[Figure 1]
Giving consideration to sustainable social development, economic
transformation and upgrading, China’s urbanization has gradually shifted
from high-speed to high-quality, with the urbanization rate increasing
from 49.68% in 2010 to 63.89% in 2020, maintaining a low-speed growth
trend. The concentration of labor, capital, technology and other factors
promotes the formation of economic growth poles, and the resulting
economic radiation has made contribution to the rapid growth of regional
economies (Athukorala, 2018). Meanwhile, human activities have damaged
the ecological environment while meeting the needs of rapid development,
and the health of the terrestrial ecosystem has been greatly threatened.
Therefore, exploring the natural and social drivers of urbanization and
terrestrial ecosystem health is crucial to promote urban-ecological
harmony and achieve the sustainable development.
2.2 Research
Framework
In order to explore the link between terrestrial ecosystem health and
urbanization and their driving mechanisms, we proposed a systematic
research framework (Fig 2). First, the urbanization level was assessed
by a comprehensive indicator system of the urbanization index (UI), and
the terrestrial ecosystem health index (EHI) was estimated by the VOR
model. Second, the spatial relationship between EHI and UI was explored
by the spatial autocorrelation analysis. Finally, we proposed a
conceptual model of drivers on UI and EHI, and then used the partial
least squares structural equation modeling to validate it.