Ecological Indicators 50 (2015) 206214

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Ecological Indicators
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ecolind

Short Communication

Assessment of sustainable development: A case study of Wuhan as a

pilot city in China
Xiaohong Chen, Xiang Liu , Dongbin Hu
Collaborative Innovation Center of Resource-conserving & Environment-friendly Society and Ecological Civilization, School of Business, Central South
University, Changsha, China

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 6 December 2013
Received in revised form 29 October 2014
Accepted 3 November 2014
Keywords:
Sustainable development
Environmental friendly
Resource conserving
Vector angle
Euclidean distance
China

a b s t r a c t
Building resource-conserving and environmental-friendly society (referred to as two-oriented society,
TOS) is an important way proposed by the Chinese government to achieve sustainable development. In
this paper, a pilot city of constructing TOS in China-Wuhan is taken as a case to evaluate the performance
of TOS from 2005 to 2012. Treating the indicators of TOS as multi-dimensional vectors, this paper proposes a methodological framework by integrating the methods of vector angle and Euclidean distance to
measure the angle and distance between the vector of annual status of TOS and the vector of planning
target of TOS. Based on this, the paper employs coordination (the angle between the two vectors) and
effectiveness (the distance between the two vectors) to describe the performance of TOS and its subsystems, including economic development (ED), social and peoples well-being (SW), resource consumption
(RC), resource recycling (RR), environmental quality (EQ) and pollution control (PC). Moreover, grey relational analysis approach is used to analyse the core factors inuencing TOS construction. Results reveal
that the performance of TOS in Wuhan is continually improved in the study period while the performance of its subsystems shows several differences: (1) both coordination and effectiveness of TOS, ED
and SW keep on improving, while those of EQ uctuate; (2) the effectiveness of both RR and PC shows a
downward trend while the coordination of them uctuates; (3) the actual value of RC indicators reaches
the planning targets. Based on the analysis of determinants, we suggest that strengthening technological
ability and adding investment are extremely important to improve the performance of RC and PC. For
the sake of improving RR, it is critical to provide more government public expenditure and encourage
nancial institutions to provide more loans to stimulate and support the businesses. Moreover, increasing the amount of R&D funding and maintaining steady external economic environment are proved to
be effective to improve all subsystems of TOS.
2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Sustainable development (SD) is a common goal across the globe
in the 21st century. However, large amount of energy consumption, environmental pollution and carbon emissions generated in
China pose negative threats to Chinese SD (Zhang and Wen, 2008).
Therefore, the Chinese government has been paying increasingly
more attention to exploring ways for conserving resources and protecting the environment without damaging economic growth. The
Chinese government directly proposed SD as part of the national
strategies in 1994, and has implemented it by various economic

Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 18569517974.

E-mail addresses: xiangliu1018@gmail.com, liuxiang@csu.edu.cn (X. Liu).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2014.11.002
1470-160X/ 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

models such as circular economy, low-carbon economy, as well as

building two-oriented society (TOS).
Over the past decades, plenty of literature focus on proposing indicators and methods for evaluating the performance of
SD (Rinne et al., 2013; Li et al., 2009; Bhringer and Jochem,
2007; Hopwood et al., 2005) and investigating its determinants
(Zhang et al., 2012; Wei et al., 2012; Conroy and Berke, 2004).
For example, Compendium of Sustainable Development Indicator
Initiatives identied about 600 sustainable indicators for SD
performance (Parris and Kates, 2003). Bhringer and Jochem
(2007) and Hammond et al. (1995) reviewed the consistency
and meaningfulness of various indicator and composite index,
and proposed many principles and theoretical frameworks about
SD assessment. Dalal-Clayton and Bass (2006) and Moldan et al.
(2012) proved that an aggregate SD index and indicators linked
to targets are of great importance for policy makers because they

