Impact of coupling coordination development of port and city environments on urban economic competitiveness:Evidence from the coastal port cities in eastern China

Promoting the coupling coordination development of port and its hinterland city environments is an important way to improve urban economic competitiveness.Based on relevant data of 13 coastal port cities in eastern China from 2000 to 2018,this study explores the coupling coordination development of port and city environments and its impact on urban economic competitiveness by constructing the coupling coordination degree model and the panel threshold model.The research results show that:(1)In terms of the coupling coordination development of port and city environments,most coastal ports and their hinterland cities are in a state of moderate or serious disorder.Overall,the degree of coupling coordination of port and city environments needs to be further improved;(2)The coupling coordination degree of port and city environments has a significant impact on urban economic competitiveness,and this effect gradually increases with the development of the ports and the urban economy.Among the variables that impact the urban economic competitiveness,fixed assets investment and foreign trade are significant factors that can enhance urban economic competitiveness.(3)At present,there is a“U-shaped”relationship between the coupling coordination degree of port-city environments and the urban economic competitiveness.This relationship lies on the right side of the inflection point of the“U-shaped”curve.Therefore,following the concept of assigning priority to ecological development,expanding fixed assets investment and actively developing foreign trade can further enhance the urban economic competitiveness.

Construction of Urban Overall Water Environment in Xi'an City

[Objective] The aim was to study on construction of overall water environment in Xi＇an. [Method] The study discussed necessity and basic principles of over-all restoration and construction of ＂Chang＇an Eight Water＂ from urban planning, and explored related methods from long term planning and concrete construction approaches. [Result] The study proposed that urban landscape substrates of ＂Chang＇ an Eight Water＂ should be restored based on overall planning about urban water environment, change of linear metabolism, and construction of drainage circulation system. Furthermore, self-circulation and purification of rainfall and sewage could be made use of there in view of present urban water environment. In addition, urban ＂metabolism＂ should be restored progressively to improve urban environment with consideration of water catchment, storage, and diversion. [Conclusion] We should take the initiative to catch the special opportunity to build Xi＇an into an international metropolis with overall planning, designing and implementation, which will be conducive to reconstruction of water system and pleasant surroundings, and to presentation of urban ecosystem and context in ＂Chang＇an Eight Water＂, providing many opportunities for urban development.

Comprehensive Measurement for Carrying Capacity of Resources and Environment of City Clusters in Central China

Studying the carrying capacity of resources and environment of city clusters in the central China has important practical guidance significance for promoting the healthy, sustainable and stable development of this region. According to their influencing factors and reciprocity mechanism, using system dynamics approaches, this paper built a SD model for measuring the carrying capacity of resources and environment of the city clusters in the central China, and through setting different development models, the comprehensive measurement analysis on the carrying capacity was carried out. The results show that the model of promoting socio-economic development under the protection of resources and environment is the optimal model for promoting the harmony development of resources, environment, society and economy in the city clusters. According to this model, the optimum population scale of the city clusters in 2020 is 42.80×106 persons, and the moderate economic development scale is 22.055×1012 yuan (RMB). In 1996-2020, the carrying capacity of resources and environment in the city clusters took on obvious phase-change characteristics. During the studied period, it is basically at the initial development stage, and will come through the development process from slow development to speedup development.

Application of Environment Psychology in City Square Design

Concept of city square was introduced and believed as an important component of urban landscape and also a major space for urban residents' activities. Beauty of city square lies in the interaction between environment and social behaviors. By introducing the two-way interaction between city square and users, behavior psychology was proposed as the foundation of environment design of plaza. As more and more attention is given to humancentered design of outdoor spaces, environment psychology has gradually been more applied in the design of various urban landscape spaces. In view of problems in the present square design, relevant theories of environment psychology were introduced to analyze psychological needs and behavior characteristics of people in outdoor spaces, and techniques for human- centered designs of city square explored to build public spaces for city dwellers.

