IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v7y2015i2p1576-1594d45360.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

GIS-Based Synthetic Measurement of Sustainable Development in Loess Plateau Ecologically Fragile Area—Case of Qingyang, China

Author

Listed:
  • Chenyu Lu

    (College of Geography and Environment Science, Northwest Normal University, Lanzhou 730070, China)

  • Chunjuan Wang

    (College of Geography and Environment Science, Northwest Normal University, Lanzhou 730070, China)

  • Weili Zhu

    (College of Geography and Environment Science, Northwest Normal University, Lanzhou 730070, China)

  • Hengji Li

    (Lanzhou Center of Literature and Information, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China)

  • Yongjin Li

    (Research Center for Circular Economy in Western China, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China)

  • Chengpeng Lu

    (Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang 110016, China)

Abstract

Synthetic measurement of regional sustainable development has been one of the key issues in the research field of sustainability. In this paper, Qingyang City located in the Loess Plateau ecologically fragile area of Northwest China is used for a case study, and the present study aims to investigate the degree of sustainable development by conducting temporal- and spatial-scale based analysis, with the assessment index system, assessment model and GIS approach well integrated. The results show that the development pattern of Qingyang generally fits the mode of unsustainable development, even in the presence of certain levels of spatial differences. The sustainable development state in ecologically fragile area of China’s Loess Plateau is non-optimistic, which is an uncoordinated status among subsystems of regional sustainable development. Although the level and tendency of regional sustainable development keeps increasing, such enhancement is abnormal. With the rapid deterioration of environmental and natural resources, their inhibitory effect on the economy and society would expand, eventually leading to the slow development rate or the recession of the entire system. The only solution is to change the traditional mode of economic development, to follow the guide of ecological economic conception so that the goal of achieving regional sustainable development strategies could be met ultimately. Meanwhile, the characteristics of different regions should be taken into account in order to achieve optimal spatial structure.

