Yingzi Chen

Carbon emissions from transportation account for an increasing proportion of total carbon emissions, and daily travel carbon emissions are an essential part of carbon emissions from transportation. Urban form influences the transportation network layout, so the degree of influence of urban transportation development on daily travel carbon emissions varies according to urban form. This paper uses panel data from 254 prefecture-level cities in China from 2006 to 2019 to explore the impact of urban transportation development on daily travel carbon emissions based on the moderating effect of urban form. The results show that urban transportation development plays a pivotal role in significantly reducing daily travel carbon emissions. The urban form further amplifies the impact of carbon emission reductions. Specifically, polycentric urban structures enable residents to meet their daily travel needs through short-distance trips, thereby alleviating traffic congestion. The impact of urban transportation development on daily travel carbon emission intensity exhibits heterogeneity. In both low-carbon pilot cities and large cities, urban transportation development markedly decreases daily travel carbon emission intensity. Additionally, it is observed that cities with lower economic development levels exhibit more pronounced effects in carbon emission reduction compared to their more economically developed counterparts. This paper provides empirical support for rational planning of urban transportation systems and low-carbon development of daily travel.

Care facilities are the mainstay of social services for the elderly. As the trend of empty nesting among elderly families intensifies due to the aging population, it is becoming difficult for families to take on the responsibility of caring for the elderly on their own, and the elderly need more formal care to be provided by society. The contradiction between the lag in the construction of care facilities and the growth in the social demand for elderly care has been highlighted, and the spatial equality of care facilities is an important means of achieving an optimal allocation of resources for elderly care. In this paper, we use the two-step floating catchment method to measure the spatial accessibility of care facilities from a fine-grained perspective, using big data, including mobile phone signaling data and points of interest. Then, we use the Gini coefficient to analyze the equality of the spatial allocations of different types of urban care facilities. The results of the study show that, first, the spatial equality of care facilities is good in terms of the Gini coefficient, but the overall spatial accessibility of care facilities is at a relatively low level compared to that in developed cities. This means that the layout of Changchun’s care facilities is good, but there is insufficient service capacity. Second, the spatial accessibility of residential care facilities is characterized by a gradual decline, with high levels in the core and low levels in the periphery. Fewer facilities are located in the peripheral areas of the city, and spatial accessibility is at a lower level, a characteristic different from that seen in cities with a higher level of economic development, such as Beijing. Third, the spatial accessibility of community care facilities showed a polycentric, contiguous distribution. The effect of the study scale on the spatial accessibility of community care facilities was more pronounced, with large scales obscuring the high values of the spatial accessibility of community care facilities in peripheral areas. Fourth, Changchun has better overall equality of care facilities, with differences in the different types and areas of care provided. The spatial balance of care facilities in the core area is better than that observed in other regions. In conclusion, this paper underscores the value of big data, such as mobile phone signaling data, in supporting refined urban research. Furthermore, our comprehensive analysis of social care facility equality can inform policy making and spatial planning.

Internet development has changed Chinese people’s consumption behavior, gradually expanding from survival consumption (SC) to development and enjoyment consumption (DEC) trends. Consumption is the new engine driving China’s economic growth and the terminal of carbon emissions. Simultaneously, China is undergoing a profound change toward the “double carbon” goal, the space for carbon emission reduction in traditional fields is gradually compressed. Therefore, it is necessary to explore carbon emissions from the perspective of consumption terminals. Based on provincial panel data, we use the fixed effects model and mediating effects model to explore the relationship between Internet development, consumption upgrading, and carbon emissions in a unified research framework. The findings show that: (1) Internet development leads to an increase in carbon emissions. A finding remains significant after using instrumental variables to mitigate endogeneity; (2) Internet development promotes consumption upgrading, reflected in development and enjoyment consumption expenditure; (3) Internet development contributes to increasing carbon emissions through consumption upgrading. Heterogeneity analysis shows that Internet development in eastern China significantly contributes to carbon emissions through consumption upgrading, while it is insignificant in central and western regions. The Internet development leading region contributes to an increase in carbon emissions through consumption upgrading. In comparison, the lagging region is insignificant. This study can provide a reference for policymakers in China or other countries to formulate energy-saving and emission-reduction policies in the Internet industry and provide a scientific basis for advocating people’s low-carbon consumption behavior and achieving carbon emission reduction at the consumption terminal.

People-oriented urban planning requires that service facilities should efficiently meet individual and community activity needs across the demographic landscape that defines a city. To develop a conceptual basis for urban spatial infrastructure optimization, we empirically studied existing population activities and service facilities in Changchun, China, using kernel density estimation, bivariate spatial autocorrelation analysis, and other models. The spatial relationships we derived from multiple sources of big data such as mobile phone signaling and POI data indicated that the intensity of population activity has obvious temporal regularity, and its spatial distribution is “center-periphery.” Service facilities display a “One main and two subs” distribution with no obvious spatial dependence between the core’s density and diversity. Population activities and service facility diversity show a high-high spatial correlation and multiple matching patterns. At the same time, a certain degree of spatial mismatch between different age groups and service facilities was also observed. Our research suggests several urban renewal actions to rectify this mismatch, such as: decentralizing the core area medical service facilities; reducing the attractiveness of the core area and its traffic pressure; and renewing and renovating old facilities to reduce construction costs. At a government planning level, construction along the periphery of the urban can enrich the diversity of its service facilities to improve the efficiency of spatial allocation.

