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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]

As an essential part of ecological civilization, water ecological civilization has significant influence on the green and sustainable development of cities. Under the background of China's Water Ecological Civilization City Pilot (WECCP), based on data from 275 cities in China from 2007 to 2019 by using the difference-in-differences (DID) model, we empirically analyzed the influence of the WECCP establishment on urban green innovation and explored the impact mechanism in depth using a mediating effect model, which aimed to verify whether the "Porter hypothesis" holds true in China. The result indicated that the WECCP had made a remarkable contribution to enhancing urban green innovation in the pilot cities. Further research found that the input mechanism played an important mediating role. In addition, the heterogeneity test indicated that cities in the central region, at low administrative levels, and in the first batch of pilots gained more from the policy establishment. This paper has theoretical implications for understanding the derived innovation benefits of the environmental policy, practical implications for identifying new drivers of urban innovation, and provides related experience for the country to further promote and expand water ecological civilization construction and useful policy inspiration for other developing countries to formulate ecological and environmental policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses Baidu migration data to obtain the intercity trips between cities in China. Taking intercity travel as a functional connection between cities, taking into account the internal and external intercity travel connections of urban agglomerations, an improved rank scale distribution method was used to quantitatively measure the form and function of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta, middle reaches of the Yangtze River, Chengdu-Chongqing, Central Plains, Guanzhong, and Harbin-Changchun urban agglomerations. It is found that, firstly, there are differences in the Functional Polycentricity presented by the internal and external connections of urban agglomerations, which are related to the economic development of urban agglomerations and central cities. Secondly, there are differences between Morphological Polycentricity and Functional Polycentricity of the eight urban agglomerations measured by the internal and external connections, indicating that the external connections have a significant impact. The internal and external connections of urban agglomerations are important functional connections of urban agglomerations. The study of urban agglomerations should not ignore the internal or external connections, and the overall consideration can more comprehensively reflect the polycentric characteristics of urban agglomerations. The internal and external connections of urban agglomerations are important functional connections, and the study of urban agglomerations should not ignore internal or external connections. Overall consideration can better reflect the polycentirccharacteristics of urban agglomerations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Resource-based cities, which are widely distributed in China, contribute significantly to China's sustainable development. The digital economy and the construction of ecological civilization are central issues in the sustainable development of resource-based cities, and it is necessary to analyze the impact of the digital economy on the ecological resilience of resource-based cities. Thus, this paper measures ecological resilience of 117 resource-based cities from 2011 to 2020 using the entropy weight TOPSIS (technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution; see Table 1 for a list of acronyms) method and empirically investigates the impact and mechanism of digital economy on ecological resilience using the spatial Durbin model (SDM) and intermediary effect model. The results show that the ecological resilience of resource-based cities has a certain upward trend, with a stepwise distribution pattern from east to west. There is a significant positive correlation between ecological resilience of resource-based cities, showing the phenomenon of club convergence which is primarily dominated by high-high (H–H) and low-low (L-L). The digital economy has a significant spatial spillover effect, which promotes ecological resilience of resource-based cities in the local and adjacent regions. A mechanism analysis reveals that technological innovation and industrial structure are mediators between digital economy and ecological resilience of resource-based cities, with significant heterogeneity in region and growth cycle. Among them, the intermediary role of technological innovation is stronger. Following the above findings, this paper proposes policy suggestions related to digital economy evolution and ecological resilience enhancement. This paper further enriches the literature on the ecological resilience and provides a theoretical basis for government policy-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the reform and opening up, China's urbanization level has rapidly increased. However, urban civilization construction lags behind, creating a series of problems, such as environmental pollution, further restricting the healthy and sustainable development of cities. Therefore, China has carried out top-down civilized city construction led by the government. This paper regards the "national civilized city" selection implemented by the Chinese government as a quasi-natural experiment and empirically tests the impact of government-led civilized city construction on urban green innovation and the mechanism of this impact by using the progressive difference-in-differences (DID) model based on panel data of 281 Chinese cities from 2003 to 2018. The results show that civilized city construction contributes to increasing the level of urban green innovation, which is supported by a series of robustness tests conducted