Gu Baojing, Fan Liangcong, Ying Zechun, Xu Qingshan, Luo Weidong, Ge Ying, Scott Steffanie, Chang Jie
Department of Land Management, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, People's Republic of China.
Policy Simulation Laboratory, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, People's Republic of China.
Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2016 Oct;23(20):20360-20367. doi: 10.1007/s11356-016-7267-z. Epub 2016 Jul 23.
Technological innovation is one of the potential engines to mitigate environmental pollution. However, the implementation of new technologies sometimes fails owing to socioeconomic constraints from different stakeholders. Thus, it is essential to analyze constraints of environmental technologies in order to build a pathway for their implementation. In this study, taking three technologies on rural sewage treatment in Hangzhou, China as a case study, i.e., wastewater treatment plant (WTP), constructed wetland (CW), and biogas system, we analyzed how socioeconomic constraints affect the technological choices. Results showed that socioeconomic constraints play a key role through changing the relative opportunity cost of inputs from government as compared to that of residents to deliver the public good-sewage treatment-under different economic levels. Economic level determines the technological choice, and the preferred sewage treatment technologies change from biogas system to CW and further to WTP along with the increase of economic level. Mismatch of technological choice and economic level results in failures of rural sewage treatment, e.g., the CW only work well in moderately developed regions in Hangzhou. This finding expands the environmental Kuznets law by introducing the coproduction theory into analysis (i.e., inputs from both government and residents are essential for the delivery of public goods and services such as good environmental quality). A match between technology and socioeconomic conditions is essential to the environmental governance.
技术创新是减轻环境污染的潜在引擎之一。然而，由于不同利益相关者的社会经济限制，新技术的实施有时会失败。因此，分析环境技术的限制因素对于构建其实施途径至关重要。在本研究中，以中国杭州的三种农村污水处理技术为例，即污水处理厂（WTP）、人工湿地（CW）和沼气系统，我们分析了社会经济限制如何影响技术选择。结果表明，在不同经济水平下，社会经济限制通过改变政府与居民提供公共物品——污水处理——的投入相对机会成本，发挥着关键作用。经济水平决定技术选择，随着经济水平的提高，首选的污水处理技术从沼气系统变为人工湿地，再进一步变为污水处理厂。技术选择与经济水平不匹配会导致农村污水处理失败，例如，人工湿地仅在杭州中等发达地区运行良好。这一发现通过将联合生产理论引入分析（即政府和居民的投入对于提供公共物品和服务，如良好的环境质量至关重要），扩展了环境库兹涅茨定律。技术与社会经济条件相匹配对于环境治理至关重要。
