Abstract
With rapid urbanization and industrialization in developing countries, cities have become the major sources of air pollution. Studying urban atmospheric environmental efficiency has an important reference value for the prevention and control of air pollution. This study used data from 267 cities in China between 2001 and 2016 to assess the urban atmospheric environmental efficiency using the super-efficiency slacks-based measure model, to test the spatial characteristics of urban atmospheric environmental efficiency using the spatial autocorrelation method, and to identify factors influencing it using the Geodetector. The results are as follows: (1) The atmospheric environmental efficiency of most cities in China is increasing. The average efficiency in the entire country exhibits an upward "wavy" trend. The average urban atmospheric environmental efficiency in Eastern China is the highest, and that in Western China is the lowest. (2) The urban atmospheric environmental efficiency exhibits the characteristic of global spatial autocorrelation, and high-high and low-low are the main types of efficiency in local spatial autocorrelation. (3) Population density, industrialization, and science and technology are the main factors influencing urban atmospheric environmental efficiency.
Highlights
IntroductionSince the Reform and Opening Up in 1978, China has witnessed large-scale economic growth
Urban atmospheric environmental efficiency; super–efficiencySince the Reform and Opening Up in 1978, China has witnessed large-scale economic growth
(2) The urban atmospheric environmental efficiency exhibits the characteristic of global spatial autocorrelation, and high–high and low–low are the main types of efficiency in local spatial autocorrelation. (3)
Summary
Since the Reform and Opening Up in 1978, China has witnessed large-scale economic growth. Its gross domestic product (GDP) increased from 367.87 billion yuan in 1978 to 99086.51 billion yuan in 2019 (National Bureau of Statistics of China, 2020), and it has been the second-largest economy in the world since 2010. Remarkable progress has been made in optimizing the economic structure, infrastructure construction, urbanization, foreign trade, science and technology, and improving the living standards of the people. As in other developing countries, extensive and inefficient modes of development, the consumption of a large amount of resources, and increasing pollutant emissions have created the problems of environmental pollution and ecological degradation in China, and caused significant damage to the natural environment on which human survival and development depends (Cui et al, 2019). China has been promoting the construction of an ecological civilization since 2012, and since ecological protection and environmental governance have received unprecedented attention
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