Effects of China’s ecological restoration on economic development based on Night-Time Light and NDVI data

Correctly understanding and handling the relationship between economic development and environment protection is an eternal subject for human society. Based on the panel data of 31 provincial administrative units in China from 2000 to 2013, this study used Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and Night-Time Light data to characterize the effect of ecological restoration practices and economic development, respectively, and made an empirical study on the impact of ecological restoration on economic development by means of trend analysis, panel regression model, and subsample analysis. The results showed that the spatial distribution of Night-Time Light was high in the east and low in the west, and the NDVI in the northwest of the Hu Line was generally low, while the southeast was higher. During the 14 years from 2000 to 2013, the overall vegetation coverage showed an upward trend, and the area with stable night lights accounted for the largest proportion. The influence of NDVI on Night-Time Light presented an inverted U-shaped relationship, which meant that the negative influence of the former on the latter was not an inevitable result but its periodic performance. In the process of economic development, there was an optimal value of vegetation coverage. The increase in vegetation coverage had a negative impact on the economic development of the eastern region, but it was beneficial to the central and western regions. In the future, the government should strengthen protection and restoration of ecosystem, promote high-level protection of environment and high-quality development with efficient environmental and economic policies, and differentiate the relationship between development and ecology in the eastern, central, and western regions.