Search Results (100)

Ecological corridors can promote regional integration, socio-economic development, and biodiversity conservation by enhancing cross-border connectivity. The Nepal–China Himalayan Corridor (NCHC), a strategic component of the Belt and Road Initiative, traverses an ecologically fragile and disaster-prone mountain region where infrastructure development, local livelihoods, and ecological sustainability need to be balanced. This study combines Q-methodology with the lens of imaginaries to examine stakeholder perspectives on SDG-oriented development pathways for the NCHC. Five major factors were identified: sustainable green infrastructure development, Himalayan climate adaptive capacity, inclusive growth through bilateral collaboration, trans-Himalayan multi-dimensional connectivity through viable projects, and local capacity building through transnational policy transformation. These factors reveal different stakeholder priorities and the synergies and trade-offs among SDGs in corridor development. The findings highlight the importance of multi-stakeholder cooperation and differentiated development pathways for advancing sustainable corridor development in fragile transboundary mountain regions. Full article

Accurate greenspace quantification underpins sustainable urban greening management. Remote sensing (RS)-derived green quantity is a core urban planning indicator, yet its capability to reflect actual urban green supply lacks systematic verification, inevitably affecting planning formulation and decision-making. Taking Shanghai as the study area, this study integrates remote sensing and Baidu Street View (BSV data) to compare the two-dimensional planar green coverage derived from satellite imagery with pedestrian-level perceived visual green coverage. The Mask2Former model was adopted for high-precision semantic segmentation of BSV images to extract vegetation, building, sky and hard pavement proportions. Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR), hotspot analysis and transition mapping were applied to identify divergent regions, while the XGBoost-SHAP framework was employed to explore deviation mechanisms. The results reveal distinct spatial pattern differences between the two green quantity datasets. RS-derived green quantity exhibits strip-like agglomeration, whereas BSV-perceived green quantity is more fragmented, with a correlation coefficient of only 0.240. Single RS quantification fails to reflect street-level green supply. Divergent areas are classified into accurate, overestimated and underestimated zones. RS underestimates green quantity in central urban areas and overestimates that in northwest suburbs. BSV-based sky ratio, building ratio, hardscape ratio and Road 1 density are core influencing factors with obvious nonlinear threshold effects. This study clarifies the quantitative deviation patterns and mechanisms between RS and BSV green quantity, providing scientific support for precise urban green planning and sustainable perceived visual green construction. Practically, the dual RS–street view assessment framework proposed in this paper can be embedded into routine urban green infrastructure auditing, help planners distinguish systematically overestimated suburban green belts and underestimated central urban micro-green spaces, and deliver targeted optimization strategies for vertical greening, street tree renovation and pocket park construction under high-quality urban renewal demands. Full article

As urbanization intensifies, improving street thermal comfort has become a critical issue in urban renewal. While existing studies generally assume that increasing the Green View Index (GVI) linearly improves pedestrian thermal comfort, this study identifies a significant “Decoupling Effect” in high-density commercial areas through field measurements and numerical simulations of three typical street types (commercial–service, ecological–recreational, and historical–cultural) in Shenyang. Integrating DeepLab V3 semantic segmentation with ENVI-met version 5.1.1 microclimate simulation, the results demonstrate a robust monotonic negative correlation between GVI and Physiological Equivalent Temperature (PET) in ecological streets (Spearman’s ρ = −0.692, p < 0.001), confirming the consistent cooling benefit of greenery in nature-dominated environments. However, a distinct “Threshold Effect” was identified in commercial streets using Piecewise Linear Regression (PLR). A critical breakpoint was detected at GVI = 22.08%. Below this threshold, visual greenery effectively contributes to cooling (slope = −0.454); yet, once GVI exceeds 22.08%, the cooling efficacy diminishes significantly (slope = −0.109), marking the onset of a “decoupling” phase. Specifically, despite Wenhua Road achieving a GVI of ~24.5% with a complex “three-board, four-belt” structure, its PET peak reaches 46.15 °C, approximately 5.5 °C higher than ecological streets. Mechanism analysis reveals that under peak thermal stress (Traffic Heat ≈ 75 W/m²), the high-intensity anthropogenic heat and hardscape radiation exceed the evaporative cooling threshold of vegetation. This study reveals the non-linear relationship between visual greenery and the physical thermal environment, suggesting that simply pursuing visual green quantity is ineffective in commercial canyon renewal; instead, a threshold-based synergistic optimization of canopy shading and pavement thermal performance is required. These findings provide a quantitative basis for sustainable street landscape planning and urban climate adaptation strategies in high-density cities. Full article

