Green Finance Supports Rural Revitalization: An Empirical Study on Metapopulation Theory

The green finance development of ecological-economic coordination zones is the primary task in comprehensively advancing the rural revitalization strategy. Identifying rural renewal patterns to guide the green finance development of rural construction is the main approach to addressing the issue of backwardness in rural areas. This study analyzed the logic of metapopulation theory, constructed a framework of how metapopulation assists in identifying village renewal patterns, and conducted empirical analysis in Kaihua County, Zhejiang Province, which is an area of coordinated development of ecological protection and economy. By analyzing spatial data and panel data of village residential land in Kaihua County from 2005 to 2019, the feasibility and superiority of identifying village renewal patterns based on metapopulation theory were verified. The results revealed that by constructing an index system for identifying village renewal pattern from both macro and micro perspectives, villages can be classified into clustering promotion pattern, stability control pattern, exit renovation pattern, and relocation and consolidation pattern. The predominant village renewal type in Kaihua County is stability control pattern, followed by exit renovation and clustering promotion pattern, with relocation and consolidation pattern being the least common; the proportions of each pattern of village are 50%, 32%, 10%, and 8% respectively. Spatially, the proportion of vacant residential land patches in villages in the northwest (within the ecological reserve of Qianjiangyuan National Park) and central regions of Kaihua County is higher, while villages with lower proportions of vacant residential land patches are mostly located around the central urban area and central towns (within the economic development guarantee area), as the development of enterprises and industries in these areas has attracted a large number of migrant workers, reducing the vacancy rate of village housing. According to different village patterns, village renewal modes such as urbanization transformation, residential land in-situ reconstruction, residential land partial reducing, and residential land total reducing were proposed, which support the green financial development in rural areas by guiding the path of economic investments into rural revitalization. The tentative application of metapopulation theory to the identification of village renewal patterns can effectively support village-level territorial spatial planning, and thus provide theoretical support for the participation of finance investment in rural revitalization in ecological and economic coordination zones.