The Effects of Urbanization on Urban Land Green Use Efficiency of Yangtze River Delta Urban Agglomeration: Mechanism from the Technological Innovation

It is urgent and essential to explore the facilitating mechanism of urban land green use efficiency (ULGUE) in promoting the coordinated development of humans and land. In this study, the SBM-DEA model was used to measure ULGUE from 26 cities across the Yangtze River Delta Urban Agglomeration (YRDUA) in China from 2006 to 2019. Desired (eco-friendly) outputs and undesired (non-eco-friendly) green outputs were considered in the selection of ULGUE indicators. This study explored the impact of the mechanism of green, digital, and transportation technological innovation on ULGUE in the process of urbanization by the mediation model. The results showed that urbanization has a positive effect on ULGUE and technological innovation, and for every 1% increase in urbanization, ULGUE increases by 0.048%. The results are still significant after robustness tests. The findings suggest that the improvement of social and economic benefits brought by urbanization in the YRDUA is greater than its negative impact. A mechanistic analysis showed that green, digital, and transportation technological innovation can amplify the positive impact by curbing the growth of energy consumption and alleviating pollution. Therefore, the government should promote ULGUE with technological innovation, construct an ULGUE assessment mechanism, incorporate the promotion of green land use into the planning of targets and incentives for technological innovation, and promote the efficient use of land.