Sustainability Status and Tr ends of Regional Economic Development and Their Spatial Distr ibution
Received date: 2007-01-16
Revised date: 2007-06-20
Online published: 2007-10-25
Supported by
National Natural Science Foundation of China, No.40371106, 70341021; Provincial Natural Foundation of Jiangsu, No. BK2005080; Preliminary Revision of Chuzhou's Land Use Master Planning
The triangle method, as an intuitive platform for illustrating sustainability status and trends in economic development, seems to hold promise as an analytical management tool given its simplicity, ease of use, and flexibility. The triangle model can serve as an intuitive platform for illustrating existing sustainability status and trends in economic development coincident with the implementation of various measures. The intuitive aspect of the model makes it easy to understand and use by researchers and policy-makers from many different levels. The method's flexibility in the selection of individual indicators and basic analytical units, its ease of understanding and use by experts and managers, and its simplicity in calculating and presenting status or trends of sustainability would seem to offer the potential for widespread use. Based on the interrelationships among economic development, resource-energy consumption, and environmental pollution, in conjunction with ecological performance and the triangle method, a definition for sustainable economic development was proposed, and a novel triangle method was designed to evaluate economic development sustainability. Chuzhou City is located at the middle east of China and lies in the middle zone among the country's three major zones of the eastern zone, middle zone and western zone. It is adjacent to the economically developed Yangtze Triangle Region. It had a total population of 435.62 ×104 in 2005. It covers a total area of 135.23 ×104 hm2 with four counties, two cities and two districts under its administration. Because Chuzhou City is located between the economically developed eastern coastal areas and economically backward western areas , the study of economic development is of typical to a certain extent. As a case study, the triangle method was applied to assess the sustainability status and long-term trends of Chuzhou's economic development. The results show that economic development in 2005 represents a relatively commonly state of sustainability, and the seven political regions in Chuzhou City reflect sustainability positions ranging from weakly sustainable to commonly sustainable. The sustainability in the southeast is better than in the northwest. The Chuzhou's economic development between 1975 and 1998 reveals a common sustainable trend, while that from 1998 to 2005 demonstrates a relatively strong sustainable trend. Chuzhou's unremitting efforts in environmental protection and in the increasing integration of environmental considerations within the economic development process over the last three decades are contributory to these status and trends.
ZHANG Jian, PU Lijie, CHEN Yi, PENG Buzhuo . Sustainability Status and Tr ends of Regional Economic Development and Their Spatial Distr ibution[J]. Acta Geographica Sinica, 2007 , 62(10) : 1041 -1050 . DOI: 10.11821/xb200710004
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