| Summary: | Air pollution, especially the urban haze, has become an urgent issue affecting the sustainable development of cities. Based on the PM<sub>2.5</sub> concentration data of 225 Chinese cities collected by satellite remote sensing from 1998 to 2016, we quantitatively analyzed the spatiotemporal distribution characteristics and dynamic evolution trends of PM<sub>2.5</sub> concentration in the four regions of China, namely the East, the Central, the West and the Northeast, by using statistical classification, GIS visualization, Dagum Gini coefficient decomposition and kernel density estimation. The results are as follows: First, the PM<sub>2.5</sub> pollution in China showed a trend of fluctuation, which appeared to be increasing first and then decreasing, with the year 2007 as an important turning point for PM<sub>2.5</sub> pollution changes across the country, as well as in the eastern and central regions. Second, PM<sub>2.5</sub> pollution in China had significant spatial agglomeration. The intra-regional difference within the eastern region was the largest, and the inter-regional differences were the main source of overall differences. Third, kernel density estimation showed that the absolute difference of PM<sub>2.5</sub> concentration distribution in China was expanding, with a significant phenomenon of polarization and the characteristics of spatial imbalance. This paper aimed to provide a scientific basis and effective reference for further advancing the sustainable development strategy of China in the new era.
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