Study on the Impact of Industrial Agglomeration on Ecological Sustainable Development in Southwest China

Southwest China is a fragile terrestrial ecosystem restricted by its geological background, which leads to a contradiction between its industrial economic development and the ecological environment. In this study, to explore the influence and mechanisms of the three industrial agglomeration modes, namely, specialization, related diversification, and unrelated diversification, on the eco-efficiency of the region, linear and nonlinear regression models were applied to the data of five Southwest provinces from 2006 to 2018. Specialization agglomeration had a significant negative impact on the eco-efficiency of four provinces outside Tibet in Southwest China. With the decrease of industrial specialization, their eco-efficiency improved. The effects of related diversification agglomeration on the ecological efficiency of four provinces outside Tibet in Southwest China showed a "U" curve. The degree of industrial diversification in these provinces exceeded the critical value of 1.46, and the effect on eco-efficiency was shown. The unrelated diversification agglomeration had a negative effect on the ecological efficiency of the four provinces outside Tibet in Southwest China. The degree of industrial-unrelated diversification in Guizhou Province increased slightly, which was not conducive to the improvement of local eco-efficiency. Additionally, it decreased significantly in other provinces, which caused the improvement of local eco-efficiency. The conclusion provides a theoretical basis for industrial green transformation path selection and related policy formulation in Southwest China.