The mechanism and path selection of the development of rural circular industry ‘production-living-ecological integration’ in southern Shaanxi

In the context of promoting the concept of green development deep into the countryside, to achieve economic and social green transformation and ecological civilization construction. The development of circular industry has become the optimal path for underdeveloped regions to break through the double constraints of economic lag and ecological fragility, and realize the sustainable development of rural areas. This study aims to explore the driving and check-and-balance relationship among the four elements of “people-land-industry-waste” in the process of rural industrial evolution from 2016 to 2020. Three cities were also taken from the Qinba mountainous region of southern Shaanxi Province, China. The specific mechanism was proposed to realize the high-quality development of rural circular industry under the guidance of "integration of production, living, and ecology". Then the evaluation index system was constructed for the high-quality development of the rural circular industry with the framework of the four elements of "people-land-industry-waste". The development level of the rural circular industry was also measured using the entropy, kernel density, Dagum's Gini coefficient, and barrier coefficient. The obstacle factors were identified in 28 counties (districts). The results show that: 1) The development level of the rural circular industry in the study area showed an annual increasing trend, with Ankang City, Hanzhong City, and Shangluo City ranking from largest to smallest. A significant difference was observed in the dimension of production development and waste treatment dimension. While there was the reverse development state of this two dimensions; 2) The gap between districts and counties was ever shrinking to significantly weaken the polarization. The inter-group difference was attributed to the gap among the three cities. The degree of differentiation among Ankang, Hanzhong, and Shangluo was ever ever-increasing, but there was the narrowing degree of differentiation between Shangluo and Hanzhong; 3) The main obstacles were responsible for the development level of rural circular industry in the whole dimension of production development, the effective utilization coefficient of chemical fertilizer, effective utilization coefficient of machinery, multiple cropping index in waste treatment, the total per capita agricultural GDP and rural employees in people's welfare. Mechanical science and technology, industrial structure, production efficiency, and personnel input were the main factors to hinder the development of the rural circular industry; 4) Some recommendations were proposed for this region in the future. The layout of the circular industry should be adjusted to balance the cycle with the rural settlement environment as a whole. The efficiency of material and energy circulation was enhanced within the entire rural system. The working mechanisms were established, such as the regular scheduling, observation exchanges, and joint supervision. At the same time, the cooperative relationship with universities, research institutes, and enterprises can be expected to strengthen for the current rural circular industry, in terms of the practitioners, facilities, technology, and industrial structure.