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In the process of global urban development, there are urgent ecological security and environmental pollution problems, green development is the fundamental way for urban sustainable development, economic transformation and mitigation of ecological and environmental problems. Based on the panel data of 283 cities at prefecture level and above in China from 2003 to 2017, this paper analyzes spatial–temporal evolution characteristics of urban green development efficiency (UGDE) and the peer effects of UGDE between cities of different grades. It is found that during the study period, in terms of temporal evolution, the average UGDE in China increased from 0.47 in 2003 to 0.61 in 2017, with a cumulative growth rate of 29.79%, showing a rising trend in general. In terms of spatial evolution, the number of low-efficiency cities and medium-efficiency cities continued to decrease. The eastern region has always been the main distribution area of higher-efficiency cities and high-efficiency cities; in the central region, UGDE in most cities improved significantly; in the western region, UGDE has always lagged behind that in the eastern and central regions. In addition, the center of gravity of UGDE presented a trend of northwest migration in general, with a total displacement of 100.07 km, and UGDE showed a spatial dispersion trend. The empirical results indicate that the improvement of UGDE in large cities has a driving effect on that in neighboring medium cities and small cities through the positive peer effect, and the growth of UGDE in medium cities has a promoting effect on that in neighboring small cities through the positive peer effect; the increase of UGDE in medium cities has a positive peer effect on that in neighboring large cities, and the growth of UGDE in small cities has a positive peer effect on that in neighboring medium cities; UGDE promotes each other between large cities through the positive peer effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studying the effects of expected economic growth targets and environmental constraint targets set by Chinese local governments at the beginning of the year on high-quality development can provide empirical evidence for optimizing expected target management, improving macro-control, and fulfilling governance efficiency in the new development stage to some extent. Therefore, based on the theory of economic growth accounting and the stochastic frontier model, this paper calculated the level of high-quality development at the urban level, extracted the economic growth targets and environmental constraint targets from the Report on the Work of the Government with text analysis, constructed instrumental variables based on the spatial weight matrix, and then discussed the effects of the expected development targets formulated by local governments on high-quality development, conditional heterogeneity, and mechanisms. The results showed that: ① Excessive economic growth targets were not conducive to high-quality development, while environmental constraints targets had a significant role in promoting it and could slow down the erosion effect of excessive economic growth targets on high-quality development. This conclusion still held after solving a series of robustness tests, such as the endogenous bias. ② Heterogeneity analysis found that, with the implementation of the ecological civilization concept, China' s economy could achieve a win-win situation of quantity increase and quality improvement. To better promote high-quality development, the target positioning of cities with good economic foundations should weaken economic increment and strengthen environmental constraints, and the growth targets and environmental constraints set by local governments should be endogenous to their own regional resource endowments and leave appropriate elastic spaces. ③ The mechanism test showed that improving the economic growth targets reduced the level of innovation and raised the amount of new investment in the region, which was not conducive to high-quality development. Environmental constraints could promote technological innovation and limit the blind expansion of new investment, thus promoting high-quality development. Based on the above research conclusions, this paper summarizes policy implications from the aspects of political performance evaluation, formulation of expected development targets, technological innovation, and green development to promote the synergy between economic growth and green development in China and the synchronization of expected target management and high-quality development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As more attention is given to green and sustainable industries, an analysis of the industrial impacts on all aspects of life, including inclusive affluence, is gradually developing. Idle rural residential land is a valuable resource and an important factor in promoting sustainable development. Balanced urban and rural development contributes to inclusive prosperity, so understanding the relationship between industry and the balanced development of urban and rural can significantly impact social development. In China, achieving the balanced development requires narrowing the urban-rural income gap. This paper analyzed the impact of reallocating idle rural residential land on promoting the balanced development. The study found that industry development has a positive impact on the balanced development, with a regression coefficient of 1.478. Regions with higher industry indices in counties had better outcomes regarding the balanced development. When the development of rural industry derived from idle residential land was in good condition, the effect increased by 3.326 percentage. The results showed heterogeneity, with the regression coefficient of industry development on the balanced development in county-level cities being 0.498 larger than in urban areas. In summary, the reallocation of idle residential land can promote sustainable development, increase residents' income, and improve overall regional economic development. The results are applicable to the comprehensive reallocation of rural land resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper tests China's three-dimensional intergovernmental competition in terms of land leasing. Using the land-leasing data of China's prefecture-level cities from 2003 to 2019 collected from China Land Market, and with the help of the dynamic spatial Durbin model, we show that in the land-leasing behavior of prefecture-level cities in China, three-dimensional government competition does exist and that the influence coefficient from high to low is the government competition of different periods in the same region, shown as horizontal government competition and vertical government competition, respectively. In particular, China's government competition and regional economic development show a clear correlation. We find obvious heterogeneity: in the eastern region, the government competition for land leasing started earlier and has now begun to transform. However, the three-dimensional government competition in the western region lags behind the national level. Therefore, urban development should emerge from the mindset of blindly focusing on the expansion of urban areas, paying more attention to the guiding role of urban planning in urban development and promoting cities on the path of sustainable development by improving the efficiency of land use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper constructs the system of urban high-quality development index from the six dimensions of