With the rapid economic and social development and accelerated urbanization, the negative ecological impact of major river basins worldwide has been deepening, which is gradually threatening the sustainable development of cities. This study establishes the model of the coupling coordination relationship between social economy and resources environment of nine central cities in the Yellow River Basin. Based on the evaluation index system of social economy and resource environment, we quantitatively measure the coupling coordination degree and spatiotemporal pattern of the nine central cities from 2010 to 2017. The obstacle factors of coupling coordination were then diagnosed based on the obstacle degree model. The results showed that (1) the social economy and resources environment development indices of the nine central cities in the Yellow River Basin, as well as the coupling coordination of each central city, showed an overall upward trend from 2010 to 2017. (2) Most of the central cities in the Yellow River Basin were in the coordinated coupling stage, among which Xining and Lanzhou have the highest coupling degree. (3) The obstacle factors affecting the harmonious development coupling coordination of the nine central cities were natural growth rate of population, proportion of tertiary industry in GDP and per capita investment in fixed assets in social economy system, and per capita green area of parks, per capita total amount of water resources, and per capita industrial SO2 emissions in resources environment system. It is necessary to adopt different strategies for different cities to promote the coupling coordination development of urban social economy and resources environment in the Yellow River Basin.
Sustainable urban evaluation is an important management tool to grasp the status of urban development in real time and to make policy adjustments. In this study, the evaluation indicator system is constructed from the three dimensions of economy, society, and environment. The ELECTRE (elimination et choice translation reality) model based on information entropy weighting is employed to evaluate urban sustainability. The model applies three-dimensional data to explore the dynamics of sustainable urban development. The spatial measurement model is used to explore the spatial effects of cities. Finally, 17 cities in Henan Province from 2013 to 2017 are used as case studies for urban sustainable development evaluation. The results show that, in 2013–2017, the sustainability of cities such as Zhengzhou, Luoyang, and Sanmenxia was stable at a high level, while the sustainability levels of Kaifeng, Luohe, and Xinyang showed a fluctuating downward trend, and the sustainability levels of Puyang, Nanyang, and Xinxiang showed a fluctuating upward trend. Among the 17 cities, Zhengzhou has the highest sustainability level and its economic and social sustainability levels are significantly better than other cities. Zhoukou is the city with the lowest level of sustainability. In addition, from 2013 to 2016, the level of urban sustainability was not spatially correlated but gradually presented positive spatial correlation and the characteristics of clustering distribution in 2017. The cities such as Zhengzhou, Luoyang, and Jiaozuo are mainly represented by “high-high (H-H)” agglomeration. In contrast, Shangqiu, Zhoukou, and Zhumadian are mainly represented by “low-low (L-L)” agglomeration. This research provides suggestions and decision-making support for promoting urban sustainability.
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