Publications by authors named "Kunyu Niu"

Reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in crop production while ensuring emission equity is crucial for sustainable agriculture in China, yet long-term large-scale data on GHG emissions intensity (GEI) are limited. Using an extensive dataset based on surveyed farm households (n > 430,000 households) from 1993 to 2020, we reveal that 2015 was a turning point for GEI levels, which dropped 16% in 2020, while inequality-measured as average GHG emissions per unit planted area-increased 13%. The key driving forces behind such trends included farmland input, all other inputs, agricultural labour input and total factor productivity but not capital input.

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The economic impacts of climate-induced heat stress on pig farming have not been sufficiently investigated, despite the significant threat it poses to the industry. In this study, we coupled consecutive years of county-scale meteorological data with operational-level economic data to estimate the impact of climate-induced heat stress on the productivity of the Chinese pig industry using a stochastic frontier production function model. Based on model results, we projected the impact of heat stress on pig production in 2030 and 2050 with and without technological advances.

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The wastewater-energy nexus is an emerging concern in the wastewater treatment sector. Understanding the energy efficiency of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) and the factors that influence it will help to improve planning and managing in order to meet increasing energy conservation demands. In this study, we use a unique big dataset from a pollution source census of all WWTPs in China to establish a quantitative model that relates the energy consumption of WWTPs to major influencing factors.

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This paper aims to develop a construction and operation cost model of wastewater treatment for the paper industry in China and explores the main factors that determine these costs. Previous models mainly involved factors relating to the treatment scale and efficiency of treatment facilities for deriving the cost function. We considered the factors more comprehensively by adding a regional variable to represent the economic development level, a corporate ownership factor to represent the plant characteristics, a subsector variable to capture pollutant characteristics, and a detailed-classification technology variable.

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Health injury, properties compensation and ecological and environmental destruction caused by environmental pollutions have become the focuses of the government, the public and the society at present in China. The experiences of developed countries have revealed that the environmental damage assessment system must be established through development of environmental damage assessment legislations, technologies and funding guarantee system suitable for the nation's conditions based on the specific environmental situation and main issues. China has some experience in marine ecological environment, fishery resources damage assessment, forest resources damage assessment and remediation management of contaminated sites; however, the managing function of environmental damage assessment is assigned to different governmental departments.

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