Analysis on sustainable urban development levels and trends in China's cities

Sustainable development in cities, as a new concept proposed after the construction of global industrial cities, makes up for the shortages and defects of industrial city development theory and provides new theories and methods for the sound development of cities. The work reported here, based on research into sustainable development in cities in China and abroad, puts forward a linear dimensionless coordinate system of urban sustainable development to evaluate 287 cities in the eastern, central, and western regions in China to research. We used the linear dimensionless analysis method to conduct a quantitative analysis of the main influencing factors of sustainable development in cities. According to the areas of the coordinate system of sustainable development in cities in which social, economic, and environmental benefits were located and urban ecological costs were measured, we found that sustainable development in cities was divided into cities of sustainable development, cities of moderately sustainable development, and cities of unsustainable development. According to the study, most cities in mainland China are developing sustainably and the level of sustainable development in cities is increasing. Almost all cities in the central region are developing sustainably, and most of the western and eastern cities are developing sustainably. A small number of cities are lagging in terms of sustainable development and a few eastern cities are developing unsustainably. Sustainable development in cities in the eastern region started early and the level of sustainable development there has been good. Sustainable development in cities in the western region started late and the state of sustainable development there has been poor. Based on the results of research, we suggest some regulations and control policies for sustainable urban development. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.