Abstract
For a long time, air pollution caused by unreasonable urban spatial structure and excessive urban sprawl has been a prominent environmental problem in China. From the level of all cities, three economic zones and different city scales, panel data of 194 prefecture-level cities in China from 2006 to 2017 were used to construct a dynamic panel model and to analyze the impact of urban spatial structure on SO2, industrial smoke and dust emissions. The results showed that: (1) air pollution had a time cumulative effect year by year, the air pollution of the last year could add air pollution in the script year; (2) urban space expansion could effectively curb air pollution; (3) the urban spatial structure with high population compactness made the air pollution change in an inverted "U" shape; (4) in different economic zone levels and different urban scale levels, the direction of influence and intensity of urban spatial structure on air pollution was different. In the eastern region of China, the residential land, public facilities land and traffic land in the urban structure mainly affected the air pollution. In the central region, the residential land, industrial land, traffic land and municipal land in the urban structure had a significant impact on the air pollution, while the urban scale was the main cause of the air pollution in the western region. Based on this, we recommended the reasonable planning of land use structure, establishment of a population density regulation mechanism, and paying attention to regional differences and urban size differences. This study can help managers of different economic zones and cities of different sizes to improve urban spatial structure and control air pollution in the process of urban development.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ambarwati, L., Verhaeghe, R., Van Arem, B., & Pel, A. J. (2016). The influence of integrated space–transport development strategies on air pollution in urban areas. Transportation Research Part D Transport and Environment, 44, 134–146. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trd.2016.02.015
Andong, R. F., & Sajor, E. (2017). Urban sprawl, public transport, and increasing CO2 emissions: The case of Metro Manila. Philippines. Environment Development and Sustainability, 19(1), 99–123. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-015-9729-8
Azhari, A., Latif, M. T., & Mohamed, A. F. (2018). Road traffic as an air pollutant contributor within an industrial park environment. Atmospheric Pollution Research, 9, 680–687. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apr.2018.01.007
Bereitschaft, B., & Debbage, K. (2013). Urban form, air pollution, and CO2 emissions in large U.S. metropolitan areas. Professional Geographer, 65(4), 612–635. https://doi.org/10.1080/00330124.2013.799991
Burgalassi, D., & Luzzati, T. (2015). Urban spatial structure and environmental emissions: A survey of the literature and some empirical evidence for Italian Nuts 3 regions. Cities, 49, 134–148. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2015.07.008
Cheng, Z., Li, L., & Liu, J. (2017). Identifying the spatial effects and driving factors of urban PM2.5 pollution in China. Ecological Indicators, 82, 61–75. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2017.06.043
Denant-Boemont, L., Gaigné, C., & Gaté, G. (2018). Urban spatial structure, transport-related emissions and welfare. Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 89, 29–45. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeem.2018.01.006
Fan, C., Tian, L., Hou, D., Song, Y., Qiao, X., & Li, J. (2018). Examining the impacts of urban form on air pollutant emissions: Evidence from China. Journal of Environmental Management, 212, 405–414. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2018.02.001
Feng, Y., & Wang, X. (2020). Effects of urban sprawl on haze pollution in China based on dynamic spatial Durbin model during 2003–2016. Journal of Cleaner Production, 242, 118368. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.118368
Ghaffari, P. O., & Monavari, S. M. (2013). Physical development trend and green space destruction in developing cities: A GIS approach. Environment Development and Sustainability, 15(1), 167–175. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-012-9381-5
Guo, L., Luo, J., Yuan, M., Huang, Y., Shen, H., & Li, T. (2019). The influence of urban planning factors on PM 2.5 pollution exposure and implications: A case study in China based on remote sensing, LBS, and GIS data. Science of the Total Environment, 659, 1585–1596. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.12.448
Han, K. (2019). The impact of urban spatial structure on local government debt: An empirical study based on the panel data of prefecture level cities in China. Journal of Hohai University (philosophy and Social Sciences Edition), 021(004), 52–58. (In Chinese).
