Research On The Impact Of Urbanization On Environmental Quality In China

Urbanization is the essence of China’s modernization and it is the basic national policy of China.Since the Reform and Opening Up,along with the rapid advancement of urbanization in China,China’s economic and social development has also achieved huge development.At the same time,China’s environmental quality is not fine to meet its people’s ever-growing needs for a better life.It has become a major social contradiction that China urgently needs to resolve after entering the new epoch.It is controversial that whether urbanization in China has improved the quality of the environment or not.This article aims to eliminate disputes,reveal the mechanism of the impact of urbanization on environmental quality in China,and promote long-term coordinated development of urbanization and environmental quality in China.In this paper,firstly,based on the Petty-Clark Theory,Sabrul-Singleman Theory,the Dualistic Economic Theory and the Environmental Kuznets Theory,at the same time summarizing the existing domestic and foreign literature,the theoretical analysis was made on the influencing factors and action laws of urbanization on environmental quality in various provinces and cities in China.Based on the theoretical analysis,this paper uses the provincial panel data of China from 2005 to 2015,adopts the entropy method to obtain the comprehensive index of environmental quality,and uses the mediating effect model to empirically examine the influencing factors of urbanization on environmental quality in China.In order to further examine the effects of various factors on the environmental quality of urbanization,based on the provincial panel data of China from 2005 to 2015,this paper uses the theoretical model derived from the Kaya Identifier to decompose environmental pollution related factors,and uses a fixed-effect panel regression method to empirically test the impact of urbanization on environmental quality in China.The results of the study indicate that:(1)The improvement of population quality,upgrading of industrial structure and pressure on natural resources are the influencing factors of China’s urbanization on environmental quality.Urbanization in China promotes improvement of environmental quality through upgrading of population quality and upgrading of industrial structure,the pressure of natural resources has caused deterioration of the environmental quality;(2)The impact of urbanization in China on the environmental quality is an inverted "U"pattern,that is,with the development of urbanization,the impact of urbanization on environmental quality has been improved first and then deteriorated.When the urbanization rate reaches at about 58%,the overall impact of urbanization on environmental quality turns from positive to negative.Finally,to achieve a coordinated development of urbanization and environmental quality,based on the current situation of environmental quality in various provinces and cities in China,and in view of the influencing factors and laws of urbanization on environmental quality,this paper proposes to improve the education system and improve the quality of residents;develop strategic emerging industries,promote the optimization and upgrading of industrial structure;increase the financial support for environmental protection technology research and development to improve the efficiency of natural resource use;strengthen environmental law enforcement,improve the environmental regulatory system and other policies.