Sustainable Development Of Resource-based Cities Research Articles

The impact of sustainable development policy for resource-based cities on green technology innovation: Firm-level evidence from China

The sustainable development policy targeting resource-based cities (RBC) is a critical measure initiated by China's government to transform these cities. Green technology innovation (GTI) has surfaced as a pivotal route in achieving sustainable development in RBCs. However, whether implementing this policy can induce GTI remains underexplored. To fill this gap, exploiting the National Plan for Sustainable Development of Resource-based Cities (2013–2020) (NPSDRC) as a quasi-natural experiment, we employ the difference-in-differences (DID) method to examine the influence of NPSDRC on corporate GTI and potential mechanisms. We observe that NPSDRC significantly reduces the GTI of RBC enterprises. Mechanism analysis reveals that NPSDRC escalates environmental governance costs and decreases R&D investment, impeding corporate GTI. Meanwhile, our findings suggest that providing more bank loans and tax incentives could weaken this adverse effect on corporate GTI. Heterogeneity results indicate that non-SOEs, enterprises with weak financing capabilities, enterprises with long-sighted vision, and high energy consumption enterprises are more susceptible to the influence of NPSDRC. This study offers empirical evidence for countries seeking to employ policies to drive the transformation of RBCs.

Ecological Safety Assessment and Convergence of Resource-Based Cities in the Yellow River Basin

Promoting the sustainable development of resource-based cities is of great significance for the ecological protection and high-quality development of the Yellow River Basin. In order to solve the dilemma of the sustainable development of resource-based cities in the Yellow River Basin, this paper constructs an ecological security evaluation system. It calculates the ecological security level of 30 resource-based cities in the Yellow River Basin from 2006 to 2020 using the TOPSIS model and carries out a classification convergence analysis. The DID empirical test of ecological security factors by sustainable development planning policies is used to distinguish the development characteristics of different resource-based cities. The results show that (1) the ecological security level of resource cities in the Yellow River Basin is generally well developed, and there are differences between different types of resource cities; (2) the resource cities in the Yellow River Basin mainly rely on industrial transformation to improve the ecological security level; and (3) the local governments pay limited attention to environmental protection.

The impact of sustainable development planning on urban ecological resilience in resource-based cities: evidence from China.

Enhancing resource cities' resilience and advancing their sustainable development are imperatives, particularly in light of the "dual-carbon" agenda. Double-difference and spatial double-difference models are developed based on the panel data of 281 Chinese cities from 2005 to 2020 to investigate the effects of implementing the National Plan for the Sustainable Development of Resource-Based Cities on the level of ecological resilience in Chinese cities. This paper found that the National Sustainable Development Plan for Resource-Based Cities significantly improves the ecological resilience level of Chinese cities, and the findings are robust. The impacts of implementing the Plan on the ecological resilience of cities of different growth types, regions, and resource types are heterogeneous. Further study finds a spatial spillover effect of implementing the Plan on the ecological resilience of cities, which can improve the ecological resilience level of neighboring cities through spillover effects while improving the ecological resilience level of cities in the region. Based on these new findings, this study provides some policy implications for better advancing sustainable urban development.

Coordinated effect of green expansion and carbon reduction: Evidence from sustainable development of resource-based cities in China

Resource-based cities generally face the dual pressures of ecological damage and high carbon emissions. Taking the National Sustainable Development Plan for Resource-Based Cities (NSDP) issued in China as a quasi-natural experiment, this paper for the first time, uses the difference-in-difference method to test the coordinated effect of green expansion and carbon reduction brought by NSDP at the county level using rich remote sensing data. The results show that NSDP has significantly promoted the ecological quality improvement and CO2 emission mitigation in resource-based cities, and the above coordinated benefits mainly occur in energy, mature, declining, northeastern, and municipal resource-based cities. Through the mechanism analysis, we find that NSDP mainly works by promoting the transformation of industry sector to agriculture, animal husbandry, accommodation and catering, finance, and environment management sectors, which are reflected in output, employment, product yield, land type and land transaction area. Further discussion on the tertiary industry suggests that developing tourism, easing financing constraint and strengthening environment regulation, are the key channels to borne fruit in green expansion and carbon reduction.

