Ecological civilization construction at county level: a case study in Hengyang County

This paper examined the progress of ecological civilization construction in Hengyang County, Hunan Province. Hengyang County had made significant achievements in Ecological civilization construction. Firstly, economic development speed of the county was one the fastest in Hunan province. Secondly, of the growth speed of ecological industry had been accelerating. Ecological industry was more important in county economy than before. Thirdly, fixed assets investment amounted to 11.145 billion in 2012. Fourthly, there had significant improvement in energy-saving, pollutant emission reduction and ecological environment. Finally, full coverage of urban and rural social security was achieved. However, the policy implementation system need to be improved. Furthermore, it is necessary to construct an evaluation system to assess ecological civilization construction. In addition, the quality of the economic growth was still low and inefficient. Urban infrastructure construction was under developed. Many government officials did not realize the importance of ecological civilization construction. Therefore, measures of ecological civilization construction in Hengyang County are: 1) to improve the policy system and establish ecological development strategy; 2) to set up an index system of construction to make ecological construction tasks concrete; 3) to develop green industry and low-carbon economy; 4) to promote the concept of ecological civilization and construct ecological culture system; and 5) to improve the urban infrastructure and build ecological townships.