Evaluation on the coupling coordination of economic development and ecological environment carrying capacity: Case study in Jiangxi Province, China

Abstract

Exploring the relationship between economic development and ecological environment is the inevitable requirement of regional sustainable development. We used an improved entropy method and a coupling coordinated model to assess the comprehensive evaluation index and the coupling coordination degree of economic development and ecological environmental carrying capacity of Jiangxi Province, from 2011 to 2019. Taking 2011 and 2019 as time nodes, this paper analyzed the spatial pattern evolution characteristics of 11 cities in Jiangxi Province. The results showed that: 1) Coordinated development degree presents a growth trend from 2011 to 2019, while the type of coordinated development is constantly shifting to a higher level; 2) the status of coordinated development in 11 prefecture-level cities has generally changed from low and primary to middle and high-level coordination; and 3) the spatial distribution characteristics showed that the coordinated development level in the northern and southern region were higher than the central region, and inter-regional differences gradually narrowed.