ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Comprehensive Evaluation of the Quality
of Rural Habitat Environment in Huizhou Cultural
and Ecological Protection Zone
More details
Hide details
1
Anhui Institute of Contemporary Studies, Anhui Academy of Social Sciences, Hefei 203106, China
2
Social Innovation Design Research Centre, Anhui University, Hefei 203106, China
3
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Lancaster University, UK., Lancaster LA14YB, UK
Submission date: 2023-08-01
Final revision date: 2023-08-20
Acceptance date: 2023-11-04
Online publication date: 2024-01-22
Publication date: 2024-02-28
Corresponding author
Linfu Zhang
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Lancaster University, United Kingdom
Pol. J. Environ. Stud. 2024;33(3):2077-2092
KEYWORDS
TOPICS
ABSTRACT
Habitat is the basic condition for human beings to survive and live. Taking Huizhou Cultural and
Ecological Reserve as the research direction, the evaluation system is constructed by selecting three
indicators of social layer, economic layer, and natural ecological layer. The research team used the
entropy weights-TOPSIS assessment methodology to analyze the Habitat Environment Indices (HEIs)
in different regions and at different times of the year. Gray correlation methodology was used to identify
key drivers of Habitat quality. Findings: First, rural human settlements show a trend of recovery after
a decline in 2013. Second, Jixi County (0.550) was ranked first in the overall evaluation. It is also
consistently in first place in year-to-year changes. Third, the spatial pattern shows that the southeastern
region is of higher quality, while the northern region is relatively backward. Fourth, the social (S)
and natural ecological (NCE) layers are the dominant influences on the quality of village settlements.
The secondary factors are mainly the proportion of good days in a year (0.977), the number of rural
households (0.974) and the area of green space in gardens (0.974). The study achieves the purpose of
enhancing the adaptability of the rural environment in the Huizhou Cultural and Ecological Reserve
and provides a reference for enhancing the adaptability of related protected areas.