The role of the clean development mechanism in achieving China��s goal of a resource-efficient and environmentally friendly society

This paper examines the impact of the clean development mechanism (CDM) on China??s progress in building a resource-efficient and environmentally friendly society, referred to as a dual-goal society. It presents China??s CDM activities from the perspective of policy directions, administrative arrangements and capacity building as well as outlines the regional trends and distribution of CDM projects across China??s 30 provinces. Based on regression analysis of 2006?C2009 panel data, the research was able to provide estimates at provincial level of the impacts of CDM activities on China??s CO₂ emission intensity, SO₂ emission intensity and industrial dust emission intensity. The study concludes that the active CDM projects are mainly located in the less-developed central and west China where they have provided increased opportunities for sustainable development. Furthermore, the successful implementation of CDM projects across the country has significantly decreased the emission intensity of CO₂, SO₂ and industrial dust, which means that these activities have enhanced China??s ability to build the desired dual-goal society.     

China’s Import of Wastes and Its Implications

Abstract

The trade of wastes in the world has been increasing and China has become the largest importer of wastes. This paper examines the import trend of different wastes and finds out that the total import volume to China approved by the Chinese government keeps increasing and the illegal trade can not be banned despite repeated prohibitions; therefore, China is not only “a world factory”, but actually “a global garbage dump”. In order to well understand the implications of wastes import, this paper further analyzes the resource and environmental effects and risks of different wastes imports as well as the strong driving force of wastes imports. Based on these detailed analysis and solid data, policy recommendations are put forward to reduce the demand for raw materials, to further strengthen the inspection of and supervision over the international trade of the wastes that can be used as raw materials by using the life cycle analysis and risk analysis, to improve the environmental standards and strengthen the disposal capacity, to re-export the raw materials produced from the imported wastes, to develop the long-term planning for the import of wastes and to promote international cooperation.     

Effects of the "Conversion of Cropland to Forest and Grassland Program" on the water budget of the Jinghe River catchment in China

In 1999 China adopted the "Conversion of Cropland to Forest and Grassland Program" (CCFGP), a nationwide ecological recovery program, to minimize wide-scale soil erosion and vegetation degradation in China, as well as to improve water budgeting results. In the 10 yr since implementation, the CCFGP has resulted in the recovery and reforestation of >100,000 km of cropland and bare land, though the quantitative effect of this program on catchment water budget is not entirely clear. Therefore, we used the Soil and Water Assessment Tool to evaluate and quantify the effects of the CCFGP on the water budget of the Jinghe River catchment, a tributary of the Yellow River covering the central region of the Loess Plateau. Our results indicated that precipitation had dropped by 12.0% from the 1970s (611.6 mm) to the 2000s (538 mm) and that there was a corresponding 25.2% decrease in humidity index from 0.48 to 0.36. Before the CCFGP's implementation, forest and grassland had been decreasing, while bare land, cropland, and shrub land had been increasing. After the implementation of the CCFGP, the opposite trend was observed. Moreover, streamflow increased by about 15 and 20% for the upstream and middle stream subbasins, respectively, while soil water content also showed an obvious increase. Over the same period, evapotranspiration decreased by 5.2 and 13.5 mm and runoff decreased by 37.5 and 38.6% in the two subbasins. The same trends were obtained in the downstream subbasin, where changes were even greater. As a result of the reduced runoff and evapotranspiration, utilization of water resources was more efficient and ecological environment was improved under the CCFGP policy. Our results indicate the CCFGP resulted in a favorable ecological impact and should therefore be maintained.     

Ligand-assisted degradation of carbon tetrachloride by microscale zero-valent iron

Degradation of carbon tetrachloride (CT) by microscale zero-valent iron (ZVI) was investigated in batch systems with or without organic ligands (ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA), citric acid, tartaric acid, malic acid and oxalic acid) at pHs from 3.5 to 7.5. The results demonstrated that at 25°C, the dechlorination of CT by microscale ZVI is slow in the absence of organic ligands, with a pseudo-first-order rate constant of 0.0217 h(-1) at pH 3.5 and being further dropped to 0.0052 h(-1) at pH 7.5. However, addition of organic ligands significantly enhanced the rates and the extents of CT removal, as indicated by the rate constant increases of 39, 31, 32, 28 and 18 times in the presence of EDTA, citric acid, tartaric acid, malic acid and oxalic acid, respectively, at pH 3.5 and 25°C. The effect of EDTA was most significant; the dechlorination of CT at an initial concentration of 20 mg l(-1) increased from 16.3% (no ligands) to 89.1% (with EDTA) at the end of 8h reaction. The enhanced CT degradation in the presence of organic ligands was primarily attributed to the elimination of a surface passivation layer of Fe(III) (hydr)oxides on the microscale ZVI through chelating of organic ligands with Fe(III), which maintained the exposure of active sites on ZVI surface to CT.     