Water scarcity has become a major impediment to economic development, and a scientifically sound water allocation plan is essential to alleviate water scarcity. An opportunity constraint approach is introduced to optimise the uncertainty of the minimum regional development level under five hydrological scenarios, and an interval-fuzzy two-stage chance-constraint model (IFTSC) is constructed to improve the reliability of the model results. The correlation of each stochastic parameter in the IFTSC model with the water allocation results and the economic benefits of the Tingjiang River basin is analysed by the Pearson correlation coefficient method. Simulation results from the IFTSC model show a downward trend in overall water scarcity and an upward trend in overall economic benefits in the Tingjiang River basin. Taking the dry water scenario as an example, the water shortage in the industrial sector decreases by 9.7%, and the overall economic benefits of the Tingjiang River basin increase by 41.58 × 108 CNY. The results of the correlation analysis based on Pearson’s correlation coefficient show that water allocation is strongly positively correlated with variables such as water price and regional minimum development requirements, and economic efficiency is strongly positively correlated with unit scale output value and losses caused by water shortage. This paper provides constructive suggestions and guiding directions for the rational allocation of water resources in the Tingjiang River basin through a detailed analysis of the results and identification of the main stochastic parameters in the water allocation process.

Urban agglomeration is a new carrier of regional economic development, whose spatial structure can be reflected by the transportation system. The coordination between urban economic development and the transportation system is conducive to promoting balanced urban economic development. As an important urban cluster of China, the Harbin-Changchun urban agglomeration plays an important role in promoting the revitalization of northeast China. Targeting 11 cities of the Harbin-Changchun urban agglomeration, this paper adopts the coupling coordination degree model to study the coordination level of urban economic development and the transportation system. The results show that large differences exist among the cities, with Changchun at the outstanding position. A more developed transportation system exists in the western Harbin-Changchun urban agglomeration, while the east is in a worse condition. The coupling coordination degree of the urban economic development and transportation system shows obvious stratification. Further adjusting the industrial structure, expanding the degree of opening to the outside world, and increasing investment in transportation technological innovation are recommended to promote an integrated development pattern in the Harbin-Changchun urban agglomeration.

In this work, based on the upper line of water resources utilization and the bottom line of water environmental quality of “Three Lines, Single Project”, a fuzzy optimization method was introduced into the Tingjiang River water resources optimal allocation and eco-compensation mechanism model, which is based on the interval two-stage (ITS) stochastic programming method. In addition, a Tingjiang River water resources allocation and eco-compensation mechanism model based on the interval fuzzy two-stage (IFTS) optimization method was also constructed. The objective functions of both models were to maximize the economic benefits of the Tingjiang River. The available water resources in the basin, the water environmental quality requirements, and regional development requirements were used as constraints, and under the five hydrological scenarios of extreme dryness, dryness, normal flow, abundance, and extreme abundance, the water resources allocation plan of various sectors (industry, municipal, agriculture, and ecology) in the Tingjiang River was optimized, and an eco-compensation mechanism was developed. In this work, the uncertainty of the maximum available water resources in each region and the whole basin was considered. If the maximum available water resources were too high, it would lead to a large waste of water resources, whereas if the maximum available water resources were too low, regional economic development would be limited. Therefore, the above two parameters were set as fuzzy parameters in the optimization model construction in this work. The simulation results from the IFTS model showed that the amount of water available in the river basin directly affects the water usage by various departments, thereby affecting the economic benefits of the river basin and the amount of eco-compensation paid by the downstream areas. The average economic benefit of the Tingjiang River after the optimization of the IFTS model simulation was [3868.51, 5748.99] × 10⁸ CNY, which is an increase of [1.67%, 51.9%] compared to the economic benefit of the basin announced by the government in 2018. Compared to the ITS model, the economic benefit interval of the five hydrological scenarios of extreme dryness, dryness, normal flow, abundance, and extreme abundance was reduced by 28.54%, 44.9%, 31.49%, 40.37%, and 36.43%, respectively, which can improve the economic benefits of the basin and provide more accurate decision-making schemes. In addition, the IFTS simulation showed that the eco-compensation quota paid by downstream Guangdong Province to upstream Fujian Province is [28,116.4, 30,738.6] × 10⁴ CNY, which is a reduction of [8461.404, 110,836] × 10⁴ CNY compared to the 2018 compensation scheme of the government. Compared to the ITS model, the range of eco-compensation values was observed to increase by 9.94%, 54.81%, 15.85%, 50.31%, and 82.90%, respectively, under the five hydrological scenarios, which reduces the burden of ecological expenditure downstream and provides a broader decision-making space for decision-makers and thus enables improved decision-making efficiency. At the same time, after the optimization of the IFTS model, the additional water consumption of the second stage of the Tingjiang River during the extremely dry year decreased by 62.11% compared to the results of the ITS model. The additional water consumption of the industrial sector decreased by 68.39%, the municipal sector decreased by 59.27%, and in the first phase of water resources allocation for 14 districts and counties in the Tingjiang River, industrial and municipal sectors are the main two sectors. After introducing the fuzzy method into the IFTS model, the difference in the water consumption by these two sectors in the basin under different hydrological scenarios can be alleviated, and the waste of water resources caused by too low water allocation or excessive water allocation can be avoided. The national and local (the downstream region) eco-compensation quotas can be indirectly reduced, and the risk of water resources allocation and eco-compensation decision-making in the basin can be effectively reduced.