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Tracking the spatial–temporal distribution and regional differences of carbon footprint in grid scale of China’s construction industry

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Abstract

As the largest contributor to global carbon emissions (CEs), construction industry (CI) is regarded as one of the most significant sources in China. Previous studies on carbon emission (CE) of CI, however, are often limited to the quantitative level and provincial or local administrative unit scales, lacking relevant studies at the spatial raster resolution scale, due to data limits. Here, using the energy consumption, social economic data, and a series of remote sensing data from EU EDGAR, this study explored the spatial–temporal distribution and changing characteristics of CEs from CI in typical years of 2007, 2010, and 2012. This study found, from 2007 to 2010, then 2012, in addition to subtle differences, that the direct, indirect, and total CEs of CI all showed an increasing trend overall. In all provincial units except Tianjin and Guangdong, indirect CEs took up more than 50% of the total CEs, which can clearly indicate the “dominant low carbon, recessive high carbon” characteristics of CI. The direct, indirect, and total CEs of the CI in 2007, 2010, and 2012 all showed a positive spatial clustering. Specifically, hot spots were mainly distributed in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and Yangtze River Delta, and cold spots were mainly focused in the west and northeast of China, presenting a similar distribution pattern with population-economy characteristics. These findings can provide references for the policy formulation of regional differentiated emission reduction.

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Data Availability

The data will be available upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments to improve the quality of the manuscript.

Funding

This research has been supported by the Frontiers Science Center for Critical Earth Material Cycling Fund, China (DLTDPY2101) and the Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province (2020A1515010730).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, CAS, Beijing, 100101, China

    Xiaomin Guo

  2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100864, China

    Xiaomin Guo

  3. School of Geography and Ocean Science, Nanjing University, Nanjing, 210023, Jiangsu Province, China

    Xiaowei Chuai

  4. Frontiers Science Center for Critical Earth Material Cycling, Nanjing University, Nanjing, 210046, Jiangsu Province, China

    Xiaowei Chuai

Authors
  1. Xiaomin Guo
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  2. Xiaowei Chuai
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Contributions

Project administration and funding acquisition: X.C. Review and editing: X.C. Writing—original draft and methodology: X.G. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Xiaowei Chuai.

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Guo, X., Chuai, X. Tracking the spatial–temporal distribution and regional differences of carbon footprint in grid scale of China’s construction industry. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30, 67187–67199 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-27149-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-27149-0

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