Summertime surface energy balance fluxes at two Beijing sites

Summertime (June to August 2015) radiative and turbulent heat fluxes were measured concurrently at two sites (urban and suburban) in Beijing. The urban site has slightly lower incoming and outgoing shortwave radiation, lower atmospheric transmissivity and a lower surface albedo compared to the suburban site. Both sites receive similar incoming longwave radiation. Although the suburban site had larger daytime outgoing longwave radiation (L_↑), differences in the daily mean L_↑ values are small, as the urban site has higher nocturnal L_↑. Overall, both the midday and daily mean net all-wave radiation (Q^*) for the two sites are nearly equal. However, there are significant differences between the sites in the surface energy partitioning. The urban site has smaller turbulent sensible heat (Q_H) (21-25% of Q^* (midday – daily)) and latent heat (Q_E) fluxes (21-45% of Q^*). Whereas, the suburban proportions of Q^* are Q_H 32-32% and Q_E 39-66%. The daily (midday) mean Bowen ratio (Q_H⁄Q_E ) was 0.56 and 0.49 (0.98 and 0.83) for the urban and suburban sites, respectively. These values are low compared to other urban and suburban areas with similar or larger fractions of vegetated cover. Likely these are caused by the widespread external water use for road cleaning/wetting, greenbelts, and air conditioners. Our suburban site has quite different land cover to most previous suburban studies as crop irrigation supplements rainfall. These results are important in enhancing our understanding of surface–atmosphere energy exchanges in Chinese cities, and can aid the development and evaluation of urban climate models and inform urban planning strategies in the context of rapid global urbanization and climate change

Chinese housing reform in state-owned enterprises and its impacts on different social groups

Housing change has been a major part of urban social and economic reform in China. Earlier research and literature on housing policy focused largely on changes which affected office workers employed by government departments and professional institutions. Relatively little attention has been given to the examination of housing reform practice in state-owned enterprises. This paper aims to enhance our understanding of the social impacts of housing reform in China. It reports findings from fieldwork carried out in four large cities; highlights the different approaches adopted by state-owned enterprises; and assesses their impacts on different categories of employees