中国における再生可能資源産業の産業成果に関する研究

広島大学(Hiroshima University)博士(経済学)Doctor of Economicsdoctora

Integrated human exposure to air pollution

The book “Integrated human exposure to air pollution” aimed to increase knowledge about human exposure in different micro-environments, or when citizens are performing specific tasks, to demonstrate methodologies for the understanding of pollution sources and their impact on indoor and ambient air quality, and, ultimately, to identify the most effective mitigation measures to decrease human exposure and protect public health. Taking advantage of the latest available tools, such as internet of things (IoT), low-cost sensors and a wide access to online platforms and apps by the citizens, new methodologies and approaches can be implemented to understand which factors can influence human exposure to air pollution. This knowledge, when made available to the citizens, along with the awareness of the impact of air pollution on human life and earth systems, can empower them to act, individually or collectively, to promote behavioral changes aiming to reduce pollutants’ emissions. Overall, this book gathers fourteen innovative studies that provide new insights regarding these important topics within the scope of human exposure to air pollution. A total of five main areas were discussed and explored within this book and, hopefully, can contribute to the advance of knowledge in this field

Sustainable Economic Development

This book is a pivotal publication that addresses the contemporary challenges of globalization and elaborate policy responses to environmental pollution, climate change, economic disruptions, poverty, hunger, and other threats to sustainable economic development. Many parts of the world, territories, and societies are now changing at an unprecedented pace in ways that fundamentally affect the markets, people, the environment, and biodiversity. Such changes are primarily driven by rapid social and economic developments, economic disparities between countries, the internationalization of production and value chains, and industrialization. Increasingly frequently, business interests are interfering with sustainable development goals. The issue is how to converge the economic benefits with the urgent need for establishing resilient production chains, social networks, sustainably-operating markets, and environmental protection. This publication highlights the need for the balanced economic development and comprehensive coverage of many sustainability–business areas. Economic, production, financial, and social factors of sustainability are discussed by over 90 contributors representing 40 universities and research institutions from seven countries. Their findings are translated into workable approaches and policies for the benefit of the global economy, people, and the environment

A Sustainable Revolution

The parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) attained the Paris Agreement to tackle climate change and to strengthen the actions required for a sustainable transition towards an environmentally friendly future. This transition will involve holistic approaches and multifaceted societal shifts, requiring answers and collaboration between private, public, and academic sectors. This book gathers together contributions which study the transition towards a more sustainable future, involving and identifying the development and implications of more sustainable alternatives, in collaboration with all relevant stakeholders (e.g. communities, firms, policy makers, researchers, etc.), to achieve this transition. The approaches proposed are all concerned with a common perspective: imaging our globe with a greener picture, built upon a transversal sustainable revolution to clean up the Earth

China’s Energy Economy: Reforms, Market Development, Factor Substitution and the Determinants of Energy Intensity

