Urban Expansion And Green Economy Development In China

Since the reform and opening up,China’s economy has achieved rapid growth through extensive economic development with high input,high energy consumption and high emissions.However,under this extensive mode of economic growth,problems such as resource shortage and environmental pollution have become increasingly prominent,seriously restricting the sustainable development of China’s economy,society and ecological environment.With the transformation of China’s main contradiction,it marks the urgent need of the people for a better living environment,and the economic growth target urgently needs to be changed from the increase of the total amount to the improvement of the quality.In this context,the development of green economy is the key for China in the new era to meet the expectations of the masses for the quality of the ecological environment,and it is an inevitable choice for the current transformation of the economic development model.From the perspective of urban land use,land is the carrier of social and economic activities,supporting and carrying production activities.At the same time,land is also a policy tool,and the government controls the macro-economy through land supply.Therefore,studying the relationship between urban land expansion and green economic development has important theoretical and practical significance for exploring the development path of China’s green economy.This paper reviews the existing literature and finds that domestic and foreign scholars have conducted a comprehensive and detailed analysis of the measurement of urban expansion,urban expansion and energy consumption,urban expansion and air quality,urban expansion and green economic efficiency.These has achieved abundant research results in both theoretical and empirical aspects,but there are still the following research deficiencies: Firstly,the existing literature focuses on the economic growth effect,energy intensity effect or ecological environment effect of urban land expansion,but few researchers put urban expansion and green economic efficiency into a unified analysis framework to explore the relationship between them.Secondly,the development of green economy comprehensively considers many input-output variables such as economic growth,energy consumption,environmental quality and carbon emission,and the fundamental to improve the development of green economy lies in ensuring economic growth while reducing energy consumption and protecting the ecological environment.Therefore,it is necessary to discuss the impact of urban expansion on the development of green economy from energy consumption and environmental quality.Based on the shortcomings of the existing literature,this paper puts urban expansion and green economy development into a unified analysis framework,and conducts in-depth research on urban expansion and green economy development from two angles of energy consumption and environmental quality.The research of this paper can be summarized as follows:Firstly,this paper defines the related concepts,and briefly combs the basic theories of this paper,including urban boundary growth theory,green economy development theory,energy demand theory and environmental Kuznets curve.In the theoretical analysis part of this paper.Firstly,this paper discusses the relationship between urban expansion and green economy development under the framework of energy-economyenvironment(3E)system analysis.Secondly,this paper discusses the internal mechanism of the impact of urban expansion on the development of green economy from the perspective of economic agglomeration.Finally,the development of green economy integrates economic growth,energy consumption,environmental quality,carbon emission and other factors.As energy consumption and environmental problems are inextricably linked with the development of green economy,this paper theoretically analyzes the impact of urban expansion on energy consumption and environmental quality under the framework of green economy development.Secondly,at the level of current situation analysis,this paper reveals the temporal and spatial evolution characteristics of urban land expansion in China.In terms of time,affected by the level of opening to the outside world,household registration management system and land management system,the urban land area has grown rapidly from the beginning of this century to the present.In terms of space,the newly added urban land in China,including residential land,industrial land and transportation facilities land,is mainly concentrated in provincial capitals and eastern coastal areas.As for the urban internal spatial structure,this paper uses the nighttime light to find that the urban internal spatial structure of provincial capitals,sub-provincial capitals and above is changing towards multi-centers.Thirdly,the empirical analysis of the influence of urban expansion on the development of green economy.Based on the non-radial and non-angular superefficiency SBM function,this paper calculates the green economic efficiency as the proxy variable of green economic development,in which the unexpected output includes carbon dioxide,sulfur dioxide,industrial wastewater and industrial dust.This paper finds that,firstly,the change of green economic efficiency has obvious stage characteristics,and the spatial and temporal change trend of the regions with high green economic efficiency is spreading from the eastern region to the central and western regions;Secondly,there is no σ convergence in the efficiency of green economy at the national and regional levels,but there is absolute β convergence.Third,the expansion of urban land is not conducive to the improvement of green economic efficiency;Fourthly,population agglomeration and industrial agglomeration can effectively restrain the negative impact of urban expansion on the efficiency of green economy;Finally,from the perspective of heterogeneity,the negative impact of population concentration and industrial agglomeration on the efficiency of green economy is different among different cities and regions.Fourthly,the energy effect of urban expansion under the framework of green economy development.This paper discusses the relationship between urban expansion and energy consumption by using urban household survey data and land use remote sensing data.This paper finds that,firstly,urban expansion increases household energy consumption,and the impact of urban expansion on household energy consumption is through various channels.Specifically,urban expansion affects household energy consumption by increasing travel distance and increasing household income;Secondly,urban road area and public transport vehicles play a regulatory role in the relationship between urban expansion and household energy consumption,that is,increasing urban road area and public transport vehicles can effectively restrain the positive impact of urban expansion on household energy consumption;Finally,in big cities and subprovincial cities,the impact of urban expansion on household energy consumption is greater than that in small and medium-sized cities and ordinary prefecture-level cities.Fifth,the environmental effects of urban expansion under the framework of green economic development.This paper discusses the relationship between urban expansion and air quality by using PM2.5 data and land use remote sensing data.This paper finds that,firstly,urban expansion improves air quality through economic scale,industrial structure upgrading and technological innovation;Secondly,the marketization of land contributes to the orderly expansion of urban land,and then has a positive impact on air quality;Finally,the impact of urban land expansion on air quality has stage characteristics.In the early stage of urban development,urban expansion worsened air quality.With the further development of cities,urban expansion helps to improve air quality.To sum up,this paper puts urban expansion and green economic development into a unified analysis framework,and discusses the impact of urban land expansion on green economic development from the aspects of energy consumption and air quality.Finally,according to the research conclusion of this paper,the present situation of urban land expansion and the reality of green economy development in China,the corresponding policy suggestions are put forward.It can provide theoretical support and experience reference for optimizing urban industrial layout,urban spatial structure,improving the level of green economic development,energy utilization efficiency and ecological environment governance.