Mitigating post-oil sustainability challenges in a topographically framed transit-oriented city

Abstract

Maintaining a balance between economic development and carbon emissions reduction is an important part of low-carbon development in modern cities. At present, the positive effect of urban compactness on carbon emission efficiency has been demonstrated in large cities, but few studies have been carried out on small towns. Small towns are an important part of China’s urban system, accounting for 70% of the total population and 60% of the national GDP. Most small towns in China still promote economic growth and enhance the social welfare of residents by large-scale urban construction, which inevitably leads to urban expansion and high carbon emissions. How to reduce carbon emissions by optimising urban form while continuing with economic development and maintaining people’s welfare has become an important issue faced by small towns in China. To guide the low-carbon planning of small towns, it is necessary to understand the relationship between urban compactness and the economic benefit and socialwelfare levels associated with the carbon emissions in small towns. This study quantitatively analyse the relationship between urban compactness and carbon emission efficiency (including CO2 economic efficiency and CO2 social efficiency) in small towns in the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) from 2008 to 2017. This study resulted in four main findings. (i) the expansion of urban scale had significantly improved the CO2 economic efficiency and CO2 social efficiency; (ii) the compactness presented opposite effects on the CO2 economic efficiency and CO2 social efficiency, compactness had a negative correlation with CO2 economic efficiency, and had a positive correlation with CO2 social efficiency; (ii) The CO2 economic efficiency and CO2 social efficiency both show an upward trend over the period 2008 to 2017; (iv) The relationship between GDP and carbon emissions in small towns did not reach an ideal state, the economies of small towns in China are still strongly dependent on scale expansion.