Study on the development patterns of ecological civilization construction in China: An empirical analysis of 324 prefectural cities

Abstract

Ecological civilization construction is a task of paramount importance for China's sustainable development. To explore the performance and development patterns of ecological civilization construction in China, this study established an indicator system to evaluate the ecological civilization construction at the city-level. A double-benchmark progressive method and the key functional zone weighting assignment were used to improve the evaluation process. On this basis, this study analyzed the levels of ecological civilization construction and its changes in 324 prefecture-level cities in mainland China from 2015 to 2019. Furthermore, criteria for classifying the development patterns of ecological civilization construction were proposed based on the socio-economic development and eco-environmental performance of cities. According to the findings: (1) China's ecological civilization construction had made great progress with the scores increase of approximately 8%. The score of China was 71 in 2019 and more than half of the evaluated cities scored higher than 70. (2) Cities under “harmonious coexistence” (both economy and environment performing well) and “antagonistic development” (economy developing with environment requiring improvement) patterns accounted for the highest proportion with a total of 62%. The proportion of cities under the “harmonious coexistence” pattern constantly increased, while that of cities under the “antagonistic development” pattern declined 28% from 2015 to 2019. This study analyzed the patterns of China's ecological civilization construction in prefecture-level cities, providing a mode for green and sustainable development of areas with different natural endowments.