Unraveling the paradox of soil erosion and conservation: Insights from China.

Analyzing the drivers of soil conservation (SC) service is crucial for ecosystem restoration. However, previous studies often overlook the relationship between soil erosion and SC. In this study, we applied the revised universal soil loss equation (RUSLE) model to analyze the spatiotemporal trends and driving forces of SC service across China from 1990 to 2019.

Divergent roles of landscape and young streamflow fraction in stream water quality over seven catchments.

Landscape patterns and water age are considered to play similar roles in influencing water quality, as human-caused landscape fragmentation usually leads to complex hydrological pathways and older water ages. The young streamflow fraction (F), which can significantly alter water age, is believed to disproportionately impact water quality. Landscape and F thus may play different roles in streamwater quality, but this assumption has not been examined.

Perceptible landscape patterns reveal invisible socioeconomic profiles of cities.

Urban landscape is directly perceived by residents and is a significant symbol of urbanization development. A comprehensive assessment of urban landscapes is crucial for guiding the development of inclusive, resilient, and sustainable cities and human settlements. Previous studies have primarily analyzed two-dimensional landscape indicators derived from satellite remote sensing, potentially overlooking the valuable insights provided by the three-dimensional configuration of landscapes.

Spatial and temporal variations in environmental impacts of heavy metal emissions from China's non-ferrous industry: An enterprise-specific assessment.

In China, the non-ferrous metal industry is the sector with the highest emissions of arsenic, cadmium, mercury and lead, causing serious impacts on human health and the ecosystem. However, current heavy metal emission inventories are inadequate for figuring out their exposures and associated environmental impacts due to the lack of detailed data. Here, we constructed a high-resolution, enterprise-specific, and long-term dataset detailing heavy metal emissions from the non-ferrous industry in China from 1981 to 2020, using comprehensive enterprise information.

Understanding the driving mechanisms of site contamination in China through a data-driven approach.

China currently faces significant environmental risks stemming from contaminated sites. The driving mechanism of site contamination, influenced by various drivers, remain obscured due to a dearth of quantitative methodologies and comprehensive data. Here, we used a data-driven causality inference approach to construct an interpretable random forest (RF) model.

The rapid increase of urban contaminated sites along China's urbanization during the last 30 years.

Contaminated sites pose serious threats to the soil environment and human health. However, the location and temporal changes of urban contaminated sites across China remain unknown due to data scarcity. Here, we developed a machine-learning model to identify the contaminated sites using public data.

Connotation of urban ecological quality and the construction of its core index system.

Urban ecological quality is a necessary attribute for a healthy urban ecological state. In the period of urban development from large-scale incremental construction to stock improvement and quality transformation and incremental structural adjustment, there are many gaps between urban ecological quality construction and the requirements of the new stage. There is an urgent need to understand and integrate multiple needs, and construct an indicator system to promote the balance between supply and demand of ecological resources and efficient use to enhance urban ecological quality.

Carbon neutral contribution and regional differences of clean energy based on life cycle assessment.

Developing clean energy is an important strategy to achieve global carbon neutrality. In the entire life cycle industrial chain of clean energy systems, fossil energy was directly or indirectly consumed during the processes from raw material production to waste disposal stages. The energy consumed by clean energy construction differed across regions, resulting in various carbon neutrality contributions of clean energy in different regions.

An approach to quantify the dependence of economy on resource efficiency: A case study in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region of north China.

The improvements of resource efficiency are crucial for economic development of a city. Currently, the variations of utilization efficiency of ecological resources have been studied much, but whether the efficiency has been good enough for driving the economy, is still unknown. Here, we introduced an efficiency dependence index (EDI) to assess the effects of utilization efficiency of land, energy and water resources on economy and evaluated the promotion potentials of resource efficiency.

The Distribution and Accessibility of Urban Parks in Beijing, China: Implications of Social Equity.

As public service facilities, urban parks offer many benefits for daily life and social activities for residents. However, the accessibility of public parks to urban residents is often unevenly distributed in spaces that cannot be utilized fully. Here, we used the urban parks in Beijing, China as a case study and examined the relationship between urban park accessibility and population distribution at different administrative levels.

A demand index for recreational ecosystem services associated with urban parks in Beijing, China.

Good planning for urban parks requires an analysis of the quantitative relationship between the distribution of an urban population and the demand for recreational ecosystem services (RES). A barrier to RES quantification is the lack of connections between survey materials and spatial data. This study developed a logistic regression model for the demand for RES associated with urban parks based on the characteristics of individual visitor and their willingness to visit parks.

Modeling the non-point source pollution risks by combing pollutant sources, precipitation, and landscape structure.

Traditional models of nutrient simulation usually focus on the pollutant sources and precipitation, lacking the quantification of landscape structure. We developed a new prediction model of pollution risks by combing pollutant sources, precipitation, and landscape structure, which was defined as the source-precipitation-landscape model (SPLM). The SPLM was applied to simulate the non-point source (NPS) total nitrogen (TN) exports in one of the largest river basins in China (the Haihe River Basin, HRB).

Effects of soil conservation techniques on water erosion control: A global analysis.

