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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]

Green economic development is an effective tactic for China to cope with the predicament of resources and the environment. As "smoke-free industries", producer services are becoming the main contributors to urban green economic development (UGED). The paper adopts the super-efficiency EBM model to estimate the UGED index of 268 Chinese cities from 2005 to 2019. Based on the theoretical analysis, econometric models are constructed to systematically test how the specialized and diversified agglomeration of producer services impacts UGED. The findings reveal that both agglomeration modes considerably enhance UGED in the local area and its surroundings. Diversified agglomeration exerts a stronger radiation and promotion effect than specialized agglomeration. In addition, the impact of the two agglomeration modes on UGED demonstrates pronounced heterogeneity in urban scales, economic development stages, and industries. Furthermore, mechanism studies suggest that agglomeration substantially boosts UGED by improving human capital, technological innovation, and upgrading industrial structure. As such, our findings serve as an empirical basis for understanding the mechanism of the impact of PSA on UGED and also offer significant insight for local governments to adopt differentiated industrial policies to enhance the positive agglomeration effect on UGED. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How to maintain the balanced stability and resilient development of rural systems is an important issue that needs urgent attention in the field of sustainable rural development at present. In this paper, the entropy method, spatial autocorrelation model, and Geodetector were used to explore the rural resilience level, spatial distribution characteristics, and driving factors of 31 cities in the urban agglomerations in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River (UAMRYR), and to put forward corresponding policy suggestions. The results are as follows: (1) From 2005 to 2020, rural resilience in the UAMRYR showed an upward trend with an average annual growth rate of 8.26%. The ranking of the three major urban agglomerations is Changsha-Zhuzhou-Xiangtan urban agglomerations > Wuhan urban agglomerations > Poyang Lake urban agglomerations. (2) During the study period, the spatial distribution of rural resilience gradually developed from a negative correlation to a strong positive correlation and generally showed the characteristics of high in the west and low in the east. (3) The urbanization rate, the size and structure of the economy, the difference in consumption and income between urban and rural areas, the local fiscal revenue, and the number of village committees are the key factors affecting the level of rural resilience. On this basis, we proposed policy recommendations to improve the economic, social, and ecological resilience of rural areas in the UAMRYR. The findings of this paper are expected to provide insights into the policy formulation of China's rural revitalization strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The free flow of factors resulting from regional integration affects not only economic and social activities between cities, but also climate and environmental changes. Under the goal of sustainable development, regional integration as a policy pathway to lower carbon intensity has rarely been clarified. In light of this, using panel data of 279 prefecture-level cities in China from 2006 to 2019, this paper treats city cluster planning as a quasi-natural experiment of regional integration and aims to discuss the impact and mechanism of regional integration on carbon intensity through difference-in-differences (DID) method, mediating effect model and moderating effect model. The following results are reached: (1) The implementation of regional integration policy effectively reduces carbon intensity, and the conclusion still holds after a series of robustness tests. (2) Total factor productivity (TFP) is the mediator of regional integration to reduce carbon intensity, and population density, technological innovation and industrial upgrading are the moderators. (3) The effect of regional integration in reducing carbon intensity varies from city location and city features. The proposed theoretical framework of regional integration affecting carbon intensity, containing mediator and moderators, not only enriches the theoretical research in the field of environment and region, but also provides a new policy path for exploring sustainable development. Therefore, it is necessary to build urban agglomerations integrating the concepts of green, low carbon, intensive and efficient. