Title: The impact of regional socio-economic development on environmental quality

Authors: Xiaoshu Huo; Qi Wang; Zhiyong Wu

Addresses: School of Economics and Management, Hebei University of Science and Technology, Shijiazhuang, 050018, Hebei, China ' School of Economics and Management, Hebei University of Science and Technology, Shijiazhuang, 050018, Hebei, China ' School of Humanities and Law, Yanshan University, Qinhuangdao, 066000, Hebei, China

Abstract: To explore the impact of economic activities on environmental quality, the first step is to finely preprocess regional socio-economic development data. Subsequently, the analytic hierarchy process was used to construct an environmental quality assessment system and scientifically calculate the weights of each indicator. Based on the calculation results, focus on three key indicators: industrialisation process, urbanisation process, and energy consumption. Using random forest, vector autoregression model and double difference method to deeply analyse its impact. The research results show that the industrialisation process, urbanisation process, and energy consumption growth have significantly increased environmental pressure. However, through strategies such as industrial upgrading and energy structure optimisation, environmental pressure has been effectively alleviated.

Keywords: regional socio-economic; environmental quality; analytic hierarchy process; AHP; random forest algorithm; vector autoregressive model.

DOI: 10.1504/IJESD.2026.152031

International Journal of Environment and Sustainable Development, 2026 Vol.25 No.1/2, pp.69 - 81

Received: 29 Aug 2024
Accepted: 14 Jan 2025
Published online: 04 Mar 2026 *

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