Evaluation of regional environmental carrying capacity and its obstacle indicators diagnosis: Evidence from three major urban agglomerations in China

Abstract

With rapid population growth and productivity development, the contradiction between economic and social development and resource and environmental protection is becoming increasingly prominent, so it is important to study the regional environmental carrying capacity to protect the environment and promote high-quality economic development. This study takes the three major urban agglomerations of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta as the research objects, and uses the entropy-weighted topsis model and the obstacle diagnosis model to evaluate the comprehensive environmental carrying capacity levels of the three major urban agglomerations and analyse their main obstacle factors. The results show that: 1) the average environmental carrying capacity level scores of the three major urban agglomerations during the study period were Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (0.23103) > Yangtze River Delta (0.17687) > Pearl River Delta (0.16); 2) the degree of synergy between subsystems affects the environmental carrying capacity level; 3) China has still not achieved harmony between the environment and economic growth, and economic development is the main influencing factor for the level of environmental carrying capacity. In the future, it is recommended that each city cluster adhere to the construction of ecological civilization and vigorously develop high-tech and green industries; at the same time, give full play to the radiation-driven role of the regional core cities, make use of the synergistic effect of resource agglomeration and maximize the efficiency of resource utilization, so as to ultimately achieve the coordinated development of economic society and regional resources and environment.