Spatial coordination and industrial pollution of urban agglomerations: Evidence from the Yellow River Basin in China

Abstract

AbstractPopulation, economy, and other social factors of urban agglomerations in river basins bear the inescapable responsibility for water environmental pollution. This article utilizes data from 53 cities in three regional‐level urban agglomerations in the Yellow River Basin (YRB) from 2006 to 2015 as research samples to analyse the impact of the coupling and coordination of physical space expansion (PSE) and social space structure (SSS) of urban agglomerations on industrial pollution. Multi‐source remote sensing data is used to quantify the physical space expansion of urban agglomerations, while population and economic data are used to measure the social space structure. We analyse the coupling coordination degree and spatiotemporal evolution of the PSE and SSS of urban agglomerations by applying a coupling coordination degree model. Finally, the grey incidence model is used to rank the influencing factors of pollution. The research findings are summarized as follows: (1) Three regional‐level urban agglomerations in the YRB show excessive expansion, with the Shandong Peninsula Urban Agglomeration (SPUA) being the most severe. (2) SPUA and Central Plains Urban Agglomeration (CPUA) exhibit the polycentric SSS, while the Guanzhong Plain Urban Agglomeration (GPUA) shows the monocentric SSS. (3) PSE and SSS of the three urban agglomerations are slightly uncoordinated, but show a trend of easing. The uncoordinated level between SPE and economic distribution in CPUA ranks the highest. (4) SSS exerts the greatest impact on pollution, while the pollution impact of PSE ranks lower. The pollution impact of the coupling coordination degree between SPE and SSS falls between the two. The research results provide a reference for sustainable urban development and planning in countries around the world.