Role of Fintech adoption in the impact of sustainable policy intervention on enterprise transformation in resource-based cities: Evidence from China

The National Plan for Sustainable Development of Resource-based Cities (2013–2020) (NPSDRC) is a pivotal initiative of the Chinese government to promote the transformation of resource-based cities. Meanwhile, rapid Fintech development provides a vital opportunity for the transformation of such cities. Exploiting the implementation of NPSDRC as an exogenous shock and employing the difference-in-differences approach to investigate how NPSDRC affects the transformation of enterprises in resource-based cities and the role of Fintech adoption in this transformation. The result indicates that NPSDRC hinders enterprises' total factor productivity (TFP) in resource-based cities. The mechanism analysis reveals that NPSDRC hampers enterprise transformation via incentivizing firms to apply end-of-pipe treatments. Specifically, in the short term, this policy has prompted firms in resource-based cities to employ measures aimed at reducing the amount of pollutants during the post-production and pre-emission stages, which leads to an increase in firm costs, and thus reduces their TFP. Moreover, we observe that Fintech development weakens the negative impact of NPSDRC on firms' TFP. The heterogeneity results imply that this negative impact is more prevalent for state-owned enterprises and heavily polluting enterprises. This policy notably hinders the transformation of enterprises in regions with rigorous environmental law enforcement. We provide empirical evidence for formulating sustainable development policies for resource-based cities in other countries.

The impact of sustainable development planning in resource-based cities on corporate ESG–Evidence from China

This study explores the impact of sustainable development in resource-based cities on corporate environmental, social, and governance (ESG). The study analyzes data from Chinese A-share listed companies between 2010 and 2021, with the National Plan for Sustainable Development of Resource-based Cities, 2013–2020 (NPSDRBC) as a quasi-natural experiment. The results indicate that the implementation of NPSDRBC encourages companies to fulfill their ESG responsibilities, especially when they possess abundant redundant resources and are able to make more efficient resource allocation. The robustness of the results is validated through a series of rigorous tests. Furthermore, the positive impact of NPSDRBC on corporate ESG is significantly stronger in non-state-owned enterprises (non-SOEs), in central region and in heavy polluting industries. In short, this study comprehensively describes the effects of NPSDRBC, identifies key factors that facilitate ESG, and provides a novel perspective for achieving sustainable development for resource-based cities in China.

Features and spatial effects of urban development and decline in resource-oriented cities: The case of Jilin, China.

Transforming resource-based cities into sustainable economic development is a great challenge for policy-makers in many countries. However, the economic-centered evaluation system tends to breed the undesirable view of "GDP only" or "brown growth" in the previous case studies which is inconsistent with the long-run and sustainable development of resource-based cities. To fill in this research gap, this paper takes Jilin province in northeast China as a case study to explore urban development problems faced by major resource-based cities during resource depletion. This research constructs a stratified indicator system and conducts an in-depth analysis of the features and spatial effects of urban decline. For this analysis, this paper jointly uses the methods of entropy-weighted TOPSIS, analytic hierarchical process (AHP), and spatial effect model based on a database from 2000 to 2019. The findings of this study show that the current transformation of resource-based cities in Jilin province is generally ineffective and difficult to maintain long-run and sustainable development due to its historical reasons and industrial development background. According to the results, the resource-based cities in Jilin province show an unstable development because of factors such as barriers to the physical renewal of resources, rigid industrial structure, insufficient backup resources, and institutional and policy constraints. Also, the transformation of these cities into sustainable economic development is still facing demographic, social, and ecological difficulties.

Does Sustainable Development in Resource-Based Cities Effectively Reduce Carbon Emissions? An Empirical Study Based on Annual Panel Data from 59 Prefecture-Level Cities in China

This study presents an analysis of the impact of the National Plan for the Sustainable Development of Resource-based Cities (2013–2020) on urban carbon emissions and explores the underlying mechanisms of this policy’s effect. Panel data from 59 prefecture-level cities in the Shandong, Henan, Hunan, and Hubei provinces in China for the period between 2007 and 2019 were used to perform a DID (difference-in-differences) method analysis and conduct various robustness tests, including counterfactual testing, a PSM-DID (propensity score matching-difference-in-differences) method analysis, and a placebo test. The findings demonstrate that The Plan effectively reduces urban carbon emissions, with its effects varying across provinces and classes of resource-based cities. Specifically, Henan Province shows the most significant effect in reducing carbon emissions compared to the other three provinces. The Plan is more successful in regenerative and recessionary resource-based cities than in mature ones. Furthermore, it reduces carbon emissions by decreasing cities’ dependence on resources, improving citizens’ quality of life, and limiting the pace of industrial development. This article provides important policy implications for promoting the sustainable development of China’s resource-based cities and achieving carbon emission reduction goals amidst the carbon peak and carbon neutrality contexts.

