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. 2023 Oct 31;52(12):1928–1938. doi: 10.1007/s13280-023-01947-9

Unraveling the research trend of ecological civilization and sustainable development: A bibliometric analysis

Wenwu Zhao 1,2,✉, Ao Zhou 1,2, Caichun Yin 1,2
PMCID: PMC10654311  PMID: 37907802

Abstract

Ecological civilization has emerged as an innovative form of civilization in China, and sustainable development has been widely recognized as a globally leading development model. These two concepts are closely related. The international English literature focuses on hot topics in the field of sustainable development such as climate change, urbanization, government management, and ecosystems, while the Chinese literature emphasizes ecological civilization concepts with Chinese characteristics, such as green development, beautiful China, and scientific development concepts. Ecological civilization and sustainable development are both responses to resource, environmental, and ecological crises and have emerged from the same historical background. The two concepts complement each other, with ecological civilization providing an ideological foundation for sustainable development, and sustainable development serving as the implementation path and concrete manifestation of ecological civilization. To deepen research on ecological civilization and sustainable development, it is necessary to build a global community with a shared future, address the major strategic needs of different countries or regions, innovate and develop interdisciplinary theories, methods, and technologies, strengthen international cooperation, provide disciplinary support for ecological civilization and sustainable development research, and provide country-specific research solutions for global and regional sustainable development.

Keywords: Bibliometrics, China, Ecological civilization, Global, Sustainable development

Introduction

Ecological civilization is a form of human civilization that focuses on harmonious relationships between humans and the environment, with a core emphasis on the coordination of nature, ecology, economy, and society. Ecological civilization in China is not a new concept, but a reaffirmation of long-held traditional values (Frazier et al. 2019). The concept of “unity of heaven and man” dates back thousands of years and is closely related to Taoism and Confucianism (Frazier et al. 2019). China has combined its indigenous culture with globally recognized sustainability to find a balance between economic development and environmental protection through top-down policies (Liu et al. 2018a). In 1985, Guangming Daily published a short article titled “The Approach to Cultivating Personal Ecological Civilization under Mature Socialist Conditions” representing the first mention of ecological civilization in China. Since then, the concept and connotation of ecological civilization have continuously developed in China (Liu 1993; Liu and Liu 1993) and have been included in the reports of the 17th, 18th, and 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China as important content. As an inevitable approach to the historical development of human civilization, ecological civilization has gone through different development stages, i.e., prehistoric civilization, agricultural civilization and industrial civilization, and is an important part of modern civilization (Xiao and Zhao 2017; Hansen et al. 2018). Sustainable development was first proposed in the World Conservation Strategy in 1980, and its definition was initially clarified by the World Commission on Environment and Development in 1987 (Yang and Liu 2016). Subsequently, the Sustainable Development Summit proposed three pillars of sustainable development (economic development, social progress, and environmental protection) in 2002, and the United Nations adopted 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2015 (Biermann et al. 2017; Fu 2018). The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment was released in 2005, and the 2019 UN SDGs Summit put forward the Accelerated Action Plan for SDGs. As a result, research on sustainable development has rapidly advanced. As one of the most important contemporary concepts, sustainable development emphasizes coordinated development and intergenerational equity among society, economy, and environment.

