Pollution Dispersion in Urban Street Canyons with Green Belts

In this study,numerical simulations were used to explore the effects of roadside green belt,urban street spatial layout,and wind speed on vehicle exhaust emission diffusion in street canyon.The diffusion of different sized particles in the street canyon and the influence of wind speed were investigated.The individual daily average pollutant intake was used to evaluate the exposure level in a street canyon microenvironment.The central and leeward green belts of the road were the most conducive to the diffusion of pollutants,while the positioning of the green belts both sides of a road was least conducive to the diffusion of pollutants.Pollutant levels increased with increasing canopy height,canopy width,and decreasing tree spacing,with optimal values of 12 m,7 m,and 0.4 H,respectively.This provides protection from pollution for low-rise residents and pedestrians.The results presented here can be used to improve the air quality of the street microenvironment and provide a basis for the renovation of old street buildings.

Planning of Industrial Land for Green Belts in Chaoyang District of Beijing:Its Effects, Dilemmas, and Solutions

Beijing's green belt policy is three-fold:fi rstly to protect farmers' interests during urbanization, secondly to control the urban expansion, and thirdly to improve the ecological environment. The planning of industrial land for green belts has thus emerged as a way to help achieve these goals during Beijing's urban growth from morphological, social, and economic perspectives. First of all, this paper introduces the implementation mechanisms of the planning of industrial land for green belts, from which it abstracts a model of land adjustment and urban-rural cooperation. Secondly, the paper analyzes the effects and current dilemmas during the implementation of the planning of industrial land for green belts. Thirdly, results are compared with other spontaneously developed industries in the rural-urban fringe area to illustrate the changes brought about by the planning. Finally, the paper proposes three measures for future improvement, including balancing the industrial land use quotas between different townships, conducting cooperative land adjustment, and encouraging spontaneously developed industrial projects.

Priority placed on planting trees to extend green belts

Changsha-The central govern-ment is urging provincial officials toprotect and expand the green belts intheir areas. Local officials were urged to putthe"green drive"on the top of theiragendas by State Councillor ChenJunsheng,addressing a national con-ference on tree planting. Chen said at a conference that anaccountability system monitoringtheir performance would be intro-duced to ensure action on this"veryimportant task." Chen.speaking at the workingconference of National AfforestationCommittee.criticized some officialsfor their"over-enthusiasm in boost-ing the economy"by deforestingsome areas and turning them into"de-velopment zones."

Industrial Green Spatial Pattern Evolution of Yangtze River Economic Belt in China

We use the directional slacks-based measure of efficiency and inverse distance weighting method to analyze the spatial pattern evolution of the industrial green total factor productivity of 108 cities in the Yangtze River Economic Belt in 2003–2013.Results show that both the subprime mortgage crisis and ‘the new normal' had significant negative effects on productivity growth,leading to the different spatial patterns between 2003–2008 and 2009–2013.Before 2008,green poles had gathered around some capital cities and formed a tripartite pattern,which was a typical core-periphery pattern.Due to a combination of the polarization and the diffusion effects,capital cities became the growth poles and ‘core' regions,while surrounding areas became the ‘periphery'.This was mainly caused by the innate advantage of capital cities and ‘the rise of central China' strategy.After 2008,the tripartite pattern changed to a multi-poles pattern where green poles continuously and densely spread in the midstream and downstream areas.This is due to the regional difference in the leading effect of green poles.The leading effect of green poles in midstream and downstream areas has changed from polarization to diffusion,while the polarization effect still leads in the upstream area.

Wild foods(plants and animals)in the green famine belt of Ethiopia:Do they contribute to household resilience to seasonal food insecurity?

