Construction waste management (CWM) is vital for enhancing resource utilization, ecological civilization, and high-quality development. Technological innovation is the cornerstone of efficient CWM, driving waste reduction, reuse, and recycling practices. Understanding the relevance of CWM technological innovation across different regions is an important foundation for the scientific formulation of CWM policies and a key entry point for achieving a circular economy. This study employs patents to reflect CWM technological innovation, uses social network analysis (SNA) to explore its spatial network characteristics, and adopts a quadratic assignment procedure (QAP) to verify its influencing factors across Chinese provinces. Results demonstrate significant overall network characteristics in CWM technological innovation, though technological innovation in CWM exhibits low spatial correlation among provincial regions of China. The analysis reveals a pronounced polarization in the CWM innovation networks across Chinese provinces, demonstrating a distinct core–periphery structure. Although spatial clustering in China’s CWM technological innovation is evident, correlations mostly exist within blocks, indicating a need to enhance inter-block correlations. The greater the disparity in living standards and the smaller the differences in economic structure, educational development, and urban construction, the more likely provinces are to establish spatial associations, thereby increasing the probability of forming a spatial correlation network of CWM technological innovation. This study contributes to the growing literature on construction waste management by providing a spatial network perspective for understanding regional technological innovation and its driving mechanisms. The findings inform regional coordinated strategies for sustainable CWM practices.
Yuan et al. (Sat,) studied this question.
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