IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v11y2019i17p4707-d262013.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Cross-City Convergence in Urban Green Space Coverage in China

Author

Listed:
  • Yueju Wang

    (Key Laboratory of Western China’s Environmental Systems (Ministry of Education), College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China
    Institute for Circular Economy in Western China, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China)

  • Xingpeng Chen

    (Key Laboratory of Western China’s Environmental Systems (Ministry of Education), College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China
    Institute for Circular Economy in Western China, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China)

  • Zilong Zhang

    (Key Laboratory of Western China’s Environmental Systems (Ministry of Education), College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China
    Institute for Circular Economy in Western China, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China)

  • Bing Xue

    (Key Lab of Pollution Ecology and Environmental Engineering, Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang 10016, China
    Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS), Potsdam 14467, Germany)

  • Chenyu Lu

    (College of Geography and Environment Science, Northwest Normal University, Lanzhou 730070, China)

Abstract

Cross-city convergence in green space coverage could contribute to our understanding of the law of motion of distribution dynamics of environmental sustainability across cities and provide crucial information for designing policies regarding complex processes relating to human–environment interactions in an urban system. The relationship between socioeconomic factors and green space coverage has been widely discussed, but research on the distribution dynamics of green space coverage across cities is limited. This paper explored the pattern of convergence in green space coverage of a group of 285 Chinese cities over the period of 2002–2012 by using hybrid approaches, including the nonparametric estimation technique, unconditional β-convergence model, and conditional β-convergence model. The results indicated that the green space coverage level in most cities has been substantially improved; the spatial disparity across Chinese cities has shrunk, and the level of green space coverage has converged to 104% of the average level. The β-convergence estimation results demonstrate the existence of unconditional and conditional convergence in green space coverage among Chinese cities, which indicates that cities with a low initial level of green space coverage grow faster than those with an initial high level. Faster sprawling, more compact and wealthier cities are likely to converge to a higher level of green space coverage. Expansion of the population and spatial scale of cities contributes to increasing green space coverage, sprawling of built-up area leads to a decrease of the green space coverage, and economic growth has little impact on green space coverage.

