Impact of Rural Industrial Integration on Rural Air Quality: Evidence from Prefecture-Level Cities in China

In China, the sustainable development of rural areas is of great significance to sustainable development. Especially with the acceleration of rural industrial integration in China, its environmental impact not only affects the resilience of rural areas but also affects the regional environment. According to the multiple and different dimensions of the impact of rural industrial integration on rural ecosystems, this research focuses on prefecture-level cities in China, utilizing regional economic and environmental data from 2014 to 2023. To analyze the impact of rural industrial integration on rural air quality using the entropy method, a rural industrial integration index was constructed, and the fixed effects model was used to analyze the findings. The results showed that a 0.01 increase in the rural industrial integration index will result in a decrease of 1.335% in the AQI index of an entire prefecture-level city, with empirical validation of the moderating effects of greening, rural waste treatment, and the mediating effects of infrastructure development. The study found that rural industrial integration and air quality levels in mainland China’s prefecture-level cities exhibited a steady upward trend.