Analysis on Decoupling between Urbanization Level and Urbanization Quality in China

Xueru Zhang,Wei Song,Bo Wen,Dazhi Yang,Yanbin Wu,Jingtao Wang,Shiliang Jiang

doi:10.3390/su12176835

Abstract

After the first industrial revolution, urbanization level worldwide has increased rapidly. As the largest developing country in the world, China has witnessed a rapid improvement in its urbanization level in recent years. Nevertheless, the quality of urbanization has not been improved simultaneously. The relationship between the level and the quality of urbanization has thus become a hot topic for researchers. By introducing the concept and model of decoupling in the field of resources and environment into the analysis of urbanization level and quality, this study evaluated the relationship between urbanization level and urbanization quality of 285 prefecture-level cities in China from 2005 to 2014. It was found that: (1) The urbanization level and urbanization quality in China are unbalanced because the former is growing in a faster rate than the latter. The average urbanization level of China has increased by 27.40% from 42.99% in 2005 to 54.77% in 2014, while the increase of urbanization quality, however, is much slower with only 11.21% for the same period. It can be concluded that China has paid more attention to urbanization level than urbanization quality. (2) From 2005 to 2014, the relationship between China’s urbanization level and quality showed a total of eight decoupling states, of which the main ones were strong negative decoupling (non-ideal state) and growth negative decoupling (close to ideal state), accounting for 38.32% and 33.49% of the total number of samples in China, respectively. (3) The change of urbanization level and urbanization quality in China can be divided into two stages: for the first stage from 2005 to 2010, with rapid improvement in urbanization level, and the other from 2011 to 2014, with rapid improvement in urbanization quality. (4) Spatially, the areas with significant decoupling between urbanization level and urbanization quality are mainly distributed in underdeveloped areas such as the west; and the decoupling presents the spatial pattern of the highest in the west, the second in the middle, and the lowest in the east.

Highlights

In the late 18th century, the first industrial revolution brought about technological reform as well as social change, promoting the rapid development of urbanization worldwide
(3) The change of urbanization level and urbanization quality in China can be divided into two stages: for the first stage from 2005 to 2010, with rapid improvement in urbanization level, and the other from 2011 to 2014, with rapid improvement in urbanization quality
(4) Spatially, the areas with significant decoupling between urbanization level and urbanization quality are mainly distributed in underdeveloped areas such as the west; and the decoupling presents the spatial pattern of the highest in the west, the second in the middle, and the lowest in the east

Summary

Introduction

In the late 18th century, the first industrial revolution brought about technological reform as well as social change, promoting the rapid development of urbanization worldwide. The urbanization rates in developed countries have been relatively high and stable. Urbanization promotes regional economic development [3], industrial development [4] and sports culture communication [5]. While on the other hand, due to one-sided pursuit of urbanization development speed, problems of poor urbanization quality in some regions emerge. The low quality problem caused by the excessive pursuit of urbanization level intensifies the contradiction between resources, environment and population, which is already severe and fragile. To clarify the quantitative relationship between the quality and the level of urbanization, and promote their coordinated development, has become the key to solve the problems above

Objectives

Methods

Results