Landscape Performance for Coordinated Development of Rural Communities & Small-Towns Based on “Ecological Priority and All-Area Integrated Development”: Six Case Studies in East China’s Zhejiang Province

Over the last decade, the Chinese government has focused on addressing development challenges in rural areas. The “Ecological Priority and All-Area Integrated Development” concept was thus developed, and it was found to be crucial for rural areas in Eastern Zhejiang Province. A new comprehensive eva...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inSustainability Vol. 11; no. 15; p. 4096
Main Authors Zhao, Tiezheng, Zhao, Yang, Li, Ming-Han
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Basel MDPI AG 01.08.2019
Subjects
Analytic hierarchy process
Case studies
Collaboration
Construction
Ecological effects
Industrial research
Infrastructure
Landscape architecture
Performance evaluation
Performance measurement
Planning
Research methodology
Rural areas
Rural communities
Rural development
Sustainability
Tourism
China
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Summary:Over the last decade, the Chinese government has focused on addressing development challenges in rural areas. The “Ecological Priority and All-Area Integrated Development” concept was thus developed, and it was found to be crucial for rural areas in Eastern Zhejiang Province. A new comprehensive evaluation system was composed by comparing and synthesizing existing Chinese assessment criteria, and landscape performance metrics developed by the Landscape Architecture Foundation. Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Fuzzy Comprehensive Evaluation Method (FCE) were used to conduct post-development evaluation on six cases using the new evaluation system. The results of four cases show that ecology should be considered a high priority when dealing with rural community and small town developments. The other two cases emphasizing infrastructure development verified that “coordinating the development of rural communities and small town area” is crucial for building sustainable and livable rural communities, and avoiding redundancy and inefficiency. The newly developed comprehensive evaluation system integrates existing systems with a broader vision and is more holistic in its objectives for the region. The development-led intervention (based on landscape performance evaluation) is conducive to the implementation of a more scientific and comprehensive development model, with predictable performance.
ISSN:2071-1050
2071-1050
DOI:10.3390/su11154096