Open AccessCan the establishment of National Key Ecological Functional Zones improve air quality?: An empirical study from China
Author(s) -
Guangqin Li,
Lingyu Li,
Xing Li,
Yu Chen
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
plos one
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.99
H-Index - 332
ISSN - 1932-6203
DOI - 10.1371/journal.pone.0246257
Subject(s) - china , air quality index , raster data , environmental science , robustness (evolution) , particulates , environmental resource management , geography , ecology , physical geography , raster graphics , meteorology , computer science , biology , biochemistry , archaeology , artificial intelligence , gene
Drawing on fine particulate matter (PM 2.5 ) from satellite raster data and matching with the county-level socio-economic data from 2008 to 2015 in China, this paper investigates the impacts of the establishment of National Key Ecological Functional Zones (NKEFZ) on environmental quality by employing the difference-in-differences method, which was stablished in June 2011. The results indicate that the establishment of the NKEFZ significantly decreased the concentration values of PM 2.5 , a drop of about 20% during the study period, after the paper controls for other factors affecting air quality. The robustness tests using the maximum and medium concentration values of PM 2.5 show similar results. Through further analysis, the paper finds that the establishment of NKEFZ can improve the ecological utilization efficiency of land.