Research On The Method Of Evaluation Of Regional Environment-Friendly-Degree

The concept of Environmentally Friendly, after first being put forward at Rio Earth Summit in 1992, has been broadened and adopted in various fields from production to consumption, and technology. In 2005, Chinese government proposed a major strategic task in the officially issued Eleventh Five-year Plan for National Economic and Social development Plan; that is to build China into a resource-efficient and environment-friendly society. At present theoretical study of Environmentally friendly has become a hot issue and frontier science in academic circle. However, these studies on the environmentally friendly concept mainly focus on the explanation and discussion of its connotation, with few touching on the quantitative evaluation of environment-friendly. This paper, on the basis of relative studies home and abroad, adopting both theoretical study and case study, focuses on the theory and application of regional environment friendly degree evaluation. Besides, the paper employs the theories of sustainable development, economic development and environmental economics to conduct the study.1. The definition of Regional Environment Friendly Degree. Based on scholars' views of environmentally friendly, considering the dialectical relationship between human economic activity and environment, this paper defines the connotation of regional environment friendly degree as follows: regional environment friendly degree is to indicate to what extent human economic activity confined to a regional environmental bearing capacity affects environment in a certain time and space. Besides, environment friendly degree which indicates the impact of human economic activity on environment can be referred to by police makers when measuring and monitoring the regional economic development to see whether it is environmentally friendly and when judging whether the regional economic development strategy and mode is sustainable.2. The construction of Regional Environment Friendly Evaluation Model. Based on the studies of sustainable development evaluation and regional environment evaluation made home and abroad, this paper constructs regional environment friendly degree indicator system. In doing so, the paper employs the established PSR Model, applies such methods as theoretical analysis and frequency statistics as well as consults the experts. The indicator system, which includes 15 indicators, is composed of three aspects: environment pressure, environment bearing capacity and environment management. Considering the characteristic of every evaluation indicator and the related criteria made both home and abroad, this paper first formulates the criteria and scale of the regional environment friendly degree. The paper then by applying the Grey system theory and from the angle of Vector Projection, builds a Grey Relation Projection Model to evaluate the regional environmental friendly degree.3. Case study of Regional Environment Friendly Evaluation. On the basis of the environmental economies data of six provinces in Central China, by applying regional environmental degree evaluation model, this paper conducts case study of environmental friendly degrees in these six provinces from 2000 to 2005. The evaluation results are as follows: (1) From the point of environmental friendly scale, the six provinces in general belonged to the relatively low level of environmental degree, i.e. Level III. (2) From the point of tendency of environment friendly degree, the six provinces all trended downwards. These results suggest that during the period of 2000-2005, the economic activities in these six provinces were all unfriendly to environment and the economy-environment system was not in harmony. In conclusion, the evaluation results, which essentially reflect the impact of economic activities in Central China on environment, on the one hand, prove the feasibility and application value of the evaluation model; on the other hand, suggest that economic development in Central China was achieved at the cost of environment and resources. Thus, in view of the fragile environment bearing capability, it is urgent to change the present economic development mode in central China.4. Analysis of affecting factors and mechanism of regional environment friendly degree. The paper constructs the concept model of affecting factors and mechanism of regional environment friendly degree. Then it conducts case studies of major affecting factors of environment friendly degree in Central China, which consist of scale and level of economies, industrialization, urbanization, human capital, technology development and institution (including government, market and society), etc. Based on theoretical analysis, this paper further applies multivariate statistical analysis to verify the correlation between every affecting factor and environment friendly degree. The study indicates that underdeveloped industrial structure and heavy industry-oriented industrial structure can affect environment friendly degree to a great extent. Building upon case study results of regional environment friendly degree in Central China, this paper further discusses the research results and economy, industrial,environment, science and technology policy implications, so as to promote the change of traditional economic development mode, and the realization of the environment friendly economic development mode in Central China.