Ecological civilization and sustainable development are concepts put forward by human beings with the same historical background and similar development goals and themes to address resource, environmental and ecological crises. Both are aimed at coping with resource, environmental, and ecological crises and serving the sustainable future of humans and the planet (Bryan et al. 2018; Sun et al. 2018; Lu et al. 2019). Ecological civilization and sustainable development complement each other, promote each other, and develop in concert. By vigorously promoting the construction of ecological civilization, sustainable development can be achieved, and then, ecological civilization can be created (Gu et al. 2013; Fu et al. 2019a). In recent decades, scholars have carried out much research (Goron 2018; Hua and Zhao 2019; Wu et al. 2019) and established academic organizations on ecological civilization research and sustainable development research, such as the Ecological Civilization Professional Committee, the Ecological Civilization Research Institute, the Sustainable Development Research Association, and the Sustainable Development Committee. Ecological civilization differs from previous national policies by incorporating environmental protection into the national political system and implementing a series of governmental institutional reforms (Gu et al. 2020). A long-term mechanism for environmental protection has been established with the participation of stakeholders, including the government, enterprises, and the public (UNEP 2016). China has made positive achievements in ecological protection; for example, from 2000 to 2017, China's forest coverage rate increased from 16.6 to 23%. The grassland area has been gradually expanded, and soil erosion and dust storms have been significantly reduced (Zhang et al. 2022). Previous studies have mostly focused on assessing the extent of ecological civilization in China at the provincial and municipal levels (Liu et al. 2022) or assessing the level of achievement of China's SDGs according to international sustainable development indicators (Xu et al. 2021). Few studies have focused on the relationship between ecological civilization and sustainable development, ignoring the positive contribution of ecological civilization to global sustainable development. Given China's variable ecological environment and complex human–land relations, it is necessary to sort out the literature on ecological civilization and sustainable development, analyze the characteristics of its various stages, and illustrate the positive role of ecological civilization construction in achieving SDGs, to provide a reference to fulfill global and regional sustainable development.

This study takes ecological civilization and sustainable development as the research theme, searches the literature on ecological civilization and sustainable development from 1980 to 2022, and analyzes the characteristics of their theoretical research, institutional construction, and scientific practice, as well as the extent to which China's SDGs have been achieved under the perspective of ecological civilization. Studies have shown that ecological engineering under China's ecological civilization policy in recent years has contributed significantly to 14 of the 17 SDGs, particularly SDG 1 (ending poverty), SDG 2 (ending hunger and promoting sustainable agriculture), SDG 11 (making human settlements inclusive and sustainable), SDG 13 (combating climate change) and SDG 15 (protecting, restoring, and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems) (Bryan et al. 2018). The implementation of ecological projects in China can improve the supply capacity of ecosystem services (Tong et al. 2018), and the establishment of nature reserves reduces the negative impact of human activities on biodiversity (Liu et al. 2018b). The study of ecological civilization and sustainable development can not only provide a perspective for the world to understand China's ecological conservation policies but also may provide a realistic reference for other countries in the world to achieve SDGs. Furthermore, it will be helpful to deepen the research on ecological civilization and sustainable development by identifying the development progress, hot topics, and interaction between them. To investigate the progress made in ecological civilization and sustainable development in the past few decades, bibliometric methods are used in this paper to analyze the research on ecological civilization and sustainable development by analyzing the publications in which both “ecological civilization” and “sustainable development” appeared at the same time as the object, and development trends are established to provide support for promoting the construction of ecological civilization and sustainable development.

Materials and methods

Data sources

Literature searches were conducted in Chinese and English literature databases. Chinese publications were obtained from the core journals in the China National Knowledge Internet (CNKI), the Chinese Social Sciences Citation Index (CSSCI), and the Chinese Science Citation Database (CSCD). The search strategy was as follows: “SU (Subject) = ‘ecological civilization’ and SU = ‘sustainable development’ OR (SU = ‘ecological civilization’ and SU = ‘sustainability’)”. The retrieval period was 1980–2022, and a total of 2003 Chinese publications were retrieved. The English publications were obtained from the Web of Science Core Collection in the Web of Science (WOS). The search strategy was as follows: “(TS (Topic) = ecological civilization AND TS = sustainability) OR (TS = ecological civilization AND TS = sustainable)”. The retrieval period was 1980–2022, and a total of 846 English publications were retrieved. The date of the literature search was February 15, 2023.

Research methods

This study analyzed the number of published articles, hot topics, and interactions in Chinese and English literature related to ecological civilization and sustainable development. R Studio software was used to visually analyze the publication volume and hot topics related to ecological civilization and sustainable development. The worldcloud2 data package in R Studio was used to visualize the Chinese and English hot topics by time period; the sizes of words were used to indicate frequency.

