Acta Geographica Sinica ›› 2019, Vol. 74 ›› Issue (10): 2045-2061.doi: 10.11821/dlxb201910007

• Rural Revitalization and Regional Development • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Impact of industrial spatial and organizational agglomeration patterns on industrial SO2 emissions of prefecture-level cities in China

HU Zhiqiang1,2,MIAO Changhong1,2(),YUAN Feng3   

  1. 1. Key Research Institute of Yellow River Civilization and Sustainable Development & Collaborative Innovation Center on Yellow River Civilization of Henan Province, Henan University, Kaifeng 475001, Henan, China;
    2. College of Environment and Planning, Henan University, Kaifeng 475004, Henan, China
    3. Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology, CAS, Nanjing 210008, China
  • Received:2018-06-03 Revised:2019-05-19 Online:2019-10-25 Published:2019-10-29
  • Contact: MIAO Changhong E-mail:chhmiao@henu.edu.cn
  • Supported by:
    National Nature Science Foundation of China(No.41430637);Henan Province Postdoctoral Science Foundation Funded 2018 Project(No.216305)

Abstract:

Agglomeration externality is an important mechanism for reducing industrial pollution emission. Different agglomeration patterns correspond to different pollution emission behaviors and effects. Based on the theory of agglomeration economies and the industrial data from 285 China's prefecture-level cities, this paper differentiates the agglomeration patterns into different types such as agglomeration density, geographical proximity, specialization, diversity, related diversity, and unrelated diversity from the spatial and organizational perspectives, and investigates the spatial patterns of industrial SO2 pollution intensity and industrial agglomeration levels, and examines the effects of different agglomeration types on industrial SO2 emissions by building econometric models. The main conclusions are as follows: (1) There exists the asymmetric spatial distribution between the industrial SO2 pollution intensity and the industrial agglomeration levels. The pollution intensity is higher in the west, but lower in the east. The levels of agglomeration density, geographic proximity, diversity, related diversity and unrelated diversity are higher in the eastern and central regions, but lower in the western. (2) There is the spatial spillover effect of industrial agglomeration on industrial SO2 pollution. The geographical agglomeration, diversity, and related diversity in neighboring regions have a negative impact on industrial pollution, while specialization has a positive effect. (3) Raising the agglomeration scale and guiding enterprises concentrated in industrial parks can help to reduce industrial SO2 emissions, and promoting the diverse and related industrial agglomeration is conducive to pollution reduction, while unrelated industries agglomeration will increase pollution emissions. (4) The impact of industrial agglomeration on industrial SO2 emissions has a notable spatial heterogeneity. Agglomeration density, geographic proximity, diversity and related diversity play a more significant role in pollution reduction in the central and western regions, while specialization and unrelated diversity are not conducive to pollution reduction in the eastern and central regions; Increasing agglomeration density and reducing diversity and unrelated diversity level are more beneficial to the small cities; Improving the geographic proximity, industrial diversity and related diversity levels are more helpful to the medium- and small-sized cites, but the reduction effect for the large cities goes obviously down because of the crowding effect. (5) To further reduce the intensity of industrial SO2 emissions, it is necessary to take the road of agglomeration, persist on increasing agglomeration density, guide enterprises' centralized layout, improve the level of industrial diversity based on technology association, strengthen the joint prevention and control among neighboring regions, and focus on the industrial linkage and environmental protection cooperation between regions.

Key words: agglomeration externality, pollution emission intensity, spatial and organizational agglomeration pattern, spatial spillover, industrial SO2 emissions