Climate change and urbanization in the Yangtze River Delta

The cities of the Yangtze River Delta are densely populated with large amounts of wealth, for which reason they are faced with greater disaster risks brought by climate change. As a major research tool on climate change policies, vulnerability assessment provides reference for adaptive management. Based on literature review and case study, the paper first constructs the overall vulnerability assessment model for cities of the Yangtze River Delta by utilizing the indices of sensitivity and adaptability. Then, it assesses 16 typical cities of this region through factor analysis, an objective evaluation method, analyzes the driving factors of climate vulnerability in each city and conducts group comparisons according to their sensitivity and adaptability. Finally, it points out the importance of cities’ adaptability to climate change under multiple pressures of climate change, population growth and urbanization in the future, and gives some suggestions, such as strengthening risk assessment on climate change, including climate-proofing measures in urban development planning, protecting climatically vulnerable groups in cities, enhancing comprehensive capacities for disaster management in cities and encouraging the R&D and innovation on adaptation technologies.

Download Full-text

Climate Change Increased The Compound Extreme Precipitation-Flood Events In A Representative Watershed of The Yangtze River Delta, China

10.21203/rs.3.rs-1101769/v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Yuxiu He ◽

Qiang Wang ◽

Youpeng Xu ◽

Ziyi Li ◽

Jia Yuan ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Frequency Analysis ◽

Return Period ◽

Extreme Events ◽

Extreme Precipitation ◽

Yangtze River ◽

Yangtze River Delta ◽

River Delta ◽

The Yangtze River ◽

The Yangtze River Delta

Abstract A compound perspective on hydrological extreme events is of paramount significance as it may lead to damages with larger losses. In this study, an integrated framework, based on downscaled climate variables and hydrological model, i.e. the Soil and Water Assessment Tool, was applied to generate extreme precipitation (Rx1day) and extreme streamflow (Sx1day) series under historical and future climate conditions. Then the potential impacts of climate change for univariate and bivariate joint frequency of extreme precipitation and flood in Xitiaoxi River Basin (XRB), a representative watershed of the Yangtze River Delta, is detected. The compound risk of extreme precipitation and flood under different levels of joint return period for historical and projected periods are estimated by copula‐based two-dimensional approaches. Major findings can be summarized: (1) The Rx1day and Sx1day under future scenarios increased by -0.4 ~ 11.7% and 0.7 ~ 20.4%, respectively, compared to historical period based on univariate frequency analysis, indicating the increasing magnitude of the flood in the future. (2) Climate change with different emission scenarios all have a driving effect on the rising coactivity of extreme precipitation and flood under compound flooding frequency analysis. In addition, the enhancement of climate change to extreme events is more apparent for extremes with higher return period and under the periods of 2080s. (3) Moreover, the flood frequency designs are deduced by bivariate joint distribution are safer than that by univariate distribution. This study may provide actionable insights to formulate the planning scheme of flood control and disaster reduction under the changing environment.

Download Full-text

Climate change and residential electricity consumption in the Yangtze River Delta, China

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ◽

10.1073/pnas.1804667115 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 116 (2) ◽

pp. 472-477 ◽

Cited By ~ 25

Author(s):

Yating Li ◽

William A. Pizer ◽

Libo Wu

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Yangtze River ◽

Electricity Consumption ◽

The United States ◽

Yangtze River Delta ◽

River Delta ◽

The Yangtze River ◽

Residential Electricity ◽

Residential Electricity Consumption ◽

The Yangtze River Delta

Estimating the impact of climate change on energy use across the globe is essential for analysis of both mitigation and adaptation policies. Yet existing empirical estimates are concentrated in Western countries, especially the United States. We use daily data on household electricity consumption to estimate how electricity consumption would change in Shanghai in the context of climate change. For colder days <7 °C, a 1 °C increase in daily temperature reduces electricity consumption by 2.8%. On warm days >25 °C, a 1 °C increase in daily temperatures leads to a 14.5% increase in electricity consumption. As income increases, households’ weather sensitivity remains the same for hotter days in the summer but increases during the winter. We use this estimated behavior in conjunction with a collection of downscaled global climate models (GCMs) to construct a relationship between future annual global mean surface temperature (GMST) changes and annual residential electricity consumption. We find that annual electricity consumption increases by 9.2% per +1 °C in annual GMST. In comparison, annual peak electricity use increases by as much as 36.1% per +1 °C in annual GMST. Although most accurate for Shanghai, our findings could be most credibly extended to the urban areas in the Yangtze River Delta, covering roughly one-fifth of China’s urban population and one-fourth of the gross domestic product.

Download Full-text