Background： The role of wild foods in combating problems of food shortage is paramount. However, existin, approaches to combat food insecurity shock have generally focused on reducing vulnerability via increasing productivity of domesticated foods. In contrast, approaches that enhance resilience mainly through wild fooc sources have been less focused. This study examined the contribution of wild foods to household resilience to food insecurity in the green famine belt of Ethiopia. Methods： A cross-sectional survey of 220 households was conducted using a structured questionnaire, key informant interviews, and semi-participant observations. Factor analysis was run using SPSS to analyze data. Correlation analysis was used to examine the direction and strength of association between wild foods and the income and food access （IFA）, a latent proxy indicator of resilience. Cross-tabulation was also run to determine the proportion of households in each ethno〈ulture group under each resilience category. Results： The mean amount of wild foods obtained by households was 156.61 kg per household per annum. This was about 5 % and 9 % of, gross and, net food available from all sources respectively. Wild foods contributed well to household resilience as the factor loading （Factor2 = 0.467） was large enough and were significantly correlated with IFA （r-- 0.174）. Wild vegetables were the most collected and consumed type of wild foods constituting 52.4 % of total amount of wild foods. The total amount of wild foods was smaller than that of domesticated sources of food. The majority of households （38.6 %） reported ＂reduced source of wild foods＂ as a reason for this. Smaller proportion of the indigenous （11.2 %） than the non-indigenous （34.1%） ethno-culture group reported one or more reasons for their lower level of dependence on wild foods. Conclusion： From the study we concluded that wild foods had important contribution to households＇ resilience to food shortages and are likely to continue to contribute in the future, this being more to indigenous than non-indigenous ethno-culture group. Therefore, a resilience building policy that incorporates wild foods should be adopted, and research that aims at exploring their current status and future prospect are urgently required.

From the Iron Curtain to the European Green Belt Creating a Vision for a 2^nd Transformation to a Life-Sustaining Europe/World

The European Green Belt developed from the wasteland of the former death strip along the iron curtain over decades to a green life line of biodiversity. It is an ecological network with a unique natural and cultural heritage, an emotional human and political history, meaning and transformative power. Due to the former border situation, it is a transnational green infrastructure with biodiversity hotspots in a more and more fragmented, intensively used and degraded European landscape and connects people from 24 European countries and valuable landscapes. But now, nearly 30 years after the peaceful transition in 1989, the gaps in the European Green Belt cover already 50%. These gaps are not protected and are subject to adverse effects, like ongoing landscape fragmentation and ongoing chemo-industrial agriculture. Alarming signals of a new death zone are not only the gaps within the European Green Belt, but generally and closely related the mass extinction of species, climate change, resource depletion, financial and economic crisis, demographic change, emigration, unemployment and/or precarious work worldwide. To save the European Green Belt and life on earth there is a great need ofa 2^nd transformation to a life-sustaining world.

Research and Experience Reference on London’s Response to Climate Change in the Twenty-first Century

London’s approaches to tackling climate change after the 21st century are multifaceted and relatively systematic.The aim of this research paper is to analyse London’s actions in response to climate change and to draw out what valuable lessons London has for the world in terms of its response to climate change.This paper provides an in-depth analysis of London’s policies and actions on climate mitigation in the areas of“greenhouse gas emissions”and“energy infrastructure”,and climate adaptation actions in the areas of“city green belt and urban afforestation”,“UHI and thermal crisis management”and“water supply infrastructure and sustainable drainage”.It then examines the positive aspects of these actions to determine what London has to say about climate change to the rest of the world and other cities.This paper also discovers that to effectively mitigate and adapt to climate change,London has not only established carbon reduction targets,but also created a large academic research network,represented by the LCCP.At the same time,London has developed a scientific climate change adaptation planning framework(P2R2)that focuses on four key areas:Economic,environmental,health,and infrastructure sectors,and three types of risks:Flooding,heat,and water supply,and emphasizes the dynamics and flexibility of each adaptation strategy.