through variable substitution and sample adjustment. The quantile regression results show that the higher the level of green innovation, the stronger the green innovation effect of civilized city construction. This finding indicates that the marginal effect of green innovation in civilized city construction is gradually enhanced with the gradual increase in the level of green innovation in cities. The mediating effect analysis shows that civilized city construction can provide financial support for green innovation activities by promoting the expansion of the urban investment scale, which, in turn, increases the level of urban green innovation. In addition, environmental regulation can strengthen the promoting effect of civilized city construction on green innovation. These findings hold important theoretical and practical significance for understanding the green innovation effect of government-led civilized city construction and further leveraging the important role of government in the construction of the urban business environment as a means to promote urban investment clustering, lay the factor foundation for green innovation and strengthen the synergy between environmental regulation policies and civilized city construction policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tourism is the pillar industry of many cities, and it is also an important key point to promote urban development and maintain urban vitality. At present, the analysis of urban tourism activity in China can better assist the research of regional economic development and promote the orderly development of regional economy. Many scholars have carried out the analysis in this respect. As a new and growing field, artificial intelligence also plays an important role in urban tourism. With the continuous development of science and technology, and the human intelligence field of human research is also developing. New artificial intelligence products continue to emerge. The workload of most artificial intelligence may exceed the manual workload. In order to continuously update artificial intelligence, individuals effectively combine data mining and artificial intelligence, and combine many knowledge disseminated by the network with artificial intelligence technology to create an advanced knowledge network model. This paper uses the OPTICS-based clustering algorithm to analyze the clustering of photographs on the Flickr website and obtain information about tourism activities in Chinese cities. With the help of visualization software to visualize the experimental data and verify the experimental results introduced in this article, city tourism activities can be recommended to the destination. At present, many scholars have studied the application of improved density clustering algorithm in the field of biology and image analysis, but there are still some gaps in the development of tourism. This paper can make some contributions to the related fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper constructs a model to accurately estimate the urban CO2 emissions in 2000, 2005, and 2013 in China, using the combined data of DMSP/OLS nighttime light data and the provincial energy statistical yearbook data. We calculate and analyze the growth of urban built-up areas and carbon emissions in different time periods both all over the country and the four economic zones in China. It was shown a good fitting relationship between urban growth and carbon emissions, with the R2 at 0.6188 in 2000, 0.7132 in 2005, and 0.7195 in 2013. The growth rate of developed land area was 13.4% from 2000 to 2005 and 15.9% from 2005 to 2013. During the same period, CO2 emissions had been increasing as well, at an average annual growth rate of 12.2% from 2000 to 2005 and 6.5% from 2005 to 2013. From a spatial point of view, carbon emissions are far greater in the eastern region of China than in western China. The carbon emissions are the highest in major metropolitan cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou. Per capita carbon emissions are also higher in eastern China, which is consistent with the people's higher living standards. In some cities with large energy and heavy industry concentrations, especially in the northeastern and western regions, the growth rate of carbon emissions has risen faster than in other cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The unbridled expansion of urban development in China has created unsustainable challenges in the management of urban rainwater. In response, the Chinese government has endorsed sponge city (SPC) theory as a sustainable urban development model that aims to enhance urban planning, construction, and sustainable wastewater management. However, despite the issuance of policies and regulations, the envisioned SPC goals remain difficult to achieve in current implementations. This review paper proposes an idealized SPC strategy model that can be adopted by pilot cities in China. This model was developed by thoroughly analyzing policy requirements and in-field achievements, evaluating diverse implementation scenarios, and contrasting the outcomes in three different pilot cities in China. The demonstrated success of city construction has highlighted the potential to simultaneously achieve multiple objectives, including conserving urban water resources, enhancing urban water quality, ensuring water safety, and revitalizing urban water ecosystems. This review supports the use of a planning approach that integrates the drainage division, aligns with project-specific conditions and emphasizes the importance of low-impact development (LID) facility placement within drainage zones. Consequently, this study calls for exploring the impact of catchment topography on LID performance. Finally, the results of this study highlight the necessity of investigating precipitation variations among LID facilities during rainfall events and exploring cost-effective material alternatives to improve the effectiveness of SPC implementations. Highlights: Contribution to SPC, an idealized stratgy model was proposed. SPC implementation in