Water Environment Carrying Capacity of New Zhengdong District in Zhengzhou City

Taking sections of the Dongfeng Canal, the Xionger River and the Wei River in New Zhengdong District for example, this paper applied water environment capacity to analyze the carrying capacity of surface water environment in the east development zone of the city. The analysis shows that carrying capacity of surface water environment in the study area is not good, carrying capacity of 3 studied waters for TP, BOD_5 and COD is approaching to the limit. New Zhengdong District, in terms of industrial structure, should promote the projects with less water consumption, less or no discharge of wastewater, and also should enhance the sewage treatment, improve recycling rate of the reclaimed water, and reduce the negative impact of sewage and pollutant discharge on environment.

Residential environmental evaluation of local cities considering regional characteristic and personal residential preference—a case study of Saga City,Japan

Questionnaire surveys and subjective evaluations on residential environment were performed in order to grasp the main factors of residential environment of small local cities. The suitable evaluation index system was established, and the regional residential environment characteristics and personal residential preference types were analyzed, so that their influence on residential environment evaluation could be grasped. The results can be applied to the residential environment planning, construction and monitoring of local cities.

Risk-based evaluation on geological environment carrying capacity of mountain city - A case study in Suide County, Shaanxi Province, China

With the rapid development and expansion of the cities in China, the carrying capacity of resource and environment has become a huge concern for local governments. From the perspective of geological environment, geological disasters are the main restraining factor of the development in mountain cities. This study was conducted in Suide County of Shaanxi Province with a risk-based approach as followed: a hazard analysis on geological disasters based on a slope geological survey at a scale of 1:10,000; a consequence analysis based on unmanned aerial vehicle(UAV) aerial survey data; integrating the results of hazard analysis and consequence analysis, a risk zonation and analysis of geological disasters in urban areas were completed considering urban planning, land use planning and the safety of infrastructure and major engineering. Subsequently, taking the acceptable levels of human life and property risks incurred by landslides as the criteria of the evaluation of geological environment carrying capacity, a comprehensive assessment of current and future urban carrying capacity was conducted based on the results of the risk analyses. Accordingly, the prior development zone, the restricted development zone and the prohibited zone were delineated, with corresponding suggestions for future urban development. The technological and methodological system used in the study can be applied to geological environment carrying capacity evaluation of other important mountain cities, which can provide scientific basis for the optimization of land and space.

ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY AND SCENARIOS OF URBANIZATION IN ARID AREA——A Case Study in Wuwei City of Gansu Province

Based on data of questionnaire and field survey and two developing models of Business As Usual (BAU) and the Intensive Urbanization (IU), this article, taking Wuwei City, a medium size city and typical oasis arid area in Gansu Province with very vulnerable and sensitive natural environment but long history of oasis economy, as an example, evaluated the sustainability of its environment and analyzed the scenarios of Wuwei’s household energy consumption, waste discharge in transportation industry, primary industry, secondary industry, tertiary industry, by the integration of the systematical dynamics model Stella and Polestar language to simulate the future development of the research area. The results showed that, first, the developing model of IU was propitious to Wuwei City named for oasis economy and vulnerable natural environment. The strategy of "Intensive Urbanization" can change the structure of energy utilization, and improve the efficiency of energy utilization. Second, the proportion of domestic energy consumption will decrease with industrialization and economic development, while that of tertiary industry, secondary industry and transportation will gradually grow up according to strategy of "Intensive Urbanization". Third, the Wuwei City is facing a severe eco-environmental crisis under the conventional patterns of development and a better future under a sustainable urbanization scenario, in the next 10 to 20 years. The different developing trends were clarified and the relative countermeasures were put forward for the policy makers according to the driving forces.

