The importance of differentiating urban and rural phenomena in examining the unequal distribution of locally desirable land

Previous research addressing the unequal distribution of locally desirable land (LDL) has mainly ignored their associated environments (i.e., rural or urban). However, this study proposed a new framework that treats rural and urban regions separately. In rural areas, the LDLs included all public lands. In urbanized areas, the LDLs were defined as green open spaces. Potential inequities in the distribution of LDL were assessed with respect to socioeconomic characteristics of residents in the State of Georgia. Using US Census Bureau Data (2000), Census Block Groups (CBGs) adjacent to LDLs were compared to CBGs outside of LDLs on four socioeconomic variables (per capita income, occupation, education, and race) in urban, suburban and rural environments. Results showed that CBGs adjacent to LDLs were composed of statistically significant upper-class communities containing fewer blue-collar workers, more whites, and higher income and higher educated people in rural, suburban and urban areas.     

对南京市发展绿色经济的思考

简述了发展绿色经济的重要性,指出了南京市发展绿色经济的有利条件及存在问题。提出,南京发展绿色经济,必须树立绿色发展理念,推动科学发展实践;制定绿色发展战略,推进可持续发展;支持绿色技术研发,培育新经济增长点;打造绿色优势产业,促进结构向高端转型;倡导绿色消费行为,推进资源节约、环境友好型社会建设;建立健全绿色制度,提供经济社会发展保障。     

黄河中上游能源化工区大气污染跨界环境影响分析

对黄河中上游能源化工区近地面和边界层顶气象流场及该区域大气污染长距离输送产生的跨界环境影响趋势特征进行了分析。结果表明,该区域近地面和边界层顶的流场总体上为西北向东南流动,大气污染物长距离输送可能影响的区域主要为华中地区;区域冷空气的活动对其大气污染物的清除起重要作用;通过CALPUFF模型的模拟结果表明,该区域SO2的影响程度和范围明显大于NO2,在区域内部存在污染物浓度较高的区域,但未对区外造成显著跨界环境影响。     

Energy intensity and its determinants in China: an empirical study based on ARDL-VECM approach

The present study aims to better understand the relationship between energy intensity and its determinants including energy price, technological progress, economic structure, and energy mix using the autoregressive distributed lag(ARDL) bounds approach and vector error correction model technique. Based on China's time series over 1985-2014, the ARDL bounds approach yields empirical evidence that confirms the existence of long run relationship between energy price, technological progress, economic structure, energy mix, and energy intensity. The results show that technological progress is an important driver for the declining energy intensity in short and long run. Energy price has not been demonstrated as an important role in decreasing energy intensity in the short run. The high share of coal use in total energy use may be responsible for China's high energy intensity.However, the relative change in economic sectors plays a minor role in energy intensity reduction during the past years. In the long run, technological progress, energy mix and energy prices Granger cause energy intensity, but not vice versa except for the energy mix.     

绿色“一带一路”建设研究及建议

生态环保是"一带一路"建设的重要内容。在2017年5月14日召开的"一带一路"国际合作高峰论坛系列成果清单包括《关于推动绿色"一带一路"建设的指导意见》、《"一带一路"生态环境保护合作规划》、"一带一路"生态环保大数据服务平台建设、"一带一路"绿色发展国际联盟建立等四项。为更好地理解和推动执行,本文全面进行了分析,并提出下一步推动绿色"一带一路"工作需要解决的关键问题和建议。     

Is energy efficiency capitalized into home prices? Evidence from three U.S. cities

We test for evidence that energy efficiency features are capitalized into home prices in three U.S. metropolitan areas. Using hedonic regressions and multiple matching procedures, we find that Energy Star certification is associated with higher sales prices in two of the markets: the Research Triangle region of North Carolina and Portland, Oregon. We find that local “green” certifications in Portland and in Austin, Texas, are also associated with higher prices and that the estimated price impacts are larger than those from Energy Star. Matching on observables proves to be important in some cases, reducing the estimated impacts compared with models without matching. We calculate the implied energy savings from the estimated premiums and find that, in the Research Triangle market, the Energy Star premiums approximately equal the savings that program is designed to achieve, but in Portland, the premiums are slightly greater than the program's savings due to low energy costs in the region.     

Collaborative approaches to local climate change and clean energy initiatives in the USA and England

This paper analyses how 10 localities in the USA and England, recognised as leaders in clean energy and climate action, have used collaborative approaches to develop local climate change plans and energy conservation, efficiency, and renewable energy initiatives. It examines these planning and policy-making processes in the context of Margerum's [2008. A typology of collaboration efforts in environmental management. Environmental Management, 41 (4), 487–500] typology of “action”, “organizational”, and “policy-level” collaborations, as well as Gray's [1989. Collaborating: finding common ground for multiparty problems. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass] classification of collaboration in the “problem-setting”, “direction-setting”, and “implementation” phases. We conducted interviews with local elected officials, municipal staff, energy professionals, and citizen volunteers in each community, supplemented with an analysis of their adopted energy, climate change, and land-use plans. We find that despite the different government structures and political contexts between the two countries, there was a surprising amount of commonality in how the case study localities used collaborative planning to develop local climate plans and clean energy initiatives. These processes were most often initiated by local elected officials and/or high-level staff members, and then carried out in collaboration with local third-sector organisations and other community stakeholders. In the USA, collaboration was strongest at the policy level and in the direction-setting phase, with the distinguishing feature that citizen advisory boards or stakeholder working groups often took a more active role in shaping local plans and policies. The English localities had some of those same types of collaborations, but were more likely to also employ action collaboration, in the implementation phase, in which third-sector organisations coordinated with the locality to directly provide clean energy services.     

Green energy generation by pressure retarded osmosis: State of the art and technical advancement—review

Pressure-retarded osmosis (PRO) is a method for converting salinity gradients to power by allowing water to flow through a semi-permeable membrane against an applied hydraulic pressure. PRO already has a long history, starting from the middle of the last century, and has rapidly improved in recent years. In this paper, we present a historical development of PRO since its inception: the development of this renewable energy process has gone through several stages, depending on technological developments, worldwide energy demands, and environmental concerns. The technological progress of the process is also studied, as well as its cost viability and environmental impact. Finally, some ideas to further develop the PRO process and mitigate its detrimental effects are discussed.     

Experimental investigations on regeneration energy and energy management strategy in series hydraulic/electric synergy system

This research work draws an insight into the experimental investigations on a series hydraulic/electric synergy system—a green transportation system. An experimental test rig of the system with all necessary sensors and instrumentation has been developed to study the energy saving through hydraulic regenerative braking. The effect of various system parameters, such as braking time, maximum accumulator pressure, pre-charge pressure of hydro-pneumatic accumulator, volumetric displacement of the hydraulic master pump, and hydraulic regeneration pump on the quantum of regeneration energy, was analyzed. In addition, an AMESim model of the real-time experimental test rig has been developed and validated with experimental results. A set of five different experimental designs (parameter variations) of the system is defined with the available standard component sizes. The best design is selected of the available experimental designs based on the maximum hydraulic regeneration energy and regeneration efficiency. It was observed that the selected design has an energy efficiency of 13.3% and a regeneration efficiency of 43.8%. An accumulator-centric control strategy for energy management is developed and implemented on the experimental test rig configured with the selected design. The effectiveness of the control strategy is tested through experiments and simulation on the developed test rig.