The Impact of Green Technology Innovation on Carbon Emissions in the Context of Carbon Neutrality in China: Evidence from Spatial Spillover and Nonlinear Effect Analysis

The Paris agreement is a unified arrangement for the global response to climate change and entered into force on 4 November 2016. Its long-term goal is to hold the global average temperature rise well below 2 °C. China is committed to achieving carbon neutrality by 2060 through various measures, one of which is green technology innovation (GTI). This paper aims to analyze the levels of GTI in 30 provinces in mainland China between 2001 and 2019. It uses the spatial econometric models and panel threshold models along with the slack based measure (SBM) and Global Malmquist-Luenberger (GML) index to analyze the spatial spillover and nonlinear effects of GTI on regional carbon emissions. The results show that GTI achieves growth every year, but the innovation efficiency was low. China’s total carbon dioxide emissions were increasing at a marginal rate, but the carbon emission intensity was declining year by year. Carbon emissions were spatially correlated and show significant positive agglomeration characteristics. The spatial spillover of GTI plays an important role in reducing carbon dioxide emissions. In the underdeveloped regions in China, this emission reduction effect was even more significant

Evaluating the impact of highway construction projects on landscape ecological risks in high altitude plateaus

[EN] In China and other countries, many highway projects are built in extensive and high-altitude flat areas called plateaus. However, research on how the materialisation of these projects produce a series of ecological risks in the landscape is very limited. In this research, a landscape ecological risk analysis model for high-altitude plateaus is proposed. This model is based on the pattern of land uses of the surrounding area. Our study includes buffer analysis, spatial analysis, and geostatistical analysis. We apply the model to the Qumei to Gangba highway, a highway section located in the southeast city of Shigatse at the Chinese Tibet autonomous region. Through global and local spatial autocorrelation analysis, the spatial clustering distribution of ecological risks is also explored. Overall, our study reveals the spatial heterogeneity of ecological risks and how to better mitigate them. According to a comparison of the risk changes in two stages (before and after the highway construction), the impact of highway construction on the ecological environment can be comprehensively quantified. This research will be of interest to construction practitioners seeking to minimize the impact of highway construction projects on the ecological environment. It will also inform future empirical studies in the area of environmental engineering with potential affection to the landscape in high-altitude plateaus.This research is supported by the Branch of China Road and Bridge Corporation (Cambodia) Technology Development Project (No.2020-zlkj-04); National Social Science Fund Projects (No.20BJY010); National Social Science Fund Post-financing Projects (No.19FJYB017); Sichuan-Tibet Railway Major Fundamental Science Problems Special Fund (No.71942006); Qinghai Natural Science Foundation (No. 2020-JY-736); List of Key Science and Technology Projects in China's Transportation Industry in 2018-International Science and Technology Cooperation Project (Nos. 2018-GH-006 and 2019-MS5-100); Emerging Engineering Education Research and Practice Project of Ministry of Education of China (No. E-GKRWJC20202914); Shaanxi Social Science Fund (No. 2017S004); Xi'an Construction Science and Technology Planning Project (Nos. SZJJ201915 and SZJJ201916); Shaanxi Province Higher Education Teaching Reform Project (No. 19BZ016); Fundamental Research for Funds for the Central Universities (Humanities and Social Sciences), Chang'an University (Nos. 300102239616, 300102281669 and 300102231641).Li, C.; Zhang, J.; Philbin, SP.; Yang, X.; Dong, Z.; Hong, J.; Ballesteros-Pérez, P. (2022). Evaluating the impact of highway construction projects on landscape ecological risks in high altitude plateaus. Scientific Reports. 12(1):1-16. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-08788-811612

Identifying Functional Genes Influencing Gossypium hirsutum Fiber Quality

Fiber quality is an important economic index and a major breeding goal in cotton, but direct phenotypic selection is often hindered due to environmental influences and linkage with yield traits. A genome-wide association study (GWAS) is a powerful tool to identify genes associated with phenotypic traits. In this study, we identified fiber quality genes in upland cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) using GWAS based on a high-density CottonSNP80K array and multiple environment tests. A total of 30 and 23 significant single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with five fiber quality traits were identified across the 408 cotton accessions in six environments and the best linear unbiased predictions, respectively. Among these SNPs, seven loci were the same, and 128 candidate genes were predicted in a 1-Mb region (±500 kb of the peak SNP). Furthermore, two major genome regions (GR1 and GR2) associated with multiple fiber qualities in multiple environments on chromosomes A07 and A13 were identified, and within them, 22 candidate genes were annotated. Of these, 11 genes were expressed [log2(1 + FPKM)>1] in the fiber development stages (5, 10, 20, and 25 dpa) using RNA-Seq. This study provides fundamental insight relevant to identification of genes associated with fiber quality and will accelerate future efforts toward improving fiber quality of upland cotton

The Impact of Green Technology Innovation on Carbon Emissions in the Context of Carbon Neutrality in China: Evidence from Spatial Spillover and Nonlinear Effect Analysis

The Paris agreement is a unified arrangement for the global response to climate change and entered into force on 4 November 2016. Its long-term goal is to hold the global average temperature rise well below 2 °C. China is committed to achieving carbon neutrality by 2060 through various measures, one of which is green technology innovation (GTI). This paper aims to analyze the levels of GTI in 30 provinces in mainland China between 2001 and 2019. It uses the spatial econometric models and panel threshold models along with the slack based measure (SBM) and Global Malmquist-Luenberger (GML) index to analyze the spatial spillover and nonlinear effects of GTI on regional carbon emissions. The results show that GTI achieves growth every year, but the innovation efficiency was low. China’s total carbon dioxide emissions were increasing at a marginal rate, but the carbon emission intensity was declining year by year. Carbon emissions were spatially correlated and show significant positive agglomeration characteristics. The spatial spillover of GTI plays an important role in reducing carbon dioxide emissions. In the underdeveloped regions in China, this emission reduction effect was even more significant