Amid China’s shift from a model of urban “incremental expansion” to one focused on “stock optimization”, the renewal of streetscapes has taken center stage as a critical approach to improving the human experience within urban environments. However, empirical insight into how visual interventions affect aesthetic perception across different road types remains notably limited. This study addresses that gap through a spatiotemporal investigation of Zhengzhou’s streetscape transformations between 2017 and 2022. Major roads were categorized into four functional types—freeway, under-freeway, regular road, and tunnel—to better capture perceptual variation. Leveraging a Fully Convolutional Network (FCN), we extracted nine visual components from historical street views and paired them with crowd-sourced “beauty” ratings from the MIT Place Pulse 2.0 dataset. Statistical analyses, including paired t-tests and Kernel Density Estimation (KDE), indicated marked improvements in perceived beauty following renewal, with the exception of tunnel segments. Through Random Forest (RF) regression and SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) interpretation, greening emerged as the most influential driver of aesthetic enhancement—most prominently on regular roads (SHAP = 2.246). The impact of renewal was found to be context-specific: green belts were most effective in under-freeway areas (SHAP = +0.8), while improvements to pavement (SHAP = +0.97) and street vitality were key for regular roads. Notably, SHAP analysis revealed non-linear relationships, such as diminishing perceptual returns when green coverage exceeded certain thresholds. These findings inform a “visual renewal–perceptual response” framework, offering data-driven guidance for adaptive, human-centered upgrades in high-density urban settings. Full article

Despite the well-established ability of urban green belts to reduce traffic noise, a comprehensive analysis of the specific role played by mixed coniferous trees and shrubs in noise mitigation remains lacking. This study aimed to clarify how different planting patterns and the characteristics of plants affect their noise-reduction performance. To achieve this, noise reduction was measured at 18 roadside green spaces comprising mixed coniferous trees and shrubs in Harbin, China, and Moscow, Russia. The results indicate that in lanes 5–15 m wide, the ‘Abreast’ planting pattern consistently offered greater noise reduction than the ‘Taffy’ configuration at all measured distances (5, 10 and 15 m). In addition, in winter the effectiveness of noise reduction improved due to snow cover, which enhanced the sound-absorbing properties of the vegetation. In our analysis, key factors such as diameter at breast height, minimum height under branches and road width emerged as crucial predictors of traffic noise reduction. Among these, carriageway width and sidewalk width exhibited the strongest correlations with noise attenuation. Finally, we developed a quantitative model for roadside green spaces that incorporates plant characteristics, planting schemes and road features. This model allows us to assess the contribution of each factor to overall noise reduction. The results of this study provide a scientific basis for designing and optimising vegetation-based noise-mitigation strategies to enhance the urban acoustic environment while also offering an analytical framework to support evidence-based urban forestry planning and policy. Full article

As a new engine for promoting the high-quality development of China’s foreign trade, digital trade provides new opportunities for enterprises’ low-carbon transition. Based on samples of export industrial enterprises listed in China from 2010 to 2023, this paper uses the digital trade policy represented by the cross-border e-commerce (CBEC) comprehensive pilot zone as a quasi-natural experiment and employs a multi-period difference-in-differences (DID) model to empirically analyze the policy effect of digital trade development on firms’ carbon emission intensity. This research finds that (1) digital trade policies represented by the pilot policy can significantly reduce firms’ carbon emission intensity and (2) the pilot policy can achieve the emission intensity reduction effect through dual paths of “internal innovation deepening” and “external environment optimization”. The internal innovation deepening refers to the green awareness formation and green production implementation of enterprises. External environment optimization refers to financial support resources for enterprises and institutional safeguards for innovation rights of enterprises. (3) Further analysis indicates that the policy effects are more pronounced in firms with higher risk preference, with larger scale, in heavily polluting and high-tech industries, and in the central and northeastern regions. Additionally, the policy demonstrates synergistic effects with the Belt and Road Initiative and exhibits significant spatial spillover effects, benefiting neighboring non-pilot areas. Full article

