Skip to main content
Log in

Evaluation of the coordinated development of economic, urbanization and environmental systems: a case study of China

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Clean Technologies and Environmental Policy Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The rapid development of economic and urbanization systems exerts a negative impact on environmental system. To achieve the sustainable development of a country, it is important to obtain an in-depth understanding of the interaction among economic, urbanization and environmental systems. A coupling coordination model of the three systems is constructed in this research to investigate the interactions among the three systems in China. This study determines the contribution rate of each indicator to the three systems during the studied period, then evaluates the development levels of the three systems and finally explores coupling coordination levels among them. The results show that economic scale, spatial urbanization and environmental governance are the prominent indicator in the economic, urbanization and environmental systems, respectively. The findings suggest that the policy makers need to consider these indicators for the development of the three systems. Furthermore, the development level of economic, urbanization and environmental systems in China generally shows an upward trend, while the environmental system development has been lagging behind the development level of economic and urbanization systems. The spatial difference exists chronically, but such differences are gradually decreasing as time evolves. Among these systems, the reduction of difference in urbanization system is most obvious. Although the coupling coordination level of the three systems presents an upward trend, unbalanced development of these systems in regional level still exists. The insightful implications are discussed for coordinated development.

Graphic abstract

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5

Similar content being viewed by others

References

Download references

Funding

This work is supported by the “Chunhui Plan” Cooperative Research Project Foundation of Ministry of Education of China (Grant No. HLJ2019002), the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong Special Administration Region (Grant No. GRF PolyU 152031/17B) and The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (Grant Nos. SB1F and ZJM2).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Xin Miao.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Yang, R., Wong, C.W.Y. & Miao, X. Evaluation of the coordinated development of economic, urbanization and environmental systems: a case study of China. Clean Techn Environ Policy 23, 685–708 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10098-020-01999-5

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10098-020-01999-5

Keywords

Navigation