Time Series Analysis of Economic Growth, Environmental Conditions and Their Coordination Degree: A Case Study of Provinces in Northeast China

Northeast China is an old industrial base and agricultural production base with a long history of industrial and agricultural development. Since the beginning of the 21st century, the contradiction between economic and social development and resource depletion and environmental damage has become increasingly acute due to the long-term extensive development model. Based on a long time-series data set, this paper aims to explore the regional economic development model, environmental problems, and coordination degree between them in Northeast China. The results show that the population in Northeast China presents an increasing trend at first and then a decreasing one, and the population distribution shows an agglomeration in the cities of Harbin, Changchun, Shenyang, and Dalian. Urban-related land uses and GDP growth also exhibits agglomerations centered on these large cities. According to the changing trend of regional GDP and environmental investment, the synergistic relationship between the parameters is compared on a temporal scale, and a positive correlation between economic growth and environmental development is observed. We conclude that economic growth is closely correlated with environmental protection. If more attention is likely to be paid to environmental protection, the cities will develop more healthily under the background of urbanization. Based on the current status of the economy and environment, this paper puts forward constructive suggestions on promoting the coordinated development of regional economy and improving the ability of ecological environment governance. Improving the ecological environment’s overall improvement capability through approaches such as adjusting the industrial structure, promoting the use of clean energy, strengthening industrial pollution control, controlling pollutant emissions, and promoting the construction of regional environmental infrastructure are all critical issues that must be resolved quickly to achieve coordinated development.