China's urban eco-efficiency and its spatial relationship with participatory governance

This paper uses the SBM-Undesirable model to measure the urban eco-efficiency in China and analyzes the trends from the view of resource-based and non-resource-based cities. Through the panel data of 273 prefecture-level cities in China, the spatial and Durbin model is used to deeply explore the influencing factors of urban eco-efficiency from the perspective of participatory governance. The results show that urban eco-efficiency has strong spatial differentiation and spatial correlation. The eco-efficiency of non-resource-based and renewable cities is more efficient while declining cities need to be improved. There is a trend that high-efficiency areas drive the progress of low-efficiency areas. Furthermore, participatory governance can significantly improve the urban eco-efficiency, in which cooperative motivation, government innovation ability, and citizen participation quality have a positive impact on urban eco-efficiency, while government over-intervention inhibits the growth of efficiency. The research clarifies the relationship between participatory governance and urban eco-efficiency, and its conclusion provides an important reference for China's ecological construction and sustainable urban development.