Evaluating the trends of China's ecological civilization construction using a novel indicator system

Zhang, Xiaohong; Wang, Yanqing; Yan, Qi; Wu, Jun; Liao, Wenjie; Shui, Wei; Zhang, Yanzong; Deng, Shihuai; Peng, Hong; Yu, Xiaoyu; Qi, Hui

doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.06.034

Cited by 67 publications

(37 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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“…According to the experience of experts, when the value of the overall harmonious development index of socio-economy and RLS reaches 0.8, it can meet the strategic needs of the national construction of the Ecological Civilization [28][29][30][31]. Otherwise, harmony equilibrium judgement is needed based on the analysis of driving factors and the harmony equilibrium regulation model [32].…”

Section: Harmony Regulation Schemesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Harmonious Development between Socio-Economy and River-Lake Water Systems in Xiangyang City, China

Zuo

Luo

Ding

2016

Water

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River-lake water systems (RLS) are important carriers for matter transformation and energy transmission. Influenced by accelerated social and economic development, the structural, functional, and environmental states of RLS have been seriously damaged. It is an important problem for human beings to coordinate the contradiction between socio-economic development and the protection of RLS. In order to quantitatively study the harmonious relationship between socio-economic development and the state of RLS, the harmony theory method was used to analyze the degree of harmonious development between socio-economy and RLS in this study taking Xiangyang City as an example, and formulating corresponding harmonious optimization schemes. The results indicate that: (1) the state of RLS had a relatively small change during [2009][2010][2011][2012][2013][2014], and its spatial distribution shows a decreasing trend with the Han River as the central axis decreases on both of its sides; (2) before 2011, the driving force of socio-economic development in Xiang yang City mainly originated in the peripheral regions such as Laohekou City, Zaoyang City, and Gucheng County, but after 2011, it migrated rapidly towards Downtown, and reached the maximum in 2014; (3) when the influence of regional socio-economic development on RLS is small, socio-economic development is the main factor driving the change of the overall harmonious development degree of socio-economy and RLS. However when the influence is big, it is combined, driven by socio-economic development and the state of RLS; (4) the main factors affecting the overall harmonious degree of socio-economy and RLS in Xiangyang City include: river length, standard ratio of water quality, water consumption per capita, reservoir regulation capability, farmland irrigation water consumption per Mu (Mu is an area unit in China, 1 Mu approximately equals to 666.67 m 2 ), and sewage treatment rate. This study can provide a reference for the future analysis of the harmonious development between socio-economy and RLS, as well as in formulating corresponding harmonious optimization schemes in China and other countries in a similar situation.

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Section: Harmony Regulation Schemesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Harmonious Development between Socio-Economy and River-Lake Water Systems in Xiangyang City, China

Zuo

Luo

Ding

2016

Water

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“…Confronted with the severe situation of resource constraints, environmental pollution and ecosystem degradation, "ecological civilization" was put forward as a concept for promoting natural conservation and sustainable development. Ecological civilization construction (ECC) was first proposed in the 17th Congress of the communist party of China in 2007, and upgraded as a national strategy in the 18th Congress of the party in 2012 [44]. As the basic carrier, ecological land plays an important role in maintaining regional ecological security and offering ecosystem services [18].…”

Section: Ecological Land Definition and Land Classificationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Elevated Risk of Ecological Land and Underlying Factors Associated with Rapid Urbanization and Overprotected Agriculture in Northeast China

et al. 2019

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Ecological land with considerable ecological value can be regarded as an important indicator in guaranteeing ecosystem function and sustainable development. Generally, the urbanization process has been considered to be the primary factor affecting ecological land use. However, the influence of agricultural development, particularly in a typical farming area, has rarely been studied. In this paper, we present a method to assess the ecological risk of ecological land (ELER) in a black soil area in northeastern China. Furthermore, the underlying factors were detected using the geographically weighted regression model, which took into account conditions of natural elements, the urbanization process, and grain production conditions. The results indicate that ecological land experienced remarkable changes with an evident loss and decline from 1996–2015. The ELER progressively increased in the concentrated farming area and the western agro-pastoral ecotone, and the ecological land in the eastern forest area was always at a high risk level. According to the regression coefficients, the relationships between influence factors and ELER could be better explained by the variables of elevation, slope, proportion of rural residential area, and ratio of cultivated land area to residential area. To summarize, agricultural occupation and urban expansion were verified as the two main causes of ecological land loss, as well as elevated risks. In light of the current situation, measures such as policy adjustment and ecological restoration should be taken to avoid risk and optimize land use.

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“…Most sustainability indices employ an aggregation methodology based on expert evaluations, although such expert evaluation contains some level of subjectivity [35]. Some articles employ an optimization model that includes the interaction coefficients and weights of the criteria in a multilevel hierarchy [36]. However, this expert evaluation method causes the whole evaluation system to become less persuasive [35].…”

Section: Sustainability Assessmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These studies typically employ sustainability indicators or establish sustainability index systems but fail to form a uniform sustainability assessment standard in a specific region [6]. The reason for this failure is that their sustainability evaluation is insufficiently grounded in ecological economics [6,23,[36][37][38][39][40]. Ecological economics transforms sustainable development from weak sustainability, which focuses on society and economics, to strong sustainability, which emphasizes environment, economics, and society.…”

Section: Sustainability Assessmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Sustainability Assessment of Five Major Food Crops’ Water Footprints in China from 1978 to 2010

et al. 2019

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Rice, wheat, corn, soybeans, and sorghum are the five major crops in China, which account for 92% of the country’s total grain production and 33% of its water consumption. Combining water footprint analysis tools with sustainability assessment tools, the water sustainability of the five major crops can be analyzed. Based on ecological economics theory, this paper constructs a sustainability evaluation system of China’s five major crops’ water footprints and analyzes the national and provincial diversity of the sustainability of the five major crops’ water footprints using three dimensions: scale, distribution, and equity. We find that the interprovincial distribution equity sustainability divergence is the key bottleneck factor that restricts sustainability (more than scale and configuration). One key strategy is to arrange grain production at the national level, on the basis of considering the differences of water-resource endowment between different provinces to break through the bottleneck of the water-resource distribution sustainability of these five major food crops. This paper determines a general management model that can improve the sustainability of water resource management at the interprovincial level by comparing and analyzing the most sustainable and least sustainable provinces for the water footprint production of these five major crops.

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Evaluating the trends of China's ecological civilization construction using a novel indicator system

Cited by 67 publications

References 51 publications

Harmonious Development between Socio-Economy and River-Lake Water Systems in Xiangyang City, China

Harmonious Development between Socio-Economy and River-Lake Water Systems in Xiangyang City, China

Elevated Risk of Ecological Land and Underlying Factors Associated with Rapid Urbanization and Overprotected Agriculture in Northeast China

A Sustainability Assessment of Five Major Food Crops’ Water Footprints in China from 1978 to 2010

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