A scientific framework for integrating urban ecological protection and social sustainability among multiple stakeholders

Rapid urban expansion has contributed to the depletion of urban ecological resources, resulting in challenges to achieving sustainable urban development. This encompasses disputes between stakeholders of ecological resources and conflicts between quality and quantity. This study aims to address the conflicting issues surrounding ecological resources by developing a comprehensive framework and evaluation methodology. The proposed system integrates a 20-item urban ecological indicator system, incorporating perspectives from scientists, governments, and urban residents, formed integration perspectives urban ecological indicator (IPUEI). The framework was applied to an urban ecological assessment of subdistrict units in the main urban area. The study comprehensively applied the improved coupling coordination degree model, the location quotient to analyze the coordination relationship among ecological, production, and living spaces, as well as among indicator types of quantity, quality and accessibility. We also quantified the differences in the distribution of ecological resources across diverse age population groups. The results show that: (1) The value of IPUEI was high in the urban core area, and the proportion of subdistricts where resource efficiency becomes the dominant indicator reaches 57%. (2) Over 60% of the subdistricts demonstrated good coordination in the degree of coupling coordination for ecological resource distribution. (3) The spatial distribution of IPUEI scores and location quotient was inversely related, and the most significant disparity was observed among the elderly population residing in the urban core area. (4) We need to alleviate approximately 37% of the population in the central city to achieve a balance between supply and demand. The study reveals an imbalance in the distribution of urban ecological resources using fine-grained data, and it discusses the regulation of distribution of population and ecological resources to achieve ecological and social synergy and sustainable development.