Regional analysis of the green development level differences in Chinese mineral resource-based cities

Mineral resource exploitation has a negative impact on the immediate environment. Green development has been promoted as a new method for economic growth and environmental protection because of increasingly serious resource and environmental issues. Evaluating the green development level (GDL) of mineral resource-based cities (MRBC) is beneficial to understanding the key drawbacks in the green development process in each city. In this study, a comprehensive GDL evaluation index system is constructed from societal, economic, and environmental perspectives. The entropy method and AHP are used to empower the index, and a GM (1, 1) model is then utilized to forecast the GDL of each city. A time series weighting method is also employed to determine the comprehensive GDL in each city during the 11th, 12th, and 13th Five-Year Plan. The GDL in the eastern, northeastern, central, and western regions is comprehensively analyzed, and the following observations are found: (1) the changes in GDL in most MRBC in China were good, and 25% of the cities were lagging behind; (2) the GDL in MRBC had significant regional differences and were progressively low from east to west; (3) from 2006 to 2020, the GDL in MRBC in the western region was rapidly promoted, whereas the GDL in the eastern region was deteriorating, and a polarizing trend emerged in the northeastern region. The proportion of the four categories, namely, A, B, C, and D, in the central region was gradually showing an equal value. Finally, countermeasures to improve the GDL in MRBC are proposed to provide a reference for sustainable development.