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.

Novel algorithm for detection and identification of radioactive materials in an urban environment

This study introduces a novel algorithm to detect and identify radioactive materials in urban settings using time-series detector response data. To address the challenges posed by varying backgrounds and to enhance the quality and reliability of the energy spectrum data, we devised a temporal energy window. This partitioned the time-series detector response data, resulting in energy spectra that emphasize the vital information pertaining to radioactive materials. We then extracted characteristic features of these energy spectra, relying on the formation mechanism and measurement principles of the gammaray instrument spectrum. These features encompassed aggregated counts, peak-to-flat ratios, and peak-to-peak ratios. This methodology not only simplified the interpretation of the energy spectra's physical significance but also eliminated the necessity for peak searching and individual peak analyses. Given the requirements of imbalanced multi-classification, we created a detection and identification model using a weighted k-nearest neighbors(KNN) framework. This model recognized that energy spectra of identical radioactive materials exhibit minimal inter-class similarity. Consequently, it considerably boosted the classification accuracy of minority classes, enhancing the classifier's overall efficacy. We also executed a series of comparative experiments. Established methods for radionuclide identification classification, such as standard KNN, support vector machine, Bayesian network, and random tree, were used for comparison purposes. Our proposed algorithm realized an F1 measure of 0.9868 on the time-series detector response data, reflecting a minimum enhancement of 0.3% in comparison with other techniques. The results conclusively show that our algorithm outperforms others when applied to time-series detector response data in urban contexts.

Implications of Dynamic Interactions between Meteorological Patterns and Surface Water Quality on Environmental Health—A Case Study of the Nairobi River

Urban areas face significant challenges in maintaining water quality amidst increasing urbanization and changing climatic patterns. This study investigates the complex interplay between meteorological variables and water quality parameters in Nairobi City, focusing on the impacts of rainfall and temperature on surface water quality. Data from multiple sources, including the Water Resources Authority, Nairobi Water and Sewerage Company, and the World Bank’s Climate Change Knowledge Portal, were analyzed to assess the relationships between meteorological variables (rainfall and temperature) and water quality parameters (such as electroconductivity, biochemical oxygen demand, chloride, and pH). The analysis reveals varying impacts of rainfall and temperature on different water quality parameters. While parameters like iron and pH show strong relationships with both rainfall and temperature, others such as ammonia and nitrate exhibit moderate relationships. Additionally, the study highlights the influence of runoff, urbanization, and industrial activities on water quality, emphasizing the need for holistic management approaches. Recommendations encompass the establishment of annual publications on Nairobi River water quality, online accessibility of water quality data, development of hydrological models, spatial analysis, and fostering cross-disciplinary research collaborations. Implementing these recommendations can enhance water quality management practices, mitigate risks, and safeguard environmental integrity in Nairobi City.

Changes in the growth of Scots pine(Pinus sylvestris L.)stands in an urban environment in European Russia since 1862

A century and a half ago,in the European part of Russia(Moscow),forest scientists established the first long-term observations of forests,many of which are under observation to the present day.In the twentieth century,climate changes and,due to industrial development,forest areas were under air pollution.Based on observations from 157 sites,this study shows that the growth and density of Scots pine(Pinus sylvestris L.)have decreased by the end of the twentieth century.The environment has changed,and the growth and development of plantations has slowed.Pine yields(-34%stand volume)and their life expectancy(on average 50 years)have decreased.These changes are critical for forestry and for the management of forests in urban centers.Due to the decline in growth,ecosystem functions by urban forests has decreased.In order to increase the sustainability of urban forests and the provision of ecosystem services,it is preferable to create multi-species stands with a complex structure.

