Spatiotemporal patterns and spatial dislocation with economic level of China’s ecological resilience

Abstract

Ensuring a harmonious coexistence between man and nature is crucial for China’s economic and social development. However, with increasing industrialization and urbanization, there is a growing mismatch between China’s ecological resilience (ER) and economic level (EL) of development, which poses a notable social threat. Currently, the link between ER and EL in China remains unclear, especially in terms of spatial dislocation (SD), referring to the disconnect between the locations where environmental impacts occur and those where economic benefits or activities are concentrated. Therefore, this paper aims to provide theoretical support and an empirical basis for policy-based solutions to address this gap. Based on the SD theory, this study systematically discusses the temporal changes, spatial patterns, and SD characteristics of China’s ER and EL using spatial auto-correlation and barycentric analysis to analyze data from 30 provinces covering the period 2011–2021. The key results are as follows. China’s ER shows a general trend of growth; however, its distribution is uneven. The spatial pattern generally decreases from the southeastern coastal provinces to the northwest. Moreover, a gradually increasing positive correlation is observed between the ER and EL, but this correlation varies by region, with some showing regional linkages and others developing independently. Finally, the dislocation index of ER and EL presents divergent results based on region—the eastern and central regions primarily show a high level of dislocation, whereas the western and northeastern regions show a low level of dislocation. The results provide a comprehensive overview of the spatiotemporal patterns in the association between ER and EL in China. The results emphasize that to balance sustainable regional development and ecological governance, a region-specific approach must be employed, prioritizing innovation-driven strategies for high ER in more developed regions and market-oriented strategies in less developed regions.