scholarly journals A critical review of the variation in rainwater acidity in 24 Chinese cities during 1982–2018

Elem Sci Anth ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rui Qu ◽  
Guilin Han
Keyword(s):  
Acid Rain ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Fine Particulate Matter ◽  
Atmospheric Pollutants ◽  
Rapid Urbanization ◽  
Chinese Cities ◽  
Neutralization Capacity ◽  
Precipitation Ph ◽  
Alkaline Cations ◽  
Rainwater Acidity

Rainwater is an essential pathway to remove fine particulate matter and dissolved atmospheric pollutants (e.g., SO2, HNO3, and NH3). Acid rain (pH < 5.6) has been a severe environmental issue in China since the 1970s, adversely impacting ecosystem health. This study focuses on the influence of anthropogenically induced anions (SO42– and NO3–) and alkaline cations (Ca2+ and NH4+) on acid rain in Chinese cities. In this review, cities with high population density east of the Hu Huanyong Line that divides China geographically according to its uneven economic development were studied. Coastal and central areas of China to the east of the line are characterized by a much faster developing economy and rapid urbanization. The observed trends and spatial variability of acidity and chemical composition in rainwater are discussed in relation to industrialization and environmental changes in China. Over the past 3½ decades, the precipitation pH in the urban regions has exhibited reduced acidity. A mixed nitric–sulfuric acid rain type has become prominent due to the significant decrease in SO42– via desulfurization. Ca2+ levels have decreased, while NH4+ has increased slightly due to more vehicular transportation. In addition, the neutralization capacity of Ca2+ and NH4+ has decreased from north to south. Overall, the acid rain problem in Chinese cities has been alleviated in recent years.

scholarly journals Social Evaluation of Public Open Space Services and Their Impact on Well-Being: A Micro-Scale Assessment from a Coastal University

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (8) ◽  
pp. 4372
Author(s):  
Abdullah Addas ◽  
Ahmad Maghrabi
Keyword(s):  
Open Space ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Social Evaluation ◽  
Open Spaces ◽  
Rapid Urbanization ◽  
Public Open Space ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Public Open Spaces

Public open spaces services have been shown to be profoundly affected by rapid urbanization and environmental changes, and in turn, they have influenced socio-cultural relationships and human well-being. However, the impact of these changes on public open space services (POSS) remains unexplored, particularly in the Saudi Arabian context. This study examines the socio-cultural influence of POSS on the King Abdulaziz University campus, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and the impact of these services on well-being. A field survey and questionnaire were used to collect data. Non-parametric tests (Kruskal–Wallis and Mann–Whitney tests) were used to find significant differences in the importance of POSS as perceived by stakeholders based on socio-demographic attributes. Factor analysis was performed for 14 POSS to identify those that are most important. The study showed that (i) university stakeholders are closely linked to services provided by public open spaces (POS) and dependent on POSS, (ii) there were significant differences in the perceived importance of POSS according to gender, age, and social groups, and (iii) 70 to 90% of stakeholders reported POSS as having a positive impact on well-being. Thus, the findings will help design and plan POSS to meet the needs of society and promote well-being.

Capital Production and Social Equity: Finding Balance in Chinese Cities

2014 ◽  
pp. 28-35
Author(s):  
Andrew Liang
Keyword(s):  
Economic Reform ◽  
Capital Accumulation ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
Social Equity ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Global Market ◽  
Wealth Creation ◽  
Rapid Urbanization ◽  
Chinese Cities ◽  
The One

China’s massive capital accumulation, economic ascent and wealth production has largely been the result of their rapid urbanization effort. While it is indisputable that the country has largely succeeded in its economic reform efforts given its status as the world’s second largest economy and in that process lifted hundreds of millions of its population out of poverty, it has also, in that process, created severe social inequality and friction. This essay largely argues that Chinese cities are purpose-built financial instruments for capital accumulation, a result of the forces of globalization which could only have happened in sync with the time and space of a global economy. Though highly successful, so far the process has marginalized the objective of social integration into its performative matrix indexing. In this regard China has pursued an exploitive model of market driven urbanization and the resultant morphological and spatial attributes of the Chinese cities, while having achieved spectacular results on many levels, are nevertheless disjunctive. They are commodities of generic sameness that are mass-produced and exhibit the same anesthetizing effects of the spectacle that are ever prevalent in today’s global market production process, product and place. Recognizing that globalization and capitalism are here to stay in the immediate future, it begs the question if China, while having already undertaken extreme economic reform experimentations allowing it to now bask in its temporal success, will be able to leverage its acquired market knowledge and wealth creation to prospectively overcome the incredibly complex challenge of creating equitable cities in the future — ones that balance the demands of capital production on the one hand and social equity on the other — or rather will it sink deeper into the “neoliberal modern society” that it has already become.

