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Persisting in opening up and achieving coordinated development of economy, society, and ecology is China's major strategies for achieving sustainable urbanization. Ecological efficiency is a reasonable indicator to measure the development level of a circular economy. Therefore, using the statistical data of 30 provinces in China from 2004 to 2016, this paper uses the super-efficiency SBM model that considers undesired output to measure the eco-efficiency value, which is used to measure the level of circular economy development in each province. Based on this, a panel model is constructed to test the impact of circular economy and FDI on urbanization. The empirical results show that (1) there is a complex nonlinear relationship between the development of circular economy and the advancement of urbanization, and the shape of the curve varies with areas; (2) FDI under environmental regulation is conducive to promoting China's urbanization to achieve green, effective, and sustainable development; and (3) the development of the tertiary industry, human resources, innovation capabilities, and employment situation is conducive to promoting China's urbanization. Finally, based on the empirical results, this paper puts forward policy recommendations to achieve green, efficient, and intelligent development of Chinese cities by promoting the development of a circular economy and strengthening FDI screening. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The coordination of urbanization with the ecological environment has become a significant sustainable urban development problem given the current acceleration in China's urbanization. The existing research lacks in-depth discussion on the coordination relationship between urbanization and energy eco-environment from the perspective of urban agglomeration. This paper takes the Yangtze River Delta Urban Agglomeration as its research area. The combination of CRITIC and entropy weight methods is used to measure the comprehensive urbanization level (CUL) from the four dimensions of population, economy, land, and society, and the SBM-Undesirable model is used to measure the energy eco-efficiency (EE). The spatiotemporal pattern and dynamic evolution law of the coupling coordination degree (CCD) between CUL and EE are analyzed using the coupling coordination model and the spatial Markov chain. The research results reveal that (1) from the comprehensive development level standpoint, both CUL and EE are on the rise from 2010 to 2021; however, a problem of unbalanced development is observed. (2) The overall CCD displays an upward trend and evinces significant spatial differentiation characteristics from the coordinated development level viewpoint. (3) The CCD transition state is not isolated to certain geographic spaces: adjacent cities will impact changes in the coupling coordination types of an urban center. Therefore, we propose strategies to improve the CCD between CUL and EE to offer theoretical and policy inferences for the formulation of sustainable urban development strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A high-speed urban expansion in China over the past two decades has been accompanied by a great leap forward for energy consumption. However, such a significant socio-economic transition may increase the potential risk of energy inequality, which deserves special attention. Using China's provincial panel data covering the periods of 1997–2020, this paper mainly studies the impact of urbanization on urban-rural electricity consumption inequality with a modified STRIPAT model. The results of the Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) estimation show that there is a significant U-shaped relationship between urbanization and urban-rural electricity consumption inequality. The estimated short-run turning point arrives at the urbanization level of around 63.54% and 61.18% for the long-run estimates. We further carry out a regional heterogeneity analysis and then have two interesting findings: firstly, the colder northern region's turning point (70.95%) arrives later than the south (57.69%). Secondly, the baseline U-shaped relationship remains for developed eastern regions and the estimated turning point is 57.91%, while for the undeveloped midwestern regions, the relationship is not nonlinear but linearly negative. As an extension, we lastly explore the mechanism underlying the U-shaped relationship, and find that the interaction of urbanization's scale and efficiency effect determines the U-shaped relationship. Our findings remind policymakers that, to narrow the urban-rural development gap, the future preference of energy policy should be dynamically adaptive to varied regions and development stages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the steady increase in urbanization that has occurred, China has begun to suffer from serious urban sprawl. Both the increase in urbanization and the subsequent urban sprawl have led to major changes in CO2 emissions. In this paper, we expand the STIRPAT model to empirically analyse the effects of China's urbanization and urban sprawl on CO2 emissions from 1997 to 2018, with regression results showing that both urbanization and urban sprawl have increased CO2 emissions. Further analyses of the mechanisms indicate that urbanization can increase overall CO2 emissions by not only increasing industrial CO2 emissions, but also by increasing construction CO2 emissions and residential consumption CO2 emissions as well. Urban sprawl can increase overall carbon emissions by increasing CO2 emissions from transport, construction and industry. We then make specific suggestions for China's carbon reduction and low-carbon development based on these findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under the background that the country is vigorously promoting the construction of new urbanization and seeking green development, this paper takes 31 provinces of China as the research object. It constructs a comprehensive evaluation system that integrates new urbanization and green economy into the same research framework, analyzes the evolution characteristics of new urbanization and green economy from the scale analysis of time and space, and, through the relative development model, coupling coordination model, and the random panel Tobit model, further explores the relative development and coupling coordination relationship between the two, deconstructing the internal driving factors. Research shows that the regional differences in the development level of new urbanization are decreasing year by year, while the efficiency of the green economy is increasing yearly. The relative development types of the two have obvious regional distribution characteristics. The level of coupling coordination gradually increases over time. The impact of economic development and growth, urban construction, regional opening up, urban expansion, government investment, industrialization level, and industrial structure on the coupling coordination degree of new urbanization and green economy is inconsistent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The act of balancing simultaneous