Research on Connotation and Assessment of Small Towns' Sustainable Development: A Case Study on Hengdian Town

In this paper, small town is seen as a complex ecosystem comprised of society, economy, resources and environment, based on which the connotation and characteristics of small-town sustainable development are illustrated as well as a complex evaluation index system established. Furthermore, with a view of systematic evolution theory, the authors offer an evaluation method of small-town sustainable development, i.e. an evolution tendency orientated method. In this way, a model is designed and verified through the demonstration on Hengdian town, a town of national sustainable development experimental units. The result of the example shows the development of Hengdian town is sustainable which is consistent with reality of Hengdian town, thereby demonstrating the validity of the model.