Incentive policies for transboundary marine spatial planning: an evolutionary game theory-based analysis.

Marine spatial planning (MSP), which is a step-by-step approach for the ecosystem-based management (EBM) of global oceans, enables human activity and marine and coastal ecosystems conservation to occur simultaneously. It contributes to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda, particularly Sustainable Development Goal 14. However, the MSP, supposed as a transboundary policy-making process, is hampered by obstacles. Although existing studies have revealed significant obstacles and enablers for transboundary marine spatial planning (TMSP), they have not analyzed how these factors affect government decision-making. To fill this gap, this paper takes the Xiamen-Kinmen Sea area in China as an example and analyses the interaction between the Xiamen-Zhangzhou-Quanzhou (XZQ) governments, the Kinmen government, and an introduced transboundary institution using evolutionary game theory. Numerical simulation is used to analyse the impact of influencing factors on the behaviors of different actors. The results demonstrate that: (1) the initial probability of the three parties directly affect the final stability; (2) net benefits have a positive incentivizing effect on the performance of the Promotion Group; (3) the value of eco-environmental losses reflects the urgency of collaborative governance by implementing TMSP; (4) transaction costs do not undermine collaboration, but do reduce the willingness of governments to participate if they are too high; and (5) the appropriate value of the transaction cost allocation coefficient should not exceed 0.9. This research may serve as an essential reference for the Xiamen-Kinmen Sea area for implementing EBM and provide general insights into the design of incentive policy recommendations for other regions for developing TMSP in shared waters.

Study of the spatio-temporal variation of environmental sustainability at national and provincial levels in China.

Environmental problems create a significant barrier for China in achieving its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Assessing environmental sustainability is critical for China to meet the SDGs. Few studies, however, have looked into environmental sustainability in China. This research created a systematic and comprehensive environmental sustainability framework in line with the SDGs (SDG 6, SDG 11, SDG 12, SDG 13, SDG 14, SDG 15). From 2010 to 2018, we used a Constant Elasticity of Substitution (CES) model to assess China's spatio-temporal variation in environmental sustainability at the national and provincial levels. We also evaluated the results with changes to the substitution elasticity value, validating the feasibility of the proposed calculation method. Our results show that the scores of SDG 6, SDG 11, SDG 12, SDG 13, and SDG 15 experienced an increasing trend, while SDG 14 experienced a decline. China's Environmental Sustainability Index (ESI) scores indicate that China's overall environmental sustainability has been improved over time. At the provincial level, the ESI scores of all provinces increased at different levels from 2010 to 2018. The results of this paper may facilitate improvements in environmentally-related SDGs in China's provinces, and help realize China's sustainable development.

Spatiotemporal patterns and inequity of urban green space accessibility and its relationship with urban spatial expansion in China during rapid urbanization period.

Equitable access to urban green spaces (UGS) is an important component of social justice and can be quantified using indices such as urban green space accessibility (UGSA). However, the spatiotemporal patterns and inequity of UGSA among cities with different developments during rapid urbanization are unclear, especially lack evidence at a macroscopic national scale during rapid urbanization. Therefore, we evaluated the UGSA in 366 cities of China during 1990-2015 by the Gaussian-based two-step floating catchment area method (Gaussian-based 2SFCA). Then, the inequity pattern of UGSA among cities with different economic developments was analyzed by the concentration curve and concentration index. Finally, the relationship between UGSA and urban spatial expansion was explored quantitatively by the spatial econometric model. The results showed that: (1) The overall UGSA in China declined significantly by nearly 57.23% during 1990-2015. From the regional perspective, the UGSA in the southeastern region was always lower than that in the northwestern region, the Eastern zone presented a downward trend. From the perspective of different sizes cities, the UGSA of the megacities kept decreasing during 1990-2015, while UGSA of the large, medium, and small cities had turned to increase since 2010. (2) During rapid urbanization, the equity of UGSA among the cities gradually improved, while the cities with low economic developments tended to have higher UGSA. (3) Urban spatial expansion led to the decrease of UGSA during 1990-2015, while the impact had spatiotemporal heterogeneity, and UGSA had a positive spatial spillover effect. Our research provides a comparative baseline for the improvement of UGSA from a macroscopic perspective for China's urbanization policy in the future and novel insights into the green justice issue. The results can be compared with the development of UGS in other countries at different urbanization stages to promote UGS design and policy.

