Resource Management and Geography - Research Publications
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ItemResearch on Adaptability of Farmers after the Loess Plateau Ecological Immigration <br/>—A Case Study in Checheng Village, Ji County(Scientific Research Publishing, Inc., 2015)
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ItemConstructing Water Shortages on a Huge River: The Case of Shanghai(WILEY, 2015-11)Abstract Shanghai is located on the world's third largest river (by volume). Yet it faces the risk of shortages of drinking water. Many decisions and environmental characteristics have contributed to this threat. First, Shanghai has become dependent on water brought into the municipality by rivers. Second, it has become increasingly reliant on water from the Changjiang (Yangzi River), principally in order to control the levels of pollution in the water that enters its treatment plants. Third, for reasons associated with inter‐provincial administrative arrangements, the city's water intakes are located within the municipality, within the estuary zone and subject to tidal intrusions of salt water. Fourth, at high tide and when the Changjiang's discharge is low, salt intrudes far into the estuary, beyond the current water intakes. If sea levels rise, these intrusions will become more pronounced. Fifth, large‐scale central government infrastructure projects (such as dams and the South‐North Transfer) are altering the hydrological characteristics of the river. Such projects raise the probability of salt water intrusions into the water intake zone. The Shanghai and central governments have thus made a series of decisions that, taken together, have led the municipality to rely on a source of drinking water that is increasingly unreliable and subject to the risk of shortages due to salt water intrusions. Why these decisions have been made – independently – is an important problem for those who would understand the provision of water for cities and the practical efficacy of Chinese governance systems.
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ItemImpact of the Three Gorges Dam, the South-North Water Transfer Project and water abstractions on the duration and intensity of salt intrusions in the Yangtze River estuary(COPERNICUS GESELLSCHAFT MBH, 2015)Abstract. This paper assesses the impacts of the Three Gorges Dam, the South–North Water Transfer Project and other water abstractions on the probability of long-duration salt intrusions into the Yangtze River estuary. Studies of intrusions of saltwater into estuaries are typically constrained by both the short duration of discharge records and the paucity of observations of discharge and salinity. Thus, studies of intrusions of saltwater into estuaries typically seek to identify the conditions under which these intrusions occur, using detailed observations for periods of 20–60 days. The paper therefore first demonstrates a method by which to identify the conditions under which intense intrusions of long-duration occur and then applies that method to analyse the effect of the three projects. The paper constructs a model of the relationship between salinity and discharge and then employs Monte Carlo simulation methods to reconstruct the probability of observing intrusions of differing intensities and durations in relation to discharge. The model predicts that the duration of intrusions with chlorinity ≥ 250 mg L−1 (or ≥ 400 or 500 mg L−1) increases as the number of consecutive days with discharge ≤ 12 000 m3 s−1 (or ≤ 8000 m3 s−1 increases. The model predicts that in 1950–2014, the number of consecutive days with chlorinity ≥ 250 mg L−1 averaged 21.34 yr−1; if the three projects operate according to their normal rules, that average would rise to 41.20 yr−1. For a randomly selected year of discharge history from the period 1950–2014, under normal operating rules for these projects the probability of an intrusion rises from 0.25 (for 30-day intrusions) or 0.05 (for 60-day intrusions) to 0.57 or 0.28, respectively.
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ItemReducing Carbon Emissions from Shopping Trips: Evidence from China(MDPI, 2015)With rising income and the emergence of modern shopping centers in urban China, shopping trips by private car becomes more and more common, leading to higher carbon emissions in the transport sector. Encouraging car owners to shift transport mode from private car to public transport could achieve significant emissions reductions. This study estimate carbon emissions savings by shifting from private cars to public transport for shopping trips in urban China, using Shenyang, one of the largest cities in China, as a case study. Our results show that the average carbon emissions per shopper is 426.9 g, and the carbon emissions on weekends is 13% higher than weekdays. Moreover, shoppers travelling by private car emitted five times more carbon emission than those by public transport. We also found that car ownership gradually increased as accessibility to public transport decreased, and that more car owners chose to travel by private cars than public transport in areas with limited access. This study, thus, highlights the potential for high-quality public transport to reduce the transport sector’s carbon emissions in urban China.