Assessing the coordination between economic growth and urban climate change in China from 2000 to 2015

The balance between economic growth and environmental protection has been a critical concern for sustainable urban development. However, among the multiple research efforts exploring the coordination between the two aspects, the widespread urban climate change has rarely been considered. This study encompasses urban climate change into the cross-system coupling analysis framework to assess its coordination with economic growth using the Coupling Coordination Degree (CCD) model. The two aspects are respectively represented using indicators of Surface Urban Heat Island Intensity (SUHII) and Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Specifically, China is selected as case study, and a total of 259 cities from the 2000–2015 period are analyzed. The spatio-temporal patterns of CCD are investigated through time series clustering to uncover its performance under diversified economic and climatic contexts. The regional inequality and spatial agglomeration effects are also examined. Results reveal significant spatio-temporal heterogeneity of CCD. Geographically, CCD varies from uncoordinated to high-level coordination. Wealthier cities in the eastern coastal region are significantly better coordinated than their inland counterparts. Temporally, the uptrend of CCD is not significant for most cities due to the relatively insufficient emphasis on urban heat island (UHI) mitigation in previous efforts. Evident spatial inequality and agglomeration patterns are also observed with slight downtrends. The spatio-temporal patterns of CCD revealed in this study indicate great necessity for the central government to develop policies suiting cities' special characteristics and contexts, and more efforts should be targeted on reducing regional imbalance. Hence, a nation-city-community policy skeleton is last outlined to enhance the pursuit of a more climate-friendly urban environment under rapid economic development. Overall, this study advances the understanding of economy-urban climate interactions and facilitates the future pursuit of better sustainable cities. The proposed workflow can be utilized for other countries with diversified urbanization processes and potentially used for comparison among different countries.