X. Chen et al. / Ecological Indicators 50 (2015) 206214

can be unambiguously interpreted and easily communicated to

the general public. However, scientic rules elaborated by Ebert
and Welsch (2004) have not been taken into account enough
for aggregating indicators towards composite indices because
of lacking the generally accepted rules for normalization and
weighting, and being short of the commensurability of various
variables (Bhringer and Jochem, 2007). Moreover, it was still
an open question to construct a versatile methodology (Singh
et al., 2012). Even though various evaluation methods had been
employed, such as principal component analysis (PCA) (Yang et al.,
2011), super efciency data envelopment analysis (DEA) model
(Wu et al., 2014), and super slack-based measure (SBM) model with
undesirable outputs (Li et al., 2013). The evaluation results of PCA
and DEA models are greatly inuenced by sample size and structure, which means that different data and sample size often lead to
changes in evaluation results. In addition, from the practical view,
planning is helpful for promoting SD for all countries (Conroy and
Berke, 2004), especially for China which has a highly centralized
planning system to lead and guide the development of cities (Xie
and Costa, 1993). Therefore, the objectives mentioned in the plan
should be taken into account when evaluating the performance
of SD.
In recent years, some studies evaluate SD performance by
regarding the indicators of SD as an n-dimensional vector. For
example, Wei et al. (2012) dened the indicators describing Chinas
regional pollution control performance (PCP) as an n-dimensional
vector. They aggregated the best and worst performance of each
indicator in all regions of China and dened them as optimal vector and threshold vector, respectively. Taking the optimal vector
as a benchmark, all components of this vector can be viewed as
the value requirements of the corresponding components of the
vector of Chinas regional PCP. Afterwards, Euclidean distance with
weighting was employed to calculate the gap between the vector of the current regional PCP status and the optimal vector. The
gap that reects the effectiveness of value requirements of all indicators can be recognized as regional PCP. However, besides the
value requirement of each indicator, the coordination requirement
of all components of a vector also should be taken into account.
The coordination requirement means the proportional relations
among all components of a vector (the vector of regional PCP in
Wei et al. (2012)) should be consistent with the proportional relations among the corresponding components of the other vector
(the optimal vector of PCP in Wei et al. (2012)), which indicates
that all indicators of PCP should be developed simultaneously. The
coordination requirement can be reected by the directions of
vectors. The direction of vector can be calculated by vector angle
which is widely used as a term of cosine similarity in various areas
including information retrieval and decision making (Ye, 2011).
Duwairi (2006) viewed several keywords in a student essay as a
vector and compared it with the vector of keywords in a model
essay to evaluate the performance of the student essay by cosine
similarity. Cosine similarity treats each object (the keywords in a
student essay in Duwairi (2006)) as a vector, and then calculates
the cosine of the angle between two vectors as a similarity measure
of them.
In the case of SD, the planning targets of SD compiled by the
government can be regarded as the ideal objective of SD construction (like the model essay in Duwairi (2006)). Moreover, only when
all indicators achieve targets, can the status of SD be recognized as
reaching the ideal objective. Therefore, by taking the SD indicators
as a multi-dimensional vector, the planning targets of SD indicators
can be viewed as an objective vector. The direction of the objective
vector implies the coordination requirements of its components.
Each component of the objective vector indicates the value requirement of the indicator. Consequently, comparing the vector of the
annual status of SD with the objective vector, both the coordination

207

(direction of the two vectors) and effectiveness (distance of the two

vectors) can be calculated to evaluate SD performance.
This paper presents a detailed analysis of SD performance of
Wuhan which is a pilot city of building TOS in China. The methods of vector angle and Euclidean distance are used to calculate
the coordination and effectiveness of TOS. The coordination and
effectiveness are displayed in the same diagram to depict the performance of Wuhans TOS construction. Furthermore, this paper
analysed core factors inuencing TOS performance of Wuhan by
grey relational analysis.
The rest of this article is organized as follows: in Section 2 we
give a short introduction of Wuhan and introduce the methodology
in detail. Section 3 presents a summary of the ndings of our analysis. Finally, we propose recommendations for the government to
improve TOS more coordinately and effectively.
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Study area
Wuhan is the capital city of Hubei province, which is located in
central China (see Fig. 1). As one of the pilot areas constructing TOS,
Wuhan covers an area of 8.49 thousand km2 and has a population
of 10.22 million inhabitants in 2013.
Wuhan is an old industrial base collecting optic-electronic,
automobile manufacturing, iron and steel manufacturing. Coal is
the dominant energy source in the city. Environmental pollution
caused by rapid economic growth and unbalanced industry structure is a great challenge to the SD of Wuhan. Therefore, Wuhan
was approved to be a pilot city of constructing TOS by the Chinese government in 2007. In order to promote and accelerate TOS
construction, Wuhan has put forward a comprehensive plan called
Synthetically Reform Experimental Implementing Scheme for TOS
Construction of Wuhan depicting the vision, objectives and measures of constructing TOS. The plan works out as a basic plan guiding
the development of the city.
2.2. Evaluating the performance of TOS
2.2.1. Index system of TOS
As a practical way for SD in China, TOS refers to a system in which
resources are efciently exploited and environment is effectively
preserved to acquire the highest economic and social benets. As
such, we can divide the TOS system into six subsystems, including
economic development (ED), social and peoples well-being (SW),
resource consumption (RC), resource recycling (RR), environmental

Fig. 1. Location of Wuhan in Hubei province and China.

Source: This map comes from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wuhan
#Industrial zones.

