Spatial Differences of Ecological Well-Being Performance in the Poyang Lake Area at the Local Level

Maintaining low ecological consumption and high well-being while making economic progress and thus achieving sustainable development is a significant issue facing the world today. Ecological well-being performance (EWP) is one indicator that tracks this progress. Although EWP has been typically assessed at the national, provincial and urban levels, investigations into EWP units in the Great Lakes region are lacking. This study applied the two-stage super-efficiency slack-based measure (Super-NSBM) model and DEA window analysis to evaluate the EWP and sub-stage efficiency in the Poyang Lake (largest freshwater lake in China) area and analyzed its spatial differences at the local level. Redundancy analysis was conducted to explore the EWP improvement paths of different counties in the Poyang Lake region and Dagum's Gini coefficient was applied to clarify the policy priorities of coordinated regional development. Results showed that the EWP of the Poyang Lake area presents an improving trend from 2007 to 2019, although the overall level is still low. The Poyang Lake area mainly faces the incongruity of ecological and economic development, which is the main reason for the low overall level of EWP. Excessive resource input and severe environmental pollution are common in most counties, but the focus of measures to improve EWP differs from county to county. The expansion of spatial differences in eco-economic efficiency leads to the spatial differences of EWP in the Poyang Lake area being still apparent at the local level. Reducing inter-basin disparities while alerting the widening of intra-basin differences is the policy focus for the future coordinated development of the Poyang Lake area.