Evaluation of resources and environmental carrying capacity and its spatial-temporal dynamic evolution: A case study in Shandong Province, China

Optimizing human activities, resources, and the environment is an important basis for socially sustainable development. Nevertheless, it appears that a serious unbalanced crisis of resources and the environment is hidden behind the rapid urbanization in China, which has resulted in multiple urban symptoms. Then, this study designs a framework for illustrating the coordinated characteristics and spatial-temporal dynamic evolution when evaluating RECC. Based on the determination of the indicator weights by calculating the interaction among indicators, an MCDM-based approach to evaluate urban RECC is introduced. Taking Shandong Province as an example, the Markov chain is employed to explore the spatial-temporal dynamic evolution of RECC. The results suggest that, from 2013 to 2017, RECC in Shandong Province performed poorly (average value: 0.7994) and experienced a substantively decline (growth rate: -14.44%). Furthermore, the RECC of Shandong Province showed the gradient distribution pattern of decreasing from the northeast (led by Dongying) to the southwest (centered on Heze), which demonstrated a significant club-convergence phenomenon. Besides, the environmental pollution in PMCC and social security in SMCC is the primary obstacle to RECC. Meanwhile, the spatial heterogeneity of different factors is obvious. These findings provide a constructive significance to effectively realizing sustainable urban development.

Automated summary

Optimizing human activities, resources, and the environment is crucial for socially sustainable development. However, rapid urbanization in China has led to a severe imbalance crisis in resources and the environment. This study presents a framework to evaluate the spatial-temporal dynamic evolution of urban resources, environment, and coordination, and introduces a multi-criteria decision-making approach to assess urban RECC. The findings suggest poor performance and a significant decline in RECC in Shandong Province, with environmental pollution and social security identified as the primary obstacles.