Abstract
Given the complexity of the poverty problem, efforts and policies aiming at reducing poverty should be tailored to local conditions, including cultural, economic, social, and geographic aspects. Taking the Sichuan Province of China as the study area, this paper explores the impact of physical geographic factors on poverty using the Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) Regression and the Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR) models at the county level. In total, 28 factors classified in seven groups were considered as variables, including terrain (relief degree of the land surface, altitude, and slope); vegetation (forest coverage rate); water (drainage network density); climate (temperature, annual average rainfall); and natural disaster (landslide, debris flow, and torrential flood). The 28 variables were then tested using correlations and regressions. A total of six physical variables remained significant for the OLS and GWR models. The results showed that the local GWR model was superior to the OLS regression model and, hence, more suitable for explaining the associations between the poverty rate and physical geographic features in Sichuan.
Highlights
China has been waging a national war against poverty for the past several decades.Remarkable progress has been achieved for the country as a whole and in particular as the poverty rate in China dropped dramatically from 10.2% to 3.1% from 2012 to 2017 [1].Despite this remarkable achievement, China still faces the poverty issue
We found that temperature rate 2 (T2), temperature rate 3 (T3), annual average rainfall (R), altitude rate 4 (A4), slope rate 1 (S1), and slope rate 4 (S4) had reasonable VIFs, which were lower than 7.5
The associations between poverty and physical geographic factors were analyzed for the 183 counties of Sichuan province by using regression models and GIS
Summary
Remarkable progress has been achieved for the country as a whole and in particular as the poverty rate in China dropped dramatically from 10.2% to 3.1% from 2012 to 2017 [1]. Despite this remarkable achievement, China still faces the poverty issue. It is still an essential obstacle to the sustainable development of Sichuan Province and the equity issue for Sichuanese people. Poverty reduction is always one of the core issues of regional sustainable development. The relationship between poverty and geographic factors has been shown to be intriguingly significant [2]. Fundamental questions on whether this effect exists, how significant the effect is, and what the main spatial patterns are for major geographic factors call for formal investigations
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