Temporal and Spatial Difference Analysis and Impact Factors of Water Ecological Civilization Level: Evidence from Jiangxi Province, China

Abstract

The water environment quality is not high, the spatial and temporal distribution of water resources is uneven, and the water quality-induced water is in shortage in the world. Strengthening the construction of water ecological civilization is one of the important measures to solve these problems. We took China’s Jiangxi Province and its prefecture-level cities as the research object, the water ecological civilization level was measured from the two dimensions of time and space by principal component analysis, and based on the panel data of prefecture-level cities from 2011 to 2020, the panel data model was used to empirically analyze the impact factors of water ecological civilization. The results show that: (1) The level of water ecological civilization in Jiangxi Province shows a fluctuating upward trend, in which the level of water ecological civilization first increased, then decreased, and then increased from 2013 to 2020. (2) Water ecology is the key to affecting water ecological civilization, and cities with abundant natural endowments of water resources have higher scores for water ecological civilization. (3) There are significant differences in the level of water ecological civilization in different cities in Jiangxi Province; the level of water ecological civilization in southern Jiangxi and central Jiangxi is generally higher than that in northern Jiangxi; among the 11 prefecture level cities, Ji’an, Fuzhou, Jiujiang, Yichun, Ganzhou, and Shangrao have a high level of water ecological civilization. (4) Industrial structure, educational investment, and government governance level have significantly improved the level of water ecological civilization. Environmental pollution is not conducive to improving the level of water ecological civilization. There is an inverted U curve between the level of urbanization and the level of water ecological civilization. Accordingly, all prefecture-level cities in Jiangxi Province need to implement new development concepts and innovation-driven strategy, make up for shortcomings, and strengthen weak points according to their own natural endowments of water resources, such as optimizing the industrial structure, increasing investment in education, improving the level of government governance, and strengthening the connotation construction of urbanization, so as to promote the construction of water ecological civilization in Jiangxi Province. The research results also provide a reference for other countries similar to Jiangxi Province to solve the problem of water pollution, alleviate the pollution-induced water shortage, and improve the water ecological environment in the process of economic development.

Has China’s Pilot Policy of Water Ecological Civilization City Construction Reduced Water Pollution Intensity?

“…Moreover, the regression results of the impact of technological innovation, import and export trade, and foreign capital on water pollution intensity are similar to those reported Yu and Fang et al on the impact factors of environmental pollution [19,30]. The regression results of the impact of urbanization level on water pollution intensity are similar to those reported by Darko et al, Kan et al and Margaret et al on the relationship between urbanization and ecological environment, who found that the effects of urbanization, such as population upsurge, increased industrialization, urban agriculture, and rural-urban migration of persons, exert pressure on the limited water resources in most cities; the urbanization process not only intensifies the emission of water environmental pollution but also improves the water pollution intensity [60][61][62], although these results are inconsistent with the those reported by Al-Mulali et al, Irfan and Shawon, and Kan et al on the relationship between urbanization and ecological environment, who reported an inverted U curve between urbanization level and the overall quality of the water ecological environment [63][64][65].…”

The Performance of the Construction of a Water Ecological Civilization City: International Assessment and Comparison

“…A universal urban water ecological health index was established to evaluate cities from different countries. The scores of water health of the study cities were measured by principal component analysis, due to its advantages of reducing the workload of index selection [54], with a higher score indicating better water ecological construction. To understand how to promote the best urban ecological development model, policy and technical guidance documents were analyzed for the three top-scoring cities to compare each city's water ecological management construction system.…”

“…Under the guidance of the concept of water ecological civilization, the health level of urban water ecosystems is mainly the evolution of the interaction between the water system and the human system [29,54,55]. The optimization of various water-related activities is the foundation; at the same time, there is the aim to realize the sustainable supply of aquatic ecosystem services.…”

The Impact of New Urbanization on Water Ecological Civilization: Based on the Empirical Analysis of Prefecture-Level Cities in Jiangxi, China

“…Scholars have constructed different index systems using the entropy method, principal component analysis method, analytic hierarchy process, and fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method to measure the WEC situation in different regions of China. These regions include provinces, the Yangtze River Economic Belt, the Yellow River basin, pilot cities of WEC, urban agglomerations, provincial capital cities, and prefecturelevel cities [13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22]. Most studies show that since the implementation of the WEC pilot policy, the WEC is increasingly improving, and the efficiency of water resource utilization and the quality of the water environment have been significantly improved in pilot cities.…”