Weak sustainability is not sustainable: Socioeconomic and environmental assessment of Inner Mongolia for the past three decades

Shang, Chenwei; Wu, Tong; Huang, Ganlin; Wu, Jianguo

doi:10.1016/j.resconrec.2018.10.032

Cited by 50 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 53 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…In addition to the northeast region, food security also improved rapidly in Inner Mongolia, where the arable land area had increased by more than two million ha since 1980 (Wu et al 2015 ). In addition, owing to the development of mining, tourism, and manufacturing, Inner Mongolia’s per-capita income increased by 8.5 times from 1987 to 2015 (Shang et al 2019 ), greatly increasing food purchasing power and food security. Provinces with low food security were mainly distributed in the central and southwestern regions, which are not major grain-producing areas.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multiscale analysis of factors affecting food security in China, 1980–2017

Deng

Zhang

et al. 2021

Environ Sci Pollut Res

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Food security is an important issue affecting people’s lives and social stability. Clarifying levels of food security and the factors affecting it (social, economic, agricultural, climatic) can help improve regional food security. The spatiotemporal patterns and driving factors of food security vary at different scales. There is, however, a lack of research that considers the various factors affecting food security at multiple scales. This study, therefore, analyzed dynamic spatiotemporal changes in food security at small (city), medium (province), and large (country) scales; identified hot and cold areas of food security; and revealed the main factors affecting food security at different scales. A food security index (FSI) was built based on the coupling of grain yield, population, and GDP, and spatial analysis was used to evaluate dynamic spatiotemporal changes in China’s food security from 1980 to 2017. Further, the relationship between food security and its driving factors was quantitatively analyzed using stepwise regression. The results showed greater heterogeneity in food security at the smaller scale than at the larger scale. The key factors affecting food security varied substantially at different scales: the added value of tertiary industry dominated the prefecture level, and gross agricultural output value was the main factor at the provincial and national levels. Multiple-scale research can reveal the status and primary factors of food security and provide a decision-making basis for improving regional food security.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multiscale analysis of factors affecting food security in China, 1980–2017

Deng

Zhang

et al. 2021

Environ Sci Pollut Res

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In addition, the HSDI is still a weak sustainability index which does not consider the non-compensability and thresholds of each indicator [58]. Positive changes in the social and economic dimensions of sustainability can offset the degradation of the environmental dimension, which conforms to the belief that economic development at the cost of environmental degradation is sustainable [6]. In the future, a more comprehensive study regarding regional sustainability can be conducted by using both strong and weak sustainability indicators.…”

Section: Future Perspectivesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing the Regional Sustainability of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Urban Agglomeration from 2000 to 2015 Using the Human Sustainable Development Index

et al. 2019

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Sustainability assessment can analyze the challenges of regional development from societal, economic, and environmental dimensions and provide an important baseline for regional planning. Recently, the rapid socio-economic development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) urban agglomeration has inflicted great pressure on the regional environment. Therefore, this paper evaluated the sustainability dynamics of the BTH urban agglomeration from 2000 to 2015 at the city scale using the Human Sustainable Development Index (HSDI) and discussed the major drivers of the changes in regional sustainability. The results showed that the overall sustainability of the BTH urban agglomeration increased from 2000 to 2015, with the HSDI increasing by 10%. Among the three dimensions, the economic sustainability indicators grew the fastest, with a growth rate of 42%, while the environmental sustainability indicators declined by 8%. The decline of environmental sustainability played an important role in limiting regional sustainable development. Specifically, the optimization of the energy structure in six cities, e.g., Tangshan, Langfang and Cangzhou, was relatively weaker than that in the remaining seven cities. In the future, the BTH urban agglomeration must further optimize the energy structure to build a resource-saving and environmentally friendly society.

show abstract

“…The average annual wind speed is approximately 2.7-3.1 m/s, and the maximum wind speed can reach 17.0 m/s. The frost-free period is 130-140 days [21].…”

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the periphery of the study area, approximately 20,000 ha of C. intermedia were artificially planted for desertification preservation (Figure 1). Considering the precipitation and temperature gradient, the area is dominated by grasslands and typical steppes [21,22]. The study area predominantly contains herbaceous vegetation with a vegetation cover of 25%-100%, and is characterized by Stipa krylovii, Stipa grandis, Carex duriuscula, Leymus chinensis, and Artemisia frigida [23].…”

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

Quick Aboveground Carbon Stock Estimation of Densely Planted Shrubs by Using Point Cloud Derived from Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

Zhang

2019

Remote Sensing

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Carbon sink trading is an important aspect of carbon trading in China, and can have important significance in offsetting carbon emissions and improving ecological compensation. The use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) offers new opportunities for shrub carbon sink and accounts as a substitute for time-consuming and expensive plot investigations to estimate the carbon sink by using the aboveground carbon stock monitored by UAV. However, the UAV-based estimation of the aboveground carbon stock of densely planted shrubs still faces certain challenges. The specific objectives of this research are as follows: (1) to test the statistical relationship between the aboveground carbon stock and volume of a densely planted shrub belt, and (2) to develop a model to estimate aboveground carbon stock by monitoring the volume of the densely planted shrub belt using a UAV. The study showed that (i) the aboveground carbon stock would increase with the increase in the volume of the shrub belt, (ii) an estimation model of the aboveground carbon stock of the densely planted shrub belt was developed ( R 2 = 0.89 , P < 0.01 ), and (iii) the validation assessment to estimate aboveground carbon stock by using the UAV-based estimation model produced a coefficient of determination of R2 = 0.74 and an overall root mean square error of 18.79 kg CO2e. Good prediction ability of the model was determined using leave-one-out cross-validation (LOOCV). This output information is valuable for the design of operations in the framework of precise carbon-sink accounting of shrubs. In addition, a method using an UAV was developed and validated for the quick estimation of aboveground carbon stock for densely planted shrubs, thereby providing a potential alternative to time-consuming and expensive plot investigations of aboveground carbon-stock accounting, which is necessary for shrub projects in the carbon trading market in China.

show abstract

Weak sustainability is not sustainable: Socioeconomic and environmental assessment of Inner Mongolia for the past three decades

Cited by 50 publications

References 53 publications

Multiscale analysis of factors affecting food security in China, 1980–2017

Multiscale analysis of factors affecting food security in China, 1980–2017

Assessing the Regional Sustainability of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Urban Agglomeration from 2000 to 2015 Using the Human Sustainable Development Index

Quick Aboveground Carbon Stock Estimation of Densely Planted Shrubs by Using Point Cloud Derived from Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About