Spatiotemporal heterogeneity of PM2.5 and its driving difference comparison associated with urbanization in China’s multiple urban agglomerations

The development of urban agglomeration further deteriorates the air pollution status arising from urbanization. However, disparities in the urbanization process across different urban agglomerations may shape unique regional air pollution characters, and further complicate its driving mechanism. In this study, 11 urban agglomerations with different urbanization levels in China thus were chosen as the case study areas, to explore the spatiotemporal heterogeneity of PM2.5 and its potential driving difference related to the urbanization process from a multi-urban agglomeration perspective. The ground-monitored PM2.5 data and socioeconomic panel data (2015–2018) were processed using multiple statistical analysis methods, and the main findings of this study can be generated as followed: (1) significant spatial heterogeneity characteristics of PM2.5 pollution were recognized across the study area. And even though obvious improvement in the air quality during the study period, PM2.5 concentration remains at a high level for most of the urban agglomerations. (2) Urbanization process has a substantial contribution to regional PM2.5 pollution, and significant differences of the urbanization factors on PM2.5 concentration across the urban agglomerations assigned with various urbanization levels were emphasized. The significance of this study is to provide insight into the relationship of the urbanization process on PM2.5 pollution in different urban agglomerations and to offer a scientific basis for regional cooperation for air pollution regulation among multiple urban agglomerations.