Emergy analysis of an industrial park: The case of Dalian, China

With the rapid development of eco-industrial park projects in China, evaluating their overall eco-efficiency is becoming an important need and a big challenge academically. Developing ecologically conscious industrial park management requires analysis of both industrial and ecological systems. Traditional evaluation methods based on neoclassical economics and embodied energy and exergy analyses have certain limitations due to their focus with environmental issues considered secondary to the maximization of economic and technical objectives. Such methods focus primarily on the environmental impact of emissions and their economic consequences. These approaches ignore the contribution of ecological products and services as well as the load placed on environmental systems and related problems of carrying capacity of economic and industrial development. This paper presents a new method, based upon emergy analysis and synthesis. Such a method links economic and ecological systems together, highlighting the internal relations among the different subsystems and components. The emergy-based method provides insight into the environmental performance and sustainability of an industrial park. This paper depicts the methodology of emergy analysis at the industrial park level and provides a series of emergy-based indices. A case study is investigated and discussed in order to show the emergy method's practical potential. Results from DEDZ (Dalian Economic Development Zone) case show us the potential of emergy synthesis method at the industrial park level for environmental policy making. Its advantages and limitations are also discussed with avenues for future research identified.     

建筑业经济增长与环境污染的动态关系研究

从建筑业经济增长与环境污染双向影响关系视角,以北京1994~2014年数据为样本,运用ADF检验和格兰杰因果分析方法,对二氧化硫、烟粉尘等污染物排放量和建筑业经济增长的长期演变关系进行检验,并构建VAR模型,通过脉冲响应分析和方差分解进行实证研究。结果表明,建筑业经济增长与二氧化硫排放之间的相互促进作用显著,而烟粉尘排放量的增加则抑制建筑业的经济增长。     

Comprehensive concept planning of urban greening based on ecological principles: a case study in Beijing, China

Greenspace is an important part of complex urban ecosystems and provides significant ecosystem services. It benefits urban communities environmentally, esthetically, recreationally and economically. Beijing Province is in north of China, and has a total area of 16,807.8 km² and a population of about 13.8 million. This paper aims to develop a comprehensive conceptual framework for urban greening of Beijing Province based on landscape ecological principles. It attempts to answer how to establish an urban greening plan at the regional, city and neighborhood levels to achieve long-term sustainability. At the regional level, a big natural and semi-natural forest area in the northwest and an ecological buffer belt in the southeast are planned to protect the environmental quality of Beijing and provide habitats for wildlife. At the city level, a green network system of green wedges, parks and green corridors has been proposed. This green network helps to limit future urban expansion, improve urban environmental quality and serve as habitats and migration routes for wildlife. At the neighborhood level, green extensions and connections of riverside greenway, road greenway, parks and vertical greening permeate into the built-up areas. They provide open space close to residential areas and offer places for recreation. This three-level green system constitutes an integrated ecological network for urban sustainable development of Beijing. For future development of Beijing, urban parks, forestry, agriculture, water and infrastructure should be planned and designed in an integrated way. After this greenspace plan is legislated and completely realized, Beijing will develop an interconnected and integrated network of urban greenspaces. It has the prospect of achieving the aim of “Green Olympic City 2008” and the long-term goal of developing Beijing towards an “Eco-City”.     

Ecosystem services and valuation of urban forests in China

Urban forests are integral components of urban ecosystems, which could generate significant ecosystem services, such as offsetting carbon emission, removing air pollutants, regulating the microclimate, and recreation. These ecosystem services contribute to improving environmental quality, quality of life, and sustainable urban development. Despite a long history of inserting vegetation in human settlements in China, modern scientific study of this natural-cum-cultural resource did not start until the 1990s. Specifically, the identification and valuation of ecosystem services provided by urban forests are relatively new but fast growing research fields. This paper reviews studies on the major ecosystem services provided by urban forests in China, including microclimatic amelioration (mainly evapotranspiration-cooling effects), carbon dioxide sequestration, oxygen generation, removal of gaseous and particulate pollutants, recreational and amenity. Various valuation techniques have been applied, most of which are still at the embryonic stage. There are rooms to improve the research scope and methods. Some pertinent research gaps and implications on current and future development of urban forestry in China were distilled from the research findings.     

