China Environ Prot (EP) Industry, Technology, Solid Waste Mgt, Liquid Treat: News & Discussions

[JSCh]

Raman-Mie Lidar Captures Dust Events in BEIJING Areas
Jun 23, 2017

Raman-Mie Lidar (RML), a double wavelengths (532 and 1064 nm) Nd-YAG laser is employed as emitting source, which was developed by Lidar group at Anhui Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics (AIOFM), Hefei Institutes of Physical Science (figure 1).

Figure 1. The schematic diagram and photo of RML system set at the experimental base of CMA MOC in Beijing (Images by WANG Zhenzhu)

To realize back-scattering signals detection from atmosphere aerosol and cloud, it consists of four channels, say, 1064 nm Mie, 607 nm N2 Raman and two 532 nm Orthogonal Polarization channels.

The temporal and spatial resolutions for this system, which operates with a continuing mode (24/7) automatically, are 30s and 7.5m, respectively. The measured data are used to investigate the dust events, haze pollutions and cloud properties from combining of signal intensity, extinction coefficient, polarization ratio and color ratio profiles.

This year, at the beginning of May, the North of China suffered the strongest dust events, which was captured by RML.

Figure 2. The vertical distribution of dust monitored by the RML over Beijing on May 4-5th. (Images by WANG Zhenzhu)

RML set at the experimental base of China Meteorological Administration (CMA) Meteorological Observation Center (MOC), and has monitored this dust event in Beijing.

The dust weather covered Xinjiang, Gansu, Inner Mongolia, Beijing, Tianjin and other 10 provinces or cities, affecting an area of 1630000 km2, which was close to 1/6 of the territory area of China. The range and intensity of this dust process reached the highest since the beginning of this year, while the value of PM10 remained over 1000 μg/m3 in Beijing.

According to RML, the heavy dust loadings were found from near the ground to about 3 km in Height on May 4th, and has existed continuously until the next morning at 8 am on May 5th. (figure 2). Then the dust began to disperse due to strong winds, and completely disappeared at noon.

However, several days later the dust from the North attacked Beijing area again during May 11-12th, when the value of PM10 was up to 200-500 μg/m3. The dust loadings were found below 1 km from 10 a.m. of May 11th to 16 p.m. of May 12th, which were observed by the RML (figure 3).

Figure 3. The vertical distribution of dust monitored by the RML over Beijing on May 11-12th. (Images by WANG Zhenzhu)

As described above, this "dust exploration test" is actually a training for the operational operation of lidar atmospheric detection, and the lidar system will be developed in the direction of automation, miniaturization, intelligence and unattended operation.

It is believed that the Raman lidar will be widely used in the near future under the efforts of researchers, which will become a technical weapon for the public meteorological service and the environmental protection department to strive for beautiful Chinese "normal blue".


Raman-Mie Lidar Captures Dust Events in BEIJING Areas---Chinese Academy of Sciences

 

[JSCh]

Panda love spreads to benefit the planet
June 26, 2017

Loving pandas isn’t just a feel-good activity. Recent Michigan State University (MSU) work shows China’s decades of defending panda turf have been good not just for the beloved bears, but also protects habitat for other valuable plants and animals, boosts biodiversity and fights climate change.

The study points to a path going beyond pandas to even more benefits of conservation.

“Hidden roles of protected areas in the conservation of biodiversity and ecosystem services” was published in this week’s journal Ecosphere.

“Sometimes unintended consequences can be happy ones – and give us ways to do even better as we work toward sustainability,” said Jianguo “Jack” Liu, MSU’s Rachel Carson Chair in Sustainability and director of Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability (CSIS). “Pandas are leading us to even greater ways to care for nature and health of humans and the planet.”

Many of those answers came from above. Andrés Viña specializes in remote sensing – carefully examining tree cover from satellite images. A big part of conservation in China has been restoring and protecting forests. Over several decades, the government there has introduced sweeping programs to convert farmlands back to forests, ban logging and harvesting of wood products and replant acres of trees.

They’ve also established nature reserves specifically to protect habitat suitable for pandas.

What Viña and Liu discovered in analyzing data was that not only are the forests in the reserves thriving, and in ways that benefit more than the iconic pandas.

“Reserves are created thinking about the pandas – but we wanted to see if they provide more benefits than just the pandas,” Viña said. “A lot of work is focused in regards to the pandas, but we wanted to ask about other animal and plant species. How are these nature reserves doing for biodiversity and for carbon sequestration?”

