Interaction Effects between Technology-Driven Urbanization and Eco-Environment: Evidence from China’s East Zhejiang Region

With the rapid pace of urbanization in populous regions, the conflict between economic development and eco-environment becomes increasingly notable, inducing policy makers to implement new technological solutions for regional sustainable growth. Choosing the East Zhejiang region in China as a case study, this paper reveals the interaction effects between technology-driven urbanization and eco-environment, by compiling novel indexes for factors such as the degree of urbanization, environmental pressure, environmental protection, and environmental quality from 2005 to 2014, and adopting a data-intensive systemic approach. Differing from previous literature, an inverted “U” structure and panel vector autoregressive model are constructed to show that: (i) Given the acceleration of technology-driven urbanization, its surrounding eco-environment is still likely to be under greater pressure; (ii) the relationships between technology-driven urbanization and environmental factors in different regions are heterogeneous, either with a normal U-shaped curve or an inverted U-shaped curve; and (iii) the two-way interaction effects are significantly unbalanced, with long-term contribution rates of environmental quality and pressure on urbanization to be 57.8% and 78.88%, respectively, which is higher than the reversal effect. This study provides scientific reference for urban planning and advocates that more technological innovations should be implemented to help maintain sustainable urbanization processes.