Eco-efficiency trends in China, 1978–2010: Decoupling environmental pressure from economic growth

Application of Environmental Change Efficiency to the Sustainability of Urban Development at the Neighborhood Level

“…In this study, the impact is considered to have two parts: the positive impact (I1) and the negative impact (I2) of urban development, both of which are inherent in land use changes. The positive impact refers to the actual impact and benefits to the economy and residents' quality of life, including population growth, increased income, and economic development [11,20,24,25,38,39]. Because of changes in land use patterns, the overall environmental impacts are characterized by accumulation and diffusion.…”

“…Efficient urban spatial units improve the management of the urban natural environment and create a competitive advantage by reducing the depletion of natural environmental resources and improving ecological protection. Environmental change efficiency has three characteristics based on the DPSIP model, the theory of efficiency and other studies [17,18,25,54,55]: a simultaneous improvement in the effectiveness of the economy and the natural environment; an increase in the value of urban development with a small environmental impact; and the promotion of urban economic growth with a reduction in the use of natural resources.…”

“…Human and commercial activities interact with and influence the natural resources and ecological systems in the environment. The pressure placed on the environment is expressed as the current state of the competition among diverse social and economic driving forces in the quest for land resources [25,31,37].…”

“…To select the indicators, we began with a literature review [11,13,25,39,54,57] focusing on the indicators suitable for monitoring and measuring environmental impacts and urban sustainability at the neighborhood level; we selected indicators based on DPSIP and the primary aspects of sustainable development.…”

“…Although scholars have increasingly used eco-efficiency to assess the relationship between the economy and the environment, most studies focus on the observations of manufacturers [21][22][23] or the industrial sector at the regional or national level [16,18,19,24,25]. Little effort has been devoted to explicitly exploring and defining the eco-efficiency of urban land development.…”