Sustainable development of cross-border regions: A methodological study

The exploitation and protection of natural and environmental resources have posed a growing challenge to cross-border regions. In this paper, a methodological study in relation to the sustainable development of cross-border regions is conducted. Our particular interest focuses on the locational characteristics of cross-border regions as well as their economic implications to the cross-border governments. Based on a sustainable development model from which the optimal outputs of different kinds of border-regions can be derived, we try to methodologically help cross-border governments to reach a final agreement of sustainable development of natural and environmental resources.It is concluded that the methods by which the net benefits among the sub-regions can be redistributed may be: 1) to equalize the absolute values of net benefit among all sub-regions concerned; and 2) to equalize the relative values of net benefit among all sub-regions concerned.