Research on sustainable development evaluation and improvement path of resource-based cities based on coupling of emergy and system dynamics.

The evaluation of the sustainable development of resource-based cities is still one of the hotspots in today's social research. Taking Jining, Shandong Province, as the research object, this work combines a relevant emergy evaluation index system with system dynamics, establishes a resource-based city emergy flow system dynamics model, and studies sustainable development path in the next planning year. In the work, the key factors affecting the sustainable development of Jining are obtained through the coupling of regression and SD sensitivity analysis, and some scenarios are set up by combining them with the local 14th Five-year plan. Besides, the appropriate scenario (M-L-H-H) for Jining's future sustainable development is chosen in accordance with regional circumstances. That is, during the 14th Five-year Plan period, the appropriate development ranges for the growth rate of social fixed assets investment, the growth rate of raw coal emergy, the growth rate of grain emergy and the reduction rate of solid waste emergy are 17.5-18.3%, - 4.0 to - 3.2%, 1.8-2.6% and 4-4.8%. The methodology system constructed in this article can serve as a reference for similar studies, and the research findings can aid the government in formulating pertinent plans for resource-based cities.

Industrial upgrading and its influence on green land use efficiency

The rational use of land is an important guarantee for the sustainable development of resource-based cities. First, this paper uses the panel data of 115 resource-based cities in China from 2004 to 2018 to measure green land use efficiency (GLUE) by SBM model and Metafrontier-Malmquist productivity index model. Secondly, it analyzes the industrial upgrading from the perspectives of the optimization of industrial structure and the rationalization of industrial structure to explore the impact mechanism of industrial upgrading on GLUE. Furtherly, the heterogeneity analysis is carried out from the following two perspectives: exploring the impact of industrial upgrading on GLUE under different types of urban samples; using the quantile model to analyze the impact of industrial upgrading under different GLUE quantiles. The main conclusions of this study are as follows: (1) both the optimization of industrial structure and the rationalization of industrial structure promote the improvement of GLUE. The robustness test and instrumental variable method support this conclusion. (2) For different types of resource-based cities, the rationalization and optimization of industrial structure have positive coefficients in regeneration cities, growing cities, and declining cities, but have a negative effect on mature cities. (3) In all quantiles, the effects of industrial structure optimization and industrial structure rationalization are positive. However, with the increase of quantiles, the role of industrial structure optimization gradually decreases. The role of industrial structure rationalization gradually increases. Meanwhile, there is an obvious threshold effect when taking resource endowment as the threshold variable. This paper provides a theoretical reference for the transformation and development of resource-based cities.

Analysis of Spatial-Temporal Differentiation and Influencing Factors of Ecosystem Services in Resource-Based Cities in Semiarid Regions

The spatial-temporal differentiation characteristics and driving mechanisms of ecosystem services are of great significance for optimizing the pattern of land spatial protection and realizing regional sustainable development. Existing studies seldom consider the segmental influence mechanism of various influencing factors on different levels of ecosystem service value (ESV). Therefore, this paper analyzes the temporal and spatial differentiation evolution characteristics of ESV in semiarid regions through an improved ESV evaluation model. The spatial panel quantile regression (SPQR) model was introduced to explore the relationship between various types of influencing factors and ESV in different intervals. The results showed the following: (1) The changes in ESV in Baotou City from 2000 to 2018 tended to be stable, but the spatial differentiation of ESV intensified. The aggregation feature of the low-ESV region is significant and gradually expanding. (2) Precipitation was the dominant factor increasing the ESV in each interval, and temperature had a significant negative impact on the low-ESV area. (3) Higher land use integrity accelerates the decline of ESV in the surrounding areas of built-up areas. The high-ESV area was more sensitive to the intensity of human activity. The direction of human activities should be effectively controlled, and the structure of comprehensive land use should be optimized to enhance the service function of regional ecosystems. This research provides new thinking for the ecological restoration zoning of regional territorial spatial planning and the sustainable development of resource-based cities.

Decoupling of land-use net carbon flux, economic growth, and population change in China.

