A Two-Way Fixed Effects Estimation on the Impact of Industrial Land Supply on Environmental Pollution in Urban China

Despite the great economic growth and fast urbanization process in the past four decades, China is now suffering severely from environmental pollution. Local governments’ industrial land supply behaviors have a great impact on local investment, economic growth, and environmental pollution, which has not been effectively evaluated. To fill this gap, this paper quantitatively investigates the impact of industrial land supply by local governments on environmental pollution based on a two-way fixed effects model. A comprehensive and reliable data set for 277 Chinese prefecture-level cities from 2009 to 2017 has been collected for analysis. The findings suggest that the increase of the ratio of industrial and mining storage land to total land supply significantly increases the concentration of PM2.5. The results remain significant and robust after a series of robustness tests. The negative impacts on environmental quality caused by differences in land supply behavior are greater in the central and western regions. We further explored intermediate mechanisms for the environmental impact of local governments’ allocations of industrial land. The findings suggest that greater industrial land transfer by local governments leads to an expansion in the scale of regional secondary industry and increases in local fiscal deficit. Unbalanced industrial development, insufficient corporate innovation, and insufficient investment in environmental protection will increase pollution. This study provides a reference for improving regulatory measures on land transactions and for formulating regional polices for environmental protection

Exploring Spatio-Temporal Patterns of Urban Village Redevelopment: The Case of Shenzhen, China

The redevelopment of urban villages is a prominent part of urban renewal in China, which has attracted much attention from the academic community. However, the understanding of when and where the redevelopment of urban villages occurs is still limited partly because of the lack of empirical analysis. Through exploratory spatial data and overlay analyses, this study examines the spatio-temporal distribution characteristics based on data from 277 urban village redevelopment projects in Shenzhen, China, between 2010 and 2018. Results demonstrate that the redevelopment of urban villages occurs in central and suburban areas but rarely occurs in the periphery of the city. The overall spatial distribution is spatially clustered, having become increasingly significant from 2010 to 2018. In the beginning, the redevelopment of urban villages was dispersed in diverse areas and partly expanded into adjacent neighbourhoods. A majority of redevelopment took place in areas near the planning urban centres and the planning subway stations, which are almost in Density Zones I–III. The findings of this study contribute to new spatio-temporal perspectives in the global process mechanism of urban village redevelopment and call for special attention to the significant influences of state intervention, which is an informative reference for future sustainable urban development

Exploring Employment Spatial Structure Based on Mobile Phone Signaling Data: The Case of Shenzhen, China

Debate on the shift from a monocentric to polycentric urban structure has been extensive. Polycentricity generally refers to the co-existence of several centers in a city. Existing studies regarding China have mainly focused on the morphological characteristics of urban centers, but few recent studies have focused on functional dimensions of urban centers. Emerging big data sources provide new opportunities to explore the morphological and functional perspectives of urban spatial structure. This study uses mobile phone signaling data and develops a new methodology to measure urban centers’ functional centrality. The study area focuses on Shenzhen City, which has rapidly transformed from a village into a metropolitan city in the past few decades. As the first economic special zone in China, Shenzhen has adopted a polycentric urban plan since the beginning of the urbanization process. This study explores the spatial employment structure of the city from the morphological and function dimensions. Based on the findings, this study discusses the role of urban planning in forming an urban spatial structure and provides implications for future planning

Exploring Employment Spatial Structure Based on Mobile Phone Signaling Data: The Case of Shenzhen, China

Debate on the shift from a monocentric to polycentric urban structure has been extensive. Polycentricity generally refers to the co-existence of several centers in a city. Existing studies regarding China have mainly focused on the morphological characteristics of urban centers, but few recent studies have focused on functional dimensions of urban centers. Emerging big data sources provide new opportunities to explore the morphological and functional perspectives of urban spatial structure. This study uses mobile phone signaling data and develops a new methodology to measure urban centers’ functional centrality. The study area focuses on Shenzhen City, which has rapidly transformed from a village into a metropolitan city in the past few decades. As the first economic special zone in China, Shenzhen has adopted a polycentric urban plan since the beginning of the urbanization process. This study explores the spatial employment structure of the city from the morphological and function dimensions. Based on the findings, this study discusses the role of urban planning in forming an urban spatial structure and provides implications for future planning

