Coordinated Development Between Ecological Environment And Social Economy Of Wuling Mountain Area

With the rapid development of urbanization and industrialization, the region makes a huge stress effect on ecological environment through population agglomeration, economic development and energy consumption, at the same time ecological environment has a restriction effect on the city’s economic development by expulsion of population, competition on funds and policy intervention.Based on this background, a series of problems such as environmental degradation, resource depletion and ecological destruction, have become more and more prominent. These problems and contradictions have seriously affected the quality of human life and survival state and the ecological environment problems have become the most outstanding problems restricting the regional economic development. Therefore, the relationship between economic development and ecological environment has been become the hot topic by the academic community, meanwhile, it is the inevitable requirement of ecological civilization development strategy and national sustainable development strategy.Facing the gap reality above regional, urban-rural and wealth with rapid economic continuously extend, since 2000, the state have implemented a series of strategy and policy to short the gap, e.g. the development of the western region, the rise of central China and the strategy of rejuvenating northeastern rust belt, etc. In 2011, the state is on 14 concentrated most needy area, the area crucial strategy for poverty alleviation, in order to let the poor more to share the results of economic growth. Among them, the Wuling Mountain Area is famous for Wuling Mountains, which lies in the juncture of Hunan, Hubei, Chongqing and Guizhou Province. The land area is 171800 km2, governs 71 counties and there are tujia, miao, dong and other 9 indigenous minorities. The Area belongs to the type of the subtropical north subtropical transition, owns abundant resources which include water resources, mineral resources, tourism resources and rich animal and plant resources, known as the "central China animal and plant gene pool". However, for backward socio-economic development, weak infrastructure, imperfect market system, lack of basic public services, the area is a typical zone of "old, less, edge, poor", and concentrates most poorly region to develop and create the "first try" experimental zone. According to the central concentrated special difficult areas as a new phase of a crucial battleground for poverty alleviation strategy and the overall requirements of regional development of the country, decided to first start the Wuling Mountain Area as the center of regional development and poverty alleviation to the other destitute areas provide demonstration.Based on this, the typical city Enshi in Wuling Mountain Area was selected as the research object after summarizing the coupling interaction relationship between domestic and regional social economic development and ecological environment. On the basis of the data of Landsat image in three time section of 2000,2007,2013 and the socio-economy and the ecological environment statistical data from 2004 to 2013, this paper constructed a comprehensive evaluating system including "EKC (Environmental kuznets)-ESA (Ecological service value theory)-CCDM (Coupling harmonious degree model)" process. During the accessing processes, the rule of pollutant emission in Enshi and the variation trend of ecological service value caused by the change of land resourceswereanalyzed, ecological environment and social economy coupled coordination modelwas built, and how to realize the coordinated and sustainable development between social economic development and ecological environment in poor areaswas discussed.Ultimately, this investigation aims to provide an important reference for the constructing of ecological civilization and social economy coordinated development in other poor areas.The main work and conclusion of this dissertation are as following: (1) According to EKC research framework, this dissertation applies total COD emissions, total industrial SO2 emissions, industrial smoke (powder) dust emissions, industrial solid waste generation and industrial wastewater emissions data in eight counties of Enshi from 2004 to 2013 to explore the relationship between environmental pollution index and per capita GDP (explanatory variables) and select panel data comparison test of quadratic and cubic equations. (The random effects model is used for total industrial SO2 emissions and the fixed effects model are used for others).The results show that different pollutants have different characteristics of EKC curve, specifically, total COD emissions presents " inverted N-type " curve, total industrial SO2 emissions shows "inverted U-type" curve and industrial solid waste and industrial waste water emissions appear to be "N-type" curve. Although the industrial solid waste, waste water and industrial emissions of total industrial SO2 emissions have maintained a declining trend except total COD emissions rising at this stage, according to the development trend of the curves, the discharge of industrial solid waste generation, industrial waste water emissions is going to enter into an increasing trend. As the ecological environment sensitive areas, Enshi belongs to limiting the developing region, Enshi future economic development need note the following procedure: ①Environmental policies should take characterized and regional differences into account. The counties, cities and industrial areas concentrated by population and industrial facilities are supposed to make a more comprehensive policy and measures. For example, Enshi City has relatively high degree of industrial development and speed of tourism industry development whose annual reception tourist numbers keep rising rapidly. In spite of the fact that this has brought Enshi City environment greater pressure, the amount of generation of various contaminant in Enshi city is no more than other cities results from a series of strengthening measures