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ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Spatiotemporal Patterns and Improvement
Strategies for the Regional Ecological Carrying
Capacity in the Yangtze River Delta, China
1
Business School, Suzhou University, Suzhou, 234000, China
Submission date: 2024-03-25
Final revision date: 2024-06-28
Acceptance date: 2024-07-22
Online publication date: 2025-01-08
Publication date: 2025-07-22
Pol. J. Environ. Stud. 2025;34(5):5687-5702
KEYWORDS
TOPICS
ABSTRACT
Evaluating the regional ecological carrying capacity (ECC) is the key to promoting regional
ecological civilization construction and high-quality development. However, the ECC is a dynamic
and complex system with substantial regional differences. Therefore, it is necessary to consider the
data and relationships of the regional economy, society, and resource environment according to local
conditions. We have proposed a data-driven method to evaluate the spatiotemporal evolution of regional
ECC. Based on the application of economic, social, resource, and environmental data reflecting ECC,
a regional ECC evaluation index system was constructed. The entropy weight TOPSIS model was
applied to measure and evaluate the regional ECC and the three subsystems of economy, society,
resources, and the environment. Their spatiotemporal evolution trends were analyzed, and targeted
policy recommendations for data application have been proposed. This study examined the ECC
in the Yangtze River Delta region from 2011 to 2020 to demonstrate the implementation of datadriven
methods. The findings have verified the feasibility of the research method, providing theoretical
and methodological support for the study and management of ECC. This has also provided a basis for
the construction of a regional ecological civilization, sustainable development, prevention of ecological
degradation, and formulation of environmental protection-related policies.
CONFLICT OF INTEREST
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
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