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.

Microplastics Detection and Identification in the Waters along Coastal Areas of Borongan City

This study detects the presence of microplastics in the coastal areas of Borongan City, Eastern Samar, this specifically implies the microplastics present in the waters along coastal areas of Borongan City. Two (2) sampling areas were identified and selected for the presence of these microcontaminants using density separation, filtration and microscopic identification. Results reveal a total of 35 microplastics observed from the water samples collected, with this the microplastics from Baybay boulevard with an average of 0.79 microplastics per Liter, while the average microplastic contamination in Hilangagan beach resort was calculated at 0.43 microplastics per Liter. This sums up to an average of 0.49 microplastics per Liter for both sampling sites in Borongan City.

Human Effects on Tabounsou’s Coastal Ecosystem and the Matoto-Conakry Case Study of Sustainable Management Practices

Humans have always engaged with their surroundings and the ecology in which they live.However,during the industrial age,this contact has been more intense and has had a substantial impact on environment and ecosystems.For example,overexploitation of natural resources,mining,pollution,and deforestation are all elements that negatively affect biodiversity and natural resources.Few studies have been conducted to evaluate the damage caused,despite the significant uncontrolled pressure from human activity.However,maintaining its environment is essential to the survival of coastal fishing.Goal:This study’s goal was to evaluate how human activity affected Tabounsou’s coastal ecology in order to suggest remedial actions for sustainable management.The following was the methodological approach used:executive consultation and archival analysis;stakeholder survey(locals,farmers,salt producers,fishers,and loggers);inventory of species;anthropogenic activity inventory;evaluation of how human activity affects aquatic life in the research region;suggestion and action for sustainable management;Outcome:Executive consultation indicated that the main issues are:construction projects that reduce the estuary’s surface area;agricultural practices such as woodcutting and salt farming;the rise in resource exploitation;noncompliance with fisheries laws;and the catching of young fish.Eighty-three percent of fisherman ditch their nets on the coast after using them,but only seventeen percent burn them.With a 75%frequency rate,the same survey indicates that most fisherman fish around the coast.In the Tabounsou area,according to loggers’survey,68%of the wood cut is Rhizophora,24%is Avicennia,and 8%is Laguncularia.Three fish stocks,representing nine families and nine species,were identified by the species inventory.At 18%and 15%,respectively,the actors most frequently capture the species Pseudotolithus elongatus and Arius parkii.According to a poll of 30 farmers,90%of them apply fertilizer to their soil,while only 10%do not.During the dry season,salt is grown.According to two actors,Bougna Toro Toro produces 100 kg of salt per day,followed by Khoumawadé,which produces 80 kg,and Toumbibougni,which produces 70 kg.

Concentrations of Potentially Toxic Elements in Groundwater and Surface Water in Ruashi and Annexe Municipalities of Lubumbashi City, Southeastern Democratic Republic of Congo

Groundwater and surface water contamination by PTE(Potentially Toxic Elements)was assessed in Ruashi and Annexe municipalities of Lubumbashi city.Analyses of seventy water samples collected from six drilled wells,eight spade-sunk wells,one river and one spring in both municipalities in 2017 and 2018 were carried out by ICP-SF-MS(Inductively Coupled Plasma-Sector Field Mass Spectrometry).Twenty PTEs including aluminum,arsenic,barium,bismuth,cadmium,cesium,chromium,cobalt,copper,iron,lead,manganese,molybdenum,nickel,strontium,thallium,tungsten,uranium,vanadium and zinc were detected at various concentrations in each one of the samples.Many samples had concentrations and mean concentrations of PTEs,such as aluminum,cadmium,copper,iron,lead,manganese,nickel and zinc,higher than the respective acceptable limits set for drinking water by the EU(European Union),the USEPA(United States Environmental Protection Agency),and the WHO(World Health Organization)standards.Most PTEs being deleterious to human health even at very low concentrations,people who use the groundwater and surface water to meet their water needs in both Ruashi and Annexe municipalities are at risk.

Studying and Estimating Visual Pollution in Irbid City (Centre of Irbid City-Case Study)

Despite the global attention towards pollution,it remains a significant global threat and challenge for both developed and developing countries.Urbanization and economic development influence different types of pollution.Visual pollution is considered a new phenomenon referring to the impact of existing and growing mainstream pollution which impairs an individual’s ability to enjoy visits or views.Recently,Jordanian cities have expanded in response to urbanization and ongoing development.Irbid City has the second largest population in Jordan after the capital Amman City highest population density in Jordan.In the modern era,Irbid City dramatically increased in population and dimension.The growth of the demographic population has been significant and has led to overpopulation,rapid urbanization,and unresolved problems associated with spatial planning and infrastructures leading to different types of pollution including visual pollution.The study area focuses on the city center with the most crowded population through field visits and actual observations.The study technique is descriptive and analytical,with a focus on meticulous monitoring and a follow-up-based questionnaire which is a tool for the study,involving data collection,classification,presentation,analysis,interpretation,and exploration to identify new facts and generalizations that can help solve current issues of visual pollution.The study provides recommendations for Irbid Municipal to eliminate visual pollution,in parallel with stricter supervision from the municipality during the building process to ensure proper implementation of the new rules,adopting an integrated policy for the city with the rest of the social,political,sensory,cultural,economic,and functional aspects,so that this policy is in the short and long term.

