Spatiotemporal Relationship Between Ecological Environment and Economic Development in Tropical and Subtropical Regions of Asia

Abstract

This article is devoted to study the coordination coupling relationship between economic development and ecological environment in tropical and subtropical regions of Asia to reflect the spatiotemporal heterogeneity of the coordination in different regions. Using the entropy method and Geographically and Temporally Weighted Regression model, we empirically analyze 14 tropical and subtropical countries in Asia from 2003 to 2016. The empirical results show that most of the tropical and subtropical sample countries in Asia are at an intermediate coordination coupling level between economic development and ecological environment; the economic development lag type is the main one, and the ecological development lag type is less. At the same time, the positive effects between economic development and ecological environment in most sample countries are more obvious. Spatially, the ecological environment in the north of the Asian tropical and subtropical countries has a positive effect on economic development rather than that in the south and tends to be positive. The positive effect of economic development on ecological environment in the faster economic development areas is better than that in the slower economic development areas, and more areas tend to play negative effects. The research in this article provides a basis for strengthening ecological environment protection in tropical and subtropical regions of Asia, promoting the coordinated development of economic and ecological environment. Further, we put forward some corresponding policy recommendations.