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Urbanization has been positioned as an important driving force for economic development. This article examines the impact of urbanization on environmental regulation efficiency (ERE) in the Yangtze River Basin (YRB). Based on a panel dataset of 97 cities in the YRB from 2005 to 2016, a spatial econometric model was used for analysis. Results show that the average ERE in the YRB is relatively low and manifests in the shape of a curved smile. The urbanization level of the permanent population is far lower than the average level of developed countries. However, the urbanization level is showing a steady growth trend. During this period, ERE in the Yangtze River middle, upper, and lower reaches was measured at 0.77, 0.58, and 0.52, respectively. The urbanization rate was measured at 0.59, 0.45, and 0.39, in the lower, middle, and upper reaches, respectively. When only considering population urbanization, the previously observed negative correlation between ERE and the Kuznets curve disappears. However, if the carrying capacity of economic activities is considered, the U-shaped relationship between urbanization rate and ERE returns. The environmental Kuznets curve is consequently verified. In addition, there is an inverted U-shaped nonlinear relationship between economic development and ERE. The results of this article show that there are unsustainable risks in the rapid pursuit of population urbanization. Only by improving the quality of urbanization and adapting the level of urbanization to the carrying capacity of resources and environment can we truly promote high-quality economic development. The article puts forward some suggestions to promote the green development of the economy.
Qian Zhang; Decai Tang; Brandon J. Bethel. Impact of Urbanization on the Environmental Regulation Efficiency in the Yangtze River Basin Based on the Empirical Analysis of Spatial Econometrics. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 2021, 18, 9105 .
AMA StyleQian Zhang, Decai Tang, Brandon J. Bethel. Impact of Urbanization on the Environmental Regulation Efficiency in the Yangtze River Basin Based on the Empirical Analysis of Spatial Econometrics. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2021; 18 (17):9105.
Chicago/Turabian StyleQian Zhang; Decai Tang; Brandon J. Bethel. 2021. "Impact of Urbanization on the Environmental Regulation Efficiency in the Yangtze River Basin Based on the Empirical Analysis of Spatial Econometrics." International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 18, no. 17: 9105.
Over recent decades, the application of artificial intelligence methods in manufacturing has led to new spheres of research such as the Internet of Things, Cyber–Physical Systems, and Cloud Computing and Big Data, leading to the so-called Industry 4.0. However, to date, little research has been geared towards assessing the factors that influence intelligent manufacturing on a regional scale. Addressing this problem, this paper constructs an evaluation index system for the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB) intelligent manufacturing sector using eleven years (2008–2018) of provincial panel data. The entropy method is applied to three evaluation criteria, namely intelligent innovation, equipment, and profit, to construct an evaluation index system. An analysis of the results revealed that the level intelligentization of the manufacturing industry of the YREB increases yearly, and that intelligent innovations are notably occurring at a faster rate than profits. Disproportional enterprise returns on investment have occurred, which decreases enterprise motivation to be innovative in the first place. Additionally, it was also observed that FDI, financial development, government intervention, and the level of opening-up were the primary factors modulating regional intelligent manufacturing levels.
Decai Tang; Luxia Wang; Brandon J. Bethel. An Evaluation of the Yangtze River Economic Belt Manufacturing Industry Level of Intelligentization and Influencing Factors: Evidence from China. Sustainability 2021, 13, 8913 .
AMA StyleDecai Tang, Luxia Wang, Brandon J. Bethel. An Evaluation of the Yangtze River Economic Belt Manufacturing Industry Level of Intelligentization and Influencing Factors: Evidence from China. Sustainability. 2021; 13 (16):8913.
Chicago/Turabian StyleDecai Tang; Luxia Wang; Brandon J. Bethel. 2021. "An Evaluation of the Yangtze River Economic Belt Manufacturing Industry Level of Intelligentization and Influencing Factors: Evidence from China." Sustainability 13, no. 16: 8913.
