TY - JOUR
T1 - Economic development and natural amenity
T2 - An econometric analysis of urban green spaces in China
AU - Chen, Wendy Y.
AU - Wang, Danny T.
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors acknowledge with gratitude the grant kindly awarded by the Hong Kong Research Grants Council (HKU 840911H).
PY - 2013
Y1 - 2013
N2 - Rapid urbanization and spontaneous economic development has brought about profound changes in urban landscapes throughout the world. The task of managing transforming urban landscapes, particularly urban green spaces, so as to provide sufficient natural amenity for increasing urban populations, is one of the critical challenges facing policy makers. However, little empirical evidence exists about the evolving path of urban green spaces along with economic development and urbanization. This study attempts to fill in this knowledge gap through an econometric analysis of panel data across 285 Chinese cities during a period of rapid urbanization and economic growth (2001-2010). The results point to the existence of an N-shaped environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) for an important aspect of environmental quality: urban green spaces. Urban green space coverage increases at the initial stage of economic development, and then it starts to decrease as GDP per capita exceeds RMB50,855 and then increases again at a high GDP per capita level (RMB107,558). Large elasticity (>1) is expected as GDP per capita grows to a higher level (beyond RMB128,095). By the end of 2010, 30% of Chinese cities are still located on the downward-sloping path and only four cities have attained elasticities greater than one. The findings present a challenging and pressing call for policy makers to effectively manage the tradeoffs between continuous economic development and better natural amenities.
AB - Rapid urbanization and spontaneous economic development has brought about profound changes in urban landscapes throughout the world. The task of managing transforming urban landscapes, particularly urban green spaces, so as to provide sufficient natural amenity for increasing urban populations, is one of the critical challenges facing policy makers. However, little empirical evidence exists about the evolving path of urban green spaces along with economic development and urbanization. This study attempts to fill in this knowledge gap through an econometric analysis of panel data across 285 Chinese cities during a period of rapid urbanization and economic growth (2001-2010). The results point to the existence of an N-shaped environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) for an important aspect of environmental quality: urban green spaces. Urban green space coverage increases at the initial stage of economic development, and then it starts to decrease as GDP per capita exceeds RMB50,855 and then increases again at a high GDP per capita level (RMB107,558). Large elasticity (>1) is expected as GDP per capita grows to a higher level (beyond RMB128,095). By the end of 2010, 30% of Chinese cities are still located on the downward-sloping path and only four cities have attained elasticities greater than one. The findings present a challenging and pressing call for policy makers to effectively manage the tradeoffs between continuous economic development and better natural amenities.
KW - Natural amenity
KW - Transformation of natural landscape
KW - Urban green space
KW - Urbanization
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84888069827&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.ufug.2013.08.004
DO - 10.1016/j.ufug.2013.08.004
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:84888069827
SN - 1618-8667
VL - 12
SP - 435
EP - 442
JO - Urban Forestry and Urban Greening
JF - Urban Forestry and Urban Greening
IS - 4
ER -