Assessment On Sustainable Development In South African Coastal Areas

South Africa is an important partner for cooperation with Africa in in the “Belt and Road” Initiative.Except for Gauteng Province,coastal areas are the main economy active areas in South Africa.Analyzing the sustainable development of South Africa’s coastal areas can provide optimized management countermeasures for realizing the sustainable development of coastal areas and references for the high-quality cooperation between China and South Africa in regional and industrial investment.However,research on sustainable development in South Africa’s coastal areas is mostly qualitative,quantitative studies are seldom,and relevant assessment systems are rarely involved.Chinese scholars’ studies on South Africa mostly start from the perspective of political economy and conduct research on the background of China-South Africa cooperation.Combining qualitative and quantitative methods,there is still room for research to carry out long-term and multi-dimensional comprehensive assessment of sustainable development in South Africa’s coastal areas from a geographical perspective.Therefore,taken the study of sustainable development in South Africa’s coastal areas as the research object,combined with remote sensing data and socio-economic policy statistics,and selected pressure-state-response(PSR)models to construct a sustainable development assessment index system in South Africa’s coastal areas.Using quantitative methods,comprehensive assessment and analysis of the sustainable development level from the multi-dimensional perspectives of development trends,regional differences,phased evolution,and degree of coordination of South Africa’s coastal areas from 2002 to 2018.The study finally found:(1)From 2002 to 2018,the coastal areas of South Africa faced increased pressure for sustainable development,but at the same time the state of sustainable development was also continuously improved,and the government and society’s response to sustainable development continued to increase.From the perspective of pressure factors,the main reason was that the population in the coastal areas of South Africa continues to increase,and the rapid economic development and industrial and agricultural production had brought greater pressure to the coastal areas.In terms of status factors,the ecological environment and economic status of the coastal areas of South Africa were gradually improving,and the status of sustainable development was good.In response to factor dimensions,the government’s ability to respond to sustainable development had continued to increase.Since 2002,ecological management and investment in environmental management,marine biological resources,and protected area construction in South Africa’s coastal areas had been steadily advanced,and laws and regulations had been increasingly improved.However,judging from the fact that the scores of pressure and status factors were higher than the scores of response,the environmental pressure brought about by social and economic development was still increasing,and the government and society’s response capabilities were relatively insufficient,and the level of sustainable coastal development has improved.A large amount of environmental protection,education financial investment and related management policies were still needed.(2)Kwa Zulu-Natal Province had a relatively good level of sustainable development among the four coastal provinces.From the perspective of pressure,state,and response factor dimensions,Kwa Zulu-Natal Province’s pressure,state,and response factor values were all at a relatively high level.The sustainable development pressure of Kwa Zulu-Natal Province mainly came from the pressure of population growth.And the pressure of increasing agricultural economic density,but at the same time,it also paid attention to the development of environmentally-friendly industries such as the service industry and high-tech industries.In terms of responsiveness,it paid attention to the construction of sustainable development within the space,related laws and regulations,and the construction of institutional mechanisms,ecological management and investment had been steadily advanced.From the perspective of the comprehensive sustainable development index,the Eastern Cape Province and Kwa Zulu-Natal Province had a higher comprehensive sustainable development index.They paid more attention to the coordination of the man-land system and the friendliness of the ecosystem while economic development.From the perspective of the coupling and coordination relationship,Kwa Zulu-Natal Province had the best coupling and coordination degree,and the trend of coordinating and promoting each other between pressure,state,and response factors was gradually increasing,and the coupling relationship was gradually developing well.The primary coupling coordination type was in a transitional stage.At the development trend of coupling coordination relationship,the degree of coordination was increasing year by year,and the degree of sustainable development coordination was good.(3)The level of sustainable development in the coastal areas of South Africa had been greatly improved from 2002 to 2018.At the comprehensive sustainable development index,the level of sustainable development in the coastal areas of South Africa had fluctuated and reached the basic stage of sustainable development,and the situation of sustainable development was good.At the degree of coupling and coordination of sustainable development,the degree of coordination of sustainable development in the coastal areas of South Africa had been increasing year by year.The coupling and coordination relationship had undergone two paths from the barely coupling transition to the primary coupling and coordination stage.There was still great potential for development coordination.The coastal areas of South Africa had great potential for sustainable development.Eastern Cape Province and Kwa Zulu-Natal Province may become advantageous regions in the “Belt and Road” Initiative and China-South Africa cooperation.