Governments design and implement policies to achieve a variety of goals, but perhaps none are as pressing as shifting national economies away from non-renewable fuels and towards more sustainable, environmentally-friendly technologies. To incentivize such transitions, governments provide subsidies to private and public companies to innovate, i.e., to engage in research and development (R&D) to develop those technologies. However, the question of the companies is using government subsidies (GS) to perform R&D and its answer determines the effectiveness of government policies. Consequently, this paper seeks to answer this question through investigating Chinese lithium-ion battery (LiB) firms and the GS they receive through novel usage of information flow (IF). Hausman tests, fixed- and random-effects models confirmed a weak, though positive correlation between GS and R&D as determined by patent output (PO), but interestingly, observations of IF intimated that GS also affected other variables such as net profit (NP) and main business income (MBI). This suggests that firms are being awarded GS for higher PO, but a corresponding increase in R&D and its expected growth in company performance is not occurring. Thus, it is suggested that performance variables other than PO be used as firms may ab (use) this metric to apply for more GS, rather than performing R&D that leads to technological breakthroughs.
Yana Buravleva; Decai Tang; Brandon Bethel. Incentivizing Innovation: The Causal Role of Government Subsidies on Lithium-Ion Battery Research and Development. Sustainability 2021, 13, 8309 .
AMA StyleYana Buravleva, Decai Tang, Brandon Bethel. Incentivizing Innovation: The Causal Role of Government Subsidies on Lithium-Ion Battery Research and Development. Sustainability. 2021; 13 (15):8309.
Chicago/Turabian StyleYana Buravleva; Decai Tang; Brandon Bethel. 2021. "Incentivizing Innovation: The Causal Role of Government Subsidies on Lithium-Ion Battery Research and Development." Sustainability 13, no. 15: 8309.
The exploitation of wind energy is rapidly evolving and is manifested in the ever-expanding global network of offshore wind energy farms. For the Small Island Developing States of the Caribbean Sea (CS), harnessing this mature technology is an important first step in the transition away from fossil fuels. This paper uses buoy and satellite observations of surface wind speed in the CS to estimate wind energy resources over the 2009–2019 11-year period and initiates hour-ahead forecasting using the long short-term memory (LSTM) network. Observations of wind power density (WPD) at the 100-m height showed a mean of approximately 1000 W/m2 in the Colombia Basin, though this value decreases radially to 600–800 W/m2 in the central CS to a minimum of approximately 250 W/m2 at its borders in the Venezuela Basin. The Caribbean Low-Level Jet (CLLJ) is also responsible for the waxing and waning of surface wind speed and as such, resource stability, though stable as estimated through monthly and seasonal coefficients of variation, is naturally governed by CLLJ activity. Using a commercially available offshore wind turbine, wind energy generation at four locations in the CS is estimated. Electricity production is greatest and most stable in the central CS than at either its eastern or western borders. Wind speed forecasts are also found to be more accurate at this location, and though technology currently restricts offshore wind turbines to shallow water, outward migration to and colonization of deeper water is an attractive option for energy exploitation.
Brandon J. Bethel. Caribbean Sea Offshore Wind Energy Assessment and Forecasting. Journal of Marine Science and Application 2021, 1 -14.
AMA StyleBrandon J. Bethel. Caribbean Sea Offshore Wind Energy Assessment and Forecasting. Journal of Marine Science and Application. 2021; ():1-14.
Chicago/Turabian StyleBrandon J. Bethel. 2021. "Caribbean Sea Offshore Wind Energy Assessment and Forecasting." Journal of Marine Science and Application , no. : 1-14.
Wave forecasts, though integral to ocean engineering activities, are often conducted using computationally expensive and time-consuming numerical models with accuracies that are blunted by numerical-model-inherent limitations. Additionally, artificial neural networks, though significantly computationally cheaper, faster, and effective, also experience difficulties with nonlinearities in the wave generation and evolution processes. To solve both problems, this study employs and couples empirical mode decomposition (EMD) and a long short-term memory (LSTM) network in a joint model for significant wave height forecasting, a method widely used in wind speed forecasting, but not yet for wave heights. Following a comparative analysis, the results demonstrate that EMD-LSTM significantly outperforms LSTM at every forecast horizon (3, 6, 12, 24, 48, and 72 h), considerably improving forecasting accuracy, especially for forecasts exceeding 24 h. Additionally, EMD-LSTM responds faster than LSTM to large waves. An error analysis comparing LSTM and EMD-LSTM demonstrates that LSTM errors are more systematic. This study also identifies that LSTM is not able to adequately predict high-frequency significant wave height intrinsic mode functions, which leaves room for further improvements.
