Decoupling Analysis of Urban Growth and Carbon Emissions in Wuhan, 2000-2020

¹ School of Resources and Environmental Engineering, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 430070, China
² These authors contributed to the work equally and should be regarded as co-first authors.

^* Corresponding author’s email: yjliang@whut.edu.cn

Abstract

The analysis of the coupling relationship between urban growth and carbon emissions and its synergistic change rule is of great significance to the sustainable development of cities. The BCI index method is used to extract the scope of built-up areas of Wuhan from 2000 to 2020, and the relationship between urban growth and carbon emissions is analyzed based on the Tapio decoupling model. The results show that: (i) The built-up areas of Wuhan City expanded from 2000 to 2020 in all directions with Wuchang, Hankou, and Hanyang as the center, forming a stable monocentric urban spatial structure. The growth of the built-up areas exhibited stage characteristics, including a clear start, acceleration, high-speed growth, and deceleration. (ii) The carbon emissions of Wuhan City from 2000 to 2020 showed an overall growth trend. Three districts, Jiangxia, Huangpi and Hongshan, become high-emission districts, three districts, Caidian, Dongxihu and Xinzhou, become higher-emission districts, and the other seven districts maintain a lower level of carbon emissions; (iii) The carbon emissions and expansion of built-up areas in Wuhan city districts from 2000 to 2020 show obvious spatial and temporal heterogeneity. They present a decoupling of aggregation in the central area and some regression in the periphery, but the overall trend is favorable. The study provides useful references for urban planning and policy making.