Pattern Dynamics of Thermal-environment Effect During Urbanization:A Case Study in Shenzhen City,China

The thermal-environment effect exists in the field of rapid urbanization. It has adverse effects on the urban atmosphere, re- gional climate, energy consumption, and public health. Shenzhen, a representative of rapidly urbanizing cities in China, was selected as a case for pattern dynamics analysis of the thermal environment. The surface temperature was acquired from the thermal infrared data of Landsat TM and ETM＋ images in 1986, 1995, and 2005 by Jim6nez-Mufioz and Sobrino＇s generalized single-channel method, which was used in assessing the distribution and spatial patterns of the thermal environment. The relative thermal environment curve （RTC） was combined with Moran＇s I analysis to assess the pattern dynamics of the thermal environment in different urbanization periods. Moran＇s I index and the RTC represent a process of aggregation-fragmentation-aggregation, which shows the aggregation pattern of a decrease during the rapid urbanization period and then an increase during the steady urbanization period. High-temperature areas gradually ex- panded to a uniform and scattered distribution in the rapid urbanization period; while the high thermal-environment effect was gradually transformed into a steady spatial pattern in the stable urbanization period. To characterize the increasing development in this multiple- center city, we chose profiles along an urban-development axis. The results suggest that heat islands have expanded from internal urban to external urban areas. Four profiles were obtained showing differences in shape due to spatial differences in the process of development.

Developing a Subjective Evaluation Scale for Assessing the Built Environments of China’s Hygienic City Initiative

Objective To develop a preliminary subjective evaluation scale for assessing the built environments of China’s Hygienic City Initiative and to evaluate its reliability and validity.Methods The initial items of the scale were determined based on a review of policy documents and consultations with experts. The final items of the scale were confirmed through individual interviews with residents combined with the discretetrend method, critical ratio method, correlation coefficient method, and factor analysis method. Then, the dimensions of the scale were determined using exploratory factor analysis(EFA). The Cronbach’s α coefficient, split-half reliability coefficient, and confirmatory factor analysis(CFA) were used to assess the reliability and validity of the scale.Results A scale containing five dimensions with 22 items was established, including urban lifestyle,governance, basic functions, environmental sanitation, and amenities. The Cronbach’s α coefficient of the scale was 0.876, and the split-half reliability coefficient was 0.796. The CFA results indicate that each inspection level was within the standard limit.Conclusion The preliminarily subjective evaluation scale for assessing the built environments of China’s Hygienic City Initiative demonstrates a high level of reliability and validity. Additional empirical studies should be carried out to further verify the value of the scale in terms of practical application.

Eco-geological environment quality assessment based on multi-source data of the mining city in red soil hilly region, China

High-intensity and large-scale resource development seriously threatens the fragile ecological environment in the red soil hilly region in southern China. This paper analyzes the eco-geological environmental problems and factors affecting Ganzhou, a mining city in the red soil hilly region,based on field survey and literature. The ecogeological environment quality(EGEQ) assessment system, which covered 11 indicators in physical geography, mining development, geological hazards,as well as water and soil pollution, was established through multi-source data utilization such as remote sensing images, DEM(Digital Elevation Model), field survey and on-site monitoring data. The comprehensive weight of each indicator was calculated through the Analytic Hierarchy Process(AHP) and entropy method. The eco-geological environment assessment map was developed by calculating the EGEQ value through the linear weighted method. The assessment results show that the EGEQ was classified into I-V grades from excellent to worse, among which, EGEQ of I-II accounted for 29.88%, EGEQ of III accounted for 32.35% and EGEQ of IV-V accounted for 37.77%;the overall EGEQ of Ganzhou was moderate. The assessment system utilized in this research provides scientific and accurate results, which in turn enable the proposal of some tangible protection suggestions.

