{"title":"End of rope or phoenix nirvana? Exploring the evolutionary paths of coal resource-based cities in China","authors":"","doi":"10.1016/j.cities.2024.105382","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Coal resource-based cities (CRBCs) face a complex transformation of the urban system due to the adjustment of the global energy structure and the need for sustainable development worldwide. Considering the urban system as the combination of urban carriers and urban loads, this study proposed a framework to illustrate the evolution of CRBCs using resources and environmental carrying capacity (RECC). Taking 30 CRBCs in China as research objects, the EWM-TOPSIS method and the Geographically and Temporally Weighted Regression (GTWR) model were introduced to assess the comprehensive performance and identify the influencing factors from 2011 to 2020. With most CRBCs becoming more sustainable in the past decade, the results showed two evolutionary paths: urban carrier expansion and urban load reduction. Furthermore, urban conditions and evolutions were spatially agglomerated, and the natural resources sustainability in urban carriers and the environmental pollution in urban loads were the main factors affecting the two paths mentioned above, while the declining population was the major challenge for the shrinking CRBCs. These findings offered valuable insights to guide the sustainable transformation of CRBCs in different situations.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48405,"journal":{"name":"Cities","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":6.0000,"publicationDate":"2024-08-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Cities","FirstCategoryId":"96","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264275124005961","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"URBAN STUDIES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Coal resource-based cities (CRBCs) face a complex transformation of the urban system due to the adjustment of the global energy structure and the need for sustainable development worldwide. Considering the urban system as the combination of urban carriers and urban loads, this study proposed a framework to illustrate the evolution of CRBCs using resources and environmental carrying capacity (RECC). Taking 30 CRBCs in China as research objects, the EWM-TOPSIS method and the Geographically and Temporally Weighted Regression (GTWR) model were introduced to assess the comprehensive performance and identify the influencing factors from 2011 to 2020. With most CRBCs becoming more sustainable in the past decade, the results showed two evolutionary paths: urban carrier expansion and urban load reduction. Furthermore, urban conditions and evolutions were spatially agglomerated, and the natural resources sustainability in urban carriers and the environmental pollution in urban loads were the main factors affecting the two paths mentioned above, while the declining population was the major challenge for the shrinking CRBCs. These findings offered valuable insights to guide the sustainable transformation of CRBCs in different situations.
期刊介绍:
Cities offers a comprehensive range of articles on all aspects of urban policy. It provides an international and interdisciplinary platform for the exchange of ideas and information between urban planners and policy makers from national and local government, non-government organizations, academia and consultancy. The primary aims of the journal are to analyse and assess past and present urban development and management as a reflection of effective, ineffective and non-existent planning policies; and the promotion of the implementation of appropriate urban policies in both the developed and the developing world.