ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Environ. Sci.
Sec. Land Use Dynamics
This article is part of the Research TopicNew Insights and Advancement of Land Use Analytics in Modern City DevelopmentView all 16 articles
Research on the impact mechanism and spatial spillover of digital infrastructure on urban land green use efficiency: evidence from the Yangtze River Delta region
Provisionally accepted
- 1Yanshan University, Qinhuangdao, China
- 2Shijiazhuang Posts and Telecommunications technical college, Shijiazhuang, China
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Digital infrastructure has emerged as a critical driver of green and sustainable urban development. Drawing on panel data from 41 cities in China's Yangtze River Delta (YRD) between 2013 and 2022, this study investigates how digital infrastructure influences the spatio-temporal evolution of Urban Land Green Use Efficiency (ULGUE), as well as the mechanisms and spatial spillover effects underlying this relationship. Using a multi-period Difference-in-Differences (DID) framework and taking the "Broadband China" demonstration program as a quasi-natural experiment, the study found that: (1) digital infrastructure significantly enhances ULGUE, and this effect remains robust across a series of tests including parallel trend verification, Propensity Score Matching - Difference-in-Differences (PSM-DID) estimation, and policy exclusion checks; (2) digital infrastructure indirectly improves ULGUE by fostering industrial upgrading and reinforcing governmental environmental awareness; (3) notable spatial heterogeneity exists-Cities in Anhui Province have the strongest promoting effect, while some areas in Jiangsu Province have a slight inhibitory effect. The statistical data of Zhejiang Province and Shanghai are not significant; (4) results from the spatial Durbin model reveal significant positive spillover effects, indicating that digital infrastructure promotes not only local but also regional green land-use efficiency. These findings offer both theoretical and empirical insights into the pathways through which digital infrastructure supports sustainable urban land use, and provide policy implications for achieving high-quality, low-carbon urban development in the YRD region.
Keywords: Difference-in-differences, Digital infrastructure, Spatial spillover effects, Urban land use efficiency, Yangtze River Delta region
Received: 22 Aug 2025; Accepted: 08 Dec 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Tong, Tan and JIN. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Yongbo JIN
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