The mining industry has made outstanding contributions to China's economic and social development, but a series of environmental problems remain. As Green Mines and ecological civilization concepts are put forward, the relationship between people and nature is receiving more attention, and especially mining ethics. Present construction standards encompass legal mining, management standardization, comprehensive utilization, technological advancement, energy saving and waste reduction, environmental protection, land reclamation, harmonious community and enterprise culture. As at 2014 the Chinese Ministry of Land and Resources had published 661 Green Mines. Here, we analyze the present situation and prospects of Green Mines in China by the distribution from regional and mine type perspectives. Green Mines are nearly spread over every province and mine type, but Eastern China participated earlier than other areas. We discuss constructing Chinese mining ethics on the basis of traditional ethics and Western ecological ethics as theoretical foundations and practices. We consider that the significance of building Chinese mining ethics in Green Mine construction includes promoting social responsibility, improving environmental protection awareness and accelerating society development. Under the guidance of Chinese mining ethics we propose mining enterprise development models for the future, such as comprehensive utilization, circular economy and community harmony.

Being a developing country, the evaluation of Chinese circular economy should have its particular criterion that suits for specific national conditions. With the growth of economy, Chinese environmental loads should be permitted to increase at an appropriate speed. Based on this concept, this paper divides the process of evaluation into two parts which include evaluation of development level and evaluation of development performance. Firstly, this paper sets up a reference system which includes Zaozhuang City of Shandong Province, Jiaozuo City of Henan province, Shizuishan City of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region and China that is regarded as a region respectively, analyzes the development level of circular economy of coal resource cities based on the evaluation indicator of ecological efficiency, and puts forward the future direction of circular economy of coal resource cities. Secondly, based on C Model of Circular Economy, this paper constructs the measurement model of development performance in which study regions are analyzed in a particular period that is from 2000 to 2020, and evaluates the development performance of circular economy for study regions according to the relationship of growth multiples between economic scale and environmental loads. We can draw several main conclusions: firstly, the development pathways of all four study regions belong to type Ⅱ which resource efficiency is preferred. Secondly, the comprehensive energy consumption efficiencies of coal resource cities were left far behind by China's average level. Thirdly, the circular economies of all study regions have achieved remarkable progress. Fourthly, the development level of circular economy can be evaluated from two dimensions which consist of horizontal comparison method and vertical comparison method. Fifthly, C model is an appropriate development model that suits for Chinese national conditions and could be selected as an important method to evaluate regional development performance of circular economy.

Water footprint of production can be used to identify pressure on national or regional water resources generated by production activities. Water stress is defined as the ratio of water use (the difference between a regional water footprint of production and a green water footprint) to renewable water resources available in a country or region. Water stress can be used to identify pressure on national or regional water resources generated by production activities. This paper estimates the water footprint of production and the water stress in China during the years 1985–2009. The result shows that China's water footprint of production increased from 781.58 × 10⁹ m³ in 1985 to 1109.76 × 10⁹ m³ in 2009. Mega-cities and regions with less agriculture production due to local climatic conditions (Tibet and Qinghai) had lower water footprint of production, while the provinces (Henan, Shandong) with higher agriculture production had higher footprint. Provinces with severe water stress increased from 6 in 1985 to 9 in 2009. High to severe water stress exists mainly in mega-cities and agricultural areas located in the downstream areas of the Yellow River and the Yangtze River in North and Central China. The outlook for water resources pressure in China is not optimistic, with areas of stress expanding from northern to southern of China.

The Silk Road Economic Belt (SREB) opens new development opportunities for Russia in general, and its Eastern regions in particular, via larger-scale and multi-level international cooperation. The eastern regions of Russia, rich in natural resources, have traditionally focused on resource extraction. In the context of the SREB, the issues of environmental security in Eastern Russia come to the fore. Here, we propose tools for ‘diagnosis’ if a chosen path of regional economic development proceeds according to the concept of a green economy. We use different indicators based on eco-intensity. We determine ecological-economic development trends in the Eastern border regions of Russia at the initial stage of the Silk Road Economic Belt formation to serve as a starting point and guideline for development processes within the SREB. If cooperation is directed to implementing the best Chinese production chains, significant improvements in the quality of economic growth in Russia will be achieved.

