Since the 20th century, the deterioration of the ecological environment around the world has challenged urban space construction. With the development of urbanization, the consumption of resources and energy has increased, the level of biodiversity has decreased, environmental pollution is approaching the critical level, and the contradiction between human habitat activity and ecological environment has become increasingly prominent. The sustainable development of urban space along with its economic and social benefits, taking into account the quality of life and ecological environment, has become a new and important subject that needs to be explored. In this study, the indices of the evaluation system for sustainable urban spatial development in regions with underdeveloped economies but rich in ecological resources are arranged in sequence through the systematic coupling analysis of collaborative evaluation information and a quantitative analysis. The influences of urban space elements on sustainable urban development are disclosed. On the basis of the generated data, an evaluation system for sustainable urban spatial development with a complete set of information is proposed. The proposed system is applicable to urban spatial development evaluation in regions in China with underdeveloped economies but rich in ecological capital. First, the basic concept of system coupling is introduced, and a coupling relationship between urban sustainable development and urban space is proposed. Second, the elements of urban space and the sustainable development in the Qin-Ba mountain area are extracted, and the precedence diagram method is used to construct a sustainable evaluation system for urban space development in the Qin-Ba mountain area. Third, the sustainable evaluation process of urban spatial development is proposed. Finally, the sustainable evaluation system for urban spatial development in the Qin-Ba mountain area is applied to evaluate the urban spatial development in Shangluo, Qin-Ling Mountains, China. The results show that, among the investigated 14 indicators, the proportion of industrial land use mainly influences sustainable urban spatial development. As for the rest of the index factors, per capita green land area and green coverage ratio of built-up areas, per capita urban construction land area, proportion of forestry area, greening rate of built-up areas, total industrial dust emission density, proportion of cultivated area, and average volume fraction of residential areas are the secondary influencing factors of sustainable urban spatial development. The evaluation system in this research is constructed with the three aspects of “green coordination”, “green development”, and “green sustainability” of sustainable urban spatial development, and it complements the evaluation contents of urban–rural ecological space coordination, land resource protection, and green development community, and so on. The conclusion of this study not only can provide a useful reference for urban spatial development planning for underdeveloped ecological capital areas of China but also can provide a theoretical basis for the management and control policy of sustainable urban spatial development.

Despite the importance of landscape resources in ecotourism villages, there is no scientific and complete index system for the evaluation of rural ecotourism landscape. This paper attempts to construct an evaluation index system for the ecotourism villages in the Xi'an section of the northern piedmont of Qinling Mountain. Firstly, the preliminary indices and relevant data were collected through field surveys and expert consultation. Next, the weight of each index was determined using the AHP. The conclusion is that: in the criteria layer, the weights of the elements can be ranked as natural elements (A1) > humanistic material elements (A2) > non-material elements (A3); in the factor layer, the weights of the factors under the natural elements can be ranked as ecological environment (B1) > hydro-geomorphic features (B2) > landscape quality (B3), the factors under the humanistic material elements as settlement landscape (B4) > farmland landscape (B6) > road landscape (B5) > facility construction (B7), and the factors under the non-material elements as folk culture (B8) > community participation (B9). Among the 37 indices, the natural disaster frequency (C3), folk culture diversity (C33) and Preservation of traditional residence (C15) were more important than the remaining 34 indices.

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With the proliferation of green and low-carbon development, China has made green cyclical (GC) development the key strategy for the transition of development model. This paper firstly analyses the connotations of green development and circular economy, and summarizes the basic features of the concept of the GC development. Based on the features of the Qingba Mountain Area (QMA), the authors set up a four-level (enterpriseindustry-region-society) support system for the GC development in this ecological area, and then constructed a GC development model consisting of three sub-models: the crossindustry sub-model, the urban-rural sub-model, and the cross-regional sub-model. Finally, the three sub-models were combined into the compound socioeconomic system in the QMA. The research findings provide effective reference for the economic development in ecological areas.