such as the construction of urban sewage pipe 〦very substance needs to set their own standards by environmental policy, rather than a unified standard. Different pollutants have different characteristic curves, so environmental policy must be based on the different characteristics of each contaminations. For instance, industrial SO2 is difficult to figure out its source because of its fluid properties, therefore, the comprehensive monitoring and treatment for the industrial SO2 emissions must be implemented from its sources, migration and management. ③Enshi district need to adjust the industrial structure, encourage the development of low consumption, environmental protection, energy-efficient strategic emerging industries, develop ecological economy, take advantage of resources rationally, improve the proportion of tertiary industry, accelerate the development of local ecotourism, and promote industrial restructuring. Meanwhile, more eco-friendly industrial processes, including the installation of desulfurization systems, industrial wastewater treatment process improvement, need to be designed to reduce emissions of various contaminations.(2) From the perspective of ecological service value, it analyzes the regional ecological environment changes in the economic construction and development for the range of entire Enshi district. According to TM image data from the Landsat-5 satellite and OLI image data from the new generation of Landsat-8 satellite, this dissertation analysis changes in the value of ecosystem services in Enshi district in 2000,2007, and 2013. The results are found as follows:①Wooded area is far greater than other types of land area from 2000 to 2013 accounting for 60.25% 68.56% and 71.60% respectively of the total area of land use area. Coupled with a high ecological value coefficient woodland, wooded area contributes most to service value of overall ecosystem. With the forest area increasing year by year, its proportion of the total value of ecosystem services rose from 86.09% in 2000 to 90.97% in 2013.②Agricultural acreage takes up 7.6%,29.25% and 23.10% respectively of the total area of arable land use at in three time section. Coupled with a low coefficient of ecological value of farmland, the agricultural acreage made less contribution to total value of ecosystem services. With arable land declining every year, this change has become increasingly evident, and its contribution to the total value of ecosystem services accounted for 12.69%,9.05% and 6.93% respectively, declined rapidly from 151.37×108 yuan in 2000 to 95.22 × 108 yuan in 2013.③Although the aquatic ecological value coefficient waters is the highest of all land-use types, but because it’s very small, so in general, its contribution rate is lower for the total value of ecosystem services because of its small area. In spite of this fact, the contribution rate of total ecosystem services value rose from 0.67% in 2000 to 0.80% in 2013water area while the aquatic area has been increasing. ④Grassland area in Enshi district experienced an increasing trend after the first decreasing trend in time series, which means the contribution rate of the grassland on the ecosystem services value changed from 0.15% in 2000 to 0.09% in 2007, and rose up to 0.25% in 2013. Therefore, the overall the trend is increasing.⑤ Since part of the ecological value factors of construction land is negative leading to the fact that ecological value coefficient of construction land is the lowest among all land use types. However, the overall ecological value coefficient is positive. The construction land area has increased from 32243.6hm2 in 2000 to 96057.56hm2 in 2013, in the meantime, the value of construction land ecosystem service contribution rate rose from 0.39% in 2000 to 1.05% in 2013.As a general view, woodland has the largest ecological value coefficient, therefore, the ecosystem service value is increasing significantly with the increase of woodland area. t The ecosystem service value of woodland increased to 222.38 × 108 yuan within 13 years while the reduction of arable area resulted in 56.15 × 108 yuan loss of ecological value who decreased 351415.72 hm2.It indicates the growth of woodland area with a high coefficient of ecological value. This does not only make up for the reduction of ecosystem service value due to the decrease of arable land to a certain degree, but also makes a significant contribution to increasing the total value of ecosystem services. Overall, the total ecosystem service value in Enshi district has increased 180.53 × 108 yuan during the study period and is equivalent to the GDP for the whole year in 2005 of Enshi district. Specifically, individual services like gas regulation, climate regulation, soil conservation and maintenance of biodiversity rose mostly who increase to 114.88 × 108 yuan totally. In addition, land use eco-service value of Enshi district is positively correlated with value of total GDP, per capita GDP, the urbanization rate of Enshi district, which it is not only accompanied by the growth of economy, but also of the land use eco-service value in Enshi district. With economic development, the increase speed of land use eco-service value from 2000 to 2007 is faster than that from 2007 to 2013 who indicates that the increase speed of land use eco-service value is reducing.In summary, from the aspect of the entire region, the land ecological and economic development is coordinated and sustainable in Enshi district. In the future, firstly, regional characteristics and differences should be taken into consideration when the land use eco-service value of Enshi is assessed. During the periods when speed of constructing is fast and in the regions where speed of constructing is fast, the speed of arable land reducing is also fast. Despite the fact that construction area growth can increase the value of ecosystem services, the ecological value coefficient of construction land is the lowest, and the increased ecosystem services value is far smaller than decreased ecosystem services value of arable land.Secondly, the structure of land use is