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Promoting the rise of Central China is one of the most important national strategies regarding the promotion of China's economic development
. However, the environmental issues in the central regions have become remarkably severe. It is therefore worthwhile exploring how economic development and environmental protection can be coordinated. Focusing on the 29 prefecture-level cities in the Central Plains Urban Agglomeration, the authors empirically analyze the relationship between the economy and the environment from 2004 to 2014. The combined methods of the spatial autocorrelation model, the environmental Kuznets curve, and the global spatial correlation test are systematically employed. The results show that: (1) a strong spatial correlation exists between industrial wastewater discharge, industrial sulfur dioxide, and dust emissions in the Central Plains Urban Agglomeration; (2) the relationship between the economy and the environment of this urban agglomeration reveals an inverted "U" curve, which confirms the classical environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis. Industrial dust emissions have surpassed the inflection point of the Kuznets curve, but its spatial spillover effect still remains strong. This is caused by an accumulation effect and a lag effect; (3) the proportion of the secondary industry and population has a strong positive effect on pollution discharge; investments in science and technology have a certain inhibitory effect on industrial sulfur dioxide emission. Moreover, an increase in the number of industrial enterprises has a negative effect on industrial wastewater emission. At the end, the authors put forward policy recommendations regarding the establishment of a joint supervisory department and unified environmental standards at the regional level to deal with the spillover effects of pollution. © 2018 by the authors
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Climate change and carbon emissions are major problems which are attracting worldwide attention
. China has had its pilot carbon emission trading markets in seven regions for more than 3 years. What affects carbon emission trading market in China is a big question. More attention is paid to how China promotes the carbon emission trading schemes in the whole country. This paper addresses concerns about the functioning of carbon emission trading schemes in seven pilot regions and takes the weekly data from November 25, 2013, to March 19, 2017. We employ a vector autoregressive model to study how coal price, oil price and stock index have affected the carbon price in China. The results indicate that carbon price is mainly affected by its own historical price; coal price and stock index have negative effects on carbon price, while oil price has a negative effect on carbon price during the first 3 weeks and then has a positive effect on carbon price. More regulatory attention and economic measures are needed to improve market efficiency, and the mechanisms of carbon emission trading schemes should be improved
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The 2015
.4.25 Gorkha earthquake affected about eight million people in Nepal. Most injuries and loss of life were due to building collapse and damage. This work aims to investigate the topographical and geological effects on the severe damage caused by this earthquake
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Understanding the internal structure and material properties of landslide dams is essential for evaluating their potential failure mechanisms, especially by seepage and piping
. Recent research has shown that the behaviour of landslide dams depends on the internal composition of the impoundment. We here present an experimental investigation of the hydromechanical constraints of landslide dam failure by piping. Experiments were conducted in a 2 m?×?0.45?×?0.45 m flume, with a flume bed slope of 5°. Uniform dams of height 0.25 m were built with either mixed or homogeneous silica sands. Uniform-sized pebbles encased in a plastic mesh were used to initiate internal erosion. Two laser displacement sensors were used to monitor the behaviour of the dams during the internal erosion process while a linear displacement transducer and a water-level probe were deployed to monitor the onset of internal erosion and the hydrological trend of the upstream lake
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Kang, S. C.; Wang, F. Y.; Morgenstern, U.; Zhang, Y. L.; Grigholm, B.; Kaspari, S.; Schwikowski, M.; Ren, J. W.; Yao, T. D.; Qin, D. H.; Mayewski, P. A.
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Kang, S.; Wang, F.; Morgenstern, U.; Zhang, Y.; Grigholm, B.; Kaspari, S.; Schwikowski, M.; Ren, J.; Yao, T.; Qin, D.; Mayewski, P. A.
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The environment of Mt
. Qomolangma (Everest) area is of great significance to the global environmental background and environmental change research. However, there are few studies on the content and distribution of soil trace elements in the area. About 130 soil samples were collected nearby the Rongbuk valley at the northern slope of the Qomolangma from 4,400 to 6,600 m elevations. Nine soil trace elements, Cr, Zn, Sr, Pb, Ni, Co, Cd, Mn, Cu, were analyzed with ICP-AES (inductively coupled plasma atom emission spectrometry). The results showed that soil trace elements content increased with altitude; the content of the Cd in this area was very high, which was 5.8 times of the average content of Chinese soil. There was a noticeable change point for soil trace elements content at the altitude of 5,800 m, and the content of Cd increased abruptly above 5,800 m. This point was just located at the boundary of two types of rocks. The Late Precambrian-Neoproterozoic granite–gneiss and metacryst migmatized interbedded with marble located below 5,800 m; black-dark slate and marl of Cambrian located above 5,800 m (including 5,800 m), the geochemical characteristic of different rocks was the main factors controlling the soil trace elements content in the northern slope of Qomolangma Mountain
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Analysis of seasonal water discharge and sediment load data for major tributaries of the Upper Yangtze indicates significant changes from 1957 to 1987
. Discrimination between land use–induced and climatic variation–induced changes was attempted using the systematic shift in the seasonal sediment load relative to the seasonal water flow. Available evidence suggests that most of these changes were caused by human activities such as deforestation, water use, and construction of reservoirs rather than by decadal climatic variations. The changes identified in water flow and sediment flux in both wet and dry seasons for some tributaries had significant implications with respect to flooding and water shortages
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