In recent years, large areas of farmland in the North China Plain have been converted into short-rotation poplar plantations. To analyze the impacts of poplar plantations on soil, 22 soil samples were collected and assayed from the soil profiles of a corn field and a poplar plantation. The results showed that the average soil moisture content of the soil profile in the poplar field was 2.6 percent lower than that of the arable land. The maximum difference in soil moisture content was found in the upper 0–10 cm of topsoil. Soil organic matter and nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium in the cornfield were significantly higher than in the poplar field. Higher nutrient content in the corn field may result from higher fertilizer inputs and the practice of returning straw to the cropped field. The analysis also showed no significant increase in soil organic matter content in deeper soil layers of the poplar field, which means that the conditions are not favorable for the formation of soil organic matter, or that soil organic matter needs a longer time to develop. Elements such as magnesium, iron, manganese and copper in both the corn field and the poplar field had a tendency to accumulate with increasing soil depth. Magnesium, iron, manganese and copper in the 0–80 cm soil layer of the poplar field were higher than those of the cornfield, but the situation was reversed at depths greater than 80 cm. It is concluded that poplar trees consume a large amount of soil moisture and soil nutrients. Local governments should prevent the development of new plantations of fast-growing trees in farmland and help farmers to recover their farmland from forestry plantations.

Nowadays, increased attention is being paid to the causal relationship between electricity consumption and economic growth. This paper attempts to examine the causal relationship between electricity consumption and economic growth for China's Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei agglomeration, using annual data covering the period 1982–2008. In this study, unit root tests, the Johansen co-integration test, and the Granger causality test are applied. The empirical results indicate that the two series (electricity consumption and economic growth) of the three locales (Beijing, Tianjin, and Hebei) are non-stationary. But first differences of the two series are stationary. The results of the Johansen co-integration test indicate that electricity consumption and economic growth are co-integrated in Hebei and Tianjin while this is not the case in Beijing. The Granger causality test implies that there is causality running from electricity consumption to economic growth in all of the three locales. Causality running from economic growth to electricity consumption is found in Hebei and Beijing while this is not the case in Tianjin. This means that an increase in electricity consumption directly affects economic growth and that economic growth also stimulates further electricity consumption in Hebei and Beijing. But in Tianjin, an increase in electricity consumption directly affects economic growth while economic growth cannot affect electricity consumption. These findings can provide useful information for local governments of the three locales to formulate sustainable energy and economic policies. The study is of great significance for circular economy and building a resource-conserving society.

With global warming, rainstorms and other extreme weather events are occurring frequently, leading to urban waterlogging disasters. A study on spatiotemporal variation characteristics of rainstorms in urban areas can provide scientific support for the design of urban drainage facilities to mitigate the damage of urban flooding disasters. Drawing on daily rainfall data from 20 meteorological stations during 1960–2010, this study analyzed change trends for annual rainstorms in Beijing, using the Mann-Kendall approach and cumulative departure curve as methodology. The results show that annual days of rainstorms in Beijing decreased non-significantly, but the precipitation of rainstorms and annual maximum daily precipitation declined significantly. The frequency of rainstorms generally decreased from southeast to northwest, with the greatest decrease occurring in the southeast plain areas. The results of this study contribute to the understanding of rainstorm risk in Beijing.

