The Impact and Mechanism of the Increased Integration of Urban Agglomerations on the Eco-Efficiency of Cities in the Region—Taking the Chengdu–Chongqing Urban Agglomeration in China as an Example

Abstract

China is attaching increasing importance to the creation of regional integration, high-quality economic development and ecological civilization. An accurate grasp of the traction effect of the increased level of integration of urban agglomerations on the eco-efficiency (EE) of cities in the region will help to promote the steady improvement of urban economic development and the ecological environment. This paper constructs an index system to measure the level of integration of the Chengdu–Chongqing urban agglomeration (CCUA) and the EE of each city within it from 2011 to 2020 and explores the impact of regional integration on urban EE and its mechanism of action. The study presents the follow findings: (1) The level of integration of the CCUA increased nearly 10 times from 2011 to 2020, with the government playing a significant leading role. (2) The positive and negative effects of the level of integration of the CCUA on urban EE depend on factors such as the level of economic development, the stage of development and the location. There are several relationships between the level of intra-regional integration and urban EE: first, a nearly linear increase, as in Chongqing and Chengdu; second, an increase in fluctuation, as in Dazhou, Guang’an and Leshan; and third, a fluctuation, decrease, flat or even no real increase, as in Luzhou, Ya’an and Zigong. (3) Based on this, this paper considers the mechanism of the level of integration within the region on urban EE in terms of both economic and eco-environmental effects, with a view to exploring the future green development path of the CCUA.

Spatial-temporal differentiation of urban eco-efficiency and its driving factors: A comparison of five major urban agglomerations in China

“…For the Chengdu-Chongqing, the top three contributors were population density, FDI proportion, and industrial structure (proportion of secondary industry). At the same time, environmental pollution control investment, innovation level, and environmental infrastructure investment, which had more apparent effects on other urban agglomerations, did not have significant effects on the Chengdu-Chongqing urban agglomeration, which may be closely related to the current economic development stage of Chengdu-Chongqing urban agglomeration and the industrial characteristics that are relatively more focused on the heavy industry [ 46 ].…”

Does Regional Integration Improve Carbon Emission Performance?—A Quasi-Natural Experiment on Regional Integration in the Yangtze River Economic Belt

“…Additionally, market integration can reduce carbon emissions [20]. However, some studies have found that the positive and negative impacts of the integration level of the Chengdu Chongqing urban agglomeration in China on the urban ecological environment depend on factors such as economic development level, development stage, and location [21]. There are also studies that have found the regional economic integration in Chinese urban agglomerations to be able to promote optimal resource allocation and improve urban land use efficiency in the process of socio-economic transformation [22].…”