This paper reviews urban heat (UrHT) challenges following the SBAR (situation, background, assessment and recommendation) framework. The results indicate that heatwaves become more frequent, lasting and intense, especially after 1990s. Above 1960s level, heatwaves across China doubled in both magnitude and frequency by 2018. Jianghuai and Southern China underwent the largest magnitude and most widespread increases. Under 1.5 °C warming limit, the average heatwave days and duration across China will increase by 10.8 days and 3.9 days. Drought–heatwave co–occurrence is increasingly frequent at 7–11%/decade (from 1961 to 2018) and the co–occurrence leads to more intense heatwaves. UHIs are a common issue for almost all Chinese cities and UHIs have been aggravating annually. Daytime UHIs peak in summer, indicating the synergies with heatwaves. The synergies are prominent in southeastern cities for strong summer daytime UHIs in eastern cities and intense heatwaves in southern regions. UrHTs have not been recognised and there are no dedicated/mandatory plans. Mega–challenges of climate change, rapid urbanisation, carbon– and labour–intensive economic growth and demographic changes can potentially lock China into UrHT challenges. Addressing UrHT challenges is urgent in China not only for environmental, ecosystem, social and health consequences, but also for economic impacts relevant to labour, capital, and goods or services. Efforts are suggested in technical improvement, policy formulation, social participation, economic investment and co-benefit approach recognition. Overall, this paper provides a comprehensive understanding of heat–related challenges in China and can guide the creation of cool cities and communities in practice. 

Beating the urban heat: Situation, background, impacts and the way forward in China

Extreme temperatures were considered natural hazards because they could increase morbidity and mortality. Understanding the extreme temperature changes at different warming levels is crucial to climate change mitigation and adoption for human health. This study projected climate change effects on the intensity, occurrence, and duration of extreme temperatures in Taiwan with 2 and 4°C global warming scenarios using the Weather Research and Forecasting model. The future climate simulations were conducted with the pseudo‐global warming approach, and the future climate changes were obtained from the ensemble mean of simulations in the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project 5. The simulated daily mean temperature increased by 1.40 and 3.09°C under 2 and 4°C global warmings. In a warming world, the daily maximum temperature was projected to increase by 1.35–3.00°C, whereas the daily minimum temperature was even higher, leading to weaker diurnal temperature variation in most regions. The simulation results show that intensified heatwaves with frequent and prolonged durations become par for the course, whereas extremely cold days disappear gradually. The occurrence of heatwaves in the future is projected to be five times that in the current climate. Comparing the global warming impacts over different land‐use types, the heatwave occurrence over urban areas rose more quickly than over other land‐use types; forests are less vulnerable to global warming. On the contrary, the changes in extremely cold days over urban areas were weaker than over other land‐use types. Overall, the effects of global warming on temperature revealed that extreme events were more severe with increased temperature than with the mean state of air temperature. Nonlinear behaviours indicated that global warming should be limited to 2°C, and the additional 2°C warming (from 2 to 4°C) should be addressed carefully.

Impacts of 2 and 4°C global warmings on extreme temperatures in Taiwan

Natural disasters have a major detrimental impact on agricultural production. In recent decades, China has experienced more frequent natural disasters as a result of climate change. Although the spatial and temporal changes in natural disasters for individual catastrophic activities are well understood, the impact of several disasters on cereal crop productivity and subsequent quality loss remains unknown. Furthermore, due to the key significance of cereal in China’s daily diet, a decrease in cereal quality, namely protein, will have a detrimental effect on nutrient supply. To better understand the relationship between natural disasters and cereal crop food quality in China, we used province-level data from 1988 to 2020 to construct a dataset of natural disasters, crop production, and protein contents of cereal crops (rice, wheat, and maize). Our findings suggest that activities in areas affected by natural disasters have decreased dramatically since the 21st century, with changes in areas affected by such disasters varying by province. Between 1988 and 2020, the total protein losses from grain and straw harvests due to natural disasters were 11.93 and 391.27 million tons. Overall, the annual mean total protein loss in maize, rice, and wheat was 4,982.26, 5,055.4, and 4,200.34 thousand tons, respectively. Although was responsible for half of the protein losses in more than half of the provinces. Drought and floods accounted for 80% of the total area affected by all natural disasters.

/pdf/the-protein-losses-of-three-major-cereal-crops-by-natural-3njzjtqx.pdf

The Protein Losses of Three Major Cereal Crops by Natural Disasters in China From 1988 to 2020

On the basis of the panel data of 31 provinces in China from 2011 to 2020, this paper first constructs an index system through the Pressure-State-Response (PSR) model and conducts a comprehensive evaluation of China’s agricultural environment according to the entropy weight TOPSIS model. Second, a coupling coordination degree model is established to calculate the degree of coupling coordination between the agricultural economy and the environment in each province. Finally, a spatial Durbin model is established to analyze the influencing factors of China’s agricultural economy. Results show that: ① the overall environment in the eastern region has little change, and the overall level is relatively backward; the agricultural environment in the central region is uneven; the agricultural environment in the western region is quite different from north to south. ② The regions with a high level of coupling coordination are mainly concentrated in the central and southern regions, and the performance is relatively intensive. The agricultural economy and the environment in the western region are extremely uncoordinated, and as is the overall coupling coordination between the agricultural economy and the environment in the eastern region in general. Further improvement is also needed. ③ Fixed asset investment, total power of agricultural machinery, rural electricity consumption, rural population, and rural per capita disposable income all have important influences on China’s agricultural economy. ④ The rural population size has a positive and the largest effect on the agricultural economy, whereas rural per capita disposable income has a negative effect on the agricultural economy. Moreover, improving farmers’ enthusiasm for farming is one of the key issues to be solved urgently.

