Nankun Railway:China's Largest Project for Poverty Alleviation

The Nankun Railway,one of China's key construction pro jects was completed on March 18.The project started on December 24,1990 and lasted for over six years.

For the Greater Good?—A Critical Reflection on Assessing Indirect Economic Effects Caused by Large Transport Projects

Investing in large transport projects affects the (potential) economic development of metropolitan areas. Yet, very little critical research has been performed to understand how to assess these effects. The relationship between infrastructure investments and regional economic development is complex and indirect, and many theoretical and methodological difficulties remain. On the one hand, the assumption that investing in infrastructure is important to sustain economic growth is sometimes doubted. On the other hand, it is argued that investments in infrastructure enhance the accessibility of urban regions and that in the slipstream of such investments, social problems in urban regions can be tackled as well. Despite these contrasting views, there is at least a consensus that transport infrastructure development depends on economic development and vice versa. Yet, in many cases, the method of assessing economic impacts highly affects the results. Therefore, this paper focuses on a critical reflection of methods for estimating economic effects of infrastructure investments. A critical evaluation is made based on Indonesian and Japanese cases. After conducting in-depth desk research on both cases, we found that the broader effects on affected group of people tend to be overlooked due to the problems of time and space dimensions, the chain reaction of effects, and inappropriate data practices. The assessment on the appraisal processes tends to overlook the broader economic implication due to narrow focus and the concept of efficiency of economic theory.

Research on Management Innovation and Development for Railway Passenger Station Construction

Based on the general high-quality development requirements for railway construction in the new era,combined with the new concept of railway passenger stations of China State Railway Group Co.Ltd,namely"being well-connected,fully-integrated,environmeni-friendlypassenger-oriented,economically-efficient,culturally-rich,intelligent and convenient"and aiming at the construction of exemplary passenger station projects,this paper summarizes the construction experience in construction,decoration furnishing culture and art expression of railway passenger stations,proposes the working patterns of formulating the implementation plans of exemplary railway passenger station projects and the expert reviews in innovative way studies and forms 6 special-subject designs such as for colorshape,space,environment,art and culture,as wellas the specific design requirements for 13 key areas including waiting hall entrance and exit corridor;VIP room,etc.,and summarizes and puts forward the construction management system of railway passenger stations in the new era,so as to ensure the expected exemplary project quality of railway passenger stations.

Historical Changes and Future Projections of Extreme Temperature and Precipitation along the Sichuan-Tibet Railway

Based on multiresource high-resolution in situ and satellite merged observations along with model simulations from the Coordinated Regional Climate Downscaling Experiment(CORDEX),this study first investigated historical changes in extreme temperature and precipitation during the period of 1979-2018 in areas along the Sichuan-Tibet Railway,and then projected the future changes in the frequency and intensity of extreme temperature and precipitation under the RCP(Representative Concentration Pathway)4.5 and 8.5 scenarios.This paper is expected to enhance our understanding of the spatiotemporal variability in the extreme temperature and precipitation along the Sichuan-Tibet Railway,and to provide scientific basis to advance the Sichuan-Tibet Railway construction and operation.The results show that temperatures in the Sichuan-Tibet region display a noticeable warming trend in the past 40 years,and the increase of minimum temperature is significantly higher than that of maximum temperature in the northwest of the region.Significant increase of precipitation is found mainly over the northwest of the Tibetan Plateau.Except for Lhasa and its surrounding areas,precipitation over other areas along the Sichuan-Tibet Railway shows no significant change in the past 40 years,as indicated in five datasets;however,precipitation along the railway has shown a remarkable decrease in the past 20 years in the TRMM satellite dataset.The warm days and nights have clearly increased by 6 and 5 day decade1-for 1979-2019,while cold days and nights have markedly decreased by about 6.6 and 3.6 day decade-1,respectively.In the past 20 years,the areas with increased precipitation from very wet days and extremely wet days are mainly distributed to the north of the Sichuan-Tibet Railway,while in the areas along the railway itself,the very wet days and extremely wet days are decreasing.Under RCPs 4.5 and 8.5,the temperature in the Sichuan-Tibet region will increase significantly,and the frequency of extreme high(low)temperature events in the late 21 st century(2070-2099)will greatly increase(decrease)by about 50%-80%(10%)compared with occurrences in the late 20 th century(1970-1999).Meanwhile,the frequency of very wet days and extremely wet days in the Sichuan-Tibet region will increase by about 2%-19% and 2%-5%,respectively,and the areas along the Sichuan-Tibet Railway will be affected by more extreme high temperature and extreme precipitation events.

COMMON RAILS TO PROSPERITY

On December 2,Song Chao’s excitement for the opening of the China-Laos Railway peaked.Despite his Chinese name,Song is Laotian.He works as an interpreter for the railway project and has been studying China’s railway engineering technology during his spare time.Song considers the project team like a family.“Everyone,Lao and Chinese alike,has been working conscientiously,”he said.

Strategic recommendations for financing green and sustainable energy projects

The main hindrances to the large-scale development of renewable-energy projects are the lack of bankability and the inability to align investments and investors with suitable financial instruments or robust policy measures.To illustrate a bankable project,this paper presents a research-based case study on the installation of solar photovoltaic panels on the rooftops of 195 trains of the Indian Railways.Detailed information on the annual running hours,exposure to sunlight,efficiency of solar photovoltaic generation and electrical power demands of each rail coach is considered to conduct a quantitative measure of the tentative amount of fossil fuel sav-ings.The purpose is to provide insight into the types of renewable-energy projects that can be highly attractive to financial institutions and promoters due to their lucrative internal return on investment.As seen in this case study,there are annual savings in diesel of 12323088 litres and a CO_(2) reduction of 32755 tonnes,with return on investment of 1.3 years.Furthermore,this study conducts a com-prehensive analysis of the limitations of existing renewable-energy project financing mechanisms in India.Subsequently,three policy measures are recommended to develop a robust financial mechanism that can effectively meet the needs of investors and investors.These measures include increasing equity injection through a buy-and-hold strategy,providing direct tax benefits to promoters and financing through real-estate investment trusts.The findings are highly relevant to address the challenges associated with bridging the financial gap between access to finance and capital investment in the renewable-energy sector,especially for Asian countries.

Why High-Speed Railway Stations Continue China's Leapfrog Urbanization:Institutional Parameters of Urban Development

An ambitious program of High-Speed Railway (HSR) is under construction in China and already soon the network will overtake its counterparts in Europe. Reflecting on experiences in Europe, the authors explore the conditions for place making qualities of six new HSR station areas in China. The superb inter-city connectivity of the new infrastructure nodes raises a lot of expectations about the economic and social potential of the station areas, but the experiences in Europe thus far are very differentiated. With regards to the attraction of economic activities usually the existing differences between different economic regions are reproduced rather than shaping completely new conditions. Also the expectations of developing completely new integrated urban centers around stations in the urban periphery are rather ambitious. The paper questions the planning responses to HSR development in Chinese cities and investigates the institutional conditions that frame these responses. The authors explore how the plans for Chinese HSR station development account for their objectives and reflect on the potential of the station area planning by investigating the institutional parameters of urban development.