Retrieval and Regional Distribution Analysis of Ammonia,Sulfur Dioxide and Nitrogen Dioxide in the Urban Environment Using Ultraviolet DOAS Algorithm

Aiming at the in situ and mobile observation of urban environmental air pollution,a portable instrument using ultraviolet spectrum retrieval algorithm was developed based on the basis of Differential Optical Absorption Spectroscopy(DOAS)and multiple-pass cell technique.Typical trace gas pollutants,NH3,SO2,and NO2,were explored using their optical spectral characteristics in deep ultraviolet wavelength range from 210 to 215 nm.The gas concentration was retrieved by Lambert-Beer’s law and nonlinear least square method.With an optimized optical alignment,the detection limits of NH3,SO2,NO2 were estimated to be 2.2,2.3,and 36.2 ppb,respectively.The system was used in carrying out some cruise observations in Chengdu,China.During the entire period,the polluted gases showed varied distribution and typical daily average concentrations ofNH3,SO2,NO2 were 23.2,3.5,and 106.0 ppb,respectively.The contributions from different sources were analyzed combined with the HYSPLIT model.Results show that the portable DOAS system is a convenient and effective tool for regional distribution measurement and pollution source monitoring.

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.

Study of Coordinated Development of Urbanization and the Environment

With the rapid promotion of urbanization, urban environmental pollution has become increasingly serious. The urban environmental pollution is closely related to unilateral pursuit of economic growth, insufficient investment in urban environmental control, lack of environmental protection mechanism, etc . To promote urbanization, it is necessary to set up the development concept ecological cities and towns, establish scientific assessment mechanism for local governments, increase the investment in environmental control in villages and towns, optimize urban distribution, and achieve the coordinated development of urbanization and the environment.

The Multi-Scale Numerical Modeling System for Research on the Relationship between Urban Planning and Meteorological Environment

Considering the urban characteristics, a customized multi-scale numerical modeling system is established to simulate the urban meteorological environment. The system mainly involves three spatial scales: the urban scale, urban sub-domain scale, and single to few buildings scale. In it, different underlying surface types are employed, the building drag factor is used to replace its roughness in the influence on the urban wind field, the effects of building distribution, azimuth and screening of shortwave radiation are added, and the influence of anthropogenic heating is also taken into account. All the numerical tests indicate that the simulated results are reasonably in agreement with the observational data, so the system can be used to simulate the urban meteorological environment. Making use of it, the characteristics of the meteorological environment from the urban to urban sub-domain scales, even the among-buildings scale, can be recognized. As long as the urban planning scheme is given, the corresponding simulated results can be obtained so as to meet the need of optimizing urban planning.

The comprehensive evaluation of China＇s urbanization and effects on resources and environment

This paper constructs a comprehensive evaluation index system for the urbanization level in China in terms of four aspects of urbanization connotation： population, economy, society, and land. A comprehensive measurement is carried out for the Chinese urbanization between 1981 and 2006 based on the Entropy method. The results show that the comprehensive level of urbanization in China has a continuous increase with the major features of economic growth and a rapid evolution of the geographical landscape, followed by population urbanization and then social urbanization of health care standard; the distinguished evolutional characteristics can also be found in each of the subsystems. The integrated evolution of urbanization has a profound effect on the resources, energy and the environment, making the land resources and energy security situation under severe pressure. The environment pressure is also increased further.

Vehicle-to-Infrastructure Channel Characterization in Urban Environment at 28 GHz

Both ultra-reliable low latency and high-data-rate communications are required by connective vehicles. Millimeter wave(mm Wave) with large bandwidth is a key technology to support high-data-rate communications. In this paper, the 28 GHz wideband vehicle-to-infrastructure channel is characterized for the urban environment in a major street in Manhattan. The deployment of the transmitter and the receiver, as well as the traffic models, are selected by considering the recommendation by 3GPP TR 37.885. Ray tracing simulator with calibrated electromagnetic parameters is employed in this work to practically conduct intensive simulations. The 3D environment model is reconstructed from OpenStreetMap. The power delay profile, path loss, root-meansquare delay spread, K-factor and so on, are extracted from the calibrated simulation results. The evolution of the parameters, as well as their statistical properties, are analyzed and modeled. The work of this paper helps the researchers understand the propagation channel for designing mmWave technologies and communication system in a similar scenario.

