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The rapid and timely evaluation of urban environmental change is highly important for understanding urban sustainability in China. However, the comprehensive understanding of urban environmental change in China based on multi-source remote sensing data remains inadequate because current studies have mainly focused on a single aspect of the urban environment using a specific source of remote sensing data. In this study, we developed a comprehensive evaluation index (CEI) combining the remote sensing data of the fine particulate matter (PM_2.5) concentration, land surface temperature (LST) and vegetation cover (VC) to assess the urban environmental change in China at the national scale, among urban agglomerations and across the rapidly urbanized regions. We found a trend of environmental degradation in the urban areas of China between 2000 and 2012. Environmentally degraded and …