How Far Has China’s Urbanization Gone?

Understanding urbanization development process and the associated PCBs concentration in urban soils - A genetic algorithm-based urbanization index approach

How to quantify urbanization process and the associated environmental consequence is still a hot issue worldwide. This study established an in situ-controlled experimental system to quantify polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) accumulation along an urban-rural gradient in Shanghai, a rapidly urbanizing region. By incorporating landscape-scale urbanized metrics, through correlation analysis and stepwise linear regression analysis a Genetic Algorithm-Based Urbanization Index (GA-based UI) was developed to systematically quantify the relationship between urbanization and PCB accumulation in soils. Key variables contributing to the GA-based UI included road density (0.675), population change index (0.287), industrial land use (0.126), and vegetation indices (0.296). Through random forest and piecewise regression analysis, the study identified critical urbanization thresholds. Piecewise regression revealed that PCB concentrations significantly increased within an optimal UI threshold range of 2.148-3.203, corresponding to a distance of 22.36-26.74 km from the urban center. This finding highlights a critical inflection point in urbanization where PCB accumulation intensifies. This research provides novel insights to understand urbanization development process and the associated spatial distribution of PCB contamination, offering a quantitative basis for urban planning and environmental management.

SDGs-oriented evaluation of the sustainability of rural human settlement environment in Zhejiang, China

Sustainable development of rural has become an essential global plan. Habitat sustainability assessment of rural is a critical management tool to grasp the development status of rural in real-time and enable dynamic adjustment of policies. This paper combines the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with the entropy weight method, TOPSIS, and grey correlation analysis to construct a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) evaluation model, which is finally used to assess the sustainability of the rural human settlement environment. Finally, this paper uses the rural of 11 prefecture-level cities in Zhejiang Province in 2021 as a case study for rural human settlement environment sustainability evaluation. The results show that the overall rural human settlement environment sustainability level in Zhejiang Province is better than in most regions in China. Hangzhou has the best rural human settlement environment sustainability, and Zhoushan has the worst. In addition, the production environment factor is the critical factor that constrains sustainability. The study results provide references and guidance to policymakers for sustainable development initiatives.

Scaling of Energy, Water, and Waste Flows in China's Prefecture-Level and Provincial Cities

Cities have been envisioned as biological organisms as the integral part of nature's energy and material flows. Recent advances in urban scaling research have uncovered systematic changes in socioeconomic rates and infrastructural networks as urban population increases, providing predictive contents for the comparison between cities and organisms. However, it is still unclear how and why larger and smaller cities may differ in their per capita environmental impacts. Here, we study scaling patterns of urban energy, water, and waste flows as well as other relevant measures in Chinese cities. We divide cities into different groups using an algorithm that automatically assigns cities to clusters with distinct scaling patterns. Despite superlinear scaling of urban GDP, as predicted by urban scaling theories, resource consumption, such as the supply of electricity and water, and waste generation, such as wastewater and domestic waste, do not show significant deviations from linear scaling. The lengths of resource pipelines scale linearly in most cases, as opposed to sub-linearity predicted by theory. Furthermore, we show two competing forces underlying the overall observed effects of scale: a higher population density tends to decrease per capita resource consumption and infrastructure provisions, while intensified socioeconomic activities have the opposite effect.

Assessment on the Urbanization Quality of China’s Main Grain-Producing Areas under the SDGs

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the United Nations in 2015 guide the important direction of high-quality urbanization in China’s main grain-producing areas (MGPAs), and improving the quality of urbanization is also crucial to achieve the SDGs. China’s MGPAs not only undertake the task of promoting urbanization but also of ensuring food security. The establishment of an index system based on SDGs can more effectively measure the urbanization quality of MGPAs. For the specific targets of the SDGs, this study established two sets of multidimensional indicator systems, whether including the goals of food and agriculture, and tracked the progress toward improving urbanization quality of China’s MGPAs, including 128 prefecture-level cities, during 2010–2018. We found that the comprehensive urbanization quality and the index of economic efficiency, urbanization level, and environmental quality showed an upward trend with significant regional differences and spatial agglomeration distributions, but the level of agricultural development and urban–rural co-ordination have declined in recent years; the ranking and distribution of urbanization quality, including agricultural development, varied significantly, and the number of cities belonging to the good co-ordination mode decreased as some cities changed to a lower level; and urbanization that does not sacrifice the agricultural capabilities of MGPAs could improve urbanization quality and implement the SDGs.

