scholarly journals Rapid Evaluation of the Effects of Policies Corresponding to Air Quality, Carbon Emissions and Energy Consumption: An Example from Shenzhen, China

Atmosphere ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (9) ◽  
pp. 1221
Author(s):  
Shi-Qi Yang ◽  
Jia Xing ◽  
Wen-Ying Chen ◽  
Fen Li ◽  
Yun Zhu

Efficient environmental policies are necessary in the improvement of air quality and reduction in carbon emissions, and the interactions between policy, activity, emissions, and environment comprise a cycle allowing the evaluation of the effects of implemented policies. Based on the establishment of the connection between environmental parameters and policy context using a quantifiable methodology, in this study, we formulated a rapid and simplified pattern for the evaluation of the effects of policies concerning the atmospheric environment, and applied it to the evaluation and improvement of policies for Carbon dioxide (CO2) reduction and air quality enhancement in the sample city of Shenzhen. The Response Surface Model-Visualization and Analysis Tool (RSM-VAT) in the Air Benefit and Cost and Attainment Assessment System (ABaCAS) was applied as the core tool. The required reductions in Fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and Sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions for 2014–2019 are expected to be achieved; however, the expected reductions in Nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions (mainly from road mobile sources) and Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emissions (mainly from secondary industry and road mobile sources) are less certain. According to the simulated concentration of PM2.5 in 2019, it is necessary to reduce the concentrations of air pollutants, both within and outside Shenzhen. The background weather conditions may be the main reason for the increased concentrations of Ozone (O3) in October compared to those in July. Reductions in NOx and VOCs tend to be the main factors driving changes in O3 concentrations. Policies have been formulated and implemented in a wide array of areas. According to the quantitative comparative analysis of the policies, and the relevant activities, the greatest challenge in reducing NOx and VOCs emissions is presented by the oil-powered vehicles in the road mobile sector and organic solvent production in the secondary industry sector. Therefore, in an effort to achieve better air quality and ensure that CO2 emissions reach a peak in Shenzhen by 2025, we propose key improvements in policies based on interdisciplinary cooperation, involving not only atmospheric and environmental science, but also governance and urban planning.

Atmosphere ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 119
Author(s):  
Chenlu Tao ◽  
Zhilin Liao ◽  
Mingxing Hu ◽  
Baodong Cheng ◽  
Gang Diao

The conflict between economic growth and environmental pollution has become a considerable bottleneck to future development throughout the world. The industrial structure may become the possible key factor in resolving the contradiction. Using the daily data of air quality from January to April in 2019 and 2020, we used the DID model to identify the effects of industrial structure on air quality by taking the COVID-19 pandemic as a quasi-experiment. The results show that, first, the impact of profit of the secondary industry on air quality is ten times higher than that of the tertiary industry. Therefore, the secondary industry is the main factor causing air pollution. Second, the effect of the reduction in the secondary industry on the improvement of air quality is better than that of the tertiary industry in Beijing. Therefore, the implementation of Beijing’s non-capital function relief policy is timely and reasonable, and the adjustment of the industrial structure is effective in the improvement of air quality. Third, PM2.5, NO2, and CO are affected by the secondary and tertiary industries, where PM2.5 is affected most seriously by the second industry. Therefore, the transformation from the secondary industry to the tertiary industry can not only solve the problem of unemployment but also relieve the haze. Fourth, the result of O3 is in opposition to other pollutants. The probable reason is that the decrease of PM2.5 would lead to an increase in the O3 concentration. Therefore, it is difficult to reduce O3 concentrationby production limitation and it is urgent to formulate scientific methods to deal with O3 pollution. Fifth, the air quality in the surrounding areas can also influence Beijing. As Hebei is a key area to undertake Beijing’s industry, the deterioration of its air quality would also bring pressure to Beijing’s atmospheric environment. Therefore, in the process of industrial adjustment, the selection of appropriate regions for undertaking industries is very essential, which is worth our further discussion.


Atmosphere ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 189
Author(s):  
Min He ◽  
Junhui Chen ◽  
Yuming He ◽  
Yuan Li ◽  
Qichao Long ◽  
...  

