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1.INTRODUCTIONAmidst the rapid strides of economic and societal development, China is facing increasingly severe challenges in ecology and resources. Therefore, the coordinated development of ecological protection and high-quality economic growth has become a crucial choice for China in transforming and upgrading its economic development model, realizing sustainable growth and building an ecological civilization society1. A study exploring the synergistic development between ecological conservation and economic advancement encompasses numerous contributing elements., and there are complex internal links between them. In the decision-making link, we must carefully consider and balance the interests of all relevant parties to ensure the fairness and rationality of the decision-making results2. Hence, fostering the notion of harmony between ecological conservation and economic progression holds paramount significance. At present, domestic and foreign research mainly focuses on three areas: first, including environmental variables when constructing economic growth model to reflect the relationship between economic growth and environment3-5; second, the verification of environmental Kuznets curve, further explore the relationship between economic development and environmental quality6,7; third, evaluate the coupling of environment and economy, so as to provide theoretical support for the harmonious advancement of both economic growth and ecological preservation8-10. These studies have jointly laid a solid theoretical foundation for the harmonious integration of ecological conservation and economic expansion. In recent years, China’s economy has witnessed sustained and sound development, and the focus of development has shifted from speed to quality. In this context, attaining harmony in the balance between ecological conservation and economic advancement is paramount in importance. To gain a profound understanding of the relationship between the two, domestic scholars actively used the model of interconnectedness and synchronization to conduct a comprehensive study on the regional units of different levels11-14. These studies not only divide the different stages of coupling and coordination in detail, but also reveal the internal laws of spatial and temporal evolution, which provides an important reference for the in-depth promotion of ecological civilization construction in China. The Qinghai-Tibet plateau as the “third level” of the earth, fragile ecological environment, repair is difficult, Qinghai in seeking economic growth, must be scrutinize and strive for equilibrium between economic expansion and environmental safeguarding through a forward-thinking lens., With the aim of fostering a harmonious coexistence between economic development and the ecological environment, ultimately achieving sustainable development goals.Certain researchers have employed the coupling coordination model to explore the interconnected harmony and synchronization between ecological preservation efforts and economic progression within Qinghai Province15-17, but limited to a short period and a single empowerment method, the impact of carbon peak and carbon neutralization target is not considered. For this reason, this paper incorporates considerations of carbon peaking and neutrality within the framework for assessing ecological conservation and economic progress in Qinghai Province, and adopts the combination of subjective and objective, and the coupling coordination model deeply analyzes the evolving dynamics and distinct categories of the coupling and coordination relationship between ecological protection and economic advancement in Qinghai Province and its types. This study aims to uncover the intricate interplay and coordination dynamics between ecological conservation and economic advancement in Qinghai Province with greater accuracy, aiming to provide a solid scientific basis for guiding the province’s endeavors towards ecological civilization construction and sustainable, high-quality growth. 2.OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY AREAQinghai Province is situated in northwest China, nestled in the northeastern region of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, with vast land and rich resources. As the “source of rivers”, Qinghai province breeds the Yangtze and Yellow rivers, To provide a solid support for the national water resources security, Qinghai province is adjacent to Gansu, Xinjiang, Tibet and Sichuan province, The average mean elevation, Show the unique plateau scenery, Qinghai province is rich in history and culture, Multi-ethnic groups live together to form a unique ethnic culture, Qinghai province has magnificent mountains and rivers, vast land and abundant resources, With a unique charm, it is a Carrying the mission of ecological protection and cultural inheritance, at the same time, Qinghai province holds a strategic position in safeguarding China’s ecology, resources and stability, As the source of three rivers, Qinghai province is crucial to ecological and environmental protection, Qinghai Province is also one of China’s major resource-rich regions, To provide strong support for economic development. 