A STUDY ON THE FORECAST AND REGULATION OF COORDINATED DEVELOPMENT OF URBAN ENVIRONMENT AND ECONOMY IN GUANGZHOU

This article introduces the concepts of coordinated development of economy and environment and formulas of coordinated degree. Results obtained are that the coordinated degree in 1992 is over 0.87.The variation tendencies on coordinated development of urb

Impacts of Urban Expansion on the Urban Thermal Environment:A Case Study of Changchun,China

Urbanization,especially urban land expansion,has a profound influence on the urban thermal environment.Cities in Northeast China face remarkably uneven development and environmental issues,and thus it is necessary to strengthen the diagnosis of thermal environmental pressure brought by urbanization.In this study,multi remote sensing imageries and statistical approaches,involving piecewise linear regression(PLR),were used to explore urban expansion and its effects on the thermal environment of Changchun City in Jilin Province,China.Results show that Changchun experienced rapid urban expansion from 2000 to 2020,with urban built-up areas increasing from 171.77 to 525.14 km^(2).The area of the city’s urban heat island(UHI)increased dramatically,during both day and night.Using PLR,a positive linear correlation of built-up density with land surface temperature(LST)was detected,with critical breakpoints of 70%-80%during the daytime and 40%-50%at nighttime.Above the thresholds,the magnitude of LST in response to built-up density significantly increased with intensifying urbanization,especially for nighttime LST.An analysis of the relative frequency distributions(RFDs)of LST reveals that rapid urbanization resulted in a significant increase of mean LST in newly urbanized areas,but had weak effects on daytime LST change in existing urban area.Urban expansion also contributed to a constant decrease of spatial heterogeneity of LST in existing urban area,especially at daytime.However,in newly urbanized areas,the spatial heterogeneity of LST was decreased during the daytime but increased at nighttime due to urbanization.

Coordination of Urbanization and Water Ecological Environment in Shayinghe River Basin,China

During the rapid industrialization and urbanization of China,urban agglomeration in river basin areas raises the problems of over-use of water resources and pollution of the water environment.Related research in China has mainly focused on the conflicts among economic growth,urban expansion and water resource shortages within admin-istrative boundaries.However,water environments are much more dependent on their physical boundaries than their administrative boundaries.Consistent with the nature of water environment,this study aims at analyzing coordination relationships between urban development and water environment changes within physical river basin boundaries.We chose the Shayinghe River Basin,China,as our case study area which is facing serious challenges related to water en-vironment protection.Then we classified 35 county-level administrative units into upstream,midstream and down-stream regions based on their physical characteristics;analyzed the coordination degree of urban agglomeration using the Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) method;and constructed cooperative models using the Linear Programming (LP function) to simulate four scenarios of the coordination relationship be-tween urban population increase and water environment protection based on existing water resources and water pollu-tion data.The results show that the present coordinative situation in Shayinghe River Basin is not sustainable.In gen-eral,more than 50% administrative units are in the bad coordinative situation.In particular,the downstream region is under worse condition than the upstream and midstream regions.Cooperative models in scenario analyses indicate that the population scale set in existing urban master plannings is not coordinated with the water environment protection.To reach the goal of regional sustainable development,the total population needs to be controlled such that it will re-main at 4.5×10 7 or below by 2020 given the capacity of water environment.

Urban Green Spaces and an Integrative Approach to Sustainable Environment

This paper explains the benefits and challenges of urban green spaces based on the critical discussion of study results from different studies in different cities. The important roles played by green spaces are social, economic, cultural and environmental aspects of sustainable development. Urban green spaces can be a comprehensive tool for long term protection of environmental sustainability through improving the quality of life and air quality, increasing property value due to their amenity and aesthetic characteristics, and reducing the energy costs of cooling buildings. Urban green spaces also can provide ecosystem services in which the recreation and relaxation facilities are especially available to urban dwellers and tourists too. To confirm the multiple roles played by green spaces, certain level of qualitative improvements and distribution of green spaces within the urban area should be considered and incorporated effectively into the environmental sustainability agenda. To do this, an integrated approach regarding the planning, monitoring, designing and maintaining of urban green spaces is required for improving the environmental sustainability in cities in different countries.