Suggested Citation

  • Yueju Wang & Xingpeng Chen & Zilong Zhang & Bing Xue & Chenyu Lu, 2019. "Cross-City Convergence in Urban Green Space Coverage in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(17), pages 1-11, August.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:17:p:4707-:d:262013
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/17/4707/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/17/4707/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Miketa, Asami & Mulder, Peter, 2005. "Energy productivity across developed and developing countries in 10 manufacturing sectors: Patterns of growth and convergence," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(3), pages 429-453, May.
    2. Ron Martin, 2001. "EMU versus the regions? Regional convergence and divergence in Euroland," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 1(1), pages 51-80, January.
    3. Ezcurra, Roberto, 2007. "Is there cross-country convergence in carbon dioxide emissions?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(2), pages 1363-1372, February.
    4. Mulder, Peter & de Groot, Henri L.F. & Pfeiffer, Birte, 2014. "Dynamics and determinants of energy intensity in the service sector: A cross-country analysis, 1980–2005," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 1-15.
    5. Maza, Adolfo & Villaverde, José, 2008. "The world per capita electricity consumption distribution: Signs of convergence?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(11), pages 4255-4261, November.
    6. Sala-i-Martin, Xavier X., 1996. "Regional cohesion: Evidence and theories of regional growth and convergence," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 40(6), pages 1325-1352, June.
    7. Salvati, Luca & Zitti, Marco, 2008. "Regional convergence of environmental variables: Empirical evidences from land degradation," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(1-2), pages 162-168, December.
    8. Joakim Westerlund & Syed Basher, 2008. "Testing for Convergence in Carbon Dioxide Emissions Using a Century of Panel Data," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 40(1), pages 109-120, May.
    9. Ordás Criado, C. & Valente, S. & Stengos, T., 2011. "Growth and pollution convergence: Theory and evidence," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 62(2), pages 199-214, September.
    10. Bimonte, Salvatore, 2009. "Growth and environmental quality: Testing the double convergence hypothesis," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(8-9), pages 2406-2411, June.
    11. Gary Higgs & Richard Fry & Mitchel Langford, 2012. "Investigating the Implications of Using Alternative GIS-Based Techniques to Measure Accessibility to Green Space," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 39(2), pages 326-343, April.
    12. Nazrul Islam, 2003. "What have We Learnt from the Convergence Debate?," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 17(3), pages 309-362, July.
    13. Mariam Camarero & Juana Castillo & Andrés Picazo-Tadeo & Cecilio Tamarit, 2013. "Eco-Efficiency and Convergence in OECD Countries," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 55(1), pages 87-106, May.
    14. Ezcurra, Roberto, 2007. "Distribution dynamics of energy intensities: A cross-country analysis," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(10), pages 5254-5259, October.
    15. Herrerias, M.J., 2012. "World energy intensity convergence revisited: A weighted distribution dynamics approach," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 383-399.
    16. Camarero, Mariam & Picazo-Tadeo, Andrés J. & Tamarit, Cecilio, 2008. "Is the environmental performance of industrialized countries converging? A 'SURE' approach to testing for convergence," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(4), pages 653-661, July.
    17. Mariam Camarero & Juana Castillo-Giménez & Andrés Picazo-Tadeo & Cecilio Tamarit, 2014. "Is eco-efficiency in greenhouse gas emissions converging among European Union countries?," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 47(1), pages 143-168, August.
    18. Thomas Bassetti & Nikos Benos & Stelios Karagiannis, 2013. "CO 2 Emissions and Income Dynamics: What Does the Global Evidence Tell Us?," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 54(1), pages 101-125, January.
    19. Ekaterini Panopoulou & Theologos Pantelidis, 2009. "Club Convergence in Carbon Dioxide Emissions," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 44(1), pages 47-70, September.
    20. Herrerias, M.J., 2013. "The environmental convergence hypothesis: Carbon dioxide emissions according to the source of energy," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 1140-1150.
    21. Brown, Mark T. & Cohen, Matthew J. & Sweeney, Sharlynn, 2009. "Predicting national sustainability: The convergence of energetic, economic and environmental realities," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 220(23), pages 3424-3438.
    22. Mohammadi, Hassan & Ram, Rati, 2012. "Cross-country convergence in energy and electricity consumption, 1971–2007," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(6), pages 1882-1887.
    23. Gómez-Baggethun, Erik & Barton, David N., 2013. "Classifying and valuing ecosystem services for urban planning," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 235-245.
    24. Bolund, Per & Hunhammar, Sven, 1999. "Ecosystem services in urban areas," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(2), pages 293-301, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Li, Xin & Ma, Xiaodong & Hu, Zongnan & Li, Siyuan, 2021. "Investigation of urban green space equity at the city level and relevant strategies for improving the provisioning in China," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 101(C).
    2. Valencia Torres, Angélica & Tiwari, Chetan & Atkinson, Samuel F., 2021. "Progress in ecosystem services research: A guide for scholars and practitioners," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 49(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kim, Young Se, 2015. "Electricity consumption and economic development: Are countries converging to a common trend?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 192-202.
    2. Ivanovski, Kris & Awaworyi Churchill, Sefa & Smyth, Russell, 2018. "A club convergence analysis of per capita energy consumption across Australian regions and sectors," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 519-531.
    3. Octavio Fernández-Amador & Doris A. Oberdabernig & Patrick Tomberger, 2019. "Testing for Convergence in Carbon Dioxide Emissions Using a Bayesian Robust Structural Model," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 73(4), pages 1265-1286, August.
    4. Romero-Ávila, Diego & Omay, Tolga, 2022. "Convergence of per capita energy consumption around the world: New evidence from nonlinear panel unit root tests," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 111(C).
    5. Bhattacharya, Mita & Inekwe, John Nkwoma & Sadorsky, Perry & Saha, Anjan, 2018. "Convergence of energy productivity across Indian states and territories," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 427-440.
    6. Tiwari, Aviral & Nasir, Muhammad Ali & shahbaz, Muhammad & Raheem, Ibrahim, 2020. "Convergence and club convergence of CO2 emissions at state levels: A nonlinear analysis of the USA," MPRA Paper 105355, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Wu, Jian-Xin & He, Ling-Yun & Zhang, ZhongXiang, 2019. "Does China Fall into Poverty-Environment Traps? Evidence from Long-term Income Dynamics and Urban Air Pollution," ETA: Economic Theory and Applications 285027, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM).
    8. Wu, Jian-Xin & He, Ling-Yun & Zhang, ZhongXiang, 2022. "On the co-evolution of PM2.5 concentrations and income in China: A joint distribution dynamics approach," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 105(C).
    9. LAWSON, Laté A. & MARTINO, Roberto & NGUYEN-VAN, Phu, 2020. "Environmental convergence and environmental Kuznets curve: A unified empirical framework," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 437(C).
    10. Parker, Steven & Liddle, Brantley, 2017. "Economy-wide and manufacturing energy productivity transition paths and club convergence for OECD and non-OECD countries," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 338-346.
    11. Firouz Fallahi, 2020. "Persistence and unit root in $$\text {CO}_{2}$$CO2 emissions: evidence from disaggregated global and regional data," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 58(5), pages 2155-2179, May.
    12. Burnett, J. Wesley, 2016. "Club convergence and clustering of U.S. energy-related CO2 emissions," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 62-84.
    13. Parker, Steven & Liddle, Brant, 2017. "Analysing energy productivity dynamics in the OECD manufacturing sector," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 91-97.
    14. Dayong Zhang and David C. Broadstock, 2016. "Club Convergence in the Energy Intensity of China," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 3).
    15. Jianhuan Huang & Yantuan Yu & Chunbo Ma, 2018. "Energy Efficiency Convergence in China: Catch-Up, Lock-In and Regulatory Uniformity," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 70(1), pages 107-130, May.
    16. Jian-Xin Wu & Ling-Yun He, 2017. "The Distribution Dynamics of Carbon Dioxide Emissions Intensity across Chinese Provinces: A Weighted Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(1), pages 1-19, January.
    17. Brännlund, Runar & Lundgren, Tommy & Söderholm, Patrik, 2015. "Convergence of carbon dioxide performance across Swedish industrial sectors: An environmental index approach," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 227-235.
    18. Mariam Camarero & Juana Castillo-Giménez & Andrés Picazo-Tadeo & Cecilio Tamarit, 2014. "Is eco-efficiency in greenhouse gas emissions converging among European Union countries?," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 47(1), pages 143-168, August.
    19. Wu, Jianxin & Wu, Yanrui & Se Cheong, Tsun & Yu, Yanni, 2018. "Distribution dynamics of energy intensity in Chinese cities," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 211(C), pages 875-889.
    20. Kounetas, Konstantinos Elias, 2018. "Energy consumption and CO2 emissions convergence in European Union member countries. A tonneau des Danaides?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 111-127.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:17:p:4707-:d:262013. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.