Analyzing effect of urbanization on haze pollution based on static and dynamic spatial panel model

Abstract: At first, this article studied the spatial effect of haze pollution, using Chinese 30 provinces panel data from 2003 to 2014. The global Moran’s I index was 0.3875, and there was spatial agglomeration of haze pollution in China. The Moran′s I index scatter plot showed that there was a positive spatial autocorrelation of haze pollution in China, and most of the provinces were located in high-high agglomeration and low-low agglomeration. This research empirically investigated the influence of urbanization, energy intensity and traffic pressure on hazy pollution with static and dynamic spatial panel econometric model. The spatial autoregressive coefficient was 0.144 9, and the spatial spillover effect of haze pollution was significant. There existed an Environment Kuznets Curve between urbanization and haze pollution. The increase of traffic pressure by one percentage will increase haze pollution by 0.207 5 percentages. From the decomposition of the effects, the EKC curve existed between urbanization and haze pollution in the regional and global. The indirect effect and total effect of per capita GDP were significantly negative, and the increase in per capita income in the region can reduce haze pollution of adjacent region and whole region. The decrease in energy intensity will reduce haze pollution in this region, but will increase haze pollution in adjacent regions. The direct effect, indirect effect and total effect of energy consumption structure were all significantly positive. The decline in the proportion of coal consumption not only can reduce the haze pollution in this region, but also can significantly inhibit the adjacent regions of haze pollution, thereby reducing the haze pollution of the whole region. The direct effect of traffic pressure was significantly positive, but the indirect effect was significantly negative. The increase of traffic pressure will obviously increase the degree of haze pollution in this region. However, the increase of traffic pressure in adjacent areas will inhibit the haze pollution in the area. The coefficients of PM10 (-1) in the Durbin spatial panel model was up to 0.611 4 which indicated the time and spatial dependence of haze pollution in China. The dynamic spatial panel econometric model was more appropriate and accurate than the static model which revealed the influence of omission factors such as the mode of resident behavior and construction on haze pollution were also very important. These results for the understanding the impact of the energy intensity and traffic pressure on haze pollution in the process of urbanization and promoting win-win of urbanization and ecological environment have important policy implications. In order to control China′s haze pollution, regional cooperation is required and the sustainability of haze management is ensured. During the new type of urbanization process in China, we should take the green as the banner, expand the urban green area, make the urban energy conservation infrastructure construction, and green town planning. In the new normal economy, we should increase per capita income of residents; We should strengthen the energy efficiency; and reduce the proportion of coal consumption, and increase the proportion of non-fossil energy; We should strengthen traffic management and develop the public transport.