Classification of Environmental Management Types of Coal Development in China Based on Composite Ecosystem Theory

Energy is the material basis of economic and social development, among which coal is one of the important basic energies [1]. Coal development will have direct or indirect adverse effects on human health and ecological environment [2], such as depression and anxiety [3], and the emergence of a large number of organic pollutants in the environment of the industrial region [4]. The rational development and utilization of coal resources directly affect the sustainable development of coal industry and environment. The problems in the process of coal development, such as low utilization rate of coal resources, disorderly development, super-intensity mining, air and water pollution, have attracted widespread attention [5-7]. Coal environment is a composite ecosystem of three different properties, which is composed of society, economy and nature. The social ecological subsystem is dominated by human behavior. Economic subsystem is the production, circulation, consumption, reduction and regulation of human beings for their own survival and development. The natural subsystem is composed of water, gas, soil, and life, The environment on which human beings depend on survival and reproduction is formed by the relationship between minerals and their interrelations [8]. The evaluation of coal development complex ecosystem is one of the effective methods for environmental management and control. The energy value theory can be used to evaluate the adverse impact of coal mining on environment and human health [9-10].

British botanist Arthur George Tansley put forward the concept of ecosystem in 1935. He believed that ecosystem is a unity composed of biological community and its natural environment in a certain range of time and space [11]. Professor Ma Shijun, an outstanding ecologist in China, put forward the theory of compound ecosystem in 1981. He pointed out that the natural environment, society and economy on which human beings depend for survival are three different systems. Their survival and development are restricted by the structure and function of other systems. They must be regarded as a compound system, which we call social economic natural compound ecosystem [12]. Many scholars at home and abroad apply the theory of complex ecosystem to environmental research. Yang et al. [13] applied the theory of complex ecosystem to the comprehensive evaluation and management of rice ecosystem sustainability, and found that the anti-interference ability and stability of rice ecosystem in China weakened from 2009 to 2017, and the sustainability of rice ecosystem deteriorated. Wang et al. [14] studied the ecosystem functions of different geomorphic types in Beijing Tianjin Hebei region from 2000 to 2018. The results showed that three key ecosystem service factors: soil erosion, water yield and net primary productivity (NPP) had certain interaction. Pearson coefficient showed that soil erosion and water yield, water yield and NPP had a synergistic relationship, there is a compromise between soil erosion and NPP. The results can provide a reference for the comprehensive evaluation of ecosystem services and the management of ecosystem regionalization. Leijstera et al. [15] studied the ecosystem service function of agroforestry system in Columbia City in recent 40 years. The results showed that the aboveground carbon storage, habitat allocation, timber storage and coffee bean quality all followed a positive asymptotic trajectory. Agroforestry measures can be used to restore the development and sustainable supply of ecosystem services.

However, there are few reports on the theory and method of energy environment complex ecosystem regulation at home and abroad. Heuvel et al. [16] studied the ecosystem services in the relationship of water energy food land climate in Sweden: the interaction of human pressure and physics, focusing on the synergistic effect of Biophysics, socio-economic and social interaction among water, land, energy, food and climate in the level of Biophysics, socio-economic and governance The trade-off between conflict and relevance. Agus et al. [17] studied the organic carbon storage and its dynamics in the ecological restoration area after the open-pit coal mining in the tropical rainforest. The study found that in the tropical rainforest forest ecosystem, the mining of open-pit coal mining is leading to land degradation and destruction, and the extremely degraded area can be restored by reconstructing the fast-growing species and vegetation, It is expected to recover its biomass and organic carbon storage rapidly. Li et al. [18] studied the evolution characteristics of forest spatial pattern in China’s northern coal energy province in the past 30 years, and found that the change of forest spatial pattern is a key process of landscape dynamics, which has an important impact on the changes of forest ecosystem biodiversity, habitat quality and even the overall function. Aggregation index (AI), maximum patch index (LPI), patch density (PD) and shape index (SI) are the four main landscape indicators.

