Research on Environmental Pollution regulation in China’s Construction Industry

China has proposed the notion of sustainable development in the framework of a hazardous society in response to global environmental challenges. Research on regulatory concerns is critical for ensuring the application of the concept of sustainable development in the building industry. China’s regulation, on the other hand, suffers from a lack of supply and an ambiguous value orientation. The former is a symptom of the current regulatory structure, whereas the latter is the root of the problem. To overcome the value-oriented dilemma, some studies plan to conduct research using the logic of the norm. This has the disadvantage of having a limited field of vision. The interaction between man and nature should be considered while examining value orientation. When anthropocentrism, ecocentrism, and anthropocentrism in ecology are compared to the environmental legislation in my nation, it is clear that anthropocentrism in ecology is the value orientation that should be followed at the moment. Three challenges that require attention are presented based on this value orientation, as well as the uniqueness of the construction industry and risk society theory.

Evident PM_2.5 drops in the east of China due to the COVID-19 quarantine measures in February

The top-level emergency response to the COVID-19 pandemic involved exhaustive quarantine measures in China. The impacts of the COVID-19 quarantine on the decline in fine particulate matter (PM2.5) were quantitatively assessed based on numerical simulations and observations in February. Relative to both February 2017 and the climate mean, anomalous southerlies and moister air occurred in the east of China in February 2020, which caused considerable PM2.5 anomalies. Thus, it is a must to disentangle the contributions of stable meteorology from the effects of the COVID-19 lockdown. The contributions of routine emission reductions were also quantitatively extrapolated. The top-level emergency response substantially alleviated the level of haze pollution in the east of China. Although climate variability elevated the PM2.5 by 29 % (relative to 2020 observations), a 59 % decline related to the COVID-19 pandemic and a 20 % decline from the expected pollution regulation dramatically exceeded the former in North China. The COVID-19 quarantine measures decreased the PM2.5 in the Yangtze River Delta by 72 %. In Hubei Province where most pneumonia cases were confirmed, the impact of total emission reduction (72 %) evidently exceeded the rising percentage of PM2.5 driven by meteorology (13 %).

Going Beneath the Surface: Petroleum Pollution, Regulation, and Health

This paper quantifies the health impacts of petroleum leaks from underground storage tanks, the effectiveness of tank regulation, and the role of information as a policy tool in the same setting. Exposure to a leaking underground storage tank during gestation increases both the probability of low birthweight and preterm birth by 7–8 percent. Compliance with regulations requiring the adoption of preventative technologies mitigated the entire effect of leak exposure on low birthweight, and information increased avoidance and moving among highly educated mothers. Back-of-the-envelope calculations suggest the health benefits of preventative regulations exceed the upgrade cost to facilities. (JEL I12, K32, L71, L78, Q35, Q51, Q53)

Conservation cobenefits from air pollution regulation: Evidence from birds

Massive wildlife losses over the past 50 y have brought new urgency to identifying both the drivers of population decline and potential solutions. We provide large-scale evidence that air pollution, specifically ozone, is associated with declines in bird abundance in the United States. We show that an air pollution regulation limiting ozone precursors emissions has delivered substantial benefits to bird conservation. Our estimates imply that air quality improvements over the past 4 decades have stemmed the decline in bird populations, averting the loss of 1.5 billion birds, ∼20% of current totals. Our results highlight that in addition to protecting human health, air pollution regulations have previously unrecognized and unquantified conservation cobenefits.

Assessment of port environmental protection in Taiwan

Purpose There are many different pollution reduction strategies even within different ports in the same country. Every port can learn from these environmental protection strategies. What remains universally key, though, is to select the optimum strategy to reduce pollution. This paper aims to use a fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (FAHP) to prioritize the relative weights of key criteria assessing the port environmental protection and select the best port in Taiwan. Design/methodology/approach Four criteria and eleven sub-criteria of the FAHP model are developed through expert interviews and relevant literature review. Three alternative ports considered are Kaohsiung, Keelung and Taichung. The expert questionnaire samples (23) include four groups: shipping operators, port operators, governmental officials and academics. Findings Results indicate that finance is the most important evaluation criteria, followed by port environmental policy, technology and stakeholders. Among the three ports compared, Kaohsiung port is selected as the best port, followed by Keelung and Taichung port. Originality/value The result of this paper can help fill the gap in the existing literature regarding decision analysis techniques for port pollution regulation and expect to present a holistic picture of the important evaluation criteria related to port environmental protection as well as raise issues of public awareness concern and consequently improve green port sustainability.

Combining Cluster Analysis of Air Pollution and Meteorological Data with Receptor Model Results for Ambient PM2.5 and PM10

Air pollution regulation requires knowing major sources on any given zone, setting specific controls, and assessing how health risks evolve in response to those controls. Receptor models (RM) can identify major sources: transport, industry, residential, etc. However, RM results are typically available for short term periods, and there is a paucity of RM results for developing countries. We propose to combine a cluster analysis (CA) of air pollution and meteorological measurements with a short-term RM analysis to estimate a long-term, hourly source apportionment of ambient PM2.5 and PM10. We have developed a proof of the concept for this proposed methodology in three case studies: a large metropolitan zone, a city with dominant residential wood burning (RWB) emissions, and a city in the middle of a desert region. We have found it feasible to identify the major sources in the CA results and obtain hourly time series of their contributions, effectively extending short-term RM results to the whole ambient monitoring period. This methodology adds value to existing ambient data. The hourly time series results would allow researchers to apportion health benefits associated with specific air pollution regulations, estimate source-specific trends, improve emission inventories, and conduct environmental justice studies, among several potential applications.

Pollution Regulation of Competitive Markets

We develop a model of oligopolistic firms that produce partially differentiated products and generate pollution as a byproduct. We analyze and compare two types of pollution regulation: Cap-and-Trade and Taxes. Firms can respond to regulation by any combination of pollution abatement, output reduction, emissions trading (under Cap-and-Trade), or payment of pollution taxes (under Taxes). We prove that well-chosen regulation can, besides reducing pollution, actually improve firms’ profits relative to laissez-faire (unregulated markets), and simultaneously improve consumer surplus and welfare. Thus, regulation Pareto-dominates laissez-faire under a wide range of plausible conditions. These results are driven by an unintended consequence of pollution regulation: Competing firms can use the regulation to tacitly (and credibly) collude to reduce production and improve their profits. We show that the degree of competition plays a critical role in determining the economic consequences of pollution regulation. Our results suggest that the regulator’s primary consideration should be the impact of regulation on consumers rather than producers. This paper was accepted by Vishal Gaur, operations management.

Evident PM_2.5 Drops in the East of China due to the COVID-19 Quarantines in February

The top-level emergency response to the COVID-19 pandemic involved an exhaustive quarantine in China. The impacts of COVID-19 quarantine on the decline in fine particulate matter (PM2.5) were quantitatively assessed based on numerical simulations and observations in February. The stable meteorological conditions in February 2020 caused considerable PM2.5 anomalies that were eliminated in advance. The contributions of routine emission reductions were also quantitatively extrapolated. The top-level emergency response substantially alleviated the level of haze pollution in the east of China. Although climate variability elevated the PM2.5 by 29 % (relative to 2020 observations), 59 % decline related to COVID-19 pandemic and 20 % decline from the expected pollution regulation dramatically exceeded the former in North China. The COVID-19 quarantine measures decreased the PM2.5 in Yangtze River Delta by 72 %. In Hubei Province where most pneumonia cases were confirmed, the impact of total emission reduction (72 %) evidently exceeded the rising percentage of PM2.5 driven by meteorology (13 %).