Suggested Citation

  • Chenyu Lu & Chunjuan Wang & Weili Zhu & Hengji Li & Yongjin Li & Chengpeng Lu, 2015. "GIS-Based Synthetic Measurement of Sustainable Development in Loess Plateau Ecologically Fragile Area—Case of Qingyang, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(2), pages 1-19, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:7:y:2015:i:2:p:1576-1594:d:45360
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/7/2/1576/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/7/2/1576/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Graymore, Michelle L.M. & Sipe, Neil G. & Rickson, Roy E., 2008. "Regional sustainability: How useful are current tools of sustainability assessment at the regional scale?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(3), pages 362-372, October.
    2. Sagar, Ambuj D. & Najam, Adil, 1998. "The human development index: a critical review," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(3), pages 249-264, June.
    3. Zilong Zhang & Xingpeng Chen & Peter Heck, 2014. "Emergy-Based Regional Socio-Economic Metabolism Analysis: An Application of Data Envelopment Analysis and Decomposition Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 6(12), pages 1-21, November.
    4. de Bruyn, S. M. & Opschoor, J. B., 1997. "Developments in the throughput-income relationship: theoretical and empirical observations," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 255-268, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Chenyu Lu & Wenlei Li & Min Pang & Bing Xue & Hong Miao, 2018. "Quantifying the Economy-Environment Interactions in Tourism: Case of Gansu Province, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-21, March.
    2. Bing Xue & Mario Tobias, 2015. "Sustainability in China: Bridging Global Knowledge with Local Action," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(4), pages 1-7, March.
    3. Chenyu Lu & Min Pang & Jiaqi Yang & Dai Wang, 2018. "Research on Interactions between the Economy and Environment in Tourism Development: Case of Qingyang, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-23, November.
    4. Chenyu Lu & Dai Wang & Peng Meng & Jiaqi Yang & Min Pang & Li Wang, 2018. "Research on Resource Curse Effect of Resource-Dependent Cities: Case Study of Qingyang, Jinchang and Baiyin in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(1), pages 1-21, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Vicent Alcántara Escolano & Emilio Padilla Rosa, 2005. "Análisis de las emisiones de CO2 y sus factores explicativos en las diferentes áreas del mundo," Revista de Economia Critica, Asociacion de Economia Critica, vol. 4, pages 17-37.
    2. Christoph Bey, 2001. "Changing economies of scale – synergies between implementation of an ecological tax reform and development of industrial ecosystems," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 10(6), pages 383-393, November.
    3. Jeni Klugman & Francisco Rodríguez & Hyung-Jin Choi, 2011. "The HDI 2010: new controversies, old critiques," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 9(2), pages 249-288, June.
    4. Esposito, Piero & Patriarca, Fabrizio & Salvati, Luca, 2018. "Tertiarization and land use change: The case of Italy," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 80-86.
    5. Rui Manuel de Sousa Fragoso & Carlos Alberto Falcão Marques, 2012. "Integrated Water Management Using Feasible Goals Method and Interactive Decision Maps: The Case of Odivelas Irrigation," CEFAGE-UE Working Papers 2012_07, University of Evora, CEFAGE-UE (Portugal).
    6. Jeroen C. J. M. van den Bergh, 1999. "Materials, Capital, Direct/Indirect Substitution, and Mass Balance Production Functions," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 75(4), pages 547-561.
    7. Jha, Raghbendra & Murthy, K. V. Bhanu, 2003. "An inverse global environmental Kuznets curve," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(2), pages 352-368, June.
    8. Albino Prada-Blanco & Patricio Sanchez-Fernandez, 2017. "Empirical Analysis of the Transformation of Economic Growth into Social Development at an International Level," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 130(3), pages 983-1003, February.
    9. Christoph Dörffel & Sebastian Schuhmann, 2020. "What is Inclusive Development? Introducing the Multidimensional Inclusiveness Index," Jena Economics Research Papers 2020-015, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena.
    10. Myrto Kasioumi & Thanasis Stengos, 2023. "A Circular Model of Economic Growth and Waste Recycling," Circular Economy and Sustainability, Springer, vol. 3(1), pages 321-346, March.
    11. Aleksandra Maksimovska & Aleksandar Stojkov, 2019. "Composite Indicator of Social Responsiveness of Local Governments: An Empirical Mapping of the Networked Community Governance Paradigm," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 144(2), pages 669-706, July.
    12. Chris Tofallis, 2013. "An automatic-democratic approach to weight setting for the new human development index," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 26(4), pages 1325-1345, October.
    13. Rothman, Dale S., 1998. "Environmental Kuznets curves--real progress or passing the buck?: A case for consumption-based approaches," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(2), pages 177-194, May.
    14. Ramos-Martin, Jesus, 2003. "Empiricism in ecological economics: a perspective from complex systems theory," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(3), pages 387-398, October.
    15. Cristina Sendra & Xavier Gabarrell & Teresa Vicent, 2006. "Análisis de los flujos de materiales de una región: Cataluña (1996-2000)," Revista Iberoamericana de Economía Ecológica, Red Iberoamericana de Economía Ecológica, vol. 4, pages 43-54.
    16. Alcott, Blake, 2008. "The sufficiency strategy: Would rich-world frugality lower environmental impact," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(4), pages 770-786, February.
    17. Majid Ebrahimi & Hamid Nejadsoleymani & Mohammad Reza Mansouri Daneshvar, 2019. "Land suitability map and ecological carrying capacity for the recognition of touristic zones in the Kalat region, Iran: a multi-criteria analysis based on AHP and GIS," Asia-Pacific Journal of Regional Science, Springer, vol. 3(3), pages 697-718, October.
    18. Robert Stewart & Murshed Chowdhury & Vaalmikki Arjoon, 2021. "Bank stability and economic growth: trade-offs or opportunities?," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 61(2), pages 827-853, August.
    19. Aarras, Nina & Rönkä, Mia & Kamppinen, Matti & Tolvanen, Harri & Vihervaara, Petteri, 2014. "Environmental technology and regional sustainability – The role of life-based design," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 52-59.
    20. Massimo Buscema & Pier Luigi Sacco & Guido Ferilli, 2016. "Multidimensional Similarities at a Global Scale: An Approach to Mapping Open Society Orientations," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 128(3), pages 1239-1258, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:7:y:2015:i:2:p:1576-1594:d:45360. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.