Urban spatial structure and commuting-related carbon emissions in China: Do monocentric cities emit more?
Bin Zhang,
Qingyao Xin,
Siyuan Chen,
Zhiying Yang and
Zhaohua Wang
Energy Policy, 2024, vol. 186, issue C
Abstract:
Growing cities in China suffer from high road emissions due to the increasing commuting needs among residents and changes in urban structure. In this context, this paper focuses on the link between the urban spatial structure and per capita carbon emissions from the daily commute. To do so, combined with grid-level satellite data including nighttime lights and daytime builtup landcover, we quantify urban morphological configuration within Chinese cities. Moreover, the underlying mechanism, along with the roles of population density and industrial type in the structure-emission link, has been discussed. The results show that urban monocentric configuration leads to higher per capita commuting-related emissions, whereas a polycentric city is associated with lower emissions. This is ascribed to the polycentric spatial structure playing a crucial role in alleviating emissions caused by road congestion through the convenient deployment of mass transportation. In particular, in cities with low population density or an industry-led structure, a monocentric structure is associated with increasing per capita carbon emissions. On this basis, this study provides more granular insights and targeted policy implications for developing low-carbon transport for growing cities in China.
Keywords: Urban spatial structure; Commuting-related carbon emissions; Satellite data on nighttime lights; Satellite imagery on daytime built up landcover (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)
Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421524000107
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.
Export reference: BibTeX
RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan)
HTML/Text
Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:enepol:v:186:y:2024:i:c:s0301421524000107
DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2024.113990
Access Statistics for this article
Energy Policy is currently edited by N. France
More articles in Energy Policy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().