Trees - the carbon dioxide sponge

The answer: Extra points scored for benefits to both people and the environment. The forests inside reserves, and in areas outside the reserves’ borders, are providing critical canopy materials – the leaves and branches – that soak up carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas which contributes to climate change.

Forests outside of reserves, the study shows, are often growing faster than in the reserves. But that isn’t a downfall of reserves, Viña said. Rather, reserves usually had a head start in forest preservation, and in many cases have reached their maximum growth and density.

The researchers also have found that not all forests are created equal – both in panda appeal and forbiodiversity.

Many of those forests come with an understory rich with bamboo – a necessity for pandas. The study notes that the types of forest present opportunities to improve. In some areas, the original goal of reforestation was to retain soil and water. That meant planting fast-growing conifers close together. Years later, that strategy has blocked the sun from reaching the ground, suppressing plant diversity – and not much bamboo.

Viña said in the future it would be good to allow more spacing between planted trees and include different varieties to allow for more robust forests. The researchers also discovered that forests in lower elevations – areas not generally targeted for panda habitat – are not being protected in the same way.

“We are seeing efforts that are moving in the right direction and showing positive results for nature and for humans,” Viña said. “Now it’s time to continue those efforts, and fine tune them to continue to get even more benefits.”

The research was supported by the National Science Foundation.


Panda love spreads to benefit the planet | Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability | Michigan State University

 

[JSCh]

China breaks ground on world’s first ‘forest city’
By Gavin Neale Blackburn
2017-06-30 18:53 GMT+8

‍Work has started on an ambitious project in southern China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region to create the world’s first “forest city” in Liuzhou.

The project, commissioned by the Liuzhou Municipality Urban Planning department, is the brainchild of Italian architect Stefano Boeri, best known for Milan’s Bosco Verticale garden towers.

Architect Stefano Boeri outside the famous Bosco Veritcale in Milan. /VCG Photo

Liuzhou Forest City will cover 1.75 square kilometers and will ultimately be home to around 30,000 people.

It will include 40,000 trees and almost 1 million plants, which will help absorb 10,000 tons of CO2 and 57 tons of pollutants every year, according to the project's website.

Around 100 different plant species are also expected to provide a better environment for the region’s indigenous animal and insect life.

The city will be powered entirely by green energy and will also include recreational spaces, schools and a hospital. It will be linked to Liuzhou city by a high-speed electric railway.

Liuozhou Forest City will ultimately be home to 30,000 people. /Stefano Boeri Architetti

“For the first time in China and in the world, an innovative urban settlement will combine the challenge for energy self-sufficiency and for the use of renewable energy with the challenge to increase biodiversity and to effectively reduce air pollution in urban areas,” said Stefano Boeri. “(This) is really critical for present-day China.”

Boeri’s firm also has other green ideas for China including a vertical forest for the eastern city of Nanjing and even more ambitious plans to transform the smoggy northern capital of Hebei province Shijiazhuang into a forest city.

Construction on the Liuzhou Forest City is expected to be completed by 2020.

China is the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases. Its reliance on coal-fired plants has contributed to its pollution problem, with images of smoggy cities regularly making headlines.

Now however, China is stepping up the fight against pollution. The National Energy Administration says the country will invest 2.5 trillion yuan (370 billion US dollars) in renewable energy by 2020 and boost the use of non-fossil fuels so that they account for 20 percent of energy consumption by 2030.

 

[Dai Toruko]

Hong Kong has a serious waste problem and environmentalists warn it's going to get worse unless the authorities take urgent action Britt Clennett reports.

 

[JSCh]

AAS Publishes a Special Issue on CAS Carbon Budget Program
Jul 04, 2017

Global warming has been one of the biggest issues the whole world has been facing for the past decades. It is closely related to anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) and the effects of reducing emissions and increasing the carbon fixation capability. China, as a large country with rapid economic and social development, has a major share in both GHG emissions and carbon fixation. During 2011–15, a “Strategic Scientific Pioneering Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS)” was conducted to study the carbon budget and climate change. A special issue on some of the Program’s outcome is published in early July by Advances in Atmospheric Sciences (AAS).

