The evolution of transport networks and the regional water environment: the case of Chinese high-speed rail

Abstract

We investigate empirically the role of an evolving high-speed rail (HSR) network in improving the regional water environment via industry agglomeration. We use Graph Theory to construct a data set reflecting a continuous evolution of cities’ accessibility to the HSR network. We find that cities with higher degree and closeness centralities in the HSR network tend to have less industrial water pollution. The reallocation of a high-skilled labour force leads to the agglomeration of skill-intensive and clean industries in cities with higher HSR centralities. We show that the evolution of the HSR networks is indeed conducive to the sustainable regional development.