The Spatiotemporal Evolution and Trend Prediction of Ecological Wellbeing Performance in China

Lan Yao,Jiachen Ning,Zhenning Yu,Tiangui Lv,Mengya Wu

doi:10.3390/land10010012

Abstract

Humans currently face a problematic ecological dilemma regarding economic growth. It is difficult to meet human needs by only studying economic growth created by artificial costs, and all countries need to pay attention to the task of improving the level of human welfare under the constraints of an ecological environment from the perspective of sustainable development. The focus of ecological wellbeing performance (EWP) is how to achieve the maximum welfare level output or achieve higher welfare level improvement with the fewest conversions of natural and ecological inputs. In this paper, we use the super-efficiency SBM model to measure the EWP of Chinese provinces and cities, traditional and spatial Markov probability transfer matrices are established based on time series analysis and spatial correlation analysis of the global Moran’s index, and the characteristics of the spatiotemporal variations of EWP are analyzed by comparing the matrices. The evolution trend for a certain future period is predicted, and the influences of geographical spatial patterns on the spatiotemporal evolution of EWP are discussed. On this basis, according to the calculation and analysis of the characteristics of China’s EWP, provinces and cities in China need to focus on improving their own resource utilization efficiency and strengthen environmental supervision to improve EWP. Finally, policy recommendations are put forward. First, special laws and regulations need to be introduced for resource utilization and ecological protection. The second recommendation is to promote and improve the mechanism of public participation in the rational utilization of resources and protection of the ecological environment. The third recommendation is to establish a dynamic monitoring system for resource utilization and ecological environmental protection. The fourth recommendation is to strengthen structural adjustment and accomplish high-quality economic development.

Highlights

Introduction affiliationsThe experience of world history indicates that economic development and increased social wealth cannot naturally achieve social harmony [1]
Human beings have transitioned from an ‘empty world’ with relatively rich natural capital to a ‘full world’ that falls under the restrictions of the ecological environment due to the deterioration of the ecological environment and depletion of natural resources [5,6]
Researching only economic growth, which is caused by man-made costs, cannot satisfy the needs of human beings, and we need to focus on how to balance the relationship among the consumption of natural capital, economic growth and improvement of welfare levels under the constraints of the ecological environment from the perspective of sustainable development [8,9]

Summary

Introduction

Introduction affiliationsThe experience of world history indicates that economic development and increased social wealth cannot naturally achieve social harmony [1]. From the perspective of welfare threshold, there is not always a positive relationship between economic growth and social welfare, economic growth does not necessarily improve people’s quality of life, on the contrary, it may have an inhibitory effect when economic growth reaches a certain stage [2,3]. In a ‘full world’, scarce natural capital has become the limiting factor of welfare promotion [7], license Researching only economic growth, which is caused by man-made costs, cannot satisfy the needs of human beings, and we need to focus on how to balance the relationship among the consumption of natural capital, economic growth and improvement of welfare levels under the constraints of the ecological environment from the perspective of sustainable development [8,9]. It is urgent to improve the efficiency of transforming ecological consumption into human welfare under ecological limitations [10,11]

Methods

Discussion

Conclusion