Regional Sustainable Development Analysis Based on Information Entropy—Sichuan Province as an Example

• DOI: 10.3390/ijerph14101219
• Publication Date: 2017-10-13T15:34:09Z
• Authors: Xuedong Liang; Dongyang Si; Xinli Zhang
• Keywords: China; Conservation of Natural Resources; Ecology; Entropy; Research; 02 engineering and technology; Models, Theoretical; Social Environment; Article; 12. Responsible consumption; Residence Characteristics; 13. Climate action; 11. Sustainability; 0202 electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering; regional sustainable development capacity; information entropy; Brusselator model; capability measurement; evaluation index system

According to the implementation of a scientific development perspective, sustainable development needs to consider regional development, economic and social development, and the harmonious development of society and nature, but regional sustainable development is often difficult to quantify. Through an analysis of the structure and functions of a regional system, this paper establishes an evaluation index system, which includes an economic subsystem, an ecological environmental subsystem and a social subsystem, to study regional sustainable development capacity. A sustainable development capacity measure model for Sichuan Province was established by applying the information entropy calculation principle and the Brusselator principle. Each subsystem and entropy change in a calendar year in Sichuan Province were analyzed to evaluate Sichuan Province’s sustainable development capacity. It was found that the established model could effectively show actual changes in sustainable development levels through the entropy change reaction system, at the same time this model could clearly demonstrate how those forty-six indicators from the three subsystems impact on the regional sustainable development, which could make up for the lack of sustainable development research.