An improved approach for measuring the coupling relationship between new type urbanization and low carbon development in China

Abstract

New Type Urbanization (NTU) and Low Carbon Development (LCD) are the two major issues for Chinese cities to achieve their sustainable development goals. It is crucial to recognize the coupling relationship between NTU and LCD. Existing studies on this coupling mainly focus on measuring LCD performance through carbon emissions, while neglecting the coordination between different dimensions of NTU and LCD. To address these gaps, an enhanced method is proposed in this study to measure the dimensional coupling performance between NTU and LCD. A comprehensive indicator evaluation system is constructed to assess the performance of both NTU and LCD. The Entropy and TOPSIS methods are employed to obtain scores for NTU and LCD performance, while the grey correlation analysis method is applied to determine the degree of coupling coordination. To validate the proposed approach, a case study using data from 35 large cities spanning from 2008 to 2020 has been conducted. The main findings of this study can be summarized as follows: (1) The proposed method consists of three steps: calculating NTU and LCD performance scores, determining the degree of coupling, and estimating the level of coupling coordination. (2) Four major trends in the development of coupling degrees among these 35 large cities have been identified: increase, decrease, “V” type and inverted “V” type. (3) Empirical evidence demonstrates that our proposed model is valid. This study provides valuable insights for addressing imbalances between NTU and LCD issues faced by Chinese government.