Abstract
Rational planning and optimization of urban spatial form to achieve the goal of energy efficient utilization and carbon emission reduction is one of the important ways to improve energy efficiency. We deconstruct urban spatial form into centrality, aggregation and complexity, and analyze net effect and its heterogeneity of urban spatial form on energy efficiency with OLS, quantile regression model as well as grouped regression model. The results show that the effects of urban spatial centrality and complexity on energy efficiency are nonlinear. For the vast majority of cities, strengthening urban spatial centrality will significantly improve energy efficiency, but the growth rate will gradually decrease. The impact effect of urban complexity on energy efficiency has the characteristics of U-shaped trend with an inflection point value of 0.429. And for the three-quarters of urban samples, enhancing urban spatial complexity will reduce energy efficiency. The positive effect of urban spatial aggregation on energy efficiency is only significant in cities with high quantile for energy efficiency. In terms of urban heterogeneity, the positive effects of spatial centrality and aggregation on energy efficiency are more obvious in megacities with a permanent population of more than 5 million, and the negative effect of spatial complexity on energy efficiency is more obvious in small and medium-sized cities. Whether it is promotion or inhibition, the urban samples with high energy efficiency are more affected by the change of urban spatial form. Optimizing the urban spatial form is one of the important ways to improve the energy efficiency, and the policy setting should give full consideration to the urban heterogeneity and classified policies.
Highlights
Resource depletion and ecological environment problems caused by excessive energy consumption have become one of the major challenges of human development in the 21st century
The dependent variable energy effi represents the energy efficiency of city i; The independent variables are centrality, aggregation, and complexity of urban spatial form, and β is the net effect of urban spatial form on energy efficiency; control is the control variables, including social, economic, and institutional factors
The following main conclusions were reached: First, the effect of urban centrality on energy efficiency shows an inverted U-shaped trend with an inflection point value of 0.34, and 98.23% of the city samples are on the left of the inflection point, meaning that strengthening urban centralization for the vast majority of cities helps improve energy efficiency
Summary
Resource depletion and ecological environment problems caused by excessive energy consumption have become one of the major challenges of human development in the 21st century. In China, energy has supported the process of industrialization and urbanization to a certain extent, and has become a vital factor of production for economic growth. The huge energy consumption makes China’s carbon emissions jump to the first in the world, accounting for 28.9% of the global total. They have expanded the scale of production and life, increased fossil energy consumption, and exacerbated the problem of regional and structural energy shortage. How to achieve the goals of energy efficient utilization and carbon emission reduction through reasonable planning, optimization and adjustment of urban spatial form provides a new path for China to deal with the energy crisis and improve energy efficiency under the “double carbon” strategic goal. In Result section, the net effect and its heterogeneity of urban spatial form on energy efficiency are systematically analyzed
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