Spatial Difference And Temporal Process Economic And Environment Development In China

With a high rate of economic and population growth, China is now facing not only environmental degeneration like soil erosion and desertification which appear generally in developing countries, but also environmental problems that the developed countries are facing, such as water and air pollution. It has been taken more than a hundred years for the environmental problems to exist in developed industrialization countries, but now only 20 years in China. The World Development Report shows that 16 cities in China are included in the twenty most polluted cities all around the world. The Environment Sustainable Index of the World Economic Forum founds China ranks 133 in the entire 144 countries and regions all over the world. In addition, the water resources shortage in China is quite serious. The water resource per capita is not only extremely limited but also unbalance in North and South China. The energy distribution is not equality, the energy structure is inconsequence, and the energy efficiency is low.The unsustainable development between economic and environment is an important question exists in the nation. If we want to construct the harmonious society, we must coordinate not only the human and the nature but also the regions all of China. Therefore, it has the vital significance for us to study on the economic and environment development of our country, as well as realizing the sustainable development between economic and environment.Based on characteristic data of 2004, this research compares the spatial difference about economic and environment development among 31 provinces in mainland China. Then analysizes the stochastic data of economy, waste discharge, energy and water consumption between 1978 and 2004 in China; Beijing and Guangdong, counts the multi-year-averaged charge rates of GDP, waste discharge per unit GDP, fresh water and energy consumption per unit GDP. Using these change rates, the economic-environment developing tendency of China; Beijing and Guangdong are predicted.The economic development of Eastern China is in a high level, but the natural resources per capita are quite few. The development of economic and population brings tremendous pressure to the environment. On the other hand, the Western China, where the natural resource is rich, the area of territory is vast and the population is small, but the economic is not developed so that it has less pressure on environment. Therefore, the development of Western China can not follow the way that the Eastern China takes. It is suggested that the Western China should conserve the resources and protect the environment, and that shift of population should be encouraged as a major measure in order to balance the social, economic and environmental development of our country.Accroding to the spatial analysis of the economic and environment development of our country, it shows that different regions should undertake different policy to heighten the resources efficiency and enhance the control of environmental pollution. On the waste water discharge, the treatment of industrial waste water of the developing provinces is shortage, such as Guangxi; Hunan; Ningxia; Gansu; Xinjiang; Sichuan; and so on. On the waste air emission, Shanxi; Guizhou; Ningxia and Inner Mongolia are in the lowest level of air pollution control. Simultaneously, the pressure of protect air pollution of Shanghai; Tianjin and Shanxi is relatively big. On the solid waste, it is hard to reduce the discharge of the solid waste for some provinces, such as Shanxi; Guizhou; Tibet; Xinjiang; Chongqing; Guangxi and Gansu. On the water resource consumption, not only Guangxi; Jiangxi; Chongqing; Anhui, but also Zhejiang; Shanghai; Guangdong should improve the water utilization efficiency. Hebei; Henan; Inner Mongolia are on the contrary. On the energy consumption, Ningxia; Guizhou; Shanxi need to enhance the energy utilization efficiency vigorously, the developed area like Beijing and Tianjin has to improve it similarly. The primary industrial energy consumption per unit GDP is the least. The tertiary industrial energy consumption per unit GDP is less than the secondary industrial. Therefore, the effect is obvious to accelerate the tertiary industry development, which is a good way to conserve the energy and protect the environment.The need of water resource of our country will rise ceaselessly, but with such a slowly meliorating progress, to meet the requirement of the COD discharge standard in 2010 stated out by the State Council, we still need to work harder. The volume of soot emission will continue to drop. However, the energy consumption will increase continuously. The energy consumption in 2020 will increase by 84 percent from that in 2004, and then the emission of SO₂ will also increase by 60 percent, which still have a long way to go to achieve the goal of 2010. The acid precipitation from air could increase obviously in the future. Therefore, the key way to solve the environmental problem is to expand the economic scale, promote the economic structure, enhance the technical level and formulate the correlatively environmental policy.Along with the increase of the GDP per capita, the environmental pollution and water resource consumption reduce continuously, which are already over the crest of the EKC. The discharge of COD and the emission of SO₂ both could match the standard stipulated by State Council. However, it is quite disadvantageous to the environment improvement for developing heavy and chemical industries in Beijing, which is mainly made of raw resources industries. The predication shows that the energy consumption displays an upward trend, which will increase by 91 percent in 2020 from that in 2004. Adding to the sand storm and the environmental pollution, it is hard for Beijing to control the air pollution. The discharge of COD; the emission of SO₂ and soot; the consumption of water resource and energy are all in the upward trend, which are climbing the crest of the EKC. The discharge of COD and the emission of SO₂ neither could achieve the plan that the discharge should be reduced by 15 present, which is the standard stipulated by State Council. Therefore, the water and air pollution of Guangdong will increase obviously in the future. The low rate of reuse of water in industries leads to the consumption of water resource is used in a high level. The energy consumption in 2020 could reach 63,868,500 tons of SCE, which is 4.2 times to that in 2004. With a tremendously enlarging labor structure and expanding economic scale, Guangdong Province will face great pressure of environment problems and resources shortage, as well as pressure of further development.