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has reshaped global trade and infrastructure, with port cities as key nodes in its Maritime Silk Road. Quantifying their spatiotemporal development is challenging due to data limitations in emerging economies. This study employs VIIRS nighttime light (NTL) data from 2013 to 2023 to analyze urbanization patterns in twelve BRI port cities spanning Asia, Africa, Europe, and South America. We compile a 12-city cohort; inferential analyses are conducted for a pre-specified six-city subset, while descriptive NTL trends cover all 12. This study makes three contributions: (i) we assemble a cross-sensor harmonized VIIRS NTL record for 12 BRI port cities during 2013–2023; (ii) we integrate Standard Deviational Ellipse(SDE) parameters with rank-size dynamics as a joint diagnostic of urban hierarchy; and (iii) we triangulate NTL with external indicators (GDP, population, port throughput) to validate interpretation. Three key findings emerge: Asian ports experienced pronounced NTL growth, with Singapore approaching saturation, consistent with the luminosity-ceiling hypothesis; SDE analysis shows varied expansion patterns shaped by geophysical and policy factors; and rank-size trends indicate decentralization during the BRI decade, with |q| declining in most cities, challenging the primate-city model. To optimize development, we highlight polycentric infrastructure investment, institutionalized NTL monitoring, and green port certification aligned with sustainability goals. Full article

The advancement of green energy is a crucial mechanism for balancing economic growth with environmental sustainability, helping to mitigate conflicts between development and ecological preservation. This paper assesses the policy effects of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) on China’s overseas green energy projects (including gas) using the difference-in-difference (DID) model from 2009 to 2022. The findings show that, overall, the BRI has notably augmented China’s green energy projects in the BRI countries. This result remains robust after excluding potential interference from Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). Specifically, its promotional effect shows heterogeneity. Firstly, the BRI has shown significant regional differences in promoting the development of China’s overseas green energy projects. Secondly, the BRI is more effective in promoting green energy projects in developing and low-risk countries compared to developed and high-risk countries. Additionally, it indicates that the BRI boosts green energy projects in BRI countries by enhancing their infrastructure quality, encompassing transportation, energy, communication, and financial infrastructure. Finally, based on the above findings, this paper provides context-specific recommendations aimed at enhancing the effectiveness of the BRI in promoting sustainable green energy cooperation. Full article

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) promotes significant cross-border investment, raising critical questions about its environmental consequences, particularly regarding carbon emissions. This paper uses panel data from 47 countries that participated in the “Belt and Road Initiative” earlier from 2000 to 2020 to conduct theoretical analysis and empirical research on the relationship between the coordinated development of two-way FDI and carbon emission intensity, dividing it into scale effect, technology effect and structure effect. The coordinated development of two-way FDI can have an increasing or decreasing impact on carbon emission intensity through these three effects. The main findings of this paper are as follows: (1) The improvement of the degree of coordinated development of two-way FDI significantly reduces carbon emission intensity. (2) The improvement of the degree of coordinated development of two-way FDI can enhance the level of technological innovation, while the improvement of the level of technological innovation will increase carbon emission intensity, thereby reducing the carbon emission reduction effect of the coordinated development of two-way FDI. (3) The improvement of the degree of coordinated development of two-way FDI can reduce carbon emission intensity by promoting the upgrading of industrial structure. Based on the above conclusions, this paper puts forward the following suggestions for the subsequent development of countries along the “Belt and Road”: (1) Further increase two-way FDI and promote the coordinated development of two-way FDI. (2) Promote the upgrading of industrial structure and the green transformation of technology. (3) Increase economic freedom to provide a good environment for economic development. Full article