Investigating into the Coupling and Coordination Relationship between Urban Resilience and Urbanization: A Case Study of Hunan Province, China

In the context of accelerated urbanization, constructing resilient cities is an effective approach to tackling risks, such as extreme weather, and various urban challenges. The coupling and coordinated development of urbanization and urban resilience is a prominent embodiment of urban sustainable development and high-quality development capacity. In this study, Hunan Province, China, which is frequently affected by various disasters, is selected as a representative for examining the coupling and coordination relationship between urban resilience and urbanization level. The panel data are adopted to construct a dual-system evaluation framework integrating urban resilience and urbanization level based on the entropy weight-coefficient of variation (CV)-CRITIC method. The coupling coordination degree of this dual-system evaluation framework is calculated with the coupling model in physics and GM (1, 1) grey prediction model. Additionally, the spatial–temporal evolution characteristics of the coupling coordination degree are investigated and analyzed by ArcGIS and Geoda software. The following are indicated from the results: (1) The resilience of all cities is related to their geographical location and is characterized by a decrease from east to west; in addition, the resilience level of most cities presents a downward trend with time. (2) The urbanization level of most cities develops stably with time, but there is a growing gap in the urbanization level between regions. (3) There is a strong correlation between urban resilience and urbanization level in all cities; the unbalanced coupling and coordinated development emerge, specifically manifested by the polarization phenomenon. Eventually, a circle-difference spatial distribution pattern that starts from the central urban agglomeration and gradually decreases to the periphery is formed. (4) The prediction results of the coupling coordination degree suggest that there is an increasingly distinct polarization trend for the coupling and coordinated development between cities, and it is necessary to pay attention to those cities with a declined predicted value. (5) There is a significant positive spatial autocorrelation and agglomeration effects in the distribution of the coupling coordination degree of all cities, and the correlation is getting stronger with each passing year; the correlation mode is mainly characterized by homogeneity and supplemented by heterogeneity. Finally, several suggestions are proposed in this paper, in an attempt to lead the coordinated development of regions by novel urbanization and thus promote the sustainable development of cities. The methods and insights adopted in this study contribute to investigating the relationship between urban resilience and urbanization in China and other regions worldwide.

The Influence of Green Space on Obesity in China: A Systematic Review

INTRODUCTION

This study systematically reviewed scientific evidence concerning the influence of green space on obesity in China.

METHODS

Keyword and reference search was conducted in PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, EBSCO, and CNKI. Predetermined selection criteria included study designs: experimental and observational studies; subjects: people of all ages; exposures: green space (i.e., any open land partly or entirely covered with grass, trees, shrubs, or other vegetation); outcomes: body weight status (e.g., body mass index [BMI], overweight, or obesity); and country: China.

RESULTS

Ten studies met the selection criteria and were included in the review. All studies adopted a cross-sectional design. Overall greenness measures were found to be inversely associated with BMI, overweight, and obesity in most included studies. Street greenness, which measures the perceived greenness at the eye level on streets, was found to be inversely associated with BMI and obesity. By contrast, mixed results were observed for the relationship between green space accessibility and weight outcomes. Air quality was found to mediate the relationship between greenness and obesity. The influence of green space on obesity tended to vary by residents' gender, age, and socioeconomic status. Boys, women, older residents, and those with lower education or household income were more likely to benefit from greenness exposure.

CONCLUSION

The literature on green space exposure in relation to obesity in China remains limited. Longitudinal and quasi-experimental studies are warranted to assess the causal link between green space and obesity. Future measures should better capture the self-perception, quality, and attractiveness of green space. The underlying pathways through which green space affects residents' weight outcomes should be further elucidated.

Spatiotemporal Evolution and Influencing Factors of the Rural Natural Capital Utilization Efficiency: A Case Study of Chongqing, China

