Interconnectedness between land resource misallocation and environmental pollution: Exploring the sustainable development potential in China

The link between land resource misallocation and environmental quality is a compelling motivation for addressing the challenges posed by rapid urbanization. As cities expand and populations grow, the demand for land resources intensifies, leading to a misallocation between available land resources and urban development requirements. Therefore, using a panel fixed-effects model, this study explores the impact of land resources misallocation (LRM) on environmental pollution (EP) using 267 prefecture-level city data from 2011 to 2020. Our findings show that LRM significantly increases EP with a time lag effect. LRM increases the number of urban industrial enterprises and thus increases EP. Implementing the broadband China strategy negatively moderates the positive relationship between LRM and EP. There is a threshold effect of LRM on EP, which is more evident in cities with high levels of EP. The promotion effect of LRM on EP will be more evident in southern cities, cities with smaller population sizes and cities with lower digitalization levels. This study clarifies the mechanism between LRM in EP and the active role of broadband China strategy, which has important practical significance for promoting government personnel in optimizing land resource allocation to achieve green development.