Abstract:

 In this paper,environmental equality includes both, one is based on natural resource endowment and another is based on economic output.The environmental pressure indicator was constructed to express the former one while the environmental Ginicoefficient and green contribution coefficient were constructed to present the latter one.According to the data of the economic development level and pollution discharge of 2004,the environmental pressure indicators,the environmental Ginicoefficients and green contribution coefficients were calculated based on COD and SO2 discharge of each cities in the Yangtze River Delta.According to the hierarchical cluster analysis,the conclusions are:1) According to the environmental equality based on natural resource endowment,Shanghai faces the highest environmental pressure,and,the cities of Jiangsu Province face higher pressures than those of Zhejiang.2) According to the environmental equality based on economic output,the environmental Ginicoefficient and green contribution coefficient of COD and SO₂ discharge within the Yangtze River Delta is 0.17 and 0.13 respectively.Compared to that of the whole country,the Yangtze River Delta realizes the higher level equilibrium and 3) Within the Yangtze River Delta,the ecoefficiencies of Zhengjiang and Taizhou are relatively lower and need more improvement.Finally,authors suggest that environmental pressures should be reasonably distributed on the regional level and the ecoefficiencies should be raised through sustainable comparisons, therefore the environmental protection integration of the Yangtze River Delta could be achieved.

Key words: the Yangtze River Delta/environmental equality/environmental pressure/environmental ginicoefficient