3.RESEARCH DESIGN3.1The construction of the index systemThis research is grounded in the essence of ecological conservation and economic growth, along with the mechanisms that facilitate their intertwined interplay, fully draws lessons from the wisdom of experts and scholars, adheres to the principles of scientificity, rationality and data availability, and constructs a more comprehensive evaluation index system centering on the two aspects of ecological conservation and economic advancement respectively. Drawing upon relevant References18-21, an evaluation index system has been formulated for ecological protection, based on the Pressure-State-Response (PSR) model, including three aspects: pressure system, state system and response system. The pressure system incorporates 10 indicators that reflect the degree of pollution imposed on the ecological environment by economic development and residential life, such as industrial wastewater discharge, industrial exhaust emissions, and general industrial solid waste generation. The state system selects 10 indicators to embody the current status and foundation of ecological protection in Qinghai Province, covering aspects of water, soil, air, and forestland, including per capita water resources, water quality compliance rate at water sources, and wetland area. Lastly, the response system comprises 10 indicators that demonstrate the contributions made by the Qinghai Provincial Government towards ecological protection, touching on industrial pollution, residential pollution, water pollution, soil pollution, and more, including the comprehensive utilization rate of general industrial solid waste, sewage treatment rate, and industrial pollution control rate. Drawing upon relevant References22-24, an evaluation index system for economic development has been established, encompassing three dimensions: scale, quality, and potential. The economic development scale dimension comprises 10 indicators that embody investments, trade, per capita income, and agricultural and pastoral output levels, such as GDP, per capita disposable income, and local general budget revenue. The economic development quality dimension consists of 10 indicators reflecting labor-capital productivity, energy utilization, inflation control, and research and development (R&D) investment, including GDP per laborer, capital efficiency, and green commuting. Lastly, the economic development potential dimension sets out 10 indicators that signify population quantity and quality, deposit and loan levels, telecommunications penetration, industrial structure, and urban-rural integration, among them population growth rate, the number of college students per 10,000 population in the province, and the ratio of total deposit balances to GDP. 3.2Research methods3.2.1Weight determination method.The determination of weights is calculated through a combination of subjective and objective empowerment. Subjective weighting adopts the AHP: a scoring matrix is constructed based on pairwise comparisons and scoring by 33 experts in related research fields; then AHP software is used to calculate the weight of each indicator; finally, a consistency check is performed to determine the weight of each indicator. Objective weighting adopts the entropy method: firstly, an evaluation matrix is constructed; secondly, the range standardization method is used to normalize the indicators; then the information entropy of each indicator is calculated to determine the weight of each indicator25. Finally, the weights calculated from the above two methods are combined to empower26. The calculation formula of the combined weight calculation weight is: where W is the weight combination, ai and bi are the weights assigned separately by the hierarchical analysis and entropy methods, respectively. 3.2.2Comprehensive evaluation index model.To assess Qinghai Province’s comprehensive levels of ecological conservation and economic advancement from 2000 to 2020, we calculate the Comprehensive Evaluation Index for Ecological Protection (U1) and the Comprehensive Evaluation Index for Economic Development (U2). These indices serve as indicators to reflect the province’s overall performance in terms of ecological protection and economic growth during the specified period. The formula is as follows: where: i is the time series number, n1denotes the quantity of ecological protection evaluation indicators, n2 represents the count of economic development evaluation indicators, and P denotes the index of synchronization between ecological conservation and economic advancement. 3.2.3Coupled coordination degree model.Referring to relevant studies27-29, the coupling coordination degree between ecological conservation and economic advancement in Qinghai Province is calculated using the coupling coordination model. The formula is: where: C represents the coupling degree; T represents the coordination degree; α and β are the coefficient reflecting the importance of ecological conservation and economic advancement, α+β=1. Given the equal importance of both, refer to relevant studies3031, take α=β=0.5; D denotes the degree of coupling and coordination, the higher the coupling coordination level between ecological conservation and economic advancement. Coupled and coordinated classification and grading. Based on relevant research32,33 and according to the synchronization index P, the coordination status between ecological conservation and economic advancement can be classified into three types: when 0 < P ≤ 0.8, it is considered as the “ecological protection lagging type”; when 0.8 < P ≤ 1.2, it is the “mutual coordination type”; and when P > 1.2, it is the “economic development lagging type”. The coupling coordination level and grade are determined based on the coupling coordination degree34. 3.3Data sourceAs the data for some indicators are updated every five years, a five-year cycle is adopted for analysis. The statistical data are sourced from the “Qinghai Statistical Yearbook”, “China Statistical Yearbook”, and the annual “Qinghai Provincial Economic Development Bulletins” and “Qinghai Provincial Ecological Environment Statistics Bulletins” for the years 2000, 2005, 2010, 2015, and 2020. The data are subjected to dimensionless processing through range standardization. 4.RESULTS AND THE ANALYSIS4.1Calculation and analysis of ecological conservation and economic advancement weight in Qinghai ProvinceAccording to the weight calculation method, the weight is calculated for 60 indicators related to ecological conservation and economic advancement in 2000, 2005, 2010, 2015 and 2020 (Table 1). Table 1.Index weight of ecological conservation and economic advancement evaluation system in Qinghai Province.