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) prioritizes infrastructure investment to enhance regional connectivity and foster sustainable economic development. Therefore, this empirical study aims to examine the impact of the BRI, specifically through Chinese foreign direct investment (CFDI) on sustainable growth in Bangladesh. The study employs the Mann–Kendall trend analysis and the generalized method of moments (GMM). For the Mann–Kendall trend analysis, sectoral FDI and output data from four major industrial sectors, obtained from Bangladesh Bank and CEIC for the period 1996–2020, are used to analyze trends in industrial development. Additionally, to assess the BRI’s role in sustainable development, this study compares green gross domestic product (GGDP) and gross domestic product (GDP) using a GMM analysis of CFDI inflows across 16 industrial sectors from 2013 to 2022, sourced from various databases. Findings reveal that CFDI significantly contributes to domestic industrial growth, particularly in the manufacturing and construction sectors. Although Bangladesh joined the BRI in 2016, a notable surge in CFDI appears from 2011–2012, partially driven by Bangladesh’s economic liberalization policies, and reflects early strategic investment consistent with China’s expanding economic diplomacy, which was later formalized under the BRI framework. The two-step system GMM results demonstrate that CFDI has a stronger impact on GGDP (0.0350) than on GDP (0.0146), with GGDP showing faster convergence (0.6027 vs. 0.1800), highlighting more robust and rapid sustainable growth outcomes. This underscores the significant Chinese investment in green sectors in Bangladesh. The study also demonstrates that the BRI supports the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 7 (green energy) and 9 (sustainable infrastructure). These insights offer valuable direction for future research and policy, suggesting that Bangladesh should prioritize attracting green-oriented CFDI in sectors like energy, manufacturing, and construction, while also strengthen. Full article

With China’s emergence as a major global economy, its involvement in tackling climate change and fostering sustainable growth has garnered considerable focus. What impact does global direct investment have on carbon emissions within Belt and Road economies? This study innovatively utilizes a quantile regression model to analyze the varied impacts of international direct investment across distinct carbon emission quantiles, further delving into the conditional probability distribution of the dependent variable to provide a strong theoretical basis for precise policy-making by relevant departments and integrating time and space delays in examining the effects of carbon reduction strategies within the Belt and Road Initiative. Furthermore, this study aims to concentrate its research efforts on the host nations. Findings from this study indicate that global direct investments could escalate carbon emissions in economies with lower carbon emissions; yet, with the rise in the host nation’s carbon emissions, the ripple effect of international direct investments in green technology becomes increasingly evident. Empirical evidence indicates that global direct investment in Belt and Road economies demonstrates a significant mitigating effect on carbon emissions, thereby amplifying the decarbonization benefits associated with such cross-border capital flows. Full article

Amid the global trend of green transformation, existing studies have explored the impact of outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) on economic performance and technological innovation. However, micro-level empirical analyses on how OFDI facilitates green technological innovation through capital and knowledge channels remain insufficient. Drawing on data from China’s A-share listed companies during 2007–2022, this study systematically investigates, for the first time, the pathways through which OFDI influences green innovation, and identifies the mediating mechanisms of financing constraints and R&D investment. Employing fixed effects and mediation effect models, the empirical results reveal that OFDI significantly promotes firms’ green technological innovation, with stronger effects observed among state-owned enterprises, among non-polluting firms, and in the context of invention patent applications. This study enriches the theoretical framework of green innovation and provides empirical evidence and actionable insights for corporate “going global” strategies and green transition policy making. Full article

Green development is an important path to breaking the “growth-pollution” paradox and realizing the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Most of the countries along the “Belt and Road” are developing countries with fragile ecological environments, and the pressure of economic activities on environmental resources exceeds the global average, so the countries have a strong will to promote green development. Accurately grasping the level of green development and the dynamic evolution trend of BRI countries can help to explore the implementation effect of policies at a certain stage, and on this basis, exploring regional correlations and differences can help to provide data support for future regional cooperation and policy formulation. Based on this, this study comprehensively evaluates the level of green development in the BRI countries by constructing a multi-dimensional evaluation index system and then explores the correlation and regional differences of green development in the countries along the route by utilizing the Moran index and the Thiel index. The results indicate that the green development levels of BRI countries have shown an upward trend; the spatial association exhibited a fluctuating upward trend, with significant changes in local clustering characteristics. Overall disparities in green development levels were relatively small, with intra-group differences being the primary contributor to these disparities, and West Asia and the Middle East displayed larger variations in green development levels. This study provides policy recommendations for promoting green development in BRI countries. Full article

