Spatiotemporal Change of Eco-Environmental Quality in the Oasis City and Its Correlation with Urbanization Based on RSEI: A Case Study of Urumqi, China

Abstract

As an important node city of “The Belt and Road” strategy, Urumqi has a non-negligible impact on the ecological environment in the process of rapid development. It is of great significance to understand the coupling and coordination between urbanization and the ecological environment for regional sustainable development. However, previous studies on the coupling coordination degree (CCD) model of urbanization and ecological environment are limited, and they ignore the endogenous relationship between the two. Therefore, this study aims to introduce an econometric model, the panel vector autoregression model (PVAR), to further explore the relationship between them and the influencing mechanism. Firstly, urbanization and ecological environment were evaluated objectively by the comprehensive nighttime light index (CNLI) and remote sensing ecological index (RSEI), respectively. Then, the coupling coordination degree of urbanization and the ecological environment were evaluated comprehensively by a typical coupling coordination degree model. Finally, the PVAR model is used to analyze the interaction between the two systems and the mechanism of action. The results showed that: (1) in the recent 25 years, the mean value of RSEI in Urumqi decreased gradually, and the overall ecological environment deteriorated, but the differences among districts and counties were still significant; (2) the urbanization level of Urumqi is on the rise, while UC, DBC(B), and MD have the highest increase in CNLI although they are at a low level; and (3) in the interactive relationship between urbanization and the ecological environment, the development of Urumqi’s ecological environment is mainly affected by its development inertia, and the development of urbanization is limited by the ecological environment. This study fills the gap in the study of the interaction mechanism between urbanization and the ecological environment and provides a new perspective for the study of sustainable urban development worldwide.