Relationships between economic development and resident environmental behavior and participation in areas with different economic and similar natural and cultural conditions

Abstract

Economic development level (EDL) cannot completely explain environmental behavior and participation (EBP) patterns as many other factors affect environmental performances, and the conflict of ‘Maslow’s Hierarchy Needs model’ or ‘Affluence hypothesis’ and ‘Challenge-response Model’ hypothesis has been continuously discussed. In the present study, a standardized two-dimensional array (STDA) model is employed to deliberate on the EDL-EBP relationship in different sub-groups with the highest ($21389.08) and the lowest ($5216.41) average capita GDPs in Guangdong Province, China. This is the first attempt to investigate the relationships between the regional EDL represented by capita GDP and public environmental behaviors represented by actual resident’s resource consumption, pollution emission and environmental participation in areas with similar natural and cultural condition, and an Environmental Effort Indicator (EEI) is established based on the STDA model. The results show that (1) the STDA model is applicable in distinguishing resident’s EBPs of 20 prefecture-level cities (PLCs) of Guangdong Province with rather different EDLs; (2) the relationship of EDL-EBP is not liner pattern and is behavior- and region-specific; (3) public participation plays an important role that is most decisive to the EEI; (4) the V-shaped EDL-EEI relationships can be explained each other with the EKC model. The formation of resident’s good environmental habits would be a long-term process and environmental education is a key way to accelerate the process and to maintain sustainable developments of the nature and human society.