Coupling and Coordination Degree between Urbanization and Ecological Environment in Guizhou, China

Abstract

This paper intends to examine the coupling and coordination degree (CCD) between the urbanization and ecological environment in Guizhou, China. The entropy weight method and coupling effect model were used to calculate the CCD between the urbanization and ecological environment of Guizhou and each of its prefectures. The results show the following: (1) there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between the urbanization and ecological environment deterioration in Guizhou, which can be described by the Kuznets curve; (2) both the urbanization and ecological environment improve with the increase in the CCD; (3) unlike the traditional urbanization path, the urbanization in Guizhou features the parallel progress of industrialization and ecological environment protection. These results prove another possibility of the Kuznets curve: the curve can reach the turning point without high urbanization. This new urbanization path of balance-upgrading provides an important reference for backward areas to realize low-carbon economy and sustainable development at the same time.

[Retracted] The Relationship between Traditional Music in Xinjiang and the Geographical Environment of the Gobi Desert

“…After passing through Gansu Province, crossed the southeastern part of Xinjiang, and extended eastward to the west coast of Central Asia and North Africa, forming a line that traverses east and west. Due to the severe physical and geographical environmental restrictions, Xinjiang is arid and rainy all year round, surrounded by deserts and sandstorms, and surrounded by large tracts of Gobi and mountains [ 12 ]. The spatial index of Xinjiang is shown in Figure 3 .…”

A Dynamic Econometric Analysis of Urbanization and Ecological Environment in Silk Road Economic Belt

“…e urbanization level of China was only 19.39% in 1980, and after that, driven by the policy of reformation and opening, the urbanization process of China has been accelerating and by 2020 it has risen to 63.89%, with a total of 687 cities and towns nationwide [1][2][3][4][5]. Accelerated urbanization has also caused multiple problems, including climate change, waste of resources, and ecological degradation, which pose serious challenges to the modernization of our economy and society.…”

Coupling coordination between higher education and environmental governance: Evidence of western China

“…Xinjiang, Tibet, and Qinghai had lower grades than others in the higher education and environmental governance subsystem, demonstrating higher education’s relative input and output, and the relative pressure, status, and response to environmental governance were less satisfying. Former studies evaluated the actual performances of these three regions’ higher education and environmental governance and showed similar results [ 48 , 58 , 65 ], proving these regions lack sufficient development in higher education and environmental governance. Thus, these regions should carefully introspect the current weakness and gradually achieve benign growth; besides, the national authority should pay more attention to these western regions, introduce more targeted development measures and invest more funds and resources to accelerate the development of both higher education and environmental governance in these regions.…”

“…Besides, laws and regulations aiming to enhance environmental governance encourage professionals in the higher education sector to devote more resources to study and propose corresponding countermeasures. On the contrary, as the total amount is limited, investments in environmental governance practices occupy the input to higher education, which hinders the high-quality growth of higher education [9,[54][55][56][57][58].…”

“…Higher education Input Proportion of faculty in the total population (+) [49] Student-teacher ratio (-) [49,51] Education funding input per student (+) [49,51] Research funding input per faculty (+) [49] Output Proportion of students of higher education in the total population (+) [9,49] Number of academic papers per higher education personnel (+) [57] Number of publications per higher education personnel (+) [57] Number of research projects per higher education personnel (+) [57] Environmental governance Pressure Wastewater emissions per capita (-) [58,59] Dust emissions per capita (-) [60,61] Sulfide emissions per capita (-) [47,60] Solid waste emissions per capita (-) [50,58] State Volume of water use per capita (-) [59,60] Average concentrations of NO 2 (-) [47,62] Average concentrations of SO 2 (-) [47,62] Average concentrations of PM 10 (-) [47,62] Forest cover rate (+) [63,64] Response Proportion of investment in water treatment in financial expenditure (+) [59,65] Proportion of investment in air treatment in financial expenditure (+) [65,61] Proportion of investment in solid waste treatment in financial expenditure (+) [65,50] Annual number of approved environmental impact assessment documents (+) [50] https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0271994.t001…”