The ongoing transition of former communist countries from planned to market economies has been one of the most important economic phenomena in the last few decades. Among these, China is one of the largest and fastest growing emerging economies in the world since the reforms initiated in the late 1980s. China’s economic growth has been phenomenal. Therefore, understanding China’s energy economy is crucial in the new millennium for politicians, businessmen and energy economists. In particular, China’s energy policy directions will bring about both challenges and opportunities to the world in terms of an increasing share of primary energy consumption and investment in the energy industry. However, after surveying the literature, it is surprising to find that a few major areas of China’s energy economics are missing and the views on China’s energy economics are already out dated. Therefore, given the size and growth of its economy and the effect of its energy consumption on global energy markets, reviewing China’s energy situation and filling the missing literatures are essential for those who are interested in and concerned about China’s economic development in the new millennium. This study was motivated after conducting a survey of the literature on the study of China’s energy economy and reviewing China’s energy situation in the new millennium. The goal of the research is focused on providing readers the most important and the newest information on China’s energy economy. The study consists of three introductory sections and three core sections. The former includes a survey of literature, China’s energy situation in the new millennium, institutional evolution and changing energy prices. The latter includes tests for the emergence of an energy market in China, factor substitution and demand for energy, and technological change and the determinants of energy intensity. The main findings are as follows. China’s energy economy is still underdeveloped. It is crucial to review China’s energy situation in the new millennium. Energy, industrial deregulation and price reforms have been fast in China since the early 1990s. Empirical investigations have found evidence for the emergence of an energy market economy in China. The estimates demonstrate that there appears to be significant substitution possibilities between energy and labor when compared with international findings. Significant effects of substitution mainly come from the adoption of labor-intensive technology. Coal and electricity are significantly substitutable, while the demand for energy is elastic, in general. Finally, decomposing energy intensity shows that the budget constraint (a kind of price effect) reduces energy intensity while technological change increases energy intensity. These findings bring us to the following major implications. Firstly, it is important to understand the potential effect of new energy regulation and pricing mechanism on the future directions of China’s energy economy, which suggests that former predictions of China’s energy demand may have to be significantly discounted, and the potential effect on the global energy markets and emissions may need to be re-evaluated. Secondly, significant substitution between energy and labor is potentially good news as China possesses some of the most abundant labor sources in the world. However, because capital more easily substitutes for energy than labor, more policy incentives are needed for labor to substitute for energy. Thirdly, significant substitution between coal-electricity suggests that the effects of environmental taxes, however, may be smaller than expected due to the fact that most primary energy coming from coal. Also any shift from coal to electricity implies more investment in transmission lines rather than railways. Fourthly, energy constraints on energy supply may only slightly impede economic growth in China because the elasticity of substitution between energy and other factors is quite large compared to internationally. Fifthly, while many factors are responsible for the inelasticity of demand for energy, rising income may be one of the most important given the high levels of energy prices. Increasing energy prices may be unable to constrain energy consumption at present. Thus other energy policies need to be considered to encourage or depress certain types of energy consumption. Finally, reducing exports of energy-intensive commodities, reducing the high-level energy-using sectors, lowering capital investment and constraining imports of second-hand and obsolete equipment, would all help reduce growth in energy intensity. Politically, however, this may be at an unacceptable cost to economic growth. Although this study has conducted a series of investigations into the institutional changes and consumption behavior of China’s energy economy, continuous updating required as more data is continually added in a highly dynamic and changing environment. JEL Classifications: D24, O33, Q41

Renewable Energy Resource Assessment and Forecasting

In recent years, several projects and studies have been launched towards the development and use of new methodologies, in order to assess, monitor, and support clean forms of energy. Accurate estimation of the available energy potential is of primary importance, but is not always easy to achieve. The present Special Issue on ‘Renewable Energy Resource Assessment and Forecasting’ aims to provide a holistic approach to the above issues, by presenting multidisciplinary methodologies and tools that are able to support research projects and meet today’s technical, socio-economic, and decision-making needs. In particular, research papers, reviews, and case studies on the following subjects are presented: wind, wave and solar energy; biofuels; resource assessment of combined renewable energy forms; numerical models for renewable energy forecasting; integrated forecasted systems; energy for buildings; sustainable development; resource analysis tools and statistical models; extreme value analysis and forecasting for renewable energy resources

Transformations of Urbanising Delta Landscape

This dissertation argues that the floods following extreme precipitation result not only from very heavy rainfall but also from the significant impact of human activities on natural water systems. While most literature emphasises that the increasing magnitude of storm rainfall extends beyond the original protection standards of hydrologic facilities in highly populated delta cities. Based on the knowledge of urban morphology, this study analyses how human systems have affected the transformation of natural water processes in the Kaoping River Delta. The relationship between human environments and natural landscape is illustrated via a 3-layer analytical framework which consists of a natural landscape layer, an infrastructure layer and an occupation layer. This layer-based approach views landscapes as a whole system in which each element interacts with the others. In order to transcend the limitations of traditional urban morphology and the overlay-mapping method, this research initiates an analysis framework with the delta scale from a deductive perspective. Furthermore, it argues that the significant progress of infrastructure technology is the crucial factor to dominate the transformation of modern urban pattern. This influence could be identified by the analytic process of the 3-layer approach from the perspective of the delta or regional scale. This new starting point of a theoretical framework for analysing urban forms has been proved in the Kaoping Delta case. Furthermore, it could be a new and valid theoretical background to extend the knowledge of urban morphology. The formal transformation of the Kaoping Delta is divided into four main periods, which reveals human activities have affected the operation of natural systems since a century ago. From a delta scale perspective, those effects interacting between different layers can be identified in six different topographies (in italics) of the whole river catchment area. A. The dike system along the main stream in the plains protects delta cities against floods, which enables rapid urbanisation. Population growth in delta cities increases food demand, which causes the intensive agricultural cultivation of mountain areas. B. The dike system narrows the original riverbed in the river basin, which raises the water level of the river during storms. This situation blocks the drainage outlets of delta cities and induces higher frequencies of urban inundations. C. The dike system along the main stream in the plains has significantly changed the surface flowing path of river and dramatically decreased the recharge of groundwater in foothills. It causes serious land subsidence in coastal areas when the ground cannot obtain sufficient groundwater. D. The dike system and the bridges of transportation crossing river has resulted in the lag-sedimentation of the river in the river basin. When a significant amount of river sand deposits in the riverbed rather than being transited to the estuary to supply the demand for sand along the coast, it induces serious erosion in the coast. Following this context, this study organised a five day workshop in Kaohsiung, ‘Workshop on Water Environment Development in Kaohsiung’ in 2012 to further examine the results derived from Chapters 3 and 4, and to demonstrate how a 3-layer approach can work between multiple disciplines as a platform for collaboration. This workshop followed the theoretical framework of the 3-layers to explore the entire Kaoping River catchment area and its two tributary basins as the chosen local-scale sites: the Meinong River and the Love River. This workshop gives the best demonstration of how to practically utilise the 3-layer approach to organise multiple- disciplinary work, and then to make an integrated plan. The results and process of this workshop are also generalised as a framework, which could be applied to other cases.&nbsp

