NRUBs are formed by the interaction between humans and natural resources. As the subjects of natural resource utility, humans have different needs in basic life, economic development, spiritual culture, and environmental protection. As the objects, natural resources have natural, economic, social, and ecological attributes, and rational exploitation and utilization can satisfy the diverse needs of human beings. As a result, humans purposefully invest capital, technology, and labor to use resources to obtain products and services. Therefore, NRUBs can be defined as the general terms of various useful achievements to nature or human development produced in the process of natural resource utilization in a certain region.

NRUBs have significant temporal variation characteristics, which are manifested in two aspects. The process of natural resources from exploitation and utilization to providing products and services to humans will go through a period of time, and the form and size of its benefits will change constantly. Moreover, there are differences in human needs at different stages of social development, leading to changes in the goals of resource exploitation, and changes in NRUBs. Hence, the dynamic monitoring and evaluation of NRUBs is to some extent a reflection of the changes in the social and economic development of the region.

The economic, social, and ecological benefits are three subsystems of the NRUB system (de Groot et al., 2002; Duguma and Hager, 2011), and they have mutual influences (Liang et al., 2008), as shown in Figure 1. Humans exploit and use natural resources based on their own needs to acquire economic benefits and put the economic benefits into public services and infrastructure construction to obtain social benefits (Tian et al., 2019). In this process, if the resource utilization mode is reasonable and within the carrying capacity of resources and the environment, significant economic and social benefits can be achieved continuously. If undesirable outputs such as environmental pollution and ecological damage are caused by the restriction of capital or technology, the ecological benefits will be affected. Improvement of social benefits promotes the agglomeration of production factors to improve the environmental quality and production conditions (Hu et al., 2020). The increase in ecological benefits has a positive effect on the social benefits by improving living conditions and also creates favorable resource and environmental conditions for economic development.

Based on the dynamic characteristics of NRUBs and the interrelationship between economic, social, and ecological benefits, this study examines the coordination relationships in the NRUB system in Beijing from 1978 to 2018 and analyzes the influencing factors. First, we establish an evaluation index system, including economic, social, and ecological benefits. Second, we analyze the evolution characteristics of the NRUBs. Third, we use a CCD model to examine the changing features of the coordinated development within the NRUB system. Finally, we identify the main influencing factors of the coordination relationships in the NRUB system and put forward policy implications for sustainable utilization of natural resources. The research framework is shown in Figure 2.

This study is conducted in Beijing, which is a megacity and the capital of China (Figure 3). Beijing lies in the central hinterland of North China and extends from 115.7°E to 117.4°E and 39.4°N to 41.6°N. The total area is 16,410.54 km², with mountainous areas and plains accounting for 62 and 38%, respectively. As the political and cultural center of China and the economic center of Northern China, Beijing has experienced rapid urbanization and industrialization since the reform and opening-up (Sun et al., 2014; Hao et al., 2020). According to the statistical yearbook of Beijing, the gross domestic product (GDP) increased from 10.9 billion CNY in 1978 to 3,310.6 billion CNY in 2018, and the population increased from 8.7 million in 1978 to 21.5 million in 2018. In 2018, it achieved about 3.60% of China’s GDP and supported 1.54% of the country’s population, with only 0.17% of land resources and 0.13% of water resources. Economic development and population growth have put significant pressure on resources and the environment. In turn, resource shortage, inefficient resource utilization, and environmental pollution will restrict the sustainable development of economy and society. Consequently, it is vital to increase NRUBs and seek ways to promote the coordinated development of economic, social, and ecological benefits in Beijing.

This study takes Beijing as the evaluation unit and studies the evolution characteristics of NRUBs and their coupling coordination relationships from 1978 to 2018 yearly. The data are mostly obtained from the Beijing Statistical Yearbook (1980–2020) and China Population and Employment Statistics Yearbook (1988–2019). We refer to the latest version of economic data, which has been revised officially so that the data from different years are comparable. In addition, some indicators were not counted in 1978; for instance, energy consumption per 10,000 CNY of GDP and forest virescence ratio were first counted in 1980, and indicators related to water resources started in 1988. Therefore, trend line fitting is used to supplement the lacking data. The coefficients of determination (R²) are all greater than 0.9, indicating that the fitting is accurate. The data on natural reserves are from the official website of the Beijing Municipal Ecology and Environment Bureau (https://sthjj.beijing.gov.cn/).

The index system contains both positive and negative indicators. To eliminate the influence of magnitude and measurement, the maximum difference normalization method is adopted, whose formula is as follows: Positive indicators:  x i j ′ = x i j − x min j x max j − x min j , Negative indicators:  x i j ′ = x max j − x i j x max j − x min j , where x i j refers to the original value of indicator j in year i; x i j ′ is the normalized value; and x min j and x max j represent the minimum and maximum values of indicator j, respectively.

