Using eco-efficiency as an indicator for sustainable urban development: A case study of Chinese provincial capital cities

Abstract Urbanisation in China has resulted in an increased consumption of resources, energy and materials and led to negative environmental effects. All of these factors have motivated the widely discussed topic of urban sustainable development in China. The core of this discussion is how to quantitatively measure urban sustainable development. This research uses eco-efficiency as an indicator to measure urban sustainable development. A data envelopment analysis model was applied to eco-efficiency analysis using environmental pollution as an undesirable output, and a super-efficiency model was modified for ranking. Using real datum for 30 Chinese provincial capital cities, an empirical study was employed to describe their eco-efficiency. The results show that: almost half of the cities are fairly eco-efficient. The inefficient cities are mainly located in the southwest and northwest of China, which are the undeveloped economic zones, while some of the eco-efficient cities have more environmental pollution and consume more land, energy and water. When ranking cities using a modified model, it was found that Haikou, Fuzhou and Beijing were the top three most eco-efficient cities, while Yinchuan, Lanzhou, Guiyang were the bottom three. When exploring the driving force of eco-efficiency, this paper proposes changing the GDP-oriented growth model and appraisal system, continuously transforming and upgrading the industrial structure and stopping the migration of heavy industry from east to west, south to north and city to countryside.