Assessing urban atmospheric environmental efficiency and factors influencing it in China

With rapid urbanization and industrialization in developing countries, cities have become the major sources of air pollution. Studying urban atmospheric environmental efficiency has important reference value for the prevention and control of air pollution. This study used data from 267 cities in China between 2001 and 2016 to assess the urban atmospheric environmental efficiency using the super-efficiency slacks-based measure model, to test the spatial characteristics of urban atmospheric environmental efficiency using the spatial autocorrelation method, and to identify factors influencing it using the Geodetector. The results are as follows: (1) The atmospheric environmental efficiency of most cities in China is increasing. The average efficiency in the entire country exhibits an upward “wavy” trend. The average urban atmospheric environmental efficiency in Eastern China is the highest and that in Western China is the lowest. (2) The urban atmospheric environmental efficiency exhibits the characteristic of global spatial autocorrelation, and high–high and low–low are the main types of efficiency in local spatial autocorrelation. (3) Population density, industrialization, and science and technology are the main factors influencing urban atmospheric environmental efficiency.