Abstract
Carbon emissions are increasing in the world because of human activities associated with the energy consumptions for social and economic development. Thus, attention has been paid towards restraining the growth of carbon emissions and minimizing potential impact on the global climate. Currently there has also been increasing recognition that the urban forms, which refer to the spatial structure of urban land use as well as transport system within a metropolitan area, can have a wide variety of implications for the carbon emissions of a city. However, studies are limited in analyzing quantitatively the impacts of different urban forms on carbon emissions. In this study, we quantify the relationships between urban forms and carbon emissions for the panel of the four fastest-growing cities in China (i.e., Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, and Guangzhou) using time series data from 1990 to 2010. Firstly, the spatial distribution data of urban land use and transportation network in each city are obtained from the land use classification of remote sensing images and the digitization of transportation maps. Then, the urban forms are quantified using a series of spatial metrics which further used as explanatory variables in the estimation. Finally, we implement the panel data analysis to estimate the impacts of urban forms on carbon emission. The results show that, (1) in addition to the growth of urban areas that accelerate the carbon emissions, the increase of fragmentation or irregularity of urban forms could also result in more carbon emissions; (2) a compact development pattern of urban land would help reduce carbon emissions; (3) increases in the coupling degree between urban spatial structure and traffic organization can contribute to the reduction of carbon emissions; (4) urban development with a mononuclear pattern may accelerate carbon emissions. In order to reduce carbon emissions, urban forms in China should transform from the pattern of disperse, single-nuclei development to the pattern of compact, multiple-nuclei development.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Alberti M, Hutyra L (2009) Detecting carbon signatures of development patterns across a gradient of urbanization: linking observations, models and scenarios. Cities and Climate Change
Al-mulali U, Binti Che Sab CN (2012) The impact of energy consumption and CO2 emission on the economic growth and financial development in the Sub Saharan African countries. Energy 39(1):180–186
Anderson WP, Kanaroglou PS, Miller EJ (1996) Urban form, energy and the environment: a review of issues, evidence and policy. Urban Stud 33(1):7–35
Ang BW (1990) Reducing traffic congestion and its impact on transport energy use in Singapore. Energy Policy 18(9):871–874
Baltagi BH (1996) Testing for random individual and time effects using a Gauss–Newton regression. Econ Lett 50(2):189–192
Baltagi HB (2005) Econometric analysis of panel data (Third edition). Wiley, Chichester
Banister D (1996) Energy, quality of life and the environment: the role of transport. Transp Rev 16(1):23–35
Baranovskii SD, Thomas P, Adriaenssens GJ (1995) The concept of transport energy and its application to steady-state photoconductivity in amorphous silicon. J Non-Cryst Solids 190(3):283–287
Bi J, Zhang R, Wang H, Liu M, Wu Y (2011) The benchmarks of carbon emissions and policy implications for China’s cities: case of Nanjing. Energy Policy 39(9):4785–4794
Camagni R, Gibelli M, Rigamonti P (2002) Urban mobility and urban form: the social and environmental costs of different patterns of urban expansion. Ecol Econ 40(2):199–216
Cervero R (1998) The transit metropolis: a global inquiry. Island Press, Washington
Chen Y, Li X, Zheng Y, Guan YY, Liu XP (2011) Estimating the relationship between urban forms and energy consumption: a case study in the Pearl River Delta, 2005–2008. Landsc Urban Plan 102(1):33–42
Christen AN, Coops C, Crawford BR, Kellett R, Liss KN, Olchovski I, Tooke TR, Van Der Laan M, Voogt JA (2011) Validation of modeled carbon-dioxide emissions from an urban neighborhood with direct eddy-covariance measurements. Atmos Environ 45:6057–6069
Chun M, Mei-ting J, Xiao-chun Z, Hong-yuan L (2011) Energy consumption and carbon emissions in a coastal city in China. Procedia Environ Sci 4:1–9
Dhakal S (2009) Urban energy use and carbon emissions from cities in China and policy implications. Energy Policy 37(11):4208–4219
Dietzel C, Oguz H, Hemphill JJ, Clarke KC, Gazulis N (2005) Diffusion and coalescence of the Houston metropolitan area: evidence supporting a new urban theory. Environ Plan B 32(2):231–246
Galster G, Hanson R, Ratcliffe RM, Wolman H, Coleman S, Freihage J (2001) Wrestling sprawl to the ground: defining and measuring an elusive concept. Hous Policy Debate 12(4):681–717
Geoghegan J, Wainger LA, Bockstael NE (1997) Spatial landscape indices in a hedonic framework: an ecological economics analysis using GIS. Ecol Econ 23(3):251–264
Glaeser EL, Kahn ME (2010) The greenness of cities: carbon dioxide emissions and urban development. J Urban Econ 67(3):404–418
Gordon P, Richardson HW (1997) Are compact cities a desirable planning goal? J Am Plan Assoc 63(1):95–106
Guo R, Zhu Q, Cao X, Ren Z, Li F, Pradhan M, Jin F, Zhou Q, Wu B (2010) GIS-based carbon balance assessment and its application in Shanghai. AIP Conf Proc 1251(1):246–251
Gustafson EJ (1998) Quantifying landscape spatial pattern: what is the state of the art? Ecosystems 1(2):143–156
