A partitioning approach for regional sustainability based on economic development indicators and ecological values for China

Abstract

With the acceleration of China's urbanization and economic development, the ecological conditions of some areas have deteriorated, which has seriously affected the balance of ecological sustainability and socio-economic development. Therefore, how to formulate scientific partitioning strategies for both regional socio-economic development and ecological protection has become a key issue. Aimed at maintaining and improving regional sustainability, we established a partitioning indicator system of China considering 19 value indicators. We constructed the separate sets of the ecological values and economic-development values layers. Based on these two categories, China is classified into four types of functional areas, which are defined as key protected area, development area, low-tension area and conflict area. Finally, the Zonation model was used to identify the important regions of ecological sublayers, then these regions were overlapped with the conflict area to identify the key regions in conflict status which need more attention for ecological sustainability. The main research results are as follows: The ecological situation is generally better in southern China, while the development degree is higher in eastern China. The partitioning map shows that key protected areas mainly distributed in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and parts of northeast China, and the existing nature reserves can protect most of the high-value regions of protected areas. In addition, most of the land in southeast China is identified as conflict areas. Though only 12% of high-quality habitats identified by Zonation are located in conflict areas, but nearly one-third of these habitats are in extreme-conflict status. The research results can provide a scientific basis for decision-making agencies to optimize regional ecological value and socio-economic benefits for regional sustainability.