Examining the complex relationships between socioeconomic development and the improvement of ecological environment in post-disaster reconstruction: The case of Wenchuan earthquake disaster area in Western China

Abstract

The ecological environment damage caused by human activities will aggravate the damage of natural disasters and seriously restrict the socioeconomic sustainable development. Therefore, it is a key issue to coordinate the coupling relationship between socioeconomic development (SE) and ecological environment (EE) to reduce the damage of natural disasters to human activities and guarantee the socioeconomic sustainable development after natural disasters. It is an important issue to explore the relationship between economy and environment in post-disaster reconstruction areas and how to coordinate the areas with slower economic development and higher risk of ecological destruction. Based on this, an index system of ecological environment and socioeconomic development was constructed by using the data in the statistical yearbook from 2005 to 2018. The dynamic deviation maximization (DM) method and coupling coordination degree model (CCDM) were used to study the coordination relationship between socioeconomic and ecological environment in Wenchuan earthquake disaster area. The results showed that the coupling coordination degree (CCD) presented an upward trend in the period of post-disaster reconstruction in Wenchuan earthquake disaster area, and the CCD is highly related to the regional topography, city location, urban comprehensive economic level, and urban ecological endowment. The results indicated that the CCD shows a downward trend from provincial capitals to surrounding cities on the basis of the perspective of urban spatial distribution characteristics. On the basis of the research, this paper analyzes the reasons for the differences in CCD scores of different cities and puts forward corresponding policy suggestions, which including speeding up industrial transformation, increasing government investment, and strengthening transportation infrastructure construction. By analyzing the CCD between SE and EE in Wenchuan earthquake disaster area, this paper aims to provide reference for achieving regional sustainable development goals (SDGs) in post-disaster reconstruction, as well as hope to provide an experience reference for post-disaster reconstruction in other disaster areas.