three different pilot cities were assessed and compared. The groundwater depth affects strategy selection of LID. Integrated planning, LID placement, and the impact of topography on LID should be emphasized for effective SPCs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper takes the panel data of 283 prefecture-level cities in China from 2011 to 2020 as the research sample, measures the comprehensive index of industrial structure optimization and air quality by using GRA-TOPSIS comprehensive evaluation method, explores the spatial and temporal divergence characteristics of industrial structure optimization and air quality and the spatial and temporal evolution pattern of coupled and coordinated development by using ArcGIS spatial analysis and coupled coordination degree model, and analyzes the driving factors of coupled coordination degree of industrial structure optimization and air quality by combining multi-scale geographically weighted regression model. The study found the following: (1) The overall level of China's urban industrial structure is low, and shows an obvious eastern > central > western decreasing trend; urban air quality has a strong spatial clustering and spatial locking effect. (2) During the study period, the coupling coordination degree of industrial structure optimization and air quality showed an inverted "W" shape fluctuation from 2011 to 2020. The coupling degree and coupling coordination degree in 2020 were both higher than that in 2011, and most cities were in the run-in stage and moderate coordination stage. (3) There is a consistency in the temporal evolution trend and spatial evolution pattern of industrial structure optimization and air quality coupling degree and coupling coordination degree. (4) The driving factors are ranked according to the scale of action: public transportation intensity > population density > government intervention > GDP per capita > industrialization level. At present, China is in a critical period of promoting high-quality development by ecological civilization, and it is recommended to optimize regional industrial structure, improve urban air quality, and promote coordinated urban development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A deeper understanding of the regional differences and driving factors behind ecosystem health (EH) is of vital for ecosystem management and restoration. Although a considerable number of studies have focused on this topic, few studies have explored the spatial relationship and scale effect between urban forms and EH from the perspective of urban scale, agglomeration and irregularity. Therefore, this study first constructed an improved evaluation framework by integrating vigor, organization, resilience and ecosystem services supply–demand ratio to measure the EH level in China at the county scale during 1995–2015, and then evaluated and compared the spatial relationships between five urban form metrics and EH based on the spatial regression model at the national, regional, urban agglomeration and city scales. The results showed that the level of EH in China spatially decreased from the southeast to the northwest, and displaying significant spatial agglomeration. At the national scale, the fragmentation and complexity of urban form exerted the greater negative influence on EH than urban expansion scale. At the regional scale, controlling urban expansion scale and enhancing landscape connectivity were conducive to the improving of EH in the central and eastern regions. At the urban agglomeration scale, the regularity and compactness of urban form played a key role in the sustainable development of regional and national urban agglomerations. At the city scale, large cities can improve environmental quality by limiting the size of core patches and reducing the complexity of urban shape. This paper can provide a scientific guidance for ecosystem protection and urban high-quality development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green innovation is an important way to realize the "double carbon" target, but financial support is necessary and important. This paper uses the multi-period difference-in-difference method to estimate the impact of city commercial banks on city green innovation. The data sample is the panel data of 285 prefecture-level cities in China from 2003 to 2019. Based on the empirical results, it can be concluded that city commercial banks can significantly promote green innovation, but have no significant contribution to the unbiased technological progress expressed by total factor productivity, i.e., overall innovation, while indicating that they are more efficient in promoting green innovation than overall innovation. This finding is still valid after a series of robustness, placebo, and parallel trend tests. After considering the moderating effect of environmental regulations, we find that market-incentive environmental regulation has a significant moderating effect on green innovation promotion, whereas command-control environmental regulation does not. On this basis, we propose policy recommendations to promote the development of city commercial banks; strengthen green innovation in central and western China, be both rigid and flexible in their approach to environmental regulation; and improve legal regulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid development of cities has led to the urban sprawl to the suburbs. Studies have shown that urban sprawl leads to the increasing intensity of heat island effect. This paper, based on the DMSP/OLS nighttime light data and the MODIS land surface temperature data during the years 2000, 2005, and 2013, discussed the spatial and temporal characteristics of urban sprawl, urban heat island intensity in China, and their relationship, respectively. The results show that (1) the national urban expansion index showed an upward trend. The urban area was 104,000 km2 in 2000, 169,000 km2 in 2005, and 312,000 km2 in 2013.The average annual growth rate was 10.2% in 2000–2005, 8% in 2000–2013, and 8.8% in 2000–2013. (2) The national heat island index also