Shuyi Zhou; Brandon Bethel; Wenjin Sun; Yang Zhao; Wenhong Xie; Changming Dong. Improving Significant Wave Height Forecasts Using a Joint Empirical Mode Decomposition–Long Short-Term Memory Network. Journal of Marine Science and Engineering 2021, 9, 744 .
AMA StyleShuyi Zhou, Brandon Bethel, Wenjin Sun, Yang Zhao, Wenhong Xie, Changming Dong. Improving Significant Wave Height Forecasts Using a Joint Empirical Mode Decomposition–Long Short-Term Memory Network. Journal of Marine Science and Engineering. 2021; 9 (7):744.
Chicago/Turabian StyleShuyi Zhou; Brandon Bethel; Wenjin Sun; Yang Zhao; Wenhong Xie; Changming Dong. 2021. "Improving Significant Wave Height Forecasts Using a Joint Empirical Mode Decomposition–Long Short-Term Memory Network." Journal of Marine Science and Engineering 9, no. 7: 744.
The Yangtze River Basin (YRB) is an important area for China’s economic development and environmental governance. The aim of this paper is to analyze the total factor productivity across 97 cities in the YRB from 2005 to 2016. Based on the input and output indicators from 2005 to 2016, this paper selects the SE-SBM model to measure the environmental regulation efficiency (ERE) of 97 cities in the YRB and then uses the DEA–Malmquist index to measure the total factor productivity of the region. Results suggest that the overall ERE in the YRB is weakly ineffective, while ERE in the central and eastern coastal areas is relatively high. ERE matches the economic foundation and development of the city. YRB environmental regulation efficiency was in descending order in the middle stream, upstream, and downstream. The efficiency of regional environmental regulation shows an N-type development trend, with obvious characteristics of phased development. Moreover, the total factor productivity of the YRB has shown a downward trend. The scale efficiency index and the technical efficiency index have positively boosted the total factor productivity, while the technological progress index has dragged down the total factor productivity of the area. The contribution to the total factor productivity index is in order of scale efficiency, technological progress index, and technological efficiency index in the downstream. The overall inputs and outputs of the YRB have great development potential. The inputs have not been fully utilized, the outputs have not been maximized, and the regional differentiation is significantly observable.
Qian Zhang; Decai Tang; Brandon Bethel. Yangtze River Basin Environmental Regulation Efficiency Based on the Empirical Analysis of 97 Cities from 2005 to 2016. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 2021, 18, 5697 .
AMA StyleQian Zhang, Decai Tang, Brandon Bethel. Yangtze River Basin Environmental Regulation Efficiency Based on the Empirical Analysis of 97 Cities from 2005 to 2016. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2021; 18 (11):5697.
Chicago/Turabian StyleQian Zhang; Decai Tang; Brandon Bethel. 2021. "Yangtze River Basin Environmental Regulation Efficiency Based on the Empirical Analysis of 97 Cities from 2005 to 2016." International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 18, no. 11: 5697.
Though the ocean is sparsely populated by buoys that feature co-located instruments to measure surface winds and waves, their data is of vital importance. However, due to either minor instrumentation failure or maintenance, intermittency can be a problem for either variable. This paper attempts to mitigate the loss of valuable data from two opposite but equivalent perspectives: the conventional reconstruction of significant wave height (SWH) from Caribbean Sea buoy-observed surface wind speeds (WSP) and the inverse modeling of WSP from SWH using the long short-term memory (LSTM) network. In either direction, LSTM is strongly able to recreate either variable from its counterpart with the lowest correlation coefficient (r2) measured at 0.95, the highest root mean square error (RMSE) is 0.26 m/s for WSP, and 0.16 m for SWH. The highest mean absolute percentage errors (MAPE) for WSP and SWH are 1.22% and 5%, respectively. Additionally, in the event of complete instrument failure or the absence of a buoy in a specific area, the Simulating WAves Nearshore (SWAN) wave model is first validated and used to simulate mean and extreme SWH before, during, and after the passage of Hurricane Matthew (2016). Synthetic SWH is then fed to LSTM in a joint SWAN—LSTM model, and the corresponding WSP is reconstructed and compared with observations. Although the reconstruction is highly accurate (r2 > 0.9, RMSE < 1.3 m/s, MAPE < 0.8%), there remains great room for improvement in minimizing error and capturing high-frequency events.