Results and discussion

Publication analysis

For Chinese publications, an article on the simultaneous emergence of ecological civilization and sustainable development was published in 1995 that explored the basic concepts of ecological civilization and sustainable development (Zhu 1995). The number of papers generally showed an upward trend, with a decline in the number of publications in some years. Before 2007, a total of 182 papers were published on ecological civilization and sustainable development. In 2007, the report of the 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China clearly put forward the construction of an ecological civilization; in 2012, the report of the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China stipulated that the construction of an ecological civilization should be vigorously promoted. Correspondingly, the literature on ecological civilization and sustainable development increased sharply in 2008 and 2013, and then showed a downward trend in subsequent years. Currently, China's ecological civilization construction, together with economic, political, cultural, and social construction, form a comprehensive five-in-one framework. In China, research on ecological civilization and sustainable development is thriving, covering various fields related to ecology, resources, and the environment. The development concept of “lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets” has become a crucial model for China's economic development and environmental protection in the new era. Additionally, government guidance plays an essential role in promoting ecological civilization and sustainable development in China. In 2022, 159 papers were published on ecological civilization and sustainable development. The 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China highlights that “Chinese-style modernization is a modernization of harmonious coexistence between humans and nature,” which clarifies the strategy for ecological civilization construction in the new era.

The trend of publications related to ecological civilization and sustainable development in the English literature has been consistently upward, with three distinct stages (Fig. 1b), and 2007 and 2012 serving as crucial turning points. From 1987 to 2007, there were relatively few studies on ecological civilization and sustainable development, totaling 32. A significant international event during this period was the UN Conference on Environment and Development in 1992, which led to the release of the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development and Agenda 21. During the period 2008–2018, the number of English-language literature increased significantly to a total of 313 articles. Ecological civilization policies began to advance, for example, 2750 nature reserves were established in China as of 2017 (Liu et al. 2018b). Provincial-scale ecological civilization index assessments were carried out in China (Zhang et al. 2019). International milestones related to sustainable development have occurred, such as the release of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by the United Nations in 2015 and the SDG report by the United Nations in 2018. 2019–2022 has seen a rapid growth trend in the published literature. The number of publications in this period is 1.45 times the number of publications in the previous two events combined. In 2019, China officially proposed the zoning of main functional areas, which is one of the elements of ecological civilization construction (Du et al. 2021). This measure can take advantage of regional strengths and improve China's economic efficiency and environmental quality. The UN Sustainable Development Summit held internationally has given a strong impetus to the study of sustainable development.

Fig. 1.

Fig. 1

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Ecological civilization and sustainable development: a number of papers published in Chinese and b number of papers published in English

In terms of source countries (regions) of English publications, a total of 78 countries (regions) were involved, with China dominating the number of papers. Upon analyzing the citation frequency and research topics of countries (regions) with more than 15 papers published in English (refer to Table 1), China has the largest number of papers on ecological civilization and sustainable development. Since 1985, there have been 608 publications, which make up 71.97% of the total number of published papers for all countries, indicating that China is the main driving force behind research on ecological civilization and sustainable development. This is largely due to China's advocacy and promotion of ecological civilization, as well as its commitment to sustainable development. When searching for English literature on ecological civilization and sustainable development, a significant proportion of articles are published by Chinese scholars. While the United States and the United Kingdom have published 87 and 36 articles respectively, ranking second and third, they are significantly fewer in number than those published by Chinese authors. Articles from Canada and Germany are cited more frequently and hold greater influence, compared to those originating from China, which are on average less cited and less influential. Global research on ecological civilization and sustainable development has largely focused on resources, the environment, and ecology. Dynamic changes in international English literature reveal that research on ecological civilization and sustainable development is driven not only by China's national policy for ecological civilization construction but also by international organizations.

Table 1.

