Bridging carbon footprint and urban livability differences in Chinese non-core cities: a typological exploration

Abstract One of the major challenges for Chinese future development is the carbon footprint governance. There are three gaps in the research on the connection between carbon footprint and Chinese urban socioeconomics: 1) the lack of consideration of differences in cities' carbon emissions characteristics resulting from the composition of carbon footprint, 2) the lack of concern for the grassroots perspectives of livability and the relations with carbon footprint, and 3) the lack of attention to the difficulties of carbon footprint governance in non-core cities. Therefore, our study focuses on Chinese non-core cities to explore the connection between carbon footprint and urban livability. We pioneer a typological approach in this relational study, using K-means clustering analysis to define four different types of non-core cities based on their carbon footprint. To understand the connection, we then investigate whether there are distinguishable variations in each type at all levels of livability. We built a multidimensional evaluation system with 21 specific indicators. The results are promising. We found that four types have diverse performances in all dimensions of urban livability. These findings provide a fundamental portrait of the carbon footprint of non-core cities to support further research, and a valuable reference for the planning and implementation of city-targeted carbon reduction policies. This paper also emphasizes for the first time the connection between carbon footprint and livability, calling for more stakeholders to focus on this important factor of residents' daily lives in the pursuit of low-carbon vision.