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The traditional view is that local governments are inclined to ease environmental regulations in response to fiscal pressure (FP) and alleviate FP by sacrificing the environment for economic development (ED). This paper takes Chinese Mainland resource-based cities (RBC) as the research sample but draws different conclusions. The research results are as follows: firstly, for RBC, although FP reduces environmental pollution (EP), it is not conducive to ED. Compared with non-resource-based cities (NRBC), the economic negative effect of FP in RBC is more obvious. Secondly, FP is detrimental to ED by reducing EP, and RBC have not sacrificed the environment to promote ED in the context of FP. This paper summarizes that the development path of RBC should be "optimizing government behavior → increasing FP → improving environmental quality → reducing ED level." Thirdly, the impact of FP on cities with slower economic growth and smaller economic gap is greater, and the impact of FP on cities with better environment is more obvious. This paper argues that facing FP, RBC in China will not trade EP for ED; at the same time, we suggest RBC in other countries in the face of the FP, not only thinking of promoting ED at the expense of the EP and ease the FP, but also the development of green ecological requirement, overall consideration of the relationship between EP and ED, and then achieve green and sustainable ED without degrading the environment as far as possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sponge city construction is an ideal approach to mitigate the degradation of urban water environments. Among road materials, permeable concrete pavement stands out due to its unique structure that allows rainwater runoff to flow through its pores. This paper analyzes the current application status and the prospect of different permeable pavement designs in China's sponge cities, aiming to offer valuable insights for urban planning and construction. Statistical analysis summarizes the spatial-temporal distribution patterns of urban flooding disasters in China and their causes. By comparing the characteristics and advantages of pervious concrete pavement with traditional concrete pavement, the potential of permeable concrete pavement in sponge city construction is summarized through case studies. The findings highlight that by adjusting the pore size, permeable concrete pavement can collect rainwater while filtering impurities, thereby purifying surface runoff. The range of the pervious coefficient should ideally fall within the range of 4~8 mm/s. In addition, the pavement's large contact area with the air and internal water evaporation contributes to its self-regulating capability, reducing the occurrence of extreme temperatures. Related experiments have shown that from 8 am to 12 pm, pervious concrete pavement can reduce the temperature by approximately 1 °C compared to conventional concrete. From 12 pm to 8 pm, this temperature difference increases to approximately 3 °C. To meet the needs of environmental protection and resource utilization, permeable concrete pavement can serve as an ideal tool to achieve green and low-carbon development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Chinese government seeks to promote economic growth and sustainable development while achieving carbon neutrality by establishing phased smart city pilots. Therefore, it is important to study whether smart city pilots can promote carbon emission efficiency (CEE). This paper constructs a multi-period difference-in-difference (DID) model based on panel data from 241 prefecture-level cities in China from 2007 to 2019, aiming to investigate the mechanism of the impact of smart city pilot policies (SCPP) on CEE and whether there is a rebound effect. The study found that smart city construction (SCC) significantly improves carbon efficiency, with pilot cities increasing their CEE by 1.4% compared to non-pilot cities. The conclusions remain robust under a variety of scenarios including the introduction of placebo tests, counterfactual tests, sample data screening, and omitted variable tests. The results of the mechanism test show that although the rebound effect can inhibit the improvement of CEE, the environment can be improved and the CEE can be enhanced through green technology innovation, industrial structure upgrading, energy structure optimization, environmental regulation effect, information technology support, and resource allocation effect. The heterogeneity results indicate that the SCPP is more effective in promoting CEE in cities in the eastern region, southern cities, environmentally friendly cities, large cities, and medium-sized cities. This study contributes to the existing literature in clarifying the environmental benefits of SCPP and provides valuable policy insights for cities to address climate change and sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Technological progress in favor of cleaner production is the key to achieving low-carbon development in China. The Ambient Air Quality Standard (AAQS) issued by the Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) in 2012 was an essential policy for the central government to implement vertical environmental regulation. Therefore, based on the city-level panel data, this paper examines the impact of the central vertical regulation on urban environment-biased technological progress using the difference-in-differences method. The results show that central vertical regulation can significantly promote urban environment-friendly technological progress. Heterogeneity analysis shows that the driving effect of the central vertical regulation on urban environment-friendly technological progress is more obvious in the eastern regions, non-resource-based cities, large cities, and high-grade cities. Moreover, the channel analysis shows that the central vertical regulation mainly boosts the urban environmental technology progress toward cleaner production by strengthening government environmental governance, raising public environmental concern, and improving energy structure. The findings provide policy implications for evaluating the effectiveness of macro-environmental policy