional policy for local government and enhancing the coordination among various policies for China's central government are the key concerns for realizing sustainable development.     

Reaching a forest land per capita milestone in the United States

During April 2007, forest land per capita in the United States dropped below 1 ha. This is the result of a rather static area of forest land in the United States for the past 100 years combined with population growth. The US now joins the ranks of most countries (77%) having forest land per capita below 1 ha. The combination of an increasing human population with stable or increasing per capita natural resource utilization may place even more demand on resources derived from forest land in the future. The forest land per capita should be expected to continue its downward trend unless substantive demographic, resource utilization, and land-use changes occur.     

Trends in the intensity of copper use in Japan since 1960

Between 1960 and 2000, Japan's real GDP grew 620%. However, its consumption of copper increased only 345%, thanks to a 38% decline in the country's intensity of copper use. In light of concerns today over the possible impact of future economic development in China, India, and other developing countries on the long-run availability of mineral resources, this study proposes to explore the causes for this dramatic decline in the Japanese intensity of copper use.For some time, we have known that the intensity of metal use within a country depends on its level of economic development, usually measured by per capita income, as well as on technological change, long-run price trends, and other factors whose influence varies, more or less, with time. This study finds that rising per capita income has increased the intensity of copper use in Japan over the entire period examined. Moreover, this positive effect is expected to continue until per capita income—$44,830 in 2000—reaches $53,000. Thereafter, further advances will tend to reduce the intensity of copper use. Conversely, new copper-saving technologies and other time-related variables have on average reduced the intensity of copper use by 2.9% a year, an amount sufficient not only to offset the positive effects of growing per capita income but also to reduce intensity of use by 38%.     

Poverty and biodiversity in rural areas based on two investigations in Pujiang County,China

This study presents an integrated framework for the analysis of options of agricultural development and natural resource management at the ecosystem level. Pujiang County in Zhejiang Province, China, is used as a case-study area. The IMGLP model is applied to maximize regional agricultural economic surplus and labor market conditions in Pujiang. The consequences of four poverty reduction strategies (intensification of production, diversification toward livestock production, land expansion, and exit from agriculture) are determined for a set of regional poverty and biodiversity indicators. Diversification seems to be the most promising poverty reduction strategy, but requires an efficient use of animal manure in cropping systems to avoid environmental problems. Improved nutrient management in cropping systems is effective in reducing the regional nitrogen surplus, but less effective in increasing per capita income. The exit strategy is beneficial for reducing poverty and achieving biodiversity, but may have important social consequences that are not addressed in this study. Further reduction of rural poverty is hampered by labor constraints during the harvesting period for high-value crops such as vegetables and fruits. These constraints can be overcome by intensive research and development in the field of agricultural mechanization.     

河南省能源强度下降的驱动因素分析——基于LMDI方法

根据能源强度的定义和能源消费总量的构成,将能源强度细分为生产能源强度和生活能源强度.生产能源强度是影响河南省能源强度变化的重要因素,而生活能源强度快速增加态势应引起高度关注.基于LMDI因素分解方法,将影响2005-2012年河南省能源强度变化的因素分解为结构效应、能源效率效应、人均GDP倒数效应和人均生活能源消费效应.结果表明,能源效率效应和人均GDP倒数效应是河南省能源强度下降的驱动力,而经济结构和人均生活能源消费效应成为河南能源强度下降的阻碍因素.为实现“十二五”河南省“双控”目标,除挖掘效率节能潜力外,实现结构节能、合理控制生活能源消费增速十分重要,提出了相应的政策建议.     

Testing the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis for water footprint indicator: a cross-sectional study

The water footprint analysis has become a rapidly growing field of research although little attention has been paid to its relationship with economic growth. Using the available cross-section data, this study examines how the per capita water footprint varies as a function of per capita income within the environmental Kuznets curve framework at both aggregated and disaggregated level of water footprint. In addition, the issue of omitted variables is investigated by incorporating a number of control variables. Estimation results show no evidence in favour of an inverted-U environmental Kuznets curve, but they yield, in most cases, an evolution into an N-shaped relationship. This means that water footprint rises in the beginning with incomes, then falls as nations grow wealthier to rise again at very high income levels. This calls into question the traditional economic view of income growth sustainability as it applies to water.     