Based on the evaluation index system, the values of economic, social, ecological, and comprehensive benefits of natural resource utilization and their evolution trends are shown in Figure 4. From 1978 to 2018, all the benefits significantly improved, with some fluctuations. The economic benefit shows a trend of steady growth, although it is the lowest for most of the study period. From 1978 to 2000, the economic value is low and grew slowly, with its value rising from 0.001 in 1978 to 0.193 in 2000. Since the 21st century, it increased rapidly and surpassed social and ecological benefits in 2016. The changing trend of the social benefit increases slightly at the beginning of the study period. During the 1991–2006 period, the social benefit increases with fluctuations, which decreases in 1992, 1998, and 2003 and increases in 2006 noticeably. Since 2006, it displays a steady upward trend and tended to be stable, maintaining at about 0.86 after 2013. The overall trend of the ecological benefit can be described as fluctuating growth. In the first 30 years of the study period, the value of the ecological benefit was almost the highest. Except for notable increases in 1985, 1995, 1999, 2000, and the last 6 years, the changes in the ecological benefit in other years are relatively insignificant. The comprehensive benefit, comprising the economic, social, and ecological benefits, showed an evolution trend of rising from 1978 to 2018, and the growth rate gradually accelerates. There are also several slight fluctuations in the curve, due to the changes in the social and ecological benefits; however, the upward trend is steady on the whole.

The coupling coordination relationships among the economic, social, and ecological benefits of natural resource utilization are analyzed according to the CCD model. The evolution characteristics of the coupling coordination degrees and the coordination types are shown in Figures 5, 6, respectively. It can be noted that the coupling coordination degrees of the ecological–social, economic–ecological, social–ecological, and economic–social–ecological benefits all have upward trends during the study period, although with some fluctuations.

Specifically, the coupling coordination relationship of the economic–social benefits displays an upward trend overall, while the degree is relatively low at the beginning of the study period. From 1978 to 1993, the coordination relationship stays at the stage of imbalance, and the degree reaches 0.6 in 1994. After reaching the basic coordination, the coordination relationship of economic–social benefits improves steadily and achieves good coordination in 2010. The overall evolution trend of the coupling coordination relationship between the economic and ecological benefits can be described as steady growth. During the first half of the study period, the coupling coordination degree rises slowly in the fluctuations, with the coordination type changing from moderate imbalance to basic coordination, except for a slight degradation in 1989. Afterward, the coordination degree rises continuously and reaches the stage of moderate-good coordination. For the social–ecological benefits, the coupling coordination relationship reaches the stage of basic coordination at the beginning of the study period, but it improves slowly over a long time. The degree rises from 0.429 in 1978 to 0.536 in 1998 with fluctuations. In the second half of the study period, the evolution curve shows a steady upward trend, with the coordination type reaching the best level in 2007. The changing trend of the coupling coordination relationship among economic–social–ecological benefits combines the evolution characteristics of the relationships of the pair-wise benefits. At the beginning stage, the coordination degree is relatively low, and the coordination type remains at a serious–moderate imbalance for 10 years. During the 1992–2003 period, the degree rises with slight fluctuations. After 2003, the coordination degree is significantly enhanced, and the coordination type reaches a state of good coordination in 2009.

From Table 4, we can note that the relational coefficients of the five influencing factors are all more than 0.8, indicating that they have significant impacts on the coordinated development of NRUBs. Among them, the coefficients of F ₃ , F ₂ , and F ₅ exceed 0.9, and the values are 0.996, 0.982, and 0.977, respectively. The coefficients of F ₁ and F ₄ are 0.854 and 0.845, respectively, which are slightly less correlated than F ₃ , F ₂ , and F ₅ .

As can be seen from Figure 2, the economic benefit of natural resource utilization is the lowest for most of the study period, indicating that economic factors are the key to the overall improvement of the benefit. The evolution trend of the economic benefit displays an “exponential” curve, with the value rising slowly at the beginning of the study period and then rapidly. This is because China’s economy was in its infancy at the early stage of the reform and opening-up, and the resource utilization efficiency was low. For example, GDP per unit area (I ₁ ) in 1978, 1998, and 2018 was 64.73, 1,451.17, and 20,173.62 10⁴ CNY/km², respectively. The average annual increase in the first and second 20 years was 69.32 and 936.12 10⁴ CNY/km², respectively, showing that the growing speed of the economy has accelerated. In addition, with the innovation of technology, the amount of resources consumed in production has also been reduced; thus, the degree of intensive resource utilization is significantly improved (Miao et al., 2017; Ding et al., 2019).

In terms of social benefit, the evolution curve displays an upward trend with fluctuations and tends to be stable after 2013. Economic development is regarded as the core of China’s reform and development, which has been of significant importance for a long time, with the needs and interests of people being ignored. Therefore, the social benefit of natural resource utilization grows slowly for the first 20 years. It even bottoms out in 1992. Since the 21st century, with the proposal of the Scientific Outlook on Development, increasing attention has been paid to people’s needs (Li, 2007). A large number of houses and roads have been constructed to meet the needs of the growing population, leading to the rapid rise of social benefits. Entering the new era of socialism after 2012, the demand for a better life has gradually replaced the demand for materials (Li, 2018). Therefore, the social benefit has changed little in recent years, and further improvement can only be achieved by meeting people’s spiritual needs.