The main publishing countries and research topics

Country Number of published papers Average number of citations Research topics
China 608 9.32 Environmental sciences-Ecology, Business-Economics, Science and Technology-Other topics, Engineering, Geography
The United States 87 32.99 Environmental sciences-Ecology, Science and Technology-Other topics, Biodiversity conservation, Meteorology-Atmospheric sciences, Business-Economics
England 36 26.61 Environmental sciences-Ecology, Business-Economics, Science and Technology-Other topics, Engineering, Government law
Russia 29 2.48 Environmental sciences-Ecology, Business-Economics, Education-Educational research, Computer science, Science and Technology-Other topics
Australia 26 28.92 Environmental sciences-Ecology, Meteorology-Atmospheric sciences, Engineering, Biodiversity conservation, Business-Economics
Germany 26 36.96 Environmental sciences-Ecology, Business-Economics, Biodiversity conservation, Agriculture, Geography
Canada 22 43.27 Environmental sciences-Ecology, Business-Economics, Biodiversity conservation, Science and Technology-Other topics, Anthropology
Poland 17 15.24 Environmental sciences-Ecology, Business-Economics, Geology, Agriculture, Architecture
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Hot topics

Keywords in different periods can reveal the research focus of ecological civilization and sustainable development studies. China's ecological civilization has undergone a transformation process from theoretical research, and institutional construction to scientific practice (Fig. 2). In the theoretical research stage (Fig. 2a), human and nature are the main keywords, advocating the harmony between human and nature, respecting nature, following the scientific development concept, and that economic development cannot be at the expense of damaging the environment. The idea that green water and green mountains are the silver mountain of gold is gradually promoted. Ecological civilization focuses on a people-oriented approach and inter- and intra-generational equity. The Chinese government has also put forward the theory of Beautiful China to achieve the sustainable development of the Chinese nation. In terms of institutional development (Fig. 2b), China has combined the initiatives of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in the context of green development. The country attaches importance to green industries, promotes green economy, circular economy, low-carbon economy, and ecological economy, encourages green consumption, and follows the path of energy conservation and emission reduction. At the same time, China has combined government governance, social governance and public participation to form a top-down governance system. China has reformed and reorganized various related institutions to establish a more robust management system for national ecological protection. For example, the newly established Ministry of Natural Resources has consolidated the natural resource management responsibilities of previous government departments to better formalize environmental protection responsibilities and reduce management redundancy among government agencies. In the scientific practice phase (Fig. 2c), carbon peaking, carbon neutrality, and low-carbon development have become important practical goals to address climate change. China puts ecological civilization into practice, for example, establishing a national park system and gradually expanding the area of protected areas; combining ecological civilization indicators to measure the ecological civilization development index at the provincial and municipal levels; and implementing an ecological compensation system based on ecosystem services. In agricultural development, emphasis is placed on irrigation of agriculture, rational use of water resources, etc. At the same time, a series of ecological projects have been gradually promoted, and ecosystem services in some areas have been significantly improved.

Fig. 2.

Fig. 2

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Word cloud chart of Chinese keywords: a theoretical research, b institutional construction, and c scientific practice

The analysis of English keywords from 2000 to 2022 (Fig. 3)  indicates that the research topics in English publications focused mainly on the environment, land use, economic growth, and management, in particular, climate change, ecosystem services, urbanization, and other frontier areas. Comparing the hot topics of ecological civilization and sustainable development in the two periods of 2000–2010 and 2011–2022, in 2000–2010, there were relatively few hot topics, with a focus on management, climate change, sustainable development, systems, and agriculture. However, from 2011 to 2022, hot topics such as models, ecosystem services, urbanization, China, and energy increased significantly. The international research field of ecological civilization and sustainable development shows a clear interdisciplinary and multilevel development trend. Among the hot topics in the English literature, China has always been a core keyword. This phenomenon further verifies that China is an important country in the study of international ecological civilization and sustainable development. In addition, compared with Chinese literature, the international English literature focuses more on climate change, ecosystem services, policy management, equity and efficiency and focuses on related hot topics such as energy consumption, carbon emissions and economic growth. This is closely related to the international promotion of sustainable development processes.

Fig. 3.

