Carbon mitigation by the construction industry in China: a perspective of efficiency and costs

Evaluating carbon emission performance of the construction industry is a significant prerequisite for developing regional carbon mitigation plans. Taking environmental and technical heterogeneities into account, this paper employed a meta-frontier method to measure the carbon emission efficiency, carbon mitigation potential, and costs of the construction sector in different regions of China from 2005 to 2016. The empirical results show that substantial disparities in carbon emission efficiency exist in the construction industry. The total carbon mitigation potential of this sector was 206.76 million tons, with the Lower Yellow river area accounting for the largest proportion at 27%. Meanwhile, the carbon mitigation costs of this sector increased from 584.94 to 1273.30 yuan/ton during 2005–2016. The highest mitigation costs occur in the Lower Yangtze River area and the South Coastal area, indicating it was more costly in these areas to conduct additional carbon emissions mitigation. The results could facilitate the policy formulation on regional-oriented carbon emissions mitigation of the construction industry in China.

     

Driving factors for coordinating urbanization with conservation of the ecological environment in China

Urbanization is a dominant component of social and economic development around the world, but this process creates tremendous pressure on the ecological environment. How to achieve coordination between urbanization and conservation of this environment has become a key issue, especially in developing countries. It is necessary to identify the driving factors that affect this coordination. To identify these factors, we chose 290 Chinese prefecture-level cities to analyze the driving factors behind urbanization using spatial regression analysis, and explored the spatial differences among regions in these factors. Our results show that industrial upgrading and technological progress were the main factors that promoted coordinated development, with industrialization having positive effects under government management, but with differences among regions in how the driving forces affected coordinated development. Using technological progress to promote industrial upgrading, creating new employment to absorb surplus rural labor, and providing workers with skills training so they can take advantage of new jobs can promote win–win solutions that coordinate urbanization with conservation of the ecological environment.     

祁彪佳荒政思想探析

祁彪佳的《救荒全书》是一部重要的通论式的荒政著作,这部论著包含了作者大量的荒政思想和主张,体现出了他对灾害救济的态度。他提出了荒政中用人的重要性,认为救灾＂首要得人＂;同时认为＂屯田垦荒、发展农业乃是千古救荒之祖＂;形成了＂仓储备荒＂、＂兴修水利＂、＂御灾召祥＂、＂崇尚节俭＂、＂赈灾勿缓＂等主要的荒政思想。这些思想是祁彪佳实践经验的总结,也是传统荒政思想的升华。     

Function of Agricultural Land Use and Its Evolvement in Peri-urban Area: A Case Study of Beijing

Rapid urbanization in Beijing stimulates the urban land expansion and diminishes available agricultural land. Monofunctional agricultural land use can not meet the demand of the devel- opment of the multifunctional agriculture and urbanization any more, so multifunctional agricultural land use is going to be promoted in the city. This article proposes the evolvement of the land use change from 1992 to 2004 and discusses some evolvement views.     

蓄滞洪区可持续发展研究

本文分析了蓄滞洪区在防洪体系中的地位及其所面临的矛盾以及国内外蓄滞洪区管理和规划的研究现状和不足 ,指出可持续发展的治水观是蓄滞洪区防洪减灾与社会发展的必然选择 ;通过对蓄滞洪区复合系统的分析 ,探讨了区内人口、社会、经济、资源及防洪减灾之间的关系 ,建立了蓄滞洪区复合系统的概念模型 ,提出了蓄滞洪区可持续发展的定义并分析了其内涵。     

Emission factors of particulate matter, CO and CO2 in the pyrolytic processing of typical electronic wastes

A self-designed experimental device was employed to simulate the pyrolytic dismantling process of selected electronic wastes(E-wastes), including printed wiring boards(PWBs)and plastic casings. The generated particulate matter(PM) of different particle sizes, carbon monoxide(CO) and carbon dioxide(CO_2) were determined, and the corresponding emission factors(EFs) were estimated. Finer particles with particle sizes of 0.4–2.1 μm accounted for78.9% and 89.3% of PM emitted by the pyrolytic processing of PWBs and plastic casings,respectively, and the corresponding EFs were 9.68 ± 4.81 and 18.49 ± 7.2 g/kg, respectively.The EFs of CO and CO_2 from PWBs and plastic casings were 55.9 ± 26.9 and 1182 ± 439 g/kg,and 133.6 ± 34.6 and 2827 ± 276 g/kg, respectively. Compared with other emission sources,such as coal, biomass, and traffic exhaust, the EFs of E-wastes were relatively higher,especially for PM. There were significant positive correlations(p 0.05) of the initial contents of carbon and nitrogen in PWBs with the related EFs of PM, CO, and CO_2, while the correlations for plastic casings were insignificant. The EFs of CO of PWBs were significantly positively correlated with the corresponding EFs of PM and the parent polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons(PAHs); however, the same result was not observed for plastic casings.     

