This article highlights the effects of rapid economic and urban growth in Shanghai. The authors describe China’s recent urban explosion and its effects on the domestic economy and surrounding environment. Increased urbanization and domestic output have obviously led to higher rates of air pollution, but environmental degradation is also attributable to water pollution, climate change, and natural vegetation loss. The authors choose Shanghai as the unit of analysis, describing it as China’s “largest and most modern city.” To describe these ecological consequences, the authors choose water, soil, climate, biodiversity, and land coverage as the units of observation. Land-coverage data was collected through satellite imaging and analyzed using specific software. To collect data on air and water quality, the authors found concentrations of different particulate polluters over a 20-year period and compared them with rural/urban areas. This data was collected from the Shanghai Environmental Protection Bureau. They collected climate data from local meteorological stations in the Shanghai region, specifically the difference in average temperatures. The Shanghai Agriculture and Forestry Bureau provided some of the data on biodiversity, and the authors drew data from contributing scholarly sources as well. The data was compiled and analyzed in different ways, providing a meta-analysis for the overarching research topic. The authors note the socioeconomic dangers of China’s rapid urban growth, but also underline the related environmental factors. Shanghai institutions have attempted to curb the issues by implementing policies since 1990 restricting human-related degradation. This research was interesting because it drew from a variety of resources, from scholarly literature to local databases and satellite imagery, to provide a holistic and encompassing response to the research question. The meta-analysis method seems like a good idea for large-scale environmental studies, where numerous factors are relevant in determining level of degradation and proper policy measures to counteract it.

Zhao, Shuqing, Liangjun Da, Zhiyao Tang, Hejun Fang, Kun Song, and Jingyun Fang. “Ecological consequences of rapid urban expansion: Shanghai, China.” Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 4, no. 7 (September 1, 2006): 341-46. Accessed April 2, 2017. doi:10.1890/1540-9295(2006)004[0341:ecorue]2.0.co;2.

This research focuses on the relationship between biomass smoke, coal smoke, and health in China. The purpose of this research is based on several key factors. First, unlike many other countries, there has not been any substantial research in China linking indoor pollution and its threats to health. Secondly, much of China’s rural population is still relying on biomass/coal as the primary method of heating. Thus this research has the well being of China’s non-urban population in mind. Thirdly, with China having some of the most polluted urban areas in the world, this research highlights the overlooked and underestimated health effects from indoor-pollution. Products of incomplete combustion (or PICs) are the chief culprits exacerbating domestic health issues. Specifically they are the extremely small but dangerous particulates that are not destroyed in a fireplace. They are mixed and come in many forms, such as CO2, NO2, and other carcinogenic materials. These are often products of biomass; however, coals have completely different yet equally toxic PICs such as mercury, lead, and arsenic. The article claims to find strong evidence linking these PICs to unhealthy domestic conditions. To collect this data, the research pulled from a World Bank study that analyzed poor regions in China that relied on biomass/coal to heat homes. They collected the data from actual households over a 457-day period. This research was clear with what questions it intended to answer, why this information is important, and how it was collected.

Zhang, Junfeng, and Kirk R. Smith. “Household Air Pollution from Coal and Biomass Fuels in China: Measurements, Health Impacts, and Interventions.” Environmental Health Perspectives 115, no. 6 (2007): 848-55. Accessed March 26, 2017. doi:10.1289/ehp.9479.

This article analyzes the pollution and economic growth trends in China as it has industrialized exponentially in recent decades. The article claims that unless China changes its methods, it will become environmentally and socially unstable. Instead of analyzing city GDP or overall GDP, the article highlights the “city-clusters” that have been essential to rapid Chinese growth. Specifically, city-clusters are groups of large cities dotted across China. Instead of an interconnected whole, the author explains how large cities form in groups and clusters. This seems a lot like American urbanization/suburbia; however, China’s clusters are far smaller and more densely populated. These economic hubs, sometimes acting completely self-sufficiently, contribute a lot to Chinese growth but also utilize an extreme amount of resources. These city-clusters tend to form around the eastern coast, where access to local trade and more natural resources gives more economic output. Some of these city clusters are now struggling to maintain the same levels of output, as they have decimated the surrounding natural resources (natural gas, coal, etc.). China is also facing water shortages, which the city-clusters are worsening with over-consumption and pollution. Much of China’s little available surface water is already polluted. In the conclusion, the author explains how China’s aspirations are unrealistic for its reality. Urbanization cannot increase at the previous rate, and estimates that by 2020 (this was written in 2006) China will face resource shortage. This is a similar theme I have found in scholarly literature—that China is approaching a tradeoff point, and must decide if it will take care of its domestic issues or keep pushing for economic output. If they choose the latter, the economy could crumble in the long-run. The article used scholarly literature and aggregate data to support its claims. It used environmental data such as water quality and PPM (parts per million) and for economic data primarily relied on GDP of individual city-clusters.