Numerical simulation for impacts of hydrodynamic conditions on algae growth in Chongqing Section of Jialing River, China

Hydrodynamic conditions are important factors for planktonic algae growth, through introducing two parameters which express the optimal velocity and the velocity range for planktonic algae growth, a new velocity factor was put forward for the formula of growth rate. Therefore, the two-dimensional unsteady ecological dynamic model for algae growth was established to analyze the effects of hydrodynamic conditions on algae growth in Chongqing Reach of Jialing River in China. The temporal and spatial distribution of Chlorophyll-a (Chl-a) concentration was simulated numerically for various water levels, under climate conditions in period of high frequency for algae blooms of Three Gorges Reservoir and nutrition status at present in the research reach. The corresponding locations and areas of likely algae blooms were analyzed and forecasted. The results showed that about 0.04 m s⁻¹ was the optimal velocity for algae growth, and the occurrence of algae blooms in large scale is almost impossible because of relatively high water flow velocity for Jialing River.     

Sorption of DDTs on biofilms, suspended particles and river sediments: effects of heavy metals

The sorption by solid materials is one of the most important processes that affect the fate of hydrophobic organic pollutants in aquatic systems. Current studies focus on the sorption of hydrophobic pollutants by single natural solid material, whereas few studies compared the sorption behaviors of different solids. Furthermore, natural aquatic environment is a complex system where hydrophobic pollutants coexist with many other pollutants, but only limited studies reported the effects of coexisting components on the sorption. Here we studied the sorption of dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethanes (DDTs) by three common solids in natural water, i.e., biofilms, suspended particles and sediments. The effects of typical coexisting heavy metals on the sorption were also examined. The results show that the sorption is described by a dual-mode sorption model. Compared with sediments, more DDTs were sorbed by biofilms and suspended particles. Coexisting Pb, Cd and Cu increased the sorption of DDTs on sediments while decreasing the sorption on biofilms slightly, with little effect on the sorption on suspended particles. The different sorption behaviors of the solids were mainly determined by the composition of the solids: more organics were observed in biofilms and suspended particles.     

城市高温灾害性天气影响分析与危害评估——以长春市为例

以长春市1951-2008年的气象资料为基础,分析了长春市高温灾害性天气的时空分布特征及气温变暖趋势,总结了长春市温度变化与城市人口数量、GDP及供电量之间的关系,最终建立了长春市高温灾害性天气影响及危害评估的指标体系。     

龙羊峡水库地震溃坝的可能性及溃坝洪灾程度的分析

讨论了龙羊峡库区将来发生大地震的可能性;分析了万一产生溃坝的灾害链问题。计算了其溃坝后洪水到达下游贵德县、康扬镇、尖扎县、循化县和兰州市的洪水最大流量、洪水起涨时间和消退时间。     

Fine particle-bound PAHs derivatives at mountain background site (Mount Tai) of the North China: Concentration, source diagnosis and health risk assessment

Ten nitrated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (nPAHs) and 4 oxygenated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (oPAHs) in fine particulate matter (PM_2.5) samples from Mount Tai were analyzed during summer (June to August), 2015. During the observation campaign, the mean concentration of total nPAHs and oPAHs was 31.62 pg/m³ and 0.15 ng/m³, respectively. Two of the monitored compounds, namely 9-nitro-anthracene (9N-ANT) (6.86 pg/m³) and 9-fluorenone (9FO) (0.05 ng/m³) were the predominant compounds of nPAHs and oPAHs, respectively. The potential source and long-range transportation of nPAHs and oPAHs were investigated by the positive matrix factorization (PMF) method and the potential source contribution function (PSCF) methods. The results revealed that biomass/coal burning, gasoline vehicle emission, diesel vehicle emission and secondary formation were the dominant sources of nPAHs and oPAHs, which were mainly from Henan province and Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and Bohai sea. The incremental life cancer risk (ILCR) values were calculated to evaluate the exposure risk of nPAHs and oPAHs for three group people (infant, children and adult), and the values of ILCR were 7.02 × 10^?10, 3.49 × 10^?9 and 1.41 × 10^?8 for infant, children and adults, respectively. All these values were lower than the standard of EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) (<10^?6), indicating acceptable health risk of nPAHs and oPAHs.     

基于PMF模型解析典型化工园区VOCs污染来源应用研究

选取某小型化工园区为研究对象,在不同日期进行样品采集并使用气相色谱-质谱联用仪(GC-MS)定性定量分析,评估该区域VOCs污染水平及特征,同时研究P MF模型解析小尺度区域VOCs污染来源的可行性.结果表明,该研究区域VOCs浓度明显高于城市环境空气及其他化工园区,存在较重污染;该区域VOCs的主要成分为丙烯、苯、甲苯、萘、间-乙基甲苯、丙酮、丙烷、1,2,4-三甲苯、异丁烷等物质,各排放源污染特征显著,差异性明显;使用PMF模型对观测期间VOCs源解析,共获得4个因子,各因子与该区域不同排放源工艺及污染特征能够高度对应,并依此计算了各点位VOCs污染来源,结果与污染物扩散规律相符,PMF模型应用于小尺度污染物溯源分析具有可行性,能够很好地解析VOCs污染来源.