It is of great significance to study the dynamic mechanism and cybernetic method of energy environment complex ecosystem for the sustainable development of China. At present, the research on the evaluation of coordinated development of economy environment society complex ecosystem has gradually changed from qualitative and static analysis to quantitative and dynamic trend evaluation. The evaluation models mainly include inputoutput model [19], EKC econometric model [20], grey system model [21], comprehensive evaluation model of coordinated scheduling and coordinated development degree [22], etc. These models have their own advantages and disadvantages and application scope, which promote the research progress in this field to a certain extent. Composite system is an open, nonlinear, dynamic and complex large-scale system, which involves many objectives and is easily affected by external factors. Different factors also directly affect the results of empirical analysis. According to the above analysis of game and coordination of economic and environmental development, the state or degree of system coordination can be reflected by mathematical model or quantitative method. Based on the principles of comprehensiveness, representativeness, quantification, operability and scientificity, this paper selects appropriate indicators to build an energy environment composite ecosystem evaluation index system.

The research on vulnerable areas of ecosystems can be traced back to 1905, when Clements, an American ecologist, introduced the concept of ecological transition zone into ecological research [23]. Ecosystem vulnerability is the process of any natural and man-made action on the ecological vulnerable zone, which occurs in a certain space and time range [24]. Cao [25] constructed the evaluation index system of ecological vulnerability, constructed the poverty evaluation index system of county level from the social and economic aspects, quantitatively analyzed and discussed the coupling relationship between the two, in order to provide decision-making basis for the study area to strengthen the ecological environment protection. Zhang [26] pointed out that the selection of ecological vulnerability evaluation indicators should be combined with the vulnerability characterization of the study area, and should be scientifically selected from the leading factors leading to vulnerability. Generally, topography, geomorphology, climate, hydrology, soil and geology can be used as potential vulnerability factors. When the degradation of ecological environment exceeds the current level of human utilization and development, we call it fragile ecological environment. The fragile ecological environment seriously restricts the development of regional economy and society, and poses a serious threat to the sustainable development of the region. Therefore, it is of great significance to evaluate the vulnerability of China’s coal development ecological environment concretely and objectively.

Based on the development of regional energy, economy, environment and energy economy environment system, this paper studies the theory and technology method system of coal development environment research. The “complex ecosystem theory” is applied to the study of environmental management of coal development, and an integrated index system of regional energy, environment and economy (3e) regulation is initially established. The principal component analysis combined with fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method is used to comprehensively evaluate China’s coal development environment, and the vulnerability types of China’s coal development ecological environment are preliminarily divided, A new theory and method system of regional energy and environment regulation based on coal is explored.

Research data sources

The data in this paper involve economic, ecological and social systems. The data range is 2010-2020, and the data are mainly from meteorological statistics, forestry statistics yearbook, China Statistics Yearbook, China Energy Yearbook, coal industry statistics yearbook and relevant statistical data of various provinces.

Construction of index system of composite ecosystem

It is very important to build a composite ecosystem evaluation index system for the evaluation of ecological environment vulnerability in China. Based on the availability of data, with reference to the research of Liu et al. [27-29] and combined with the actual situation of the research area in China, from the four dimensions of energy, economy, environment and ecology, this paper selects energy production, energy consumption, economic structure, economic growth, ecological scale, ecological protection and other indicators (Table 1) to build a composite ecosystem evaluation index system.

Table 1:Evaluation index system for regulation and control of regional energy and environment composite ecosystem.

Evaluation model and method Coordination degree analysis of complex ecosystem

Coordination degree is a measure of the degree of harmony between the system or the internal elements of the system in the development process, reflecting the trend of the system from disorder to order. It is a quantitative indicator of the coordination of energy, economy, environment and ecosystem. Referring to the capacity coupling coefficient model in physics, the coupling coordination degree formula of China’s economy ecology environment composite ecosystem is constructed:

Among them, C is the coupling degree, and U1, U2 and U3 are the development indexes of ecological subsystem, economic subsystem and environmental subsystem respectively. The higher the C is, the closer the relationship between the systems is and the stronger the coupling strength is.

Coupling degree can reflect the closeness of each subsystem, but it cannot represent the coordinated development level of complex ecosystem. In order to characterize whether the functional systems are in a high-level promotion state or a low-level constraint state, this paper introduces a coupling coordinated development model. The improved coupling coordination model is as follows:

Where D is the coupling co scheduling, C is the coupling degree, and X is the comprehensive development index of the composite functional system. α, β, γ. For the weight parameters of each subsystem, this paper considers that the ecological subsystem, economic subsystem and environmental subsystem are equally important, so the ecological subsystem is the most important, α=β=γ=1/3, That is, D reflects the development level of complex ecosystem, the higher the better.