China's renewed perception of global environmental governance

China's idea of a community of a shared future for humanity(CSFH)has become the guiding principle and norm to be further embedded and integrated into the country's approach to environmental governance.Under the Paris Agreement and the UN Sustainable Development Goals,China strongly emphasizes the implementation of its national strategy to mitigate the global climate crisis,and construct international environmental institutions by advocating fair cooperation resulting in mutual gain.China's role as a responsible major country is expected to be more proactive in international process.In particular,the concept of CSFH exerts positive,far-reaching impacts on the greening of the Belt and Road Initiative and the construction of solid South-South relations.Based on the renewed perception,China shall undertake its responsibilities in the reform of the global environmental governance system by leading multilateralism to strengthen the capacity of relevant international institutions such as the UN.Driven by China's political will,this concept reflects China's more confident attitude toward global environmental governance.Most profoundly,mainstreaming the vision of CSFH will elevate China's role to a new level in the coming years in terms of norm creation in international environmental institutions.

Strategic Importance of China’s Foreign Aid for Environmental Protection

E nvironm ental protection effo rts are a key aspect of developmental aid which,in turn,is a crucial means to globally promote environmental governance.In recent years,China’s foreign aid initiatives for environm ental protection have developed rapidly,evolving into an integral part of international development aid due to its strategic significance.The establishment of the Green Belt and Road provided China with a rare opportunity to implement its plans for environmental protection aid.Under the Green Belt and Road,China has continuously improved systemic design and actively used non-governmental means to innovate aid models,thus substantially contributing to the environmental progress of aid recipients.Additionally,China’s outreach has significantly improved its international image,built on its soft power,and played a visible and positive role in expanding the international environmental protection market and promoting green development.

The development of China's Yangtze River Economic Belt:how to make it in a green way?

The Yangtze River is one of the largest and longest rivers in Asia.The river originates in the Tibet-Qinghai Plateau(headwater reach),passes through the mountainous provinces of Sichuan,Yunnan and Chongqing(upper reach),flows into the Central Plain(middle reach)and Lower Plain(lower reach),and finally empties into the East China Sea in Shanghai(estuary).The Yangtze River Economic Belt(YREB;Fig.1)has a surface area of 2.1

Concepts for Planning Urban Greening since 1850s

Urban greening, urban forestry and urban green structure planning all look at a city as a unit andintend to improve the status of green space in the city. Even though they are new terms, their concepts haveevolved over a rather long period. This paper presents a historical review of western concepts for urbangreening since the 1850s. The first aim is to establish an overview of how the urban greening concept hasdeveloped and what the relationships are between the historical concepts and urban greening, urban forestryand urban green structure planning today. The secondary purpose is to understand some key issues for urbangreening through the examination of historical precedents. Based on a literature review, the paper presentsseveral historical concepts for urban greening rampart area planning, park system, green belts, greenwedges and greenways. The new concept of urban green structure is also introduced. Each concept is defined.The social background and the influence on city development are described. The review shows that theconcept of urban greening has a long history, parallel with the development of the city planning concepts.The scope of urban greening has become larger over the past years. The functions of urban green space havechanged from single-purpose to multi-purpose. The study indicates that historical concepts may still giveinspiration in todays urban greening process.

Urban spatial development and land use in Beijing： Implications from London＇s experiences

Beijing is facing a huge challenge to manage the growth of its built-up area whilst also retaining both productive arable land and land for conservation purposes in order to simultaneously realize the three aims of economic development,protecting arable land and generating environmental improvements. Meanwhile,London,as a world city with more than 200 years of industrialization and urbanization,has accumulated rich theoretical and practical experiences for land use planning in a major urban area,such as the creation of Garden Cities,a designated Green Belt and New Towns. This paper firstly analyzes the main characteristics of the spatial distribution of the built-up area,arable land and conservation land in Beijing. Then,some of the key aspects of urban fringe planning in the London region are examined. Lastly,several implications from the experience of London are provided with respect to land-use planning for Beijing,concentrating on a re-appraisal of land-use functions around Beijing,measures to improve the green belt,the development of small towns to house rural-urban migrants and urban overspill,and effective implementation of land-use planning.