The efficient utilization and optimal allocation of natural capital play an important role in economic development and human well-being. The production process of natural capital is the input and output processing of its ecological resources and the environment. Improving the rural natural capital utilization efficiency (RNCUE) is an important goal of natural capital investment, and the efficient utilization of natural capital is an important factor for the efficient operation of the regional economy and society. This study uses the super slack-based measure (SBM) model based on undesirable outputs to measure the RNCUE, combines the exploratory data analysis method (ESDA) and spatial Markov transfer matrix to analyse the spatiotemporal evolution characteristics of efficiency, and analyses the influencing factors of the change of the RNCUE in Chongqing through a spatial econometric model. The results show that: (1) The RNCUE in Chongqing is still at a low level as a whole and there is a large space for efficiency improvement and efficient operation. There is a certain spatial dependence on the interaction of efficiency between adjacent districts and counties. (2) High-high agglomeration is concentrated in the western area of Chongqing One-hour Economic Circle, and low-low agglomeration is concentrated in Southeast and Northeast Chongqing. The probability of a large change in the RNCUE in consecutive years is small, and it is easy to form the phenomenon of “club convergence” in space. (3) The RNCUE in Chongqing has been affected by rainfall, temperature, NDVI, the per capita GDP, proportion of fixed asset investment, expenditure for agriculture, and proportion of primary industry and rural population. The influencing factors show that the spatial heterogeneity is significant. The RNCUE has a negative correlation with forest coverage and the expenditure for agriculture, is not significantly positive or negative with the proportion of the primary industry and is positively correlated with the rural population density. This study points out that we can improve the RNCUE in Chongqing by optimizing the spatial differentiation control mechanism, clarifying property rights, enhancing liquidity, and strengthening scientific and technological innovation.

Land Use Changes for Investments in Silvoarable Agriculture Projected by the CLUE-S Spatio-Temporal Model

Investment in biology-based technological innovations is a key requirement for the development of modern agriculture/forestry. The expansion of innovative biological technologies includes changes in crops/cultivations, such as the transition from intensive monocultures to multiple crops of lower agrochemical inputs with the integration of woody trees/shrubs or animals, represented by Agroforestry. This innovative biological technology is further promoted at the European Union (EU) level by powerful institutions such as the Green Deal and the new CAP, mainly by tools such as ecoschemes and agri-environmental and climate measures (AECMs). The use of integrated regional spatiotemporal models, such as CLUE-S, to predict land use changes in the framework of Agroforestry is rather restricted. This paper examines Agroforestry as a vehicle that can contribute to achieving the rural development of the region of Thessaly, Greece. It sets a time horizon for reviewing the changes that are expected in the most important units of land uses of the rural landscape of the municipality of Mouzaki, western Thessaly plain, in the year 2040, which serves as model land for the region of Thessaly. It examines these changes with the effect of three (3) socio-economic scenarios: (a) a linear operating scenario (business as usual, BAU), (b) an ecological land protection (ELP) scenario, and (c) a rapid economic development (RED) scenario. These scenarios were introduced in the non-spatial module of the CLUE-S spatiotemporal model, while in the spatial module sixteen (16) characteristic landscape parameters were introduced as independent variables. The most important land use units, including traditional silvoarable and silvopastoral woodland systems, were the dependent variables. The simulations of the changes of the land use units showed that under the RED scenario, in the year 2040 the extent of the silvoarable systems is expected to increase significantly (57%) compared to the reference year of 2020, while the rest of the land use units under the other scenarios are mainly regulated by depopulation/abandonment of the rural areas and the processes of natural succession. The fact that the extent of silvoarable systems is increasing, in combination with the favorable institutional environment created by European rural policies, gives impetus to regional rural development through investments in the agricultural sector and mainly in Agroforestry systems.

Is China’s Urbanization Quality and Ecosystem Health Developing Harmoniously? An Empirical Analysis from Jiangsu, China

The relationship between urbanization and ecology environment is a current research hotspot. Most literature to date focuses on the interaction between urbanization and a single component of the ecosystem (e.g., water, forests, and ecosystem services), while little attention has been given to the relationship between urbanization quality and ecosystem health. Accordingly, this paper used the entropy method and vigor—organization–resilience model to measure the urbanization quality and ecosystem health in Jiangsu Province. Based on the results, this paper analyzed the spatial-temporal pattern and evolution characteristics of the coordination degree between urbanization quality and ecosystem health in Jiangsu Province in 2000, 2005, 2010, 2015, and 2017 and then used the geographic detector and Tobit regression model to explore its internal driving forces and external influencing factors. The results show the following: 1. The changing trend of urbanization quality and ecosystem health in the Jiangsu Province share some traits; it first descends and then ascends; 2. The cities in Jiangsu Province are all between primary coordination and high-quality coordination. Central Jiangsu has the best coupling coordination degree, and Northern Jiangsu has the worst coupling coordination degree, but the overall coordination degree is on the rise; 3. The internal and external factors that drive the coordinated development of urbanization and ecosystem health differ based on periodic and regional characteristics. We need to tailor policies to ensure the sustainable development of the region.

