18 research outputs found
Relationship between Air Pollutants and Economic Development of the Provincial Capital Cities in China during the Past Decade
<div><p>With the economic development of China, air pollutants are also growing rapidly in recent decades, especially in big cities of the country. To understand the relationship between economic condition and air pollutants in big cities, we analysed the socioeconomic indictorssuch as Gross Regional Product per capita (GRP per capita), the concentration of air pollutants (PM<sub>10</sub>, SO<sub>2</sub>, NO<sub>2)</sub> and the air pollution index (API) from 2003 to 2012 in 31 provincial capitals of mainland China. The three main industries had a quadratic correlation with NO<sub>2</sub>, but a negative relationship with PM<sub>10</sub> and SO<sub>2</sub>. The concentration of air pollutants per ten thousand yuan decreased with the multiplying of GRP in the provinical cities. The concentration of air pollutants and API in the provincial capital cities showed a declining trend or inverted-U trend with the rise of GRP per capita, which provided a strong evidence for the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC), that the environmental quality first declines, then improves, with the income growth. The results of this research improved our understanding of the alteration of atmospheric quality with the increase of social economy and demonstrated the feasibility of sustainable development for China.</p></div
Regression for concentration of PM<sub>10</sub>, SO<sub>2</sub>, NO<sub>2</sub>, API and GRP per capita (panel data of all provincial cities).
<p>* P<0.05; ** P<0.01.</p
Annual mean concentration of PM<sub>10</sub>, SO<sub>2</sub> and NO<sub>2</sub> from 2003 to 2012 in different province capitals of mainland China (bar charts on the Chinese map).
<p>Four line charts represent the relationships between annual mean air pollutant and GRP per capita of the East, Central, Northeast and West China respectively from 2003 to 2012.</p
Maps of world PM<sub>2.5</sub> (µg m<sup>−3</sup>) and GRP per capita ($) during 2001 to 2006.
<p>(a) PM<sub>2.5</sub>, downloaded from NASA website and reproduced with permission from its authors and publisher (van Donkelaar et al., 2010); (b) GRP per capital, derived from the World Development Indicators of the World Bank (<a href="http://data.worldbank.org/country" target="_blank">http://data.worldbank.org/country</a>).</p
Air pollutant concentrations as related to the output per capita of three industries in the provincial capitals of China.
<p>(a) The output per capita of the primary industry; (b) The output per capita of the secondary industry; (c) The output per capita of the tertiary industry.</p
Regression for concentration of PM<sub>10</sub>, SO<sub>2</sub>, NO<sub>2</sub> and the three main industries.
<p>* P<0.05; ** P<0.01.</p
Regression curves between GRP per capita and air pollutant index (PM<sub>10</sub>, SO<sub>2</sub>, NO<sub>2</sub>, API) in four economic regions during 2003–2012.
<p>The blue line is the regression line and the pink area the 95% confidence limits.</p
Concentration of PM<sub>10</sub> in cities of different continents.
<p>Concentration of PM<sub>10</sub> in cities of different continents.</p
Consideration of climate change impacts will improve the efficiency of protected areas on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau
The protection of migratory birds and their habitats is important to the ecological stability of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP). Currently protected areas (PAs) were designed in accordance with species distribution patterns under current climatic conditions, thus ignoring climate change will lead to a decrease in the protection efficiency of PAs. In this study, using the flagship species Grus nigricollis, as an example, we used the maximum entropy (MaxEnt) model to simulate the distributions and conservation status of G. nigricollis and optimized the existing PA boundaries . The results showed that (1) suitable habitat- for G. nigricollis accounts for 12.48% of the QTP area, and the PAs established under current climatic conditions cover 17.84% of this suitable habitat area; (2) future climate changes will influence the distribution and quality of G. nigricollis habitats, and the average protection efficiency of the current PAs in four climatic scenarios will decrease from 17.84% to 15.31%; and (3) through optimization, the efficiency of existing PAs can be increased by 0.75 times and reach 28.37%, indicating PA planning must consider not only current climate conditions but also the effects of climate changes. Our results aim to address shortcomings in the conservation efficiency of PAs and provide an example for resolving mismatched PA boundaries and habitat changes for species.</p
Characteristics of three rivers in China.
<p>Characteristics of three rivers in China.</p