Rapid assessment of sustainability in Mainland Chi

RapidassessmentofsustainabilityinMainlandChinaLiyingSuna,b,JinrenNib,*,AlistairG.L.BorthwickcaKeyLaboratoryofWaterCycleandRelatedLandSurfaceProcesses,InstituteofGeographicSciencesandNaturalResourcesResearch,ChineseAcademyofSciences,Beijing100101,ChinabDepartmentofEnvironmentalEngineering,PekingUniversity,TheKeyLaboratoryofWaterandSedimentSciences,MinistryofEducation,Beijing100871,ChinacDepartmentofEngineeringScience,UniversityofOxford,UKarticleinfoArticlehistory:Received6October2008Receivedinrevisedform19July2009Accepted9December2009Availableonline15January2010Keywords:RapidassessmentSustainabledevelopmentindexSensitivityanalysisMainlandChinaabstractThispaperpresentsanapproachforrapidassessmentofsustainabilityforMainlandChinabasedonamultilayerindexsystem.Efficientassessmentisconductedwiththebasicmappingunitsatcountyandcitylevels.Afterevaluatingacomprehensivesustainabledevelopmentindex,SDI,foreachunit,fiverankingsofsustainabilityaredetermined,andazonationmapproduced.Regionalcharacteristicsanddifferencesareinterpretedthroughmacro-analysisofthespatialvariationinSDI.Asensitivityanalysisisperformedbywhichtheweightsofthesub-indicesarealteredby20%,andSDIre-evaluated;theresultinggradesremainthesame,thusconfirmingtherobustnessofthetechnique.Moreover,theaccuracyoftheproposedapproachisindirectlyvalidatedbycomparisonwithassessmentresultsfromanalternativesystemsanalysismethod.ItisfoundthatmajorconurbationssuchasBeijinghaverelativelyhighlevelsofsustainability,whereasprovincesincentralandwesternChinarequireinvestmenttoimprovetheirsustainability.2009ElsevierLtd.Allrightsreserved.1.IntroductionThereisinternationalconsensusthatdevelopmentshouldbesustainable,bearinginmindpopulation,socio-economicandenvironmentalconsiderations(BaumgartnerandZielowski,2007;Haoetal.,2007;Streimikieneetal.,2007).AnimportantdefinitionofsustainabledevelopmentwasgivenbytheBrundtlandCommission(WorldCommissiononEnvironmentandDevelop-ment,1987),revealingconnectionsbetweenecology,developmentandtheachievementofbasichumanneeds(Thore´n,2000).Inrecentyears,theneedforsustainabledevelopmenthasbeenwidelyrecognizedbythepublicandpolicy-makers,andincorporatedinlegislation,particularlywithregardtonaturalresources(e.g.Fio-rilloetal.,2007),energy(e.g.Haoetal.,2007),land-use(e.g.Espejeletal.,1999)andurbandevelopment(e.g.JeneretteandLarsen,2006).Afterundergoingunprecedentedgrowthandprofoundeconomic,socialandenvironmentalchanges,Chinaisfacingacrossroadofchoicesthatwilldeterminewhetheritsgoalofsustainabledevelopmentcanbeachievedinthefuture(John,2005).ImportantquestionsforChinaarehowtocopewithitsenvironmentalneedsalongsidearapidlyexpandingeconomyandhowtobalancetheregionaldisparitiesbetweentherelativelyaffluenteasternprovincesandthepoorerwesternprovinces.In1994,theChinesegovernmentmadethestrategicdecisiontomovefromaconservationpolicytooneofsustainabledevelopment(Zhang,2001).Sincethen,greateffortshavebeenmadetoattainsustainabledevelopmentinChinasuchasexpressedbytheconceptsof‘‘circulareconomy’’and‘‘abstemioussociety’’(BarredoandDemicheli,2003).Measuresofsustainabilityaredifficulttodefineandquantify,andyetarevitalinmonitoringprogresstowardssustainabledevelopment(Walshetal.,2006;Nessetal.,2007).Variousstudieshavefocusedonthecomplexinteractionsbetweenenvironmental,socialandeconomicissues(Ravetz,2000).Oftheapproachestaken,FunctionAnalysisisofparticularmeritinthatitcouldbeusedtofacilitatetheintegratedassessmentofthecomplexsystemandhighlightconflictareas(seee.g.CendreroandFischer,1997;Phillipsetal.,2007).Muchresearchefforthasbeendedicatedtothedevelopmentofsustainabilityassessmenttools,theirproperapplication,andreportingcasestudies(e.g.Devuyst,2000;Rose-nstro¨mandKyllo¨nen,2007;Iorisetal.,2008).Inareviewarticle,Nessetal.(2007)categorizedsustainabilityassessmenttoolsunderthreeumbrellaheadings:indicatorsandindices;product-relatedassessmenttools;andintegratedassessment.Mathematicalmodels,suchasartificialneuralnetwork(Buscemaetal.,1998;*Correspondingauthor.Tel.:þ861062751185;fax:þ861062756526.E-mailaddress:[e-mail](J.Ni).ContentslistsavailableatScienceDirectJournalofEnvironmentalManagementjournalhomepage:www.elsevier.com/locate/jenvman0301-4797/$–seefrontmatter2009ElsevierLtd.Allrightsreserved.doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2009.12.015JournalofEnvironmentalManagement91(2010)1021–1031Rowlandetal.,2004)andgeneticalgorithm(Caietal.,2001;Staf-ford,2008),arebeingappliedtoquantitativesustainabilityassessment.Thesemodelsarestillatarelativelyearlystageofdevelopmentandtheirapplicationshavebeenlimitedtodatetolocal,smallscaleregions.Comparedwithotherapproaches,indi-catorsandindicesaresimpleandflexiblemeasures;forexample,theeconomic,socialandenvironmentalstateofasystemmayberepresentedbyaquantifiableindex.Unfortunately,currentindi-catorandindexapproachesrequirecompletedatasetsandthedatacollectionistimeconsuming.Datascarcityoftenlimitstheappli-cabilityofsuchapproaches.ThispaperutilizesarapidassessmentapproachtoevaluatesustainabilityinMainlandChina.Theapproachhasevolvedfromearlierincarnationswhererapi