Changes of Wetland Landscape Pattern in New Coastal District of Tianjin City

With the wetland landscape in New Coastal District of Tianjin City as the chief study objective and based on the remote sensing and non-remote sensing data of ETM/TM with 1999-2007 as the time scale and the new administrative region of New Coastal District as the space (scale) scope, this paper conducted the study on the landscape pattern change. The results showed that the natural wetland and agricultural land tended to decrease, while the saltern, maricultural areas and construction land increased apparently. The overall landscape shape tended to develop in simplification and regulation and with the development of population and social economy, human’s intervention to the landscape was getting improved.

Study on the Landscaping Technologies for Coastal Saline-Alkali Land in Tanghai County of Tangshan City

Tanghai County is one of the counties in Tangshan City with the highest saline-alkali degree, with 80% of its land being covered by saline-alkali soils. Through studying landscaping technologies for coastal saline-alkali land in Tanghai County, 3 dominant modes for landscaping engineering in such land were summarized as shallow underground pipe desalination technology, banding soil replacement technology and hole membrane soil replacement technology, which are different in application scope and also in cost (respectively 260, 210 and 170 yuan). 3 landscaping measures were also proposed, including promotion of suitable plant cultivation technologies, application of saline-alkali tolerant plants and biological improvement of soils. To explore economic and practical planting patterns for saline-alkali land, low-cost landscaping tests were conducted from the perspectives of improving landscaping engineering mode and optimizing landscaping measures, and the results showed that it was practical to apply low-cost landscaping patterns, and comprehensive ecological measures should be adopted to realize the sustained utilization of soil.

文旅融合:“Citywalk”热潮下的冷思考

“Citywalk”(城市漫步)强调慢节奏和沉浸式体验,是深受年轻人追捧的文旅消费新范式。“Citywalk”火爆出圈的背后,也存在着产品辨识度不高、利润低、专业性不强、产品更迭慢等问题。“文旅融合”的有效健康发展,需要在资源供给、产品创新、服务品质等方面开展全方位、多领域的合作联动,成果共享才能形成互利共赢新格局。

Urban surface water system in coastal areas: A comparative study between Almere and Tianjin Eco-city

In the purpose of defining typical urban water management challenges in coastal lowlands in the context of global climate change, a comparative study was conducted between two coastal new towns respectively located in the Netherlands and Northern China. Comparative method is applied to define main functioning patterns of urban water systems in the two cases, then computer simulations were used to furthercompare drainage capacity in order to reveal the trends of urban water management. Major resulthas shown that Almere in the Netherlands generally more advanced in urban water management asmultiple functioning patterns are available.Strong dykes maintain competence for land subsidence and sea level rise. Open water system decreases local runoff and increaseswater retention level. Systematic control ofsluicesand locks which serve for shipping and waterfront landscaping are simultaneously isolating contaminants from outer water body. Tianjin Eco-city in China has shown both strengths and weaknesses. It takes large amount of reclaimed water as main landscaping water source, which adapts to local water pollution and shortage while requires highly centralized facilities. Large water body is reserved and huge scale underground drainage system built, but it is still vulnerable to heavy storms due to the lack of efficient surface water drainage system. Coastal line control does not adequately prevent from increasing storm surge risks in the future. SWMMsimulations have supported the viewpoint ofdistributed surface water with a higher efficiency for storm drainage. Meanwhile, surface water system returns more added values to urban development. The study is corresponding well with the theory of water sensitive city. As a conclusion, urban water system should always incorporate methods to achieve higher system resilience based on multiple functioning patterns.

Measuring Capacity for Resilience among Coastal Counties of the U. S. Northern Gulf of Mexico Region

Many have voiced concern about the long-term survival of coastal communities in the face of increasingly intense storms and sea level rise. In this study we select indicators of key theoretical concepts from the social-ecological resilience literature, aggregate those indicators into a resilience-capacity index, and calculate an index score for each of the 52 coastal counties of Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. Building upon Cutter’s Social Vulnerability Index work [1], we use Factor Analysis to combine 43 variables measuring demographics, social capital, economic re- sources, local government actions, and environmental conditions within the counties. Then, we map the counties’ scores to show the spatial distribution of resilience capacities. The counties identified as having the highest resilience capaci- ties include the suburban areas near New Orleans, Louisiana and Tampa, Florida, and the growing beach-tourist com- munities of Alabama and central Florida. Also, we examine whether those counties more active in oil and gas develop- ment and production, part of the region’s “energy coast”, have greater capacity for resilience than other counties in the region. Correlation analyses between the resilience-capacity index scores and two measures of oil and gas industry ac- tivity (total employment and number of business establishments within five industry categories) yielded no statistically significant associations. By aggregating a range of important contextual variables into a single index, the study demonstrates a useful approach for the more systematic examination and comparison of exposure, vulnerability and capacity for resilience among coastal communities.

