Spatial pattern evolution and convergence of water eco-civilization development index in China

Abstract

Spatial correlation and convergence of the development level of China's water ecocivilization is vital to its coordinated construction. Constructing an evaluation system of water eco-civilization construction, whose dimensions contain water security, water ecology, water environment, water conservation, water supervision and water culture, this paper adopts entropy methods to measure water eco-civilization development index of China and its 31 provincial-level regions from 2010 to 2018, uses exploratory spatial data analysis (ESDA) and space-time transition method to examine the spatio-temporal evolution patterns, and builds spatial panel Durbin model to reveal the spatial convergence. The results are obtained as follows.(1) The development index of China's water eco-civilization is increasing year by year, but water ecology, water supervision and water culture are still the main short boards. There are significant regional differences, showing a pattern of "high-low-medium" from east to west.(2) The development index of China's provincial water eco-civilization shows significant positive spatial spillover effect and spatial pattern locking characteristics. The high-high aggregation areas mainly include eastern coastal regions while the low-low ones mainly include northeast, northwest and southwest of China, and middle reaches of the Yangtze River, and the latter is difficult to realize the transition to HH-type provinces. (3) There exists significant α convergence, absolute β and conditional β convergence in China as well as in its eastern, central and western regions from 2010 to 2018, with the fastest in the eastern region referring to absolute β convergence and the fastest in the central region referring to conditional β convergence, while the western region is the slowest in both types of β convergences.(4) Economic development, population density, human capital and technological progress have significant effects on the convergence of China's water eco-civilization development, but there are obvious regional variations. Specific countermeasures and suggestions are put forward accordingly.

Study on the Coordination of New Urbanization and Water Ecological Civilization and Its Driving Factors: Evidence from the Yangtze River Economic Belt, China

“…With the reduction of the marginal effect of the above-mentioned policies and a series of documents related to the pilot construction of WEC, the WEC growth rate fell back in 2017 and 2018 but then gradually increased to the maximum level due to the implementation of environmental protection policies and regulations, such as the Environmental Protection Tax Law, the Reform Program of the Ecological and Environmental Damage Compensation System, and the newly revised Water Pollution Prevention and Control Law. From the perspective of space, the average annual growth rate of WEC in the upper, middle, and lower reaches of the YREB is 0.148, 0.111, and 0.261, respectively, presenting the completely opposite situation to that of NU, with the trend of decreasing successively in the lower reaches, upper reaches, and middle reaches, which is consistent with the research conducted by Yu et al and Su et al [12,68]. This is mainly because the lower reaches of the YREB, which have a strong economic foundation and strong investment in infrastructure, have laid a good foundation for environmental protection and sewage treatment.…”

The Impact of New Urbanization on Water Ecological Civilization: Based on the Empirical Analysis of Prefecture-Level Cities in Jiangxi, China

“…The extant literature found that the level of Jiangxi's WEC shows a fluctuating upward trend and significant urban differences. This result is also similar to the findings of Deng et al and Su et al on the level of WEC in China [13,48]. They found that the level of WEC in China continues to rise, with significant differences between different provinces, indicating that the application of the PSR model to construct the indicator system of WEC is reasonable and has a particular reference value.…”

Temporal and Spatial Difference Analysis and Impact Factors of Water Ecological Civilization Level: Evidence from Jiangxi Province, China

“…The result confirmed that the uneven spatial distribution of water resources affects the water ecological environment and water ecological civilization. Moreover, this result is similar to the studies by Deng et al and Su et al on the development level of China's water ecological civilization [42,43]. The former found that the level of China's water ecological civilization construction continued to improve from 2010 to 2016, and the gap of the level of 31 provinces is significant and not narrowing.…”