Assessing the Regional Sustainability of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Urban Agglomeration from 2000 to 2015 Using the Human Sustainable Development Index

Shiyin Chen, Qingxu Huang, Ziwen Liu, Shiting Meng, Dan Yin, Lei Zhu and Chunyang He
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Shiyin Chen: Center for Human-Environment System Sustainability (CHESS), State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Resource Ecology (ESPRE), Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100089, China
Qingxu Huang: Center for Human-Environment System Sustainability (CHESS), State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Resource Ecology (ESPRE), Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100089, China
Ziwen Liu: Center for Human-Environment System Sustainability (CHESS), State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Resource Ecology (ESPRE), Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100089, China
Shiting Meng: Center for Human-Environment System Sustainability (CHESS), State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Resource Ecology (ESPRE), Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100089, China
Dan Yin: Center for Human-Environment System Sustainability (CHESS), State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Resource Ecology (ESPRE), Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100089, China
Lei Zhu: Center for Human-Environment System Sustainability (CHESS), State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Resource Ecology (ESPRE), Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100089, China
Chunyang He: Center for Human-Environment System Sustainability (CHESS), State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Resource Ecology (ESPRE), Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100089, China

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 11, issue 11, 1-17

Abstract: Sustainability assessment can analyze the challenges of regional development from societal, economic, and environmental dimensions and provide an important baseline for regional planning. Recently, the rapid socio-economic development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) urban agglomeration has inflicted great pressure on the regional environment. Therefore, this paper evaluated the sustainability dynamics of the BTH urban agglomeration from 2000 to 2015 at the city scale using the Human Sustainable Development Index (HSDI) and discussed the major drivers of the changes in regional sustainability. The results showed that the overall sustainability of the BTH urban agglomeration increased from 2000 to 2015, with the HSDI increasing by 10%. Among the three dimensions, the economic sustainability indicators grew the fastest, with a growth rate of 42%, while the environmental sustainability indicators declined by 8%. The decline of environmental sustainability played an important role in limiting regional sustainable development. Specifically, the optimization of the energy structure in six cities, e.g., Tangshan, Langfang and Cangzhou, was relatively weaker than that in the remaining seven cities. In the future, the BTH urban agglomeration must further optimize the energy structure to build a resource-saving and environmentally friendly society.

Keywords: sustainability assessment; Human Sustainable Development Index; energy structure; urban agglomeration; urban sustainability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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