Spatiotemporal assessment of particulate matter(PM_(10) and PM_(2.5)) and ozone in a Caribbean urban coastal city

Air pollution has become a critical issue in urban areas,so a broad understanding of its spatiotemporal characteristics is important to develop public policies.This study analyzes the spatiotemporal variation of atmospheric particulate matter(PM_(10) and PM_(2.5))and ozone(O_(3))in Barranquilla,Colombia from March 2018 to June 2019 in three monitoring stations.The average concentrations observed for the Móvil,Policía,and Tres Avemarías stations,respectively,for PM_(10):46.4,51.4,and 39.7μg/m^(3);for PM_(2.5):16.1,18.1,and 15.1μg/m^(3) and for O_(3):35.0,26.6,and 33.6μg/m^(3).The results indicated spatial and temporal variations between the stations and the pollutants evaluated.The highest PM concentrations were observed in the southern part of the city,while for ozone,higher concentrations were observed in the north.These variations are mainly associated with the influence of local sources in the environment of each site evaluated as well as the meteorological conditions and transport patterns of the study area.This study also verified the existence of differences in the concentrations of the studied pollutants between the dry and rainy seasons and the contribution of local sources as biomass burnings from the Isla Salamanca Natural Park and long-range transport of dust particles from the Sahara Desert.This study provides a scientific baseline for understanding air quality in the city,which enables policy makers to adopt efficient measures that jointly prevent and control pollution.

Plant Landscape Design Language of Small Street Parks in Tropical Coastal Regions:A Case Study of Zhanjiang City

Small urban street parks play an irreplaceable role in protecting ecological environment of cities and beautifying living spaces of citizens, in these parks plant is an essential landscaping element that can not only improve environmental quality, but also provide visual enjoyment for viewers. There are many small street parks in Zhanjiang City, however, plant landscapes in such parks lack in regional characteristics because of blind copy and random planting. By analyzing plant landscapes in typical street parks in Zhanjiang, and borrowing the theoretical research framework of linguistics, this paper concluded the vocabulary, sentence,chapter and grammatical rules of plant landscape design, in order to explore new methods for the plant landscape design of small parks in tropical coastal regions.

Soil Salinity and Soil Water Content Estimation Using Digital Images in Coastal Field:A Case Study in Yancheng City of Jiangsu Province,China

Soil is the essential part for agricultural and environmental sciences,and soil salinity and soil water content are both the important influence factors for sustainable development of agriculture and ecological environment.Digital camera,as one of the most popular and convenient proximal sensing instruments,has its irreplaceable position for soil properties assessment.In this study,we collected 52 soil samples and photographs at the same time along the coast in Yancheng City of Jiangsu Province.We carefully analyzed the relationship between soil properties and image brightness,and found that soil salt content had higher correlation with average image brightness value than soil water content.From the brightness levels,the high correlation coefficients between soil salt content and brightness levels concentrated on the high brightness values,and the high correlation coefficients between soil water content and brightness levels focused on the low brightness values.Different significance levels(P)determined different brightness levels related to soil properties,hence P value setting can be an optional way to select brightness levels as the input variables for modeling soil properties.Given these information,random forest algorithm was applied to develop soil salt content and soil water content inversion models using randomly 70%of the dataset,and the rest data for testing models.The results showed that soil salt content model had high accuracy(R_(v)^(2)=0.79,RMSE_(v)=12 g/kg,and RPD_(v)=2.18),and soil water content inversion model was barely satisfied(R_(v)^(2)=0.47,RMSE_(v)=3.04%,and RPD_(v)=1.38).This study proposes a method of modeling soil properties with a digital camera.Combining unmanned aerial vehicle(UAV),it has potential popularization and application value for precise agriculture and land management.

Preliminary Analysis of Sea Use Planning Strategies in Coastal Cities:A Case Study of Binhai New Area in Tianjin City

Through investigating current sea use in coastal cities of China,and exploring foreign and domestic researches on sea use,this paper took Binhai New Area of Tianjin City for example to analyze major problems of its sea use in ecological security,planar form,land use layout,specialized planning,management and regulatory mechanism,then proposed strategies from 4 perspectives,namely ecological conservation and restoration,optimization of planning planar form,optimization of planning land use layout,and planning management,in order to provide references and instructions for the sea use planning of Chinese coastal cities.

