Using Systems Thinking and Modelling: Ecological Land Utilisation Efficiency in the Yangtze Delta in China

Chunmei Zhang,Wei-Lng Hsu,Ziwen Feng,Qilong Ren

doi:10.3390/systems10010016

Abstract

Ecological land has two definitions: the broad category and the narrow category. This paper studied the narrow category, which refers to the land whose main purpose is to provide ecological services, such as environmental regulation and biological conservation. Ecological land areas are likely to decrease with the development of urbanisation all over the world, which poses potential risks to the environment, society, and public health, and low utilisation efficiency of ecological land will exacerbate this risk. Based on the actual input–output situation of ecological land utilisation, we constructed an index system in the Yangtze Delta to measure the ecological land utilisation efficiency with a Slack-Based Model (SBM) in the data envelopment analysis (DEA). The results revealed that the comprehensive efficiency exhibited an increasing trend from 2012 to 2020, and more high-efficiency cities appeared in the areas closer to Shanghai. Both the technical efficiency and scale efficiency increased over the research period. The technical efficiencies in most cities were efficient and equal to the scale efficiencies. Among the remaining cities, the technical efficiencies and scale efficiencies were inefficient and not synchronous. In addition, we found that the that poor efficiencies of some cities can mainly be attributed to low-technology, an unsuited-scale, or a combination of these. In the future, improvement should be focused on the economical and intensive use of ecological land, technical innovations, and the optimal scale. The present results can provide references for making scientific decisions regarding the efficient utilisation of ecological land in the Yangtze Delta and other similar rapid-urbanization areas.

Highlights

Rapid urbanisation and industrialisation worldwide have contributed to the expansion of construction land and the shrinkage of ecological land with ecological regulation functions [1,2,3,4]
Based on the definition of ecological land, according to the construction framework of indicator systems in data envelopment analysis (DEA), this study established a system of input indicators from the perspectives of ecological land, labour, and capital as well as a system of desirable and undesirable output indicators from economic, social, and environmental perspectives (Table 1)
This study explored the causes of low ecological land utilisation efficiency in a number of cities in the Yangtze Delta in 2020

Summary

Introduction

Rapid urbanisation and industrialisation worldwide have contributed to the expansion of construction land and the shrinkage of ecological land with ecological regulation functions [1,2,3,4]. This exacerbates global damage to ecosystems [5,6,7,8,9] and causes ecological security concerns [10,11]. With the growth of urban populations and economies, urban entities have expanded their land area and spatial scope. Urban renewal caused by traffic improvement, especially the installation or expansion of public transport facilities, which is making rapid progress in more advanced European countries and being prepared for in other countries, promotes urban expansion

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