and promoting green sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Realizing the coordination between the economic and environmental systems through a green growth model is an important goal for China to enter the high-quality development stage. Meanwhile, financial technology (fintech) is rapidly developing in China. To explore the relationship between the two, this research uses panel data from 276 cities in China from 2011 to 2022 and empirically tests through constructing econometric models and machine learning algorithms. The empirical result shows that fintech has an impact on green growth. Specifically, there is a U-shaped relationship between fintech and green growth, meaning that before a certain stage, fintech may have a certain inhibitory effect on green growth. After fintech exceeds a certain development level, it will promote the improvement of green growth. Further mediation tests show that innovation plays a mediating role in the impact of fintech on green growth. Additionally, this research also conducts consistency tests based on different criteria including the location, scale, and financial development level of cities. Based on the research findings, policy suggestions are proposed in this paper to promote the development of fintech and stimulate the growth of the green economy. Overall, our research sheds more light on the fintech-green growth linkage and provides new insights into comprehending the role of fintech in advancing towards a low-carbon economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Enhancing resource cities' resilience and advancing their sustainable development are imperatives, particularly in light of the "dual-carbon" agenda. Double-difference and spatial double-difference models are developed based on the panel data of 281 Chinese cities from 2005 to 2020 to investigate the effects of implementing the National Plan for the Sustainable Development of Resource-Based Cities on the level of ecological resilience in Chinese cities. This paper found that the National Sustainable Development Plan for Resource-Based Cities significantly improves the ecological resilience level of Chinese cities, and the findings are robust. The impacts of implementing the Plan on the ecological resilience of cities of different growth types, regions, and resource types are heterogeneous. Further study finds a spatial spillover effect of implementing the Plan on the ecological resilience of cities, which can improve the ecological resilience level of neighboring cities through spillover effects while improving the ecological resilience level of cities in the region. Based on these new findings, this study provides some policy implications for better advancing sustainable urban development. [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]

Using panel data for Chinese prefecture-level and above cities from 2003 to 2017, we employed the difference-in-differences (DID) method to explore whether innovative city constructions reduced carbon emissions. The results show that innovative city constructions significantly curb carbon emissions in Chinese cities, which is supported by a series of robustness tests. Specifically, we found that innovative city constructions could reduce carbon emissions by 5.21%, which is equivalent to a total of about 5.46 million tons. In addition, we provided evidence that innovative city constructions curb carbon emissions by promoting technological innovation, industrial upgrading and industrial green development, ecological improvement, and government intervention. Furthermore, heterogeneous results indicate that the carbon reduction effect of innovative city constructions is mainly found in eastern cities and cities with better industrial development and human capital base. Our findings further enrich the study on the environmental benefits of national innovation incentives and public policies and provide important insights in carbon neutrality and achieving sustainable development, especially for developing and emerging market countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Western cities have been confronted with the challenges of 'urban shrinkage' as changes in economic and production models have caused population migrations. China, in its recent history, has experienced rapid and dynamic growth in its cities. However, as its economy is evolving, it too is being confronted with 'urban shrinkage' challenges. Populations have been shifting inside small and medium sized cities in response to problems created during this rapid growth period. Most heritage areas have suffered from depopulation, neglect and disinvestment. The historic Puhuiquan neighborhood in Yulin City is a classic example of the current Chinese version of 'urban shrinkage'. Yulin City, founded as a military city five centuries ago, has shifted its focus away from its historic purpose into a resource-based city. Yulin's planning developed new areas, drawing population out of the historic Puhuiquan neighborhood. This area is the home to a unique urban cultural landscape where land and architecture have merged to create the development of various types of 'cave' houses. Suffering from the effects of 'urban shrinkage', this research explores the causes and potential solutions for the area employing both 'smart shrinkage' and 'urban renewal' strategies, informed by local resident participation, to develop a sustainable renewal strategy for this heritage area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]