rapid development of urbanization and ecological environmental protection is an increasingly important strategic agenda of national importance. While focusing on the principle of sustainable development, this paper calculates and analyzes the extent of coupling coordination degree (CCD) between the new urbanization quality (NUQ) and eco-environmental carrying capacity (EECC) of 246 prefecture level and above cities in China. The gravity center moving trajectory, Moran's I and LISA are employed to perform exploratory spatial analysis, and the differences among cities are analyzed by variation coefficient (CV) method. Based on simulation by the NUQ and CCD, results obtained show a continuous growth trend at similar rate among the cities. Meanwhile, the mean value of EECC showed a fluctuating growth trend. The coordinated development type cities were largely concentrated in the coastal areas of the east. In comparison, other areas are dominated by disorders recession type cities and the coordination transition type cities. The center of gravity CCD was found moving from the northeast to the southwest. The situation of HH (CDD main city—high, CDD surrounding cities—high) and LL (CDD main city—low, CDD surrounding cities—low) always accounted for more than seventy percent. The cluster locations of HH and LH (CDD main city—low, CDD surrounding cities—high) are largely concentrated around mega-urban agglomerations comprising the following three major urban agglomerations, i.e., (i) the Yangtze River Delta; (ii) the Pearl River Delta; and (iii) the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei. CV of CCD shows that the gap among cities is gradually narrowing. In summary, the results conclude that most of the evaluated cities have not achieved coordinated development. As such, enhancing ecological environment protection awareness, improving the utilization effectiveness of natural resources and gradual elimination of regional differences should be the way forward in facilitating the process of new urban construction. The significance of this research not only helps increase the focus on ecological environmental governance, but also enrich the theoretical system of urbanization, both of which have important theoretical significance and application values in the building of an ecological civilization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With rapid urban development in China in the last two decades, the three-dimensional (3D) characteristic has been the main feature of urban morphology. However, the vast majority of researches of urban growth have focused on the planar area (two-dimensional (2D)) expansion. Few studies have been conducted from a 3D perspective. In this paper, the 3D urban expansion of the Yangzhou City, Jiangsu Province, China from 2003 to 2012 was evaluated based on Geographical Information System (GIS) tools and high-resolution remote sensing images. Four indices, namely weighted average height of buildings, volume of buildings, 3D expansion intensity and 3D fractal dimension are used to quantify the 3D urban expansion. The weighted average height of buildings and the volume of buildings are used to illustrate the temporal change of the 3D urban morphology, while the other two indices are used to calculate the expansion intensity and the fractal dimension of the 3D urban morphology. The results show that the spatial distribution of the high-rise buildings in Yangzhou has significantly spread and the utilization of the 3D space of Yangzhou has become more efficient and intensive. The methods proposed in this paper laid a foundation for a wide range of study of 3D urban morphology changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Shiyang River Basin is located in the essential zone of Hexi Corridor in China, where the shortage of water resources has intensely impeded the development of the cities there for a long time. Based on the data related to water resources and urbanization system from 2005 to 2017, the paper regarded each county of Wuwei and Jinchang as the minimum research unit, and calculated their water resources constraint intensity (WRCI) every year through comprehensive measurement model, with the conclusion that: (1) In the past 13 years, the WRCI of all counties in the Shiyang River Basin had declined, among which Minqin had the most obvious decline, from an extreme constraint in 2005 to a strong constraint in 2017. The WRCI of Jinchuan was the most stable, fluctuating at a low level, while the decline of other counties was between the two. (2) The overall WRCI of the Shiyang River Basin decreased by about 0.2, from intense constraint to strong constraint, but still was under great pressure of water resources. (3) The WRCI in the Shiyang River Basin had always been "higher in the north than the south, and higher in the downstream area than upstream area". The WRCI of the counties in the upstream area such as Gulang and Tianzhu were relatively low, while WRCI of the counties in the downstream area such as Minqin and Yongchang were at a high level, reflecting the unbalanced spatial development of the basin, but the gap was gradually narrowing. In the future, all counties in the Shiyang River Basin still need to make efforts to tap the potential of utilization of water resources and improve urbanization level in economic and social aspects, so as to realize the goal of regional coordination and sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the development of urbanization, large-scale population movement, and disintegration of the traditional communities, the disaster-related social vulnerability in China's coastal areas is presenting new features. Many researchers point out that interacting persistent urban growth and hazard risk accumulation have ratcheted up negative impacts on immigrants, but nevertheless there is less consideration based on what really happens in the focal coastal urbanizing areas from the bottom-up perspective. This paper is devoted to studying a Chinese fishing village to provide a perspective of what factors shape the vulnerability of new-coming immigrants in urbanizing process through an in-depth case study. Based on the original qualitative data, the analysis of spatial, social and political aspects was involved. It concludes that compared with the locals who remained predominant, the immigrants suffer from the social, environmental and institutional pressures which produce or even reproduce the plights of livelihood and status. The results of this study provide policy recommendations for decision-makers to reduce inequality for immigrants and enhance cohesion of society to cope with hazard risks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has severely affected the normal socioeconomic operation of countries worldwide, causing major economic losses and deaths and posing great challenges to the sustainable development of cities that play a leading role in national socioeconomic development. The strength of urban resilience determines the speed of urban social and economic recovery. This paper constructed a comprehensive evaluation index system for urban resilience under the COVID-19 pandemic scenario considering four