Dynamic wastewater-induced research based on input-output analysis for Guangdong Province, China

Dynamic nonlinear effects of urbanization on wastewater discharge based on inertial characteristics of wastewater discharge

This study examines the impact of urbanization on wastewater discharge (WD) in 30 provinces in mainland China, considering the inertia characteristics of WD. Various models, including the Tapio decoupling model, dynamic curve relationship model, dynamic threshold effect model, and dynamic quantile model, are employed to analyze the decoupling relationship, curve relationship, threshold relationship, and quantile relationship, respectively. The research findings indicate a shift in the relationship between urbanization and total wastewater discharge (TWD) from expansionary negative decoupling to strong decoupling. Regarding household wastewater discharge (HWD), the relationship is primarily characterized by expansionary negative decoupling and weak decoupling, while industrial wastewater discharge (IWD) is mainly associated with strong decoupling. Urbanization does not exhibit an (inverted) N-shaped relationship with TWD, IWD, and HWD, but it does show an inverted U-shaped relationship with TWD and HWD. The study also reveals that urbanization has a dynamic threshold effect and regional heterogeneity on HWD, but not on TWD and IWD. As the quantile increases, the positive impact of urbanization on TWD and HWD decreases, while the negative impact on IWD increases.

Identifying the socioeconomic determinants of industrial hazardous waste generation: South Korea as a case study

The South Korean government has set an ambitious target to reduce industrial hazardous waste (IHW) as part of its transition towards a circular economy. Moreover, effective management of IHW within the country has become crucial, given that IHW trade is regulated by the Basel Convention. Despite the urgent need for well-founded environmental policies, there is a lack of essential information on the characteristics and determinants of IHW generation, which hinders the effectiveness of existing IHW policies. To address this information gap, this study developed a South Korean extended IHW input-output model for 2008 and 2018 to characterize IHW generation and applied structural decomposition analysis to identify the socioeconomic determinant of change of IHW generation. The results reveal that consumption, export, and direct IHW intensity change of 'Chemical', 'Electronic and electrical equipment', 'Basic metal', and 'Other service' emerge as dominant determinants for IHW growth. Conversely, technology change, including technological structure change and direct IHW intensity change, of 'Basic metal' and 'Other service' is the key driver for IHW reduction. In addition, an intriguing aspect of the study relates to the supply chain's influence on IHW generation. The indirect growth of IHW resulting from expanding exports and consumption contributes nearly twice as much to the overall increase in IHW as direct IHW growth. These valuable insights pave the way for the South Korean government to establish holistic and customized environmental policies regarding IHW. It emphasizes the importance of considering expanded global system boundaries, technological advancements, and purchasers' consumption patterns as dominant factors in formulating these policies. Furthermore, this study not only provides crucial guidance for the government's decision-making but also suggests strengthening environmental management and monitoring practices.

A sector-disaggregated cross-regional emission analysis for carbon mitigation policies from production and consumption perspectives

As one of the most challenging environment issues worldwide, climate change has posed a serious threat to habitat, species, and people's livelihoods. In this study, a sector-disaggregated cross-regional emission analysis model is developed to systematically analyze enviro-economic effects of sector-level carbon mitigation efforts from both production and consumption perspectives for supporting climate change-related policymaking. A special case study of Hubei Province, China, is conducted to demonstrate the potential benefits of its use in the climate change related policymaking field. The power generation sector has been disaggregated into five subsectors based on different power generation technologies to help investigate the potential of such technologies to carbon emission mitigations. The carbon mitigation policy scenarios from both industry optimization and demand substitute perspectives will further be explored to provide bases for decision makers to formulate the desired carbon mitigation policy aimed at different regions and sectors. Results indicate that dominant direct and indirect CO2 emissions in Hubei Province are from the Production and supply of fossil-fuel power sector and Construction sector, respectively. When industry optimization policies on the fossil-fuel power sector (in Hubei), there are significant effects on the CO2 emission mitigation whichever regions. Therefore, industry optimization policies are suggested for implementation in specific sectors with close intersectoral/interprovince trade contacts and significant emissions to achieve joint carbon emission mitigations.

