The Regional Differences Of Relationship Between China’s Urbanization And Environmental Pollution

Since the reform and opening up in1978, China’s urbanization has developedsteadily and rapidly, however, extensive development model damaged the environmentseriously. With the speedy development of Economic aggregate and urbanization, theecological and environmental quality has deteriorated further. Thus, what is the exactrole of China’s urbanization in the pollution of the regional environment? What are thedifferences between urbanization and environmental pollution of all provinces? Thisarticle will thoroughly explore such issues that we can obtain reasonable answers.In this paper, two variables are utilized to study what the impact of urbanization onthe environment pollution is. Urbanization rate is the main explanatory variable. Theaggregative index of Industrial pollution and Domestic pollution, which is obtained bydealing with various pollutants in entropy method, constitutes the explained variable.This paper firstly introduces the development of urbanization in China, including theoverall development and changes of urbanization throughout the country and specificsituations of eastern, middle and eastern regions. Then descriptive statistical analysis iscarried out for regional difference and spatial correlation of urbanization index. Next,based on the basic theory of urbanization and environmental pollution, this paperpresents the analysis of each phase of the relationship between urbanization andenvironmental pollution as well as their corresponding characters; the spatialcorrelations between Industrial pollution and Domestic pollution are also analyzedrespectively. Following above analysis, the panel data of29provinces of China from1998to2011is used to establish a spatial fixed effect model of space so that anempirical test can be carried out. This paper also analyses the difference betweenurbanization and environmental pollution in eastern, middle and western regions fromthe perspective of regional level. The following are final empirical conclusions:For urbanization and industrial pollution, with regard to the relationship betweenurbanization and industrial pollution, an inverted U-shape can represent the situation ofeastern and central parts of China, and a positive U-shape tells that of western region.The spatial correlation of industrial pollution is positive between all provinces ofeastern region. For this part, adjacent areas exert a positive impact on the pollution ofthis very area. However, a negative spatial correlation appears when it comes to theindustrial pollution of provinces of middle and western regions. For these two regions, vicinal areas impose negative influence on the industrial pollution of them. Comparedwith the condition of eastern region, the provincial units of middle and west regionsendure a greater negative impact from the industrial pollution of their neighboringprovincesFor urbanization and domestic pollution, the relationship between urbanizationand domestic pollution in the eastern part shows an inverted U-shape; and this shapealso can be applied to the situation of central region without obvious significance.Nevertheless, a positive U-shaped relationship suits the situation of western region. Thespatial correlation of domestic pollution among eastern, middle and western regionsdiffers. In eastern part, the domestic pollution of it receives a positive influence fromadjacent provinces, while the neighboring areas exert a negative impact on the domesticpollution of middle and western parts. Compared to the condition of eastern region,the provincial units of middle and western regions suffer a greater negative impact fromthe domestic pollution of their vicinal provinces. Overall, compared with the spatialcorrelation of domestic pollution, the spatial correlation of industrial pollution spatialcorrelation is stronger.