The economic impacts of traffic consumption during the COVID-19 pandemic in China: A CGE analysis

Characterization of air pollution and associated health risks in Gansu Province, China from 2015 to 2022

Air pollution poses a major threat to both the environment and public health. The air quality index (AQI), aggregate AQI, new health risk-based air quality index (NHAQI), and NHAQI-WHO were employed to quantitatively evaluate the characterization of air pollution and the associated health risk in Gansu Province before (P-I) and after (P-II) COVID-19 pandemic. The results indicated that AQI system undervalued the comprehensive health risk impact of the six criteria pollutants compared with the other three indices. The stringent lockdown measures contributed to a considerable reduction in SO2, CO, PM2.5, NO2 and PM10; these concentrations were 43.4%, 34.6%, 21.4%, 17.4%, and 14.2% lower in P-II than P-I, respectively. But the concentration of O3 had no obvious improvement. The higher sandstorm frequency in P-II led to no significant decrease in the ERtotal and even resulted in an increase in the average ERtotal in cities located in northwestern Gansu from 0.78% in P-I to 1.0% in P-II. The cumulative distribution of NHAQI-based population-weighted exposure revealed that 24% of the total population was still exposed to light pollution in spring during P-II, while the air quality in other three seasons had significant improvements and all people were under healthy air quality level.

Vegetation net primary productivity in urban areas of China responded positively to the COVID-19 lockdown in spring 2020

To prevent the spread of COVID-19, China implemented large-scale lockdown measures in early 2020, resulting in a marked reduction in human activities over a short period. Studies have explored environmental changes during lockdowns, lacking analysis of response of net primary productivity (NPP) to lockdowns, especially for diverse vegetation types. Correlation between NPP and impact factors during lockdowns remains unclear. Through Google Earth Engine, we evaluated spatial-temporal changes in spring NPP at multiple scales during lockdown period (LD, 2020) compared with unlocked period (UL, 2017-2019) by remote sensing data in urban areas of China. Changes in four impact factors, aerosol optical depth (AOD) and photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) (via remote sensing data), alongside temperature (TEM) and precipitation (PRE) (via meteorological data) were explored. Additionally, geodetector, a valuable statistical tool for detecting the driving ability of various elements, was employed to explore the underlying causes of vegetation changes during LD. In the spring of LD: 1) National urban NPP generally increased (+6.50 %), notably in Northeast China (NE), North China (N) and East China (E). Besides, overall urban AOD decreased (-3.64 %), notably in N and Central China (C). National urban PAR increased (+2.7 %), particularly in C and Northwest China (NW). However, overall urban TEM (-0.06 %) and PRE (-1.21 %) changed negatively. 2) NPP in all three vegetation types in urban areas enhanced, with change rates: croplands > forests > grasslands. Evident enhancements occurred in the forests and croplands in N, and the grasslands in NE. 3) Through geodetector, during LD, AOD (q = 0.223) and TEM (q = 0.272) emerged as the dominant factors for NPP. Compared with UL, the explanatory power of AOD and PAR on NPP increased during LD. This study provides valuable insights into understanding the effects of short-term human activities on vegetation productivity, offering reference for the formulation of ecological and environmental policies.

Airborne antibiotic resistome and human health risk in railway stations during COVID-19 pandemic

Antimicrobial resistance is recognized as one of the greatest public health concerns. It is becoming an increasingly threat during the COVID-19 pandemic due to increasing usage of antimicrobials, such as antibiotics and disinfectants, in healthcare facilities or public spaces. To explore the characteristics of airborne antibiotic resistome in public transport systems, we assessed distribution and health risks of airborne antibiotic resistome and microbiome in railway stations before and after the pandemic outbreak by culture-independent and culture-dependent metagenomic analysis. Results showed that the diversity of airborne antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) decreased following the pandemic, while the relative abundance of core ARGs increased. A total of 159 horizontally acquired ARGs, predominantly confering resistance to macrolides and aminoglycosides, were identified in the airborne bacteria and dust samples. Meanwhile, the abundance of horizontally acquired ARGs hosted by pathogens increased during the pandemic. A bloom of clinically important antibiotic (tigecycline and meropenem) resistant bacteria was found following the pandemic outbreak. 251 high-quality metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs) were recovered from 27 metagenomes, and 86 genera and 125 species were classified. Relative abundance of ARG-carrying MAGs, taxonomically assigned to genus of Bacillus, Pseudomonas, Acinetobacter, and Staphylococcus, was found increased during the pandemic. Bayesian source tracking estimated that human skin and anthropogenic activities were presumptive resistome sources for the public transit air. Moreover, risk assessment based on resistome and microbiome data revealed elevated airborne health risks during the pandemic.

Can the establishment of national sanitary cities better resist the impact of COVID-19?

