eprintid: 10136163 rev_number: 15 eprint_status: archive userid: 608 dir: disk0/10/13/61/63 datestamp: 2021-10-12 10:40:38 lastmod: 2022-10-12 06:10:09 status_changed: 2021-10-12 10:40:38 type: article metadata_visibility: show creators_name: Zhao, J creators_name: Xiao, Y creators_name: Sun, S creators_name: Sang, W creators_name: Axmacher, JC title: Does China’s increasing coupling of ‘urban population’ and ‘urban area’ growth indicators reflect a growing social and economic sustainability? ispublished: pub divisions: UCL divisions: B03 divisions: C03 divisions: F26 keywords: New-type’ urbanization, Coupling coordination degree, Urban planning, Land policies, Sustainability note: This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher's terms and conditions. abstract: Over the last four decades, China has experienced rapid parallel economic development and urbanization, leading to internal mass -migrations of its people from increasingly marginalized rural areas to urban centers where job opportunities and wealth are now concentrated. We compare the relative temporal growth trends in population-related and land-(i.e., area-) related urbanization systems to evaluate China's urbanization in the context of the ‘New-Type’ Urbanization Program (2014–2020). Based on coupling coordination models, we observed that the two systems were overall slightly decoupled since spatial urban expansion commonly outgrew urban population growth, but the degree of coordination between the two parameters was increasing. Employing exploratory spatial data analysis, we revealed that a high degree of coupling coordination has spread from Eastern to Western provinces. Urban planning and land policies have contributed to an increasing urban vegetation cover and the control of excessive urban land expansions. While China's urbanization appears to have become increasingly sustainable due to the increasing degree of coupling coordination between its subsystems, ongoing urban expansions require strong oversight to limit the environmental impacts of the country's sprawling mega-cities. date: 2022-01 date_type: published publisher: Elsevier official_url: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2021.113932 oa_status: green full_text_type: other language: eng primo: open primo_central: open_green verified: verified_manual elements_id: 1892629 doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2021.113932 lyricists_name: Axmacher, Jan lyricists_id: JCAXM98 actors_name: Axmacher, Jan actors_id: JCAXM98 actors_role: owner full_text_status: public publication: Journal of Environmental Management volume: 301 article_number: 113932 citation: Zhao, J; Xiao, Y; Sun, S; Sang, W; Axmacher, JC; (2022) Does China’s increasing coupling of ‘urban population’ and ‘urban area’ growth indicators reflect a growing social and economic sustainability? Journal of Environmental Management , 301 , Article 113932. 10.1016/j.jenvman.2021.113932 <https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2021.113932>. Green open access document_url: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10136163/1/JEMA%20Sang.pdf