The gullied Loess Plateau, a region characterized by the overlapping of ecological fragility and energy abundance in China, requires urgent analysis of its territorial spatial conflict mechanisms to harmonize human–environment relationships. This study integrated multi-temporal remote sensing data (1990–2020) to develop a Comprehensive Spatial Conflict Index (CSCI) and applied the Optimal Parameter-based Geographical Detector (OPGD) to unravel the driving mechanisms of territorial spatial evolution in Qingyang City, Gansu Province. The results revealed that: (1) Territorial spaces exhibit a transition pattern of ecological restoration, urban expansion, and agricultural contraction. Forest and grassland ecological spaces increased by 1.42 percentage points (to 13.14%) and 1.26 percentage points (to 49.29%), respectively, while industrial-mining production spaces expanded sevenfold (0.01% to 0.08%), and agricultural production spaces decreased by 3.36 percentage points. (2) Spatial conflicts transitioned through three phases: ① A low-intensity stabilization phase (1990–2000), with 90.55% of areas under weak and moderately weak conflict (CSCI ≤ 0.4); ② A moderate conflict contraction phase (2000–2010), where weak conflict zones surged by 28.18 percentage points (13.06% → 41.24%), with moderate and moderately weak spatial conflict (0.2–0.6) decreasing by 28.27 percentage points (86.06% → 57.79%); ③ A moderately strong to strong expansion phase (2010–2020), with moderate and moderately strong conflict areas rising to 16.82%. Strong conflict zones (CSCI ≥ 0.8) expanded to 0.61%, spatially clustered in the Xifeng urban area and the Malian–Pu River corridor, showing significant positive correlations with gully density (>3.5 km∙km⁻²) and nighttime light index (NL). (3) The interaction between NDVI and land use intensity (LUI) dominated conflict patterns (q = 0.2583). In northern energy development zones (Huanxian County), LUI and precipitation (PRE) synergistically intensified landslide risks, while facility agriculture in central plateau farmlands (Ningxian County) triggered groundwater overexploitation. The coupling of road density (RND) and population (POP) factors (q = 0.1892) formed a transportation–population axial belt compression. Policy interventions exhibited spatial heterogeneity: the Grain-for-Green Program increased weak conflict zones by 28.18 percentage points, whereas wind power development in the Huanxian–Huachi northern belt escalated moderately strong to strong conflict zones by 3.6 percentage points. A three-dimensional governance framework integrating geomorphological adaptation, development phasing, and ecological compensation is proposed to optimize territorial spatial planning in the gullied Loess Plateau. Full article

The Qinghai–Tibet Plateau (QTP), a critical ecological buffer for Asia, faces intensifying pressures from climate change and infrastructure expansion. The Qinghai–Tibet Railway (QTR), as the world’s highest-altitude railway, traverses this fragile yet economically vital region, where balancing ecosystem integrity and development remains a global sustainability challenge. While previous studies have documented localized environmental impacts of the QTR, systematic assessments of long-term ecological-economic interactions—particularly the synergies and trade-offs between ecosystem service value (ESV) and economic growth—are lacking. This gap hinders targeted policy design to reconcile conservation and development in extreme environments. The present research integrates an enhanced ecosystem service valuation framework with spatial econometric modeling to quantify environmental changes and ecological-economic coordination in the Qinghai–Tibet Railway Region (QTRR) during 1990–2020. The analysis reveals a cumulative ESV increase of USD 54.4 billion over the past 30 years, driven primarily by grassland restoration and regulated land use transitions. Notably, county-level ecological-economic coordination improved significantly, with harmonization indices rising by 32–68% across all jurisdictions. However, latent risks emerged: five counties exhibited severe ecosystem-health-to-economy mismatches by 2020. These findings demonstrate that infrastructure corridors in fragile ecosystems can achieve partial ecological-economic coordination through policy interventions, yet persistent local disparities demand spatially differentiated management. By linking ESV dynamics to governance pathways—including livestock–forage balance mechanisms and green urban zoning—the present study provides a transferable framework for assessing sustainability trade-offs in extreme environments. Broader implications highlight the necessity of embedding adaptive ecological thresholds into infrastructure planning, offering experiences for the Belt and Road Initiative and other high-altitude development frontiers. Full article