Urban ecosystem health assessment: A review

Due to the important role of cities for regional, national, and international economic development and the concurrent degradation of the urban environmental quality under rapid urbanization, a systematic diagnosis of urban ecosystem health for sustainable ecological management is urgently needed. This paper reviews the related research on urban ecosystem health assessment, beginning from the inception of urban ecosystem health concerns propelled by the development needs of urban ecosystems and the advances in ecosystem health research. Concepts, standards, indicators, models, and case studies are introduced and discussed. Urban ecosystem health considers the integration of ecological, economic, social and human health factors, and as such it is a value-driven concept which is strongly influenced by human perceptions. There is not an absolute urban ecosystem standard because of the uncertainty caused by the changing human needs, targets, and expectation of urban ecosystem over time; thus, suitable approaches are still needed to establish health standards of urban ecosystems. Several conceptual models and suitable indicator frameworks have been proposed to organize the multiple factors to represent comprehensively the health characteristics of an urban ecosystem, while certain mathematical methods have been applied to deal with the indicator information to get a clear assessment of the urban ecosystem health status. Instead of perceiving the urban ecosystem assessment as an instantaneous measurement of the health state, it is suggested to conceptualize the urban ecosystem health as a process, which impels us to focus more studies on the dynamic trends of health status and projecting possible development scenarios.     

From income and housing wealth inequalities to emissions inequality: carbon emissions of households in China

The emerging notion of emissions inequality expands the idea of sustainability by incorporating economic opportunity as well as social needs and rights into environmental costs and benefits. In China, increasing inequality among urban households in terms of both income and housing wealth establishes a pattern of social stratification. An understanding of the association of social and environmental inequality is thus critical for urban sustainability. Based on the Chinese urban household survey from 2002 to 2009, this article employs the lifestyle approach to calculate and analyse the inequality of households by direct and indirect carbon emissions. The correlations among carbon emission inequality with income and housing wealth inequality are estimated with a Heckman procedure. We find that not only income distribution but also housing wealth distributionis an important consideration in understanding environmental inequality in China.     

城市热缓解的基于自然的解决方案与实施路径——以北京市为例

城市热岛与高温热浪威胁当代人类的生活与健康。基于自然的解决方案（NbS）不仅能够有效应对社会风险挑战、提升人类福祉,还有助于生物多样性保护与区域可持续发展。首先论述了NbS框架下的城市热缓解方案：1）优先识别应对城市热岛与热浪的社会挑战的关键区域;2）基于适宜尺度和面向生态系统完整性提升,进行热缓解方案设计;3）热缓解方案的经济可行性、包容性治理、适应性管理、主流化与可持续性。其次以北京市为例,探索基于NbS的城市热缓解方案设计及其实施路径。结果显示：北京市五环内城市热岛效应明显,区域内地表温度（land surface temperature, LST）对植被和不透水地表等覆被特征的变化响应在600 m×600 m的网格单元最稳定;热单元主要分布在五环内的南部,景观组分特征呈现为集中连片的建筑和不透水地表以及分散的裸地和蓝绿空间斑块;针对不同的热单元应采取适应性的热缓解措施,如分散的裸地型单元适宜采用建设城市森林公园的办法,大型低层建筑型单元适宜采用立体绿化,小型低层建筑型单元适宜“见缝插绿”,交通型单元适宜构建绿道等。研究可为未来基于NbS的城市热缓解方案设计提供科学依据与技术参考。     

城市湿地景观的生态设计

自然湿地生态系统对人类具有重要的意义.在城市规划中对湿地景观进行生态设计,能充分发挥湿地的生态和社会效益.保持湿地系统的生态完整性,植物的科学配置和岸线环境的设计,是城市湿地景观设计的重要因素.以美国圣保罗市安姆斯湖计划、英国伦敦湿地中心和中国成都活水公园为例,介绍了城市景观与湿地生态意义的成功结合.     