economy, innovation, coordination, green, open and sharing. It measures the high-quality development level of cities in 31 provinces (municipalities and autonomous regions) of China from 2004 to 2019 by entropy method, analyzes the spatial distribution and spatial correlation of high-quality development level of Chinese cities by using global spatial auto-correlation and hot-spot analysis and analyzes its driving factors by geographical detector model. The results show that: (1) the overall change of high quality development level of cities during the period of investigation is stable and slightly increased. The regional level is high in the eastern coastal areas and low in the western remote areas. Overall level of development: the eastern part>overall>middle part>the west area. (2) The high-quality development level of the city has significant spatial agglomeration characteristics, and the overall spatial distribution characteristics is "East hot west cold", hot spot range from "striped" gradually evolved into "clump", while the cold point range gradually transferred to the northwest region; hot spots have radiation-driven effect on the surrounding areas, and hot spot district have a "eviction weakening" effect on cold spot areas. (3) Innovation has the strongest effect on the high-quality development of cities, followed by open development, coordinated development and economic development, while the impact of green development and shared development is weaker; and the interaction between driving factors is greater than the independent effect of single factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green development is a significant concept that cannot be ignored in contemporary society. However, in the context of China's transition from high-speed growth to high-quality development, the complex impact of urban development has brought great challenges to the urban green environment. In this paper, the impact of urban development on green development efficiency (GDE) was studied. First and foremost, a Super-SBM model was introduced to measure the GDE of 41 cities in the Yangtze River Delta during 2009–2018. Moreover, a Tobit model was used to analyze the correlation between four urban development factors, including economic development and GDE. According to the results, the mean GDE of the Yangtze River Delta is 0.824, and the GDE in most cities there has shown a fluctuating growth trend in this decade. By comparison, the GDEs of coastal cities and cities in the southeast of the Yangtze River Delta were generally higher than those of cities in the north, indicating that the green development is geographically unbalanced, and there is spatial heterogeneity in the area studied. The study's results also suggest that the urban economic development, innovation level, and government planning play a significant role in stimulating urban green development, and that the expansion of urban construction area hinders the improvement of GDE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rapid economic development has led to urban sprawl and threatens river systems. In this paper, we used geographic information system (GIS) techniques to examine the effects of urbanisation on the water resources of the Yanggong River watershed in Lijiang City, and analysed the temporal changes in river systems and their impacts on watershed ecosystem functions. The total length of the river systems in the Yanggong River watershed decreased from 786.9 km in 1995 to 674.2 km in 2009 and is predicted to continue to decrease by 35.5 km in the next 11 years according to various data sources. The decrease in river system density started in the Old Town of Lijiang and gradually spread to the surrounding areas. Our analysis shows that urbanisation is failing to take into account the impacts on river systems and their functions, which could cause a reduction in the size of the river systems and degradation of watershed ecosystem functions in the Yanggong River watershed of Lijiang City. It is suggested that protecting the natural river network and making full use of the advantages of the distinctive terrain in the Yanggong River watershed could contribute to the sustainability of urban development in Lijiang City. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The notion of local (city-level) sustainable development (LSD) is explored against the backdrop of urban dynamics and the international discussions on sustainable development. Urban metabolism is a key concept used in the analysis. Overall, sustainable urban development is seen to have an internal dimension and an external dimension, even though urban jurisdictions may be restricted to the former. Sustainable cities (SCs) and policies for LSD are discussed conceptually and in terms of their operational use, with a focus on urban policies in developing and emerging countries. Examples are given of SCs in China. Cities with strategies related especially to climate change are considered separately and analysed in terms of developed-developing, adaptation or mitigation focus. Again, examples of especially 'low-carbon' cities in China are presented. From these elements, this paper extracts some elements of a (social science) research agenda in urban environmental studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Previous studies have understood urban competitiveness mainly from an economic perspective. Drawing on insights from recent debates on urban governance that argue for sustainable development, this study employs a more balanced view that takes into account the economic, social, and environmental dimensions of urban competitiveness. A four-level hierarchical indicator system is used to examine the competitiveness of 253 Chinese cities at the prefecture level or above in the year 2000. The results show that most of the top 20 cities are in the eastern part of China and have populations over 0.5 million. The bottom 20 cities are located primarily in the western part of China and have smaller populations that range from 0.2 to 0.5 million. In 2000 the city with the top economic competitiveness was Shanghai, the top social competitiveness was Beijing, and the top environmental competitiveness was Zhuhai. A given city does not necessarily rank the same in economic, social, and environmental competitiveness, but may perform well in different ways. The paper argues that, in order to sustain urban competitiveness, a city should achieve not only good economic performance, but also satisfactory social and environmental development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the increase of global integration, the peri-urban area (PUA) of megacities in Asia has become a favourite destination for foreign direct investment (FDI). This paper uses the PUA of Shanghai as a case study to investigate the impact of global forces on the urban expansion of the city, and the link between urban growth and sustainable development in this mega-urban context. Shanghai has grown impressively during the past two decades in terms of economic and physical transformation. Much of this transformation has rested on the unbridled exploitation of land and other environmental resources in its peri-urban area. This is characterised by the designation of development zones and the concentration of manufacturing FDI, resulting in dispersed growth and environmental degradation. The disruption of the physical environment, combined with the concentration of the urban poor in these areas (in particular ‘temporary migrants’), has turned the PUA into a potential crisis point threatening the social and economic development of the city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]