Do Forests help environmental development of Cities in China?

Considering AQI and CO2 emission as an undesirable output in dynamic SBM DEA, we analyze the forest carbon sinks as an impact factor to explore the productivity efficiency of the 31 cities in China from 2013 to 2016. Our results found that the inclusion of forests and CO2 emission, some of the governance efficiency of urban indicators amended overestimated and underestimated efficiency score and ranking. According to our study, there are 6 cities with the best overall efficiency score of 1, including Beijing, Guangzhou, Nanjing, Nanning, Shanghai and Tianjin, and these cities all located along the coast. Overall average TFE scores of forests and fixed assets in the 31 cities are between 0.5453 and 0.5233. The scores are slowly improving year by year and still have considerable room for improvement. Most of urban's forest governance efficiency stay low in long-term periods. The efficiency score of AQI is the worst in the urban governance. The severe air pollutant problem is not effectively improved for the long-term treatment.

Automated summary

The study found that considering forests and CO2 emissions in the analysis of urban governance efficiency can lead to corrections in efficiency scores and rankings. Among the 31 cities, 6 cities along the coast, including Beijing, Guangzhou, Nanjing, Nanning, Shanghai, and Tianjin, achieved the highest overall efficiency scores. The average TFE scores are slowly improving year by year.