城市空间快速增长的区域生态风险防御——国际经验检讨与规划调控初探

我国城市空间快速增长引发了日益加剧的区域生态风险,对实现可持续城市化构成严峻挑战。尽管从城市自身尺度的环境影响控制迈向区域整体范围的生态风险防御,已成为规划调控变革的内在需求。但建筑学等单一学科探索,难以有效应对城市-区域之间跨尺度、多要素的生态复杂性议题。通过国际经验检讨,从人地耦合系统的复杂性视角出发,立足于理论基础模型构建、区域生态风险辨识和规划方案绩效评估等3个基本模块,提出一种遵循“城市空间增长态势-资源环境压力变化-生态系统风险辨识-规划方案绩效评估”逻辑的方法模型,旨在改善城市规划实践中的区域生态风险防御能力。     

城市绿地土壤质量研究进展

快速的工业化和城市化导致城市人口高度集中和大量污染物排放,对城市生态环境造成了巨大的影响,不可避免地影响到土壤、生态系统乃至人类的健康.城市绿地土壤在促进城市生态系统平衡及人类健康等方面发挥了重要作用,逐渐引起了广泛关注.在此背景下,梳理了以下3个方面内容:1)城市绿地的兴起与分类;2)城市绿地土壤质量的内涵与评价;3...     

人本需求视角下基于乡镇单元主导功能的 特大城市半城市化地区生态系统服务优化 研究——以上海为例

已有对城市生态系统服务功能优化的研究通常是"供给"导向下的增量研究,很少考虑到当地的人类价值取向变化下的实际需求对生态系统造成的负面效应,这些当地"需求"的负面效应直接影响城市生态系统服务提供的"供给"效益质量,使其在空间地域上的"供给-需求"错位、失衡,造成地方规划管理上的被动性和盲目性,这一现象在生态用地和建设用地交错的特大城市郊区的半城市化地区最为显著。以上海为例,探讨基于人本需求的特大城市半城市化地区生态系统服务主导功能优化思路;以乡镇街道为基本单元对半城市化地区进行解构,评价其供给、调节、支持、文化娱乐游憩等生态系统服务的功能现状,通过人本需求视角的聚类分析定位乡镇单元的生态主导功能,并据此提出生态系统服务的优化思路;旨在通过支持空间规划决策来有效控制半城市化的负面效应,使局部单元的生态服务价值优化与总体城市生态系统服务提升的目标达成一致。     

Environmental driving forces of urban growth and development: An emergy-based assessment of the city of Rome,Italy

Large urban systems can be considered as the final point of convergence of resources, environmental services and human activities from rural settlements to villages to towns to small and big cities. The emergy synthesis method is applied in order to capture the complexity of urban systems from the point of view of the larger scale, the geobiosphere, where resources come from. Emergy is the total available energy of one kind (usually solar) directly or indirectly used up to drive a system or a process. It can be considered as a measure of a system's demand for environmental support. The population of Rome is 4.43% of total Italian population, with an emergy use of about 4% of total emergy supporting the Italian economy. Emergy use per capita is 5.50E+16 seJ/year, compared to an average value for Italy of 3.60E+16 seJ/year. An empower density of 1.09E+14 seJ/m²/year was calculated for Rome, much higher than for average Italy, 6.86E+12 seJ/m²/year. Finally, the emergy/GDP, an indirect measure of economic performance of the system, is 2.43E+12 seJ/€ for Rome compared to 1.64E+12 seJ/€ for Italy, suggesting that in an urban system (generally characterized by a larger fraction of tertiary activities) the required environmental support for the generation of economic results is much higher than for the whole economic system. Finally, comparison of above performance indicators with similar studies published by other authors (Taipei, San Juan and Macao) points out that Rome has the highest annual emergy per capita (suggesting higher potential standard of living).     