For the changing curve of ecological benefit, the fluctuating duration is long and the degree is relatively great. At the beginning of the study period, the value of the ecological benefit is higher than that of economic and social benefits, mainly due to the backward development level, with a low degree of resource exploitation and environmental damage. As the economy and society develop, the exploitation and utilization of natural resources have expanded, whereas the ecological benefit has not achieved enough attention. Therefore, the ecological benefit fluctuates heavily, with its value in 1998 only rising by 0.055 compared with 1978. There is an evident increase in the ecological benefit from 1998 to 2000, mainly due to the fact that 12 natural reserves were set up in the 2 years, leading to the rise in the proportion of natural reserve areas (I ₁₃ ). Since the beginning of the construction of ecological civilization strategy in 2012, the local government has paid more attention to environmental protection; hence, the ecological benefit starts to increase again after 4 years of leveling off.

The coupling coordination relationships among economic, social, and ecological benefits of natural resource utilization can be divided into three stages: slow increase (1978–1991), fluctuating growth (1992–2003), and steady improvement (2004–2018).

1) 1978–1991: Initially, the coupling coordination relationship of economic–social–ecological benefits is low, but it improves in the following years, especially in 1979. In this stage, the changing characteristics of the coordination relationship among the three benefits are similar to those of economic–social benefits, while the variations of the coupling coordination relationships of economic–ecological and social–ecological benefits are slight. This is due to the fact that the ecological benefit is maintained at a high level, and the development level of the economy and society is low. With the slow growth of economic and social benefits, the coupling coordination degree has gradually increased.

Through the deep analysis of the changes in NRUBs and the coordination relationships, it can be noted that NRUBs are closely related to national policy and region development strategy. Therefore, it is necessary to objectively identify the problems existing in the current benefits and adjust the resource utilization policies to realize the sustainable utilization of natural resources.

Urbanization, industrial structure, technology innovation, economic development, and environmental awareness have noticeable influences on the coupling coordination relationships of NRUBs, as shown in Table 3. Urbanization refers to the process of transformation from rural population to urban population, and from agricultural production to non-agricultural production. This transformation aggregates the production factors but also increases the pressure on resources and the environment. The adjustment of industrial structure and economic development increase the demand for natural resources and provide financial guarantee for the exploitation and utilization of resources. Technology innovation is another notable factor. With the improvement of technology, the efficiency of resource utilization will be constantly increased, thus saving natural resources and reducing pollution. Finally, public awareness of environmental protection is also an important factor that affects the coupling coordination development of NRUBs. Only when the public is aware of the importance and scarcity of natural resources can the utilization benefits of natural resources be improved and coordinated development be promoted fundamentally.

The policy suggestions for the coordinated development of NRUBs are listed as follows. First, Beijing’s economy has reached a relatively high stage, which needs to be transformed from high-speed development to high-quality development, with less resource consumption and carbon emission. Second, with the continuous growth of the urban population, on one hand, we should perfect public facilities to ensure the resource supply for every resident and strengthen spiritual culture construction; on the other hand, new-type urbanization needs to be promoted to realize urban–rural integration and common prosperity. Third, it is suggested to further consolidate the achievements of Beijing’s environmental governance and the redistribution of non-capital functions, and give full play to the role of ecological protection areas as ecological barriers. The government should also strengthen the publicity and education on environmental protection and the construction of the ecological civilization. Last, it is necessary to increase investment in scientific research and cultivate more talented people to improve production technology and increase the efficiency of resource utilization.

First, in this study, various natural resources such as land, water, forest, grassland, and wetland are considered as a whole, and a comprehensive evaluation index system covering economic, social, and ecological benefits is established to quantify NRUBs. Different kinds of natural resources have interactions with each other; therefore, this study will provide a theoretical reference for the comprehensive assessment of natural resources and the unified utilization and management of natural resources. Second, the time series are longer than most studies and the interval is 1 year, which can better reflect the changing characteristics of the coupling coordination relationships over a long time. Last, both the coupling coordination degrees of economic–social–ecological benefits and the pair-wise benefits are calculated, which helps better understand the leading reasons affecting the overall coupling coordination relationships in each stage.

Nevertheless, there is still room for further progress of this research. Due to the limitation of data, some important indicators such as forest coverage rate and soil and water conservation rate are difficult to acquire, and the accuracy of indicator values needs to be further improved. In the future, with diversified evaluation dimensions, multi-source data integration and intelligent mode, the evaluation methods of NRUBs will be more scientific. Moreover, the influencing factors can be identified dynamically by stages, so that we can better distinguish the influencing mechanism and the variation trends. The spatial differentiation of coupling coordination relationships will also be studied in future research to understand the differences within the region and make more targeted policies.