Exploring the Interactive Coercing Relationship between Urban Rail Transit and the Ecological Environment

Abstract

The Chinese environment is experiencing the “U-Type” course from sharp deterioration to significant improvement. In order to achieve the fundamental improvement of the ecological environment, China has implemented several relevant policies and strategies. Among them, the development of urban rail transit, as an essential measure to improve the ecological environment in China, has attracted more and more attention, but the research on the interactive coercion relationship between rail transit and the ecological environment is minimal. Therefore, this study selected ten cities opening urban rail transit before 2005 in mainland China as research objects and established an urban rail transit and ecological environment comprehensive evaluation index system. Then, the interactive coercing model and coupling coordination model were used, and the dynamic relationship between urban rail transit and the ecological environment was explored. The research results in this study showed that (1) there is an apparent interactive coercion relationship between urban rail transit and the ecological environment, and the evolution trajectory conforms to a double exponential curve. (2) From 2006 to 2019, Wuhan’s ecological environment pressure index showed a continuous downward trend. The ecological environment improved the fastest. The rest of the cities showed a trend of first rising and then falling. (3) The type of coupling coordination degree of urban rail transit and ecological environment showed a changing coordination trend from severe incoordination—slight to incoordination—basic to coordination—good. Beijing has the highest degree of overall coordinated development in urban rail transit and the ecological environment. The results of this study can provide a theoretical reference for the realisation of the virtuous circle development of rail transit and the ecological environment.

The Impact of Urbanization on Environmental Quality in Ecologically Fragile Areas: Evidence from Hengduan Mountain, Southwest China

“…Considering that the perspective of a single environmental element cannot reflect the overall characteristics of environmental quality, in this study, we designed a comprehensive index system to evaluate environmental quality [44]. With different research objectives, the authors of existing studies have applied various evaluation index systems for environmental quality [44,[46][47][48][49]. Based on the existing evaluation index system, with the principles of scientificity and availability, we selected five elements from three aspects of Hengduan Mountain is an important natural resource reserve and ecological buffer area, with the area performing various ecological functions.…”

“…Table 1 shows these specific elements. Mean annual net primary production (NPP) [47] Vegetation production efficiency + NPP 0.070 Mean annual concentration of PM2.5 [48] Air pollution − PM2.5 0.071 Mean annual fraction of vegetation coverage (FVC) [44] Vegetation coverage + FVC 0.603…”