showed an upward trend; total heat island intensity was 716.73 °C in 2000, 812.84 °C in 2005, and 995.46 °C in 2013. The annual average growth rate was 2.55% in 2000–2005, 2.57% in 2005–2013, and 2.56% in 2000–2013. (3) There is a positive correlation between urban spatial expansion and heat island intensity in China. The urban and suburban range of China can be objectively extracted from the DMSP/OLS nighttime light data every year and superimposed with the MODIS land surface temperature data of the same period, which ensures the correctness of the urban heat island intensity based on the actual changes of suburban areas and main urban areas in each city, and overcomes the calculation error of the traditional method, which neglects that some suburbs have become urban areas and are still regarded as suburbs. These results provide spatiotemporal changes characterization of urban area in China during recent decades, which are helpful in decision-making of land management and planning for sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Better modeling of urbanization trends helps improve our understanding of the potential range of future energy demands and carbon dioxide emissions in developing countries and make informed response strategies. This paper extends the current analytical structure by integrating the population migration process from rural to urban areas with the energy system into a systematic framework, within which a link between urbanization and energy service demands through direct and indirect effects is built. Taking China as a study case, the results show that approximately 333 million people from rural areas are expected to migrate to urban areas toward 2050, resulting in the expansion of large-sized cities and the rapid growth of future energy service demands. Without significant technological improvements, urbanization will lead to more than double and triple the current energy consumption levels by 2050 in the building and transport sectors, respectively, while energy consumption growth in the industry sector will be the largest due to the rising demand for materials through the indirect effect. As a result, urbanization in China will cause more than double the total primary energy demand and an 82% increase in the carbon dioxide emissions by 2050, compared with 2013. In response, major mitigation measures and the role of each sector in the low carbon urbanization transition have been identified. Non-fossil fuel power generation is the top mitigation strategy, which can contribute 40% to the total mitigation potential, while power sector and industrial sector play a key role in realizing an earlier peak for the whole country. The total capital investment needed in each period will cost less than 2.5% of the total gross domestic product (GDP). Therefore, this work highlights the importance of understanding urbanization impact on energy system through applying an integrated population-energy-environment analytical framework and synthesizing the urbanization and long-term low carbon strategies in developing countries which are under rapid urbanization process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urbanization is a complex process that covers a wide range of topics, of which population, industry and land urbanization are three important aspects. Jilin Province is an important agricultural province in China. The contradiction between population, industry and land urbanization is especially prominent here, and its coupling development is of great practical significance. In this paper, the coupling degree of population-industry-land urbanization in Jilin Province in 1990, 2000 and 2010 is measured by coupling mode. The spatial pattern of the coupling degree is analyzed by trend surface analysis and global and local spatial autocorrelation. The influence factors and their spatial differentiation are discussed using multiple linear regression (MLR) model and geographic weighted regression (GWR) model. The results show that: 1) the coupling degree of population-industry-land urbanization in Jilin Province is at a low level. Judging from the change of time scale, the urbanization of most research units is becoming more and more coordinated. From the comparison of spatial scales, there is significant spatial difference in the research units of different administrative levels. 2) Judging from the global change trend, the coupling degree of population-industry-land urbanization in the central region is higher than that in western and eastern regions. The coordination of urbanization in the central region is relatively good, and the distribution of the cold and hot spots is basically the same as that overall. 3) The spatial pattern of the coupling degree is related to the cold and hot spot distribution of the influence coefficient of urban population density and per capita urban construction land. The variation of the coupling degree spatial pattern is synchronous with the spatial change of the urban population density influence coefficient. 4) The degree of agglomeration of the urban population is the main factor promoting the coupling pattern of population-industry-land urbanization in Jilin Province, and the extent of its influence is gradually increasing. In addition, the level of city administrative, the efficiency of urban expansion and the capacity of market consumption also have an important influence on the coupling pattern. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of a city's green infrastructure is increasingly being driven by low-carbon innovation (LCI). However, knowledge of how LCI affects green economic efficiency (GEE) in China is largely unknown. This study investigates the spatial effects of LCI on GEE in 285 Chinese prefecture-level cities. The empirical findings show that LCI exerts significant beneficial effects on its GEE but negative effects on its neighbors. The positive direct effects on GEE are offset by negative indirect effects due to the lack of spatial linkage effect and the existence of the siphon and crowding-out effects among cities. Using a mediating effect model, we have identified three channels of LCI that affect GEE: industrial structure, energy consumption structure, and human capital. A further heterogeneity analysis indicates that the impacts of LCI on GEE differ by region and city development level. Furthermore, LCI in the building, greenhouse gas treatment, transportation, and sewage and pollutant treatment categories could greatly enhance local GEE. The findings herein provide an empirical experience for accurately accessing the spatial effect of LCI on GEE, and offer a critical decision-making reference for implementing a cross-city green linkage development mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In view of the insufficient and unbalanced green development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei urban agglomeration (BTH), we explored the green development efficiency of the region and its influencing factors, so as to provide basis and reference for improving its green development efficiency. To be specific, the super-efficiency network slack-based model considering undesired output (SE-SBM-undesirable) and the Global-Malmquist-Luenberger index are used to analyze the green development efficiency of BTH from 2005 to 2020. In addition, we also used the Spatial Dubin Model (SDM) to analyze the influencing factors of the green development efficiency. The following results were obtained: (1) The green development efficiency of the region has increased from 0.339 to 0.733. The regional difference has narrowed by 66.43% in 15 years, but the degree of difference is still very large. (2) The static green development efficiency presents a state of "strong in the north and weak in the South," and the dynamic green development efficiency shows a characteristic of "core-middle-periphery" decreasing in turn. (3) The green development efficiency of a city is likely to be affected by more than 20% of other cities in the region. the level of urbanization, per capita GDP, government public service expenditures, and environmental governance have a positive effect on the green development of BTH, while the proportion of the secondary industry and FDI have a negative effect on the green development of BTH. Based on the above results, the key point to realize the green transformation of BTH's economic development is to control the development intensity, improve the efficiency of resource utilization, and strictly restrict the industries with high pollution, high energy consumption and low output. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: China's 35 largest cities, including Wuhan, are inhabited by approximately 18% of the Chinese population, and account for 40% energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. Wuhan is the only sub-provincial city in Central China and, as the eighth largest economy nationwide, has experienced a notable increase in energy consumption. However, major knowledge gaps exist in understanding the nexus of economic development and carbon footprint and their drivers in Wuhan. Methods: We studied Wuhan for the evolutionary characteristics of its carbon footprint (CF), the decoupling relationship between economic development and CF, and the essential drivers of CF. Based on the CF model, we quantified the dynamic trends of CF, carbon carrying capacity, carbon deficit, and carbon deficit pressure index from 2001 to 2020. We also adopted a decoupling model to clarify the coupled dynamics among total CF, its accounts, and economic development. We used the partial least squares method to analyze the influencing factors of Wuhan's CF and determine the main drivers. Results: The CF of Wuhan increased from 36.01 million t CO2eq in 2001 to 70.07 million t CO2eq in 2020, a growth rate of 94.61%, which was much faster than that of the carbon carrying capacity. The energy consumption account (84.15%) far exceeded other accounts, and was mostly contributed by raw coal, coke, and crude oil. The carbon deficit pressure index fluctuated in the range of 8.44–6.74%, indicating that Wuhan was in the relief zone and the mild enhancement zone during 2001–2020. Around the same time, Wuhan was in a transition stage between weak and strong CF decoupling and economic growth. The main driving factor of CF growth was the urban per capita residential building area, while energy consumption per unit of GDP was responsible for the CF decline. Conclusions: Our research highlights the interaction of urban ecological and economic systems, and that Wuhan's CF changes were mainly affected by four factors: city size, economic development, social consumption, and technological progress. The findings are of realistic significance in promoting low-carbon urban development and improving the city's sustainability, and the related policies can offer an excellent benchmark for other cities with similar challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rooftop photovoltaics (RPVs) are crucial in achieving energy transition and climate goals, especially in cities with high building density and substantial energy consumption. Estimating RPV carbon mitigation potential at the city level of an entire large country is challenging given difficulties in assessing rooftop area. Here, using multi-source heterogeneous geospatial data and machine learning regression, we identify a total of 65,962 km2 rooftop area in 2020 for 354 Chinese cities, which represents 4 billion tons of carbon mitigation under ideal assumptions. Considering urban land expansion and power mix transformation, the potential remains at 3-4 billion tons in 2030, when China plans to reach its carbon peak. However, most cities have exploited less than 1% of their potential. We provide analysis of geographical endowment to better support future practice. Our study provides critical insights for targeted RPV development in China and can serve as a foundation for similar work in other countries. Potential rooftop photovoltaic in China affords 4 billion tons of carbon mitigation in 2020 under ideal assumptions, equal to 70% of China's carbon emissions from electricity and heat. Yet most cities have exploited the potential to a limited degree. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accessibility is an effective variable for identifying mobility needs and evaluating transport inequalities. In recent years, the construction of transport facilities has been often considered to have a significant effect on the accessibility of cities. This study focused on the regional inequalities of transport accessibility in China and the influence of transport mode disparity. A novel approach integrating intercity and intracity transport networks is modeled for detailed calculations of travel time using open-source massive path data. The proposed approach provides further improvement in the accuracy, and it can reflect realistic patterns of multiscale accessibility. Four indicators based on travel time estimation were employed to evaluate transport accessibility and inequality: weighted average travel time (WATT), potential value (PV), daily accessibility (DA), and coefficient of variation (CV). Results show that transport accessibility is the highest in the eastern region, followed by the midland, northeastern, and western regions; this trend is consistent with the level of urban development and transport facilities construction. The inequality of transport accessibility between cities is obvious, and the western region has a considerably greater inequality than other areas. With regard to transport facilities, the car driving mode has higher accessibility and lower discrepancy than the public transit mode at the national level; however, the construction of public transit infrastructure, especially the high-speed railway, should considerably improve the daily accessibility of cities. Several policy suggestions are provided for transport departments and decision makers that can effectively improve the level and equality of transport accessibility of cities in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Improving carbon emission efficiency is the most direct and effective way to reduce pollution. Leading the construction of a resource-saving and environment-friendly society is an important goal of the coordinated development of urban agglomerations in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River. However, there is no systematic evidence to prove whether this policy can improve carbon emission efficiency. Taking 31 cities in the urban agglomeration in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River as the research area, we aimed to use the index decomposition method, the super-efficiency slack-based model, and the difference-in-difference model to examine the effect of policies on improving carbon efficiency. The results show that (1) regional coordinated development policies have a significant effect on improving the carbon emission efficiency of urban agglomerations, and there is an obvious imbalance in carbon emission efficiency among cities. (2) The impact of regional coordinated development policies on urban carbon emission efficiency is heterogeneous. We have grouped 31 cities according to their centrality, industrial transfer characteristics, and urban cluster characteristics. Policies have heterogeneous effects on cities with different functions and positioning. (3) Policy effects have opposite effects on urban carbon emission efficiency through urbanization rate and population density, while the effect of urban greening rate is not significant. The research results can provide a reference for China's urban agglomeration to achieve sustainable development and promote the construction of low-carbon cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sustainability of land conversion to urban use is an important factor that promotes sustainable urbanization. However, China's local governments have relied too much on the land finance model for urbanization, which has led to disordered growth of urban land, ultimately posing a threat to ecosystem security and socioeconomic development. Effectively evaluating the factors that influence the growth of urban land is critical to improving the sustainability of urban land use. In this study, we explored the factors that affect the growth in the area of urban land using spatial analysis models based on panel data for Chinese prefecture-level cities from 2007 to 2019. We found that fiscal decentralization, infrastructure, industrialization, and industrial upgrading were the main factors responsible for the growth of urban land, but that their degrees of influence differed between regions. Our findings identify the necessity for local governments to design urban land-use policies and perform strategic planning for urban land use to improve sustainability based on the main factors that influenced the growth of urban land in each region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, with the rapid expansion of urban space and the explosion of population within communities in China, fire stations face challenges in providing timely response to potential demands throughout their service coverage. To ensure speedy and equitable provision of fire services, it is essential to evaluate the accessibility of fire stations under the current fire service systems. Traditional accessibility analysis is often based on the aggregated large areal units, such as the census tracks, failing to assess accessibility of individual buildings. In this regard, this study seeks to analyze potential accessibility to urban fire stations at a fine scale, i.e., the building level, and to provide valuable information to assist in strategic planning of fire stations in urban areas and within local communities. Because the detailed intra-community roads are not stored in the official city map database, we propose to use a classic GIS technology, the Delaunay triangulation model, to automatically extract the intra-community roads from building footprints. With these private roads integrated into the existing city roads, a simulated road network is constructed. Then, the Voronoi-based method and buffering method are used to assess accessibility to urban fire stations. Results reveal