Under the framework of the 7,200 million RMB program, about 50 CAS institutes, universities and state ministries, comprising some 4000 scientists, investigated major questions including the accurate estimation of national anthropogenic GHG emissions, quantitative verification of the terrestrial carbon budget, the carbon sequestration rate and potential of increasing the carbon sink, techniques and technology of such an increase in China, and uncertainties regarding the relationship between future global warming scenarios and concentrations of GHGs.

"Up to the end of 2016, more than 2900 papers related to above projects had been published in international and domestic scientific journals…papers in present special issue supply the further understanding of the climate change related natural and anthropogenic influences,” said LU Daren, the PI of the Program. LU is a researcher from the Institute of Atmospheric Physics, and also a member of CAS.

The cover of the special issue features the global carbon flux as measured from space (Image by AAS)

The AAS Special Issue on carbon budget program consists of eight papers on various topics, including aerosols and their radiative forcing, airborne observations of aerosols, CCN, and cloud–aerosol interaction, and the monitoring of CO2 from space.


AAS Publishes a Special Issue on CAS Carbon Budget Program---Chinese Academy of Sciences

 

[JSCh]

Missing Hanging Gardens of Babylon re-emerges in Shanghai?
2017-07-09 08:20 GMT+8
By Song Jingyu

A building alongside a river in Shanghai has created a surreal and peaceful world amidst the hustle and bustle.
The jaw-dropping building features some 400 terraces of different heights, with trees planted on it.
The eye-catching building has been named by social media users as the new Hanging Gardens of Babylon - one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.
China has a growing interest in green buildings. Liuzhou in south China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region has started to create the world’s first “forest city”.

VCG Photo​

 

[JSCh]

Take a deep breath: First ventilation corridor in Beijing ready to help battle air pollution
(People's Daily Online) 14:22, July 10, 2017

(Photo/Beijing Evening News)​

The first ventilation corridor is near completion in Beijing, one year after the Chinese capital city vowed to set up nine corridors to blow away the lingering smog.

The first corridor, located outside the 4th Ring Road to the west of the Beijing National Stadium, also known as the “Bird's Nest,” is scheduled to stretch across a 177-hectare area upon completion. It will hold a 350,000-square-meter high-tech park of Zhongguancun and a city park that is nearly 7 hectares, Beijing Evening News reported.

The construction of the corridor required the relocation of 100,000 people and the shutdown of 14 low-end markets, which covered some quarter-million square meters. Relocated villagers are expected to return to new apartments by 2020, according to the newspaper.

Beijing unveiled the ambitious plan as a fantastic solution to combat smog in 2016 as the capital faced a constant smog threat that could only be battled with strong winds.

Experts believe that the corridor will help reduce the urban heat-island effect and help disseminate pollutants by increasing air flow, hence weakening the smog.

In three years, a total of nine ventilation corridors are expected to be complete, Beijing Evening News reported.

 

[ashok321]

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017...al&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

With 500,000 tons of household waste generated every day, China is under immense pressure to deal with its mounting garbage problem. Alongside initiatives to increase incineration rates and enforce trash sorting, the nation has worked to improve its substandard recycling system. Currently, professional recycling services only account for 10 to 20 percent of total waste recovery in China, while the bulk of recycling efforts rely on waste pickers who comb the streets salvaging other people’s trash.

Waste disposal expert Tom Szaky aims to help China clean up its garbage game. Szaky is the CEO of U.S.-based recycling company TerraCycle, which established its first China branch in Shanghai in late 2016. The company works with individuals and businesses around the globe to collect hard-to-recycle items — everything from office supplies and plastic bags to children’s toys and automotive parts — preventing over 2 million kilograms of waste from ending up in landfills and incinerators each month.

Originally from Hungary, Szaky grew up in Canada and later enrolled at Princeton University in the U.S., but he dropped out to focus on TerraCycle. Founded in 2001, the company now operates in more than 20 countries and is working to gain a foothold in China.

“The garbage is already coming in, but the question is: Two years from now, how big will it be, and do we have the right motivations?” Szaky said, referring to the company’s efforts in China. “How do we get people to [recycle] when the only benefit is environmental and social, but no direct payment? That is the key question.”

The company’s current programs in the nation focus on plastic bottles, dental products, and hair care product packaging. In addition to funding recycling initiatives, TerraCycle encourages people to deposit used items for “upcycling” — transforming waste materials into new products — in return for credit that can be converted into charitable cash donations. The repurposed materials themselves have a social impact, too: One TerraCycle program pledged to donate desks and chairs made from recycled plastic packaging to a Beijing school for homeless youth and children of migrant workers.