Status and Influencing Factors of Physical Exercise among College Students in China: A Systematic Review

The status of the physical exercise of college students has been a popular topic in China. This study systematically reviewed the exercise status of Chinese college students and its influencing factors. A keyword and reference search were conducted in the Web of Science, PubMed, Cochrane library, and the China National Knowledge Infrastructure. Additionally, Google Scholar was searched to collect literatures related to physical activity of Chinese university students published in Chinese and English from 1 January 2017 to 30 July 2022. Fifteen studies met the selection criteria and were included in the review. The results show that the main motivation for Chinese college students to exercise is to strengthen their bodies, with running and walking ranking first and ball games ranking second in importance. Most of the college students exercised three times a week, which is the recommended minimum, and most of their workouts were of moderate intensity. Additionally, the workouts lasted for 30 min to 60 min. The main factors affecting college students’ exercise are lack of time due to academic pressure, facilities constraints, and lack of professional exercise guidance. In conclusion, the physical fitness of university students should not be underestimated, and this study provides additional reference to promote healthier lifestyles among Chinese college students

Economic performance of industrial development on collective land in the urbanization process in China: Empirical evidence from Shenzhen

The study investigates the economic performance of industrial development in the Chinese urbanization process under two different property rights arrangements. Industrial development contributes significantly to China's economic growth in the urbanization process. As one of the most fundamental institutional arrangements, the urban-rural dual land system is important in urbanization and industrial development in China. Two types of land system including state and collective ownership coexist in the current land administration system. According to the law, the state owns the urban land, whereas the village collective owns the rural land. State requisition is the only channel to convert rural land to urban land. Village collectives are not allowed to transfer their land for urban use. Therefore, the property rights on collective land are incomplete in the urbanization process. Do incomplete property rights cause unsatisfactory economic performance of industrial development on collective land? Based on community-level data from two districts with an area of 1557km2 in Shenzhen in 2006, a regression analysis shows that incomplete property rights have caused significant land use inefficiency in industrial development in terms of lower land rental value and lower industrial value added per unit of land. The findings suggest that monthly rental prices of industrial plants on collective land were approximately 57% less than those on state land in 2006. The industrial value produced on collective land was RMB 6.624 billion less than on state land per km2. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd.Link_to_subscribed_fulltex

Risks of Developing Concentrated Rural Settlement after the Wenchuan Earthquake in China

Concentrated rural settlement (CRS) reconstruction was promoted as a sustainable rural reconstruction way after the Wenchuan earthquake in China. Despite the various benefits of CRS, haphazard CRS reconstruction presents risks to future sustainable development. However, such risks have been rarely investigated. Thus, this study examines the risk factors with eight CRS reconstruction cases after the Wenchuan earthquake. The existence and interactions of economic, social, environmental, and disaster relief risks are observed after reconstruction. A conceptual model is proposed for systematically interpreting the risks. Results obtained can help the local government judiciously consider the risk factors in order to achieve sustainable development when initiating rapid reconstruction

Empirical Analysis of the Driving Factors of China’s ‘Land Finance’ Mechanism Using Soft Budget Constraint Theory and the PLS-SEM Model

“Land finance„ refers to the key fiscal strategy in which local governments in China generate revenue through land grant premiums and land tax revenues. A burgeoning body of literature has focused on the driving factors of China’s land finance from different aspects including fiscal decentralization, revenue decentralization, competition among local governments, land marketization, infrastructure development, and economic development. However, little research has provided a comprehensive perspective integrating social, economic and institutional aspects to investigate the driving forces of these unique and profound issues in China. This study aims to investigate the driving factors and working mechanism of land finance. A theoretical and empirical model was proposed using soft budget constraint theory and least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The panel data of 35 Chinese major cities were assessed between 2006 and 2015. The empirical results contend the following: (1) the land transfer and fiscal systems provide the key impetus for land financing because the land transfer system forms a stable modality, and the fiscal system is an important incentive for land financing; (2) the effects of the economic development and political system are insignificant; and (3) the political and land systems significantly influence economic development. Our contributions focus on two aspects. Firstly, a comprehensive framework of factors germane to land finance is constructed. Secondly, a new research methodology for land use study is proposed. To the best of our knowledge, the current study is the first to employ the PLS-SEM method to delineate and verify the influence paths between multiple driving factors and land finance in different cities. Hence, research reliability can be improved