Title: Spatio-temporal pattern estimation of anthropogenic CH₄ emissions: a comparative study between Yangtze River Basin and Yellow River Basin, China

Authors: Tian Chen; Jinghu Pan

Addresses: College of Geography and Environmental Science, Northwest Normal University, No. 967, Anning East Road, Lanzhou, Gansu Province, China ' College of Geography and Environmental Science, Northwest Normal University, No. 967, Anning East Road, Lanzhou, Gansu Province, China

Abstract: Methane (CH₄) is gaining more attention as the second most important greenhouse gas. In this paper, anthropogenic CH₄ emissions from the Yangtze and Yellow River basins in 2009, 2014 and 2019 were estimated using a bottom-up approach and analyse the spatiotemporal distribution. The results show that: 1) the total anthropogenic CH₄ emissions in the two basins increased from 31.45 Tg to 33.25 Tg. The average annual emissions in the Yangtze basin are lower than those in the Yellow River basin; 2) CH₄ emission sources are mainly coal mining and rice cultivation, they are the largest emission sources in the Yangtze River and Yellow River basins respectively; 3) the spatial distribution of regions with medium and high emissions tends to be concentrated. High per capita CH₄ emissions and emission intensity occur in cities dominated by livestock and industry. The low value is found in cities with high urbanisation levels.

Keywords: anthropogenic CH₄ emission; remote sensing estimation; greenhouse gases; spatio-temporal pattern; spatialisation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJGW.2024.135982

International Journal of Global Warming, 2024 Vol.32 No.2, pp.160 - 184

Received: 20 Mar 2023
Accepted: 06 Jul 2023
Published online: 11 Jan 2024 *

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