This paper aims to identify the main driving force for changes of total primary energy consumption in Beijing during the period of 1981-2005.Sectoral energy use was investigated when regional economic structure changed significantly.The changes of total primary energy consumption in Beijing are decomposed into production effects,structural effects and intensity effects using the additive version of the logarithmic mean Divisia index (LMDI) method.Aggregate decomposition analysis showed that the major contributor of total effect was made by the production effect fol- lowed by the intensity effect,and the structural effect was rela- tively insignificant.The total and production effects were all posi- tive.In contrast,the structural effect and intensity effect were all negative.Sectoral decomposition investigation indicated that the most effective way to slow down the growth rate of total primary energy consumption (TPEC) was to reduce the production of the energy-intensive industrial sectors and improving industrial en- ergy intensity.The results show that in this period,Beijing's economy has undergone a transformation from an industrial to a service economy.However,the structures of sectoral energy use have not been changed yet,and energy demand should be in- creasing until the energy-intensive industrial production to be reduced and energy intensity of the region reaches a peak.As sequence energy consumption data of sub-sectors are not available, only the fundamental three sectors are considered:agriculture, industry and service.However,further decomposition into secon- dary and tertiary sectors is definitely needed for detailed investi- gations.
The shrinking and drying up of wetlands in arid and semiarid areas of China have been widely observed in the recent years, but there has been no consensus on whether the aggravation is caused by human activities or by global climate warming. For a better understanding of the cause, this study investigates the dynamic changes of Baiyangdian Lake wetland over the last 40 years. It is shown that since the 1980s, Baiyangdian Lake has suffered from an insufficient water input and shrunk considerably. By using SPSS 11.0, this study urines a detailed Analysis on the signifficance of the effects of the possible driving factors for the degradation. It is identified that the North China Plain has been warrnin~ up significantly in recent years, which causes a significant reduction in the precipitation and inflow to the lake. Although human disturbances such as the irrigation and storage of water in reservoirs do not play a decisive role, they accelerate the degradation and their effects should be minimized.
