Study On The Coupling Relationship Between Urbanization And Ecological Environment In Zhengzhou

With the remarkable achievements China has made in its social and economic development in the 21 st century,the process of urbanization has been accelerating.According to the National Bureau of Statistics,China's urbanization rate has reached 56.1% in 2015.Though its fast development and great progress have drawn attention from all over the world,it's at risk of over-exploitation and consumption of resources,while the rapid urbanization is at the expense of serious environmental damage and pollution.Thus it becomes critically important for the research on China's urbanization and the planning by government sectors to answer the questions of how sustain urbanization and how to balance between urbanization and environmental protection.Located in the central part of the North China Plain,Zhengzhou is one of China's few “double-cross railway" hub,core city among central plain's urban agglomeration and economic zone,core node city of the Silk Road economic belt and a key city of China.In recent years,Zhengzhou's has seen rapid growth in urbanization and outstanding results in city building,which however leads to the outburst of urban ill including overpopulation,bad traffic,decline in air quality.The study on the relationship between Zhengzhou's urbanization and the environment can not only bring about coordinated development but is of theoretical and practical significance for the urbanization process of Central Plain urban agglomeration and the whole central region.(1)The coupling degree of urbanization and the environment in Zhengzhou represents an "M" type evolution between 2005 and 2014,featuring a rise between 2005 and 2009,a gradual drop between 2010 and 2011,a marked rise to a sound level in 2012 and a nosedive between 2013 and 2014.It is found that Zhengzhou's comprehensive ecological index has stayed higher than the comprehensive evaluation index of urbanization before 2012.However,due to the speeding urbanization in the last two years,the environmental quality has decreased dramatically,indicating the beginning of severe environmental damage made by urbanization.(2)Zhengzhou is still in the stage of rapid urbanization.Population urbanization contributes the most to the overall urbanization among all factors,economic and social urbanization are having more influence,and the influence of spatial urbanization has been weakened since 2009.Judging from the trend of specific urbanization indexes,economic urbanization is bound to become the main driving force for the development of urbanization in Zhengzhou.(3)The eco-environmental quality of Zhengzhou has experienced great fluctuation between 2005 and 2014,fast lifting between 2008 and 2010,a plunge in 2011,and a plummet in 2013 and 2014.It is analyzed that as long as the comprehensive urban evaluation index maintains a growth rate of over 7%,the quality of the ecological environment will suffer.In 2013 and 2014 in particular,there was a linear decrease in the quality of the environment caused by the rapid increase of urbanization level.Although the ecological quality has been declining,Zhengzhou's environmental protection investment is increasing year by year,which means that the ecological construction has seriously lagged behind the development of urbanization.(4)Based on the analysis of the coupling of Zhengzhou's urbanization and the environment and the study on the main factors,this paper puts forth suggestions on the coordinated development of urbanization and the environment in Zhengzhou regarding economic development,industrial restructuring,urbanization and public participation.