City Environment Art and Sustainable Development

The development of everthing follows its own law, which does not change at people’s own sweet will. Therefore, we must study the development of things so as to grasp the essence of things in their deep meanings, explore the direction of their de- velopment, and make them better serve the people. As a part of the thought of sustainable development, city environment art will be of active significance to the perfection of the thought and will also be the concrete embodiment of the synthetic index of economic development. Such a thesis, starting from the macroscopic angle, and relying on the leading thought of sustainable development, takes hold of the development trend of city environment art, and explores the various problems that have arisen in city environment in the process of city management by combining thoughts on city planning, so as to guide urban harmonious development theoretically. The present paper expounds on the views comprehensively and, through the synthetic analysis on city planning, city environment, art esthetics and the thought of sustainable development, makes a detailed analysis of the effects of the present rapid city development on city environment.

Geological Environment Problems Caused by Controlling Groundwater Exploitation in Jiangyin City

Geological environment effects caused by the control of groundwater exploitation in Jiangyin city are discussed thoroughly, including the dynamic variation of groundwater levels and quality and the development of land sub-sidence and ground fissures. According to the dynamic characteristics of groundwater levels, some advice about groundwater exploitation is offered. Our research will provide a basis for using groundwater resources and the preven- tion of geological disasters in Jiangyin city and the Suzhou-Wuxi-Changzhou area. The following results are deduced from our research. First, groundwater levels vary with the exploitation of groundwater in Jiangyin city and are affected by hydrogeological conditions. The groundwater levels remained rather stable before and after the implementation of control of groundwater exploitation in the northwest of Jiangyin city along the Yangtze River. A suitable level of exploitation should be allowed. In the southeast, the speed of recovery of the groundwater level has been rather rapid after the control of exploitation. We conclude that groundwater might be exploited locally after the groundwater level has recovered. In the southwest, the speed of recovery of the groundwater level is rather slow and exploitation of ground-water should be prohibited. Second, groundwater quality is stable in Jiangyin city and the contents of the main chemical indices of groundwater varied only slightly before and after the control of exploitation. Third, after controlling the exploitation, the speed of land subsidence has clearly slowed down and the development of ground fissures has been controlled effectively.

Dynamic Analysis of Coupling Relationship between Economic Development and Ecological Environment Based on Entropy Method——A Case Study of Xi'an City

[Objective] The aim was to study the coupling relationship between economic development and ecological environment. [Method] Firstly, the evaluation index system for the coupling system of economic development and ecological environment in Xi’an City was established, then the dynamic variation of coupling relationship between economic development and ecological environment in Xi’an City from 2001 to 2010 was analyzed by using entropy method, finally some corresponding suggestions were put forward according to the problems in the current development model. [Result] The economic development and ecological environment of Xi’an have made a significant upgrading and improvement from 2001 to 2010, namely showing a stable upward trend on the whole, and were in a well-coordinated development state in 2010. However, the development level of ecological environment obviously lagged behind economic development level. In addition, there were obvious differences in the development rate of sub-systems, that is, economic efficiency and economic level developed rapidly, while the carrying capacity of ecological environment and economic vitality grew slowly and unstably. [Conclusion] The research could provide theoretical bases for the establishment of strategies for the coordinated development economy and environment in Xi’an City.

A climatic environmental performance assessment method for ecological city construction:Application to Beijing Yanqi Lake