In the process of China's modernization, promoting the sustainable development of resource-based cities is a major strategic issue and it has now also become a worldwide issue. This study uses the coupling model to validate the coupling relationship between China's land-use net carbon flux and economic growth and population change during 2009-2017. The study for the first time draws the conclusion that the coupling degree among the three is getting lower, the correlation is gradually weaker, and the independent relationship is becoming more and more prominent. Utilizing the Tapio decoupling model, we obtained the weak decoupling conclusion that the economic growth rate is higher than the growth rate of the land-use net carbon flux, while negative decoupling of sprawl is where the rate of population growth is less than the rate of net land-use carbon flux growth.

Impact of digital economy on ecological resilience of resource-based cities: spatial spillover and mechanism.

Resource-based cities, which are widely distributed in China, contribute significantly to China's sustainable development. The digital economy and the construction of ecological civilization are central issues in the sustainable development of resource-based cities, and it is necessary to analyze the impact of the digital economy on the ecological resilience of resource-based cities. Thus, this paper measures ecological resilience of 117 resource-based cities from 2011 to 2020 using the entropy weight TOPSIS (technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution; see Table 1 for a list of acronyms) method and empirically investigates the impact and mechanism of digital economy on ecological resilience using the spatial Durbin model (SDM) and intermediary effect model. The results show that the ecological resilience of resource-based cities has a certain upward trend, with a stepwise distribution pattern from east to west. There is a significant positive correlation between ecological resilience of resource-based cities, showing the phenomenon of club convergence which is primarily dominated by high-high (H-H) and low-low (L-L). The digital economy has a significant spatial spillover effect, which promotes ecological resilience of resource-based cities in the local and adjacent regions. A mechanism analysis reveals that technological innovation and industrial structure are mediators between digital economy and ecological resilience of resource-based cities, with significant heterogeneity in region and growth cycle. Among them, the intermediary role of technological innovation is stronger. Following the above findings, this paper proposes policy suggestions related to digital economy evolution and ecological resilience enhancement. This paper further enriches the literature on the ecological resilience and provides a theoretical basis for government policy-making.

Policy evolution and transformation effect analysis of sustainable development of resource-based cities in China

Policy evolution and transformation effect analysis of sustainable development of resource-based cities in China

Sustainable Development Path of Resource-Based Cities—Taking Datong as an Example

Sustainable development has become a global consensus, and cities are important spatial carriers to achieve sustainable development. There are more than 200 resource-based cities in China. These cities have a single industrial and energy structure. With the gradual depletion of urban resources, they are generally facing problems such as difficult industrial transformation, lagging development of alternative industries, and serious damage to the ecological environment. They are facing multiple challenges to achieve sustainable development. Our paper creatively uses the multiple interactive feedback relationships among the systems of “driving force–pressure–state–influence–response” in resource-based cities to establish a comprehensive evaluation model for the sustainable development of resource-based cities through the comprehensive evaluation index system of sustainable development. It is concluded that the higher the coordination degree of each subsystem in the model is, the stronger the sustainable development ability of the city is, which provides new ideas and suggestions for the sustainable development of resource-based cities. The case study shows that the coordinated dispatching C value tends to 2.216, indicating that the sustainable development evaluation values of each subsystem in the model tend to be close, and the coordination between subsystems is high. This confirms the rationality of establishing a comprehensive evaluation model for the sustainable development of resource-based cities.

Dynamic evolution and influencing factors of coupling coordination between innovation environment and transformation development of resource-based cities in Gansu province, China

Studying the internal relationship between the innovation environment and the transformation development of resource-based cities from the perspective of coupling and coordination helps reveal the mechanism between them, which is of great significance to sustainable development of resource-based cities. This study reconstructs the index system for innovative environment and transformation development. We used the coupling coordination degree model, Epanechnikov function, and panel quantile regression model to analyze the coupling coordination level, dynamic evolution characteristics, and influencing factors of innovative environment and transformation development of resource-based cities in Gansu Province from 2009 to 2019. The study shows that the innovation environment index and the transformation development index of resource-based cities increased significantly during the study period. The innovation environment index of resource-based cities has been greatly improved, showing a dynamic evolution trend of rapid growth and development characteristics of “low-level, fast growth”. There are differences in the characteristics of transformation development in resource-based cities, but on the whole, it shows a trend of increasing fluctuation. The state of coupling coordination has changed from a severely unbalanced state to a moderately unbalanced state; some cities have turned to a low-level coordination state, and the overall trend is presented to optimize the process continuously. The quantile regression results show that the level of economic development and industrial structure has a significant positive effect on improving the coupling coordination degree of the two. The degree of government intervention has a negative impact. The level of capital investment has a negative effect at a high score but has no significant impact at a low score. This study tries to provide a scientific basis for formulating the policy of coordinated development between an innovation environment and transformation development of resource-based cities and also provides a reference for high-quality development of other resource-based cities.

