Spatial-temporal Heterogeneity of Industrial Structure Transformation and Carbon Emission Effects in Xuzhou Metropolitan Area

Employing decoupling index and industrial structure characteristic bias index methods, this study analyzed the spatial-temporal characteristics of industrial structure transformations and their resulting carbon emissions in the Xuzhou Metropolitan Area from 2000 to 2014, with a focus on their relationships and driving factors. Our research indicates that carbon emission intensity from industrial structures in the Xuzhou Metropolitan Area at first showed an increasing trend, which then decreased. Furthermore, the relationship between emissions and industrial economic growth has been trending toward absolute decoupling. From the perspective of the center-periphery, the Xuzhou Metropolitan Area formed a concentric pattern, where both progress towards low emissions and the level of technological advancement gradually diminished from the center to the periphery. In terms of variation across provinces, the ISCB index in the eastern Henan has decreased the slowest, followed by the southern Shandong and the northern Anhui, with the northern Jiangsu ranking last. During this period, resource-and labor-intensive industries were the primary growth industries in the northern Anhui and the eastern Henan, while labor-intensive industries dominated the southern Shandong and capital-intensive industries dominated the northern Jiangsu. In terms of city types, the spatial pattern for industrial structure indicates that recession resource-based cities had higher carbon emission intensities than mature resource-based cities, followed by non-resource-based cities and regenerative resource-based cities. Generally, the industrial structure in the Xuzhou Metropolitan Area has transformed from being resource-intensive to capital-intensive, and has been trending toward technology-intensive as resource availability has been exploited to exhaustion and then been regenerated. Industrial structure has been the leading factor causing heterogeneity of carbon emission intensities between metropolitan cities. Therefore, the key to optimizing the industrial structure and layout of metropolitan areas is to promote industrial structure transformation and improve the system controlling collaborative industrial development between cities.

Evolution of Regional Industrial Structure and Characteristics of Pollution Emissions in China

We conducted a quantitative analysis of the relationship between the evolution of China’s industrial structure and environmental change. Using the industrial structure characteristic bias index and data from 29 manufacturing industries in each province from 1995 to 2010, we described the impact of pollution-emission characteristics of industry structure on the regional environment. The results show that wastewater-discharged characteristic of industrial structure in the northwest and central areas declined from 1995-2010, but this trend has weakened. The industrial structure of southwest and southeast areas had a high level of solid waste discharge and a constantly strengthening trend in SO2 emissions. We also analyzed the growth and recession of each sector in eight regions in China from 1995 to 2010. Among the eight regions, the middle reach of the Yel ow River, and northwest and southwest China had a clear increasing trend of high pol ution industries;the eastern coast, southern coast, middle reach of the Yangtze River and northeastern China did not sustain an increase in high pollution industries. In addition, regression analysis modeling was used to analyze the impact of the evolution of industrial structure on the disparities of regional environmental effects. We found that regional industry structure was closely related to environmental quality, especially for western areas at lower stages of economic development. In the future, all regions must prevent and forefend the risk of environmental pollution in the update and adjustment of industrial structure.