Urban Metabolism of Food-Sourced Nitrogen among Different Income Households: A Case Study Based on Large Sample Survey in Xiamen City, China.

Food consumption is fundamental for urban households if they are to sustain production and daily life. Nitrogen resulting from food consumption has significantly contributed to pollutant emissions in urban ecosystems. Taking Xiamen city, a rapid urbanizing area of southeast China as a case study, we evaluated the food-sourced nitrogen consumption of households based on a large simple onsite questionnaire survey, as well as differences between households in the consumption of plant-based and animal-based foods. A material flow analysis (MFA) was conducted to simulate the urban metabolism of food-sourced nitrogen and environmental emissions among different income groups. The impacts of household attributes, plant-based food consumption, and animal-based food consumption on environmental nitrogen emissions were examined with a structural equation model (SEM). Our results show that the surveyed households' diets were more plant-based and less animal-based. Aquatic products and livestock were the source of 43.7% of food-sourced nitrogen, and 84.5% of the food-sourced nitrogen was discharge into the environment through direct discharge and waste treatment. Soil, water, and air emissions accounted for 62.8%, 30.1%, and 7.1% of the food-sourced nitrogen, respectively. Household income, household size, and household area are all associated with accelerating increases of nitrogen emissions released into the environment, though middle-income group households have the highest food-sourced environmental nitrogen emissions. On this basis, we discuss how to better manage the urban metabolism of food-sourced nitrogen, so as to improve urban household consumption, lower nitrogen emissions, and improve food security.

Ecosystem service multifunctionality assessment and coupling coordination analysis with land use and land cover change in China's coastal zones.

Ecosystem services (ESs) have received widespread attention worldwide for their potential to solve sustainability issues. However, extensive land use and land cover change (LUCC) driven by human activities has raised concerns regarding its impacts on ESs, especially in coastal zones. More importantly, spatial-temporal changes, their coupling relationships with LUCC, and their underlying drivers have not been thoroughly analyzed. This study focuses on China's coastal zones to investigate the spatial-temporal changes of ecosystem service multifunctionality (ESM) from 2000 to 2018. Coupling coordination degree (CCD) analysis of the relationship between ESM and comprehensive intensity of land use was applied to identify coastal cities with low-level coordination and their main drivers in 2018. The results show that: (1) the proportion with high levels of ESM decreased by 1.01% from 2000 to 2010 and then increased by 3.29% from 2010 to 2018; (2) the ESM of China's coastal zones present significant spatial heterogeneity, and the low levels of ESM are mainly distributed in the north and urban areas, while most areas in the southern coastal zones have high levels of ESM; (3) forest land is the leading land cover type for ESM, and China's forest conservation policies significantly contribute to the increase in ESM; (4) the CCD of most cities in the southern coastal zones, apart from Shanghai and the Pearl River Delta, is at a relatively high level and experiences no significant changes, while most cities in the northern coastal zones display an improving trend; (5) the land use type, landform type, and leaf area index are the determinants of ESM, and the annual average temperature, population density, and surface elevation are the greatest influences on the CCD. The findings of this study can inform ecological conservation and landscape planning and are beneficial to the sustainable development of coastal zones in China.

How will China realize SDG 14 by 2030?- A case study of an institutional approach to achieve proper control of coastal water pollution.