Data source: the raw data was calculated by entropy, hierarchical analysis and combined empowerment, and plotted by Excel software. The comprehensive weights of each index can be obtained from the above table, and the comprehensive weights of the system layer (pressure, state and response system) are 0.3359, 0.3501 and 0.3140 respectively; the comprehensive weights of the system layer (economic development scale, quality and potential) in the economic development index system are 0.2714, 0.4689 and 0.2597 respectively. 4.2Comprehensive level of ecological conservation and economic advancement in Qinghai ProvinceThe calculation results of the comprehensive score level of ecological conservation and economic advancement in Qinghai Province from 2000 to 2020 are shown in Table 2. Table 2.Comprehensive score level of ecological conservation and economic advancement in Qinghai Province
Data source: Calculated from equations (2) and (3), summarized by the author, and plotted using Excel software. As observed from Table 2, the comprehensive evaluation index of Ecological protection (U1) in Qinghai Province from 2000 to 2020 shows a trend of declining first and then rising, which may be due to the decrease of the ecosystem carrying capacity under the promotion of the lack of ecological protection. Since 2005, the comprehensive index has been gradually improved. Thanks to the strategy of “ecological province” and “one optimal”, especially the establishment of “three largest” in 2016 and the pilot establishment of Sanjiangyuan National Park, the ecological protection in Qinghai Province; the comprehensive evaluation index of economic development (U2) shows a rising trend from 0.1881 to 0.7604. On the whole, during the period from 2000 to 2020, Qinghai Province exhibited a positive development trend in both ecological conservation and economic advancement. However, the improvement in economic development surpassed the enhancement in ecological protection, resulting in a shift from a status of “high ecological protection and low economic development” to “low ecological protection and high economic development”. This change reflects that as economic development progresses, the pressure on ecological protection continues to mount, and the level of ecological protection urgently needs to be elevated. Therefore, in the future development process, Qinghai Province should continuously promote ecological protection, improve the quality of the ecological environment, and at the same time focus on strengthening economic development and enhancing the level of economic development. 4.3The coupling type and coordination level of ecological conservation and economic advancement in Qinghai ProvinceThe calculation results of the coupling degree, coordination degree, coupling coordination degree and synchronization index of ecological conservation and economic advancement in Qinghai Province from 2000 to 2020 are shown in Table 3. Table 3.Coupling and coordination level of ecological conservation and economic advancement in Qinghai Province.
