Doing more with less: How to design a good subgroup governance model for the air pollution transport network in "2+26" cities of China?

Air pollution shares the attributes of significant spatial spillover effects and environmental public goods, leading to the territorial governance model that easily falls into a state of failure. Despite a growing number of studies on the local spatial spillover effect of air pollution, scant evidence currently exists on its global spatial association effect and a good subgroup governance model. Based on a panel data set of the daily prefecture-level city data on air quality measured by the air quality index (AQI) in "2 + 26" cities of China in 2015 and 2018, this study first builds an air pollution transport network (APTN), i.e., the cities as the nodes and the association relationships between the nodes as the edges. Furthermore, this paper reveals the spatial association effect and the temporal lagged attribute of the APTN using the Social network analysis (SNA) and the Generalized impulse response function (GIRF). The results are summarized as follows. (1) Every city has significant spatial association effects of air pollution with at least another city in the APTN, and northern APTN affects most to the air pollution of other cities, while southern APTN is obviously always affected by air pollution in other cities. (2) Transport strength peaks on the second day of an air pollution transport process, and the transport process lasts for 7–12 days. (3) The APTN is divided into four subgroups: Sycophants, Primary, Bidirectional, and Brokers, with Baoding, Zhengzhou, Heze, and Hengshui as the central cities of each group, respectively. Overall, our study provides a networked, modular, and early-warning governance model for policymakers. [Display omitted] • An air pollution transport network (APTN) is constructed using granger causality test method in "2 + 26" cities, China. • Spatially, there is a significant association effect between any two cities. • Temporally, air pollution transport shock strengths peaks on the second day and the transport process lasts for 7–12 days. • The APTN is divided into four subgroups with every group has a governing body, respectively. • A networked, modular and early-warning governance model for policymakers is provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]