During his second visit to China, the 35-year-old entrepreneur spoke to Sixth Tone about how a socially conscious American business can expand into China, his hopes and concerns for the country’s recycling industry, and how consumerism contributes to the global garbage problem. The interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

Sixth Tone: China produces a huge amount of household waste each year — around 185 million tons in 2016. Where does it go?

Tom Szaky: The vast majority of waste today is either informally or formally disposed. The big problem for informal disposal — which is about 25 percent of the [world’s] waste — is that it ends up in the water system and then in the ocean. What is formally disposed is either landfilled or incinerated. Then, a very small percent is recycled — typically what has value, like aluminum or certain types of glass, certain types of plastic.

The garbage ending up in the ocean is tremendously bad for the ecosystem; garbage being burned ends up in the air; garbage being landfilled ends up in a big pile.

Sixth Tone: How does the Chinese recycling industry compare with that of other countries?

Tom Szaky: First, what it does with waste is very similar to North America: a big amount of landfilling. As it pertains to informal disposal, it is very similar to Southeast Asia, [countries] like Vietnam or Cambodia — in those places where there’s still a lot of informal garbage, you just throw it anywhere. There’s a really big informal system, people who go through garbage and collect aluminum cans … similar to [places in] Latin America, like Brazil. But then — unlike Southeast Asia, unlike Latin America — [China] is very modern and very fast-moving. The scale is like nowhere else.

What is unique in China, though, is that a lot of ability to consume the waste, [to put it] back into the manufacturing system, is here. So even historically when we collect, say, pens in Europe and melt them down into really high-quality materials, those may end up in Chinese factories to be [made] into new products. So this becomes the real hub of conversion.

Sixth Tone: TerraCycle’s Chinese programs focus on recycling oral care and beauty products. Is this strategy specific to China?

Tom Szaky: To be very honest, it is where we can get funding the quickest. Because here is the problem: What makes an aluminum can recycled in China — and a pen not recycled, or a lipstick not recycled, or a toothbrush not recycled — has nothing to do with the technical ability to recycle; it has to do with money. The aluminum is so valuable in the aluminum can that you can still make money after you cover the cost of transportation and the cost of processing. But on something like a toothbrush or a cosmetics package, it costs more to collect and process than the results are worth. They need a company to fund the difference, so we talk to many companies and work with the ones who are excited and want to jump on quickly.

Sixth Tone: Which environmental problems are you most concerned about in China?

Tom Szaky: It’s not about a specific environmental problem like air, or water, or garbage; it’s about the global problem of consumerism. What creates every problem in the world is consumerism. People eating too much meat, people shopping too much — it’s all this idea of consume, consume, consume.

It’s a global addiction of people who have money. I grew up in communism, too. I was born in Budapest when it was under the Russian Iron Curtain, and I can understand what it’s like when you have no ability to shop, to [then gain] the ability to have what you see. The problem is, we don’t see the negative easily. The negative doesn’t show up here; it shows up in the ocean, in the forest, in places you don’t see.

We have to limit consumerism. Instead of buying things that have huge amounts of packaging, buy things with no packaging; instead of buying things that are disposable, buy things that are durable. Shop for what you really need.

Sixth Tone: What improvements can China’s waste disposal system adopt from other countries?

Tom Szaky: I think some of the things that China should think about are, for example, creating packaging taxes. Lots of countries in the world have packaging taxes, which is a good idea because it releases money to fund recycling. [Second], educating kids about recycling in school to get them into the culture of wanting to do the right thing for the environment. Those are two key things I would really recommend for the overall country — or any country.

Sixth Tone: What is the policy environment in China like for green businesses like yours?

Tom Szaky: I think it’s quickly becoming much better. The momentum is in the right direction. China is leading the world in wind and solar energy production, and all these things are really becoming quite incredible, especially as the entire world is becoming more right-wing. If you look at the politics in the U.S., look at the politics in Europe, it is going in the wrong direction — very negative for the environment. Here, it’s moving in the right direction.

 

[JSCh]

China benefits from Lake Taihu algae treatment
By Gao Yun
2017-07-14 15:38 GMT+8

By CGTN's Ye Xiaoqian

An innovative, new treatment process is making positive use of the blue-green algae that has infested one of China's five main fresh water lakes, Taihu Lake, in eastern Jiangsu Province.