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X. Chen et al. / Ecological Indicators 50 (2015) 206214

Table 1
Evaluation indicators of TOS.
Subsystems

Economic Development (ED,5)

Social and Peoples Wellbeing

(SW,3)
Resource Consumption (RC,2)
Resource Recycling (RR,2)
Environmental Quality (EQ,3)

Pollution Control (PC,5)

a
b
c
d
e

Indicators

The target value in 2015

The amount of GDP (100 million yuan)

GDP per capita (yuan)
The added value of high-tech industry as a share of GDP (%)
Tertiary industry proportion (%)
General budget revenue in local nance (100 million yuan)
Urbanization rate (%) (household population)
Per capita annual disposable income of urban households (yuan)
Per capita annual net income of rural households (yuan)
Energy consumption of unit GDP (TCE/10,000 yuan)
Water consumption per unit industrial added value (m3 /10,000 yuan)
Utilization rate of industrial water for irrigation (%)
Ratio of industrial solid wastes utilized (%)
Urban per capita public green space (m2 /person)
Coverage rate of green areas developed (%)
Urban air quality rate (%)
Urban sewage centralized disposal rate (%)
Percentage of harmless treatment for living carbage (%)
The amount of COD emissions (10,000 tonnes)
The amount of SO2 emissions (10,000 tonnes)
CO2 emissions per unit of GDP (tonne/10,000 yuan)

11,244.8a
111,666b
0.27a
52a
1396a
0.77a
41,000b
16,000b
0.87c
80.8c
88a
98a
10b
40d
85b
93b
100b
13.73c
10.9c
1.48e

The 12th ve-year plan for national economic and social development of Wuhan (20112015).
The plan for Wuhan building peoples happiness city.
Wuhans circular economy development plan (20112015).
Wuhans 12th ve-year plan on environmental protection (20112015).
Wuhans implementation plan on building low carbon city.

quality (EQ) and pollution control (PC). Specically, RC and RR are

essential contents of resource conserving, and EQ and PC represent
the core features of environment-friendly.
The rst three main features of good indicators are easy to be
understood, sensitive to changes and relevant (OECD, 2008). Therefore, indicators for evaluating TOS should be: (1) describing the
situation of TOS scientically, objectively and comprehensively.
(2) Simple and data availability. (3) Constituted by status indicators and process indicators. Status indicators reect the result of
constructing TOS, while process indicators show the change of it.
For instance, environment-friendly indicators can be divided into
environmental quality and pollution control. The former describes
the status while the latter indicates the results and procedures.
Therefore, with reference to Synthetically Reform Experimental
Implementing Scheme for TOS Construction of Wuhan and other
plans, we can construct evaluation indicators of TOS performance
as shown in Table 1.

Therefore, the cosine of the angle between the vector of current

status of TOS in t year Ytn and the vector of the planning targets Y0n
is
cos t =

Y0n Ytn

n

   =
n
Y n  Ytn 
0

y
i=1 i0

y2
i=1 i0

yit


n

(3)

y2
i=1 it

cos t is monotonically decreasing and 0 cos t 1. We dene the

coordination degree of the current status of TOS in t year as
Ct = 1 cos t .

(4)

The smaller Ct is, the more coordinated the development of various subsystems and indicators of TOS are.
Moreover, the distance between Ytn and Y0n can be calculated by
Euclidean distance


 n

(yit yi0 )2 .
Dt = 

(5)

i=1

2.2.2. Models and calculation procedures

The indicators describing TOS are taken as an n-dimensional
vector Ytn , where n is dened as the number of evaluation indicators for TOS, and t indicates the year. Hence, the performance of
TOS in t year can be characterized by a specic vector
Ytn = (y1t , y2t , . . ., ynt ),

(1)

in which the components yit correspond to the yi indicator of TOS

in t year. For each indicator yi , the planning target can be found in
governmental ofcial documents (see details in Table 1). Specially,
the planning targets of TOS are dened as Y0n = (y10 , y20 , . . ., yn0 )
which can be interpreted as the ideal objective to which both the
direction and distance of Ytn should be close.
The raw data of indicators including positive indicators (such as
GDP per capita, etc.) and negative indicators (such as the amount
of COD emissions, etc.) which are normalized by


yi =

n

yi /

n

y , Positive
i=1 i

y /yi , Negative
i=1 i

indicators
indicators

(2)

The smaller Dt is, the closer Ytn and Y0n is, which means the better
effectiveness of TOS in pt year.
Specially, the values of Ct and Dt of Y0n in 2015 are zero, which
is