dimensions—economy, ecology, infrastructure, and social systems—conducted a quantitative evaluation of urban resilience in the Yangtze River Delta of China, revealed its spatiotemporal differences and change trends, and proposed targeted strategies for improving urban resilience. The results show that (1) the Yangtze River Delta urban resilience system is growing stronger every year, but there are significant differences in the level of urban resilience, its spatial distribution and regional urban resilience. (2) In the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration, there is less distribution of areas with a higher resilience index, while those with high and medium resilience levels are more distributed. However, the resilience of most cities is low. (3) The resilience index of eastern coastal cities is significantly higher, and the resilience of cities under the COVID-19 scenario presents obvious east–west differentiation. (4) When constructing urban resilience, the individual situation of cities should be taken into account, measures adjusted according to local conditions, reasonable lessons drawn from effective international urban resilience construction, and reasonable planning policies formulated; it is important to give play to the relationship between the whole and the parts of resilience to achieve unified and coordinated development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Better modeling of urbanization trends helps improve our understanding of the potential range of future energy demands and carbon dioxide emissions in developing countries and make informed response strategies. This paper extends the current analytical structure by integrating the population migration process from rural to urban areas with the energy system into a systematic framework, within which a link between urbanization and energy service demands through direct and indirect effects is built. Taking China as a study case, the results show that approximately 333 million people from rural areas are expected to migrate to urban areas toward 2050, resulting in the expansion of large-sized cities and the rapid growth of future energy service demands. Without significant technological improvements, urbanization will lead to more than double and triple the current energy consumption levels by 2050 in the building and transport sectors, respectively, while energy consumption growth in the industry sector will be the largest due to the rising demand for materials through the indirect effect. As a result, urbanization in China will cause more than double the total primary energy demand and an 82% increase in the carbon dioxide emissions by 2050, compared with 2013. In response, major mitigation measures and the role of each sector in the low carbon urbanization transition have been identified. Non-fossil fuel power generation is the top mitigation strategy, which can contribute 40% to the total mitigation potential, while power sector and industrial sector play a key role in realizing an earlier peak for the whole country. The total capital investment needed in each period will cost less than 2.5% of the total gross domestic product (GDP). Therefore, this work highlights the importance of understanding urbanization impact on energy system through applying an integrated population-energy-environment analytical framework and synthesizing the urbanization and long-term low carbon strategies in developing countries which are under rapid urbanization process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes satellite data from downtown Shanghai, China, to investigate the long-range dependence of spatial patterns on urban impervious surfaces (UIS) using two-dimensional detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA). The UIS fraction is estimated from Landsat Thematic Mapper and Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus data from 1997 to 2010 using linear spectral mixture analysis. The results indicate that the spatial distribution of the UIS exhibits a positive spatial dependence, as revealed by Moran's index, capturing the evolution from aggregation to dispersion and back to aggregation during the study period. The use of two-dimensional DFA reveals a strong long-range power-law dependence in the UIS spatial pattern during the study period. The DFA scaling exponent can be seen as a measure of the uniformity of the UIS spatial distribution, and exhibits an approximate 1/ f behaviour. Two-dimensional multifractal detrended fluctuation analysis (MFDFA) confirmed that the UIS spatial pattern is not multifractal in nature, meaning that only a single scaling exponent is required to disclose the long-range dependence in the UIS spatial pattern. The application of two-dimensional DFA to UIS patterns should be viewed as a complementary tool to existing techniques, such as Fourier analysis, wavelets, and structure function, that can provide additional information about the structure of UIS patterns, including its 1/ f behaviour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urbanization is a complex process that covers a wide range of topics, of which population, industry and land urbanization are three important aspects. Jilin Province is an important agricultural province in China. The contradiction between population, industry and land urbanization is especially prominent here, and its coupling development is of great practical significance. In this paper, the coupling degree of population-industry-land urbanization in Jilin Province in 1990, 2000 and 2010 is measured by coupling mode. The spatial pattern of the coupling degree is analyzed by trend surface analysis and global and local spatial autocorrelation. The influence factors and their spatial differentiation are discussed using multiple linear regression (MLR) model and geographic weighted regression (GWR) model. The results show that: 1) the coupling degree of population-industry-land urbanization in Jilin Province is at a low level. Judging from the change of time scale, the urbanization of most research units is becoming more and more coordinated. From the comparison of spatial scales, there is significant spatial difference in the research units of different administrative levels. 2) Judging from the global change trend, the coupling degree of population-industry-land urbanization in the central region is higher than that in western and eastern regions. The coordination of urbanization in the central region is relatively good, and the distribution of the cold and hot spots is basically the same as that overall. 3) The spatial pattern of the coupling degree is related to the cold and hot spot distribution of the influence coefficient of urban population density and per capita urban construction land. The variation of the coupling degree spatial pattern is synchronous with the spatial change of the urban population density influence coefficient. 4) The degree of agglomeration of the urban population is the main factor promoting the coupling pattern of population-industry-land urbanization in Jilin Province, and the extent of its influence is gradually increasing. In addition, the level of city administrative, the efficiency of urban expansion and the capacity of market consumption also have an important influence on the coupling pattern. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sri Lanka is experiencing speedy urbanization by converting the agriculture land and other natural land cover into built-up land. The urban population of Sri Lanka is expected to reach to 60% by 2030 from 14% in 2010. The rapid growth in urban population and urban areas in Sri Lanka may cause serious socioeconomic disparities, if they are not handled properly. Thus, planners in Sri Lanka are in need of information about past and future urban growth patterns to plan a better and sustainable urban future for Sri Lanka. In this paper, we analyzed the characteristics of past land use and land cover trends in Matara City of Sri Lanka from 1980 to 2010 to assess the historic urban dynamics. The land use change detection analysis based on remote sensing datasets reveal that the conversion of homestead/garden and paddy into urban land is evident in Matara City. The historic urban trends are projected into the near future by using SLEUTH urban growth model to identify the hot spots of future urbanization and as well as the urban growth patterns in Matara City up to the basic administrative level, i.e., Grama Niladari Divisions (GND). The urban growth simulations for the year 2030 reveal that 29 GNDs out of 66 GNDs in Matara City will be totally converted into urban land. Whereas, 28 GNDs will have urban land cover from 75% to 99% by 2030. The urban growth simulations are further analyzed with respect to the proposed Matara city development plan by the Urban Development Authority (UDA) of Sri Lanka. The results show that the UDA's city development plan of Matara will soon be outpaced by rapid urbanization. Based on the calibration and validation results, the SLEUTH model proved to be a useful planning tool to understand the near future urbanization of Sri Lankan cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we study the interactive relationship between the agglomeration of urban elements and the evolution of eco-environmental pressure. We build an index system for evaluating the agglomeration of urban elements and eco-environmental pressure. Using the entropy method and response intensity model, we analyze how urban elements agglomeration influenced eco-environmental pressure in Changchun from 1990 to 2012, eliciting the changing features and influential factors. Ultimately, we conclude there is a significant interactive relationship between the agglomeration of urban elements and the evolution of eco-environmental pressure in Changchun. This is inferred from the degree of this agglomeration in Changchun having increased since 1990, with the degree of eco-environmental pressure first decreasing and then increasing. Alongside this, the impact of urban elements agglomeration on eco-environmental pressure has changed from negative to positive. The main reasons behind this shift are arguably the rapid growth of urban investment and ongoing urbanization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the relationships between urban expansion and social/environmental features is fundamental to managing watershed and urban expansion. However, such relationships remain unclear, especially across multiple scales of watersheds. Here, we quantified the correlation between urban expansion measures and 255 socioenvironmental indicators across three scales of watersheds running through China (20, 103, and 349 watersheds) during 1992–2016 and analyzed their scaling relations. The results showed that the number of indicators showing a significant correlation with the area and speed of urban expansion increased from 132 and 153 to 234 and 237, respectively, from level 1 to level 3 watersheds. Among these indicators, urban expansion was significantly correlated with indicators of climate and anthropogenic impact. From a large scale (level 1 watershed) to a small scale (level 3 watershed), 104 and 84 socioenvironmental indicators shifted from uncorrelated to significantly correlated with urban expansion area and speed. The constraint line analysis further confirmed that some relationships were nonlinear, which suggested that the drivers and impacts of urban expansion have scaling effects. We argue that it is crucial to consider the scaling effects of urban expansion when we formulate urban or watershed management plans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban soil organic carbon (SOC) plays an important role in urban ecosystem services. Rapid urbanization and anthropogenic disturbances have created complex and dynamic land-use patterns and heterogeneous urban landscapes, however, the impact of these patterns on the spatial distribution of soil organic carbon density (DSOC) remains unclear. This study investigated SOC using a spatial sampling method from 213 sites in Xi'an City Ring Expressway, China. The results showed that the DSOC ranged from 1.79 to 4.93 kg m−2, with a mean of 3.31 kg m−2, and the value of Dsoc was decreased from city center toward suburb with a significant spatial heterogeneity. The DSOC varied with land-use types, being higher in parks, transportation, commercial, and public lands than in industrial, agricultural, parking, and construction lands. The Dsoc was positively related to population density, normalized difference impervious surface index, road density, and landscape shape index, while negatively to aggregation index and patch richness density. Overall, the urbanization of Xi'an City has strongly affected the soil C stocks, and the capacity of urban soils to store C was sustainable. These findings lays a scientific foundation for future soil carbon management in urban development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rapid urbanization has produced many metropolitan areas in China, resulting in regional human-land-ecological environment contradiction phenomenon. In recent years, Chinese government has launched a series of new national ecological civilization construction and ecological protection projects. Monitoring the changes in land-use/land cove (LULC) and exploring its impact on net primary productivity (NPP) is a key hot issue to support sustainable development. This study took Wuhan metropolitan area as the research area to monitor the distribution and relationship between LULC and vegetation NPP changes is helpful to strengthen carbon balance and improve the quality of human settlements. The results showed that, from 2000 to 2020, land use types in the study area changed dramatically, mainly cultivated land, urban land, and other construction land. The vegetation NPP showed a continuous growth trend in time and space, with growth rate of 114.48%. With the passage of time, LULC spatial distribution had significant effects on NPP and chaotic urban sprawl has seriously affected NPP losses, while the ecological forest and grassland in remote areas can significantly increase NPP yield. This study also revealed the correlation between LULC and NPP, and opened up research approaches for land-use optimization and vegetation NPP based on different scenarios in the future. Our analysis not only contributes urban land-use planners, but also provides important