Spatiotemporal evolution of PM2.5 concentrations in urban agglomerations of China

As the main form of new urbanization in China,urban agglomerations are an im-portant platform to support national economic growth,promote coordinated regional devel-opment,and participate in international competition and cooperation.However,they have become core areas for air pollution.This study used PM2.5 data from NASA atmospheric re-mote sensing image inversion from 2000 to 2015 and spatial analysis including a spatial Durbin model to reveal the spatio-temporal evolution characteristics and main factors con-trolling PM2.5 in China's urban agglomerations.The main conclusions are as follows:(1)From 2000 to 2015,the PM2.5 concentrations of China's urban agglomerations showed a growing trend with some volatility.In 2007,there was an inflection point.The number of low-concentration cities decreased,while the number of high-concentration cities increased.(2)The concentrations of PM2.5 in urban agglomerations were high in the west and low in the east,with the"Hu Line"as the boundary.The spatial differences were significant and in-creasing.The concentration of PM2.5 grew faster in urban agglomerations in the eastern and northeastern regions.(3)The urban agglomeration of PM2.5 had significant spatial concentra-tions.The hot spots were concentrated to the east of the Hu Line,and the number of hot-spot cities continued to rise.The cold spots were concentrated to the west of the Hu Line,and the number of cold-spot cities continued to decline.(4)There was a significant spatial spillover effect of PM2.5 pollution among cities within urban agglomerations.The main factors control-ling PM2.5 pollution in different urban agglomerations had significant differences.Industriali-zation and energy consumption had a significant positive impact on PM2.5 pollution.Foreign direct investment had a significant negative impact on PM2.5 pollution in the southeast coastal and border urban agglomerations.Population density had a significant positive impact on PM2.5 pollution in a particular region,but this had the opposite effect in neighboring areas.Urbanization rate had a negative impact on PM2.5 pollution in national-level urban agglomer-ations,but this had the opposite effect in regional and local urban agglomerations.A high degree of industrial structure had a significant negative impact on PM2.5 pollution in a region,but this had an opposite effect in neighboring regions.Technical support level had a signifi-cant impact on PM2.5 pollution,but there were lag effects and rebound effects.