C0 = 0
D0 = 0

Ct and Dt can be used to measure the coordination and effectiveness of TOS in OA = (a1 , b1 ) year. As shown in Fig. 2, we
suppose that two-dimensional vectors OA = (a1 , b1 ), OB =
(a2 , b2 ), OC = (a3 , b3 ), and OD = (a4 , b4 ) represent TOS status in different years, and OH = (a0 , b0 ) is the objective vector
of TOS. The vector components ai and bi (i = 0, 1, 2, 3, 4) represent
the actual value of TOS indicators and we have a3 > a0 > a4 > a2 > a1 ,
b3 > b0 > b1 > b4 > b2 . The distances and the cosine of the angle
between OA and OH are D1 and cos 1 . The distances and
the cosine of the angle between OB and OH are D2 and
cos 2 . The distances and the cosine of the angle between OC
and OH are D3 and cos 3 . The distances and the cosine of the
angle between OD and OH are D4 and cos 4 . Fig. 2 shows that

X. Chen et al. / Ecological Indicators 50 (2015) 206214

209

Thirdly, with the capital support provided by nancial markets,

businesses are stimulated and encouraged to promote economic
development and industrial transformation and upgrading. In
Wuhan, bank loans are the most important ways of nancial support.
Fourthly, technologies are key factors in developing a sustainable society (Rennings, 2000; Fleiter and Pltz, 2013). In China,
improving technological abilities plays a key role in improving
productivity and environmental performance (Ang, 2009; FisherVanden and Sue Wing, 2008). Therefore, the portion of R&D
(Research and Development) expenditure in GDP and the number
of granted patents are taken as proxy indicators.
Last but not the least, a stabilized macroeconomic environment will help the government to better foster development of the
infrastructure and institutions, which are necessary for sustainable
growth (Huang et al., 2006). As in Wuhan, GDP growth rates of China
and Hubei province are the rst two important external economic
environment factors.
Fig. 2. Comparison of the coordination (Ct , cos ) and the distance of (Dt ).

D1 = D2 = D3 > D4 , C2 = C4 = 0, C1 , C3 > 0. Therefore, regarding OH

as a benchmark, OD shows a better effectiveness than OB for
D4 < D2 . However, the coordination of OD and OB are equal
(C2 = C4 = 0), which means ai and bi of these two vectors are in
balance (a2 /b2 = a4 /b4 = a0 /b0 ).
Moreover, as shown in Fig. 2, although the actual value of OC
is greater than that of OA (a3 > a1 , b3 > b1 ), their distances are
equal (D1 = D3 ). In this case, in order to distinguish D1 and D3 , we
dene the distance as zero when the actual value of the indicator
is greater than the target value of this indicator. Therefore, the
performance of OA and OC distances (D1 > D3 (D3 ) = 0) are
consistent with the performance of their actual value (a3 > a0 > a1
and b3 > b0 > b1 ). Considering the purpose of this paper is to evaluate the performance of TOS in different years, the relative size of
Dt is more important than the actual size of it.
Consequently, the performance of TOS can be clearly shown in
the coordinate axis constituted by Ct (the coordination of TOS) and
Dt (the effectiveness of TOS). In special, the origin of the coordinate
axis is (C0 , D0 ) = (0, 0) which can be seen as the performance of TOS
planning targets.

2.3. Impact factors assessment

2.3.1. Impact factors
Economic, political culture, institutional and intergovernmental management variables are key factors inuencing effective
implementation of local sustainability plan (Zeemering, 2012). We
identied a comprehensive set of factors affecting TOS construction
as shown in Table 2.
Firstly, investment-driven has been regarded as a key development strategy for China (Qin et al., 2006). The growth of
industrial economy, industrial transformation and upgrading, as
well as energy saving and emission reductions, are inseparable
from various capital investments. Therefore, two indicators namely
investment in xed assets and funds for pollution treatment are
taken as proxy indicators.
Secondly, government public nance expenditure in science
and technology, and environmental protection are important.
The former indicator contains funds provided by the government to support science and technology activities. The latter one
includes expenditure of environmental and resources monitoring
and surveillance, pollution reduction, supporting new energy and
renewable energy industries, etc.

2.3.2. Method of grey relational analysis

Grey relational analysis (GRA) was applied to further discover
the factors affecting TOS constructing. GRA was proposed by Professor Deng (1989) to analyse the correlation between a reference
sequence and comparable sequences. The more similar these two
sequences curves are, the closer relationship between them is
(Deng, 2010). Yin (2013) reviewed the theoretical and practical
trends of GRA, and demonstrated the application of GRA showing a continuous increase in various areas including engineering,
business economics, environmental sciences ecology, etc. According to Dengs denition (Deng, 1989, 2010), the rst step of GRA is
to calculate the grey relational coefcient
i (k) =

mini mink |x0 (k) xi (k)| + maxi maxk |x0 (k) xi (k)|
.
|x0 (k) xi (k)| + maxi maxk |x0 (k) xi (k)|

