Measurement and Influencing Factors of Low Carbon Urban Land Use Efficiency—Based on Non-Radial Directional Distance Function

Abstract

The development and use of urban land is a major source of carbon emissions. How to reduce carbon emissions in the process of urban land use without harming the economy has become an extremely important issue. This paper integrating carbon emissions into the urban land use efficiency evaluation index system, measures low-carbon urban land use efficiency using a non-radial directional distance function and analyses its spatial and temporal evolution and its influencing factors using a combination of a kernel density estimation method and a Tobit model. The study found that: (1) China’s low-carbon urban land use efficiency shows a fluctuating development and tends to converge; (2) there is much room for reducing land input and carbon emissions in China, and in 2016 alone, land input and carbon emissions in the sample could be reduced by 10.38% and 5.31%, respectively; (3) at the national level, land finance, economic level and population density have a positive impact on low-carbon urban land use efficiency, while the traffic level has negative effects, and these effects show regional heterogeneity. Accordingly, the paper proposes corresponding policy recommendations.

Industrial upgrading and its influence on green land use efficiency

“…Liu et al 30 used SFA method to measure China's industrial land efficiency and explored its influencing factors. The SFA method requires accurate selection of error term distribution and correct setting of production function form, which makes its application more difficult 11 . Due to this consideration, more and more scholars use DEA model to measure GLUE.…”

“…Existing studies have studied how to improve land use efficiency, such as economic growth 9 , technological progress 10 , demographic characteristics 10 , market reform 11 , government regulation 12 and other factors have been proved to have an impact on land use. However, existing studies have ignored that industrial structure is a crucial factor leading to low land use efficiency in resource-based cities.…”

The Spatial-Temporal Transition and Influencing Factors of Green and Low-Carbon Utilization Efficiency of Urban Land in China under the Goal of Carbon Neutralization

“…Its goal is to shift urban-land use from high energy consumption, high pollution with a low-efficiency model, to low energy consumption, low emission with a high-efficiency and high-benefit model [ 12 ]. In the evaluation of low-carbon urban-land use, scholars have mainly carried out the empirical analysis of urban-land-use efficiency based on the low-carbon perspective [ 2 , 13 ]. For example, Chen et al [ 2 ] used a non-radial distance function to measure the low-carbon urban-land-use efficiency, and its spatial-temporal transition and influencing factors are combined with kernel-density estimation.…”

“…In the evaluation of low-carbon urban-land use, scholars have mainly carried out the empirical analysis of urban-land-use efficiency based on the low-carbon perspective [ 2 , 13 ]. For example, Chen et al [ 2 ] used a non-radial distance function to measure the low-carbon urban-land-use efficiency, and its spatial-temporal transition and influencing factors are combined with kernel-density estimation. Hui et al [ 13 ] used the Durbin model to reveal the relationship between urban form and urban-land use-efficiency in the Yellow River Basin of China under low-carbon constraints.…”

“…Urban-land resources are the spatial carrier of social and economic development, and its effective use plays an important role in promoting economic development [ 1 , 2 ]. The development and use of the land during urbanization are considered to be the main source of carbon emissions [ 3 , 4 ].…”