The urbanization efficiency in Chengdu City: An estimation based on a three-stage DEA model

Abstract

With economic development and population growth occurring throughout China, there has been increasing conflicts between resources, environmental protection and economic development in many regions, especially in the developed regions. Therefore, it is important to correctly evaluate the pressure of human activities on the natural environment and the ecosystem carrying capacity at a regional scale. This paper evaluated the urbanization efficiency based on the three-stage Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) model, which takes the impacts of exogenous factors on the urbanization rate into consideration. From the perspectives of governmental management and urban growth and scale, this paper indicated the current urbanization mode and features in Chengdu based on land use data, socioeconomic and natural data in each district and county. The results show that Jinjiang, Longquanyi, Qingbaijiang, Qingyang districts, Pujiang, Xinjin counties and Dujiangyan county-level city are always with the balanced urbanization efficiency; while the efficiency in Dayi, Pi counties, Chongzhou, Pengzhou, Qionglai county-level cities and Jinniu, Chenghua districts still needs to be improved; and Shuangliu and Jintang counties keep the lowest urbanization level. Overall, the average reduction rate in built-up area in highest at 29.57% among the three input indicators (land, capital and labor), which means that the superfluous area of built-up land hinders the balanced development of urbanization in Chengdu. It also suggests that three-stage DEA model is effective to reflect the realistic level of urbanization efficiency by eliminating environmental impact. Finally, this paper further provides improved directions and policy suggestions for the sustainable and well-rounded urban development.