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The adaptation path of environmental governance in the Yellow River Basin for regional ecological improvement

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Abstract

Protecting the ecological environment of the Yellow River Basin (YRB) is the key to promoting high-quality development of the whole YRB. Based on the information on environmental governance and the ecological environment in the YRB from 2016 to 2020, we constructed the regional eco-environment index (ECI) of the YRB, measured the government’s environmental governance capacity, and used the entropy weight method and relevant spatial statistical tools to reveal the spatial distribution characteristics of the ECI in the YRB. In addition, we used the method of configuration qualitative comparative analysis to explore the adaptation path of environmental governance for improving the ECI. The study showed that the regional ECI of the YRB was obviously heterogeneous, showing a spatial pattern of “good in the upstream, middle in the downstream, and depressed in the midstream.” There are three appropriate paths for environmental governance to improve the ecological environment: the government efficiency-oriented, rule of law-oriented, and pressure-oriented paths, among which the government efficiency-oriented path is the most common path. The findings propose the governance path of the ecological environment in the YRB from the perspective of configuration, reveal the configuration relationship among the factors affecting the government’s environmental governance, broaden ideas for solving ecological environment improvement problems in the YRB, and enrich the research methods of the government’s environmental governance.

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Acknowledgements

This research is funded by National Natural Science Foundation of China (71801130); Humanities and Social Science Fund of Ministry of Education of China (23YJC790120); Anhui University Social Science Research Fund (2022AH051269 and 2022AH051274); Anhui Excellent Young Teachers Visiting and Training Project (gxgnfx2021004); and Anhui Quality Engineering Project (2021jyxm1106; 2022zyxwjxalk177).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Business, Fuyang Normal University, Fuyang, 236037, China

    Liang Tang, Haifeng Jiang, Zhuofan Zhou & Zhenling Zhang

  2. School of Marxism, Fuyang Normal University, Fuyang, 236037, China

    Shanshan Hou

  3. Ginling College, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, 210000, China

    Bo Liu

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  1. Liang Tang
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  2. Haifeng Jiang
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  3. Zhuofan Zhou
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  4. Zhenling Zhang
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  5. Shanshan Hou
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Correspondence to Shanshan Hou or Bo Liu.

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Tang, L., Jiang, H., Zhou, Z. et al. The adaptation path of environmental governance in the Yellow River Basin for regional ecological improvement. Aquat Ecol (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10452-024-10089-3

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