Do smart cities have lower particulate matter 2.5 (PM2.5)? Evidence from China

The impact of industrial robots application on air pollution in China: Mechanisms of energy use efficiency and green technological innovation

“…Technological innovation is an important intermediary between industrial activities and environmental pollution, 5 can improve energy utilization by mitigating resource mismatch on the input side, and can improve productivity by optimizing production methods and upgrading manufacturing equipment on the output side, thus promoting the optimization and upgrading of industrial structure and the transformation of economic development. [15][16][17] Many studies have provided new solutions from the perspective of integrating informatization and industrialization. As a combination of informatization, industrialization, and urbanization, smart cities have been proven by many studies to reduce environmental pollution, including SO 2 , PM2.5, and PM10.…”

“…[17][18][19] For example, through a study based on Chinese city panel data from 2004 to 2018, Cui and Cao found that smart city construction significantly reduced PM2.5 concentrations in local and surrounding non-pilot cities, and its effect on local pollution control was achieved by promoting city innovation, industrial optimization, and upgrading, driving technological progress, and increasing total factor productivity. 17 Information and communication technology (ICT), a key integrating technology in smart city construction, can significantly improve air quality in eastern China through information infrastructure improvement and energy efficiency improvement effects but is weak in central, western, and northeastern regions. 20 Admittedly, new technological innovations such as ICT are considered by many studies to be important ways to improve air quality and control environmental pollution.…”

“…As a combination of informatization, industrialization, and urbanization, smart cities have been proven by many studies to reduce environmental pollution, including SO 2 , PM2.5, and PM10. [17][18][19] For example, through a study based on Chinese city panel data from 2004 to 2018, Cui and Cao found that smart city construction significantly reduced PM2.5 concentrations in local and surrounding non-pilot cities, and its effect on local pollution control was achieved by promoting city innovation, industrial optimization, and upgrading, driving technological progress, and increasing total factor productivity. 17 Information and communication technology (ICT), a key integrating technology in smart city construction, can significantly improve air quality in eastern China through information infrastructure improvement and energy efficiency improvement effects but is weak in central, western, and northeastern regions.…”

Spatial Effect of Digital Economy on Particulate Matter 2.5 in the Process of Smart Cities: Evidence from Prefecture-Level Cities in China

“…Through the application of new-generation information technologies such as Internet of Things (IOT) infrastructure, cloud computing infrastructure, and tools and processes such as wikis, social networks, Fab Lab, Living Lab, and integrated methods, smart cities achieve comprehensive and open creation through perception, broadband and ubiquitous interconnection, intelligent and integration. Along with the rise of network empires and the convergence of mobile technologies of innovation, the smart city in the knowledge society environment was the advanced form of informational city development after the digital city [ 16 , 59 , 60 ].…”

Does the pilot construction of new-energy cities promote particulate matter 2.5 (PM2.5) reduction? Evidence from China

“…In the past 40 years, China's rapid economic development has come at a huge environmental price (Cui and Cao, 2022). According to the " Bulletin on China's Ecological Environment in 2020″, among the 337 prefecture-level cities in China, only 202 meet environmental quality standards, accounting for 59.9% of all cities, and the annual average PM2.5 concentration is as high as 33μg/m3, far exceeding the 10μg/m3 standard in the World Health Organization's Air Quality Guidelines.…”