Environmental dilemma and sustainable development of resource-based cities: A case study from northeast china

With ambitious carbon peak and carbon neutral targets, China has to realize it relies heavily on significant reductions in energy-related carbon emissions. Therefore, as the largest contributing region, resource-based cities (RBCs) must achieve an energy transition. Unfortunately, these cities are facing serious environmental problems. The aim of this study is to analyze the development history and problems of RBCs by using the example of the Northeast region. The results show the reasons blocking the green development of these cities include management policies and life cycles. This implies the management of RBCs needs to develop toward a win-win situation of industrial transformation and ecological protection. Finally, some policy recommendations are proposed to achieve emission reduction and sustainable development.

Does digital inclusive finance promote industrial transformation? New evidence from 115 resource-based cities in China.

Industrial transformation (IT) is the inevitable course for the sustainable development of resource-based cities, while digital inclusive finance (DIF) provides essential capital elements for industrial transformation. Based on the panel data of 115 resource-based cities in China from 2011 to 2019, this paper discusses the influence mechanism of digital inclusive finance on industrial transformation from the perspectives of the optimization of industrial structure (OIS) and the rationalization of industrial structure (RIS). The empirical results show that digital inclusive finance has a positive effect on both the optimization of industrial structure and the rationalization of industrial structure. Digital inclusive finance influences industrial transformation through residents' income and technological innovation. In addition, in the analysis of income gap and innovation gap, low-income regions have a better effect on the industrial transformation of industrial structure optimization, while high-income regions have a better effect in manufacturing upgrading, thus resulting in a more significant effect of industrial transformation on the rationalization of industrial structure. Obviously, the development of high-innovation regions has relative advantages with more channels for industrial transformation, which have significant effect of industrial transformation. Therefore, it is necessary to provide differentiated reform on the basis of unified development reform.

Policy objective bias and institutional quality improvement: Sustainable development of resource-based cities

China has implemented many supportive policies to help the resource-based cities transit to sustainable development. However, these policies may induce unexpected results to institutional quality, which is an important factor to influence sustainable development. This paper examines how the policy affect the institutional quality of the resource-based cities, by building an institutional quality evaluation system which covering innovation environment, human resources, market environment and using Chinese “Sustainable Development Plan of Resource-based Cities (SDPRC)” as a quasi-experiment. The results show that the SDPRC has a significant negative effect on the overall level of institutional quality. Particularly, the policy implementation has significantly reduced the scores of institutional quality sub-items such as public service and human resources. Heterogenous analysis finds that the negative effect to institutional quality is significant in resource-depleted cities and coal cities. The policy implications of this paper are that government needs to emphasize the policy objective bias problem in the process of supporting resource-based cities and focus more on the institutional quality of resource-depleted cities and coal cities.

Assessing vulnerability of coupled human–environment systems and its influence factors in Yan'an City, China

The natural, economic, social, resource and other factors were incorporated into the framework of VSD model, and vulnerability and obstacle degree models were used to analyze the spatio-temporal evolution and influencing factors of coupled human–environment system in Yan'an City. The results show that: (1) The overall vulnerability of coupled human–environment systems in Yan'an city from 2000 to 2014 is between 0.2589 and 17.0180, the vulnerability index values of counties in the northwest and northeast are higher, while those in the central and southern regions are lower. (2) The spatial variability in exposure (0.1516–0.2255), sensitivity (0.2235–0.3093), adaptive capacity (0.6588–0.8865) and vulnerability (0.7502–0.7949) in the study area from 2000 to 2014 showed a downward trend. The spatial variability in exposure and sensitivity in each period was moderate, while adaptive capacity and vulnerability displayed strong variability. (3) There are significant differences in the obstacles affecting vulnerability in the study area. Unreasonable economic structure, fragile ecological environment, low level of economic and social development and low efficiency of production are the leading factors affecting the sustainability of coupled human–environment system, which means that how to adjust the economic structure and improve the ecological environment is the key to the sustainable development of resource-based cities.