needed to be optimized, construction land, aquatic area, arable land, grassland and woodland need to preserve their respective optimal ratio of the value of the ecosystem service value in order to keep the pace of the increased volume of land use eco-service value with the social and economic development. (3) This study selected 3 sub-systems of economic development scale, level and potential including 17 indexes to construct a comprehensive evaluating system for regional socio-economic development. While another comprehensive evaluating system was also build in this paper with 3 sub-systems of ecological quality, environmental pollution and environmental quality including 14 indicators. All the index weights of the both systems were determined by Structure entropy method integrated with mean squared deviation method. Then, the relationship between the two systems was reflected using coupling harmonious degree model. According to the evaluating results of regional socio-economic development, the integrated scores and the single score for each sub-system all have exhibited a rising trend with a fast rate year by year since 2004 in the whole area of Enshi city, which indicated that this area has been undergoing a stage of rapid development. During ten years of 2004-2013, the regional socio-economic development scores of the 8 counties in Enshi had also increased progressively with years. Among them, Enshi city got the highest scores, with increment from 0.155 in 2004 to 0.923 in 2013. And the scores of the 8 counties are ranked as Enshi> Iichuan> Jianshi> Hefeng> Badang> Laifeng> Xuanen> Xianfeng. From the perspective of time, the inflection point of the growth of regional socio-economic development occurred at 2008-2009 in Enshi. This may closely related to the implementing of the proposal to build western Hubei ecological and cultural tourism circle in 2008 and the implementing of the policy "Wuling Mountain Area Regional Development and Poverty Alleviation" in 2011. The results evaluated by ecological environment comprehensive system showed that the ecological environment of the view state had improved as a whole with some local fluctuations during 2004-2010, embodying an upgrade tendency during 2004-2010 whereas a decline trend for the quality of ecological environment in 2011-2013. After singly analyzing the scores for the 8 counties of Enshi, they all had increased progressively with years during the investigated time. Among them, Xianfeng got the highest score, with increment from 0.568 in 2004 to 0.669 in 2013 with an increment of 0.262. And the scores of the 8 counties are ranked as Lichuan< Enshi< Laifeng< Badong< Hefeng< Jianshi< Xuanen< Xianfeng. There were no significant differences in the CV values (from 0.075 to 0.324) of the quality of ecological environment among 8 counties, demonstrating small variances for the ecological environment and high regional coordination degree among them. According to the results simulated with coupling harmonious degree model, the coupling coordination degree between economic development and ecological environment all exhibited with a steady upward trend among the 8 counties whereas their coupling characteristics of the ecological environment varied with their degree of economic development and special developmental features. Notably, the developing of social economy has synchronized with the constructing of ecological environment in Enshi city, certified by the steady upward coupling degree between them. However, the growth of the degree of Lichuan city and Xuanencounty was both stagnant in a period, indicating that these two areas were suffering a transformation phase and a phase for the ecological environment to adopt the activities of economic production departments. With respect to other areas, the coupling degree has grown gradually and developed steadily. On the basis of the coupling coordination model, the 8 districts can be divided into three categories:the first one composed of Enshi has been experienced form the original phase of basic coordination-lagging social economic to the stage of advanced coordination-lagging ecological environment. The second one made up of Lichuan city transferred from the stage of basic coordination-lagging social economic to the stage of basic coordination. The last one composed of the other 5 districts has undergone from the stage of basic mismatch-social economic lag stage to the stage of basic coordination-lagging social economy as a whole. Accordingly, the government belonged to the first category need to pay more attention to protect the ecological environment during the developing process; for the second one, both of them should be taken into consideration; and considering the good ecological environment of the areas in the last category, economic development should be focus on to tackle poverty. In summary, some of the investigated areas differed in the quality of socio-economic development and ecological environment, coupled with various coordination stages they were undergoing, thus, regional differences might play important roles in the comprehensive developing processes, which means that the government need adjust measures to local conditions and protect the environment when develop the economic.To sum up, this paper analyzed the change of containment emission with the socio-economic development using EKC theory and the tendency of regional ecological service value caused by different land resources utilization by ecological service value theory.Finally,the coupling coordination model between ecological environment and social economy was built to access the degree of harmonious development between them roundly and synthetically. The analytical framework used in this study could provide a novelthinking wayfor a comprehensive understanding of coordinated development between regional socio-economy and ecological environment system. Under the background of ecological civilization and poverty alleviation, a series of analysis processes used in this article analysis process can be appropriate forthe developing of socio-economic in other areas to refer.