Synergetic Development Assessment of Urban River System Landscapes

Jingya Qiao, Mo Wang, Dongqing Zhang, Chenyang Ding, Jingjing Wang and Dawei Xu
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Jingya Qiao: College of Landscape Architecture, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin 150040, China
Mo Wang: College of Architecture and Urban Planning, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou 510006, China
Dongqing Zhang: Nanyang Environment & Water Research Institute, Nanyang Technological University, 1 CleanTech Loop, #06-10, Singapore 637141, Singapore
Chenyang Ding: College of Landscape Architecture, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin 150040, China
Jingjing Wang: College of Landscape Architecture, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing 100089, China
Dawei Xu: College of Landscape Architecture, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin 150040, China

Sustainability, 2017, vol. 9, issue 12, 1-15

Abstract: This paper presents Synergetic Development Assessment (SDA) as a methodology to evaluate the environmental, economic, and social performance of an urban river system landscape from the perspective of sustainability. SDA is based on synergetics and its “order parameters” theory, proposed as a science to study the self-organization of complex systems. A case study of river system landscapes in China was carried out by, first, simplifying the composite system into three subsystems: environmental, economic, and social; then, going on to construct a hierarchical structure to explore the order parameters as the evaluation index. The Analytic Hierarchy Process was used to get the weight of the evaluation index to complete the assessment index system. At the same time, a Sequential Synergy Degree Model was built to accomplish the SDA. We find that from 2005 to 2015, the order degree of the environmental subsystem developed slowly, with fluctuations, and that river pattern is the key factor. Meanwhile, the order degree of the economic subsystem fluctuated widely, which significantly depended on the changing value of water resources, and the order degree of social subsystem improved continuously, with social culture lagging far behind. As a whole, the synergy degree of the composite system developed orderly at a corresponding low level, which was in low synergy from 2005 to 2009 and then in general synergy up to 2015.

Keywords: urban river system landscapes; synergetics; Synergetic Development Assessment; sustainable urban development (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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