基于生态系统服务协同增益的城市生态空间区划研究——以北京市生态涵养区为例

生态空间为城市提供所需的生态系统服务,同时也受到城市发展的影响。如何在让生态空间发挥生态价值的同时,平衡人类社会对生态系统提供服务的需求成为近年来城市生态空间规划的重点。生态系统服务可以评估生态和社会价值,顺应其间的协同关系并缓解权衡有利于进行兼顾生态和社会目标的生态空间规划。以北京市生态涵养区为例,分析关键性生态系统服务间的权衡协同关系,为不同区域分配优先保护特征,并通过低权衡、低协同和高协同3种情景,以不同灵活程度进行生态系统服务保护目标空间分配。使用Marxan with zones模型得到满足各服务保护目标的管理区划,并比较3个情景的分区结果,验证规划体系对协同权衡作用的影响。得到了3种情景下的管理区分布：低权衡情景布局偏紧凑,实现了生态系统服务间权衡最小化;从低协同到高协同情景,生态系统服务间的协同性增加;从低权衡情景到低、高协同情景,重点保护区的面积逐渐增加,生态缓冲区增加了连接性,控制发展区和集中建设区变化相对稳定,实现了生态空间多层次空间优化。最终得到的更详细的管理区划有助于指导未来生态—社会多目标生态空间规划政策的制定：即对重点保护区严格保护,加强生态缓冲区生态整治和廊道建设,以促进生态效益协同发展。在集中建设区与控制发展区引导城镇节约集约建设,减量增绿,实现社会经济绿色发展。     

基于系统地图法的城市生态系统负面 服务研究进展述评

城市绿色空间有益于人类健康福祉的积极作用已成为全球共识,但其可能产生的生态系统负面服务还未受到足够关注,展开相关研究有助于提升城市绿色空间促进健康福祉的能力。以Scopus、Web of Science和Google Scholar为文献检索数据源,运用系统地图法对全球的城市生态系统负面服务研究进行全面回顾。首先,总结了研究的时空分布特征和研究对象特征,阐明了城市生态系统负面服务的定义,指出了城市生态系统负面服务的4种主要类型。其次,阐述了城市生态系统服务量化评估研究的主要评估内容、数据收集方法和主要评估方法。再次,总结了当前研究中各类型生态系统负面服务的影响机理及规避路径。最后,从正视城市生态系统负面服务问题、加强基础性科学研究、重视研究成果转化3个方面提出了国际经验对中国研究和实践的启示,并针对性地提出了面向风景园林专业的基本性策略。研究结果对我国开展城市生态系统负面服务的研究和实践具有借鉴和启示意义。     

低碳视角下的城市群空间布局研究

持续增长的二氧化碳造成一系列日益严重的环境问题,如何降低二氧化碳的排放,改善生态环境,成为各国研究的重点问题。城市群作为推进城镇化的主体形态,低碳理念如何结合城市群区域建设,推进城市群产业低碳化生产以及生态空间的建构,需要深入的研究探讨。     

可持续的天津城市中心结构

近年来,以北京、天津为核心的环渤海经济圈正逐渐发展成长为"中国经济增长第三极"。天津在城市快速发展的同时,一直坚持以可持续发展为目标,在城市建设的多方面进行积极的探索。特别是天津城市中心结构的规划调整,集中体现了城市可持续发展思路,主要包括四个方面:城市中心公共职能的可持续发展、城市特色的可持续体现、城市可持续发展的公共交通保障和城市生态的可持续架构。文章总结了近年来天津在城市可持续发展方面的尝试,为中国特大城市中心结构的发展提供了一定的参考。     