that the current layout of fire stations in the study area is not sufficient to achieve a complete coverage of potential demands in the stipulated time, and the traditional central areas enjoy better access to fire services compared to the periphery areas. The building-level analyses will not only enable decision-makers to strategically allocate new fire stations in the urban areas, but also help local authorities to enhance fire safety management within the community. The proposed method can also be applied to fine-scale analysis of neighborhood services' accessibility in other cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, the effects of land use/cover (LULC) change induced by urbanization and greenhouse gases (GHGs) concentration on future climate over the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region in China under Representative Concentration Pathways 4.5 (RCP4.5) scenario are investigated. The Weather Research and Forecasting model is used to downscale and predict the future climate state using the RCP4.5 simulations from the Community Earth System Model. Results show that large-scale general atmospheric circulation and GHGs are the two dominate factors for the future climate over the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region in the next 10–20 years under the RCP4.5 scenario. Urbanization over a small-scale region and scattered areas has a slight effect on the regional future climate. On the urban local scale, the LULC change in the urban area has a relatively obvious impact on the local climate of the city through altering the land–atmosphere interaction within the urban region accompanied with seasonal dependence. The annual mean surface air temperature (SAT) of urban area is projected to be 0.44 °C (2020), 0.87 °C (2030), and 1.48 °C (2040) higher than the climatology under different climate scenarios in the future resulting from integrated urbanization and GHGs forcing effects. The annual mean SAT of urban area changed by the GHGs forcing will increase by 0.35 °C (2020), 1.00 °C (2030), and 1.66 °C (2040), and the urbanization forcing will increase the annual mean SAT by 0.09 °C (2020), − 0.13 °C (2030), and − 0.18 °C (2040) in the urban area, respectively. The effects of urban expansion on the seasonal mean SAT are different during different the warm and cold periods of a year. The expanded urban area will increase the SAT during the warm period of a year (from March to September), and will decrease the SAT during the cold period of a year (from October to February of next year). The effects of scattered urbanization process and large-scale urban agglomeration on regional and local climate have strong spatial and temporal scale dependence. GHGs are the most important factor for dominating the future climate of this region. Meanwhile, due to the important impact of urbanization on the urban local scale, we strongly suggest that urbanization process should be considered in climate modeling system since it can provide a more realistic and reliable scenario of the future climate in the urban area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study attempts to analyze the impact of population, property, technology, energy factors, and spatial agglomeration in the logistics industry on carbon emissions. To achieve the goal of peak carbon and carbon neutrality, the relationship between influencing factors and carbon emissions was analyzed based on panel data from the logistics industry for 30 provinces in China from 2003 to 2017 using an improved STIRPAT (Stochastic Impacts by Regression on Population, Affluence, and Technology) model and a spatial lag model (SLM). The results show that population, property, technology, and energy factors in the logistics industry all have different degrees of influence on carbon emissions, wherein population, energy, and property have a greater influence, which implies that carbon emission reduction policies can be carried out considering the relevant aspects. In addition, under the influence of spatial agglomeration, the degree of influence of freight mileage (FM), total fixed-asset investment (TFAI), and industry population (IPOP) on carbon emissions decreases, and the degree of influence of energy intensity (EI) and industry per capita GDP (IPCG) increases. This suggests that corresponding emission reduction policies should be formulated for large urban areas based on technological innovation, infrastructure, and talent training, while smaller urban areas can focus on developing new energy and industrial economies. These findings help to complement the existing literature and provide policymakers with some insights related to urban logistics development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the espoused and actual achievements of government urban planning in Hong Kong in terms of the ideas of Hayek and Mises. With reference to observed facts, it is argued that it is indeed the spontaneous forces of the land market predicated on a leasehold system, a system of ‘planning by contract’ or ‘planning by consent,’ that have attained what the government planner in Hong Kong has not been able to deliver. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Is rapid urban sprawl increasing environmental pollution while boosting economic development? This study uses panel data of 30 Chinese provinces during 2002–2018 to investigate the impact of urban sprawl on haze pollution with the use of a spatial lag model. Urban built-up area (ba) and urban public facilities occupation (upfo) are used to measure the differential impact of urban sprawl on haze pollution. The main highlights of the results are as follows: (1) there is a nonlinear relationship between urban sprawl and haze pollution. An inverted U-shaped relationship was found between built-up area and haze pollution, while urban public facility occupation and haze pollution have a U-shaped correlation. (2) The impact of urban sprawl on haze pollution shows a significant time-based difference. The relationship between the two was not significant in 2002–2010, but become significant in 