Abstract
Integrated environmental management provides important support for global sustainable development. China’s “Three Lines One Permit” (TLOP) generates data relating to an ecological red line, a lower-limit line for environmental quality, an upper-limit line for resource use, and a list of environmental permits for human activities by establishing three types of spatial control units: priority protection units, critical control units, and general control units. It promotes an integrated, multifactorial continuum of regional soil, plant, hydrological, and atmospheric elements within spatial control units. A follow-up assessment is an important means to improve the implementation and effectiveness of the TLOP. This study demonstrated the achievements of the TLOP policy in Sichuan Province, China. The results showed that (1) a total of 1,025 integrated environmental spatial control units have been established through the intersection and merging of the three “lines.” They comprise 402 priority protection units, 468 critical control units, and 155 general control units, each with its own ecological-environmental protection and natural resource development regimes for regulating human activities through a list of environmental access permits. (2) To guarantee the effective implementation of the TLOP, we established three primary indicators covering implementation updating, implementation applications, and implementation guarantees, as well as 15 secondary indicators for the follow-up assessment index system for provinces and cities. The follow-up assessment index system for critical control units included three primary indicators for environmental access, environmental management, and implementation effectiveness, as well as 14 secondary indicators.