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN POPULATION GROWTH WITH CHANGING LAND-USE PATTERN AND ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGES IN KOLKATA, WEST BENGAL

2021 ◽  
pp. 57-61
Author(s):  
Arunima Dasgupta
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Land Cover ◽  
Population Growth ◽  
Environmental Degradation ◽  
Urban Sprawl ◽  
West Bengal ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Capital City ◽  
Special Focus ◽  
Rapid Urbanization

Given that urbanization is considered as one of the most signicant anthropogenic alteration of the overall environment, the present study attempts to understand spatial-temporal characteristics of urban population growth and its implications on land-use as well as understanding their relationship with environmental degradation with special focus on the Kolkata, the capital city of West Bengal. Urbanization is one of the major driving forces behind the development of today's land-use and land cover system. A large number of contemporary urbanization has been characterized as urban sprawl namely in an extensive form of land-use for urban uses that have environmentally detrimental effects. There are indications of Urban sprawl and city expansion in our Study Area of Kolkata indicating expansion of settlements and built-up area and thus causing environmental degradation in the city area. The process of urbanization always had signicant implications that can affect cumulative changes in demographic characteristics and/or transformation of the physical environment; unplanned, unsystematic and rapid urbanization can cause intense impacts on various environmental aspects, specically on land and air and water. A thorough understanding of the dynamic relationship between urbanization and its generated land-cover changes thus becomes completely essential for managing environmental changes and enabling sustainability of the environment and its resources.

scholarly journals Linking atmospheric pollution to cryospheric change in the Third Pole region: current progress and future prospects

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 796-809 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shichang Kang ◽  
Qianggong Zhang ◽  
Yun Qian ◽  
Zhenming Ji ◽  
Chaoliu Li ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Atmospheric Pollution ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Temporal Variations ◽  
Global Perspective ◽  
Atmospheric Pollutants ◽  
Future Research ◽  
The Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Polar Regions ◽  
Research Framework ◽  
The Third

ABSTRACTThe Tibetan Plateau and its surroundings are known as the Third Pole (TP). This region is noted for its high rates of glacier melt and the associated hydrological shifts that affect water supplies in Asia. Atmospheric pollutants contribute to climatic and cryospheric changes through their effects on solar radiation and the albedos of snow and ice surfaces; moreover, the behavior and fates within the cryosphere and environmental impacts of environmental pollutants are topics of increasing concern. In this review, we introduce a coordinated monitoring and research framework and network to link atmospheric pollution and cryospheric changes (APCC) within the TP region. We then provide an up-to-date summary of progress and achievements related to the APCC research framework, including aspects of atmospheric pollution's composition and concentration, spatial and temporal variations, trans-boundary transport pathways and mechanisms, and effects on the warming of atmosphere and changing in Indian monsoon, as well as melting of glacier and snow cover. We highlight that exogenous air pollutants can enter into the TP’s environments and cause great impacts on regional climatic and environmental changes. At last, we propose future research priorities and map out an extended program at the global scale. The ongoing monitoring activities and research facilitate comprehensive studies of atmosphere–cryosphere interactions, represent one of China's key research expeditions to the TP and the polar regions and contribute to the global perspective of earth system science.

scholarly journals Effectiveness of short term air quality emission controls: A high-resolution model study of Beijing during the APEC period

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tabish Umar Ansari ◽  
Oliver Wild ◽  
Jie Li ◽  
Ting Yang ◽  
Weiqi Xu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Air Quality ◽  
High Resolution ◽  
Fine Particulate Matter ◽  
Meteorological Conditions ◽  
Atmospheric Pollutants ◽  
Small Contribution ◽  
Model Study ◽  
Emission Controls ◽  
Resolution Model ◽  
Current Emission