As one of the most populated regions in China, Sichuan province had been suffering from deteriorated air quality due to the dramatic growth of economy and vehicles in recent years. To deal with the increasingly serious air quality problem, Sichuan government agencies had made great efforts to formulate various control measures and policies during the past decade. In order to better understand the emission control progress in recent years and to guide further control policy formulation, the emission trends and source contribution characteristics of SO2, NOX, PM10 and PM2.5 from 2013 to 2017 were characterized by using emission factor approach in this study. The results indicated that SO2 emission decreased rapidly during 2013–2017 with total emission decreased by 52%. NOX emission decreased during 2013–2015 but started to increase slightly afterward. PM10 and PM2.5 emissions went down consistently during the study period, decreased by 26% and 25%, respectively. In summary, the contribution of power plants kept decreasing, while contribution of industrial combustion remained steady in the past 5 years. The contribution of industrial processes increased for SO2 emission, and decreased slightly for NOX, PM10 and PM2.5 emissions. The on-road mobile sources were the largest emission contributor for NOX, accounting for about 32–40%, and its contribution increased during 2013–2015 and then decreased. It was worth mentioning that nonroad mobile sources and natural gas fired boilers were becoming important NOX contributors in Sichuan. Fugitive dust were the key emission sources for PM10 and PM2.5, and the contribution kept increasing in the study period. Comparison results with other inventories, satellite data and ground observations indicated that emission trends developed in this research were relatively credible.


Author(s):  
Attila Simo ◽  
Simona Dzitac ◽  
Ioan Dzitac ◽  
Mihaela Frigura-Iliasa ◽  
Flaviu Mihai Frigura-Iliasa

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronald J. van der A ◽  
Bas Mijling ◽  
Jieying Ding ◽  
Maria Elissavet Koukouli ◽  
Fei Liu ◽  
...  

Abstract. Air quality observations by satellite instruments are spatially consistent, and have a regular temporal resolution, which make them very useful in studying long-term trends in atmospheric species. To monitor air quality trends in China for the period 2005–2015 we derive SO2 columns and NOx emissions on a provincial level with an unprecedented accuracy. To put these trends into perspective they are compared with public data on energy consumption and the environmental policies of China. We distinguish the effect of air quality regulations from economic growth by comparing them relatively to fossil fuel consumption. Pollutant levels, per unit of fossil fuel, are used to assess the effectiveness of air quality regulations. We note that the desulphurisation regulations enforced in 2005–2006 only had a significant effect in the years 2008–2009 when a much stricter control of the actual use of the installations began. For national NOx emissions a distinct decreasing trend is only visible since 2012, but the emission peak year differs from province to province. Unlike SO2, emissions of NOx are highly related to traffic. Furthermore, regulations for NOx emissions are partly decided on a provincial level. The last three years show both a reduction in SO2 and NOx emissions per fossil fuel unit, since the authorities have implemented several new environmental regulations. Despite an increasing fossil fuel consumption and a growing transport sector, the effects of air quality policy in China are clearly visible. Without the air quality regulations the concentration of SO2 would be almost 3 times higher and the NO2 concentrations would be at least 30 % higher than they are today in China.


2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 31
Author(s):  
Endang Satyawati ◽  
Mardanung Patmo Cahjono

Taxes are a financial source for state revenues, so that the tax authorities as the tax collector must perform outreach to tax payers and improve tax compliance. This study aims to determine the effect of the self-assessment system and the information system of taxation on tax payer compliance. The analysis tool used regression analysis to examine the effect of independent variables on the dependent variable. The result of research that the self-assessment system and the information system of taxation positive effect on tax compliance. The study is expected to contributed positively both to the tax office and can be used as a reference for further research.Keywords: self-assessment system, the information system of taxation, and tax compliancePajak adalah sumber keuangan untuk penerimaan negara, sehingga otoritas pajak sebagai pemungut pajak harus melakukan penjangkauan ke wajib pajak dan memperbaiki kepatuhan pajak. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui pengaruh sistem self-assessment dan sistem informasi perpajakan terhadap kepatuhan wajib pajak. Alat analisis yang digunakan adalah analisis regresi untuk menguji pengaruh variabel bebas terhadap variabel dependen. Hasil penelitian bahwa sistem self-assessment dan sistem informasi perpajakan berpengaruh positif terhadap kepatuhan pajak. Penelitian ini diharapkan dapat memberikan kontribusi positif baik terhadap kantor pajak maupun dapat dijadikan referensi untuk penelitian lebih lanjut.Kata kunci: sistem asesmen diri, sistem informasi perpajakan, dan kepatuhan pajak


2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (9) ◽  
pp. 180889 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhengqiu Zhu ◽  
Bin Chen ◽  
Sihang Qiu ◽  
Rongxiao Wang ◽  
Yiping Wang ◽  
...  