Shao, Min, Xiaoyan Tang, Yuanhang Zhang, and Wenjun Li. “City clusters in China: air and surface water pollution.” Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 4, no. 7 (2006), 353-361. doi:10.1890/1540-9295(2006)004[0353:ccicaa]2.0.co;2.

The Research Proposal I found is a topic relevant to all residents of California. It is called “A Proposal to Review How Geophysical Precursors Can Help Predict Earthquakes,” proposed by Christopher Gray to the Undergraduate Engineering Review in February of 1995. The question Gray wants to answer is how certain key geological factors can be indicative of large-scale earthquakes. In order to establish the importance of this topic and question, Gray details devastating historical examples such as the San Francisco earthquake of 1906 and the Yokohama/Tokyo earthquake of 1923. Using the two worst earthquakes of the 20^th century as evidence, he explains the importance of earthquake prediction to save lives and infrastructure from natural disaster. Because successful prediction models could have been extremely beneficial to San Francisco and Japan in these instances, Gray mentions the successful Chinese example of earthquake prediction as justification for his research. He discusses the accuracy of Chinese prediction models in predicting earthquakes rated 5.0 or above, and how these models have saved innumerous lives. He also notes that sometimes earthquake predictions yield no results, and people can be evacuated for months despite no earthquake ever occurring. Despite this, predicting earthquakes is still extremely relevant and there are several cases where prior action has saved thousands of lives.

Gray proposes an earthquake prediction model consisting of the following geophysical precursors: ground uplift and tilt, increases in radon emissions, and changes in electrical resistivity of rocks. Gray’s objectives for this research are to describe these factors, show when they happen during the five stages of an earthquake, and explain how they are used for earthquake prediction.

In the planning section, Gray explains the various goals he is trying to achieve with this research, as well as outlines the sources needed to accomplish them. He relies mainly on expert knowledge found in published books, and notes that he will exclude prediction statistics because there is a lack of documented success in predicting earthquakes. He also goes into great detail about his target audiences: engineering students and residents of earthquake-prone areas. He acknowledges that the two groups have different interests in this research and he plans to include relevant information for both.

At the end of his proposal, Gray lays out a two-month timeframe of collecting, organizing, and composing his research. Gray wrote very clearly and gave a thorough explanation of how/what he wanted to research.

Undergraduate Engineering Review. “Sample Proposals.” “Writing Guidelines for Engineering and Science “. Last modified February 1999. http://writing.engr.psu.edu/workbooks/proposal.samples.html.

(This research proposal was posted in order to educate potential proposal writers on the Undergraduate Engineering Reviews‘ standards. I could not locate a citation for Gray’s proposal but the attached link includes the proposal and his reference list).

The journal of International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics published this article in 2009, two years before the APP (Asia-Pacific Partnership) was disbanded. The APP linked Australia, India, Japan, South Korea, Canada and the United States with the aim “to reduce GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions through voluntary public-private partnerships and a focus on cleaner technology” (302). The abstract summarizes that China’s main concern is maintaining the same level of economic output with climate agreements, thus bringing to the fore the importance of APP over United Nations guidelines. According to the article China’s foreign policy is dominated by its domestic policy, which stresses economic development, poverty allocation, and social stability. With the goal of quadrupling China’s GDP by the year 2020, China also hopes to only double its energy consumption, which will rely heavily on fossil fuel consumption. However as GDP increases with increased fossil fuel consumption, China circa 2009 was beginning to feel the heavy effects of industrial effects on climate. A possible one-meter rise in sea level may threaten the eastern Chinese coast, which the article highlights could threaten 60% of China’s economic output. Thus climate change and pollution have become direct factors to Chinese domestic policy, and must be balanced when considering future economic growth.

Overall the article sought to explain whether or not the APP is beneficial to UN goals or detrimental—thus whether or not the APP will work in conjunction with the United Nations. To answer this question the article needed economic, environmental and organizational data, from public and private records. The author mixed a multitude of empirical data into his prose; however, I believe if he had chosen fewer sources and gone with more depth and conveyed this data in a numerical, the data would be more understandable (i.e. beyond stating facts). Overall the article discussed a lot of data but was shallow in its analysis of the data. This is not to say the article wasn’t well written, but the data that it produced was presented in a sporadic fashion. Without much context this article is difficult to understand, and I needed to research a couple of its sources to clarify where it came from.