Classification of coal reserves

Referring to the relevant statistical data, the statistics of coal reserves in China’s provinces in 2010 are shown in Table 2. At present, there is no unified international classification of coal reserves. Some reserves classifications adopted now are developed on the basis of the three-level classification proposed by Goodwell in 1909 and in combination with their own characteristics.

Table 2:Index weight of regional energy environment composite ecosystem.

Assessment and prediction of ecological environment vulnerability

Ecological environment vulnerability assessment and prediction [30-31]. Ecological vulnerability assessment includes static assessment and dynamic assessment. The evaluation indexes of ecological vulnerability mainly include productivity index, carrying capacity index and ecological sensitivity index. The main evaluation methods include analytic hierarchy process, principal analytic hierarchy process, fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method, landscape pattern index method, grey relational analysis method, evaluation method based on remote sensing GIS, neural network method, matter-element extension model, etc., and have the trend of diversification, complexity and integration; After the evaluation, they were graded according to the evaluation results. Ecological vulnerability classification is one of the key links to intuitively express the results of ecological vulnerability assessment. The classification is based on ecological threshold and combined with the actual situation of ecological vulnerable areas. The common methods include natural break point method and equal spacing classification method. The main methods of ecological vulnerability prediction include ecological footprint method, scenario analysis method, system dynamics simulation model, 3S technology and so on.

At present, the classification standard of ecological environment vulnerability has not been unified. In this study, the eco-environmental vulnerability assessment is divided into three levels: target level, criterion level and index level; The criteria layer is used to reflect the internal coordination of China’s ecoenvironmental vulnerability, which is composed of four parts: energy, economy, environment and ecology; The index layer reflects the specific indicators of each criterion layer in the evaluation of ecological environment vulnerability, and is composed of 30 specific evaluation indicators reflecting the ecological vulnerability of the study area, which is the basis of the evaluation of ecological environment vulnerability.

Determination of index factor weight

In the evaluation of ecological vulnerability, the selected index factors have different influence and importance on the ecosystem. In order to ensure the scientificity of the analysis, the weight is usually used to express the importance of the indicators. In this paper, the principal component analysis method is used to determine the weight of each indicator. The results are shown in Table 2. From Table 2, it can be seen that the weight value of Xizang in 31 comments is the highest, which is 0.058.
1) Principal component analysis (PCA): Principal component analysis (PCA) is based on the relationship between the various indicators, using the method of dimensionality reduction to convert multiple indicators into a few unrelated indicators, so that the next step of research becomes a simple statistical method. After standardized operation, the data are dimensionless and can be evaluated and analyzed.
2) Spss19 statistical analysis software was used to conduct principal component analysis on the above 30 evaluation factors. The results are shown in Table 3.

Table 3:Characteristic value, contribution rate and cumulative contribution rate of each component in fragile ecosystem of coal development in China.

The above table analyzes the situation of principal component extraction and the information amount of principal component extraction. It can be seen from Table 3 that three principal components were extracted by principal component analysis, and the eigenvalue values were all greater than 1. The variance interpretation rates of these three principal components were 89.621%, 94.098%, 97.838% respectively, and the cumulative variance interpretation rate was 97.838%. In addition, three principal components were extracted in this analysis and their corresponding weights were 89.621/97.838=91.60%; 4.476/ 97.838 = 4.58%; 3.740/97.838=3.82%; This shows that 97.838% of the information provided by the ecological vulnerability evaluation index can be reflected, which summarizes the main information of the original index, and also conforms to the principle of principal component extraction with the cumulative variance contribution rate of more than 80%; At the same time, it also shows that the principal component analysis method is reliable to evaluate the environmental ecological vulnerability of China’s coal development.
3) Table 4 shows the initial factor load matrix, that is, the factor load coefficient divided by the square root of the corresponding characteristic root.

Table 4:Factor load matrix analysis results.

4) The comprehensive score coefficient is calculated, that is, the linear combination coefficient is multiplied by the variance interpretation rate and then accumulated and divided by the cumulative variance interpretation rate; Calculate the weight and normalize the comprehensive score coefficient to get the weight value of each index. The calculation results are shown in Table 5.

Table 5:Comprehensive evaluation results of ecological vulnerability of coal development in China.

5) Fuzzy comprehensive evaluation: This study mainly adopts fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method [32], which transforms qualitative evaluation into quantitative evaluation according to the membership theory of fuzzy mathematics, that is, to make an overall evaluation of things or objects restricted by many factors with fuzzy mathematics. The fuzzy comprehensive evaluation of the results of principal component analysis is carried out, and the evaluation results are realized with the help of statistical analysis software spss19.0.

