Evaluating the energy efficiency of wastewater treatment plants in the Yangtze River Delta: Perspectives on regional discrepancies

Energy efficiency is the key to green development, and the government plays a vital role in energy efficiency. This paper clarifies the mechanism by which the Yangtze River Delta Economic Coordination Committee affects the energy efficiency of urban agglomeration by promoting market integration. Based on panel data of China's prefecture-level cities from 2004 to 2017, we take the Yangtze River Delta Economic Coordination Committee as a quasi-natural experiment of government cooperation and use the difference-in-difference method to test whether this organization has enhanced the energy efficiency of urban agglomeration. The results show that the Yangtze River Delta Economic Coordination Committee can significantly improve energy efficiency in urban agglomerations. The mechanism analysis shows that it reduces the energy consumption per unit of gross domestic product by enhancing the marketization level, perfecting the relationship between the government and the market, and improving the factor market development. The heterogeneity analysis shows that cities with lower city size, lower level of innovation, and cleaner industrial structures gain more benefits in energy efficiency from government cooperation in urban agglomeration. This paper provides empirical evidence for cities to realize integrated energy conservation through government cooperation and market integration.

Download Full-text

Industrial Energy Efficiency with CO2 Emissions in the Yangtze River Delta, China: A Nonparametric Analysis

IOP Conference Series Earth and Environmental Science ◽

10.1088/1755-1315/170/3/032125 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 170 ◽

pp. 032125

Author(s):

Bojun Zhong ◽

Jigan Wang ◽

Chuanhao Fan ◽

Yingqiu Li ◽

Zhencheng Xing

Keyword(s):

Energy Efficiency ◽

Co2 Emissions ◽

Yangtze River ◽

Yangtze River Delta ◽

River Delta ◽

Nonparametric Analysis ◽

The Yangtze River ◽

Industrial Energy ◽

Industrial Energy Efficiency ◽

The Yangtze River Delta

Download Full-text

Current Status and Temporal Trend of Potentially Toxic Elements Pollution in Agricultural Soil in the Yangtze River Delta Region: A Meta-Analysis

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ◽

10.3390/ijerph18031033 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 18 (3) ◽

pp. 1033

Author(s):

Shufeng She ◽

Bifeng Hu ◽

Xianglin Zhang ◽

Shuai Shao ◽

Yefeng Jiang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Yangtze River ◽

Agricultural Soil ◽

Toxic Elements ◽

Temporal Trend ◽

Meta Analysis ◽

Yangtze River Delta ◽

Potentially Toxic Elements ◽

River Delta ◽

The Yangtze River ◽

The Yangtze River Delta

Potentially toxic elements (PTEs) pollution in the agricultural soil of China, especially in developed regions such as the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) in eastern China, has received increasing attention. However, there are few studies on the long-term assessment of soil pollution by PTEs over large regions. Therefore, in this study, a meta-analysis was conducted to evaluate the current state and temporal trend of PTEs pollution in the agricultural land of the Yangtze River Delta. Based on a review of 118 studies published between 1993 and 2020, the average concentrations of Cd, Hg, As, Pb, Cr, Cu, Zn, and Ni were found to be 0.25 mg kg−1, 0.14 mg kg−1, 8.14 mg kg−1, 32.32 mg kg−1, 68.84 mg kg−1, 32.58 mg kg−1, 92.35 mg kg−1, and 29.30 mg kg−1, respectively. Among these elements, only Cd and Hg showed significant accumulation compared with their background values. The eastern Yangtze River Delta showed a relatively high ecological risk due to intensive industrial activities. The contents of Cd, Pb, and Zn in soil showed an increasing trend from 1993 to 2000 and then showed a decreasing trend. The results obtained from this study will provide guidance for the prevention and control of soil pollution in the Yangtze River Delta.

Download Full-text

The Evolution of the Interactive Relationship between Urbanization and Land-Use Transition: A Case Study of the Yangtze River Delta

Land ◽

10.3390/land10080804 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 (8) ◽

pp. 804

Author(s):

Bo Niu ◽

Dazhuan Ge ◽

Rui Yan ◽

Yingyi Ma ◽

Dongqi Sun ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Land Use Change ◽

Yangtze River ◽

Yangtze River Delta ◽

River Delta ◽

Socioeconomic Factor ◽

The Yangtze River ◽

Land Use Transition ◽

The Yangtze River Delta ◽

Interaction Relationship

In recent years, the impact of land-use systems on global climate change has become increasingly significant, and land-use change has become a hot issue of concern to academics, both within China and abroad. Urbanization, as an important socioeconomic factor, plays a vital role in promoting land-use transition, which also shows a significant spatial dependence on urbanization. This paper constructs a theoretical framework for the interaction relationship between urbanization and land-use transition, taking the Yangtze River Delta as an example, and measures the level of urbanization from the perspective of population urbanization, economic urbanization and social urbanization, while also evaluating the level of land-use morphologies from the perspective of dominant and recessive morphologies of land-use. We construct a PVAR model and coupled coordination model based on the calculated indexes for empirical analysis. The results show that the relationship between urbanization and land-use transition is not a simple linear relationship, but tends to be complex with the process of urbanization, and reasonable urbanization and land-use morphologies will promote further benign coupling in the system. By analyzing the interaction relationship between urbanization and land-use transition, this study enriches the study of land-use change and provides new pathways for thinking about how to promote high-quality urbanization.

Download Full-text