insights into improving the competitiveness of green development among urban agglomeration systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid urbanization process has led to a high concentration of population and economic activities in urban space, thus leading to severe environmental pollution. The concept of new-type urbanization has been proposed in China to combat the pollution associated with urbanization. This study analyzes the interaction effect of new-type urbanization with land, industry, and technology on haze pollution, using Chinese provincial-level panel data, and employs a STIRPAT model with interaction terms for empirical testing. The results find that new-type urbanization can significantly reduce the national haze pollution level; meanwhile, the optimization of intensive urban land use level, industrial structure, and technological innovation can interact with it to promote haze reduction, and there is regional heterogeneity. The improvement of intensive urban land use and industrial structure in the central region will significantly enhance the haze reduction effect of new-type urbanization, while the improvement of technological innovation in the west will instead weaken its haze reduction effect, and the interaction in the eastern region is not significant. This research provides a theoretical basis for better implementation of new-type urbanization construction and effective promotion of green and sustainable urban development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sustainability of land conversion to urban use is an important factor that promotes sustainable urbanization. However, China's local governments have relied too much on the land finance model for urbanization, which has led to disordered growth of urban land, ultimately posing a threat to ecosystem security and socioeconomic development. Effectively evaluating the factors that influence the growth of urban land is critical to improving the sustainability of urban land use. In this study, we explored the factors that affect the growth in the area of urban land using spatial analysis models based on panel data for Chinese prefecture-level cities from 2007 to 2019. We found that fiscal decentralization, infrastructure, industrialization, and industrial upgrading were the main factors responsible for the growth of urban land, but that their degrees of influence differed between regions. Our findings identify the necessity for local governments to design urban land-use policies and perform strategic planning for urban land use to improve sustainability based on the main factors that influenced the growth of urban land in each region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By constructing the two evaluation systems of urban tourism development (TD) and habitat environment (HE), the dynamic response relationship between the two systems in the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration from 2001 to 2020 is explored by using panel vector autoregression (PVAR) model and coupled coordination degree model. The study unearthed four intriguing findings: (1) the level of TD in the study area has been continuously rising from 2001 to 2020, with an initial slow growth rate and then fast. The level of HE is increasing steadily at an average annual rate of 7.05%. There exists a reciprocal response relationship between the two systems, with a strong shock effect in the short term and a synergistic evolution in the long term. (2) The coupling degree between the urban TD and HE has an increasing trend, and the coupling coordination degree of the two systems has an average annual rate of 4.165%, implying the interaction and promotion effect between the two systems is improving. (3) Most of the cities in the Yangtze River Delta gradually realize the evolution from dysfunctional type to coordinated type, but the overall coordination intensity is low. (4) The barrier degrees of TD system indicators show a small annual increasing trend, while the barrier degrees of HE system indicators show a substantial and continuous decreasing trend. In terms of the barrier degree factors, some important factors that restrict the coupled and coordinated development of the two systems are also reported. This research can provide a useful reference for the synergistic improvement of urban tourism economy and habitat environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban agglomeration will be the main mode of future urbanization in China, greatly influencing social and economic development and ecosystem protection at the whole city cluster scale. It is important to analyze the impacts of large-scale, scattered land use and cover change (LUCC) consisting of one-pole-multi-point urbanization in city clusters on regional ecosystem services (ESs), so as to increase ecological security and maintain ES levels. Using the urban–rural gradient analysis method (UGAM), this study examined driver-response mechanisms of large-scale, scattered agglomeration urbanization on ESs along an urban–rural gradient and at a regional scale. This was done by simulating and analyzing tempo-spatial variations in ES characteristics along concentric ring gradients in the Central Yunnan City Cluster (CYCC) under its present urbanization path. The results showed that rapid urban sprawl is the main driver affecting the integral value of ESs in CYCC and that ES trade-offs (through LUCC caused by urbanization) between adjacent zones along the urban–rural gradient will particularly exacerbate the degradation of integral ES levels. Hence, CYCC should follow a sustainable, eco-friendly urbanization path and consider ecological principles and the impact of LUCC on regional ESs along the urban–rural gradient in top-level design and decision-making on urban planning and strategic land use management. Differentiated regional development policies should be formulated for each area, the urban–rural development pattern and layout optimized, the scale of construction land rationally controlled, and the overall efficiency of land use improved. Ecological buffers should be set up around areas with sharp and obvious changes in land use, to alleviate the negative impact of large-scale, decentralized city cluster urbanization on regional ESs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The strategy of the Silk Road Economic Belt in China has promoted the urban development of the backward regions in the west, but it might also cause serious eco-environmental concerns. Studying the coupling relationship between urbanization and the eco-environment (UEE) is essential to promote the sustainable development in backward regions. This study developed a combined method of coupling coordination degree (CCD) model, linear regression, and gray relational analysis (GRA) model to investigate the spatio-temporal coupling relationship and the influencing factors between UEE in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region (NHAR), a typical backward region along the Silk Road Economic Belt. Results show that (1) the economic urbanization and eco-environmental pressure made the largest contribution to the system of urbanization and eco-environment, respectively. (2) The