What Factors Affect the Level of Green Urbanization in the Yellow River Basin in the Context of New-Type Urbanization?

Geng

et al. 2020

IJERPH

The measurement of eco-efficiency is an important tool to evaluate the level of urban sustainable development. Therefore; improving urban eco-efficiency in the lower reaches of the Yellow River ensures the implementation of ecological protection and high-quality development strategies in the Yellow River Basin. In this study; the dynamic changes of urban eco-efficiency and spatiotemporal differences in the lower reaches of the Yellow River were investigated using the Super-SBM (Super-Slack measure model) model with undesirable outputs and standard deviation ellipse. The STIRPAT (Stochastic Impacts by Regression Population; Affluence and Technology) model was introduced to analyze the factors affecting the change in urban eco-efficiency. The results showed that the overall urban eco-efficiency in the lower reaches of the Yellow River has not reached the optimal level. The overall eco-efficiency in the lower reaches of the Yellow River in Shandong Province was higher than that in Henan Province but the gap is narrowing. The spatial differentiation of urban eco-efficiency in the lower reaches of the Yellow River showed the following trends: “blooming in the middle and reverse development at both ends” in the high-value area and gradual decrease in the low-value area. From 2007 to 2018; a direction was notable with respect to the development of urban eco-efficiency in the lower reaches of the Yellow River; with the centripetal force weakening. Although the mean center of urban eco-efficiency located in Shandong Province; it notably shifted to the west during the study period. In terms of driving factors; affluence and technological progress play positive roles in driving eco-efficiency; while investment intensity; industrial structure; and foreign investment intensity hindered the optimization and improvement of urban eco-efficiency in the lower reaches of the Yellow River. The results of this study show that urban eco-efficiency in the lower reaches of the Yellow River is improving; but the regional coordination is poor. The main methods promoting the sustainable development in the study area include changing the mode of extensive investments and the introduction of foreign capital; which improve the energy efficiency and promote faster and better economic development

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Dynamic Changes, Spatiotemporal Differences and Factors Influencing the Urban Eco-Efficiency in the Lower Reaches of the Yellow River

Geng

et al. 2020

IJERPH

“…The reasons why ESVs exhibited an initial weak decrease and a later rapid increase were intimately related to the economic development pattern and human economic development intensity of the Yellow River Basin in different periods. Since 2000, urbanization and industrialization in the Yellow River Basin were rapidly implemented [ 54 ]. Unsustainable economic processes were pursued at the expense of consuming natural resources and sacrificing the ecological environment.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…At present, there are few studies that have evaluated the ESV of the whole Yellow River Basin. Compared with the existing studies [ 54 , 56 ], this paper fully considers the differences of ecosystem quality in the calculation of the ESV and, hence, reduces the estimation errors. In addition to climatic conditions, human activities play an important role in changes in the ESV.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatiotemporal Patterns of Ecosystem Service Value Changes and Their Coordination with Economic Development: A Case Study of the Yellow River Basin, China

Guo

Zhong

et al. 2020

IJERPH

By integrating multiple remote sensing data sources this study accurately assesses the spatiotemporal characteristics of changes in ecosystem service values (ESVs) in the Yellow River Basin from 2000 to 2015 through Theil-Sen median trend analysis and the Mann-Kendall test. The stability and continuity of the ESVs were comprehensively characterized using coefficients of variation and the Hurst exponent. The degree of coherence between ESVs and economic growth (represented by gross domestic product GDP) on the same temporal and spatial scales was analyzed using ecological-economic coordination (EEC) models. The results show that (1) from 2001 to 2015 the total ESV and the ESV per unit area in the Yellow River Basin generally showed a U-shaped pattern (decreasing slightly then increasing rapidly). (2) The areas with increasing ESVs made up approximately 55.6% of the total area of the river basin. The areas with a decreasing pattern were mainly in the west and north of the Yellow River Basin. (3) The stability and continuity of the ESVs showed a clustered, compact distribution. (4) The most common level of EEC was slightly uncoordinated followed by slightly coordinated and highly coordinated. The proportion of coordinated areas was relatively higher in cultivated land and the lowest in built-up land.

“…Another case is the sunken green space, roof greening and surface softening movement in the pilot cities for the purification of air pollution. However, based on the green urbanization level panel data of nine provinces in the Yellow River Basin from 2006 to 2018, Shi et al (2020) measured the green urbanization level of each province through principal component analysis and factor analysis, finding that the overall level of green urbanization in the Yellow River Basin has steadily and rapidly increased, but there are significant spatial differences. The green urbanization level of eastern provinces is significantly higher than that of central and western provinces.…”

Section: Relationship Between New Urbanization and Air Qualitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Does the New Urbanization Influence Air Quality in China?

Cui

2021

Front. Environ. Sci.

Previous studies have empirically investigated the influence of China’s urbanization on atmosphere pollution, the findings in the literature are however controversial and inconclusive across regions, data, and methodologies. This study uses the city-level panel data, 113 key cities of environment protection from the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, covering most of the provinces in China for the period 2013–2017 to investigate the different impacts of the new urbanization pilot policy on air quality and related air pollutants including six major pollutant sources, which are PM2.5, PM10, SO2, CO, NO2, and O3. The study finds that, first, based on the difference-in-difference (DID) method, the new urbanization on average tends to improve the air quality in the pilot cities. Second, based on the quantile DID method, the new urbanization tends to improve the air quality in the lower air quality quantiles (0.1–0.6); however, it has no significant impact in the higher air quality quantiles (0.7–0.9). Third, the impacts of the new urbanization on the air quality vary among different energy-related air pollutants. The new urbanization pilot policy tends to restrain SO2, PM10, and PM2.5, increase CO and O3 and has no impact on NO2. The results indicate that China should pay more attention to promote green consumption and new energy applications and increase urban construction efficiency to further reducing air pollutions in the new urbanization process.