IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v17y2025i2p511-d1564412.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Development of Economic–Social–Ecological Complex Systems in the Yellow River Basin, China

Author

Listed:
  • Yuyang Li

    (Chinese Academy of Environmental Sciences, Beijing 100012, China)

  • Haiguang Hao

    (Chinese Academy of Environmental Sciences, Beijing 100012, China)

  • Lihui Sun

    (Chinese Academy of Environmental Sciences, Beijing 100012, China)

  • Mengxiao Liu

    (Chinese Academy of Environmental Sciences, Beijing 100012, China)

  • Ding Wang

    (China National Environmental Monitoring Centre, Beijing 100012, China)

Abstract

The economic, social and ecological elements in the region constitute a complex ecosystem. The development trend, internal coordination and interactive effects of the economic–social–ecological (ESE) system have consistently constituted pivotal scientific propositions in the context of the social development process. The Yellow River Basin holds strategic importance, acting as both an ecological barrier and a center for economic development within China. Based on these considerations, this study focuses on the Yellow River Basin and innovatively establishes a theoretical framework and measurement model for the development of the ESE system. Quantitative methods, including the coupled coordination model and augmented regression tree model, are employed to evaluate the development, coordination, spatial patterns and influencing factors of the ESE system in the study area. The findings reveal that the economic and social subsystems are rapidly developing. Over the study period, the focus of ESE system development shifted eastward. Furthermore, there were noticeable disparities in the factors influencing coordinated ESE system development across the upper, middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River Basin. Thus, sustainable development policies for the region must be tailored to local conditions. This study also offers insights into the potential development paths for the Yellow River Basin and other river basins in China, contributing practical value to the promotion of sustainable development and the construction of an ESE system that reflects the unique characteristics of the Yellow River Basin.

