Spatial disparities of the coupling coordinated development among the economy, environment and society across China’s regions

The coupling coordination among the economy, environment and society has become a crucial issue in the efforts to enhance China’s sustainable development. Existing study of the coupling coordinated development among the economy, environment and society mainly focuses on time series and do not pay enough attention to the spatial disparities. This study conducts an empirical analysis of the coupling coordinated development among the economy, environment and society in 31 provinces from eastern, central and western region in China. The global and local spatial autocorrelation are used to investigate spatial disparities further. Results show that among the three regions, eastern region performs best both at comprehensive index and coupling coordination degree level. The coupling degree levels of the eastern, central and western provinces are similar. There are seven western provinces, three central provinces, and two eastern provinces can be categorized as maladjustment recession types. Only four provinces from the eastern region belong to the upper right quadrant, and the other three quadrants all contain provinces from the eastern, central and western regions.