Fuzzy Comprehensive Evaluation of Decoupling Economic Growth from Environment Costs in China’s Resource-Based Cities

Table 2

Tapio’s evaluation of eco-efficiency.

Decoupling trend				Trends
Strong positive decoupling	<0	>0	<0	GDP grows while pollution decreases
Expansive weak decoupling	>0	>0	0–0.8	GDP grows while pollution increases slowly
Declining strong decoupling	<0	<0	>1.2	GDP declines slowly while pollution decreases quickly
Expansive coupling	>0	>0	0.8–1.2	GDP grows while pollution increases
Declining coupling	<0	<0	0.8–1.2	GDP declines while pollution decreases
Expansive negative decoupling	>0	>0	>1.2	GDP grows slowly while pollution increases dramatically
Declining negative decoupling	<0	<0	0–−0.8	GDP decreases quickly while pollution decreases slowly
Strong negative decoupling	>0	<0	<0	GDP declines while pollution increases