GIS-Based Synthetic Measurement of Sustainable Development in Loess Plateau Ecologically Fragile Area—Case of Qingyang, China

Chenyu Lu, Chunjuan Wang, Weili Zhu, Hengji Li, Yongjin Li and Chengpeng Lu
Additional contact information
Chenyu Lu: College of Geography and Environment Science, Northwest Normal University, Lanzhou 730070, China
Chunjuan Wang: College of Geography and Environment Science, Northwest Normal University, Lanzhou 730070, China
Weili Zhu: College of Geography and Environment Science, Northwest Normal University, Lanzhou 730070, China
Hengji Li: Lanzhou Center of Literature and Information, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China
Yongjin Li: Research Center for Circular Economy in Western China, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China
Chengpeng Lu: Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang 110016, China

Sustainability, 2015, vol. 7, issue 2, 1-19

Abstract: Synthetic measurement of regional sustainable development has been one of the key issues in the research field of sustainability. In this paper, Qingyang City located in the Loess Plateau ecologically fragile area of Northwest China is used for a case study, and the present study aims to investigate the degree of sustainable development by conducting temporal- and spatial-scale based analysis, with the assessment index system, assessment model and GIS approach well integrated. The results show that the development pattern of Qingyang generally fits the mode of unsustainable development, even in the presence of certain levels of spatial differences. The sustainable development state in ecologically fragile area of China’s Loess Plateau is non-optimistic, which is an uncoordinated status among subsystems of regional sustainable development. Although the level and tendency of regional sustainable development keeps increasing, such enhancement is abnormal. With the rapid deterioration of environmental and natural resources, their inhibitory effect on the economy and society would expand, eventually leading to the slow development rate or the recession of the entire system. The only solution is to change the traditional mode of economic development, to follow the guide of ecological economic conception so that the goal of achieving regional sustainable development strategies could be met ultimately. Meanwhile, the characteristics of different regions should be taken into account in order to achieve optimal spatial structure.

Keywords: sustainability assessment; centroid method; GIS approach; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/7/2/1576/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/7/2/1576/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:7:y:2015:i:2:p:1576-1594:d:45360

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().