Regional sustainability system as ecosystem: case study of China's two leading economic circles from a keystone perspective

摘要

Exploring the structure, function, and dynamics of regional sustainability system (as ecosystem) can help providing insights into the importance of how environmental management answers to socioeconomic and environmental changes for transitioning to sustainable development. The connectivity (structure) and stability (function) of regional sustainability system are investigated through making regional radiation capability model and spatial coordination index model, which is relied on how keystone province influences the other provinces from society, economy and environment dimensions. The brand new models are then applied to the two largest urban agglomerations in China during period 2001-2014. The results show that the connectivity and stability in BHR are distinctly weaker than in YRD, and reveal the essential characteristics and underlying drivers of regional sustainability system. To be specific, initially, it reflects that on the whole BHR harbors larger difference and lower radiation capability than YRD. Additionally, the regional sustainability system of YRD has much higher stability and better interactive function than of BHR. Thirdly, although the sustainable development level of both BHR and YRD increases at a certain speed year by year, the disparity among various provinces shows anapparent decline and the contribution mainly comes from intra-BHR. Finally, it also provides that how the key province and the surrounding province interact and what the main contributors to the dynamics of regional sustainability system are. Overall, taking regional sustainability system as ecosystem can well reveal this complex system and can provide references to any other urban agglomerations in worldwide.