In contrast to the input perspective for evaluating planning metrics, this research takes the climatic environmental output effects as the starting point for assessing ecological city construction. Based on approaches such as observation data analysis, meteorological model simulation, and remote sensing, a set of climatic environmental performance assessment methods is developed and established. These methods mainly focus on surface ventilation assessment and urban thermal environment assessment. With the Yanqi Lake ecological development demonstration area located in Huairou district, Beijing as an example, the assessment of the local climatic environment before and after the construction are conducted, and relevant policy suggestions for urban planning and construction are presented. The results show that after development, the ventilation capacity will decrease overall and the ventilation potential index will decrease from 0.53 to 0.44. While this is not a large reduction, and is still at a favorable level, the ventilation potential in some local areas will markedly decrease. Furthermore, the thermal environment will become poorer to some extent; the urban heat island(UHI) area and intensity will increase compared with the current situation;continuous heat islands may occur in local areas; the UHI potential index of the core area will rise from 0.0878 to 0.1217(still a favorable level).Therefore, urban surfaces should be carefully developed and arranged during planning. It is suggested that the negative impacts of large areas of urban construction on the local climatic environment in the Yanqi Lake could be mitigated by 1) strengthening the airflow by introducing fresh,cold, northwesterly air via constructed ventilation corridors, 2) increasing the number of ecological cold sources, particularly for water bodies and green belts to prevent the UHI in the southern region of Yanqi Lake from becoming linked with each other, and 3) considering a pre-program before sub-domain and building planning to obtain optimum building locations. Different construction standards should be developed for different ventilation potential and UHI intensity levels. For strong heat island areas, land areas should be reserved to serve as cold sources.

Statistical landslide susceptibility assessment in a dynamic environment:A case study for Lanzhou City,Gansu Province,NW China

This study presents a statistical landslide susceptibility assessment(LSA) in a dynamic environment. The study area is located in the eastern part of Lanzhou, NW China. The Lanzhou area has exhibited rapid urbanization rates over the past decade associated with greening, continuous land use change, and geomorphic reshaping activities. To consider the dynamics of the environment in the LSA, multitemporal data for landslide inventories and the corresponding causal factors were collected. The weights of evidence(Wof E) method was used to perform the LSA. Three time stamps, i.e., 2000, 2012, and 2016, were selected to assess the state of landslide susceptibility over time. The results show a clear evolution of the landslide susceptibility patterns that was mainly governed by anthropogenic activities directed toward generating safer building grounds for civil infrastructure. The low and very low susceptibility areas increased by approximately 10% between 2000 and 2016. At the same time, areas of medium, high and very high susceptibility zones decreased proportionally. Based on the results, an approach to design the statistical LSA under dynamic conditions is proposed, the issues and limitations of this approach are also discussed. The study shows that under dynamic conditions, the requirements for data quantity and quality increase significantly. A dynamic environment requires greater effort to estimate the causal relations between the landslides and controlling factors as well as for model validation.

The Evaluation of Eco-environmental Sensitivity in Ordos City

This paper aims to reveal the difference of eco-environmental sensitivity and its influencing factors in the study area through carrying out the eco-environmental sensitivity evaluation based on land ecological security for 8 counties of Ordos City. Using fragstats landscape pattern analysis,GIS space method and RS analysis,based on ground investigation,this paper uses information mining and data analysis to extract index data for every village in the study area,carry out comprehensive quantitative evaluation,and finally calculate the comprehensive scores of eco-environmental sensitivity of the areas. The paper concludes that the highly sensitive areas and extremely sensitive areas are mainly concentrated in the eastern region of the eastern hilly and gully region and southern region of the Mu Us Desert in Ordos. The main reasons include severe soil erosion in hilly and gully region and serious desertification in southern Mu Us Desert area. So it is necessary to strengthen ecological environment protection in local areas.

Acoustical environment of urban area related to the city development

The relationship between urban development and noise pollution was analyzed. The analysis, based on a wide range of measurements and statistical data,revealed the changes of the ambient noise resulting from city development. In conclusion, some fundamental measures for improving the acoustical environment were suggested, such as the division of cities into functional areas and the development of a well designed road network. In addition, the town planning, architecture and the implementation of appropriate regulations could also help to reduce noise levels was suggested as well.

Influence of using plants to design landscape in city recreational squares on environment

Through the investigation on influence of temperature, humidity and effects of landscape in Harbin First Department Store （Hayibai） Center Recreational Square, the influence of landscape designing of plant on the environment was researched. Two improved suggestions were given after analyzing the results of the investigation. One is to further plan the market of designing of city recreational square, and to manage and maintain the city recreational square; the other is to make good policies to control and avoid some large scale political projects.