The Spatiotemporal Evolution of Buildings’ Carbon Emissions in Siping, a Chinese Industrial City

Industrial cities in transition face multiple pressures of socio-economic development and carbon emission reduction. Studying the spatiotemporal evolution of urban carbon emissions helps us understand the spatial adaptability of low-carbon cities. In this study, we took Siping, an industrial city in China, as an example; spatially mapped buildings’ carbon emissions by combining statistical data and points of interest; and used exploratory spatiotemporal analysis to dynamically evolve the spatial distribution and spatiotemporal-dependent paths of carbon emissions over the years. The results presented the spatial aggregation and heterogeneity of four types of buildings’ carbon emissions in Siping. In contrast, the spatial aggregation of block-scale carbon emissions related to residential buildings and commercial buildings was stronger, and the standard deviation ellipses showed a trend of expanding outward. However, with a large total volume of carbon emissions related to industrial buildings and a large standard deviation ellipse of the distribution, targeting industrial carbon emissions remains a priority for carbon reduction. With the expansion of urban land use, the population density and carbon emission intensity of the central area decreased. Therefore, Siping should slow down its rate of land expansion, improve land use efficiency, and achieve a new balance in the complex relationship between society, economy, and the environment.