Data source: Calculated using formula 4-7, summarized by the author, and plotted using Excel software. According to Table 3, it can be seen that in 2000-2020 ecological conservation and economic advancement of coupling fluctuations, but smaller fluctuations, rising from 0.9171 in 2000 to 0.9926 in 2020, shows that the ecological conservation and economic advancement influence degree in deepening, coupling degree is close to 1, that the relationship between ecological conservation and economic advancement is very close. The coordination and coupling coordination decline and then rise, which indicates that the coupling coordination between ecological conservation and economic advancement in Qinghai Province is constantly improving, and the interaction between the synchronization index is decreasing year by year, and the coordination situation shows the development trend of “relatively lagging economic development-mutual coordination-ecological protection”. Ecological conservation and economic advancement in Qinghai province coupling coordination level is relatively good, from the level gradually into high level, coupling coordination level by reluctantly coordinate into good coordination, coupling coordination is falling after the rising trend, 2000-2005 coupling coordination has smaller decline, possible reason is the western development policy, early developing economy, reduce the ecological protection. After 2005, the degree of coupling coordination has gradually improved, indicating that the better the synergistic effect of ecological conservation and economic advancement, and the higher the level of coupling coordination, which is mainly due to the implementation of the strategy of “ecological province” and the strategy of “one excellent and two high”. In terms of synchronicity index, from 2.3255 in 2000 to 0.9177 in 2010, the coordination by economic development lag into mutual coordination, shows that ecological conservation and economic advancement more and more consistent, more conducive to sustainable development, but after 2010, with the declining synchronicity index, fell to 0.6843 in 2015, coordination from coordinated into relative backward ecological protection, in developing economy at the same time, also cannot ignore the ecological protection. 5.DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION5.1DiscussionThe economic advancement of Qinghai province is not only related to the overall situation of the national economic development, but also affects the implementation of the sustainable development of Qinghai Province. The relationship between ecological conservation and economic advancement is a dynamic balance, which needs to promote the sustainable development of economy while protecting the ecological environment. Qinghai Province is situated on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, its natural conditions are relatively harsh than the plain, and the restoration ability of the ecological environment is also poor, which undoubtedly has a serious constraint on economic growth. In addition, the demand for resources from economic development also brings severe challenges to the fragile local ecological environment. Therefore, in correctly handling the coordinated relationship between ecological conservation and economic advancement, we must realize that a good ecological environment is the cornerstone of promoting economic growth, so as to better promote the coordination of ecological conservation and economic advancement towards quality. With the aim of fostering better coordinated development in ecological protection and high-quality economic growth within Qinghai Province, targeted and effective coordination measures must be implemented. In order to ensure the beauty of the ecological environment, we should improve the level of investment in science and technology, strengthen the research on major scientific and technological issues, actively develop new energy, promote the recycling of resources, so as to enhance the quality of the ecological environment. At the same instant, we should optimize the industrial structure to promote the development of green industries and reduce environmental pollution and damage. In addition, the ecological compensation mechanism should be strengthened, and enterprises and individuals should be encouraged to actively participate in ecological protection activities through policy guidance and financial support. In terms of economic development, Qinghai province should rely on its unique resource advantages and geographical position to vigorously develop characteristic industries and advantageous industries, such as plateau characteristic agriculture and tourism. At the same time, we should focus on improving people’s living standards and enhancing the internal driving force for economic development. In addition, regional cooperation should be strengthened to realize resource sharing and complementary advantages, and promote the high-quality economic development of Qinghai Province. In the context of Carbon Peak and Carbon Neutrality, take the road of green, circular and low-carbon development, and finally realize the development of ecological conservation and economic advancement in Qinghai province to the direction of high-quality coupling and coordination. 5.2ConclusionThis paper constructs evaluation index systems for ecological conservation and economic advancement separately, adopts the entropy method based on the time series data of Qinghai province from 2000 to 2020, on the basis of the comprehensive evaluation index model to evaluate the ecological conservation and economic advancement of 20 years, and further use the coupling coordination model analysis of the timing changes of the two systems, get the following conclusions:
ACKNOWLEDGMENTSThe National Natural Science Foundation of China project “Settlement landscape genetic reconstruction, space deprivation and the mechanism of action on the migration of ecological migrants--Taking the Three-river Source region as an example” (42061033); the major social science project “under the background of modern New Qinghai” (JB2301); the key philosophy and social science project “Scientific and orderly Promotion of carbon peak and carbon neutrality in Qinghai Province” (22ZD001). REFERENCESWang, Y., Lu, Y. and Wang, W.,
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