A few coastal waters such as the Bohai Bay are facing the extreme pollution and large areas of coastal water show ecosystem disasters due to deterioration of water quality. Our objective is to assess the institutional capacity of China for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 14 by 2030. To achieve this objective, our study examined the institutional approach in China based on its effectiveness in improving water quality of rivers and coastal seas. The result shows that in general the institutional arrangement of coastal water pollution control is being benefited from national plans and ministerial guidelines which establish explicit quantitative water environmental indicators for coastal managers. The local governments conduct pilot programs to implement the national plans, and construct implementing mechanisms with the authority delegated by the Central Government. With institutional approaches the Central Government shapes the behaviors of the local governments to achieve coastal water pollution control. In discussion, we make a comparison between the case of China and the case of the US to identify some common contributors for achieving effective water quality management in both China and the US. In further, we identify some mechanisms which may only work in the context of featured political system of China. The insufficiencies in the current institutional arrangements of China are also recognized. Finally, we propose some solutions to deal with those insufficiencies which have been dealt with in the USA.

River Management for Local Governments in China: From Public to Private.

The Public and Private Partnership (PPP) model has been used to provide public services and goods. In China, local governments are willing to use the PPP model in many public services, such as integrated river management (IRM) projects, due to ease fiscal budget and the improved access to technology from the private sector. However, there has not been any specific discussion in the literature for applying the PPP model to IRM projects. In this study, we find that the PPP model results in the non-standardization of IRM projects. Our research paper builds the PPP operation framework for IRM projects. Our findings suggest that while the environmental quality evaluation system created in contracts for government payment seems to be optimal for protecting the public interest, it actually strains the partnership between the two parties and so its implementation should be considered on a case by case basis. Since the history of IRM projects using the PPP model is short, the actual performances of these types of projects has not yet been demonstrated. Local governments should be cautious about adopting the PPP model for such projects, and private companies should be cautious about their involvement. Our research will garner more scholarly attention to the application of the PPP model in complex projects.

A methodological framework for coastal development assessment: A case study of Fujian Province, China.

Decision-makers often have to make trade-offs between economic growth and environmental conservation when developing and managing coastal environments. Coastal development and management need to be subject to rigorous assessments to determine if they are sustainable over time. We propose a methodological framework - the Coastal Development Index (CDI) for the assessment of the changes in sustainability of coastal development over time. CDI is a modified version of the Ocean Health Index (OHI) but with two new indicators - ecological and environmental indicators (EEI), and social and economic indicators (SEI), both of which comprise three sub-indicators (coastal protection, clean waters and species protection for EEI, and food provision, coastal livelihoods and economies and tourism and recreation for SEI). The six sub-indicators represent key aspects of coastal development and the level of exploitation of natural resources that have previously been missing in other conceptual frameworks. We demonstrate the value of CDI with a detailed case study of Fujian Province in China, 2000-2013. The scores of CDI decreased from 1.01 in 2000 to 0.42 in 2013 suggesting that the Fujian coastal zone has experienced unsustainable development in that time. Meanwhile, the scores of EEI decreased from 22.1 to 20.4 while the scores of SEI increased from 21.9 to 48.1 suggesting that environmental values have been eroded by economic growth. Analysis of the scores of sub-indicators reveals a need to integrate economic growth and social development with environmental conservation on Fujian coastal management. Our case study highlights the potential value of the CDI for improving the ecological sustainability of coastal zone management and development practices.

Cumulative environmental impacts and integrated coastal management: the case of Xiamen, China.

This paper examines the assessment of cumulative environmental impacts and the implementation of integrated coastal management within the harbour of Xiamen, China, an urban region in which the coastal zone is under increasing pressure as a result of very rapid economic growth. The first stage of analysis incorporates components of a cumulative effects assessment, including (a) identification of sources of environmental impacts, notably industrial expansion, port development, shipping, waste disposal, aquaculture and coastal construction, (b) selection of a set of valued ecosystem components, focusing on circulation and siltation, water quality, sediment, the benthic community, and mangrove forests, and (c) use of a set of key indicators to examine cumulative impacts arising from the aggregate of human activities. In the second stage of analysis, the paper describes and assesses the development of an institutional framework for integrated coastal management in Xiamen, one that combines policy and planning (including legislative and enforcement mechanisms) with scientific and monitoring mechanisms (including an innovative 'marine functional zoning' system). The paper concludes that the integrated coastal management framework in Xiamen has met all relevant requirements for 'integration' as laid out in the literature, and has explicitly incorporated consideration of cumulative impacts within its management and monitoring processes.