China's Minerals Future: 1985–2005

China has embarked on major economic and social changes to revitalize the Chinese economy, increase labor productivity, and improve the material standard of living of the Chinese people. This paper assumes that China will achieve its goal of a per capita income of US$800 in 2000, open-door policies will be maintained, and nonfuel mineral commodity consumption will increase as GDP per capita increases. Projections are made of production, trade and consumption of 14 nonfuel minerals for the period 1985–2005. China is projected to increase its net imports to these 14 minerals from about US$5000 million in 1985 to about US$12000 million in constant dollars in 2005. China's investment climate will become more favorable for those multinational companies that bring with them clear comparative advantages in minerals exploration, mining and processing technologies and marketing, and are prepared to develop in-depth Chinese expertise.     

DPSIR模型在西北水资源可持续利用评价中的应用

水作为人类生存和经济发展的生命线，已成为制约西部经济社会发展及生态环境改善的主要因素。为实现西部经济可持续发展，针对当前西北地区水资源利用中出现的问题，建立了基于“驱动力-压力-状态-影响-响应”模型的西北地区水资源可持续利用综合评价指标体系。同时采用熵值法。结合2004年西北五省相关评价指标值对该指标体系进行综合评价。评价结果表明，人均水资源量、水资源开发利用率、农业用水效率等十个指标为影响西北水资源可持续利用的关键因素。其中，新疆在五省区中可持续利用综合水平最高。宁夏最低。     

基于EKC的全面小康中国与发达国家环境质量比较

以2020年全面建成小康社会目标为依据,比较了我国2020年与主要发达国家同等经济水平阶段在能源消耗、大气环境、水环境等方面的差距。研究发现:主要发达国家环境质量拐点出现在20世纪70年代末到80年代初,人均GDP在1.4万~1.5万美元左右。人均GDP在1.1万~1.2万美元阶段时,我国大气污染物排放强度低于发达国家,但大气环境质量差于发达国家;主要水污染排放量高于主要发达国家,但水环境质量基本可达到发达国家同期水平。建议要正确认识环境与经济之间的EKC曲线关系,制定具有中国特色的环境问题解决路线图,提出具有阶段性、差异化、适度超前的环境质量目标。     

基于聚类分析的我国各地化石能源足迹与经济发展定量研究

利用改进后的化石能源足迹公式计算了2000—2009年我国30个地区的人均化石能源足迹,并分别对2000年和2009年中国各地区的数据进行聚类分析,发现我国地区人均化石能源足迹由无明显地域特征转变为东部高于中西部,经济发达地区高于欠发达地区,且能源使用效率和经济发展水平间联系逐渐加强。通过对不同类别代表性地区人均化石能源足迹的分析判断,以北京、上海和广东为代表的发达地区化石能源消耗增长开始趋于缓和甚至出现小幅下降。     

中国区域粮食生产与消费中的虚拟耕地平衡研究

从不同尺度分析了我国2008年粮食生产、消费中的虚拟耕地含量及虚拟耕地平衡空间分布规律.主要结论为:①2008年粮食生产虚拟耕地北方比南方多32396.8×107m2,人均粮食生产虚拟耕地量北方远远高于全国平均水平和南方,因粮食生产形成较为典型的虚拟耕地“北土南调”现象.②2008年粮食消费虚拟耕地北方比南方多6851.62×107m2.③从粮食生产与消费的虚拟耕地平衡空间分布规律来看,2008年虚拟耕地调出区全部位于我国北方地区,集中分布在两大地带:一是由黑龙江、吉林、内蒙古、新疆、宁夏5省(区)组成的我国北方边境沿线地带,二是由河南、安徽组成的中部区;调入区则集中在由东部沿海地区、中部省份和西部内陆省份组成的环状地带.