(6)

 i (k) is the grey relational coefcient of comparable sequence

xi (xi = xi (k) = {xi (1), xi (2), . . ., xi (n)} , k = 1, 2, . . ., n, i = 1, 2, . . ., m),
and reference sequence x0 (x0 = x0 (k) = {x0 (1), x0 (2), . . ., x0 (n)} ,
k = 1, 2, . . ., n) at time k. xi and x0 are used after dimensionless
processing and are expressed as normalized values. The distinguishing coefcient  reects the degree to which the minimum
scores are emphasized relative to the maximum scores.  is generally assumed to be 0.5.
In this paper, the two reference sequences are Ct and Dt ,
the comparable sequences are the determinants mentioned in
Table 2. Generally, these determinants have positive effects on
TOS construction. Hence, the change direction of the two reference
sequences and comparable sequences are opposite. Therefore,  i (k)
is calculated based on the reciprocal of the determinants.
Therefore, the average value of  i (k) can be calculated to represent the grey relational grade (GRG)
1
i (k).
n
n

i =

(7)

k=1

 i denotes importance of the factors, the greater  i is, the more

important it is.
2.4. Data sources
The socio-economic data are mainly collected from Wuhan Statistical Yearbook. The resource and environment data are originally
obtained from China City Statistical Yearbook, Water Conservancy
Annals of Hubei province and Report on the State of the Environment in Wuhan. The sources of the target values in 2015 are
introduced in detail in Table 1. All indicators are available in the
period 20052012.

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X. Chen et al. / Ecological Indicators 50 (2015) 206214

Table 2
Factors affect TOS construction in Wuhan.
Theme

Indicators
Investment in xed assets (10,000 yuan) (X1)
Funds for pollution treatment (10,000 yuan) (X2)
Government expenditure for science and technology (10,000 yuan) (X3)
Government expenditure for environmental protection (10,000 yuan) (X4)
Short-term loans (10,000 yuan) (X5)
Medium and long term loans (10,000 yuan) (X6)
The portion of R&D expenditure in GDP (%) (X7)
The number of granted patents (X8)
GDP growth rate of China (%) (X9)
GDP growth rate of Hubei Province (%) (X10)

Investment (INV,2)
Government Public
Expenditure (GPE,2)
Financial Support (FIS,2)
Technological Ability (TEA,2)
External Economic
Environment (EEE,2)

Table 3
The performance of TOS in Wuhan (20052012).

TOS
ED
SW
RC
RR
EQ
PC

Ct (%)
Dt (%)
Ct (%)
Dt (%)
Ct (%)
Dt (%)
Ct (%)
Dt (%)
Ct (%)
Dt (%)
Ct (%)
Dt (%)
Ct (%)
Dt (%)

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

16.79
4.35
23.90
3.52
12.64
2.06
3.83
1.06
0.01
0.21
0.05
0.17
2.32
1.05

14.59
4.13
19.99
3.38
10.34
1.97
2.12
0.95
0.03
0.19
0.05
0.16
1.69
0.89

12.21
3.87
15.91
3.22
7.67
1.85
0.72
0.79
0.00
0.16
0.02
0.16
1.05
0.71

9.81
3.53
11.47
3.00
5.07
1.68
0.02
0.55
0.00
0.13
0.00
0.12
0.72
0.57

8.46
3.29
9.28
2.83
3.59
1.56
0.01
0.41
0.03
0.10
0.02
0.11
0.32
0.40

6.66
2.97
6.83
2.58
2.08
1.38
0.06
0.29
0.03
0.00
0.02
0.17
0.37
0.36

3.44
2.31
1.65
1.98
1.09
1.14
0.51
0.19
0.08
0.09
0.02
0.08
0.25
0.28

2.79
1.81
0.75
1.55
0.52
0.91
0.28
0.00
0.04
0.09
0.05
0.05
0.34
0.21

3. Results and discussion

3.1. Performance of TOS
According to formulas (3), (4) and (5), the coordination degree
Ct and distance Dt of TOS in t year in Wuhan during 20052012 can
be calculated as shown in Table 3.
The performance of TOS in t year can be seen as points (Ct , Dt )
and presented in coordinate axis. We can depict constructing status
of TOS in Wuhan from 2005 to 2012 in Fig. 3.

It can be concluded from Fig. 3 that Wuhans TOS performance continues to close to the planning targets in 2015 from
2005 to 2012. On the one hand, the coordination degree (Ct )
greatly decreased from 16.79% in 2005 to 2.79% in 2012, which
means all subsystems of TOS including ED, SW, RC, RR, EQ and
PC experienced similar development tendency that gets close to
the planning targets. On the other hand, the distance (Dt ) continues to drop from 4.35 in 2005 to 1.81 in 2012, which decreased
by 58.4%. Moreover, the performance of TOS in different years is
various. After 2007 when the city was approved as a pilot city, TOS

Fig. 3. The performance of TOS (20052012).

