Assessing Regional Sustainability Using a Model of Coordinated Development Index: A Case Study of Mainland China

Qing Yang, Yang Ding, Bauke De Vries, Qi Han and Huimin Ma
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Qing Yang: School of Management, Wuhan University of Technology, 205 Luoshi Road, Hongshan District, Wuhan 430070, China
Yang Ding: School of Management, Wuhan University of Technology, 205 Luoshi Road, Hongshan District, Wuhan 430070, China
Bauke De Vries: Department of Built Environment, Eindhoven University of Technology, Den Dolech 2, VRT 8.08, Eindhoven 5612 AZ, The Netherlands
Qi Han: Department of Built Environment, Eindhoven University of Technology, Den Dolech 2, VRT 8.08, Eindhoven 5612 AZ, The Netherlands
Huimin Ma: School of Management, Wuhan University of Technology, 205 Luoshi Road, Hongshan District, Wuhan 430070, China

Sustainability, 2014, vol. 6, issue 12, 1-23

Abstract: From a holistic view, this paper addresses a perspective of coordinated development of economy, society, and environment for regional sustainability assessment. Firstly, a comprehensive indicator system for co-evaluating the level of economic, social, and environmental subsystems is presented based on a holistic understanding of regional sustainability. Then, a coordinated development index model focusing on the level of coordination among the subsystems as well as their comprehensive development level is established. Furthermore, an empirical study of all the provinces and municipalities is conducted by collecting the panel data from 2004 to 2010. The result shows that: (1) the coordinated developments of the most developed and the most underdeveloped regions stay stable while the regions with medium development level possess more fluctuant trends during the study years; (2) regional disparities are indicated according to the grading of CDI (the coordinated development index), which are further analyzed to be related to the local economic development patterns; (3) the conditions and causes of economic, social, and environmental development in real situations under different grades of CDI are discussed through detailed case studies of typical regions, which indicate specific suggestions of sustainable development for regions in the same pattern.

Keywords: sustainability; coordination degree; coordinated development index; development characteristics; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (14)

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