/pdf/coupling-coordination-of-chinas-agricultural-environment-and-1pdsj0s8.pdf

Coupling Coordination of China’s Agricultural Environment and Economy under the New Economic Background

Street-facing Dwelling with Eaves Gallery (SDEG) was built for both commercial activities and residential needs. The Eaves Gallery (EG) and courtyards with small sky view factor (SVF) in those dwellings were shaped to prevent the residences or pedestrians from strong sun radiation, heavy rain, or snow. As a climate-adaptive vernacular architecture, it has lasted for hundreds of years in the large areas along the Yangtze River Basin (YRB) of China. Yet, few studies systematically investigate the thermal conditions of these dwellings and validate their climate resilience quantitatively under heat waves. Concerning the extreme weather caused by climate change, this study investigated indoor, semi-outdoor, and outdoor thermal comfort (OTC) of the SDEG in Xiaohe Town of Hubei province, China during the heatwave event in 2022. While mobile and fixed measurements were carried out to capture the data of thermal environments, the skin temperature measurements were implemented to understand the thermal responses of the households. The results found that SDEG was qualified to help indoor households avoid the heat risk with proper thermal behaviors but cannot provide a safe thermal environment for the pedestrians in the semi-outdoor or outdoor space of the EG street throughout the day. This study demonstrated the negative effects of heatwaves on not only the walking visitors but also the livelihood of the residents, which is an appeal to scholars to attention to the heat risks and thermal behaviors of marginalized groups living in various vernacular buildings within the context of high-temperature scenarios under the heatwave conditions. 

Assessing the thermal risks for residents and visitors in traditional Street-facing Dwellings with Eaves Gallery during an extreme heatwave event

Natural disasters play significant destructive roles in agricultural production. Agriculture has substantially altered the biogeochemical silica cycle via the harvest of the grain and straw of silica-rich crops. China is a developing agricultural country that experiences frequent natural disasters. Although the spatiotemporal changes in the occurrence of natural disasters are well known for individual disaster events, the study of the effects of multiple disasters on cereal crop productivity and the resultant silica harvest is still relatively new. To make the connection between natural disasters and the silica biogeochemical cycle, we compiled a dataset of natural disasters and crop production and silicon contents in cereal crops (rice, wheat, and maize) in China using province-level data from 1988 to 2016. Our results show that the area affected by natural disasters declined significantly after 2000, and changes in the area affected by natural disasters varied at the province level. From 1988 to 2016, the total silica losses from grain and straw harvests due to natural disasters were 7.14 and 53.10 million tons, respectively. Half of the silica loss in more than half of the provinces was caused by drought. Our study suggests that drought prevention will increase the size of the silica sink and thereby increase the size of the carbon sink in China's agriculture.

Natural disasters and their impacts on the silica losses from agriculture in China from 1988 to 2016

Elevation is important for determining the nutrient biogeochemical cycle in forest ecosystems. Changes in the ecological stoichiometry of nutrients along an elevation gradient can be used to predict how an element cycle responds in the midst of global climate change. We investigated changes in concentrations of and relationships between nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), potassium (K), calcium (Ca), and magnesium (Mg) in the leaves and roots of the dominant tree species, Castanopsis fargesii, along an elevation gradient (from 500 to 1,000 m above mean sea level) in a subtropical natural forest in China. We analyzed correlations between C. fargesii's above-ground biomass and stoichiometry with environmental factors. We also analyzed the soil and plant stoichiometry of this C. fargesii population. Our results showed that leaf N decreased while leaf K and Ca increased at higher elevations. Meanwhile, leaf P showed no relationship with elevation. The leaf N:P indicated that C. fargesii was limited by N. Elevation gradients contributed 46.40% of the total variance of ecological stoichiometry when assessing environmental factors. Our research may provide a theoretical basis for the biogeochemical cycle along with better forest management and fertilization for this C. fargesii population.

Changes in the stoichiometry of Castanopsis fargesii along an elevation gradient in a Chinese subtropical forest.

More than four hundred million people suffer from respiratory diseases each year. Respiratory diseases are associated with a large disease burden. Heatwaves and cold spells, the two most common extreme weather events, have been shown to have crucial negative effects on the prevalence of respiratory diseases. However, impacts of extreme weather on the prevalence of respiratory diseases has been largely overlooked in western China, where more intense and frequent extreme temperature events have been occurring over the past decades. This research gap will obtain an attribution bias in the effects of extreme weather events on the prevalence of respiratory diseases. Therefore, in this study, we analyzed the impact of heatwaves and cold spells on the morbidity of respiratory diseases using a distributed lag nonlinear model with daily disease cases from 2013 to 2016 in Lanzhou, one of the largest cities in western China. A reverse U-shaped relationship depicted the relationship between temperature and the morbidity of respiratory diseases. The highest relative risk was found at 2.6 °C by 1.15 (95% confidence interval: 1.09–1.21). Furthermore, we found a significant decrease in the relative risk for heatwaves and a significant increase in the relative risk of cold spells when the temperature exceeded the corresponding threshold by 1 °C. Heatwaves and cold spells play harvest effects on the morbidity of respiratory diseases. Our study suggest that the relative risk of respiratory diseases will increase as the climate warms in the future, and thus a preventive system is needed for individuals and medical policy-makers.

Impact of heatwaves and cold spells on the morbidity of respiratory diseases: A case study in Lanzhou, China

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Natural disasters and their impacts on the silica losses from agriculture in China from 1988 to 2016

Changes in the stoichiometry of Castanopsis fargesii along an elevation gradient in a Chinese subtropical forest.

Impact of heatwaves and cold spells on the morbidity of respiratory diseases: A case study in Lanzhou, China