Fig. 3

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Word cloud chart of English keywords: a 2000–2022, b 2000–2010, and c 2011–2022

The interaction between ecological civilization and sustainable development

Ecological civilization and sustainable development are hotspots and frontiers of research in the world today, involving multiple disciplines and departments. Under the background of resource consumption and ecological environment deterioration, research related to ecological civilization and sustainable development came into being. Internationally, the promotion of the SDGs by the UN has prompted countries around the world to make positive progress towards achieving different SDGs. China is a practitioner of ecological civilization and a favorable promoter of SDGs. In this study, the Chinese and English literature were searched and analyzed by means of the following terms: “ecological civilization” and “sustainability”, “ecological civilization” and “sustainable development” or “ecological civilization & sustainab*”. Based on the retrieved publications, research on global climate change and SDGs continues to advance, and the interaction research on ecological civilization and sustainable development has made positive progress in the past decades, transitioning through different stages, i.e., theoretical exploration, institutional construction and practical development. As a form of civilization, ecological civilization has been innovatively developed in China; sustainable development, as a development concept, has broad impacts through promotion by the UN. Ecological civilization and sustainable development are synergistic. They have the same historical background, similar research goals and themes, and they complement each other, promote each other, and are closely related (Fig. 4).

Fig. 4.

Fig. 4

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The relationship between ecological civilization and sustainable development

Ecological civilization and the concept of sustainable development were proposed at a similar time and began to flourish after the 1990s. Ecological civilization is a form of civilization. The SDGs describe the desired world. The relationship between the two roles can be seen in the evolution and development of the number of articles issued. Ecological civilization has been actively promoted by the Chinese government, and the rise in the number of Chinese language publications is directly related to the 17th, 18th, and 19th Congresses of the Communist Party of China. The SDGs adopted by the UN have been endorsed by 193 countries. The number of articles published in English is also on the rise in general, which is related to international milestones related to sustainable development, such as the release of the SDGs by the United Nations in 2015, the release of the SDG report by the United Nations in 2018, and the UN Sustainable Development Summit in 2019. Depending on the level of development, population status, and resource and environmental conditions of each country, the degree of achievement of the SDGs varies. Ecological civilization and sustainable development involve economic, social and environmental aspects, working together to improve people's living standards and well-being. China, the world's largest developing country and second largest economy, has significantly improved its ecological environment over the past decades under the guidance of ecological civilization. This has also contributed to the achievement of the SDGs in China; for example, China's national SDG index rose from 45.5 points in 2000 to 55.4 points in 2015, an increase of about 9.9% (Xu et al. 2021). Ecological civilization can be considered as a strategic idea unique to China that promotes coordinated economic and ecological development. At the same time, assessing the degree of achievement of China's SDGs can be aligned with the world.

From a theoretical point of view, on the one hand, ecological civilization provides a theoretical basis for sustainable development, such as resource and environmental foundations, ecosystem services, and the spatial balance of regional development (Gu et al. 2013); on the other hand, sustainable development provides ecological civilization with implementation approaches such as national territory space optimization, energy utilization structure adjustments, resource conservation, and ecological environment protection. Ecological civilization and sustainable development together involve three dimensions: the economy, society and the environment. To a certain extent, the construction of an ecological civilization is an important practice of sustainable development in China; sustainable development is an attractive business approach for international exchange and the development of an ecological civilization.

In practice, in 2014, China established an ecological civilization pilot demonstration zone, being further implemented in various other places locations. The sustainable development experimental zone started as a pilot project in 1986, and as of 2016, 189 national sustainable development experimental zones have been established. In 2016, to promote the sustainable development agenda, China passed “China's Implementation of the Innovation Demonstration Zone Construction Plan of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development” and established six national sustainable development agenda innovation demonstration zones. In terms of ecological civilization and sustainable development, China has achieved gradual expansion from theoretical construction and system exploration to scientific practice and is gradually advancing from national initiatives to implementation at the provincial and municipal levels.

Prospects for ecological civilization and sustainable development research in China

In future research on ecological civilization and sustainable development in China, it is necessary to achieve breakthroughs related to the following issues.

