Exploring the spatio-temporal driving mechanism of multi-dimensional urbanization on urban residential buildings based on GTWR: a case study of China

Examining how urbanization affects carbon emissions in the construction industry is crucial for China's efforts to achieve environmentally friendly and low-carbon growth. Nevertheless, current research predominantly employs a unidimensional approach to gauge urbanization, overlooking the nuanced characteristics of novel urbanization. This study explored the spatial and temporal characteristics of the impact of urbanization on carbon emissions from urban residential buildings from a multidimensional perspective, starting from five dimensions: population, economy, land, life, and ecology, using a spatial–temporal geographically weighted regression model (GTWR) and panel data from 30 provinces in China for the period 2010–2020. The findings of this study revealed that, on the whole, population urbanization, land urbanization, and lifestyle urbanization exert a significant facilitating influence on carbon emissions from urban residential buildings. Conversely, economic urbanization exhibits a notable inhibitory effect on carbon emissions from urban residential buildings. Furthermore, ecological urbanization transitions from an inhibitory effect to a promoting effect on carbon emissions from urban residential buildings. The impact of urbanization across various dimensions on carbon emissions from urban residential buildings displays spatiotemporal heterogeneity across different regions and periods. In addition, the structure of energy consumption is a contributing factor to the increase in carbon emissions from urban residential buildings, while there is a notable U-shaped relationship between the level of foreign investment, the industrial structure, and carbon emissions originating from urban residential areas. This study offers profound insights into the relationship between urbanization and carbon emissions, providing valuable guidance for policymakers.