X. Chen et al. / Ecological Indicators 50 (2015) 206214

211

Fig. 4. The performance of TOSs subsystems (20052012).

construction achieved sound and fast development. In 2009, the

growth rate of TOS dropped signicantly for the global nancial
crisis. The analysed result resonates that the Chinese government
pays more attention to ensuring Chinas rapid economic growth,
and the efforts of environment protection relegated to secondary
position for the global nancial crisis (Song et al., 2011). In addition, the performance of TOS improved most from 2010 to 2011,
which Ct declined by 48.31% (from 6.66% in 2010 to 3.44% in
2011) and Dt declined by 22.22% (from 2.97 in 2010 to 2.31 in
2011).
3.2. Performance of subsystems
Fig. 4 shows the performance of six subsystems of TOS in Wuhan
during 20052012.
The performance of ED greatly improved from 2005 to 2012.
Both Ct and Dt of ED are close to the planning targets. Specically,
the value of Ct sharply decreased from 23.9% in 2005 to 0.75% in
2012. The result indicates that all indicators of ED are coordinated
development.
In SW subsystem, the growth rate of Ct continuously rises from
18.16% in 2006 to 52.27% in 2012. It shows that indicators of SW
are improved in balance during the period. However, compared
with the other two indicators of SW, the actual value of urbanization rate witnesses the greatest difference from the planning target.
Therefore, the government should pay more attention to promoting
urbanization development.
The performance of RC has greatly improved during the period
20052009. Ct of RC decreases from 3.83% in 2005 to 0.01% in 2009.
However, it goes up to 0.51% in 2011 because of the varying performance of two indicators of RC in that year. Moreover, the actual

values of these two indicators in 2012 are greater than those of the
planning targets in 2015.
As for RR, its performance appears highly volatile. Both Ct and Dt
have been decreasing over the 20052010 period. The performance
of two indicators of RR in 2010 is better than their planning targets
in 2015. However, they declined in 2011 and result in Ct and Dt
increase.
The performance of EQ uctuates in the period of 20052012.
Both Ct and Dt of EQ see continuous improvement from 2005 to
2008. However, the actual values of the three indicators of EQ
declined from 2009 to 2010. The pressure for the government to
promote economic growth has greatly increased after 2008 due
to nancial crisis. Therefore, the government has to pay more
attention to promoting economic development but neglect the
development of EQ. The reason is that GDP growth, which is closely
relative to ofcers promotion (Li and Zhou, 2005), is much more
important than environmental protection for government leaders
in China.
All indicators of PC have been continuously improved from
2005 to 2012 except urban sewage centralized disposal rate, which
decreased from 94.96% in 2010 to 88.78% in 2012. The best performance can be seen in the indicator of CO2 emissions per unit
of GDP which roughly declines from 3.31 in 2005 to 1.39 in 2012.
The reason for this phenomenon is that Hubei is a pilot area to
construct low carbon province. As the capital city of Hubei, Wuhan
makes great efforts to promote carbon emissions reduction, and
the value of CO2 emissions per unit of GDP in 2012 is smaller than
the planning target.
Comparing the performance of various TOS subsystems, it can
be concluded that ED is the best, and subsystems about resource
conserving (RC, RR) are better than subsystems about environment

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X. Chen et al. / Ecological Indicators 50 (2015) 206214

Table 4
Results of grey relational analysis for factors affecting TOS construction.
TOS

INV

GPE

FIS

TEA

EEE

X1
X2
Ave
X3
X4
Ave
X5
X6
Ave
X7
X8
Ave
X9
X10
Ave

ED

SW

RC

RR

EQ

PC

Ct

Dt

Ct

Dt

Ct

Dt

Ct

Dt

Ct

Dt

Ct

Dt

Ct

Dt

0.652
0.846
0.749
0.767
0.791
0.779
0.797
0.797
0.797
0.843
0.631
0.737
0.925
0.870
0.898

0.716
0.852
0.784
0.802
0.800
0.801
0.811
0.754
0.783
0.920
0.688
0.804
0.830
0.860
0.845

0.867
0.812
0.839
0.792
0.795
0.794
0.797
0.790
0.794
0.825
0.865
0.845
0.808
0.815
0.812

0.641
0.856
0.749
0.855
0.889
0.872
0.862
0.854
0.858
0.889
0.618
0.753
0.818
0.889
0.853

0.843
0.772
0.807
0.746
0.750
0.748
0.754
0.745
0.749
0.786
0.854
0.820
0.769
0.777
0.773

0.645
0.789
0.717
0.653
0.673
0.663
0.675
0.651
0.663
0.897
0.614
0.755
0.750
0.803
0.776

