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Does Administrative Division Adjustment promote low-carbon city development? Empirical evidence from the “Revoke County to Urban District” in China

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Abstract

The carbon emission reduction in city regions as a result of the optimization of urban spatial layout is crucial for combating global warming and has garnered widespread attention in recent years. There is little evidence, however, that a specific spatial optimization technique has a substantial effect on urban spatial layout and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. As an effective tool of hierarchical network governance in China, Administrative Division Adjustment (ADA) has the potential to achieve this goal, due to its redistributive effects on urban space resources. Therefore, we utilize the “Revoke County to Urban District” (CTD)—one of the common and typical ADA policies—as a case study to examine its environmental implications, based on the mediation mechanism of urban spatial layout. The empirical results from a panel dataset of 285 prefecture-level and above cities in China indicate that the CTD will reduce urban CO2 emissions, especially in low administrative levels (low-rank), non-resource based (RB), non-key environmental protection (KEP), midwestern and northwestern cities. And the additional mediation mechanisms demonstrate that the environmental benefits of the CTD in China are attributed to the optimization of urban spatial layout, which reduces CO2 emissions by improving public transportation and limiting urban sprawl.

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Data availability

The supplemental data to this publication could be obtained online at db.cger.nies.go.jp/dataset/ODIAC/DL_odiac2020b.html, and all data generated or analyzed during this investigation is included in this published article.

Notes

  1. http://xzqh.mca.gov.cn/description?dcpid=1.

  2. https://db.cger.nies.go.jp/dataset/ODIAC/DL_odiac2020b.html.

  3. https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/YGIVCD.

  4. https://landscan.ornl.gov/landscan-datasets.

  5. http://data.tpdc.ac.cn/zh-hans/data.

  6. http://www.gov.cn/zwgk/2013-12/03/content_2540070.htm.

  7. https://www.mee.gov.cn/gkml/zj/wj/200910/t20091022_172141.htm.

  8. http://www.gov.cn/zhengce/content/2010-11/22/content_5181.htm.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the editor and reviewers for their insightful comments and suggestions.

Funding

This work was supported by the Ministry of education of Humanities and Social Science project of China (19YJA630079) and the Major Program of National Social Science Foundation of China (18ZDA040).

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  1. Institute of Central China Development, Wuhan University, 430072, Wuhan, Hubei, People’s Republic of China

    Xiangyang Li & Lei Wang

  2. Institute of Regional and Urban-Rural Development, Wuhan University, 430072, Wuhan, Hubei, People’s Republic of China

    Xiangyang Li & Lei Wang

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Xiangyang Li designed the work. Xiangyang Li and Lei Wang performed the analyses and drafted the manuscript. Lei Wang reviewed and revised the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Li, X., Wang, L. Does Administrative Division Adjustment promote low-carbon city development? Empirical evidence from the “Revoke County to Urban District” in China. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30, 11542–11561 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-22653-1

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