| Global issues such as climate change,resource shortage,ecological imbalance,and the gap between the rich and the poor have a bearing on the survival and development of the entire human race.The United Nations has formulated the Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs),which transform the vision of social development from purely economic growth to a multi-dimensional and multi-level coordinated development based on society,economy and environment aspects.As an important platform for the implementation of the SDGs,the “Belt and Road(B&R)Initiative plays an increasingly important role in promoting global economic development”,and it also responsible for promoting the achievement of SDGs in B&R countries.Therefore,evaluating the status and evolution of human well-being and sustainable development among and within B&R countries is crucial to understanding the development patterns of each country,recognizing development disparities,guiding policy formulation and promoting the achievement of the SDGs in the whole region.This paper uses remote sensing data of night lighting instead of traditional economic statistics to construct the Enhanced Human Development Index(EHDI)and the Enhanced Sustainable Development Index(ESDI)at the national-gridded scale from 1993 to 2019,spatial autocorrelation analysis,rate of change,convergence model and coefficient of variation are used to explore the spatial and temporal evolution characteristics of human sustainable development in B&R countries,and to compare and analyze the overall human sustainable development level from different geographical scales and attribute dimensions.The main findings of this paper are as follows.(1)From 1993-2019,New Zealand,Germany and Austria have a high and steadily increasing EHDI ranking,while Sierra Leone,Niger and Burundi have a low and decreasing EHDI ranking.the results of the EHDI ranking show that the highest number of countries are at high and medium levels,with a lower number of countries at very high and low levels.In terms of evolutionary trends,the number of very high and high level countries have increased,the number of medium level countries has remained more or less the same and the number of low level countries is decreasing.From the perspective of spatial agglomeration characteristics,there is an overall spatial clustering of the B&R countries.High hot spots are mainly in Ukraine,Poland and Romania in Europe,while low cold spots are mainly distributed in Uganda,Botswana and Zambia in Africa.The spatial distribution pattern of EHDI remained basically unchanged during the study period.(2)From 1993-2019,Chile,Slovenia and Uruguay ranked high in ESDI,while Austria,Slovakia and Estonia ranked low in ESDI.In terms of ranking,none of the countries along the Belt and Road reached a very high level of sustainable development,but the number of high level countries is increasing,from 6 in 1993 to 18 in 2019.In terms of spatial aggregation characteristics,B&R countries have spatial aggregation of sustainable development,with countries such as Ecuador,Peru and Bolivia being high-high agglomeration areas,while Niger and Botswana are low-low.The gridded-scale ESDI shows that the sustainable development level of the northwest direction along the B&R is significantly higher in the northwest than in the northeast.(3)The mean value of ESDI(0.50)is lower than the mean value of EHDI(0.60)for B&R countries,and the results of the convergence analysis indicate that there is convergence in the EHDI of B&R countries.At the regional scale,Africa,Asia and Europe show the greatest differences in human sustainability levels.Latvia,Chile,Russia,Panama and Costa Rica are the countries with the most balanced development in the social,economic and environmental dimensions,while Austria,Slovakia and Estonia are the countries with the most uneven development.Estonia,Slovakia,Austria,Greece,the Czech Republic and Germany are unsustainable in the environmental dimension,and the ecological impacts of these countries far exceed the maximum safety threshold.In contrast,countries such as Sierra Leone,Niger,Burundi,Mali and Guinea are lagging behind in the socio-economic dimension.This study provides a scientific reference for clarifying the status quo of the sustainable development level of the B&R countries,to grasp the laws of human sustainable development,and promoting economic growth,social inclusion and environmental protection in the region. |