The chemical industry is of paramount importance to the world economy and this industrial sector represents a substantial income source for developing countries. However, the chemical plants producing inside an industrial district pose a great threat to the surrounding atmospheric environment and human health. Therefore, designing an appropriate and available air quality monitoring network (AQMN) is essential for assessing the effectiveness of deployed pollution-controlling strategies and facilities. As monitoring facilities located at inappropriate sites would affect data validity, a two-stage data-driven approach constituted of a spatio-temporal technique (i.e. Bayesian maximum entropy) and a multi-objective optimization model (i.e. maximum concentration detection capability and maximum dosage detection capability) is proposed in this paper. The approach aims at optimizing the design of an AQMN formed by gas sensor modules. Owing to the lack of long-term measurement data, our developed atmospheric dispersion simulation system was employed to generate simulated data for the above method. Finally, an illustrative case study was implemented to illustrate the feasibility of the proposed approach, and results imply that this work is able to design an appropriate AQMN with acceptable accuracy and efficiency.


2021 ◽  
Vol 248 ◽  
pp. 01042
Author(s):  
YanShan Yin ◽  
Jin Xu

At present, heavy metal elements in dust have great influence on air quality and human health,therefore, the content and influence of heavy metal elements on campus were studied. Firstly, PM10 and total dust in the autumn campus atmosphere were sampled for 10 consecutive days, and then digested by electric heating plate digestion method. Then, inductively coupled plasma emission spectrometer (ICP-OES) was used to detect and analyze the content and concentration ratio of seven heavy metal elements Cu, Pb, Cd, Zn, Cr, Hg and Ba in PM10 and total dust. Finally, through comparative analysis, it is concluded that heavy metal pollutants in the atmospheric environment are mainly Zn and Ba, and the concentrations of Cd, Zn and Ba are seriously exceeded, so the air quality in Xiqing District of Tianjin is poor, and the particle size distribution of Cd and Hg makes it easy to enter the human body, which is especially unfavorable to human health.


2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (6) ◽  
pp. 23-26
Author(s):  
Литвинова ◽  
Natalya Litvinova

The article presents the results of field studies of air quality depending on mobile sources of pollution. Studies of the carbon monoxide concentration was conducted for the climatic conditions of the South of Western Siberia. The object of the study was residential buildings. The studies were conducted under unfavorable wind speed. Processing of experimental data allowed to obtain the calculated dependences of dimensionless concentration of carbon monoxide (II) on the height of building’s facade under emissions from highways. According to the results of research a nomogram was constructed to determine the optimal air intake height of buildings located near roads of various traffic intensity. Research results and given recommendations allow considering external sources of pollution when designing ventilation of a building.


Author(s):  
Mehmetali AK ◽  
◽  
Aslı GÜNEŞ GÖLBEY ◽  

One of the most important environmental problems in today's world is climate change caused by greenhouse gases. Due to the increase in CO2 emissions from greenhouse gases, climate change is increasing and moving towards the point of no return. In this process, many ideas have been developed to combat climate change. One of these ideas is that cities should be sustainable. In order for cities to be sustainable, activities such as expanding the use of renewable energy resources in cities, increasing green and environmentally friendly transportation, improving air quality, and minimizing carbon emissions should be carried out. In this context, open green areas have important effects in terms of improving air quality, reducing the heat island effect in cities and especially keeping carbon emissions to a minimum. Thus, the efficiency and productivity of carbon capture and storage of green areas come to the fore. There are several methods to measure the carbon capture and storage efficiency of green areas and to evaluate their efficiency. In this study, the methods used in determining open green areas in cities and evaluating biomass productivity in these areas will be examined.


Author(s):  
Xue Jin ◽  
Ussif Rashid Sumaila ◽  
Kedong Yin ◽  
Zhichao Qi

The Ministry of Ecology and Environment of the People’s Republic of China formally proposed an environmental interview system in May 2014, which applies pressure on local governments to fulfill their responsibility toward environmental protection by conducting face-to-face public interviews with their officials. In this paper, 48 cities that were publicly interviewed from 2014–2020 were considered the experimental group and 48 cities surrounding them were the control group. First, the dynamic panel model is applied to initially determine the effect of the policy. Then, a regression discontinuity method (Sharp RD) is used to analyze the short-term and long-term effects and compare the reasons for the differences observed among the estimates of various types of samples. Finally, a series of robustness tests were also conducted. The results show that the environmental interview system can improve air quality. However, because an emergency short-term local governance system exists at present, the governance effect is not long-term and, therefore, not sustainable. Therefore, it suggests that the government should continue to improve the environmental interview system, establish an optimal environmental protection incentive mechanism, and encourage local governments to implement environmental protection policies effectively in the long term. The results of the research are of great significance to the environmental impact assessment system of the world, especially in countries with similar economic systems, which are facing a trade-off between economic growth and environmental sustainability.


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