In the quantitative evaluation of fragile ecological environment, the index system is established and weighted to calculate the vulnerability g of each province. In this paper, based on the principal component analysis method to determine the weight of each index, the fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method is used to analyze the ecological environment vulnerability of China’s coal development. Referring to Hu et al. [33-34] on the classification method of ecological environment vulnerability evaluation in Weifang City, the evaluation grade standard is divided. According to the results of principal component analysis, 31 provinces and cities are divided into three categories according to the degree of vulnerability; The area with G greater than 0.10 and less than 0.15 is moderately vulnerable; The area with g less than 0.10 is considered to be slightly vulnerable. The results are shown in Table 6.

Table 6:Evaluation results of ecological vulnerability.

Data standardization

Because the dimension and magnitude of the original data are non-uniform, the original data must be standardized. After data standardization, the index value is between 0 and 1.

Coordination degree analysis of complex ecosystem

Coordination degree is a measure of the degree of harmony between the system or the internal elements of the system in the development process, reflecting the trend of the system from disorder to order. It is a quantitative indicator of the coordination of energy, economy, environment and ecosystem. Referring to the capacity coupling coefficient model in physics, the coupling coordination degree formula of China’s economy ecology environment composite ecosystem is constructed. The coordination coupling degree of 21 provinces and cities in China is calculated, and the results are shown in Table 7. The larger the C value of coupling degree in different regions, the greater the interaction between the systems; The larger the D value of coupling coordination degree is, the higher the coordination degree is. As can be seen from Table 7, the coupling coordination level of China’s economy society environment composite ecosystem is high, which is high quality coordination.

Table 7:calculation results of coupling coordination degree of different regions in 2010.

Classification of coal reserves

With reference to the relevant statistical data, the statistics of coal reserves of China’s provinces in 2010 are shown in Table 8. According to the degree of investigation and research, China’s coal reserves can be divided into a, B, C and D levels. Among them, Grade A and B are called advanced reserves. In this paper, according to 100 ~ 6.5 billion tons, 2.5 ~ 6.5 billion tons, 0 ~ 2.5 billion tons of coal reserves are classified into high, medium and low reserves.

Table 8:Coal resource reserves of China’s provinces.

Division of coal development environmental management type area

To improve China’s ecological carrying capacity and ensure ecological security, based on the theory of composite ecosystem, this paper preliminarily divides China’s coal development reserves and ecological environment vulnerability types, and puts forward differentiated environmental management requirements and suggestions for different ecological vulnerability control areas. The results are shown in Table 9.

Table 9:Environmental management zoning and control requirements for coal development.

The fragile ecological environment is the result of the longterm interaction between natural factors and human activities. In order to realize the sustainable development of social economy, it is necessary to coordinate the ecological environment protection and social economic development. Based on the theory of complex ecosystem, this paper divides the environmental management area of coal development in China. According to the types of ecoenvironmental vulnerability in different regions of China, a new theory and method system of regional energy and environmental regulation based on coal is explored. It is suggested that the prevention and control of environmental pollution should be carried out according to the goal of “taking improving environmental quality as the core”. The following conclusions are drawn from the management of energy and environment in China
1) In view of the slowdown of China’s economic growth and the reduction of energy consumption dependence on coal, considering the environmental carrying capacity of coal development, it is suggested to appropriately adjust the mining intensity of China’s coal resources.
2) Sustainable development has increasingly become the ideal goal of development and environmental management, and the measurement or evaluation of sustainable development is one of the important issues.
3) In this paper, the “complex ecosystem theory” is applied to the study of environmental management of coal development. The principal component analysis combined with fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method is used to make a comprehensive evaluation of China’s coal development environment, and the vulnerability types of China’s coal development ecological environment are preliminarily divided.
4) According to the comprehensive evaluation results of the ecological environment vulnerability of the study area, aiming at the existing resources and environmental problems in the region, this paper puts forward the strategy of insisting on sustainable development and differentiated environmental management requirements, so as to protect China’s ecological environment.

Fund Project: Basic research business project of central public welfare research institutes (no.2019ysky001) Supported by Basic Scientific Research Funds in National Nonprofit Institutes, China (No.2019YSKY001).

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