overall CCD in NHAR showed a linear upward trend from 2001 to 2018, while the CCD of each district presented significant spatial difference. The CCDs in the more developed northern regions were generally higher than those in southern mountainous regions. (3) Furthermore, population factors were the main mechanism imposing stress on the eco-environment, and the factors of eco-environmental status had higher restrictive effect on urban development in NHAR. This study could provide theoretical basis for investigating the interaction between UEE in backward regions, which might enable policymakers to formulate targeted sustainable development plans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, the effects of land use/cover (LULC) change induced by urbanization and greenhouse gases (GHGs) concentration on future climate over the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region in China under Representative Concentration Pathways 4.5 (RCP4.5) scenario are investigated. The Weather Research and Forecasting model is used to downscale and predict the future climate state using the RCP4.5 simulations from the Community Earth System Model. Results show that large-scale general atmospheric circulation and GHGs are the two dominate factors for the future climate over the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region in the next 10–20 years under the RCP4.5 scenario. Urbanization over a small-scale region and scattered areas has a slight effect on the regional future climate. On the urban local scale, the LULC change in the urban area has a relatively obvious impact on the local climate of the city through altering the land–atmosphere interaction within the urban region accompanied with seasonal dependence. The annual mean surface air temperature (SAT) of urban area is projected to be 0.44 °C (2020), 0.87 °C (2030), and 1.48 °C (2040) higher than the climatology under different climate scenarios in the future resulting from integrated urbanization and GHGs forcing effects. The annual mean SAT of urban area changed by the GHGs forcing will increase by 0.35 °C (2020), 1.00 °C (2030), and 1.66 °C (2040), and the urbanization forcing will increase the annual mean SAT by 0.09 °C (2020), − 0.13 °C (2030), and − 0.18 °C (2040) in the urban area, respectively. The effects of urban expansion on the seasonal mean SAT are different during different the warm and cold periods of a year. The expanded urban area will increase the SAT during the warm period of a year (from March to September), and will decrease the SAT during the cold period of a year (from October to February of next year). The effects of scattered urbanization process and large-scale urban agglomeration on regional and local climate have strong spatial and temporal scale dependence. GHGs are the most important factor for dominating the future climate of this region. Meanwhile, due to the important impact of urbanization on the urban local scale, we strongly suggest that urbanization process should be considered in climate modeling system since it can provide a more realistic and reliable scenario of the future climate in the urban area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The degradation of water environment (WE) has constrained the sustainable development of cities, while the rapid urbanization also exacerbates water environment change. However, the complicated relationship between urbanization and WE is far from clearly understood. In this study, a comprehensive index system for urbanization and WE was applied along with the System Index Evaluation Model (SIEM) and a Coupling Coordination Degree Model (CCDM) to analyze the coupling between urbanization and WE in Nanjing, East China, from 1990 to 2018. The comprehensive index of urbanization increased from 0.0392 in 1990 to 0.9890 in 2018, showing a clear increasing trend. Demographic and spatial urbanization made the largest contribution to urbanization development from 1990 to 2010, while economic urbanization became the largest contributor to urbanization development between 2011 and 2018. Under the combined effects of pressure, state, and response subsystems, the comprehensive WE index showed an upward trend with some fluctuations from 1990 to 2018. The degree of coupling coordination between urbanization and WE displayed an overall upward tendency, growing from 0.18 in 1990 to 0.95 in 2018. The coupling coordination state transitioned from a serious imbalance during the low coupling period (1990–1992) into the superior coordination of the highly coupled period (2011–2018). With the continuous urbanization in the future, in addition to ensuring the optimal management of surface water, protection of groundwater should be reinforced. The results advance our understanding of the dynamic relationship between urbanization and WE and provide important implications for urban planning and water resource protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rapid urbanization leads to dramatic changes in land use patterns, and the land use/cover change (LUCC) can reflect the spatial impact of urbanization on the ecological environment. Simulating the process of LUCC and predicting the ecological risk future changes can provide supports for urban ecological management. Taking the Yangtze River Delta Urban Agglomeration (YRDUA), China as the study area, four developmental scenarios were set on the basis of the land use data from 2005 to 2015. The temporal land use changes were predicted by the integration of the system dynamic and the future land use simulation (SD-FLUS) model, and the geographically weighted regression (GWR) model was used to identify the spatial heterogeneity and evolution characteristics between ecological risk index (ERI) and socio-economic driving forces. Results showed that: 1) From 2005 to 2015, the expansion of construction land (7670.24 km2) mainly came from the occupation of cultivated land (7854.22 km2). The Kappa coefficient of the SD-FLUS model was 0.886, indicating that this model could be used to predict the future land use changes in the YRDUA. 2) Gross domestic production (GDP) and population density (POP) showed a positive effect on the ERI, and the impact of POP exceeded that of GDP. The ERI showed the characteristics of zonal diffusion and a slight upward trend, and the high ecological risk region increased by 6.09%, with the largest increase. 