Coupling analysis on ecological environment fragility and poverty in South China Karst

Ecological environment and poverty have a strong spatial coupling. It is of great significance to study the interaction mechanism between them for ecological restoration and targeted poverty alleviation in ecologically fragile areas. Taking Guizhou Plateau, the center of South China Karst, as a research object, this study constructs a multi-dimensional poverty and ecological vulnerability coupling index system and analyses the coupling relationship between ecological environment and poverty from a village scale, using the comprehensive coupling coordination degree model and hot spot analysis method, followed by classifying the types of poverty villages. Our results suggest that in space, the multi-dimensional poverty index is high in the south, north, and northwest of Guizhou, while, the overall ecological environment quality is high in the west and low in the east. Obvious differences are identified in the spatial distribution pattern between the multi-dimensional poverty index and ecological environment quality, with only point overlap. The multi-dimensional poverty index and ecological environmental vulnerability index of most poor villages have little difference, and the coupling degree is high, extreme coupling accounting for 89.60%. The coupling coordination degree is mainly moderate coordination and basic coordination, poverty and ecological environment are not in high harmony. 69.3% of the poverty villages in the Guizhou Province belong to the type of good ecology-general poverty. Therefore, in the process of development-oriented poverty reduction, according to the coupling relationship between ecology and poverty of the poverty villages. more attention is required for economic development in the east of Guizhou and the ecological restoration in the west.