An improved method for investigating urban municipal infrastructures carrying capacity

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Urban municipal infrastructures play an essential role in urban social and economic development. However, the imbalance between the supply and demand of urban municipal infrastructures appears a common problem in cities. This presents an urgent need for a proper method to investigate the carrying capacity of urban municipal infrastructures in the process of pursuing sustainable urban development. In line with this background, this paper defines the concept of urban municipal infrastructures carrying capacity (UMICC) and establishes an improved method for investigating this capacity. The performances of UMICC are designed to four levels, namely, Low-Utilization, Medium-Utilization, High-Utilization, and Over-Utilization. The effectiveness of this method is proven through an empirical analysis by using the data collected from 35 large cities in China. The empirical results reveal that the utilization intensity of UMICC has been decreasing in recent years in the large Chinese cities, in which UMICC carrier has been increasing at a higher speed than that of UMICC load. In particular, some better-developed cities present a “Low-Utilization” performance level, which is considered that urban policy-makers in some metropolises in China should pay more attention to the better utilization of existing municipal infrastructures. By applying the improved UMICC method introduced in this study, decision-makers can identify the specific areas that affecting the UMICC performance, thus tailor-made policy can be designed for improving UMICC performance by adjusting UMICC carrier and load.