The global spread of COVID-19 has led to profound reflection on building a global public health security system. This paper uses the urban data collected during the COVID-19 epidemic in China in 2020 to evaluate the effect of the National Sanitary City (NSC) policy on the prevention and control of that epidemic at different stages. We found that the NSC policy was able to curb the occurrence and transmission of the epidemic the epidemic effectively after controlling a series of factors such as urban characteristics, population mobility and pathogen transmission. Compared with non-NSCs, the NSCs were better able to control the number of infected people and the infection rate and transmission rate, and this performance was even more impressive when the epidemic gradually entered the sporadic distribution stage. The heterogeneity analysis shows that the impact of the NSC policy on the prevention and control of COVID-19 differs according to the economic development level and population size. To a certain extent, the NSC policy has blocked the spread of viruses by continuously improving the urban medical and health system and strengthening the publicity concerning infectious disease prevention and control knowledge.

How to cushion economic recession caused by the COVID-19 pandemic: Fiscal or monetary policies?

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has brought the global economy to a crisis: how to choose the optimal policy tools to cope with the external impacts has attracted worldwide attention. The research evaluates the effects of China's fiscal and monetary policies in promoting economic recovery by establishing a CGE model. Five representative countermeasures such as exempting value-added tax (VAT) and cutting loan rates are studied. The results indicate that: from the aspect of fiscal policies, increasing investment shows a better effect in boosting economy compared with exempting VAT and increasing medical care expenditures; however, the policy also causes price inflation (+0.45%) and crowding-out of enterprise investment (-0.03%). From the aspect of monetary policies, providing targeted loans to enterprises has a better boosting effect on economy compared with cutting loan rates. In the choice between fiscal or monetary policies, fiscal policies exert better effects (household income, +0.95%) when taking the improvement of residents' welfare as the objective. If taking promoting recovery of enterprises and boosting the economy as objectives, monetary policies are found to be better (GDP, +1.99%). Therefore, fiscal and monetary policies should be guided by different objectives and allowed to work in a synergistic manner.

Optimal subsidy policies of the Chinese cruise market under the impact of COVID-19

The spread of the COVID-19 pandemic has caused severe damage to the Chinese cruise market since 2020. It is crucial for the local government to reformulate the subsidy policy to respond to the changing environment. We propose a cruise supply chain system to investigate the choice of subsidy recipients and the setting of optimal subsidy levels with a budget-constrained government during the access restriction period and post-epidemic period. We find that in both periods, as long as the subsidy achieves the optimal level, either the cruise lines, the travel agency, or the passengers as recipients of the subsidy policy can maximize the market demand and recover the cruise market after the COVID-19 outbreak. However, as the budget increases, subsidizing passengers can improve the "low price dilemma" of the Chinese cruise market. Compared with the access restriction period, the local government should adjust the subsidy level in the post-epidemic period. Interestingly, the subsidy policy does not always positively impact the international cruise line's profit in the post-epidemic period.

The GHG Emissions Assessment of Online Car-Hailing Development under the Intervention of Evaluation Policies in China

To assess the impact of the online car-hailing services on the environment in China, in this paper, we develop a model to evaluate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and emission reduction during the production and use of car-hailing, as a result of increased online bookings. Since energy use differs according to type of vehicle, this paper also contains different scenarios that depict degrees in the regulation stringency according to the Chinese Preliminary Rules on the Management of Online Car-Hailing, regional differences, and development of electric vehicles. The results show that, under the three different scenarios, the online car-hailing service would have the highest GHG emissions of 325, 413, or 160 MtCO2 and the highest reduction in emissions of 19.46, 25.1, or 9.48 MtCO2 by 2030. The government needs to encourage the development of online car-hailing to reduce the purchase of private cars, avoid compulsory actions to shut down online car-hailing platforms, and mandate that only electric vehicles (EVs) can be used for online car-hailing.

The Impacts of COVID-19 and Policies on Spatial and Temporal Distribution Characteristics of Traffic: Two Examples in Beijing

The global closure policy to limit the spread of the new coronavirus (COVID-19) in 2020 was based on public safety and health considerations. In the implementation of arrangements to prevent the epidemic, the function of the transportation system as a basis for securing cities has been severely affected. After summarizing the domestic and international literature on epidemic policies and travel, this study analyzes the changes of the spatial and temporal distribution characteristics of people’s travel and the impacts in the context of the two epidemic phases in Beijing and abroad. During the epidemic, traffic volume into and out of Beijing showed a downward trend. In our study, we found that total travel volume in Beijing during the Spring Festival in 2020 was down by about 70% year-on-year, the distribution of daily traffic trips during the day was not affected by the outbreak, and six urban areas in the center of Beijing experienced greater declines in travel volume compared to other urban areas. The conclusions of the study can provide a reference for the sustainability and recovery of urban areas and formulation of policies in the subsequent pandemic era in terms of the relationship between public travel and epidemic control.