3) Under different developmental scenarios, the land use and ecological risk patterns varied. The construction land is increased by 5.76%, 7.41%, 5.25% and 6.06%, respectively. And the high ecological risk region accounted for 12.71%, 15.06%, 11.89%, and 12.94%, correspondingly. In Scenario D, the structure of land use and ecological risk pattern was better compared with other scenarios considering the needs of rapid economic and ecological protection. This study is helpful to understand the spatio-temporal pattern and demand of land use types, grasp the ecological security pattern of large-scale areas, and provide scientific basis for the territory development of urban agglomeration in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On one divide, energy types have been linked with the varying degree of environmental damage. Another perspective argued on the severity of the damaged base on per capita and/or population consumption pattern. As such, this study investigates the nexus of per capita natural gas consumption-carbon dioxide emissions and per capita income-carbon dioxide emissions in the case of the People of the Republic of China. This study objectively expanded to illustrate whether the N-shaped environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis holds in the case of China or not. The employed autoregressive distributed lag bound testing approach incorporated additional explanatory variables (urbanization) within the N-shaped EKC hypothesis over the period 1971–2018. Importantly, the results show an evidence of inverted N-shaped EKC relationship. In addition, the study posits a positive relationship between natural gas consumption and carbon dioxide emissions and between urbanization and carbon dioxide emissions. Thus, the study proposes renewable energy development and decongestion of the urban centers as a means of controlling global warming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The precipitation pattern in the Taihu Lake basin in East China has significantly changed over the last decades, perhaps due to intensive urbanization. However, there is limited understanding of the effect of large-scale expansion of city groups on the precipitation variability, which causes a challenge for flood control in the basin. Considering the process of urbanization, we investigated in this study the variability of precipitation in different urban zones and characteristic scales and explored the influence of urban development on the rain island effect in the basin. The basin was divided into three zones (old urban area, new urban area, and suburbs) considering different degrees of urbanization. Results indicated that precipitation change and its response to urbanization had spatial differences at various characteristic scales. Urbanization exhibited a significant "precipitation enhancement effect" at the characteristic scales including annual, flood season, summer, autumn, and winter but indicated a "precipitation reduction effect" in spring. Annual (flood season) precipitation in 1990–2013 increased by 30.04 mm (16.94 mm), due to urbanization, compared with that in the preceding period. The rate of contribution of urbanization to precipitation increase was 15.6%, 41.1%, and 14.4% in summer, autumn, and winter. The enhancement effect of short duration rainfall extremes in old urban area was also discernible, and that in new urban areas would enhance along with urban expansion, complicating urban flood and waterlogging control. More effective adaptation strategies should be implemented to handle the unfavorable situation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within a short period, rapid urbanization has reshaped China's eco-environment, especially at the beginning of the new century. Many studies have focused on the changes in certain physical indicators of eco-environments; however, these indicators cannot directly explain or only slightly consider the eco-environmental benefits of urban residents. Therefore, we analysed location-based population-weighted eco-environmental changes with indicators of the vegetation index and fine particulate matter (PM2.5) concentration at each pixel in China's prefectures and combined the changes with urban expansion to provide an expanded understanding of the transformation of China's urbanization and its eco-environmental dynamics. We discovered that China's urban areas expanded by 38,350 km2 from 2000 to 2015 with an increase in the population-weighted vegetation and PM2.5 concentration, but the changes varied among different periods. From 2005 to 2010, urban areas expanded by 20,970 km2 with an increase in the population-weighted vegetation and PM2.5 concentration. The period from 2000 to 2005 was a key transforming period that experienced an urban expansion of 9081 km2 with a decrease in the population-weighted vegetation and an increase in the population-weighted PM2.5 concentration. An urban expansion of 8299 km2 with an increase in the population-weighted vegetation and a decrease of the population-weighted PM2.5 concentration occurred from 2010 to 2015. The results of this research indicate that China's urbanization and environmental changes have facilitated eco-environmental improvements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context: Understanding patterns and drivers of urbanization is essential for urban sustainability, but such understanding is lacking for mountainous regions. Objectives: This study had three objectives: (1) to quantify the spatiotemporal patterns of urban expansion in Chongqing, the largest mountainous metropolitan area in China, during 1990–2015; (2) to explore major drivers for the observed urbanization patterns; and (3) to identify the spatial signatures of Chongqing's urbanization which differ from those of topographically flat urban regions for sustainable urban planning in mountainous regions. Methods: We used multiple metrics to characterize urbanization patterns and expansion modes. Pearson correlation analysis and Classification and Regression Trees (CART) were used to identify potential drivers. Results: The built-up area of Chongqing increased five times during 1990–2015 with regional variations. Three growth modes—leapfrog, edge-expansion, and infilling, took place concurrently, but their relative dominance varied in time and space with leapfrog as the dominant mode in recent years. The major drivers of built-up area expansion changed from demography to economy, with topographic constraints attenuating over time. Compared to flat urban regions in China, the spatial signatures of Chongqing's urbanization were characterized by greater dominance of leapfrog expansion mode with smaller and more regularly-shaped patches. Conclusions: The unique patterns and drivers of urban expansion in Chongqing provide new insights of urbanization in mountainous regions for sustainable urban planning. We have proposed a conceptual urban planning framework for mountainous cities based on landscape sustainability science, GeoDesign, and regional landscape characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to make assessment on urbanization coordination, we developed a comprehensive model by integrating entropy weight method (EWM), coupling degree model (CDM), coupling coordination degree model (CCDM), multi-index grading method (MIGM) and Remote Sensing & Geographic Information System (RS & GIS) technology. Then we applied this integrated model to a case study in Jiangxi Province, China. Our study finds that: 1) EWM, CDM and CCDM can evaluate the temporal dynamic of urbanization. Urbanization process of Jiangxi Province can be divided into three periods, the stable development period (1990–2001), the accelerated development period (2002–2009) and the rapid development period (2010–2015). Coordinated development of urbanization in Jiangxi Province can be divided into two phases, an increasingly coordinated phase (1990–2003) and an increasingly incongruous phase (2003–2015). The state transition was due to low development rate of population urbanization. 