The blue-green bloom in the lake has knocked out water supply, wrecked havoc on its ecosystem and turned its once clear, dazzling waters into a putrid, tea-green sludge.

Clean up is not easy, but compared with previous treatment processes, the new approach is much less labor-intensive, thanks to its automatic re-floatation installation.

Collecting the blue-green algae / CGTN Photo

Once the blue-green algae are collected, the treatment process begins with a stack-screw dehydration machine and cloth hopper to reduce water content by 10 to 15 percent.

Stack-screw dehydration machine /CGTN Photo

The algae are then moved to composite membrane low-temperature evaporation boxes two meters above the ground level.

Ultraviolet rays from the sun kill the parasitic ova and pathogenic microorganisms, further reducing water content in the blue-green algae to just eight percent, and removes the smell as well.

Solar composite membrane low-temperature evaporation boxes /CGTN Photo

The highly-organic dried residue can be used to make activated carbon.

It is already being exported, selling at 600 US dollars a ton in the United States, with it being turned into plastic mats, shoe soles, and 3D printing materials.

3D printed model made from dried blue-green algae /CGTN Photo

Beneath the membrane boxes sited large greenhouses, where crops or landscaping plants are grown. The water that evaporates during the drying process is recycled to water the plants. The drying process is powered entirely by solar energy.

Eco-greenhouse beneath the membrane boxes /CGTN Photo

The greenhouse is used for agro-science experiments and has proved popular among visiting eco-agriculture enthusiasts.

Organic blueberries in the eco-garden /CGTN Photo

This blue-green algae treatment technology combines environmental protection with eco-agriculture, and will quicken the pace of green and sustainable development in the Taihu Lake region.

 

[Jlaw]

Can algae be consumed like Spiralina?

 

[JSCh]

China makes strides in improving water quality, says expert
By Sun Wenyu (People's Daily Online) 10:49, July 15, 2017

China has made great achievements in improving water quality in recent years, said Hou Li’an, member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering at the China Environmental Protection Annual Meeting on July 13 in Xining, Qinghai province.

Hou said the quality of both surface and river water has become better since 2010. The ratio of water sections with Grade I to III quality increased to 67.8 per cent in 2010, up from 59.9 per cent in 2010. Meanwhile, the share of Grade-V sections dropped to 7.8 per cent. In addition, 90.4 per cent of the country’s urban centralized drinking water attained standards in 2016, increasing by 13.9 per cent since 2010.

Besides, fruitful results have been reaped from the country’s efforts to eliminate black and smelly water. By July 11, 794 out of the 2,100 black and smelly water sources in China were treated.

However, China’s rapid urbanization and industrialization call for greater efforts to treat water pollution. The country plans to adopt an innovation-driven system and enhance monitoring to cope with the situation.

 

[JSCh]

Environmental industries to see policy benefits
Xinhua Financein www.cnstock.com
2017-07-17 16:34

It is learnt from the “2017 China Environmental Industry Summit Forum” hosted by China Environment Service Industry Association that the traditional pollution treatment is likely to complete by 2030. Environmental industries have to turn to green manufacturing to assume the responsibilities for pillar industries with a forward-looking insight. China is mulling a fund with 50 billion yuan for green development to support environmental industries.

“China is currently at the peak period of pollution,” indicated Luo Jianhua, vice-director of China Environment Service Industry Association. The U.S., Japan and Britain also witnessed such pollution. Based on the practice of other countries, the environmental industry will shrink after the completion of pollution treatment. The narrow environmental industry has never become a pillar industry in any countries.

Chinese environmental industry should focus on “integration”, “actions”, “strength” and “new” to become a pillar industry, indicated Wu Shunze, deputy head of the Ministry of Environmental Protection’s reform office.

For integration, Wu pointed out that the environmental industry should be integrated with green industries and products. For action, relevant enterprises should take actions to become a pillar industry as it is a policy-driven industry. It also has to rely on innovation to attract new technologies, new models and new investments. The development of a pillar industry has to depend on strong enterprises.

Huang Runqiu, vice-minister of the Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP), indicated that the MEP will focus on the construction of environmental infrastructure and introducing supporting policies to ensure the implementation of quality PPP programs, strengthen the endogenous drivers for environmental protection and actively develop environmental industries into pillar industries.