Influence of urbanization on the thermal environment of meteorological station:Satellite-observed evidence

In this paper, five national meteorological stations in Anhui province are taken as typical examples to explore the effects of local urbanization on their thermal environment by using Landsat data from 1990 to 2010. Satellite-based land use/land cover(LULC), land surface temperature(LST), normalized difference vegetation index(NDVI) are used to investigate the effects. The study shows that LULC around meteorological stations changed significantly due to urban expansion. Fast urbanization is the main factor that affects the spatial-temporal distribution of thermal environment around meteorological stations. Moreover, the normalized LST and NDVI exhibit strong inverse correlations around meteorological stations, so the variability of LST can be monitored through evaluating the variability of NDVI. In addition, station-relocation plays an important role in improving representativeness of thermal environment. Notably, the environment representativeness was improved, but when using the data from the station to study climate change, the relocation-induced inhomogeneous data should be considered and adjusted. Consequently,controlling the scale and layout of the urban buildings and constructions around meteorological stations is an effective method to ameliorate observational thermal environment and to improve regional representativeness of station observation. The present work provides observational evidences that high resolution Landsat images can be used to evaluate the thermal environment of meteorological stations.

Investigation of the Interactive,Intimidating Relation Between Urbanization and the Environment in an Arid Area Based on Grey System Theory

Taking the Hexi Corridor in western China as an example, this paper studies the interactive intimate i relation between urbanization and the environment in add areas based on the grey system theory. The results show that the grey relational degree between urbanization and the environment is low in the agriculture-oriented cities, modest in the tourism-oriented cities and great in the industry-oriented cities. The changing trend of coupling degree between urbanization and the environment does not entirely agree with that of urbanization or the environment. It showed fluctuating trends, which reflects the compactness and properties of the different stages of the coupling states between urbanization and the environment. In order to achieve a harmonious development with the environment in add areas, traditional development ideas about urbanization should be revised and more attention should be paid to the effect of restriction of water resources and the ecological environment on the development of the economy and society.

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.

Sustainable urbanization: energy and environment in the Chongqing Municipality, China

Chongqing is the largest municipality under the Chinese Central Government (MCG) in terms of administrative area and population and is now the most important economic and cultural center of the upper Yangtze River and Three Gorges area. The Three Gorges Dam project, one of the largest world infrastructure projects, causes a great deal of immigration to Chongqing and results in the rapid urbanization of the city, and it has brought in a great deal of environmental impact, which is a global concerned issue. This paper introduces the city profile of Chongqing municipality and its urbanization impact on energy and environment. The demand and the trend of energy consumption in built environment (building and transport) have been analysed. The living environment of Chongqing residents and the local energy efficient policy have been introduced. Finally the authors discuss the key issues of the sustainable urban development of Chongqing.

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.

Elaborating Spatiotemporal Associations Between the Built Environment and Urban Vibrancy:A Case of Guangzhou City,China

This study applies multi-source datasets(i.e.,Baidu Heat Map data,points of interest(POIs)data,and floor area and land use data)and geographically and temporally weighted regression(GTWR)models to elaborate the spatiotemporal relationships between the built environment and urban vibrancy on both weekdays and weekends,using Guangzhou City as a case.First,we verified the spatially and temporally nonstationary nature of the built environment correlates,which have been largely ignored in previous studies based on local regression techniques.The spatially and temporally heterogeneous effects of the built environment on urban vibrancy are then presented and visualized,based on the GTWR results.We found that the elasticity of location(i.e.,distance),land use mix(i.e.,diversity),building intensity and numbers of POIs with various functions(i.e.,density)are different across time(2-h intervals within a day)and space(grids),due to people’s everyday lifestyle,time-space constraints,and geographical context(e.g.,spatial structure).The findings highlight the importance of a better understanding of the local geography on the spatiotemporal relationships for urban planners and local governments so as to put forward decision-making support for fostering and maintaining urban vibrancy.