Hao, Y., & Liu, Y. (2016). The influential factors of urban PM2.5 concentrations in China: A spatial econometric analysis. Journal of Cleaner Production, 112, 1443–1453. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.05.005
Hien, P. D., Menb, N. T., Tan, P. M., & Hangartner, M. (2020). Impact of urban expansion on the air pollution landscape: A case study of Hanoi, Vietnam. The Science of the Total Environment, 702, 134635.1-134635.9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.134635
Huang, Y., Wang, Q., Wang, Y., Su, B., & Zhou, D. (2019). Industrial SO2 emissions treatment in China: A temporal-spatial whole process decomposition analysis. Journal of Environmental Management, 243, 419–434. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2019.05.025
Huang, Z., & Du, X. (2018). Urban land expansion and air pollution: Evidence from China. Journal of Urban Planning and Development, 144(4), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)UP.1943-5444.0000476
Jiang, P., Yang, J., Huang, C., & Liu, H. (2018). The contribution of socioeconomic factors to PM2.5 pollution in urban China. Environmental Pollution, 233, 977–985. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2017.09.090
Jung, M., Park, J., & Kim, S. (2019). Spatial relationships between urban structures and air Pollution in Korea. Sustainability, 11(2), 476–495
Li, Y., Zhu, K., & Wang, S. (2020). Polycentric and dispersed population distribution increases PM25 concentrations: Evidence from 286 Chinese Cities, 2001–2016. Journal of Cleaner Production, 248, 119202. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.119202
Li, C., Wang, Z., Li, B., Peng, Z., & Fu, Q. (2019). Investigating the relationship between air pollution variation and urban form. Building and Environment, 147, 559–568. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2018.06.038
Li, F., & Zhou, T. (2019). Effects of urban form on air quality in China: An analysis based on the spatial autoregressive model. Cities, 89, 130–140. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2019.01.025
Liang, Z., Wei, F., Wang, Y., Huang, J., & Li, S. (2020). The context-dependent effect of urban form on air pollution: A panel data analysis. Remote Sensing, 12(11), 1793–1812. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs12111793
Liu, D., He, Y., & Wang, Q. (2021). Urban spatial structure evolution and smog management in China: A re-examination using nonparametric panel model. Journal of Cleaner Production, 285, 124847. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.124847
Liu, K., Xue, M., Peng, M., & Wang, C. (2020). Impact of spatial structure of urban agglomeration on carbon emissions: An analysis of the Shandong Peninsula China. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 161, 120313. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2020.120313
Lu, J., Li, B., Li, H., & Al-Barakani, A. (2021). Expansion of city scale, traffic modes, traffic congestion, and air pollution. Cities, 108, 102974. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2020.102974
Luo, X., Sun, K., Li, L., Wu, S., Yan, D., Fu, X., & Luo, H. (2021). Impacts of urbanization process on PM2.5 pollution in “2+26” cities. Journal of Cleaner Production, 284, 124761. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.124761
Luo, K., Li, G., Fang, C., & Sun, A. (2018). PM2.5 mitigation in China: Socioeconomic determinants of concentrations and differential control policies. Journal of Environmental Management, 213, 47–55. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2018.02.044
Mansfield, T. J., Rodriguez, D. A., Huegy, J., & Gibson, J. M. (2014). The effects of urban form on ambient air pollution and public health risk: A case study in Raleigh North Carolina. Risk Analysis, 35(5), 901–918. https://doi.org/10.1111/risa.12317
Miao, Z., Chen, X., & Balezentis, T. (2021). Improving energy use and mitigating pollutant emissions across “Three Regions and Ten Urban Agglomerations”: A city-level productivity growth decomposition. Applied Energy., 283, 116296. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2020.116296
Muñiz, I., & Garcia-López, C. (2019). Urban form and spatial structure as determinants of per capita greenhouse gas emissions considering possible endogeneity and compensation behaviors. Environmental Impact Assessment Review, 76, 79–87. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eiar.2019.02.002