The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) is also mulling supporting policies. An official from the NDRC indicated that it will take more measures to promote the ecological civilization construction. It will speed up in the preparation of plans on ecological civilization pilot zones in Jiangxi and Guizhou and study the negative list for market access to the Yangtze River Economic belt.

Rumor also has it that the NDRC is mulling the establishment of a fund for green development with a size of about 50 billion yuan.

Translated by Star Zhang

 

[JSCh]

China to share experiences in transforming desert
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-18 19:07:03|Editor: Zhang Dongmiao



BEIJING, July 18 (Xinhua) -- China is aiming to transform a barren desert into an economic development area with vegetation coverage of 53 percent. An international forum will be held on July 28 in Kubuqi Desert, aiming to share the Chinese experience in reforesting the desert.

This experience, known as the Kubuqi Model, urged people to create enterprises using technology to control desertification on a large scale.

Erik Solheim, executive director of United Nations Environment Programme(UNEP), said that the Kubuqi Model offered precious experience for other countries and regions suffering from desertification and that such experience should spread along the Belt and Road for local benefit.

Farmers and herdsmen in Kubuqi plant liquorice to improve soil and build photovoltaic power stations for electricity. They lifted themselves out of poverty while fighting desertification.

"The desert is terrible, but the problem can be tackled," said Luo Bin, an official of State Forestry Administration in charge of desert control.

"Years of effort and practice have proved that desert can turn green," said Wang Wenbiao, chairman of ELION Group, which initiated the desert control plan in Kubuqi.

Wang also said that people would not bring sand storms under permanent control unless they combined policy support, commercial investment, market-based local agriculture and continuous improvment in the local environment.

Kubuqi is the seventh largest desert in China, covering a total area of 18,600 square kilometers. Beijing, only 800 km from the desert, was ofen troubled by sand storms in the past.

Chinese people have forested more than 6,000 square kilometers of Kubuqi and reduced 90 percent of sand storms in the desert.

 

[JSCh]

Urbanization in China prevents 450,000 premature deaths since 1980: study
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-20 08:30:25|Editor: An



WASHINGTON, July 19 (Xinhua) -- Rapid urbanization in China is not contributing to air pollution, but actually may have brought health benefits for the hundreds of millions of people who have moved into cities, preventing an estimated 450,000 premature deaths over the last three decades, a new study said Wednesday.

That's because after migrating into the city, many Chinese switched from crop residue, firewood and low-quality coal to cleaner fuel types such as electricity and natural gas, which considerably lessened regional emissions and cut their exposure to harmful particles less than 2.5 micrometers in size, known as PM2.5, according to the study published by the U.S. journal Science Advances.

"In the past, it was generally thought that population migration into cities would lead to the accumulation of pollutants and the affected persons in a small space, increasing the exposure in regional, high-density population areas, thereby raising health risks," Professor Shu Tao at Peking University, who led the study, told Xinhua.

"This understanding ignores the the positive impact of energy structure changes on health," Tao said.

For the study, Tao's team investigated the influence of rural to urban migration on pollutant emissions from direct residential and transportation energy consumption sources and population exposure since 1980, when urbanization began to accelerate following the initiation of the Chinese economic reform and opening policy.

The researchers were able to track migration using the unique registration system of citizens in China, known as hukou, and adjusted for migrants living in cities who are "unregistered" and have limited access to urban energy infrastructure, social welfare and other city services.

They found that as a result of increased migration, the national average PM2.5 exposure concentration in 2010 was reduced by 3.9 ug/m3, which corresponded to an annual reduction of 36,000 premature deaths.

Overall, 450,000 premature deaths were avoided between 1980 and 2010, indicating "a health benefit from the three decades of migration," the study said.

Despite the net benefit on a national level, pollution levels associated with migration are still on the rise in megacities such as Beijing and Shanghai, which are experiencing massive immigrations that increase local emissions, it noted.

When looking into the future, the researchers predicted the country's urbanization rate will increase up to 70 percent by 2030 and corresponding pollutant exposure levels may drop by up to 8.8 ug/m3, doubling the current benefits on air quality and health.