Due to the impact of climate change and human activities, the upper and middle reaches of the Tao'er River have become an ecologically sensitive area in Northeast China. It is important to evaluate the contributions of climate change and human activities to water suitability in the Tao'er River area. From the perspective of water and heat balance, the water suitability index (c_r) was used to analyze the water suitability of the upper and middle reaches of the river. The nonparametric Mann-Kendall, moving t-test and cumulative anomaly methods were used to detect abrupt changes in Taonan station runoff from 1961 to 2012. Three inflexion years were detected. Thus, the entire time period was divided into four periods: 1961–1974, 1975–1983, 1984–1998, and 1999–2012. In order to estimate the impacts of climate change and human activities on runoff, the slope change ratio of cumulative quantity (SCRCQ) was adopted. Finally, the contribution of climate change and human activity to c_r was transformed from the contribution of climate change and human activity to runoff by the sensitivity coefficient method and SCRCQ method. The results showed that the water suitability index (c_r) had a decreasing trend 1961–2012. Factors influencing cr, such as net radiation and runoff, also exhibited a decreasing trend, while precipitation exhibited an increasing trend over the past 52 years. The trends of cr, net radiation and runoff were obvious, which passed the Mann-kendall test of significance at α=0.05. Human activities were the main factors that affected runoff, although the degree of impact was different at different times. During the past 52 years, the biggest contributor to the change in c_r was precipitation.

In a world of climate change and socio-economic development, oil is the strategic resource that is closely intertwined and interdependent. Tracing the evolution of petroleum resources flow is fundamental to understanding petroleum supply and demand, and can also serve as the basis for assessing CO₂ emissions from petroleum products. This paper aims to provide a petroleum products flow accounting framework that divides petroleum flow into four phases, three flows, three libraries, and two processes, and summarizes the approach to measure and analyze petroleum resources flows. It takes China as an example for empirical research, and finds that: ① China's petroleum production, consumption and import have significantly increased over the past two decades, and the combination of increasing demand and limited supply have created an urgent need for China to diversify its petroleum sources globally to ensure its oil security. ② Final consumption accounts for the use of most petroleum products and special attention should be paid to the losses in the petroleum refining process. ③ With the exception of crude oil, petroleum product flows among various sectors has changed greatly. Particularly, the flow of petroleum products into transport and residential consumption has trended upward significantly, whereas the flow to industry is trending downward. ④ CO₂ emission data shows that CO₂ emission amounts increased rapidly from 456Mt in 1993 to 1517Mt in 2013. Previously, the top three CO₂ emitters were the industrial sector, the transport sector including the transport, storage and post segments, and the thermal power sector. Currently, the largest emitters are the transport sector, the industrial sector and the residential consumption sector. Finally, poorly demarcated system boundaries and incomplete databases and models constrain research on industry flows of petroleum resources for non-energy use.

In order to investigate the feasibility of reintroducing the South China tiger (Panthera tigris amoyensis) in the Jiangxi Matoushan National Nature Reserve, field surveys were conducted to assess prey distribution in the reserve. Twelve permanent transects were set in three distinct functional zones from February to April 2012 and May to July 2013. A total of 112 ungulate signs were recorded on these transects. In addition, 20 camera traps were used to survey ungulates and predators in 2012, while the following year we extended the survey site by using 30 cameras. Overall, 6641 capture events on 2930 camera days were obtained, presenting a variety of ungulate species: muntjak (Muntiacus muntjak), tufted deer (Elaphodus cephalophus), serow (Capricornis sumatraensis) and wild boar (Sus scrofa). Population structure and composition of ungulates was compared in different functional zones using a single factor of variance analysis in SPSS software. Significant differences in the distribution of ungulates were recognized between the core zone and experimental zone, but not in other zones due to differences in habitat types and management practices of the nature reserve. Using ArcGIS analysis and Salford Predictive Modeler software, we ran several predictive models to understand which areas are most suitable for ungulates. We conclude that muntjac and wild boar are mainly distributed in the experimental zone, serow are more common in the core zone, while tufted deer are located evenly in the three functional zones. Finally, suggestions for effective and feasible management strategies and techniques for Matoushan National Nature Reserve were recommended based on the results and analysis in this study.