Removal of elemental mercury by photocatalytic oxidation over La2O3/Bi2O3 composite

La₂O₃/Bi₂O₃ photocatalysts were prepared by impregnation of Bi₂O₃ with an aqueous solution of lanthanum precursor followed by calcination at different temperatures. The composite materials were used for the first time for the photocatalytic removal of Hg⁰ from a simulated flue gas under UV light irradiation. The results showed that the sample containing 6 wt.% La₂O₃ and calcined at 500°C has the highest dispersion of the active sites, which was promoted by the strong interaction with the support (i.e., the formation of Bi-O-La species). Since they are fully accessible on the surface, the material also exhibits excellent optical properties while the heterojunction formed in La₂O₃/Bi₂O₃ promotes the separation and migration of photoelectron-hole pairs and thus Hg⁰ oxidation efficiency is enhanced. The effects of the various factors (e.g., the reaction temperature and composition of the simulated flue gas (i.e., O₂, NO, H₂O, and SO₂)) on the efficiency of the Hg⁰ photocatalytic oxidation were investigated. The results demonstrated that O₂ and SO₂ enhanced the efficiency of the reaction while the reaction temperature, NO, and H₂O had an inhibitory effect.     

Biodegradation of typical azole fungicides in activated sludge under aerobic conditions

Widespread use of azole fungicides and low removal efficiency in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) have led to the elevated concentration of azole fungicides in receiving environment. However, there was limited research about the removal mechanism of azole fungicides in the biological treatment of WWTPs. Imidazole fungicide climbazole and triazole fungicide fluconazole were selected to investigate the biodegradation mechanism of azole fungicides in activated sludge under aerobic conditions. Climbazole was found to be adsorbed to solid sludge and resulted in quick biodegradation. The degradation of climbazole in the aerobic activated sludge system was fitted well by the first-order kinetic model with a half-life of 5.3 days, while fluconazole tended to stay in liquid and had only about 30% of loss within 77 days incubation. Ten biotransformation products of climbazole were identified by high resolution mass spectrometry using suspect and non-target screening method. But no biodegradation products of fluconazole were identified due to its limited removal. The possible biodegradation pathways for climbazole were proposed based on the products identification and pathway prediction system, and involves oxidative dehalogenation, side chain oxidation and azole ring loss. The findings from this study suggest that it should be a concern for the persistence of fluconazole in the environment.     

中国东北沈抚地区土壤中PBDEs的残留、来源及风险评价

为研究我国东北地区表层土壤中多溴联苯醚(PBDEs)的残留和分布.于2016夏季采集了3个城市(沈阳、抚顺和沈抚新区)的72份土壤样品,覆盖本地区4种不同的土地利用类型:城镇用地,农村居住用地,耕地和林地.分析了表层土壤中14种PBDEs的残留,组成和分布特征,探究了本地区PBDEs主要来源及贡献率,并对人体暴露水平和健康风险进行了评估.结果表明,表层土壤Σ_(14)PBDEs的含量(以干重计,下同)范围在0. 279～50. 719 ng·g~(-1)之间,均值为(10. 466±9. 246) ng·g~(-1).不同城市PBDEs的含量规律为:抚顺沈阳沈抚新区背景点,不同类型土地规律为:城镇用地农村居住用地耕地林地.在所有PBDEs组分中,十溴联苯醚占比最高,为81. 25%～89. 23%.来源分析表明,商用十溴联苯醚是主要来源,多元线性回归分析(PCA-MLR)结果显示其贡献率为66. 06%.暴露水平和健康风险评价的结果又表明,5种不同人群中,抚顺的幼儿人群暴露剂量最高,为(20. 98±25. 01) ng·(kg·d)~(-1)在不同土地类型中,城镇用地的幼儿人群暴露剂量最高,(18. 54±20. 27)ng·(kg·d)~(-1),本地区总体非致癌健康风险处于较低水平.     

Mercury accumulation and dynamics in montane forests along an elevation gradient in Southwest China

Understanding atmospheric mercury (Hg) accumulation in remote montane forests is critical to assess the Hg ecological risk to wildlife and human health. To quantify impacts of vegetation, climatic and topographic factors on Hg accumulation in montane forests, we assessed the Hg distribution and stoichiometric relations among Hg, carbon (C), and nitrogen (N) in four forest types along the elevation of Mt. Gongga. Our results show that Hg concentration in plant tissues follows the descending order of litter > leaf, bark > root > branch > bole wood, indicating the importance of atmospheric Hg uptake by foliage for Hg accumulation in plants. The foliar Hg/C (from 237.0 ± 171.4 to 56.8 ± 27.7 µg/kg) and Hg/N (from 7.5 ± 3.9 to 2.5 ± 1.2 mg/kg) both decrease along the elevation. These elevation gradients are caused by the heterogeneity of vegetation uptake of atmospheric Hg and the variation of atmospheric Hg° concentrations at different altitudes. Organic soil Hg accumulation is controlled by forest types, topographic and climatic factors, with the highest concentration in the mixed forest (244.9 ± 55.7 µg/kg) and the lowest value in the alpine forest (151.9 ± 44.5 µg/kg). Further analysis suggests that soil Hg is positively correlated to C (r² = 0.66) and N (r² = 0.57), and Hg/C and Hg/N both increase with the soil depth. These stoichiometric relations highlight the combined effects from environmental and climatic factors which mediating legacy Hg accumulation and selective Hg absorption during processes of organic soil mineralization.