Research on a Four-Dimensional Evaluation Indicator System for Eco-Civilization Construction: A Case Study of Guangdong Province in China

The report of the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China included the construction of ecological civilization in the “Five-in-One” (economic, political, cultural, social, and ecological progress) general layout for socialism with Chinese characteristics. Based on the concept of ecological civilization, the authors build an evaluation indicator system from four dimensions, namely ecological economy, ecological society, resource and environment efficiency, and ecological culture and institutions, including 45 basic indicators of three levels. In order to test the validity and reliability of the indicator system, the paper uses 21 prefecture-level cities in Guangdong Province as examples to evaluate the comprehensive level of eco-civilization construction and the statuses of the four dimensions by the attribute hierarchy model. The evaluation results show various statuses and characteristics of cities in Guangdong Province. The cities of Shenzhen, Dongguan, Shaoguan, Guangzhou and Maoming are notable in ecological economy; Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Zhongshan, Zhuhai and Huizhou are prominent in ecological society; Heyuan, Zhaoqing, Shaoguan, Qingyuan and Meizhou are the top five cities with relatively high resource and environment efficiency; Foshan, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai and Shantou are the first five cities that perform well in ecological culture and institutions. The evaluation results are consistent with the actual situation of Guangdong Province, indicating the high reliability and validity of the four-dimensional evaluation indicator system for eco-civilization construction.