Does digitalization make urban development greener? A case from 276 cities in China

作者：Lindong Ma, Weixiang Xu, Shouchao He, Yuanxiao Hong, Weixia Yang, Yanping Zhao · 发表于：Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution · 年份：2023 · DOI：10.3389/fevo.2023.1074827 · 被引用次数：12 · 研究领域：Energy, Environment, Economic Growth、Land Use and Ecosystem Services、Urban Transport and Accessibility

Nowadays countries in the world are striving to transform their economic and social development modes to achieve the general goal of green development. With the rapid development of communication technology, digitalization has affected production and life, touching all aspects of society. Can digitalization make the world “greener”? To this end, this study conducts an empirical research based on the panel data of 276 cities in China from 2011 to 2020. Firstly, this paper separately measured the comprehensive level of urban digitalization and urban greening through the Entropy-TOPSIS method, then analyzed their spatial distribution characteristics and evolution process respectively, finally used the spatial Durbin model to explore the impact of digitalization on urban greening development. The following conclusions were drawn accordingly: (1). The development pattern of urban digitalization has changed from “multi-point” sporadic distribution to “group-type” aggregation with obvious spatial heterogeneity. The gap between cities is not narrowing. The Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration has become an important high-level digital agglomeration area; (2). The urban greening develops with obvious spatial heterogeneity. The difference between eastern regions and western regions is prominent, and the urban spatial agglomeration characteristic is distinct. However, the spillover effect is weakened with distance, while the convergence characteristic becomes obvious; (3). Digitaliza...