Spatio-temporal differences and convergence mechanisms of green transition of urban land use against the background of industrial integration: A case study of the Yangtze River Economic Belt in China

Abstract

Revealing the spatial differences and the convergence mechanisms of Green Transition of Urban Land Use (GTULU) in the context of industrial integration is of great significance for formulating differentiated industrial development strategies, accelerating the process of industrial integration, and exploring synergistic enhancement paths of GTULU. In this paper, 107 prefecture-level and above cities in the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB) are taken as research objects, and the entropy value method, exploratory spatial data analysis model and spatial convergence model are comprehensively applied to analyze the spatio-temporal differences and spatial convergence of the GTULU under the background of industrial integration. The study shows that: (1) from 2003 to 2021, the level of GTULU in the YREB has been increasing, with the mean value growing from 0.09 to 0.14, but there are still significant spatial differentiation and spatial correlation characteristics, and the regional imbalance phenomenon of GTULU is more and more obvious as time goes by. (2) The GTULU of the YREB and its upstream, midstream, and downstream regions all exhibit a temporal evolution characteristic of increasing fluctuations. (3) There is no σ-convergence in GTULU in the YREB and its upstream, middle-stream, and downstream regions. However, there are all significant absolute β convergence and conditional β convergence. Moreover, under the combined influence of government management, technological input, industrial structural adjustment, and spatial impact, the convergence rate of the YREB has significantly accelerated, from 1.98% to 2.31%, and the convergence effect exhibits marked heterogeneity.

Keywords

• Green transition of urban land use
• Industrial integration
• Spatio-temporal differences
• Convergence mechanisms