Synthetic Quantitative Evaluation of Sustainable Development of Resource-based Cities: a Case Study of Panjin City

Abstract

Mineral resources as exhaustible and scarcity items are one of the most important supports for countries and cities, especially resource-based cities that provide the majority of raw materials to improve the development of the regional economy. Accordingly, it is crucial for resource-based cities to practice sustainable utilization of mineral resources and sustainable development of the region by appropriate coordination between the economy and the environment. Therefore, a new concept for determining the capacity for sustainable development of resource-based cities (CSDRC) and a conceptual model are proposed from viewpoints of system science and sustainable development. This paper constructs a synthetic evaluation system of CSDRC to assess the sustainable development of resource-based cities from both static and dynamic analyses. Principle Components Analysis (PCA) is adopted to analyze the CSDRC of Panjin City and to statistically compare it with seven similar resource-based cities. After which, the forecast method of Back Propagation (BP) Neural Network is utilized to dynamically measure the developing trends of the CSDRC of Panjin City. The comprehensive evaluation of CSDRC is expected to improve the sustainability evaluation and form the basis of decision-making for sustainable development of resource-based cities in China.JEL Classification: Q01, C61, R11