Development of an extended STIRPAT model to assess the driving factors of household carbon dioxide emissions in China.

Although the past twenty years have witnessed China's remarkable economic development, the cost in terms of greenhouse gas emissions and a deteriorating environment has been enormous. Numerous studies have revealed the influence of household factors on household carbon dioxide emissions (HCEs) and called for a reduction of HCEs to mitigate climate change, but few have focused on assessing the most significant household driving factors of HCEs. Using statistical data between 2005 and 2019 in Jiangsu, China, this study developed an extended stochastic impact by regression on population, affluence, and technology (STIRPAT) model to assess the most significant driving factors of HCEs. The results show that the most significant driving factors are household size, total population, unemployment, and urbanisation rate. The study found that HCEs are positively impacted by household size while negatively impacted by the unemployment rate. Based on the study's findings, the following suggestions are proposed to lower HCEs: (i) establish an optimal consumption concept to guide residents towards consuming reasonably; (ii) cultivate a low-carbon concept among residents and promote low-carbon emissions living; and (iii) pay close attention to population structure factors and formulate effective measures accordingly. The study provides insightful information on the key driving factors of HCEs, which can facilitate achieving carbon emissions neutrality.

Integrated and effective management of muck waste under the platform governance mode for a circular economy.

As an inevitable part of construction and demolition (C&D) waste, muck has a dreadful environmental impact due its inadequate management by the traditional governance process. This paper therefore focuses on the management of muck generated from C&D waste by utilizing platform governance as an alternative process, which should more effectively contribute to China's circular economy. The study explores the feasibility of providing such a platform governance mode by using Petri net to compare the traditional governance process and platform governance process for the management of muck trucks, and by using Nanjing's muck smart supervision platform as a case study to assess the effectiveness of the platform governance mode. Results from Petri net simulation modeling reveal that the platform governance mode is more effective than the traditional mode, and from the case study it is found that the success of Nanjing's muck waste management can be attributed to the platform governance mode. The platform management approach can therefore contribute to the sustainability of muck waste governance, and is suitable as an integrated and effective management mode for current practices of muck waste management and resource recovery in China. The main finding from the study is that the platform governance mode significantly improves the efficiency of muck waste management as compared with the traditional governance mode and can therefore provide greater economic and environmental benefits as part of a circular economy.

Evaluating carbon emissions of China's waste management strategies for building refurbishment projects: contributing to a circular economy.

This study evaluates carbon emissions of construction and demolition (C&D) waste generated by building refurbishment, using a life cycle assessment approach through a case study project in China. Three waste management scenarios were developed for a building refurbishment project in the city of Suzhou. Scenario 1 is under the business-as-usual C&D waste management practice in China; scenario 2 is based on the open-ended 3R strategy, which focuses on the downstream impact of waste; and scenario 3 considers both the upstream and downstream impact of waste. The results reveal that the composition of the waste generated from building refurbishment projects is different from construction and demolition projects. In the life cycle of C&D waste management of building refurbishment projects, the refurbishment material stage generates the highest carbon emissions compared to the dismantlement, refurbishment construction, and refurbishment material end of life stages. Scenario 1 produces higher carbon emissions than scenario 2, but the difference is not significant in the whole life cycle of the building refurbishment project, whereas carbon emissions for scenario 3 are significantly less than both scenario 1 and scenario 2. The study finds the reason for this difference is that scenario 1 and scenario 2 are based on a linear economy that relies on unsustainable demand for raw materials, whereas scenario 3 is based on a circular economy that uses upcycled materials to substitute for raw materials and considers waste management from a cradle to cradle perspective. This study fills a research gap by evaluating carbon emissions of different waste management strategies for building refurbishment projects, which are expected to be an increasing portion of overall construction activity in China for the foreseeable future.

Strategies for Restoring and Managing Ecological Corridors of Freshwater Ecosystem.

Along with accelerating urbanization and associated anthropogenic disturbance, the structure and function of freshwater ecosystems worldwide are substantially damaged. To improve ecosystem health, and thus enhance the ecosystem security of the urban ecosystem, numbers of management approaches and engineering projects have been applied to mitigate the degradation of freshwaters. Nevertheless, there is still a lack of comprehensive and systematic research on the ecological corridor restoration of freshwater ecosystems; especially for Suzhou Grand Canal, one section of the world's longest and ancient Grand Canal which is inclined to severe ecosystem degradation. Through investigating the adjacent land use characteristics, habitat quality, vegetation cover, instream water quality, and habitat composition, we aimed to: (i) assess the water quality of the Suzhou Grand Canal; (ii) evaluate the ecological characteristics of the canal ecosystem; (iii) develop strategic countermeasures to restore the ecological corridors for the mitigation of ecological problems. The results demonstrated: a large built area, a smaller ecological zone, a low habitat quality and habitat connectivity, and a high degree of habitat fragmentation within the canal corridor, also a simplified instream habitat composition, and greater nutrient and COD concentrations in the surface water-especially in the upstream and midstream canal. All urbanization-induced multiple stressors, such as land use changes, altered hydrology, and the simplified riparian zone et al., contributed synergistically to the degradation of the canal ecosystem. To alleviate the ecosystem deterioration, three aspects of recommendations were proposed: water pollution control, watershed ecosystem restoration, and ecological network construction. Basically, building a comprehensive watershed ecological network-on the basis of associated ecosystem restoration, and the connection of multi-dimensional ecological corridors-would dramatically increase the maintenance of aquatic-terrestrial system biodiversity, and improve the regional ecological security pattern and watershed resilience toward stochastic future disturbances. This study contributes to the understanding of the ecological challenges and related causes of the canal ecosystem. The integrated strategy introduced in this study provides policymakers, water resource managers, and planners with comprehensive guidelines to restore and manage the ecological corridor of the canal ecosystem. This can be used as a reference in freshwater ecosystems elsewhere, to improve ecosystem stability for supporting the sustainable development of urban ecosystems.

Carbon emission reduction in prefabrication construction during materialization stage: A BIM-based life-cycle assessment approach.

Prefabrication has gained its popularity in countries including China due to its various advantages such as quality control, waste reduction, onsite and offsite parallel coordination, and so on. It has also been recognized as a key strategy to reduce construction-induced carbon emissions. However, there is limited research to examine carbon emission reduction in prefabrication by using the advanced technological artefacts, e.g., building information modeling (BIM), emerging from the technology sphere. As a digital representation of a facility, BIM provides a cyber platform based on which many assessment and simulation works can be performed without having to construct the physical facility. This paper aims to develop a BIM-based approach to measuring carbon emission reduction during the materialization stage of a prefabricated building project. Findings from the study indicate that BIM is an efficient and effective method for measuring carbon emissions from the construction of new buildings and that prefabrication reduces carbon emissions when compared with conventional construction methods. The research contributes to the body of knowledge relating to the reduction of carbon emissions through prefabrication. This is pertinent to contractors, homebuyers and governments who are constantly seeking ways to achieve a circular economy.