(1) Promote the construction of a theoretical system related to ecological civilization and sustainable development. The existing theoretical systems of ecological civilization and sustainable development are relatively weak with regard to feedback and the synthesis of human-nature systems and currently are insufficient to support the development of disciplines and major national strategic needs. Therefore, adhering to the concept of harmonious development between humans and nature, it is necessary to innovate and develop interdisciplinary theories, methods, and technologies, broaden research fields, promote interdisciplinary integration, and deepen scientific practice. In this process, it is necessary to promote the coordinated development of the nature–society–economic composite system, address the integration of water, soil, air, and living elements, and build a community of life among mountains, water, forests, fields, lakes, and grasses. From the perspective of the coupling human–nature system, research on the processes and mechanisms of natural systems and socioeconomic systems should be strengthened, methods and technical approaches for multielement, multiprocess, and multiscale coupling should be explored, data methods such as remote sensing, big data, and artificial intelligence should be strengthened, the integrated application of earth system scientific models, system dynamics and other models should be promoted, and the incongruity among humans, resources and the environment should be solved.

Ecosystem services can connect natural and social systems, and it is currently difficult to quantify the actual supply and demand of ecosystem services with flows across regions. Adjustments in decision-making based on ecosystem services are prone to bias. There are temporal and spatial trade-offs in ecosystem services (Li et al. 2021); for example, the Loess Plateau in China has been effectively managed for soil erosion over the past decades, but this has been followed by increased vegetation water scarcity (Feng et al. 2016). Similarly, there are couplings of ecosystem services (Liu et al. 2007). Through the South–North Water Transfer Project, the northern provinces of China use water from the south, relieving water stress in the north. Ecosystem services play an important role in achieving human well-being and well-being. Therefore, in-depth development of ecosystem services-related research is needed to support ecological civilization and sustainable development.

(2) Promote and improve the implementation paths and methods of ecological civilization and sustainable development. The three lines of ecological protection, environmental quality, and resource utilization, along with the negative list of environmental access, are crucial strategies employed by China to tackle the pressing issues of resource depletion and environmental degradation (Wang 2020). To ensure the coordinated development of resources, environment, and ecology, it is necessary to determine environmental assets, manage and control ecological spaces through zoning, effectively implement zoning of the environment and pollution prevention and control, and prepare a negative environmental access list, as suggested by Wan et al. (2017) and Lv et al. (2018). In addition, an evaluation index system for ecological civilization should be established and improved, in conjunction with the management and control requirements of the “three lines and one list”. This will promote the orderly and rational development of resources and the environment, and the effective allocation of resources. The establishment of ecological civilization demonstration zones should continue to be promoted, and their ecological index monitoring and evaluation mechanism need to be improved.

There are trade-offs and synergies between the SDGs (Chen et al. 2022; Osman et al. 2022). Countries are actively promoting the SDGs and have made major progress in basic needs, governance, and higher needs (Yin et al. 2023a). Achieving the SDGs requires significant changes (Asadikia et al. 2023), and it is essential to strengthen the practical implementation of sustainable development experimental zones in China. In regional development, systematic research has been conducted on China's ecologically fragile areas, national development strategic areas, and other key countries or regions. To ensure regional ecological security and protect the ecological background, the focus in ecologically fragile areas should be on this area. In national development strategy areas, it is necessary to promote high-quality regional development through coordinated efforts in ecological, economic, and social development. When considering different countries and regions worldwide, a global perspective should be adopted, coordinating domestic and foreign markets, expanding international spaces, and achieving global sustainable development.

It is important for China to focus on the relationship between the SDGs, clarify the progress made in each goal, and further improve the sustainable development indicator system suitable for China and the regional level. In this regard, it is essential to prioritize the development of indicator systems, establish monitoring mechanisms, assess sustainable development progress, strengthen infrastructure, and standardize and validate data (Lu et al. 2015). Water resources, land resources, and land degradation issues remain key factors threatening China's sustainable development, and these are closely linked to biodiversity and drought. China should prioritize the order in which the SDGs should be achieved in response to the problems that exist in the country. For example, prioritizing the achievement of SDG 14 (life below water) as well as SDG 15 (life on land) (Xu et al. 2021).