###
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Huizhong Shen, Shu Tao, Yilin Chen, Philippe Ciais, Burak Güneralp, Muye Ru, Qirui Zhong, Xiao Yun, Xi Zhu, Tianbo Huang, Wei Tao, Yuanchen Chen, Bengang Li, Xilong Wang, Wenxin Liu, Junfeng Liu and Shuqing Zhao. Urbanization-induced population migration has reduced ambient PM2.5 concentrations in China. Science Advances 19 Jul 2017. DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.1700300

Abstract
Direct residential and transportation energy consumption (RTC) contributes significantly to ambient fine particulate matter with a diameter smaller than 2.5 μm (PM2.5) in China. During massive rural-urban migration, population and pollutant emissions from RTC have evolved in terms of magnitude and geographic distribution, which was thought to worsen PM2.5 levels in cities but has not been quantitatively addressed. We quantify the temporal trends and spatial patterns of migration to cities and evaluate their associated pollutant emissions from RTC and subsequent health impact from 1980 to 2030. We show that, despite increased urban RTC emissions due to migration, the net effect of migration in China has been a reduction of PM2.5 exposure, primarily because of an unequal distribution of RTC energy mixes between urban and rural areas. After migration, people have switched to cleaner fuel types, which considerably lessened regional emissions. Consequently, the national average PM2.5 exposure concentration in 2010 was reduced by 3.9 μg/m3 (90% confidence interval, 3.0 to 5.4 μg/m3) due to migration, corresponding to an annual reduction of 36,000 (19,000 to 47,000) premature deaths. This reduction was the result of an increase in deaths by 142,000 (78,000 to 181,000) due to migrants swarming into cities and decreases in deaths by 148,000 (76,000 to 194,000) and 29,000 (15,000 to 39,000) due to transitions to a cleaner energy mix and lower urban population densities, respectively. Locally, however, megacities such as Beijing and Shanghai experienced increases in PM2.5 exposure associated with migration because these cities received massive immigration, which has driven a large increase in local emissions.​

 

[JSCh]

Beijing groundwater table likely to rise for 2nd year
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-24 17:47:33|Editor: Liangyu



BEIJING, July 24 (Xinhua) -- Beijing's groundwater table is likely to rise for a second year in 2017 thanks to increased rainfall, curbs on excessive groundwater use and increased water diverted from the country's south.

As of the end of 2016, the groundwater table in the Chinese capital was 25.23 meters deep, 0.52 meters higher than a year ago, said Hu Bo, an official with the Beijing Water Authority.

"It's good news that the groundwater table is rising," he said. "The city has made efforts and the weather has also helped."

"The groundwater table is likely to continue to rise this year as a result of expected increased rainfall and other efforts," said Huang Zhenfang, chief engineer with the Beijing Hydrologic Station.

Fast economic growth and rapid increase in population had decreased the groundwater table in Beijing from 7.24 meters deep in 1980 down to 25.75 meters deep in 2015.

Huang said the city's total precipitation for 2016 was 660 mm, 13 percent higher than the average level between 1956 and 1999.

The south-to-north water diversion project also helped relieve water shortages, with more than 30 million cubic meters of diverted water added to groundwater in 2015 and 2016, said Huang.

Conservation efforts helped reduce water use for agriculture by 40 million cubic meters last year, Huang said, adding that groundwater use dropped by 70 million cubic meters.

Currently, more than 70 percent of the tap water in Beijing's main urban areas comes from the Yangtze River, thanks to the south-to-north water diversion project.

By early June, Beijing had received around 2.28 billion cubic meters of Yangtze water since the project began pumping water into the city in December 2014, according to the Beijing Waterworks Group.

"The rise of the groundwater table only offers a respite," said Huang. Beijing's groundwater storage is currently 10.2 billion cubic meters less than it was in the early 1980s, the engineer said.

The city still faces water supply pressures with some rivers running dry. The per capita water resources are only 161 cubic meters, far lower than the 500 cubic meters, which represents an acute water shortage by the United Nations standards.

Zhang Tong, vice president of Beijing Institute of Water, said the city still needs to conserve water by reducing groundwater use and using diverted water to increase groundwater storage.

Beijing has set a target to reduce groundwater use by 400 million cubic meters annually by 2020.

By 2020, Beijing's water consumption is expected to rise to 4.3 billion cubic meters, putting huge pressure on its limited water resources.

The city's annual water resources averaged only 2.1 billion cubic meters over the past decade. The gap has been filled by groundwater, recycled water and water diverted from other regions.

The city plans to increase the use of recycled water to 1.2 billion cubic meters in 2020.