TY - JOUR
T1 - Impact of the Economic Structure of Cities on Urban Scaling Factors
T2 - Implications for Urban Material and Energy Flows in China
AU - Ramaswami, Anu
AU - Jiang, Daqian
AU - Tong, Kangkang
AU - Zhao, Jerry
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors gratefully acknowledge financial support from NSF PIRE (grant number PIRE-1243525).
Funding Information:
A.R. developed the conceptual framework and developed the study design of city types by economic structure. D.J. and K.T. developed the database and implemented the data analysis; J.Z. provided insight in urban districts and city taxonomy in China. A.R. and J.Z. supervised the research process and reviewed the work.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 by Yale University
PY - 2018/4
Y1 - 2018/4
N2 - We explore the population-scaling and gross domestic product (GDP)-scaling relationships of material and energy flow (MEF) parameters in different city types based on economic structure. Using migration-corrected population data, we classify 233 Chinese city propers (Shiqu) as “highly industrial” (share of secondary GDP exceeds 63.9%), “highly commercial” (share of tertiary GDP exceeds 52.6%), and “mixed-economy” (the remaining cities). We find that, first, the GDP population-scaling factors differ in the different city types. Highly commercial and mixed-economy cities exhibit superlinear GDP population-scaling factors greater than 1, whereas highly industrial cities are sublinear. Second, GDP scaling better correlates with city-wide MEF parameters in Chinese cities; these scaling relationships also show differences by city typology. Third, highly commercial cities are significantly different from others in demonstrating greater average per capita household income creation relative to per capita GDP. Further, highly industrial cities show an apparent cap in population. This also translates to lower densities in highly industrial cities compared to other types, showing a size effect on urban population density. Finally, a multiple variable regression of total household electricity showed significant and positive correlation with population, income effect, and urban form effect. With such multivariate modeling, the apparent superlinearity of household electricity use with respect to population is no longer observed. Our study enhances understanding of MEFs associated with Chinese cities and provides new insights into the patterns of scaling observed in different city types by economic structure. Results recommend dual scaling by GDP and by population for MEF parameters and suggest caution in applying universal scaling factors to all cities in a country.
AB - We explore the population-scaling and gross domestic product (GDP)-scaling relationships of material and energy flow (MEF) parameters in different city types based on economic structure. Using migration-corrected population data, we classify 233 Chinese city propers (Shiqu) as “highly industrial” (share of secondary GDP exceeds 63.9%), “highly commercial” (share of tertiary GDP exceeds 52.6%), and “mixed-economy” (the remaining cities). We find that, first, the GDP population-scaling factors differ in the different city types. Highly commercial and mixed-economy cities exhibit superlinear GDP population-scaling factors greater than 1, whereas highly industrial cities are sublinear. Second, GDP scaling better correlates with city-wide MEF parameters in Chinese cities; these scaling relationships also show differences by city typology. Third, highly commercial cities are significantly different from others in demonstrating greater average per capita household income creation relative to per capita GDP. Further, highly industrial cities show an apparent cap in population. This also translates to lower densities in highly industrial cities compared to other types, showing a size effect on urban population density. Finally, a multiple variable regression of total household electricity showed significant and positive correlation with population, income effect, and urban form effect. With such multivariate modeling, the apparent superlinearity of household electricity use with respect to population is no longer observed. Our study enhances understanding of MEFs associated with Chinese cities and provides new insights into the patterns of scaling observed in different city types by economic structure. Results recommend dual scaling by GDP and by population for MEF parameters and suggest caution in applying universal scaling factors to all cities in a country.
KW - China
KW - city typology
KW - economic structure
KW - material and energy flows
KW - population and GDP
KW - scaling factors
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U2 - 10.1111/jiec.12563
DO - 10.1111/jiec.12563
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85016628372
SN - 1088-1980
VL - 22
SP - 392
EP - 405
JO - Journal of Industrial Ecology
JF - Journal of Industrial Ecology
IS - 2
ER -