Suggested Citation

  • Yuyang Li & Haiguang Hao & Lihui Sun & Mengxiao Liu & Ding Wang, 2025. "The Development of Economic–Social–Ecological Complex Systems in the Yellow River Basin, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(2), pages 1-28, January.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:2:p:511-:d:1564412
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/2/511/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/2/511/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Costanza, Robert, 1989. "What is ecological economics?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 1(1), pages 1-7, February.
    2. Müller, Daniel & Leitão, Pedro J. & Sikor, Thomas, 2013. "Comparing the determinants of cropland abandonment in Albania and Romania using boosted regression trees," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 66-77.
    3. Muhammad Sohail Amjad Makhdum & Muhammad Usman & Rakhshanda Kousar & Javier Cifuentes-Faura & Magdalena Radulescu & Daniel Balsalobre-Lorente, 2022. "How Do Institutional Quality, Natural Resources, Renewable Energy, and Financial Development Reduce Ecological Footprint without Hindering Economic Growth Trajectory? Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(21), pages 1-25, October.
    4. Anran Yang & Junsan Zhao & Yilin Lin & Guoping Chen, 2024. "Coupling and Coordination Relationship of Economic–Social–Natural Composite Ecosystem in Central Yunnan Urban Agglomeration," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(7), pages 1-21, March.
    5. Ulucak, Zübeyde Şentürk & İlkay, Salih Çağrı & Özcan, Burcu & Gedikli, Ayfer, 2020. "Financial globalization and environmental degradation nexus: Evidence from emerging economies," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Qiyuan Zhou & Qiuping Zhu & Yu Feng & Jinman Wang, 2025. "Identification of Priority Areas for Ecological Restoration at a Small Watershed Scale: A Case Study in Dali Prefecture of Yunnan Province in China," Land, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-28, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Castro, P. & Pedroso, R. & Lautenbach, S. & Vicens, R., 2020. "Farmland abandonment in Rio de Janeiro: Underlying and contributory causes of an announced development," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    2. Kronenberg, Tobias, 2010. "Finding common ground between ecological economics and post-Keynesian economics," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(7), pages 1488-1494, May.
    3. Zhenxiang Cao & Liqing Peng, 2023. "The Impact of Digital Economics on Environmental Quality: A System Dynamics Approach," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(4), pages 21582440231, December.
    4. Tomiwa Sunday Adebayo & Seyi Saint Akadiri & Usenobong Akpan & Bisola Aladenika, 2023. "Asymmetric effect of financial globalization on carbon emissions in G7 countries: Fresh insight from quantile-on-quantile regression," Energy & Environment, , vol. 34(5), pages 1285-1304, August.
    5. Mustafa Naimoğlu & Serkan Şahin & Sefa Özbek, 2025. "Governance, Corruption, Trade Openness, and Innovation: Key Drivers of Green Growth and Sustainable Development in Türkiye," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 33(3), pages 4147-4162, June.
    6. Akash Malhotra, 2018. "A hybrid econometric-machine learning approach for relative importance analysis: Prioritizing food policy," Papers 1806.04517, arXiv.org, revised Aug 2020.
    7. Shabman, Leonard A., 1990. "Environmental Hazards of Farming: Thinking About the Management Challenge," Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 22(1), pages 11-22, July.
    8. Malayaranjan Sahoo & Narayan Sethi, 2022. "The dynamic impact of urbanization, structural transformation, and technological innovation on ecological footprint and PM2.5: evidence from newly industrialized countries," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 24(3), pages 4244-4277, March.
    9. Hametner, Markus, 2022. "Economics without ecology: How the SDGs fail to align socioeconomic development with environmental sustainability," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 199(C).
    10. Nieto, Jaime & Carpintero, Óscar & Miguel, Luis J. & de Blas, Ignacio, 2020. "Macroeconomic modelling under energy constraints: Global low carbon transition scenarios," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    11. Xin Deng & Dingde Xu & Miao Zeng & Yanbin Qi, 2018. "Landslides and Cropland Abandonment in China’s Mountainous Areas: Spatial Distribution, Empirical Analysis and Policy Implications," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-14, October.
    12. Ropke, Inge, 2005. "Trends in the development of ecological economics from the late 1980s to the early 2000s," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(2), pages 262-290, November.
    13. Fortune Ganda, 2025. "Testing the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis in South Africa using the ARDL approach," Natural Resources Forum, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 49(1), pages 67-99, February.
    14. Li, Junhui & Li, Guowei, 2023. "What drives resource sustainability in Asia? Discovering the moderating role of financial development and industrialization," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 85(PA).
    15. Olivier Petit & Franck-Dominique Vivien, 2015. "When economists and ecologists meet on Ecological Economics: two science paths around two interdisciplinary concepts," Post-Print halshs-01249774, HAL.
    16. Muhammad Sadiq & Syed Tauseef Hassan & Irfan Khan & Mohammad Mafizur Rahman, 2024. "Policy uncertainty, renewable energy, corruption and CO2 emissions nexus in BRICS-1 countries: a panel CS-ARDL approach," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 26(8), pages 21595-21621, August.
    17. Plumecocq, Gaël, 2014. "The second generation of ecological economics: How far has the apple fallen from the tree?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 457-468.
    18. Zhang, Qianwen & Gao, Wujun & Su, Shiliang & Weng, Min & Cai, Zhongliang, 2017. "Biophysical and socioeconomic determinants of tea expansion: Apportioning their relative importance for sustainable land use policy," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 438-447.
    19. Atif Jahanger & Muhammad Usman & Daniel Balsalobre‐Lorente, 2022. "Linking institutional quality to environmental sustainability," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(6), pages 1749-1765, December.
    20. Clive L. Spash, 2013. "The Ecological Economics of Boulding's Spaceship Earth," SRE-Disc sre-disc-2013_02, Institute for Multilevel Governance and Development, Department of Socioeconomics, Vienna University of Economics and Business.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:2:p:511-:d:1564412. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.