Interplay of Urbanization and Ecological Environment: Coordinated Development and Drivers

Abstract

The interplay between urbanization and ecological environmental efficiency has gained increasing significance in the context of sustainable development, as rapid urban growth poses challenges to resource consumption, greenhouse gas emissions, and the overall ecological well-being of urban areas. Understanding and analyzing the coordinated development of urbanization and ecological environmental efficiency, as well as assessing the influence of drivers on this relationship, is crucial for developing effective policies and strategies that promote environmentally sustainable urban development. This study establishes an urbanization index based on four key aspects: economy, society, population, and ecology. This investigation focuses on 30 provinces in China spanning from 2011 to 2020. The following methods are applied: global Malmquist–Luenberger productivity index, entropy method, TOPSIS model, coupled coordination degree model, panel-corrected standard error (PCSE), and feasible generalized least squares (FGLS) models. The empirical results demonstrate a favorable level of coordinated development between urbanization and the ecological environment overall, with more pronounced regional evolution trends. The trade openness, energy structure, and digitalization level play significant roles in effectively promoting the coordinated development of urbanization and the ecological environment to varying extents. The growth of trade openness and digitalization level promote coordinated development between urbanization and the ecological environment by 0.125 and 0.049, respectively. However, the increase in the energy structure decreases it by 0.509. These results have significant implications for policymakers, urban planners, and stakeholders, emphasizing the need for a balanced approach that prioritizes ecological environmental protection in urbanization efforts. This study underscores the importance of sustainable urban development strategies to ensure long-term ecological and environmental sustainability.

An empirical analysis of the coupling and coordinated development of new urbanization and ecological welfare performance in China’s Chengdu–Chongqing economic circle

“…This serves as a critical foundation for contemplating the synchronized advancement of regional ecology and environment at the micro level. Firstly, this study measures city size by total urban population, and empirical results confirm that China’s "demographic dividend" initially fostered the synergistic development of urbanization and the environment 74 . However, as urban population expansion remains unchecked, this facilitative effect has transformed into a hindrance.…”

Green Consumption, Environmental Regulation and Carbon Emissions—An Empirical Study Based on a PVAR Model

“…We have selected shared bicycles and new energy cars as our indicators since they are novel, and popular, and haven't been covered in any previous research. For the construction of provincial Chinese green consumption index (GCI) systems, the existing literature has mainly focused on three approaches, namely, mixing urban and rural economic indicators [20,21,25,26], constructing urban GCIs using urban economic indicators [27], and using economic indicators to construct rural GCIs [28].…”

Digital Marketing and Sustainable Economic Development Trends in Developed and Underdeveloped Countries: A Bibliometric Analysis

“…The results of the study show that digital marketing has been the most important economic factor for both developed and undeveloped countries, outweighing all other factors. The results again revealed that COVID-19 has become an integral part of digital marketing and sustainable economic performance [52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60][61][62][63][64][65] in both developed and underdeveloped economies. COVID-19 was associated with innovations, public health, education, vaccines, diagnosis, epidemiology, etc.…”