Evaluation of the Conservation Culture Development in Shandong Province, China

AbstractAs conservation culture turns to be a public issue in China, an increasing number of scholars and agencies are dedicating to studying and building the conservation culture index to evaluate regional conservation culture development. Shandong, a province with large population, booming economy, and scarce land and water resources, should well recognize its status quo and trend of conservation culture construction for a sustainable future. According to local natural conditions and socio-economic development status of the 17 cities in Shandong, the authors firstly select 18 indicators from a wide range covering natural resources, social and economic development, and environment conditions, and build a conservation culture index system. Next, we standardize the values of all indicators and calculate the sub-indices of conservation culture in three dimensions, economic and social structure, resources and environmental function, and coordination degree between human and nature. Then, we weight the three sub-indices, comprise the conservation culture index of each of the 17 cities, and assess their conservation culture development levels. Finally, based on the assessment and grading of conservation culture development levels of the 17 cities, the authors put forwards some corresponding countermeasures to integrate social, economic and ecological development, and further upgrade the conservation culture development of the province