The impact of industrial structure on the environment pollution and its spatial-temporal differences in Henan, China

Abstract

The industrial economy in Henan has developed rapidly, and Henan has transformed from an agricultural province into an industrial one. However, the previous rough development model led to a certain degree of imbalance in the industrial structure (IS), which had impact on environment pollution (EP). Based on the existing problems of industrial pollution in Henan, it is still necessary to explore whether the evolution of IS had impact on EP or not. Thus, firstly, the paper used the latest available data of the whole Henan, the prefecture-level cities and the different types of industries from 2008 to 2019 to measure the temporal and spatial evolution of IS using the IS rationalization index, the IS advanced index and the IS change index. Secondly, based on the three indicators of the IS evolution and the comprehensive index of EP, multiple linear regression models and mediation effect models were constructed to assess the impact of the IS evolution on EP. The results showed that the economic growth of industrial sectors presented the characteristics of the structure optimization. The improvement of the rationalization index and the advanced index of IS could reduce the pollution level significantly.