Spatial and structural characteristics of the ecological network of carbon metabolism of cultivated land based on land use and cover change: a case study of Nanchang, China

This paper explored the ecological network of CMCL (carbon metabolism of cultivated land) of Nanchang City from 2000 to 2020 to promote the low-carbon land management and China's dual carbon goals. We found that vertical and horizontal net carbon flow of cultivated land was negative during 2000-2020, and harmful carbon flow was mainly generated by the conversion of cultivated land to transportation and industrial land. Cultivated land contributed the most of the total carbon throughflow, accounting for 56.16%. Furthermore, exploitation and control relationships made maximal contribution to ecological relationships (45.83%), followed by competition relationships and mutualism relationships. In addition, ecological utility index showed the ecological network of CMCL is unhealthy. We suggest that it is necessary to achieve healthy and orderly operation of the ecological network of CMCL to reduce carbon emissions.

Dynamic simulation of industrial synergy optimisation pathways in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region driven by water environment improvements

China is promoting the coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region as a national strategy project; however, water scarcity and water quality problems will become a bottleneck restricting high-quality development. This study aimed to explore a feasible industrial synergy optimisation pathway to realise the collaborative development of economic growth and water environment improvement, combined with incentives for environmental efficiency improvement and reclaimed water utilisation. Research methods integrate input-output modelling, system dynamics, and multi-objective programming to construct a complex multi-region model. A dynamic simulation measure was adopted to simulate the economic and environmental impacts of different approaches that mix from 2020 to 2030 under water resource environment constraints. According to the simulation results, the annual economic growth rate of the entire region can exceed 6.1%, and the emission intensities of water pollutants decrease by more than 60.0%. In addition, traditional manufacturing industries that achieve cross-regional synergy can still release location advantages without negative environmental impacts. Furthermore, regional collaborative development optimises the allocation of water resources and alleviates water stress. Moreover, the pollutant emission reduction effect of source control in Hebei was more effective than in other cities. Finally, reclaimed water, as the end treatment measure, has the largest marginal effect on improving the trade-off between economic and environmental improvement in the long run. This study provides a new approach for multi-regional industrial synergy development and optimal allocation of resources and contributes to the high-quality development of the watershed.

Impact of Intersectoral Dependencies in National Production on Wastewater Discharges: An Extended Input–Output Study of the Croatian Economy

The Croatian economy performs unfavorably in terms of the impact of production on wastewater discharges, which is particularly pronounced in the industrial sectors. Each unit of gross industrial value added produced in Croatia generates significantly more wastewater discharges than in most European countries with a similar level of economic development. Moreover, in 2020, only 26.9% of the total industrial wastewater discharges of the Croatian economy were treated, while 76.2% of the total industrial wastewater discharges were directly discharged into the environment. Since most of the industrial production in the Croatian economy is destined to meet the intermediate needs of other sectors, policy makers in Croatia must take into account that the level of industrial wastewater discharges is also influenced by the production level of sectors that depend on the intermediate products of wastewater-intensive industries. For this reason, we developed a wastewater extended input–output model of the Croatian economy to determine and analyze the impact of intersectoral linkages in Croatian production systems on the amount of untreated wastewater discharges. The results of the study show that wastewater flows in the Croatian economy are largely generated by the processes of production and consumption of intermediate products from the chemical and petroleum refining sectors, which also account for the largest share of the calculated wastewater footprint of total Croatian production. In light of the emerging empirical evidence, it can be concluded that targeting market-based and regulation-based measures at wastewater-intensive producers is not sufficient to reduce the relatively high level of untreated wastewater discharges in the Croatian economy. There is also a need for appropriate integrated policy measures in sectors that have a large wastewater footprint due to their established supply chains.

Ecological network analysis of industrial wastes metabolism based on input-output model for Jiangsu, China

The enormous discharge of industrial waste seriously hinders the sustainable development of cities. However, most studies only involve a single or limited category of industrial pollutants, ignoring the environmental pressure caused by multiple resources and environmental factors. This paper combines input-output analysis and ecological network analysis to construct an industrial waste metabolic input-output (IWMIO) model, which explores the industrial waste discharge and discharge relationships among different sectors in Jiangsu Province from the three aspects of industrial wastewater, industrial waste gas, and industrial solid waste. The results show that the indirect discharge of industrial waste is greater than the direct discharge in the industrial waste metabolism system. TI (Tertiary industry), CI (Chemical industry), SPM (Smelting and pressing of metals), and PSEH (Production and supply of electricity and heat) dominate the industrial waste metabolism system. In addition, MWC (Mining and washing of coal), MNMP (Manufacture of non-metallic mineral products), SPM (Smelting and pressing of metals) have more mutualism and competition relationships with other sectors, so the control of industrial waste discharge in these sectors contributes to achieving emission reduction targets. Based on the research results, this paper proposes corresponding policy recommendations such as considering both direct and indirect emissions of sectors when formulating waste reduction policies and developing pertinent industrial waste reduction programs based on the characteristics of the identified sectors. The results of this paper are helpful to identify the dependence and influence relationships of various sectors in the industrial waste metabolism system, promote industrial waste discharge control, and provide theoretical support for the adjustment of industrial structure and the formulation of related policies in Jiangsu Province.