Transformations of Urbanising Delta Landscape:

This dissertation argues that the floods following extreme precipitation result not only from very heavy rainfall but also from the significant impact of human activities on natural water systems. While most literature emphasises that the increasing magnitude of storm rainfall extends beyond the original protection standards of hydrologic facilities in highly populated delta cities. Based on the knowledge of urban morphology, this study analyses how human systems have affected the transformation of natural water processes in the Kaoping River Delta. The relationship between human environments and natural landscape is illustrated via a 3-layer analytical framework which consists of a natural landscape layer, an infrastructure layer and an occupation layer. This layer-based approach views landscapes as a whole system in which each element interacts with the others. In order to transcend the limitations of traditional urban morphology and the overlay-mapping method, this research initiates an analysis framework with the delta scale from a deductive perspective. Furthermore, it argues that the significant progress of infrastructure technology is the crucial factor to dominate the transformation of modern urban pattern. This influence could be identified by the analytic process of the 3-layer approach from the perspective of the delta or regional scale. This new starting point of a theoretical framework for analysing urban forms has been proved in the Kaoping Delta case. Furthermore, it could be a new and valid theoretical background to extend the knowledge of urban morphology. The formal transformation of the Kaoping Delta is divided into four main periods, which reveals human activities have affected the operation of natural systems since a century ago. From a delta scale perspective, those effects interacting between different layers can be identified in six different topographies (in italics) of the whole river catchment area. A. The dike system along the main stream in the plains protects delta cities against floods, which enables rapid urbanisation. Population growth in delta cities increases food demand, which causes the intensive agricultural cultivation of mountain areas. B. The dike system narrows the original riverbed in the river basin, which raises the water level of the river during storms. This situation blocks the drainage outlets of delta cities and induces higher frequencies of urban inundations. C. The dike system along the main stream in the plains has significantly changed the surface flowing path of river and dramatically decreased the recharge of groundwater in foothills. It causes serious land subsidence in coastal areas when the ground cannot obtain sufficient groundwater. D. The dike system and the bridges of transportation crossing river has resulted in the lag-sedimentation of the river in the river basin. When a significant amount of river sand deposits in the riverbed rather than being transited to the estuary to supply the demand for sand along the coast, it induces serious erosion in the coast. Following this context, this study organised a five day workshop in Kaohsiung, ‘Workshop on Water Environment Development in Kaohsiung’ in 2012 to further examine the results derived from Chapters 3 and 4, and to demonstrate how a 3-layer approach can work between multiple disciplines as a platform for collaboration. This workshop followed the theoretical framework of the 3-layers to explore the entire Kaoping River catchment area and its two tributary basins as the chosen local-scale sites: the Meinong River and the Love River. This workshop gives the best demonstration of how to practically utilise the 3-layer approach to organise multiple- disciplinary work, and then to make an integrated plan. The results and process of this workshop are also generalised as a framework, which could be applied to other cases.&nbsp