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Lakes and wetlands in the People's Republic of China face serious threats, yet the restoration programs designed to save them have achieved little success over the last 20 years. Today, more than ever, these resources need to be better managed and protected. The experience of three lake restoration programs highlights the need for an integrated strategy that takes on the complex challenges of rehabilitating water and land resources, while strengthening the links among stakeholders. The key elements for success are strong and consistent political leadership, integrated planning and analysis, and effective management structures and financial engineering.

Lakes and wetlands in the People's Republic of China face serious threats, yet the restoration programs designed to save them have achieved little success over the last 20 years. Today, more than ever, these resources need to be better managed and protected. The experience of three lake restoration programs highlights the need for an integrated strategy that takes on the complex challenges of rehabilitating water and land resources, while strengthening the links among stakeholders. The key elements for success are strong and consistent political leadership, integrated planning and analysis, and effective management structures and financial engineering.

AbstractThe COVID‐19 epidemic broke out in China in January 2020, which triggered the largest wave of corporate philanthropic donations since the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. Based on A‐share listed firms in the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges in 2020, we study whether substantive and symbolic corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategies affect corporate philanthropic responses during the COVID‐19 crisis. We use the lagged annual donation and technical dimension scores (T scores) of rankins ratings (RKS) as proxies of CSR performance and CSR disclosure and then define the CSR gap as the gap between the two. The results show that substantive and symbolic strategies cause firms to have material differential responses in the COVID‐19 crisis. Specifically, the CSR gap is negatively related to the possibility and the level of crisis donation. In addition, (1) this difference is more pronounced in the earlier period of the COVID‐19 crisis; (2) the negative correlation is more pronounced in private firms; and (3) the crisis donation of firms with either strategy obtains no different response from the capital market. Our evidence suggests that the established CSR strategy influences the substantive response of Chinese firms to public emergencies, but their substantive response does not result in different reactions in the capital market.

Based on the extended STIRPAT model, this paper examines social and economic factors regarding PM2.5 concentration intensity in 255 Chinese cities from 2007 to 2016, and includes quantile regressions to analyze the different effects of these factors among cities of various sizes. The results indicate that: (1) during 2007–2016, urban PM2.5 concentration exhibited declining trends in fluctuations concerning the development of the urban economy, accompanied by uncertainty under different city types; (2) population size has a significant effect on propelling PM2.5 concentration; (3) the effect of structure reformation on PM2.5 concentration is evident among cities with different populations and levels of economic development; and (4) foreign investment and scientific technology can significantly reduce PM2.5 emission concentration in cities. Accordingly, local governments not only endeavor to further control population size, but should implement a recycling economy, and devise a viable urban industrial structure. The city governance policies for PM2.5 concentration reduction require re-classification according to different population scales. Cities with large populations (i.e., over 10 million) should consider reducing their energy consumption. Medium population-sized cities (between 1 million and 10 million) should indeed implement effective population (density) control policies, while cities with small populations (less than 1 million) should focus on promoting sustainable urban development to stop environmental pollution from secondary industry sources.

The Chinese government has identified air pollution transmission points in Beijing&ndash ; Tianjin&ndash ; Hebei region and its surrounding areas under 2 + 26 initiative. This study introduces a modified Gravity Model to construct the spatial correlation network of industrial NOx in 2 + 26 policy region from 2011 to 2015, and further explores network characteristics and socioeconomic factors of this spatial correlation network by Social Network Analysis. Results indicate significant correlation of industrial NOx emission in 2 + 26 policy cities. The spatial correlation network of industrial NOx has remained stable within 5 years, implying no pollution exacerbation of interregional transmission. According to the effect of output and input in the correlation network of industrial NOx, cities in 2 + 26 policy region can be categorized into four types: high-high, high-low, low-low, and low-high, as each should adopt the corresponding strategies for emission reduction. Shijiazhuang, Liaocheng, Cangzhou, Heze and Handan should be key monitored during implementation of emission reduction. Taiyuan, Hebi, Langfang, Tangshan and Yangquan, should give priority to local emission reduction although less associated with other cities, based on city type and current emission situation. Environmental regulation and geographical distance have significant influence on the spatial correlation network of industrial NOx, of which the indicator of environmental regulation difference matrix has become significantly negative since 2014, while the indicator of geographical effect has been significantly positive all along. Urban industrial emission has significant correlation between cities with distance of 0&ndash ; 300km, while no significant correlation between cities with distance exceeding 300km.