Premium
Quantitative Analysis of the Anthropogenic Spatial Transfer of Lead in China
Author(s) -
Sun Mengying,
Mao Jiansu
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
journal of industrial ecology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.377
H-Index - 102
eISSN - 1530-9290
pISSN - 1088-1980
DOI - 10.1111/jiec.12556
Subject(s) - scrap , lead (geology) , china , inner mongolia , distribution (mathematics) , environmental science , spatial distribution , environmental protection , geography , geology , metallurgy , materials science , mathematical analysis , remote sensing , mathematics , archaeology , geomorphology
Summary To meet human needs, the geographical location of lead changes during the process of mining lead ore to produce lead products for use by humans. These changes reveal the influence of human activities on lead distribution on the surface of Earth. In this study, a framework was built to analyze changes in lead distribution. Lead was traced through its life cycle using this framework. The provincial administrative unit in mainland of China was defined as the unit of space. The process of anthropogenic spatial transfer of lead was quantitatively analyzed by comparing lead distribution between different areas during each stage of its life cycle in 2010. The results showed that in 2010, around 60% of domestic lead resources were distributed in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Yunnan Province, and other locations in China. Nearly 80% of the refined lead was produced in Henan, Anhui, Hunan, Yunnan, and Jiangsu provinces. More than 50% of lead products were fabricated and manufactured in Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Shandong, and Hebei provinces. The distribution of lead usage and scrap recovery was relatively uniform (approximately 21 provinces accounted for 1% to 6% of all scrap in the country), although lead products and scrap were mainly distributed in Guangdong, Shandong, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang provinces, which together accounted for nearly 40% of the total. The recycling of lead scrap was mainly concentrated in Anhui (around 57% of the total). Overall, during the whole process, from the mining lead ore from the lithosphere to each stage of the product life cycle, lead was gradually transferred from the south and north of China to the central area and, finally, to the eastern coastal areas.