0.844
0.840
0.842
0.839
0.839
0.839
0.839
0.839
0.839
0.841
0.845
0.843
0.840
0.840
0.840

0.638
0.815
0.727
0.734
0.759
0.746
0.741
0.769
0.755
0.851
0.610
0.731
0.764
0.800
0.782

0.757
0.865
0.811
0.868
0.866
0.867
0.878
0.870
0.874
0.839
0.742
0.790
0.860
0.866
0.863

0.757
0.809
0.783
0.773
0.775
0.774
0.803
0.745
0.774
0.820
0.727
0.773
0.796
0.845
0.820

0.626
0.851
0.738
0.821
0.853
0.837
0.829
0.841
0.835
0.869
0.603
0.736
0.867
0.861
0.864

0.625
0.901
0.763
0.825
0.815
0.820
0.846
0.855
0.851
0.846
0.604
0.725
0.935
0.861
0.898

0.722
0.679
0.701
0.656
0.650
0.653
0.665
0.632
0.648
0.686
0.732
0.709
0.675
0.682
0.679

0.658
0.770
0.714
0.715
0.737
0.726
0.713
0.721
0.717
0.786
0.619
0.702
0.730
0.751
0.740

Note: the value of Ave is calculated by the mean of two indicators in the aspect. Taking investment (INS) as an example, Ave of INS is calculated by the mean of X1 and X2.

friendly (EQ, PC). The government should be focused more on the

consistency and coordination of different TOS subsystems, such as
paying more attention to the quality of economy than the quantity
of it, to recycling of resources rather than consumption of it, and to
protecting the environment rather than controlling of it.
3.3. Analysis of inuent factors
Table 4 shows the results of grey relational grades (GRG) among
factors inuencing the performance of TOS.
Firstly, both Ct and Dt of TOS are highly inuenced by the external economic environment (EEE). The GRG between EEE and Ct
is 0.898, and that between EEE and Dt is 0.845. Specically, the
two indicators of EEE which are X9 and X10 are the rst two
indicators inuencing Ct of TOS, the GRG between them is 0.925
and 0.87, respectively. This nding implies the consistent relationship between sustainable development and economic growth.
Moreover, compared with other indicators, the portion of R&D
expenditure in GDP (X7) impacts Dt of TOS most, and GDP growth
rate of Hubei province (X10) is followed. Besides, the amount of
funds for pollution treatment (X2) also shows close relationships
with Ct and Dt of TOS, the GRG are 0.846 and 0.852, respectively.
Secondly, technological ability (TEA) and investment (INV) have
the most signicant impacts on ED. The GRG between TEA and Ct is
0.845 and the GRG between INV and Ct is 0.839. Specically, investment in xed assets (X1) (0.867) sees the most essential, followed
by the number of granted patents (X8) (0.865) and the portion of
R&D expenditure in GDP (X7) (0.825). These results conrm the
viewpoint that China is an investment-driven country. Moreover,
GDP growth rate of Hubei province (X10) (0.889) and the portion
of R&D expenditure in GDP (X7) (0.889) are the rst two indicators
affecting Dt of ED.
Thirdly, the two factors of external economic environment (X9
and X10) are of vital importance for Dt of SW, and the GRG are 0.803
and 0.75. Furthermore, the two technological ability factors X8 and
X7, and investment in xed assets (X1) have signicant impacts on
Ct of SW, and the GRG are 0.854, 0.786 and 0.843, respectively.
Fourthly, technological ability (TEA) and investment (INV)
impact RC the most. The GRG between TEA and Ct is 0.843, and that
between INV and Ct is 0.842. The two indicators of TEA (X7 and
X8) reect the attitude and ability of government and businesses
to support the development of technologies and sciences. The two
indicators of INV (X1 and X2) imply investment in technological
upgrading and industrial equipment to treat pollution. Both these
factors can signicantly improve resource efciency and result in

