Evaluation and System Coupling of Beautiful Qinghai–Tibet Plateau Construction Based on Point of Interest Data

Abstract

The unique high-frigid environment and poor natural conditions of Qinghai–Tibet Plateau (QTP) have limited sustainable economic and social development. The construction of the beautiful QTP is a concrete implementation of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. However, identifying the progress and system coupling relationships of beautiful QTP construction entails some barriers due to data and methodological issues. To evaluate beautiful QTP construction and achieve a coordinated development regime, this paper employs an analytic hierarchy process and coupling model to quantify the comprehensive index and the coupling relationships of five subsystems (i.e., ecological environment, cultural inheritance, social harmony, industrial development, and institutional perfection) based on point of interest (POI) data, which are highly accurate, containing quantity and location information. Meanwhile, spatial autocorrelation analysis is conducted on the comprehensive index and coupling coordination degree for identifying the spatial clustering characteristics of the two. Results show that the progress of the beautiful QTP construction in most counties are under a very low or low level. For the system coupling perspective, 86% of counties are under the coupling stage indicating a strong interaction among the subsystems. However, coordination is out of harmony in most counties. For the spatial clustering characteristics, the comprehensive index and the system coupling relationships of beautiful QTP construction show a positive spatial correlation, indicating an aggregation effect. The aggregation is mostly “low–low” and “high–high” aggregation indicating the spatial differences and regional imbalances. The government should adopt measures to make the five subsystems of beautiful QTP construction more synergistic to achieve the sustainable development of the QTP. Our study formed a sample case of special areas where statistical data are scarce while constructing a technical framework of Beautiful China construction that is applicable to these areas. The findings of this study can serve as a reference for improving the beautiful QTP or other similar areas of construction.

Spatial Heterogeneity of Watershed Ecosystem Health and Identification of Its Influencing Factors in a Mountain–Hill–Plain Region, Henan Province, China

“…Spatial autocorrelation is a mathematical representation of spatial dependence that describes the correlation between a variable at a location in space and the same variable at its neighboring location and has been widely used in spatial dependence analyses [82][83][84]. This study aims to evaluate the spatial aggregation pattern of ecosystem health in the YRB by using spatial autocorrelation analysis.…”

Coupling Landscape Connectedness, Ecosystem Service Value, and Resident Welfare in Xining City, Western China

“…The coupling relationship and coordination degree determine the development status of the system. On this basis, this study draws on the methods of other scholars [41,75] to establish a coupling coordination degree model for the landscape connectedness subsystem, ecosystem service subsystem, and resident welfare subsystem (Equation ( 10)) to explore the temporal changes in the coupling coordination between these three subsystems at the urban scale of Xining from 1995 to 2020. The comprehensive evaluation method is used to calculate the annual comprehensive evaluation values of each subsystem:…”