Muñiz, I., & Sánchez, V. (2018). Urban spatial form and structure and greenhouse-gas emissions from commuting in the metropolitan zone of Mexico valley. Ecological Economics, 147, 353–364. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2018.01.035
Pu, Z., Yue, S., Gao, P., & Phillips, F. (2020). The driving factors of China’s embodied carbon emissions. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 153, 119930. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2020.119930
Rodríguez, M. C., Dupont-Courtade, L., & Oueslati, W. (2016). Air pollution and urban structure linkages: Evidence from European cities. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 53, 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2015.07.190
Schindler, M., & Caruso, G. (2014). Urban compactness and the trade-off between air pollution emission and exposure: Lessons from a spatially explicit theoretical model. Computers. Environment and Urban SyStems, 45, 13–23. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compenvurbsys.2014.01.004
She, Q., Peng, X., Xu, Q., Long, L., Wei, N., Liu, M., et al. (2017). Air quality and its response to satellite-derived urban form in the Yangtze River Delta, China. Ecological Indicators, 75, 297–306. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2016.12.045
Shi, T., Hu, Y., Liu, M., Li, C., Zhang, C., & Liu, C. (2020). Land use regression modelling of PM2.5 spatial variations in different seasons in urban areas. Science of the Total Environment, 743, 140744. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.140744
Tao, Y., Zhang, Z., Ou, W., Guo, J., & Steven, G. (2020). How does urban form influence PM 2.5 concentrations: Insights from 350 different-sized cities in the rapidly urbanizing Yangtze River Delta region of China, 1998–2015. Cities, 98, 102581. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2019.102581
Wang, C., Miao, Z., Chen, X., & Cheng, Y. (2021). Factors affecting changes of greenhouse gas emissions in Belt and Road countries. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 147, 111220. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2021.111220
Xu, B., Luo, L., & Lin, B. (2016). A dynamic analysis of air pollution emissions in China: Evidence from nonparametric additive regression models. Ecological Indicators, 63, 346–358. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2015.11.012
Yang, J., Shi, B., Zheng, Y., Shi, Y., & Xia, G. (2020). Urban form and air pollution disperse: Key index and mitigation strategies. Sustainable Cities and Society, 57, 101955. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2019.101955
Yu, C., Kang, J., Teng, J., Long, H., & Fu, Y. (2021). Does coal-to-gas policy reduce air pollution? Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment in China. Science of the Total Environment, 773, 144645. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.144645
Yuan, M., Song, Y., Huang, Y., Shen, H., & Li, T. (2019). Exploring the association between the built environment and remotely sensed PM2.5 concentrations in urban areas. Journal of Cleaner Production, 220, 1014–1023. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.02.236
Zahari, M. A. Z., Majid, M. R., Ho, C. S., Kurata, G., Nadhirah, N., & Irina, S. Z. (2016). Relationship between land use composition and PM10 concentrations in Iskandar Malaysia. Clean Technologies and Environmental Policy, 18, 2429–2439. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10098-016-1263-3
Funding
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 71673270).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
FW contributed to conceptualization; formal analysis; funding acquisition; methodology; project administration; supervision; validation; roles/writing—original draft; and writing—review and editing; MD was involved in data collection; formal analysis; investigation; methodology; software; visualization; and roles/writing—original draft; JR contributed to conceptualization; formal analysis; investigation; methodology; and writing—review & editing; SL was involved in contributions: data curation; investigation; and software; HZ contributed to data curation; investigation; JL was involved in contributions: data curation; writing—review and editing; and funding acquisition.
Corresponding authors
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Wang, F., Dong, M., Ren, J. et al. The impact of urban spatial structure on air pollution: empirical evidence from China. Environ Dev Sustain 24, 5531–5550 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-021-01670-z
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-021-01670-z