The Measurement of the Urban–Rural Integration Level of Resource-Exhausted Cities—A Case Study of Zaozhuang City, China

Abstract

Urban–rural integration is an inevitable course for the transformation and development of resource-exhausted cities, and it is also an internal requirement to achieve sustainable development goals. Taking Zaozhuang city as a case study, this paper constructed an “Economic–Spatial–Social” (ESS) evaluation index system of urban–rural integration according to the connotations. We used the TOPSIS and obstacle degree (OD) models to measure the urban–rural integration level, from 2009 to 2019, and diagnosed the obstacles. The results show that: (1) The overall level of urban–rural integration in Zaozhuang improves year by year and presents two stages: in the initial stage of integration from 2009 to 2012, the total integration degree slowly increases, but the internal indicators fluctuated. The period ranging from the years 2012 to 2019 was stable for integrated development, with the overall urban–rural integration level significantly increasing and the internal indicators steadily improving year by year. (2) The urban–rural economic integration degree of Zaozhuang has a good foundation, and the degree of economic integration presents the characteristics of decreasing at first and then increasing, attaining the lowest value in 2012 and then slowly increasing; the foundation of urban–rural social integration is weak, but the social integration degree growth rate is the highest. The degree of urban–rural spatial integration has rapidly increased year by year, and urban and rural area exchanges and interactions have been strengthened. (3) According to the diagnosis results of the obstacle degrees, the main obstacles that affect urban–rural integration in Zaozhuang are concentrated at the economic level. Finally, the suggestions are put forward to coordinate urban–rural integration and sustainable development for resource-exhausted cities.