Qingdao A Coastal Opening City

In eastern China, Qingdao is an important coastal opening city and a hub of the economy. Since 1992 the city government has planned a programme to develop Qingdao into a modern international city focussed on an industrial park, three districts and three strips projects. Under a concerted effort the city’s economic construction and opening up has shown vibrant prospects for development.

The Checklist of Coastal Invertebrates in Yantai City of China

122 coastal invertebrates were recorded in Yantai of China ,which belong to 9 phyla ,22 classes ,34 orders ,74 families.

A study on sustainable development capacity of China's coastal areas using indices dimension reduction method

Sustainable Development Capacity (SDC) is a comprehensive concept. In order to obtain a relatively objective evaluation of it, many indices of various aspects are often used in assessing index systems. However, the overlapping information of indices is a frequent source deviating the result from the truth. In this paper, 48 indices are selected as original variables in assessing SDC of China's coastal areas. The mathematical method of dimension reducing treatment is used for eliminating the overlapping information in 48 variables. Five new comprehensive indices are extracted bearing efficient messages of original indices. On the base of new indices values, the sequencing of 12 coastal areas SDC is gained, and five patterns of sustainable development regions are sorted. Then, the leading factors and their relations of SDC in these patterns are analyzed. The gains of research are discussed in the end.

Effects of Biostimulation-Bioaugmentation on Coastal Microbial Community in an in situ Mesocosm System

Globally,various types of pollution affect coastal waters as a result of human activities.Bioaugmentation and biostimulation are effective methods for treating water pollution.However,few studies have explored the response of coastal prokaryotic and eukaryotic communities to bioaugmentation and biostimulation.Here,a 28-day outdoor mesocosm experiment with two treatments(bioaugmentation-A and combined treatment of bioaugmentation and biostimulation-AS)and a control(untreated-C)were carried out.The experiment was conducted in Meishan Bay to explore the composition,dynamics,and co-occurrence patterns of prokaryotic and eukaryotic communities in response to the A and AS using 16S rRNA and 18S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing.After treatment,Gammaproteobacteria and Epsilonproteobacteria were significantly increased in group AS compared to group C,while Flavobacteriia and Saprospirae were significantly reduced.Dinoflagellata was significantly reduced in AS compared to C,while Chrysophyta was significantly reduced in both AS and A.Compared to C,the principal response curve analyses of the prokaryotic and eukaryotic communities both showed an increasing trend followed by a decreasing trend for AS.Furthermore,the trends of prokaryotic and eukaryotic communities in group A were similar to those in group AS compared with group C,but AS changed them more than A did.According to the species weight table on principal response curves,a significant increase was observed in beneficial bacteria in prokaryotic communities,such as Rhodobacterales and Oceanospirillales,along with a decrease in autotrophs in eukaryotic communities,such as Chrysophyta and Diatom.Topological properties of network analysis reveal that A and AS complicate the interactions between the prokaryotic and eukaryotic communities.Overall,these findings expand our understanding of the response pattern of the bioaugmentation and biostimulation on coastal prokaryotic and eukaryotic communities.

Groundwater Quality Assessment Based on WQI and Its Vulnerability to Saltwater Intrusion in a Coastal City, Iran

The purpose of this paper was to assess the quality of groundwater in Behshahr (Iran) based on water quality index (WQI). Sixteen water samples from this coastal aquifer were collected and analyzed to study physico-chemical parameters such as pH, hardness, chloride (Cl), electrical conductivity (EC) and total dissolved solids (TDS). The results showed that the annual average of TDS value increased by 343 mg/l between 1999 and 2015 due to anthropogenic activities. According to WQI, it was concluded that the groundwater quality degraded over the last sixteen-year period so that the percentage of samples identified as “good water” decreased by 18.5% and on the other hand, alas, the percentage of “poor water” quality soared by nearly 12.5%. Correspondence of WQI distribution diagram with that of chloride-bicarbonate ratio attests to the significant contribution of saltwater intrusion to groundwater quality deterioration in this area.

Overall-effective Measures for Sustainable Water Resources Management in the Coastal Areas of Shandong Province, China——Case Study: the Huangshuihe River Catchment of Longkou City

In the coastal catchments of Shandong Province the water scarcity is aggravated due to saltwater intrusion, reducing the usability of water resources available. Such a situation calls for sustainable integrated water resources management (IWRM). The idea for the objectives and implementation of the IWRM are explained in this paper. The general objective of the planned project disscussed in the present study is to bring together German traditional expertise in water resources management and newer developments in the context of the European Water Framework Directive; the research efforts aim to relieve the desperate water scarcity situation in the costal area of Shandong Province.