Brandon Bethel; Changming Dong; Shuyi Zhou; Yuhan Cao. Bidirectional Modeling of Surface Winds and Significant Wave Heights in the Caribbean Sea. Journal of Marine Science and Engineering 2021, 9, 547 .
AMA StyleBrandon Bethel, Changming Dong, Shuyi Zhou, Yuhan Cao. Bidirectional Modeling of Surface Winds and Significant Wave Heights in the Caribbean Sea. Journal of Marine Science and Engineering. 2021; 9 (5):547.
Chicago/Turabian StyleBrandon Bethel; Changming Dong; Shuyi Zhou; Yuhan Cao. 2021. "Bidirectional Modeling of Surface Winds and Significant Wave Heights in the Caribbean Sea." Journal of Marine Science and Engineering 9, no. 5: 547.
Following the global shutdown of tourism at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, small island developing states such as The Bahamas had their economies immobilized due to their heavy dependence on the industry. Beyond economic recovery in a post COVID-19 paradigm, the blue economy, blue growth, and associated activities offer pathways for a more resilient economy and is well-suited for The Bahamas. This paper suggests conduits for economic development using a traditional strength, coastal and marine tourism, in conjunction with the emerging fields of ocean renewable energy, offshore aquaculture, marine biotechnology, and bioprospecting. The interlinkages between each activity are discussed. Knowledge gaps in offshore aquaculture, ocean renewable energy, marine biotechnology, and marine environment monitoring are identified. In each sector case, strategic and tactical decision-making can be achieved through the exploitation of ocean numerical modeling and observations, and consequently should be invested in and developed alongside the requisite computational resources. Blue growth is encouraged, but instances of blue injustice are also highlighted. Crucially, pursuing blue economy activities should be given top national priority for economic recovery and prosperity.
Brandon Bethel; Yana Buravleva; Decai Tang. Blue Economy and Blue Activities: Opportunities, Challenges, and Recommendations for The Bahamas. Water 2021, 13, 1399 .
AMA StyleBrandon Bethel, Yana Buravleva, Decai Tang. Blue Economy and Blue Activities: Opportunities, Challenges, and Recommendations for The Bahamas. Water. 2021; 13 (10):1399.
Chicago/Turabian StyleBrandon Bethel; Yana Buravleva; Decai Tang. 2021. "Blue Economy and Blue Activities: Opportunities, Challenges, and Recommendations for The Bahamas." Water 13, no. 10: 1399.
Although the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB) has been metaphorized as China’s “arrow” to the world as it generates nearly half of the nation’s gross domestic product, the region has also suffered immense environmental degradation during its development process. This paper uses environmental data from 2003 to 2013 of the YREB’s nine provinces and two municipalities and investigates environmental remediation efficiency for the region. Results illustrate that (1) the efficiency of the YREB is very low as over the study period, only three provinces had mean environmental remediation values that could be classified as “effective,” leaving the remaining six provinces and two municipalities as “ineffective”; (2) environmental efficiencies of the studied provinces and municipalities became increasingly polarized; (3) from 2003 to 2013, environmental efficiencies in the region have deteriorated; (4) the principal reason for environmental remediation ineffectiveness was due to a combination of redundant resource investments, excessive pollutant discharge, low industrial waste comprehensive utilization ratios, and non-municipal environmental remediation standards. To illuminate development pathways for the ineffective provinces and municipalities of the YREB, essential factors in the optimization of economic management investments are proposed.
Decai Tang; Brandon J. Bethel. Yangtze River Economic Belt environmental remediation efficiency based on an input-output optimization analysis. Environmental Science and Pollution Research 2021, 28, 16734 -16743.
AMA StyleDecai Tang, Brandon J. Bethel. Yangtze River Economic Belt environmental remediation efficiency based on an input-output optimization analysis. Environmental Science and Pollution Research. 2021; 28 (13):16734-16743.
Chicago/Turabian StyleDecai Tang; Brandon J. Bethel. 2021. "Yangtze River Economic Belt environmental remediation efficiency based on an input-output optimization analysis." Environmental Science and Pollution Research 28, no. 13: 16734-16743.