Exploring the path of digital governance of urban industrial pollution: empirical evidence from 280 cities in China

Urban industrial pollution plays a dominant role in environmental pollution in China. Exploring the digital governance path of urban industrial pollution can provide strong support for improving environmental quality. This article empirically investigates the role and path of digitalization in the governance of urban industrial pollution from three dimensions: economic scale, structural scale, and technological scale. The results show that there is an inverted “U”-shaped relationship between digitalization and urban industrial pollution, with initial promotion followed by suppression. Among them, economic scale, industrial transformation and upgrading, and green innovation are the paths for digital governance of urban industrial pollution. In addition, there is a chain path of “green innovation-industrial transformation and upgrading” between the two. Through spatial Durbin model and regional heterogeneity analysis, it is found that digitalization has a spatial spillover effect on urban industrial pollution control, and eastern regions, regions with high economic development level and industrialized cities benefit more from digital urban industrial pollution control. The research conclusions of this article provide references for the Chinese government to formulate relevant policies, deepen the integration of digitalization and urban industrial pollution, and promote digital governance of urban industrial pollution.