scholarly journals Spatial heterogeneity and driving forces of environmental productivity growth in China: Would it help to switch pollutant discharge fees to environmental taxes?

2019 ◽  
Vol 223 ◽  
pp. 36-44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jiayu Wang ◽  
Ke Wang ◽  
Xunpeng Shi ◽  
Yi-Ming Wei
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 1870
Author(s):  
Xuan Zhao ◽  
Jianjun Liu ◽  
Yuankun Bu

Clarifying the spatial heterogeneity of urban heat island (UHI) effect is of great significance for promoting sustainable urban development. A GeoDetector was used to detect the influential natural and society factors. Natural factors (normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), soil-regulating vegetation index (SAVI), normalized building index (NDBI), and modified normalized difference water index (MNDWI)) as well as society factors (road density (RDD), and population density (POPD)) were selected as driving factors to be tested for their explanatory power for land surface temperature (LST). Results indicated that the Moran’s I index value for the LST of the built-up area is 0.778. The top three factors influencing the LST were NDBI, NDVI, and SAVI, the explanatory power of which was 0.7593, 0.6356, and 0.6356, respectively. The interactive explanatory power for NDBI and MNDWI was 0.8108 and for NDBI and RDD was 0.8002, these two interactions are double enhanced interaction relationships. The results of this study play a guiding role in the development of urban thermal environment regulation schemes and ecological environment planning.


2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 281
Author(s):  
Qianqian Zhao ◽  
Qiao Fan ◽  
Pengfei Zhou

The investigation of township consumption patterns has become highly significant in order to emphasize the importance of township consumption patterns in economic development and policy formulation. To attain township consumption development in underdeveloped areas is a significant way to meet the general criterion of “rich life” under China’s Rural Revitalization strategy. The primary objective of this study is to evaluate the driving forces that contribute to the development of township consumption in underdeveloped areas such as Gansu Province, China, and then scientifically design and implement a strategy for township consumption development in Gansu, all of which are related to the broader interests of rural revitalization. The study used 1233 township data of Gansu Province, China. The study integrated geographically weighted regression (GWR) and a spatial econometric global (SEG) model for data analysis and interpretation. The integration of these two models can comprehensively capture both spatial heterogeneity and spatial independence concurrently. First, we conducted integrated analyses of GWR and SEG models using consistent settings of spatial weight matrix elements, with GWR focusing on spatial heterogeneity and SEG models on spatial spillover. Second, the permanent resident population, the number of financial institution outlets, the types of townships, and the characteristics of townships had a substantial significant effect on the development of township consumption in Gansu, China. In addition, the ratio of residents with access to basic medical insurance was found to be negatively significant. The revitalization strategy for township consumption in Gansu Province, China should prioritize increasing the permanent resident population of townships, accelerating the development of township urbanization, accelerating the construction of township consumption infrastructures, and strengthening financial support from township financial institutions.


Author(s):  
Shixiong Cheng ◽  
Jiahui Xie ◽  
De Xiao ◽  
Yun Zhang

Since air pollution is an important factor hindering China’s economic development, China has passed a series of bills to control air pollution. However, we still lack an understanding of the status of environmental efficiency in regard to air pollution, especially PM2.5 (diameter of fine particulate matter less than 2.5 μm) pollution. Using panel data on ten major Chinese city groups from 2004 to 2016, we first estimate the environmental efficiency of PM2.5 by epsilon-based measure (EBM) meta-frontier model. The results show that there are large differences in PM2.5 environmental efficiency between cities and city groups. The cities with the highest environmental efficiency are the most economically developed cities and the city group with the highest environmental efficiency is mainly the eastern city group. Then, we use the meta-frontier Malmquist EBM model to measure the meta-frontier Malmquist total factor productivity index (MMPI) in each city group. The results indicate that, overall, China’s environmental total factor productivity declined by 3.68% and 3.49% when considering or not the influence of outside sources, respectively. Finally, we decompose the MMPI into four indexes, namely, the efficiency change (EC) index, the best practice gap change (BPC) index, the pure technological catch-up (PTCU) index, and the frontier catch-up (FCU) index. We find that the trend of the MMPI is consistent with those of the BPC and PTCU indexes, which indicates that the innovation effect of the BPC and PTCU indexes are the main driving forces for productivity growth. The EC and FCU effect are the main forces hindering productivity growth.


Author(s):  
P. R. Okamoto ◽  
N.Q. Lam ◽  
R. L. Lyles

During irradiation of thin foils in a high voltage electron microscope (HVEM) defect gradients will be set up between the foil surfaces and interior. In alloys defect gradients provide additional driving forces for solute diffusion since any preferential binding and/or exchange between solute atoms and mobile defects will couple a net flux of solute atoms to the defect fluxes. Thus, during irradiation large nonequilibrium compositional gradients can be produced near the foil surfaces in initially homogeneous alloys. A system of coupled reaction-rate and diffusion equations describing the build up of mobile defects and solute redistribution in thin foils and in a semi-infinite medium under charged-particle irradiation has been formulated. Spatially uniform and nonuniform damage production rates have been used to model solute segregation under electron and ion irradiation conditions.An example calculation showing the time evolution of the solute concentration in a 2000 Å thick foil during electron irradiation is shown in Fig. 1.


2013 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert J. Barth

Abstract Scientific findings have indicated that psychological and social factors are the driving forces behind most chronic benign pain presentations, especially in a claim context, and are relevant to at least three of the AMA Guides publications: AMA Guides to Evaluation of Disease and Injury Causation, AMA Guides to Work Ability and Return to Work, and AMA Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment. The author reviews and summarizes studies that have identified the dominant role of financial, psychological, and other non–general medicine factors in patients who report low back pain. For example, one meta-analysis found that compensation results in an increase in pain perception and a reduction in the ability to benefit from medical and psychological treatment. Other studies have found a correlation between the level of compensation and health outcomes (greater compensation is associated with worse outcomes), and legal systems that discourage compensation for pain produce better health outcomes. One study found that, among persons with carpal tunnel syndrome, claimants had worse outcomes than nonclaimants despite receiving more treatment; another examined the problematic relationship between complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) and compensation and found that cases of CRPS are dominated by legal claims, a disparity that highlights the dominant role of compensation. Workers’ compensation claimants are almost never evaluated for personality disorders or mental illness. The article concludes with recommendations that evaluators can consider in individual cases.


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