Optimal allocation and transaction of waste load permits for transboundary basin: A Bi-level programming approach based on node-arc

Inadequate water quality exacerbates global water resources scarcity. Hence, water quality of the river basin is increasingly perceived as a global obstacle to sustainable development because of the limited water carrying capacity. Efficient waste load permits (WLPs) allocation plays a critical role in enhancing water quality by controlling the emission cap. Considering transboundary water pollution and transaction among regions, a bi-level objective model is proposed to analyze the WLPs allocation based on the node-arc method. Motivated by alleviating regional development differences, the watershed management committee concentrates on equitable distribution of WLPs to regions. Furthermore, regional authorities focus on how to guarantee the maximum economic development and balance the WLPs emissions from the municipal, industrial, and agricultural sectors. Practicality and efficiency of the constructed model is demonstrated by applying it to Tuojiang River Basin. Through the analysis of the results, three management recommendations are proposed for Tuojiang River: strengthening the prevention of agricultural non-point source pollution, sticking to the cooperation between upstream and downstream regions, and speeding up the construction of sewage environmental tax system. The results illustrate that as the proposed method can control the total amount of sewage, it could provide decision-making references for the amelioration of water environment.

Linkage analysis of economic consumption, pollutant emissions and concentrations based on a city-level multi-regional input-output (MRIO) model and atmospheric transport

China is experiencing serious atmospheric pollution, which also exhibits significant spatial heterogeneity. The Chinese government has implemented targeted pollution control measures at the city level, emphasizing coordination among cities to prevent and control air pollution in key regions such as Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) urban agglomeration. This study combined an inter-city multi-regional input-output (MRIO) model with an air quality dispersion model consisting of a weather research and forecasting (WRF) model and the CALPUFF model (WRF/CALPUFF) to study the inter-city economic consumption, pollutant emission and concentration among 13 cities in BTH urban agglomeration. NO_x is chosen as an example. The combined effects of economic linkage and atmospheric transport show that NO_x concentrations in cities in the BTH urban agglomeration are attributable to three consumption sources: a local contribution from the target city's own local economic consumption (average, 25%), and non-local consumption contributions, including other cities in the BTH urban agglomeration (average, 36%) and regions outside of BTH (average, 39%). Compared with the contributions to NO_x concentrations calculated using only the MRIO model or atmospheric transport stimulation model, the results of this paper quantify that the consumption outside of a city could provide a greater impact on the city's air quality due to the combined effects of economic linkage and atmospheric transport. To avoid negative impacts of emission reduction targets on economic consumption, governmental regional pollution control policies should consider the combined effects of economic linkage and atmospheric transport.

Planning electric power system under carbon-price mechanism considering multiple uncertainties - A case study of Tianjin

The carbon-price mechanism has been proved to be an effective measure for promoting energy revolution and mitigating climate change. It is of vital importance to develop optimal energy development strategy for electric power-dependent regions by considering the complex interaction among carbon price, carbon emission control, and carbon-responsibility transfer. In order to fill the research gap on the optimal choice of carbon-price mechanism at the urban level, this study is the first attempt to express uncertainties embodied in the carbon price mechanism as interval values, probability distribution and downside risks. The developed risk-aversion-based interval two-stage stochastic programming (RITSP) model is effective in analyzing the effect of internal and electric-transmission related carbon-tax on power system structure. It is discovered that carbon compensation policy for imported electricity is more suitable for Tianjin's power system development. Tianjin would primarily purchase electricity from Inner-Mongolia. With the increase of carbon emission tax, Tianjin would import increasing proportion of electricity from Gansu. Due to the limited endowment of renewable energy in Tianjin, the impact of carbon emission limitations on the renewable energy power generation structure of is trivial, and it has a greater impact on stimulating the development of CCS technology. What's more, Tianjin's future power system planning is more inclined to develop CCS rather than renewable energy.