(3) Focus on the needs of major national development strategies. In the process of innovation and development in the new era, China has implemented a series of major national strategies such as “Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei Coordinated Development”, “Yellow River Basin Ecological Protection and High-quality Development”, “Yangtze River Economic Belt Development”, “Yangtze River Delta Integrated Development”, “Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area Construction”, and “One Belt One Road”. To advance the study of ecological civilization and sustainable development, it is necessary to execute major national strategic projects, organically combine the development status of the regional economy, society and the ecological environment within the 17 global SDGs proposed by the UN (Yin et al. 2023b). This requires to combine regional resources and environmental carrying capacity, and build a regional-scale sustainable development index system. It is imperative to categorize goals while coordinating regional differences and strengthening collaboration between departments (Fu et al. 2019b). Furthermore, ecological civilization and sustainable development should be implemented in combination with a series of measures such as land space optimization, functional zoning, national park system construction, national land space use control, ecological protection red lines, urban development boundaries, and basic farmland policies.

(4) Integrate China's ecological civilization construction with global sustainable development. Efforts should be made to seamlessly integrate China's ecological civilization construction with global sustainable development. China has proposed an innovative ecological civilization that is continuously evolving, and sustainable development is being pursued through international organizations. Sustainable development is the “golden key” to addressing current global challenges. To promote ecological civilization and sustainable development in harmony, it is important to enhance communication and integration between the “international language” of China's ecological civilization and global sustainable development. China's natural environment is diverse and complex, with significant disparities in social and economic development levels, urban and rural development (Fu et al. 2019a). This unique natural and human environment provides the ideal testing ground for research on global ecological civilization and sustainable development. China can leverage sustainable development experimental zones as innovation hubs for regional ecological civilization and models for sustainable development. Moreover, China is committed to linking national development with the 2030 SDGs, sharing its achievements in ecological civilization construction with the world, offering Chinese wisdom and solutions to global sustainable development, and contributing to the realization of global ecological civilization and sustainable development.

(5) Set security bottom line for ecological civilization and sustainable development (Guo 2017). To promote ecological civilization and sustainable development, it is necessary to adopt bottom-line thinking. National security and people's health can not be compromised during the process of regional development. The security bottom line consists of social security, political security, resource security, environmental security, ecological security, and biological security. Among these, social security and political security are the top priorities. Without them, ecological civilization and sustainable development are impossible. Local wars or social unrest can lead to stagnant, regressive, or even collapsed social and economic development, as seen in many countries and regions. Regarding the bottom line of health, it is crucial to prioritize human health and longevity by preventing or mitigating emergencies that may jeopardize them in the context of regional development. International public health emergencies such as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), H1N1 influenza, poliomyelitis, Ebola, Zika, and COVID-19 have not only posed significant threats to human life and health, but have also generated a range of social, economic, and political risks (Di Marco et al. 2020). These events are primarily rooted in the breakdown of biosecurity measures (Zhou et al. 2020). Therefore, it is essential to adopt a bottom-line approach, to maintain social and political security as a prerequisite, and to safeguard resources, environment, ecology, and biological security as a foundation (Zhao et al. 2020, 2022). We need create and develop a national security system, and steadily promote regional and global ecological civilization construction and sustainable development.

Acknowledgements

This research was funded by the National Science Foundation of China (42242101, 42271292), State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Resource Ecology (2022-ZD-08), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of China.

Biographies

Wenwu Zhao

is a professor at the Beijing Normal University. Associate Editor-in-Chief of Geography and Sustainability. Chair of IGU Commission on Geography for Future Earth: Coupled Human–Earth Systems for Sustainability. Director of Institute of Land Surface System and Sustainable Development. His research interests include coupled human-nature systems and sustainable development.

Ao Zhou

is a Doctoral Candidate at the Beijing Normal University. Her research interests include ecosystem services.

Caichun Yin

is a Doctoral Candidate at the Beijing Normal University. Her research interests include ecosystem service and sustainable development.

Declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Footnotes

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

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