An Analysis of Eco–Environmental Changes in Rural Areas in China Based on Sustainability Indicators between 2000 and 2015

Abstract

Ecological zoning and green–development assessment at the village–town scale in China are significant tasks for sustainable planning in China. In this study, we build an index system to calculate the eco–environmental vulnerability score and divide the results into extreme, heavy, moderate, light, and slight levels based on evidence from 43,046 villages and towns in China from 2000 to 2015; then, we build a sustainable–development score calculation criterion to perform sustainability assessments. The results show that nine indexes (digital elevation model (DEM), slope, net primary productivity (NPP), total rainfall per year, per capita cultivated land, farmland proportion, grassland proportion, forestland proportion, and construction–land proportion) are the main factors in the variation in eco–environmental vulnerability under the conditions of urbanization. The eco–environment is found to have worsened from 2000 to 2015, and the deterioration areas are mainly concentrated in Tibet, the eastern area of Xinjiang and the Xing’an Mountains region. Economic growth and ecological protection can achieve common development when eco–environmental vulnerability is at light and slight levels, while when eco–environmental vulnerability is fragile, the inhibitory effect of economic growth is obvious in rural areas. The results can provide useful information for village–town planning.