decreases of the amount of resource consumption. Moreover, capital support including the government public expenditure (GPE) and
nancial support (FIS) has a signicant impact on Ct of RR. Dt of RR
is mostly affected by the GDP growth rate of Hubei province (X10)
(0.845) and the portion of R&D expenditure in GDP (X7) (0.82).
The results mean that providing capital support for the businesses
to invest in improving technology ability is vital to promote RR
development.
Lastly, the portion of R&D expenditure in GDP (X7) (0.869) is critically important to improve Ct of EQ, followed by the growth rate of
China (X9) (0.867) which also shows the closest relationship with
Dt of EQ (0.935). The GRG between EEE and Ct , and that between EEE
and Dt of EQ are the greatest, which indicates that economic growth
is the foundation of EQ improvement. In addition, like that of RC,
technological ability and investment are the rst two factors inuencing Ct of PC. The external economic environment (EEE), nancial
support (FIS) and government public expenditure (GPE) impact Dt
of PC most. On one hand, it is much more possible for the government to shift their attention from the quantity of economics to the
quality of that when economy runs smoothly. On the other hand, it
is necessary for the companies and other pollution makers to take
effective measures, such as promoting equipment and technology
improved, as well as reducing pollution to promote PC development. However, they need capital support from governments and
nancial institutions.
4. Conclusions and recommendations
4.1. Conclusions and policy implications
In this study, we presented integrate methods of vector angle
and Euclidean distance to evaluate the coordination and effectiveness of TOS in the national pilot city Wuhan. Based on the
performance and determinants discussed above, we can draw conclusions and policy recommendations as follows.
Firstly, the performance of TOS, ED and SW is continuously
improved while the performance of the subsystems about environmental protection (EQ and PC) and resources conserving (RC
and RR) uctuate, because they are greatly affected by the uctuated external economic environment. The results indicate that
when the external economic environment run smoothly, the subsystems about environmental protection and resources conserving
will show a positive performance. The reason is that Chinese government ofcials prefer the quantity of GDP rather than the quality
of economics because the quantity of GDP is closely related to their

X. Chen et al. / Ecological Indicators 50 (2015) 206214

professional promotion (Li and Zhou, 2005). Therefore, the aspects

about the quality of economic development such as pollutants and
emissions are considered less important compared to those about
the quantity of economics growth. Consequently, it is necessary to
reform the performance evaluation system of government ofcials
to considering equally important on economic growth, environmental protection and resources conserving. As such, government
ofcials can be encouraged to promote both pollutants and emissions reduction and GDP growth simultaneously.
Secondly, the government should balance the development
of various aspects of TOS to promote its improvement. From
this paper, we can see that the performance of coordination and
effectiveness of TOS and its subsystems are different. Both Ct and
Dt of TOS, ED and SW are continually improved. The values of them
continuously close to the planning targets. The best performance
of Ct and Dt can be seen in RC. The two indicators of RC realize
the planning target. Moreover, Dt of RR shows a downward trend
while Ct of RR uctuates in the study period except the year of
2010. The inconsistent performance of the two indicators of RR
contribute to this difference, for utilization rate of industrial water
for irrigation dropped by 13.1% from 2010 to 2012 while the
ratio of industrial solid wastes utilized decreased by 3.58% at the
same time. Although Dt of PC shows a downward trend, Ct of PC
expanded in 2012. The reason is that indicators of PC show various
performances. For example, CO2 emissions per unit GDP realize
the planning target while urban sewage centralized disposal
rate is far away from the target. In addition, the inconsistent
performance of indicators in EQ result in uctuated performance
of its Ct and Dt . These results indicate that in order to promote
the development of TOS, instead of focusing on one aspect of TOS,
such as developing low-carbon city to promote carbon abatement
or building water-conserving city to promote water saving, the
government should pay attention to the balanced development
of various aspects of TOS, such as considering conserving water
and energy, promoting carbon, COD and SO2 abatement at the
same time. Furthermore, the government should not only focus
on the existing pollution and emissions, but also control the incremental quantity of those to realize stable improvements of these
indicators.
Finally, government should take different strategies to deal
with the balanced development of TOS because the determinants impact TOS and its subsystems are various. In terms of
RC and PC, technological abilities and investment are the most
important factors affecting their performance. Therefore, governments and enterprises should increase investment to promote
upgrading equipment and technologies. As for RR, it is necessary to promote businesses recycling and reusing the wasted
resources such as water, etc. Therefore, the government should
provide more government public expenditure and encourage nancial institutions such as commercial banks to provide more loans
to stimulate and support the enterprises. Moreover, increasing
the amount of R&D funding and maintaining steady external
economic environment will be effective to improve all aspects
of TOS.
4.2. Research limitations
This paper proposed a methodological framework by integrating the methods of vector angle and Euclidean distance to
evaluate the performance of TOS from the perspectives of the
coordination and effectiveness. Based on this method, the performance of TOS in Wuhan and the core factors inuencing the
performance are discussed in-depth. However, because of the
restriction of data availability, it is hard to choose indicators cover
all aspects of the TOS. For example, indicators used in RC and
RR are mainly related to industry production while only a few of

213

them are related to human lives. Moreover, since the key points
of developing economics in different years are different, indicators
with weighting can be considered to use in this model in future
research.
Acknowledgements
Thanks to two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments. This work has been funded by the Foundation for Innovative
Research Groups of the National Natural Science Foundation of
China (No. 71221061), the National Natural Science Foundation of
China (No. 71431006, No. 71271216), and Key Projects of Philosophy and Social Sciences Research, Ministry of Education China (No.
13JZD0016).
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