Understanding the Conflict between an Ecological Environment and Human Activities in the Process of Urbanization: A Case Study of Ya’an City, China

Abstract

In the process of human social development, the coupling and coordinated development of ecological function (EF), production function (PF), and living function (LF) are of great significance for sustainable development. In this study, an improved coupling coordination degree model (CCDM) is used to discover the coordination conflict between EF and a human settlement environment. The main work performed in this study is as follows: (1) A more objective weight value that can avoid analysis errors caused by a subjective judgment weight value is obtained. (2) A constitutive model of EF, PF, and LF is constructed, and then resilience indicators that reflect the burden of human activities in EF are proposed. (3) We find that, during the urbanization of Ya’an city from 2014 to 2018, the degree of coupling (DOC) between EF, PF, and LF is high, but the coupling coordination degree (CCD) between the three values is low; specifically, the DOC between EF and the other two values shows the biggest decline. (4) Finally, the resilience of EF is used to explain the decrease in coordination between EF, PF, and LF, while also explaining the obvious problem of a decrease in CCD between EF and the other two values. In this study, the method for calculating the DOC and COD is optimized, and then, a theoretical model for analyzing the ecological functions bearing the pressure of human activities from qualitative and quantitative perspectives is proposed. The research results can provide an analytical framework, path, and method for the coordinated development of “PF–LF–EF” in other regions.