Spatial and Temporal Distribution of Geologic Hazards in Shaanxi Province

The spatio-temporal distribution of geological hazards, including collapses, landslides, and debris flows, in Shaanxi province, China was studied based on data from 1951 to 2018. The potential impact factors, including the geomorphologic types, rivers, roads, rainfall, and earthquakes, were analyzed using Random Forests. The results indicated that most hazards occurred in summer (i.e., July–September) and were triggered by rainstorms. The freeze–thaw effect had a considerable contribution to hazards in the north. Spatially, most hazards in the north occurred in valley terraces of the Loess Plateau, while medium-relief terrane (relief ranged from 500 to 1000 m) in the southern Qinling Mountains were hazard-prone areas. The collapses and landslides were mainly affected by human factors in Northern Shaanxi, whereas in Southern Shaanxi geomorphology was the primary factor. Permeability was a dominant factor for debris flows. In addition, the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake had a remarkable influence on the spatial distribution of hazards. In contrast, for the situation in the Sichuan province, which was close to the earthquake epicenter, the Wenchuan earthquake triggered many collapse and landslide events in the southwest regions of Shaanxi province only on 12 May 2008. The thresholds for the three hazard types in the north and south regions were almost the same despite their distinctly different geologic characteristics. Through a sensitivity analysis, we found an appropriate dry period of 12 h for the area

High-Resolution Mapping of Urban Surface Water Using ZY-3 Multi-Spectral Imagery

Accurate information of urban surface water is important for assessing the role it plays in urban ecosystem services under the content of urbanization and climate change. However, high-resolution monitoring of urban water bodies using remote sensing remains a challenge because of the limitation of previous water indices and the dark building shadow effect. To address this problem, we proposed an automated urban water extraction method (UWEM) which combines a new water index, together with a building shadow detection method. Firstly, we trained the parameters of UWEM using ZY-3 imagery of Qingdao, China. Then we verified the algorithm using five other sub-scenes (Aksu, Fuzhou, Hanyang, Huangpo and Huainan) ZY-3 imagery. The performance was compared with that of the Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI). Results indicated that UWEM performed significantly better at the sub-scenes with kappa coefficients improved by 7.87%, 32.35%, 12.64%, 29.72%, 14.29%, respectively, and total omission and commission error reduced by 61.53%, 65.74%, 83.51%, 82.44%, and 74.40%, respectively. Furthermore, UWEM has more stable performances than NDWI’s in a range of thresholds near zero. It reduces the over- and under-estimation issues which often accompany previous water indices when mapping urban surface water under complex environmental conditions

Dynamic Modulation Band Rejection Filter Based on Spoof Surface Plasmon Polaritons

In this paper, we proposed a dynamic modulation band rejection filter based on the spoof surface plasmon polaritons (SSPPs) waveguide. The dynamic adjusting mainly derives from changing the capacitance between the U-shape and the waveguide configuration. The capacitance can modulate the cut-off frequency of fundamental mode. The rejection band is formed by the high order propagation mode and the cut-off frequency of fundamental mode. We analyzed the dispersion curve and transmission performance of the band rejection filter with different capacitances. Compared with the previous scheme, the design we proposed here has a simpler and more delicate configuration to process and decreases the mechanical error. We experimentally demonstrated the excellent performance of the device by changing the direct voltage loaded on the varactor diode and achieved real time modulation around 2 GHz

Dynamic evaluation of water resources carrying capacity of the Dianchi Lake Basin in 2005–2015, based on DSPERM framework model and simulated annealing-projection pursuit model

With the intensified impact of human activities, most lakes have been severely disturbed and the lake ecosystem has been seriously damaged, which exerted a great impact on the living environment of human beings in the lake basins. The health of the lake ecosystem has gradually become one of the hot issues in recent years. In this study, the water resources carrying capacity (WRCC) was used to reveal the chain relationship between human activities and water environment in the economic development of the Dianchi Lake Basin in Kunming City of China during 2005–2015. Specifically, we chose 25 evaluation indicators related to the water environment and social-economic activities, classified them into six subsystems, i.e., the driving force subsystem (D), the water resources situation and consumption subsystem (S), the water resources pressure subsystem (P), the water environmental situation subsystem (E), the response subsystem (R), and the management subsystem (M), and built a comprehensive assessment system-DSPERM framework model. Simulated annealing-projection pursuit model which reflects the structure or feature of high-dimensional data was adopted to calculate the WRCC of the Dianchi Lake Basin during 2005–2015 by weighting each evaluation indicator and each subsystem of the DSPERM framework model. The results show that the WRCC of the Dianchi Lake Basin was in level III (medium carrying capacity) from 2005 to 2012. Since 2013, the WRCC has been at level II (strong carrying capacity), and from 2005 to 2015, it showed a gradual upward trend. The evaluation indicators of each subsystem varied greatly and exhibited different development trends. The indicators of the water resources pressure subsystem had the greatest impact on the WRCC, followed by the indicators of the water environmental situation subsystem and the water resources situation and consumption subsystem. We recommend that the DSPERM framework model and the simulated annealing-projection pursuit model constructed in this work can be used to analyze the dynamic changes of the WRCC over the years. They have the advantages of practicability and feasibility, and can provide the basis for the scientific decision-making and comprehensive management of regional water environment planning