Heggelund, Gørild M., and Inga Fritzen Buan. “China in the Asia–Pacific Partnership: consequences for UN climate change mitigation efforts?” International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics 9, no. 3 (2009): 301-17. doi:10.1007/s10784-009-9099-5.

Foreign direct investments have played a large role on China’s rapidly emerging economy. The author argues that foreign direct investments (FDI) in China have had no negative effects on the FDI flows to neighboring Asian countries. There was controversy in the 1990s when China was receiving a lot more FDI than surrounding countries such as Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. The author argues that the scale of China’s economy justified its larger intake of FDI since its growing economy far outweighed those of less wealthy neighboring countries. Thus the amount of FDI was proportional to China’s scale. The author also denounced the belief that this was a zero-sum game, where more FDI to China meant less FDI to neighboring countries—in fact he states that it still benefitted the region. He also explains how China’s economic policies have favored FDI and is restructuring the regional economy. In order to demonstrate that China received proportional FDI, the article used economic data from an FDI Performance Index, which shows the ratio of FDI received by a country to its annual GDP. He collected this from the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). Thus he used publicly available data, which he collected available records. He also consulted the WTO and MOFTEC (Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation) for statistics. The article was well written and the author thoroughly explained his methods, making the research easily understandable.

Das, Dilip K. “Foreign Direct Investment in China: Its Impact on the Neighboring Asian Economies.” Asian Business & Management 6, no. 3 (2007): 285-301. doi:10.1057/palgrave.abm.9200225.

This journal article highlights numerous issues in China, namely the effect of foreign exchange reserves (the amount of foreign currencies held in China) on domestic inflation. The authors argue that higher foreign reserves lead to higher domestic inflation, and this inflation has a variety of internal socio-economic effects on different demographics. The article attempts to conclude that the Chinese government’s approach to maintaining domestic stability is based off short-term benefit: to avoid sudden and disruptive change/events, the government chose a gradual currency appreciation policy instead of a one-time big appreciation policy. The authors perform a cost-benefit analysis that explains how steady inflation (a consequence of gradual currency appreciation) is more favorable to the public than sudden rises in unemployment (a consequence of a one-time big appreciation policy). This choice according to the authors underlines the often-overlooked political factors that are relevant when analyzing economies. The authors presented much economic and organizational data in a quantitative fashion that they collected from public records, such as data from the People’s Bank of China and the National Bureau of Statistics of China. The authors use examples of past Chinese monetary policy to support their claim (interest rates, reserve requirements and open market operations) as well as their own statistical regressions. Their statistical methods were respectable in that they acknowledged the difference between inference and fact—they in no way claimed their statistics were true and admitted that their models only worked in certain conditions (even though the numbers support their claims). What I most appreciated about this article was the emphasis on scrutiny that welcomes discussion and debate. The authors also underlined hidden social behaviors that influence domestic affairs, specifically the “catching up with the Joneses” effect, which I think would be interesting to other students of sociology.

Cheng, Tun-Jen, and Xuan Liu. “Foreign exchange reserves: a new challenge to China.” Journal of Post Keynesian Economics 35, no. 4 (Summer, 2013): 621-50. doi:10.2753/pke0160-3477350406.

Hodgson, Geoffrey M., and Kainan Huang. “Brakes on Chinese Development: Institutional Causes of a Growth Slowdown.” Journal of Economic Issues 47, no. 3 (2013): 599-622. doi:10.2753/jei0021-3624470301.

This journal article notes the multiple factors responsible for vastly accelerating Chinese economic growth since the 1980s, but is aimed at explaining the factors that have and will impede that growth. The authors argue that despite China’s remarkable explosion in GDP, unless the country addresses certain institutional factors its growth will be unsustainable. The institutional factors are namely “demographic shifts and the problem of supporting a larger dependent population; the lack of a developed institutional—legal and financial—foundation for indigenous, advanced private enterprise; and the severe developmental constraints inherent in the existing system of land rights and residency registration” (600). To summarize, the major points are China’s one-child policy, impediments on capitalist private enterprise, and the cultural/economic/political divide between rural and urban populations. I would identify the first factor as demographic and the last two factors as organizational data. To collect this data, the authors primarily relied on public and private records. The authors commonly cited the US Census Bureau and the National Bureau of Statistics in China. The authors collected other data from various other sources; (BBC, Wikipedia, Chinese constitution) however, most of the empirical data came from Bureaus and Governmental agencies. Data for economic trends were quantitative, thus when analyzing GDP and macro-scale trends, I agree with the authors that the best way to collect this data is to look at public and private records. While the authors could have gone to China and asked farmers, businessmen and politicians for in-depth interviews this research would have been tiresome and ineffective. In order to explain China’s overall growth (a hard task to accomplish) the best method seems to be piecing together the data from numerous databases.