Han F, Liu Y (2009) Study on the coupling mechanism of urban spatial structure and urban traffic organization. Int J Business Manag 4(7):134–138
Hausman JA (1978) Specification tests in econometrics. Econometrica 46(6):1251–1271
Heath LS, Smith JE, Skog KE, Nowak DJ, Woodall CW (2011) Managed forest carbon estimates for the US greenhouse gas inventory. J For 109:167–173
Herold M, Scepan I, Clarke KC (2002) Remote sensing and landscape metrics to describe structures and changes in urban landuse. Environ Plan A 34(8):1443–1458
Holden E, Norland IT (2005) Three challenges for the compact city as a sustainable urban form: household consumption of energy and transport in eight residential areas in the greater Oslo region. Urban Stud 42(12):2145–2166
Hou J, Zhang PD, Tian Y, Yuan X, Yang Y (2011) Developing low-carbon economy: actions, challenges and solutions for energy savings in China. Renew Energy 36(11):3037–3042
Hsiao C (2003) Analysis of panel data. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Huang Y, Xia B, Yang L (2013) Relationship study on land use spatial distribution structure and energy-related carbon emission intensity in different land use types of Guangdong, China, 1996–2008. Sci World J 2013:15
IE Agency (IEA) (2008) World energy outlook 2008 OECD/IEA: 578
IPCC (2006) IPCC guidelines for national greenhouse gas inventories. intergovernmental panel on climate change. IPCC, London
IPCC (2007) Climate change 2007 the fourth assessment report of IPCC. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Jenelius E (2009) Network structure and travel patterns: explaining the geographical disparities of road network vulnerability. J Transp Geogr 17(3):234–244
Kennedy C, Steinberger J, Gasson B, Hansen Y, Hillman T, Havranek M, Pataki D, Phdungsilp A, Ramaswami A, Mendez GV (2009) Greenhouse gas emissions from global cities. Environ Sci Technol 43:7297–7302
Kenworthy JR, Laube FB (1996) Automobile dependence in cities: an international comparison of urban transport and land use patterns with implications for sustainability. Environ Impact Assess Rev 16(4–6):279–308
Levin A, Lin C-F, Chu CSJ (2002) Unit root tests in panel data: asymptotic and finite-sample properties. J Econom 108(1):1–24
Li X, Liu X (2008) Embedding sustainable development strategies in agent-based models for use as a planning tool. Int J Geogr Inf Sci 22(1):21–45
Li S, Xu Y, Zhou Q, Wang L (2004) Statistical analysis on the relationship between road network and ecosystem fragmentation in China. Prog Geogr 23(5):77–85
Lucy RH, Byungman Y, Hepinstall-Cymerman J, Alberti M (2011) Carbon consequences of land cover change and expansion of urban lands: a case study in the Seattle metropolitan region. Landsc Urban Plan 103:83–93
Mahadevan R, Asafu-Adjaye J (2007) Energy consumption, economic growth and prices: a reassessment using panel VECM for developed and developing countries. Energy Policy 35(4):2481–2490
Makidoa Y, Dhakalb S, Yamagatac Y (2012) Relationship between urban form and CO2 emissions: evidence from fifty Japanese cities. Urban Clim 2(12):55–67
McGarigal K, Cushman SA, Neel MC, Ene E (2002) FRAGSTATS: spatial pattern analysis program for categorical maps
Muller PO (2004) Transportation and urban form: stages in the spatial evolution of the American Metropolis. Guilford Publications, New York
Orsal K. (2007) Comparison of panel cointegration tests. http://sfb649.wiwi.hu-berlin.de
Parker DC, Meretsky V (2004) Measuring pattern outcomes in an agent-based model of edge-effect externalities using spatial metrics. Agric Ecosyst Environ 101(2–3):233–250
Pedroni P (1999) Critical values for cointegration tests in heterogeneous panels with multiple regressors. Oxf Bull Econ Stat 61(S1):653–670
Pontius RG, Millones M (2011) Death to kappa: birth of quantity disagreement and allocation disagreement for accuracy assessment. Int J Remote Sens 32(15):4407–4429
Seto KC, Fragkias M (2005) Quantifying spatiotemporal patterns of urban land-use change in four cities of china with time series landscape metrics. Landscape Ecol 20(7):871–888
Shu YQ, Lam NSN (2011) Spatial disaggregation of carbon dioxide emissions from road traffic based on multiple linear regression model. Atmos Environ 45(3):634–640
Svensson R, Odenberger M, Johnsson F, Strömberg L (2004) Transportation systems for CO2: application to carbon capture and storage. Energy Convers Manag 45(15–16):2343–2353
Thinh NX, Arlt G, Heber B, Hennersdorf J, Lehmann I (2002) Evaluation of urban land-use structures with a view to sustainable development. Environ Impact Assess Rev 22(5):475–492
Tsai Y-H (2005) Quantifying urban form: compactness versus sprawl. Urban Stud 42(1):141–161
Turner MG (1989) Landscape ecology: the effect of pattern on process. Ann Rev Ecol Syst 20:171–197
Van Der Waals J (2000) The compact city and the environment: a review. Tijdschrift voor economische en sociale geografie 91(2):111–121
Acknowledgments
This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 41171308 and 41371376), the Foundation for the Author of National Excellent Doctoral Dissertation of PR China (Grant No. 3149001), and the National Science Fund for Excellent Young Scholars (Grant No. 41322009).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Ou, J., Liu, X., Li, X. et al. Quantifying the relationship between urban forms and carbon emissions using panel data analysis. Landscape Ecol 28, 1889–1907 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-013-9943-4
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-013-9943-4