The Impact of Urbanization on the Temporal and Spatial Evolution of Air Quality: A Case Study of Hubei Province
- 1 Urban Studies Department, The University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK
Abstract
The rapid urbanization in China in the last decade has brought about severe air pollution problems. To provide a theoretical basis for improving the air environment, this paper analyses air quality’s spatial and temporal evolution in 13 prefecture-level cities in Hubei Province. It analyses the influence of various urbanization indicators on the AQI. Based on the existing literature, this paper selects six indicators to measure the level of urbanization of each city in three dimensions: population, economy and urbanization of land, and then uses the AQI of 13 prefecture-level cities in Hubei Province from 2015 to 2017 as the basis to analyze the annual and monthly changes of AQI values in each city in Hubei Province over three years and uses ArcGIS to make AQI values spatial distribution map. The urbanization index was then regressed on the AQI values to study the impact of urbanization level on the spatial and temporal evolution of air quality in each prefecture-level city in Hubei Province.
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