Abstract. We explore the impacts of emission controls on haze events in Beijing in October–November 2014 using high resolution WRF-Chem simulations. The model reproduces surface temperature and relative humidity profiles over the period well and captures the observed variations in key atmospheric pollutants. We highlight the sensitivity of simulated pollutant levels to meteorological variables and model resolution, and in particular to treatment of turbulent mixing in the planetary boundary layer. We note that simulating particle composition in the region remains a challenge, and we overpredict NH4 and NO3 at the expense of SO4. We find that the emission controls implemented for the APEC Summit period made a relatively small contribution to improved air quality (20–26 %), highlighting the important role played by favourable meteorological conditions over this period. We demonstrate that the same controls applied under less favourable meteorological conditions would have been insufficient to reduce pollutant levels to meet the required standards. Continued application of these controls over the 6-week period considered would only have reduced the number of haze days where daily-mean fine particulate matter exceeds 75 μg m−3 from 15 to 13 days. Our study highlights the limitations of current emission controls and the need for more stringent measures over a wider region during meteorologically stagnant weather.

scholarly journals The precipitation chemistry and acidity over China during 2018

2019 ◽  
Vol 136 ◽  
pp. 06020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaofang Jia ◽  
Jie Tang ◽  
Yong Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Acid Rain ◽  
Ph Value ◽  
Southern China ◽  
Eastern China ◽  
Precipitation Chemistry ◽  
Hunan Province ◽  
Observation Data ◽  
Rain Area ◽  
Chemistry Data ◽  
Precipitation Ph

This paper reports the acid rain observation data from 376 Acid Rain Monitoring stations and the precipitation chemistry data from 5 Global Atmosphere Watch stations of China Meteorological Administration(CMA) during 2018. The variation characteristics of acid rain in China and that of precipitation chemistry in Eastern China are discussed. The results show that the acid rain area in China is mainly distributed in the Southeast and South of China and dispersively in North and Southwest of China. Heavy acid rain area is only limited in Eastern part of Hunan province. The annual mean precipitation pH value of all stations in 2018 ranges from 3.73 to 8.07 and the national annual mean precipitation pH value is 5.94, which is higher than those of 2010-2017. The national annual mean precipitation conductivity is 47.7 μS·cm-1 with the higher conductivity in Northern China and lower in Southern China. Compared with 2010-2017, the acid rain pollution situation over China has been improving nationwide. The precipitation chemistry data shows that the concentration of sulfate is close to nitrate in precipitation and keeps decreasing in recent years.

scholarly journals Analysis on Change of Precipitation pH and Chemical Characteristics of Acid Rain in Liaoning Province (2007�2018)

2020 ◽  
Vol 71 (5) ◽  
pp. 491-505
Author(s):  
Zhou De-Ping ◽  
Wang Yan ◽  
Xie Yan-Bin ◽  
Wang Xiao-Ying ◽  
Wang Yang-Feng ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Acid Rain ◽  
Environmental Control ◽  
Ph Value ◽  
Weak Acid ◽  
Control Measures ◽  
Liaoning Province ◽  
Rain Area ◽  
Prone Area ◽  
Fundamental Reason ◽  
Precipitation Ph

Acid rain, as one of the outputs of toxic and harmful chemicals from factories, is a serious environmental problem, especially in China, which has harmful ecological consequences and has a direct impact on vegetation and human health. Based on the data of acid rain observation station of Liaoning Meteorological Bureau from 2007 to 2018, the variation of precipitation pH and the distribution of acid rain in Liaoning Province in the past 12 years were analyzed. The result shows: First, the average pH value of annual precipitation in Liaoning Province is 5.55, which belongs to weak acid rain area. The frequency of acid rain is 12.56%, and the ratio of acid rain to total precipitation is 15.48%. More than 1/5 of the stations are located in the acid rain prone area, among which Dalian and Dandong are seriously polluted, being close to the grade of acid rain frequent area. Second, from 2007 to 2018, the precipitation pH in Liaoning Province fluctuated and increased year by year, with an average annual increase of 0.077 pH, and the pollution of acid rain decreased year by year; especially after 2014, Liaoning Province has exited from weak acid rain area, with its precipitation pH tending to be neutral year by year. Third, acid rain pollution in Liaoning Province is most serious in winter, followed by autumn and summer; in the first six years (2007-2012), the pollution in February was the most serious, and in the last six years (2013-2018), the pollution in December was the most serious, which was significantly worse than the previous six years. Fourth, more efforts have been made to control air pollution in all parts of the country, and the annual decrease in acid precursor emissions is the fundamental reason for the variation of precipitation pH and the improvement of acid rain pollution in Liaoning Province, while the precipitation pH and acid rain distribution in Liaoning Province are sensitive to the relevant environmental control measures taken by the state in recent years. However, the change of acid rain pollution reminds us to attach great importance to new pollution components and causes.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document