Detecting ecological spatial-temporal changes by Remote Sensing Ecological Index with local adaptability

Ecological environmental assessment is an indispensable part of the eco-environment protection system. As researchers have increasingly focused on ecological environment protection, the ecological environment evaluation system has been gradually improved. The enhancement of the ecological environment evaluation system provides more scientific and effective data support for ecological environment monitoring and governance. This article examines the Wuhan Urban Development Zone as an example, selects Landsat 8 (Operational Land Imager/Thermal Infrared Sensor (OLI/TIRS)) images of the study area from 2013 to 2019 at two-year intervals, and applies a new type of ecological environment evaluation index named the remote sensing ecological index with local adaptability (RSEI_LA) to assess the eco-environment. The RSEI_LA represents an improvement of the remote sensing ecological index (RSEI) proposed in 2013. The RSEI_LA enhancement is mainly reflected in the correlation and spatial distribution characteristics between geographical elements. The results reveal that 1) the overall urban ecological environment in the Wuhan Urban Development Zone demonstrates a downward trend from 2013 to 2019, and the rate of decline during the period varies. 2) RSEI_LA decline is mainly found in the far suburbs, and ecological environment degradation mainly occurs due to the change in land-use type caused by the suburbanization process of urban expansion. 3) Because of the implementation of urban greening projects, the phenomenon of ecological environment optimization (green recovery) is observed in the central urban area of Wuhan. 4) Land use exhibits a notable correlation with the ecological environment, and different land-use types exhibit distinct degrees of ecological environment deterioration. The order of deterioration is: bare soil/sand > building > cropland > forests.

Electrodialytic Processes: Market Overview, Membrane Phenomena, Recent Developments and Sustainable Strategies

In the context of preserving and improving human health, electrodialytic processes are very promising perspectives. Indeed, they allow the treatment of water, preservation of food products, production of bioactive compounds, extraction of organic acids, and recovery of energy from natural and wastewaters without major environmental impact. Hence, the aim of the present review is to give a global portrait of the most recent developments in electrodialytic membrane phenomena and their uses in sustainable strategies. It has appeared that new knowledge on pulsed electric fields, electroconvective vortices, overlimiting conditions and reversal modes as well as recent demonstrations of their applications are currently boosting the interest for electrodialytic processes. However, the hurdles are still high when dealing with scale-ups and real-life conditions. Furthermore, looking at the recent research trends, potable water and wastewater treatment as well as the production of value-added bioactive products in a circular economy will probably be the main applications to be developed and improved. All these processes, taking into account their principles and specificities, can be used for specific eco-efficient applications. However, to prove the sustainability of such process strategies, more life cycle assessments will be necessary to convince people of the merits of coupling these technologies.

Resilience Thinking as a System Approach to Promote China’s Sustainability Transitions

Urban regeneration and rural revitalization are becoming major policy initiatives in China, which requires new approaches for sustainability transitions. This paper reviewed the history of policy reforms and institutional changes and analysed the main challenges to sustainability transitions in China. The urban-rural systems were defined as a complex dynamic social-ecological system based on resilience thinking and transition theory. The notions of adaptation and transformation were applied to compose a framework to coordinate “resilience” with “sustainability”. The findings indicate that China’s urbanization has experienced the conservative development of restructuring socio-economic and political systems (before 1984), the fast industrialization and economic development leaned to cities (1984 to 2002), the rapid urbanization led by land expropriation and investment expansion (2002 to 2012), and the quality development transformation equally in urban and rural areas (since 2012). The sustainability transitions have been challenged by controversial institutional arrangements, concerning population mobility control, unequal social welfare, and incomplete property rights. A series of policy interventions should be designed and implemented accordingly with joint efforts of multiple stakeholders and based on the combined technocratic and bottom-up knowledge derived from proactive and conscious individuals and collectives through context-dependent social networks.

Assessment on China's urbanization after the implementation of main functional areas planning

China has implemented main functional areas planning (MFAP) since 2010, which is essential for improving the efficiency of land space utilization and achieving sustainable urban development. Quantitative assessments of the urban development levels (UDLs) at the county level across China after the implementation of MFAP have not been well-documented. In this study, a unified indicator system was developed, and the UDLs of 2850 counties in China after MFAP implementation were evaluated. The results showed that MFAP played a positive role in urban development in China. The UDLs in China generally increased but showed obvious spatial differences. The higher UDLs were mostly found in the counties in the five urban belts, which reflects the overall urban layout of China. The UDLs were generally low in the western counties in comparison with those in the eastern part of China. The differences in the UDLs from east to west were greater than those from north to south. Moreover, the differences in the UDLs presented a spatial agglomeration effect. This study could offer insight into the refinement of MFAP in China and sustainable urban development in developing countries.