Water erosion control is one of the most important ecosystem services provided by soil conservation techniques (SCTs), which are being widely used to alter soil and water processes and improve ecosystem services. But few studies have focused on providing this service using various techniques across the world. Here, a comprehensive review was conducted to compare the effects of SCTs on water erosion control.

An improved export coefficient model to estimate non-point source phosphorus pollution risks under complex precipitation and terrain conditions.

To control non-point source (NPS) pollution, it is important to estimate NPS pollution exports and identify sources of pollution. Precipitation and terrain have large impacts on the export and transport of NPS pollutants. We established an improved export coefficient model (IECM) to estimate the amount of agricultural and rural NPS total phosphorus (TP) exported from the Luanhe River Basin (LRB) in northern China.

Land use changes and socio-economic development strongly deteriorate river ecosystem health in one of the largest basins in China.

It is important to assess river ecosystem health in large-scale basins when considering the complex influence of anthropogenic activities on these ecosystems. This study investigated the river ecosystem health in the Haihe River Basin (HRB) by sampling 148 river sites during the pre- and post-rainy seasons in 2013. A model was established to assess the river ecosystem health based on water physicochemical, nutrient, and macroinvertebrate indices, and the health level was divided into "very poor," "poor," "fair," "good," and "excellent" according to the health score calculated from the assessment model.

The Impact of Greenspace on Thermal Comfort in a Residential Quarter of Beijing, China.

With the process of urbanization, a large number of residential quarters, which is the main dwelling form in the urban area of Beijing, have been developed in last three decades to accommodate the rising population. In the context of intensification of urban heat island (UHI), the potential degradation of the thermal environment of residential quarters can give rise to a variety of problems affecting inhabitants' health. This paper reports the results of a numerical study of the thermal conditions of a residential quarter on a typical summertime day under four greening modification scenarios, characterized by different leaf area density (LAD) profiles.

Assessment of Heavy Metal Pollution in Topsoil around Beijing Metropolis.

The topsoil around Beijing metropolis, China, is experiencing impacts of rapid urbanization, intensive farming, and extensive industrial emissions. We analyzed the concentrations of Cu, Ni, Pb, Zn, Cd, and Cr from 87 topsoil samples in the pre-rainy season and 115 samples in the post-rainy season. These samples were attributed to nine land use types: forest, grass, shrub, orchard, wheat, cotton, spring maize, summer maize, and mixed farmland.

[Potential ecological risks assessment of heavy metals in the reservoir sediment of the western Haihe River basin].

The reservoirs distributed in the western part of Haihe River basin play a key role in drinking water supply in the densely populated region. The potential ecological risk of heavy metals stored in the reservoir sediments has drawn more attention during recent decades. In this study, a total of 10 reservoirs in the western Haihe River basin were sampled.

[Impacts of urban cooling effect based on landscape scale: a review].

The urban cooling island (UCI) effect is put forward in comparison with the urban heat island effect, and emphasizes on landscape planning for optimization of function and way of urban thermal environment. In this paper, we summarized current research of the UCI effects of waters, green space, and urban park from the perspective of patch area, landscape index, threshold value, landscape pattern and correlation analyses. Great controversy was found on which of the two factors patch area and shape index has a more significant impact, the quantification of UCI threshold is particularly lacking, and attention was paid too much on the UCI effect of landscape composition but little on that of landscape configuration.

[Ecological risk assessment of heavy metals in surface sediments in the southern and central Haihe River Basin].

Several heavy metals, including Cu, Zn, Cr, Ni, Pb, and Cd, were investigated at 80 sampling sites in the southern and central areas of Haihe River Basin. The spatial patterns and potential anthropogenic impacts of heavy metals were evaluated by several methods, such as the potential ecological risk index and enrichment factors (EFs). Results showed that, (1) The concentrations of heavy metals in the sediments were higher than the background values in most sites except for Cr, Ni.

[Health assessment of river ecosystem in Haihe River Basin, China].

With the development of economy, the health of river ecosystem is severely threatened because of the increasing effects of human activities on river ecosystem. In this paper, the authors assessed the river ecosystem health in aspects of chemical integrity and biological integrity, using the criterion in water quality, nutrient, and benthic macroinvertebrates of 73 samples in Haihe River Basin. The research showed that the health condition of river ecosystem in Haihe River Basin was bad overall since the health situation of 72.

Assessment of the redistribution of soil carbon using a new index--a case study in the Haihe River Basin, North China.

Soil carbon redistribution is an important process in the terrestrial carbon cycle. This study describes a new index, soil carbon redistribution (SCR) index, that can be used to assess long-term soil carbon redistribution at a large watershed scale. The new index is based on the theoretical preconditions that soil carbon redistribution is mainly controlled by vegetation type, precipitation, topography/slope, and soil carbon concentration.

[Regionalization of the freshwater eco-regions in the Haihe River Basin of China].

There is a growing concern about the ecological conditions in the Haihe River which have been profoundly impacted by the growing human population and intensifying development over the past several decades. By identifying the spatial characteristics of terrestrial and fluvial landscapes, we propose the guidelines and criterions for regionalizing the freshwater ecosystems in the Haihe River basin. The first-level and second-level zones reflect the spatial patterns of the natural backgrounds which could impact the surface water quantity and quality.