Exploring the Spatial Relationship between Urban Vitality and Urban Carbon Emissions

Urbanization profoundly impacts the global carbon cycle and climate change. Many studies have shown that both urban vitality and urban carbon emissions are deeply affected by spatial planning and city structure. However, the specific relationship between urban vitality and urban carbon emissions is rarely studied. An index system of urban vitality was established from four aspects: social, economic, cultural, and environmental. After analyzing the spatial distribution characteristics of urban vitality combined with spatial syntax and the TOPSIS model, this paper further investigated the influence of urban vitality-building factors on the distribution of urban carbon emissions based on the Geodetector method. The research results show that: (1) Xuzhou shows obvious spatial differences in urban vitality, mainly decreasing from the center to the surrounding areas, with a small vitality center in the northeast. (2) The impact of different dimensions of vitality on urban carbon emissions is apparently different. (3) Facilities’ aggregation has the weakest explanatory power for urban carbon emissions, while the NDVI has the highest explanatory power. This study helps to clarify the spatial correlation and influence mechanism between urban vitality and urban carbon emissions. Finally, some suggestions are proposed to construct low-carbon and high-vitality cities.