Exploring the relationship between rural transition and agricultural eco-environment using a coupling analysis: A case study of Zhejiang Province, China

Abstract

Rapid rural social-economic transitions in China have given rise to increasingly serious agricultural eco-environmental (AEE) problems. The deterioration of AEE poses great challenges to the sustainable agriculture and results in an incoordination among rural economy, society and ecology. Coordinating the relationship between rural transition development and AEE has great significance in agricultural sustainability and rural revitalization strategy. However, few studies focus on the interactions between social-economic transitions and AEE in rural areas. In this study, comprehensive index systems were built to assess the levels of rural transition development and AEE in Zhejiang Province, China. Coupling coordination model and Kuznets curve analysis were used to explore the interactive relationship between these two subsystems. The results showed that the level of rural transition development in Zhejiang Province showed an overall uptrend during 2000 and 2018, while the AEE evolved from a rapid decline to a stable trend. Both rural transition development and AEE level exhibited obvious spatial variability. The coupling coordination degree between rural transition development and AEE in the whole region fluctuated upward, and changed from the incoordination state to the basic coordination state. The spatial distribution of coupling coordination degree was characterized by high in the northwestern areas and low in the central and southeastern areas of Zhejiang Province, the majority of coupling coordination type transformed from lagging AEE to lagging rural transition development. The dynamic evolution of the relationship between rural transition development and AEE displayed a U-shaped curve and presented different characteristics at different aspects of rural transition process. These results will provide effective references for promoting the coordinated development between rural social-economic transitions and AEE, and formulating targeted rural revitalization policies to achieve rural sustainability.

Keywords

• Agricultural eco-environment
• Rural transition development
• Coupling coordination degree model
• Kuznets curve
• Zhejiang Province