The environmental impact of mastitis: a case study of dairy herds

Mastitis is defined as an inflammatory reaction of udder tissue to bacterial, chemical, thermal or mechanical injury, which causes heavy financial losses and milk wastage throughout the world. Until now, studies have focused on the economic aspects from which perspective mastitis can generally be considered as the most serious disease in dairy cows; however, costs are not the only negative consequence resulting from the infection. The environmental impact is also significant; milk is discarded, which means lower efficiency and hence a greater environmental impact per produced liter of milk. Less milk is produced, which leads to an increased need for calf feed, and meat production is also affected. The main aim of this paper was to quantify the environmental impact of mastitis incidence. A standard scenario (representative of present-day reality in Galicia, Spain) and an improved scenario (in which mastitis incidence rate is reduced by diverse actions) have been defined and compared using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology. Among the impact categories studied, acidification, eutrophication and global warming were found to be the most significant environmental impacts. In all these categories, it was revealed that a decrease in mastitis incidence has a positive influence as the environmental impact is reduced. Even if the quantitative results cannot show a considerable decrease in the environmental burden, the impact cannot be regarded as negligible when the total consumption or total production of a region is considered. For example, the outcome of the proposed improvement measures for Spain's greenhouse gas emissions can be quantified as 0.06% of total emissions and 0.56% of emissions by the agricultural sector.     

北京奥林匹克森林公园种植规划设计

北京奥林匹克森林公园规划面积约680hm^2。作为北京城市里的森林，对保障城市生态安全、提高城市生态承载力、保障北京的可持续发展具有重要的意义。     

基于区域生态系统健康评估的土地利用 规划研究——以北京市为例

健康的区域生态系统能持续提供生态系统服务,是实现城市可持续发展的基础。同时,城市土地利用直接影响区域生态系统的健康状态,因此如何在健康视角下合理规划与协调城市土地利用方式,成为风景园林与城市规划领域的重点研究课题。以北京市为例,基于2007和2017年的土地利用类型,采用CA-Markov模型对2027年自然发展、快速发展、多目标保护和森林建设4种土地利用情景进行预测,统筹生态系统的物理健康与功能健康评价,构建区域生态系统健康评估框架,探讨4种土地利用情景下更健康的城市土地利用规划新方法。结果表明,与2017年健康状态相比,北京市快速发展情景的区域生态系统健康评估结果呈现负值,其他情景下均呈现良好的增长趋势,森林建设情景下增长最为明显。坚持生态优先、绿色发展、集约化发展建设用地和加强森林建设,可大幅提升区域生态系统的健康状态。     

Assessing economic,social and environmental impacts on housing prices in Hong Kong: a time-series study of 2006, 2011 and 2016

Given Hong Kong’s unique high-density urban environment and limited land resources, more and more general public has been concerned about the living quality. Based on three waves of census data (2006, 2011 and 2016), combined with our spatial–temporal urban environmental database consisting of three local datasets of urban climate and air quality, this paper assesses the impacts of social, economic and environmental factors on the logarithm of housing prices in Hong Kong through linear regression analysis. Specifically, both supply- and demand-side economic factors have significant impacts on housing prices. Demographic factors are not as significant as expected in affecting housing prices. Transportation factors have more significant effects in the short run than in the long run. Environmental factors, including the number of hot night hours, Annual Air Quality Index (AAQI) of nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) and particulates with particle sizes less than 10 microns (PM₁₀), significantly affect housing prices over time. The results have important implications: current policy instruments to prevent housing price escalation are focused on increasing property tax or land supply (economic factors), while little attention is paid to social or environmental factors, which are geographically heterogeneous. Our findings suggest that housing provision in the New Territories may be a feasible solution to alleviate the housing crisis as its demographic pattern, transportation connectivity and air quality are significantly different from Hong Kong Island or Kowloon Peninsula. In regard to urban environmental problems brought by the high-density development in Hong Kong despite land-use saving, intensified urban infrastructure and promotion of public transportation, our study contributes to the understanding of its housing price dynamics from a more holistic perspective by comparing the impacts of economic, social and environmental factors.