2011–2018. (3) Significant regional differences in the impact of urban sprawl on haze pollution were found. The effects of urban sprawl on urban haze levels are more pronounced in the eastern and western regions than in the central region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The precipitation pattern in the Taihu Lake basin in East China has significantly changed over the last decades, perhaps due to intensive urbanization. However, there is limited understanding of the effect of large-scale expansion of city groups on the precipitation variability, which causes a challenge for flood control in the basin. Considering the process of urbanization, we investigated in this study the variability of precipitation in different urban zones and characteristic scales and explored the influence of urban development on the rain island effect in the basin. The basin was divided into three zones (old urban area, new urban area, and suburbs) considering different degrees of urbanization. Results indicated that precipitation change and its response to urbanization had spatial differences at various characteristic scales. Urbanization exhibited a significant "precipitation enhancement effect" at the characteristic scales including annual, flood season, summer, autumn, and winter but indicated a "precipitation reduction effect" in spring. Annual (flood season) precipitation in 1990–2013 increased by 30.04 mm (16.94 mm), due to urbanization, compared with that in the preceding period. The rate of contribution of urbanization to precipitation increase was 15.6%, 41.1%, and 14.4% in summer, autumn, and winter. The enhancement effect of short duration rainfall extremes in old urban area was also discernible, and that in new urban areas would enhance along with urban expansion, complicating urban flood and waterlogging control. More effective adaptation strategies should be implemented to handle the unfavorable situation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The urban heat island (UHI) effect is an important issue in urban planning. In this study, the framework of the land surface temperature (LST) and UHIindex for urban development land (UDL) based on urban planning in China was proposed to examine the spatiotemporal evolution of the LST and the UHIindex for the whole city as well as the LST and the UHIindex of UDL at four node stages (1995, 2003, 2014 and 2019), reflecting the process of urbanization. The results demonstrate that the UHIindex showed an overall trend of first decreasing and then increasing in the process of urbanization over 2 decades. The UHI is characterized by the evolution of spatial distribution from a local point-like aggregation (1995) to a linear expansion along the urban construction land (2003), then to patchy areas tending towards overall homogeneous coverage gradually expanding (2019). The LST increased yearly, but the UHIindex first decreased and then increased, while the average UHIindex and the LST of UDL in the overall relationship maintained good consistency each year. The industrial and logistics concentration area with railway marshalling yard as the core area is the most important patch to maintain the urban thermal pattern. The results provide a quantitative basis for the thermal environmental planning of UDL and a reference for research on UHI under different land planning and management systems in other countries and regions of the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within a short period, rapid urbanization has reshaped China's eco-environment, especially at the beginning of the new century. Many studies have focused on the changes in certain physical indicators of eco-environments; however, these indicators cannot directly explain or only slightly consider the eco-environmental benefits of urban residents. Therefore, we analysed location-based population-weighted eco-environmental changes with indicators of the vegetation index and fine particulate matter (PM2.5) concentration at each pixel in China's prefectures and combined the changes with urban expansion to provide an expanded understanding of the transformation of China's urbanization and its eco-environmental dynamics. We discovered that China's urban areas expanded by 38,350 km2 from 2000 to 2015 with an increase in the population-weighted vegetation and PM2.5 concentration, but the changes varied among different periods. From 2005 to 2010, urban areas expanded by 20,970 km2 with an increase in the population-weighted vegetation and PM2.5 concentration. The period from 2000 to 2005 was a key transforming period that experienced an urban expansion of 9081 km2 with a decrease in the population-weighted vegetation and an increase in the population-weighted PM2.5 concentration. An urban expansion of 8299 km2 with an increase in the population-weighted vegetation and a decrease of the population-weighted PM2.5 concentration occurred from 2010 to 2015. The results of this research indicate that China's urbanization and environmental changes have facilitated eco-environmental improvements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Herein we develop a means to differentiate between the energy required to expand and the energy required to maintain the economies of cities. A nonlinear model is tested against historical data for two cities, Hong Kong and Singapore. A robust fit is obtained for Hong Kong, with energy for maintenance close to that for growth, while Singapore, with a weaker fit, is growth dominated. The findings suggest that decreases in either of the per unit maintenance or growth demands can simultaneously cause gross domestic product (GDP) and total energy use to increase. Furthermore, increasing maintenance demands can significantly limit growth in energy demand and GDP. Thus, the low maintenance demands for Hong Kong, and especially Singapore, imply that, all other things being equal, GDP and energy use of these cities will continue to grow, though Singapore's higher energy use for growth means it will require more energy than Hong Kong. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]