The Impact of Urbanization on the Delivery of Public Service–Related SDGs in China

Abstract

China's rapid urbanization has driven economic development and social progress. As the populations of cities and towns have increased during urbanization, demand for public services has risen. Based on the Sustainable Development Goals system of the United Nations 2030 Agenda (UN-SDGs), this study establishes an index system for evaluating progress toward the SDGs related to the supply of public services in the context of China's rapid urbanization. In total, 24 indicators closely related to SDG3, SDG4, SDG6, SDG7, SDG8, SDG9, and SDG11 were selected to represent the four dimensions of education, employment, public health, and infrastructure in public services and calculate a public service–related SDGs index (SDPS). Urbanization was also quantified for land use, population, and the economy. The spatiotemporal changes in urbanization and public service–related SDGs at the provincial level in China from 2000 to 2015 were analyzed. The impact of urbanization on the SDPS was also analyzed by combining geographically weighted regression and multi-scale geographically weighted regression. We found the following results. (1) From 2000 to 2015, the eastern region of China had a high level of urbanization but its speed was relatively slow; the central and western regions underwent faster urbanization but had lower levels of urbanization by 2015. (2) The average SDPS increased from 0.580 to 0.649 over 2000–2015, and the level of public service provision in the eastern and central regions was higher than in the western regions. (3) Land urbanization significantly and positively affected progress toward provincial public service–related SDGs in China, more than did population or economic urbanization. The results provide direction for the government in progressing public service–related SDGs through planning and financial means.