2) RS & GIS technology is an effective tool for detecting urban growth. Urban construction land area of Jiangxi Province increased from 615.8 km2 in 1990 to 2896.8 km2 in 2015, and the per capita urban construction land area (PCUCLA) reached 122.9 m2, with the maximum value of 343 m2 in Gongqing-cheng City. 3) MIGM and RS & GIS technology can analyze spatial difference of urbanization. There is a significant spatial difference in socioeconomic development at county scale, with the maximum value six times the minimum value for both PCUCLA and per capita GDP in 2015. Population urbanization lag and excessive land use are the main reasons for uncoordinated urbanization. There were 15 counties with a lag in demographic urbanization and 33 counties where PCUCLA exceeded the national standard in 2015, among which 20 exceeded the national standard of PCUCLA by 50% (≥165 m2). Since there are significant spatio-temporal differences in urbanization, it is necessary to carry out a comprehensive assessment to facilitate differential urbanization strategy making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

If urban sprawl is to be avoided in China in the next ten years, it is not only crucial to understand the overall history, current status, and future trends of urban expansion there, but also these differences, and this is presently lacking. In this study, remotely sensed images with approximately 30 m spatial resolution were used to quantitatively assess the spatial and temporal patterns of urban expansion of 60 Chinese cities (1973-2013). Urban-expansion-process curves of the cities studied were drawn using annual expansion area as an indicator. Curve similarity analysis generated four basic process modes of urban expansion in China. These included cities that: 1) peaked around 2004 and then decelerated; 2) peaked around 2010 and then decelerated; 3) showed sustained acceleration, and 4) showed continued deceleration. Four basic process modes represented cities under different levels of development stage. Geographic location was found to be the most related characteristic to urban expansion process. Regional development policies at the national level in each region also showed highly temporal consistency with fluctuation characteristics of urban expansion process. Urban characteristic such as population size and administrative level were not found to be significantly related to urban expansion-process modes. Understanding the basic process-mode categories well is extremely important for future regional-balance planning and development of macroeconomic policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the 'economic engines' of China, coastal cities have developed and expanded considerably since the 1970s. In this study, information on the urban expansion process of Chinese coastal cities from the 1970s to 2013 was retrieved. Through the analysis of stage characteristics, spatial expansion modes, influences on land use, centroid shifts, and spatial morphological evolutions, the spatial differences of coastal urban expansion were revealed. Results indicate that 1) the expansion stages of southern coastal cities are more complex than those of northern coastal cities, and the expansion ranges and speeds of the former are far higher than those of the latter; 2) the spatial expansion of southern coastal cities mostly adopt a single mode, whereas northern coastal cities mostly adopt a mixed mode; 3) significant spatial differences in the occupations of different land sources exist between the south and the north along the coastline; 4) the centroid of coastal cities tends to migrate toward the coastline, and the centroid shift distances of southern coastal cities are clearly higher than those of northern coastal cities; and 5) the spatial morphology of southern coastal cities tends to be compact, whereas that of northern coastal cities tends to be loose. Policies have a powerful significance in terms of guiding urban expansion and its spatial differences in coastal cities. Urban expansion in coastal cities will encounter new opportunities and challenges under the guidance of new types of urbanization strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As one of the world regions with the most rapid economic growth and urbanization, eastern China faces many challenges during its urbanization process. The growth is characterized by the broad-scale loss of agricultural land, and by complex and unplanned urban growth, both of which threaten the future sustainability of the regional economy. The goal of this research is to investigate the changes within the driving forces behind the urban growth and to explore an analytical framework that explains the process. In particular, we discuss the role of the behavior of individuals in driving urban growth from a micro-perspective and formalize a framework for understanding and modeling the mechanisms of urban growth in eastern China. We start with an analysis of the changes in the macro-environment and how they have affected the autonomy of individuals, followed by an examination of the role of adaptive behavior in driving urban growth. We then propose a general analytical framework composed of an agent system, an environment system, and a policy and planning system. We present a layout for these subsystems and discuss the interactions within and among the subsystems. Furthermore, we summarize the common elements of urban micro-agents' adaptive behavior into three stages: agent learning, agent decision-making, and agent action. We enrich the urban micro-agents' learning process by importing learning from past self-experience and from shared experiences. The results may be helpful in the further modeling of urban micro-agents' adaptive behavior for simulating urban growth in support of scientific urban planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The world has experienced dramatic urbanization in recent decades. However, we still lack information about the characteristics of urbanization in large cities throughout the world. After analyzing 841 large cities with built-up areas (BUAs) of over 100 km2 from 2001 to 2018, here we found an uneven distribution of urbanization at different economic levels. On average, large cities in the low-income and lower-middle-income countries had the highest urban population growth, and BUA expansion in the upper-middle-income countries was more than three times that of the high-income countries. Globally, more than 10% of BUAs in 325 large cities showed significant greening (P < 0.05) from 2001 to 2018. In particular, China accounted for 32% of greening BUAs in the 841 large cities, where about 108 million people lived. Our quantitative results provide information for future urban sustainable development, especially for rational urbanization of the developing world. Urban development has dramatically increased in recent decades. Analyzing 841 large cities throughout the world for the period from 2001 to 2018, the authors disclosed uneven features of global urbanization in terms of urban expansion, population growth, and greening at different economic levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]