Trade-Offs between Economic Benefits and Ecosystem Services Value under Three Cropland Protection Scenarios for Wuhan City in China

Over the past few decades urbanization and population growth have been the main trend all over the world, which brings the increase of economic benefits (EB) and the decrease of cropland. Cropland protection policies play an important role in the urbanization progress. In this study, we assess the trade-offs between EB and ecosystem services value (ESV) under three cropland protection policy scenarios using the LAND System Cellular Automata for Potential Effects (LANDSCAPE) model. The empirical results reveal that trade-offs between EB and ESV in urbanizing areas are dynamic, and that they considerably vary under different cropland protection policy scenarios. Especially, the results identify certain “turning points” for each policy scenario at which a small to moderate growth in EB would result in greater ESV losses. Among the three scenarios, we found that the cropland protection policy has the most adverse effect on trade-offs between EB and ESV and the results in the business as usual scenario have the least effect on the trade-offs. Furthermore, the results show that a strict balance between requisition and compensation of cropland is an inappropriate policy option in areas where built-up areas are increasing rapidly from the perspective of mitigating conflict between EB and ESV and the numbers of cropland protection that restrained by land use planning policy of Wuhan is a better choice.

A healthy diet and physical activity are important to promote healthy ageing among older Chinese people

Objective

To examine the associations between multiple health behaviours and health outcomes among older Chinese adults.

Methods

Data from the World Health Organization’s Study on global AGEing and adult health Wave 1 (2007–2010), collected among the older Chinese population, were included in this study. Smoking, diet, and physical activity were analysed by linear regression for any associations with depressive symptoms, quality of life (QoL), cognitive function, and physical function.

Results

A total of 13 367 participants aged >49 years were included in the analyses. After controlling for key socioeconomic factors, healthy diet was significantly associated with higher QoL (β = 0.099) and better cognitive function (β = 0.023). Physical activity was significantly associated with fewer depressive symptoms (β = –0.020), higher QoL (β = 0.086), better cognitive function (β = 0.072), and better physical function (β = –0.155 [higher scores = poorer physical function]). No relationship was found between smoking and any health-related outcome included in this study.

Conclusion

This study demonstrates the importance of healthy diet and physical activity for health outcomes in the older Chinese population.

The Spatial-Temporal Characteristics and Dilemmas of Sustainable Urbanization in China: A New Perspective Based on the Concept of Five-in-One

A large amount of ink has been spilled to paint the picture of China’s urbanization. However, more research might be done on the connotation of sustainable urbanization in China. On the basis of a literature review, this study is the first to propose the perspective of evaluating the sustainability of urbanization from the five dimensions of urbanization: economic, political, cultural, social, and ecological. Based on the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method and entropy method, a five-dimensional indicator system was established to evaluate the urbanization quality of 31 provincial regions in China during 2005–2015. Then, the coupling coordination degree model was used to calculate the coupling coordination degree of the five dimensions for each region. Furthermore, Moran’s I index and a local indicators of spatial association (LISA) cluster map were used to measure and describe the spatial disparity. Finally, a factor identification model was used to recognize the weaknesses of each region. This study leads to four major findings. (1) In 2015, only ecological urbanization had a high-quality and balanced development, while the development of cultural urbanization was inadequate and regionally unbalanced. Economic, ecological, and cultural dimensions had a significantly positive global spatial autocorrelation. The local spatial autocorrelation varies with dimension. (2) The quality of comprehensive urbanization increased during 2005–2015, while the regional disparity experienced a reduction. A positive global spatial autocorrelation was shown during 2005–2015. The High-High type in the eastern coastal areas centralized over time, while the Low-Low type in the western areas experienced a decline, and the Low-High type was stabilized in the central areas. Only Chongqing was in the High-Low type in 2015. (3) The increase of coupling coordination degree and decrease of coefficient of variation indicated a favorable situation. The coupling coordination degree also had a positive global spatial autocorrelation during 2005–2015. Both the High-High and Low-Low types experienced an obvious shrink and displacement. The Low-High type expanded and centralized in the central areas, while the High–Low type was in Guangdong in 2005, and in Chongqing in 2015. (4) The highest obstacle degrees of each region were all within the cultural dimension, while the ecological dimension caused the least resistance. The lack of innovation had become the biggest barrier in most regions. Based on the above conclusions, this paper concludes with recommendations for policy makers to advance sustainable urbanization in China. Meanwhile, this study can provide lessons and suggestions for other developing countries in the world.